Sadly, after 20 years of loyal service, my surplus combat boots have sprung a leak. The sole of the left boot is cracked open to the point where my foot got very cold and very wet this morning on my way in to work. Actually, I was going in to a farewell breakfast for a colleague, so my normal commute was extended by a 6-block walk to the harbor through puddles of mushy snow, and on our return I began to notice the leak. I’m not entirely broken up about it, though—these boots are better suited for dry weather anyway, because they have lousy soles for winter grip (read: none) so I only wore them about 1/2 of the year anyway. My hiking boots, which date back to 2000 or so, are literally falling apart at the seams, so the timetable for wet weather footwear has now been moved up dramatically.