The first time the planes stopped flying

 The FAA has allowed AI to pollute the aviation system, so of course there's been a huge flight outage today. Planes belonging to non-US airlines like JAL, leaving out over the Pacific have been cleared to leave, but domestic flights and flights arriving here have been shut down. 

It's a bit of a dress rehearsal, I figure. 

Besides flying, my secondary plan had been to take a cruise that stops at Oahu and jump ship. That's a lot more expensive, as cruises cost a lot of money. But I think they'll try to control the working class first before the middle class, and cruises are very middle class. 

This is why I call it "white knuckling it" because between wondering if some health problem will happen with Ken, or myself for that matter, or Ken's wife which will send Ken spiraling, or Ken loses his day job which means he'll be here all the time and it's nearly impossible to do anything when he's around, or the US stops fooling around and goes into full-on civil war. or who-knows-what. And it can be as simple is the planes simply stopping flying. 

When I get home, will things be any better? I don't think so, but I'll be home. There are talks of cutting back on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, social security, you name it. These are Republican plans, of course, but the Democrats (except for a few with guts who will be out-shouted or simply have very unfortunate accidents) will go along, because both are part of ZOG. 

And people wonder why the Germans, "for no reason, none at all" acted as they did in the early 1930s. 

I'll be home if all goes to plan, and it'll be bad but it's worse here. A couple nights ago I took a good tour through room prices here vs. Honolulu, and it's still at least 30% more expensive here. I'll get the same $1200 a month from Social Security in either place. Plus living here means no actually fun activities like fishing and shell collecting, very little Nature at all. 

 

 

November 12 - "Come out with your hands up!"

 After Ken had left last night I packed things, two large boxes for FedEx and a couple of small things to take to the post office downtown. 

Then I got all spiffied up so all I'd have to do is wake up, have some coffee etc., and go out the door. I was up late/early enough that I didn't get enough sleep. I didn't practice. 

My alarm clock got me up at 3 and of course I was out of here at 4 on the dot. I did the usual run, post office and then bank (everything agreed to the penny) and on the way over I'd ridden through San Pedro Square and there was Ron (who used to play the recorder but just begs now) with his begging signs out and his folding bike folded up by his side so anyone who saw it would swear it's a wheelchair. 

Old Ron's progressed to that stage where all of him, clothes, shoes, hair, skin, has developed the same greyish-brown color. Even his signs have so little contrast now between the lettering and the cardboard it's on that it takes some effort to read what they say. 

I don't get it. Yeah he was homeless and camping on the bridge on Taylor Street and yeah he got a job in a machine shop or something like that and quit because he said it was either that or he was going to kill one of the right-wing chuds there, that I can understand. 

But he had a recorder, in fact three of them I think. He had his little drum and while he agonized over buying it, street drumming is a thing and there are pretty decent sounding street drums just everywhere. Buckets and other containers, lids and things, those wire hoops that come off of something, etc. And sticks are cheap. 

Plus he played euphonium and if he'd displayed any interest at all in obtaining one, I'd probably have found a way to get one. As it was, long ago, I gave him a cornet and he never went anywhere with that. 

He was doing his street karaoke shows with Waffleman, who was cooking toasted cheese sandwiches, and I guess they were doing pretty well. Then Waffleman went over into cooking waffles for the the working folks in the daytime, breakfast/lunch  I guess, and Ron went to live at Waffleman's place. 

That should have given him a place to shower, and by then he'd gotten his job washing dishes at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Now that was the big break, the kind of big break few here in Silicon Valley get. My impression was that Ron was "fired not fired" by having his hours cut down until they were nothing, because he was too dirty and disgusting to be in a restaurant. That's the opposite way to do things. 

A job washing dishes in an established restaurant is better than a college degree because it's paying work and by hanging in there, being clean and punctual and all that stuff, you can advance. 

So I dunno, the guy just wants to be a bum and beg. Good luck to him I guess? I guess the only reason I'm even thinking about the guy is my curiosity as to what I'd do in Ron's situation. And I guess I know the answer because I've been in Ron's situation a few times in my life. No job, no connections, etc. My response has always been to make things work. The way the US economy works, a person has to get good at starting from zero because they're going to get cleaned out a few times during their lifetime. If we only had the guts the Germans did in 1933 ... 

After the bank I went by the Amazon place and got a few bubble mailers, then went down to Walmart and got a bunch of things. Then, riding back from there on 3rd Street, I saw some police cars on Reed and there was a cop with a loudspeaker saying stuff like "We've got you surrounded. Come out with your hands up!" haha just like in a movie. 

