Ken came by last night an hour earlier than what used to be his usual time. I had the place all cleaned, finished the load of laundry I'd had soaking for far too long, and was all squared away when he came by. I even found time to re-organize some capacitors.
My back hurt like hell though. It was really bad.
Ken was to write a check for two weeks, $800, but he actually wrote me one for $850. I kind of thought he might round it up to $1000 but for some reason that's a scary number - too big perhaps - but $950 is OK. I don't blame him, there's no real money in high tech and this place is only just barely sustaining itself. It just makes me laugh a bit, like the time I sold some equipment to guy and my offer was $5k and he went into this half-hour long rambling thing concluding that he can pay me $4700 which was fine with me. He could have just said, 'How 'bout $4700?" and saved a half hour. Pretty funny really.
Then we settled in to talk about things, as usual. It was obvious my back was very painful and Ken said maybe he should go early, and I said "No, don't worry about it, you're not inconveniencing me" but I did say I'd go to bed and get my back some rest as I'd barely slept Xmas night, and stayed up all of the night afterward.
One thing that's scary is, I find Ken parroting back to me, things and opinions I've said in the past. This means if he's parroting me, he's really being imprinted by the right-wing radio he listens to every hour he can. He can't listen to that shit at home but it's on whenever he's in his truck alone. I reiterated how, at least being back in Hawaii, I'll be halfway across the Pacific and from there might be able to escape to Japan or Vietnam or even someplace like French Polynesia or New Zealand if the US goes full-on fascist. I totted up the groups that will end up in the death camps, not Jews because Jews have got Israel and the Mossad now. But known leftists, critics of Trump and his cronies, political opponants, LGBT people, and so on, will easily make up the few per cent of the population that in Germany, was known opponants, leftists, etc and Jews, for the rest of the population to blame their problems on. We in the US have a lot of jails and prisons, and WWII type camps are not hard to build.
After Ken was gone I watched some YouTube, practiced a bit - not easy when one's back hurts like hell - and went to bed.
I got up at 1:30 in the afternoon. My back hurts ... less anyway.
I had coffee and nuts and packed 6 things, and went downtown, starting with Nijiya to buy a can of coffee ($2.25 instead of $4+ at Whole Foods) and then the post office to drop off the smaller packages. Zombies were out all over the friggin' place due to the warm weather making them more active, do I had to do a certain amount of zombie-dodging.
Leroy had been playing in Japantown by the "Spike" and we'd talked a bit. Wendall's in town but keeping himself out of view, apparently. I told Leroy that Wendall typically goes up to the City a week before Christmas so maybe he's playing up there. Leroy said he lives in this area now so that's good because when I'm gone that will leave the town with one busker, Leroy, and there's certainly room for two. "Keep on keepin' the music alive!" Leroy called to me as I left. "I'll try!" I called back.
I deposited my check at the bank (only a few dollars off) and then rode over to the FedEx on the Alameda to drop off the one FedEx package. Then went to Whole Foods. There are a lot of people out and around, San Pedro Square, which I'd gone through on the way, looked quite good and no buskers. Whole Foods had no one, not buskers or beggars or scammers or anything and it looked like a good day for playing.
I got some beef and Brussels sprouts and ate, washed it down with some of the coffee, and ended up talking quite a bit with a guy about bikes - he had a classic 1980s Univega.
I took off for Walmart and did the usual routine: 15 minutes to pick out my groceries and things, and 20 minutes in line.
I also got a package of 3 flashlights for $10, and a Ruger pepper spray for $15, in Big-5. So I was really "spendy" today. Tomorrow's to be a rain day too so no going out. Then I plan to busk Saturday and Sunday. This means, out of this paycheck, all but a little over $100 will stay in the bank.
I still had plenty of time to go to Nijiya again, which I did. So I'm stocked up on things like eggs and Lipovitan.
It was really warm out there, damp, but warm. No hat or gloves needed. And the people out and around, made me almost want to hurry back, get my trumpet and stuff, and to a session at San Pedro Square or Whole Foods. But I'm glad I got my shopping done instead, and Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be somewhat dry.
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