Dropping the Other Shoe

The pair of shoes I wear to work are sporting rips the size of manhole covers.

My tennis shoes, both my walking pair and my mowing pair, have so much torn off at the bottom, that, if the grass is wet, so are my feet.

My casual deck shoes that I wear without socks are beginning to,uh, carry a certain distinct odor.

It may be a-fixin' to be about time to get thinkin' about buying some new shoes.

I hate that.

I'm no good at shoe shopping.  It's not the money as much as the time spent away from all the stuff I really want to do, and by the fact that I'm really bad at telling whether a shoe fits or not.  My sense of fitting judgment is poorer than a fly's buzzing around a Venus flytrap.  Why, it looked like a good pair to land in at the store!  Then I get them home and what seemed snug is suddenly blood-flow restrictingly tight.  What seemed comfortable turns too loose to even stay on my floppy dogs.

I got the shoes to prove it too.  I got two pairs of tennis shoes that I've barely worn because they hurt my feet so much I can't stand to wear them very long.  Alison says I just need to break them in, but each time they end up breaking me more.  Yes, I should have exchanged or refunded them, but that means going back to the store and more shoe shopping.  Besides, I don't want to admit to Alison I screwed it up again.

Alison doesn't mind shoe shopping.  She has quite a few in our closet, and is always thinking about the need for one new pair or another.  She doesn't much care for shopping for other clothes, but she does like shoes.  I think things have to match up to different outfits and such.

My needs are simpler...1) work 2) home 3) too lazy to wear socks.  That about covers it.  I've never really worried about how what I was wearing matched up to my shoes.

My shoe size is fairly normal and easy to find - 10.  Just 10.  Sometimes the manufacturers trick me and a 10 1/2 feels better.  But that might depend on what I was eating or doing before commencing the shoe shopping.  Sometimes it's Medium and sometimes it's wide.

I like shoes I don't have to tie, as that is a skill of limited proficiency in me. When wearing tennis shoes, I have to bend down to re-tie every ten minutes or so.  This is kind of a pain, and if people are at all observant of me, it makes them question my grown-up status.  So I'm always looking for slip-ons wherever I can.

If any of y'all know about some tie-less tennis shoes, I would appreciate knowing about it.

I'm far too shoe-lazy to check it out myself.

Hope it don't rain.