Banking getting worse

I was up in time to gather up the packages I'd packed last night, and took them over to the post office and mailed them off.

Then I went to the bank, which is appointment-only now. The guy came to the door, and he got my email address and set up an appointment for me. He says he emailed me and even called but I never got any notice. I told him that for messages to get through to me they have to be mailed, and 2 weeks in advance. So now not only is it closing an hour earlier than before, but it's by appointment only.

"So, do you think the bank is going to stay open?" I said to the teller. "I hope so," she replied. On my way out I asked the guy and he said, "Sure, we're gonna stay open!" which somehow was not 100% reassuring.

I went over to Whole Foods and got some things, more vitamin D and two more cans of psyllium husk because months on end staying in and eating a bunker diet can really tie you up I'm sure. I was able to get more 100% cacao chips, a couple cans of sardines, and some cream for coffee. I got a $100 bill cash back too, to add to my emergency stash which I'd never refilled after taking money out on election day.

Most things are in stock but there are no more bulk nuts and grains and stuff. 

My thinking after my latest bank interaction is this: If the banks don't fail, I really don't have much to worry about and it won't hurt if I take most of my money out, and just put it back later if needed. If the banks DO fail, there are going to be bigger problems than my taking the money out of my bank, which I've really been thinking of as the IRS's money as it's been saved up to pay taxes with. Taking it out makes it truly my money; the tax deadline has been extended to June or July or so, and I can always file an extension giving me until October.

I'd gotten some deli roast beef and a canned coffee at Whole Foods and I sat over by Diridon Station and ate and had my coffee, then realized I had time to go to Dai Thanh.

So I got my butt over there and got another can of sesame oil, 2 lbs of garlic powder and 1 lb of coarse garlic, some packages of dried squid, basically bunker stuff. If I'm going to be using spaghetti as the backbone of my diet, I might as well have plenty of garlic to flavor it with.

I've injured my left Achilles tendon somehow, probably a combination of doing calf exercises too enthusiastically about a week ago, then pedaling my bike toes-down to avoid kicking a bag of stuff I had hanging off of the handlebar, then it suddenly hurt when going down the stairs, and now it hurts to pedal hard at all on the bike. So I had to take it easy.

There were lots of bums and crazies out, and my enforced slowness what with my leg hurting, packages, and a strong wind, made the ride home arduous. But then that's about right for the end times.  Of course I should be battling a wind, hurting, and avoiding crazy drivers and crazy people... at Diridon Station a lady bum had called out to me, "Ya gotta Allen wrench?" and I said I didn't carry one sorry. I veered around bums here and there, and at Old Bayshore accelerated to avoid one which really made my injured leg hurt - ouch.

I had also picked up a Sangean PRD-7 radio I'd bought on Amazon from the Amazon pickup place, so now I have this to keep my Sangean PRD-5 I have upstairs, company. I've been using my little emergency radio to listen to downstairs in the office, and because it's a pain to tune, I'd just been kept on NPR. I didn't want to simply move the larger PRD-5 downstairs because space is at a premium in the office. I can now take the C batteries out of the emergency radio to use in flashlights, put it away for an actual emergency, and set this up so I can have a bunch of stations at the push of a memory button. KPFK has some interesting shows, there are college stations, and the classical station even takes a break at about 11 at night from their usual trite stuff and plays a program called "Modern Times" with some really neat music.

I ordered the first book on reading Hebrew, called "Z'man Likro" which translates to ... "Reading Hebrew"? Anyway, it's a neat book, and I'll work through that and then the 2nd book and then there's a series called "Shalom Ivrit" which even now I know translates to "Hello Hebrew" and that's 3 books, then I guess I'll see about getting the same books I'll be studying in an actual ulpan (Hebrew language school) so I can say my level is Ulpan Alef (level A) or whatever.

I am feeling very inspired by Charles Cather on YouTube. He's got a neat sort of cut-out map of Serbia that he's always got leaned up here or there in his place, and I'm thinking I could get something like that of Israel, and in fact the deck paint I got to paint the loft floor etc with is already a kind of sandy color, and I could decorate the loft with an Israel theme.

Right now on the radio they're talking about this guy named John Prine who was a songwriter who wrote a lot of popular songs, and who just died from the corona virus. So they're playing songs by him and playing an interview from a couple of years ago. At one point he talks about how he worked for the post office delivering mail, and this just points out what a fucked-up mock-apple-world I'm in compared to this guy, because all I can think, in astonishment, is what alternate universe did this guy live in where a white person can get a job for the post office? In my world that's just not possible. You can't be a bus driver or a cop or work for the post office or any kind of good job, only the jobs no one else wants to do, and so you're at least mostly out of sight so no one has to look at a white person. For instance, few people want to "bus" tables in a restaurant, but it's still not a job a white person can get because if customers see a white person working there, cleaning up the tables, they won't eat there.

There is just no way I can go back to Hawaii. There is no way I can go back to where I have to constantly apologize for existing. It's bad enough dealing with the bums around here; I can't go back to living where the police, gov't officials, store owners, etc are all against me.

On the mainland at least I can exist OK, even if everyone is utterly atomized and alone. And in Israel, I'll be old and worn out but I'd happily look upon the universities that would have let me go there and graded me on performance rather than race, and all the neat jobs like postman and DMV worker and so on, that I'd have been able to get. 

I tried practicing but was tired or something probably from drinking alcohol last night which I should not have done. I decided it would be useless and thought it might give me a headache. So instead I got out some broccoli stalks I'd saved and cooked those, some shallots, and some of that low-grade beef I overpaid for and that made a pretty good dinner.

I took some parts off of some circuit boards and was going to put the box of circuit boards out for the scavengers, and checked the video camera first - there was what I can only describe as one of the "Jawas" from Star Wars shuffling along out there. A small figure, with some sort of dark cloth draped over it, and holding what might be an overnight bag. O... K .... so I waited for the "Jawa" to shuffle around the end of the building out of sight and took the box out ... and there was some other bum messing around with the minivan the welding place has perma-parked in front so I put the box down where I was and went back in, and eventually the bum left, and I put the box over by the trash enclosure. The bum/druggie activity is just continuous around here.