Cold and foggy Friday

 I woke up around 11, and even around noon it's foggy and dark. 

I should mention that "dead internet theory", the theory that the internet is becoming nothing but old shit and bots, has some basis in reality. 

I used to follow a blogger named Morris Berman but he's gone over to something called "Substack" which can't be connected to. "The Archdruid Greer" has some sort of page of his own that's much more obscure and hard to find, "Bison" of "Bison Survival Blog", last I heard, has gone over to publishing an actual paper newsletter. I write this blog not because I expect anyone to read it but because I'm in the habit of writing it. 

Rabb1t just writes about the same old shit and seems to be happy being in the same "place" he was 10 years ago or more. Ran Prieur had a few rough years when he was a lot younger, waiting as most Boomers do, for his parent(s) to die and leave him a house or houses, which he's done, and now he's "shittin' in tall cotton" as the saying goes. It still doesn't keep him from cyber-begging though. 

Surprisingly, I got an email from one of my Hawaii friends, the one with 2-3 houses and tons of stuff, who's (a) worried that the big bad gov't will take it all away (which is what happens when you don't pay your taxes etc.) and yet won't allow anyone to help him. I'm surprised he's still alive, as he said he'd not be by this time. He's got gold-plated fancy engraved health insurance and like any conservative, is taking all the gov't handouts he can, so I guess that's what's keeping him going. 

Cold yet sunny Thursday

 Ken came over last night and we had the usual talk session, and I suggested I just deposit the $800 check of his I still have here and that will take care of this week and next week so he doesn't have to worry about coming over on Christmas Eve. He said that's a good plan. 

I was very tired, worked on some things to get parts to list, with only a little reward for my efforts. 

I woke up around 11 or so, had one little switch to send out to a guy, and got out of here a bit past noon, maybe closer to 1PM. I dropped the switch in the mail at the downtown post office, rode over to Whole Foods to at least use the loo. Joke was on me because the door would not unlock and would not even for an employee who was using her employee code to try to get int. 

No problem, I thought, I'll use it at the train station. I walked over there just in time for a train to have left, so I had a half hour to kill anyway. Well, their loo was closed for cleaning and then when it sounded like they were opening it, some homeless guy/bum started some kind of loud argument at the door and I stayed away. 

Instead I had a nice fun talk with this young security guy at the Amtrak side of Diridon. He has an 07 Prius and I had an 05, so I told him about the secret compartment in the center console, so secret that even though I'd bought my Prius as a "certified pre-owned" and thus really carefully checked over, there were things in there from the previous owner. We were having a fun time talking until a guy came up who needed help with something so I left to go wait for my train. 

I ended up on the platform with some people who'd come from Sacramento or somewhere between Oakland and Sacramento for ... a day exploring the train system? I told them about how easy it is to get to Fisherman's Wharf from the CalTrain terminus so maybe they did that. 

As for myself I rode up to Menlo Park and did some business, and had a couple of pastries in this little Middle-Eastern place. There was a Chinese gal there on her laptop apparently on a call or a video call, where she was trying to tell the person an address, and the problem seemed to be that she didn't understand the difference between the abbreviations "st." and "ste." So I told her the "ste." is actually short for "suite" which generally just means an office number; it's just a fancy way of saying it. The thing being, if she types it into Google, Google will always see it as "suite" not "street". She was happy to learn about this, just another pitfall in good old English. 

On the way back I got off at Palo Alto and walked over to the Patagonia store to look around. Almost nothing was in biking-friendly colors and $200 for a fleece pullover? I got on the next train which was a limited so it got back to Diridon quickly. 

I rode over to Walmart and got some things, and stopped at Nijiya on the way back for a bento. I sure didn't feel like cooking tonight. 

OK so enough boring shit. Let's say I, as a brass player, decided to retire in New Orleans after all. I guess the first thing I'd do is get with the New Orleans Busking Ministry or whatever they're called, because they actually *like* buskers and *want* them, although they want actual music not people running sidewalk karaoke shows or playing endless Grateful Dead (California) music. They want music that has veritable blues/jazz roots. 

Next if I were to have a blog, I'd fill it with the juicy details of how my daily "busk" went or even if it were not a working day, maybe my visit to this or what music store to get whatever it is I need and my interactions with other musicians and the people working there. 

This is what people would want to actually read because many, many people like to daydream about being a street musician and not having to worry about the morning/evening commute, bills, their quarterly review, etc. Not that they're about to go out and do it, but they love reading the day to day nuts and bolts account of someone actually doing it. 

