Thursday, December 15, 2022

Leroy's back

 Ken came over last night, bringing more weird stuff to sell. He actually came about 45 minutes early, so I had the bathroom cleaned (after finishing a load of laundry) but hadn't vacuumed the office floor. He didn't notice though. 

We talked about a bunch of things as usual, and I told him my thinking about when to leave. I said I want to stay to vote in the 2024 elections because I take elections very seriously these days. If we're going full Fascism, it'll be time to leave because while Hawaii doesn't get me out of the US, it does get me a lot closer to other places. If it looks like we might hang on as a democracy a little longer, I might consider staying another "year or two" because "... more savings..." 

In reality it may take a while to get places as a flute player, just like it did on trumpet, and I want to sound pretty good before I hang my hat on busking in Waikiki and such places... 

Instead of of just saying "Um hm, that sounds like a good plan" Ken told me a story about how he and Burt Rutan were flying a small plane and weren't sure of the weather and "You don't want to be out in bad weather in a small plane". So at each way point where they could stop at an airport, they checked the weather and finally when they got to a place in their route that looked dicey, they stopped there. 

"Play it by ear" in other words. See how it goes. 

He left and I had a croissant with some pate and went to bed at 2AM. I woke up at 8 and turned the light on and got a book to read, then "rested my eyes" and woke up again at 10 which is when I should have woken up. 

The idea of selling the smart phone I have to one of the little phone shops downtown got me out of bed, and I got the thing out and charged it. It hadn't been charged in weeks but it was at 95%. This tells me the battery is probably still pretty good. I might get $50 from a skeezy phone shop and that'd be OK, but  I decided I should use it to learn the Android operating system and smart phones in general. I won't be able to stick with a flip phone forever. 

I got out of here around noon. My first stop was one of the lunch trucks, where empanadas were $3. I had $3 on hand so I tried one. It was delicious. 

Next was to meander over to the bank where I deposited my check, and it was only off of my own calculations but a little. 

Then over to the used book store because I had two bags of used books hanging off of the handlebars and those needed to go. I was offered $6.50 cash or about $10 trade, and I took the cash. 

I rode back the way I'd come to Whole Foods and got some dental floss - my usual brand, Tom's, has almost doubled in price and I got some 365 brand for the old price - and some cash back. Then I got on the bus to go to Dollar Tree. 

The bus ride was interesting. When some old bum with a hat with feathers in it and a guitar got up to mess around with some stuff he had on a cart or something, I saw that pair of seats empty and went and sat down. The bum put his guitar in the seat next to me. So now I'm watching over this guitar. It turned out the guy was basically "holding down" 4 seats plus whatever room his cart'O'crap was taking up. The bum then sat down next to me, and as the bus lurched, the guitar fell out of his lap. He gave it a good kick, sending it flying into the aisle. As soon as an old lady got up because it was her stop, I went over and sat where she'd vacated. 

I was happy to get off where the Dollar Tree is, and went in for some good old shopping. The linchpin of the trip was liquid fabric softener which I can't find anywhere else. I also got some Scotch tape, a nice cheapie chocolate Santa for Xmas day, red and black licorice, some kippers, and probably some other odds and ends I can't think of as I write. It was 11 items and all this fun cost me $14 so it wasn't bad. 

I got back on the bus - a lot nicer ride this time - and was back at Whole Foods in a short time. I went back in because I wanted to see if they had "Lurpak" butter that they rave about on r/casualUK all the time, but they didn't have it. I got some Clover butter instead. 

I rode over to the train station because I've had this craving for popcorn for a while. "You're out of popcorn", I said, sounding a little disappointed, when I checked at the little store there. "I can make you some", the lady said, so we had some time to talk while she did that. She said the really "interesting" passengers are on the Greyhound buses, "Since they closed Post" which took me a bit to figure out meant, they closed the Greyhound station on Post St. I said if the homeless people would just clean up after themselves and clean up the area they're in, people would not mind them, and might even kind of like having them around. 

I went outside and watched the various people around while I had my popcorn. When I was done, I got on the bike and headed for 7th and Santa Clara - I still had the books. I went to the Little Free Pantry there and stocked up the top shelf with books. Nearby, there were about 6 of those large flat-rate postal boxes that turned out to be crammed full of CDs. I decided not to mess around with them, though, and put some around, leaned up against the boxes, so people would know what's in them and probably someone with a car would come along and scoop 'em all up. 

I rode across the parking lot over to Lee's where I got the two bags of day-old croissants for $3.50 deal, then over to the Amazon place where I picked up a ton of bubble mailers. A customer in there and I kind of buddied up for a bit, talking about what kind of bags are good and mailing things. She resold clothes, and I told her how I'd had trouble with picky customers and swore off of them long ago, but one person on the Ebay discussion boards had a thing going where she bought the large sizes of women's clothing and sold the clothing to guys who like to dress in drag. "There are all kinds of angles", I said. 

My last stop was Nijiya, and I rode there, picking up two books on the way. As I parked, I heard  a saxophone. "Real or Memorex?" was almost my thought. I thought maybe someone from the Chidori Band was doing something at Roy's Station, and got back on the bike to check it out. As I got to the corner, I thought, "That sounds like Leroy". There was the same hurrying of the notes. And there was Leroy, on the corner. 

I said he looked good and he said likewise for myself, and we caught up on things. I thought maybe he got covid and died, and he said he got it, but got better. His mom and sister or something like that are in some podunk town inland, and he's been playing there a lot. He hasn't been downtown in ages and said he doesn't even like downtown any more. I told him about the busking scene in downtown Campbell, on Lincoln Avenue, and that downtown Sunnyvale can be good, and especially that the real gold mine is Whole Foods. 

I also mentioned my switching from trumpet to flute, and he's learning the flute too.  It's too bad his schedule is so crazy, or we could come up with a regular time to meet up and work on songs. But it's just great to see he's still around and out there playing. 

By the time I got back here it was 5, and cold enough that I needed my hat and gloves and I was still a bit cold. 



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