Honey, can I take off my shoes?

That question can be interpreted, "can I please be done for the day?"

We have a water cooler that uses 5 gallon containers which need to be filled up once a week or so. When I have to get water the process is as follows:

collect jugs

find the lids

put the jugs in the car

drive a mile to the water store

fill up the jugs

carry the full jugs one at a time to my car

drive home

carry the jugs one at a time in the house

put one of the jugs in the water cooler (which means that I am going to get wet to some degree.

You know what the worst part of that whole process is? Even before the first step, it's putting on my shoes. I shower and get dressed in the beginning of my day like everyone else, but whether I am leaving the house immediately or not, I put on my shoes. My shoes stay on until the end of my day. Removing my shoes is less an act of comfort than an outward sign that I am done for the day. Sometimes my shoes don't come off until bedtime, but sometimes at noon I will ask my wife, "honey, can I take off my shoes?" and that is me asking permission to spend the rest of the day in the house.

Of course, putting on the shoes is not really a problem, but it's the step I hate the most because it's starting an errand on a day I had already promised to a mixture of the couch and the bed.