March 01st, 2022

Well I am tickled to bits.  I have some new kicks.  Sneakers. Tennis Shoes.  Trainers.  Whatever you choose to call them. I have new pair.  Woohoo!    I did not specifically look for a pair of black shoes with pink trim, although they are cute in an old school, rock-a-billy kind of way.  Nope. What I wanted was a pair of sneakers that fit properly, were comfortable and didn't cost a fortune.  This was the pair that fit the bill.  Out of the entire store, this was the one. The ONE.  Wow.  

It's always a surprise to me what colour shoes I come home with because quite honestly, the colour is the very last thing on the list of requirements.  (though I will say that in general I try to stay away from all white shoes mostly because they get dirty so fast).  First on the list is support.  My feet are nearly flat which means I do need to have a specific amount of arch support.  Not so much that me feet feel like there is a giant boulder in my shoe, but just enough to hold things together.

Then I need sufficient toe room.  My second toe is, oddly, a teensy bit longer than my big toe so I need to make sure my toes are not crunched up.  BUT the back of the shoe must be snug enough to kind of hug the heel. I just hate it when my heel constantly is slipping out of my shoe.  Also that can cause blisters which is a bad thing.    

Then too, I prefer a tie up sneaker rather than a slip-on shoe most of the time.  I am kind of between sizes in width.  Not narrow enough for a strictly "narrow" constructed shoe but too narrow to stay put properly in a regular width  slip-on shoe. I do not want to be in a situation where I am accidentally stepping out (or falling out) of my shoes!

And actually, now that I think about it, I'm kind of between sizes in length as well.  In most shoes I fall between a 7 1/2 and an 8.  So I'm always on the lookout for a shoe that is either a small 8 or a large 7 1/2.  It's tricky.  And the only way to find it is to try the shoe on.  I cannot buy shoes on line. 

And why do I specifically seek out less expensive shoes (which is relative because they just get higher and higher priced every year)?  Well it's because I do walk. A lot.  Miles.  MILES!  Which means if I buy a pair of shoes they aren't going to last very long.  Regardless of the cost, they simply don't last.  ​The shoes that these new ones are replacing for example, look absolutely fine from the top.  Of course they look fine. They aren't but about six months old!  They should look fine!

The bottoms, however, are a different story.  It's a bad story, an ugly tale.   I have literally walked the tread OFF the heels of my old shoes.  They are like bald tires now.  Here they are for comparison's sake.  New shoes on the left, old ones on the right.

Yikes!  I have to clarify. When I say, less expensive, I don't mean the buck 98 knock off one might buy furtively at a yard sale.  Not at all.  I also don't mean the loss leader special on the table at the front of the dollar store. No. Just no.  I mean a good brand, a solid respectable, quality shoes that doesn't cost the earth.  And these days that means, can I please find a shoe under a hundred bucks, please!  

So the old shoes have now been relegated to yard shoe status.  That is, shoes that I don't care about at all, I could get them paint spattered, grass stained, muddy and stiff with salt water and it no longer matters.    The new shoes have already been christened with a nice long walk yesterday and it was lovely to arrive home with feet that weren't bruised and sore.

There were a lot of shoes at the store.  And entire wall of sneakers as a matter of fact.  Every colour of the rainbow was represented.  There were fun prints and crazy styles and also the more anticipated solid colours available.  Some sneakers were taller, some lower to the ground, some were to be laced up and other's just pulled on.    There were prices that made my eyebrows twitch and prices that made me sweat and prices that were reasonable (at least by today's standards).  Shoes for narrow feet, shoes for wide feet, shoes for orthopedic needs and shoes for silly fun.    There were options is what I'm saying.  And I tried a lot of them.  

The good part is that I can tell very quickly if it's a no-go or not.  My feets iz particular and cannot be fooled.  So it's try, try, try followed by nope, nope, nope.  Poor Tim is bringing me options after option to try and then returning the ones I've rejected over and again.  We nearly gave up and walked away thinking oh well, we can try again another day.  It has happened before.

And then a miracle happened and  Tim found the black & pink shoes that we ended up buying.  The fit is absolutely perfect.  Perhaps the colour is a little dark for summer but by then, I may have walked the tread off of this pair and will be back in the shoe store, once again, seeking the goldilocks of sneakers and hoping to, once again, get sneaker lucky!