Warming up

 Last night I had 20 things all queued up to list but didn't list them as, by the time I'd done a lot of other things, it was close to 5AM. 

I've spent all I will let myself take out of the bank for the week (balance will be $99 up this week) and have $4.80 in change so unless I feel like dipping into my cash savings which I don't, particularly, the next 5 days will be an exercise in not spending anything. 

After "playing with my food" by which I mean taking the 1.4 lbs of beef ribs I'd bought at Dai Thanh and cutting them up, removing bones, separating out into 4, 4-oz. servings and putting in the freezer, I read a bit more of the "Angry White Pyjamas" book and went to sleep. I'd decided that the most enjoyable, decadent thing I could do this weekend would be to sleep all I want so I did, getting up, finally, around 7PM. 

I finally got up, did some exercises while I brewed a big strong mug of chicory coffee, and had coffee and angel wing cookies with butter on them for breakfast. I checked good old Reddit and found this: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/13zkaqr/your_life_will_not_be_more_enjoyable_after_or/ 

This encapsulates my thoughts and feelings on the subject better than anything I've seen on there. It's gonna get worse. In fact, my own little mantra: 

In 2000, I had a car, In 2010 I had a motorcycle, In 2020 I had a bicycle, and in 2030 I'll be lucky to have a decent pair of shoes.... 

Is holding up very well. In terms of one's means of transportation, it represents maybe a halving, or a third'ing? of one's wealth. In the Hawaii of 2024-on, I may be able to have a bicycle at least for a while but it may be a thing that's constantly in danger of being stolen. I could possibly avoid this by having what appears to be a real hunk of junk bike that's secretly well maintained. I did this as a young student, except for the part about it being well maintained. I eventually stopped even locking my old sky-blue Fuji at home. That bike was to accompany me to Schofield Barracks and then was given to my youngest sister who I'm pretty sure sold it right away - she said it was stolen. 

So things are going to get bad, and I suspect the trend of more people leaving Hawaii than moving there will continue, and accelerate. I'm gonna go out on a limb and forecast that whites will leave disproportionately, and good riddance. The hunker-down-and-stick-it-out types will tend to stay and that means Asians including Filipinos. Real "keep going when the going gets tough" types. 

But right now I'm concerned with the next two years. That's what I'm saving up for, that transitory period where I have to get back there, find a safe and stable place to live, get Social Security coming in, and get re-acclimated to the place. Where will I be, how will I be, in June of 2025? 

I'm gambling that things will still be pretty much OK at least on the surface, up to 2030 or so. But that "pretty much OK" means the world over, meanwhile the US may be going full Fascist and I may be contemplating another hop across the wide Pacific, to Okinawa or Thailand or anywhere I can sneak in. But I'm still gambling that in this eventuality, my US money will still be good. Good enough for long enough could be my motto. 

And, savings-wise, I'm meeting my goals which is kind of surprising given I haven't been out busking. I need to put bindings on my shinobue flutes and if I go busking with the shakuhachi I have some varnish-stain sort of stuff I got to treat it with to make it look more like bamboo. And I need at least a handful of basic tunes. I have to remember back to when I was a beginning busker on trumpet and was very limited in repertoire as well as technique. I remember now that I played a lot of "Carnival Of Venice". Grim times but I got through 'em. 

The "warming up" in the title refers to the fact that the *weather* is warming up and I remember that one good summer busking where I started right around the first day of July and busked until the first day or so of October. The very warmest three months of the year. So I guess to keep with that schedule, I have one more month to get ready to get out there. 

I have plenty to do, though. Not only getting my papers in order and getting a new passport because that might come in very handy, but selling things off and getting luggage, both a carry-on bag and one to check, and working out what I'm to put in each one. It sounds funny because I don't have a car, but I have a AAA office not too far from me, I can walk to it, and they offer things like discounts on hotels, a travel service, and travelers' checks. So I'm already pretty decided that I'll join them in '24 just for some of their services. 

I got the 20 things listed and dinner was mi goreng topped with pork and vegetables boiled in "Lousiana crawfish boil". It came out great.  

Last night I also went through our books that we've got listed on Ebay and pulled out all the ones that are non-technical, that I found and listed. I have two boxes of them pulled and now have more room, and once I've taken the books off of Ebay I'll run them through the used book store to get any money I can for them, then donate what the book store doesn't want.