Papers conquered

 I spent the night doing what I'd taken the weekend off to get done. I had the packing out of the way, and got out the 5, not 3, banker's boxes of papers and sorted out the things I really want to keep, the latest 3 mailings with my home address on them to take to the DMV along with my expired license and passport to get my "Real ID", and had a huge mass of stuff to throw away or burn. 

That was what took up most of the time, making "popcorn", crumpled up balls of papers with sensitive information on them, to burn. 

I also found application papers for Medi-Cal which I'd been sent over the years, but never filled them in haha. I still have Medi-Cal and I'm sure it's pretty easy for the powers that be to find my income and such information. 

I also saw, on one of them, that I can, and am encouraged to, apply for Medicare when I am 64 years and 9 months of age. I'll need to look into that. I've heard there are some kind of penalties for applying if I'm much over 65, so I need to research all of this. 

Two bags of non-sensitive papers went out in the Post Office trash, and burning up the "popcorn" may take a week or two, doing it bit by bit. 

There's a lot of personal stuff that mattered once but just doesn't any more. The copy of my high school newspaper with my picture in it, sure. Stuff about the sport I did, doesn't matter and no one cares. Even shit like my amateur radio license; I'm just not interested. I find listening in on strange radio stuff to be interesting, I'm not that interested in transmitting. 

It was kind of fun looking at some of the old stuff though. Apparently it was the Outrigger Hotel snack bar that I worked for, long ago, serving up hot dogs. It's apparently been gentrified away now. 

I've been watching a lot of fishing videos from people in Hawaii and those are fun. I'm also currently into watching videos from three different guys who metal detect around my old stomping grounds in Orange County, California. I've got some metal detecting ideas of my own back in Hawaii which should only require one of those "pin pointers" that people who dig for coins in parks use. 

But fishing is something I really look forward to doing again. 

I'm also looking at prices for things, and fools on Reddit keep nattering on about how "food is 3X as much" in Hawaii and it's just not true. It's about 30% less, if one eats a normal, local, cuisine. Even a lot of fancy imported stuff like Swiss cheese from Switzerland at Whole Foods, is probably no more expensive than it is here and I'd not be surprised to see it 10% - 20% less because they base their prices on what the market will bear more than on their cost. 

It *is* expensive to live what I call an Orthodox Suburbian lifestyle in Hawaii. To do so, you must only eat foods that are standard "suburban" foods on the mainland, tons of "diet" or "healthy" foods that are 99% sugar and carbs, etc.

It's a lot more expensive than my diet, to follow the Orthodox Suburbian diet here on the mainland, too, in all fairness. It's kind of required to be at least pre-diabetic if not full-on diabetic, and Ken recently told me his doctor says he's going from Type 2 to something close to Type 1. That's an achievement and it takes a lot of work (and insulin). You have to hog down a burger and two bags of fries as your "snack" before you go home to dinner, waffles or pancakes or a mixing bowl full of sugary cereal for breakfast, and so on. Fast food, sugary cereals, prepared frozen "hash browns", etc are expensive here, or there. 

My point being, I yawn at the supposedly expensive prices I see, looking at the online "sale flyer" from Foodland, Hawaii's answer to Safeway. I actually worked for them for a bit. It was ... not great. But I'll sure shop there, seeing that they have things I'll buy that are 1/2 the price they are here. 

Speaking of old times, on Friday night I rode through San Pedro Square and there I saw Ron, the guy who used to play a recorder (he had about three of them, including one I'd given him) and this little bippity-boppity wooden box drum. I'd seen him off and on for at least a decade now, I think a bit longer, so I was interested to hear how he was doing. 

He was no longer playing any music of any type, and was dirty, dirtier than I've ever seen him and that's saying something. He's still living in a friend's (probably friend's mom's) kitchen for $420 (tee hee) a month. But he's lost his job washing dishes for The Old Spaghetti Factory. 

This last, Gee I wonder why? If he seemed to have some shred of self-respect, playing music, before, he's fallen far below that now and has gone full bum. He even had a bum-specification sign, barely readable. He said he's just "doing this" (begging) now. 

