Fjallraven

 It took me hours to worry apart a piece of equipment I wanted to sell the parts of, because someone wanted to buy it and have it shipped to Europe, which I tried to discourage them with bothering with, but they weren't deterred by my turning down their offers and bought it full price. So I'd tried packing it and the size and dimensions were not anything any shipping service would take. And the way the thing is built, it needed some padding. 

So I canceled the order, refunded the guy, and decided last night I'd take it apart and along with some other things, list the parts on Ebay. Well, it took me hours and for the last couple of modules, I had to actually get the hacksaw out and make cuts in the front panel and bend the aluminum aside, etc. all while not scratching the modules. Sheesh! 

After that I practiced some long tones and went to bed. 

I woke up at around 3, had my coffee and so on, and was outta here a bit after 4 with a heavy Walmart bag of books hanging off each handlebar. To save a bit of time,  I think, I took Hedding to The Alameda and then over to the book store. The guy there offered me $15 cash or $20 trade, and I noticed they had a few new copies of "The Kindness Of Women" by J.G. Ballard for $15. So I got the cash and the book - it's the sequel to Empire Of The Sun.. It's always fun going there and one of the guys there and I had a great talk about Ballard's books. 

I rode over to Whole Foods and got hard-boiled eggs, asparagus, and kalamata olives. My sneaky little trick was to go to the sushi counter and ask for two packets of "soy sauce" - low salt, of course. Whole Foods middle-class White culture distilled, and one White belief is that seasoning your food will hurt you somehow. Or excite animal spirits, or something. At least since covid all seasonings were removed from the store. Salt, pepper, Bragg's Aminos, salad dressings, you-name-it. Because if you season your food, you'll get covid and die. But the sushi counter will always give you "soy sauce" if you ask nicely.

I got $100 cash back when I paid and ate, at one point watching some very road-weary looking cyclists come in from, apparently, some long trip. So in the process of tossing my trash and going back in, I talked with them a bit. They'd done a big loop around Palo Alto and we talked about bike clubs for a bit like the Western Wheelers and the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. 

I went back in for some dental floss and got another $100 back, then went out to the bike, thinking out what to do with the bags of all the books - most of them - the book store didn't want. There was a lady there with a table for Teen Challenge and while the guy with the big cargo bike and his kid didn't want the books, the lady sure did. She'll sell them in their thrift store. So I handed them over and this is good to know because whenever I sell some books, if I can come up with some errands that takes me over that way, it's not hard at all to drop them off in front of the Teen Challenge thrift store which in fact I passed shortly afterward. 

On my way to the Fjallraven store in Santana Row. It was pretty warm but I knew it would gradually cool off and there was no need to hurry. I parked the bike in front of Big-5 and went in and looked at slippers, and finally realized I don't want to try any on with my bare feet. I told the friendly guy there, the manager I think, that I'll have to come back with my "toe socks" that I have that have a split in them for slippers. We talked a bit and he said it was OK for me to leave my bike out front for an hour or so. 

I walked over to Santana Row and wow, was it busy. I always figured it was one of those places where people who come over as tourists from Asia come to load up on things to buy to take or ship back home. And that's a large factor, but there were tons of affluent looking white people too, and some Indians. The restaurants were all full, and they all charge Santana Row prices too. This is why I ate before going. 

I looked in the Arc'teryx store first because I came to it first and ... meh. The Fjallraven store is neat though. There's one pack called a Kanken I think, that's popular with school kids in Europe but for some reason in fashion for grown-ups here and they had a wall of 'em in every color. Those have a big red and white logo on them too, pretty juvenile looking. They also had a nice display of the "raven" backpack. Those come in 20 and 28 liter size, and I'd decided on the 28-liter one.  I picked out the one in dark blue.

That was easy, I paid my $130 and got a big bag to carry it in, then I wandered around the store to look at all the smaller bags they have, things like toiletry bags and bags that hitch onto the one I just bought, and so on. They're spendy as everything there is, and I may or may not go back for one. One of the guys there and I talked about pants, as everyone in there was wearing tons of Fjallraven stuff and he was wearing some rather colorful pants. "A few years old, this color is discontinued", he said. He told me about how he'd gotten this pair of pants he thought were surgical scrub pants, that were his favorites. I said I'd had a pair of older 5.11 pants I'd bought at a garage sale and I'd loved them until one day I'd noticed "things were awfully breezy" and found they'd split at the crotch. He said that's what happened with his. I said he could always buy more, at a uniform store which there are a few of around town. He'd never heard of a uniform store and wrote that down. They're sure to have scrub pants. 

I walked through the rest of Santana Row and the only other cool place, to me, is the Japanese stationary store. So I have two places that are interesting and useful to go there. Plus the Big-5 there is a pretty nice one. 

I saw one busker, a lady set up with a microphone and backing tape, camped out on one of the corners between the Westfield mall and Santana Row, so host to huge crowds of people going back and forth. On my way back, there was one of those Christian pests with big signs, berating people, and I almost missed it because they were quiet, but a couple of bearded guys with a little stand set up and a sign saying something like "Islam Is The Truth - Free Quran". It's nice to see some variety. 

I found some books at the various little free libraries on the way back, and did some shopping at Cardenas Market. I also found a Revere Ware pot, a medium-sized deep saucepan which is one of the rarer ones, with the lid. This will be perfect for steaming veggies in the steamer basket I've got but haven't used. People just .... put things out, and I didn't take the other Revere Ware saucepan, just this one which I've got a definite use for. 

I messed around with the pack a bit and it appears I may not be taking the shinobue flutes with me to Hawaii. I have to carry the two shakuhachi I have, and either three, or the best two out of the three I have, concert flutes. Shinobue and shakuhachi are different enough that I might be better off just concentrating on the shakuhachi. 

If I want to make noise there's always the concert flutes and for this reason I've kept a series, 4 books, of a British flute "method" based on learning popular tunes. As opposed to old Trevor Wye, who uses obscure stuff to force you to pay attention and read the music, this series has the student playing the Beatles and so on as soon as possible. I won't take those books with me to Hawaii but I can at least learn a bit from them - how to bang some enjoyable tunes out.