Have a cigar

I was up around 2. I'd drank Less Than Last Night(tm) and remember just one weird dream, which was kind of fascinating and cool as well as ominous and scary.

Some people, myself one of them, see a big space ship hovering in the sky. The forward part of it rotates around because I don't know why. Then we find a tangle of wires and what look likes parts, maybe we found it or maybe one of the occupants of the ship gave it to us because it's junk. I was told to hold it (the tangle of stuff) up against my chest then try to fall forward. I set up for a belly flop, but the stuff would not let me fall. It moderated the fall and it felt like flopping onto an inflatable toy in the ocean. I was shown one component that provided that function; a sort of block with a fringe around one side. These were made in all sizes from the size of a pen to very large. Later the ship's occupants had us employed looking through the library, through the archives. They wanted Nazi stuff, whether to learn how to make that never happen again or how to set something like that up again to control us, I didn't know. I wanted to defy them, by chucking the stuff into the trash or destroying it somehow, so one of the occupants had me press my left hand against a square metal sheet with a mild pattern, like a watermark on it. Now I could not disobey their orders. I picked up a piece of Nazi memorabilia, some flat folder, and started to walk away from the line of sorters with it and my feet automatically turned around and I went to put it into one of the sorting boxes ....

It was weird! And it made me think that if we ever meet aliens, their technology will be very different, made for concerns we might think are weird or trivial.

I had my coffee etc. and washed my head/hair and shaved, and after having 10ml of alcohol, went to the bathroom and had the runs. It's been a big change for my system, with alcohol cutting down steeply, no more instant coffee, no more green onions (I swear I was spending $40 a month on the things) and then last night I'd made a big, delicious, bowl of salmon miso soup which in the end is a lot of salt and water.

I headed for downtown somewhere between 3 and 4. Who was up at the front of the complex but the local food truck. I looked at what the lady had and picked out chicken wings, which were $3. I ate those right there, and while I thought they might instigate a movement not of the political kind, I figured things would settle down.

I stopped off at the 6th street blessing box and put in a box of "Sleepytime" tea and a pound of rice. I rode over to where the 4th street one was and it's still gone. Then I went over to the 5th street one and put the other two bags of rice and some of those individually wrapped tea bags, and didn't see any books I liked. There was The Hunger Games but I couldn't get excited enough about it.

I rode over to Whole Foods, thinking I'll park the bike there and have a nice amble up the Alameda to the cigar store and maybe check out a few other places. I got as far as Bluefin Sushi when I realized this was not a good idea, no not at all, with the jostling that walking involves. I walked back to Whole Foods hoping their bathroom was open.

Thankfully it was, but with a key pad "for customers only". I walked over to the kid letting people in and said I shop there all the time and am even a Prime member and need to use the bathroom very much, and need the code. He told me and I went in there and had an ass explosion. Man, that was close! I came out and told the kid "You really saved my ass" and he said, "We've all been there".

So I took the bike up to the cigar place and picked out a box that will fix on top of the toilet in the office bathroom here; not the greatest box but the right size, and it wasn't $20 like they want for some. It was just $4. I like that they insisted on people coming in, use hand cleaner and everyone was wearing masks - I was afraid I might be venturing into Rush Limbaugh territory. I told them their store smells nice, and one guy said, "I don't smell it any more".  I said I'd worked at an animal hospital for years and every morning when I came in, it always stunk just as much. Wonderful place. I might want to upgrade my box later but for now the cheapie I have now kind of separates the shaving stuff from the toilet it's sitting on top of.

In fact when I got home, I put my Merkur and Weishi razors in it, and the little divider in there, made of cedar (the rest of the box is stained plywood) and put a box of Feather, Derby, and the Weishi blades that came with the Weishi on that side. And before that I found a small wood screw and screwed it halfway into a small hole at the front of the lid so I can lift it up easily. For a cheapo box, it's pretty nice.

I rode back over to Whole Foods and got a package of deviled eggs, a PBR, cream for coffee, and a a bottle of vitamin D, and rode over to Diridon Station. The wind was really strong so I found a place I could be sheltered by a curved wall there, and had a little picnic on the grass. I figured deviled eggs would be calming to my stomach, and the reason for the beer was, I thought my system might be upset by my tapering down from alcohol so fast, so a little beer might be in order. Emphasic on a little, I drank 1/3 of it. And ate half the eggs. So when I was done I left the eggs, packaged back up, and the beer, by the trash can across from this little bar where it seems there are always desperate types wandering around.

Next stop was the Amazon hub, where I picked up a bunch of things like the kava I'd ordered, the Japanese ear cleaner for when cotton swabs run out, a printer toner, and some Lotte Black-Black gum which was actually cheaper than I'd been paying at Nijiya.

Then I realized it's "free bike parts day" and rode up 4th, and didn't find anything I wanted among the tires and tubes in the dumpster Bike Express uses, but I did find a baking pan in pretty good condition and the way things go these days, when I need one they'll be $20.

So, clanking and rattling and one of the bags making a WHUFF!!!" sound in the strong wind, I slogged home. If there's one thing you can say about the end times, it's that they're windy.

It's hard to put everything in. Like the killer trumpet player I'd heard practicing licks, at the 2nd or 3rd stoop in these condos just before you get to the construction on 7th. I'll have to think about this. I'd like to contact the guy, but about the only way I know would be to take my trumpet over and play some stuff. But man he's good. And I can't afford lessons. It was good to hear another trumpeter around though, we're rare.

And I'd gone into CVS on The Alameda to see about getting a shoe polish applicator brush, the round one, to use instead of the old toothbrush I use now. They'd had a lot of shoe care stuff before. But they were really picked over; not even any more black polish. I looked through the store and prices are way up, and a lot of things are gone like the filters for my Pur water filter. I really need to look at getting a Berkey.

And of course there were lots of shirtless crazies and yellers and mumblers and zombies of every variety going around. In fact as I came out of Dai Thanh with some dried squid, a small stalk of broccoli, and a can of soda water I needed very much, there was a hell of a fight between a couple of crazies down on the corner. They eventually fought their way West, so I headed East to 3rd and home. I got the broccoli because my system is not happy right now and broccoli always straightens things out.

One of the things I'd gotten at Whole Foods also, was one of those Blender Bottles. I'd had one when I was using kava before, in a stylish semi-transparent black and it had been $8. Now they're $10 and the only color they had was a weird magenta. I could tell they'd not been great sellers by the dust on the top. I'd had to pay about $2 more for my cream also, but I am learning to like French Market coffee black.

Have a rice day

I did a pretty decent practice last night, considering I hadn't practiced for something feeling like a week. I also packed all the things I had to mail except the finishing touches on two large boxes. It was kind of nice just staying for the weekend.

I was up at a bit after noon, maybe 1. Had my cold chicory coffee I'd brewed the night before and nuts, etc., checked on Ebay stuff, cleaned up and got into clean clothes, and finally finished off those two large boxes, making them the slick pieces of art my packages are.

I was out of here at 4:40 I think, and the wind as I was going North was really bad and throwing all kinds of junk into my eyes so I got out the safety glasses and then I was fine. I put my household trash into a dumpster where Joe Hobo may find it but I don't care. The super-secret trash that has any info goes to the trash can at the post office where no one's going to go scrounging. I had to be careful sorting the packages because I had a lot of boxes that were smallish but had to go to FedEx and the big one that was going to Europe by USPS.

Then I went around to FedEx and dropped the FedEx packages off, and then went around back to see if there were any packing materials and any veggies from the H Mart dumpsters. There were many bags of rice in there. I pulled out four, two white and two brown. That was 60 lbs of rice in the bike trailer so I figured I'd abbreviate my route back and just go straight back, stopping only at the Grill-'Em plaza dumpster where I got a red and a green pepper and could have gotten some lettuce but I have celery here I need to use up.

I got back here and hauled everything in, and had two hard-boiled eggs and gave everyone on Ebay their positive feedback, and pondered whether I wanted to go out again. The stores are kind of nutty now and Monday seems to be about the best day to shop. And I was down to two eggs after eating two. And on my last dollop of miso which I'd use tonight. And ... .and .... and ... and I'd forgotten to drop off the "sooper seekrit" trash at the post office and I had two bags of it. Oops! So out I went. Safety glasses on again for the outward part of the ride; I didn't need them on the ride back. I dropped off my bags of trash in the can there at the post office, and rode over to 99 Ranch. I got a can of Tiny Tots sardines because sometimes they're a real comfort food for me, and one of those funny-shaped cans of corned beef for the same reason, and another bottle of Datu Puti vinegar because it's the cheapest and comes in a neat thick plastic bottle. At the checkout I got $60 cash back. I got outta there and rode over to H Mart where I got garlic (still $4 ouch), eggs, miso which was tricky because they'd moved it to the opposite end of the store but it makes more sense, it's with the bagged wet soups and kamaboko and stuff. And some surimi "crab legs" a small package, for a treat.

The ride back was very relaxing, with the wind going my way. And I hadn't stopped to have a snack with some water and a little alcohol, nor felt the need to. Today the sips were few and far between. Nor did I spend the about $23 on a couple of bottles of Chinese white lightning, and I'm tapering down quickly enough that I won't need to buy any more. Between this and staying in, albeit ordering things on Amazon as always, I've only spent about $120 of this week's paycheck.

I got back here and put things away and found I had an email saying my covid test was negative. I sent Ken an email telling him so he'll feel free to come by at the usual time this week.

After a snack of surimi and some cut-up Parmesan cheese rinds, I made up a coffee and cooled it down then put plenty of ice in and drank it black. I think I'm getting to like the flavor.

I did some reading about storing rice and ways to keep da bugz out, and the preppers are all into Mylar bags and vacuum sealers and oxygen absorbers, with the result that all of those things cost a fortune on Amazon. So I did more reading because I was thinking, what about boric acid? I found a couple of Indian pages saying it's just fine, just make sure to wash the rice before you cook it. That may be the origin of the absolute necessity of washing the rice before you cook it that I grew up with, even though you really don't have to these days. I decided that's my solution, and got on Amazon and ordered 2 lbs of boric acid powder for $17 or so. That's enough to treat a lot of rice, but the stuff's got tons of other uses too.

I've got four gallon jugs that held isopropl alcohol, the super pure kind used in making circuit boards. Sanmina throws 'em out from time to time. A gallon of rice is a pretty good way to hand off some rice to someone, it's easy to dispense from, and these jugs are really thick with heavy duty lids, too.

