Bliss Is: a New Pair of Ugg Insoles

The other day Richie went out to get the newspapers on the driveway and, along with them, brought in a shoe-box-sized cardboard box.  "Oh, goody! It's my new insoles!"  I couldn't get through a shower and into my clothes fast enough, awaiting the wooly, sensuous delight of new sheepskin insoles!

If that sounds marginally obsessed, you'd be right.  I've been wearing Uggs in cold weather for so long that I can't remember when I bought my first pair.  I remembeer they lasted nearly 20 years though.  That's getting your money's worth!

Let us look at the long and quite distinguished career of the Ugg boot.  They are made of sheepskin, wrong side out, with a neoprene sole (which apparently never wears out. See above.)  They were first created in Australia and New Zealand for use by farmers.

In the '60s, surfers discovered them.  By the '70s when Californian surfers were returning from tournaments Down Under, they brought them back with them.  They became quite the fad with the watery set.  Uggs really came into their own in the late '90s, becoming a fashion fad that went 'round the world.  Women loved them because clunky-looking Uggs automatically slimmed down the gnarliest calf.  

Uggs have been worn since the 1920s.  There is a school of thought that believes Uggs devolved from the fur-lined boots WW1 pilots wore!

Various people claim to have created them, but these people are numerous and no acknowledged leader has ever been definitely assigned the glory that is the Ugg boot.  So the hell with them. 

They are warm because socks are not worn with Uggs which may have attracted me to them in the first place.  It's just your own cold, naked foot nestling into all of that toasty warm fleece.  Nothing comes between you and your Uggs!

It is necessary to change out the insoles every two or three years because the fiber will mat up unless you've remembered to take out the insoles periodically and run them through the washer with the towels.  Then they fluff right back up.  

When Uggs took off, so did PETA with howls of outrage.  Cruelty to animals!  It's a pity that no one has ever been able to get it through PETA heads that lamb and mutton are a major food source in Australia and New Zealand.  But then they don't get much about anything, so no loss.