Last night I just sort of .... crashed. I think I went to sleep around 4AM, not sure. Then, for some reason, I was awake around 10AM, and got out of bed around 11AM. I think with places closing earlier and earlier and now a curfew, I decided I need to shift my schedule earlier.
I was out the door around 12:30-1:00, and my first stop was to put a bag of pipe tobacco in the "blessing box" in Japantown and put some trash in the trash can there. There's another one of those boxes on 4th, I think, but it's tricky to find and I was not able to find it so fuggit.
I rode to St. James Park and looked for people who might appreciate some pipe tobacco. There was a Vietnamese lady with a guy, and I asked if they smoke tobacco. "But I don't have a pipe or any papers...." she said, I said, "No problem, just hit up one these churches here for a Bible and use the pages" which is an old wartime trick. She was not pleased with this idea, and came right up and put the bag of tobacco in my hand while cursing me out in Vietnamese and what's more, slapped me on the ass. Not good social distancing. So, that's what I get for breaking my rule of not interacting with "the homeless". From here on out, I'll just toss the bags without a word.
I rode over to the Amazon hub and dropped my return package off, then went over to Lee's and got a nice little chicken and rice and veggie plate lunch and a bottle of water, and headed to the big pepper tree. It turns out there's a very active ant nest there, and those little guys can really bite. I moved a bit down, away from them, and even rewarded them with a dollop of rice.
I then rode up to Dai Thanh and looked for sesame oil but they were out, so I got some small thing I forget and a can of coffee so I'd not be wasting their time. Some people with a big load of groceries let me go ahead of them which was nice.
I rode by Bike Express because it had been a Tuesday when I'd gotten a free tube out of their dumpster, and again the dumpster was out there and did not disappoint. I got a 26" tube with Slime all installed (I think it was discarded because the Slime had gunked up the core of the Schrader valve but I know how to fix that - just pulled the core, clean everything, and reinstall) and two skinny Presta valve tubes.
I rode by City Hall and the protests were ongoing, with speeches being given and someone had a drum too. I'd considered taking my trumpet with me and had decided not to. It turns out the cornet gig bag I have is a screaming piece of shit, and I need to either stitch part of it back together or get something better.
I rode for home, stopped at Nijiya for cooking oil and various things, and headed back here. I could not believe how early in the afternoon it still was.
When I got back to the shop there was my pay check with an extra $50 written on, some boxes, some stuff to list on Ebay, some mail, etc. So that's how Ken's dealing with the curfew - coming by before his day job rather than after.
I relaxed a bit then decided to check out a beauty supply place that's really close to here, and Lo and behold, they have gallons of 70% rubbing alcohol for $30 and gallons of 99% for $50. They had masks too, and I bought one from them for $5 or so, to not be wasting their time. The 99% is really good for cleaning sticker residue and circuit boards and things, and even at $30 a gallon, the 70% is cheaper than the lousy ethanol/methanol mix I've been using, and still have a gallon of. I'm really tempted to surprise the hell out of the no-nonsense type transvestite working there by swooping in and buying $80+ worth of jugs of alcohol tomorrow. And the mask I bought is rather nice, too.
I fixed up a "nasty" (nasturtium) salad with nasturtium flowers and leaves, scrounged celery, and scrounged cucumber. Unfortunately, there are grass seeds, sometimes called "foxtails", going around right now and I pulled one out of one of the flowers but I think I ate one. I hope my stomach can handle it OK.
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