Do the jobs nobody else wants to do

 My dad used to say this, and his life may have gone better if he'd followed his own advice a bit more, but that's a subject for another day. 

I just read something on Reddit where this advice was trundled out, and it's why I'm up at 3AM writing this. When I was in college I took this advice rather literally and worked at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital, doing work that truly, hardly anyone else could be found to do. This did not translate into decent pay or hours or even legal treatment (Dr. Allison, the miserable sod I worked for, didn't believe in the concept of overtime pay, and I never heard of any health insurance although it's required by law for any worker putting in over 20 hours a week in Hawaii). 

But this same advice applies to Joshua Bell, the tip-top concert violinist. There's an old joke, where some wealthy matron exclaims to the violin virtuoso whose concert she's just attended, "I'd give my life to be able to play like that" and the violinist looks her in the eye and says, "Well, Madam, I did." 

Everyone likes to hear good music but hardly anyone wants to put in the effort to get good enough at playing music to be enjoyable to listen to. I thought I had to make myself useful by doing something that would always be in demand because it's scut work. But it applies on the high end also. 

But it's not just that precious observation that has me here, writing this down. It seems a mutual friend of my friend on the Big Island, this mutual friend being on the island of Oahu, has 2 houses full of antiques or something like that, and has also had a stroke and is hard to even understand. My friend on the Big Island seems to want me to go to Oahu and help him sell all of this stuff, and if I wait until 2024 to move there as planned, "The county will take it all". 

I've shot back, "Doesn't he have any family at all?" and maybe he doesn't, I don't know. In any case I've got my plans and my schedule and my loyalty to Ken, a guy who's been a staunch friend since I moved to the Bay Area in 2003, over a guy I happened to hike the Haiku Stairs with almost 40 years ago. 

I might be able to walk the guy through selling his stuff ... I don't know why my Big Island friend doesn't go over and help out, except he seems to have fibromyalgia or something and so he can't, although he's 1000s of miles closer. 

Everyone wants me to work for them ...  

I went to bed after drinking plenty of watery beer and since I'd stayed up into around 8AM, I slept, with one break around 10, until 3.  That actually seems to be somewhat common for me no matter what I've been drinking, to get up 2-3 hours after going to bed for a visit to the john, then back to sleep. 

So I woke up and had a look at the video feed - it was pouring. It's a holiday week for a lot of people and apparently in keeping with this, the "parking lot people", a guy with a young child and a large-ish dog, are back. I think they live in the unit on the end. They don't bother anyone, and the large-ish dog, if it's protective, is a good idea considering the bums that come through here.