Happy Birthday, Herr Himmler

 I looked to see if he was in fact a descendant of Heinrich The Fowler but sadly, no. Although he considered himself an avatar of, or spiritual successor of, The Fowler and that's good enough for me. 

"We fought the wrong side" - general Patton. 

I can't think of anything else notable about this day. If the USS Liberty can be forgotten about, then I can't think of anything else of any note. I guess if I'd planned ahead I might have gone to Teske's downtown and celebrated Herr Himmler with some Schweinshaxe and a good bier. 

Last night I had hamburger on top of asparagus, and also cooked more, courtesy of 5 bundles of it that had fresher tips than I often see in the supermarket, for free. So I had delicious chilled asparagus today. Plus I got two large packages of blueberries and with all the warnings lately, plus there's a reason they got tossed, I put some time into picking out the good ones by hand, rinsing those, and cooked them along with one of those little boxes of coconut milk. I also added salt, I think a bit too much, but hey  a lot of "sweet" things are also salty. Lookin' at you, instant cocoa. 

So today after dropping off packages I bought a can of whipped cream at H Mart, which should be perfect with the not too sweet and somewhat salty cooked and now chilled blueberry ... soup? 

Plus I got a bunch of hothouse cucumbers, small ones but fresh. So I got a good batch of freebees last night. 

Today's the day the EMT training place throws out stuff but when I got there there wasn't anything, but there was an old Asian guy collecting bottles and cans. I dug out a couple for him. That's a hard way to make money, since they're only worth 5c-10c each. 

I got back here and the guys hadn't taken the box of scrap I left out, but had put some heavy greasy car part in, haha. So once I was back and had put things away I put in another old car part that had been living under the bench in front of their door for a while, and took the box of stuff up alongside Old Bayshore where someone will pick it up. It's kind of funny how sometimes, in fact most of the the time, the stuff will be picked up and not a trace left, and other times the stuff will be untouched and there will be *more* stuff. It all works out in the end. 

Also, last night, I got a good practice session in. I felt rusty as hell having not practiced for over a week. I really wanted to work on this "aperture" idea that one Japanese guy I watched on YouTube went on about. And I think I'm on a very productive track. I was actually able to do high notes easily, when I could get away from using too much pressure (both breath and mouthpiece against lips) and I've found I can play some super crazy high notes and yes they're actual notes not just squeaks, it's just a matter now of filling in the notes between those and the ones in the staff and slightly above the staff. 

Dennis Hasters and Jim Bakker, GONE NOWWWWWWW.....

 The "GONE NOWWWWWW" in the voice of "Metal LEO" on YouTube, who loves saying that about closed businesses, of which there are so many, he sees in his walks around US cities and towns. Haha! 

I burned up some of the "popcorn", crumpled up sensitive papers, last night and was doing various things when I found out the water was off. I called Ken to ask if he paid the bill and he said he'd check, then I got the bright idea to just get some water from next door, where they have a hose set up. But theirs was off too so I called Ken back and said it's not just us so don't panic. 

I set out to go buy some water, and remembered that there had been work trucks around this place at the front of the complex where it's always wet. I'd even smirked and said, "Welcome to the perma-puddle" as I'd rode by earlier. They were really working on it now. 

I decided I'd go to the 7-11 on 1st, because being a franchise store, for some reason this would mean water would be reasonable. Well, it wasn't. I got some, but the main thing about that place was the BUMS. There were bums on the corner and one bum in front of the store, and when I went out with my water, there were about 5 bums hanging around my bike. The bums were, as bums do, quarreling among themselves and muttering and jibbering etc., under their various drug and mental illnesses. There were bums inside too, also arguing among themselves, and acting crazy in various ways. The Indian guys inside have to put up with this shit every night. I can't begrudge them their high prices because of this. It's a war zone. 

I got out front with my 2 liters of water, put 'em in the bag and unlocked the bike as quickly as I could manage smoothly, hopped on and got out of there without even bothering with the lights, just get me out of here! 

I decided to swing by the place on 1st and Brokaw, just to see what their prices are. There was one bum-ass / zombess with a cart of some sort loaded with crap, holding quite the lively conversation with herself, out in the parking lot but at least I didn't have to go through a screen of bums to go in, and there weren't bums inside. Their water prices were a bit less, and they had pork rinds. So I got a bag of pork rinds and a liter of water there, too. 

I had a bit of a conversation with the Indian guy there, who said they call the police but they never do anything. I said Yeah, unless the bum is being violent or trying to break in, they can't do anything. I said unfortunately you can't just take a stick and whack 'em and chase 'em off.  It's not like the old days, we agreed. 

