You're not here to make friends ...

 https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1ub4cne/two_years_in_the_bay_area_and_im_losing_my_grip/

It worked! 

It's a good thread about how the Bay Area is all about, "You're not here to make friends, you're here to work!"

I had about $6 in my wallet, and decided it would be a good idea to go out busking, hell, I'd even have an early start. 

So I got my stuff together, and got over to Whole Foods while the sun was still up. There was a bum there begging people for money, and since he was wearing a World Cup sweat shirt, I told him about how I'd found out how to really rake in some money, the walking-spanging routine. I said he's got the right shirt on, and could pick up some World Cup brochures etc. up off the ground and he'd look just like another one of the crowd, and just go around asking. 

He wasn't too excited about this prospect. I went into Whole Foods to use the bathroom and found a bubble mailer by the Amazon counter, went back out and put that in the bike bag and started getting set up to busk. This did not please Mr. Bum, although he was standing where Needs To Peepee Lady used to stand, and I was by the bike racks, my usual spot. 

He did not like this and got threatening and cussing mad. I got out my pepper spray which I had in one pocket, which made him stop going all-out, but it was not good. 

I went in and told one of the Whole Foods people who told their security guard, who went out to talk to the guy while I stayed inside. The guard came back in and said there should be no trouble now. 

So I went back out and since the bum had set up where I was, I set up not where he'd been before, but a bit further away than that. Again the threats and cussing started back up, and I went in and told the security guy and he said there's a limit to what he can do. No problem, I said. I went back out and called the cops. 

Then it was a matter of waiting, and I had a few people tell me they're on my side in various ways. Even though it was a busy evening, the cops indeed showed up. They took my story, and were going to get his, but he'd disappeared. In the end, since the guy didn't seem to be around anywhere, the cops left, having given me an incident card sort of thing, and I set up to play. It was now 8:00 so I was starting only a half-hour earlier than last night, because of the bum factor. 

The bum never came back, I played, and it looked it the night was shaping up rather well. After a half hour I decided I'm not tired yet and it looks like I've done OK, and to get down to business and do the other half of the hour and then I'd be done. 

I got a lot of compliments, a photography student took my photo, and a few small kids were entertained. All well and good. I packed up after an hour had been done, good honest effort, and I'd made $73.55. Not bad! 

I went in and got a couple slices of pizza and a fizzy water, and ate while watching a textbook schizophrenia conspiracy theorist type nut at the next table do his thing. He'd been there since I'd gotten there at around 7, and I knew this because I thought it might be one of those hobbyists with notebooks full of cloisonne' pins that they collect and trade. 

The guy is nutty as a fruitcake, though, with his collection of papers and things and mumbling to himself and getting up to pace or to go somewhere out of sight and then come back. Some people passing asked him if he needed anything else, telling me that they'd bought him some food or something which was nice of them. 

After eating my pizza I got some shrimp because the shrimp sold there are the only ones with flavor that I've found. 

I started to ride home by way of downtown but the crowds were just nuts, and I ended up turning around and going back by way of Hedding.  

This may or may not be a holiday

 It's "Juneteenth" which commemorates when some slaves in Texas (of course it was Texas) weren't told they were freed when the South lost the Civil War for TWO YEARS after the fact. Typical employer or in this case, owner. They were finally told, or found out, on June 19th hence "Juneteenth". 

I'm getting mixed messages on whether the post office is open.  I actually packed some more things for the post office and a quantity order, 5 things, which I decided to send by FedEx. This was smart, because I rode up to the post office and it was indeed closed. 

I went over to 99 Ranch, for a bundle of cilantro, less than a dollar, but then I decided to get some other things which means I spent almost $5. 

I rode back to FedEx and dropped that package off, picked up some packing stuff and a couple of onions and a bunch of packets of Wet Ones type wipes, from the computer repair place. There was some really random stuff there. I also cleaned up the area because someone had left a mess. Keep doing that and they'll go back to locking their trash enclosure, people. 

I decided I'd go through with something I'd been thinking of doing, which is to go downtown and pick up bubble mailers at the Amazon place and busk for an hour or so at Whole Foods and use that money along with what money I had on hand, to buy nutritional yeast, butter, and a bag of macadamia nuts. 

