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. 

 

$123.25 Sunday

 I actually got out of here at a bit after 4. 4:30 is what I'll say. I rode over to Whole Foods, left the bike there, and got on a bus, since the next #522 at 20 minute or more out (I'd just missed one) I got on the #22 that was arriving and in the end,  I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods and started busking at 6:15. 

I felt like it was slow, but as I always remind myself, it's paid practice and I'm here to learn. As usual I got some nice encouragement and got to talk to some interesting people, some of them ... "interesting". 

Like the homeless lady who came up and tried to talk with me about a guy named "Brazil", apparently. I thought she was asking if I could play a song about Brazil, but no, it was a guy who's street name was Brazil, passed away now and he was nice to everyone, yadda yadda. She was fingering a coin, and since I didn't want to talk for the next hour about this Brazil person, I started in on a song and she dropped the coin in the box and moved on. 

The coin was a 5-peso, kind of neat, but I chucked it into the short hedge that's there, so the next person digging around in there will find it. 

A bit later I heard a sound like something heavy falling down, and it was a guy, not an old guy either but maybe in his 40s, who'd stepped through a little gap in the hedge that people step through, and gotten his foot caught in the little slot between the hedge and the curb. And over he'd gone. He wrecked his glasses, too. With only about $7 in the tip box I felt fine about walking over and making sure he was OK, and helping look for anything he might have dropped. He was a fairly good sport about it, too, as much as you can be when you really hadn't planned on falling over and trashing your glasses on a Sunday evening. 

I played along, most notably a song I had stuck in my head a few days ago, that's one of the ones we played in the shakuhachi club. It's a neat sounding theme song to some anime, and I'm pretty sure the title is "Arigato" but there are a ton of songs named that. I'll had to dig through my shakuhachi music and see if I can find the title because I wrote it down. 

There are tons of kids, because people really like to take their kids grocery shopping and doing general things around there, and "Eentsy Weentsy Spider" seems to be a real hit with them. The Sesame Street theme is a fun one to play also. So I had a fairly good time because after all, other than these busking sessions it's just work, work, work around here. Just like life is supposed to be here. 

Pretty soon it was a quarter to 8 and I was talking to some guy on a bike and telling him to be safe and about how the guy had tripped and fallen and wrecked his glasses so you never know, and it had gone pretty dead. 8PM is late around here. So I played my sign-off song and did a count up: $123.25. That's really good. 

I walked out to Baraka Market and got olives and my yogurt drink, went over to the bus stop and a bus came maybe 30 seconds after I got there, and it was a #522 so it was just about perfect. 

I put things into the bike bags and used the loo and walked around a bit inside "my" Whole Foods but there wasn't anything I could think of that I needed. 

I rode around downtown just to see if much was going on, and there kind of was, and wasn't. I didn't see any other buskers. At Whole Foods while I was distributing things into the bike bags, a bum came up and did a lot of fiddling around with plastic bags and then asked me when Whole Foods closes and  I said 10, and he had to ask this a few different ways, always getting 10 as a reply, then he concluded that he had until 10 (it was now about 9) to set up and beg. So that's a performer, I guess. 

There's been one of those scam booths set up, Save The Animals or something, with one guy who obviously has a lot of "community service" work off or a lot of debt or something, because he's been at it the last couple of nights and I'd hate to have to compete with him. People *do* set up booths at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods but in that case I can always play in the parking garage. So Mr. Bum will have to compete with him, and maybe will get the money he needs for his drugs and booze. 

 

$74 Saturday

 Last night I photo'd 20 things and listed 10, as usual. Then I practiced and it went pretty well. I got decent sleep. I still didn't get out of here as early as I wanted to. It was close to 5:00 when I left. 

I rode right over to Whole Foods and only had to use the loo and then walked right over to the bus stop. There was some kind of concert going on and traffic was at a crawl, including the buses. I got on a #22 bus and got off at the stop opposite 5 Guys because the #522 stops there, and a few minutes later there came a #522. 

I actually got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30 although it took me a few minutes to get set up etc., so it was probably more like 6:45 when I started. 

It went pretty well. I got to talk to some interesting people, mainly an Indian guy who didn't have any cash so I said some people buy gift cards, and he went in and got one. When he came out he handed me one, for $20 which was pretty cool. I asked him if he played an instrument and it came out that his background is in sax, and he's been trying, a bit, to play trumpet. 

