The Shoe Crisis is Over

Last night I arranged to meet Linda after school, in the hopes that I could put an end to the shoe crisis. I brought the shoes with me so that I could show them to Linda. Her verdict was that the shoes were fine, the colour was fine and that I had not completely blown it. She said I could keep the shoes.

We took the streetcar to Mountain Equipment Co-op to look for a wheeled duffle bag. We have so much stuff to carry that we will need a big bag. The problem is that all of the large bags we have weigh ten pounds when they are empty, leaving us only forty pounds of cargo, and we have so much to bring. We have the soccer equipment and all of the school supplies to pack. And while it is obvious that we won’t be able to pack all of the extra supplies in just our two bags, we still have to be able to pack our own stuff, including a sleeping bag, and enough clothes for three weeks.

It turns out that Mountain Equipment Coop no longer carries wheeled duffels, just wheeled backpacks, and they were all ugly. We went upstairs and had a look at their mosquito nets, but didn’t buy anything. And then we found ourselves standing in the shoe department. I looked at a few pairs and I found a pair that had no leather on them, and I tried them on. I walked around. They felt good. I waffled. I bought them. That means there were two pairs of hiking boots vying for my attention.

We went across the road to Europe Bound to scope out their bags, but their wheeled duffels were as ugly as the ones in Mountain Equipment Coop and cost over $200. Linda picked up the last treated mosquito net, but one of the chaps there said he would phone the Oakville branch of the store to see if they had one, and sure enough they had one left. Apparently there will be no more treated mosquito nets until November. Although the nets are available in Rwanda, I was afraid of not being able to get one on the first day, and then having to spend the night without one. Linda will pick it up for me on Thursday.

We returned to Linda’s to have dinner (“chicken” and bean salad, quite nice) and to make a decision about the shoes. I put one of each shoe on, and then walked up and down the long hall at Linda’s condo. As I say the hall is long, much longer than the sort of walking that could be done in a shoe department. By the time I was partway back on the return walk, the shoe from the first pair I bought was hurting my toe. It turns out that the shoe is not too flexible. I made my decision. But that was not necessarily a happy moment: now I had a pair of shoes to return, and I hate returning things to stores. I had a nice pair of shoes for the trip, but either way, I had a pair of shoes to return.

Today I wore my new shoes to work. My feet felt all energized and peppy. I strode the halls with vim all day. After school I returned the shoes with no problem.