I dunnno, light orange?

 Up at 2. The air's upgraded to the light end of orange now. I couldn't get interested in going anywhere yesterday, with the air so yucky. 

I did, however, do another Windex scrub and water rinse bath and it's a pretty good system. I feel as clean as when I used to stay over at Ken's house once a week and take two showers, and that first of the two was where I'd really get clean and feel wonderful the next day. That's how I feel now. 

For decades my go-to had been Simple Green because it rinses so clean compared to body wash etc., but Windex is a revelation. It doesn't leave any residue to speak of so it's very easy to really scrub with it and then rinse with a little water. Except for my head/hair, I was able to wash up with barely over a liter of water. This becomes more important in the winter when it's a matter of how much water I have to heat. 

It's been a process of noticing that Windex works better than most things for cleaning grubby hands. "That's why I keep a bottle of it in my truck" observed Ken. Then using it for a quickie hair wash but always following that up with rubbing alcohol (not worth it; it uses up too much materials and a hair wash with warm/hot water is so much better) to trying out a scrub with Windex then wipe off system which is OK, then this. It seems a trivial thing but to me it's not. If I were living in a van or something, I now have a way to get clean enough for any job interview. 

My plunger washer thing is a similar step up. It's a bit of trouble, but then I can do laundry at 2AM if I feel like it, and it's really less hassle than loading my laundry up on the bike and riding to/from the laundromat, and dealing with the quirky machines and quirky people. 

I got a good practice in last night too. I've started to work out "Hava Nagila" but not sure I have it right yet. It always goes this way. Learning "We'll Meet Again" I had to watch that final bit of Dr. Strangelove umpteen times and now it's like old hat. 

Apparently Pete Townshend of The Who got that gig by playing "Hava Nagila". He showed up and was told if he could play it he had the position, and he played it, and the rest was history. It seems a lot of Jewish backers were behind a lot of these great bands, like that Epstein guy and The Beatles. 

Ebay sales are back up and I'm busier. This means getting more hardcore about a strict schedule. This is why I got up "earlier" today, because it seems too weird to be packing packages at 4AM. So instead I practiced while watching stuff like a movie I found, "The Little Traitor", an absolute gem of an Israeli film. Those are rare and a real treasure when I find one. So far I've seen "Dear Mr. Waldman", "Ptitm", and one about a teenage kid discovering girls and defying the British. There's tons more if I'll just learn Hebrew. 

But my idea is to find a way to have Saturday completely free, pretty much done, and have Friday as free as possible which would mean on Friday taking off first thing with a load of packages and then having the rest of the day to clean up, neaten up, and be prepared to have something like a Sabbath. That might be tricky with Ebay and Ken's expectations, but I think I can get the both of them used to it. I might have to use some subterfuge like a fictional big trumpet gig and actually take the trumpet with me and go busk here and there, which is NOT kosher if observing a real Shabbos, but it'd be a tool to move toward one. 

I got about 8 things packed, starting with the customers who'd told me they need their things quick, and at 5:30 decided if I don't eat something I'll be too tempted to buy the $8 shrimp appetizer from Ono Hawaiian Kitchen so I scrambled two eggs and ate those and it was a very smart move. $1 worth of eggs saved me buying an $8 thing that really isn't very keto. 

I did my drop offs and found two onions and a tomato on the way back, and unloaded everything and took off again at a quarter after 7, and rode up to H Mart for some shopping. I ended up spending $72-odd, half of it being a package of "cheap" beef short ribs, which I'll trim the meat off of and see how much I got for my money - if it ends up not more than $12 a pound I'm ahead of the game. They don't seem to have small packages of anything there any more. If you're buying beef, you're buying at least 4 pounds at a time. At least it's not as bad as I'm hearing people say on Reddit, $10 a pound for low grade ground beef in the Midwest of all places. 

I got back here with my goodies and took a very full "organic" bucket to the blackberry patch and by now it really was dark. I'd had to put my bike lights on when I came back from H Mart. 

Next I holed up in here, put packing stuff away, and made an onion, tomato, and Romaine lettuce salad with a couple of Hebrew National franks dice up fine, in. That came out well.

Upgrade to orange

 Up around 2. At least the air's rated as orange rather than red, so it might be alright to chance a trip downtown.

That red air

Up around 4. I'd gotten 30 things listed on Ebay last night and got a good practice in also, healthily over an hour. And it went really well especially considering how crappy I sounded just two days ago. 

Today I'd have gone on a bike ride, I was considering just wandering around and checking out places I'd seen but didn't have the time to check out like a big building with its own water tower south of I-280 and that general area. I'd have stopped and gotten snacks at cheap places here and there and just had fun exploring my own town. But the air was "red" yesterday, around 120 or so, and when I checked it today, it's around 150 on average. One is not supposed to go out if it's avoidable when the air's this bad so I'm staying in. 

I might take a ride around tomorrow because my shofar is ready to pick up from the Amazon place. Shofars are really hit or miss. Gone are the days of going to the gift shop at the synagogue and trying them out. I didn't want the long Yemenite kind because I think those are kind of silly. Much harder to carry around and too easy to blow. If I am to convert and be a Jew, my Lithuanian side says I will be a Lithuanian Jew, a Litvak, and Litvaks never take the easy way. They, and European Jews, Askenazim, favor the shorter ram's horn type, harder to blow but easier to smuggle here and there, and if you can get a good blast on one of those, you're a mensch! The worst thing I foresee with this one is, maybe the "mouthpiece" isn't formed well and that's an easy fix - just trim that end off and make it better. Or it's not that cleaned out inside, and that's also easy - give it a good scraping. 

I made some scrambled eggs with shiitake mushrooms and garlic, which were good but not as good as I thought they'd be. I followed that up with a salad. I keep hearing the expression "getting tired of my own cooking" but whoever came up with it probably wasn't a very good cook.

Elululululululul.....

 This is the month of Elul on the Jewish calendar. It's a month one is supposed to blow or hear the shofar every morning. Hm! I'd have to "do mornings" again which will take some adjustment. Also, it's a month of taking stock, minimizing, etc. Interestingly, for me, this time, basically the month of August, has been a time I've moved or changed things somehow. This year it's getting back to keto dieting, re-dedicating myself to the trumpet, etc. 

Maybe someday I'll fly El-Al during Elul. 

Up at 3 today. I had my coffee, finished packing the things I'd set up and found and packed a few more, and was out the door at 6. On my way to the post office, I looked at the little hillside where I planned to pick more purslane, and it'd been mowed. I was so miffed about that that after dropping off the packages I rode around the block to see if any more was growing but didn't find any. In fact all I found for packing materials was one little box, and all I found that I felt like messing with for veggies was one bundle of cilantro. 

I got back here and cooked something interesting. That "jicama" I'd picked up a few days ago is really a "Okinawan purple yam" and can be cooked like any other yam, despite actually being a member of the morning glory family. I diced it up small and fried it in butter and oil, then added scrambled eggs and ended up with something that looked really weird because the purple yam pieces get purpler when cooked, almost black, and the dye started to make the eggs greyish-purplish too. It tasted good though. I followed that up with a nice big salad.

Shifting my allegiance to Wal's

 I'd made an appointment at my bank for 4PM, so I was sure to wake up in time to have coffee yadda yadda and got over there in plenty of time. In fact I took a little walk around the area and discovered a bunch of twisty little alleys and passageways leading to San Pedro Square. I walked around in the building and there are some new restaurants, but everything's gone up in price. Not that it's good for me to eat restaurant food anyway. 

The bank deposit went fine, and I headed for Dai Thanh to get coffee and come cooking oil and some powdered unsweetened coconut milk to try in coffee when it's hot coffee weather again, and some cash also. As I was putting the things in the bike bags I heard a female voice asking me for a dollar. "Do you need food? Because I'm going around the corner and you can come with me and I'll get you something". The voice belonged to a dumpy middle-aged probably Vietnamese lady who's homeless, would like a $1 serving of rice, and can't walk over because she has to stay by her stuff (a pretty small pile but why give up a prime spot in the shade?) She said she'd like rice and pork even more, and I said I'll see what I can do. 

The restaurant guy was kind of hard to communicated with, and I settled on two beef skewers for myself and two egg rolls for her. She was happy to get 'em, and the whole thing was only about $6. So she was able to get something a bit more rounded than rice, and I was able to keep to my "keto" way of eating. I ate the beef skewers over in a little park that was on my way.

Then I rode up to Big-5 where it seems a lot safer to park my bike than going to Target, and walked over to Wal-Mart to buy some basic stuff like TP and paper towels and zipper bags and so on. 

The weather's cooler, and it's just so peaceful and ... dead. No buskers of course. People are going on, but in a much more understated way. With restaurant prices up by half again, there are fewer people eating out, and paying more to sit in outdoor areas. People like myself are probably just cooking at home and only eating grab-and-go inexpensive things which is how my spending habits have changed. 

I remembered to stop at the Amazon pickup place and got a lot of bubble mailers there. So far no one's batted an eye at my gathering them. I ended up so loaded up that I went right home from there. 

And got back here just in time for a Hitler v2.0 speech. Ugh. So I took a little trip over to the blackberry patch to empty my "compost" bucket into it, then came back and got my getter-stick and went over to the dumpster by Grill-'Em where I got tons of Romaine lettuce and a fresher tomato than I had at home. 

When  I got back the orange balloon was still expelling gas so I just turned off the radio. He must be on some prime drugs to be able to go on for so long; I think the scheduled time was 45 minutes. But then I think 1.0 was similarly able to rant for extended periods of time until Germany was half owned by the Allies and he was cowering in his bunker. 

