Working the system

 I was up doing stuff, then went to bed, then woke up and ... did more stuff. Ho, hum. I was up around 3, packed some things, and got going at my usual time around 6. I just had post office things so I went there, dropped the packages off, then headed to 99 Ranch. 

I got a big package of boiled peanuts (having those available is almost like being back in Hawaii although of course the ones in Hawaii are better) and some cilantro. 

I went to H Mart next for a can of coffee, and settled down to eat my peanuts and drink my coffee. And people-watch of course haha. 

When I was done I started to leave, and then as  I was riding past, realized my homeless Asian guy acquaintance kind of "lives" in front of the bagel shop now. I had 5 Payday candy bars with me because with so many on hand, I'd decided I'd try to give away 5 a day. 

We talked about things... he's tried applying for work at H Mart and McDonald's as well as other places I'd guess. I said the economy is terrible right now and he might consider going into business for himself. I went through what it would take to get started on Ebay and as I was telling the guy about that, I realized that even for people with homes, it's too hard for most. 

Then I started to think of other things, like being a handyman. I said all these little shops have people working there who will pay a few bucks for someone to do a job they hate, like taking out the trash cans and cleaning them, picking up trash in the parking lot, cleaning the windows and the fingerprints off of the door, etc. 

He doesn't have a smart phone right now (writing this, what happened to the one he had, that I gave him a charger for?) and I said I have some old tablets in the shop that aren't selling, so I'll try to dig them out and see if they're any good and if so, take them off of Ebay and give them to him. And I said I'll see what kind of resources there are around here and print the information out. 

So here I am back here, and I've already got a very strong impression that if you've got the skills and gumption to get out of homelessness, you're probably not going to be homeless in the first place. The place I've chosen to tell this guy about has a neat web page but it can't really be printed out. I wrote out some information about it on an index card, and fortunately it's got an easy to find address, just xxx N. First St. just north of the college. 

I mean, it's hard to just be a regular person. Being at work on time, budgeting, handling all the bills, in most cases owning and operating a car because in the US you're not a person without a car, keeping your place maintained and clothing and appearance in general, and having a "good personality" so your neighbors don't hate you, etc. 

Well, being homeless is harder than this. Unless you're willing to shift 100% to a "vagabond" or "hobo" lifestyle, you'll be in a hole you can't get out of. 

Going vagabond or "hobo" means being in a different hole, but at least it's generally considered a more fun hole. Panhandling shamelessly, giving much less of a damn about looks and perhaps hygiene, getting by on an iffy diet, perhaps being a drunk, etc. It's not a game for the old or even middle-aged. You're going back to the "dead by 40" life humans lived a couple thousand years ago. 

Anyway, I'll give the guy the index card and probably some more candy bars, tomorrow. 

 

Windy to less-windy Sunday

 I got out of here a bit after 4. I started in busking at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:20 so I figured I'd just call it 6:30 and play until 8. 

The wind was still strong so I resigned myself to playing in the parking structure. It was slow, what what else to do? I was playing this song that's from some anime or another that we learned in the shakuhachi class, and some Asian people going by started to sing along. I asked them if they knew what it was, and to them it's "A Japanese song; we're from Taiwan" so I really need to dig through my shakuhachi stuff and see if it have the sheet music because that will have the name or what anime it's from written on it. 

Later, a group of 6 boomers were charmed as hell with my "Autumn Leaves" and hung around to listen, and clapped when I was done. They tipped a whole $3 which is a lot for boomers since in their day that was the down payment for a new Ford Fairlane, or a house. 

It was finally 7:30 and the wind seemed to have died down. I decided to play the last half-hour up on the sidewalk and see how that goes. It went pretty well in that I got the odd tip, then a guy came up and I think put in a $10 after I'd played "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens, and I'd said it's by Cat Stevens who was huge until he adopted Islam and the US music industry disowned him.

