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.
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