When I grabbed the rice, I thought I'd just bag it up in smaller bags to donate at the blessing boxes. But, I decided, since brown rice does not store long at all but white rice can be stored for years and years (which is why it was a form of money in old Japan) I'll store the white rice and donate the brown rice. With a good number of the bentos in Nijiya having brown rice, I think like it more now as opposed to the old days when it was "inferior" and only eaten by hippies.

So I took a look at the rice bags and three of them had holes and one either doesn't, or has one I haven't found yet. And, I'd gotten 3 white and 1 brown. So I got out the bucket I'd had the tobacco in and cleaned it up, and put the brown rice in there and took 3 sandwich size zipper bags and found that 5 scoops with my hand is a pound or a bit over a pound, which is just about right.

By the way when I was in H Mart I took a look at how much rice costs and a good estimate is $1 a pound. So I'd picked up $60 worth of good rice today.

Feel a bit better maybe

Last night, after finishing the laundry, I brewed a cup of chicory coffee and drank it black, iced. It was really not too bad. I think the instant coffee I'd been using in the evening was not only expensive but it turns out to have carbs in it.

Well, this stuff, being brewed, is pure coffee and chicory, and it really pepped me up. I cranked right through listing the 30 items on Ebay I'd gotten ready (my minimum for the week) and I went to bed on maybe a third less alcohol than I'd been going to bed on with the result of having some weird dreams but I slept a full 8 hours.

Feel like shit

I didn't do any ebay listing last night because I felt so tired and crappy. I drank, watched YouTube, and went to bed around 2. I woke up at about 11:30, and felt like I'd actually slept pretty well. But I still feel like shit.

I tried logging onto Valley Medical's site to see if  I could check my covid test results and of course I can't get into the site because I need a bunch of numbers which I probably could have asked for from the test place if I'd known to ask. I'm supposed to get a phone call if I'm positive, and an email if I'm not.

In any case, my stuffy nose is letting up but now the "stuff" is down in my lungs. Since I'm stuffy and cough-y the best thing to do is not go out this weekend.

I honestly don't know if I've got the 'rona, have got some other bug that's going around, or feel this crappy because I've been drinking too much. So I'll have to taper down and then off of alcohol. And I found some nice kava powder on Amazon and have that coming in a few days. Kava's great for doing that last bit of tapering off of alcohol and really it's like nibbling a little bar of the finest Lindt chocolate after being used to wolfing down one of those super-sized bars of Hershey's every day.

Louis Armstrong famously said that smoking weed made him feel loved, and I've never felt that from the small amount of weed I've smoked, but kava definitely makes me feel that way. And it's a funny feeling, because once I don't need it, I don't have any craving for it. I'm just glad I could order it from Amazon instead of having to go to the kava bar in Santa Cruz.

I had my coffee, vitamins, little bottle of Yakult, and dragged myself through doing some things, like shining my shoes. I didn't get hungry as I generally do later, and wasn't sure what I could eat. I got out a package of dried squid, which is a sort of low-budget beef jerky 'cos it's squid jerky. It's been a comfort food for me since I was a teen. I managed to eat half of it.

I hunted down Ebay things so packing tomorrow will be easier, and there's only one thing I can't find. I took little sips of alcohol when I got shaky, real trickle-feeding. And eventually I actually felt a little hungry, so I ate the other half of the dried squid, and finished off the small amounts of pickled herring and kim chee I had, plus some Parmesan cheese to moderate the delicious spicy kim chee juice. And that all went OK.

I did more looking for things, started a load of laundry, and fixed up two hard-boiled eggs. So I'm eating and that's good.

If I've got covid, it's about 2 weeks being sick then in all probability getting better. If the drinking's the problem, I'll have a few days of being uncomfortable then I'll be tapered down and I'll have the kava on hand. If it's both, well, the soonest I can get one of them over with the better, and I can be clean from alcohol in a week.

At least I'm not on cigarettes, Kratom, weed, mysterious pills and the newest taste treat for guitar players in New Orleans, heroin.

Oh, and with instant coffee no longer a thing, I'm possibly in a bit of coffee withdrawal. I can get down to one cup at the start of my day, but I'd been having coffee at night too or any old time. I've learned that iced, my regular French Market chicory coffee is Not Too Bad(tm) black.

And I'd also been eating pistachio nuts. I used to get a 1-lb bag and eat way too many, but this time I'd decided I'll weigh them out in 2-oz. portions. That had me having a reasonable serving of them every day for the last week. They still bollix up my digestion though so I think I'm just going to avoid them.  I've eaten enough of them in my life, including the very best way: eaten fresh, right off the tree.

Really crumped out

Last night I did a good thing: got all the things I have to ship, set up with the box or bubble mailer it needs, and printed off the shipping label and laid them out on the office floor. Then I did a questionable thing; that being to eat pickled herring and kim chee for dinner, tasty and healthy but I should not wonder why I can develop an oniony B.O. Then I did a not-too-great thing; I kind of crashed and set up my sleeping materials up in the loft and woke up drenched in sweat because it gets really warm up there. I came downstairs and kind of "had to" lay right down on the floor here in the office with a fan blowing on me for an hour or so. This place was a machine shop and even after Ken used a carpet cleaner on the carpet here in the office, the carpet's still kind of grody and metal shavings work themselves out of it all the time.

I think next time, I'll have the things upstairs and sleep downstairs. I've really got to have a good fan blowing on me to sleep, plus the lower downstairs temperature. I guess without power I'd have to set up to sleep by the base of the roll-up door since cool air blows in there.

I'd sent  my aunt an email and was beginning to get worried, but she emailed me back. All of her friends (they've all got to be around 90) have been sending emails around like "a blizzard" she said. The only reason I talk to her is to weasel out bits of information about my mom, and also there's a non-zero chance that when she dies she may leave me a bit of the millions she's sitting on. The chance is very, very close to zero but I don't think it's zero.

I actually packed up all the things I had laid out in a sort of grid pattern on the office floor, in less than an hour. I guess once the things are hunted down, packaging found and it's all weighed and the label printed, that's most of the work. I took off at a quarter after 5, dropped one box off at FedEx first (they close at 6) then took the others to the post office.

Once that was all done, I decided that nothing seemed better then to go to "Ono Hawaiian Barbecue" and get the shrimp appetizer again. This time I used my card, and they've got the place all set up with Plexiglas barriers. The guy took my card and did the transaction, and I didn't get an option to tip them. Oh, well.

I went over to the egg-shaped robot place and had my little picnic. It's a good location because it's away from people, shady, quiet, etc. I felt like hell but I sure had a good appetite for those shrimp. The only drawback to the location is I'm visible to anyone passing by on Brokaw, and the entrance to the big homeless camp on Coyote Creek is there. One homeless guy made some noises and may have been considering attacking me but when he saw me get the ol' getter stick ready, he suddenly had business elsewhere and got on his bike w/trailer and left.

These zombies are just all over the fuckin' place these days. Slow walkers, yellers, just crazies of every type. Skinny, fat ... there was a very fat lady whose legs looked like they were rotting, making very slow progress up Brokaw, and I considered giving her my bottle of water but reconsidered it; maybe I'd give her the 'rona also. You just have to size each zombie up and assess its range of motion; some you can ride right by and some you might actually jog a street over to avoid.

I felt like utter crap and rode back to the shop more slowly than I ever have. Got packing materials and some peppers, the usual thing. When I got back I got out a thermometer I'd bought ages ago, and checked my temperature and it was dead-on 98.6. So I don't know. Maybe I just got really shitty sleep last night, up in the loft.

Possibly getting tested

Up at 12:30. Getting up earlier means that at night around 2AM I just kind of crash. At least I'm somewhat caught up on packing and shipping, and am up in plenty of time to go to the SAP Center where the Sharks play downtown, and get tested for covid.

I really feel like crap. It was very hard to get myself motivated. I dragged myself through the process of washing head/hair and shaving (3rd shave with the Merkur razor and not a nick, snipped-off zit, or other annoyance yet) and scrubbed myself down, because covid testers don't need my oniony stench.

I used the last of my instant coffee, and didn't feel like eating much but at the same time, as I rode for downtown, I was really hungry and decided I'd stop at Nijiya and hopefully they've stocked back up on UCC instant coffee and I'd get a bento.

But nope, UCC instant coffee is no longer a thing. I got a bento and some fried tofu, a beer and a Doutor cold coffee in a can. I ended up leaving two pieces of tofu, a fresh pair of chopsticks, and the rice from the bento, on top of the trash can by the benches named after internment camps, because  I see desperate types walk by there all the time. It was fun, eating there, while a guy with two small kids had them running all over around the Issei memorial building there.

The covid test was the highest priority, so I rode over to Whole Foods and locked the bike up, and walked over to the SAP Center. The line was really long but moving along pretty well. The wait was about 45 minutes. When it came to the actual swabbing, it was nothing. Initially they were going way up in, but the nurse put the swab no further than my finger's been. And I've got this sniffle, so if I've got it, they'll get a good sample. After the sample-taking, they had a table where they were giving out bobbleheads, and I got one of some hockey player with their dog.

I should know in a few days if I've got it, and also I've added one point to the data set. It's my duty to the nation-state of California after all. 

I walked back to Whole Foods and was going to pick up a snack and a beer, but the line was pretty long so I ducked out, and rode back here, stopped at TAK Market for a PBR and a large Slim Jim. That was fairly disastrous, as I knocked down the holder full of regular Slim Jims and had to pick them up off of the floor and set it back up, then I was 25c short. "Just bring it next time" the gal said. I tried to joke about things, talking about this old video that's a spoof of COPS in the Star Wars world, "Some people call this the butt end of space...." but that fell flat.

The gal and the guy ahead of me bitched about how you can't leave the country now. I mentioned there are always charters, or one of those things where you own shares in a jet. Gonna cost though.

I got back and vegged out, ate snack foods and drank the beer, usual lazy college student stuff.

But the coffee situation ... I can buy my UCC instant coffee online but at about 2X the usual price. I think it's a needless expense. I need to re-think my coffee consumption. I'll have to start brewing it ahead of time to drink iced, and I also want to learn to enjoy drinking it black. Doutor's the only kind I like to drink black now.

Wha' happen?

I really felt like I was in a daze yesterday, didn't get out of the house until past 6PM, went to Whole Foods for cream for coffee and also got some ham slices, cheese, and a beer and since it was too late to feel safe going to Discovery Park, I had my little picnic at Diridon Station but over by the baggage building.

Then for some reason I stopped at TAK Market and got some pork rinds and another beer, and picked up some green beans from the dumpster on 10th, and got back and didn't get shit done. I just drank beer and ate pork rinds and watched tons of music videos and eventually went to bed.