I made a nice salad of Romaine lettuce with some tomato and shallot, and it came out great. One thing about these free veggies is, I always have veggies. I throw out a lot, too, because they're scrounged but at least the stuff I toss out goes into the blackberry patch. 

Before I knew it it was late, but I got a practice in, a bit over an hour. It went a bit better this time. Last night I watched most of a documentary about Wynton Marsalis, and one thing his Band teacher said stuck with me. Wynton was never first chair, not until he was well along. But he was a kid who, if he was told to work on some aspect of his playing like his attacks, he'd go home and practice that for hours and be better at it the next time. It was sheer hard work. 

Back at it

 I actually practiced last night. It went surprisingly well. I feel like I've not practiced for a month. One thing that generally happens when I don't practice for a while is an awful thing called "double buzz". It seems to be caused by the lips themselves being in poor condition from not playing. But a few days ago I'd decided to get into the habit of rubbing my lips against each other, side to side, periodically through the day as I think about it. At the lip level this is almost as good as playing, and there was no double-buzz. 

I had my coffee etc. and finished off the 19 packages I had to do. I'm amazed; I got it done in exactly an hour. I headed out to the post office to drop 'em off, and of course the chute jammed after the first 3 so I put them in USPS tubs and put them on the counter. I bet they hate that chute. 

Coming back from the post office, there were too many cars for me to simply cross the street so I rode up the sidewalk to use the crosswalk at the corner, but Lo and behold, I noticed the grassy area there was covered with very happy looking purslane. So I picked enough for a good salad. 

The trip back yielded packing materials, an onion with a big crack through the middle (sometimes they're dropped hard enough they crack like that) but good sides, a tired looking tomato, and what I think is a "jicama". 

When I got back I was going to make a salad, then in the process of looking around in the fridge found the tuna I'd put in the veggie drawer to thaw, so I ended up making a purslane and onion salad with oil/vinegar/Kewpie mayo/seasonings dressing, with sauteed tuna on top. It was pretty good. A dish like that would probably cost $25 in one of the fancy restaurants around here. 

Between dinner, spending too much time on YouTube and Reddit, washing dishes, etc. it ended up being almost 1AM when I was getting ready for some practice. I heard a car door shut right out front and checked the camera - two "lovely" local characters, Crazy Chrissie and Renee, are out doing a meth-head car paint job right in front here, because the light's good here. I wish I had control over that light but I don't. 

Crazy Chrissie fancies herself an autobody expert, specializing in shitty paint jobs as well as The Eternal Bondo Job. This time they've got a shitty red car with shitty clear plastic that's kind of over the windows because meth-heads aren't good at things like tape. She's spraying the thing with a spray can of red paint, then apparently drying it by going over it with a blow torch. If the yellow gas canister on the blow torch is any indication, she's using MAPP gas which burns a lot hotter than propane. It's probably whatever she could steal. 

So they fucked around with the paint and the shitty car and their torch, and even through the Crappycam(tm) I could tell it looked awful. She wasn't even using a flame spreader on the torch and it's pretty easy to make one out of a tin can or anything. Eventually they packed it all up and while they were doing this wonderful paint job, I got 20 Ebay items together so when they took off I felt I could list the items but not practice, or practice and do the items tomorrow which is a packing day but there's hardly anything to pack so far. 

So I practiced. It went ... not as well, because one of the things lost from non-practice is endurance. The most powerful "technique" I've discovered is regular practice. I wasn't able to do the exercises as well, but I did lots of this one that I think is designed to teach relaxation, and played a few songs too and got in an honest hour. 

2/3rds of the way though, I took a break and put on my outside clothes and walked out to the lunch truck and got an egg and sausage sandwich, on a bagel because somehow the nice lady thinks "You like this, right?" I didn't say yay or nay, but I guess I like bagels... actually it was tons better than the average coffee shop bagel and was soft and doughy. It was the usual half and half deal where I save half for the birds and eat half, so the sandwich is an open-face sandwich. I wrapped the sandwich in some bubble wrap and got the rest of my hour of trumpet done, then ate it.

I am eager to keep with the regular practice because earlier today I went on Amazon and bought a shofar. I'm hoping it's a decent one because they can be very variable. One thing I learned is, you can't play bugle calls on a shofar. I thought it would be pretty cool to play "Mess Call" before the oneg, which is the food (and bread and wine) after the service at the local temple. But the harmonics come out wrong. Well, these days I can't just waltz into the gift shop there and toot on shofars, and I was undecided between the longer and easier to play Yemenite kind, which are kudu horn, or the shorter, actual ram horn kind which are harder to play but easier to carry. The one I've ordered is, I hope, on the long side for ram's horn kind, so will be a nice medium between the two. They all blow differently, but I'm hoping with my knowledge of trumpet mouthpieces that if the blowing end isn't that great I can round the edges a bit or something and turn it from a so-so shofar to a good one.

Hoping to simplify

Woke up at 1, got out of bed about 3. It's time to start tapering down from alcohol again. 

I'm glad I got all that brewing stuff out of here. As hobbies go, it's kind of Meh. A good apocalypse skill no doubt, but I have a feeling when things get that bad, there will be plenty of "experts" around who will know how to brew up some nasty-tasting stuff that will at least get people drunk. 

I think I might be able to make busking work, as over on r/busking on Reddit, they're all talking about using something called Venmo (owned by PayPal) and I even told Ken last night that if my bank gets any weirder I'll give the Tech Credit Union a try, or I might set up an account at the Tech CU and use it for PayPal/Venmo. Tech CU's HQ/biggest branch is walking distance from me. That would be interesting because while busking, I guess I'd get a trickle of both cash and Venmo tips, spend the cash-in-hand on the usual things like groceries, and let the Venmo money pile up. 

I tried a new type of bath today. I'd been (rarely) using Simple Green which is a light soap and water. Or using Windex and scrubbing then wiping that off which uses a lot of paper towels. This time I tried the Windex and scrubbing but rinsing with water. It works pretty well and there's no worry about leftover soap being on me because Windex will just dry off. It worked pretty well and was quicker, too.

I couldn't decide whether to go downtown or just up to H Mart and H Mart won. Among the things I got was a bottle of that 112-proof Chinese white liquor because if needed it can be used for cleaning things, and I'm hoping I can taper myself down with the vodka I already have. I also want to get back to eating in a more "keto" way, so I got some pork rinds and a small container of sour cream. When I got back I just sprinkled Old Bay seasoning on the sour cream and dipped the rinds in it. 

 

So I drew a pig

Woke up around 4. Actually got up about 5. I had my coffee and stuff and got going at 6 to take a load of packages to the post office. That went OK, except the chute jammed of course, so I put my packages on the counter in a couple of the bins they always have around, and got out of there. 

It was smoky all right, but the smoke was thin enough that the sun cast slight shadows. Not fun to be out in, but what choice have I got? 

On the way back I got some green onions behind H Mart and a couple poblano peppers and some cilantro by Grill 'Em. Breakfast or 2nd breakfast or whatever it is, was scrambled eggs with green onion. 

I took some junk I'd stashed in the trash enclosure up to the tall dumpster at the front of this complex, then took my little red bucket of organic trash and a bottle of water and dumped that in the blackberry patch. I seriously considered getting some beer and could just about taste that beer, but reasoned that if I'm going to drink, beer's a pretty expensive way to do it; the cheapest way to get it nearby is $7 or so for three tall cans, while the cheapo vodka I got is about $14 for a whole bottle. Drinking that to the tune of a little bit per cup of ice water, seems to work. 

Overnight I thought about the old dilemma of internal versus external goals. This is what books like "The Inner Game Of Tennis" are written about. Essentially, the sport or whatever it is you're doing, has to be enjoyable for its own sake, regardless of whether you get money etc. for doing it, for you to get good at it. 

I'm going to amend that simple theory, though, to say that money, fame, etc. can be strong motivators and a good part of why you like doing the thing. I liked doing a sport I used to do, but it was money, national/world standing, etc. that had me doing it 5 hours a day. And I'm finding my interest in trumpet playing really palling now that it appears busking is off the table for at least the next few years and perhaps indefinitely. 

I was really looking at the possibility of renting some place downtown, perhaps an office in a building I know of where they're OK with people sleeping in there as long as they're neat, and just playing trumpet. My Whole Foods spot was very profitable, and there are other Whole Foods stores around. What a life it could be, I thought; no more worries about Ebay or electronics or any of that, just playing and learning more, sneaking into the practice rooms at the college to use their pianos, and just devoting myself to music 100%. 

And I was seriously considering moving to New Orleans, because it's a music town. With Social Security paying my rent, I'd go out and busk and be able to live a life based just on music. I'd even bought books, one by a busker that comes with a CD, and one by a guy who's a lawyer for his day job, about how to play "New Orleans Trumpet" with a neat looking cover. The cover's about the best part of that one, though, because it's mainly how to "read charts" and bragging about being a lawyer in New Orleans who plays trumpet. 

I was really serious about this, figuring out street car lines and neighborhoods, where the Social Security and Veterans' Administration offices are, and so on. I can't even think about going there now. The virus really showed how goddamned stupid the South is, even Southern towns that might have a couple of semi-neat neighborhoods. 

But getting back to internal vs. external goals. I was intended to be an artist. I don't want to say "born" but I might as well have been, because from my earliest memories I was drawing or painting and was constantly being given art materials. And I liked doing art, but I was also given a feeling that it was expected of me. 

