Happy Sukkot, cyka sucka

 I woke up at noon or a bit before, turned on the radio, and a nice thing: The Israel Decolonization Force has killed Sinwar. He ded. It's verified. 

This opens things up to regime change in Gush Katif, the so-called "Gaza". The best regime change would be the Arabs there Raus! And Jews live on their own, Jewish, land there as it is part of Israel. But we may not get that. But Ham-ass can be replaced by a less insane regime, with a very good, and snoopy, intelligence network so Israel will know if the Arabs are planning a game of pinochle with tea and baklava much less another terrorist attack. 

Ken came by last night,  I got my check and all's good. I've been pretty spendy this past week, and my savings for this pay check will be about $12. At least it's something. 

Slick propaganda

 Last night before bed, I managed to watch a bit further, basically the rest of the thing, of the "documentary" titled Israelism. I wanted to watch this awful thing because the Buddhist temple I was going to, Oh such nice people, just showed it at a special event to show what nice and open-minded people they are blah blah yadda yadda. 

"Israelism" is essentially what Goebbels would produce with modern equipment and methods. Very slick. And the message very Goebbelian: Jews are evil, they have evil networks through the country, they only want to kill babies, etc. I'm sure all the nice, peaceful Jodo Shinshu Buddhists clapped and cheered. Just like decades ago, they doubtless watched films of their Empire's actions in Nanking and clapped and cheered also. 

Yesterday I listed 12 things, shipped 15, got 10 ready last night to list today but I'm not sure if I'll get around to them, shipping has to come first. 

I packed 15 things, then loaded up the bike trailer with the things, trash, and donations. I dropped off the trash, dropped off the donations, then stopped in at Nijiya. I thought I'd get some baked mackerel but they didn't have any. But they had two little packages of hamachi sashimi for $4 each, so I got those and a little package of 3 cucumbers. That was certainly in line with the keto diet. I ate over on the steps of the old hospital. 

Then I rode to the post office and a guy was hanging out in front and said I'd give him a dollar to watch my bike, and he said no dollar was necessary. I went in and dropped off the packages, then came out and he certainly didn't turn down the dollar. "I can get a Coke or something". I said I only had the one dollar or I'd give him more, then remembered I had about 50c in change to "level up that Coke" and he was glad to get that also. 

Then I rode over to the FedEx on the Alameda and dropped off the two large boxes, and now all my drop-offs were done.  

I'd also stopped where there were palm trees to cut some leaves. I know the event at the temple was about arts and crafts, and it being Sukkot, palm leaves would be involved. 

I got the the temple early, so I ate the other two cucumbers. Then when people were going in, I gathered my bundle of palm leaves and went in. The guy supervising the kids said just put 'em down on the table (where kids were doing arts and crafts with paper and crayons) and someone will use 'em. But then the rabbi came by and said to take them up front, and we came up with the idea of putting one on each of the four posts of the sukkah. 

I got zip ties from my bike bag and put one leaf on each corner, except one corner had 3 smaller leaves. They looked good. 

There was a nacho bar and I did a sort of nacho salad sort of thing, 2 plates. I tried the sangria but bleh. It tasted like Malolo fruit punch. I poured most of it into the plants actually. 

We all ate and pal'd around and it was pretty nice. A guy, Peter, talked shofar-blowing with me and I reiterated that he ought to get a piece of PVC pipe that has an opening just a little bigger than the one in his shofar, and practice blowing that while he watched TV or whatever. We discussed blowing the shofar on Shabbat, and I said it's not normally done but then the rabbi let he try his on shabbat, and I've certainly blown the big one in the gift shop and no one's said anything. So, I'll have my shofar with me on Shabbat, and if he attends also and has his, I can coach him a bit. 

The rabbi had two sets of lulav/etrog/willow/myrtle, sent from Israel, and I got to the the actual shaking so that was great. The lulav from Israel is amazing, it's a beautiful leaf. The etrogim from Israel were amazing, much smaller that our local grown ones but very fragrant. 

