Saturday, June 20, 2020

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.

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