Yesterday, after the stock market had closed, Krasnov announced it was "Liberation Day" and came up with a list of crazy tariffs on, well, everyone else except Russia of course. So now the stock market's tanking.
This is not good for business. Our sales are awful because of all the crazy shit going on, a lot of our customers are small businesses or tech hobbyists who probably worked and put away money in their 401k's and now these are tanking. So naturally they want to spend less.
I got back here and put things away, and having eaten something like a pound of lasagna didn't fuss about dinner, but got the place cleaned up and then did an hour's practice. The bums outside were in rare form. 3-4 of them were standing around a large SUV with the back door open, and exchanging or looking at or talking about, the assortment of junk they'd collected, then just stood around talking, making bum plans for bum activities to come.
Meanwhile some other bums were trying to tow a truck that didn't run with some other vehicle that barely ran, with a cargo strap. That fun activity was happening right outside the door here.
And a third bum, in a black SUV with all but the front windows blacked out, had chosen to park right in front of our roll-up door for a nap or something.
This was a perfect time for some trumpet practice! Especially my cornier numbers, and some of them, like the beginning and ending music for the 2nd version of Astro Boy, really needed some work. By the time an hour was up, the bums had all left. I don't know why that one guy can't sleep to soothing trumpet music!
Now it was time for Ken to come over, and he did, eventually, around midnight. He *had* called to say he was running late. There was only one fast food place open by the time he was done at his work, so he had to get a burger and fries (not even a drink) and it was $14! I started to fry up a "burger in a bowl" but Ken shared his fries with me and they were pretty filling so I put the frozen serving of hamburger back in the freezer and had some pumpkin seeds and that was enough dinner for me.
I didn't get paid, of course. Ken had left his check book at his house. So I'm supposed to get paid today or tonight.
I got 25 things ready to list, packed two things and could not find the third, until about the 5th time looking then I found it. And that was about 15 minutes before I was going to leave so I packed it quickly.
I dropped off one thing at the post office, and took the two boxes to FedEx. One didn't scan and the machine said to check with an employee, who said, "That's because this one has to go to the post office". It was now 4:36 so I booked it back to the post office and dropped it off just in time.
Then I went to Whole Foods and had beer and wings, and sat near some hockey fan type guys who were talking about how awful the stock market is, but Hey, Tesla's still up! (It is, from last year but this year is not like last year....)
After eating I went over to Starbucks and got some study in, maybe 45 minutes but it got gradually noisier and I realized if I hurried I could go by Nijiya on the way home and get some fish for tomorrow night. So I did that.
I rode back here and Ken had dropped off my check. I'd told him to just put it into the mail slot in an envelope and that's what he'd done. So that was a minimum amount of trouble for either one of us.
It's interesting, those bros discussing the stock market. I remember now that in Krasnov's first term, there was a general impression/experience that he was good for the stock market. People saying, "I'm not too crazy about the guy, but he's made me a lot of money!". Now, Krasnov is showing that he'll be as good for the stock market as Hitler was for peace (Hitler originally appealed to many as a 'keep us out of war' guy).