The whole thing was done at about 7, and most people had left, when I took off. I got back here around 8 or maybe 8:30 because I guess I hung around later than 7, helping hang some of the paper chains the kids had made, and hanging out with one of the (adult) regulars who was doing this masterful coloring job of a coloring book page with a lulav and etrog and Hebrew words. 

The ride back was uneventful. As I went through the intersection of Hedding and 1st, a guy on a skinny single speed hipster bike ahead of me dropped something and suddenly stopped and started shining his light around. I hope he found it. 

I got back here and had time to put things away, clean the place, and finish the load of laundry I had soaking. 

Putting Ave Maria on hold

 Well, it's another day of political craziness. Degenerate Donnie apparently considers Ave Maria his favorite piece of music, and here I'd just gotten it down pat. So it's off my playlist for now. 

We've got about 3-1/2 weeks before we find out if the American experiment will be ended or not.

Reddit is back, for now

 I believe web pages can tell what page you came from, or were at just before you went to them. The idea was that it would help networking, there were things called "web rings" for instance. So last night I was kicked off of Reddit. I filed a report, and now I can read Reddit again. But I wonder if it's because I'd gone to Reddit from a Ha'aretz article. So I will have to make sure to read my Ha'aretz stuff then maybe check Ebay, then go to Reddit. 

I'm glad for this for now because Reddit is a news/information aggregator par excellence. For instance, today I was able to read not only that Karl Marx was a rabid antisemite, but able to read his actual writings. Wow. Yikes. The left, *that* left, is as dead to me now as the Republican Party is. 

I also treasure subreddits like r/aliyah. I seemed to have astounded Mr. Snider Saturday night telling him my plan is to finish my conversion then retire in Israel. It'd be worth it for the access to medical care alone, but there are literally hundreds of things I could list that are advantages there. 

The news lurches on. Donnie Diapers is allowing open display of Nazi symbols at his rallies, swastikas on T-shirts and flags, also the Nazi salute although we know he's long encouraged that one. 

And much discussion of Israel's problems. I think my own wish list would be for Israel to occupy Gaza, citing the Allies' occupation of Germany post-WWII as a model. Put a civilized gov't in charge, form one, and give it free rein to de-activate radicals/terrorists. Same goes for Judea and Samaria. And for Lebenon, it's time for a good old regime change. Same goes for Irain, is the Shah still around. Let's get the House of Pahlavi in there again. 

I'm studying the hell out of the propositions on my ballot. So far I've got Reddit's take on them, am getting KQED's, then will look up the "Jewish Voting Guide" or whatever it is. KQED is doing a good discussion of them, 3-4 per day at 1-2 in the afternoon. 

When they're not broadcasting a bunch of tear-jerking propaganda about those poor, poor, Arabs who just can't help sending rockets and drones into Israel and stabbing, shooting, and exploding Israelis when they can. I wish Bibi had just leveled Gaza starting at 1 minute into the 8th of October, to be completes 2 days later. That's how you win wars. 

My plan to be a Jew in Israel (or at least be a Jew here) is sure different from my plan when I lived at the old shop. I was buying episodes of Treme on DVD at Fry's, and got really into the show because it was about New Orleans. I might even still have my book and CD by "Doctor Saxtrum" around here. I'd worked out which streetcar would take me around to things I'd need like the VA and the Social Security office. I'd looked endlessly at living places for musicians or which would at least prioritize them. 

I was making real plans. I'd take the train there, in good old fashion. It was why I followed a certain musician there for far too long. These days it's like an accident scene. It's gruesome but it's hard not to look. 

Assume you're in New Orleans, given a free apartment with free food (plus know all the prime dumpster diving spots) and are surrounded by places with open mics, jam sessions, music stores, traditional bands, everything that makes for the good development of a musician. Even if one is white, one could put in the years and become like Professor Longhair, an institution. 

Assume instead you opt to take this fertile ground and alienate yourself with all the open mics, alienate yourself with all the established street bands, become only barely tolerated by the music stores and convenience stores and so on. Assume you opt to devote your time and energy to drink and hard drugs and extreme Right politics. 

I guess this happens. When someone goes to a place that's so easy to live in that they just fall apart. Maybe New Orleans would be too easy for me to live in, myself. But the hair-curling crime rate, Southern politics, and hurricanes have decided me on never going near the place. 

