Almost forgot to post this for a good laugh. So about a couple of weeks ago I was doing a warm-up walk before some extended walking about an hour or so later. I have several different walks I can do on my neighborhood almost all blacktop streets,, and heat-testing and rough-testing has different challenges that I have found. Near the top of a moderately steep hill is a good hot spot for slower and increasing standing heat: I can stand for between 15 to 30 seconds with soles fully on the ground before they start throbbing and tingling from burning, and I can roll on the soles for minutes at a time. Not a blister risk, but still hot enough for prolonged heat training. Taking two steps and standing soles fully on the ground slowly builds up additional heat, burning just a bit faster, but again rolling on the soles is doable for minutes. Anyway... I'm walking up a moderately steep hill, flip flops and waistpack in hand... but it wasn't even close to hot with temperatures in the high 80 degrees F to low 90 degrees F... at most just detectably hot in the hottest spots; otherwise, just warm. So anyway, a girl maybe college-aged asks behind me "do your feet hurt?" and when I look back she is walking faster and almost at a slow run. Burning her feet or trying to get in front of me? I didn't care. Her problem if the was burning her feet and despite mostly blacktop streets, but it would have been better if she stayed behind me to avoid an OMG he's now following me scenario. Also, she could have still done "balance beam" heat relief walking in the concrete gutter. So I told her, without looking back again, "I took off my flip flops" and she said "me too" and when I looked back again she was still at the same pace and about to pass me on the left. Just before she passed, I said "it's not even that hot", again without even looking at her. Conversation done, I didn't stop, she kept walking and didn't even look back. Silly college girl. So she passed, still walking faster... okay so what, why did her feet hurt and she took off her flip flops. I wasn't interested except to see why she even bothered me: asphalt dirty soles... but duh I was walking on asphalt too. Nothing new: blacktop asphalt makes blackened soles and the dirt pattern depends on the soles. Didn't care otherwise whether they got that dirty from a shorter walk or if she was going barefoot for more than just that walk. Then she turned and went into an apartment... good. It meant no more being bothered and I could finish the walk and back without their presence behind me or in front of me. A "real" barefooter wouldn't ask "if my feet hurt" and at most would ask "is it too hot?" or maybe "are your feet tired?" as a benchmark as to whether they could handle longer distances walking on the heat, or since I was walking up a moderate steep hill. What they heck conversation starter is that? "Do your feet hurt?" Annoying. Shouldn't have even bothered me. She made as if it as a bad and painful thing to go barefoot, because her feet hurt and she took off her flip flops. "I took off my flip flops", "it's not that hot", and the slower deliberate pace up the hill should have been more than enough to see... I was barefoot because I wanted to be barefoot... flip flops in hand only in case of too hot, but any "heat", as I wrote before, was barely hot. I'm older than college-age, though I don't give out my age. At least she knows I do barefoot the neighborhood blacktop streets, flip flops in hand or not, since she approached from behind me, but I do not want to be asked again or I'll just shake my head and ignore them. Practice on hot? Probably a good idea for them, but I'm not going to bother with them even if I see them heat-training on the same streets. I'm also not going to stop heat-training just because I happen to cross paths with them, although obviously not in the exact same zone as they are.
Heaven knows this forum is quiet enough, which is probably a reflection of just how "minority" the subject matter is. I'd therefore not want to dissuade anyone from posting here, assuming they are on-topic. However I have to confess I've been strongly resisting the temptation to say that three words always spring to mind when I see another posting from Mr Asphalt, ie "life", "get", and "a"! But seeing as someone else has reacted, there, I've said it. Honestly no offence intended, Mr Asphalt, but you do seem worryingly obsessed.
...or just don't reply when I share my thoughts. Relatively standard for barefooters to try on rougher (streets) and hotter (asphalt) without mention of it. Go read about it, challenging each other how long they could stand or walk on asphalt before going to grass and such. Barefoot poem even "tend to blisters, you don't need those". I'm not bothering to search for the links but they are on websites, not in printed books like when a Reader's Digest book had a short story about two friends who wanted to the toughest feet that "soon learned the heat capacities of streets and metal grates...were striking matches on their heels".Boys and girls in my younger years, men and women during college years and less so even today but still so. Noteworthy, and telling that they just put up with it and not fully accept it, is that a man with a barefoot woman is almost never holding their hand... they are either walking together or in one case the woman was even walking ahead of their boyfriend. Not even when it's too hot for them to walk in and out of shade. There have also been those who mention before in 50 degrees C = about 122 F. Seems the obsession here seems to be snow and mud: snow has a narrow range before frostbite, and mud is just ridiculous unless forced to do it because it cakes on the top of the foot and in between the toes. Seems the obsession also seems to be dirty feet not as a normal part of barefooting to show a successful barefoot day, but to deliberately do so even when the soles wouldn't get black. Yes, my avatar is dirty soles but after 2 hours of nearly constant barefooting on rough and hot, I even wrote about it when I burned my soles. Normal, other barefooters do it, I've even seen scuffed calluses or even the start of narrow hot spots just quickly seeing a barefooter's soles, not even staring at them, even when otherwise mostly clean. Calluses, normal... even if a woman pedicures them. Burning soles, normal. Burned soles, normal. Blisters, best avoided but still normal for too long on too hot. I get white scuffed and burned calluses, as do other men. Some women have no visible calluses even when they can be heard scraping their soles with every step on sidewalks along a seawall beach walk: scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape and yet if their soles aren't already blackened, they stay relatively clean with barely any sand on the soles. So there, this even when I only have the opportunities to go barefoot during the weekends. As for being bothered about it: see the movements Society for Barefoot Living and Barefoot Is Legal. They're challenging managers, writing corporate, getting doctors notes, claiming disabilities, and even need to use barefoot sandals to fool those into thinking they are wearing shoes... in the long term they are already causing "Shoes required in store" because they challenge "Shoes required by law" (and challenged a manager or wrote corporate) Either go barefoot, or don't, especially if you're a regular customer at a business, be very aware of whether they accept barefoot and do plan on wearing shoes when told to. I'm in an inland valley area already, but if I do visit a desert area on vacation I don't want to defeat myself by expecting excessive and too fast "ow hot" without at least stepping on the hottest asphalt... obviously with flip flops in hand to immediately throw down and stand on if it burns almost on contact. Thank you.
So, you're annoyed because a friendly college aged woman attempted small talk with you? Your disposition is dreadful, good luck in life.
Thank you. Had the reverse been true and I tried to small talk with them, I'm sure they would have thought I was creepy or something. Better safe than sorry, especially if they do live in the same neighborhood. They know they will be ignored, that I have no interest in them. That's how it should be.
