Up at 2. I'd been up watching the last episode of the BBC Panorama series on George Orwell and sorting a big tub of thingies that I think are caps for culture flasks, and when I was done with that, went to bed as it was close to 5AM.
Up at 2, and fixed up my coffee etc. I like to read Reddit, and in r/preppers there's a thread on what people carry in their cars that they think most people don't carry. Lots of discussion of spare sets of clothes, blankets, etc. And first aid kits. One poster mentioned being rear-ended while stopped at a stop sign on their motorcycle, and having to apply a tourniquet to their own leg. Other posters asked about anyone else helping out and the original poster mentioned this was in Hawaii on the island of Oahu and "one of the nicer areas" and the crowd around didn't do a thing but make comments like "Look at that haole bleeding out". They'd even had to call 911 themselves (and I can say from personal experience that they're damned lucky 911 did anything for a "haole") and that that's how it is in Hawaii. This had been in 2016 and they'd gotten out in 2017.
So the place has not changed; not one bit. There's no fucking way I could ever go back there. Another poster a week or so ago mentioned that when they were there, they got the nasty looks not from Hawaiians, but from the locals of Japanese descent. This is how it is, since that's the group that's in power and they'll never forgive the US for not handing Hawaii over to them after Pearl Harbor.
In any case, it's no place for a white (or even white-passing) person to live unless they have enough money to insulate themselves from the realities of the place. My older sister is probably OK having married into some wealth. The youngest one is married to a Hawaiian police chief and is probably OK until something happens to him. Hawaii's got the most corrupt police system in the US, and the police put "hits" on each other and each others' families fairly routinely. Maybe she'll get whacked so some young Hawaii can "prove" himself by killing a hated "haole".
I had my coffee etc., and then decided it was too depressing to just stay in, so I took the three packages of 100 each page protectors and got on the bike and rode over to Lee's Sandwiches and got a chicken and pork on sweet rice thing and a couple of egg rolls. The lady put in 4 egg rolls because "it's two for one today" and said she'd have given me two of the pork on rice things but there was only one, so I grabbed a package of potstickers and that was OK. There's been a guy, obviously homeless or nearly so, sitting out front not being noisy or anything, and I gave the extra stuff to him. Thinking back I'd have given him the water I got also, since it turned out I had a bottle of water in the bike bag already.
I rode past the pepper tree over to the college campus which is my new place to sit and eat now. On Santa Clara street there, there was a homeless guy yelling at the driver (?) of a bus there, and beating on the bus windshield and in general making a huge fuss, calling the bus driver a "gook" and so on. There are more and more crazies out there and while the college campus is safe for now, I'm not sure if anywhere will be safe to sit and eat six months from now.
I ate my food and saved most of the rice for the birds here, and then rode up to Paseo de San Antonio and over to Johnny Rockets where Leroy was playing with his new playing partner, a guy who sings and plays guitar. I gave him two of the boxes of page protectors and he was really happy to get them. If you play outdoors you really need 'em. We had a nice little talk and then I rode down to Santa Clara street and over to San Pedro Square where Rabbit Trumpet Guy was playing, and gave him the last package of 100 page protectors which were in a sealed bag.
Rabbit Guy had been playing "Fur Elise" that piece so beloved of beginning piano students. He was missing some notes, but it was recognizable anyway. He said he'd not been practicing since the end of hockey season. I told him I needed more practice but "might get out and play tomorrow".
I went over to Whole Foods and noticed a couple of things. First, that it was a bit before 7 and assuming they close at 8, it was about an hour before closing and there were a good number of people going in and out. And, that the petition-botherers and various sob-story scammers were gone for the night. If I were there with my trumpet, it could be one of those $40 or $50 hours.
I went in and bought nuts and cheese rinds and stuff, and then rode for home. I took a weird little street that goes out onto Market or Almaden I forget, and noticed a scumsucker type on a bike do a circle around - I had to veer around him - and then appear to follow me. So I zigged and zagged around some streets and eventually lost him. Yet another reminder, as it was after 7 now, that it's not healthy to be out that late in the evening these days. I should have gone from Whole Foods by the "front way" along Santa Clara street which is longer around but more "respectable" as the scumsuckers are really out in force in the evenings.
Just before coming in here, I stopped over at the blackberry bushes and picked some, paying the usual price in ant bites and getting stuck by thorns. Those things are good, though.
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