RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
My lady friend found this simultaneously amusing and distressing. She says I am cheap. I prefer "thrifty and resourceful."
I'm an aficionado of cheap sneakers for everyday use. They're comfortable. In addition, if I mess them up somehow (by steping in dripped oil or gas at the airport, for example), they're cheap enough that I can either throw them out or make them my next pair of "beach sneakers."
So earlier this year, I bought a few pairs of el-cheapos when they were on sale. But when I finally tried them on a few weeks ago, much to my dismay, one of them emitted a horrible squeak every time I set my weight on the heel. The squeak is hard to describe, but it sounded like a cross between a goose taking off and a cockatiel with an empty seed tray. It was a soulful (sole-full?) screech punctuated by a guttural hissing. It turned the heads of all who heard it, made dogs bark angrily, and sent young children running away in fear.
I'd purchased the sneakers too long ago to return them, and they certainly weren't worth bringing to the shoemaker; so I walked around with them for a couple of days trying to "work them out." No joy, though; the squeak only seemed to get worse.
An ordinary (or perhaps normal?) man probably would have tossed them in the trash at that point, but not me. I wrestled with the problem in my head for a week or two, and then looked closely at the shoes. I carefully palpated both the heel and the insole above it until it cried in pain, at which time I determined that the problem had something to do with the air-filled chambers in the heel (presumably intended for shock absorption).
I speculated that there might be a leak in the chamber somewhere (hence the hissing), and I wondered if filling it with the foam I use to seal around wires when I run them through exterior walls might solve the problem. So I drilled a hole through the back of the shoe and injected the heel full of polyurethane foam. It filled the chamber and started oozing out the sides.
I let the foam cure for a while, then put the sneakers on and took them for a test walk. I stopped at the cell phone store (they're one of my clients) to say hello, then at the liquor store to thank Charlie the wineseller for an excellent Thanksgiving wine recommendation, and then at the grocery store to pick up some salad and green tea. The surgery was successful! Not a squeak was uttered!
So, am I a tightwad, or am I thrifty and resourceful?
Rich
I'm an aficionado of cheap sneakers for everyday use. They're comfortable. In addition, if I mess them up somehow (by steping in dripped oil or gas at the airport, for example), they're cheap enough that I can either throw them out or make them my next pair of "beach sneakers."
So earlier this year, I bought a few pairs of el-cheapos when they were on sale. But when I finally tried them on a few weeks ago, much to my dismay, one of them emitted a horrible squeak every time I set my weight on the heel. The squeak is hard to describe, but it sounded like a cross between a goose taking off and a cockatiel with an empty seed tray. It was a soulful (sole-full?) screech punctuated by a guttural hissing. It turned the heads of all who heard it, made dogs bark angrily, and sent young children running away in fear.
I'd purchased the sneakers too long ago to return them, and they certainly weren't worth bringing to the shoemaker; so I walked around with them for a couple of days trying to "work them out." No joy, though; the squeak only seemed to get worse.
An ordinary (or perhaps normal?) man probably would have tossed them in the trash at that point, but not me. I wrestled with the problem in my head for a week or two, and then looked closely at the shoes. I carefully palpated both the heel and the insole above it until it cried in pain, at which time I determined that the problem had something to do with the air-filled chambers in the heel (presumably intended for shock absorption).
I speculated that there might be a leak in the chamber somewhere (hence the hissing), and I wondered if filling it with the foam I use to seal around wires when I run them through exterior walls might solve the problem. So I drilled a hole through the back of the shoe and injected the heel full of polyurethane foam. It filled the chamber and started oozing out the sides.
I let the foam cure for a while, then put the sneakers on and took them for a test walk. I stopped at the cell phone store (they're one of my clients) to say hello, then at the liquor store to thank Charlie the wineseller for an excellent Thanksgiving wine recommendation, and then at the grocery store to pick up some salad and green tea. The surgery was successful! Not a squeak was uttered!
So, am I a tightwad, or am I thrifty and resourceful?
Rich
I'm on the verge of doing the same thing, or something very similar, to mine for the same reason. I stepped on a sharp pointy a few weeks ago and it got a flat.
