September 13

 I stayed up all night, listed 20 things, and gathered together everything that had sold. This was quite a job, as one guy had bought about 10 things and another guy 14. 

I packed all the smaller things, only about 5 of them, and took the 4 smallest with me in the morning. I went downtown and mailed those at the downtown post office. It was sure nice being out of the shop, at 79 or 80 degrees, and outside, at 62 or 63. 

After the P.O. I went to Whole Foods and got a little jar of beetroot powder, which was my reason for going downtown. It's supposed to lower blood pressure and I'm hoping it will help with the headache I seem to always have waiting in the wings, and not always waiting in the wings but taking center stage. 

I went over to Dai Thanh next and darn it, no more Chinese donuts. I asked, and the gal said the guy who made them had gone back to Viet Nam. He might be back in a month, she said. I secretly hoped he'd found a way to stay, as leaving the US is a dream for so many, but honestly I don't know how much more tenable it is vs. the Bay Area. But anyway I got some leeks, because when I was feeling really lousy, leek soup sure fixed me up.

I rode over to Philz Coffee to see if Gabriel the violinist might be about, and saw two old guys sitting at a table out front (it was the larger one, come to think of it, the "disabled" table, which is popular with everyone but I guess if someone comes up with a wheelchair the right thing to do is let them have it) and I asked them if they'd seen a violinist around here. They hadn't but asked me if I knew of a good bike shop because one of their bikes has a flat. 

I gushed to them about Bike Express over on Williams and how it's walking distance, and figured I might as well have a seat, so I settled in for a good old bull session. I went into Philz and since they didn't have croissants got a "koign aman" which is just stuffed with butter, sugar also. We talked mostly about how to fix capitalism. It pretty much came down to my theory that people like to trade freely, and they like to "win", but the game has to have the brutality removed. There have to be social mores where it's unthinkable for a person not to sleep under a roof, or have basic food and so on. I didn't say this at the time but basically: France. 

I went to the Amazon place for a handful of bubble mailers and then stayed on 3rd street right on down to TAK Market for some near-beer. I came back here and had cheese and olives and near-beer to get sleepy and went to bed around 2PM. 

I slept right around until midnight.