Just before the horrors start

 I'm glad I had my packages packed, just two small ones and one very big one, last night. I also did some practice last night, I sounded awful. 

I woke up at a quarter after 3 in the afternoon. That makes sense because entertaining Ken for an hour or more is always exhausting, then I'd packed the things, then practiced etc. 

But that gave me just enough time to get cleaned up, have some black coffee and aspirin as that's a healthy breakfast, and take off. 

I dropped off trash and a bunch of books and 10 "Crunchie" candy bars, bought a can of coffee at Nijiya and then got over to the post office and dropped off the packages, then got over to the bank and deposited my pay check for the week. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods and ate and got things, and then headed down to Walmart to get other things. Downtown is already different, with barriers and tons of police and police dogs. I did my thing at Walmart and on the way back saw something eerie: a large-ish box truck painted all grey, no logo, no numbers, not even some small number or anything. Just the kind of thing you'd expect to see people be disappeared into. 

I went to Nijiya again for a few more things, and got back here, offloaded the things, loaded up the one very large package and took that up to FedEx and got a few things in H Mart. 

There were the usual number of crazy zombies, zombies with zombie dogs (I tried to get the zombie dog to chase me out into traffic but darn it, it obeyed its undead master) and the usual craziness. But now I am set to hunker down until Tuesday. 

 

As the internet continues to enshittify...

 I got up and went right to work packing things to ship. 20 things, and I'd shipped at least that number yesterday. For some reason sales are up. About 2/3rds of the way through, Bill Gates tried to "brick" my computer. 

My response to this was to get out the newer computer with Windows 11 on it and put it on the charger, and to do a "hard reset" on this one by unplugging everything and pulling the battery and doing something else for 15 minutes, then powering it up again and waiting for things to load again on my slow-ass Silicon Valley internet. 

Amazingly it was back to working at least for now. So I was able to finish my packing and get out of here at the usual time and ship the packages. 

I stopped and got chicken at the chicken place, which has the advantages of outdoor tables so I can eat right there and have dinner done with, and also once in a great while their chicken really hits the spot. There was a cop SUV idling there so I ended up eating at a table right near it which is pretty funny. Eventually the cop showed up, got in their SUV, and drove off and it was time for me to leave too. I thought I may have seen the weird zombie from yesterday, the scumbag, ride by on a bike. Going toward H Mart too, so I was hoping I'd not run into it. And I didn't, as I went in there for coffee (out), Yakult (out) and wet wipes (they had 'em). 

I picked up odds and ends for shipping and got back here. 

For some reason we're almost overdue to the electric company and owe them almost $400. I don't know if Ken just forgot to pay the bill or whether this is another instance of tech being a very low-paid field and being in it, a sure way to scrape through life and be perpetually behind on utilities. 

Interestingly, on the front page of my browser there used to be "radio buttons" for commonly-visited sites but those are a thing of the past now, and I have to type in each URL. Kind of like having addresses and phone numbers memorized in the 80s. 

 

the 3rd

 And for some reason I decided, apparently, to celebrate it by sleeping in until 3 in the afternoon. I was up until 4AM OK no problem, that means I should still wake up at noon. But when I woke up I saw one hand on the clock on the 12 and one on the 3 and thought, "Oh, OK, it's a quarter after, good enough" and went around turning on the lights and the radio, and on the radio they said it's 3 in the afternoon. Conclusion: I need a bigger clock that's easier to read. 

So I had my coffee and nuts and got to work packing things, which were one large combination order and another order that was just one large capacitor. 

I got going to FedEx and the post office, and went in to 99 Ranch for some shopping. The lady at the checkout asked me if I'm a "senior" and said I am, and she gave me the 5% off discount they do for seniors on Tuesdays so that's cool. 

As I was taking things out to the bike some big overweight blonde guy, scumbag type, came up and asked if that was my bike or something to that effect. I was it was and that it "does the job" and he asked if it was "all original" and I said yes it is, well, except for the rear wheel which has been replaced by a heavy-duty one as I wore out the original one... " I had no idea where I could have met this idiot before, and he was being really familiar. He said something like, "We're all a bit worried about you" or some such rambling shit. I'm thinking this is a scumbag tactic in the same way that creeps will start a conversation with anyone female with, "Have you lost weight?" As is considered best practice with psychotics, I just went along, while loading my things up and hopping on the bike and getting out of there, without seeming too urgent. "Be careful out there!" the scumbag said, and I said, "I will" and was off. 

Honest as I write this it's hours later and I still have no idea where I'd have seen or met this particular scumbag. Maybe he's a friend of DL's (Diabeetus Legs) the hugely overweight Chinese guy whose legs are rotting off from untreated diabetes. 

I meandered my way back, picking up a few boxes, and got back in here. 

 

Still getting over this thing

 Busy day. I packed 17 things which I had to fund first, and got them to the post office. I didn't stop to get anything anywhere, except to pick up a few boxes. Tomorrow will be taken up with packing and shipping also, I'm that far behind. 

