Weird out there

I did some practice last night, not one of my most inspiring practices but the main thing is I did it.

I got up at a fairly decent time, packed some things to take to the post office, and got going. It's pretty calm out there as far as traffic goes, and at the main post office downtown there were 1-2 other customers besides myself.

I got over to the bank and put my pay check in. I was the only customer.

I went over to Target and the power was out and they were on emergency power. So there was lighting but it was dimmer than usual and people were still shopping. Tons of things were out from rubbing alcohol and even witch hazel to foot powder, the vitamins were pretty wiped out, etc. I walked back to where the TP and paper towels are, and the entire area was empty. I chatted a bit with a nice little old short lady who told me she'd been in Scotland during/after WWII and they had rationing, and I said about about the hungry times in the 70s and it'd take more than this to worry me. We had a good laugh. I ended up getting some coffee filters and a bottle of Target's copy of the original Listerine mouthwash, the kind that tastes awful, so if my Chloraseptic runs out and I can't replace it, I can put that stuff in the bottle and use it for throat spray.

I rode over to Whole Foods ... I should mention it was really windy and at times I was slowed to almost a walking pace by the wind. It might have been a good day for busking outside Whole Foods if I didn't have so many other things to do, but the wind would have blown things are just terribly and people don't like to take money out when it's windy - I know this from selling at flea markets.

I got a bottle each of the vitamins I take, some walnuts, and a couple of bags of the 100% chocolate chips I have 30 or so of with coffee in the morning. The lines were really long and it felt like half an hour waiting. I paid for my stuff and got $100 cash back too.

Next stop was the Vietnamese market where I got a couple of cans of chicory coffee, shallots, and a few other odds and ends. Again it was probably 20 minutes waiting in line.

I stopped by the Amazon pickup place where I got my copy of Irons' "Twenty-Seven Groups Of Exercises" for trumpet, plus plenty of empty Amazon bubble wrap bags for packing Ebay items.

Next was Nijiya for eggs and some instant coffee and "seasoned pepper" (a delicious mix of 1/3 salt, 1/3 pepper, and 1/3 MSG) and things like that I use, then I got back here.

There were so few people around that I guess the bums stood out more, as there's no day off if you're a bum. I fished out a dollar for a guy by Target, saying, "It's gotta be tough for you guys out here", and at Paseo de San Antonio I gave a gal a bag of cough drops and various workplace medical kit medicines I'd saved up to give away to someone. She hops trains a lot, and has been all over the US or at least coast to coast. She looked like a trainhopper too, with canvas pants and clodhopper shoes. It's got to be tough to be a bum right now, with every place so deserted, and I'm glad I don't have to count on busking.

I put stuff away and two more large things had sold on Ebay so I packed those and got out of here with the 3 boxes, an empty tomato box, and a bag of trash on the bike trailer. I dropped off the trash at one of "my" dumpsters, and took the packages up to FedEx, leaving the bike there.

I went into H Mart and bought a bunch of stuff. Some of the crazier things were a couple of packages of napkins in case I need them, two bottles of Chinese 120-proof white liquor, and a large Crunky bar because I've been laughing at the name Crunky for years and the way things are going, who knows, I might be looking at the last one I'll see so I should try one.

I rode back with my food and booze and napkins in the tomato box, and a bit cautious because it was now about 9PM and the only people out are bums. I stopped at the tire place and got 3 large wheel boxes I had to flatten to put on the trailer, and some bums came down the street and turned into the Fry's parking lot. They could have come over to hassle me, and I was glad I had the cardboard covering the food + booze.

I rode back here and got everything inside with a little haste, and am now all buttoned up for the night, the weekend, and if it doesn't dry out on Monday, a bit past the weekend. The Crunky bar is like a Nestle's Crunch with better chocolate. Pretty good, actually.