We got talking about busking and things, and I described how I'd played at the Christmas Marker in Mountain View, the only time I'd seen other buskers, with myself playing on the South end of Castro Street from the main market, and all the other buskers turning out to be at the North end, all with guitars and amps. 

Finally the guy got out another $20 and said I should treat myself (I'd mentioned "treating myself" by taking the train instead of the bus) and we said, "See you later" and I packed up. And while I was packed up and counting the money so I'd have a number in my head to record when I got home, a guy came up and handed me a $10, "Here you go buddy" and I thanked him. 

So I'd made $77 and that was $40 of it at least, in the last half hour up at street level.  

I walked over to Baraka Market and got olives and my yogurt drink. walked to the bus stop and got on a #22 back to my "home" Whole Foods. I put $20 on my clipper card which will take care of bus fares for the next week or two, got some nuts, etc. I also gave a dollar to a bum who asked, while I was putting things away in my bike bags. He said, cheerfully, "Someone already bought me a beer!", holding up a tall can. "Steel Reserve, that'll get the job done!" I said. 

I rode home and, crossing Santa Clara to get to the entry to San Pedro Square I had to stop abruptly to let someone walk past, and while I was stopped I noticed that a dark lump in a corner by a planter was emitting music. 

It turned out to be a guy playing some pretty cool guitar grooves, left-handed no less. I got out a dollar and gave it to him, and said he needs some lights so people can see him, and that I'd only noticed him because I'd had to stop to let someone past. Also that he really should try playing at the Whole Foods on the Alameda. 

Then maybe 10 yards further on, I was riding along and a group of people called out to me, asking if I had a match or a lighter. "I think I have a lighter," I said, "People are always dropping 'em and I pick 'em up". I dug around in the bike bag and found one and handed it over. That solved their emergency, the lighting of a spliff it seemed. They gave it back and I tried to get them to keep it but they were insistent. At least I know it works now. 

The rest of the ride home was nice and boring.  

Haha I take a look at Reddit and people are bitching about the high gas/diesel prices they voted for, due to the failing war with Iran they voted for. Why, the last time I paid $7 or more for gas was back in Arizona in 2008, when hmmm ... yes, that's right, a Republican was in charge. Funny how that works. 

 

Celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers

 ... is what the small-hats were doing yesterday. Their New Year's day, "Rosh Hashana" which is why 9/11 was done on ... 9/11. 

Fortunately more people are waking up to this. 

I photo'd up 20 things but was just too tired to list them, got some practice in which went surprisingly well considered I hadn't practiced all week, and went to bed. 

I woke up a bit before noon, halfway fell back to sleep and woke up again around 2. Sounds like but it's very early on my old schedule. 

I got out of here around 4:15 and was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at a quarter after 6. It was really windy. I started out playing out where the wind was, but it took a while to get even a first dollar. I went into the parking garage and it was stuffy, but I made a few more dollars. I tried out in the wind a couple more times but tips were super slow and it was the first time I actually worried about the money being blown out of the tip box so I just went back down into the parking structure and stayed there. 

It turned out kinda OK though. The funniest part was the old guy smiling and praising my playing. I'd been playing "Frank Sinatra" by Cake. When 8:00 rolled around I was ready to quit as it had been kind of wearing. High notes were working well for me though and now I'm a bit better at playing "Frank Sinatra" by Cake. 

I was mostly packed up and was counting the money so I'd have a figure in my head I could write down the the little book I use to keep track of such things, when a fat gal with a couple of other people with her came up with some money in her hand. "You're not playing ...." she said. "Nope! I'm packing up for the day!" was my chipper reply. She pulled the money back and walked away to catch up with her friends, who were likely headed to In-N-Out Burger or maybe Jamba Juice for one of these 1500-calorie health drinks. 

