And of course that's when you want to be wearing them, not have them stuck in the shop for repair!
Yes, it's always a tricky thing. I think I can get by with regular shoes for a couple days though, and get the boots sorted. I don't want to delay too long because if it starts wearing away too far then they aren't repairable, and $20 for a sole replacement is a different beast altogether than $200 for a boot replacement! Or whatever they run these days. It certainly always seems to be very expensive like that.

Absolutely. Good boots are a good investment, but a hell of a replacement. :}

oooh yes! That's the perfect way to put it! And it's not like I don't want to support our local cobblers or anything, they're a wonderful family and all, it's just that money is always a bit tight.

I know about tight budgets all right. Lately with all the increases in expenses I'm having more and more month left after my money's spent. :}

Yeah. It's getting tough. I'm relying more on barter exchanges with neighbors, and there does come a limit to how much you can do with that -especially given taxes and utilities. We've been talking for a while now about maybe getting in a boarder or a roommate. I think we're probably going to end up having to do that after all.

I know. They keep increasing the taxes on things you actually need, but never in the same way ones income could increase without some jobchange, or winning the lottery.

We can't take a boarder, but if we could we would. :}

Yes. I was perhaps naive to hope, after all those "occupy Wallstreet" events way back when, that there would actually be something done to address the widening wealth gap.
Sigh.

As long as the rich stay in charge they will never even the financial burden. :}

MMmm, I just keep expecting the digital financial stuff to glitch or crash. We went from a solid metal form of wealth to this weird symbolic paper thing that at least still had a physical presence to strange digital make-believe illusory wealth that I admittedly have trouble believing in at all.
It's weird.

I guess there's a reason my family isn't wealthy; we still value tangible skills more than these incomprehensible digital sleight-of-hand tricks. (lol, not that you can see my bias in my language choices at all, ha ha)

The same. I come from a family of artisans. My skills are in the physical world as well. :}