He said they'd cut his hours down and down, finally scheduling him none, at The Old Spaghetti Factory and it's obvious why: The guy's filthy and not anything you'd want anywhere near any place where people eat food. If he's living in a guy's kitchen at least in theory he's got access to a shower, maybe even laundry facilities. Worst-case the kitchen is a place to sleep and he could use a laundromat for laundry and join a gym or something for a shower.  

I have a sneaking suspicion the guy's smoked a ton of pot and that's why he is the way he is now. Pot was considered harmless then I was a kid/teen but it's obviously not and I'm glad I simply didn't care for it. 

 https://www.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/1wy96m4/the_son_ate_5_meals_a_day_to_save_his_dad/ Wow this worked! OK it's about an 11-year-old kid in China who was a bone marrow match for his father, but could not do it because he was too small. So he ate 5 meals a day, gained 33 lbs, and was then big enough and was able to save his dad. Hero kid. But also, fantastically wealthy kid compared to 11-year-old me, growing up here in the US. 

When I was 11 there was simply not enough food around to gain 5 lbs much less 33. My dad would have just plain fucking died and that would have been it. I dare anyone to try telling me China is some kind of loserville and the US this great, wonderful, nation. 

I want to live a long life for a number of reasons, not least of which is to see China take its rightful place as leader of the world. 

 

Uncle Adolf's One-Pot Dinners

 The Nazi regime was horrible, Oh so horrible, that they had a sort of program where, one weekend a month, people were encouraged to have "one pot" dinners, vegetarian or largely so, instead of the end-of-the-week roast or ham etc. The money saved on that dinner was to be donated to aid for the poor. 

Hitler was such a cruel, cruel, creep that he instituted early on, something called "Winterhilfe" or "Winter Help" and vowed that no longer would elderly poor die of cold and hunger in the winter. 

I'm sorry but I can't imagine Americans cooperating in this way. It's just not a thing in the JewSA. I hear from time to time, of parents going hungry so their kids can eat, but honestly I've never seen it in real life. That's not how American parents operate. The rules in America are, if you're bigger and stronger, you get first pick of everything, and the smaller and weaker have to just try to stay out of the way and get by on what's left. 

When my oldest sister, the first born, first encountered rivalry in the form of a sibling, my older brother, she had a 4-year head start so obviously, in American logic, this is why she had a governess, and private schools and pretty much everything. My parents, being bigger and stronger than us kids, never missed a meal while we kids missed quite a few. And my mother, although she always got the best of what we had, didn't eat as well as my father, being biggest, strongest, and the best earner when he could find work. 

And one still wonders why Uncle Adolf is being looked at more squarely and honestly by the kids now? This dog-eat-dog American way of doing things makes no sense, and by the time I was in my teens we kids looked out for each other more than our parents ever looked out for us. At least we kids had some of our Folkish instincts intact! 

I mainly packed things last night, to get and hopefully stay caught up. 

But the main reason for taking the weekend off of busking is I want to get all of my important papers consolidated into this one file folder thing I got at FedEx (they sell a good assortment of office supplies) so all the papers can fit in that, in a backpack along with other important things. Right now the papers are in three Bankers Boxes and most of them need to be disposed of. 

I need to be ready to get out of here with a minimum of fuss. Since I no longer drink, there's no longer the chance that I might get really drunk and blurt out my plans, but there's always the chance that Ken might sense something. Or, and this is a bigger worry, that he might bring in some friend to work also and juice up sales, and then I'll have some idiot in here with access to all of my stuff, probably thinking they can boss me around. That would be reason enough to clear out and I mean immediately, to a hotel room, while I round up airline tickets and get rid of things etc. 

So the idea is not only to pare down papers, but to pare down personal belongings as much as possible without it being obvious, and have plans in place to dispose of what's left when I fly the coop. 

For instance, my bike and trailer will be used to get me with my backpack and suitcase to the Airport Flyer bus stop, where I'll leave the bike + trailer with a "FREE" sign. By that time all over bike stuff will be gone. Before that I'll be using the bike and trailer to run loads of stuff to the sidewalk in front of the Goodwill on 7th street, or maybe just the space by the bridge where I often dump things. Or just run a free ad on Craig's List and tell people a bunch of stuff will be in the parking lot by Watersavers Irrigation. 

