B365V3.60 - Death

Since death has been so much in the news the last few weeks, I guess I should write about a passing on the home front as well.  It is not a passing that one needs to shed a tear over though, rather it is a passing of my shoes, which had reached a point of almost unwearableness.

To anyone who hs read my blog before you know this, to any newbies, I am going to save you time spent searching the archives he and come out and say I usually do not mourn the passing of articles of clothing.  If I were that attached to clothing, the lowest form on that list would most likely be shoes, as I go through them about every 6 months or so.  In truth, this pair lasted a little longer than others, I picked them up in early March, and while technically they can still fit comfortably on my feet, I have a tendency of my shoes splitting at the sides, the first hole normally forming where my smallest toe is (the piggy that cried wee, wee, wee all the way home if memory serves me well enough), then the expanse groes down and along the side of the shoe until it looks like a pair of shoes the Incredible Hulk was wearing before he "hulked out".   So while I pronounce these shoes dead, technically I will still wear them on short trips to take the garbage out and what not, there is something to be said for comfortableness after all.

I picked these shoes up at that famous shoe place, Burlington Coat Factory, because, naturally, when one thinks shoes.  I remember I had bought them on the way back from one of my breakfast forays in the Strip prior to vacation.  I was walking back and my shitty shoes at the time were taking on water, much like the biblical ark would have with all of that shit they said was on board was actually on board and not a biblical fairy tale.  I had a couple extra shekels in my pocket and was thinking of a quick solution between breakfast and work.  Originally I figured I would walk into town, then catch a bus to the Waterfront and hit up DSW shoe warehouse, but as I was getting closer to town (I usually walk into work after breakfast in the Strip) my feet were getting soggier and soggier and I got to the corner of Liberty and Smithfield and came to the realization that I was not going to be able to tolerate the squish squish in my shoes for the time it would take to go on a shopping trip and then make my way back to work.  I started thinking of alternate solutions, they are (or were) a couple of Payless Shoe stores downtown, but their shoes are incredibly bad for me, if a normal pair of shoes lasts me 6 months, I will be lucky to get two months from anything there.  But then I realized Burlington is between where I am and where I need to go, I knew they had some guy stuff (I bought my first leather coat there) so it was worth a peek to see what they had.

Sure enough, they had a shoe section, so I quickly found a pair of Adidas in my size, (not that I care about brands, just shooting for factual accuracy here) and while I didn't try them on in the store, (I did still have the squishy feet after all) I bought them and went into work, where the first thing I did was change shoes (and socks, I also bought socks) and got back to a dry, shoe covered state of footage. 
The shoes, while not Cinderella glass slipper perfect (who wanted to go to that damn ball anyway, bunch of stuck up snobs), were comfy enough and thus became a part of my everyday wardrobe.  It wasn't until today, when I had money in my pocket and a need for new shoes though, when I realized everything I had put those Adidas shoes through.  They were on my feet for Vancouver, so they logged 30+ miles on that trip alone, they walked the Stanley Seawall after all,  plus trips from my hotel to Gastown, and Chinatown and Granville Island plus numerous trips around downtown there, just to acclimate myself to the surroundings.  They also survived a number of my Sunday strolls, countless walks back to work from breakfast at Kelly O's.  If I could award them a medal for meritorious service I would, but they are fucking shoes after all, they wouldn't appreciate it.  Maybe I should put them in a reed boat and set it aflame on the Monongahela River or something.