What's become of Mr. Bum?

 I listed 10 things last night and that was after taking a couple of things apart which took up a good amount of time. Then I got some practice in and went to bed. 

I woke up and packed 10 things to ship, had my coffee yadda yadda. The bike trailer left by that bum who'd helped me get packing foam out of the medical dumpster, is still here. I'm not going to touch it and apparently no one else is going to, either. I'm guessing the guy got sick, injured, detained by the cops for some reason or another, OD'd, who knows.

I took off at the usual time and did my drop-offs, picked up some veggies on the way home, put things away here and took a broken mirror the cleaning people had left in front of the trash enclosure and put it in the HVAC place's dumpster. I like to keep it neat around here.

And shortly after writing that, I noticed the bike trailer is gone. 

A little book run

 Last night  I decided to stop dithering over this book problem I had, and get to work on it. I had 57 books listed on Ebay that were non-technical books and not selling well at all. And I'd had to take them out of the file cabinets to make room for technical books. Plus I had others, amounting to something like 80 books in all. 

I came up with a pretty slick system to de-list the ones on Ebay, then went through them all, taking out the ones that the used book store will not want because they're music books, or in one case a cookbook, or just too beat up. 

That divided them in half. I took the half the used book store won't want and bagged them up, and called it a night. 

I woke up and had time for coffee etc., and left here at a quarter to six. I dropped off a bag of trash far away from here in a city trash can, and took the books to the little free library in Japantown. They all fit in that one there, which is good because I wanted all the music books to be together so if someone is interested in one, the rest will be there with it. All but a few were about flute so maybe they'll get a kid interested in the flute. 

I got a few things in Nijiya and came back here. The bum's bike cart was still sitting out here, and I picked up a couple of cardboard boxes and some trash and put them in the HVAC place's dumpster, and got in and buttoned up for the night. 

Zombie caution light always ON

 I listed 20 things last night, did a little - too little - practice, and went to bed. 

The bums had taken almost all of the prepper foods I'd put out so that's a good thing. Honestly, when the pandemic started I did a lot of prepper buying, not knowing how bad things would get, and now I'm either selling the stuff off at a loss or flat-out giving it away. I'd have been better off buying an expensive watch or something. 

I woke up at 4, had coffee and nuts, and got out of here at 5. First I rode up to Sheldon's Hobbies and got something for one of my innumerable projects. Then because it looked that way on the map, I rode on Trade Zone to what I hoped was Capitol but turned out to be a couple streets past it, then went to Dai Thanh Market and got a can of chicory coffee and a big bag of frozen shrimp. The shrimp are really cheap, $6.50 for a 2-lb bag and they take work as they have to be peeled and deveined, but at least they taste good. 

Next I stopped in at H Mart for a couple little boxes of coconut cream, and then stopped at the veggie dumpster for green onions and a head of lettuce. 

I got back here and saw that a bum had his bike trailer parked across from here, no bum in sight but I unlocked the door and got in here super fast, and buttoned the place up. Sure it's 80 degrees in here but a zombie alert is a zombie alert. 

I kind of have to blame myself for not taking the trouble to load the stuff up on the bike trailer and dumping it out by Old Bayshore. Actually the bike trailer that's sitting outside is the very same one owned by the bum who helped me get that packing foam last night, and he appears to have parked it here while he goes off to do something. I just don't want any of them, not even friendly ones, to know I live here.

Mostly it was just the usual. Slow walkers. Stumblers. Shufflers. Stagger-ers. Easily enough avoided. Little tent camps everywhere, even under the bridge where Trade Zone crosses the freeway, noisy as hell but I guess they get used to it. It's actually a nice area around there, the suburban American Dream, but some of the most miserable looking homeless wandering around everywhere. 

I'm sure someone somewhere has worked the math and decided that while capitalism requires some to be homeless and desperate, there has to be a most efficient ratio. Maybe 10% utterly broke and 5%, half of those, out on the street with rags on their feet and a blanket over their shoulders. If you get up to 20% utterly destitute you have to bring that down because you risk revolution, so to bring the ratio down you build housing and set up programs, or just make fentanyl more available. 

In any case I got a lot of little errands done so now I don't have to go anywhere at all tomorrow if I don't want to. 

Dinner was red coconut milk curry with a fried egg on top, veggies, and some kao fu which is wheat gluten cooked into a little loaf, that I got at 99 Ranch. I cut it into noodle shapes and 4 oz makes a LOT of noodle shapes. After frying the egg,  I fried a piece of it in the leftover butter and it was a like a crunchy little piece of toast. Very nice! Fried kao fu might be a nice quick breakfast thing with coffee. 

Out with the old

 My day started with a call on my phone where an automated voice said my phone account was being "suspended" due to "changes on the account" then offered one of those "Press 1 for..." menus. I've decided it's a scam so I'll wait and see if my phone stops working lol. 

All I use the damn thing for anyway is to call Ken. I don't even call stores any more to ask their hours as those are all on Google Maps and everyone seems to keep those up to date. 

I practiced a bit last night too. It's coming back. 

I packed a good load of things and took off the usual time, just before dropping off the big packages at FedEx I stopped in at H Mart and got a few things, then checked the Apple place (nothing) and worked my way back here. At the medical dumpster there was a guy with a bike trailer going through it, a Mexican(?) guy who barely spoke English but very nice, he dug out the pieces of clean packing foam in there (he was going after metal himself) so I came home with a good amount of that. 

At the veggie dumpster I got a tomato and an "English" cucumber so I had those with some cheese I'd bought at H Mart right away. Then I got involved in watching a documentary so while that ran I dug back behind things and got out my "prepper" foods and decided what to keep which aside from sardines which seem to have a very long shelf life, some fancy Japanese instant coffee to give to Ken's wife, and a few other odds and ends, put all the stuff out for the bums to pick over. 

Getting back into practice

 I practiced a bit last night, more than the night before, and I noticed if I "kept the throat open" it helped my long tones to be longer and made things a bit easier. 

So much of this comes down to the shape of the mouth cavity and in trumpet you have to shape the mouth cavity while also generating a *lot* of pressure. Yet I think it's practicing on the shakuhachi that gave me much better tone on the trumpet and led to that one summer when I was able to make decent money. 

I woke up at a quarter after 3, so I shaved and cleaned up a bit and was out the door at 5 after. I dropped off a bag of clothes I don't want by the Salvation Army place on 7th, and went over to the bank. My account balance according to them and according to myself didn't exactly agree but at least it was very close. I don't trust banks very much anyway. 

I went over to Whole Foods and got some food from the hot bar and a bottle of water, ate, then walked over to the hardware store for some felt pads to replace the ones on my desktop music stand, which had fallen off. 

Then I went over to Big-5 and returned the two T-shirts I'd bought there, as I don't think I'm going to wear them at all. 

Then I went to Walmart and got various things; a pretty oddball assortment this time. For instance, I got an inexpensive set of measuring spoons, because I want to be able to visualize how much sugar is in things. As an example, if I got a cup of any "healthy" brand of yogurt,  so for instance Brown Cow because we all know Yoplait and such mass brands are essentially candy. So I eat a nice little cup of Brown Cow vanilla flavor. Well, that's 21 grams or to put it in easier to relate to terms, it's 5 teaspoons, of sugar. So in eating this nice healthy thing, I'm doing the same as taking the teaspoon and scooping up sugar in it 5 times and putting that into my mouth. Maybe washing it down with a nice "healthy" fruit juice, containing only 35 grams of sugar, or 8 teaspoons' worth.

The historical norm is less than a teaspoon a day. The keto norm is about 20 grams of sugar/carbs a day. Since a teaspoon is 4 grams, that's 5 teaspoons of sugar a day. And that's considered an unusually small amount, some even say dangerously small. Those "health experts" are generally the centerpiece of tales on r/fatpeoplestories saying things like "Mah sugah's are low". 

I rode back, got a few bubble mailers from the Amazon place, avoided zombies, the usual routine. The group who are known for shooting up heroin in front of the 7-11 across from the Amazon place are filtering back, so that means entertaining antics are back too. Today's feature was a Black guy, shirtless, sitting on a blanket it looked like, maybe his spread-out shirt, leaning against the building and having some sort of a mental health breakdown. He sounded terrified and amongst his gibberings could be made out, "Leave me alone". A couple "normals", white girls, were filming him on their phones. 

Shoppin' at Ross

 I actually practiced a bit last night, just the scale. It feels like I've not practiced for a month. But interestingly, the practice didn't make me feel like dozing off. I also noticed while out riding around today that I didn't have to use the bathroom desperately when I was halfway through my errands. It was getting nuts there for a while, I'd go before leaving, have to dash into the loo at H Mart, and still have to use it again as soon as I got back here. 

I woke up early enough that I was able to photo and list the 10 mostly large things I'd gotten ready last night. I took off a  bit earlier than the usual time, dropped off packages at the post office, then stopped at H Mart to lock the bike up. I walked over to Ross and returned the sweat pants that were too big, got my money back, and found another pair that I thought would fit. They cost a little less too. 

I went to HomeGoods and went through the bags of nuts, finding another one of Brazil nuts as they're at least as fresh as the ones from Whole Foods and cost half as much. I got that and a bag of seasoned green olives for $15. 

I went into Sprouts and got two sugar-free meat sticks for $2.50 and walked back over to H Mart where I got a can of coffee and sat out front eating my meat sticks and drinking the coffee and that's when I reflected on how I'm not a prisoner of my bladder any more. I kind of had to "go" but knew I'd be fine and was. I suspect that may have been a sign of pre-diabetes, having to go so often. Between my can of black coffee and the sugar-free meat sticks my snack was at most 1-2 grams of carbs so I'm being very good about following the "keto" diet. 