I halfway woke up some time and had the idea I'd slept until 5 in the afternoon, and decided fuck it, I'll sleep all I want and get the packing done "whenever". I finally woke up at 11:30 AM.

Ebay showed about 15 items "overdue" just like library books! This is even more like college than I thought. Student drinks away their weekend, carries it through into the week, has to scramble to get caught up and "return" a bunch of "overdue books"

I did it, too, just in time. It kinda helped that I could not find two of the things, canceled the orders and refunded the buyers, and told them if the things show up I'll re-list them and notify them.

I think I need to get into the habit of pulling things from the shelves very soon after they sell, so I can be sure to find them, and if something needs some extra hunting to find, I've given myself a lot more time. 

I actually got all the overdue's packed and ran 'em up to the post office and FedEx, picked up packing supplies and white sign vinyl and two red peppers on the way back, then packed a few more things that were not overdue, but due.

I frittered away the time before Ken was due to show up doing things like putting listed items away, and starting a load of laundry. One thing I did not fritter time away on was cleaning myself up. I had a fine onion-y bodily stink going on,  and I wanted to make use of this. I had a nasal sniffle going on that won't quit, and for all I know I've got the covid. A fine body stink will encourage Ken to not hover around close. Especially an onion-y one, as it seems the smell of onions bugs him.

So Ken came over, and showed me a weird thing: a customer has sent back some software and written a $30 check to him. I told him how the buyer had determined the SW didn't work, and was sort of holier-than-thou, saying he won't ask for a refund because we'll just turn around and sell it to some highschooler, and I'd said, No, if it doesn't work it doesn't work, and issued him a refund and told him to just keep the software. But, I said to Ken, he can always add the $30 to the extra $50 he's gonna add to my pay check ... Ken added $70 to my $300 pay check due to bad math or proportionality, and due to my onion-y stench didn't stick around. I told him I plan to get tested for covid tomorrow and if I come up positive we'll just stay away from each other, he can put my pay check in the mail slot, and I'll keep getting tested weekly until I'm clear.

Another warm day

I woke up at 2:30. I'd gotten 10 things together to list, but didn't have the energy so I'll list those + at least 10 more on Wednesday. I did get a decent practice in, and I'm discovering a technique that's fundamental and I've not seen in any books.

As I told the nice Vietnamese guy who wants to hire me, I want to attain a degree of mastery in trumpet playing, then write books about it, as well as come up with a line of brass instrument cleaning tools that are not junk.

Rinban Sakamoto, of the temple here, studies shakuhachi with a noted shakuhachi master up in Oakland, and they just work on fundamentals but there is so much new to learn, even just working on fundamentals. This is how it was with That Sport I Did(tm) it was just fundamentals over and over.

OK he's really Gerald Sakamoto, and I think grew up around Kaimuki or Mo'ili'ili, and I can always crack him up with some inside joke or another. He's just about the nicest guy in the world.

Anyway back to trumpet ... my goal is to attain mastery then pass on what I've learned, and maybe in a few years when this thing is all over the temple could use a little trumpet. I was at one service where a guy played sax, and it was really nice. There's generally an organ, and some singing. Geez, I can't believe I miss going to service there now. I always had trouble getting up in time. But the joss/incense is a smell from my childhood, and reading the English translations of the sutras which are the most positive things ever, while keeping up with the Japanese chanting, good breath exercise that, and doing oshoko, and meeting odd gaikokujin who are checking the scene out, and having fried fish from Nijiya afterward...

Maybe I could play with the Chidori Band someday if they'll tolerate a lazy old ear-player.

A lovely load of laundry

Up at 3. Last night I packed the things I absolutely had to pack, including a large roll of titanium sheet, and skipped on the rest in favor of doing a load of laundry. Now, in the light of day, I'm even more glad I've set up my own laundry system because for some reason there's a shortage of coins. Laundry at a laundromat requires a fair number of quarters. These days I just toss all my change into a bag except for the copper pennies which I've been saving for years.

I really hoped I'd be up at 1 or 2, but here I am. I'd also gotten a decent practice in last night.

So I woke up at three, and after having my iced coffee and so on, had an hour to pack what I was going to pack before getting out of here at 5 sharp. That was 8 packages.

I did my drop-off route, and the dumpster behind H Mart gave me cabbage for a good old corned beef and cabbage dinner (I'd popped a can of Hereford last night for dinner) and the one by Grill 'Em gave me as much celery as I wanted, but I just took two bunches. And the vehicle graphics place had a nice big piece of black vinyl.

I got back and put things away, and since I'd taken a little break at the egg-shaped robot place on my way back from H Mart, I didn't feel hungry and headed right back out for some shopping. I got all kinds of things from actual Scott toilet paper to booze to more Yakult to a cheap Hawaiian beer, and rode up to where the nasturtiums are and picked 20 "nasties" and headed back. By the dept. of education place there were two scumsuckers on their bikes but they didn't give me any trouble since I of course had my "explainer" stick with me and looked eager to use it.

I got back here and made an interesting salad. Cut-up celery, nasturtiums, and I opened a jar of kim chee I need to use, and took a lot of pieces of that, torn up small, and some of the juice and put that in. Then put a decent amount of Kewpie mayo, and mixed. It was good! I followed it up with two boiled eggs, and noticed something: if I roll the egg around in breaking up the shell, it seems to make the shell comes off a bit more easily.

So that was good, and I was all relaxed, and then I remembered that the toner in my printer is running out and fast. I couldn't find the "Speedy Inks" toner I'd bought in preparation for this, and was beginning to wonder if I'd actually gotten it, or had already used it, or what. So I jumped on Amazon and ordered one, then realized that's going to the (Ken's) house, and on July 1st or so. So I got back on and ordered another, of another brand, to come in Friday to the Amazon hub downtown. Maybe I could get by until then. Then I cussed a *lot* and searched the whole office and found the damn toner, so at least I can print labels, and I'll use the other toners in time anyway. They're less than $20 a pop. 

The 5-Spot

I was up around 2-3, had my coffee yadda yadda, and just kind of dragged myself through my "morning". I then had two hard-boiled eggs and some scrounged celery. Because I wanted to get going, I tried a couple of the eggs I'd just bought that I was hoping would be easier to peel, and they were.

I rode right downtown, stopping at the blessing box on 5th to see if the note's still there and it wasn't. There was a children's book with one of those plastic covers on the grass, kind of dirty, so I cleaned it with a wet wipe and neatened the box up a bit.

Then I rode over to City Hall and there were not very many people but there was a table set up with snacks and water etc. I handed the guy there my latest batch of sign vinyl.

Then I went over to the Amazon Hub and picked up a "Weishi" safety razor, a package of 100 "Derby Premium" blades, and a knife called a "G.I. Tanto" which is sold by a company called Cold Steel, and which I've seen advertised for decades. I think they started making them in the 80s. This cost me about $28, and seems to be what I was contemplating spending $60 or $70 for a Ka-Bar for. Something to chop with, dig with, like a Ka-Bar is good for, but more sturdy and a lot cheaper.

With this stuff in my bike bag as well as plenty of padded envelopes from the Amazon Hub, I couldn't close the zipper all the way so I didn't want to stop anywhere where I'd have to lock up the bike. The original plan was that I might go to Lee's and get a couple of egg rolls, or La Vic's and get a super taco, then go over to Discovery Park and watch the bird airshow again, and do a little veggie harvesting.

Instead I wandered down First, looking for some sort of little place where I could order from a window with my bike right there next to me, and I finally decided I'd try the 5 -Spot; just get a burger or two and just not eat the buns. So that's where I went, and it had changed over to Mexican food. I got two "Super" tacos and a beer, and they had tables out front so I was able to set on the opposite side of the patio from a family at a large table at the other end.

It was really nice. The food was good, the beer good enough, there was Mexican music playing from the 5-Spot, from a place across the street, and then a third source from the occasional lowrider going by. Yeah, I spent $15 because I tipped 25%, but it was a nice day and it was worth it.

I'd have played my trumpet today, but I've got a sniffle in my nose and sinuses that's very persistent and I've also been having a bit of the runs. My theory on the runs is either I've indeed had covid for a while and it's just another part of it popping up, or, it's the cucumbers I've been eating. I think when they go bad, they go bad all the way through. Also, I think they're a lot older when they get tossed out, as opposed to celery which will get tossed very soon if it has any flaws. So I think I might remove cucumbers from my diet, at least the free ones.

Courtesy of Crazy Chrissie

I was up at 2. Last night's dinner had been miso soup with some of the beef I'd bought at Whole Foods and it's decent. I got 10 things listed on Ebay but did not get a practice done.

Once I was sort of awake, I took a cautious look outside. I'd taken a peek outside for any signs of mischief after that scumsucker had run by in the middle of the night, and had seen a dark object. I wasn't sure if it was some random thing blown here by the wind, or a dookie, or what. So now, in broad daylight, I checked it out and it was a flashlight. It worked, and is a dark green color except where it's got black tape on it. I think the running scumsucker and the flashlight were not connected at all. The flashlight was lying right where Crazy Chrissie could have put it down or dropped it last night, while fiddling with her shitty car. I can just clean it thoroughly, put a fresh battery in it, and put yellow tape on it so it won't be so easy to lose, and now I've got another flashlight to use around here.

I contemplated putting it back out there, standing up so it's easier to see, for Crazy C. to find, but that would show that I'd found it and left it there for her and that constitutes a bum interaction - to be avoided always. Besides, with my luck some other scumsucker would find it first. And Chrissie owes me because that night when she'd tried to run me over, I'd had to jam on the brakes on my bike so hard that my shoulder was messed up for a long time afterward.

I trimmed up, washed my head/hair, then did my 2nd shave with the Merkur razor which came out even better than the first and not a single nick. 

I tried to think of places to be enthusiastic about going to, and just could not come up with anywhere good. Still, I had donations to drop off and wanted to pick up some eggs at Whole Foods.

So I got going around 5, dropped off trash in Japantown and put a bag with 2 shallots (the rounder Chinese kind, really strong) into the blessing box there on 6th and picked up an advanced textbook on Spanish, really it's writing by great writers and then a bunch of questions after each piece in Spanish.

I rode over to 4th and the blessing box was gone! Just the stand was there. Then I jogged over to 5th and visited the one there, and there was a note taped to it saying someone had taken a lot of books and tried to damage it somehow. I neatened the books up and put my last two small bags of tobacco in there.

Then I rode over to City Hall to drop off some more sign vinyl and also a few really expensive markers that are really good, that cost something like $7 apiece. And there was just no one there. No refreshment booth, no signs, no chanting, nothing. I don't know what happened; it's just over.

