It's been hard to keep up to date on this with the heat and the internet conking out, and I expect this to only get worse over time.
I stayed up last night and had packed two things when the internet went out. I knew a third, very large, thing had sold so I went ahead and packed it while the temperature was bearable, around 6AM. Without the internet I couldn't label it though.
I took off with the two small things and also the shinobue, all packed up, to go back to Japan. I stopped at the lunch truck across from Tom's and got a little ham and cheese sandwich thing for $3.
I went over to Tom's to eat it and he had his friend Rob over. Tom introduced us and told Rob all about how I'd helped him the other day when Rob's trailer, parked there at Tom's, had started to roll out into the street. Of course Tom didn't have anything for chocks handy so while Tom held onto the thing I went around and found 2X4's and stuff and chocked the wheels. I didn't realize at the time, the thing would have rolled right out onto Rogers Avenue and would have stayed there until Rob could have come by to move it with his truck (Tom's truck is a box truck with a lift gate but not really set up for towing). I guess I really did save the day.
I finished my sandwich while the two heaved some pallets and things into stacks. I had to laugh and told them about how, when I was very little, we had two pet tortoises, "Fast & Flimsy" and "Slow & Stolid". I said I was watching the real life "Slow & Solid" (Rob) and "Fast & Flimsy" (Tom). It's a good thing Rob's a bit deaf.
I went up to the post office and was about 20 minutes early, but that gave me time to fill out the Customs form a helpful guy at the PO box desk gave me, and lent me a pen. When it was finally time to mail it, the poor clerk had to type in the info from the card, and I'm surprised I only had to tell her a few things that were hard to read.
$28 later, it's off to Japan. Mejiro already refunded me so it's no hurry, but I hope it gets back to them safe and sound.
Next was 99 Ranch, which wasn't open yet. So it was me and several old Chinese people, all pacing and "jones'ing" to get in. It was pretty funny. Once it opened, I swung over by the dim sum as I'd planned to get so, er, sum, but after eating that sandwich thing I really wasn't hungry. So I got other things, and was out of there a bit after 9, maybe 9:30. The heat was already very apparent.
I'd gotten some peanut butter mochi and wanted to stop by Tom's to share it with him but I guess he was off with Rob somewhere so I just rode back here.
I drank a near-beer or two and had some peanuts and read more of "It Can't Happen Here" and went to bed around 10-10:30. Other than getting up a time or two to whiz, I slept until 6. It was in the high 80s in here.
The internet was still off so I had coffee, ate peanut butter mochi, and generally futzed around until it was time to check the bountiful dumpster which by way of bounty only had a single audio cord I didn't need. At least I got a package of Romaine lettuce from the veggie dumpster.
I got back here and tried a hard reset of this computer with no luck. So I got my "new" step stool which being taller than most is perfect for reaching the internet box, and unplugg-plugged it in and hit the reset button and slowly, it came back to life. So I was back in business and there were no things to ship that needed to go out before Monday.
I did Ebay stuff and thought I had an hour to clean the office and bathroom but it turned out my computer was an hour off and I only realized it minutes before Ken was due to show up. Oops. So he's fine and the AC at his house is fixed in that, he's found a coil ices up and to fix it he just runs the heater to de-ice it and it's fine until next time. I said it's got to be a relief because if the AC was not working, Suzy (his wife) would need to get a hotel until this heat's over.
Ken not only wrote out my paycheck as usual, but delivered the strangest thing: A check from the federal government for about $650. Apparently I overpaid my taxes somehow.
Even nicer, Ken's going to take the big box to FedEx for me, so all I have to worry about is small things so all I have to do is visit the downtown post office on my way to the bank.
Ken told me he's signed a 4-year lease on this place which is good but of course the owner's raised the rent. He's going to consolidate the storage units into one, and I said I'm determined to keep the numbers good here, and have been with all the medical stuff I've been finding.
Oh and the Queen's died. I thought something was up when it was mentioned on the radio that the new blithering idiot who's going to run the UK, a lady with the ominous name Truss, had to go up to the Queen's place in Scotland to officially take office. I guess that's not usually the case.
As I understand it, the Queen's first foray into the mainstream of life was in WWII, where she volunteered in an Army motor pool, gassing up Jeeps or something. At least she went out and got her hands dirty. There was no global warming then (there actually was) and the main thing in life was to beat the Boche and get that war over with. Other than that, the outlook was just peachy. New technologies and post-war prosperity and so on. And what a place she's left. Will it be called "Elizabethan", the time she reigned, the way they say Victorian or Georgian? And is jug-eared Charlie King Charles now? At least he's an environmentalist.
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