Days 3-5

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After a visit to my local New Balance store I decided that I would wait and look around a bit more. They make an awesome shoe and I have been buying their running style sneakers (do people still call them that?) for years and I wouldn't bother even looking elsewhere but for the purposes of this experiment I thought I'd check out what else was out there. I went to a local (Boston) store that sells outdoor stuff and checked out their offerings for waterproof footwear. I like the look of Keen and Merrell shoes and thought they might be made somewhere around here. Not so much. In fact every waterproof hiking shoe they had was made somewhere in Asia. Crap. I did find a store called Hiltons Tent City near the Garden that carried some American made boots but they were very high end hiking and work boots. What a great store though! Great staff and if you need equipment for an outdoor adventure it is the place to check out first. Anyhow, I'm more in the market for pseudo-sneaker soft sole style boots/shoes for under $100 that are good for walking 1 or 2 miles a day in the city through slush and puddles of who knows what so it didn't work out for me. I even checked Cabellas and Zappos searching for Made in USA but didn't find anything I liked. (There was a Keen boot listed as being made in Portland, OR so they might have a factory here as well but all their boots I saw when I was out looking were not made here and I didn't particularly care for this style.) I'm starting to think New Balance is the way to go at this point and after having perused their website I saw a couple of acceptable options. Back where I started I guess.

The thing I did learn about American made boots in this quest of mine are that they are typically very well made and in a few years when my work style boots are ready for replacing (again) I will definitely buy a pair. There are some great companies in the US that are putting out some awesome boots that in my estimation will last you through 20 years of hard work. Companies like Danner, Carolina, Chippewa, Red Wing and Wellco. They will cost you $200-300 for a pair but like I said, they are very high quality and will last forever (in boot time).


I did look around for a couple of chairs and found a couple of options at a Home Goods store nearby. After showing the wifey a couple of options she said she might prefer changing the room entirely and going with a sectional or something so that purchase is on hold for now. We have a big empty wall in our living room and limited seating in the mean time so I can't imagine we'll wait too long. I hope. The boss gets what the boss wants though so I'm standing by.

Food is a constant challenge and a pain in the butt. I haven't been able to get country of origin info for Sysco foods and I work in a big place with a cafeteria that uses them as their food distributor. Restaurants are the same way in a large part. I mean, who the hell knows where the tomatoes in the pasta sauce came from? I'm sure they don't want me poking around their cupboards reading labels before I order so I've been bringing my lunch to work. C'est la vie. Me and my kids Lightning McQueen lunch box. At least my coffee is great. 100% Kona freshly ground every morning. (I got lucky and found some at the Home Goods store while I was there but it was whole bean.) I think I'll go have a cup right now. Cheers!
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