 

Rally 'round the flag.

 Well, that "Da Vinci" wine as more like "Da Almost Undrinkable" but drink it I did. Not only not a good taste but not really all that dry. If I choose to drink a Chianti, I'll stick with the stuff they sell at Sprouts. 

I really needed the sleep, I think. I went to bed at about 1AM, I think I woke up around 9, then went back to sleep a bit until around 1. I got up when I heard a car being parked right in front of the door here so that got me up. I told one of the guys next door that the car's gotta get outta here. And it was moved so that's good. 

I'm tired of having to tell the neighbors to move cars, though and I'm sure they're tired of my telling them so, so tomorrow I'm going to go over to one of the places that sell such things and get a stencil set and one of those cans of paint that can spray pointed straight down, and paint NO PARKING on those two spaces and that should help. 

I turned on the radio and there was some interview with some band I've never heard of before, "Bon Iver"? They were talking about performing at a Harris-Walz rally, and how the guy "had hardly touched a guitar in a year" and they played some of their "old Bon Iver songs" and their sound was thin, they "didn't have the biggest PA" and the guy felt bad for all those people who'd been waiting hours in the sun to see them, so then the guy started playing "an old Ry Cooder song" actually an old song from the Civil War, "Rally 'Round The Flag" and the whole mood changed. The crowd was "electrified" everyone knew the old tune, and things got "Real". 

Because the present day is very much like the time in which that song was written. Hell there are times I'm thinking I should go out and buy an AR and some ammo in case I have to fight. 

I've just listened to several versions of the song on YouTube and I like the version by The Weavers the best. Who doesn't love The Weavers? Since it's one of those old tunes that I probably heard as a little kid and onward, it's pretty familiar but I always like to listen to a tune to make sure I've got all the details right before adding it to my busking repertoire. 

Since I woke up so late, I'll be playing for the early evening crowd today. This is actually kind of good because if I went out for the noon crowd, like as not The Pieman would be there or one of those booths, which means I'd want to go to Sunnyvale and I might do really well there or not. 

Ope, gotta do my Harris donation for this week .... OK done it. 

In other news, I'm another 2 lbs down. Tapering down on wine and the keto diet have me feeling kinda lousy, but not too lousy to put in a good 3 hours or more on the bike yesterday and perhaps out-blow the ace hired gun ba'al tekiah at the service. Stuffed myself full of lox and drank a bottle of wine and I'm still 2 lbs down on my weekly weigh-in. People don't think so, but I've got a lot of lard on my carcass that's got to go. I just carry it well so I even fooled myself. 

The gift that keeps on giving dept.: Well, the number of incompetent hopeful assassins of Donnie is three now. This latest one, a "Sovereign Citizen", a believer in the same philosophy as the owner of the place I lived at in Gilroy. Being a good "SovCit" the guy had fake license plates on his very cluttered SUV (yep the Gilroy guy's a hoarder and this includes his car as well as house) and had several fake passports and of course, plenty 'o' guns. 

The guy's saying he's an "artist" and "the last person who would harm Trump" but knowing SovCits, the guy's been drooling since he heard Trump wants to set up concentration camps, and the guy's mad at him for not setting them up already and letting him be a guard. Crazy attracts crazy. 

I got going a little bit later than planned but not too bad. I set up at Whole Foods at 5:45 and started in. Unfortunately, however many times I'd listened to "Rally 'round the flag" I didn't have it fixed in my mind, so I just played other stuff. It went OK, lots of compliments for my playing, played Ave Maria twice without mistakes (Yehudi Menuhin just about made his career on this piece) and played the full 2 hours, or at least an hour and 45 minutes as the last 15 minutes were used up talking with a guy and then playing my sign-off, which is the old sign-off from the Lawrence Welk show. It always makes me smile because while the words went, "Good night, sleep tight, and may your dreams come true" we kids had it saying "Good night, sleep tight, and may your dreams come true, Have a fight, every night, until your black and blue" and so on. 

