Taking stuff apart

 .... is good therapy I guess. I took a bunch of stuff apart and put a bunch of stuff out for the scrappers. Like some big used motors; we've not had good luck with used motors as they have a way of coming back and we lose money. 

If Ken depends on this operation for his finances to work now, then I have to keep the numbers good. So I not only took some things apart just to get 'em out of here, but also took another HP gadget apart because of the circuit boards with gold plated traces, which sell well. 

If Ken's 14 years older than myself, then he's got to be 77 or 78. Advanced age often brings poor financial decisions. This (I think it's a) reverse-mortgage thing he's taking so much time to get approved might be a good example of a very poor financial decision. 

Or, did he "bet the farm" on Bitcoin? Apparently it's halved in value over the last 4-5 months, and that would sync with the recent money troubles. 

I left here around 6PM, went to Nijiya for some instant dashi and got myself a bottle of tea and a musubi and $40 cash back. Then went back in for tea bags I'd "forgotten" and a small bag of spicy potato chips on sale, and another $40 cash back. So that's just under $100 out of my bank account. 

I went to the Amazon place but it's never that great on a weekend, and I got zero bubble mailers.

Then I rode down to Walmart and got necessities like T.P. and paper towels, a new water filter cartridge, some sunflower seeds and pepitas because they're both good and very cheap as "nuts" go, and a few different flavors of sardines to fill out my "fish library". That leaves me with $30 to last until Tuesday when I can deposit last week's pay check and see if any prior checks have bounced.  

 I know I should be out busking but I'm just not feeling it right now. I can get by fine on $30 for the next 3 days and .... I don't think the owning class really has a handle on how much we, the workers, the producers, can decrease our spending and get by. I see cutting back on spending as good practice for when I'm back in Hawaii and may have to be very thrifty, at least for a while as I get settled in. 

 

 

The best possible way to use this Friday night

 Would be to go downtown in time to drop off the 4 small packages I had to ship at the post office downtown, then visit the bank and check on my balance to make sure everything's OK, then post up at the Whole Foods on the Alameda or go down to Sunnyvale, and busk. 

So of course I didn't do that. I was up all night taking things apart, then slept in until about 4, had breakfast and packed the 4 small things, and took off for the post office I usually go to. 

I was early enough to go over to Dai Thanh market mainly to find some little kitchen tool or something for digging the weeds out of the cracks in the pavement here. Ken doesn't like how my garden grows! He talked about bringing over some weed killer but I said I'll just use boiling water on 'em, costs next to nothing and really works. I found a little tool that will work for 99c and also found a can of cold tea for $1.25 or so, and got a package of peanut butter mochi for $2 so it was a pretty good time on the cheap. And now I can dig out the weeds and then put boiling water on the roots and they'll be gone. 

I went to H Mart next and picked out two things at the bakery, but it had just turned 7:00 and the gal told me that the 2 for 1 after 7 isn't cut and dried, it depends on the manager yadda yadda so are you going to buy that? I said No and put the things back, and went to the hot case at the back of H Mart and picked out two breaded hot dogs that cost me the same and no drama. 

I had those and the tea sitting out front. The Yeo's brand tea is pretty good since it's not just green tea, but green *jasmine* tea, so it's got a really nice flavor. 

I found plenty of packing stuff on the way back, then got in here and found some things to put out front for the scavengers. And spent some hours taking things apart. 

That Ken plays his financial game right up to the edge, really bugs me. Now he depends on me to bring in enough or I guess it's more of what I've been seeing; bills not paid, electricity shut off, etc. This final year or so is going to be a real slog. 

At least I made some noise when he was over about my having come over to his way of thinking, how I'm going to work for him until I'm 67 years old, my full retirement age, blah blah. How surprised he's going to be when I actually get the hell out of here as I'm turning 65, will Not Be My Problem. 

 

Mr. (real estate) Bubble

 Ken came by last night, even called be before and asked if I wanted a convenience store sandwich, I said Nah I'm OK (why spend whatever Godawful prices they charge now for a sandwich when I've got food here?) and he came over with a hot dog and a sugary donut for himself (I might have said yes to a hot dog and they weren't expensive it turns out) and I made him a tea.

