Annoying trivialities

[pameladean]

I'm still working on the California report (in small segments, rest assured) and I'm creeping up on a plausible-sounding plot synopsis for the Hills/Whim sequel and I'm worrying the Liavek novel like a cat with a catnip mouse. But at the moment I am suffering from annoyance at things that wear out in invisible ways.

First, shoes. I have a good pair of New Balance walking shoes, that I got a great deal on about eight months ago. They are still in good shape superficially. The soles are not cracked and do not leak, the stitching is not coming undone, the laces have not broken. Nevertheless, these shoes are toast. The cushioning is gone. I walk one or two miles a day, most days of the week; it helps keep my blood pressure down. My shoes look just like shoes, I put them on, I go walking, and my knees hurt, my heels hurt, my feet hurt, sometimes my hips and back hurt. I need new shoes. But these still practically look like new shoes. I know all the manufacturers recommend replacing walking shoes every six months. Yeah, right. These damn things cost between sixty and a hundred and fifty dollars a pair and the manufacturer thinks you need a new pair every six months. This is the kind of assertion that I automatically disbelieve. If I had a dead cow I'd toss it over the castle wall at them. I don't actually believe they couldn't manufacture these shoes to last longer. But they don't do it, so I've ordered another pair, and it wasn't such a great deal as the first one, though I did save some money over regular prices. It's coming the slow way, since expedited shipping would wipe out about half the savings made by getting the shoes on sale in the first place..

Second, bras. Ugh, ugh, ugh, it's always a very annoying subject, but I will try at least to stay off the utter dopiness and uselessness of sexual selection run amuck (I used to appreciate people who liked large breasts, but now I blame them, I tell you, I wish nobody in the world had ever had such useless taste). Anyway, I have a big batch of bras that stopped fitting in the year or so before I got diagnised with hypertension and as a result started walking; and I have another batch of mostly sports bras that I got during that year. The old bras still fit and they look fine, but they have, rather like the shoes, actually lost their supporting substance. So I put one on, it fits, it feels fine, it looks fine, and my neck and shoulders start aching after a couple of hours. I spent a long time fiddling with my work space before I realized that it was the damn bras causing the trouble. I have actually thrown some of them away. (I won't throw the shoes away, I can tell right now; I just can't, they look like shoes still.) The sports bras are now mostly too large. If I toss them into the dryer, a big no-no that it gives me tremendous pleasure to ignore, they fit again, but I know perfectly well that I am reducing the lifespan of the elastic and that all too soon these bras too will look fine and not work any more.

When things are worn out they should damn well look worn out.

I'm sure all the problems of the world would be solved and the current President of the U.S. would become a real person with good sense, and everybody would lay down their weapons, and alleged Christians would stop doing everything they aren't supposed to in the name of the person who told them not to do it, and food that tastes good would be healthy, and all publishers would adopt the SFWA model contract, and all books would find every single reader who would love them, and sweetness and light would reign eternal, if only this were so.

Thus endeth the whatever.

Pamela

Comments

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I know this sounds stupid, but buy some new socks and wear them with the old shoes. You might be surprised.

[pameladean]

I have lots of new socks; they are a secret indulgence of mine. It doesn't make any difference what socks I wear with the shoes.

I have some Dr. Scholls heel-and-arch inserts that I got for a very cheap and utterly uncushioned pair of "dress" shoes, and putting those in has helped somewhat. I can tell, though, that these too are nearing the end of their usefulness, though they look just fine.

Pamela

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

:( Sorry. When I worked on my feet, I wore New Balance--didn't they start out making corrective shoes or something?--and had to replace them a lot. Since I'm not standing for 9 hours plus a day anymore, I've been wearing Payless tennies, which cost a lot less and last nearly as long, although they don't feel like they were made for my feet like the NB did.

[pameladean]

I actually really like New Balance; my complaint is about this type of shoe generally.

Payless tennies look very cool, but they don't have enough arch support for me. Possibly this is because in my youth I used to walk two miles a day to and from work wearing either ballet slippers or those Chinese cloth slippers.

Pamela

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I'm presently very happy with a pair of Doc Martens sandals and a pair of Caterpillar (yes, the machinery people) boots. As this is the first time I've ever been happy with shoes after a year in -- maybe ever -- I thought I'd mention.

Bras, however, remain a pain.

