It's a matter of taking sides

 I practiced last night and noticed that it's fairly easy to play "Summertime" by Gershwin on both the shakuhachi and the shinobue. I learned this from one of those quickie lessons on YouTube where some guy plays the first line and it was easy to go from there. 

I also made a new exercise where I go from the 2nd highest note on the shakuhachi then the highest without taking a breath in between, reinforcing to myself that there's hardly any change in the position of my lips to play from one to the other. 

I went to bed relatively early for me, maybe 7-8AM, and had noticed another "food bomb" but it seemed to be a couple of cases of some kind of soda (it could not be beer) in cans which I didn't bother with and which someone else took. 

I got up in time to pack some FedEx things and took off at about a quarter to 7. 

I went by the FedEx dumpster where for years I'd been dumping trash, and a suspicious dark SUV, like one of the ones the druggies on Rogers Ave. have, followed me suspiciously. I rode on to avoid it, and the damned thing still followed me so I ducked into the FedEx trash enclosure, now the zombie in the SUV could not get at me without damaging their car, or they'd have to get out and fight. I had my "explainer" (24-inch long bolt) in my hand ready to "explain" with. The zombie stayed in their vehicle - there was a zombie dog in there barking too - and said they're "security" and I said "I don't see a badge" and told the undead ghoul that there are too many druggies around here and I went into the enclosure to avoid being attacked, and as I slowly eased out (by now FedEx employees would have noticed and would call the cops if the zombie tried anything, plus I was eager to make the undead dog fully dead if it was let out) and I went on, telling the brain-eater that I will have nothing to do with people who use drugs (hopefully it was obvious I meant them, personally) and went out the way I'd come, then went back on my way but on the Foxconn side, which is sure to have tons of video cameras and interestingly, the zombie did not follow me on. 

I then passed two nasty looking zombies as I passed onto the public road, but as I still had my "explainer" in my hand they were pleasantly passive. 

I got up to the intersection H Mart is on and walking on the sidewalk there, was the bum. The bum showed no sign of recognition even though I'm about the only non H Mart person around there who wears a safety vest and the bike and trailer are pretty distinctive. The bum just kept trudging along without showing any awareness of its surroundings at all. 

I parked by H Mart and went in to get a cucumber. They're expensive but if I eat one a day it seems like it's really healthy. 

I dropped things off at FedEx then rode over to Tom's place. He was out but I put a bag with some tomato sauce, green beans, and a jar of peanut butter in a bag and put the bag in his window. 

I'd had to dodge a nasty looking zombie that was pushing a wheelchair for some reason, when I'd turned from Brokaw to to go Tom's, raising the zombie count to 4 for the day. Not good. In fact, as I rode away from the first three, I concluded that my time to get out of here is going to be when I feel I need to carry the Glock with me to do my errands. Then it's time to leave. 

There's the continuous horror in the news, both on Reddit and on the radio. It's pretty clear that the fascists side with Putin and if they win in 2024 we can expect the US to withdraw from NATO and the UN and immediately start aiding Putin in his bid to invade Europe. The fascists are just that evil and stupid. I don't even think China wants Russia to become more powerful. The only group, one that's powerful in the US but present in many places in the world, are the white supremacists. They see Russia as some kind of white hope and homeland. And somehow they think the one group with the stupidest, most short-sighted culture, is superior. And somehow a country that's on the level of the Dark Ages is some kind of Paradise, albeit with cold winters. 

So one has to really hope the fascists don't win in 2024.