"That's an interesting take on things" I said to her broad back as she retreated. It's certainly a first. Having someone see that I'm done for the day, hand m the tip they've have put in the tip box, isn't unusual. They'd already made the decision to tip me, and it's a matter of, "here's the money I'd have given you earlier except I didn't have change/was in a hurry/wanted to get my shopping done first/etc." I've had people hand me money after I've packed up and was inside the store doing some shopping, myself. So this was kind of comical. 

I had a nice boring bus ride back to my "home" Whole Foods, bought a couple of things, had a nice boring ride back here, and did a count up. I'd made $59, had $1 in my wallet to start out, and amazingly still had $49. The cheese and can of tuna I'd bought at Whole Foods had been $8, and my yogurt drink from Baraka Market had been $3, and sure enough I came home with $49. 

And 72 "Payday" candy bars. I'm not sure what I'll do with at least $100 worth of candy bars, certainly not eat them. I guess I'll donate them here and there. 

 

Now I know

 When 9/11 happened, honestly, my first thought was, Who did we wrong badly enough to impel them to do this thing, and How can be make up for it? That was my initial feeling, before all the rationalizing. 

Of course now I know. I know how much "netanyahu" raves about how great it was for "israel", about the dancing Jews celebrating etc. 

Jews were and are, overwhelmingly in favor of the US laying waste to innocent people in the Middle East. They love war, as long as we goyim are doing the work. 

I stayed up all night last night in an attempt to correct my night-own schedule. I packed things and finished the load of laundry I had soaking, and as the night became morning,  I decided to go downtown first, taking the small things with me, and deposit my latest pay check into my bank. 

So I took off around 9AM, and first off stopped at Nijiya and got a can of coffee and a bento that had a huge piece of salmon in it. I didn't touch the mound of brown rice, of course. 

Then I went to the post office, crossing St. James Park which was covered with Canada geese. I should have saved my brown rice for them. They're such cook birds. I noticed that the ones nearer the post office were eating these huge acorns, apparently. I've seen round acorns and long pointy acorns that were quite bit, but these are amazing - round and huge. That's the kind of thing I'd like to plant around town. 

I dropped off the packages and went to the Amazon place where I got one bubble mailer. Better than none. 

Then over to the bank to deposit the pay check and the numbers all agreed, theirs and mine, and there's no hold on any of the money so nothing's bounced. Cool. 

I went over to Whole Foods too but now I can't recall what for. On the way back from there I stopped in at Good Karma Bikes which wasn't open since they don't open until 11AM. I was 5 minutes early. When they did open, I went in and found a nice Sugoi jacket, a light summer/mild weather type, all yellow of course. That was $11 out the door. 

Next I went to Sakura Market and got two bottles of Lipovitan because it's actually cheaper there, it's nice and cold, and I can buy singles. I drank those out front and then went back over to the Amazon place where I got about 5 more mailers. 

Then I just rode back here. One thing about being out in the middle of the day is, there's a ton of road work going on, plus the police had various streets closed off. 

I got back in here and I had one box that's quite large, but to be sent by the USPS "ground saver" or whatever they call it, since it's going to an Ebay international mailing hub and then to mainland China. The shipping on that thing had been something like $200 and I'd refunded the buyer about $50. I really wanted to get that sent off. Plus I found a few small things the pack that had just sold, might as well get 'em off and away too. 

So I dropped those off and rode back here. I stopped at H Mart for some cold black coffee and spicy peanuts. There was a gaggle of Hispanic workers all clustered around by the bike racks so I'd carefully parked my bike there, and then came out with my coffee and peanuts and sat there and enjoyed my stuff while they gabbled away in Spanish. If there's one language that would be easy to learn around here... 

I found some bubble wrap on the way back, actually really high quality stuff that just had to have clear tape peeled off of it so that was a nice win. 

I got back in here and coffee and Lipovitan regardless, I really, really, wanted to sleep. So I set up my bed and slept from 4-6, woke up to pee, then 6-8. (Not 6-7, kids!) 

