How to ruin a perfect walking day.

You can't get more beautiful weather than we are having today! Some sun, few clouds, 75 degrees, little or no humidity. It was a grand day for a walk. But half way through this perfect day and exercise walk, my feet began to bother me. Not my heels (I have prescription orthotics for those) but the balls of my feet. Very annoying. I decided it was probably time for new shoes.

For years we have purchased shoes at Van Dyke and Bacon Shoes. They are excellent. Their claim to fame is that physicians send their diabetic patients to this store for shoe fitting. In addition to excellent fitting knowledge, they carry very well made shoes. And that means that a visit to this establishment is a very expensive trip for us. But having lived with foot pain in the past, I can tell you that money is no object if you can walk pain free.

At this point the day began to slip some. Slip #1 - After describing my problem and sizing my foot, the sales woman says (with a straight face): "You know, as we get older the cushioning at the bottom of our feet gets thin." And off she walks to bring back shoe choices - leaving me to ponder the full scope of her comment. Hmm ... "as we get older" - OK, next time ... make-up. I am definately wearing make-up next time I come! I may even put alittle blush on my feet! Slip #2 "bottoms of our feet gets thin" - Technically she never looked at the bottom of my feet. But if this is true, this appears to be a design flaw in the human body - the bottoms of our feet get thin as we age and all other areas plump up. What's with that!! What was God thinking? Maybe it is his idea of a joke. Anyway, I digress. Slip #3 - After trying on all my choices, I made an expensive decision. I chose running shoes for my offical walking shoes. The running shoes had the best cushioning and were very light weight (and, of course, they cost $30 more than my already expensive walking shoes.) Slip #4 - I decided to get the regular walking shoes as well. I have very expensive feet. Probably the most expensive part of me - other than my teeth (don't get me started on that).

Now some might question - why would I buy 2 pairs of shoes when conceivably one pair could work for both functions. The answer should be obvious. The running shoes are "decorated up" - ugh. Color stripes, silvery accents, sometimes day-glow markings, netty tops, all designed to make you think you are a running speed demon while glowing in the dark. I couldn't wear something like that all day long! The real question should be - why don't running shoes come in plain white? And besides, the running shoes may last longer if I only wear them for an exercise walk. I can justify anything. :-)

What will really frost me in the extreme is ... if after this large expense (and the soul searching on age and thin feet), I don't have happy feet tomorrow when I walk. That would aggravate me more than stupid shoe decoration.

Note to feet: I have treated you very, very well today. I iced you down. You got a massage. I spent enough on you to feed a family of 12 in a third world country for a year. We have 20 years of walking ahead of us. So keep up!