I was up at about 4, had my coffee etc and loaded up the stuff to ship out and took it up to the post office and FedEx. It was sunny but windy also, so pretty "brisk" out there.
It all went smoothly and I didn't even see much in the way of bums, so that's good. I came back and dropped off the bike trailer and a few boxes and things I'd found, including an N95 mask from the electrical lighting supply I can soak in some bleach and re-use if it comes to that.
I started out again with the week's trash which I dropped off in the usual dumpster, then went by Fry's thinking I'd walk around and say my final farewell, and see was an early Apocalypse Fry's is like. Well, it's pick-up only with the front taped off and a guy wearing a mask at the front so that's what an early Apocalypse Fry's is like: You can't even go in.
I rode up to H Mart and after OK'ing it with the security guard, parked my bike against a pole and not in the bike racks, as that's where the line is. I waited in line and went in when it was my turn, and picked up a bunch of things, most of them "preps" to squirrel away. It came to $64-odd, and of course my card didn't work since it almost never works there, but I had $70 cash with me so that went OK too. I saw a couple of bums but no hassles so that's good - I'm always careful to come and go by different routes, keep a watch out far ahead, and when in doubt, ride fast.
Once the sun goes down it gets seriously cold out there, so I'm glad to be in before dusk. The air's so clean, I could smell that the grass was being walked on by a guy playing with his dog and I can smell all the food smells from restaurants and even bum RVs. This may become an important factor if things go bad, in which case I'll cook upstairs and set up a vent system to vent the smells up to the roof.
H Mart's supplies were OK. I was able to pick up more haw flakes and coconut milk powder and things like that, two more cans of Australian corned beef, etc., and their fresh foods looked ok with even my favorite cheapo beef back in stock.
I had a bit of a laugh coming back along Junction Avenue. Across from Fry's is a place that the owner is trying to sell. I'd called the number and the guy wanted 5 or 6 million for it - he said he had an offer for that. I told him to take it and run, we're due for a downturn etc. He didn't seem to be too likely to take the word of some random person on the phone, but now I bet he wishes he'd done what I advised. Because now we're in a huge downturn and he's across the street from a failing business. Fry's was dying anyway but there was hope for that one, being the national HQ. But now if the Fry family has any sense they'll leave the keys in the doors and walk away from all of their locations. Let all their buildings get sold for back taxes too.
More thinking about what I was writing about yesterday: Growing up, not only did the dominant group in Hawaii, "Locals" of Japanese descent, never treat me any better than they absolutely had to, but the same goes for what few blacks I met, who tended to look down their noses at us, not being nearly as poor as we were, or any of the other racial tribes that were around. And while we whites all tended to know each other (being few, and oppressed, it tends to work out that way) other than doing a bit of babysitting because I was by far the cheapest, most trustworthy babysitter around, there was no mutual aid among whites. And my relatives, in keeping with one of the most basic tenets of white culture, also did not give me one penny or the slightest bit of help that they didn't have to.
But there's one group that was different: Jews. There were not many around but they were stand-outs for their ... humanity. There was a Jewish deli that started up in the local shopping center and would sell me a big pickle for 5c. I don't think they were really 5c, but for me they were. There were the owners of the Baskin-Robbins who hired me, and anyone who would hire me, a hated "haole", leaves a huge impression. There was a nice guy who lived next door to my dad's place, who had a Jewish name I forget now, but he as a hematologist and talked nicely to me - not a given at all, when you're in Hawaii and you're a "haole". There were some Jewish kids, Beth and Emiel, whom we befriended, and they were nice. There was a Jewish girl in my final high school, who sat with me at lunch, and we talked about how we liked the school and the kids in it. I thought it was pretty good (the school was maybe 25% white, which meant I didn't have to be on constant guard to not get beat up. I said I thought it was fine because for the first time in Hawaii, I didn't have to worry about being beat up. The gal was from Israel and she thought the school, and its people, were awful. (She was right.)
There were the owners of the "Blue And White Shop" which was a bitty hot dog stand at the floor level of one of the hotels in Waikiki. Blue and white like the Israel flag, and I'm pretty sure they were Holocaust survivors. And they hired me, even though I was "haole". Later, there was Eran Agmon, who was the regional sales engineer for Tektronix, and who treated me as if I was as good as any Japanese student and not a "haole" at all. I learned all about oscilloscopes from the educational sales materials he gave me.
These were all people who treated me better than they were required to and in fact treated me like I was as good as them. Not a hated "haole" at all.
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