Memorial Day Weekend

It was a great weekend.  While I didn't achieve being barefoot for the whole weekend, I did spend most of the weekend without shoes.  My previous post discussed my successful hike.  While not of epic proportions, it was still a first for me and I was definitely encouraged by the success.  

The remainder of Saturday was spend without shoes, except for a short trip to the grocery store where they have requested I wear shoes.  The hardware store was a much more positive experience.  When I told the owner what I needed he suggested I wait there since there might be glass on the floor in the back.  The part I needed was behind where they repair screens and windows, so his concern was genuine.  Putting people's perceptions that that the city streets are fill with broken glass, I told him I walk on the city streets all the time.  He asked if I also walked on fire as well and I responded that his parking lot was pretty close.  (The parking lot was recently paved so it a nice deep black and was hot.)  The owner told me he know of a customer that went everywhere barefoot and to the dismay of his wife, even a wedding.  So Leblanc's Hardware in Manchester, NH is certified barefoot friendly.  Yes I did follow the owner our back and we got the parts I needed.

Sunday, I arrived at church and dropped everyone off at the front door and then found my parking sport.  I was half way to the front door when I realized I had left my shoes in the vehicle.  I wear shoes at church on Sunday morning mostly out of respect for my mother, who does not wholly embrace my bare footedness.  The rest of the day was spent without shoes and even in church my shoes were off most of the time I was sitting or standing in the pew.

Monday, was almost another 100% barefooted day.  I visited Wal-Mart in the morning without a single comment by the employees.  Upon my return to Wal-Mart for my cell phone which I has somehow left behind I was told I needed to wear shoes.  It then dawned on me that Wal-Mart does probably not tell it's employees to kick shoppers our that are barefooted, but rather the employee takes it upon themselves to enforce what they believe is the law or what is socially acceptable.  This employee was concerned I would get hurt and I said I hike and do most things barefooted.  She was not impressed, but the gentlemen in front of me in line were.  I did have to pick up a few groceries for supper, so returned with shoes in had to shop at the nearby Price Rite.

Overall a great week. 

First Full Day Barefoot & Two Disapprovals

FIRST BAREFOOT DAY

After my first full barefoot day

Today I planned to be barefoot all day.  I dressed in my nice shorts and headed out. The weather was in the 50's, but it felt cooler with the breeze and on the shady patches of the sidewalk. Our first store was our local hardware store where everyone knows us well.  Nothing was said about my feet, but they commented that it was now spring and time for my beard to come off. I told them it was on the agenda for the day.

FIRST ENCOUNTER
The next stop was the grocery store.  I've been in there several times now and nothing has been said.  Today a customer came up and warned me that I better not let them (meaning the store employees) see that I was not wearing shoes.  I told him it was legal.  He doubted me so I assured him that no law existed stopping me from shopping in bare feet.  He was a bit surprised but eventually said he thought it was gross that I would be spreading my athlete foot fungus all over the store.  I was a little taken back by that remark and tried to assure him that athletes foot normally doesn't survive on bare feet, but he turned off down another isle anxious to get away from me.  Perhaps I should have responded that it is a good thing he is wearing shoes.

BARNES & NOBLE
Our next store was Barnes & Noble.  We stopped at the help desk to get my Nook checked out and then headed to the sweets counter where my daughter got a soda and a free cookie.  Then back to the help desk to find a book she wanted, but it was out of my price range this week.  She settle on something more affordable.  We checked out without any mention of my bare feet.

CONCLUSION 
It was a very enjoyable day.  I am getting more relaxed going about barefoot, even with the one encounter I had today.  I actually felt sorry for him.  It was also amazing how many different textures and temperatures your feet cross in a day and the shod never experience it.  Probably the best part was my daughter said something about how she wished she could go barefoot and I told her she could.  She was surprised, but glad I'll let her go barefoot.  She still hasn't taken her shoes off yet, but hopefully she will in the future.

POST SCRIPT 
After I wrote this post I headed out once more to my favorite neighborhood dollar store.  Was shopping when a store employee approached me and mentioned I was not wearing shoes and then told me that I had to have shoes.  He did let me finish shopping, but I cut it to just the one item I needed and then I left.  It put a little damper on my day, but it still was still a good day.

Two More Stores

Had a morning men's breakfast to attend and it was still a little cold out so I wore some Vivobarefoot shoes.  After the breakfast I returned home and took of my shoes for the rest of the day.  Then I began working on my current project, restoring wainscoting in the bathroom.

After working in the bathroom for a short period of time I realized I needed some protective gloves.  I  was washing off the stripper residue on the wainscoting and the two left handed gloves just weren't cutting it.  So I headed over to the local dollar store, still barefooted, to purchase the needed gloves. I was wearing my shorts and I was very aware of my bare feet.  But it was just a short walk and the temperatures were in the 50s.  Inside it didn't take me too much wandering to find the gloves and was able to make my purchase without any problem.  I didn't even hear or notice any reaction.

Back to work the gloves quickly disintegrated.  So I decided to head over to the hardware store to buy some better gloves.  I asked my mother to watch my daughter and she told me to put some shoes on.  I asked her if she thought I would actually walked to the store without shoes and then left.  I guess she has already caught on to my new thing. I'll have to discuss at a later time my families reaction so far.

The hardware store is about 2 tenths of a mile away.  I visit this hardware store a lot so was very interested to hear their comments.  I went straight to the paint department and a kid I don't usually see assisted me in finding the necessary gloves and then I checked out.  Nothing was said, though I'm sure the kid who assisted me must have notice my bare feet, the cashier knows me by name and he couldn't really see my feet from behind his counter.

It was good not to be bothered with shoes and to take the short stroll to the store barefooted.  Still a bit cool and I wouldn't want to go much further, but summer is coming and it will be very warm soon.

Here are some pictures of my current project. This bathroom has a claw foot tub, so for now we plan to leave the tiles on the back wall, until we replace the floor and need to take out the tub. Otherwise it will be a pain to get all the tile off and wall cleaned.

The lower walls were covered in plastic tile, as you can see in the picture above, which popped off the wall relatively easily with a putty knife.  Then we were left with the glue (not shown), which a hot gun helped soften up so we could scrape it off.  This left some residual glue and the old varnish.  So we used stripper to get the wall down to the bare wood.  

 We then cleaned the wall with some thinner to remove any remaining varnish and stripper.  This was after we finished cleaning up the wall.  We will add some molding on the bottom, so we were not too concerned about the very bottom.

Loads of pipes running on the outside of the wall, makes it a real pain to clean.  But it is coming.  Hope to start painting next Saturday.