So I got my stuff together and headed downtown. I stopped at Nijiya first because I was going to get a couple of boiled eggs from them, but they were out. But they had a new (to me anyway) dish of salmon chunks with a thin batter and fried, and pickled vegetables, for a dollar and a half more. So I tried that and it was good. That and a bottle of water because I'd forgotten to bring some cold tea, was about $7. 

I ate out front and as I was packing up, an old Japanese guy on a classic Schwinn cruiser came up and wanted to know how old my bike was. I said it's pretty modern, just styled like an old one. We had a great time talking about bikes for a bit, and he told me about how he and his friends had done things to improve the neighborhood like fixed some damaged bike racks and put some wires underground that had been above ground and such things. Pretty cool, and I got to tell him about my older brother's Schwinn Sting-Ray that I'd been passed down when he got tired of it, when we were kids. 

I got a few bubble mailers at the Amazon place so that's good. Commerce seems to be slowing down.  

I got over to Whole Foods and started in at 8:30. It was really slow at first. There were lots of people going in and out but they seemed to be in a hurry. It gradually slowed down and tips started coming in.

Annoyingly, someone on a Harley came up and parked further in than the bike racks, basically in about as "Look at me!" position in the area as could be gotten away with, which is completely on-brand for a Harley rider.  Jokingly I said "Potato potato potato...." as the bike had come up, and I noticed that the rider was kind of short. A Karen. She wanted to know what I'd been saying, so I told her about the "potato potato potato" thing, how people generally agree Harleys make that sound.

She said something about wanting to be heard and I said "Loud pipes save lives", another piece of motorcycle lore she'd never heard of. I said the way to go is to get a small fairing, and wear a white helmet, then people will certainly know she's there because they'll think she's a motorcycle cop. "I don't want people to be afraid of me, I just want them to know I'm a WOMAN on a BIKE", she said. 

She was using some kind of weird compartment on the side of the bike to store things and had to fiddle with it quite a bit to get out whatever she needed. (Now that I think about it, it was probably intended to hold a small tool kit, a traditional thing with motorcycles.) I said she might want to get a messenger bag, less sweaty than a backpack because it's just one strap.... she made the same kind of face she's made when I mentioned the fairing etc., and said, "No way!". 

She went in, and eventually came out then went back in for a while then came out ... and I guess had asked help from one of the guys working there in Whole Foods. I didn't know what was going on but I said I have a flashlight if she needs one. She'd found one, she said. 

At one point she wanted to hear some song she didn't know the name of but was Auld Lang Syne, and I found that this is really easy to play. I said it's customary to play on New Year's. "And funerals" she said, and I said yeah I guess it depends but yeah, at funerals too. (She's a boomer, she'll know her way around a funeral by now.) 

I'm gonna guess she's had her bike for a few weeks at most, and like all these boomers, thinks a Harley is just the coolest thing in the world while the rest of us think they're annoying and obnoxious, they and their riders both. The thing is, this annoying person probably cut into my tips with her attention-getting antics. 

I'd started at 8:30 and I noticed it was 9:30 so I told myself I'd try to hold out for one more tip, and when one came in, and the wind was making me a bit cold anyway, I called it a night. Harley Karen was still there, and called out "I wanna hear a song!" so I played my Lawrence Welk show sign-off and packed up. I'd made $24. 

I went in and got my nutritional yeast, butter, and macadamia nuts, which cost a bit under $54 and have $6 left over so yay me. 

Other than San Pedro Square, which was holding a "watch party" for one of the World Cup games and thus was full of out-of-towners, it was really dead downtown. 10:00 in San Jose is equivalent to 1:00AM anywhere else. The ride home was very peaceful. 

 

Not until next Tuesday

 I guess this is my life now. It's always been like pulling teeth to get paid, but now Ken's doing this thing where I get my check but can't deposit it until the next week. So the check I got on the 10th, wasn't deposited until the 15th. The check he gave me last night, the 17th, isn't to be deposited until the 23rd. He said he'd dated it for Tuesday and it "should be OK" to deposit then, but I said he'd dated it for the 22nd, which is Monday. But I can wait until Tuesday to deposit it. 

At least he *did* come by. And since he's working until so late, his choice by the way, the guy typically doesn't get out of bed until 4 in the afternoon, he's coming by closer to 11:30 than 10:30 in the evening. 

