As we noted in the previous post, the replacement shoes came the other day.
On occasion in life you run across things that are remarkable in their ability to exude luxury. I can remember the 25 cubic foot refrigerator that opened new vistas in the harsh arena of cool and cold storage.
Then today I'm out with one of the new pairs of shoes. It was cold and windy; the dew point was not in play and the course sprinklers had not been run last night. And I was a bit cold. Could have used another layer. But my feet were wrapped in warmth and dry to boot -- hmm, interesting word there!
I cruised around the course and felt warm all the way. The highest accolade one can have for an article of clothing is that after a bit of time you don't know you are wearing it. That happened too.
New shoes can break in in a number of ways. I have experienced shoes that do not crease nicely over the toes. But the new ones have nicely begun to wear without any toe joint problems. Another wonderful trait.
To suggest I'm happy would be an understatement.
I also treated myself to some cedar shoe trees this Xmas. I put the trees into the new shoes. They seemed happy together. I intend to rotate the shoes as I use them.
I'm also going to buy some silicone spray that provides some water proofing but it also helps to make the leather more slippery. That will keep them cleaner even if the water proofing is not helped.
That is the shoe saga for the moment.
I have a couple of days off as the holidays once again interfere with the golfing. Very sad.
Friday, December 28, 2018
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Warranties in a Post Modern World
I'm not sure I know what the post modern world really means. But it comes up a lot in the climate debate. I suspect it is not a compliment.
As close readers of the blog and those with whom I play golf will remember that I'm having issues with leaky golf shoes.
Now wet feet are not too bad. It is getting cold however and then there is the proliferation of animals on the course. Animals bring with them, or actually leave little bits of themselves all over the course. Add in some copious sprinkling and I see the course as a large, wet, thinly layered bio sphere. Probably not one you want to put in the trunk of your car nor bring home with you or, most scarily, bring with you to lunch.
We should probably talk of cross contamination. When I worked at an unnamed national laboratory, we have a lot of things that you didn't want to spread around. Cross contamination is the method by which you move material from one place to the next to the third by a intermediate means. Means might include hands, or gloves or shoes or golf towel. We didn't have a lot of golf towels at the lab, but we had plenty of other things.
Cross contamination does occur at the course. And, drawing a bit on bridge, it happens in spades. Every ball that comes onto a green is usually cleaned before being putted. The material that gets wiped off the ball goes on the towel. You handle the towel with your hands. Clubs are wiped off after every shot and they've been ripping through turf and water and mud and everything else.
When you pull the granola bar out of your bag, you are moving that material to the zipper, the outside of the wrapper on the bar and if you dare to handle the bar on its way to your mouth, then the material is now internal.
Then you finish the day and put your stuff away and wipe stuff off. Slap the shoes together to remove loose impediments and place them in the trunk. Grab the door handle, gear shift lever, steering wheel, radio knob, etc. The icky stuff is everywhere.
We thus have evidence that stuff is not really dangerous since golfers are not dropping like fly and there are no warnings from the CDC on every course with the handy "take along gallon of hand sanitizer" available at no charge.
But if your shoes leak then after a bit there is a certain aroma that can build up in them. I get nasty looks from Barb as the fragrance migrates to my street shoes off my wet feet.
You can get sprays from Amazon to kill bacteria on athletic wear. It seems that the one that is popular smells like bubble gum and smells strongly! I think I'll pass on that one.
But the leaky shoes are a problem. I've been buying New Balance shoes and their waterproof shoes are made by a third party, Klone Lab. I contacted New Balnace (NB) and they referred me to the lab and with two emails I have two new pairs of shoes on the way. They can't get here too soon! They have a two year waterproof warranty - most useful and generous.
I asked my man, Ricky, at Klone why the shoes are leaking. He said that leaving them in the trunk where extreme heat can get at them was one reason. Other than that he had no response. Now I do leave them in the back of my hatch back, but I don't think it gets that hot. I've been getting about 9 months out of the shoes and then they leak.
Last time I sent some shoes back I had to supply invoices and pictures and eventually the shoes. This time it was just an email with the invoices pasted into the email body. Nice!
Then, it was a tough week for gear, my golf watch has a fancy charging cable. The watch is water resistant and the method they have to supplying energy to its internal battery is a clip on cable that interacts with the watch internals vial 4 tiny pins. The watch has 4 recessed contacts and the spring loaded pins on the cable can extend into the holes and make contact with the pins tightly enough that charging is possible. One of the pins no longer will extend. Either the spring broke or something. It's buried deeply inside a molded cable so I can't look at it.