As an elaboration on this, I said that back where I grew up, when I was a kid, there were very few stray dogs and cats, and no stray chickens. Now there are tons. The difference being, in the old days, people ate 'em! Even the dogs and cats, I didn't care and don't now. But now there are tons of stray animals, chickens all over the place. 

(Likewise there were very few homeless. People didn't eat 'em, it's just that your family took care of you or the state mental hospital did, or you just plain fucking straightened up and flew right. Not taking drugs was a major factor, I'm sure.) 

So I got back and got through my night using up almost all of the water, and although the water was still off when I went to bed around 7-8AM, it was on when I woke up at 4PM. 

 

Papers conquered

 I spent the night doing what I'd taken the weekend off to get done. I had the packing out of the way, and got out the 5, not 3, banker's boxes of papers and sorted out the things I really want to keep, the latest 3 mailings with my home address on them to take to the DMV along with my expired license and passport to get my "Real ID", and had a huge mass of stuff to throw away or burn. 

That was what took up most of the time, making "popcorn", crumpled up balls of papers with sensitive information on them, to burn. 

I also found application papers for Medi-Cal which I'd been sent over the years, but never filled them in haha. I still have Medi-Cal and I'm sure it's pretty easy for the powers that be to find my income and such information. 

I also saw, on one of them, that I can, and am encouraged to, apply for Medicare when I am 64 years and 9 months of age. I'll need to look into that. I've heard there are some kind of penalties for applying if I'm much over 65, so I need to research all of this. 

Two bags of non-sensitive papers went out in the Post Office trash, and burning up the "popcorn" may take a week or two, doing it bit by bit. 

There's a lot of personal stuff that mattered once but just doesn't any more. The copy of my high school newspaper with my picture in it, sure. Stuff about the sport I did, doesn't matter and no one cares. Even shit like my amateur radio license; I'm just not interested. I find listening in on strange radio stuff to be interesting, I'm not that interested in transmitting. 

It was kind of fun looking at some of the old stuff though. Apparently it was the Outrigger Hotel snack bar that I worked for, long ago, serving up hot dogs. It's apparently been gentrified away now. 

I've been watching a lot of fishing videos from people in Hawaii and those are fun. I'm also currently into watching videos from three different guys who metal detect around my old stomping grounds in Orange County, California. I've got some metal detecting ideas of my own back in Hawaii which should only require one of those "pin pointers" that people who dig for coins in parks use. 

But fishing is something I really look forward to doing again. 

I'm also looking at prices for things, and fools on Reddit keep nattering on about how "food is 3X as much" in Hawaii and it's just not true. It's about 30% less, if one eats a normal, local, cuisine. Even a lot of fancy imported stuff like Swiss cheese from Switzerland at Whole Foods, is probably no more expensive than it is here and I'd not be surprised to see it 10% - 20% less because they base their prices on what the market will bear more than on their cost. 

It *is* expensive to live what I call an Orthodox Suburbian lifestyle in Hawaii. To do so, you must only eat foods that are standard "suburban" foods on the mainland, tons of "diet" or "healthy" foods that are 99% sugar and carbs, etc.

It's a lot more expensive than my diet, to follow the Orthodox Suburbian diet here on the mainland, too, in all fairness. It's kind of required to be at least pre-diabetic if not full-on diabetic, and Ken recently told me his doctor says he's going from Type 2 to something close to Type 1. That's an achievement and it takes a lot of work (and insulin). You have to hog down a burger and two bags of fries as your "snack" before you go home to dinner, waffles or pancakes or a mixing bowl full of sugary cereal for breakfast, and so on. Fast food, sugary cereals, prepared frozen "hash browns", etc are expensive here, or there. 

My point being, I yawn at the supposedly expensive prices I see, looking at the online "sale flyer" from Foodland, Hawaii's answer to Safeway. I actually worked for them for a bit. It was ... not great. But I'll sure shop there, seeing that they have things I'll buy that are 1/2 the price they are here. 

Speaking of old times, on Friday night I rode through San Pedro Square and there I saw Ron, the guy who used to play a recorder (he had about three of them, including one I'd given him) and this little bippity-boppity wooden box drum. I'd seen him off and on for at least a decade now, I think a bit longer, so I was interested to hear how he was doing. 

He was no longer playing any music of any type, and was dirty, dirtier than I've ever seen him and that's saying something. He's still living in a friend's (probably friend's mom's) kitchen for $420 (tee hee) a month. But he's lost his job washing dishes for The Old Spaghetti Factory. 

