How things change

 After Ken coming over last night and cooking and eating dinner (beef with lots of shiitake mushrooms) I felt *really* tired and went to bed. I woke up a couple of times but eventually got up at a bit after 3. I needed to be "out the door by 4" so I had coffee and aspirin and got cleaned up a bit and got out of here at about 10 after

The bums were thick outside the bank so I took the bike in  - they'd told me I can if it doesn't look safe out there. I did my deposit and the numbers were maybe 30c different which is OK with me. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods where I locked the bike and got into a fun conversation with a young black gal who was one of the two people operating the scam booth set up out front. Basically telling her how great it is to have a bike because you can really explore your neighborhood, that mine was only $300 etc. 

I went in and got chicken wings and a near-beer and ate and drank downstairs because upstairs all the tables were taken. 

Then I walked up to Target. It's been a while since I went up there and that means months, or maybe a year. The construction site is much bigger and you have to walk on the bike path and that was kind of nice because I got to observe all the plants growing - olive, oak, mustard, malva, elder (berries taste meh) etc. 

I went to the art supply place first and found some black hemp cord that looks OK for doing windings on shinobue flutes. Cost me like $8 too, so it'd better be good. 

Then I went to Cost Plus World Market and got some Marmite, some mustard that might be good, a tall jar of hot dogs from Germany because I've wondered about those for the longest time, etc. 

Then I went to Target and got things from Tide pods to foot powder, to a long skinny Lindt candy bar. Target's been re-arranged to some extent, with a friendlier looking returns counter, and interestingly there were only two checkers working, with all the other checking stations empty which looked weird. 

Needless to say there were bums around the front and around the bike racks, as always. I told a guy who looked new to riding, to be careful because they'll steal things off of a bike, anything they can get loose really. He thanked me. 

The walk back was a bit annoying because both bags were heavy so I need to get used to walking and carrying stuff. I'll be walking a lot, I think, in ol' Honolulu. 

I packed the things in the bike bags and rode over to the Amazon place and picked up my books, then on home. I checked the little free libraries and the one on 5th has a sign saying "Thank you for donations of books only" so no more OTC remedies and coffee filters for them. 

I checked the bountiful dumpster and there's nothing interesting, and got two pears out of the veggie dumpster, and got back in here. 

Now I had a problem. I needed to put my name, address, and phone number on each raffle ticket for the temple and I wanted to get them in well before the deadline of the 10th not right before it. So I sat down and filled out the little forms, and packaged them up with the monies in small bubble mailers because my mailing stuff is buried under stuff in the loft right now. 

It was past 10 when I took off. I also took a bag of books with me to put in the little free library that's  across from the used clothes place on 6th. I got to the temple fine, put the two envelopes in the slot, pretty sure I got the hairy eyeball from the security guard working there overnight, then took off around the corner to deposit the books. 

Now my plan was to go to the 7-11 on 1st which I assumed ought to have near-beer. So I rode down Jackson to First and rode along, wondering at place I'd not been for at least a year. It's not really changed; there are ugly streetwalkers and crazy zombies staggering around, and to these scum, 11 at night isn't even late but their "day" is just beginning. 

U-Save Liquors, which the internet told me was closed, was open. There were knots of scumsuckers/beggars out front and no double a fight brewing in the sports bar next door because there always is. I found a 6-pack of Lagunatics IPNA and paid about $13 for it, but I reason that it's cheap compared to drinking stuff with alcohol - alcohol just took *all* my money. 

I rode further up the street to the 7-11 which .... hasn't changed, really. I looked around, noted that they had no near-beer, and the only thing on the rollers were a couple of taquito things. The place was, and apparently still is, an open-air crazy house, and tonight was no different. No different also was the very nice, bearded, Indian or Pakistani guy dealing with all the bullshit. The crazies were trying all kinds of weird payment methods and it was probably a brief relief that I just handed the guy the $2 for the croissant and got out of there. 

I wanted to absorb the "unique" atmosphere of this place, so active at 11 at night. So I unlocked my bike and got it ready to go, but stood by it, eating my croissant. A young bum couple had been dragging their large and noisy bags up the street as I'd come in, and the male of the two was buying something or other, making it hugely complicated, while I did my croissant transaction. Now he came out front and handed the female half, half of the spoils, those being cigarettes and/or vapes, nicotine being a basic food group among the scumsucker set. 

While I munched my croissant, I'd gotten talking with the female, who said they're "traveling, just traveling" and had come from "Breeno". "Reno?" I asked. "No, San Bruno; we came on the BART". Then she asked me if I'd ever been to San Francisco and I said I had, and that was the end of the conversation as Mr. Bum came out with the much-needed nicotine. 

I rode up 1st as it was easier, I thought, to go up to Brokaw and then hook around back to here. Why not go for the trifecta, I thought, and go to the convenience store on 1st and Brokaw, as I'd not been in for well over a year? So I went in there and it's about the same, no near-beer, and I paid $4 for a large Slim Jim. The guy behind the counter is just as taciturn, and they've had the glass for their main doors all smashed out so it's covered with plywood and you have to go in the smaller, side, door. Also the gathering of bums who were always around the back, were not there. 

It was 11:30 when I got back here, so not too bad. And I have my monthly pledge paid and $48 worth of raffle tickets turned in with my name etc. on them. So I don't have to worry about dashing over there tomorrow.