I rode over to two older black guys who were sitting and talking and asked them if they knew where everyone was, and they said the protesters were there earlier and maybe they'll be back later. We talked about stuff and one of the guys was "short a couple dollars for a soda" or something like that and I gave them a $5 and said they might have to split it. I asked them if they'd seen Leroy and they hadn't for a long time. Then the conversation wandered into the subject of stage fright and one of the guys had been a boxer and felt it every time, and I tried to explain how I'd had it but got over it and anyway it can help you perform better, and then some other friend came up or something and I said Bye and rode off.

I went over to Whole Foods, got some eggs that look like a good (if high stakes) bet, a beer, and a package of 0.38 lbs of cold meatloaf consisting of meat and loaf. Another picnic at Diredon station seemed dreary so I figured I'd check out Discovery Park.

It took me a while to meander my way over there because I was a bit unclear how to get there, but found it OK and took a ride around the big building, then settled down on a bench by the statues. And I was in for a treat. There were these swallows or swifts zooming around catching bugs that were flying up out of the grass. The little guys put fighter planes to shame. It was really fun to watch, and sometimes they flew really close to me. At times, two would sort of collide in midair, chest to chest, not sure if fighting or mating because some birds take care of business pretty fast. So I had dinner and a show.

I noticed purslane, a little fennel, and quite a few plantains growing there, so when I was done eating and had drunk what I wanted of the beer, I collected plantain leaves to try. Once I had enough, I took a walk around the statues and the big Monopoly board, then decided to check out the edge of the park that's along the river.

Along there I saw much nicer looking plantains, and also tons of dandelions. There were also other interesting plants to look at, including some really weird member of the pea family. I went down to the next street to the South, then came back and went over the little bridge, then rode up San Carlos, took a lap by Cafe Stritch, etc. Just bums and DoorDash drivers around there.

I rode back to City Hall and it was the same: no sign that there's a protest on. I rode up Santa Clara to check out the sign I'd helped with and it looked good. I then rode up to 15th and came back by that way. The dreaded "East Side" is actually beautiful. I got to Hedding then took that to 10th and back here.

I saw tons and tons of people with no masks, although the numbers are as high as they've ever been and hospitals are filling up with covid patients again. I saw a concert being held in a big park in the dreaded East Side, and at least they were in the open air and doing a good job of social distancing. Much better than the entitled white people all jammed together at Scott's Seafood, spewing their droplets in each others' faces.

I got back and put things away and dawdled around on Reddit and YouTube, and had my 2 oz. of pistachio nuts. I'd actually been avoiding buying the things at all because I end up eating too many and it screws up my system, but I realized if I just weigh out 2 ounces, it's plenty to be satisfied with, won't screw my system up, and means I get 8 servings out of a $10 bag of them like I'd bought at Whole Foods.

I eventually got around to practicing way too late, as I'd gotten involved watching "Inseparable" which is a movie about Chernobyl and is one of the best movies I'd seen. After that I got down to work on my Irons exercises and things were going really well too, and was 3/4s of the way done when I saw a couple of security guard cars come into the parking lot. Would tons of cops come like that other night? Better stop making it obvious that I'm in here .... so I put the trumpet away. But no police build-up this time.

I cooked up the plantain leaves, and they're fibrous and bitter, but hey veggies. And these were sun-grown leaves. The better ones I spotted are shade-grown and might be a lot better. But I wanted to try these first. I just boiled them first then poured off the water, then fried some garlic in some sesame oil, put the leaves in and sauteed them, then added a generous pat of butter and some seasoning, then put into a bowl and put plenty of ground Parmesan cheese on top and mixed it all around.

Juneteenth Job Offer

I woke up at about noon, tried to go to sleep a bit more until 2, then got up. I did my usual routine, coffee etc., and at 2:30 or so heard a car pull up and a knock on the door. I had a pretty good idea who it was: a guy who bought two transformers and wanted to pick them up.

And it was. He's a chip designer for Samsung who has a side business building tube amps. "It's so funny, I buy this and that for $5 and sell it for $300". Nice Vietnamese guy. He says he has ten employees. We got talking a bit, and I told him how high-tech is a horrible field to go into because it's so low-paid. He said his techs get $25 an hour (yeah so do high school drop-outs who stand around in security guard uniforms but  I didn't mention that) and get benefits (again ditto for the guards). He wanted to hire me, and I think he saw the fear flash across my face as I know how horrible it is working for a tech company.

I said I'd known Ken for 9 years before going to work for him so let's have it so if I know him for 9 years and we're friends, then maybe I'll go work for him. I'll be almost my maximum Social Security age so I can work for him 1-2 years (I didn't mention I'll also bust my ass to unionize his shop).

I told him I do far better than high tech, by playing trumpet. I want to attain some level of mastery, then write books about how I got there because the things I am learning are not in any of the books. And also to come up with a line of high-quality brass instrument cleaning tools because even with really nice trumpets costing thousands, everyone's using the same cheapo cleaning tools that are generally awful. That I have ideas for a line of tools, taken from aspects of a few different ones I've used.

This seemed to gain some respect, as I guess guys like that respect "entrepreneurship" (blecch) and also that maybe I'd not be an "ideal" (simpering, sniveling, etc.) employee after all. In any case, this guy sounds like me might keep buying parts from us he can use in tube amps and just coming by to pick them up.

I was able to pack 10 or 11 things, including one large thing, and was out the door with my bike trailer loaded at 5. I went up and did my drop offs, picked up a bunch of celery behind H Mart, then rode over to this business park that's by the railroad tracks where I'd seen a lady taking a break or having her lunch on the grass beneath the trees, so I rode in there and set up with some Parmesan cheese rind and had a little refreshment. I didn't want to get super hungry like I did last time and end up spending big money for a snack, so this was my plan to avoid this, and while I didn't get super hungry, I was feeling tired and it was a great little break.

This place, called Lumentum I think, has this sort of egg-shaped robot that wanders, slowly, around the parking lot. I call him Mr. Eggo. He came around but stayed next to the building, far from me. I finished up and rode out, leaving the place eggs-actly how I'd found it.

I rode my usual route, finding packing materials and a big sheet of phenolic Ken might want, and got back here. Since I'd had the cheese, I didn't feel like eating anything here, unloaded the trailer and put it away, and headed back out for some shopping at H Mart.

I went back over there and it was un-crowded enough that I could park my bike in the bike rack, but wow it was crowded inside. I need to choose a different day to go there than Friday. I got what I was after, white lightning, shallots, Yakult, etc., and rode back here. As I'd pulled up, I was glad I kept my "tunker" stick in hand, because some scumsucker who may have been the guy who hassled me, rode through here fairly fast. "Just keep moving, dirtball" I grumbled, tapping the stick on my hand. He did.

I locked up and had hard boiled eggs, kamaboko, and 2 oz. pistachio nuts, and one of those cheapish Hawaiian beers, and and just relaxed.  Probably too much because I heard a sound outside and looked at the video from the cameras and a scumsucker had gone running by and it's 1AM. The weirdest shit goes on around here. Earlier, Crazy Chrissie had been in front of here, messing around with a water hose and her POS car. It's still mottled patches of primer grey. In fact, if a car could be addicted to meth, I think it would look just like Crazy Chrissie's car. It would be patchy and dull and grey, and it would run like shit, just like Crazy Chrissie has to warm the thing up for 15 minutes to drive it the 125 yards to her parking place on Rogers Avenue in front of the cement plant. 

The day before Juneteenth

I woke up around 2, and had had been so tired when I'd gone to bed that I even had a sink full of dirty dishes waiting for me. I had my coffee etc. then washed the dishes, futzed around on Ebay etc., then had a couple of hard-boiled eggs and cleaned up one of my scrounged cucumbers and had cucumber slices too.

I got going at 4:45. I stopped off in J-town to drop off trash, neatened up the blessing box on 6th because I was going right by there, but didn't have anything to drop off right now. I went over to 5th and stopped at the blessing box there, and decided to take home the most homely-looking of the books, "A Long Way Gone" by Ismail Beah, who was a child soldier in Africa. It's missing the dust jacket and a few of the last pages are torn out, but those are references not the story.

Then I rode over to the protesters at City Hall and gave them a bag of rolls of sign vinyl, telling them "I have a steady source of this, get it to the artists they'll know what to do with it" and they were very thankful. They had snacks and water and lots of various sized and shaped rolls of bread and offered me some but I said I'm OK.

Then I rode over to my bank and deposited my check in the ATM. Ken had given me $350 this time so that's nice. So I'm $80 up from last week.

Then I rode over to Lee's, and got a chicken on rice plate lunch, a bottle of water, and another of their masks. So far I like theirs the best by far. I used my card and it shows choices for how much to tip, so I added a 20% tip and that all amounted to a little over $14.

I had another picnic under the pepper tree, and had a fun time watching the ants wrestle with grains of rice I'd dropped.

Then I rode over to Whole Foods, to get cream for coffee but also looked around which resulted in my buying a $10 bag of pistachios and a $26 piece of tri-tip that was on sale for $10.99 a pound and I think because it has a fair amount of fat in it. Then I just rode back home. I was hoping the dumpster on 10th would have some of those long string beans because they go well with beef, but there was nothing in there at all.

I rode back, contemplating what I'd seen. More than average shirtless crazies, and crazies in general. Lots of bicycles; just tons of people out riding. And again I'm glad I deposited my check today, Thursday, instead of tomorrow, Friday, because tomorrow's Juneteenth and who knows how rowdy it might get downtown.

I put things away, relaxed a bit, got a decent practice in, had salmon on veggies for dinner, cut up and packaged 10 servings of that tri tip I'd bought from Whole Foods, did a load of laundry, and got cleaned up because I was getting kind of smelly. What I didn't do was any packing so I'll have to bet on waking up early enough tomorrow to do a meaningful amount of that. 

Caught up

I'm caught up on shipping, with the only things still here, things that sold overnight and today. I got up at 2, had my coffee and vitamins and nuts, futzed around with Ebay stuff, and was out the door at 5.

The drop-offs went fine, but I'd gotten really hungry, and pulled the bike and trailer up in front of Ono Hawaiian Kitchen to see if they sell egg rolls because these "Hawaiian" places here on the mainland are hardly Hawaiian, but are really Chinese. But, no egg rolls. I had $8 on me, and got the crispy shrimp appetizer, which came to $7-something and I just told the gal to keep the change. I got a couple little things of tarter sauce in those little cups too.