So I'd get this feeling of, how can I do as little as possible and still be doing art, and not screw anything up, as "mistakes" were really picked on. Kids (and adults) were mean then. So one day in elementary school we were drawing, and I couldn't think of a thing to draw. The recipe was pretty simple, too, if you were a girl you drew your family, preferably lined up next to a house with a chimney sticking up at an angle and the obligatory curl of smoke. If you were a boy you drew a race car, or an airplane. We had a race car specialist and I was known for planes but I didn't think of that and I had to (a) draw something, and (b) not screw up. I was thinking, frantically, "What do I know how to draw??" And it came to me that I knew how to draw a pig. The construction paper (loathesome stuff) I had was pink or red, some color that's good for a pig, so I drew a nice, big, pig. A big oval for the body, etc. As elementary school pigs go, it was pretty good. 

My pig upset the teacher somehow, maybe it's because instead of the standard themes I'd drawn this pig, right out of nowhere. She seemed to feel it was a sign of something, that I was upset and so I'd drawn a pig to show it. The truth was I'd just pulled something out of my ass to fulfill a contract, something every commercial artist knows about.

I think that's the point where I realized something could just be a job. There were times I enjoyed making art, but a lot of the time, being expected to do it or needing to do it to earn a few dollars, it just wasn't fun.

Ken came by at about 10, and wanted to unload this huge helium dewar he'd bought, thinking it was a lot smaller, and put it in the shop. That took some work. So now we have this giant helium dewar making the shop that much more crammed with stuff. I'm to list it on Ebay tonight. 

After all the messing around with the dewar, I made a big batch of lime flavored ice water with a whole tray of ice in the big Yeti thermos I have, so Ken could drink all he wants. Pretty good system really. And we talked about stuff, the usual, how to fix the world etc. I hadn't expected Ken tonight and he said he hadn't expected to come by tonight but decided to on the spur of the moment. So I was stinky, the bathroom was dirty, and I hadn't moved the calendar and the wall clock moved where I wanted them to be when Ken came by.

All down the terlet

I woke up at 6 in the evening, approximately. Once I crawled out of bed and looked at my desk, I saw that I'd drank more of the little bottle of vodka I'd rationed some out into, than I remembered. I also felt awful. 

I had a feeling I'd become disgusted by this hobby, and this was when this happened. I dumped all my brews down the toilet. For drinking purposes, if I must, there's $13 a handle vodka from the drug store. I'm not sure if it's good or just less nasty than the Chinese stuff I'd been drinking. 

The brewing had been taking up too much time and space here. Besides here survival things like cooking and laundry, and my Ebay work, there's not a lot of time left so I can maintain one hobby. If I'm brewing, I don't have time to also play trumpet. If I decide I'm going to do art, then likewise that will be the one hobby. 

Two things have struck me lately: Firstly, when I was out playing in support of the protests and playing in general, not looking for tips but just out playing, boy did people not care. An exception was Japantown, but still, with the virus running rampant, busking is not going to be practical. And I've recently read that playing the trumpet is as bad for spreading germs as yelling, singing, or coughing. In other words, it's about as germy a thing as one can do. 

To think that I was making such good money playing at Whole Foods that I was contemplating leaving here and getting my own place and just playing trumpet from here on out. How times have changed...

Art's got a fair amount going for it. I'm under an effective non-compete clause with regard to selling on Ebay, but I could sell it on Etsy. I could also go on Reddit. In fact there are tons of ways to sell art, and not only that but for some reason there are all these weird but cool living arrangements for artists that are inexpensive. It's almost like if you're a musician and living in a commercial space or something that's bad but if you're an artist and doing the same it's OK. 

Another thing art could do for me is, I have a sequence of things in mind that pretty much go: Learn Hebrew, then convert to Reform Judaism so I can be part of the Cool People(tm) then retire in Israel where the Cool Stuff(tm) is. The first step, learning Hebrew, seems like it ought to be the last. But if I don't learn Hebrew my conversion will be kinda meh and living in Israel will probably be a fail. My copious research has shown this, that immigrants who just stick with English tend to end up unhappy there. 

Where art would help tremendously with this is, I can do art pieces with Hebrew words and this will keep me studying it. I can make those little signs with inspiring sayings on them and donate a steady stream of them to the local temple for their gift shop. If I'm converting I'll have to join the temple of course, and that costs. But if I'm donating art and it sells well, that ought to help.

Now, with real prunes

Up at around 1 then woke up again around 4. I'd been up until at least 4AM taking some microscopes apart, because the parts sell for much more than the complete ones, which we can barely give away. 

After coffee etc. I reluctantly headed for downtown. The air was hazy again and while the sun was out, there were not shadows because there was a heavy layer of smoke in the air. 

My first stop was Nijiya where I got a bento and a can of beer and $40 cash back. I ate and drank over at the benches, and saved the rice for "my" birds here. 

Next was to park the bike at Whole Foods, and I walked down to the drug store. Printer paper has gone up in price everywhere it seems, and their cheapest seems to be about $7. Most types they had were over $10. I looked at the fruit juices and got a 2-liter bottle of Sunsweet prune juice because how can I be making what's often called "pruno" without doing some that's got actual prunes in it? 

I also picked out a "handle" of the cheapest vodka which isn't as nasty as that Chinese stuff, and who knows what the cashier thought I was going to do with a prune juice and vodka, but it came to less than $20 for both. 

I found two good books in the blessing boxes; one of Don Delillo short stories and one called "Riding The Yellow Trolley Car" about which a reviewer says, "Imagine yourself in a large, gaily festoooned trolley car, yellow on the outside, bulging on the inside with people you figured you would never get to know in your lifetime - people like Louis Armstrong, Robert Penn Warren, Frank Sinatra, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jiggs and Maggie, Diane Sawyer, Paul McCartney, Saul Bellow, Samuel Beckett. Well, here you are, with Mr. Kennedy as your concerned host, taking you down the aisle of the trolley car and introducing you, one at a time, to those figures he has met or written about over the past forty years: a master of fiction showing you how non-fiction can become a high art form, indeed. With the author of Ironweed and Very Old Bones, and his other fable Albany sagas, you are in very good hands."

I swung by the Amazon hub and picked up two things I'd ordered; some champagne yeast and a "rescue" knife which is something I've wanted for a while. I found exactly one leftover bubble mailer where I usually get several, so it's good I found all those small boxes yesterday. 

It was pretty peaceful downtown and deader than I've ever seen it. People know the virus numbers are up, then there's this smoke. So it was very quiet. I saw a few "classic" cars driving around, and odd things like people sitting in chairs out on their yard in front of their buildings. It was so peaceful and quiet that even the crazies and various zombies weren't out on the street. 

So on the ride home I did something I do more and more: Geeking out on the weird architecture around here. There are some of the oddest-looking houses. It's not just the Victorian beauties with tall "witch hat" towers, although some of those look like they were designed under the influence of absinthe; it's some of the other weird constructions I see around here. Is a certain house, that looks like a combination of Old California Spanish and Frankl Lloyd Wright, exactly that, or some weird design built by the original owner? People often used to build their own houses, after all. And there's weird stuff around Japantown, like a house where a lot of trouble was gone through to put this little curved part on the front of the roof, why is this? And there are some truly bizarre little buildings around, tiny little gas stations left over from the 20s maybe. 

I don't regret for a moment giving all that art stuff I had to a homeless guy with mean art chops downtown, but I'm beginning to think it might be kind of fun to take some of the odd stuff around here, take a photo or two of it to use as a reference, then do a painting of it. There are two different guys doing this on the San Francisco sub-reddit and I really like coming across their watercolors of various houses up in The City. 

I stopped at TAK Market and got a beer and a beef stick, and came back here and had beer, the beef stick, (scrounged) radishes, and some pork pate'. 

Later I "racked" my tomato wine since it'd gone completely quiescent, pouring it off into three 1-liter bottles. I tried some and it just tastes like a wine. Nice balance of sweet and tangy, and good potency. Not tomato-y at all. What's nice to know is, for distilling, a popular recipe for beginners is "Birdwatcher's" which uses tomato paste. Dumping in cans of tomato paste is a lot less time-consuming than processing tomatoes.

And my favorite coffee filter is ....

First I want to say, my favorite coffee filter to use in my little Vietnamese "phinn" coffee maker is ... a piece of paper towel. It works great. Basically 1/16 of a regular size paper towel, or 1/8 of the half-size ones I use. It filters fast, doesn't impart any flavor of its own of course, doesn't let any grounds through, and it even leaves less grounds to wash out when I toss out the used grounds. There's a little sediment left but it's fine, and fine with em. Once you've had coffee in Barcelona, where you learn not to go for that last swallow because you'll get a mouthful of grounds, all else is relative. 

I was up until past 8AM packing and listing stuff, and also started up another brew, which is bubbling along happily. 

I woke up around 3, so I had time for coffee and nuts and vitamins and to get feeling awake, and packed up a big load on the bike trailer. I have a box that some super-duper gaming system (I think) computer came in, and it was perfect to put all the smaller boxes in, and that went on two of the two big boxes. It was a pretty impressive stack of stuff. 

The drop-offs went fine, and I picked up some won bok from behind H Mart, a lot of small boxes from the electrical supply, and a watermelon from the dumpster by Grill-'Em. 

I dropped that stuff off, then did a trash and organic trash run. Trash went into a dumpster and organic stuff went into the blackberry patch. Since I'm scrounging much of my veggies I throw away a fair amount, then with making brews, I'm ending up with even more. Throwing this stuff under the trees here would only get me in trouble, probably, but it disappears into the blackberry patch and may result in a better crop next year. 

