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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

San Francisco Ate My Shoes

Hello, hello!  I wonder if anybody guessed that I've been gone for the last two weeks? 

The last five blog posts were scheduled before I left :-)  I'd planned to continue replying to comments and commenting on your blogs as well while I was gone, but I discovered that it's not that easy with just a phone and an iPad!  I'm also starting to feel that Bloglovin' is a hindrance in some ways, but that's a story for another day . . .  At least I was able to keep up with reading your posts and your comments here - thank you for all the lovely comments you left!  I was especially fascinated by all the different approaches to list-making.

Anyway, Hubby had a conference to attend in San Francisco, and since we have a fair number of friends and family in that area and we hadn't been there for ten years, I decided to tag along.  And this time,  instead of staying in bed with a sinus infection like I did ten years ago, I went out and about while he was busy with his meeting. 

Before I left, I organized meet-ups with three bloggers who I've "known" and followed for a long time - I'll be telling you all about those adventures in the next few days.  I did consider making an "announcement" a month or so ago with an invitation to meet up, because I know there are at least a few other bloggers in San Francisco who I follow.  But as I said, we have quite a bit of family and old friends that we also wanted to see - there just wasn't time for everything!  While we were there, Amy at Sew Well announced a meetup at Britex for the following week.  I was bummed to have to miss it, especially as our hotel was only a couple of blocks from there.  But we'd had that evening set aside to see an old and dear friend, so I had to let it go.  I'm hoping it won't be another ten years before we make it out there again!

We were blessed with nice, if cool, weather on our trip, so we mostly got ourselves around by walking.  I always prefer to walk if I can, so I brought along my trusty old Dansko Margrete shoes.  These things are at least ten years old, and have been all over the US, Europe and Turkey. 


These have always been one of my most comfortable pairs of shoes for walking, but about half way through the trip I started noticing that they weren't so comfy any more.  But I just figured, "Hey, I'm getting older, I can't take all this walking as easily as I used to."

I also noticed some black pieces of rubber on the floor in the hotel room on a few different occasions.  And I thought, "Hmmmm, I must have dragged something in off the street."

On Sunday morning, as we were taking all our stuff to the lobby of the hotel to start heading toward the airport, I started feeling really wobbly, and thought, "What is going on here?!"   I finally checked the soles of my shoes and this is what I found:


They were completely disintegrating!  How hilarious is that?!  And no wonder I kept feeling like my feet were rolling to the outside!


It's the end of an era.  These shoes have stood me in good stead for many, many years.  If you look at the first photo, you can see that I had to replace the elastic on the left shoe a long time ago, and I only had white on hand.  I think it's finally time to retire this pair.  Fortunately, I'd bought a new pair of Danskos just before we left; I guess it's time to start breaking those in!

And time to get back to life as usual!

37 comments:

  1. Ha that is so funny. Love the look of your new shoes though! I know what you mean re keeping up with a phone and ipad. I don't know how people do it. I really need a laptap. Re bloglovin. Mmm, I'm not sure I'm lovin either. Interested to hear your thoughts..

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    1. I think I will keep track of my difficulties and post them. I keep thinking it's mostly operator error, but your comment and Kelly's comment below have me wondering . . .

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  2. Wow! Your shoes! You've really worn them out!

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    1. And I'm usually really gentle on shoes (and clothes) - they last me forever, so you know these are both really old and really well-used!

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  3. Those are awesome shoes, no wonder you wore them out! Love the new ones, too... Welcome back! :)

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    1. They were really awesome shoes. I hope the new ones are as comfy once broken in! They're a bit higher, so we shall see.

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  4. I was wondering when your trip out here was! It's too bad you couldn't make it to the Britex meetup - it would have been great to meet you in person and we had a wonderful night. I totally gave up using Bloglovin on the ipad. I'm hoping this Google Reader change will prompt them to develop an ipad app, but for now all blog commenting has to be done on the laptop.

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    1. Kelly, you are one of the people I wished I could have met at the meet-up! I'm glad you guys had a great time :-)

      I'm also glad that I'm not the only one having problems with Bloglovin' while mobile - I was beginning to get a complex!

