Day of the dead

 185th day sober. Today is the 2nd day of "Day Of The Dead" where people remember dead parents, etc. This is at cross-purposes with Western culture where it's considered weird to even think about your parents once they've passed. You're really not supposed to give a shit about anyone. 

I was up all night packing things, after Ken had come by dropping off a bunch of boxes and packing material. The main  worry was a large test instrument I didn't have a box big enough for, which is why Ken came by with the stuff. I packed a bunch of things and the big thing last, then relaxed a bit and read a bit more in my "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" book, a book I used to be able to read in an evening or two but now, made so much stupider by computers, is taking me weeks. 

I didn't practice but I did 100+ "bowing motions" which I think are helpful. I did this the other night when I didn't practice also. 

Ken cane by at about 4:30 and we loaded the large box into the back of his truck, and I said I have four smaller ones too that he can take and he took those also. 

I got myself somewhat awake, and was glad I had the postal service stuff all packed, because after coffee etc. it was time to take off. The delivery was no problem, except wow, traffic's 'way up. I guess it's getting back to pre-pandemic levels? Maybe I'd forgotten how bad it used to be. And, there are more zombies around again. In fact, I may have to go back to avoiding Rogers Avenue as there were zombies all over the place and it seems one even yelled something unintelligible at me and threw something metal at me which fell short - although sound really carries over asphalt and it could have been just as easily been yelling at another zombie, or just gibbering on its own and throwing things at random. The crackhead nests are back in their full glory across from the lunch truck place too. So yeah, a good road to avoid if it's dark when the zombies come out. 

And, getting back here, there are two shopping carts stacked high with the kind of random shit zombies collect and cart around, parked next to the trash enclosure, and the junked truck is still there, except after 2 days and nights of tinkering and banging on it, the zombie associated with it has apparently removed all four wheels to sell for crack, and now the thing's sitting on blocks. 

So I just came back here, unloaded the set of 4 boxes that were for 18-inch wheels (this size is large enough to pack a standard rackmount test instrument in) and foam and stuff I'd picked up, lock the place up, block the mail slot so no zombies can peek in through it, etc. I am IN for the night. 

I've been watching a lot of talks on YouTube by Max Blumenthal. He's a Jewish guy who's a reporter, who has taken it upon himself to try to tell the world that life in Israel is not all hearts and flowers. The picture he paints of Israel is something like how the US was in the "frontier" days. Of course these days it's not considered a very flattering picture, as we're all good and sorry about all those awful things we did to our "Indians". 

But what if our "Indians" weren't a tiny, defeated, part of our population that's largely kept out of sight and out of mind on reservations? What if, say, 1/3 of the US population were our Native American  "Indians", with a good number of them angry about how things have turned out and feeling no obligation to adhere to any code of ethics other than their own? Areas in Europe with large numbers of "Gypsies" would probably like a word. 

It's a hard thing to wrestle with, and it's easy to sit here in the West Coast of the US, on Ohlone land, the Ohlones conveniently almost extinct, and point fingers. The brutality of the Arabs, if not closely policed, in Israel is no secret so no need to go into it here, and I fully believe if Native Americans were still 1/3 of the population here, similar draconian policing would be necessary. 

So in Israel you see the same sort of things the US had in full effect in its frontier period. Kids are taught who wants to kill them, because those groups really do want to kill them. There are roadblocks and checkpoints and I remember that when they put up this big wall, bombings and attacks went 'way down. Israeli soldiers are still occasionally captured and they never return alive - imagine if soldiers or police were occasionally captured and tortured to death here, it'd be all over the papers and there'd be a huge outrage. 

I think Mr. Blumenthal wants everyone to join hands and sing kum-ba-ya and all that, which isn't going to happen. But he's doing a service because his lectures and books point out that if you're going to visit Israel or move there, you'd better be on board with the frontier mentality for your own safety if nothing else.