More actual sleep

 13th day sober. I took that microscope apart and had like 25 different parts to list, listed about 12 of them and since it was 4AM decided it was time to quit.

Before starting all that I'd taken half of the $8 package of shrimp I'd bought at Nijiya, 5 shrimp, and made my interpretation of a shrimp basket. Well, those shrimp were actually really big, bigger than I think I've gotten from any restaurant or shrimp truck. And they were tigers too, which go for more for some reason. 5 of them with some fried garlic made a hell of a meal. I'd put a light coat of tempura flour on them and fried in peanut oil and they were really good! So, for $4, I had a better shrimp basket than I can get anywhere around here... 

I finally went to sleep around 6AM, expecting to wake up around 2. I woke up twice I think, at least one of those times to whiz, but it was a nice feeling waking up around 11AM and telling myself I can sleep 3 more hours and doing so. I woke up a bit after 2, maybe 2:30. Not bad! It's really good to have my sleep mechanism back. I'd taken the maximum dose of melatonin but I don't know if that's making any difference. I'm just taking it to use up the expensive bottle of melatonin I'd bought. Waste not! 

I'm really enjoying this not-drinking thing. For instance, in the evening, with all the sitting I do, my legs would swell a bit. This might be why, at first, I was getting up to pee so much. Fluid accumilates in the legs during the day/evening, then when lying down the pressure isn't on it to stay down there and it gets processed out as pee. Well, I've noticed my legs are staying lean. 4AM, whatever, I look at them and they're looking like serious bike-rider legs. 

I also notice I have the feeling of having tons of extra time. I guess I have the same time, but not being doped up on alcohol, it just seems like I get things done. And I don't feel the same angst over having to do the things. 

I'd told myself, long before giving up drinking, that I want to be a lot less angry person, who doesn't take it so personally if I can't find a thing that needs to be shipped, and had made some progress there which is good. But not drinking makes this real. The things are there, in the warehouse, and if something gets lost, just come to some compromise with the buyer, like offering something else. That's what I did about that stupid Thaler manual. I asked the guy if there's some other manual he wanted and to make me a lowball offer for the difference in price, he did so, I sent it out, and everyone's happy. (Plus if I find that damned Thaler manual I might just send it to him anyway just to get the damned thing out of here.) 

I'm quit of coffee too, my breakfast drink being sen-cha green tea. I think it's absolutely magical that I can buy green tea from Shizuoka, where as the package says, "Mt. Fuji stands". Not to say chicory coffee isn't wonderful, but green tea's nice and easy to make, and I don't have to bother with creamer. 

I am moving further away from the realm of the hungry ghosts. Take your typical scumsucker, they're addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and anything else they can get ahold of. So their life is a continual struggle to the next cigarette, the next Steel Reserve or other cheap rotgut beer. Plus they seem to be addicted to drama, which is an addiction all its own. So there's continual fighting, which I had a first-row seat to when the scumsuckers were living in the parking lot here. Ramming their vehicles into each other, fist fights, lighting each others' stuff on fire, etc. 

Well, being dependent on alcohol was the first step in this, as I was living for the next drink, even if it was just a little wine to keep the shakes away, and work came 2nd. I was living each day for the time in the evening when I was done working and could drink until I passed out. Maybe it's a pale shadow of the scumsucker's life but it was still pretty much the same thing. 

Dr. Cyrus Loo told me when I was just barely entering adulthood to "not be attached to anything" and that certainly rings true with regard to alcohol and I'm glad I never took up smoking cigarettes. 

I packed the two packages that need to go out today and checked the Morris Berman blog. It's blocked, as this site was also. I submitted some kind of report to Google and it seems  I can go back here, my own blog, but about Morris Berman, I don't know. 

This is why as soon as my 3-year "sentence" is up and I can get out of here, I do **not** want to depend on the internet for a living. I've had fantasies of collecting shells back home and selling them on Etsy or something but ... no way. I'd be an idiot to engage in anything like that. Busking is where it's at and if I'm going to pick shells, it will be to hustle them to tourists or sell them to shops in person. 

The trip to the post office was uneventful, and I bought a few things in H Mart, and stopped by Lowe's for some paper towels, and had time to stop at Zuka for some banana chips and a "Guinness" malta drink.

When I got back in here and had put things away, I moved the metal shelf I lean up to cover up the mail slot so the scumsuckers can't peek in, and there, hooked up in it, was the letter I clearly remembered the mailman dropping off, but could not find. I opened it and it was a notice from the landlord here that Ken needs to pay them about $1100 due back on the 5th, and the rent will go up by almost $500. I wrote Ken an email about this and then got the idea to call him and did. I told him he might want to stop by tonight after work to pick it up. 

I was just finishing peeling the other 5 shrimp out of that package when Ken drove up. It turns out he'd been over at Togo's nearby and decided to just come on over. He dropped off some stuff to list, and looked over the letter. He says he won't have the money until the 25th or so. I said I could loan him the money but that will be slicing it pretty thin as far as paying my taxes go. He said no to that. It won't be the first time I've lent him money though; a while back there was a $400 water bill to pay and he didn't have it, so I paid it and he paid me back over the next two pay checks. If I have enough after doing my taxes this weekend, though, I'll offer again. 

You'd think a guy making around $200k a year would have more of a buffer. I mean, I make less than 1/10th what he does and I've got about $4k in the bank. The guy just doesn't manage money well. 

I put the peeled shrimp in the fridge and got out an avocado and made a big bowl of guacamole which I ate with banana chips. A nice vegetarian dinner. Then I just watched YouTube stuff for a while, and did little odds-and-ends tasks and pretty soon it was midnight. 

I got out the shrimp and made, I hoped, an even better "shrimp basket". I put everything on a bed of finely shredded cabbage, then fried large garlic slices, then butterflied the shrimp and dipped them in tempura batter and fried them. And indeed it was even better.