I didn't manage to get to bed until 8AM, maybe a bit later, but when I went to bed I was able to go to sleep. I had a couple of instances of just starting to doze off then waking up with a start. but I was persistent, doing some deep breathing and imagining a typical trip to "Little Beach" across from our house on Portlock Road, and that seemed to work. I kind of halfway woke up a couple of times but went back to sleep. I woke up finally around 2, and got up around 3.
The first thing I did was have a couple of boiled eggs and some hot tea and vitamin C drink. Then I packed a few more things hoping to get out of here at 5 or maybe 5:30. I ended up getting out of here at a quarter to 6, and since all of my packages were for the post office it was pretty simple. What's amazing is the chute didn't jam even once. I have a feeling they changed something behind it so the packages don't pile up and jam it. So that's pretty cool.
I went straight from the post office to Fry's, where I had about 15 minutes to look around. Everything's half price so a lot of things are honestly garage-sale prices. The guy told me all the bubble mailers are gone and I asked him if one person bought them and he said in fact a guy did, about 70 cases of them, even the ones back in the warehouse. I said that guy was both smart, and had room to store them.
I was too busy thinking about my stomach, though, as although I had a couple of boiled eggs, I was again hungry which I thought was a good sign. I'd had the shits again before leaving the shop, and now I'm hungry? Bring it on.
I rode over to the place next to Tom's where on Mondays they throw out big black garbage bags of packing material and they're very good about putting different types in different bags. One felt soft so that's the good stuff, and one was full of Styrofoam so I didn't want that, but there was a big wad of soft stuff outside of a bag so I loaded that on too.
Then I went about 25 feet to Tom's door and knocked on it, and he was there, and I told him I wanted to make sure he's there because I found the big chain he wanted and I was gonna go get it and bring it over. He was fine with that. I went back to the shop, unloaded the trailer and so on, grabbed some cash, and the chain, and rode back over to Tom's. He was quite impressed with the chain but didn't have the $10 cash on hand to pay for it, of course. I said anytime is OK or maybe I'll end up getting a few books from him. We talked about various business ideas, and then I said I have to go.
I keep riding past a place called Starbird, whose logo is a chicken in a bowl. I figured they must make chicken on rice bowls and I craved one. I parked the bike at H Mart where it'd be safe, and walked over. I looked at the menu and it's all various flavors of strips, with various flavors of fries. I walked out.
I figured, OK, I'll go to TK Noodle which is in that same mall, on that same side in fact. I walked down that way, and found a big ramen place called Odu and the menu was right out front so I was able to look at what they offered and I decided I'd have a nice traditional tonkotsu ramen.
So I went in, a young waitress asked me if it was indoor or outdoor and how many, led me to a table outside, I put in my order, and waited. Before long she brought a bowl to me that looked delicious. "I'll bring you your chopsticks and a napkin..." she said, then proceeded to check on another table and get into a conversation with yet another. So I just got up and got a pair from the bar and was back at my table with them "Oh, you've got some already" and it was another trip for her to get the napkin ..... I'd think if they had a station with napkins (which are on little trays) and chopsticks and the waiter/waitress simply picked up the needed number on the way to the table, it would be easier for everyone... Delicious ramen though!
It cost me $15 with tip but that's about par and much worse food costs as much in this area. When I was done I walked back over to H Mart and got some shopping in. I bought all kinds of things (but nothing alcoholic) and although I bought some fairly expensive things like Pepto-Bismol and a $7 package of dried shrimp, and a large bag of frozen shrimp, among all the odds and ends I bought, it came to $53. Hell I was spending that much when I was "just" buying 2 cartons of sake, some prepared food, and a beer.
The ride back was in the dark but no one hassled me because no one was around. There's an interesting little camp set up right in front of Fry's on Junction Avenue, consisting of a car full of junk and one of those little campers that is a sort of tent that pops up and out in front and back of the little trailer it's towed on. The guy's got all kinds of weird cardboard flaps and things on that. It's quite interesting.
I got back here and put my goodies away - $50-odd buys a lot more goodies when almost $40 of it isn't being spent on drink - and settled down for a bit. And ... had another case of the runs, but at least they came on slowly so I was able to handle it OK. I fiddled around with Ebay stuff - lots of chips and transistors to count out - and eventually, surprisingly, I was hungry. I looked around for something nice and bland, and settled on the Brazil nuts I'd bought and ate a nice little snack of them.
After a shortish time I was hungry *again*. I decided to try something I'd been thinking of, which is to take the last few won ton wrappers I have and fry them. Back in Hawaii there's something called "One Ton" chips which are deep fried won ton wrappers and I thought I might get something like them. Results were mixed but they tasted good to me.
Speaking of gross medical things, I've done a lot of reading on the gorier aspects of alcoholism and one thing that happens, eventually, is called ascites and it means the "belly" gets very swollen, even if the patient's arms and legs are skinny. Now if you're just fat, your belly button will still be an "inny" and just be tucked in with more fat surrounding it than when you were thin. But with ascites, there's pressure from inside and the belly becomes firm if not hard, and the belly button becomes an "outie". If you've got casually observable ascites, you really need to see a doctor right away - it's serious.
Well, this describes Tom Price. His arms and legs are normal, he's not got a double chin, but his stomach makes him look like he's pregnant. And his bellybutton is as out on the surface - pushed there - as any chiseled bodybuilder's. He prefers to go shirtless, probably because wearing a shirt is uncomfortable for him. It's not like he's got beer cans lying all over the place, he's very casual and hadn't even started in on the sake I brought him. But I'd not be surprised if he's getting blotto at every opportunity.
On r/stopdrinking some mention they drank daily and some did a few binges a week. Tom has to "check in" with his job that he works remotely and he can't risk that, but I think like me he's been a fairly functional alcoholic, able to hold a job especially if it's not one of those micro-managed ones like neither of us have. It's going to be interesting observing what happens over the next 3 years and I am not going to say anything about this to him. He's a smart enough guy to figure it out.
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