By the time I got in, from all the walking around and nabbing stuff from the bountiful dumpster (only a few pieces of foam and a power cord) and talking with the Mexican guys, who'd have surely given me all the tequila I wanted if I'd wanted, and getting back in here and cooking something (Portuguese sausage slices with garlic and cabbage) and of course reading lots of doomy stuff on Reddit, I was done and decided to try to call it an early night.
Of course I put in some time blowing octaves on the shinobue. The beauty of the shinobue is not only is it an instrument I want to become competent on, but it's so easy to just pick up and play. It's small, light, one piece, and has a lovely piercing tone when done right, yet can also play a wonderful low tone down at the bottom of its range.
This is why I decided to go ahead and order a bamboo one from Mejiro. I want to finish with my modifications of the plastic one, which is mainly take the ends, which don't have wraps on them yet, and fill in some areas with J-B Weld, then wrap with black sign vinyl, then put on wraps. This will be practice for putting wraps on the bamboo one.
I wish I'd had a shinobue to play on instead of the little Aulos recorder I'd bought when I was just turning 18 because I couldn't afford anything else. It seems that the key to success is to simply practice a lot, as I'm getting progressively better through sheer stubbornness.
Although the big dumpster, irresistible to the zombie population, has been removed there was apparently more stuff thrown away in the normal-sized one and stuff left in the hedge by the wall, as zombies were around both, digging away, for hours and hours and even after dawn, were in the dumpster digging away.
These are the same zombies that left $150 worth of silverware out in the parking lot, for any and every bum to look at and pass over, and which I picked up last night. So it figures they'll expend hours of their energy and time digging for cheapo glittery things and lipstick with lead in it etc.
The silverware's just plated stuff but from a good manufacturer and made in the 1950s and will do fine on Ebay. At the rate I'm finding stuff, I'm almost tempted to go off on my own, but as I've mentioned, Ebay will freak the fuck out, think I'm a "shill" account of Ken's and kick us both off of their system for life. I can't risk doing that to Ken.
When I move back to Hawaii it will be almost like that scene in The Terminator where Arnold arrives where he needs to be naked, with nothing. I don't plan to take a computer with me, or even a phone but will get a phone with a local number right away. Whatever computer and phone I'm using here will have the data destroyed. I'll need to find someone in my temple who has family back there who will let me use their address for at least a bit, and I'll be extremely lucky if I can find a room, loft, garage, or back yard to rent in this way. It'll be rough. But an address will enable me to rent a storage unit.
I'll arrive with the clothes I'm in and one change, zoris on my feet as closed shoes and Hawaii are not a good match, my flutes, one carry-on bag and one checked bag which I'll assume I may or may not lose. The flutes will be carry-able in such a way that I can *always* have them on me. Plus ID, cards etc. in one of those around the neck pouches.
1000s of miles away, with a completely different computer, I may be able to set up an Ebay business OK. I'm undecided whether to go the full ascetic route and get onto Social Security right away which will sort of enforce same, or whether to do a combination of playing music and finding and selling stuff on Ebay. I know it will be rough. I may be limited to a storage unit and a sleeping bag for a while. Or I may live in hotels which will eat money rapidly but may ease things.
I may even get a "vacation package" that involves a week or two or three in a hotel along with round-trip airfare as also in my plans is to make the whole thing look like a temporary trip. Just a vacation. I'll tell the people at my bank that I'm going to see an ailing sister, and to make sure my debt card works so far away. Of course I won't use that return ticket, but a lot of places won't rent to you if you don't have one.
In any case I figure I'll likely blow through about 5 grand just getting over there and having a place to land for a few weeks to a month or two, then try to eke out living for another year on another 10 grand. This is assuming no inputs from busking or flipping items I find. I want to be able to do nothing, if I am so inclined, for a year.
I really hope I can get back in communication with my older sister. Last night I was thinking, if I could cut off one hand, and that would somehow stop my older sister from having migraines, I'd seriously consider it. I could give up my right, and still be able to play the French horn, or my left, and play the trumpet. But that should give an idea as to how I really feel about my older sis.
