Survival Family

After all the walking I did yesterday, once I got in I was done for the day/night. I did take a box out to the trash enclosure and picked up all the random bits of trash the bums had scattered around, and got the boxes and stuff I have out there ready for quick loading onto the bike trailer.

I got some stuff ready to list but got involved watching a Japanese movie called "Survival Family" which was OK I guess. Since the audio was in Japanese, with subtitles in Balinese or something, I'm sure I missed some subtleties, but it was entertaining enough to watch, drink too much, and go to bed.

I'd rubbed tons of tea tree oil on my ear, and while tea tree oil smells nice and can sting just a little, it did not help. Back to good old soap and water and the really weak chloroxylenol stuff I'm running out of, then the Dettol when it comes in. Science - it works, bitches!

The tea tree oil may be useful in the future if I can't get my foot powder, since it may be useful for surface things like athlete's foot.

After coffee and chocolate etc., I flipped the bike and got to work on the front tire. First I checked out the free tube I'd fished out of Bike Express's dumpster. I could hear no leak, and used the old bucket of water trick and found no leak at all. Fishing a good tube like that is like fishing $7 or so out of the dumpster. I used to "play" the CoinStar at the Safeway downtown, by which I mean, check for any coins left in the little chute where rejects go. I got a few silver dimes that way. But a silver dime is still only worth $2 or so. But a good bike tube, that's better than money in an apocalyptic economy.

I took the front tire off and checked out the tube ... no leak I could see or hear so it was back to the bucket of water, and the leak seemed to be in the valve. Good thing I'd saved the valve core from one of the bad tubes the other day (I guess I'll be the kind of guy who saves valve cores now) so I took the valve core out and it was all brown and messed up. I cleaned the valve body out with a couple of Q-tips and screwed the good core in and it worked fine. But why, I wondered, did this tube look skinnier than the good one I'm about to put in? I remembered that I was running a 2-inch tire on the back and a 1.75 on the front, one of the Vittoria tires I'd paid too much for a couple of years ago. So I was glad all that was wrong with the 1.75 tube was the valve core. The tires I have coming are both the same size, thank goodness.

I put the bike back together and took off with 2 bags of packages for the post office and a bag of Super Secret Trash(tm)  and took it all to the post office. Then I went to 99 Ranch and spent $50-odd on various things, and took out $100 cash. I drank what had been their last can of Mr. Brown out by the bike, and headed out. I took the back way out and saw some nice malva growing on the lawn of a house that doesn't really look lived in, so I gathered some - larger leaves than last time and no buds.

I'd originally planned to go to H Mart and see if I could carry one of those big packages of TP they sell without using the trailer, but I decided that I'm OK on TP now, and thus the trip is not necessary.

I checked my usual scrounging places and didn't find much, but did find a very nice curtain rod made to handle some large, heavy, curtains and will be perfect for my clothes drying setup.

I decided to at least visit that large milk thistle I'd spotted, and found it again - it's right at the base of the Hampton Inn sign so it's hard to miss. I rode around in that complex where Metal Dog Tactical is, to see if anything interesting was being thrown out. I talked with some Korean folks unloading huge packages of TP, and asked if they'd sell me some - nope wholesale only. Nice people though. And along came a guy I thought I recognized, my friend from Ghana.

Back in the day, the McD's had electrical sockets at most of their tables, and there was this collection of black guys who used to hang out in there, and if you had any computer problem, they'd help you with it. It was some kind of weird computer lab. He was about the best with computers too. So we said it's been a long time, and complimented each other on looking healthy and well, and it was all pretty good. I said to the Koreans, "This guy's a computer whiz! If you have computer problems, he can fix them!". Then we all said goodbye and I took off.

There was an interesting rack that looked like it had had high voltage electrical stuff on it and had some interesting insulating standoffs and stuff on it, and I decided first I'd go back to the shop and drop off the groceries, curtain rod, and piece of ductwork I think I can use, and come back.

So I raced back, dropped off the stuff, and raced back over there. First I visited the thistle. There's another one there too, that's flowering so I cut off the flowering heads so it will make more. Then I went over and took the parts I wanted off of the rack pieces, and go out of there because that's not a great place to be when it's dark and it was getting dark.

I got back here and cooked up some bacon and eggs because I was starving. What a busy day.

99 Ranch seemed to be stocked pretty well. Even beef. They had some rib eye that looked pretty good, $12 a pound, but it's all expensive now. They had TP but it was Charmin and I hate that stuff. The supply chain seems to be working OK for now, and the only "prep" sort of things I got today were a couple small bags of buckwheat/kasha and a large kitchen knife and a little pair of pruning type clippers, since if I'm messing around with plants they could come in handy. 99 Ranch had eggs, of course prices are high, $7 a dozen if you want the really nice organic ones.

I settled down to get what practice in I could, and was having fun doing some lip slurs from low C to high C and a bit above, bits of bugle calls, etc., all good exercise, when I heard a car door slam right out front. Ken's truck, for years, sounded really loud and clattery, and since he got new tires, it's quiet. It was Ken.

Ken came in and gave me some Medi-Cal paperwork reiterating that I've got insurance for another year, and I have to fill out a few forms and mail them in. He also gave me this week's pay check, and I made him a tea and we talked about stuff. I gave Ken the insulating standoffs and stuff I'd found, and a bunch of circuit board sheets I'd had for a while and also a sheet of carbon fiber.  So Ken made out pretty well.

After Ken left I made a dish using malva leaves and beef, that I'll call malva with beef. It came out well, as I simmered the malva leaves for 10-15 minutes. I figured it might be like collard greens, which if you cook them quickly like spinach are kind of "meh" but if you simmer them for 15 minutes the flavor comes out and they're great. But the main discovery is I tried frying a malva leaf until crisp and sprinkling a little salt on, and it's like a potato chip but better. I don't like the grease spattering around though, so I wonder if an air fryer would be a good thing to have.