A Day's Foot Gear

(Our host for this week's Fun Monday is Gattina over at Writer's Cramps . She dares us to expose our winter feet by modeling what we wear in the house--slippers, flip flops, or nothing. Sorry Gattina! I thought I could do it when I signed up, but I've lost my nerve for which readers should be grateful. Instead, I'll show you a day's foot gear.)

Many years ago I was a shoeaholic. My Dexter loafers had to have the regulation beef roll. I had the first pair of round-toed pumps--navy Nina's--when everyone else was still wearing pointy toes. I gave up stilletos for clunky stack heels. Then there were the pastel ballarina slippers to match every outfit. You get the idea.
Somewhere along the way my feet got tired and sore from standing on them all day earning a living. Now my shoe rack is pretty dull as you can see in the lineup below:

Starting in the upper right, I'll describe the foot gear I wear on an almost daily basis. And, by the way, Willie's foot gear is in the photo as well.

Black loafers--these stay by the front door. First thing in the morning I slip into these and put the red leash on Willie that's hanging on the door knob. We then make the loong-g-g walk to the curbside newspaper box. I counted the steps this morning and it's about 30 strides to collect the paper. Willie doesn't care. You'd think we were heading out on a marathon by his level of excitement.
Black flip flops--these are my all season indoor shoes because my feet get really hot. At the end of the summer I always buy an extra pair for the winter.
Grey ragg socks--these I wear inside if it's really cold. When the power goes off for a week I wear two pair of these!
Blue Iditarod booties--these belong to Willie. More about them later.
MBT walkers--these funny looking sneakers are what I'm wearing to train for a six day volkssport walk through five southern states in March. These shoes were designed by a Swiss engineer to mimic the benefits of walking barefoot on natural ground. His inspiration was an East African Masai tribe who are legendary barefoot walkers. The thick rocker-shaped soles create an instability that forces you to stand straight when walking and engage your leg and hip muscles more completely. All I know is that a few miles in them is a real workout!
Black wedgies--the closest I have to dress shoes and always right with my black slacks uniform.
White athletic socks--if I'm not wearing the black socks, I'll wear these white ones with the blue lines for pilates. They're ventilated and my pilates instructor, Julie, can tell when she needs to get after me for rolling my feet out in some of the exercises. The fancy word for that is pronation, I believe. So if my blue lines are straight, Julie shouldn't be ragging me about letting my feet roll.
Now back to Willie's iditarod booties. As you can see in this photo he's not nearly as appreciative of them as he should be. They're actually quite special. His Aunt Jane and Uncle Robert are great fans of Alaska and the annual iditarod dog sled races. They brought these authentic dog booties back from one of their many trips to Alaska. They enjoy being around the dogs and the mushers. In fact, in some years they've volunteered to work at a rest station along the over 1,000 mile race course. They'll serve meals to the mushers or do recordkeeping or help with dog supplies. Here they're at a musher training camp getting a little ride from the dogs. It looks like everyone is having a great time, doesn't it?

Now I'm eager to see which Fun Monday participants had the nerve to show off their feet or their bunny slippers! Be sure to check Gattina's blog for a list of feet on display.