This last, Gee I wonder why? If he seemed to have some shred of self-respect, playing music, before, he's fallen far below that now and has gone full bum. He even had a bum-specification sign, barely readable. He said he's just "doing this" (begging) now. 

He said they'd cut his hours down and down, finally scheduling him none, at The Old Spaghetti Factory and it's obvious why: The guy's filthy and not anything you'd want anywhere near any place where people eat food. If he's living in a guy's kitchen at least in theory he's got access to a shower, maybe even laundry facilities. Worst-case the kitchen is a place to sleep and he could use a laundromat for laundry and join a gym or something for a shower.  

I have a sneaking suspicion the guy's smoked a ton of pot and that's why he is the way he is now. Pot was considered harmless then I was a kid/teen but it's obviously not and I'm glad I simply didn't care for it. 

 https://www.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/1wy96m4/the_son_ate_5_meals_a_day_to_save_his_dad/ Wow this worked! OK it's about an 11-year-old kid in China who was a bone marrow match for his father, but could not do it because he was too small. So he ate 5 meals a day, gained 33 lbs, and was then big enough and was able to save his dad. Hero kid. But also, fantastically wealthy kid compared to 11-year-old me, growing up here in the US. 

When I was 11 there was simply not enough food around to gain 5 lbs much less 33. My dad would have just plain fucking died and that would have been it. I dare anyone to try telling me China is some kind of loserville and the US this great, wonderful, nation. 

I want to live a long life for a number of reasons, not least of which is to see China take its rightful place as leader of the world. 

 

Uncle Adolf's One-Pot Dinners

 The Nazi regime was horrible, Oh so horrible, that they had a sort of program where, one weekend a month, people were encouraged to have "one pot" dinners, vegetarian or largely so, instead of the end-of-the-week roast or ham etc. The money saved on that dinner was to be donated to aid for the poor. 

Hitler was such a cruel, cruel, creep that he instituted early on, something called "Winterhilfe" or "Winter Help" and vowed that no longer would elderly poor die of cold and hunger in the winter. 

I'm sorry but I can't imagine Americans cooperating in this way. It's just not a thing in the JewSA. I hear from time to time, of parents going hungry so their kids can eat, but honestly I've never seen it in real life. That's not how American parents operate. The rules in America are, if you're bigger and stronger, you get first pick of everything, and the smaller and weaker have to just try to stay out of the way and get by on what's left. 

When my oldest sister, the first born, first encountered rivalry in the form of a sibling, my older brother, she had a 4-year head start so obviously, in American logic, this is why she had a governess, and private schools and pretty much everything. My parents, being bigger and stronger than us kids, never missed a meal while we kids missed quite a few. And my mother, although she always got the best of what we had, didn't eat as well as my father, being biggest, strongest, and the best earner when he could find work. 

And one still wonders why Uncle Adolf is being looked at more squarely and honestly by the kids now? This dog-eat-dog American way of doing things makes no sense, and by the time I was in my teens we kids looked out for each other more than our parents ever looked out for us. At least we kids had some of our Folkish instincts intact! 

I mainly packed things last night, to get and hopefully stay caught up. 

But the main reason for taking the weekend off of busking is I want to get all of my important papers consolidated into this one file folder thing I got at FedEx (they sell a good assortment of office supplies) so all the papers can fit in that, in a backpack along with other important things. Right now the papers are in three Bankers Boxes and most of them need to be disposed of. 

I need to be ready to get out of here with a minimum of fuss. Since I no longer drink, there's no longer the chance that I might get really drunk and blurt out my plans, but there's always the chance that Ken might sense something. Or, and this is a bigger worry, that he might bring in some friend to work also and juice up sales, and then I'll have some idiot in here with access to all of my stuff, probably thinking they can boss me around. That would be reason enough to clear out and I mean immediately, to a hotel room, while I round up airline tickets and get rid of things etc. 

So the idea is not only to pare down papers, but to pare down personal belongings as much as possible without it being obvious, and have plans in place to dispose of what's left when I fly the coop. 

For instance, my bike and trailer will be used to get me with my backpack and suitcase to the Airport Flyer bus stop, where I'll leave the bike + trailer with a "FREE" sign. By that time all over bike stuff will be gone. Before that I'll be using the bike and trailer to run loads of stuff to the sidewalk in front of the Goodwill on 7th street, or maybe just the space by the bridge where I often dump things. Or just run a free ad on Craig's List and tell people a bunch of stuff will be in the parking lot by Watersavers Irrigation. 

