Big payday

 I practiced last night which is good, got some sleep and was up in time to pack 12 things. I dropped them off at the post office and was at the intersection of Oakland Road and Brokaw when my phone rang so I pulled up onto the sidewalk - it was Ken. He was coming over early tonight, 9 instead of almost 11. 

I got back on the road and took the two heavy bags I had hanging off of the handlebars, full of bottles of hand sanitizer and such things, to Tom's. He was there so I was able to hand them off OK, and mentioned how I'd intended to drop them off before going to the post office but there's been a zombie on a zombike circling in front of Tom's place like it was guarding it.... 

I'd gone on, and the zombie had ridden alongside, not close but alongside, and I'd looked at it with, as I told Tom, "Like when you have that neighbor when you're a kid and they show you how to put salt on slugs..." Mr. Zombie eventually pulled ahead and then at Junction, crossed the street and went over into the business complex there. 

I'd figured it was going to try ambushing me by the bridge, less cameras around etc., but there's been another biker, on an electric bike, who'd ridden through and wasn't far ahead plus there was some heavy traffic so the zombie would not have been able to get through but anyway, I didn't seem the damned thing after that. 

I'd sent Tom a link to the little scanner radio I'd bought myself when the pandemic started, thinking I'd get into listening to police and utility radio traffic but never had. Tom said he was interested in buying mine and I said, "Sure, for $100" and since Tom gets weird about money I said, "I know you don't like to pay for things, and I'll leave it between you and Amazon" and rode off. It's true, too. I'd recommended Tom get a new trumpet mouthpiece and maybe even buy or rent a newer trumpet than his old high school one but he doesn't like to spend money on anything. 

I ran the rest of my gathering-shipping-supplies route and got back in here, and had the place all neat and clean when Ken showed up at 9. He handed me some mail - a statement from my bank and a check from the US treasury for about $850. I got my pay check from Ken and I also sold him a package consisting of my scanner radio, new Victorinox "rescue" knife, new CRKT "rescue" knife, and a new in the box Swiss Army Knife, for $200. So it'll be a hefty deposit at the bank and in fact, it will bring me up to what I'll pay the IRS in April so I can count what else I can save up in the bank as savings for my move back to Hawaii. 

I've got our sales up to the extent that I can now sell stuff off to Ken which is about the only venue left now. Craig's List is pretty much dead. I can't even think about getting onto Ebay myself until I'm 1000's of miles away. Fortunately what stuff I have that I want to sell is "guy stuff" that Ken or his daughter, who's into camping and search-and-rescue, like. 

Ken and I had our usual bull session and he's talking about trying to sell this place and if he's got a buyer, and the both of us (who's he kidding? It means me) training the new owners in how to run things etc. 

I reiterated that I plan to leave on my birthday in 2024 because then I'll be 62 and eligible for Social Security for sure. But now Ken's talking about having a bunch of strangers around here, pawing through my stuff so I might need to rent a storage unit to keep my personal things safe, plus I'm going to do a little diddly-doo: 

I'd made a point about my moving on my birthday, but after that subject we got talking about politics and it gives me a springboard from which to throw a little smoke. I'm going to say from here on out that voting in the general election is so important to me that I'm going to stay into November so I can vote in it. Any last-minute loading on of tasks for me by Ken will thus be planned to be in October-November. I won't let him know, but I'll actually get outta here in mid-September as planned. I just won't breathe a word to him about it. 

Everything will be going along, Ken'll have all kinds of extra work planned for me because who doesn't like tons of work, right? And then I'll just be .... gone. 

And no, I don't have any idea why the IRS has sent me a check for $850 or so. I guess I must have miscalculated something when I did my taxes and there's been some change in taxes for little fish like me. This would not surprise me because while the Republicans are trying to block him like crazy, Biden's doing all he can to ease if not forgive student debt, and in other ways make things better for the little guy. A thoroughly rapacious capitalist would do the same, by the way. It's called pump-priming and Henry Ford himself was big on his workers being able to buy the cars they worked in his factories building. Speaking as a leftist this isn't leftism it's just common sense.