I got back here and got a Rubbermaid "Brute" plastic tub one of the neighbors was throwing out. Not junque like almost all plastic tubs are. I tried on the new pants and they're a perfect fit. 

Pretty soon Ken came by and we talked about stuff for an hour or so, then he was getting ready to leave and as he got into his car said "Oh!" and started going on about how someone had called him asking about something not getting to them yet, and I said "Come on back in here, we'll look it up" so I dug up what he may have been talking about and he went through all his voice mails and didn't find a thing. I said it's strange that they'd call him as Ebay really encourages using their message system and even if they still won't, Ebay will contact me (us) so it's probably not anything to worry about. Customers will sometimes panic when their thing isn't there when they want, then go silent when everything's OK. 

That put his mind at rest I think, and he took off. I finished off my night by digging some things out from in back and sorting them out, leaving some lovely junk out for the bums, and making sure I have a batch ready to photo when I get up. 

Line Go Down, Line Go Up.

 I woke up at 3:30. After cleaning up in the trash enclosure last night I'd pretty thoroughly given myself a fine coating of dust so I cleaned up super well last night, shaved, etc. so I'd be ready to jet out of here in the morning. 

I was out of here at 4:30 or so, and Sheldon's Hobbies closes at 6. I rode at a nice steady pace (it was hot!) up to the post office and dropped off 9 small packages, then rent on up Oakland Road which changes to another name (stupid mainland thing) and turned left at Trade Zone. Sheldon's Hobbies is right there. 

What a place! They have all different kinds of little cans of Tamiya spray paint for different surfaces, even a few shades of red so I can pick one out and use it to pain the internals of my Shakuhachi Yuu's red. They have all the props for model airplanes and drones in the damn world, a whole aisle of 'em. And a lot of other stuff. 

Plus they have an R/C car track in the back, and I got to watch a race going on. The drifting skills of those guys are insane. There was a little quadcopter following the cars around and when the 'copter came in for a landing on the counter back there, I talked to the tall Black guy who it belonged to. He said the drone and first-person-view glasses etc cost about $400 to which  I said "Wow!". He said he'd finally stepped up to 4K resolution and had to take it home to adjust the rates on the controls so he could fly it more smoothly. I bet he got some great footage of those cars. 

Just a neat, neat place if one has money to spend. I'll be back for sure. 

I stopped at H Mart to lock the bike up then walked over to HomeGoods where I found raw Brazil nuts in 1-lb bags for $10 each and a bag of 10 oz. of pumpkin seeds for about $5. Then I went next door to Ross where I found a great shirt for $9 and some Adidas sweats for $14 or so, but I tried them on at home here and they're too big so I'll have to take them back. They were the one pair with white stripes while the others all have red stripes but I'll settle for a pair with red stripes to have a pair that fit right.

I went over to Sprouts and got some "Fage" brand yoghurt, which someone on Reddit had said is keto-friendly and it is, but it's got a weird texture - like cake frosting or mashed potatoes. So at least I got to try it for $1.50. 

I walked back over to H Mart and went in and got a can of coffee and thus was able to do one of my favorite things: Sit out in front savoring a can of coffee and relax and people-watch for a bit. 

Done with that, I went around back and out of the dumpster there got a bunch of oyster mushrooms, a few red peppers, and some Asian sweet peas so my dinner is going to feature a soup with those and beef. 

I stopped at the electric light place next and picked up a ton of little boxes I folded up so I could carry them. So all in all it was a great day. 

So what's all this bit about the line? Here's what's going on: 

Aww! Line go down! That's depressing! 

Sorry to bum you out, man. Here's a line going up. Feel better now? 

Yes indeed, shit is happening. And it's happening Sooner Than Expected(tm). Things that were forecast for 2030 are happening in 2023. Summer's not even over, and considering these changes just from this time of year in 2022, who knows how bad 2024 will be. 

But Alex, you say, what about killer bees and acid rain and things we used to worry about decades ago? Well, I can't help ya on the killer bees, a lot of that seems to have been pure sensationalism. But I wondered about acid rain because I do remember reading about it in Audubon Magazine as a kid so I looked it up and it turns out, with regard to acid rain, it's still around. Partially, regulations have decreased the amount of sulfur being put into the atmosphere, and partially it's just been normalized. It's routine for museums and college campuses and such to cover up their marble statues or to have moved them indoors. 

No more surprise visits from the IRS

 I listed 20 things last night, got to sleep with just one wake-up, woke up around 4, and decided I'll just pack FedEx things and take them with the trailer, which means I can take smaller, USPS things tomorrow and not need the trailer. 

I left here a bit after 7 and rode up to FedEx, dropped things off, and got back here with some packing stuff. Plus, I investigated one dumpster that sometimes has food and found about 20 lbs of dried figs in those round containers and a barely-used 5-lb container of "Himalayan pink sea salt". I'm saving those for Tom. When he's back it won't be quite the traditional greeting of bread and salt, but it will be salt and dried figs, the sweet bread of Nature. 

It's cooled down a bit and what zombies were out were slow walkers and easily avoided.  Once I was back here, I put a nasty old piece of countertop or something the cleaning service guys had left out, into the HVAC place's dumpster was there was tons of room, and went into the trash enclosure and swept up the years' worth of leaf debris and crap that had built up in there and tossed it behind the enclosure. I also noticed that someone had written something, apparently in some of the nail polish that was going around the neighborhood a while back, on one of the supporting poles so I cleaned that off using some solvent. The "broken window theory" is a real thing.

On Reddit and then just now, on the radio, they mentioned that the IRS isn't going to do unannounced visits to people any more. This is sad, to me, as I'd only think it quite interesting if an IRS agent visited me, and the only risk to them would be no sugar cubes for coffee or tea, which I'd offer them like I would any guest. 

Hottest 20-day stretch in 100,000 years

 It's been a hot one, but last summer I don't think we had any over-100 days and I'm not sure we will here. However, over the whole Earth, it's been the hottest 20-day stretch in 100,000 years. Lovely. 

I'm just hoping things hold together for a bit longer but I guess tons of people are hoping so, too. An interesting thing is that on the r/hawaii discussions I never see complaints about heat. Hawaii's warm, of course, but it's not as warm as it gets here and there's not the near-freezing winter to deal with each year. So you get used to it being 75-85 degrees all the time and it doesn't feel hot somehow.

I got 20 things ready to list last night although that took a fair amount of sifting and sorting, plus I cleaned out some stuff I didn't want. 

I woke up around 4, determined to get plenty of sleep. When it cooled down a bit, at least cooler than the 84 degrees it was in here, I took off for the day's bike ride. I had a big bag of books I decided I'd leave by the McDonald's where every bum in town passes by, but when I passed Tom's place I decided I'd leave them there for him and his hangers-on. James was around there, no longer "the lion" I guess as he's shaved off his mane, and we talked a bit. He said he's smelled and seen smoke rising from Tom's place that "smells electrical" and I said I've seen situations where a bad connection gets hot. At one apartment the electrician took the cover plate off and there was the cutest little flame in there. James wanted to know if I thought he ought to call Tom and I was in the process of saying that by all means he should, when someone pulled up. 

I thought the guy was maybe buying something from James but he was just turning up to get his tire pumped up so while he carefully explained to James, who was unclear on this, that the flattish tire was the one that needed the air and James maneuvered the air hose over, I took off, calling out to James that he should call Tom.

Then I went to 99 Ranch for some dried mushrooms and a new flavor of ramen packet - I toss the noodles and use the seasoning packets. It was busy in there because it's Sunday. 

Next was Lowe's which somehow ended up about to close. I wanted to buy some things for a project and found the things, and then realized I'd have to use the self-checkout and also because I didn't have enough cash on hand to cover it, would have to use my card. That all actually went OK, though, with my card being declined because I typed the password in wrong, then accepted when I got it right. 

I rode back here with a 6-foot long skinny oak board in hand and a bag holding my other things hanging off of the handlebar. This turns out to be important because I headed down Junction Avenue to take my usual route, through the complex that has Foxconn and a lot of other companies in there. As soon as I turned off the public road there was the zombess in her old dark blue? black? SUV at least without a zombie dog yapping away also. "This is not a pass-through" the zombess said, then repeated it. I rolled my eyes a bit and turned around, taking the road the communicates between the end of Junction and Rogers, and thus had to ride past a bunch of zombies camped there in their Mad Max RVs and various constructions. It's not too bad riding a bike past them because by the time they realize I'm there, I'm past them and gone. 

Apparently this zombess has some sort of arrangement with some of the businesses around, to keep their parking lots clear of people they don't like. This does not keep some of the filthiest, scariest, zombies from passing through and stealing things and leaving a mess but I bet it cuts it down. And one problem is, it's not generally realized that the class stratification among those riding bikes are as fine and clearly defined as the little bands of color found in sedimentary rocks. They see a bike and a trailer, or a bike and the person on it not wearing racing gear and carrying a bag and a board, and to them that's the same as the scumsuckers around here riding around with trailers made of junk and wheelchair wheels, with tired on the bike being very optional. B.O. required though. 

I can actually respect this, though. I've ridden past Foxconn many a time when there are techs getting off of work and frankly, to nice Chinese people like them even nice, normal Americans are pretty intimidating and orders of magnitude more likely to be crazy or violent. The American underclass is positively horrifying to those from civilized countries, so if they don't want me riding through there on my bike trailer, I'm find with that. 

I got back here, made sure the area around here is neat, and buttoned up for the night. 

The best use of a weekend day, I guess

 I listed 20 things last night and then told myself fuck it, I won't have any plans for Saturday. I'll just sleep and go as it feels like. 

