I wore footwear two days ago for about the most in a long time. You may recall that I did oral argument in my barefoot lawsuit, Neinast v. Fairfield County District Library, in the morning. As I said there, I wore shoes, since I wanted to argue that case, not some different theoretical case about whether I could argue my case barefoot. That was 2½ hours of shoefulness. (I did drive there and back barefoot, as usual).
But that wasn’t all.
The other time I wear “footwear” is when I am inline skating. That’s how I try to get my aerobic exercise. Footwear (and in this case inline skates) is a tool, and I just haven’t figured out how to inline skate while barefoot. 
I really needed the mental release after the oral argument. I’d been up late the night before, and combined with the stress of the whole experience, I needed to unwind. Furthermore, it was a gorgeous day (high of about 71°).
So after I got home, I skated about 16 miles. So that was about another 1½ hours in footwear, for a total of 4 hours. I think that puts me at about 15 hours for the year.
This late in the season, and with a warm sunny day, snakes were out to soak up a bit of the late-year warmth. The asphalt of a bike path is just perfect for that, so they were out on it. So, here are a few pictures of these little guys.
Small Midland Brown Snake
This one was only about 5 inches long. I’m pretty sure it’s a Midland Brown Snake. (Sorry about the picture quality and size; all I had with me was my cell phone, but it was better than nothing.)
And here’s another one.
Larger Midland Brown Snake
This one was bigger, around 10 inches long. (The yellow is the line painted down the middle of the bike path.)
I saw a total of three of these snakes. Each time, I stopped and carefully herded them off the bike path into the grass, for if they stay on the bike path too long they get converted from Midland Brown Snakes to Mashed Flat Snakes.
I did make up for my footwear transgressions: later that afternoon I played two hours of barefoot tennis.
Good one Bob! I like the note at the end about the barefoot tennis. B.T.w. What skaking like. I can’t roller skate, so I really do not know
Skating is a much more gliding motion, and easier on the knees. I can get up to about 12 miles an hour, though I cruise more around 9 or 10.