When I had my food I just put the bag in the box I had on the bike trailer, and found a nice place by the curb to set up and eat. The appetizer was supposed to be 6 shrimp but they gave me 7, that was nice. And they came on a nice bed of shredded cabbage, which I ate every last bit of. While I was eating, though, a skinny shirtless scumsucker on a bike rode by and circled around, then returned and circled again. The 2nd time, I'd gotten up and moved my "getter stick" where I could grab it in a hurry and stick him with it, He  didn't come back.

Maybe eating over behind H Mart is better, because any scumsuckers in the area are going back and forth to go to the McDonald's where they beg, try to steal, fight, etc. Fortunately scumsuckers don't seem to bother H Mart much at all. Scumsuckers might even be a bit afraid of the Korean H Mart workers, who take breaks behind the store and have some chairs and things set up.

I did my usual route finding packing materials, got some veggies, and got some more sign vinyl, blue as well as white, to give to the protesters. 

I got back, put things away, picked out some vintage test equipment brochures to list on Ebay, washed my hair and face and tried out my new razor, and it works fine. Very basic compared to the 1940s/1950s Gillettes my dad had, but it works and is simple - only three parts. I was sure I'd nick myself or fuck up somehow, but nope, got a very nice shave.

I had some time to practice, and got about half my usual time in when Ken pulled up. At least I could blow crazy high notes and I'd call it a good one. Ken dug up some stuff he had here, a control panel with lots of meters on it that he's going to use out at "the property" which is 200 acres or so out in Patterson. He's got people living out there and it's kind of our "ultimate plan B". Once he'd dug out the parts and pieces he wanted, we settled down and talked about tech stuff for a while.

Ken left at 11:30 which is early for him, and I cooked up tons of scrounged vegetables topped with beef. This veggie-scrounging has been working pretty well. I know I was spending at least a dollar a day on green onions, and probably a few dollars a day in total on veggies.

Getting hairy in chinville

I got a practice in last night, photo'd up a bunch of HP/Tektronix/etc catalogs to list, but was so tired I didn't list the things, and just had more corned beef with shallots and mustard for dinner. That's three meals out of a can, and that's not so bad even if it's $6-$8 a can.

Regular practice is great. I'm able  to go above high C, and high C is kind of becoming routine. And an hour a day of practice is nothing, given that when I did that sport I used to do, to keep at a world-class level, I was practicing 5 hours a day.

I don't know what I'd do or how I'd feel if I didn't play trumpet. There are only a few trumpet players in this whole area. At Cafe Stritch, they were very happy when they had a trumpet player. Tons of saxes, but it was like trumpeters were heroes. Are trumpets that much harder to play? I look at all those buttons on a sax and get dizzy. If I play at the protests this weekend I'll be one trumpet player among tons of artists, a few guitarists, maybe the odd drummer.

The bum traffic around here is amazing. I was watching the cameras a lot last night, and there were bums on bicycles patrolling around and I was a bit worried they might mount an attack, so I took the 10/22 out of its protective plastic sleeve and put a loaded magazine in, although I didn't chamber a round. I just wanted it more ready to go. Crazy Chrissie came around and talked with/at the ice cream guy who was here late, and all I picked up was something about the cops being too worried about the virus to do anything. There's a truck painted all flat black with green letters about being a landscaping service or something that looks hinky as hell. Basically once it's dark I "button up" for the night and that's it. What I probably need is a good fire extinguisher(s) because they can be used against fire, of course, but also apparently you can really fuck up a bum by spraying it in their face. Goes for their nasty dogs too.

According to my calculations, I've spent all but $63 of my last pay check, so that's OK but no more spending out of my bank account until the next check. My zombie-chopping hatchet and the shaving stuff came to just about $100.

I set off for downtown at a minute after 5. My first stops were in J-town to throw out trash, visit a chalk painting someone had done by the temple and see it in person; they'd told us all about it on Reddit. It's neat! Then I went to Nijiya and got a couple of things including some liquid fabric softener, because those sheets I've been using at the laundromat have a habit of sneaking down the toilet with my new method of laundry-washing. So my dryer sheets are going to Ken's household.

I put a small bag of tobacco in each of the blessing boxes; the one on 6th, the one on 4th, and the one on 5th downtown. I got in return, a kid's book in Spanish called "Quien Esta En La Choza?" which, I dunno, might encourage me to learn Spanish. And a sort of kiss-and-tell book by actor Peter Ustinov.

Next I hurried over to the Amazon hub and picked up my shaving stuff and that's good because it's getting hairy in chinville here.

Drop-offs and pickups done, I was now free to go to Lee's Sandwiches and boy was I ready to. I was gonna get my plate lunch + water + a mask special, but they were out of masks so I got a chicken on rice plate lunch + water + 2 pork egg rolls. I went over to the pepper tree and had my little picnic. The pork egg rolls were really good, and reminded me a of Rada's piroshkis. Back in the 70s when  I was a kid, and they'd just banned cars from Fort Street in downtown Honolulu, making it the Fort Street Mall and changing it from a blighted place no one went to, to a "destination", there was a shop called Rada's Piroshki. Not pirogi, Piroshki. And they were heavenly. Keep in mind, I'd been riding the bus with my mother for about 2 hours to get there, then walking however  far, and it was a huge treat to get a piroshki there. As has been observed in experiments with (other) starving people, I'd eat it slowly, savoring every crumb. Lee's egg rolls have a little bit of the same flavor, and it kinds of makes sense, again that Eurasian thing.

After eating, I rode by Bike Express and esp. their dumpster, where I picked up a free tube, and then decided to just ride around a bit. I rode over to City Hall and to the booth set up with snacks and water, and gave them a roll of white sign vinyl, telling them it's good for making signs, and I can get a steady supply of it. And I can, since there's a car-graphics place by Grill 'Em that tosses out lots of white vinyl. They were very appreciative.

I decided I'd ride down Santa Clara street and explore my town a bit. There's a lot of neat stuff along there, esp. Vietnamese restaurants and stores. I came across some Hispanic guys painting a NO JUSTICE NO PEACE sign on a boarded up window, and stopped and asked them if I could help. I ended up painting the half-tones on the NO PEACE words, while we talked about being an artist and stuff. I told 'em how I'd been pushed to be an artist, with the result that I'm a trumpet player. But I've got certain artist skills, and they told me I'd painted my part pretty fast, while I felt I went pretty slow. I should try to jump in and help with more murals if I get the chance.

I finally said my goodbyes and rode up to 13th street, then back along it. I saw interesting houses and things, and came across a store called GURU MARKET. How nice; a store catering to the needs of gurus, who will not have many needs, but will have needs all the same. But instead of flying carpets, pillows to sit on, strings of beads, etc., I found a fairly normal bodega, with a nice Indian guy behind the counter. I bought a little bottle of Patron tequila "gold", for $8. As I rode off from that store, I realized I needed to buy more er guo tou jiu (Chinese hi-test white lightning) to keep stocked up, and since I was down to $8 or so, could not even buy one bottle at H Mart, where my card almost never works. So, I rode 13th up to Brokaw then up to 99 Ranch, where I got two bottles of lightning and some other odds and ends to the tune of about $30, using my card. The guy checking me out seemed surprised I was buying such strong alcohol, but I assured him "I can handle it".

This is so strange; that white people assume I am the same as them when really I'm very different, and Asian people assume I'm very different from them and really, I'm not all that different.

I rode around to the street behind 99 Ranch and had a can of Mr. Brown coffee and tried out the Patron. And the mystery was solved. Years ago now, I was  busking in Mountain View and a Mexican guy came up, restaurant worker type, and insisted on pouring some tequila in my bottle of iced tea. "It's Patron" he said. It was delicious. After I'd finished the tea, he pushed more on me, pouring it into the empty bottle. It was delicious on its own too, Patron is very expensive. How does a restaurant worker get it? Did he filch it? Or maybe work on event where the staff got to take opened bottles home. Doesn't matter; he treated me to something like $40 worth of the stuff and wow, it's yummy. I've tried other tequilas since and none of them taste that good. Them dang Mexicans, if you don't watch out, they'll take you home, feed you dinner, introduce you to their sisters, and fix you up with a job.

I rode back here, and it was very nice and peaceful. I put things away, and the little book in Spanish book is interesting. It's got all kinds of animals, and I'm sure the story is very funny. I wanted to learn German back when I was in college; part of that "find my white people" thing, and never stuck with it. More recently I've wanted to learn Hebrew, but that's not gonna go. I kind of want to learn Russian, as I've been watching a lot of Ushanka Show and Life Of Boris on YouTube. But more realistically, I am here in California, where I was born, and while I feel "stuck" here I can think of tons of worse places to be stuck! It could be really useful to learn Spanish, as there are a lot of good people and good comrades who speak it. And Mexico's got AMLO who is a great President. Learning Spanish might make learning Russian later, easier, as I believe Russian borrows a lot from French, which is another Latinate language. I could have the goal of calling Suzy, Ken's wife, on the phone and doing the whole call in Spanish.  She's a fluent speaker, if with an "el Norte" accent, and said she got along fine in Italy because Italian isn't so different.

The Mondays

An incident in history being discussed on the radio right now: In 1919, in Chicago, a black kid was swimming in the lake, and wandered into an area that was considered to be whites-only. White people stoned him, that is, they threw stones at him and he drowned. The blacks over in the black section were outraged and asked a policeman who was there to do something, and the policeman would not. The result was a riot.

In the 1970s, when I was 10 or so, I was at the beach finding seashells. My being white, and at the beach, is considered a no-no in the first place so there's no "white section" it's all not for whites. I don't remember if I was already in the shallows to cool off, but I remember some "Hawaiian" (in Hawaii, if you're brown, you're "Hawaiian") kids threw rocks at me and they were throwing big ones, trying to hit me. I went further out into the water, past their range and just waited until they lost interest and wandered off. Had a rock connected; had I drowned, there wasn't a police officer on the island who's have lifted a finger to save me, all cops being non-white then. And there would have been no repercussions at all for the kids throwing the rocks, either. Yeah, I'm never going back to that fucking place.

Oh, and if I'd been hit and drowned, no riot for me. Whites are not only perniciously individualistic, but we're really beaten down in Hawaii and none would want to "make trouble".

Then there was the time one of the Ko kids, by which I mean kids in the Ko family who lived nextdoor, took a homemade bow and arrow and tried to shoot my good eye out, when I was walking back from that same beach with my mom walking right by my side. Just came up on the footpath, drew back, and pow! My flinch reaction saved me and I got a scraped cheek from the stick he used for an arrow. Mom being the Tatar side of my family and quite tan and dark-haired, and myself being blonde at least in the outer layers of my hair, I guess the kid thought this was perfectly ok. He may have seen my mom as "local" and me as the hated "haole", with maybe my mom being a babysitter or minder of some sort. And effectively it was OK, because there were no repercussions for that, either.  I have many stories like this.