And having the hardest time! He can play G in the staff and not much of anything else at all. He bought a cheap trumpet somewhere, and I advised he take at least a couple of lessons at West Valley Music, and get the trumpet checked over too. I explained how he could have one valve piston turned around the wrong way and it might feel OK and play a G in the staff but not do much else. It's just universal best advice to, if you want to try the trumpet, rent one at your local music store and get at least a few lessons. The nice thing about renting is you know the horn doesn't have problems, and unless you do something really dumb, minor repairs are covered. 

At another point I had a family walk by and go up the stairs, and at the tail of the group was a fat kid, who smiled at me and I kinda did the smile with my eyes thing. A few moments later he came back with a tip, and I asked him if he plays an instrument. It didn't sound like he did, so I said he ought to try one, trumpet or maybe try a few and see what he likes, maybe the sax or the drums, who knows. So that was cool. 

I was offered food twice. One tall European-accented couple tried to give me a box of those cookies with chocolate inlaid into the top. I said I'm on a diet, no sugar or starches so I can't eat them. Another guy, later, tried giving me a little package of Driscoll's half and half blackberries and blueberries. I said No thanks. The cookies were kind of neither here nor there and maybe I should have accepted them, to pass off to someone else. The berries, I dunno, I hate the though of depriving a guy of the enjoyment of those berries. 

All in all it went pretty well. I think I'm trying to brute-force high notes less and that's good. And when my tone started getting rough I relaxed and played something really easy and the roughness went away. 

Once it was 8:00 things got dead though. After all, it's getting near bedtime for everyone in Sunnyvale. I counted up and I'd made $74. 

I walked out to Baraka Market and got my yogurt drink and some broccoli, and walked over to the bus. A #22 came and I didn't get on, waiting for the #522. I waited a bit and a guy who was playing rap music on his phone came and asked about the bus. I said I'd been waiting 15 minutes or so but that a #22 had gone by about 5 minutes ago. 

Then another #22 came and I decided Screw it and got on. Mr. Rap Music played his music loudly until the bus driver used the intercom, with some kind of creepy echo effect going on, to play it quietly, and he did, and then got off the next stop or so. 

I got back to "my" Whole Foods at about 9:20, and went in to spend the gift card. It turns out if I buy a bag of macadamia nuts and a bag of hazel nuts, it leaves $1.50-odd on the card. I went out and looked for the pretty rough looking homeless guy I'd seen outside, to give it to, but he was gone. Who was not gone was a homeless lady who Kenny, the Whole Foods worker, talks to. I gave it to her. 

Then I just rode for home but by way of downtown just to see if anything's going on. The answer is, not much. No other buskers. A busker might do pretty well playing in front of the "panda wall" because there were a ton of people around. Or San Pedro Square, assuming anyone carries cash there any more. But, nada. 

I stopped at Japantown and the little yakitori/kushiyaki table was out, and I ordered the pork belly. It's a sort of "pop up" thing being run out of "Aloha Fresh" which is a poke place, but the guy told me they're working on moving into their new place, which I believe is going to be the store front on 6th that used to hold a Hawaiian dance supply place, hula skirts and uli-uli's and such things. That will be great because they'll likely have some tables or chairs or something. As it was, my order was bagged up in a black plastic bag like it's a drug deal or something, and I ate it back here, by which time it was cold, but still delicious. I'd been meaning to try them out. 

 

We're just gonna keep winning

 I can tell how the "Iran War" is going to go. We're just going to keep on winning and winning and winning, year after year, until we're kicked out of there. Just like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. Perhaps with a bonus of tens of thousands of US service people killed and there won't be any Jewish casualties. 

I stayed up all night taking more things apart, then did a practice that went a bit better than the night before. One thing I'm starting to see is, in trying to hit a night note, there's a point where I'm pushing too hard, and by backing off, the note comes out. In other words there's a sweet spot and it takes quite a bit less pushing than I previously thought. 

I woke up around 4, had coffee and nuts and got cleaned up a bit, and went down to Walmart and paid the electric bill. That went fine. They have a whole sort of menu board on the wall showing what bills can be paid there, like the water bill. Also things like, if you're a jailbird and owe the jail haha.