The suitcase is an interesting subject on its own. I have about 3 of them that I've picked up, and the one I like most is this bright orange plastic American Tourister one that I don't have a key for, but I think the lock on it is a "TSA" lock which means I only need to obtain or make a "TSA" key. I have another that I like fairly well, but it's missing a wheel so I need to either replace the wheel, or set it up with two bumpers so it will have two wheels. It's big and really light. The suitcase will hold my cornet, in its case, and the cornet gig bag, and then whatever space is left can be clothes and stuff. 

 

Observatories

 I'm gonna write this down first. On reddit there's a post about "Fremont Peak Observatories" which I suppose is an observatory complex on .... Fremont Peak. 

Or ... one observatory at least  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Peak_Observatory

And about the programs to, you know, go up there and see the stars and stuff. Cool. 

Except there's pretty much a 0.000000000000000001% chance of my EVER being able to do something like that. According to quantum "tunneling" theory, there's a chance I could run at a brick wall and pass through unharmed. It's on that order. 

But back home in Hawaii, well, ya wanna see stars? Tell a moke you like beef hahah OK joking aside, just take DaBus out to anywhere good and dark, Hawaii Kai is nice, and just look up at 'em. Plus the University of Hawaii has at least some sort of observatory on campus, plus there will be local hobby astronomers holding "star parties" which, Hawaii being how it is, won't require you to own a car to get to, for good viewing. 

All kinds of things work this way back home as opposed to here. Wanna take a college class? Just walk over to the damn college and sign up. Everything's a walk or what would be a very short bus ride here.  

I can't even imagine how much money + time + vehicular support it would take to go collecting seashells or snorkeling or *gasp* surfing here. 

OK rant over. Yesterday and last night I was so tired I didn't feel like doing much of anything. So I engaged in a good "put brain in neutral" activity, taking stuff apart while listening to videos on YouTube. Now have have tons more parts to sell, and 3 annoying plain-Jane bulky gadgets off the shelves. 

I *did* watch a video by a Japanese guy who plays and teaches trumpet, "4 octaves easy" or something, and according to him, it's not a matter of tightening the "corners" of the mouth almost like a smile, but concentrating on the air coming out of the little hole you make in the center of the lips, and with no more or less pressure, just making the hole larger or smaller, you can make lower or higher notes. He did several demonstrations and it's pretty impressive, given he said his age was 76. 

This, if it works, would be in line with Allen Vizzutti and his premium on relaxation, and Claude Gordon's on "it's just air flow, don't pay attention to the lip". 

I woke up around 1 this afternoon because the guys next door parked one of their trucks right outside my door but at least they were noisy about it. So I made up two "DON'T PARK HERE" signs to put under the windshield wipers and made sure they saw me writing down the license number, and it was moved pretty quick. I don't get it; they have the whole parking lot and yeah it was about half full but that's it, it was half full. 

Since I was up I got to work packing 15 things for one buyer in one box, and of course 3-4 of the things had disappeared into thin air, so refunds were in order. But I got the package sent off and at least in theory Ken made a bit of money on this. 

 

Taking the weekend off

 Last night I was up all night not only packing a 20-item order, but finding a few other things, plus I put the boxes of stuff I'd listed but not put away yet, away. I was far too tired to practice. Especially since I also gave myself a haircut and got all cleaned up so when I woke up I'd not have to worry about that. 

I woke up and it was kind of nice, just having to worry about breakfast and packing a couple more things, then I was outta here. 

I dropped off the 4-5 small things I had packed at the post office downtown, deposited my check at the bank and their numbers and my numbers agree so that's great. 

I went over to Whole Foods and bought some nuts and got $100 cash back since I'm not busking this weekend. Then I rode down to Walmart and spent about $50, on useful things. 

Then I headed back to Nijiya and got some salmon sashimi because I was feeling pretty hungry, and at that at the one table they have out front. Next was just riding home, dropping things off and loading up the trailer with the big box, and the plastic tub I use, which on this trip carried a bag of trash. I dropped both off at FedEx (the trash in the can out front, of course). 

Due to having had the sashimi, I just got some routine things inside H Mart, although  I did get one of their $3 iced coffees and a $5 "dubai" chocolate er, "chocolate" bar. Sometimes I just feel like some waxy chocolate sort of stuff.

So that was $8 on those two treats alone, but money's worth so little now it doesn't even seem like much. Back in the silver money era, that might have been 35c, although at present silver prices that would be almost twice as much, $15. 