He brought over beat-up rack mount oscilloscope with 3 plug-ins and some boxes, and I got my check but he dated it for Tuesday next week. It *should* be OK to deposit, he said, and I said my bank doesn't allow me to deposit a check before it's dated so no worries about my depositing it early. 

We talked about the usual random shit but also, I asked him how he figures he's going to vacation in Scotland in July or so, when he's having trouble (he still hasn't paid the landlord their $1000 what a stupid hill to die on) and by the way, how's the debt consolidation going? 

He said he's still working on it .... he mentioned the name of the company he's dealing with and that was a huge red flag because I'd never heard of them. I'm as advertising-saturated as any Good American, and there are a ton of companies out there and that he's going to a no-name rings all kinds of alarm bells with me. 

He said it's some setup where "They don't want the house until we're dead" so basically whatever they're calling it, it sounds like some kind of reverse-mortgage deal. 

No paying off the house which should have been long paid for. No leaving it to their children. Two sons and a daughter, one son doing well, daughter doing well-ish for now, one son doing OK I guess but he'd better get used to the idea of "urban camping". Something could happen with any of their kids and now, once they're gone, no family wealth to lean back on. 

Ken's wife has savings, but any medical problems and those will be gone quick. 

And also, Ken's leaning more on what I can bring in for him on Ebay than before. Before, this Ebay business just kind of puttered along, if the money was good that was good, if it wasn't so good it was still OK. But now he's playing things super close, hence being given a check last night, a Wednesday, and being told not to deposit it until next Tuesday. 

The end result of all of this is, as always, for me to sell things off, give things away, conserve my money as best I can, and be prepared to jet out of here. 

Ken's assuming things will keep going the way they've been since about 2010. Real estate going up and up and up some more. In reality the real estate bubble's pumped up even higher than it was in 2005. 

2006 was a slow deflation and that's when I had guys coming up to me at the ham radio flea market saying if they hadn't waited to sell their house that 6 months, they'd have gotten $50k more, etc. 

To put not too fine a point on it, we're setting up for another nice real estate crash. And for Ken, it doesn't even have to be a crash. He's got his finances stacked up like a Jenga tower where the slightest financial wind will tip it over. 

 

Steyer vs. Hilton vs. Becerra

 The full results are not in, and the information is hard to get, hard to find online and they're not talking about it much on the radio. But it looks like it's still undecided who will be the top two, to be voted on for California Governor in 2028. I voted for Steyer, because Becerra is endorsed by our evil electric company, PG&E, and Hilton is a baby-raping Republican. I'd rather not have a Sabbatean Frankist in office, thank you! 

Since I plan to be out of here 3/4 of the way through 2027, if not before, I won't get to vote on this. I want to be registered to vote back home in Hawaii so I can vote against my older sister's friends like the evil Ed Case, ASAP. Plus, since I'll be able to walk to jury duty since everything is *not* 30 miles from everything else, I look forward to being a juror. 

 

Election Day

 It's the mid-term election day. This is where we see if voting is enough. This is what people outside the US are saying; that people in the US think they can just sit back and vote, or sit back and sit out the vote and that's enough. What they're saying is we need to develop some guts, like the French. 

There's also this 250th anniversary thing going on, which the present regime is trying its best - and it's very good at these things - to make it something people will try their best not to remember. 

I was up all night packing I dunno, 35 things in 4 different boxes. These combination sales are really not much less time-consuming than if the things were all individually ordered by different customers. 

The talk today - anything to distract from the Epstein files - is about taking people off of Medicaid, which in this state is my beloved Medi-Cal. If the present regime gets it wish, this will kick in January 1st, 2027. I'll have to prove I work at least 80 hours a month, which translates to 20 hours a week. I certainly work that, but there might be some form Ken will have to fill out saying I work that many hours for him. 

I believe I'd be out from under the requirement once I turn 65, so just add that to the pile of magical things that happen like half-price bus fare and college courses for the cost of the student activity fee. 

I got the packages sent off and found a ton of packing stuff on the way back, then came back here and unloaded and went back out, this time without the trailer, to go to Lowe's for another ruler because the one I was using got stained with blue ink, and a new table cloth for a photography background because the grey one I've been using is still too dark I think. So I found a white one in HomeGoods. 

