I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes…
—Henry David Thoreau
I recently finished an online training course for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). A day or two ago, I got an email confirming my admission for the two-day in-person training. It all looks good, except for this line:
Please wear long pants and closed-toe shoes.
Uh, oh. Well, this won’t be like medical school where I found out at the last minute that we were going into the hospital one day during our first year, and I had to dash over to the university bookstore to buy ill-fitting shoes and a pair of socks. I actually do own long pants (one pair of Dockers and a few pair of well-worn sweats) and a pair of closed-toe shoes. But…
It’s two eight-hour days. It has been years since I have worn closed-toe shoes for two consecutive eight-hour days. Why? Because any and all shoes I have ever tried have caused foot pain and now that I’m old and retired I don’t tolerate it well at all.
Fortunately, there is hope. A regular reader read my whingeing about sore feet and suggested I try MBT shoes. I ordered a pair, in spite of the fact that I have spent thousands of dollars over my lifetime buying shoes that don’t work. I have been breaking them in slowly for several months now (I don’t think that one breaks in new shoes so much as new shoes break in one’s feet) and I seem to tolerate 4-5 hours of continuous wear. The CERT training will be the acid test, but at this point they’re definitely the least uncomfortable shoes I have ever owned.
Thanks, Dave!
—2p