I'd made $53.75. I went into Whole Foods to shop and my groceries cost $32 and change so I handed the guy $33 in $1's and he was glad to get them, "I need singles". 

The ride home was nice, it was cool not cold. I got home, put things away, took a microwave the neighbors had left out, determined it doesn't work due to janky door switch(s) and took it apart so I have some stuff to list tomorrow. 

Finally time to relax with some cheese and olives and cucumber. Reddit is dying. I can read the titles but I can't read any of the actual discussions. And now I can't read anything of it at all. Is it because they can tell I've been reading Ha'aretz articles? That would be very petty but it does not surprise me these days.

It only makes me more firm in my line of thinking, that this high-tech stuff is going to go away eventually, and if you do something that depends on it, you're really going to hurt. My trumpet doesn't depend on the internet or even electricity. Being a sign painter or "Your Name In Hebrew" huckster or something doesn't depend on the internet or even on electricity. (I have seriously considered this last one because Tel Aviv is in dire need of a competent sign painter and doing signage in Hebrew would be good for my language skills. I just like music more, so far.) 

We'll have dial phones on copper lines again, and you'll often get in contact with friends by stopping by their place and seeing if they're home. We'll be back to considering a 30-hour work week or even a 20-hour one, like we were in the 70s, because less tech means less non-productive work to keep the whole thing going.

Yom Kippur

 On Friday night I got things to the post office in time, and ate at Whole Foods, then got over to the Heritage Theater in Campbell. I had an extra bottle of water and a bottle of "Stress B Complex" vitamins for Jeff the homeless guy but he wasn't there, not even his stuff. 

The service was nice, as usual, no wine and bread because we were fasting. The ride home, as the ride there, is 1-1/2 hours for me, and when  I got back I had some vitamins chased down by a couple of Brazil nuts, and had some tahini, just eaten out of the jar like you're eat peanut butter but runnier, and wine. 

The wine was Chianti from Sprouts, and while a red wine it's very dry - good for a low-carb diet. Since my mission here was to get sleepy and get to bed so I could get up early, I drank the whole bottle. 

I felt OK in the morning though, probably because of the low sugar content of that Chianti. I'd set my alarm for 7:30 in the morning and it woke me up as I was starting to sleep a little less deeply anyway. My neighbors were already chatting away in Spanish next door which is a fairly nice way to wake up as it's such a polite language. 

I was out the door at 6 past 8, and decided to be clever and took Hedding to The Alameda, that to Shasta street where there's a Peet's and got a double espresso and had that with some water. Then I took Shasta street to San Carlos to Winchester and that to the Heritage Theater. I'd worn my jacket but once it was about 9 it was warm enough that I took it off. 

It was a full day of services and things. First was a morning service, then a discussion about Israel and "Palestine", then a "musical interlude" with an actual string quartet that was really cool. And I found out about a piece of mystery music. In the documentary about Sergei NaKariakov, in the beginning he's playing this haunting melody, and Lo and behold in one of the pieces the quartet played, there was that melody. So when they were done and they were all packing and taking off, I got a chance to ask the cellist what it was, and he said it's Tchaikovsky's 2nd string quartet. That's so great to know, because now I can see if NaKariakov played through all of it or just did that part with his trumpet or 4-valve flugelhorn or something. 

Then there was another kind of service, lots of singing and praying in all of this but the singing was all sad, minor-key stuff, because Yom Kippur is when we apologize for all the things we've done wrong and ask for another year's reprieve to do better. 

Finally the part that's "the gates closing" and that's the part where the shofar is blown. Now, they had their standard ba'al tekiah, and anyone else with a shofar was invited to come up to play, plus the rabbi offered the use of his own if anyone liked. So I had mine, and an older lady had one, so I said to her we ought to flank the main guy on each side, and I headed to one side. 

The guy blew tekiah, shivarim (although not how I'd do it) and and teruah, and then when he blew tekiah gadol, that's when the rest of us were to join in. So while I had a rough start (drowned out by the others' blowing) I did a decent tekiah gadol, as long or a big longer than the main guy did. 

We then put the shofarim away and it was more sing and praying and lamenting and hoping to do better, and finally we were done. Nosh time! 

