In Iuka several months ago I bought some walking shoes. They're fine for around the house or Fridays at work. But they're too short. So I visited Zappos.com for some I can wear. I order from Zappos because they have the wider sizes and the half sizes after 9.5. Stores don't usually have anything beyond a 10B. For this kind of shoe I need the room because of foot issues. They have to feel as near to having nothing on my feet as possible. And I don't like to shop. Except in bookstores and occasionally at the hospital auxiliary jewelry sale.
After ordering the third pair, none of which fit right, I thought of my poor UPS delivery man - and Oscar. Oscar guards our carport door with a fierceness that could only be matched by a mama bear guarding her cub. He can leap as high as the door knob and he doesn't have very long legs, just lots of power in them. I figured by the fourth pair that UPS-Man's truck just automatically comes down our street and Oscar knows the sound of its engine by now. Imagine the barking! and jumping! and poor UPS-Guy thinking, How many more times am I gonna have to do this? What can she be doing with all these Zappos.com boxes. Because, how does he know what's in them - unless he orders from Zappos, too.
I was running out of options and I got my old pair that I've been wearing in the yard and still walking in some when it's cool enough, and really looked at the number on the shoe. Zappos had one almost exactly like it down to the bat-shaped arch-thingy on the bottom of it, that I had not noticed, but two numbers different. Sher says the higher the number, the better the shoe. So the two numbers probably meant some improvement over my old discontinued ones. Oh, and there was another interesting pair and I read about the wonderful cushioning in them and something called a Roll Bar. So. To save my UPS-Man more terror at our back door, and Oscar from having a mental breakdown, I ordered two of the Roll Bar style and one of the 744. (Reviewers said the Roll Bar style seemed a size smaller than marked. So I get a larger size just in case.) The Roll Bar shoes felt really good, and on the outside arches they look like regular athletic shoes. The inside arch just looked like really orthopedic shoes, which I've had and which have helped, and there's nothing wrong with them. But the built-in bar/support made them look so big, like Frankenstein's shoes, and my shoes usually look wierd and big enough anyway, so they're going back. (The UPS-Man at the office - oh, please let him not be the same one that comes to my house! - picks up all my returns because returns are free - you just have to print out a label and stick it on and wait for UPS to deliver something to the office, and there he sees a Zappos.com box waiting to go back. So he kindly picks it up, because it's prepaid.)
Now I know this is a lot of money tied up in walking shoes. And it's sort of OCD, well maybe a lot OCD, which my sister and I can tell you about. I like things like this to be over and done, so I didn't wait for the returned ones to go back to Zappos before I ordered another pair. I have kept a steady stream of walking shoes coming to my house. But like I said, I don't like to shop, I don't have time, it's too hot, and how else can I do this? Zappos is great about filling orders, returns and credits so I know I have nothing to worry about. I've ordered from them for years. I keep copies of all the paperwork and what's been credited.
The shoes I'm keeping are less expensive than most I've ordered. Oscar will be happy to have a quiet day at last. And the UPS-Man will have to seek job security elsewhere for a while.
The old 742's...
The new 744's.
Now, unless those Roll Bar shoes come in another color...
Just kidding...
P. S. If you know my UPS delivery person, tell him (or her) thank you.
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