Shoes, Socks, and a New Laptop

Jet lag is much worse traveling west to east. I crashed out about midnight after the long flights from SE Asia but by 3:30 in the morning stirred awake.  My cousin Bob was already up, preparing for work. He told me of a 24-hour Wal-Mart nearby so after a couple of cups of coffee and digging a pair of socks out of the backpack I left here last November, I went over there to buy shoes.

After wearing flip-flops for five months, shoes were awkward. I suddenly found my feet an inch longer than normal and tended to stumble on chair legs mostly. Walking too was clumsy. People probably thought I was just out of rehab after months of therapy, "Look at him, he's walking again!"  Then laces; they kept coming loose to be tripped on.

While waiting for Best Buy in Torrance to open, I paced their front doors trying to adjust to my heavy new feet. I squeaked calculated paces to the computer department and bought a new laptop: a basic Compaq Presario. The in-store Geek Squad was able to transfer files from my broken laptop but they didn't get all of them. I was relieved to get the pictures back.