I woke up at about 3, and realized after having coffee and breakfast and vitamins and all that, that I needed to get going. The Japanese shinobue flute I'd ordered had arrived at that Amazon place.
I had some definite plans, though. Last night I'd bagged up some clothes I don't need, and I'd also put my coffee can of copper pennies into my bike bag, plus bags of cold etc. pills from the EMT training place, to put in the little free libraries.
I realized I had little time, so I decided to see just how quickly I could get down to Wal-Mart first, with the plan in mind of putting the pennies into the Coin Star machine, using the $8 or so to buy a few things, then getting back downtown before the Amazon place closed. So I dashed down there pretty quickly, accompanied part of the way by a Mexican guy who made a big show of riding no-hands and nattering at me in Spanish, to which I replied by doing a little careful no-hands riding and saying "No comprende" and laughing along. He was kind of annoying and I was glad when he sped off ahead.
I got to Wal-Mart and .... the Coin Star was shut off. I forgot that it's Wal-Mart after all, and they live to disappoint. It was stupid of me on my part to assume that just because the Coin Star was always working whenever I was there before, it would be when I actually wanted to use it. I was pretty ticked, though, and walked out without buying anything.
I got back downtown in plenty of time, though, and picked up the shinobue but no bubble mailers this trip. I even had time to stop by Nijiya and get a few things with the cash I had on hand that wasn't pennies. One of the guys there congratulated me on being able to find the "American" mustard which most people can't, "because it's 10 feet from the ketchup".
The wind had my slowed down to a slow-jog pace coming back here. In all fairness, when I moved from Gilroy to here, my last load being my bike and a few things, the wind was like this and I was slowed down like this too. I'd even had to take shelter during an intense thunder storm in Morgan Hill. It felt good to get back here.
It had been pretty nice out, though. Lots of zombies, though. And down by Wal-Mart, streetwalker zombies. I got my zombie-dodging practice in.
The shinobue is very pretty; very finely made if of plastic. It came from Mejiro, a store in Japan I'd love to visit someday. It sounds, at first try, rather awful. But, I'm sure practice will pay off. There was one question I knew I'd pretty much only get a straight answer to by buying one of the things and that's whether the bore is a straight cylinder or tapered, like a pennywhistle. It's straight. This means I can take any old tubing and have a try at making my own.
All in all, even though I got kind of "skunked" riding in such a hurry all the way down to Wal-Mart, it was a productive time out of the shop and I'm really glad, as always, that I ride a bike instead of driving a car or even riding a motorcycle. Gas, insurance, wear, maintenance, it all adds up. Let's say the cost is 50c a mile, that's still the $7 or so VTA fare would have cost me and a bike is just so cheap by comparison. Some bike tires wear out, but the ones I have on the bike now will last me until it's time to leave. I've already replaced the rear wheel which I pretty much wore out, and the frame and everything should hang in there just fine. I seem to go through a set of panniers every couple of years on average, but my latest set seem to be lasting well.
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