[pameladean]

We probably have very different feet, but next time I need to get shoes I'll check out Caterpillars too. I tend to stay with New Balance because they actually fit me and have an almost infinite number of widths; also even if they run out of my size in women's shoes they always have it in men's. But who knows, Caterpillar may be equally blessable.

I dislike sandals, so I probably won't try that.

Pamela

[papersky.livejournal.com]

One of the things I liked about the Caterpillar boots before I bought them was the cleaning instructions. You know how when you buy shoes they say "BUY our EXCITING cleaning products and CLEAN your shoes and then CONDITION them and RE-WATERPROOF them!!!" These suggested that if they were to get grubby I might care to try soap and a little warm water.

The thing I like best about them after wearing them all last winter is that they still feel bouncy and comfortable and I don't dread putting them on.

I suspect them of having been designed by engineers and not cobblers.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

have you thought about getting innersoles for the shoes? it might help with the cushioning. Alas, there is no easy rescue for stretched out bras, except for handwashing them rather than machine washing them, which makes the wire bits all twistied.

hugs!

[pameladean]

I did put in some inserts for the short term, but it annoys me to have to do that. It still means the shoes are worn out but don't show it.

I don't wear bras with wires in them in the first place, so the only thing I have to worry about messing up is the elastic. I've never had a bra I loved enough to hand wash it. Not once. The best I've had is bras that work okay for a while.

I'm amused and fascinated how many people have suggested practical solutions -- not that I don't appreciate it -- to a more philosophical annoyance.

Pamela

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Well, philosopy is more personal. I find planned obsolesence incredibly annoying, but there isn't much to be done about it. Shoes that cost more than $100 should last at least three years, no matter what those idiots in Sales and Marketing say.

And practical solutions are the easy ones to come up with!

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I think I was unwilling to admit to the philosophical annoyance, because once I did, I had to take a new look at my own behavior.

I am unable to throw clothes out, mostly. Even though I know I won't wear them, I can't actually give up and pitch them, because they don't actually, as you said, look worn out. They are, but they don't look it. It's very frustrating, because I feel like the world will end if I throw them away because they still look fine, even though they're mostly destroyed in invisible ways.

Perhaps I should have courage and pitch a few things, just to see how it feels.

Re: Annoying trivialities

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

damn straight. form over substance tends to annoy me any day, and shoes are notoriously guilty of still looking fine after having become useless.

i now wear good hiking boots all the time; they appear to be made for longer wear.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I, of course, still own both pairs of running shoes that I've bought in the last two years. Even though I was jogging every day for a while, and they smell . . . quite interesting . . . I can't throw them away because . . . they don't look like crap yet. It's awful.

I don't hand-wash my bras because I'm lazy, and then six months later the elastic all falls out and they start to be itchy.

I also have issues with clothes that still fit fine and aren't really past their usefulness, but look a bit funny, like yellowed t-shirts and jeans worn in strange places, or elastic-necked things that are no longer elastic-necked. I still remember when I never wore clothes out (ten years ago, when I was in elementary school) before I outgrew them, and I suspect that was weirder than now, when I have to pitch things because I don't like them. (That sounds snobby, but I do most of my shopping at thrift stores, so I feel better about returning things to them.)

Oh well.

Companies just want you to buy more things.

of shoes and ships and sealing wax

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

My dad, who walks lots and lots, buys his shoes at Nordstroms. A while ago he took a pair of New Balance shoes in that he'd walked the treads off, so he'd know what kind of new shoes to buy, and they simply gave him a new pair of the same kind of shoe, despite the fact that he'd in fact walked the treads off and the shoes were a year and a half old. So if there's a Nordstroms in your area, it might be worth buying shoes there!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I {heart} Ecco shoes, which are not cheap (so I tend to scour sales racks for them), but are exceedingly comfortable and do last - in fact I have the reverse of your problem that I have a couple of pairs which are still quite comfortable to wear but getting shabby beyond the potential of spit and polish to remedy.

I also had a thing with bras no longer being comfortable but don't have any answers to that one.

But, on the wider issue of things no longer being fit for use after far too short a time and far too much expense, even though they may look okay, this is Not Right and one more sign of the innate perversity of Things (there was actually a book written on the theory that things are out to get people, but I can't, late on a Saturday evening, remember what the theory was called).

Resistentialism: Things Are Against Us

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Resistentialism was coined by the British humorist Paul Jennings in a brilliant send-up of Jean-Paul Sartre and the philosophy of existentialism published in The Spectator in April 1948....

