The annoying thing is that I did manage to find a very nice pair of brown shoes last year. I just cannot for the life of me repeat the trick for black shoes.

Probably I should just order a similar pair from the company (Eastland) that made my brown shoes, but I hate paying full price and not being able to try things on before purchase. Gnrgh.

...

Step one is to make sure the group practice that is "my doctor" (insofar as I have such a thing, which is not very -- maybe four visits over fifteen years) takes my current insurance plan. Then I can work myself up to a phone call.