Slipstream

Several years ago I got a nice pair of slippers from my parents for Christmas. They were your (well, mine, to be precise) typical moccasin-style winter footwear, with leather construction and a soft lining, so quoth the attached tag, most likely. There was no tread or pad or any other friction-inducing material on the underside, which caused them, and by consequence, me, to slide something awful on any slippery surface (hence, possibly, their moniker?). I wore them outside many times for short errands, like retrieving the daily post, and had many a close brush with death thanks to the extremely slippery slipper surface and subsequent skating across many an icy driveway.

Which is why it's nearly impossible to get these kinds of slippers anymore. For every time I nearly fell, there were probably others in the world who did fall, thanks to the lack of any built-in mechanism on the slippers to prevent such a tragedy. I have been to dozens of stores to try to purchase a new pair of comfy winter footwear in the past few years, but all the modern versions of my good ol' moccasins have uncomfortable, and ugly, plastic-ey pads on the soles. No dice, man. And as such, I have continued to wear my old slippers long after they should have been sent out to pasture.

But possibly no longer. As I type this, I have a brand-new pair of slippers waiting for me at home, thanks to my wonderful wife and the Land's End web site, where she found a pair that, while not identical to my originals, has done away with the new-fangled sole design in favor of something called a "crepe" sole. I don't know what it means, but it looks comfy and infinitely more flexible than anything else I have seen lately, or ever. Apparently they arrived in the mail today, and I'm pretty pumped to get home and try them on.

Hey, it's the little things that make life worth living. :)