When this blizzard business is over, one "project" I need to do, for once and for all, is find a decent pair shoes that a) I can walk a few miles in, and b) don't require an outdoor temperature of 50 degrees in order to where them anywhere but at home.
I did this "big, leg-injury-deal" exactly five years ago. I was due for a new pair of casual shoes that I could walk in and had a pair of loafers that I'd worn out (walking) and that were slated for the trash. Then I did the leg injury, which meant I first only wore sandals (which is what I walk in in warm weather, but which I also wear at home because I refuse to wear slippers) because I didn't go all that much. When I'd go out I had some other pair of slip-on shoes that were OK but not good for walking in.
As it was, I had high-heeled, high, boots that I'd thought would be good for going to work in. I also had a pair or knee-high boots that had no zippers and required some leg-twisting to get on. The high-heel boots had zippers, but were really high and close-fitting.
Anyway, the last thing the leg needed (after being injured in a way that meant it was kind of swinging from side to side) was high, close-fitting, boots and/or boots that required leg-twisting.
Once I'd started to try to get our and walking again, it was either warm-Fall weather or else Spring. Then, because I'd relied too much and too long on the uninjured leg (which had been injured years ago, and which I've always kind of favored); I did an injury to that one. That set me back in the going out walking department.
In the midst of all of these issues there have been special occasions; so as it happens, I'm all set with special occasion, out-and-out impractical, shoes. I have strappy, elegant, heels that are "all diamonds" , black strappy sandals that also have some version of "stones"/"sparkles" (but are more toned down that "diamond heels". Another special occasion called for dressy but not quite as dressy, so I completed the special-occasion-color trio with gold, sparkly, espadrilles. (They sound bad, but are prettier than they sound.)
In any case, not being someone who needs fifty pairs of shoes, and being someone who only has the occasional special occasion; I'm all set for sparkly, dressy, shoes. Even though I'm also all set for dressy boots I don't plan to wear to any of them in the too near future. What work I do I do from home, and I won't be walking miles in high-heeled boots.
Of course, somewhere along the way I've picked up the occasional casual shoe that's good for, say, going shopping or going somewhere that doesn't involved a lot of walking or a lot of being dressed up.
Finally, it was last Fall (2014) when I was really ready to start walking again, and I couldn't find any shoes that I liked/wanted. So, I dug out the "trash-loafers" and started wearing them (as if they weren't headed for the trash". LOL I kind of can't believe how I once felt so horrible about digging out those shoes again (not out of the trash, but out of "semi-storage"), but then how, after awhile, I just kind of (mostly) forgot about how bad the shoes are and just put them on every time I headed out for a walk. I told myself that nobody was paying attention to my shoes (particularly where I happen to walk), and I suspect that's accurate.
In any case, here I am... Stuck in the house with snow that isn't going to be gone from where I walk for a long time, wearing perfectly nice sandals, having my perfectly good "sneakers" for working out at home (but not for wearing with the clothes I wear when I walk - and besides, my heels tend to get blisters when I walk in shoes that have a back, no matter how soft the shoes are), and not really having to worry about new shoes for another few/several weeks. (I can still wear the horrible loafers if I do walk this Winter, and I do have a cheapy pair of flat, basic, boots if I need those). It would be all too easy for me to forget the challenge of finding good shoes that I like until Spring comes around but still involves colder temperatures and melted snow puddles.
So, I'm going to use the next few days to stew over any number of things (including the snow); and when I'm through with that stewing (and way beyond New Year's Resolution time), I'm going to resolve to, once-and-for-all, find myself a pair of shoes that don't only feel good to walk in, but look good too.
True, where I walk nobody is paying attention to my shoes (either because there's nobody around or because cars are zipping by so fast they wouldn't have time even if they WERE inclined to look at people's shoes). BUT, those loafers just have to go. They may not have the nine lives that cats have. They don't really even have two or three lives when it comes down to it. They're more like the walking dead, and they're depressing and horrible. They don't have holes in them or anything, but the moral to this story is that shoes don't need holes in them to be way past "a good run".