The suitcase is an interesting subject on its own. I have about 3 of them that I've picked up, and the one I like most is this bright orange plastic American Tourister one that I don't have a key for, but I think the lock on it is a "TSA" lock which means I only need to obtain or make a "TSA" key. I have another that I like fairly well, but it's missing a wheel so I need to either replace the wheel, or set it up with two bumpers so it will have two wheels. It's big and really light. The suitcase will hold my cornet, in its case, and the cornet gig bag, and then whatever space is left can be clothes and stuff. 

 

Observatories

 I'm gonna write this down first. On reddit there's a post about "Fremont Peak Observatories" which I suppose is an observatory complex on .... Fremont Peak. 

Or ... one observatory at least  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Peak_Observatory

And about the programs to, you know, go up there and see the stars and stuff. Cool. 

Except there's pretty much a 0.000000000000000001% chance of my EVER being able to do something like that. According to quantum "tunneling" theory, there's a chance I could run at a brick wall and pass through unharmed. It's on that order. 

But back home in Hawaii, well, ya wanna see stars? Tell a moke you like beef hahah OK joking aside, just take DaBus out to anywhere good and dark, Hawaii Kai is nice, and just look up at 'em. Plus the University of Hawaii has at least some sort of observatory on campus, plus there will be local hobby astronomers holding "star parties" which, Hawaii being how it is, won't require you to own a car to get to, for good viewing. 

All kinds of things work this way back home as opposed to here. Wanna take a college class? Just walk over to the damn college and sign up. Everything's a walk or what would be a very short bus ride here.  

I can't even imagine how much money + time + vehicular support it would take to go collecting seashells or snorkeling or *gasp* surfing here. 

OK rant over. Yesterday and last night I was so tired I didn't feel like doing much of anything. So I engaged in a good "put brain in neutral" activity, taking stuff apart while listening to videos on YouTube. Now have have tons more parts to sell, and 3 annoying plain-Jane bulky gadgets off the shelves. 

I *did* watch a video by a Japanese guy who plays and teaches trumpet, "4 octaves easy" or something, and according to him, it's not a matter of tightening the "corners" of the mouth almost like a smile, but concentrating on the air coming out of the little hole you make in the center of the lips, and with no more or less pressure, just making the hole larger or smaller, you can make lower or higher notes. He did several demonstrations and it's pretty impressive, given he said his age was 76. 

This, if it works, would be in line with Allen Vizzutti and his premium on relaxation, and Claude Gordon's on "it's just air flow, don't pay attention to the lip". 

I woke up around 1 this afternoon because the guys next door parked one of their trucks right outside my door but at least they were noisy about it. So I made up two "DON'T PARK HERE" signs to put under the windshield wipers and made sure they saw me writing down the license number, and it was moved pretty quick. I don't get it; they have the whole parking lot and yeah it was about half full but that's it, it was half full. 

Since I was up I got to work packing 15 things for one buyer in one box, and of course 3-4 of the things had disappeared into thin air, so refunds were in order. But I got the package sent off and at least in theory Ken made a bit of money on this. 

 

Taking the weekend off

 Last night I was up all night not only packing a 20-item order, but finding a few other things, plus I put the boxes of stuff I'd listed but not put away yet, away. I was far too tired to practice. Especially since I also gave myself a haircut and got all cleaned up so when I woke up I'd not have to worry about that. 

I woke up and it was kind of nice, just having to worry about breakfast and packing a couple more things, then I was outta here. 

I dropped off the 4-5 small things I had packed at the post office downtown, deposited my check at the bank and their numbers and my numbers agree so that's great. 

I went over to Whole Foods and bought some nuts and got $100 cash back since I'm not busking this weekend. Then I rode down to Walmart and spent about $50, on useful things. 

Then I headed back to Nijiya and got some salmon sashimi because I was feeling pretty hungry, and at that at the one table they have out front. Next was just riding home, dropping things off and loading up the trailer with the big box, and the plastic tub I use, which on this trip carried a bag of trash. I dropped both off at FedEx (the trash in the can out front, of course). 

Due to having had the sashimi, I just got some routine things inside H Mart, although  I did get one of their $3 iced coffees and a $5 "dubai" chocolate er, "chocolate" bar. Sometimes I just feel like some waxy chocolate sort of stuff.

So that was $8 on those two treats alone, but money's worth so little now it doesn't even seem like much. Back in the silver money era, that might have been 35c, although at present silver prices that would be almost twice as much, $15. 

The lady at the checkout had handed me a package of some kind of milk dinner or breakfast buns, "I give to you!" which was nice, and I took them along, but I had no plant to eat them. I tried giving them to a homeless guy who was relaxing in front of Dave's Chicken but he didn't want 'em. 