I took the last of the Diabetic Tussin which did seem to loosen things up but as I saw mentioned online on WebMD or someplace, it does interfere with going to sleep. I had lousy sleep, really, in 3 sessions with 3 weird dreams. 

I finally woke up at 7 in the evening. I'd kind of had a plan to do some shopping, by going up to perhaps Dai Thanh then hitting 99 Ranch and H Mart on the way back. But I'd already slept past the time Dai Tahnh closes, at 7. The last time I was there, they were out of French Market coffee in the orange can, which I drink tons of. H mart had it the last time I was by, though. 

It's bloody hot. It was over 84 degrees in here when I woke up, and once it cooled down below that outside I opened the door. 

I left here about 7:45 and rode up to 99 Ranch. It was night-or rapidly becoming so, so the more "interesting" zombies were out. There was one zomb' with a light blue girls' bike fiddling with it by the side of the road on Hostetter, and as I turned into the 99 Ranch parking lot, saw another zombie with a working kids' BMX bike and wearing an interesting get-up that involved having lots of torn plastic bags tied to himself. It gave the effect of being a big bird. I wonder if, in areas where people can't afford bike lights or the batteries for them, this is a "be seen" technique used by cyclists, who are probably also riding anything they can get. 

I went in and got a can of French Market coffee. Dai Thanh market had been out of the stuff the last time I was there so I decided I'd just get it where I could. I also got some cash back to put into savings which was my reason for going up there first, as H Mart doesn't do cash back. 

Done there, I rode over to H Mart and got a few things, then went back in and got some garlic and jalapeno peppers and also looked at the various yogurts. I was thinking that if I got some yugurt without sugar added, "live" cultures, etc it might do me good. But they were all like candy! Or like drinking a "full fat" Coke. So much for that idea. 

Outside, at the bike racks, I found both of the aforementioned zombies, the birdy one helping the other with the pale blue girls' bike. I said, helpfully, "What's wrong with the bike?" but they ignored me. Fair enough. I unlocked the bike, put the lights on, and got out of there. 

I rode back here and traffic was surprisingly plentiful given the late hour. I turned in at Zanker and crossed over to ride home going the wrong way (using the bike lane) like I always do, and after turning, noticed a zombie pushing a bike, dressed all dark due to fashion sense or more likely filth. My turn had made me avoid the damned thing. They're just everywhere... 

I got back here, put things away, and relaxed with the door open due to the heat. I thought I heard a little sound outside, but looked and didn't see anything. Then I heard a sound again and looked and there was a zombie out there. I shut the door and buttoned up, and observed the zombie. 

This zomb' was, like the others, kind of interesting. No shirt, backpack, and what I thought were tattoos but were actually filth. It had a shopping cart and held a broom. It checked out some stuff left out, a couple of Apple laptop lids and an empty hard drive sled, and smelled them carefully before putting them into the cart. Moreover, it actually seemed to *taste* the things. 

It wandered around in the parking lot a good long time because it's not like a zombie has anywhere to be. The funniest part, even funnier than watching this thing *taste* a drive sled, was it staring through the fence around the other trash enclosure that has a dumpster and some junk in there, like a little kid staring into a store window displaying the best Xmas present ever. It fished around through the cracks with the handle of the broom a bit, looked around aimlessly, and eventually wandered off. 

RIP Tony Bennett

 Last night I watched yet another Robert Lustig video, cooked dinner (beef and veggie soup) and then decided I was tired and went to bed. 

I woke up at about 1:30. I just had to turn on the radio and learn that Tony Bennett had died. It had to happen sometime; he was getting pretty old. But he was an infantryman in WWII and "saw things no person should ever see" like in house-to-house fighting and liberating at least one concentration camp. You could never tell a guy like that the Holocaust wasn't real, or Hitler was the good guy, or any of the right-wing nonsense going around these days, without the guy probably decking you. 

Hell of a singer, too. 

I packed a bunch of things and took off the usual time, hit the post office and FedEx, and stopped at the computer repair's dumpster on the way back. Mostly I was after shipping supplies and I found a lot of neat stuff, but wasn't sure if it was really worth anything. 

I got back here and offloaded my goodies, and took a large box I'd collected for just that reason and put one of those big black garbage bags inside as a liner. For some reason someone had dumped a box of rotting fruit and I'd swear some rotting meat or fish, in the spot in front of the trash enclosure that food is left off, but this was far past use as anything but fertilizer so I wasn't sure of the logic here. I was sure it stunk, though. I went over there with this lined box, dumped it in, and took it over next to Bayshore where it will at least stink over there instead of right here. 

So I'd done my bit for neatness and non-stinkyness. 

After eating something, I went through my computer repair store cast-offs. It turns out to be honestly a few hundred dollars' worth of stuff. In fact some little bits I just picked up for the bags they were in turned out to be quite valuable. 

Payday

 I went to sleep last night on 4(!) teaspoons of Diabetic Tussin, and slept OK until about 1:30. Then I lay in bed thinking I might sleep some more and go to the bank tomorrow, but I kept having to get up to blow my nose. 

I decided that going to the bank was less work than packing and shipping things, and got cleaned up and left for downtown. I went right to the bank, put my checks in, and the balance came to exactly what I'd figured. 

I went over to TAP Plastics and got a few plasticky things, like a new spray button top for the little bottle I use for 99% alcohol, a clear plastic tube with sort of rubbery end caps I might use for something, and a large plastic bottle I thought I'll need to put my Break-Free CLP in. I have a big spray can of it but the propellant's gone, so I plan to drain it into something. They're always friendly in there and I told the gal how I'd priced having drawer liners made and it was kind of spendy, so since there was an election coming up I just waited until the day after the election and took election signs and used those. "Good idea!" she said. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods and got some vitamins and stuff. I looked at their bottles of niacin and found it hilarious that a bottle of 100 tablets was $10 and a bottle of 120 tablets was $20. Needless to say I got the cheaper ones. Maybe the others were capsules instead? 

I checked prices on their nuts, in the one section where they're in these bins and one where they're pre-packaged. The pre-packaged ones looked convenient, but they're 8-oz packages and work out to $30 a pound or more. I got the ones from the bins. I also got some roast asparagus that I dumped olive slices and bleu cheese on, and that an a bottle/can of their store brand "Spring Water" was my "treat" meal. 

The "Spring Water" is interesting because the bottle it comes in is this sort of brushed aluminum and not flimsy like a beer can but something I could see someone taking with them on a hike or something. It also looks perfect for putting something like Break-Free CLP in. 

I ate my food and then rode over to Walmart. I went into Big-5 first to have a look around. 'Way near the back I found a clearance rack with some T-shirts which look about the same quality as the ones I was getting from Muji, and at about the same price - $6 each if you buy two. There were two Smalls left. I took those up to the front and said to the guy, "Stop the presses, I'm actually buying something". 

I told him about Muji and how great it was, and had to explain that it's Muji not Moji,and that they still seem to be online but have pulled out of the US entirely. I like it when I actually find something to buy in Big-5 though. 

I went over to Walmart and got things like rubbing alcohol and foot powder, notebook paper, a can of sardines, just a real miscellany. I asked at the pharmacy if they do the A1C test and they don't. 

Now something interesting happened. At the checkout the total was something like $21.75 and I didn't have anything smaller than a $20 so I handed her two $20's. She gave me back change that was $10 short. I said something like, "This is short by $10" and was so unruffled and smooth, "I'm giving you it", opened the drawer and gave me two $5's, and the whole thing was so slick it gave me a funny feeling. "I've been trained by the best", I said, and told her about the gal at the Safeway downtown who's ask really casually, "Do you have another dollar?" and you'd think you were a dollar short so you'd hand it right over, and it would go right in her pocket. Very slick. I'm going to avoid that checker in the future... 

I rode back here, stopping at the Amazon place for a few bubble mailers. I also found a few books. 

I tried one of the t-shirts on and right now they're kind of "muscle shirts" but if I stay on the low-carb diet I should lose some weight, and that type of shirt may be handy for something. 

Besides that fact that these days - and it started before the pandemic - if you see something you might want or need, you have to go ahead and get it because you probably won't get a chance again, I also got the shirts to put in my traveling backpack which I don't have yet. I can use the CostCo backpack I got for a dollar to start though. 

I'd been thinking in terms of a carry-on bag and a checked bag but the checked bag is just to carry bulkier things and to carry things that have to be checked like knives. But considering airlines charge something like $75 for a checked bag now, while my Victorinox "emergency" knife was about that and my daily carry Victorinox "Tinker" is about $20 at Walmart, I think I'm better off just selling off these things here and buying as needed once I'm back in Hawaii. 

Having a year to work on that one packed carry-on bag will mean I can really refine things. Do I need to make special carriers or holders for my concert flutes, or are the cases they come in not too bulky? Can a bag holding 8 flutes in total also hold everything else I need it to carry? It's 3 concert flutes, 2 shakuhachi, and 3 shinobue. I may only take two of the concert flutes. I won't need tons of clothes because it's Hawaii. Vitamins and shampoo and even a Salux washcloth I can buy when I get there. 

 

The laws of physics don't apply here

 I listed 10 things last night and got to sleep; got better sleep than the night before. 

I woke up around 3:30 and did my usual routine these days. The start-of-day coughing fit (to differentiate it from all the other coughing fits) Diabetic-Tussin, coffee, some nuts, a slight headache but not at all like it was before. 

I had one thing to pack, going overseas so I looked for the pen I'd gotten not long ago from Kinokuniya, the really fine one that saved my ass at tax time because the forms had much smaller text and spaces. It's great for filling in Customs forms also. And.... it's gone. 

