Saturday, June 24, 2023

I visit the local mall

 It went just about as horribly as you'd think. I'd gone to bed early enough that I woke up at 5:30 and could not get back to sleep, so I got up and had coffee and watched YouTube and packed another package, so I had three to take the the FedEx by Whole Foods, when they opened at 10. 

I got going at about 9:30, stopped at a lunch truck to get a breakfast muffin thing for $3 and ate it there. As I ate, I wondered, do people who eat from lunch trucks just have Pepsi or Coke with their breakfast like people in the South do? There was a bottle of, I believe, instant creamer which would seem to argue toward there being coffee but I've never seen coffee sold from a lunch truck. 

Then I rode over to Nijiya because I thought I'd left the bottle of coffee I'd made at home but I actually had it with me. I got a salmon onigiri though and ate that. Those sell out by mid-day I think so I've only had one once before. 

I stopped at a garage sale and found an interesting backpack. It's not too large, and an interesting silvery blue color. The main thing is I think it's one you'd get if you worked for Costco, because it has Costco labels on it and even says Costco on the zipper pulls. Considering how popular Costco is in Hawaii, it was hard to resist for $1. I figure it's perfect for jury duty, to hold papers, a bottle of coffee, maybe a snack, maybe my Obon stuff if I'm going to go right from jury to Obon practice. 

I rode over to the FedEx and dropped the packages off, then walked across the street to the bus stop to get the #22 bus to downtown. Right after getting off the bus, there was a fat crazy guy who was shirtless and whose pants were halfway to his knees, so he was mooning the world. He was going around asking for money, and when we both got to the bus stop he asked me and I just shook my head and he want to bugging other people. The #323 bus came right away so I got on that one, and I got the impression Mr. Buttcheeks wanted to either get on too or make another round asking for money, and he missed out. I kind of went, "ha ha" as the bus left. 

The ride to Valley Fair, the local mall, was pretty quick. My plan was to buy a couple of Reyn Spooner aloha shirts so I'd really be set for jury duty. I walked the whole mall, checking both halves of Macy's and Nordstrom's and there were ... none. Online it looked like they have tons. These huge stores now seem to be showrooms for a few things, and mainly for things they're hoping to unload, with the real sales going on, online. Although apparently you can order things and there's a pickup desk inside Nordstrom's. 

In any case I wasn't going to get any shirts, and I got back out to Stevens Creek and eventually back on a #23 bus and then to downtown, and onto a #64B which dropped me off at Whole Foods again. 

I got some baked zucchini slices and some kind of fried "chicken leg" there. The "chicken leg" turned out to be, they took the white meat out of a chicken drumstick or thigh or something, breaded it and fried it. It's very bland. Not only would the average Whole Foods customer's head explode at the thought of using actual spices, but since the advent of covid, there are no longer any spices or seasonings out at all, not even salt or pepper. Because if you season your food you might have sinful thoughts, and catch covid. Also if you don't pay 2X for a lot of things you might get covid also... The gradual enshittening of things is all because of covid, everyone swears. 

As for the mall, it was depressing, kind of dirty, and you could feel the demoralization of the workers in the air. One of the escalators had a horrible rumble to it, while in Hawaii every one of those things I ever went on was smooth and utterly silent. And in Hawaii if you wanted a Reyn Spooner shirt you just went to the Reyn Spooner store and got one. Enough years ago, there would be a fair chance you'd be waited on by Reyn himself. 

I have some shirts and will just wear the ones I've got and not worry about any Hawaii type shirts any more until I'm back in Hawaii. 

After my bland, Midwestern-approved meal, I rode down to Walmart to pick up some things. I always come in on the street nearby and go around the back of the place, and there was some hilarity going on. There was a zombess with a cell phone just screaming as loud as she could, something about a moving that has to be made or who-knows-what. And as I took a wide berth around there, I spied a zombie lying down on one of the curbs in the loading ramp, trying to get some sleep. 

I locked the bike up and went into Big-5 to look around, and mentioned the crazy screaming woman. They said Oh yeah, we know about her. They'd heard her screaming about sending some money and it not going through or something. 

I went into Walmart and got the few things, and rode back here. 

I could not sit still without starting to doze off in my chair so I kept moving, putting things away and pulling out a couple that had sold. Now the key was to stay up late enough but not too late, and get an early start tomorrow. 


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