The Ave, Live, with footwear

Footwear: the perfect excuse to blog about why shopping online is not always better.

As RantWoman  may have mentioned previously, RantWoman has shoes in her closet sized 9, 9.5, 10 11, 12 and 43. In other words, RantWoman just flat needs to put her feet into shoes before buying them. RantWoman also tends to think that the store clerk taking time to measure one's feet and present several options is more than worth the price differential between brick and mortar and online.  RantWoman gets disgusted easily with people who go to a store to check out what they want and then go home and order online. This entry is about in-person shopping and neighborhood and...

RantWoman went to a recent #Transittalk at the University Bookstore. Points that impressed RantWoman can be found on Twitter using hashtags #transittalk and #transittalks  RantWoman needs to have a Just Say NO campaign about adding any more meetings to her schedule, but a longtime RantWoman contact mentioned that yes, good to pay attention to the U District Conversation on Homelessness. Good to pay attention, so who can RantWoman recruit?

The U District conversation foreshadowed a comment at the most recent U District mobility workshop: businesses are too busy dealing with "street civility" issues such as people sleeping in doorways to want to talk about transportation. M'kay, so RantWoman will see whether she knows anyone interested in the ongoing conversations on homelessness.

After the event was over, RantWoman found herself in a bit of a quandary. RantWoman could get on the bus and go home and then come back to the U district for a late afternoon meeting. (The in-person meeting turned out to be very helpful even though the speaker rescheduled.)  OR RantWoman could find a place to hang out and see what she could get done on Chromie the ambiguously gendered Chromebook

First, FOOTWEAR. RantWoman has not walked past Shiga's imports in awhile. But RantWoman is ALWAYS tempted to look for blue satin Chinese shoes. RantWoman is tempted to look, but the family "large understanding" has expanded with age to the point that RantWoman would need blue satin about two sizes larger than the shoes currently come. RantWoman is in the market, though for some kind of indoor only shoe she can carry around with her for all the homes she visits where people take off their shoes at the door.

So RantWoman asked a clerk to help her check out the boring black men's slippers. Nah. Too narrow and RantWoman's instep is too high. But RantWoman did find...boxes and boxes of Chinese hand exercise balls. RantWoman has used the balls to help with recovery from both broken wrists. The salesclerk talked about her mom using the balls to deal with some kind of hand tremor. RantWoman decided she needed two new sets, one to see whether it will help about something for RantMom and one for RantWoman. Stay tuned.

RantWoman still had footwear on her mind. As a transit only person, good well-made shoes are every bit as important in RantWoman's transportation infrastructure as vehicles and sidewalks. Also Woolly Mammoth is right across the street. RantWoman has many happy experiences finding shoes that fit at Woolly Mammoth so RantWoman goes back often. RantWoman spends money less often. Spending money did not happen this visit. RantWoman will be walking around in Last year's Keens awhile longer. Sigh.

At that point, RantWoman just wanted to sit somewhere and blog. It was cool-ish and flirting with rain. In other words, weather that makes RantWoman want to sit outside and to reassure people concerned about this: RantWoman spent her childhood in CO and MT. RantWoman is fairly cool-tolerant. Plus RantWoman discovered Chipotle's wonderful covered outdoor seating area, got herself a bowl and some ice tea and settled in with two more meditations:

RantWoman's brain is full of news stories about straws in the ocean. RantWoman also LIKES straws. Urk!

A lot of the time. RantWoman would happily pay something modest like 10 cents to fill her water bottle with ice and skip the sugary beverage tax. That is RantWoman HATES artificial sweeteners and likes her beverages both sugared and caffeinated. The beverage of choice for the day was iced tea to which RantWoman added her own sugar but much less than ....

After awhile RantWoman's mind wandered to a couple things she would add to the Ave if she could.

There used to be a wonderful plant store on 45th. It had plants. It had refreshing UV lighting in the winter. The air inside was always very fresh. The Ave needs a store like it.

RantWoman would also add a crafts and fabric store, simply for the tactile and design aspects of sewing and mending. Possibly this is fantasy since RantWoman already has a number of half-done sewing and knitting projects.at home. RantWoman does not imagine people who frequent the Ave have any more time than RantWoman does. But it's an idea.