As I like to say, I've gotten used to things disappearing around here, it's how *fast* they disappear that is a bit jarring. And that pen was always in this one drawer with all the other pens I use often. I looked all the other places it could have ended up and the fucker's just gone. I have plenty of disposable/interchangeable Bics around here but this essential for important forms. So I guess I'm going to Kinokuniya again... 

I only had to pack one more small thing and then took off an hour earlier than my usual time, to take things to the post office and a large thing to FedEx. I found about $25 worth of fried and baked fish out back in the assortment of things they'd put out like rice bowls, baked potatoes, steamed ears of corn, etc. I realized that if I want free goodies, maybe I need to come by earlier, not later. 

I rode right back here and after putting the fish in the fridge, loaded up the really big thing that was big enough that it was a load all by itself. I took that to FedEx. "Wow you weren't joking when you said you had a bigger one coming" the guy said. Just before FedEx I'd left the bike in front of H Mart and ran in for some garlic and a diet soda for Ken so if he came over I'd have a nice fresh one to give him. 

On the way back I got a bunch of Datrex survival rations and a bunch of over the counter medicines from the EMT training place and loaded those up, also a couple of large boxes that ought to come in handy. I got some more foam pieces from the "medical" dumpster and surprisingly, didn't get hassled. 

On the ride back I had some time to think, though, and decided to "donate" the Datrex and OTC pills more "locally" and took the boxes and stuff off of the trailer  and took the box of Datrex and OTC pills right over to the front of the complex and left 'em on the bit of sidewalk that's there. There was still a box sitting there for a week or so ago with bags of brown rice in it, because bums don't eat brown rice. I should have taken that with me, because I could always sprinkle the brown rice as a sort of fertilizer at the roots of the ivy plants along the wall here. 

One thing I did do, though, was gather up some trash and junk and put it in the HVAC place's dumpster and there I found a motor I figure we can get about $50 for, after checking online. I'd been thinking about how it's only during the cold weather that they're leaving furnaces out, which typically yield about $50-$75 worth of parts if I get at them first. 

I did other little chores like burning "sensitive" stuff like receipts, Ebay papers with any info on them, etc. I do a burn about once a week. I went inside and buttoned up for the night and pretty soon that guy with his dog had the damn thing running all over out there again. 

I had about half of the fish and afterwards made some fresh coleslaw so that was a healthy dinner. After that I put things away and cleaned the office and bathroom in preparation for Ken coming over, if he did. 

He did. He handed me my check and a piece of mail, and didn't even want to come in. He had to get up "early" he said, or early for him as it was earlier than getting up in the afternoon, he joked. I mentioned how when I was still living in Gilroy I'd called his house and his wife answered and said something about "A guy who doesn't get up until FOUR". 

I also said I'm not sure if I'm ahead of the times or behind them, because at (large tech co.) we'd get yelled at if we didn't check our email once a day, and maybe he and the people he works with use text now? He said even text can be slow because you see that you got a text but decide to check it later and I said I can see how "later" can be hours later and he said that's why they usually just do phone calls. 

I got 10 things ready to list but got sidetracked by a few things. One was eating most of the rest of the fish. Another was taking a couple small things apart. And a couple of really good lectures on YouTube. 

 

Tussin

 Last night I pulled things that had sold out of the warehouse area, then called it a night. I'm starting in on The Collected Stories of William Faulkner. 

Last night my coughing was bothering me so much, I dug around and found a bottle of "Diabetic Tussin" which I'd bought at the CVS years ago and which turns out to really help. It turned a constant itch to cough into much less coughing, that's more "productive" which is the whole point of coughing. 

I didn't get much sleep last night for whatever reason. I got up feeling, as is the norm these days, like crap. In addition to the cold, I'm adjusting to the low-carb diet and that takes a week or two. I weigh out 3 oz. of nuts (macadamia, pecan, and Brazil) and only feel like eating half of them with my coffee. 

I took off at the usual time with 11 small packages, dropped all but one off at the post office, and the last one went to FedEx to be sent on the customer's account by next day air. 

I went into H Mart for another look around for ginseng that's not in a big fancy box costing $100, and found a little fancy box of 10 tubes of "Korean Red Ginseng Tonic"  for $8. Perfect. So I got that and tried one right away - it's a syrup with what tastes like a good amount of ginseng which explains the syrup as ginseng is pretty strong and bitter tasting on its own. 

Next I went over to Lowe's for paper towels and to look at hooks for my "genius invention" flute holder. I'm actually pretty sure I can find the pieces of wood I'll need around here, because some pretty nice pieces of trim get tossed out around here. Or I can say fuck it and find some trim there at Lowe's but the hooks will cost me $30 or more. That's how it goes, I guess. 

I got the paper towels and found that the older lady who used to check people's things for them wasn't there, so since I just had one thing, I tried the self checkout and worked fine. Typically I'm only going there for a few things at most so maybe I'll get used to the things. 

I stopped by the medical scrap dumpster and didn't see anything I wanted other than some foam pieces that had been used to pack something big into a box. I was in the process of pulling those out when an SUV with a barking dog in it pulled up. It was a guy in there this time though.  I said "I'm just pulling this foam out, I'll be done in a minute" and the guy actually drove off. I rode home, carefully as it's hard to ride while carrying the things, and got back in here and buttoned up for the night. 

Ken called and first asked if the internet was working here again and I said it was, I'd sent him an email. "I haven't checked my email yet". How does the guy get by in the modern world, checking his emails only once a week or so? Maybe people are doing things by text now? Anyway he said he's catching a cold or something so he's not sure when he'll be over, tomorrow night or the one after. I said I have some ginseng stuff he could try, and he said he has stuff.  I said he could just drop the check in the mail slot, no need to make it much of a visit, and whenever he wants to come by is good. 

Because of course it was

 I woke up and the internet was down because of course it was. I did the usual things, and concluded that it was a problem upstream of us, then flailed around a bit more and found a screen saying our internet had been suspended. 

I figure either someone had concluded we're Russian spies, or Ken hadn't paid the internet bill. I called Ken and we puzzled over it and eventually he called me back and said a credit card had expired and our internet provider had done a few months of no-pays then decided to just shut it off. Because the internet is run by idiots. 

I said No problem, that I'd had someone tell me at the bank to renew my driver's license because there's no reminder for that either, and these things happen. The internet was supposed to come back up "by tomorrow morning" and here it is, up, a bit after 2AM. 

I'd considered going to FedEx Kinko's and asking to use their wifi (I'm well known and liked there, and I believe it's to use their computers that they charge for) and then decided it was too damn hot to lug my laptop around, and took one box I had packed up to the post office, then went up to Dai Thanh Market. 

I'm glad I got to do this because I got to see the aftermath of what must have been a highly entertaining car accident. There was a Prius, upside-down. That must have been cool to see happen. The usual crash crew was out, lots of blinking lights, traffic snarled up because everyone's just got to have a look, and even a few of the derelict bums who hang out by the skeezy liquor store there were standing on the sidewalk, spectating. 

I got some things, then rode back to H Mart and got some other things, then got back here. I still don't feel well, and decided I didn't want to hang out inside anywhere,while I sniffle and cough and so on. I'd just wait for the internet to re-appear. 

It cooled down by midnight or so, and I did lots of little tasks like removed the seasoning packets from a 5-pack of Sapporo Ichiban ramen and put the noodles out for the bums. I also cleaned a package of crawfish I'd bought, leaving the shells out under the one ivy plant against the back wall that looked dead long ago, and is coming back due to "gifts" like this from myself. This factors in.... 

I was peacefully sitting here, finishing up "Sons And Lovers" by D.H. Lawrence when I heard a sound outside. It sounded like the kind of creaking and clicking sounds emitted by a bum's bike, and/or a bum poking around. So I looked out through the open door and there was the dog that seems to be owned by someone in the end unit. By the number of cars, I think there are about a dozen people living in there, and one of 'em has a large dog that is usually either inside or chained up outside. When chained up outside, the dog barks. A lot. 

So I saw this dog poking around in the crawfish shells and general area, and thought, Oh, no biggie. But the dog apparently didn't like my ... existing ... and started to come after me. I just shut the door and watched the video feed as the guy I see most often with the dog ran to retrieve it. I'd not have left the shells out if I thought the dog was running around loose .... it's not a smart thing to do because it's not just shrimp shells dogs like. They also find human shit to be quite delectable, and with the bums around here, I can't guarantee it isn't lurking in the leaves under the ivy. 

So I'm getting over this cold or whatever it is. I'm also getting serious about being on the low-carb diet. Amazingly, my headache hasn't been a thing.  I feel high blood pressure is going to be something for me to watch out for - I still haven't put new batteries in the blood pressure checker but at least I think about it quite a lot lately. 

But there's more: I asked Ken to check my blood sugar a while back, like a few years back, and his little device showed what Ken declared to be "100, that's perfect!" well, that's not perfect. That's actually a bit high. It probably should have been more like 70 or 80. 

But it gets worse. There's a guy on YouTube who does lectures on low-carb eating, he's the guy who always makes sure you know he was an Olympian (I actually checked and his palmares are very solid) and he confirmed a sneaky little theory of mine. It turns out measuring blood sugar isn't a good way to monitor your diabetes, because your body can be putting out heroic levels of insulin, like 12X even 15X normal, with your blood sugar only going up a bit. This could be why people often "crash" into diabetes so abruptly. They do things like wake up blind, are found lying in the road in a diabetic coma, etc. The blood sugar tests have the advantage, though, of being a lot easier to do than measuring insulin level, and one has to know that slightly high blood sugar may be accompanied by 10X normal insulin level and you're really not "slightly unhealthy" but doing a delicate and dangerous balancing act. 

So I guess I'm worried about my liver, pancreas, and kidneys. All three of which can be saved by a low-carb diet. Include no more headaches and it's a deal. 

