I have received some emails from various people asking general questions about boot comfort and the feel of the stiffness or softness of leather (or skins) used on shafts of boots. Following are random thoughts based on experience from wearing boots exclusively as my choice of footwear for more than 47 years.
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Yearly Archives: 2014
New Video
Good news! I have a new “while riding” video! I know it has been a long, long time since you have seen videos from me.
I stopped taking and producing videos several years ago for three reasons: 1) YouTube had changed their site to make it much more difficult and consumer-unfriendly to use; 2) I could not get any decent video editing freeware software to work, so I couldn’t edit videos like I once was able to do; and 3) My spouse thinks boot-related videos are “stupid,” and in deference to the fact that he is home all the time (he never goes anywhere unless I drive him), then I had no location or time to make videos.
However, I am happy to report that a change has happened…
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He Hath Returned, Safely
I have mentioned before that my twin brother lives with his wife in Italy. He retired from full-time employment three years ago.
Restless to return to doing good after retirement, he was accepted by a prestigious voluntary agency based in Europe to serve as a volunteer and to help people build communities with more substantial and sustainable infrastructure. He also teaches English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Greek, Polish, Amharic, Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, or whatever else works where he volunteers. He is an amazingly gifted man.
I cannot believe that the last time I saw him was in May when he came home to rescue me in the midst of a medical crisis with my spouse. Then almost as soon as he returned to Italy, he…
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Last Group Ride of the Season
I finally had nice (enough) weather to lead a ride for my club on Sunday. I had planned to lead it Saturday before last, but got rained out. I rescheduled to the Monday holiday, but that ride also got rained out.
However, dry weather prevailed yesterday, albeit rather cool and windy. It didn’t get above 56F (13C), but that’s well within the range of a full-leather ride. So…
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Blasted, Deleted, and Unfriending
On Friday evening before I left the house to drive to a sister’s for the regular Friday night family dinner, I posted an unusual-for-me mild rant on social media about how I would rather see photos of babies and puppies than read posts about a certain deadly viral disease (that will remain unnamed on this blog.)
Posts on social media about this disease range from educated and informed to fearful and panic-stricken — the latter mostly among the less educated and more politically conservative of my on-line social community. Some posts have been riddled with dead-wrong fear-mongered crap.
But what has been bothering me is the raging politically-motivated rants about it. Really, I just sick of it. I just want to hear about your kittens, family, and good things in your life. Not the flabbler-flub regurgitated from a certain cable news station that I refer to as “faux news.”
Anyway, while I was at my sister’s…
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Biggest “Oh Sh*T!” Moment of My Life
25 years ago today, I had the biggest “oh sh*t!” moment of my life. Let me give you some context.
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You Can’t Be Gay — You Are Married and Wear Boots!
I just had to laugh when I burst the stereotype bubble for yet another typical straight dude whose assumptions were blown to smithereens again by interacting with me. Oh well… (giggle.)
Last Saturday,
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Community Caring
I have mentioned for the past several months that I have been working with my local fire department, of which I am a proud Life Member, on organizing the 21st “Senior Safety Saturday” which turned out this year for a number of reasons to be “Senior Safety Sunday.”
Kinda funny how that happened, but that is another story.
So this past Sunday, I wore my Chippewa Firefighter Boots, tactical pants, and my local FD shirt and joined 12 firefighters, two lieutenants, and 60 more volunteers (friends of yours truly) who…
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Heteronormativity Redux
A good friend of mine and regular reader of this blog has started his own blog. He recently wrote a post about “heteronormativity.” It reminded me that I had posted about this issue and I looked up my old post. Man, back in 2010. Time to update with a new post on the matter, since back then my (then) partner and I were not married, and we are now.
And with same-sex marriage hitting the headlines again due to U.S. Supreme Court inaction, heteronormativity has become a topic of conversation again. What does same-sex marriage and heteronormativity have to do with each other, if anything?
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Taking a Snuggle Day
Today, I was going to lead a motorcycle ride for my club and I was going to post about that.
However, it is pouring rain, so instead…
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