I was supposed to take care of my taxes yesterday. Hell, I was supposed to dedicate the weekend to doing 'em. And I hate paperwork with such a passion that I did .... nothing. Well, not nothing-nothing, as I watched a ton of "Active Self Protection" videos on YouTube.
I also listed 15 things on Ebay so yay me.
So, I have paperwork to do, taxes and also a driver's license renewal, and the two bills from the hospital that only make sense in light of the fact that they got bought by a different set of rapacious capitalists than the ones before, and when that happens they always send out bills to everyone who's ever been in the place to see who they can intimidate into paying.
Maybe they can smell that I have a little over 3 grand in the bank. Well, I plan for almost all of that to go to the IRS, and then I may start keeping my savings in cash, here. And not no little stack of $100's, either. Word is, coins and small bills are becoming rarer (the "velocity of money is becoming glacial, as happens in Depressions) and it would be better to keep my savings in small stuff. And in a coffee can where someone in a suit can't take it.
This is one of the many reasons I bought the Glock. The $100's I had saved, I sort of thought of as this wad of money I'd hand over for a plane ticket out of the US or some such thing, but in reality the Glock can easily double or triple its value within a year and handing *it* over for a plane ticket out is a viable plan.
But the Evil Empire here is being walled off by the world at large, as it should be. Just like Nazi Germany, the possibility for one of its subjects to take an impromptu vacation overseas is very small now, and shrinking.
If I wanted to become fluent in Spanish and Cuban history, I could possibly make my way to Florida, steal a boat, and sail to Cuba. But this plan does not excite me, however much I admire the Cubans and their brave stand against capitalism.
The other way out is to get back onto to Hebrew study and once I can carry a conversation in Hebrew, start seeing about conversion and then get my ass to Israel somehow, but at last in that case I'd have help.
The US just keeps ratcheting worse and worse.... The 1918 flu being my model, we're in for at least two years of covid and over those two years we're going to experience what would be the next 10 years of collapse, just compressed, accordion-style.
Frankly I'm surprised how much Hebrew has stuck with me, from the little I've learned. Lo and Ken for No and Yes, toda for thank you and toda raba for thank you very much, bvakasha for thank you also, as your parents love to hear when you're a kid. Lots of little stuff like that. Cory Gil-Shuster's videos on YouTube are excellent, plus there are tons of Hebrew cartoons and kids' books and TV series and things.
So if things are going to be in shutdown for the next 2 years, and during that time I can get functional in Hebrew, then a conversion takes a year (you have to go through the yearly cycle of holidays and customs) and then I'll be pretty close to the youngest age I can get Social Security. I'm sure there are plenty of olim (immigrants) in Israel from the US who have chosen to retire there and get Social Security. Plus my plan had been that the Social Security payments would pay my rent, and busking would take care of the rest. Rent is half what it is here, and food is really cheap there except things like beef, which is expensive here anyway. But imagine being able to ride a bus or bicycle to the beach! Imagine being able to see a doctor or a dentist when I need to!
Also, it is my impression that people give a shit about each other there. I keep meeting really neat people here in San Jose and then I never see them again.
So I was up in plenty of time to pack a load of stuff and took it to the post office where there was a long line for people buying stamps, I guess, to get their taxes sent in, and to FedEx. In my case I think the IRS won't sweat another day or two since the way the economy is they're probably happy to get anything at all.
I picked up my usual packing materials and two bunches of spinach from behind H Mart, but nothing from the dumpster by Grill-'Em. Now that I think about it, that gal that shrieked at me the other day, sounded an awful lot like the "Gimmeee dollar BITCH!" female zombie I rode past on Brokaw. Maybe she was begging from the Indians or hassling them somehow, and since she's got dark hair and a darkish complexion, she'd kind of blend in. That would answer why she yelled at me but the rest of the Indians didn't take off after me. She's been around for years, yelling and screaming, along Brokaw and often asking people the way to Elmwood, which is a prison of some sort nearby.
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