2nd covid cut

Woke up at 3 or so. For someone who values being lazy as much as I do, I was pretty productive last night into early morning.

I "high graded" the tub of stuff I'd snarfed from the welding place (they'd left it out front) and wow, there are tons of older Windows install CDs, game controllers, a laptop, yadda yadda tons of good stuff to slap onto Ebay.

I also, being too damn tired after doing a bunch of packing, to list anything, so I go my new fancy schmancy hair clipper out and did my 2nd "covid cut". It came out pretty well except for some neck pubes. No, not the under the chin kind, these are on the back of my neck and are thicker and curly like damn pubes. My barber used to use a little electric shaver to get that stuff, so I need to see about getting one of those or maybe shave 'em with my razor. For some reason clippers don't get them.

I got all cleaned up and changed into some clothes I'd washed with that plunger thing and the clothes feel at least as clean as if they were washed at the laundromat and maybe a bit cleaner. So that's another win.

I also ordered another toner for my printer because in 3-6 months when I need one, maybe they might be hard to get. It won't hurt to have one ready to go here. "Speedy Inks" ones are good and it was still under $20. And I ordered another pair of Fiskars scissors that I use all the time here. They do have a finite lifetime of maybe 6 years. Another thing to store away.

I actually got out of bed  at 4, had my coffee vitamins nuts chocolate etc., answered things on Ebay, and was out of here with a loaded bike trailer at 5 after 5.

I've made a big decision regarding my trash. The household stuff, egg shells and vegetable trimmings and the usual junk, will go in market bags I stick in whatever dumpster I find handy. Anything with labels or writing will go into the trash at the post office. No one's digging in that trash can at the post office with the door that snaps shut, so that "sensitive information" stuff will be taken care of there, meanwhile I don't care if Harry The Hobo finds my kitchen trash at 2AM and goes through it looking for cans. No need for a shredder, or to have Ken shred it at his work, or a thing I tried about a week ago, burning it. Less hassle and better OPSEC.

I pulled into FedEx first, where there was a fat stereotypical "Karen" type lady I'd have to skin past (she wasn't wearing a mask either) on the sidewalk, so I said, "Look out Karen, coming through!" in response to which Karen didn't move or anything. I just had one FedEx box to drop off and that's why I went there first.

Also, I'm not all that clear on whether the post office is closing at 6 now, but I know FedEx does. In any case, I rode out of there one box lighter and stopped at the nasturtium patch to pick a salad. Which I did, but I got a coughing fit that was unbelievable. I had to squat at the curb and cough and spit a few times. Geez, I hope the people letting those plants grow don't feel like they've got to spray them down with bleach, or worse, pull them up. A swig or two from the "fortified" ginseng drink I had with me seemed to stop it.

I went to the post office and dropped packages off, then I rode around the back side of the post office complex, looking for plants. I saw some malva growing happily in the shade, and what I'm pretty sure is a young salsify. But this was not worth it, because CostCo is part of that complex and there are tons of angry people driving in and out. Absolutely not worth the risk. I did, however, spot a patch of salsify growing in front of the P.O. complex on Brokaw.

The rest of the trip was just going along, like a bee collecting pollen, picking up packing materials. I had quite the load on the bike trailer by the time I got back here. One nice find was a pole like you might find in a large walk-in closet, made of some kind of wood that's really strong. Other than the nasturtiums and a sprig of mint I'd gathered, I found no veggies worth taking home.

My finances, it turns out, are not that robust and are best thought of like a tide pool with a small, delicately balanced ecosystem. I was paying at least $30/month for drinking water, and my Pur filter has that down to about $5 or $6 a month. Not drinking alcohol saves me a lot of money so I need to get back to that. Even though veggies aren't a big expense, if I can get by on gathered/scrounged ones, it might make a big difference. My foraged veggies seem to be a lot fresher than what's from the store, and it's good practice for worse times.

Speaking of delicate finances, I just spent $76-odd on a Wahl foil shaver from Amazon. The way my barber would take care of the "neck pubes" was to use a foil shaver back there, since the things seem to be trimmer proof. And, I might decide I like using a foil shaver for regular old shaving.

