I'll be retiring from my paid job this summer after doing the same thing for over 20 years. That sort of time frame doing more or less the same job in IT tends to lead to burnout. I know it did in my case. I occupied myself by maintaining my personal web presence, like this blog and a simple web site, largely for my own reference.
This blog, which was largely done for my own entertainment will be moving when this domain expires in not quite a year.
One thing I would like to do more of is walking, hiking and exploring. That means finding shoes and boots that fit. Given the type of feet I have, very wide in the toe box, it is nearly impossible to achieve. There are some out there with similar issues and at the time of this post, Reddit is still the best place to find them. Hopefully Reddit will not be enshittfied too much before I finish my task.
For others with this condition, https://reddit.com/r/widefeet is where I am getting information for my research. I will post my research results here:
I am intending to try the following shoes:
- Hobibear (from their website)
- Splay (from their website)
- Altra Lone Peaks (from REI)
- Brooks Ghost Max (from REI)
- New Balance 993 (probably from a New Balance store)
The highlighted entries are "barefoot" shoes. That means there is no rise from the ball to the heel. If any fit, I'll make a comment on "barefoot" shoes as well.
Other possibilities include:
- New Balance 1540 v3
- New Balance 990 v5
- New Balance 928
For Boots:
- Wide Load (Australia only, not sure how to get them in the US). Maybe RedWing is a suitable substitute.