Of course nothing is open, and he called me to ask what I might want, food-wise. At least he's been pretty good that way. He ended up going to Carl's Jr. and I got a Super Star or whatever their burger is called and some fries. That was nice, and probably cost him $30 or $40 for the both of us the way prices are now.  

He also brought over some pretty good parts to sell, so I spent the rest of the night fiddling around with them, getting them and other things ready to list. 

He's still working on his "You're right, it's a reverse mortgage but for some reason they call it an HEI" thing. The catch is, they want him to go around his house and take photos, while he wants the other option they offer, of having someone come out and take the photos, of his house to assess its value. 

He says taking his own photos will take too much time. Yeah, surely, less time than his wandering taking his own photos and fiddling with his camera, probably breaking it, etc. Plus, Ken's the "anti-photographer". Whatever it is that Ansel Adams had, Ken has tons of the opposite. He takes awful photos. 

Of course this fly-by-night company probably needs X amount of photos however good or bad, and whoever they send out is probably awful at photography too. Real estate is built up to an even bigger  bubble than it was in 2005-2006, and they probably just need "some photos". 

So until Ken gets all signed up for his latest adventure into crippling debt (but that will buy him a year or two of imaginary relief) his economic situation is going to suck. 

My part in this is to just hang on through this rough patch and keep making the right kind of noises to Ken, about staying here until I'm 67 years old. Then of course boogieing out of here as soon as I'm turning 65. 

 

 

I don't even know what Wednesday feels like

 I was up in time to pack some things and get 'em to FedEx and the post office. 

Last night among other things I rounded up a lot of transformers, pretty big ones, about 20 of them, and put them out for the scavengers after taking them off of Ebay. Surprise surprise they were still there when I got up, so even the scavengers didn't want them. Lazy bums are lazy? 

 

Tuesday feels like Monday.

 Probably because yesterday didn't really feel like a Monday, with my going downtown and depositing a pay check etc. 

Just the various things that happen around here

 Yesterday I'd been working on reasons to go out, then found out the water was off. I thought maybe Ken hadn't paid the bill, but once I was all ready to go and getting the bike out, I went next door and asked the guys and their water was out too. They were probably puzzled that I was happy to hear it wasn't just me. 

I went out, then, and bought a few gallons of water and some cilantro, and on the way back picked up tons of these little flat boxes from the computer repair place. 

I got involved doing things, had dinner, and around midnight, as I was re-arranging things, decided it was a good idea to go back to the computer repair place and pickup the last of the little boxes and did so. It was good to get out of the heat. 

I ended up staying up, taking a thing apart and rounding up small things and packing them and finding things that go into large combined orders, and stayed up until 8AM. This was actually kind of good, because that's when I got a knock on the door. It was repairmen asking about a repair request for the A/C. 

I said I don't use A/C and for that matter, the guys on each side, they don't bother with it either. But as we puzzled over this, I mentioned the name of the place directly behind me, and it turns out they had the initials of the company on the repair order and didn't know the full name. When I mentioned the full name they realized it might just be them. So I was helpful, after all. 

They run big machines and might use A/C but I'm guessing it was a matter of the spinny things on the roof not working because when the wind's been crazy here I've not heard them spinning, and they probably make a real difference. I saw that the repairmen had gone up onto the roof with a big ladder and went to bed. 

And before beddy-bye, the water had come back on and I started a load of laundry.  

Another practice

 That's what matters, that I got another practice in last night. I also photo'd but did not list 30 things last night like I should have. But at least I photo'd them. 

The heat is annoying but hey it's summer. 

In the practice I started to go into the next page, further than I had before in the Rubank book. The thing is, as nearly as I can figure, is (a) I need to put in the hours because that's how endurance is developed. And (b) there's a sort of bad habit of tensing up too much. This can come from (a) not enough hours so muscles get fatigued, and also a sort of bad habit to be trained out. What beats it all is consistency, practicing regularly every day. 

The thing is, I honestly don't know from week to week when this job, this situation I have, is going to fall apart.  Ken doesn't even know, because he thinks, like any Boomer, that he can keep re-financing and setting up this or that thinly disguised reverse mortgage, never reading the find print, and everything will be OK. 

Interestingly, it was another quiet night last night, as there was a cop car stationed again at the entrance to the other building where the illegal night club operates, and it was really, really, quiet. It was nice in that respect.