Saturday, July 1, 2023

Long bike ride

 I practiced some last night, but a problem is that the deep breathing makes me just want to go to sleep which is what I did after only about 15 or 20 minutes. 

I woke up in time to enact a plan I'd come up with: To ride to Marukai Market. I put labels on two things that are large enough to go by FedEx but so large I'd need the trailer, and took those along. 

It was really hot outside! 70 in here and 90 out there. I brought plenty of water to rinse my head with, at least. I decided I'd take Hedding all the way to Santa Clara and then take that to the FedEx, which worked well but I'm not sure was really any shorter, and I had to make a few passes back and forth to find the FedEx place because I was used to coming to it from the other direction. But I got the two boxes dropped off. 

I then got onto Stevens Creek and started in on a good bit of riding. It was just really hot. The water for head-rinsing came in handy, and by the time I got to Saratoga street I decided I'd take a detour to Mitsuwa Marketplace just to get out of the sun for a bit. 

I went there and picked out a bottle of green tea and a little sushi assortment and found the one place at one of the tables free to sit, except a guy had left his jacket on the opposing chair (and left his tray). The couple, with a little kid, were some nice Filipino people who it turned out, she at least, had grown up in Hawaii so it was old-home time. But initially, which I guess broke the ice, 

I said jokingly that it's a Bay Area thing, to leave all things like your jacket, your glasses, your *pants*, and then people will return them to you. That got us laughing and talking. Pretty soon the people next to us left and a guy was about to leave his sweater, which I pointed out to them and my Filipino friends said "Yep, it IS a Bay Area thing!" and that continued the laughs. Then their little kid, being a little kid, managed to dump some soup and rice on the floor and the kid was probably about to have a meltdown and I joked, "It's not really a meal until some of it goes on the floor, at least not with me!" and that worked out perfectly. The kid knows they did a wrong thing, but everyone was saved the stress and the waterworks. 

After eating I walked around the whole store and they didn't have coffee filters at all. So much for my theory that they might have a hidden Hario coffee-stuff area that I hadn't found yet. And I forgot to check their price for Iwatani butane cans, I realized as I was back out at the bike, swigging some tea. It really was up to Marukai then. (And, amusingly, there was a guy's hat, a felt trilby, left by the carts, where someone had put it because someone had obviously left it.)

That's a bit of a ride from Saratoga, which is about a halfway point from downtown, so that was a good and wise break. Too bad Kinikuniya had closed, because I'd really wanted to go there. I chugged on up to Marukai and as soon as I went in, put 8 Iwatani cans in my cart (they'd been $1 each the last time I was by, but now all the brands are $2 each) and got some coffee filters from the Hario section. 

Then I walked through the whole store, picking out a few things. I even got a large bunch of celery and a package of beef that was at a good price.  The gal checking me out was very nice and I commented how I wanted to get one of the little yellow Marukai carrying bags that had been by the register last tine but I guess they're sold out. She said they were, but "they were really small." 

I probably looked like I was trying to hold some kind of a sidewalk sale as I got everything stowed away in the bike bags and one Whole Foods bag. People coming and going from Daiso, which I had my bike parked in front of, gave me a few funny looks. But to their amazement, I stashed it all away, drank the last of my green tea, and didn't leave a trace as everything went onto the bike or into the trash can. 

The ride home was easier, it being cooler and the way back being slightly downhill. And it was still a bear of a ride. There's got to be an easier way to do this, and the ride back gave me plenty of time to think about it. I figure it's get an earlier start and leave the bike at Whole Foods and just take the #23 bus, or it's take the bike on the light rail to Mountain View, and then ride down to Stevens Creek from there. After getting an earlier start, of course. 

I puttered along until I got to Japantown and then sat down on a bench and drank a bottle of coffee which actually really helped. The place seemed really dead but then it was past 9:30. 

I got back here at just about 10. That was just ... a lot of riding. 



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