I'd been thinking back and forth about whether to go downtown and knock off some errands as well as pick up my latest Amazon things, and arguing for it was the fact that the air was really nice and cool and clean, with smoke to the East and West but not right here. It's supposed to get worse over the weekend. Arguing against it was the fact that it was already almost 8, downtown's not the nicest place to be after dark probably these days, and I was tired from such a long night last night. 

So instead I went up to the gas station on 1st and got a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada and a beef stick, then to be different I rode over to the other place that I've gone by 100s of times but only been in once, years ago, and got some pork rinds. I had $3 cash for those and the lady really wanted exact change which I didn't have so I guess I won "the change game" because I got change back. 

By this time it really was getting dark. I took a quick circle around the Bay 101 casino, which is empty so it was kind of eerie, then rode back here and zoned out for a bit having beer and snacks.

Back on rocket fuel?

Besides the fish and the can of beer yesterday, I'd also gotten a little 200ml bottle of the "rocket fuel" Chinese white liquor that's about 112 proof, to go to sleep on. 

I'd found myself up until 7AM, drank my rocket fuel, at least watered down, and did I ever sleep. I woke up a bit past 4. 

From Reddit I've learned that Santa Cruz is getting hit by fires now. It sounds really bad, and about 25,000 people are being evacuated. Who knows when I'll go there again; certainly not soon because of the fires and who knows how long the virus will be a factor. I predict the 1918 flu will turn out to be a pretty good model, and that went on for three years before burning out. 

I needed an hour at least to have my coffee, vitamins, and nuts and so I skipped going to the post office today. I have a good load packed already but getting the rest of the things that need to be mailed by tomorrow won't be that much more since it's all small things. 

I took off for H Mart at a little after 7. As I rode by the storage place at the end of Junction Avenue, there was bums with their bum-cars moving or something. As I rode by the pickup truck, a dog inside it started to yap at me, and then after I'd passed the truck seemed to follow me and passed me and then stopped. Great, I thought, the guy's pissed off because his dog's yapping at me. I moved up onto the curb and considered a route that would take me through some parking lots, making me hard to follow. Needless to say I had my 'tunker' with me, the long bolt wrapped in tape. But, the bum in the truck was just waiting for his bum-ess friend in a car, and called out the window to her that she should follow or some such thing. They trundled off in the direction of Rogers Avenue. 

It was actually rather nice outside. Brown clouds all around, but the actual area had nice blue air instead of the brown stuff I had to breathe yesterday, and it was nice and cool too. At H Mart I got a bottle of "Chinese lightning" and a pint can of beer and some other stuff, including a "yellowfin steak" that was a pound of fish for $3. I was going to get some kind of ready-made thing to eat with my beer, but this intrigued me. 

On the way back a bum riding a cruiser bike who'd been coming the other way, circled around and started to follow me. I wiggled the 'tunker' a bit in my hand and started to plan how I was going to deal with this guy; probably try to get over to Fry's where there are tons of cameras, when I saw him angle off into the bum camp along Coyote Creek. Maybe that was all he was doing all along; going home? 

I'd really only wanted to do a quick out and back trip, so I considered just riding home using Rogers Avenue, then I thought, Wait a minute, that's where those bums were headed toward. So I went back the way I'd come, through the complex Foxconn is in. Interestingly, some kind of really huge building is being built along the freeway and the only way to get a good view of it is from the Foxconn parking lot. It will be interesting to see what it will be. 

I trimmed the fish, putting half in the freezer and tossing the skin and bones out for the birds, and simmered it with garlic, ginger, and a little of the beer and when it was done added 3 pats of butter. It came out pretty well, It's a very dry fish, and that's probably why it's so inexpensive in an Asian market, where oily fish and even fatty fish like "milkfish" are highly valued. 

Liberal with the wine

 Up at almost 4. I'd had the idea last night of drinking "ad libitum" wine and going to bed early, and thus waking up before noon, and doing my packing during the daytime instead of crazy night-owl hours. The end result is, I didn't get up any earlier and I'll have to pack stuff tonight and take it to the post office tomorrow. 

There are wildfires going on and it's all smoky outside, too. 

I rode up to the wine place and got more yeast, another airlock or two, and some "Star San" which is this sanitizer that brewers use. Next was H Mart and got a beer, a fried fish, and a few other odds and ends, then swung by Fry's parking lot and picked up a couple pounds of palm fruit, to try making palm fruit wine. Then I got back here and enjoyed my beer and fish. 

It's smoky and hot and just miserable out there.  It's nice to be in, frankly. Even though it's 85 degrees or so even in the wee hours of the morning. At least inside I have my fan blowing on me. 

I packed things, ate some dinner, packed some more things, and started working on parting-out these microscopes Ken brought by. It seems no one wants to pay much for them whole, but it seems that parts like the objective lenses and things like that go for decent money.

Street Veggies

Up at 3:30. I'd stayed up, having that 3rd coffee, to get eBay listings in, and had taken some time photographing these 3 large microscopes I wanted to get listed and thus out of the office, when I realized, doing my price research, that as whole 'scopes we'd be lucky to get $100 each, but a lot of the parts like objective lenses etc. go for as much as $100 each. So I didn't list them, and will part them out. 

I was up until 7AM at least, and actually walked up to the lunch truck, at this hour a breakfast truck, and got a sausage and egg sandwich for $3 and wolfed that down. 

Then, to get sleepy, I had a couple of mugs of my home brew with ice. 

When I woke up I realized I probably didn't have time to run over to the wine place and get some more yeast, but if I got going after having my coffee and vitamins and walnuts etc., I could get over to La Dolce Velo and pick up the front wheel. So I did that, and since I had to carry the wheel on my bike of course, put yellow tape I'd brought around the rim so in case I had to put it down it would not get scratched, and a layer on the left handlebar which I hung it off of. 

Near a beer place that advertises "growlers" there was a box with veggies and junk and I picked up some celery and some very dirty radishes, but I love the things and they'll clean right up. So maybe $5 worth of veggies. I'm really surprised how many street veggies I find. 

Then I went to Whole Foods and got some meatloaf, a tall can of PBR, a bottle of nigori sake, and a bottle of fizzy water. I went over to Diridon Station to sit at my usual spot by the baggage building, and had a nice little picnic. I was joined by a wasp, who was really interested in my meatloaf but when he tasted a bit of the tomato sauce, took off. He was soon back, though, and I put a little piece a distance away and he and the ants had a grand old time. There was purslane growing there and so it was meatloaf, beer, and a bit of purslane.  

During my picnic, a guy walked by with a classic bandage on his head, white gauze wound around and around like a big headband. "Ya hurt your head?" I asked. "I was hit with a bottle", he said. "You go to the hospital?" I asked, and he said he'd gotten X number of stitches, a pretty large number. "At least they stitched you up!" I said. He asked if I smoked, and I said I'd never taken up that hobby. I'd dropped off boxes of pain killers at the blessing boxes but didn't have any more to give him, and he wandered off, going wherever a (possibly) homeless guy goes with a big bandage on their head. At least for now the doctors are still stitching people up. 

The ride home was uneventful other than that, on 10th street, I ended up following a fat gal on a bike, going slowly as we both were, in the wind. When we passed a long parking lot I was able to go onto that and race past her, and she called out, "Hey! Hey! Hellooooo!" and of course I ignored her. Leave the zombies to their zombie business, that's what I say. 

The wheel turns out to be usable, but is not really what I'd have ordered. It's made for a bike with a coaster or rear-only brake, so I'll have to sand off the black paint on the part brake pads would work against. I'm not going to return it though because it being the end times and all, it might be the last new wheel I'll ever be able to obtain. So I'm just going to put the new tire and tube on the old front wheel which still has some miles on it, and keep this one for later.

You couldn't not buy it for a nickel

 Up at 2. I polished off the last of my first brew, the apple juice and brown sugar one, last night. And I started in on the next one, the one that had forced me to learn to make and use a blowoff tube, that had two bottles of fruit concentrate I'd made, in it. That stuff is stronger, and pretty good! Lots of fruit junk in it so it needs "racking" at least twice, which is simply pouring it into bottles, and then pouring them off into other bottles. But this 2nd racking is something that can be done as the need arises. 

It has an interesting, fruit, flavor. I actually thought I'd caught a little guava juice flavor but I think my mind was playing tricks on me, because the stuff looks like the guava juice we used to be given in elementary school. Or rather, sold. We had to bring a "juice nickel" and around 10AM we lined up in the auditorium where we exchanged said nickel for a cup of juice, alternately orange-passionfruit or guava. That guava juice was kind of rank and I didn't like it. I wanted to refuse it and just keep my nickel but that was just not done. It was unimaginable that a kid would not buy the juice and drink it because every other kid was. It was a heavily Asian school and a heavily Asian culture and I think the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, but I really did not like that juice. I'd learned to "spin" coins at around age 6 so when I got into the habit of spinning the nickel for the bewildered nickel-collecting lady, that plus my general disgust with the juice got me out of it. 

But it only looks, not tastes, like guava juice and is nice and strong. And it feels better to my system than store-bought wine. Maybe it's the sulfites in commercial wine? 

One thing I realized last night, though, was that while I can find fruit for free, the amount of time it takes finding it and processing it, may not make this worth it. I'd said that last night looked like it might have been a nice night for busking at Whole Foods. I'd have played from 7-9 and possibly made some decent money. It might make more sense to turn back to working on my trumpet skills and then if I want to drink some wine, just buying the stuff. 