It's nice that Ken's checks aren't bouncing. My savings are actually at an all time high right now. And ideally I'll have twice as much in the bank when I bail out of here in a year. 

 

War is Wonderful

 I just watched a Wall Street Journal YouTube video about how the Ukraine war is making the economy much better in Russia. Just like WWII brought good pay and social mobility to Americans, coming out of a Depression during which Soviet scientists determined the US lost a good 10 million to starvation, the Ukraine war has been really good for people in Russia in all these small towns. 

Sure you might get killed, but at least your family gets "coffin money" as opposed to families of US service people dying in our war with Iran because it's "not really a war" and you're not really a Gold Star Mother and you can go pound sand. 

Plus the sign-on bonuses in Russia are huge.  We're talking amounts to $150k, which the video dismisses as "not life-changing money" sorry, lady, but for 99% of us in the US it would be life-changing money. 

So the upshot is, Russia is losing about 1000 guys a day and they're probably "undesirables" in many cases, or they're people from "hick" areas, but the economy's great and if they die then their families are happy to get that "coffin money" and other than the one who's been chosen to be "it", everyone on the playground is having a great time. 

It all sounds horrible to someone in our modern culture, people who swarmed to the theaters to see "Saving Private Ryan" but hasn't it always been this way? How many whalers thought they'd die peacefully in their own beds? Coal miners? WWI was a slaughter, and when WWII started it was probably assumed it would be the same. Instead, WWII was a fucking party except for those who became "it", yeah, not so great for them but for the rest? Studs Terkel called it "The Good War". Guys got to travel the world, make lifelong friends, rise into the middle class, get a college degree. 

Someone on Reddit just said that the US-Iran war will be lost as slowly as possible "just like Vietnam and Afghanistan" because war is so profitable and benefits so many people. This is how things are, once you remove the layers of faux-sympathy and hypocrisy. 

As old people with dementia generally do, the pedophile-in-chief is simply being brutally honest in calling US service people "suckers and losers". You're not supposed to just come out and say that. When I joined up, it was because (a) I didn't want to be homeless and (b) we weren't at war with anyone. But if that time, the early 80s, had been a time like now with wars started at the drop of a hat, and I were to end up disabled in a wheelchair, I'd have to be the first one to say cheerfully that I'm a loser. That I'd bet and lost.  

The thing is, you're not supposed to SAY that.  

And it made sense for some humans to be "expended" fighting cave bears and sabre-toothed tigers if the tribe overall could live, or die fighting the other tribe from the next valley over, so the rest of the people could live. But now it's been removed a few levels, and we've got people being "expended" so the rest of us can live a little better. If you asked people if that would be OK, that some randomly chosen person in their neighborhood has to die but they'll be able to buy a new car, they'll act horrified. But more than a few would consider it.  

I was up overnight taking some stuff apart and then getting things together to pack today. Just two big boxes, one with a single thing and one with a bunch of things that I was afraid might end up being too heavy a box, but it was minor, only about 36 lbs. 

On the way back I checked for packing stuff and didn't find much, then on a whim checked "Trackonomy"'s dumpster and took out some really prime stuff, and more than I could carry in one load so I took the first load home, put things away, then loaded up some electronics scrap to take out by Old Bayshore then went back over to Trackonomy and picked up the last of the stuff. 

 

Caught up sort of

 Last night was spend photo'ing and listing 30 things. I mean right around until 8 or so in the morning. Got it done, though. And credited it to last Sunday because that fills out 50 things for the week which is kind of the standard. 

Now I have to find more things to list to make up the quota for this week. 

At least now I'm comfortably above the $10k level in my bank, and I hope to have twice that in there when it's time to leave. 

It's been really hot, in the 90's F, and today's thing once I woke up, was to pack all the small things that need to go to the post office, of which I packed I dunno, 10 or so? 