After finding packing stuff along my usual route,  I passed a bus stop on Brokaw that seems to have an older Black person permanently camped there. I'd left stuff there the other night and that stuff was gone now, so I just leaned the buns against the bus stop sign and took off. 

I got back here and am all done, whew! Also, last night I'd found a sort of climbing harness that I thought I might put on Ebay but it looked like one of the rivets holding it together had been repaired and I wasn't sure about selling it in that condition, so I'd left it out front here. And now it's gone so that's convenient. 

 

I may not busk this weekend

 All that packing and working with those heavy parts and the 4 bike rides hauling them up to FedEx trying to make good time getting them there, really wore me out. 

Ken came by last night, we talked, he brought me a burger because a good American will always make sure a fellow American never goes without eating beef daily, etc. I got my pay check, dated for Friday. 

I went to bed pretty soon (about 2 hours) after Ken left. I slept a good bit, woke up about noon, then went back to sleep and had a weird dream about setting up another shop in Texas of all places, not some "hip" place like Austin, but some small town that's a part of Houston? Asking someone in the dream, it was part of the Houston complex. There were two big used book stores on the same street, a classical guitar studio, some nondescript businesses on either side of the building I was to make my new "home" etc. 

I think the point of the dream was that just about anywhere else would have more "culture" than San Jose, California.

The dream was quite realistic, I went to pee and could not (thank goodness!) and I thought about the $500 or so I was spending on the hotel I was at while  I was spending all my time at the new place, and I was going to explore the neighborhood for restaurants as I was getting hungry and regardless of it being dark, I was hungry for some breakfast. Then I woke up, haha. 

Wow I'm really sore and have to pack some multi-item packages. 

Oh, and the small-hats are up to their usual tricks, this latest being a faked attempted airplane hijacking or downing, funny how it's timed to theoretically boost support for "Trumpstein". 

The thing is, I woke up really sore and want to stay caught up on shipping, and I have not only not practiced the last couple of days but even I'm getting tired of the stuff I've been playing and want to work on some new pieces. So I dunno if I'll get out busking at all this weekend. 

It's funny, Ken makes a bunch of money (I see the Ebay messages and he just got a bit under 4 grand into his bank account) and I get sore, miss out on a weekend's busking so that's $150-$200 loss. 

And when I told Ken about this big deal that made him so much money and how it might solve some money problems for him, he just said "It will" and really didn't show much enthusiasm, forget about appreciation for my work. 

Lighting out of here on my birthday next year is going to feel SO good!  

I took one large box (a $200 sale) with 4 transformer cores in it to FedEx, and the rest of the stuff to the post office. I didn't need anything at 99 Ranch so I just went back to H Mart. I'm still really tired and was open to something easy to digest for dinner. I checked on the sushi situation since after 7, according to a sign that was up, it's 1/2 price. If there was another "Alaska roll" I was going to get it. There wasn't, and the sign was gone. 

I just got some coffee they have on sale, and was going to get a can of sugar-free Red Bull, one of the large cans, thinking I'll drink half and maybe save half for later. As I passed the milk, the can leapt out of my hand, rolled along the floor ahead of me, and wedged itself under the cooler. I cussed good and loud of course, and went back but that was the last large can of sugar-free Red Bull. They have a dedicated Red Bull cooler with a bunch of different flavors, but that the large cans of sugar-free were down to one, tells me that's the best deal and least obnoxious flavor. So I just got the coffee. 

I found a good load of packing stuff on the way back, and got the 2nd of the large Akro-Bin type bins from the dumpster outside Trackonomy. I'm getting to like them, not least because unlike the other hot rod shops, they apparently keep it on the track, hence their name. There are no screeching tires, revving engines, and such nonsense around their place. 

Oh, and it's funny, Ken called on the phone because he tried to log into Ebay but couldn't because Ebay can't handle the concept that a company might consist of more than one person, and that more than one person might be checking the account. He was wondering where this big amount of money was... 

I said I'd gotten the message that he has about $3800 coming to his bank, and said that when Ebay pitches a fit, I often just go away for a while and then come back and everything's fine. 

So a bit afterward he called back and said he'd been able to get in, and has $3700 coming, but it may take 1-3 days. I said he might have to wait over the weekend. The more you need it, the longer you have to wait for your $3600 dolls but the $3500 is sure to show up on Monday, or certainly by Tuesday the $3400 will land in his bank account .... it's just simple Ebay finances! 

Ebay - you'll never work harder for $3.