I think that I may be turning into a redneck...

Take a look at my boots.  These are actually the boots that I wore out of my house today:

Yes, those are duct taped within an inch of their lives.  However, before I tell you what actually happened, lemme share with you a few other facts, and you tell me if you think that I'm coming closer to redneck status:

1. I worked at the state fair all night.
2. My job was mostly explaining gun safety.
3. I had a choice of what to do when the boot started falling apart, and I decided that this was the best possible solution.
4. All in all, I wasn't all that embarrassed.

Yeah....  I think that I may need to turn in my Yankee Card.  :-)

So... here's the story.  Every Autumn, the Raleigh Jaycees (the community service group of which I am part.) runs a few fundraisers.  I've fallen in love with one of them - the Haunted House, but I really dig the other - the Turkey Shoot at the State Fair.  Generally, I work the Haunted House more since they generally need more people day to day.  This year, the Haunted House was canceled since we could not find a place.  So, I picked up a few shifts at the turkey shoot.  Woo-hoo!

I worked on Wednesday night, wearing the boots above, sans duct tape since they were in mint condition.  No problem.  Tonight, Saturday, I was getting ready for the fair and I put on the boots.  I kept feeling like there was something wrong in the padding or something in the right boot until I left.  Then, I stopped for gas and noticed that there was a tiny crack in my boot.  Ah - the padding problem was that the sole was starting to come off.   No worries, it would last for one shift.  Boy was I wrong...

Since it was a Saturday night that I was going to the fair, I had to park out in the boonies.  By the time that I got to the gate, half of the sole had come off.  So, I was faced with a decision:  go back to my house and change or tough it out.  Then, I remembered that there's a role of duct tape at the turkey shoot.  So, I decided to keep going...  Long story short(er) is that I barely got the turkey shoot before 3/4 of the sole was off. So, I taped it back up.  Looked good, and held for the entire shift.  (OK, it looked lousy, but it was functional....)

Why was the left boot taped too?  It held for most of the shift.  But right at the end I noticed that just the front and back of the left sole was still attached.  And it held!  Well, it held until I started heading back to my car.  Then, the whole freaking thing fell off.  And I headed back to the turkey shoot to get the tape.

I'm still a bit confused as to what happened to the boots.  Granted, they are about 10 years old, but they just went downhill so fast.  I'm actually thinking that some of the hay at the turkey shoot got into the boots and started to dry out the glue holding things together?  I dunno.   I just know that now I need a new pair of hiking boots...