On my way back I came across a dozen "Kinder" something or other bars, which are Meh, and 45 Cadbury "Crunchie" bars which are amazing. It's like Violet Crumble, but somehow the nougat or toffee or whatever it is in the middle, has had an extra toasting making it extra brittle and a unique taste. Roald Dahl wrote about the Cadbury company giving out new types of chocolate bar to the school he went to, and all they had to do was write their impressions of them, and I imagine this one went over very well. 

So I put all the other candy I had out for the scavengers but am keeping the "Crunchie" bars.  

 

I might be feeling better

 I slept fairly well overnight, and into the area of 1-2 in the afternoon which is good. I also read books instead of being up and on the computer. 

Today, I had to get some things out since they were due to actually go out tomorrow and it seems I have to get things out one day earlier or they show up as late. 

There were four things so I started with the smallest which just went into an envelope, and worked up to the biggest, which went in a big box, using up a ton of padding materials. 

On my way to FedEx I saw Tom outside at his place so I stopped and we talked a bit. The bums around his place are going to get cleared away, again. I asked what the stacks of boxes by James' tent were, and he said they were cup ramen, "A lifetime supply" haha. 

I got the things dropped off and went into H Mart for a couple of things, paying using my card (and contactless at that) to avoid passing any of my germs. My lungs were really full of stuff when I got up. 

On the way back I had to do something about my now low supply of padding. So I picked up some stuff here and there, and from Noah Medical I got a couple of boxes of good stuff but even better, I saw they had these huge boxes that held some kind of medical apparatus, with the black foam with fancy cutouts to hold the equipment, and a nice big top piece with no cut-outs at all, just a bit rectangle a couple of inches thick. Just ideal stuff. 

So I took my shopping and the stuff I'd already gathered back here, had some coffee and a couple of aspirin, and went back out to get those. Someone had dug through some bags by their dumpsters and left a big mess, and I know there are cameras watching the area, there's only a sign saying so. So I cleaned up the mess. Then I got to work digging out the big foam pieces I wanted; there were four of the big rectangles and I ended up taking some other stuff to make the rectangles stand up between the sides of the bike trailer. On my way out I stopped at another company for a roll of bubble wrap and one of those big anti-static boxes that are great for shipping large circuit boards in. 

The only other actual work I wanted to do this evening was to take the 25 things I have cued up to list next and make them actually camera ready by cleaning them, making labels, etc., and I did that.  

So a ton of things accomplished for being sick, and I have a ton of things to ship out tomorrow. 

 

Another stay in bed day

 It's the only way we in the working class get anything like a vacation! At least all the time in bed gives me time to sift and sort through my mind ... 

For some years now I'd wondered if I should feel guilty because my eye operation(s) and special classes in school must have been a burden. Maybe I'm why the family finances tanked. Thinking about it now, though, my maternal grandmother paid for the operation(s), (I'm not clear on whether it was more than one or just the one) and the special classes didn't cost us anything. 

According to my older sister, a family friend, Mr. Bethune, stole all of Father's money somehow. Through some mysterious process, maybe witchcraft? Somehow I don't see Mr. Bethune doing this; we grew up with the Bethune kids and I wonder what Sean and Claudette are up to now (I believe Claudette is a PhD. scientist these days, congrats to her) and Mr. Bethune was always a can-do, scratch and scrap, make things work kind of guy. He built the boat, the Sea Raven, the Bethunes lived on, and apparently ended up having a time-clock company there in Honolulu. Not exactly the profile of a financial scammer. 

Nope what really ruined us was my older sister having to go to Punahou School, which these days is $32 thousand a year. It would have been proportionately that much back in the 70s. My older sister could have gone to McKinley, which being public was, and is, free, and is the high school for intellectual kids. Or could have gone to Kaiser like I did, which is another good public school, and not even need to take a bus since it can be walked to easily from Portlock Road. 

Of course the whole reason to go to Punahou School, and what parents pay $32 thousand a year for, is to marry someone who also went to Punahou School, which my older sister did. I guess this was worth the other 4 of us ending up poor as hell, two of us never actually graduating high school because we had to go out and work to survive, and probably due to the extreme hunger and hardship we went through, none of us talking to each other after we escaped at age 18. 

And my older sister was going to be a writer, and at least write a book about "Cats In The Pacific" and she's not written a thing. She's just a dumpy hausfrau, but hey, she's a dumpy hausfrau who went to Punahou School.  

Really sick, stay in bed day

 So to liven things up, here's a guy playing the same cornet I just bought, a lot better than me! 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8kddfpI8I0

He is playing Debussy's Syrinx, a piece normally played on flute.  

I can't embed the video but it's well worth watching, the guy's really good! I bet he didn't pay for his. I notice he doesn't seem to be using the fancy little levers that are supposed to move the 1st and 3rd slides. 

I'm taking the day off although I should be packing two big things, one really big, and hauling them up to FedEx but I messaged the buyers and said they'll be a day or two late getting out because I'm so sick.