the last week was kind of weird. i kept planning around finishing all of the shopping before cleaning the bathroom, taking a shower and getting to work on 08/16. but, i ended up sleeping most of the day on monday - although i got everything finished in the evening except a compost run & a run to the mall to get shoes. then, i tried to stay up all night tuesday, got lost posting about those pictures, tried to waste a few hours budgeting (which turned into 6 hours) and crashed in the middle of the day. i woke up late on tuesday night and got halfway through the cleaning (including installing a new shower head) before i crashed again on wednesday morning. then, i finally made it out to get some shoes, and came back with two pairs.

at this point, i plan to be in for several days, so i should get to that cleaning and shower, as intended. and, moving forward, i need to plan to shower as soon as i come in, to keep the outside stink from coming in. i don't know the cause, but the pollution is horrific, right now - to the point that i'm wondering if it's dangerous to be biking in it.

i should point out that i also got some new hiking boots on monday night. the winter boots i've been wearing are probably more than sufficient for some time, but they have these hairline cracks in them that are concerning to me. that's something i'll need to look at lacquering or something. i have some shoo goo, but taking shoo goo to hairline cracks seems like the wrong thing to do - i want something more subtle to fill the cracks in and stop them from expanding, not a total rebuild. but, they've been wearing a little on the inside as well, because i've been wearing them all fall because i haven't had any actual shoes. so, i decided a pair of hybrid hiking boots was a responsible purchase. this is footwear that is best used for the fall and spring, when it's wet but not snowy; i think the old boots are probably still the best choice for actual snow, and will be put aside for that reason, so they're not wasted on less pressing circumstances. and, i still have my rain boots, which seem almost indestructible, for splashing through puddles in the summer.

i decided i needed two pairs of shoes - one with very heavy soles that is intended for walking, and a prettier pair for social purposes. i quickly found myself frustrated...

i had this problem last year as well, and it's the reason i bought those airwalks. i need a heavy sole for walking, but i also want a pair of comfortable shoes. the reality is that a market for shoes designed for pre-industrial purposes doesn't seem to exist. oddly. well, most people don't go on six-eight hour walks any more, do they? but, i need shoes that i can walk across town in, and not have to replace the next week...

the heavy sole is usually associated with skateboarding nowadays. and, they used to make very comfortable skate shoes, too. airwalk was famous for it. and, i had a pair of gravis shoes at one point as well, with a very built heel. you really can't find anything like this anymore; skate shoes seem designed to create ankle blisters as some kind of ritualistic form of masochism, nowadays. street cred. i dunno. but, what strikes me as common sense seems to be beyond the interests of these people, who seem happy to bleed through their feet on a daily basis.

the flip side is that the comfortable shoes seem designed to sit by the pool in - i'd destroy most of them in a week.

so, i'm left with a choice between buying slippers that i can't take outside and buying skate shoes that i can't walk a bloc in without starting to bleed at the ankle. the way i put it to one of the workers is "i guess i'm just looking for well constructed shoes, and they don't seem to exist."; her one-liner comeback, which was not lacking in wit, was to cackle and suggest i move to europe. not the worst idea. maybe i could check out some refugee independent canadian rock bands while i'm there...

i solved this problem in 2014 by getting dc shoes that were essentially converse copies, except with better built heels. i won't buy converses due to the blister issue, but what i wanted was a pair of converses that wouldn't create blisters. so, it worked out well. these were the glittery pink/purple shoes i had at the start of the vlogs.

after realizing that dc is dying and finding dc products is hard to do in windsor, i thought i had found a solution in mid-2017 with the airwalk classics. unfortunately, the soles were a kind of a trick - they sure looked like they were durable, but the material seemed designed to crumble. and, this was extra frustrating, because they were so amazingly comfortable, out of the box. what i was looking for was essentially a modern equivalent of the classic airwalks - to not get tricked by the sole, this time.

but, it seemed like i had no real escape. i ended up toying with vans and nikes that didn't look very comfortable and i eventually settled on a pair of puma platforms that reminded me of my old gravis shoes in the sense of the soles being thick. this is a good three inches - no joke.

the weird thing is that they're suede...

it turns out that the pumas classics are perhaps the only shoe left on the market that are close to what i want, in the sense of being well built around the heel and having a durable, rubber sole. airwalk is dead - they didn't even have the cheaply made classics, but just a lot of bad converse and vans copies. dc apparently only makes the wide shoes nowadays, mostly with bad soles. i can't find gravis shoes anywhere. converse is hopeless. the vans seemed better, but just barely. & then they had these skate shoes from nike & reebok & adidas that were just vans or converse copies, with bad heels. so, the sort of ubiquitousness of the bad converse heel amongst thick soled skate shoes has left puma as the only option still standing.

but, they're suede. we'll have to see if i react differently to suede, i guess.

i took a look around on the way out for the second pink pair, and bought a pair of vans that are about an inch higher than the airwalks around the heel ("medium cut"), and have rubber soles, but are otherwise fairly similar (except for colour). the build is a little looser, but i'm thinking of these as airwalk replacements. note to vans: if you built these up just a little bit...

and, i'm passing out. i'll spell check and finish this when i wake up.