The big meal of the day/night was Indomie "Penang White Curry" ramen without the noodles and without the hokey coffee creamer, instead I put in some real coconut milk. With veggies like garlic, gobo, ginger, leek, etc. I'm coming to really like gobo. It's got tons of fiber and an interesting taste that goes with just about everything. It's far better than carrot for a low-carb curry. And a half and half mix of crawfish and small shrimp. The crawfish were really nice considering they were no doubt the cheap ones grown in China.

So much for plans

 I can't justify going out today. I was going to go to Lowe's and buy stuff to make a holder for all my flutes, and probably more paper towels and such things. 

I had 15 things all ready to list and the next thing I knew it was 5AM and I needed to get settled down to sleep. I watched stuff on YouTube and then went to sleep, and woke up around noon and got up, had some diet 7-Up and some Parmesan cheese and went back to bed until about 5. My throat is feeling a bit better and it's moving into my chest now. And I still feel like crap. 

So no going out, not today. 

I have a really big thing to pack, one I actually saved a box especially for, but I'm going to put that off until the last minute, giving myself the most chance to get better. I almost feel like I over-did it yesterday, going out twice. 

I came up with the bright idea to do a search on Reddit on the backpack I plan to buy, and I'm even more enthused about that particular one now. The only problems seem to be no external water bottle holder (big whoop) and the zippers can be hard to work - this last because they're "heavy duty" according to the maker, and according to me, from photos, because they're trying to jam too much in there and have not mastered the squeeze-and-zip technique. 

That being decided, and it having cooled down a bit, I left here at about 7:30. I got rid of some trash, dropped off this month's pledge at the temple, and put a lot of food in the little free library on 6th.  I also did some shopping at Cardenas Market, and then got back here. The zombies were very much out and about, but with little in the way of normal people to bother, they seemed to settle for being in groups and arguing with each other. Unpleasant to hear but easy to avoid. The heat makes them lethargic. 

So I've spent but I'm pretty sure still underspent, and am thinking maybe sticking with a good keto diet is going to be cheaper than doing otherwise after all. 

Dinner was some veggies cooked in "white curry" which has a white broth but comes with spicy oily stuff so it's pretty spicy, with some shrimp and a couple of fried eggs to top it off. 

 

 

Still sick

 My throat is still sore and I still feel like crap. I called it a night, read more of "Sons And Lovers" (I'm only on page 61) and went to bed. I woke up about halfway through my sleep and my throat felt awful. 

I'd concluded my YouTube watching with a nice lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, about fatty liver. He showed very convincing proof that fatty liver is a lot more loosely coupled to overweight than people think, and then got down to what really causes it - fructose. Fatty liver is showing up in children, even very young ones, because in the American diet, fructose is in almost everything. Especially in everything most Americans will eat, which means very little in the way of whole foods like fresh veggies, eggs, unprocessed meats, etc. Plus Americans wash everything down with liters of soda pop, or "healthy" fruit juice. The really health-conscious ones, you can tell by their pillowiness, go to places like Jamba Juice for their "healthy" 2000-kcal fruit drinks...

Lustig pointed out that there *is* a small coupling between red meat and heart disease and so on, and it comes down to heme, the iron-carrying molecule. Isolate for that and beef is perfectly fine. And even if you eat it, if you're getting things like vitamin D and choline, you're fine. 

It was an hour and a half long lecture and I even took some notes, but now I have a very clear idea of what to eat. This is good because the liver, which the speech was about, and the kidneys, are pretty closely linked. Hurt one, hurt them both. Help one, help them both. 

This is completely aside from my interest in tianeptine which, with a cold, I can't exactly go hunting around for right now. I can't go coughing and sneezing into vape shops, asking for ZaZa Red and spreading germs around... 

I must feel a bit less bad though, because after deliveries and picking up things on the way back like more packing stuff and lots of huge sheets of high-quality paper I think I can use, and settling down for a bit, I took off again at 8PM for a shopping trip at H Mart. 

First, I'd gone through my food (other than survivalist stuff I've got stashed away which I'll have to go through) and found a good number of things to get rid off because of being too carby or having phosphate salts. Even the package of peanuts I'd just bought last night went into this group, which will go into a Little Free Library or something. 

It was really nice at 8PM, the sun being almost down and it a lot cooler. I looked for the "fab four" of low-carb nuts, those being macadamias, Brazils, pecans and pumpkin seeds. I didn't find pecans but found the other three. I got more dried seaweed, it being a low-carb snack that I like. I got some beef, but pretty fatty stuff and my standard serving size (4 oz.) is close to the recommended one (3 oz.). I got more diet 7-Up, which is kind of a no-no just because it's diet soda, but if I'm not feeling well I'm gonna drink some. 

It only took me an hour to do that quick out-and-back, and that's with my wandering through most of the store, and such distractions as a big spill of some kind of yoghurt drink in the veggie section, and people being real-life Catchers In The Rye, keeping others from stepping in it. I almost did, then in turn warned some other people. I said, "I'll go get someone" and looked at Customer Service; no one. The security guards weren't even around. I went to the first checkout to pay for my stuff and figured that way I'd get a word in with the checker. Good plan but the checker on #1 is a new guy, who's not good with English at all. Spanish, most assuredly, but English ... not really. I told him about the spill and I think he thought I was just making small talk and just nodded and grinned. 

After paying I talked about the spill again and it was "OK (big smile) thank you!" I suppose someone probably did eventually take care of it, but wow. 

It *was* a lot nicer riding home, at night now. I saw a orange-ish light where there's not usually one next to the building that's next to this complex so I rode over by that way to get a look. There was a big biker, as in motorcycles, group having a cookout and the light was all the candles by the little shrine I'd mentioned  a week or so ago. The womenfolk were all gathered around that. They must really miss the guy or more like, he was probably fairly high-ranking. 

I got an email from Rinban saying that the next shakuhachi club meeting is this coming week and that we're working on a new song and he attached a sound file so we can tell what it sounds like. I replied that I had a nasty cold or something and may not show up this month. 

But how this all ties in is, I want to become adept in writing down music in kinko notation and the big sheets of "Konica Imaging" paper I got today should be very good for masters. For instance, there's a piece called Seiya we're supposed to learn and have two printed versions of, both Xeroxes of pencil scribblings or something. I want to do something about that. 

But also, I really don't like the way Rinban is "teaching" us shakuhachi. He's trying to teach us gathas, or songs, that are used in our sect of Buddhism and that's a noble cause, but he's not really teaching the shakuhachi very well. We need something like those band books that high school students use. And it turns out there are some really nice pieces of music that are easy to play, even easier to play than "Hinomaru", the traditional first song. You've got to give the student easy pieces and a lot of success  and take them upward by steps. And it's got to be fun. 

I can't think of any way to do this other than to get good at brush-lettering, to make masters I can run copies off of at Kinko's. 

Besides that, right now I'm excited about two things: Firstly, I want to make a holder for all my Japanese flutes, so two shakuhachi and three shinobue, and see exactly how I can do it using some pretty simple bits and pieces from Lowe's. Secondly, I want to go ahead and get the backpack I plan to use for the move, so I can start a "dry run" of what to pack and how to pack it. 

For this week, I've spent enough that even if I would, with this cold, I can't allow myself to spend $30 on an REI membership and $75 or so on a pair of Olukai slippers or $100+ on a small, carry-all-the-time bag. I can, however, spend a bit at Lowe's especially if I take the stuff from the last time I bought project-stuff from them and give a good sob story about having lost the receipt but all I want is store credit which I'll turn around and spend right away. 

When I got back this 2nd time I had 3 oz, 1 oz each, of the nuts I'd bought. Pumpkin seeds, Brazils, and macadamias. It doesn't sound like much but I feel almost stuffed! 

I'm looking at three problems here: I've probably been pre-diabetic. Plus there are the issues of liver damage which I'm sure I have or had because for a while there I was drinking like a fish, and kidney damage. The need or lack thereof, for tianeptine to take the place, for me, that Kratom would if I wanted to use Kratom, which I don't, is on the mental level rather than the physical. 

I hope this isn't a long one

 I got up today and ... my sore throat is worse. I was smart to assume I'd not go to the bank today because I'm not. I woke up at 1:30 because I'd gotten to bed a lot "earlier" than I usually do. 

Warm-weather colds are the worst! 

I have to add this:  https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/14z4he5/the_positivity_overwhelms_me/ it's an actual bit of news about busking!! The guy apparently dresses up in suits of "armor" he makes, dressing like various characters and I've seen mention of him here and there. I don't go down to his neighborhood much and I'm not sure I'd get to where he is easily as he seems to be on a freeway entrance or exit, but it's good to see someone performing rather than just begging. 

I packed all the small things I could carry without needing the bike trailer because I wanted to look around in 99 Ranch for li hing mui or something like it, but they turned out not to have anything close enough. I got other things though, and because of my sore throat, wore a mask in all the indoor places I went to and tried to make things quick. I got a lot of other things at 99 Ranch though. 

I got back here and packed some more large things, two of which I can take to FedEx tomorrow, one will have to wait until Monday because it goes by the postal service. 

Other than that I just watched things on YouTube, ate some cold chicken I'd bought and made some coleslaw and ate that, watched YouTube, etc. 

 

When practicing is a bad idea

 Ken came over last night and I had a mask on, and told him about my cold. "It's alright, I'm probably just going to be in and out..." he said. He had a gas station hot dog and bag of potato chips in hand. Because when you're a diabetic who has to inject insulin, those are just the thing. 

I served him some diet 7-Up to wash this health food down, and he gave me some mail and wrote out my check when he was done eating. 