I really hope we can get back to being friends! I'm reminded, though, of the episode of the British TV series "Are You Being Served?" where Captain Peacock's old war buddy hits town. Capt. Peacock is a rather stuffy fellow who likes to give the impression that he's a member of the old British military elite, while his old war buddy is a can-do Jewish cockney-ish guy, who can survive anywhere and who, in the war, got things done. He liked to rib ol' Peacock about certain moments of cowardice on the part of the latter. I'd not rib my older sister about her moments of effective cowardice as she'd fall apart if I did, but that's certainly the vibe.
She's about Punahou the way people are about CrossFit ... no need to ask, they'll *tell* you. But in spite of this, I've met a lot of nice people who went there, and some real characters like at least one of our local comedians went there, and at least one street performer, and one of the vet techs at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital (who was very nice) and tons of people, almost all of whom are not snobs. And I have great memories of the yearly carnival, and the White Elephant sale, and of hearing about the neat classes they taught there like German and chemistry. It takes more than one insecure snob to make me dislike such a neat place.
I don't even resent her going, because with her migraines and eyesight, she'd not have been able to stand up to the lives we younger kids went through. My dad would have liked to send all of us there, and it made sense to start with the oldest. I'm glad at least one of us got to go, and I'm glad it was her because as mentioned, she was not equipped for the hard knocks the rest of us dealt with.
I woke up at 4:30 because I'd needed the sleep. The guys next door had a car, apparently right outside the door here, that they were working on or something and the car alarm kept going off. But I woke up a bit before that so it didn't bother me that much. They eventually got it resolved and sped off.
Although this is a day of rest, I really wanted to get out a bit so I bagged up some trash and walked up to the FedEx dumpster to get rid of it. I also wanted to see what kept the zombies so fascinated for so many hours last night. All it was, was cardboard and some trashy wooden furniture. There was an electric motor in the HVAC's trash but I dragged it out and tried to turn it and it would not turn so I left it on top of the dumpster for some metal scavenger to get. I also left out the big plastic jug from these bay leaves I'd bought on Amazon months or a year or more ago, that I'd used to preserve stored rice. (The bay leaves are bagged up in 8 small bags, labeled, to donate.)
I had to be careful of two crazy zombies that came staggering along Queen's Lane but I'm pretty sure they noticed the innocent looking yellow "stick" I had in my hand was a long steel bolt and I'd be happy to use it, and I walked on and they didn't follow. Lust for blood and brains can only motivate the creatures so far. I dumped the trash in the FedEx dumpster and found a good box to pack something in, and picked up two Swisher Sweet envelopes with tobacco in them, to donate. People take the tobacco out and put weed in, weed + opiates, etc. But the tobacco, as such things go, is rather nice so I'll donate those.
I came back out of the enclosed FedEx/Foxconn parking lot and here came a large black zombie, running. Running? Who runs in this hot weather? Luckily, a train, an actual freight train, was coming through and I was able to use its "wake" as a sort of protection to get across the street and get back in here. Forget when the sun in down, even when it's low the zombies come out to "play".
I made the mistake of having the idea that I might, tomorrow being Sunday, go to the Berryessa swap meet, which is quite large and may have some interesting things. That was a very bad idea to have, because like almost everything here, you're strongly discouraged from going there unless you have a car. According to every resource I could find, to go there I'm to walk the mile and a half or so out to the light rail station, to take the light rail to a station up in Milpitas or Fremont, and from there to get on a BART train to the swap meet. That will get me only a half-mile away.
I've been there on my bike and was nervous about leaving it parked in the bike rack there, but the time I went there were only 1-2 other bikes and my bike was no bothered at all. The whole area is so anti-walking and anti-bike that I was only one of 3 people who'd come by bike in the whole, huge, swapmeet. So maybe I'll just do that...
The thing is, back on the island of Oahu, you know how you go to the swapmeet? You just get on the goddamn bus and go. The Aloha Stadium one is right across from the neat historical museums around Pearl Harbor, and the Pearl City one is just a bit past that. Go a bit further and you're in Wahiawa, which has several really neat pawn shops and an antique store or three. This is all just on one bus, the #52. For that matter, you can take that #52 bus right around to Hale'iwa and eat at a nice restaurant there, then take it around to the Windward Side and pick some shells, stop off in Kane'ohe for a snack, then right over the Pali with its beautiful views and right back to town.
This is only example 3846384568103 of how living on the mainland is living in Hard Mode.
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