I may be better off treating this brewing things as having taken a class in how to make wine when there's none in the store, as a survivalist skill. Because messing around with fruit last night cost me at least a couple of hours and more like three. 

I got my FedEx and post office run done, picked up a red cabbage leaf and a large apple behind H Mart, a little in the way of packing stuff, and a bunch of those little yellow squash that look like goose necks from the nearby dumpster, plus picked up some palm fruit out of curiosity from Fry's where a tree is really putting them out. 

Then I got back, put things away, and headed back out for some shopping at H Mart. I got all kinds of things from TP and wipes to shallots and ginger, some snack foods and a cheap Hawaiian beer, and got back here and just relaxed. 

A neat invention

 I watched another episode of "Winds Of War" and had some of my homebrew last night. Also cooked up a dinner of beef, scrounged zucchini, other veggies, and of course it was good. 

My happy little jugs are doing well. The one that had inspired me to come up with a blowoff tube system is completely calm now and I can't even make much happen in the airlock if I swirl it vigorously, which is recommended to "degas" the cider. So that's about ready to put into bottles. The sour cherry and peach one is still doing the yeast dance, and the tomato one I started last night is doing amazingly. The bubbles coming out of the blowoff tube are coming less than 1-second intervals and what's nice is the krausen, or foam on top, hasn't risen to the top which is what a blowoff tube is good for - it won't clog like an airlock will. 

I used a pound and a half of sugar in the tomato one because that quantity was in the recipe I found online. People who have made it say it really doesn't come out tomato-y but I figure worst (best?) case I end up with something that will taste like a bloody mary with a dash of hot sauce. 

What I'm also noticing is how this stuff, so far, is more gentle on my body. I get mellow but it's a different feeling than with store-bought alcohol. I'm swallowing a fair amount of live yeast, too, due to drinking this stuff so young, but other than being a little more farty lately there's no effect. I'm beginning to wonder if commercial alcohol, especially the stuff I can afford, has all kinds of nasty crud in it due to the makers wanting to get every last drop into the bottle to sell. 

But anyway, I came up with an invention today before I'd even had my coffee. I've been using my little Vietnamese "phinn" coffee maker with a coffee filter, the smaller size, which I've had to fold and shape to fit it in there every cup. This makes cleanup a lot easier. I'd run out and tried making coffee without the filter and it was a pain. The larger granules block the little holes and it drains super slow. But, since I didn't get any more filters yesterday, I'd put up with it. When I brewed my cup just now, though, on a whim I put a piece of paper towel into the bottom of the coffee maker, just to cover the bottom, and it works great. This is really neat because I'm thinking I can buy coffee filters but I can just cut little pieces to fit in the bottom, thus getting 4 filters out of one and not having to do the stupid folding and shaping step. And in a pinch, paper towel works. 

I haven't been out busking because, although a lot of people are back out there, so's the virus. It's not responsible for me to go out playing for money if I have other things I can do, like my job. 

I headed for downtown at about a quarter to 4. I went to Nijiya and got some fried chicken, a can of beer, and a few odds and ends like some baby bok choy (cheap veggie) and ate under the trees at the benches. There was an apparently homeless guy camped out in front of the Japanese-American museum and there was more fried chicken then I wanted to eat so I packaged up what I had left neatly and rode by there, stopped and left it on a bench there, and took off. He seemed like a young guy and looked like he was reading a book (probably staring at a smart phone) and that way it's up to him whether he wants it or not - if not some other hard-up type will pick it up. Japantown, unfortunately, has zombies too. 

Nijiya only had those fancy brown Melitta coffee filters that are shaped like a cone, so I got those just so I'd have *some* coffee filters. Next stop was Smile Market where I looked around - that place is really random! - then asked for rubbing alcohol at the checkout. The lady said she has to check, called someone else, then appeared back at the checkout with two quart bottles of 91%. I asked how much, she said $18, and I forked over a $20. At the rate things are going, I may want to look in Chaparral Market for that "Mexican Everclear" and see what it costs, and just dilute it down to 70% for cleaning. I can adulterate it with methanol from an auto parts store to make sure I don't get tempted to drink the stuff. 

Really, though, at the rate things are going, I might want to look into getting a thing called an "air distiller" which can be used to make booze, and for cleaning purposes just keep the "heads" since it would be for cleaning not drinking. 

For some reason, I felt like going to Lee's Sandwiches for a couple of egg rolls, but when I went in there was a bit of a line and the egg rolls etc were wiped out. I got a sweet rice with chicken and pork etc on top thing and since it was two for one, got another one and a bottle of water because there was a guy sort of camped out by the side of the building and I'd told him I'd get him a water anyway, and if it's two for one, some food. He asked about chopsticks or a fork or anything and I said I'd asked and they gave me nothing, so we'll both be eating with our hands. "That's what the water's for, to wash your hands before you eat!" I said. 

I went over to the college and sat on a bench in the shade and tried to get a squirrel to trust me enough to check out the bits of sweet rice I tossed to him, and while there was hardly anyone around, there were some happy sounds of people enjoying the green grass and the relatively cool air. I ate the goodies and some of the rice, and 2/3rds of the rice is out for the birds here now. 

On the way back I decided to look for fruit, and I found a bunch of little plums, some limes, a big lemon, and some apples gone brown but I think OK. I'd bought sugar for less than $1 a pound at Whole Foods, another bottle of their fizzy water, the bottle to be used to "rack" my next settled-down brew into, and other odds and ends. 

 I'd gotten to Whole Foods at 7, and I noticed that the petition-signing people were all gone, but there was a fair flux of people passing through. And they're open until 9. In the past, those had been good busking conditions as anyone going there after dinner-time was probably there for last-minute things, or in the mood for another bottle or two of wine, and the donations had been really good. If I have my donation box a little distance from me which I generally do anyway, I might be OK. 

Happy Science Experiment

 Up at a bit after 3. I managed to get some Ebay items listed last night that I'd had "staged" for far too long. I also started up another brew, this one with a little bit of fresh peach I boiled down and strained, and a little bottle of sour cherry juice? concentrate? I bought for $2.50 at Whole Foods. 

I set this one up with a pretty decent blowoff tube system I made, and it's bubbling away happily, the one that foamed up so much is on a regular airlock now and going along, and the first one had stopped doing anything at all so I "racked" it into a couple of 1-liter green bottles that original held fizzy water from Whole Foods. I also drank some, and it's pretty decent. 

This is becoming less about being able to make alcohol to distill, and more about being able to drink wine for about $1.50 a gallon. 

I was supposed to pick up my bike wheel today and started out to do so, but on the way got the idea in my mind I may not have locked the shop door, so decided on a quick out and back trip to Nijiya. I tossed a bag of trash, too, and got rid of some bottles. At Nijiya I got some eggs, fried fish, fish cakes, and a bottle of Kirin Ichiban beer, and rode right back here where the door was locked properly after all. 

I ate my fish and drank my beer, watched stuff on YouTube and the usual stuff around here. I got wondering why one of my ferment bottles had a real "yeast dance" going on but the airlock wasn't bubbling at all. I finally figured out that I needed to wrap some Teflon(tm) tape around the stem of it where it goes into the hole I'd carved into the cap with an X-Acto knife. 

I'd bought some Swiss cheese at Nijiya also, and when I decided to have some as a snack, discovered it was going moldy so I had to cut about 1/3 off and tossed that out for the birds. 

I also decided to try setting up a tomato wine? cider? I found a recipe for tomato wine and cooked down the tomatoes I had around here because I was getting tired of eating them all the time and they actually have a fair amount of sugar in them. So I've got that going with the blowoff tube on that jug. 

On Reddit they've been talking about a lot of power outages, but I'm guessing that's more in residential areas because more people are working from home and will run their A/C that much more, where in this area electrical use is probably down a bit. 

I was putting Ebay things away and kept hearing what sounded like someone in the complex rolling their roll-up door but there's no one around. Then I heard a few patters of large rain drops. I looked outside and there was thunder and lightning going in. I got to see some really neat big bolts.

Yeasty wonders

 My blowoff tube setup worked fine overnight and I've got that brew back on a regular airlock now. We seem to be heading into a "historic" heat wave so that's going to make my little fermentation hobby interesting. The first batch is only fermenting a tiny bit and is clarifying itself. The 2nd one is bubbling about every 2 seconds and is sitting in a big bowl of water in the hopes of lowering its temperature a few degrees.

A heat wave means possible power outages, and they want us to use "major appliances" at night when the demand's lower. I'm glad I did all my label-printing last night because my printer does use a little juice. 

I'll have to cook fresh foods that I've got in the freezer, salmon and beef, so if there's a long outage I'll lose less. 

Last night, besides packing stuff, was another episode of Winds Of War and vodka. Why would WWII movies be so comforting? I think it's because the goal was very clear-cut. Everyone was pretty much on the same sheet of music. Some parts of it were not very comforting though, like the Americans and other neutrals (at that time) fleeing Germany and the general difficulties of passports or lack thereof. As I write an American passport has become just about useless, as very few countries will allow Americans in. 

I have theorized in the past that ideally, if the US is going to sink further into Fascism, the rest of the world will wall it off sort of the way South Africa was treated. And now I'm seeing the beginning of this. 

Done with Morrie

 Well, I'm done with the Morris Berman blog. He's written a series of books, including one I've bought called Why America Failed. It's not bad, really, and like the blog a good part of the value is that it refers to other works that are worth looking up. 