Then he settled in for another of his epic talk fests. I went along, but with my sore throat it got to be wearing. I started doing things like going through the mail and going to the loo right when Ken was on a roll talking about the chemical make-up of some explosive or rocket propellant or something, and when I was done I said "I hate to be a wet blanket but ... my throat ..." and he said, "I don't have to finish explaining this one, I should go..." and took off. 

I had dinner which was the rest of the cold fried tofu with pepper sauce I had from H Mart as I had to use it up, with "chili crisp" and sriracha sauce on it. And cold chayote slices for "dessert". 

I got 10 things ready to list but felt too lousy to do much more for the night, so in preparation for going to bed I chewed gum which does wonders for cleaning the mouth. After doing that for a while I felt like my throat was OK, so I practiced for something close to an hour. Then I noticed my throat was *not* OK, and went to bed. 

I woke up at 2 and my throat's worse. I'd told Ken  that I may not go to the bank this week and just hold onto the check until next week and he said something like, "Well, you're probably not hurting for money; you said you've been saving" and I replied and indeed I had been and that it's easy now that I don't drink any more. 

I should add that at least the practice went well, working on making long tones, well, long, leads to better endurance and tone. 

With this sore throat and cold (or maybe it's mild covid, lol) I have to stay in for the next few days. The old WWII rule applies: Is this trip necessary? I'll have to do a post office and FedEx run tomorrow, and other than that stay in. 

This was going to be my week to visit REI and join, and maybe come home with something neat like a new pair of Olukai slippers or something. I've decided they're worth joining, and that I ought to go ahead and buy the luggage I plan to use for my trip home. Flying's become more difficult than it was 20 years ago and when I flew before it was always a carry-on bag and a checked bag. But now it seems carry-on bags are allowed to be bigger than I remember (or I didn't stuff that much into a carry-on bag...)  and then there's a "personal item" so I need to find out what that is. If I can get by with a carry-on bag and a "personal item" means something like a small fanny pack, then I'm set. 

In any case I want to get the bags and "rehearse" packing them, to get a real handle on what I need. I won't be carrying a laptop, for instance, but I've got a passel of flutes - 2-3 concert flutes, my two shakuhachi, and the three shinobue. But I'll just have two sets of clothes, the ones I'll be wearing and a set in the pack. One to wash and one to wear. I plan to get my feet accustomed to going around in slippers next summer and get rid of my sock-tan, so I won't even be packing socks. 

Dumb Nazis and even dumber book store owners.

 I'm not sure if I'm getting a cold. My throat is scratchy and I feel shitty, and could not get to sleep last night until I got up and took some aspirin, then I slept OK but woke up still feeling like I'm getting something. 

Good thing I packed everything yesterday in the afternoon, and only had one thing that was packed and just needed a label printed and put on, so I was out of here, feeling lousy but moving, at the usual time. 

The post office has put their chute back into service but have big stickers all over it saying to be gentle with it. I can get with that. 

Traffic in the parking lot where H Mart and FedEx are was crazy. Thoroughly impacted, and it looked like everyone would be there for a while because there was one lady in an SUV who wanted to back out but Didn't. Want. To. Lose. HER. Space. Meanwhile the person in a car who wanted in, wouldn't give her room. Fortunately I was able to circle around and come in another way. 

I dropped off my packages, picked up a few boxes around back, and stopped at the EMT training school dumpster where I picked up a lot of band-aids and useful plastic bags and stuff. Plus about $20 worth of Emergen-C packets.

That was all the exploring I felt up to, and got back here. I unloaded stuff and went back out with the step-stool and my "getter stick" and got a lot of broccoli and peppers and an onion from the veggie dumpster. 

I cooked up 3 eggs scrambled with chopped onion and pepper, both from the dumpster. I feel pretty crappy and I need to eat healthy things. I'd dropped off the rest of the Korean soba noodles in the veggie dumpster for someone else, maybe, to find. They're great noodles but that much starch is not good. 

I sifted and sorted my band-aids and put my old ones I'd bought at Target and such places, along with some other stuff, in a bag to drop off for the bums. I only kept the band-aids I'd gotten today from the EMT school dumpster because the ones they have seem to be "hospital" quality and stick a lot better, wrappings don't turn yellow in a year, etc. 

The title of this post is because when I got up I turned on the radio which I had on KPFA and they were talking about how some bougie bookstore had someone come in and put Nazi leaflets in a lot of books. 

Now, speaking as someone who actually did this a tiny bit back in the 80s, it was like a stupidity contest. First, you don't put the leaflets in so they stick out like bookmarks. You put them into books that someone open to Nazism might read, and you slip them inside, not right at the front where anyone flipping through the book will find them, but further in, where someone who's really into the book will find them. 

As an example, there's a book literally called "Hitler's Table Talk". That's the kind of book you know will be read by your target audience. 

So that's just dumb on the Nazis' part. Now, the bookstore owner is, if anything, even dumber because they splattered the story all over the radio and said they put the part of the leaflet with "the message" on their Facebook or Pinterest or something page. 

The only thing they did right was do this leafleting in a white, bougie, part of the Bay Area. Because while the white working class, like every type of working class, are certainly being disenfranchised, it's the middle-class and even upper-middle-class whites who are disproportionately joining the Nazis and committing violent acts. This is because they have the spare time, the money to buy guns and stuff, and they know they can afford lawyers. The actual working class is too damn busy working. So choosing a bougie white town was probably the only intelligent thing in this mess. 

Today's haul, not including one onion, one jalapeno pepper, and not counting the plastic bags and band-aids and eye wash and all sorts of goodies. This is $20 worth or a bit more right here.

Actually able to exercise

 Nothing special, push-ups and neck exercises. But I was able to do 'em, which means no headache and it didn't come on when I exercised. 

Dinner last night was the super fatty pork belly as I'd mentioned, with some Korean soba noodles I'd bought at Mega Mart, chopped cabbage, and a "miso" seasoning packet from ramen. 

When I do my own broths, they almost always end up too salty so as a cheat I've been buying packages of ramen and using the broth packets as they're good-tasting and perfectly calibrated for 400ml or so of water. 

I may have to stop this though because I did more reading last night about phosphorus. It turns out beef isn't a big baddie as far as phosphorus is concerned, as beef, pork, chicken, even fish excluding shellfish, are all within a factor of about 1.5 of each other in terms of phosphorus. 

But here's the real catch: Like they've done with sugar, big food companies have discovered that phosphorus salts improve shelf life, taste, etc. So tons of foods have these phosphorus salts in them and ... phosphorus bound up in proteins has maybe a 50% absorption rate, while phosphorus in veggies is maybe a 30% absorption rate, and the absorption rate of phosphorus salts is 100%. 

And it gets better - it's not a big secret that cola drinks have phosphorus in them, but I read some lists and root beers, although dark, don't. And a lot of fruit juices do. Mainly I picked up that I should look up ingredients with "phos" in them. Those are the phosphorus salts. But they're not required to put on labels the amount of phosphorus, so it's best to just know what's in there and whole foods are the best way to do this. For instance, the pork belly slices I got from Mega Mart are just that - just slices with no seasoning or curing etc. Cabbage is just cabbage. Ramen seasoning packets might be out, though. 

More about why cars are bad

 I got 10 things listed last night, practiced a bit, it made the headache come on a bit but it went better than the night before (not that that's saying much). 

I woke up in time to pack 9 things, and took off for the post office. The drop offs went fine, and at least I was able to do these things although my headache had been pretty bad when I woke up. 

I was tootling along, and thinking about cars vs. how I get around. A bicycle rider will typically expend about 250 watts. I'm sure cars use a lot more than energy than that, so when I got back I looked up the average horsepower of American passenger vehicles and got 180. 

So, multiplying that by 746, the number of watts in one horsepower, I get 1.34MW. That's right, megawatts. However, that's peak power capability, so let's assume most of the time cars aren't using that much to get along and divide by 4, getting 33.6kW. Dividing by the 250W a bicyclist might expend, I get 134 bicyclists' worth of energy for the average car to tootle down the road at, most of the time, the same speed I do. 

And people pay $1000 a month for this! I've long said that owning a car is like having a girlfriend who has to be taken out to a steak dinner every night. 

I did some shopping at H Mart on my way back (and had had a couple of tea eggs at 99 Ranch) and got back here, put things away, and got out the bike trailer. We'd been food-bombed again and I boxed up the jars of peanut butter, cans of beans, and bags of brown rice and took them over to the tiny bit of sidewalk on Crack Alley where the crackheads would be sure to find the stuff. 

Then I took other junk that was out there, and took it around to the medical dumpster. I fished out some foam for packing and a wireless mouse that may or may not work, and a zombess in a dark SUV with a zombie dog with her came by. 

What portion of zombies are verbal, are not very verbal at all, and it's not exactly the upper-class who are electing to follow a "life" of zombiedom. So between the lower-class mushmouth dialect and the damn thing's undead dog barking, all I could make out was the zombess repeatedly saying what sounded like "Take off!". I tossed the boxes of stuff I'd brought to throw in there, into the dumpster and was ready to indeed take off in a moment, and tried saying to it, "Are you saying 'Take off'?" but got no reply. As I said, zombies are creatures of few words. I got on the bike and rode off, in a direction such that the zombess would have to turn around to follow, and it probably took a few minutes for it to realize I had done this. 

Zombie labor is a thing. Collectors of cans and of scrap metal are in fact zombie labor. Someone taught this zombess something like "People dig in dumpster bad." Fortunately, I thought, there's not much I could get out of there that's legal to sell now, and in a bit over a year it won't be my problem at all as I'll be gone. 

I got back here and went around with a trash bag and picked up all sorts of bottles and junk that were lying around here. In the same way mice will stay out of a neatly swept and maintained space, zombies tend to be intimidated by places that are well kept. 