OK enough talk about that shithole place. I was awake about 1:30 because last night after getting a practice in, I was just so tired that for dinner I popped a can of corned beef and had that with minced shallots and mustard, instead of cooking something. I washed my big towel which really needed it. It's this big towel I pulled out of the dumpster behind the Ace Hardware in the Westcliff shopping center in Newport Beach, California, around 2001 or '02. It had had perfume spilled on it but once washed up it was fine. That towel's been on every adventure with me since - to Hawaii and back, to the SF Bay Area here, out to Arizona for a year, back here, on the survivalist place in Gilroy, back here to San Jose, etc. At one time it was part of my "blackout" curtains at the old building. It's like that towel mentioned in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy except it's not blue; it's blueish green. 

I had a guy coming by at 3 to pick up a thing he'd bought on Ebay, and he was by early, texted me that he's here, and I brought the thing out to him, real curbside pickup. Then I got busy doing at least some of the packing I should have done last night. I picked out large thing, the largest being a thing called a "Gene Zapper". My plan being to take these large items to the post office with the bike trailer and then take a lot of small things with me to drop off at the downtown post office tomorrow.

I was leaving here at 5 on the dot, did my drop-offs, and bought more paper at FedEx too. For some reason paper's $10 now instead of $5 or $6. C'est la guerre I guess.

I did my usual route for packing materials, and the dumpster by Grill-'Em yielded a poblano pepper only rotsy at one end, a red bell pepper with a few blemished, and a fantastically dirty cucumber, honestly it had leaves and all kinds of grot sticking to it.

I got back here and put things away, and had boiled eggs with furikake and Kewpie, more corned beef with minced shallots and mustard, and after wiping the cucumber down with alcohol and getting most of the leaves etc. off, then washing with soap and water with a nail brush, and then peeling and slicing it, cucumber slices. The cucumber was perfectly fine under all that crud. It's the same kind I grew up eating, that you have to peel. I guess those kept the best on the slow boat to Hawaii.

A very tired Sunday

I got back and ate my pork rinds and drank the beer and drank some more other stuff and was so tired, I didn't even practice. I'm pretty sure I was in bed by 5AM, and I had a weird dream that I'd slept the day through to 7PM, but I think what happened was I woke up around 7AM, went to the bathroom then went back to bed, and slept until about 11:30. I tried to sleep some more but really couldn't, so I eventually got up around 1.

I felt really tired. First, on Friday, when I'd gotten my "getter stick" tangled up in my bike making the rear brake drag, and had pedaled that dragging bike with trailer from the intersection to the post office, feeling like I was going up a steep hill, cussing a very loud blue streak, was hard on my legs. Then the long ride yesterday was tiring. So today I didn't feel like playing my trumpet, and wasn't sure I felt like going out at all, but decided I would and I would just take it easy.

So I had my iced coffee etc., and headed out around 3, and the first stop was Japantown where I tossed out trash, and went into Nijiya and got a bento and one of those beers with a dragon on the can. I ate/drank over on one of the benches on 5th street that are named after various camps, and didn't seem to bother anyone.

Then I rode back over to 6th and put two bags of tobacco and two new razors in, and then rode over to the 4th street one and neatened it up, and took out two things: A packet of "pork clouds" spicy flavor, which are especially like pork rinds, and some "Krave" beef jerky which I'd always wanted to try but never had the money for. I put three bags of tobacco and three razors in there.

Next stop was the Amazon hub, where I picked up my zombie-chopping hatchet. It's actually pretty neat, not too big or too small, nice feel to it, and the holder it comes with is neat too. Can't really enjoy the Apocalypse w/o a good zombie-chopping hatchet. I'm still really disappointed with myself for selling off my tall Doc Marten boots which were new, fit me right, and well, you're really not doing the Apocalypse right without some tall Doc Marten boots. 

Next I went over to The Alameda, to the Ace Hardware. Sure enough, they had Johnson floor wax that comes in a can, and I picked out a few other things too like a neat little screwdriver, a bristle paint brush to use as a veggie washing brush, and such odds and ends.

Then I rode over to Target to see if they were open, and boy, were they. I didn't go in, just rode by the front. It was packed.

I then rode through Little Italy (all one street of it, eh?) and to downtown to see how the protests were going. There were people there, and a nice range of ages, races, etc. There was a refreshment/medic tent, and a couple of guys with guitars and I said it was too bad I didn't have my trumpet along. One of the guys played something I could have harmonized with just fine, and it probably would have sounded fine, too.

Then I putted on back home along 5th street and what should I find by another blessing box! So now I've got three to visit. This one had lots of books, and I picked out one by a lady who was a "Holocaust rescuer" that looks very interesting.

Stopping by TAK Market for a PBR. I got back here and made up a snack of the beef jerky, the pork rinds, and some fried fava beans, and the beer of course. The pork rinds ended up too hot to be enjoyable, so I tossed them out for the crows. The beef jerky was good, though.

I'll be shavin' along

I woke up at 3, had iced coffee, cup of ice water, vitamins, nuts.

I'd listed a dozen of the manuals Ken had brought over, last night; my pick of what looked the most valuable. Most were listed for $30, one for $50, and only a couple for $15 or $20.

I did my usual start of the day reading on Reddit, and of course r/preppers. This resulted in my spending about $70 on a nice "safety" razor and a package of 100 blades. That ought to last me the rest of my life. I've been getting by on some knockoff of major brand disposable razors and because I shave "wet" and use shaving cream or a good soap, they last me a long time.

Years ago I traded a $10 bottle of vodka for them to a black guy in a trench coat who'd lift stuff from the CVS then go around selling it. He had all kinds of personal care items. I'm not sure how many of the things I have left, though, and the discussion on r/preppers reminded me of Dad's old safety razors, which were the first kind I used because disposable or "Bic" razors were pretty much unknown on the windward side of Oahu in the 70s. So I know how to use one, how to adjust it, etc.

This means I've spent $220 of my $300 pay check so far, and I need to save $60 out of every check just to be on track to pay my income tax. Ideally I'd save $100 out of each check, for personal savings and taxes. But, with the virus around, busking is off the table, and I've been buying a lot of prepper stuff like the handy little Fiskars hatchet, and this razor and blades.

I'd wanted to ride over to Mitsuwa Marketplace for months to "Japanese out". I knew I wouldn't be able to eat a bento inside while watching sumo on the telly, but at least I could get that bento, see if they have UCC instant coffee (Nijiya's wiped clean), ooh and ahh at the knives, buy some dried seasoned conger eel and maybe a knickknack or two, and maybe they'd even have a tin of Johnson paste wax as I've seen it in a small store in Waikiki.

I got going, and dropped off a can of corned beef hash in each blessing box, and at the 4th street one, got a really neat hardcover book called "Tales of the Peculiar", it's extremely high quality with good paper and even a little ribbon to keep your place, and I've read the first story and it's good.

Then I rode along the route I'd figured out, downtown to Park Avenue, to Shasta which becomes Leigh, across the freeway to Moorpark and that's just a straight right to Mitsuwa Marketplace. And it worked out fairly well, except I have to go from Leigh to Parkmoor, ride west two streets, and cross at Bascom. There were some nice mustard plants along there and I stopped and munched on a few buds. I bet they were really good a month ago. Still nice, good flavor and a nice hot aftertaste.

That ride is just ... long. I got there and had my plan, I'd get the bento first and eat and drink outside somewhere, then go back in and look for trinkets and goodies. The line to go in turned out to go around the side of the building pretty far. I considered just going to one of the sushi places but they had lines too, and besides, those Mitsuwa bentos are so good, and cheap.

So I stood in line for about 45 minutes, I checked the times on my phone. The standing in line made sense, too, because inside the store there were few enough people at a time that it was easy to stay "social distanced". In the end, I got a plate of sushi, a neat/cheap package of bamboo chopsticks, and a little can of Kikusui Perfect Snow unfiltered "nigori" sake. I unlocked my bike and found a nice place outside to sit where there's a sort of curb around the parking lot but it verges on a planter so it made a comfortable seat. The sushi was delicious, needless to say, and the nigori sake was .... interesting. It's like they took the "mash" that is fermented to make sake and put that straight into the can. Strong, too. In the end I poured the last 1/3 of it out, rinsed the can because it's neat and has a little snap-on plastic lid. This all cost $24-odd so that's more money out of my bank because I'd used my card. 

The ride back was a lot easier because it was a slight downhill and the wind wasn't so much against me. And this time I knew exactly what roads to take - Moorpark to Leigh to Park to downtown.

I figured I might get a little snack or something in that food court in "SoFa" downtown, but when I got there it looked closed. I got talking with two girls sitting at the outdoor tables, a white gal with blue hair, and an Asian gal. We talked about Asian markets, and I raved about Dai Thanh, and they also told me the food court closed at maybe 7:30 and it was now a bit after 8. "I guess this qualifies as 'really late' now" I said. We said Bye and I rode off, thinking that probably almost everything is closed at this late hour of 8:30, and decided TAK market will be open for sure.

So I rode over there and got a tall can of PBR and a bag of "spicy" pork rinds. Healthy dinner, that.

Rant: The Eurasian Menace

When I was a kid Mom told us we're tan because we're part Navajo Indian. Off and on for years as an adult I figured Mom must have been Jewish, what with her using a lot of Jewish terms like "bubula". "I figure Mom was a Mexican", one of my younger sisters said. "I'm not sure what we are, but we're 'something' because we're olive-skinned", quoth my oldest sister.

A DNA test and some sleuthing has me convinced we're Tatar on Mom's side. Not a bad thing to be, really, as "Martha Stewart" and Charles Bronson, as well as Lenin Himself, had/have Tatar ancestry. Nobody around here knows what the hell a Tatar is and even I had to do some reading on them, but if I went to any ex-Soviet bloc country and said I'm Tatar they'd know what I'm talking about.

I was really hung up on the Jewish thing for a while, though. It's hard not to want to be a part of this wonderful people. I've really tried to get enthusiastic about learning Hebrew and converting, and retiring in Israel.

But I am not the least bit Jewish, and it is really not who I am. I am Eurasian. Back in Hawaii when I was a kid there was a store called Eurasian Antiques, and my mom being something of an antiques nut I heard the name come up fairly often, and I always liked the sound of it. Of course it was a store that sold antiques from Europe or at least European cultures like the US mainland, and also from Asia.