I stopped at Nijiya and got things there, then at this one place that sometimes tosses out things, I got something like 75 or 80 small bags of various chips, cookies, some candy bars, you name it. I was glad I carry a large "tall kitchen bag" sized plastic bag, not exactly one of those but the same size and sturdier, because I just pulled that out and stuffed the stuff in. 

I offloaded things and since by now it was about 20 to 7 I didn't pack anything more, but loaded up the two large boxes and took those to FedEx, then went up to 99 Ranch and got stuff, and they had my beloved Ibumie "White Curry Mee" noodles back in stock. So I was really happy. 

I stopped again at H Mart for a few things and then picked up packing stuff on the way back, sorted out my chips and cookies and things into what I want and what to donate, and got some things ready to list on Ebay. But the lack of sleep is not conducive to having lots of energy. 

 

I'm worried about the smarts

 That's what worries me about AI. If humans can fall for Ponzi schemes and whatever Enron was doing, we're heading for disaster. 

I practiced last night and high notes are getting easier. Imagine if I put some real effort into this. The idea is that I'll be able to once I'm out of here. Right now it's like being a high school student who has to do a lot of different things and can only spend, at most, an hour a day on Band. 

I packed a big order, 21 things, last night and listed 15 so yay for me I guess. Then I practiced and went to bed, and woke up around 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon, and decided I can sleep some more and did, until 6! Oops. That's where I was glad I had the package all ready to go. 

I got it over to FedEx and then got some stuff in H Mart, and since I didn't feel all that awake, was glad I'd brewed coffee the night before and had my nice vacuum bottle of iced coffee. I got two croissants for $2.50 at the bakery, where things get a lot cheaper after 7, and sat and ate those out front. 

I meandered home, not finding all that much in packing stuff, but the circuit board place had two more lids for those half-height Gaylord boxes and I wanted those, and found a way to carry them that was really clever. 

I went further and the place that scraps out medical instrumentation, had a huge plastic bag full of firm foam pieces and I sure wanted those. It took me 5 trips, after taking the big lids and stuff back here, to get them all but I did. 

Back here, I cleaned the place up and when Ken showed up, about an hour later, he had a burger and fries for me from Carl's so that was pretty good. And I got my pay check.  

Cardboard

 Yesterday I packed things, shipped things, got things at H Mart, sort of a usual routine, except that by the circuit board place I found what were essentially Gaylords with lids but half-height. I managed to get the "box" parts onto the bike trailer, hanging off like a big long tail, and got 'em back here. 

I wanted to go back for the lids, but was also hungry. So I went back up to H Mart, got some gyoza 2 for 1 from the hot case and a cheap Hawaiian beer, and ate and drank at one of the tables by the bagel shop. 

There had been a lot of zombies out, earlier. Yelling, fighting, staggering around, etc. Usual zombie stuff. But thankfully they'd settled down and were not out and about by this time. So I had a nice peaceful time, going over and putting the lids on the bike trailer and also getting 'em back here. 

Then I just listed 15 things on Ebay, and the usual stuff around here. I practiced before bed and it went pretty well. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm playing a bit better now with the deep cup mouthpiece on this cornet, than I ever was with a Bach 3C which is a bit of a "cheater" mouthpiece by comparison, before. 

Rain's supposed to come in "late Thursday" and certainly Friday. Rain makes things more complicated for me. For one thing, if Ken dates this week's check for Friday and it's rainy, I'll just wait until Monday to deposit it. 

Another thing is, between rain coming and the holiday, I may send some things that would usually go by US Postal Service, by FedEx Economy. FedEx just hands these packages off to the post office and all it really does is add a day or two of delay, but it comes in  really handy sometimes. 

The flutes

 Yesterday I decided on a reason to go downtown: I'd give away the flutes. I had an old Bundy with a horrible heavy case; the flute itself had a really nice warm glow to it but student Bundys are nothing special. And two Hall crystal flutes with a bunch of books and stuff, and a little Yamaha fife. I'd found a bag while out on my packing supplies route that probably held some piece of technical equipment, and what had given me the idea was my finding out that all the flutes and books etc fit into the bag rather well. Two straps on the bottom even held my cheapo music stand in its bag, although it was a bit awkward. 

The plan was to take the stuff over to San Pedro Square where I'd find Ron, the homeless guy who used to play recorders and a little bippity-boppity drum and now just begs. He could learn to play the flutes, sell them, whatever he wanted to do with them. 

