Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Should be good for a couple more seasons

Usual reinforcement solution. The shaft collars are shot.
When you got your first pair of four-buckle black overshoes in Grade School, you were officially a Big Boy. Little boys had only three buckles on their snow boots. And only pussies wore boots with zippers.
Remember these?
Those popular sturdy overshoes (at right) have all but disappeared. Lately Stan's been using some modern "barn boots" for messy outdoor chores. You have to remove your street shoes to squeeze in, so you don't want to spend too much time working in them because there's no support, and besides, though the uppers and soles are holding up okay, the Chinese collars have deteriorated at the tops of the shafts.
Monday Stan thought a pair of actual overshoes (ones that fit over shoes) would be real nice while working the muddy wet edges of the pond. He'd earlier noticed some bright safety yellow pull-on "slush boots" at Lowe's that seemed a good solution. And they were very cool-looking too, with  dashing black straps and buckles on the sides. (Lower right photo) Unfortunately, it turned out, Lowe's cool yellow overshoes only go up to size 13, certainly not big enough to slip over Stan's street shoes. (He's a big boy now, ya know.)
Found these on-line.
Very cool. $101.
Not cool.
But Wal-Mart never disappoints when it comes to work stuff, so Stan drove there next. Nothing, just the same style barn boots he already has. . . now for $30.
Lowe's Slush boot,
$25, but too small for
Big Boys
Disappointed, Stan drove home and got out the big roll of duct tape. His rebuilt slip-ons are not exactly four-bucklers, but Stan will add in some sturdy arch supports and he can still feel like a Big Boy while wearing them.
At least they don't have zippers.