It seems to be because of "you guys". I used the term, as innocuous as they come among the working class and even a bit chummy. It seems to have really set ol' Morrie off, though. It kind of reminds me of one of my father's girlfriends, a buxom blonde Midwest gal and nice as pie, but around her you could not say "toilet paper" you had to say "TP". It really bugged her. 

Really what it comes down to is class. The regulars on Morrie's blog seem to skew about 10 years older and $1 million more wealthy than myself. They're retired or semi-retired, jet around to Europe and Asia, buy $40 coffee-table books because the covers are nice. And while "you guys" seemed to be the final insult to this Chardonnay-sipping klatsh, it was building up as I was describing my day to day experiences, and my providing for my own defense - a scary thing to people who simply hire minions for such things. 

Morrie's OK; he has some good ideas although I don't plan to buy any more of his books. He's like a slightly higher IQ version of James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler has at least written one major book, The Geography Of Nowhere. That book probably made it big because it's written around a very simple, relatively non-political concept. And modern architecture really is awful. 

After all that work with Ken last night it was about 1AM and I was pretty tired. I fixed up a salad and toasted some walnuts, and got involved watching the first episode of The Winds Of War by Herman Wouk on YouTube. I kept thinking of a scene that's in the 2nd episode where the older Jewish guy figures he's OK with the Germans because he fought for Germany in WWI so bravely. That's another difference I have with Morrie and his blog. He seems to be intent on showing that while he's Jewish, it's OK because he's a "cool" Jew, see, he's anti-Israel too, just like you all folks... Well, in the movie of course the older Jewish guy gets beat up, and in real life the way the US is going, Morrie would be very smart to stay in Mexico City. 

I cut up and put beef and salmon in the freezer too, and my 2nd "yeasty beastie" showed no activity at all. Oh well. 

I woke up at 2 and among other things, checked things fermentation wise. The first batch is sitting quietly outgassing just a little bit, and the 2nd had "burped" through the air lock so I removed it and washed it out and replaced it. It's going along vigorously now. I'd put both bottles of fruit juice I'd made from the nectarines, plums, some blackberries, etc so it's a real mix. And a lb of sugar. It's bubbling at a rate of 1-2 seconds per bubble. 

I walked up to the lunch truck and got a breakfast sandwich for $2. I think the lady is giving me a special deal, and in return I buy breakfasty things that are hard to sell in the afternoon. It was really good with hot sauce. Then I rode downtown. 

I dropped off boxes (of individual packets) of "non aspirin cold relief" tablets at the blessing boxes and got a book, "The Tattoist Of Auschwitz" which might be good. 

Then I went over to the bank, where I hoped the ATM would be working right since it's hours they're open. It was not, and I had to knock on the door and one of the gals helped me do my deposit. So, scheduling appointments it is. 

I rode over to the bike shop to check on the wheel I've ordered but it's not in yet. "Supplies are slow lately". But, I was told when I was ordering the wheel that I was lucky to be able to get it, and if it were a rear wheel I wanted it would be very difficult. I remembered that the last time I was changing a tire, I could not find my blue Park Tool tire levers but could fine the pink Pedro's ones I'd bought recently, easily. So I got some bright yellow Pedro's ones so the visit was not a total waste. 

I priced fruit juice at CVS and at Whole Foods and it's pricey stuff! The whole idea in making ciders or wines or whatever they are, is to at the very least be able to drink both moderately and cheaply. If I'm going to pay the same as the jugs of sangria I can buy at Safeway, I might as well just buy those. I got a little bottle of sour cherry juice for about $2.50 though. 

I was able to buy some agar-agar at Nijiya that was a little pricey but about in line with what Knox Gelatin would cost me if  I could find it, to use as a "clearing agent" to make my cider clear when it's time to. (It turns out that I can just buy "Telephone Brand" agar at H Mart very inexpensively and it works fine according to my research online.) I also got some shrimp for a dish I want to try making. 

So I got my check deposited and my accounting lined up with the bank's to the last penny, got some errands done, and I'm already glad I got it done and won't have to bother with these things tomorrow. There's a bit of a heat wave going on and the weekend will be very hot, and there are just a few more bums and crazies and zombies of various types every time I go downtown.

After packing some Ebay stuff I cooked up a dish I thought up a day or two ago, a sort of red tomato sauce with cheese, but with shrimp.  It came out great. The shrimp and cheese were not cheap but at least the tomatoes were free. 

After eating I packed some more things so as to have a good load for tomorrow, and checked on my ferments. The first one seems to have stopped fermenting and is starting to clear itself. The second one, wow. It blew foam up into the airlock and was producing foam enthusiastically. Eventually after taking it to the sink and "burping" out foam a few times, I improvised what's called a blowoff tube. This is just a tube going from the top of the fermenter to a container of water, so it acts like a much higher capacity airlock. The bits of fruit in this second ferment are a bit of a problem, but fortunately boiled and strained bits of peach etc are pretty slippery so they find a way to squeeze through the tube. 

My first ferment, being just commercially sold apple juice and 6 oz. of brown sugar, was very well behaved. This one, with all that "wild" fruit in it, is really going gangbusters and for all the trouble, may yield a stronger drink. I just have to learn how to work with this stuff.

Like a hurricane

 Up at ... 3 maybe? Did the finishing touches on some packages, had coffee etc., and did my post office and FedEx run but swung by the wine place first and got another packet of yeast and two more air locks. I didn't find any veggies on the way back but  I did find a lot of cold pills, aspirin etc., tossed out by this company that makes up emergency kits for companies. I also got some medical batteries etc to put in Ebay. 

I got back here, dropped off the stuff and the trailer, and went back up to H Mart where I got the cheapest sugar they had, some C+H "Baker's" sugar that's just regular sugar just ground extra fine, some beef and salmon, some dried/seasoned teeny tiny anchovies (they go great with beer) and a cheap Hawaiian beer. 

I stopped at the egg-shaped robot place and had beer and tiny fishies, and it was pretty good. I only ate half of them so ... some for later. 

I got back here and cooked up some scrambled eggs and fried tomato, which was pretty good. Fried tomato is part of a traditional English "fry up" but somehow it never became a custom here, at least on the West Coast where it would actually make sense. 

I tried to think of what I could do that's useful before Ken shows up, and what I did was set up a gallon jug of 1 lb sugar, my two bottles of fruit syrup I'd made, and the second half of that first package of yeast. I even did things properly, putting the yeast in a little bowl of warm water with sugar first. I managed to cut my finger with the X-Acto knife when I was making a hole in the cap for an air lock, too. 

I'd just settled down with a cup of coffee and one of ice water when Ken showed up. He was in fine form, having bought a big double rack of equipment that he wanted to put in here, or something. I came up with the idea of taking the goodies out of it, then he can take the rack to his work, where he might ultimately use it. So the next hour or two, maybe closer to three? - were taken up messing around with this thing, re-arranging things in the warehouse to accommodate the things taken out of the rack, etc. 

Finally Ken needed to take a break and have some ice water and "something with sugar". He had a soda in his truck, and I fixed him up with ice water but since my 2nd cup was full of coffee and I didn't have anything else with a mouth big enough for ice cubes, I ended up putting the last of my ice in a bowl and telling him to put the soda in that and just drink from the bowl. That actually worked OK. 

In the end, he moved the emptied rack we'd taken all this heavy stuff out of, into the warehouse for now because he's going off on vacation for a week or two and needs to return the trailer to Dahl's tomorrow morning. It's blocking a couple of drawers I had tape and labels and stuff in but I took that stuff out in time. 

The guy's like a hurricane. As I told his wife once, "He has no off switch". Maybe that's why he makes so much more than I ever did in tech, although I think it was more a matter of being born early enough that he was around when hard work got you somewhere. I just feel like, "Whew, he's gone for a while". 

 

Ammo'd up

 I meant to get up by noon and ride over to Bullseye Bishop. Instead, I was up at about 1 but really had a hard time getting going, and was out the door at something like 4:30. That's OK, I thought, since they're open until 7. 

It was a fairly pleasant ride, over to Whole Foods where I got some walnuts and a little package of falafel with tahini, which I ate over at Diridon Station. Then I rode over to Bird avenue and down to Minnesota, yadda yadda over to Bullseye. 

The sign said CLOSED. Rats, I thought, at least I got a good long ride in, but then some people went in. They just had the sign turned around. I got my clipboard with my just under $100 order for ammo printout, and went on in. It took almost as long as it did to buy the Glock, because the place was really busy and they had 5 or 6 guys all working, rushing around. Their "Wall-O-Guns" was bare except for one, there were a few high-end shotguns back in a corner, and their display case for pistols was empty. Nuts. 

After much paperwork and dithering around, I got my ammo and took off. By this time I was hungry again and after riding back along Minnesota a bit I turned onto Lincoln. There was a Pizza My Heart there but I wanted to see what else was in that little downtown area, and before I knew it I was out the other end and decided to ride up Willow and see if it goes out to Monterey. Maybe it does, too, but it looked like freeway onramps eventually and I meandered around finding my way back to Bird. 

My mind was going around in circles ... I was hungry but I wanted to pick up some "Sugar In The Raw" from Whole Foods but I was hungry and nothing Whole Foods has ready to go appealed to me ... I ended up going to Lee's on Santa Clara then deciding that I really felt like a slice from Pizza My Heart. 

