Tuesday, June 30, 2020

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.

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