I practiced last night even though I didn't want to, it was tempting to just go to bed but I practiced and did a good hour or a bit more, and it went pretty well. I have to build up my skill for when I can get back out there.
I used the Amosan before bed and when I got up my mouth was not all the way better but it wasn't worse then the night before, so I think it might be on the mend.
I got up at around 1, and was out the door at a bit past 2. I went to Whole Foods of course, bought some walnuts because I'm just about out (and the ones at Walmart aren't really any cheaper and are too dry) and got some money back. I rode over to Falafel's Drive In where I got a burger and onion rings, which were pretty Meh. People go on about how that place is great but it's more like a big nostalgia thing.
In fact Falafel's Drive In reminds me of a place in Southern California called the Rock Store, which is a big deal if you're a motorcyclist. The only thing special about it is people think there's something special about it. In all fairness, at least the Rock Store had beer, pretty decent food, and you could meet some interesting people there. Like I met Arnold Schwartzenegger. Falafel's Drive In is just really Meh. Dry burger, dry onion rings, screaming kids, my bike got into a family picture, and the owner and I talked about classic 70's rock a bit. Blah.
I rode over to the Verizon place (had to cross a very busy/dangerous intersection) and once they got bored with gossiping and hanging out, they got around to me and the gal told me I can use their handy-dandy new kiosk to pay my account up. I tried it out and it said it's not set up for payments. I walked out.
I rode back over to Walmart where I got a bunch of things, got some bubble mailers at the Amazon place, got a few things at Nijiya, and got back here. I was amazed to see it was only 6PM when I was back, as it felt much later.
A few hours later I tried fiddling around with the customer service on my phone and amazingly, was able to use the automated system to make a payment using my new card, and set it to auto-pay. Interestingly, my account is a $30 a month "smart phone" account so I wonder if this means, if I get a smart phone, my monthly bill won't go up. It may well be the case, where it's an account with what to a lot of users is hardly any data or call time, but it works fine for me.
I wonder if they could take the "SIM" card I guess I have in my flip phone, and put it into the Galaxy S9 I have sitting around here, and thus I'd have a smart phone on this same plan? The one thing that slows me down is not being able to text very well, and everyone's on text these days.
Out riding around, I'm amazed at how run-down large parts of San Jose look. I have a feeling with tons of internet companies losing money lately, I won't be around to see Google take over downtown and turn it into some kind of a Google theme park as there had been talk of their doing. There's a large area around the train station and extending along San Carlos that's really run down and we're talking, I've gone into places and they had dirt floors. But if companies from Facebook to Amazon to Shitter, er, Twitter, are losing money like crazy, then I have to believe this will affect Google also and at least they'll be a bit more cautious.
I keep seeing little indications of things heading downward. For instance, not only is Amazon losing money but I see them getting chintzier with their packing supplies. Shipping a lot of things that used to go into bubble mailers, in single-thickness plastic envelopes. Besides, as I've experienced myself, cutting out customers who aren't in the Smart Phone Club. They don't want people like me who order coffee filters and vacuum cleaner bags and zip ties, they want people who will spend serious money. They probably literally can't afford customers like me, hence their making it impossible to log into my account.
On Reddit I read subreddits like r/povertyfinance but I've become dis-interested because they really *are* in some serious poverty. But I wasn't interested in r/personalfinance because it seemed all the discussions started with things like, "I'm 24 and have saved $80k in the bank....". While there are still those types on there, there are actually people on there who I can relate to now. Maybe it's the crypto crash and the many thousands of tech workers being laid off, but I'm starting to see people on the same channel of reality I'm on there.
I know things are "gearing down" but I'm still assuming that things will degrade slowly, ever downward but I'll be able to keep pooping along here working for Ken for the next two years, keep up the hypernormalisation.
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