the horse has been re-shoed

My "care" packages from the US have arrived, and I'm relieved that I now have spanking-new shoes, new muscle shirts, new tees, and a few other doodads, including a LifeStraw* and several bottles' worth of iodine water-purification tablets. My old tees and muscle shirt had been torn to shreds from five years of use; my walking shoes had died months ago (and I'd bought a shitty pair of Korean shoes that aren't working out), and my black semi-formal Rockport shoes, which I wear all the time, were recently given a new lease on life, but since that day, they've been worn down almost to holey status again. So now I have new Rockports and new New Balance** shoes, which means I'm good for another five or so years.

Am currently wearing my New Balances, along with a new pair of slacks and a new muscle shirt under my black, all-purpose button-down shirt. This feels much better than the usual rags. Of course, calling the old clothes "rags" is uncharitable; I did feel a twinge of sadness, this morning, when I got rid of my shirts. I decided to keep the old, tattered pants, which might be useful as emergency pants in a pinch, but I do need to get rid of my recently repaired, yet woefully superannuated, Rockports.

Sorry for the boring update, but that's the state of my clothing.

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*I bought the LifeStraw before I'd ever heard about the Grayl, which looks to be a thousand times better. The Grayl is so effective a filter that you can pour Coca Cola into it, filter the Coke, and end up with pure water. Don't believe me? Watch this incredible product-test video, which also shows people drinking filtered toilet water.

**I had misgivings about buying Korean walking shoes, and that's because I've got finicky feet that seem to work best with only one brand of shoe that has ever conformed perfectly to my feet, and that brand is New Balance. It's not that New Balance is somehow an inherently superior shoe; it's just that that brand of shoe has always worked best for me. So I suppose that, in the case of New Balance and my love of the brand, it's a bit of a positive-feedback loop that generates brand loyalty: the shoes work for me; I buy the next pair of shoes; those work for me as well, etc.