For instance take "Nomadic Fanatic" on YouTube. I started following him some years ago and while there are things about him that are irritating (his high squeaky voice, his hot dogs and pop tarts diet, some questionable life choices) I've also watched him go from the kind of cheap'n'cheesy RV you see parked out on the streets all over around here that you can probably buy for a thousand bucks, to, somehow, a house in the Midwest, a big RV, a motorcycle, a drone or three, and his latest is a full size school bus. Somehow the guy just keep chugging along and he shows the nuts and bolts of his daily life. 

And it all started out with him putting out YouTube videos and selling stickers. He just went to one of those online companies that will print up stickers for you, and had some printed up. People would mail him money and he'd mail out the stickers. 

And this is just a boring guy some have nicknamed "Tater" who goes around to mildly interesting places and has adventures like stumbling on some rocks. Somehow the guy has enough money coming in to travel around, not have to work, not living on the gov't dime, and he has fun. I admire that.

Now think if you're a musician in New Orleans, on the mainland US pretty much "the" street music ground zero and birthplace of jazz. That's much more interesting. You could have followers and a fan club and have all kinds of things on Etsy or Tee Spring etc., T-shirts and little goodie bags with some stickers and imprinted guitar picks, that sort of thing. It's a lot easier way to get "known" and have a fan base than trying to "open" for this or that big act, which is just about impossible. 

Assuming this is what one would want to do. Myself being a trumpet player I'd probably want to offer things like wah-wah mutes made out of actual coconut shells which is how that was first done, and various bits and bobs for trumpets. 

And I'd sure make sure my blog shows up on Google, not one page of it from last September, but the latest post. Maybe set up a sub-Reddit on Reddit. If the goal is "fame and fortune" those are the steps. If the goal has changed to, "Sit back, collect welfare, and smokum crack pipe" than this is all moot. 

And now the funny stuff: This just in, from the Internet-O-sphere: Our new President is fElon Musk, Dirty Diaper Don is First Lady. 

Wednesday

 Last night I was able to take my bike onto the light rail and ride to the Winchester station, take the route I'd figured was best from Winchester to Lark to "Other Santa Cruz / Los Gatos" whatever the street is called, up to Blossom Hill and over to the temple. I was an hour early and to pass the time helped a Chipotle delivery driver find the person who'd ordered 5 big boxes of stuff and helped him carry the stuff inside, studied my books in the cold outside and finally, inside, when the front doors were unlocked. 

A good crowd showed up and the class went well. I made some good jokes like, "If the Hebrew word for 'meat' is 'bashar', then what is Bashar Al-Assad?" I was able to check my name off on the attendance sheet but this goes back to my college days in Hawaii. As a hated minority I have to excel and make sure people remember that I was in the class so no one can say I wasn't there at every session. (In Hawaii if you're Asian you can sit back, not say a peep, turn in your papers and mediocre work and get an A while a "haole" will have to excel and will get a B or a C.) 

The ride back was a bit eerie as it was a bit foggy. The ride back to the Winchester station went easily being downhill, though, and there was a train there waiting so that was neat. And it only took 1/2 hour to go from there to the Airport/Metro light rail station. 

I stopped in at this pizza place and got a veggie and cheese slice, more expensive then Pizza My Heart and not as good but any place that's open past 9PM has the market cornered. I then went to the casino and got a big croissant and got home and stuffed it with butter and ate that, too. 

Tuesday night class

 I woke up around 9:30 which wasn't bad. I packed things, listed 10 things, and was able to get out of here around 3 in the afternoon.

Rainy monday

 I watched about half of "Adventures Of A Mathematician" on YouTube last night, then went to bed, and woke up a few hours later and could not get back to sleep. So I got up, had some cinnamon and water, and watched the rest of it, then went back to bed. I also treated my right thumb nail with plenty of tea tree oil, as it was painful as sometimes happens due to a weird little fungus that makes it have black streaks, that I've had since I was about 11 years old. I should keep up the tea tree oil daily. 

I slept soundly, only waking up when I'd breathed in some irritating thing and it woke me up. There's all kinds of crap in the air here. It was past noon. And raining. 

Nothing much else going on. There's the daily school shooting, this time at a private Christian school. And NPR is making Jews and Israel seem like the worst thing since ISIS and also had an interview with a "Palestinian" who's a bodybuilder, that's right, bodybuilding requires at least 2X the calories of a normal person and something like 3X-4X the protein. The selfish little shit could be working on something like yoga that's useful for life and giving his extra calories to fellow "Palestinians" in need but given that "Palestinians" have the ethics of the smallpox virus, that's not gonna happen and NPR did their best to make him seem like a saint. 