"Les choses sont contre nous. Things are against us," Jennings writes in his later essay, Report on Resistentialism, which appears in Oddly Enough (1950) and The Jenguin Pennings (1963). "This is the nearest English translation I can find for the basic concept of Resistentialism, the grim but enthralling philosophy now identified with bespectacled, betrousered, two-eyed Pierre-Marie Ventre ... In the Resistentialist cosmology that is now the intellectual rage of Paris, Ventre offers us a grand vision of the Universe as One Thing -- the Ultimate Thing (Derniere Chose). And it is against us."

A longer account can be found here

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I share your complaint. I remember when a pair of Adidas (say) would last for years. I think it's all the new exotic graduated-compression foams that degrade so quickly now. I also think this is not unintentional.

May I add a complaint? It annoys me beyond speaking that as soon as I find a truly comfortable bra, the manufacturer discontinues or changes the style. Victoria's Secret Second Skin Satin bras used to have lovely inch-wide straps that never, ever cut into my shoulders, showed under my shirts, or fell. So, of course, they redesigned them. I still mourn some wonderful Christian Dior bras from the '80s that had very wide, very flat elastic straps and stretch cotton cups.

Along similar lines, Levi Strauss just quietly redesigned the 501 jeans to be more boomer-friendly, i.e. bigger through the tush and hips for a specified waist/length size. People who had bought the same size of 501s for years are not happy.

I would be delighted to find a style and size and buy it for years on end. Apparently this would lead to the collapse of the capitalist system as we know it.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the bras--I used to be able to wear the Second Skin Satin,and now the underwires just dig into me and the straps both slide and dig in. I even broke one! But maybe I'm just getting bigger...

[pameladean]

"May I add a complaint? It annoys me beyond speaking that as soon as I find a truly comfortable bra, the manufacturer discontinues or changes the style."

Oh, you bet you can add that complaint. That's been happening to me for years. Shampoo, peanut butter, bread, shoes, bras, shirts, it doesn't matter what, if I really like something and find it perfect, the manufacturer changes it, uselessly and at random, so it no longer works for me any more.

I think that the Vermont Country Store catalog exists in part to cater to this annoyance, but their timing isn't quite right for me; I don't miss the stuff they carry. And the one thing I really did like they had the nerve to discontinue.

Pamela

[oursin.livejournal.com]

if I really like something and find it perfect, the manufacturer changes it, uselessly and at random, so it no longer works for me any more.
Tell me about it! My life has been a long saga of this kind of thing (mmmm, Desert Flower Handcream). Some while ago I was bewailing in my LJ the fact that the usually reliable Marks and Spencer seem to have changed their parameters for 'short' fitting trousers, which used to be just right for me, but that this is not even consistent across the board.

Vermont Country Store

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

I think that the Vermont Country Store catalog exists in part to cater to this annoyance, but their timing isn't quite right for me; I don't miss the stuff they carry. And the one thing I really did like they had the nerve to discontinue.

Have you tried calling and or writing them about the no longer carried item? The catalog doesn't carry half of their inventory, and they're usually quite willing to order something they don't carry anymore as long as the manufacturer/distributor still carries it. They're almost as nice on the phone as they are in person.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

peanut butter
Come back, Simply Jif! All is forgiven!

The Peruvian Connection used to make the world's only perfect long flowing black cotton skirt. I should have ordered two; my first is worn out, and they've changed the cut to be less sweeping.

You mean it's not just me??

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the one they were out to get -- you mean I'm not imagining my Persecution Complex, they're just doing this to everybody for kicks? Hang on, I'll help you find a cow to lob at the shoe manufacturers...

(And it's worse because I have bizarre allergies -- EVERY time I find a shampoo I can tolerate, bam, gone. My affection is the Kiss of Death for decent hair-care products.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it might not get rid of the sales side of things -- people would still need shoes, in five styles or five hundred -- but it would disemploy the shoe designers if things didn't change.

The technical fix is to have shoes made as one-offs by very clever machines from a file of designs, so one can still get what one wants and the designers can still design. (can be paid by the actual rate at which their designs sell, too, which might have interesting side effects...)

Shoe lifetime

[(Anonymous)]

It's the midsoles; they really can't get the foam to both last and be that cushioning.

Since I've never in my life had a pair of running shoes last more than nine months of continuous wear before dying of something, I don't find this all that offputting. (and my feet can't take a steady diet of the traditional Military Shoe with its vibram sole and nothing resembling conditioning anymore, so that's out. And I clomp in them. But they did last.)