The lady at the checkout had handed me a package of some kind of milk dinner or breakfast buns, "I give to you!" which was nice, and I took them along, but I had no plant to eat them. I tried giving them to a homeless guy who was relaxing in front of Dave's Chicken but he didn't want 'em. 

After finding packing stuff along my usual route,  I passed a bus stop on Brokaw that seems to have an older Black person permanently camped there. I'd left stuff there the other night and that stuff was gone now, so I just leaned the buns against the bus stop sign and took off. 

I got back here and am all done, whew! Also, last night I'd found a sort of climbing harness that I thought I might put on Ebay but it looked like one of the rivets holding it together had been repaired and I wasn't sure about selling it in that condition, so I'd left it out front here. And now it's gone so that's convenient. 

 

I may not busk this weekend

 All that packing and working with those heavy parts and the 4 bike rides hauling them up to FedEx trying to make good time getting them there, really wore me out. 

Ken came by last night, we talked, he brought me a burger because a good American will always make sure a fellow American never goes without eating beef daily, etc. I got my pay check, dated for Friday. 

I went to bed pretty soon (about 2 hours) after Ken left. I slept a good bit, woke up about noon, then went back to sleep and had a weird dream about setting up another shop in Texas of all places, not some "hip" place like Austin, but some small town that's a part of Houston? Asking someone in the dream, it was part of the Houston complex. There were two big used book stores on the same street, a classical guitar studio, some nondescript businesses on either side of the building I was to make my new "home" etc. 

I think the point of the dream was that just about anywhere else would have more "culture" than San Jose, California.

The dream was quite realistic, I went to pee and could not (thank goodness!) and I thought about the $500 or so I was spending on the hotel I was at while  I was spending all my time at the new place, and I was going to explore the neighborhood for restaurants as I was getting hungry and regardless of it being dark, I was hungry for some breakfast. Then I woke up, haha. 

Wow I'm really sore and have to pack some multi-item packages. 

Oh, and the small-hats are up to their usual tricks, this latest being a faked attempted airplane hijacking or downing, funny how it's timed to theoretically boost support for "Trumpstein". 

The thing is, I woke up really sore and want to stay caught up on shipping, and I have not only not practiced the last couple of days but even I'm getting tired of the stuff I've been playing and want to work on some new pieces. So I dunno if I'll get out busking at all this weekend. 

It's funny, Ken makes a bunch of money (I see the Ebay messages and he just got a bit under 4 grand into his bank account) and I get sore, miss out on a weekend's busking so that's $150-$200 loss. 

And when I told Ken about this big deal that made him so much money and how it might solve some money problems for him, he just said "It will" and really didn't show much enthusiasm, forget about appreciation for my work. 

Lighting out of here on my birthday next year is going to feel SO good!  

I took one large box (a $200 sale) with 4 transformer cores in it to FedEx, and the rest of the stuff to the post office. I didn't need anything at 99 Ranch so I just went back to H Mart. I'm still really tired and was open to something easy to digest for dinner. I checked on the sushi situation since after 7, according to a sign that was up, it's 1/2 price. If there was another "Alaska roll" I was going to get it. There wasn't, and the sign was gone. 

I just got some coffee they have on sale, and was going to get a can of sugar-free Red Bull, one of the large cans, thinking I'll drink half and maybe save half for later. As I passed the milk, the can leapt out of my hand, rolled along the floor ahead of me, and wedged itself under the cooler. I cussed good and loud of course, and went back but that was the last large can of sugar-free Red Bull. They have a dedicated Red Bull cooler with a bunch of different flavors, but that the large cans of sugar-free were down to one, tells me that's the best deal and least obnoxious flavor. So I just got the coffee. 

I found a good load of packing stuff on the way back, and got the 2nd of the large Akro-Bin type bins from the dumpster outside Trackonomy. I'm getting to like them, not least because unlike the other hot rod shops, they apparently keep it on the track, hence their name. There are no screeching tires, revving engines, and such nonsense around their place. 

Oh, and it's funny, Ken called on the phone because he tried to log into Ebay but couldn't because Ebay can't handle the concept that a company might consist of more than one person, and that more than one person might be checking the account. He was wondering where this big amount of money was... 

