The snow and ice is melting, slowly. We never lost power. Except for a white-bean pot I’ll cook today, all of the ‘snowed-in food supplies have been cooked and mostly eaten. We have cleared the area around our mailbox and the end of our driveway. Our vehicles are cleared, totally. It is time to rejoice in the sun, restock the pantry, run the errands that need to be run, and unkink from the Jonas hunker mode.
A number of times today I will pull on my trusty wellies of many years and continue 
inspecting around the yard for storm mischief, air the Aussie and the yellow lab, and generally breathe my sighs of relief under the winter blue sky. The wellies are tried and true friends. The vamps fits perfectly. The ankle areas are commodious enough to be able to slide in my feet easily, and to remove them without a village to help me extricate myself from their grasp. The wellies serve year round in rain, mud, snow, and sometimes as a hoped-for protection against snakes. In the winter the merino wool knee socks replace the talc I use in the summer to wear the boots comfortably.
So you can have your knee-high, high-heeled, ersatz riding boots for winter wear and may the winter gods smile on you, protecting you from the potential harm to which your silly footwear exposes you.
Prince George VA & Environs 