3 Pillbugs?

Up at 2. I managed to get a few things packed, *wash* a lot of things that look like filters but are actually phase-shifters, which has not only the ubiquitous thick dust but many of them has *oil* on them for some reason. It was use tons of alcohol on them or soap and water in the sink. Ken had brought them last night, to sell, and if it weren't for this I'd have put them on Ebay last night.

I'm getting closer to getting some laundry done, and actually washes out the tall trash can I plan to use, and washed off the bucket lid I picked up on Old Bayshore and may use.

But the funniest thing is, during the night, I found three large, fat, happy, pillbugs. Pillbugs are cute as hell anyway, and with the "insect apocalypse" going on I kind of treasure bugs, so I played with each one a bit and put it out in the warehouse where hopefully it would find its way outside. There's no way it was the same pillbug, and I wonder where they came from? I'll have to guess that Ken had the boxes he brought over out in his yard, the pillbugs crawled into the boxes, then crawled out when they found themselves here. I also found an earwig that was a bit worse for wear.

I was not feeling motivated but had to get going... I packed a tube with 4 feet of copper foil a customer had bought, and put that and a few other small packages in the bike bag and took off. First I went to Nijiya where I got a small bento, a Doutor canned coffee, and a red Echigo Ale in a can. At the checkout the guy said, "I guess that's your go-to beer now?" and "I don't generally like beers that come in cans". I knew I couldn't say "I get it because it's hard to tell it's not a soda when I drink it in the park" so instead I said, "You know what? You don't have to drink beer that comes in a can!". Yep, the kid got pwned.

I walked back where I'd parked the bike, on the opposite corner where the empty building is, and enjoyed my bento, and my beer and had a bit of the coffee too. It's a nice place to eat, not as nice as the other spot, but I bother less people and it's in the shade and out of the wind.

Next was the post office, and I rode by the little free library where I'd left the olive oil, and a bum was looking in it which is the idea. So I rode on past the bum muttering to himself and made my way toward the post office.

I acquired a friend - a Chatty Cathy sort of guy on a bike, who wanted to talk about riding bikes and how great it is, and Are those panniers hard to get used to, and on and on. Nice enough guy I guess, just very chatty. We finally parted ways after I'd locked the bike up in front of the post office and he buzzed off. I dropped the packages off and rode over to 4th street and up to Bike Express. There wasn't too bad a line, and I asked for 2 tubes 2 rim bands and a large Tip Top repair kit. They had these things but the tubes are 2.00 - 2.40 instead of the 1.75 - 2.125 I usually get, but that's all they had and not many of those. "People have got time on their hands, and money, and are buying everything up!" I was told. At least it all cost me only a bit over $12.

Next was Dai Thanh where I got some of the dried squid I like, a can of coffee, a few utensils, another "phinn" coffee maker in case something happens to mine, and went up to the check out where among the things hung on the wall behind the cashier I'd always seen some really neat Swing-Away can openers. I asked for one, and she said they didn't have them and I saw that they didn't. Another thing I'll not see again... I saw they hadn't raised the price on canned butter so I got a couple cans of that too.

I went over to the Amazon pickup place and got my two Australian silver coins. They're kind of nice; a picture of Queen Elizabeth on one side and a kangaroo on the other. 

I rode over to my bank and put my check into the ATM. This time, like the first time, the ATM couldn't read Ken's bad handwriting and asked me to say how much the check is for, I put in 300.00, and it double-checks or something and said it accepted that, and all was well. I'm getting to like banking this way.

I went to Whole Foods next, 100% cacao chips are out, lots of things are out, but they have a decent price for brisket if I want to make jerky, so there's that. Their bulk nuts and things are put up in little plastic containers now and I got two of salted "deluxe" nuts, and got their last two small cartons of heavy whipping cream. I'll have to start looking at putting something else in my coffee pretty soon.

La Dolce Velo is supposed to close at 5, but I figured I'd do a "recon" and rode by the front, read the signs, and rode around the back because I thought that back road went somewhere, but I saw people on bikes lining up by the back door, and I was able to get .... two tubes, two rim bands, and since they didn't have large bike patch kits I got two small ones. That ran me almost $27.

I'd bought a tall can of PBR and a little package of "Haig's" falafel with tahini dip at Whole Foods and I figured I'd stop at a park somewhere and eat, but the combination of wind, and the fact that anyplace I could get away with chugging from a very obvious tallboy of beer would have questionable characters there so I just rode home.

I stopped by the Little Library again and the food, including the olive oil, was all gone except for a can of soup that requires a can opener, and a package of pasta that requires cooking. Bums and homeless and down-and-outers are not good at cooking and even heating water is a challenge. Opening cans is by the "rub it on cement" technique. Any food that isn't literally hand-to-mouth is daunting for them. The books were all for children or the kind of cheesy stuff I don't read. In fact, one book I took from there, I'll probably take back.

I stopped at "the vegetable dumpster" on 10th and tonight's special was more okra, and those really long beans sold in Asian stores. I took some of the beans. In my experience they can be pretty tough but they might be OK.

I had my Haig's falafel (a package of it is only $2.75 and it's almost a small meal) and my beer and watched some movie bagging on Michael Moore which only makes me like Michael Moore more, and then did a practice.

I've experienced this in other things; that breakthroughs happen almost randomly. Obviously more if you practice more, but you can't predict whether a given practice session will really shine or not. I think what happened is, it's not that I lacked midsection strength, but the *kind* that's needed and how to coordinate it, has come together. I've been missing a lot of practices and who knows, maybe I needed the time off, but I feel like I've really moved ahead in the "how" of playing trumpet.

I can't, right now, see how I can justify playing my trumpet downtown. It's one thing to be in one apartment in a canyonland of apartments and play from one's balcony to other balcony-sitters, but if I play in the park downtown it can't be told whether I'm there because I had to go downtown anyway for the bank etc., or whether I made a special trip to play and thus am mocking the stay at home orders.

I can sure work on my technique, though. This thing might take a couple of years to shake out, like the 1918 flue did, and at least at the end of it I can have much better technique.

For dinner I took the beans I'd scrounged, and used the fatter parts that look like they aren't so dried out, and cut those into little pieces like is generally done with green beans, gave them a good washing, then added garlic pieces cut in half and ginger slivers, par-boiled it all then as the water cooked off, stir-fried in a generous amount of sesame oil. After the veggies were done, put in a bowl then stir-fried some beef which I'd already cut into stir-fry size pieces before I'd stashed it away in the freezer. The only seasoning was "S&B Seasoned Pepper" which is about 1/3 salt, 1/3 pepper, and 1/3 MSG. So it was a very simple dish, and came out great. So along with egg plants and onions, those long string beans from a dumpster are go.

I'd gone out with the bike trailer to dump off some boxes and packing stuff I didn't want, and some signs I'd picked up but never used for anything, and put those with the other stuff by the bridge. Then I'd gone back around to check the other veggie dumpster (nothing) and see if a set of shelves someone was tossing out was still there, but they were gone. I should have grabbed those yesterday. They were metal shelves but not too large or heavy, and I figured today I could take them apart, clean and paint each piece, then put them back together and secure to the wall and they'd work great in the loft. Oh, well.

But I noticed on my little excursion that Crazy Chrissie is still around, set up out on Rogers Avenue in front of the cement plant. She probably had some screaming match with someone in the complex here and been told she's not welcome here. The bums constantly fight, and there's constant drama among them.