Twitter: Chris
There came a time early last evening when my wife ─ passing by my bedroom where I was seated here at my computer and looking at an update by AliExpress.com concerning an order I had placed with them a week or so ago for a pair of boots ─ asked if I would be interested in going with her this morning to Guildford to some store where she had evidently placed an order for a pair of New Balance runners (for nigh $100).
So I let her know that I had already ordered a pair of boots, and was not right now seeking a second new pair. In fact, I very much want to first see if the ones that arrive are quality, and if they fit, for I had to order them according to a sizing that I do not understand. That is, I ordered a size 46, whereas usually I buy a size 11 anytime I have bought boots or runners.
I am older now, and have not bought boots in maybe 20 years; my feet have swollen somewhat since then, and possibly in my old age have even lengthened, for all I know.
So I want to see if a size 46 proves ideal for me in the present, even if they might not have when I was 20 or more years younger.
She was unfamiliar with AliExpress, so I explained that they were like Alibaba.com, which she has some awareness of.
And so she wanted to see what they offered (she was clearly into some wine, for I was smelling it on her breath as she spoke in my small bedroom).
Humouring her, I performed a search for "New Balance runners", not expecting that an actual known brand would present. But it did.
She was surprised at how much less expensive they were than her $100 order ─ AliExpress's offerings were a third as much. And then she grew wildly animated at the sight of a pair that were just under $10 Canadian ─ there was no holding her back. She wanted me to place an order ─ and maybe even get two different colours.
And she was going to go and cancel her Guildford order this morning, she said.
Well, I reasoned her down to one pair, citing the issue of not knowing the quality, nor even if they will be a proper fit. Also, I pointed out that if they were actually good, then we could place a subsequent order.
She calmed down with that reasoning.
I did not let her know that many sellers do not ship for free, and that was to prove the case here (my boots were being shipped at no additional cost). So when she left me so that I could proceed with this 'gift' for her, I saw that the $9.53 shoes were now $34.06 with said shipping added.
But that's okay ─ I don't really mind. It would have been a different matter, though, if this extra shipping charge would have applied to each of two pairs of runners had I acquiesced and let her have her full way.
Fortunately, I was perfectly sober.
Thereafter she had returned to the backyard sundeck where she had been watching videos or something on her smartphone and eating ... and doing some drinking.
I went downstairs to watch some T.V. and enjoy a can of strong (8% alcohol) malt ─ I tuned in an episode of FBI: International ─ this one was season two's episode 13 ("Indefensible").
Once the beer was done, I had some of my wife's cooking, and after the show I tuned in a women's MMA match on YouTube ─ a 15-minute video featuring a match that took place February 22, 2019: Stamp Fairtex vs. Janet Todd I | Full Fight Replay.
I like Thailand's extremely cute Stamp Fairtex, so I was rooting for her over Janet Todd. Although the fight went the full distance, and I could not decisively say that Stamp had the match, she was awarded the match unanimously by the judges.
Note that I had watched both shows on T.V., thanks to our Android TV Box.
This MMA match brought me to mid-evening, so with one of my five-mile+ walks in store that would require me to be rising at 1:30 a.m. to begin readying, I had just gotten upstairs to my bedroom when I heard my younger brother enter the house following his daily socializing. This left me no time to let my wife know I was retiring, for I avoid any involvement with my brother in the evening; I shut my bedroom door and put myself to bed.
After getting some sleep, I found myself awake and in need of urination; thereafter, curious on the time in case it was near enough for me to be getting up, I checked and saw that it was only 12:22 a.m. ─ well over an hour to go.
I must have managed a wee bit more sleep, for when my cellphone sounded, it did not seem at all like that much time had elapsed.
The house was in darkness, so I was able to do my readying in peace. If I am remembering correctly, an online check of the weather hereabouts claimed it to be 13.3° C (55.94° F), so I wore my black denim jacket. And before finally leaving, I weighed in at just about 190 pounds ─ possibly a hair below.
It was 2:10 a.m. once I was outside the locked front door and on my way, but just a short distance down the alleyway beside our home I discovered that I only had one glove. I backtracked and found it in the driveway, so in resuming my walk, it was likely by then 2:12 a.m.
I had my usual stop early into my walk at an elementary school playground where I engaged six sets of pull-ups and chin-ups. I decided to tackle them with my jacket on, and was able to match my current normal number of repetitions: four and then three pull-ups in the first two sets; then three chin-ups in each of the middle two sets; and finally, two pull-ups between a pair of gymnastics-style rings in each of the final two sets, holding that very last pull-up at highest elevation for a 12- to 15-count.
And I then did nine slow full-range push-ups in a declined posture on a cement ramp.
Incidentally, the equipment was all dry despite what at first seemed an overcast sky, but for one very bright celestial object still visible through what may have only been very light cloud cover and / or wildfire smoke.
This star or planet has been the brightest night object (other than the moon) that a few months back had been low in the east, but is now more east-south-east and much higher in the sky during the time that I walk from approximately 2:15 - 4:15 a.m.
The sky has been moonless during that same time for several days (or nights) now.
There was nothing special about the walk that is worth mentioning. The intersection of 98th Avenue & King George Boulevard & Fraser Highway (Google Map) has been involved in very heavy construction for a number of nights now ─ some sort of pipe-laying, it seems.
Elsewhere as I travelled 96th Avenue against the infrequent traffic as I made my way from 148th Street to Green Timbers Way (Google Map), I did a considerable degree of a sort of shuffling jogging to make some time. Anytime some traffic did come, I would get off the highway and 'hide' in the gloom of the forest's edge. The only sidewalk is alongside the opposite lanes of the divided highway, but it is so upheaved due to tree roots that it is extremely arduous to use at night ─ hardly a step is secure and level.
Anyway, I was back home by 4:10 a.m., so I did definitely made some time.
I forget now, but I was likely back to bed by around 5:30 a.m., and my morning officially began something under three hours later.
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