The thing is, Craig's List is dead these days and this stuff was nothing to shout about. 

So I did it, I got out of here around 6:45, stopped in Japantown to drop off some books at the little free library, stopped in Nijiya for some veggies and coffee and got cash back each time so I've drawn my "allowance" for this week, and stopped by the N-B store to toss this really cool wearable Obon bag, with the tag still on it, over their gate. They can sell it or use it somehow. 

Then over to San Pedro Square. And Ron was ... not there. I even locked the bike and walked around with the stuff and didn't find him or any other busker. 

My backup plan was to go into O'Flaherty's and get talking with some folks and give the flutes away in there, as the glass flutes have the same fingering as the pennywhistle so there might be some interest. But San Pedro Square looked like a Saturday night, it was jumpin' and O'Flaherty's had a bouncer out front complete with a huge chain and attitude, and I skipped that. 

I got back on the bike and rode around downtown. I could not find any buskers at all. Or any homeless that didn't look ... rabid. 

Then I remembered, Good Karma. That's a congenial kind of place where I might hang out and find someone who wants some flutes. So I went in there and got a beer so I'd have a reason to hang out at the bar, and asked the bartender and a few people and no one wanted a flute, "But we have musicians coming in at 8 and they might be interested" said the bartender. It was only  7:30. Late for San Jose but still early for jazz musicians I guess. 

So I sipped my beer and enjoyed the music they were playing on the record player, good old Led Zeppelin. 

Pretty soon the bartender put on something more modern (and blah!) and the band came in and started setting up. I asked one of the guys and he was like, "Well, sure, we'll take 'em!" so I handed the stuff over to him. 

I wanted to hear them play, so that called for another beer and I had a coffee beer this time. An older guy (I mean older than me!) sat down next to me and we got talking, He'd been a huge aficionado of Cafe Stritch, so we had something to talk about for a bit. 

The band started up and they were good. There was a stand-up bass, keyboard, drums, trumpet and trombone. Naturally I paid special attention to the trumpet. The music was OK. I think with a lot of what's called jazz these days is more of a technical exercise, and an exercise in how loud one can be. Good Karma is a tiny place, so why did everyone need to be amplified? And jazz is, or was, based on songs everyone knew, the so-called standards. That made it easy to follow, because the audience would know the standard they were working from. 

I, at least, didn't recognize any of the tunes they were playing or working from. The ultimate form of this kind of thing is some listening I tried on KPFA when they had some jazz on. It was technically brilliant and about as musical as a little kid rubbing their finger on a balloon. 

One of the Good Karma workers was wearing a black T-shirt with the white letters, "JAZZ IS DEAD". 

I finished my coffee beer and went over to Whole Foods. My stomach had been unhappy since I'd left here, and I wanted something greasy to soothe it. I'd even looked at the menu at Good Karma and considered getting some chips without the dip, if the chips were good and greasy, but the bartender said  the chips the day before had been nice and greasy, but not that night's so I passed. 

I went over to Whole Foods and got a nice big slice of pepperoni pizza, and a 4-pack of Guinness in those tall cans. The place was absolutely dead so I went upstairs figuring at least I could watch whatever's on the TV. 

It was dead up there too, and it was hockey on the TV. I didn't want to be the kind of asshole who pops open a beer from downstairs and eats pizza from downstairs too, so I got a pint of the IPA they brew there, Flood House or something. It was pretty good. 

I left there around 9,  so here I was three pints in and I don't drink. And all because of those lousy flutes but at least I don't have to waste time worrying about them any more. I got back here and started in on the Guinness. 

I went to bed around 10 or 11, woke up at about 5 in the morning, polished off the 1-1/2 beers I had left, and slept until 11AM. And here I am. Interestingly, I'm 2 lbs down, even with the beer and pizza. 

Sausage rolls

 It was Friday, I had my pay check all ready to deposit, had given myself a haircut (but not practiced!) before bed. was all spiffied up and ready to go once I woke up. 

And so, I went. I had a bunch of things to drop off at the post office, and did that, and then the bank. There's a new guy, Abdul something and he wanted my ID which I got out, muttering about how it's expired and I'd better take care of that, so here's my passport card and got that out. And I was just doing a deposit. Oh, he said, we don't need any of that, and I put the cards away. And the bank's numbers and mine agreed to the penny so everything's fine. I'm at just a bit over 13 grand these days. 

