Thursday, 4/10

How do you like my new soccer cleats?

As you probably know, I don't have many vices in life. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't gamble, and I actually like the person to whom I'm married. So when it comes to frivolously spending my money I have to look for creative way in which to do it. That's why I travel, get new cameras, and, for the past decade or so, buy really colorful soccer cleats.

Maybe some month soon I'll even get to use them.

This is probably the fourth or fifth time now that Loraine has seen a soccer player wearing colorful cleats, shown me a picture of said cleats, and watched a few days later as I open the box and (invariably) proclaim “look...they're so pretty”. And they usually are.

Now, I realize that most people would not buy soccer cleats because “they're so pretty”. But, as we all know, I'm not most people.

This new pair, which Adidas just released, is filled with Easter colors, which makes me wonder if that's why they just released them (what with Easter being a week and a half away). It doesn't really matter; I just think it's cool that we can see cleats on professional players in Europe on a Saturday and then have the same cleats in my hands five days later.

Despite what some people seem to think, having a world-wide economy really IS a good thing.

I actually won't be wearing them right away, for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that (as I've mentioned) we've been having our entire winter in the past month, and are waiting for the remaining snow to melt so we can get back out on a pitch.

The other reason? These will actually be my backup pair of cleats. I'm still using pretty purple cleats I bought last fall and a pair of pretty bright orange ones I bought last spring, and I'll keep this new pair in reserve for when I need to retire one of those colorful pair that I'm currently using.

For now, I can just gaze lovingly upon them, and look forward to keeping them in pristine shape until the day comes when I slip them on and use them to kick a ball for the first time. Then I'll be able to say “look...they're so pretty. AND they help me kick the ball so well”.

At least, that's what I hope I can say. But, just between you & me, the way the cleats help me kick will always come in second when I decide which pair to buy.

It always has been, and always will be, the colors that are the most important.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com), human being with strange vices