So I rode up 4th and picked up a little bottle of Tide laundry detergent someone had tossed out and at least $20 worth of bike tubes, then passed Bike Express and down 3rd to Pizza My Heart and got a $6 slice of "Big Sur" and went and ate it at the college. They serve up a good slice! And it was nice and peaceful sitting under the trees, seeing and hearing the dog-walkers and frisbee throwers and students and perhaps some profs walking by speaking foreign languages. 

The trip back yielded a ripe artichoke head full of seeds to put into my seed bank, The Fellowship Of The Ring by Tolkien in beat-up paperback edition, and "Encore Provence" by Peter Mayle which may be like "French Revolutions" without the bicycles. 

I had a look at the ammo, eventually. It's ... 147-grain so a heavy bullet, but ... subsonic? No wonder it was still available. I'm sure it's ... good enough. And I've got 100 rounds of full metal jacket I can turn into hollowpoints once I make a jig. And so, I have enough ammo and don't need to worry about that any more. 

Vodka is not a good idea

Up a little past 3. I got some things prepped (90% packed) last night and again, read a ton on fermenting and distilling. 

Then I had the bright idea to drink some vodka, thinking it would get me right to sleep. Instead, it actually made me more awake. I probably drank about 200ml; I need to get some decent volumetric glassware set aside for personal use. So when I woke up my neck hurt like I'd been sleeping with my head in a funny position, and felt crappy. Since it was a bit past 3, I got dressed and walked out to the lunch truck and got some chicken wings, had coffee and vitamins too. 

I"m beginning to think that learning distilling to make alcohol to use around here as a cleaner, may not be worth the effort unless it becomes a case where alcohol can't be obtained otherwise. I'm pretty sure I can buy 99% ethanol from a Mexican market called Chaparral for $10 a bottle or so and that's cheaper than  I can make it. But experimenting with making various wines and ciders might be a lot of fun.

I thought I'd get a call from Bullseye Bishop but maybe there's no appointment, necessarily, to pick up ammo. I'll just ride over there tomorrow. 

I finished off the Ebay packages and was out the door just a bit after 6, and the ride up to the post office was really uneventful. I picked up I don't know, at least 5, but I think closer to 8 or 10, lbs of tomatoes behind H Mart and a few zucchinis from the dumpster by Grill-'Em. I had a nice tomato and zucchini salad when I got back here, with my own dressing that I make with oil, vinegar, etc. One of the best things I've bought lately is a bottle of Heinz apple cider vinegar; the stuff goes a long way and tastes great. 

I've also found I like merlitons/chayotes which are a member of the cucumber/squash family. They don't taste like much, but are crunchy and pretty good raw. The kernel of the seed, fried, tastes like a potato but more so. So I'm not turning my nose up at those when I come across them either. They look so funny, and cost a bit so I'd never bought one to try, but when veggies are free it's a whole different story. 

Fermentation chamber

 Last night I managed to get the Ebay items I had lined up listed, cook and eat some crab cakes, and do a ton of reading on fermenting alcohol. 

I got really caught up on reading about one system called a "FastFerment" but I also noticed I had to keep moving my current batch around, from the bathroom to the workbench in the office to my desk to back to the bathroom ... as I was doing different things and wanted it to be the most out of the way. In my reading online I'd also noticed that a lot of people have "fermentation chambers" which are most often an old fridge ... I realized if I took the shelves out of the VWR scientific fridge/freezer which I've got unplugged right now, it would work and it would keep the jug safe and in the dark, in case that matters. 

So I took the shelves out and it works fine. In fact there's room for six jugs in there and it would all be safe and out of sight. 

I was just having my coffee and contemplating getting all cleaned up and going downtown when who should show up but Ken. He worked on re-organizing an area in the warehouse with a lot of his personal stuff in it, and found a bunch of stuff for me to list. I rode up to H Mart thinking I'd do some shopping and get something ready-made because Ken doesn't like cooking smells, but it was really crowded so I got the shrimp appetizer from "Ono Hawaiian Barbecue" and on the way back, gathered a few blackberries to flavor one of my fruit preparations, I think the nectarine one which tastes really bland. 

I looked at the Bullseye Bishop site to show it to Ken, and amazingly they had 9mm hollow point ammunition for sale, so I reserved 2 boxes and I guess they'll call me and tell me what appointment time I can go over and pick it up, and there goes almost $100 but then that will be all the ammunition buying I want to do. As I told Ken, "If I need more than 100 rounds I'll have bigger problems than more ammunition can probably solve".

prison hooch

 I'm not sure if this new interface is going to win or I am, but I'm trying to post here. 

I've been a bit fascinated with brewing alcohol lately, and been watching a ton of videos about it on youtube. 

A couple of days ago I got a 3-qt. bottle of apple juice at Wal-Mart, and yesterday went to a brewing place that's over in the same complex at Hilti, and got a little packet of wine yeast and a little airlock thing that is used to release the CO2 while not letting "bad bugs" in. 

So today I set it all up. I put 6 oz. of brown sugar I've had around here forever into the apple juice, then half the packet of yeast, a little lime juice, shook it all up, drilled a hole in the lid and installed the air lock, and it's doing whatever it's going to be doing now. 

Since it's a pretty consistent 82 degrees here in the office at least this time of year, I can just let this sit for the customary week or so and do its thing. I *should* end up with a fairly dry wine-ish liquid with about 15% alcohol content. 

The plan in learning to brew is not to become a wino, and the plan is to taste-test the stuff and then give it to Ken if it's good because one or another of his family will drink it up. If this little hobby stays interesting, the next step in the plan is to learn distilling. What's inspired this interest is that I'm paying a lot for rubbing alcohol which I use around here, and even finding it isn't certain. Alcohol's a useful cleaner, and if things keep getting worse, being able to produce it will be a useful skill as it's a good barter item. 

I'm really glad to have a brewing supply so near to me. What really happened last evening was, after making my drop offs at the post office and FedEx, and picking up some nectarines and plums that were behind H Mart, I went over to the brewing place and bought the airlock and a packet of wine yeast, the notorious EC-1118. Once that transaction was done, I joined the owner and two guys all talking in the parking lot where the roll-up door was rolled up. The owner had been, variously, a mining chemist, a professional poker player, and God knows what else, and now he's a brewing expert. He was pouring some white wine he'd made, and I had some; it was really nice tasting. 

Apparently they have some activities during the time of year wine grape growers call "The Crush" when the grapes are harvested and it's a lot of work to get them tuned into juice and on their way to becoming wine. It gets hectic, so this guy's way of handling this is to have something like work parties with free food etc. They can always use another grape shoveler, I was told. 

One of the guys was an old regular, and I said I'm a beginner about to start my new batch, and the guy looked over at the fruit in the box on my bike trailer and said, "You won't get much, maybe one bottle" and I said that's OK since I'm new and just learning. 

The thing is, we kept drinking wine and I may have drank more wine than any of them. The conversation was fun, I was hoping to learn things, the wine was free, and it really tasted nicer than the $10 a bottle stuff I'm used to. Eventually I polished off my latest generous pouring and probably said I had to go politely enough, and the next thing I remember is waking up here with the office light on, but all neatly in bed, the door locked properly, and the box of fruit by the door. I didn't feel too great either. 

I had some coffee and a can of fish and watched YouTube a bit, it being about 4AM, and then went to bed again at about 5 o 5:30. I *might* be able to do this once a week, but should not be doing it at all. For one thing, I didn't get my Ebay listings done. 

I woke up again after some proper sleep and brewed up a coffee and had my vitamins etc., and it took me forever to drink the coffee, but I got my apple juice brew started, and once I had indeed finished the coffee I headed downtown. 

I went to Lee's Sandwiches first and got a chicken-on-noodles thing and a pork ball skewer, which is almost a meal in itself - it's ground up char siu made into balls and quite hearty. I eat my lunches over at the college now and had a nice bench in the shade and squirrels to watch. 

Next stop was Dai Thanh where I got two different sizes of strainer, a stainless steel bowl, a pair of those super long chop sticks used in cooking, some dried squid, shallots, and a can of coffee. It all came to $32-odd so I used my card because it was more than I had on me in cash. 

I rode around downtown a bit and it was really dead. San Pedro Square is blocked to cars all the time now, and was a little bit busy but that was about it. I didn't see any buskers. 

I stopped at TAK Market on the way back for a couple of 1-liter bottles of Diet Pepsi, something I like as a treat anyway, and I wanted the bottles. 

When I got back, I rinsed and cut up the plums, making a nice big pot full and put in a mug of water, and simmered them for a bit over half an hour, then poured and strained as much liquid as I could get, making about 0.8 liter. This went into one empty Diet Pepsi bottle. The nectarines got the same treatment so I now have a bottle each of plum and nectarine juicy syrupy stuff, which can be stored in the fridge until I'm ready to use them. I should not have to pay for fruit, and even the yeast can be "cleaned" and re-used. 

Right now, 10PM, the yeast in my first batch are having a real party. The air lock is bubbling every 3-4 seconds, and the yeast are circulating around in the bottle like crazy. The top of the liquid is fizzing with tiny CO2 bubbles.

At least I could put in my miles

I was up at about 2, didn't dare put anything in my stomach but a little diet 7-Up left over from last night, and was on the bike and out of here at about 4, after having cleaned up, washed hair, shaved, etc.

It's a good thing I did too, to prepare myself for a simply awful day. As I rode toward Japantown all I could think of was how hungry I was, then realized that's a good sign. I went to Nijiya and got a couple fried fish and a can of coffee and sat and ate at a nearby  bench, then went back in and got a few other things and $40 cash back. That turned out to be a good move.