I couple of emails and a phone call to Bushnell and a new cable is one way. I had a nice chat with Kim, ex-navy, and it seems we share some common world views.
There is a third party cable on Amazon for $15. A reasonable price to play, but feedback suggested that this cable might not be a good solution... There is talk of a fried watch and just not working. So kudos to Bushnell for supplying the part gratis.
It's nice to have a couple of manufacturers standing behind and going a bit beyond their duties to back their products. If they hadn't I would have sought other suppliers, so it's in their long term interest to keep this avid customer happy.
Sadly, I kind of need all this right now, but I have a few days of no golf to allow the powers of the USPS to get things to my door. I'm looking forward to tossing the old golf shoes away and so is Barb.
As close readers of the blog and those with whom I play golf will remember that I'm having issues with leaky golf shoes.
Now wet feet are not too bad. It is getting cold however and then there is the proliferation of animals on the course. Animals bring with them, or actually leave little bits of themselves all over the course. Add in some copious sprinkling and I see the course as a large, wet, thinly layered bio sphere. Probably not one you want to put in the trunk of your car nor bring home with you or, most scarily, bring with you to lunch.
We should probably talk of cross contamination. When I worked at an unnamed national laboratory, we have a lot of things that you didn't want to spread around. Cross contamination is the method by which you move material from one place to the next to the third by a intermediate means. Means might include hands, or gloves or shoes or golf towel. We didn't have a lot of golf towels at the lab, but we had plenty of other things.
Cross contamination does occur at the course. And, drawing a bit on bridge, it happens in spades. Every ball that comes onto a green is usually cleaned before being putted. The material that gets wiped off the ball goes on the towel. You handle the towel with your hands. Clubs are wiped off after every shot and they've been ripping through turf and water and mud and everything else.
When you pull the granola bar out of your bag, you are moving that material to the zipper, the outside of the wrapper on the bar and if you dare to handle the bar on its way to your mouth, then the material is now internal.
Then you finish the day and put your stuff away and wipe stuff off. Slap the shoes together to remove loose impediments and place them in the trunk. Grab the door handle, gear shift lever, steering wheel, radio knob, etc. The icky stuff is everywhere.
We thus have evidence that stuff is not really dangerous since golfers are not dropping like fly and there are no warnings from the CDC on every course with the handy "take along gallon of hand sanitizer" available at no charge.
But if your shoes leak then after a bit there is a certain aroma that can build up in them. I get nasty looks from Barb as the fragrance migrates to my street shoes off my wet feet.
You can get sprays from Amazon to kill bacteria on athletic wear. It seems that the one that is popular smells like bubble gum and smells strongly! I think I'll pass on that one.
But the leaky shoes are a problem. I've been buying New Balance shoes and their waterproof shoes are made by a third party, Klone Lab. I contacted New Balnace (NB) and they referred me to the lab and with two emails I have two new pairs of shoes on the way. They can't get here too soon! They have a two year waterproof warranty - most useful and generous.
I asked my man, Ricky, at Klone why the shoes are leaking. He said that leaving them in the trunk where extreme heat can get at them was one reason. Other than that he had no response. Now I do leave them in the back of my hatch back, but I don't think it gets that hot. I've been getting about 9 months out of the shoes and then they leak.
Last time I sent some shoes back I had to supply invoices and pictures and eventually the shoes. This time it was just an email with the invoices pasted into the email body. Nice!
Then, it was a tough week for gear, my golf watch has a fancy charging cable. The watch is water resistant and the method they have to supplying energy to its internal battery is a clip on cable that interacts with the watch internals vial 4 tiny pins. The watch has 4 recessed contacts and the spring loaded pins on the cable can extend into the holes and make contact with the pins tightly enough that charging is possible. One of the pins no longer will extend. Either the spring broke or something. It's buried deeply inside a molded cable so I can't look at it.
I couple of emails and a phone call to Bushnell and a new cable is one way. I had a nice chat with Kim, ex-navy, and it seems we share some common world views.
There is a third party cable on Amazon for $15. A reasonable price to play, but feedback suggested that this cable might not be a good solution... There is talk of a fried watch and just not working. So kudos to Bushnell for supplying the part gratis.
It's nice to have a couple of manufacturers standing behind and going a bit beyond their duties to back their products. If they hadn't I would have sought other suppliers, so it's in their long term interest to keep this avid customer happy.
Sadly, I kind of need all this right now, but I have a few days of no golf to allow the powers of the USPS to get things to my door. I'm looking forward to tossing the old golf shoes away and so is Barb.
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