I'd been going back and forth with myself over whether to go get packing tape at Han Kook Market, and after a side trip to get a few bubble mailers from the Amazon place, I went over to Whole Foods which I had to go to anyway. I decided I'll go for it. So I got on the slow-ass #22 bus and went over to Han Kook's and got 12 rolls of tape, leaving some poor customer who comes after me with one. (There's actually another brand there that's probably fine, so I'm not leaving anyone in the lurch.) 

I got on the somewhat faster #522 bus back to the Diridon Station stop and walked back over to Whole Foods and got my usual nuts and a bottle of cold coffee. Interestingly, they're lowering prices there without having to have a Prime membership, on a lot of things. 

I hung out with the "Save The Children" people while I drank half of the coffee. They'd been there when I'd first gotten there, then when I got back from my tape run they'd been gone, and I'd noticed how nice a night it would be for playing music. But coming out with the coffee, there was the booth again. I guess when they take a break they pack everything up. Maybe they've had people mess with their booth and stuff. 

The coffee was to compensate for not having had that much sleep the night before, because now I was going to enact a plan I'd been mulling over for months, to go over to Trials Pub and have a sausage roll and a Guinness. 

I'd been seeing these things on YouTube about Greggs' sausage rolls in the UK for a while and Trials is supposed to be the most "genuine" English pub around. And one Guinness would not be a problem. 

So that's what I did; I rode over there, locked the bike at the rack in front, and went in and had a seat and ordered my Guinness and the sausage rolls, apparently it was two rolls according to the appetizer menu. 

So I ended up talking with a bunch of guys, and it came out that one of the bartenders, Dave, plays Gypsy jazz, on guitar. Everyone plays guitar. The sausage rolls came out and the way they do them, they're sliced up so they're .... sausage roll "bites"? It might be an appetizer for a table of 3 or 4, but even with an appetite it was a lot of food. And they were OK I guess. The sausage was bland, kind of a weisswurst flavor I guess, and the dipping sauce basically had no flavor. 

This is America, and these plate of food probably constitutes an appetizer for most of the crowd there, though, as it takes a fair amount of food to maintain their large body sizes. And as for the sauce, to Americans, any flavor is "too spicy" so through the miracle of Science they've come up with a sauce that even looks like it would taste like something, but doesn't. 

But it's all OK because the conversation came around to music. One of the vary large guys, working behind the bar also, also plays guitar (because everyone plays guitar) and presides over a group that plays in Menlo Park. And Dave's Gypsy jazz group is just "breaking in" a new player, a gal who's a violinist.  I told them about the Gypsy jazz I saw being played at The Pressroom a couple of months ago and it wasn't Dave's group or anyone. So here's a rare-ish music genre with at least two groups playing it that hadn't heard of each other. 

Since we're talking music, Let's have another Guinness, I said, and I told Dave he ought to check out the movies of Emir Kasturica and wrote it down for him and to check out the movie "Black Cat White Cat" especially. And we talked about Cafe Stritch and other places, and it was all a pretty good time, if noisy, and expensive. 

I spent about $40 between the two beers and food and tips, which is probably something like the average tech bro spending $200. That 2nd Guinness finished, I said "Now it's my turn to say I have to go," and went. 

It was pretty cold on the ride home, and I got back here around 10. I was very tired, full of food, and I went to bed pretty soon, right around 10. Even though there's no more smoking in bars, those places put a stink on you that's a bit much. I wonder what the guys who work there do? Do they get right in the shower and scrub themselves down when they get home? Do they have work (bar) clothes and non-work clothes? Do they just smell like a bar? 

Anyway so now I've done it and I don't have to again. 

 

Kewpie Anxiety

 It's when you're not sure if you have a backup bottle of Kewpie in the fridge so you'd better buy some Kewpie while you're at one of the stores that sell Kewpie. 

This is funny because I took packages to FedEx and visited H Mart as always, got some thing and then spent some time sitting by my bike, having some peanuts and coffee from home. I had time to think about things and that's where I started to think I was low on Kewpie. So I went back in, and it was perfect because the Kewpie was $5.99 and I had $6 on me. 

Well! The lady at the checkout tried to give me change for a $10. I knew I'd given her $6 so I was like, "Whoah whoa whoa, this is too much, I gave you $6, your drawer will come out wrong". She tried giving me back a buck, but I said the only change would be a penny and I'm not even worried about the penny. She gave me a shiny penny anyway. 

That's the first time I've been "over changed" at a store haha. 

Other than that, practice before bed last night (this morning) went well and all I can think is to be really "religious" about practice, because I should be able to play as high and as clearly when out busking as I can in practice here at home.