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. 

 

 

A quiet night

 Last night I got 30 things photo-ready, and decided to make it an "early" night and actually went to bed by 6AM. I stopped fiddling with things around 3-4AM and got some practice in. I need to practice every day and make progress, because being able to play music, and on a "difficult" instrument at that, is the major thing to differentiate me from the horde of NPCs staggering around. 

(These days I don't consider trumpet to be difficult. It doesn't use up strings, doesn't go out of tune, laughs at rain, doesn't need an amp, is as easy to carry around as a violin or ukulele and is much more durable, and there's a lot of neat trumpet repertoire.) 

Well before the illegal night club normally sets up, around 1AM, a cop car posted up at the entrance on Rogers Avenue with its lights on and the cop presence kept up until 4AM, so, long enough to make sure nothing happened and only a couple of potential customers came by on my side, circled around, and left. I'm certain they have something like a Ring camera set up that they can access online, so they can see if da copz are there and stay away. 

I started in listing the things and then after 8 or so, realized I needed to get cleaned up and go out busking if I'm going to. 

I got to Whole Foods at 7:45 and started right in. No Feet was there too, yelling at people to give him $5 or $10 and yes, he directed his yelling at me also, at least at one point. He has no memory of me from when we hung out and talked at the bus stop, I'm just another ambulatory dispenser of money, if he just yells persistently enough. 

So I just did my thing, and he did his thing for a bit, then the Wolverton-esque Stella showed up and wheeled him off, leaving a Target bag full of empty cans which I moved over by the trash can. 

Tips were slow but it was kind of cold and windy (official busking season isn't until June, and lasts until the last day of September, so four months which have not started yet). 

Plus pretty soon a couple of police cars were flashing their lights right across the street, then eventually a fire truck, and then an ambulance. 

I tried to last until 9:00, but by 8:45 I was not competing with the ambulance very well, it had gotten fully dark, and the zombies had started to show up. There was one, a tall Black guy, lurking, pacing up and down on the sidewalk behind me. And another, a crazy looking old White guy with an Amazon box under one arm, wandering around to the front of me to no purpose. 

I made $23, went in and got a couple things I'd have bought anyway, and so it's a nice feeling going out and practicing for an hour, buying things, and heading for home with $10 more in my wallet than when I'd started. 

I took a little ride around downtown to see what buskers or performers might be about, it being Saturday night. And there were none.  

 

Made it to Friday again

 I woke up just in time to get ready and go downtown to the bank, I made it a quick out-and-back mission. My idea of my balance and the bank's idea of my balance agreed to the penny so that's good. 

The guy at the bank and I got talking, as we often do, and he's no longer commuting down here from Sacramento, but lives something like a 12-minute drive away. We'd gotten talking about vehicle costs, and of course he drives a truck (his girlfriend or wife  I forget which will have her own car, and like 99.9% of traffic here it's one person in each vehicle) and I guess it's unthinkable for him to take the train or get a bike or something. Probably his girlfriend or wife, I forget which, would leave him and his PP would fall off, in no particular order. Gotta have that truck!  

I didn't take any money out by my usual method of cash-back at Whole Foods, since the name of the game is going to be to keep as much in there as I can, and get by day to day on busking income with maybe a little out of each pay check. 

I got back here with enough time to pack a few things and I'd filled in my ballot last night, and rode up to the post office to drop the things off. Then I rode up to Dai Thanh market for some things, picked up some packing stuff on the way back, and got back here. 

It was pretty crazy out there between the numerous zombies and the bloodthirsty drivers. In fact I learned a lesson a few days back. Normally when I'm at an intersection where there's a left turn lane on each side and the green light applies to the left turn lanes and the straight ahead lanes, I'll wait and made sure I have a car or preferably something big like a truck, going straight. That way, the attacking car or cars in the left turn lane have to go through them to get to me. But even that's not careful enough, as I learned the other day. 

I made the mistake of riding out ahead of the vehicle that was "running interference" for me, and the fact is, the blood-lust of the attacker is often such that they won't even look out for their own well-being; their urge to kill me is so strong that they don't care if they get T-boned, as long as they can cause my death. 

In this case, the attacker stopped, right in the perfect position to get T-boned by the vehicle running interference for me, but sadly, that vehicle stopped also. I'd have loved to see a car-ghoul get taken off the road, preferably on a stretcher with the sheet pulled up over its head. But no... In any case, I have to keep in mind not to go out ahead of the vehicle I'm using to block access to me by an attacker.