My headache is almost absent (but always kind of there in the background) and I'm really beginning to get tired of this. I'm sure a lot of it is stress as I tend to worry a lot. This is where tianeptine would be useful to try, as it's used in Europe as an anti-anxiety drug. I've so far resisted trying kratom as I can't find any instances of it being used in any first-world country as an actual medicine. But tianeptine is a whole different ball of wax. 

But this is where I have to give the Red states credit, because I can't find anything saying it's illegal here in California, I suspect it's something like bidis which are these super-strong Indian cigarettes. A while back, gas stations and such places were selling the dreadful bidis and what's worse, sometimes selling them to kids. The main thing, I think, was they were serious competition to good ol' American brands like Marlboro and Swisher Sweets. In any case, bidis were kind of down-low illegalized and that was that. 

I even know the brand to look for, not of bidis but of tianeptine that being ZaZa Red and at least in the average smoke shop I'd probably get what I want across better using that name than the scientific one. At least in a less-closely-monitored state, I'd go in, get the stuff, try it, decide it's for me or not, and life goes on. 

Hawaii's actually even worse - they're very anti-gambling and surprisingly anti-marijuana. It's the bluest of blue states, and as a young, foolish, National Review reader, I know that rather than the hippies, it's the conservatives who put the real muscle behind making pot more accepted. My theory is that conservatives being more wealthy, they live long enough to get cancer, and pot's really good for keeping cancer patients' appetite and mood up. Hawaii's not only super Blue but also practically an outpost of Japan and Japan is notoriously anti-pot. 

Ken came by at the usual time if not the usual day. He's bought more stuff at auction and I helped him unload it as always. I served him up one of the bottles of diet 7-Up I'd bought at H Mart (I guess if I'm going to be nice to my kidneys I need to not really drink diet soda as well as regular soda, and I was pretty happy to see 560ml bottles of diet 7-Up for $1.65 or so, because I can always have a fresh one for Ken without having to finish a 2-liter bottle after Ken's gone). 

Today's topic with Ken was nuclear reactor design, so yeah it was another fun bull session. That and we discussed health things too. I told him about my headaches and how I've decided on a plan of action: First to exercise the supreme act of will it takes to actually put fresh batteries in the blood pressure machine I have here, and check my blood pressure regularly. Next in order of priority is to try to get an A1C test. I *think* the pharmacy at Walmart might offer it, if not I'll try some other places. 

Blood pressure and A1C can be changed for the better through diet, weight loss and moderate exercise. I need to find out if I'm diabetic or pre-diabetic. These things all feed into each other, the liver, the kidneys, blood pressure, the cardiopulmonary system... I found out more about this last night although from my reading up on all the nasty things alcohol does to you, I'm already pretty aware of all the nefarious shit that can go on. 

One of the things I need to do that I haven't already never done (smoke) or have stopped (drinking) is to really curtail if not completely cut out eating red meat. In the context of the kidney diet, this actually includes pork and even chicken. It comes down to phosphorus, of which there's a lot in red meat. Maybe this is why Tom has "decided" to be a fish-eating vegetarian. He actually has access to medical care, having been smart and gotten a job that's both Government and Union. I'll have to talk with him about this when he's back. 

So it's basically the keto diet but avoiding "red" meat. Apparently it helps to like fish a lot, which I do. In fact after buying things in H Mart I found myself with about $5.50 left and I went back in for some mackerel, a fish I really like. And they sell salmon galore in there, the key is to buy the "trim" that's skin pieces that I flense the meat off of, and package up for soup etc. With all the Asian markets around, I'm in seafood heaven. 

One exception I'll make, though, is I'd bought some "pork belly" slices at Mega Mart and those are so much fat and so little, pale, meat that I figure, given that the phosphorus is in the meat part and that it's not smoked like bacon, it's probably OK so I made a soup with it tonight and it was really good. Better than the other types of pork I've bought actually, so I'm going to keep it on the menu with lots of fish and tofu and stuff in-between. 

I've also decided that on the day I go to the bank, I might take that day to hop on a bus and go somewhere that's further away than I'd go on my bike. I've decided I'm going to join REI so I might bus it down there this week, join, and buy a thing or two. 

The ideology of the motorcar

 Must reading: https://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/

I've started, as I ride around doing my errands, looking at the landscape and imagining the space monopolized by cars to be garden plots and bike trails and modest housing instead and it's amazing. Cars take up at least 2/3rds of the sheer space around here and it's probably closer to 3/4s. California is big but imagine getting 3X-4X the prime farming and gardening and *living* land given to we the people. 

That's essentially what happened to "Silicon Valley" which used to be some of the best farmland in the world and is now largely paved over. 

My headache was creeping in again as I got close to bed time, and practicing only made it worse so I took two aspirin and went to bed. Fortunately when I got up I was not gasping with pain, and while a small headache was there, I was able to make it almost completely go away with aspirin, Diet 7-Up, coffee, and finally some bacon and eggs. 

I was able to get over to Nijiya for some things before they closed, and wandered around the Obon area. The food stalls were all closed and the last few dances were being done. At one point there was an announcement that they'd set a new record for the number of people participating, although it "felt" smaller because they had a smaller street area closed off. 

At least I watched some of the dancing, and I don't think I'll worry about my level of skill next year, because I'd have been fine. 

I walked around a bit and ended up noticing that Gombei was still serving their Obon special, tonkotsu curry for $10 so I got one of those. It was really good! I ate it sitting there in front of Gombei at the bench there, joking around with the people, eating, and just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere. 

I'm going to try a month trial, taking a little "No Salt" which is potassium chloride, every day. The stuff's easy to buy by the can at Safeway and I have a good amount here. If taking a little each day coincides with my not having "my" headache, then I might be onto something. 

 

Obon weekend

 Yesterday was nothing special so I didn't post anything. My headache was kicking my ass all day/evening and I managed to get 10 things listed on Ebay and practice a bit, but the practice wasn't anything outstanding. In fact my last few practices have been kind of miserable. 

I woke up today with my headache even worse. For all the Obon practices  I did, I'm not in any shape to participate today. 

I sat around, watched YouTube, snacked, went back to bed and started reading "Sons And Lovers" by D.H. Lawrence, then got up again, ate some more, and watched stuff on YouTube while sorting out some small things that had been bugging me - we'd sold a few when they were first listed a year or two ago, but our prices were too high so I re-sorted them and listed them 8 and 10 or more at at time, which hopefully will move 'em and goodness knows we need the sales. 

Trip to Mega Mart

 I fiddled around with some things last night, practiced before bed but not enough because the deep breathing involved makes me sleepy, and got to bed. 

I got up with just enough time to shave and clean up a bit and get going for the bank. Surprise surprise my account balance matched my calculations to the penny. 

I rode over to Whole Foods and saw on the sign by the SAP Center that I had 15 minutes before the next #22 bus came so I got a "chocolate" croissant and a bottle of coffee and was halfway through each when the bus came. 

I rode to Sunnyvale, and ended up talking with a lady in a CWA jacket (Communication Workers of America) and she'd done everything right - put in 50 years with the phone company, however the name of it changed, and that's the right way to do things. We talked about the flute and the shakuhachi a bit, and I told her the "Irish traditional" flute doesn't have keys to bother with either, and since she'd played sax and clarinet also, she'd know about open holes. All in all it was fun talking with her and it made the ride go by sooner. 

I got off one stop too early for where I was going but it was an easy walk. I looked around in Dick's (hehe) Sporting Goods, then in the Ross which turns out to be really blah as Ross's go, then walked over to REI. 

REI's a one-time $30 lifetime membership, and I spent quite a while looking around in there at luggage and bags and well, just about everything else. There's a ton of stuff in there I've been considering getting, but from 4-5 other places, each one an arduous ride away. Plus I'm pretty sure I want to buy a pair of "Olukai" slippers there. They're enough cheaper for the same thing than Dick's that it would pay for the membership right there. 

They have a full-on bike shop in there too. So I want to take some time to think about it but since I'm so against online shopping, it looks like I'll be getting things for the trip home, there. 

On the way back I stopped at "Mega Mart" which sounds like Mega-Lo Mart from King Of The Hill but it's actually a Korean market. I looked around and ended up spending $50 on various things, even a couple routine things like a can of coffee and some TP. So I had two big bags in hand when I got back on the bus. 

By this time it was getting kind of cold so it was with relief that I got off across the street from Whole Foods, hung the bags on the handlebars of my bike and rode home. I picked up a few books on the way back too, just from the one little free library I checked. 

I got back here at 9, the equivalent of midnight in the before times. 

 

More Mysteries of Banking

 I spent hours taking a couple of things apart last night, finished a load of laundry I'd started a day or so before, with cold water just to see how well it works. I also practiced about an hour and thought about ways to sneak more practice into my daily routine. 

After going to Marukai Market I did some calculations and it looked like I'd overspent and would only be keeping $83 or so in the bank this week. But I re-did the numbers and I'm keeping $183 or so in the bank. I'd taken out money for cash-saving and spent $50-odd in Marukai, and then, thinking I'd overspent, told myself to not spend any more until my next pay. This is why I didn't go out and do anything yesterday. 

Some of this was possible because I'd stocked up a bit early last week, thinking that with jury duty I'd not have time to shop. But mainly it was just being careful.  According to Google, the $200 a month I was able to save back in the 1980s, taking 1985 as the reference year, is about $565 today. That's like being able to save 6 or 7 grand a year. About what I'm able to save now. I'm only able to save it now because I'm living like I did as a young adult in Hawaii - no car, don't smoke or drink, cook a lot of my own food and eat a lot of "ethnic" food, my main entertainment being very cheap things like books. 