We trooped around to the "multi purpose room" and there was tons of food laid out. I had a big dollop of egg salad and a pickle spear and some cream cheese and lox and capers and red onion slices. And a coffee because it'd been a long day. And went back for more lox and capers and olives. There was actually a bit of leftover lox, that's how generous the spread was. 

I got talking with one guy, a Mr. Snider, who lives near Upshift Cycles. As soon as he got a whiff that I'm a musician, he mentioned how he needs to get a "pro" clarinet for his son. This was during one of the breaks in the day. So when we were eating, he sat by me and I asked how old his son is. 18. I said I'd dabbled in clarinet playing enough to know the models of them and so on, and said what he needs is a Buffet R13. He was like, "Yep!" and was glad to talk to someone who knows a bit about them. 

My suggestions to him were to check all the music shops but probably better to avoid Park Avenue Music, but that West Valley Music might be a good one because they're very woodwind-centered. I also suggested he look into Jewish charities or things that could help finance it. Apparently the kid's in college and still playing on a Jupiter student horn. Good mouthpiece, but very "eh" horn. 

A bit later a tall guy with bad teeth complimented me on playing longer than the main guy. I said I'd started after him, and he said everyone else started after him. I said I might have played as long or maybe a little bit longer, but not as long as it may have sounded like. He said he has a shofar but it always sounds awful when he plays it. I told him to go to the hardware store and get a piece of plastic tubing with an opening just a little bit larger than the opening in his shofar. And practice playing that when he watches TV or whatever, and he'll get the hang of it. So maybe he'll try that. 

Then I just had the long ride home, and rather than it cooling off much it just got damp. So it was a long damp ride home. I stopped at Whole Foods for another bottle of Chianti, "Da Vinci" brand, that should be called Da Barely Drinkable". Oh well, at least it's dry-ish?

Getting up earlier

 I drank less wine yesterday, basically a half bottle watered a bit to make it 500ml, and twice during the day I felt I had to take a small swallow, but all but a very small amount was saving until bed time, and I slept fairly well. 

I think I woke up at 9, but got up actually around 10:30. I gave myself a hair cut and then photographed 15 things to list on Ebay. Then I packed 5 things to take to the post office and took off around 3:30. I dropped off the packages at the post office and went to the bank to deposit my pay check, then went to Whole Foods. I had chicken wings and a near-beer but actually only drank half of the near-beer because although it was one of the best of them, it felt too sweet to me. I'd have been better off just getting seltzer so I know what to do next time. 

I returned the door striker plate I'd bought at Ace Hardware, and the kid helping me was super nice. An old lady came in asking where the entrance is to "the apartment building" and the kid said he'd walk her there, and he did. It was where I'd locked my bike so she effectively had two escorts. 

Then I went to Upshift Cycles to see about ordering a new pannier set for my bike. The set I have is *really* worn and on one side where the bottom end is tied down, the cord is broken off. They had one right there so I bought it. And I ordered a spare bracket for a Burley trailer which they'll have in about a week. 

Since I now had this bag/pannier set to carry, I turned around and went to the Amazon place for some bubble mailers, then rode to Nijiya for some beef, veggies, eggs, and some salmon sashimi. 

Then I just rode back here and put things away, then I put the trailer on the bike and put some stuff Ken had brought over and took it to an empty dumpster and dumped it, then went to this pile of stuff that's been there, with occasional new things added, behind Galli Produce. I took that stuff, in two loads, to the empty dumpster and dumped it. Then I put the bike and trailer away, and using a large bag, did some parking lot cleanup and ... into the dumpster. 

I found a big black trash bag full of, it seems, bottles and cans. It was hidden in the bushes behind the dumpster enclosure. The problem is, the bushes are so bushy there that bums like to hide stuff in there. So after dragging the trash bag around to the front where hopefully someone will take it away, and got out my clippers and trimmed the oleander back so it's a clear path back there and a much poorer place to hide things. 

Then I cut up the oleander I'd trimmed into smaller pieces and put it into a large black bag of my own, and put that into a different dumpster. My "work" was done here.