- Graydon

Re: Shoe lifetime

[pameladean]

David's father still had some shoes he'd had in the Army. In World War II.

It's the combination of wearing out quickly and very high price that is getting to me. One or the other, okay, but both just isn't right.

Pamela

Re: Shoe lifetime

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I don't at all blame you for being peeved; I was just wanting to note that the modern midsole is also much, much better than even the best of 1960 shoe tech.

It's rather a trade off -- kill the shoes or kill one's feet -- and much prefer to have the option of killing the shoes.

-- Graydon

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I am in Seattle where I can't get to my bookmarks, and I'm running a stupid fever that's preventing me from writing reasonable Google searches, but I do have a possible source for good bras. Unless, of course, I've already told you and you told me they didn't work for you. Which is entirely possible. Although I think it was someone else, someone who likes underwires.

Anyway, I'll email you when I get home. If I remember.

Jesus, I hate fevers.

I love Ecco shoes, too. I have a pair that just finished its third summer, with barely any sign of wear, and thery're comfortable as the day I bought them. For winter, I wear Dr. Scholls Ladies Walking Shoes, which, granted, look a bit like orthopedic oxfords, but are ... sleaker, lighter. Maybe tap shoe-ish.

They only last a year or so, but I get them at a local discount sport store for a constant sale price of $29.95. And the style never changes.

[pameladean]

Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry you're sick on your trip. That's much more unfair than everything I own wearing out.

I am obliged to admit that I can't recall if you recommended a bra manufacturer to me or not. But it's true that I can't stand underwires. I also found that while I really like the idea of Decent Exposures, I was defeated by the huge gap between my ordinary size and the one revealed by their measuring methods and just gave up trying to split the difference.

Pamela

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I ordered a Decent Exposures bra. And I am clearly Not Their Shape. One of the worst fitting bras (while still being my size) it has ever been my displeasure to try on. My breasts are long and pointy, and stick out in front of me (when properly supported). DE bras are *not* built to do that.

As for shoes, at this point I am committed heart and sole to Haflinger's, which support my walking habit. But are suddenly no longer being sold in my local stores. I must mail-order. Ack!! Crisis!! (I hate mail-ordering shoes. How can I know unless I try them on? Fortunately, I've bought enough Haflinger's at this point that I can---at least for now---just get the ones I've bought before and worn out. Why, oh why!!?? must they wear out????)

Clothing stains are beginning to annoy me, also. I didn't used to spill things on myself, but now I'm dropping food everywhere, and a decent shirt stops looking decent much more rapidly than I am accustomed. I'll wear it anyway, of course, but am starting to feel funny about how much of my wardrobe is compromised.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Ending is better than mending."

And don't you believe for a minute that that's not the reason. If we don't consume, our economy stops working.

B

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

So true.

I sat doing the mending while watching a video this evening and wondered how many people actually mend holes in their sheets.

[pameladean]

I do, if they are susceptible to iron-on patches. I'm lousy at hand-sewing, but it does indeed also gall me no end to spend a lot of money on sheets and then have them develop holes.

Pamela

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

And what is the deal with a single, simple fitted sheet costing $30 or more? Unless you want polyester, but who really wants polyester? We've been making do with the same three fitted sheets for quite some time because I literally cannot force myself to pay that much money for a sheet. I have seriously considered making my own.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Obviously, lacking a dead cow in its entirety, you should hurl your covertly-worn-out shoes through a window into the "castle" of the company that made them.

[pameladean]

The shoes are so nice and light, though -- Oh, I know! I'll save them all and make a cow of them and toss that!

Pamela

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Well, does it make the expense any easy to bear if you think of it in cost per use? If it worked out that it cost a nickel, say, to wear your shoes each time (that's only 2.5 cents per foot!), would that seem like a better bargain?

K. [has much to say on the topic of bras, but has someplace to go right now so another time, perhaps]

[(Anonymous)]

Nancy Lebovitz here:

I can't help with the shoes, but thanks for the pointers--I need to get a new pair.
Unfortunately, a quick googling doesn't show any store in Philadelphia which carries Caterpillar boots.

However, I'll strongly recommend Just My Size (justmysize.com) for bras. They've got reasonably priced ($15) bras that fit me. I've also found that bras stand up very nicely to machine washing if the machine is set on cold/cold.