Well, on my father's side they're all pure WASP in fact one aunt or something is or was in the Daughters Of The American Revolution, which are the sort of people Himmler would have gotten along fine with. From the information I've been able to weasel out of my mother's sister, still alive in her 90s, their people were pretty dark. "From sitting in the sun when she was little" she said about her mother or mother's mother. Groups have stayed pretty insular until the last 50 years or so, and if you were a Lithuanian Tatar, you married another Lithuanian Tatar, marrying a mere Lithuanian was probably unlikely. They did settle and raise a few generations in the Pasadena area, where there's a big Lithuanian church dedicated to Saint Casimir.

My mother was a profoundly unhappy person. It may have been simple mental illness, poor diet, not enough sun, a number of things. The not enough sun would be because Mom would get really brown. And in 1950s/60s Southern California it was not good to be really brown. Nor, really, in 1970s Hawaii, between the snobbish Japanese and the WASPy types Dad had around him.

I think Mom really wanted to be in the mainstream of US society, and I think really tried her best to become a WASP. She eschewed religion, and good on her for that, read a lot of books, had us call her "mum" when we were little, and tried to pass herself off as some kind of Eastern European nobility. In fact, my older sister once showed me a newspaper clipping about my parents' marriage, and it said Mom was Lithuanian nobility. Yeah, well, Tatars served the nobility but they were not nobility themselves; they were a warrior class. But that explanation was necessary because Mom, in the photo, looks "ethnic". My older sis also told me that Dad's folks were very angry about the marriage, that their "purebred" son should marry this "steerage immigrant".

I think the move to Hawaii was for a number of reasons. Dad thought he's hooked up a good job there (he got bait-and-switched, as whites can be cheated with impunity there) and had bought a fixer-upper house he did a lot of work on, and his aunt, my "Aunt Mary" was there and probably encouraged him, and I think part of it was in Hawaii no one would sneer at a very white dad with a brown wife and gaggle of brown kids. In fact, we never thought about it.

So I grew up with a lot of European culture, foods, books, etc. Dad played lot of classical music when he wasn't playing Herb Alpert or "world" music. But I also grew up profundly non-European. Especially after we became very poor, one has to "go native" to survive. So I have lines of thought and tastes in food and views on politics and society that are really Asian, not European.

In Hawaii, I am pegged as white, the hated "haole". Here in California I am "white enough". In flyover country I'd be considered "something" and probably be accused of being Jewish behind my back. Some kind of non-white commie ratbastard. Maybe a Middle-Easterner, out to bomb us all! Yeah, I'm not gonna go live in the Midwest.

So, with my WASP-with-a-tan looks, if I wanted to become something else, some other nationality and go live in that nationality's land, converting to Judaism is the most sensible choice. But .... I am not Jewish. The idea of a god that's made a pact with a particular people is ... interesting. But I can't shake that I'm a Buddhist and we Buddhists think that all kinds of ideas of god are interesting and fun, and sometimes not, too, but the whole "no other god before me" is just nuts.

Back in time, especially during the Cold War, much was made of the Russians being "Asiatic" and the "Asiatic hordes" but this is what I am - a combination of WASP and Western Asian, Tatar. I look European maybe with a bit of a tan but European, but I didn't grow up being that little white boy in the book "On Cherry Street" towing a wagon etc eating ice cream from the Good Humour man. Instead I was running to the beach with a surfboard and sucking on some delicious Yick Lung li hing mui. We did the Hokey Pokey in school but we also did Okinawan folk dances.

The surprise of a mainstream white American if they know how different I am from them could only be matched by the surprise of the lady who runs the Nichi-Bei store in Japantown when I was telling her all the Japanese things and customs I grew up with. "He's more Japanese than us!" she exclaimed.

So yeah, race and culture mixing for the win. The Eurasian menace is here.

My new tunker stick

I woke up around 2:30, packed some more things, had my iced coffee, and was out the door at 5. The drop-offs went OK except at one intersection where I had to make a hard left turn at the light the long "getter stick" I had with me got tangled up in the bike somehow and fucked up the rear brake so it dragged and I had to pedal really hard against the drag to the post office. At the post office, after dropping off the packages, I tried to figure out what's wrong with the rear brake and could not, so I just unhooked it. I can get by on the front brake only.

It was the usual, picking up both packing materials and veggies here and there. I'm just finishing off the bunch of celery I picked up a couple of days ago - the outer stalks had to be discarded but the inner part was fine and in fact it's some above-average celery.

I got back and put things away, and got set to go out again without the trailer for shopping, but first I took the long 22-inch bolt I had and got out a piece of strapping, and a cut-up bicycle tube I'd prepared, and wrapped a handle onto it, with a wrist strap. Then I took yellow tape and wrapped the whole thing in yellow tape. It looks pretty harmless, yellow with a white strap, so I can carry it when I'm not using the trailer and carrying the much longer "getter stick". This is my "tunker" stick, in case I have to "tunk" someone. But I can explain to a cop that it's a tool of my trade, for reaching things and also to push those walk buttons at intersections. And if a cop says too bad, I can't have it, it's easy to make another.

It honestly took me about 15 minutes to do all this, and I headed out again at 7. H Mart was really busy, and I just went around and got what I was after and the checkout was pretty quick too. I rode back along Rogers Avenue, in keeping with my usual rule of not being predictable (such as, my being observed going one way along a certain road, then returning, so that a potential attacker could lay in wait). Rogers Avenue was pretty clear of bums when it was first resurfaced, but they're now back in force. It's just an endless string of bum camps, mostly set up around this or that broken-down car.

I got back in here and did a bunch of things like put away dried laundry, wash today's mask and hang it up and get out a clean one to wear tomorrow, put packing materials away, yadda yadda. I finally settled down and had a couple of hard-boiled eggs with furikake and Kewpie, and a roasted yellow corvina from H Mart, accompanied by their cheapest beer, "Big Wave Golden Ale".

Yellow corvina's a good fish, but it seems they don't gut them before they roast them, and this particular one had eaten a smaller fish and there was some stomach acid in there. That was weird. I didn't eat those parts of course, but it's the first time I've tasted a fish's stomach acid.

I also put $40 into my cash stash so now I'm back up to $980.

Catching up on homework

I didn't practice last night, and I think part of this is, I did packing during the day that should have been done the day before, then listed 20 things instead of 10, because I didn't list anything on Monday. It's just like college where if you don't keep on top of it the homework kind of balls up on you.

There was some police activity in the complex last night or more like early this morning, about 3AM. First a security guard who seemed very interested in the end unit and ran his baton down the roll-up door, making a loud rattling sound. He walked around and shined his flashlight around too. Then a cop came, then more cops, then another security guard from another guard company, then they gradually filtered away.

Either it was an attempt to break into "Star Zone" which sells things like cigarettes, vape juice, etc., or a theory I've had for a while: The end unit is a machine shop and a guy runs it... well, his brother, who I talked to when I was pretty new in here, lost his marriage and his job in Utah, and came down here and lives in that end unit. I think the guy might have some friendships with the homeless people around here and that's just asking for trouble. Maybe the homeless people even convinced him to try some delicious crack. So maybe the guy's letting the homeless run into that machine shop after committing a crime, or maybe he's out committing crimes himself. If that's the case, the owner of the machine shop isn't going to be happy, family or not, and maybe send the guy back to Utah.

I had my iced coffee and vitamins, and got going about 5:30. I dropped off trash in J-town, put a bag of tobacco in the 6th street blessing box, then at the 4th street one, there was a hardcover book of 65 short stories by Somerset Maugham. I didn't even know he wrote short stories - what a find! I put two bags of tobacco in there, and tossed the last two to various people in St. James Park.

I went over to the ATM and deposited my check, then to Whole Foods where I got some salmon and cheese pinwheel things I'd been looking at for a long time but now they were on sale, $3 off. And a package of Haig's falafel, cream for coffee, and a tall can of PBR.

I rode over to Diridon Station and went to my usual place, and had my little picnic.  No one, not VTA workers or people traveling back and forth, what few people there were, blinked at my drinking a can of beer, and the salmon pinwheels were good. I didn't even start on the falafel, saving it for later.

After putting my trash in the can there and putting my maybe 2/3 finished beer next to it for some bum to find, I walked my bike through the station to to have a look. There was one guy working behind the counter and I exclaimed to him how strange it was to see the station so empty. It was indeed weird and there wasn't even a crowd, or anyone, waiting for the #17 bus to Santa Cruz outside.

I rode back along Santa Clara street and past City Hall where there were maybe two people out front and one one seemed like he might be protester so I raised my fist and got a nod, and rode up to 6th street and back along it. There's a bum who lives in a big nest of things and junk and trash and crap, and I could have sworn I saw the very same trumpet cast I have, so I circled around and asked him if it was a trumpet case. He said it was just luggage, and in fact it was a big larger than a trumpet case. It really looked like a Pro-Pac case for something, and to be sure, asked him if he had a trumpet, but he didn't. We got into this conversation about musical instruments, and the police, and then he went into a long saga about this and that ex-wife, and eventually I said I had to go, and went.

I got some sugar peas, eggplant, long string beans, etc from the dumpster on 10th so there's my veggies. This plan of getting most of my veggies this way has been turning out well. I'm not getting an ideal selection but I am getting a decent selection, and enough of them. Sure, they're coming out of a dumpster but I think supermarket veggies may not be all that much cleaner. At least with these, I know where they're coming from and washing them well. I'm saving $3-$5 a day, and even $3 a day is $90 a month.

So I got back, had a couple of hard boiled eggs and the falafel, and was just thinking about doing a practice, but I had two packages I had to pack before midnight, and was considering packing them first. I decided to check to see if my computer needed any updates, and there was some SCSI interface one that had my computer tied up for an hour! I packed the two packages, then did a hard reset where I pull the battery on my laptop, then after a lengthy power-up, I was back "on the air" and did the labels for the two packages so they're officially shipped. One was easy, but one was a power supply that's really long. I had to take a box that's long and flat, for a flat screen computer, and cut it down. What an annoyance!

I decided to get in a practice anyway, and did so. It went pretty well, I could play some crazy high notes, the Irons exercises went well, and I worked out a song call "Hall Of The Crimson King".

Then I needed to do two things: a load of laundry and dinner. I needed to do the laundry first so I'd have the sink free for dinner, and cleaned and prepped today's scrounged veggies while the laundry soaked etc. I tried a litchi and remembered why I don't really crave them - taste is kinda meh. Not that they're not sweet, I just don't care that much for the taste. The long beans and sugar peas went into a mix with garlic and mushrooms, that was all cooked up, then beef on top. It came out great.

But after all that, after relaxing after eating what was a pretty big bowl of veggies and beef, it was 3AM.