I took 'em up there, got stuff at 99 Ranch and H Mart, the usual yadda yadda. 

There just wasn't any room last night for practice so I didn't. This is the thing, here I am in my early-mid 60s and it's kind of like being in intermediate or high school and being in Band but only having mayyyyybe an hour a day to practice. Because there's everything else for school, chores, etc. Plus maybe some fishing to get some protein into my diet, and foraging a bit of fruit or veggies. 

Getting back to what's in the bank, I sure wish I'd known to avoid the college scam. A degree, even if I were able to go into 3X-4X the amount of debt to get one, would have had me earning the same $9.50 going up to $11.50 an hour I did without one. The real key is to take whatever job you can get, and save save save. 

 

 

What 95% of us do on Labor Day

 Yesterday I did what 95% of us do on Labor Day - labored. I got 30 things photo-ready, then realized I have a lot of shipping to get out, so I spent the night shipping things. 

All in preparation for today's plan, which was to get out of here by 4, with the small post office things, drop 'em off at the post office downtown, then deposit the $1600 check I'd gotten from Ken. That went great - Ken had goofed and dated the check for a month ago but I think checks are good for 90 days. So that went fine. 

Next I went to Sakura Market and got what might be their last two bags of UCC pour-over coffee at $10, because those were what was on the shelf and I have a feeling that now it will go for the going price or a bit more, $14 or $15 a bag. And a single sugar-free Lipovitan and a small T-shirt because I'd wanted to get one. The T-shirt was made by Jerzees so it might be a pretty good one.  

Then I went down to Walmart and got things, and stopped at Nijiya on the way back for a Coke Zero and since they didn't have the baked cold mackerel I was hoping for, just got some salmon that looked good, to portion and freeze, and told myself I'll just have some pepitas with the coke. 

But then I got back I just wanted to get things done so I put things away and loaded up the big FedEx things and took them up there. I had a can of coffee and a couple of chocolate cookie things from the "Try Me" basket. 

I got back here and offloaded things, and loaded up the bike trailer with the stuff I'd left out last night. In addition, the guys had put in what I think is a starter motor, and a big power supply I'd never seen before. Gee, thanks, I think. 

I took it all out by the main road in my usual "free stuff" spot and took some big boxes and cardboard and junk that was there and put it into this one dumpster on the other side of the complex, that they've replaced with a bigger dumpster holding about 2X as much, so these days there's generally plenty of room. And got back in here. 

Before bed last night I'd practiced, and it went really well. I'm starting to get a feel for high notes and it's not a matter of pushing harder = higher. It's more a matter of getting a feel for them and the best way I can describe it is when you're sucking on a hard candy and you've got it down to a small streamlined piece and you have it in the front of your mouth to taste that last bit better. 

There are a million tutorials on high notes and trumpet playing in general on YouTube, especially if you show any interest in them, because then the algorithm serves up tons of them. I think each person has a method that works for them, personally, but while there are generalities that are always true like Don't use too much pressure and Always try for good tone, it's kind of up to each person to work out what works for them.  If thinking about "tasting" high notes is what works for me then so be it. 

The thing is, I need to keep up the work on being the best trumpet (or cornet right now I guess) player I can. When/if something happens to Ken I need to at least have Taps on tap, and preferably both that and Fanfare For The Common Man. 

My having in the back of my mind being a sort of public resource, a person who can play Taps, is what makes me feel kind of cop-proof. Because while I've never been anything worse than smiled at, I'm always thinking I can play at their funerals and ceremonies. 

I know the acronym ACAB but I think the cases where they do good are underplayed. Yeah I think some people become cops because they want to be in power over others, but I think some genuinely want to help, and do. The Right thinks we of the Left want to get rid of them but that's crazy; you have to have them. How they do their work, what training they get,  and so on make a huge difference. That US cops are a bunch of yahoos doesn't mean that cops in general, worldwide, are. And it doesn't mean ours can't improve.