6th day sober. Didn't get to bed until something like 8AM and then lay abed until around 4 in the afternoon. Had a solid BM so now I'm a bit relieved, considering how much I've been eating lately.
I'm glad I prioritized USPS packages because I've got just enough packed that I can carry it on the bike without the trailer and to a bit of shopping. Then tomorrow I've got 4 things that will be FedEx that I can pack tonight and take tomorrow.
I still didn't sleep well at all which is why I was in bed until 4. I need to at least get my schedule shifted around to an earlier one, because my 2nd vaccination is something like 1:30 in the afternoon or so. At least Berger Auditorium is close and it's really easy to ride over there.
I got out of here just a few minutes after 6 with some packages I didn't need the trailer for. On the way there, there was a scumsucker ahead of me with a bike trailer and I pondered riding very slowly behind the scumsucker to avoid him, but instead ducked into Fry's which we I was passing, and went in, looked around, and bought an SD card for $2 that I'd been looking at the last time I was there. That also delayed me enough that Mr. Scumsucker could ride on at his slow pace, to whatever crack den along the river he was headed to.
I almost dropped off a FedEx package at the post office, since I'd forgotten to put an Ebay sticker on it. It's a good thing I check my packages anyway. Whew! Took that one over to FedEx and dropped it off, and went into H Mart for some shopping.
I actually tried to spend as much as I could. Got sashimi, marinated quail eggs, dried shrimp, all kinds of goodies. Got some braised gobo as is used in futomaki rolls but should make a nice little side dish on its own. That's the delightful thing about Korean dining, all the little side dishes. Just like the Russians will have a ton of little dishes of this'n'that, much of it being homemade pickles, the Koreans do the same. All the groceries still just came to $39 and change.
I rode back and passed by Tom's place. He wasn't there but he's installed the chain I gave him (who am I fooling, he's not gonna pay me for the thing because I'm pretty sure all his money goes for booze).
About by the car soup-up place I noticed there was a scumsucker riding on the other side of the road from me, same direction, and a bit slower than I was going so I slowed down to make sure to keep him in sight. Thus we rode back to this place and the scumsucker rode right into the complex so of course I followed him, and through, and out onto the road again just to show him I keep an eye on all scumsuckers.
I got in here and put things away and treated myself to a spread of sashimi, marinated quail eggs, and two kinds of Japanese pickles. Yum!
Somehow last night and into early morning I'd gotten into watching all this stuff about the football (real football) star George Best who got rich and famous from being able to kick a ball around but could he ever kick that ball around. He was about the best ever at "dribbling" which is just moving the ball around and he could do these amazing fake-outs and score goals with either foot, with great accuracy.
I guess I got into this because George Best also famously died of the drink. And his mother did too. But as with every great athlete, I'm always curious about what made them. What made George Best, George Best? It turns out both parents were avid amateur athletes, even his mother being a good field hockey player before the War and childbirth put a stop to that. Little Georgie got the same presents each Christmas: a new ball, new pair of cleats, and a set of "kit" which means the shirt and shorts and socks and so on. Georgie used to practice kicking a tennis ball into a doorknob to practice accuracy which is really impressive.
Another thing he used to do - a Protestant kid in a Catholic neighborhood - to avoid the bullies was to wait some distance from the bus stop then sprint for the bus and get on just as it was leaving. If he was mixing it up with Catholic kids on the soccer field, it would give an idea as to how he became so skilled and so aggressive. He was lucky - even though academically gifted - to be able to leave school at 15 (I'd have considered that lucky when I was 15) and just do football full time. And even then it was just happenstance; he was spotted a scout and was actually about to go into an apprenticeship program to become a printer.
It's a bit of a parallel to the sport I did, which in the beginning I was good at but almost sidetracked everything to learn to be a sign painter. I'd even found a sign painter local to me who taught me a few things, but vinyl lettering was just coming in and hand-lettering going out, and I kept getting better at the sport. It's happenstance that I put myself on the national map. I went to what I thought was just a match and qualified for Nationals. I had to be told I'd qualified. To me it was just a lark.
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