What a Croc.

I've been, somewhat reluctantly, taking the Pro-Crocs side in the love 'em or hate 'em debate that seems to surround these plastic shoes. Sure, they're ugly. And the nubbled footbeds collect water, so it's important to remember to leave them upside down if you've been wearing them in the snow. But they're cheap, they're comfortable, they're lightweight, and they'll stand up to water. They're even good for knitters - the open heels beautifully show off the intarsia work in the socks Amanda made for me when I wear them. They make a good set of kitchen clogs - my feet hurt a lot less after doing dishes if I remember to put on the Crocs first. When it's raining outside, or even dewey, I don't want to risk damage to my Birkenstocks when I'm taking the dogs out. Sometimes I'll even wear them in public, if it's really icky out. So I'm a Crocs owner, and a Crocs fan.

Or I was yesterday. Yesterday morning, anyway.

But yesterday evening I headed out to do errands and laundry. And it's been kind of wet, lately, so I wore the Crocs. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

We were still enjoying a pleasant day with temperatures in the 40s when I headed into the laundromat. By the time I was finished, the rain had started. So had the wind. Because it was cold and rainy, limiting my number of trips to the car seemed like a perfectly sensible thing to do. So I piled all my laundry up into a cart, and headed out to the parking lot.

Did I mention the wind? It was incredibly windy. I think we're supposed to have a high of 8 today, so that's a pretty serious front to blow in overnight. With a lot of wind.

So much wind that, as I was walking to the car, one of my Crocs blew off. And began to tumble across the parking lot, leaving me with no choice but to chase them. While wearing one shoe, and one wool sock that doesn't stand up to water. And while dragging a cart full of precariously-balanced totes of clean laundry. Through a parking lot that's shared with a handful of bars. "Lightweight" stopped being a selling point right about then, although I did recover the shoe.

I'm wearing Birkenstocks today.