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  5. glad you had a good trip! i thought you were less chatty than normal... ;-)

    re: bloglovin'... i use the app on my phone and usually click to open the posts in safari. i don't love it, but it's better than nothing. on my ipad i don't use the app i just use my browser and i have it set to go to the actual post instead of it opening under the bloglovin' frame, if that makes sense.

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    1. OMG, thank you, Lisa! It never even occurred to me to look at the settings in Bloglovin'!! I've changed it now so things should be much better. You know EVERYTHING!! Now I wonder if you can fix my little Wordpress problem . . .

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    2. haha i have answers for everyone elses problems, just not my own! what's up with WP?

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    3. Hehehe - isn't that always the way?

      Well, ever since I created a Wordpress account with the idea that I'd be switching (and then later decided against it), there are some Wordpress blogs that it just won't let me comment on. Some, like yours, are fine, but for others it just won't work. I did take a look at my WP settings after your first comment and changed my URL that's listed there, so we'll see if that makes it better or worse. Any ideas?

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    4. you know, i've read of ppl having trouble commenting on different blog platforms. to comment on blogger blogs i'm signed into google and to comment on WP blogs i'm signed into WP. i wonder if the problem is more how the individual blogs have their settings? i've just never had this problem personally. WP does have a pretty extensive help system where you can post questions and those who know will chime in with answers pretty quickly!

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    5. Just for kicks, I tried to comment on a blog I haven't been able to for a while - and it went through! But it still had me signed in with my WP "blog" - so that change I made didn't go through. Teh intarwebz is a mysterious place!

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  6. The exact thing happened to a pair of my beloved shoes recently, too! So sad but as you said, our shoes served us well. Welcome home.

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    1. Yes, at least I have the new ones to ease the heartbreak!

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  7. Same thing has happened to me but at the heels. I was once walking and felt something rolling around inside my heel! I had shoe maraccas. Couldn't afford to replace them so just shook the rocks out every once and a while.

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    1. It has happened to my husband too. I thought it was really weird and unusual at the time, but I guess it's a "thing!"

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  8. Welcome back! Sounds like you had a nice break?

    Re Bloglovin...have you come across Netvibes yet? I much prefer it!

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    1. Yes, it was very nice!

      Will check out Netvibes - thanks!

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  9. The same thing happened to me a couple of summers ago. My husband and I were walking to dinner and my shoes completely fell apart on me. I had to go into a store and buy shoes just so I would have something on my feet the rest of the night. I was so embarrassed, but now I see that I'm in great company!

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    1. I'm pretty surprised by how many people have had this experience!

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  10. Wow, that sounds like a whirlwind trip! But you must have had a blast too considering the state of your poor treasured shoes. It's a great thing that you just got a new pair!

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    1. We were there almost 2 weeks and we were busy every single moment! I sort of feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!

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  11. Sounds like a fabulous time! I can't believe your shoes?!!! You have definitely got good wear out of them by the sounds of things.

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    1. It was a great time! I'm so glad I went along with him this time!

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  12. It's so hard to retire favorite shoes! What color are the new ones?

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    1. The new ones are "natural" - very light colored. I'm a little afraid to mess them up!

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  13. Oh my gosh! I'd say you got some great wear out of those shoes!

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    1. The funny thing is, in retrospect, when I look at the pictures of you and me, I can see they must already have been on their way out because my feet are rolling to the outside. And that was at the very beginning of the trip! I feel like a dope for not noticing earlier!

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  14. Goodness! Poor shoes! Danskos were the only shows I wore when I worked in the hospital. 12 hour shifts were a nightmare without them. Definitely break in your new pair. :)

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    1. Absolutely - I've worn them for years. The arch support makes all the difference! That's why I took these along - they were nice and broken in. Emphasis on the broken, I guess!

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  15. It's the best when you're able to get so much mileage out of a pair of shoes!

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    2. It is a good feeling, even though it's a little sad too!

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  16. It's so hard to lose a well-loved pair of shoes -- it takes a long time to attain that perfectly molded fit! Hope the new ones serve you as well. I just bought some new Danskos myself -- mine are a Mary Jane style with a low heel.

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    1. Yes, I'm a little worried about the height of the heel on these new ones, mostly for driving. But they are so darn cute, I couldn't pass them up!

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