I said I'd gotten the message that he has about $3800 coming to his bank, and said that when Ebay pitches a fit, I often just go away for a while and then come back and everything's fine. 

So a bit afterward he called back and said he'd been able to get in, and has $3700 coming, but it may take 1-3 days. I said he might have to wait over the weekend. The more you need it, the longer you have to wait for your $3600 dolls but the $3500 is sure to show up on Monday, or certainly by Tuesday the $3400 will land in his bank account .... it's just simple Ebay finances! 

Ebay - you'll never work harder for $3. 

 

 

 

 

Biggest order ever

 I was up all night, into 8AM, packing 8 boxes that were all one order. Ken was making about 5 grand, after shipping, shipping overage refund, taxes, Ebay fees, etc., on it. It's the biggest order I've ever handled and it might be Ken's biggest too. 

So after a very arduous night packing the things, I considered taking them to FedEx - it would take 4 trips - in the morning because once the early commuter rush is over, it's pretty relaxed. But that seemed to me like the thinking of a pilot with "get there itis" and decided I needed some sleep. 

My headache was kicking my ass and I could not sleep, and eventually got up and swallowed some aspirin with some coffee and once that kicked in, was able to sleep. 

I woke up at 4 and got out of here at 5. That was a real workout, as if getting the things out of the warehouse area and cleaning them, testing them, packing them, etc. hadn't been. 

On the last trip I was able to relax a bit as I found myself ahead of schedule by a comfortable amount. I delivered the last two boxes to FedEx, then went to H Mart where I got some "Alaska Roll" sushi for half price since it was after 7, and a cucumber. I had cold coffee with me. 

I sat in front and had my sushi and coffee, then followed my usual route to look for packing stuff and other goodies. I found a bit of each. I'm too tired right now to sort through the goodies, haha. 

I might go right to bed and get more sleep as soon as Ken's gone this evening, assuming he shows up, which he's been pretty good about lately. 

Practice? What's that? This is why I'm looking forward so much to getting the hell out of here. 

I *did* watch some videos last night about "lip trills" which are like lip slurs but ... faster. Like when you want to show off and go from a low note, "breeeet!" up to a high one. For extra points just as fast back down. It turns out those are a good practice tool, so I will have to work on them. 

 

 

Practicing practice, practically speaking

 After doing stuff (packing) last night I got a practice session in. 

I remember years ago when I started a practice session, when I was fresh I could play high notes and then once I got a little tired, they were gone and not coming back. 

Now, yes I can often play mad high notes when I'm fresh but often I'm having trouble with high notes and keep at it and I get better at them as the practice session continues. I think this is a sign of increasing endurance, built up over years, of muscles that are not normally consciously controlled or coordinated in the ways they are in trumpet playing. 

And often I'll have a practice session that kind of goes like shit, but I keep it up and get a good session in, and then the next one I'm playing well. 

It's going to be very different when I'm home and trumpet playing, along with receiving my Social Security check, will be my main job. 

I packed the small things that had sold overnight, because I have 16 big things, all alike, all to send to one buyer, and I wanted all the small stuff out of the way. Tonight will be spent getting 16 of the things together, testing and cleaning them, then determining if I'm going to ship them two or three to a box, and packing them to go to FedEx tomorrow. It will take at least 3 trips to get them all over there to FedEx I think. 

I took off with my small things, and on Zanker Road got passed by a velomobile! It was really cool. There's no way I could have caught up with it to get a closer look, but I hope the guy's having a great time and stays safe because needless to say, it's very low to the ground and while he has a couple of blinking red lights on the back on the tallest part, some of the drivers of those big stupid trucks can't even see normal sedans. The velomobile headed North to what I call "Dilbertville", the part of this town with actual tech companies, manicured lawns, etc. 

Basically, in San Jose, North of Brokaw Road is where the tech companies are, and South of it is where most of the city is, and where "innovation" means having a bar next door to a metal recycling place so the bums can drink up the money they worked hard for all night, right away. 

When I got to FedEx, I saw, in the way of strange vehicles, one of those new Tesla cabs. It looks just as dumb as the photos show, all gold and I'm surprised the tires aren't painted gold too. I didn't see if anyone got out or got in, as I was intent on my FedEx business and also on helping a guy who had a wide load of packages and it took me and another guy to hold both doors open for him. When I came out the thing was gone.