I cooked some bacon and eggs, then hunted down a bunch of Ebay items to send out, so I can just pack them tomorrow instead of hunting for them and packing.... which gets frustrating. Then after watching too much stupid stuff on YouTube, I got some practice in.

Not much, really, because I decided to learn the WWII song "We'll Meet Again" and made some pretty good progress. It was not much practice, but I think that song would be good to play around here. I printed out the lyrics and eventually found a version sung according to the lyrics, the end of the movie "Dr. Strangelove". It seems ol' Vera changed the lyrics a bit when she was singing to all those soldiers, and it's annoying to read one thing and hear another.

That's how I learn a song like that, by playing and singing it. I feel that if you don't know the words it can make it hard to play the song with the proper expression. It also makes me wonder if I ought to look at getting some kind of mic and amp set up. I thought about this a while back, since singing takes less of a push than trumpet playing, and lots of trumpeters also sing. I didn't know it but I had pneumonia and thought I didn't have what it takes, and I'd just sing instead. Then, to keep my hands busy I'd get a ukulele, and I started going to ukulele sing-along things that were held in various places. I'm really glad I got that, and the pneumonia, out of my system because ukuleles are stupid and annoying.

But singing's OK. One night at Cafe Stritch one of the local trumpeters played a request, "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon". He did not really do it justice, and since then I've been itching to play and sing it in there, but then the Stritch stopped having the Sunday night jam when just about anyone could get up there, and now of course it's closed, probably permenantly.

I got on their stage exactly once. They were playing a song called "Now's The Time" by Bird, largely taken from a song called "The Hucklebuck" and it has that little riff that the chorus plays, and there were lots of saxophones there that night and a group of 'em lined up and played that little riff, and I went out to my bike, got my 1937 King cornet out of the bike bag, made sure I could play the riff, and went back in. That's all I wanted to do: Play the little riff and be a supporter. In that short time the gaggle of saxophonists had evaporated and it was "my" turn on stage. I don't remember what I played; it wasn't much. And that was it; my career at the Stritch.

In the interest of learning to sing, I'd joined the local Buddhist temple which has a choir, and started singing with them. I sold my trumpet stuff to a guy in the adult Buddhist class, and figured I'd just be a singer. Who always had this little cough.... But anyway, we worked hard on this Michael Jackson song, about kids, and even had the Mountain View temple folks over because we were going to sing this all together at this big Buddhist teacher's meeting where the theme was something about children ... then the movie about Michael Jackson and kids came out, and the whole thing was nixed. I'd stopped going to choir practice by then, and heard of what a cock-up it was at the adult Buddhist class. The theme at the big meeting being children, I suggested why not sing the song that goes "The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write" the 1960s version which would be a terrific song, and by then it was too late and I'd dropped out of choir because I was too busy getting over pneumonia....

The point being, I've thought of singing before. 

Meanwhile on this fine night bum antics ensued. A Cadillac(?) stopped and some scumbag got out, and took one of the small size pallets from outside the welding place. Why? Maybe firewood. Crazy Chrissie came and went and did Crazy Chrissie things, like get an actual power drill out with one of those sanding disks, and sanded her shitty primer-and-Bondo car so ... maybe the patterns will be a little bit different? When your name has the honorific "Crazy" attached, your motives can be obscure...

I cooked some beef with the last of my green onions, some garlic (I think I'll still buy garlic) and that was dinner, so I have two nasturtium salads in the making in the fridge now, along with some nice mallows, but at least everything is keeping well. 

And, lots of Dettol is not helping my ear. It was painful where the lobe meets the side of my face when I woke up, and now it's swollen and red, warm, etc. I tried something I did a while back, "heat treating" where I make a mug of hot water, and he have it as hot as I can stand but not hotter, and press that against the ear for a while. I have another place on my cheek I'd treated with the tea tree oil which burned it, but I think I accidentally inoculated it with whatever's in my ear, so I heat-treated that too. I've got silver nitrate coming by Amazon, and the heat-treating worked fairly well in the past, but if push comes to shove I guess I'll go to O'Conner Hospital's ER because they've got my history and tell them the green pills worked but the mupirocin cream was expensive, never really worked, etc. What I really needed was a 2nd course of the green pills. What helps long term is not drinking alcohol.