I got my practice in last night, watched inane YouTube stuff, etc. It's fun how Ken and I get along, work together, and have these talk sessions, but it's also pretty tiring.
I woke up around 1 I think, lay in bed doing deep-breathing exercises until I felt like getting up, around 3. I got online and found an appointment for 4:30 at the bank and got woken up as well as I could, washed and wiped and de-stinked myself and got on the bike, straight for the bank as I left at 10 after 4.
I got there 3 minutes late which is perfect. Slathered up with the hand sanitizer that's by the door (it's been an object of humor as the nozzle will at times get clogged, causing it to squirt on one's shirt etc) and did my deposit, some cheerful words with the people there. The last time I was so liked at a bank was a "Savings & Loan" my Grand-Aunt Mary had recommended to me back in Honolulu, where I was praised for being a good saver.
So that was done and I rode over to Dakao for some cheap food. There was a zombie lurching along the sidewalk who grunted, "Nice bike! What is that, a chopper?" and I had to ride wide around, and locked up the bike in front of Dakao keeping an eye on the zombie, in case it turned around and started lurching closer, I'd go somewhere else. But it kept on its zombie way, toward some zombie goal.
I got a pork and veggies on noodle thing for $5 and rode over to the university to eat. It's pretty nice, classic old buildings and people walking their dogs and having fun. A kid on a skateboard accompanied me, it seemed, as I toodled along to my eating place, and then did tricks, falling off a lot, some distance away. Presently a girl with flaming red hair skateboarded by and I thought, "I bet she's better than him". The pork and veggies and noodles and fish sauce were just right.
Done eating, I picked up a shakuhachi book I'd ordered at the Amazon place and some bubble mailers. I had two things coming but only one was "available" I was told. "It's OK, the other one will come in later, good enough!" I reassured the guy there. The other thing is the CD that accompanies this book.
It was now 5:30 and Nijiya closes at 6. I got over there, stopping to pick up a copy of "The Medusa And The Snail" by Lewis Thomas which I read ages ago but it's well worth reading again.
Nijiya was a bit busy so I waited until invited in. I picked up usual things, sake and a beer and some seasoned peanuts and some Korean "Tofu Kim Chee" snacks, some interesting cucumber tsukemono, but they were out of my favorite "big orange bean" natto. Blondie (I need to learn the name of that guy) was my checker and we got to talk a bit. Politics, and I told him the best thing to do is pick a business that's not going anywhere, like Nijiya, and stay there for life. That I wish I'd done that with Foodland, the big market chain in Hawaii. I'd even worked for them. Pick something stable and stay with it for life.
I also said I hope my shakuhachi playing will ensure I will always be fed, somehow. So now we're going back to 1700s feudal Japan. Seriously busking is 1000s of years old as a profession so that probably makes it the most reliable thing.
They were closing up and I rode off, stopping at the temple for "weed patrol". There was a bum with a dog sitting on the front steps, no doubt seeing it as a calm, safe place. I went over and checked the edges of the recently-mowed lawn, and found Velcro plant and some other annoyances and weeded them out of the border of the lawn and put my wad of weeds in the trash can and rode off.
I'm glad I went to Dakao and got food there because the bentos at Nijiya had been wiped out completely. I had some of the tofu snacks and peanuts and my beer, good old Asahi "Super Dry" which I'm getting to like the taste of.
I'd felt like shit and dragged myself to do what's necessary because that's what I do. And I thought, while out riding, that I'm in a much better situation than I was when I banked my whole life on being good at a certain sport. I'd lost my job, had $800 a month from unemployment but that wasn't going to be forever, had $500 a month rent and could be evicted for not paying same or on any whim, really. Had conflicts with some crazy neighbors and the manager of the trailer park, one of my friends there, and my neighbors, were all in long-standing feuds and I was friends with them all. They just didn't like each other. One time they got into some kind of a yelling match at my neighbors' place and it woke me up - I went out and *ordered* everyone to go home, including my neighbors. The sport I did made me an authority who could order people around. After the manager etc. had been ordered off I went into my neighbors' place and smoothed feathers there and let the manager and his bunch smooth their own. The thing is, I could have been evicted on a whim.
I'm not likely to be evicted from here because Ken values me too much. As a Polish Catholic he seems to have the old Roman idea of patronage, as he is my patron and has been, and is, the patron of others he's let live at his place or has living out on his Patterson property. I'm making money. My new "sport", the shakuhachi, costs very little. And in 4 years, I'll have a trickle of money to lean on. So I should have more confidence in myself.
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