We’ve been having an unusually mild winter this year on the east coast, and our current storm is only the second major one of the season. There’s been very little snow shovelling this year, and very little weather-related inconvenience. Under normal conditions, though, here in the mid-Atlantic area, we often spend most of the season dealing with ice, rather than snow, and a fair amount of ice-related bother.
No-Slip Fleece Socks are just the right thing when warmth is the major consideration, but sometimes a true slipper is what’s needed. For feet that can change size during the course of a day or a week, a slipper that wraps gently, expanding and contracting accordingly, is an excellent solution.
The men’s version of this slipper is available in both terry cloth and berber fleece from The Vermont Country Store. The women’s comes only in terry, but in a wider range of colors than those for the guys.
I bought a pair of these for my dad when he couldn’t wear his sheepskin slippers any longer. At first I worried that the open toe wouldn’t be warm enough, but that wasn’t a problem; the air circulation was great for his toenails, and the bit of extra room good for his toes.
Related: Soothing Adjustable Slippers
Back in the middle of the 20th century, it was very common to attach little white plastic barrels to toddler’s shoes. The barrels unscrewed at one end so they could be slipped over a tied shoelace — locking it in place, neatly tied. On top of the barrel was a single jingle bell, presumably for said child’s amusement, but also so that anyone could track the little rascal’s movements by ear alone.
Shoelaces, those clever fasteners, have bedeviled us since their invention, untying at will and leaving us disheveled, or worse, splayed all over the floor. Mousetraps aside, the Nobel awarded by the daily-living gods may one day be offered for the perfect shoelace solution. Accordingly, here’s another nominee: a velcro wrap invented by a coach in Texas.
It’s winter, and the house is cold, especially at night — and nothing is colder than my feet. What I long for, on these cold evenings, is the perfect pair of socks. I want the lovely woolly ones that are soft and dreamy. Sadly, fuzzy socks threaten to kill me with every step I take.
Everybody loves jeans — at least, everybody who doesn’t sit all day does. I’ve been thinking about jeans lately because my dad just doesn’t use the pockets in his anymore — he really can’t get to them easily. It’s also gotten very difficult for him to raise his legs by himself — the other day I was joking with him, saying that he needed handles on his pants legs. He thought that was a pretty good idea, and, on second thought, so did I.
So I came home and searched on ‘jeans’ and ‘wheelchair’ and found USA Wheelchair Jeans, who proudly make “pants designed for sitting.”
Along with a dazzling array of fabric choices, they offer regular and slim fits and a whole host of custom options. They can add lap and calf pockets and transfer straps to their jeans, and make custom patterns as well. Fabrics are available in 8, 10 and 14 ounce weights. I’m going to order a pair for dad, and we’ll see if they do the trick.
USA’s website is full of information, but terrible to navigate. *Sigh* — will bad websites always be with us?
These interesting items make up a Lock Laces kit. The idea is that you thread the elastic laces through your shoe eyelets, push the ends through the cord locks, and then through the cord caps. Voila! No more tying and untying shoelaces — just open and shut the cordlocks by squeezing.