Finally got to try it

 I listed things last night except for one thing that didn't power up so I'll take that apart. 

I woke up around 4, packed some more things, and got going around 6. There wasn't much to find for Tom other than another paper organizer thing, so I grabbed that. 

I did my drop-offs and while there were some food items left behind H Mart they were all fishy things I was not interested in. 

I stopped by Tom's on the way back to drop off the organizer thing and put the bike and trailer inside so we could sit and talk. "How about going somewhere, like that hotpot place?" I suggested. Tom was all for it, amazingly, as most of the time he's like, "I've just eaten". 

So we got in his truck and boogied over there, and I got a call from Ken, making sure I know about the HVAC people coming over tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning or something. I do. I thanked him for the heads-up though. 

The place, "Sizzling Lunch", was a bit more busy than it had been earlier, but we had a table pretty close to right away. I got beef udon with vegetables instead of beef, and he got some tofu thing with extra kim chee. The food is served in a cast iron frying pan that's so hot, you stir the food around and cook it right there in front of yourself. It was pretty good, and Tom seemed happy with his. At $15 per person it was cheaper than a lot of burgers. I had $13 on me and kicked that in. I'd been going past that place for years and it was nice to finally try it.

Then we went to Lowe's and Tom took forever choosing just the right carriage bolts for a project. It was confusing because they had the carriage bolts spread out over a few different areas in the aisle and Tom was intent on getting the very cheapest ones he could get by with. Then he looked at nails for a pneumatic nail gun and abruptly remembered that he had tons of them already in his shop. 

We left there and went back to his place and talked for a while. Our mutual friend, up in the Santa Cruz mountains, is in trouble for having an illegal septic system which it turns out he built *after* he got complaints about polluting the little stream that runs through his property. Plus, he refuses to take Tom's advice, and Tom's a good guy to take the advice of as he has a lot of experience in these matters. 

We talked about people, both that we knew or that we'd seen on TV shows like "Hoarders" who refuse to take anyone's help and end up destroying themselves. We were mainly shooting the shit and there was a lot of laughing, but I think Tom feels a bit better now about how he'll have to just sit back and watch this mutual friend damage himself and lose his land. Here's hoping the guy doesn't end up on the 6 O'Clock News. 

By now it was 10 and I had to go, Somehow, after riding upwind on my way out, it was upwind going in the opposite direction and the wind was cold so I was glad to get back in here.