Just a little more crazy

 I'd made my bank appointment for 4, and woke up a bit around 1:30 then closed my eyes for a bit, opened them, and it was 3. I was out the door at 3:15. Fortunately I'd cleaned up last night so it was pretty easy to just get dressed, get on the bike, and go. 

After dropping my trash off in Japantown I rode over to the bank and was 15 minutes early so I walked around a bit looking (again) at the menu at Farmer's Union and peeked in the Starbucks then turned around. So I was less then 10 minutes early when the bank people let me in and I deposited my check. If I weren't antsy about being able to pay the IRS I'd deposit 2 checks every other week. 

That done, I went over to Whole Foods and locked the bike and got a beer and a package of roast beef and walked up Stockton Avenue and found a place on the corner of it and Julian that wasn't bad for a nice little picnic under the trees. Then I resumed my walk up to Target. The walk wasn't bad, and it's a way to go there without worrying about my bike being stripped of things or stolen. 

There was a guy out front hustling for "a dollar" who didn't look or sound like the kind of guy who hustles for a dollar. I'd also seen a guy with a sign working the median strip on The Alameda across from Whole Foods where I'd never seen anyone beg there before. Nothing drastic, just a little bit more crazy... 

I actually went to this place called Costs Less or Cost Plus or something, that has a lot of weird international foods. There's a guy on YouTube called "Atomic Shrimp" who finds all these weird things in cans and in fact one of his themes is "Weird Things In A Can" so I figured I'd find some weird things like those German hot dogs that come in a tall jar. Unfortunately, said hot dogs are pork, and the most weird things I was able to find, really, was a little jar of Riga sprats (the kind in a jar taste much better than the ones in cans) and some really fancy-schmancy sardines in a jar. 

I stuck those finds in the bike bag and got some mundane things from Target like "snack" zipper bags and a package of paper towels and some underclothes they sometimes get, which is the impetus to work out a way to go to Target instead of just saying "Screw it" and just going to Wal-Mart. (Which has allures of its own, like some really good canned tuna and pickles from an actual Israeli kubbutz.) 

I walked back by a slightly different route, and noticed not only a Quonset hut but a guy securing the gate to the fence around the Quonset hut, and we had a nice talk about Quonset huts and other things. I told him how there was a surplus places loaded with stuff from WWII in Hawaii called A.L. Kilgo's and it was like a wonderland to me, and when we drove there and I saw the Quonset huts in the area it was in, I knew I was in for a treat. Later, living on the windward side, the people behind us lived in a Quonset hut and I really wished we did, too. He said the trouble with this area is, there are "eyes" watching all the time, HUD housing behind him, the homeless along the creek, a halfway house nearby, and as for the people next door, they're crazy. I mentioned the college professor who'd been killed in the area recently and he said, "Right on that corner!" and reiterated how crazy it is, "Bullets go in the houses!". 

He was involved with the Quonset hut in this way: Google owns the property and and is letting his non-profit use it as storage for the next few years. I'm guessing it's an LGBT-connected non-profit by his painted toenails, and I'm also guessing he's not exactly rolling in dough by the big bandage on his neck, from plasma donation I surmise. I told him that this virus thing will make 2008 look like a walk in the park and he may have use of Google's Quonset hut not for a few years but many, because what are they going to develop, in a bad economy? I wished him well. 

Back at the bike, I stashed my goodies then traipsed up to CVS for my cheap vodka, stashed that also, and did my shopping at Whole Foods. This time I got wine with an elk on the bottle (on sale!) and the usual weekend goodies, for instance, some smoke mackerel they sell "Fruits De Mer" that's really good. It's a key ingredient in a dish I call "Islands and Clouds". You just dump it in a bowl, put dollops of sour cream on top, and there you go; a delicious archipelago. 

There's a group of young guys who seem to be at Whole Foods a lot. They have some distinctive bikes, and I've talked with one or two of them about bikes so they kind of know me. They were at the bike racks in a gaggle talking about various things, "Hey come over" "No, I've got a raw steak in my pack here, I need to get home and put it on the grill" etc.  There's a term; "Young and indestructible" or something like that, to describe people in their 20s, when you can work any job, dishwashing, anything, or because you're young and good looking you can bartend or anything, and money's relatively plentiful and energy's abundant and medical concerns nil. I hope life stays good for those kids.

My final stop was the Amazon hub for bubble mailers and did I ever cash in. I must have picked up 30 of the things. Then a nice(?) ride home in the dark, fighting the friggin' wind. If there's one thing I know about the end times, it's that they're windy.  At least I got some of those super-long Asian green beans on the way home from the dumpster on 10th. 

Once home and everything put away and bank calculations done and everything just right, I had a snack of cheese, onion, and wouldn't you know it, the whole jar of sprats. Well, they *are* good.