Windy!

 I got things ready to list but did not list them, mainly hunted things down that need to be shipped, about 20 of 'em. 

Then practiced, and watched more of "The Abyss", an excellent British series on the rise and fall of the Nazis. Fun Fact: The Nazis were able to build the Autobahns so quickly because they were already planned and laid out by the Weimar government. 

I can pretty reliably play the full 2 octaves and whistle up that top Ro pretty well. And not giving Nori No Miyama any rest, but at least messed around with playing the first line of Shinran Sama. Thank you Rinban, for effectively saying, "You're beginners, but you're going to play the full range of the instrument right off!". 

The wind is howling out there so I'll have to wear safety glasses and my mask when I go out. 

Also I'm'a drop this here: 

 

Can't make it bigger for some reason. I've shown the stats showing people are leaving states like California in favor of stupid states like Texas and Florida. But there are a ton of us Boomers retiring and I know for a fact that Boomer ethics and politics suck. All that leaded gas ... I remember a guy, named Guy, Guy Logan in fact, showing me how to siphon gas when I was about 13, the proper way to do it being to use a length of garden hose and to "prime" the operation by sucking with your mouth, Guy got extra "cool" points for casually spitting out the mouthful of gas he'd gotten by over-sucking a bit... Guy was cool. I crashed one of his mini-bikes and he didn't even pressure me to pay for the broken magneto.

I woke up today at about 1 which is earlier than I've been. And no headache! I might be pretty happy with coffee out of my life and will have to taper alcohol out too although if I have to drink, sake seems to be the best way to do it. Mainly I'm working on being really good about drinking enough fluids. Starting the day with a mug of water then one of Ty-Phoo tea, and I just tried the jasmine tea I got, and it reminds me of the stuff my co-workers drank all day. It's light and aromatic and you can drink a ton of it since it has hardly any caffeine. 

The wind was going crazy out there. I packed 20 things and got going at a quarter to 6. Interestingly, all but one package were for the post office, and the lone FedEx package was a really small one. The chute at the post office has been out of order for weeks, and they're back to just having 1-2 of those big cloth bins you toss everything into. 

I rode back to H Mart and left the bike and trailer in front. The beggar was there and I had a bag of some coffee, tea, vit. C tablets, and 3 bags of spicy potato chips with me, and asked him if he could use some potato chips. He sure could. I said, "Those are pretty spicy without some sour cream to dip them in, but if you can watch my wheels, I'll get you some". I dashed in and got a big tub of "lite" sour cream since they didn't have the regular kind. There were two tall Asian duded right there in front of it, discussing something. I commented that "Anything called 'Lite' is generally crap - Oh, well, it's not for me" which got a bit of a laugh. 

I also grabbed two packets of sliced Swiss cheese and two cartons of sake for me, and checked out using my card - a bit north of $45. 

I handed the bum his sour cream and had a chance to talk to him a bit - he'd aged out of foster care I believe he assented to my saying, and he really doesn't have any family. Also, personal hygiene is well into the negative. Quite a whiff when I got close. What happens to lost souls like this? Do they just decay until they die? 

The wind had been vicious. I was glad I had a new pair of shooting glasses to wear, and I had to shift the bike down a few gears to make it against the wind. And I didn't always, as a couple of times I had to get off and walk it to make it against some gusts. 

I stopped by at Tom's to give him the rest of the goodie bag, containing coffee, tea, coffee filters, and some vitamin C tablets I cautioned him to "only take on a really full stomach". Then I got back here. 

It's such a nice feeling to be back in here while the wind howls outside. I'm in a pretty nice situation here. I'm saving something close to half of what I make, no one bothers me, I have the run of a huge place, the neighbors like me, I choose my own hours, I can cook whatever I like, and am part of a sangha and get a shakuhachi club meeting each month for just what I pay to the temple each month, which is $30. 

The drawbacks being I have to work on what Ken's interested in (electronics surplus) rather than what I'm interested in (playing and learning shakuhachi, nature and healthy living) and ... this place will never be home to me because it's not home. It's just a place. Sure  I could rent a small office in Japantown and turn it into a shakuhachi studio I just happen to start living in in a year or two. I'd have my sangha here and the network of shakuhachi people here. But it's just a place. It's not home. 

But as a comfy hidey-hole, for now, it'll do!