Slow Charging on Tuesday
Some time back I dropped the MacBook Air M1 on the floor in our bedroom and it stopped charging. Instantly gripped with fear that by a stupid act of wanting to have the laptop on my lap I had doomed it. To tell the truth, I love this MacBook. I bought it in Hanoi in 2021. I had gifted an iPad to my friend Paul so his kids could do online learning during the school closures when the pandemic started. We had no real threats and life went on even better for me traveling in Vietnam but schools went for distance learning and his kids had no device. His Vietnamese wife was not working those days since she taught cooking to tourist visitors and since there were no tourist visitors, it became difficult. I had known looking at the Apple Silicon MacBooks I wanted one. That battery life. The screen. The wonderful looks of the Air series. Loved it!
Then like a klutz I dropped it and it stopped charging. My wife took it to a local repair guy who fixed it in a day for me for $50. I was over the moon. I do not take the laptop when we travel but I love it in the mornings. It has always seemed to be temperamental with charging though and lately it started telling me any of the cables I had were “slow charging”. It meant even after a night, the laptop would only be at 50% maybe. I swapped cables, tried my wife’s charger, did dark magic on a moonless night.
What finally worked was breaking down and buying a new type C cable from a local shop. I wanted one that would give the laptop the faster charging times it had before. I found a cable rated at 60w that was about $6. So plugged it into my wonderful charger and now the laptop is happy and power is coursing through its little veins.
It’s funny about all these cables and such. When I unpacked this cable after Grab delivered it, I could feel the difference in the thickness and quality. It just felt better to use than the cheap one I had tried. But I am no cable guru even if my wife tells neighbors I worked in IT and I could fix their android phones. This has been this mild disagreement since I’ve told her countless times I never worked on mobile devices and besides some basic knowledge of Android and iOS I am no IT guru. She never will step down though and told her friend to just give me her new android phone and I would make it all work. Because,
mike was in IT and he knows!
Well yeah.
Now that I have overcome the charging conundrum, I can move on to my Tuesday evening. I love Grab! Just about anything and they deliver right to our house. I tip the driver a little and he’s happy. If it’s food, I tip more. But I always do tip. Tipping here is happily accepted but never asked or included in some meals cost. Even having some beer at Viva! I will give the waiter an additional $1 for watching my beer glass or bringing a second salsa container when he sees things are desperate.
So now I watch my laptop charge at a rate I really like. I have this afternoon with it. The cable is longer. Life is better. And just think... I ain’t done with this yet. I can add something else tomorrow to this that has absolutely nothing to do with my laptop charging. Like some thoughts on my walk, or a small little daily life thing in the kingdom that gets me. Maybe a memory about the day in Vietnam in 2021 when I had to leave.
that day and here ya go
That day I flew first to Narita in Japan. That airport was dark and empty and I got in at midnight. It was this strange feeling. Usually Narita is packed. This time, I felt like the entire world was holding its breath. Waiting for some kind of change. Then the world and places were locked down, changed.
2021 would be another amtrak voyage for me. It was like the second part of my 2020 dream. This time from California to Chicago with stops between where I wanted. Then back with more stops. To use up my US Railpass. I ended in Los Angeles and then originally was going to Texas to visit an ibm friend but it all changed yet again because her husband had medical issues already and she was afraid of socializing. I got that. Instead in the dark times that no cable upgrade could fix,I left. Mexico was a bright light of fun, food, beer, and a few places for a year.
Now I’m back and I have the new cable. And it’s Wednesday in some year like 2026. I guess this morning I miss the aimless going where life became a next stop on Amtrak. In 2023 I went back a few times to Vietnam. I felt like kissing the ground the first time. That teary feeling landing in Hanoi again. Seeing the same places yet all touched by something between.
Anyways, that’s my story from here to there and back again. Here’s a little photo to give you something. Maybe somewhere between all that.
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