Targets that look like "Karen"

I just read this on r/homeless on Reddit:

"I was sitting here at Walmart (not even talking to anyone) and a young lady walked up to me with her phone and recorded me. She asked why I was pretending to be homeless and if I was planning to "pay people back" I walked away to the other door but she followed me then proceeded to call 911 because she wanted me to be put in jail for pretending to be homeless. 2 cops showed up and said if she made them come back she would be going to jail tonight.

"but he's using a cell phone you can tell he's just pretending to be homeless" Really.... I mean she's not really old I assume she knows how phones work. How is it fair that people that dense get to sleep in a bed at night while I'm out here fighting for a dry spot."

This just burns me up. At any shooting range, you'll often see targets not only with round spots etc but they'll generally have "bad guy" targets, looking like a white thug out of a 1940s movie. If you've been to a range you've seen 'em. Well, I think they should have targets that look like a "Karen" because "Karens" get a lot of people injured or killed. Goddamn I hate Karens. 

OK so that out of my system .... I woke up at about 2, had my iced coffee and vitamins and so on, then packed some things ideally I'd have packed last night, making a total of 26 things this trip. It was all post office too, which allowed me to leave at 6 instead of at 5, because FedEx closes at 6.

H Mart yielded me a bunch of celery and a bag of litchi, now, I don't usually eat fruit but it's a long time since I've had litchi and it's really expensive here on the mainland too. I found odds and ends for packing on my route back home, and behind the drone place  I found they'd tossed out tons of small boxes and some "Otter Box" phone cases too. It was more than I could carry. I left those there, and continued my route, picking up a red bell pepper and a small poblano from the place by Grill 'Em. I got back here and put things away, and headed out with the trailer and a big box on it, and went and got those boxes. There were some nifty flat mailers too, good for mailing thin manuals and things like that. My haul filled the big box.

New bike panniers yay

I lost a whole day there, yesterday, but it was just delivering packages, scrounging vegetables and packing materials, etc. I got an avocado behind H Mart that was with some over-ripe ones, but this one just has a scarred skin from having a branch rub on it when it grew or something, and it was perfect. It even had a small seed. I got a large red bell pepper from the place by Grill-'em and that was dinner, with beef and garlic.

After my package run I went back almost the same route to go to 99 Ranch for a few things since I thought H Mart was closing at 6. But I swung by H Mart out of curiosity and they're staying open until 8 again.

Ken came by and dropped off packing materials, things to sell, and wrote out my pay check although without the extra $50 on it this time - he said he will next time.

I hate to say it but I just kind of pooped out and didn't get anything listed. Ken had stayed and we talked for a while, and that always sets the whole evening later. I'd decided to get my sleep.

I was up today at 2:30, had my iced coffee etc., and headed downtown. First stop was dropping off trash in Japantown, then a bag of tobacco and the mask I'd gotten from the beauty supply, washed and dried and still like new, in the package the mask I'd gotten at Lee's came in, in the blessing box on 6th. The box on 4th got a bag of tobacco.

I then rode downtown on 6th, and tossed my remaining 3 bags of tobacco around the "bummy" area there so someone will have nice-smelling rollies for a while. I went right to Lee's and again it was $12 for a chicken on rice plate lunch, a bottle of water, and another of their masks so I'll have one to wear and one to wash.

I've been wearing a mask when out because with everything closing earlier, I have to go out when the sun is strong and between that and the wind, my lower lip gets splits on it. Keeping a mask on eliminates this. And the ones from Lee's are easy to breathe through, don't move around, and don't build up bad-breath smells. (Paper masks are awful for this.)

I went over to the pepper tree and ate, and then went to Amazon and picked up my new bag and pannier set I'd spent almost $100 for. The one I had was so clapped-out it was a major bother every day. And also a really cool Japanese can opener called a Gangy No. 300 that I'm prepared to write a rave review of once I get a chance to try it out.

Then I rode up to Bike Express, checking the dumpster first. Just tires, a yukky old wheel, and flies, nothing I needed. I parked the bike and asked about replacement bike chain covers and nope. I also asked about a new "Sta-Tru" front wheel and the lady had a hard time finding one from her supplier that would match and eventually I said I'll come back later.

Then I took the stuff out of my bag and panniers, got out the new bag and panniers and put it on, and put the stuff in. And rode off with the old pannier set in my hand and dumped it where someone will find it and maybe feel like using it, who knows.

There were a few protesters and they seemed to appreciate it when I rode by with my fist raised, then I turned onto 6th again and rode to Japantown and went to Nijiya for eggs and cooking oil and mundane stuff like that.

Then I went to TAK Market and got my tall can of PBR and a Slim Jim, and pedaled for home. The 10th street dumpster yielded a few past-prime cucumbers and then I got back here and put things away, relaxed a bit, and had my beer, Slim Jim, and some fried fava beans, followed by cucumber slices.

I packed 18 things, and didn't get a practice in. My lip feels funny, like it's strengthened from the playing over the weekend. But it won't stay strong if I don't practice.

Dinner was an excellent bowl of salmon miso soup. 

Roll out the barrel

I woke up at 2:30 which is about right. I had my cold coffee and vitamins and a few nuts, and because I'd really wanted to get it done, cleaned the bathroom floor with lots of Windex and paper towels, then after it was dry, waxed it with Pledge (I really need to get a can of Johnson Wax). It was nice to come home to such a clean, lemony-smelling floor.

I got out of here at about 4:45, stopped in J-town to drop off trash and put a bag of tobacco in the blessing box, then went to the one on 4th and put a bag in there too, and picked out a book, "The Aosawa Murders" by Riku Onda, which is a true-crime book about a case I've watched a YouTube thing about in the past.

I dropped off three more bags of tobacco at corners where bums are likely to come across them, thinking someone just dropped their tobacco stash.

Then I went to Lee's, where $12-odd got me a char siu on noodles plate lunch, 4 chicken wings, and a nice little mask to add to my mask collection. It was windy as hell there on Santa Clara street but under the pepper tree the wind wasn't a problem for me as I had my little picnic. An old Asian lady in the house there (I think it's a rooming house) didn't look too happy to see me setting up there, but she seemed to be OK about it when she went back by and saw me eating the char siu and noodles the proper way, with chop sticks.

The trouble now was I had to use the bathroom, so I went over to the food court in "SoFa" and used theirs, and while The Fountainhead was still closed, I went to the sushi place and got some "truffle" something or other edamame. I was hoping it would be a savory dish, but in the end it was a sweet sauce.

I picked my teeth and chewed gum to get my mouth nice and clean, and set up to play in front of Johnny Rockets. As I rode by, to see if Philz was open (it wasn't) I heard someone at one of the tables at Scott's Seafood say "... a big RAT!" and I thought, am I hearing things? Just because I'd written that in my Google review of the place, naming the rat Mickey Rat, maybe I just thought I heard it. Then I realized, there are only a few reviews on there and someone was obviously reading the reviews on their phone while they waited for their Ptomaine Platter. That's funny as hell.

I set up in front of Johnny Rockets (there's a tiny plant with 6 beautiful little blue flowers growing in the crack at the base of the column there new) and started playing. I got a bit of applause for Amazing Grace, but I only played that once; I played lots of We Shall Overcome, and a mix of other things. A lady came up and handed me $4, and I said I'll pass it on to someone else who needs it more. I played Roll Out The Barrel because it's a polka that's pretty universally known, but the guy up in the window didn't stick his head out so maybe he wasn't home. After playing for half an hour, I felt like I'd played a lot. How in the world did I play those 2-hour sessions I used to?

There was a bum in a wheelchair back in the covered area behind the column, and he'd had to listen to my lousy music, so I took the $4 and gave it to him. Good thought, but it was a mistake, as that caused Mr. Bum  to come out from his lair and offer me a bottle of water. I said I was OK and had plenty of water, and "I gotta go" because I didn't want this guy hovering over me.

I rode over to the MLK library and played there, and it was pretty neat. When an intersection is as empty as it was, the sound really carries around. I got in about 15 minutes there, then noticed a bum just kind of hanging out some distance away, but close enough that he could rush me and grab my bike or who knows what. I moved my bike closer and played a bit more and then decided to go.

I rode by the protesters at City Hall and talked with the folks at their food and water booth. I ended up in the most fun conversation with a tall kid dressed all in black except for his maroon Doc Martens. Here we were, leftists, in a crowd of leftists, talking about guns. He said he'd just bought a Glock at Bass Pro Shop, "They have a nice selection of guns, actually" and we talked about other things too, like how the cops have stopped being violent and not-so-amazingly, the protests have been really non-violent these last couple of days. And how people are being more "giving". Like in my case, putting things in the blessing boxes, giving things out, playing my trumpet without expectation of any pay, etc. He said he lost his job so he guesses he's a "professional protester" now. And he probably can be one - other protesters will have an extra couch for him to sleep on or something and he can just be a protester for a while which is great.

I considered playing some We Shall Overcome there, but the main crowd was out marching and would be back, and I didn't want to be in a big crowd. And some kids back by the wall had a breakdancing thing going on with music, and I didn't want to clash with that. Geez, back in normal times there used to be breakdancing all the time at the back entrance/window of the library and it was great. I'd even thought it would be neat to play along with their music and if they ever return and I'm around with my trumpet, I'll do it.

I needed 15 more minutes playing to make a full hour, so I went to Japantown. I was going to play by "the spike" on 5th and Jackson but the sun would have been right in my eyes, so I played in front of Roy's Station, the ex-gas-station coffee shop, on the opposite corner. Again, it was so quiet that the sound really carried. I got applause from someone over at the temple's dojo building, a car slowed down to hear, and I got some smiles and compliments. I ended with We'll Meet Again.

Then I rode over to TAK Market and got a PBR and a large Slim Jim. I told them if they were playing their music, I could play along with my trumpet. They said they will, some time. I wonder if the loud music was for Eid, which is the celebration at the end of Ramadan?  In any case, they like me there, and there were customers just ahead of me they didn't like - a tattooed couple who could only be described as "white trash". After they were gone and I was paying, I said about them, "Do you think they've ever had a job in their lives?" She said, "I think he works at a bail bond place. I don't like them". I said they'd been making out by the side of the building before coming in, and she said "Nice" in that way that shows one thinks it's anything but nice.

I rode back and is wasn't too windy or anything. The dumpster on 10th had only these things that I think are in the cucumber family, that I didn't want to mess with right now. I pulled some packing supplies and a lot of Allen wrenches out of the Star Zone dumpster though.

This playing out in public is good training. It's very different from playing exercises at home, so I need to do both.