For everyday business I wear pretty traditional black leather shoes. Given my clothing budget, my shoes were an expensive purchase back when I bought them maybe 10 years ago. They are Italian and hand stitched. Every couple of years I have them rebuilt. I send them off to California in a heavy plastic bag with a check and instructions. A few weeks later they come back looking and feeling like new.

I have three pairs of the same exact style of shoe. Two of the pairs are black. The other is brown. When it comes to shoes, I keep things pretty simple. They are extremely comfortable. And in the morning, the decision on what to wear is really simple. The only choices are black or brown.

No one has ever commented on my shoes since the day I bought them. They are so neutral they simply do not register on the style scale. They are slightly rounded at the front. They have traditional laces - black for the black pairs, brown for the brown. They do not catch your eye. They neither delight nor offend.

The other day I was in an elevator with four guys from another office on the floor where I work. These are young guys and a pretty fashion forward crowd. Judging from their shoes, you might have thought they were all headed to a casting call for either the circus or the Wizard of Oz.

I’m sure I’m late to notice but men’s shoes have gotten longer than the feet that go in them. There’s an inch or two extra at the end and the shoes are either very pointed or cut off straight. These shoes are memorable and eye-catching. They are everything that my shoes are not.

“Oh, I see you have your purple clown shoes on today I love how they curl up in front, kind of like a mini gondola.”

When it comes to shoes, I’m old school. It makes life really easy - and your feet never hurt.

* * *

Lunch break

A few months back I was in a fender bender in the gas station lot. A guy threw open his car door as I was passing. The door barely hit my car, but it managed to knock off my rear view mirror. Technically, I guess that’s not a fender bender, but I’ve never heard of a mirror bender.

It’s an interesting case of “he said, he said.” I made a claim against the other driver’s insurance. It was the passenger who threw open the car door. A big guy in a little car. The door hit my car and bounced immediately back and shut. It happened in an instant. Fortunately the man had neither arm nor leg yet out of the car.

The other insurance says I was at fault. Huh?

I did the duct tape solution for a while. Frankly, every time I saw or drove my car it depressed me. The door closed, I could see out of the mirror, but I hated being in or around the car.

Well that’s all over now. The folks over at Dan’s Body Shop in Delphi made the little Corolla look just like new. And actually, the damaged part of the car looks better than new.

I get a kick out of the schedule over at Dan’s. They take a lunch break at noon. Don’t call then, they tell you on their message - they’ll be out at noon for lunch.

I like that schedule. We should all take a lunch. And we should take lunch at a predictable time. We should schedule it and adhere to it. It’s healthy and sane. Pretty old school.