The thing is, my check is $350, I normally take out $250, $150 of which I spend on myself, $100 goes into cash savings, and $100 of course stays in the bank. It's really not mysterious, I'd taken out a total of $180-odd, not $280-odd, out in total so rather than being behind things I put myself nicely ahead. 

I had the place cleaned up, things put away, etc., when Ken came by. I got my check and we did the usual bull session. He gave me a piece of mail; a sort of accounting statement the Social Security Administration sends out to people every 10 years, showing how much I'll get if I retire at this age and that age etc. It increments up each year I wait to college, but by weird amounts rather than a set amount each year. Of course they're extrapolating into a future that may not turn out as anticipated. 

I plan to hit Hawaii able to do nothing for a year, just loll around, practice shakuhachi and shinobue a lot, and not spend much more than whatever's needed for rent. That can put me a year past age 62, then depending on what I find to do, I can go some years past that. I just won't know until I'm there. I'm not trying to get back in contact with my older sister or anyone. The two friends back there are turning out to be very disappointing, actually, and it's hard to do much in the way of communicating with friends without being there in person. 

4th of July 2023

 Last night I listed 10 things, most of them larger things and a couple of the smaller ones, 6 of each. We're slowly climbing out of the "our sales suck" hole. 

This is good because with Craig's List no longer usable and even the electronics swapmeet no longer a thing, I plan to package up things I want to sell into "deals" of $100-$200 each, to sell to Ken. Fortunately a lot of the stuff I consider neat, he also considers neat and so does his camping-nut daughter who's also getting into search-and-rescue volunteering. And if sales are good it's easy to get Ken to shell out an extra hundy for some neat stuff to take home. 

Almost like an old person who "doesn't even buy green bananas any more" I'm thinking in terms of what I won't need any more like, I have enough socks, enough T-shirts, enough shorts, etc. I'd like to pick up another decent pair of sweatpants and a couple more woven shirts, things I can find at Ross or Marshall's so those aren't a problem. I've given up on buying any aloha shirts unless I luck out at one of those discount stores, as you just can't get 'em here. 

I plan to also leave a ton of stuff here, including my bike. I'll need the bike right up to the last minute, and it's a nice bike, nicer by far than Ken's and maybe he'll need it in a pinch. 

Plus leaving a lot of useful stuff like my butane stove, lots of handy household stuff, means I'll have a bit of "leverage" in that if I'm really in a pinch in Hawaii, I can ring up Ken and ask for a few hundred. The chance of this happening is vanishingly small, but in any case it's always good to leave with a real gesture of goodwill. 

It's always better to sell things in-person rather than online, and while I talk a good line about perhaps selling on Ebay once I'm back in Hawaii, ideally I'll never sell online again. I'm all for picking shells, but I could hustle 'em to tourists for cash just like it's the 1970s again and it'd be far less work. Everything online is just plain dying. 

 

 

Listen to PimpinNinja

 I'm back on Reddit, a bit. This is due to my realizing that as a read-only "user" I'm not contributing work that they're profiting off of. Moreover, it makes me one of the "scrapers" they hate, haha. 

There's a thread on r/collapse about "Has anyone changed their lifestyle voluntarily? or something along that line, and one user, u/PimpinNinja put up an excellent post that unless I want to copy it out onto an index card in longhand and then type it in, I can't quote it here. Like most of the internet, cut-and-paste are no longer possible. 

But in short, Mr. Ninja gets along without driving, etc and without working. He cares for people who take care of him in return and I have a feeling he's someone who's known in the neighborhood, does things like weed yards and look out for the little old ladies and help guys work on their cars and so on. In return they make sure he's fed. Maybe he's living in a cottage in someone's back yard or in some way that's stealthy. 

I put all this here because reading his post, I realized this is what the competent, non-druggie homeless people are doing. It's the fuckups who are over on r/homeless. There are surely people like PimpinNinja all over my town, and I never notice them because they've mastered the first tenet of homelessness: Invisibility. 

Also, at least in my own experience, it's really hard to voluntarily "gear down" and the best way to become more attuned to the Earth is to simply become very poor. Just get good and spanked down, economically, and suddenly you're "greener" than the Dr. Bronner set automatically. 

Our "Ninja" is also childless which he says makes his lifestyle possible and he doesn't have to raise a kid in the coming times, and someone else said it's great because "you don't have to watch him starve". Speaking as one whose parents were just fine with their starving, I'd really like to live in a world where such care for one's children is a given, but I know I don't. 

I'm able to post the thread itself:  https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/14phuk7/were_you_able_to_change_yourself/ u/Abu-al-Majnoun has some super good posts on there too. The whole thread is really good.

There's a reason, I believe, that J.G. Ballard left his parents almost completely out of his book Empire Of The Sun. He learned to admire those who got things done - the Americans, the Japanese, the hard kids who knew no one was swooping in to help and fought their world head-on, tooth and claw. His book was based on a hybrid of his actual experiences and those of a kid whose parents had died and who really was on his own, who was a close friend in the internment camp. 

I'm on a J.G. Ballard kick lately. I was surprised to find a section in the used book store dedicated to him, as I'd just discovered him. Apparently many others have and in his way he's right up there with Stanislaw Lem or P.K. Dick. Except that rather than dealing in robot planets or soulful machines, he deals with, as I believe one of his story compilations is called, "Legends of the near future". 

Mr. Ballard learned early on that no one's going to save you even if you're a starving kid. Especially not if you're a starving kid. 

I listed the 20 things I'd prepared, started a cold-water load of laundry just to see how it works out, and cooked a "warm-weather" garlic shrimp dish, with yellow noodles I'd bought at Dai Thanh and wanted to try out. Basically it's cook the noodles, and put them in a bowl where there's already a bed of very finely sliced onion and green bell pepper. Put some butter and powdered garlic on the noodles, then fry the shrimp with salt and pepper, powdered garlic, and some butter. Put that on top of the noodles, and top off with some home-made chili oil. It was really good! 

I got some practice in but again the sleepiness monster got me again. I'm not sure I slept that well because I remembered at least one dream and I woke up at one point with a bit of sweat on my face, even though I had the fan going. 

At least it's a little bit cooler today and was rather pleasant on the ride back from FedEx. I'd packed a big thing I wanted to make sure to get out, and now it's on its way. On my way out I'd picked up a package of Romaine lettuce and a "hand" of bananas for Tom, and the same lettuce for myself and a tomato. I got to Tom's on my way back and put his stuff in his kitchen  as he was busy talking with James, a homeless guy who's keeping a car on Tom's driveway and is always going around doing things. 

I hung around, noticing Tom's re-done the front of the building, making it much more secure now. I said to Tom that if he's busy .... and he said he's busy because he's leaving in the morning, and went back to talking to his latest pet bum. OK then, I thought, and rode off. I guess I'll just eat the peanut butter mochi myself. 

I rode back by Junction Avenue, checked the blackberries as I rode by (some ripe, they're before their peak) and noticed a bunch of candles lit by one of the buildings on Queen's Lane. There was a cross set up too, and I remembered that I'd seen two police cars and something going on there the night before. So apparently a guy got killed. 

I wonder if this caused any sort of disruption among the zombies because that zombess I'd seen wandering around is new, and as I rode into the complex here there was a zombess hanging out listening to some awful music, sitting on the curb by the fence smoking a cigarette. I just rode right by, pretending not to even know it was there. 

It was a lot of candles. At least a dozen and maybe 15 or 20. Frankly most of the businesses around here are not Hispanic owned, and that's normally the group that lights a lot of candles and all that. But another group is the underclass, as those candles are sold in the same gas stations and hole-in-the-wall stores where they buy their staples of life; cigarettes and cheap beer. Between the Rogers Avenue encampment and the encampment by the bridge, that's enough bums to get that involved, with that many candles. Plus maybe the guy was their dealer - it's just good business to show a lot of sorrow when their current purveyor of crack rocks is deactivated, to reassure whoever is the next one that they'll be a large and appreciative customer base. 

Bums *do* have purchasing power. Currently even the minimum of Social Security, Disability, General Relief, Food Stamps, will add up to about $1000 cash with a couple hundred more for food, for anyone who knows how to work the system. They're not paying rent, and goodness knows they're not paying much for vehicle maintenance. Eating a crappy but very cheap diet, especially also making use of soup kitchens and food banks, they can save their food stamps for substantial foods like pork rinds and jerky, and have almost all of their $1000 cash for the real essentials like cigs and drugs. Also "cultural essentials" like tattoos and Lotto tickets and so on. 

But I get thinking about finances... for instance before getting out of bed this afternoon I thought about my situation back in Hawaii. I was making $5 an hour which makes for neat math: $800 a month gross, $600 a month net, and if I was careful I could save $200 a month. I know this because I found myself doing this without even trying to. 

My student loans were 10 grand. At $200 a month, that's $2400 a year, which means I could have paid my student loans off, working for $5 an hour back in Hawaii, in 4 years. The loans were on a 10-year payment plan and probably calculated so that I'd very likely have to re-finance and extend them. This I did not do, but it would have taken me the full 10 years to pay them off if not for some money I inherited. So by moving to the mainland I'd worsened my financial situation by quite a bit. 

But wait, it gets better ... rather than aim for a 4-year degree and burn out, if I'd just gone for a certificate or 2-year degree I'd likely have very soon been making the kind of money I made on the mainland, but with much cheaper Hawaii rent and food costs. 

I think I figured some years back that on $5 an hour, assuming 50c an hour raise yearly, I could have saved and bought a house in Manoa, an elite area. If I'd just stayed home. Even when I was back in 2003 I saw that Hawaii's much cheaper than the mainland. I keep hearing all this noise about it being expensive now but I'd not be surprised at all that once my feet are on the ground there I'll find that it's really not changed.