Outer Mongolia?

 The front door looks great - it'll look even better with the numbers back on and a new "NO SOLICITING" sign. 

I did an hour's practice last night, with the flute, all put together, and working out of the Why book. I've been telling myself that, at the end of the day, I'm tired and can't properly concentrate and should just do octave exercises. Those have helped as I can feel that my tone is stronger, but I need to keep working out of the book because I need to get to where I can play actual pieces and get out there busking. 

I woke up around 4, and turned the radio on but wasn't really listening until, while making coffee, I heard something about "virginity tests" and automatically thought it was here, in the US, in the South. I listened more closely and it turns out to be a thing in Outer Mongolia, and it's not even the gov't there doing it, but some overzealous officials deciding to do it on their own. They'll find the pedophile or pedophile ring behind it in due time. But I honestly thought it was something happening here in the US. That's how crazy things are getting. 

Ken thinks it will be the "Middle-Easterners" that would be this Nazi regime's Jews. "They'll start in on them", he said. He's also fond of remarking on what an "Aryan" appearing kid he was, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Basically he thinks the Nazis won't affect him. And they won't, only his wife, his kids, tons of his friends... 

I need to point out to Ken that it won't be them. If the Nazis pick on Muslims this time around, there are tons of Muslim nations and quite a few powerful ones, and Muslims are in the habit of rallying to each others' aid. No, they'll pick a group that doesn't have a nation or nations of its own, that's numerically small (there's no way things would have gone the way they did if Germany had been 15% Jewish the way the US is 15% black). Even "Liberals" are far too numerous; they'll simply be forced to knuckle under like the majority of Germans who were not ardent Hitler fans. Only about a third now, just as about a third of US'ians are Trumpists. 

No, it's already clear that it will be LGBT people. They're a fraction of a per cent of the US population, and have no powerful nations behind them. Both requirements are satisfied and they both have to be. Even now, monkeypox is being blamed on them, just as Jews were blamed for every plague the unwashed Europeans hosted ages ago. 

It's just a question of how bad things will be, and how soon.

I woke up at about 4 or 4:30 and had time for coffee and to pack a couple more things.  I pumped up the rear tire on my bike as it was a bit low, and headed out the usual time. I was able to toss out trash at the FedEx (the zombies hadn't taken the Daiso bag of trash but had just hidden it around the corner for some reason) and had just gotten across Old Oakland Road when I noticed the bike felt funny. The rear tire was going flat. 

I got the pump out and pumped, but the air was leaking out faster than I could pump it in. I realized now was the time to do what I'd planned if something like this happened. I've long kept a fistful of zip ties in the bike bag, because if I get a really bad flat, the tire will want to come off of the wheel and it will be next to impossible to keep it on, so the bike won't even be push-able, really. A hell of a situation if I was miles from home and now I was. I got out the zip ties and put them on, all around the wheel and unhooked the rear brake. Now I could at least push the bike along. 

I had time to get to the post office so I went up there and dropped off the post office packages, then pushed along, accompanied by the funny sound of the rear wheel, to H Mart where I locked the bike up and took the one FedEx package to the FedEx. I asked them about the plywood over one of their windows and they told me how it had happened early in the morning, someone had taken the top of the trash can out front and used that - it was lying amidst the broken glass when they came in in the morning. I told them about my flat and the zip ties, and how, if I can't get the bike going again by tomorrow, I'll hook a handle onto my bike trailer and just walk the large - but not heavy - boxes I have to ship, to them then. They said I could hook it to the back of my pants so it would trail behind me "like a parachute" and I said that's an idea; it'd be pretty funny. Funny guys, those guys. I left in a much better mood than I'd gone in with. 

I went into H Mart and used the loo and got some garlic, a package of salami slices, and a can of coffee. I had coffee and some of the salami outside, then got going on my bike-pushing walk again. I stopped off at Lowe's and got a new "No Soliciting" sign and some black paint, which had to be mixed for some reason. I got a "sample" for $6 but at least the sign was cheap. 

I pushed on back here, put the bike and things away, then went back out with a couple of Whole Foods bags and my "getter stick" and headed out to check on the bountiful dumpster. The guy who has the machine shop down at the end was there, and we got talking. His name's Jim, and we talked about how it really doesn't matter what you do for a living, as long as it's something that's steady or "constant" as he put it. I said I wish I'd known you have to "gamify" saving money when I was young. And to stay away from college and just get any ol' job and save save save that money. Nice guy though. 

I only got a glass stopper and some weird glass sculpture out of the bountiful dumpster, and a pepper, some beans, and other veggie odds and ends from the veggie dumpster. What's interesting is, the dumpster on the other side of the complex here had cans and jars and packages of food, so I've got a ton of stuff to donate from Kraft mac and cheese to Pnut butter, spaghetti sauce, some apples, etc. There was even a new bottle of Kewpie mayo, but it's the made in USA Kewpie, so I'll donate that too. 

I got back in here and was just sitting down to a bowl of two Cup O'Noodles shrimp flavor with scrambled eggs, raw onion, and butter, when Ken called. He was coming over. 

I ate hurriedly, and Ken came by and ate the hamburgers and fries he'd gotten on the way, and I fixed him up a Diet 7-Up, while  I finished my noodles. He had some things he brought in, most of which are things to take apart, and we talked about stuff. 

By the time he left it was a quarter to 1. I'll see him again on Wednesday which is good because he forgot to take the instrument case I took apart and bagged up for him as we talked.