Recently bought:
- Keen brand safety-toe boots. More expensive than no-name work boots; less expensive, in this case, than Bates or the like.
Much better than Bates has become, in my experience -- Bates boots got much more expensive and much crappier at the same time, maybe ten years ago, and I won't buy them anymore. Fifty bucks is about the most I'll spend on shoes, anyway.
The Keens aren't side-zip, boo, but I'm going to try one or another kind of elastic laces for them. If I'm not going to be walking through deep snow, I really only need them laced halfway, anyway. They're quite comfortable, and they're
really the first pair of work boots I've ever owned that only needed about fifteen minutes of breaking in. They were slightly stiff . . . and then it was like I'd been wearing them for years.
The rubber soles extend up over the toes, which is especially good for me because I go up and down concrete stairs at work every day, and I constantly scrape the toes of my shoes against the risers.
This does tend to eat through the toecaps.
So we'll see.
We also bought this little Chinesium dehumidifier:
https://www.amazon.com/Dehumidifier-Electric-Dehumidifiers-Basements-Bathroom/dp/B07Q5KTRXZ/The description is mildly misleading. It
is a ~two-liter miniature dehumidifier with an internal UV light (or three?), and you can even hang it on a wall. It's roughly 10x10x4" and just 36W, which is fairly amazing, and it produces not more than half a liter of water a day. The bucket's easy to remove.
That said, it's louder than we expected -- it has a lusty little fan with one speed. They claim it's 42 dB or less. I haven't measured, but I'm guessing it's more like 50-55 dB. You don't have to raise your voice, but it's meant for like 250-300 sq ft, and in an otherwise quiet small office this sucker might get irritating. I'm not sure if it would be too loud for a white noise machine for a bedroom.
BUT we have it in a room where we're rarely sitting quietly, and it seems to be working well so far. A bunch of the Amazon reviews seem suspiciously fake and are from people with less-plausible names, but so it goes.