I rode over to my bank where there was a bum hanging out by the ATM talking to himself, and I tried to deposit my check and keep an eye on the bum also. The ATM was not working, and I took off, realizing once I was around the block that I may have left my card in the ATM. I rode back around at bike-messenger speed and it was not in the ATM either but the bum was still hanging around. I asked the bum if he'd seen a card, "I'll buy it off you" and would have handed him my $40 for it but he said he'd seen nothing and walked off.

I rode to Whole Foods and parked my bike there and called Ken on the phone, telling him I'm walking up to the drug store to buy a receipt book and he'll just have to pay me cash and I'll write receipts which will keep his accountant happy. The receipt book cost me almost $10 but it's a couple years' worth.

I went into the Ace Hardware and got a little box of 100 green ramset blanks; their last one. "We usually have yellows, too" the guy said, and I said I was actually hoping to find browns or greys, since they're the weakest. But I volunteered my theory that the .22 blanks are pretty old-school by now and being phased out. At least I now have enough to match the pellets I have, to the tune of almost $10.

Back at Whole Foods, I picked up a bag of walnuts and a canned latte. Outside I poured the latte into what was left of my canned black coffee and put that in the bike bag after taking a swig or two and bantering with the kids manning the charity scam being run out front.

On my way out of there, under the bridge, I noticed that my rear tire was rapidly going flat and hopped off the bike and walked it up to the corner, and pumped the tire up. I couldn't find any new leak, and it seemed to be holding fairly well. I love my little Lezyne bike pump!

I went to the Amazon hub, locking my bike out front, and picked up my jar of bay leaves I ordered to preserve my jugs of rice. Then I walked caddy-corner to the 7-11 for more Diet 7-Up, and coming back to my bike, there were some yuppie kids taking pictures of each other and of my bike for some fucking reason. I kicked over a fruity orange drink one of the snowflakes had left right next to my bike, and said, "What a sticky mess!" to which one of the female snowflakes said in an accusatory tone, "What did you just say?" and I repeated: "What a sticky mess!" then added for their education, "No wonder diabetes is becoming so common!"

I managed to get my bike out of there mess-free, and rode over to Smile Market. I went in and searched the shelves before remembering that rubbing alcohol has to be requested, after which the lady rummages around a bit and produced two bottles, for which I handed over $8 cash and that's it, straight $8 cash.

The dumpster on 10th had tons of basil and something I think is called "kaffir lime" leaves or some other edible leaf, so it's greens with my beef tonight.

At least my stomach was fine and I was able to put in the required miles I need to put in almost every day.

Compared to the Chinese liquor I'd been drinking in the past, the Stolichnaya vodka I drank last night felt like water, and I didn't have much of a headache or anything today. No cravings or shakiness either. So I can get a snootful occasionally without dropping into dependence. That Friday night shot of Manischewitz wine or a real rollicking drunk on Purim won't hurt me then. Even the 4 cups of wine at a Shabbat dinner won't necessarily have to be tiny ones. I have no desire to drink, really, and only cracked the bottle of vodka  because my stomach hurt so much.

Now I have to figure out my bank situation. Maybe having Ken pay me in cash is a bit much, and I simply need to start an account at a different bank that's easier to deal with. There's the Tech CU up the street, another credit union downtown, plus another bank or two. Even Wells Fargo could work for me, for however awful they are, my banking is about as simple as banking gets. I could also stick with what I've got, and just deposit my checks every 2 weeks instead of every week, making an appointment and going in the lobby. I'll just have to see.

I went through my 6 gallon jugs of rice, sifting out the boric acid and putting it back into the jugs, and putting 8-10 bay leaves on top. I tried making labels using my computer and of course that was a big waste of time and paper so I made them using a marking pen and taped them on "RICE JULY 2020". One thing the boric acid had done, besides sink right to the bottoms of the jugs, was to dry the rice out so static electricity made grains of rice get scattered around but my little brush and dustpan came in handy when I was done. In fact, that little brush and dust pan set work so well that they should be a good stand-in for the vacuum cleaner when the electricity goes out.

Stomach Ache

Yesterday I had a stomach ache that really cramped my style. I packed things, got a sausage sandwich from the lunch truck and ate that, had my coffee etc., but my stomach really hurt. I managed to get the post office and FedEx drop-offs done, then came back here and gathered up the shredded cabbage, green beans, and shallots I'd scrounged and put them in a dumpster behind where the lunch truck parks. I got back in here and chewed up some Pepto-Bismol pills which really didn't help.

I eventually settled in on having some shredded seasoned seaweed, both of the diet 7-Ups I keep around for Ken, and about 250ml of vodka. I eventually just went to bed and slept until almost 2.

I feel a bit better now, and a nice thing I've noticed is the bags of bum trash have been taken away by whoever does the cleaning around here. I figured if I made them easy to just grab and take away they'd go, and they did. Bums are attracted to trash and filth, while a clean parking lot is a lot less welcoming.

Disgusting dirtbags

I slept in until almost 4. I guess I needed the sleep. I'd planned to go to the Ace Hardware downtown and see if they had any ramset blanks but it was too late to get there in time.

I dithered about going anywhere, then checked my email and the pellets I'd ordered were in, plus I had a smelly bag of trash to get rid of, and I felt that after staying in yesterday I should go out today. So I started out and got as far as Queen's Lane then remembered I didn't have a mask with me, came back and got two masks, one for my shirt pocket and one to keep in the bike bag, and started out again.

First I dumped the smelly trash in the dumpster on the corner, then headed to Nijiya where I got a few things, $20 cash back, a Coke Zero, and a miso ramen bowl that now that I think about it may be intended to heat in a microwave and eat hot, but I ate it cold and it was great.

Downtown was dead, dead, dead. I even rode down 4th and around by Bike Express looking for stuff students left out but there was nothing. And hardly any people anywhere except for zombies, always a few more of them each time.

I went to the Amazon hub and picked up the pellets I'd ordered, and picked up some bubble mailers to use in packing. I got a couple of diet 7-Ups for Ken at the 7-11 across the street which has tons of different kinds of masks for sale by the checkout.

On the ride back, I came across "the dueling bodegas", Kelly Liquor and Smile Market. Kelley's seemed to be just about various drinks, but Smile was a real surprise. All kinds of stuff crammed in there, and I was able to get a half-gallon of bleach and two pints of rubbing alcohol, Swan brand, so not some of that funny off-brand stuff that's notorious for having methanol in it. I'd been looking for some, especially since the stuff I'd bought at San Jose Beauty Supply has a funny pine-y smell.

Then I remembered the neat looking castor bean bush I'd seen on Empire by 2nd, and went over there and cut off a couple of ripe seed clusters. I have visions of planting that along the fence by the CalTrans site where the blackberries are, and then putting blackberries in where they'll have the castor bean plants as partial shade since blackberries like that.

I got home and put things away. The various blessing boxes had yielded me a copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird", "The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul" by Douglas Adams, and an Audubon Society field guide to Western wildflowers so it was not a useless day.

I checked out the pellets - they're called "Red Flight" and the little red skirts on them can be pulled off, showing that the metal part that's the actual pellet has a little "tail" on it, which would make them fly in a more stable manner, which explains the pretty decent accuracy experimenters on YouTube have gotten out of them.

I'd noticed that the bums left a lot of trash and junk in scattered piles in the parking lot, and had rolls of "hazmat" translucent red garbage bags there too. I was going to do nothing, but then realized I have a couple pairs of rubber gloves that ought to be used up because they're kind of old, and put a pair on and went out and bagged up some of the stuff and made things a lot more neat, if you can call smelly clothes never washed, and possible bum piss and shit wound up in them, neat. The idea is to show the bums their activities are being watched, and to make it easy for anyone doing clean-up around here to pick up the bags and take them away.

I'd had to make a "run" anyway, taking some junk I don't need and a bunch of big pieces of Styrofoam Ken had brought over, to the dumping place by the bridge.

I'm all in favor of setting up camps, out in the boonies where land is cheap, and just putting the homeless in there. Not the normal people who may have to improvise a place to stay for a few months until they get back on their feet, but the hardened, criminal, drug-addled, zombie type homeless. Stick 'em out there where they have 3 hots and a cot, 24/7 TV, arts and crafts, hell let 'em have booze and weed, why not? Just keep them away from normal people where they're not crapping up the place and stabbing everyone within reach.

Another thing I did today was order some bay leaves on Amazon because I don't feel perfectly confident in storing the rice with boric acid sprinkled in. It turns out you can use bay leaves, so when I have those in I'll sift the rice so it's fairly boric acid free and put it back in the jugs with bay leaves instead. No regrets on buying the boric acid though, as it's very useful.

Here's Cooking At You

Up at 3. I got a decent practice in last night, but didn't get ebay listings done which I should have. So I'll do them tonight.

I didn't feel like going anywhere so I stayed in, and for breakfast I decided to try making some sort of pancakes using eggs, some of the shredded cabbage I have a lot of, a little flour, and seasonings. I fried them in lots of butter and they came out great. One of the seasonings I used was plenty of instant dashi-no-moto which is usually used in miso soup and such things. I love inventing stuff on the fly like this; it reminds me of a silly "show' on the kids' show The Electric Company in the 70s, featuring their silliest character, a lady named Winnie. One dish was "drilled dill pickles" where she took a drill press, drilled holes in dill pickles, then filled the holes with whipped cream. It was a silly show, called "Here's Cooking At You" after the old saying "Here's looking at you".