That moment...

That moment ... when you realize that you didn't know how to use that object you've been using for 40 years.  This happened to me a couple days ago, when I got frustrated (for about the 40,000th time) that my moccasin-style slipper fell off my foot.  I've been wearing this style of slipper for something like 40 years now; sometimes when I buy one they fit well – snugly enough to stay on my feet.  Most of the time, though, they were too loose.  The heel would slip off my foot as I walked.

I'd often wondered why nearly all of these slippers had that decorative shoelace in front.  So far as I could tell, the only thing it was good for was entertaining cats (and that it was very good for!).  But this time I got to looking closely at that shoelace, and noticed that it wrapped all the way around the opening for my foot.  Somehow in all these years I'd never noticed that.  I thought it was just sewn into the front top of the slipper, a useless decoration. 

So I tried an experiment: I yanked hard on those laces and ... it made the foot opening smaller.  In fact, with just a little trial-and-error I was able to adjust the opening to precisely the right size to keep the slipper both comfortable and secure. 

Dang.

I could have done that on the 30 or so other pairs of slippers I've owned.  And I never knew it...

Now we'll see if I can remember this little lesson :)