I had a couple of corn dogs (2 for 1) at H Mart too, and by the time I was back here it was almost 10, the equivalent of almost 1AM in any other town. 

 

What a hill to die on

 I woke up around 2:30 in the afternoon. Packing that 15-item order had taken a ton of time. 

I checked my email and yep, Ken's still not paid the $1005.00 to the landlord. I mean, the rent's like 4 grand, why has he chosen this hill to die on? 

I packed all the things I could and headed out to the post office and FedEx and called Ken from behind FedEx. He said he'll call the landlord tomorrow but right now he doesn't have enough money in his account. 

The thing is, as is required in  the Suburbian religion, he has to spend all the money he gets and a bit more. 

I have a ton of things to pack, something like 60 things, almost all going to 3-4 different buyers, plus I need to keep selling things off and getting ready for the big move back home, which may be with short notice. 

One nice thing is that I've made it all week without using any money from my bank account. All busking and selling off some flutes for $50. So maybe I'd have taken $50 out of the bank. The main thing is to save all I can, while I can. 

I'm rather proud of myself that last night, after busking at Whole Foods and going around with Petition Guy inside Whole Foods, I didn't spend a thing. There wasn't anything I needed, so I didn't spend anything. 

 

 

Zombiful afternoon

 I woke up around 3 or 3:30, packed one thing, and took off to take it to FedEx. I also had some stickers I'd made last night to "enhance" one of the political signs that had sprouted up. Sunday's a good day to do that, less people around. 

I was able to do both things, send off package and deploy stickers. I rode outside my usual route to find any signs by the particular politician and found a few more than I'd have otherwise, so that's good. 

But there were zombies just everywhere. The warm weather brings 'em out. My zombie avoidance skills had to be really on point. 

I got back here and decided my trip downtown would be dual duty. I had a ton of over the counter drugs and bandages and stuff I wanted to donate, so I put those in two large bags, and got the cornet and tip box and so on, and headed out. 

I wanted to donate the stuff to the "Peace And Justice Center" and I was happy to see a NO WAR WITH IRAN sign up front. You know the local Zionists hate 'em haha. They had their back yard fenced off so I just threw the bags over the fence. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and got settled in. I started busking at 8, and it went fairly well. No Feet and other beggars were not there, and while there were hinky types wandering around, I had my eye on 'em and they knew it, and by 9 they'd drifted away. 

I got a $1 tip right away, then tips were slow but trickled in. A young guy came up with a slice of pizza from Pizza My Heart and tried to give it to me, "Have you eaten today?" I said I was fine. He said he was giving out pizza to homeless people and I said he should look on Santa Clara street downtown because he'll find takers for his pizza.  

I wanted to make at least $20 since I'd spent about $14 at H Mart, and by 9 I had $19 and a Target gift card I was told had $5 on it. I wanted to hand it off to one of the hinky types but they'd all left. I decided I'd try to busk until 9, and made it to about 9:30. 

Whole Foods closes at 10 and I think there's a sort of attitude among the later shoppers that anyone out playing music that late deserves a tip. And Petition Guy showed up, not to set up his table or anything but to shop. So I packed up and accompanied Petition Guy while he shopped. He just picked out some yogurt and juice, something like that, and got in a discussion that might have been an argument with a Black lady who was shopping in that area too, that he knew by name. 

It came out that Petition Guy had been happy when Trump was first elected, but has since changed his mind, hard, like so many have. But she's under the impression that he's a Trump supporter. "She's got a bad attitude about everything", he said. I said, "Some people are like that", and said he should not worry about it. Truth is, he has a bad attitude also, which is why those two seek each other out to fight with. 

I got a chance to count up my money and I'd made $28, plus the $5 Target gift card which I'd given to Petition Guy. The ride home was peaceful, as it should be, as it was past 9PM which is the same as past midnight anywhere else. 

I was up all night, besides making and eating dinner, there was "playing with my food" by which I mean dividing up and freezing portions of beef and pork I'd bought. And then I packed an order of 15 things for one guy. He's bought a lot more than that, but doing batches of 15 or so things seems easiest and even then it's not easy because I've got three customers all making these big orders like this, then all the normal, 1-2 items orders, all of them all mixed up in order of when they were ordered. So it's a lot of keeping track of things.