Up around 2, was all set to pack more things that were due then remembered I'd done them last night, but that also I needed to test my theory so I packed one more thing and it went perfectly. So my theory that it was resistance in the connections was probably right.
I say probably because the next thing was that Ebay or the postal service jammed up and would not let me print any more labels. But at least my printer's working OK.
As the internet becomes more and more marginal, things like this can be expected. I've already talked with Ken many a time of how to run our business by fax machine or a mailing list.
I had kind of thought the Hispanics in the place next door were left to their own and be the good neighbors they are, but Nazi Boy's hovering around still and much in evidence lately. The place next door cleans carpets and things like that, and Nazi Boy is a clean-cut white guy the landlord hired, who's come over here from Utah and is a huge Trump supporter. I tried talking to him once. Once.
He'd parked his car right in front of here and I'd gone out to ask him to park somewhere else. We'd gotten talking about oscilloscopes and such things, and I'd recommended he look up a video on YouTube called "Oscillofun" and written it down on a card. The next day I heard something being put in the mail slot, and it was the card, with "TRUMP" and "MAGA" scrawled all over it, and his damn car was in front again. I called the landlord and said political harassment was not part of the bargain here, and to tell the kid to not talk to me again and to not park his car in front of my door, which he'd been told not to, so doing it again means he wants a confrontation. The landlord said he'll tell him to back off, that he's young and inexperienced, etc. Nazi Boy has traded his shitty little car for a large Toyota Tundra truck with a huge obnoxious vinyl "wrap" on the rear end that looks like a checkered flag and says "TUNDRA". If he were a real America-Firster he'd have a Ford.
I got out of here with the packages and a bag of Super-Seekrit-Trash(tm) and rode up to the post office, did my drop offs, then around to FedEx and dropped off two boxes there, then my usual route of dumpsters and places to check for packing materials. I got some fairly decent stuff, but really need to set up some kind of a stick with a hook on the end because there's always some good stuff I can't reach.
I stopped to visit a plant I'd noticed a few days ago. It looks like a giant dandelion. I'd looked it up and it's called salsify, and all parts are edible but while it's called "oyster plant" and tasty before it goes to seed, after it goes to seed it's not too great. The seed head I'd seen was gone but there are 3-4 more coming along, so I want to collect the seeds to plant here and there. I'm also working on collecting malva seeds for the same reason.
At the nearby vegetable place there was some celery that looked like the inner part was still fine, but I have celery I bought still in the fridge that needs to get used up. Galli Produce had was looked like cabbage leaves and some onion trimmings, usable but I decided Nah.
I got back and cooked up bacon and eggs with green pepper and some of the red onion I'd scrounged, and that came out well. I sliced up and fried the rest of the scrounged egg plant and it came out great. It really soaks up a lot of oil, and I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top. Yum!
It's an intriguing idea, that of not paying for any more veggie. My interest in eating "weeds" is because if I'm doing a real lockdown any veggies I get are going to be very local, even if fresh veg means elm leaves and flowers, pine needles for tea, etc. Pulling veggies out of dumpsters is just a bonus.
I was just starting some practice, some lip slur thing I made up just going up partials in sets of 3 up to high C, and played a bit of the theme from Schindler's List, and was starting on my Irons exercises when there was a knock on the door "It's Ken!". I put the trumpet away sputtering "Dang it, Ken! You fixed something on your truck and it's dead quiet!" and let him in.
He unloaded some boxes and stuff, gave me one package, the one containing my new Crocs, but didn't have the 2nd one with the bike patch kits. He wrote out my check, and then we got involved in digging a big heavy ugly thing out from under a bunch of other big heavy ugly things, to take a side panel off of the ugly thing we wanted, to see if the radioactive reference source was there - it wasn't. I told the customer about this (he'd wanted us to check) and asked if he'd be interested in the thing for $200, and he would, as long as we kept the shipping below $350. The upshot of the whole thing is, he'll buy it, we'll ship it, and refund him $150 once he gets the thing.
Ken and I hung out and talked about chemistry and I told him about my shiny Australian coins I'm getting to make colloidal silver with. He said, "Oh, you could use silver nitrate...." and the upshot of that is I have a little bottle of it coming thanks to Amazon.
I had to call Suzy, Ken's wife, at their house for something and she's not seen my little package of bike patch kits either. And, while my silver 'roo coins are are waiting downtown for me to pick them up, the rim bands I ordered are "looks like your package is lost" according to Amazon.
So tomorrow among other things, I'm going to hit up La Dolce Velo and Bike Express and see about getting some patch kits and rim bands. I figure I can buy 2 tubes, 2 rim bands, and a patch kit, the larger "touring" size, at each shop. I don't want to seem like I'm buying more than my fair share, or "prepping" because the first thing about prep club is you don't talk about prep club...
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