This is why NPR isn't getting another thin dime from me. 

This is also why I'm very disappointed in other bloggers I've followed for years. Ran Prieur, for instance, who just took a vacation in Ireland and raved about it, Hey Ran, maybe next time you'll get to go with your Irish buddies and torch a synagogue? 

Sunday

 Sunday and at 11AM it's 51 degrees out so it's sunny but not all that warm. But tomorrow it's going to rain again so I have to do things today. 

I'm not out busking with my new cornet because, in the same way Leroy is doing things with his new Selmer sax, I feel it's too nice to take out onto the street and since the Connstellation is so heavy, the plan is to sell that, sell the Yamaha trumpet, and once I've got the cash saved up, go to Hornucopia in San Carlos and find a nice short cornet with a shepherd's crook, used, that can be my busking horn. 

Interestingly, at the music store on Friday, the ditzy guy let me hold a Bach model 37 "Stradivarius" trumpet which is considered the standard professional horn. "Wow, it's heavy" was my reaction. He then went into a little lecture about how Bach-Selmer had their brass sheet supplier lower the quality or something and they didn't check up on it, the result being these heavy horns. 

Well, heavy horns are not for me. But maybe this is why, among those who pay close attention to such things, the trumpets etc made during this period are considered not as good or "inconsistent". Meanwhile a Yamaha Xeno is going to play like every other Yamaha Xeno of that model. 

I packed two things to send FedEx and as I was taking off for there, noticed good old "Renee", a homeless "lady" who was a constant troublemaker who lived in the parking lot here and fought with everyone, even her own son and daughter. "Renee" was picking up trash in the parking lot, which was her old ploy to make herself seem like someone people would want around. It didn't work. 

I rode a couple of circuits of the parking lot here, making sure to give her a look like I'd give to an especially annoying pest animal I'm about to "retire" with a pellet gun. Then took off to take the packages to FedEx and on the way back rode around the larger area a bit to look for "Renee's" RV. She's always had this distinctive RV with the roof painted dark green. I didn't see it but I saw her walking toward an RV that's been parked on the public street in front of the complex here for a week or three. 

Then I took off for downtown. I had a bento at Nijiya and Japantown was buzzing. Hence I saw with some other people at one of the tables in front and had a nice talk about Hawaii, Japan, etc. Then I rode over to the Amazon place where  I got a ton of bubble mailers, and then down to the small Walmart for some things. 

The Walmart had been really busy it seemed because tons of stuff was wiped out. No paper towels, but I was able to get some other useful things and I even found a silver dime (along with a regular dime and a 50 centavos piece) in the Coinstar. And I actually only spent $26 or so. 

I don't think it ever warmed up above the 50s outside. Sunny but wintry. 

 

 

Saturday night

 Friday went well. I woke up in plenty of time to have breakfast and get over to the temple for the scheduled meeting with the rabbi (he wants us to meet once a month) and we talked for almost an hour. 

Leaving there, I found myself on Taylor Street and decided to, instead of turning on El Camino Real, to keep going ahead and see if the music store is open. It was not, so I had a breakfast burrito next door that was too big for me to actually finish. 

Then I went to the music store where the guy there, who said he was a trombone player, helped me out. They had the 2nd Getchell book but not the first, but he said "Hickey Music" in New York or something like that, would be good to order it from. 

I also wanted to look at their used mouthpieces and in the end I got a Bach 7C for cornet, but maybe an older one as it says "VINCENT BACH CORP." on it, for $20. The guy said $20 out the door was fine, then when I left he chased after me saying I owed another $1.88 in tax, and I said that's not how it works and that most people calculate the price so it comes out to $20 with the tax and his reaction was something like "Ohh yeah... I can do that". Really ding-y guy. 

The mouthpiece is interesting though. Looking at the Bach Loyalist web site, it seems it was made in the 1970s, earlier than 1974, and just by looking at it and feeling with my fingers, it looks really, really close to my 3C trumpet mouthpiece. So although I just wanted something cheap and generic to put with the Connstellation which I'm considering selling, I may have just bought another keeper. 

The rest of the day was doing some shopping and getting back to the shop, then taking some things to FedEx to get 'em out. I didn't go to the service because it was forecast to rain, which it did. 

Menlo Park

 Today I got up at 8:30 horray for me. Now I just need to wake up by 8AM tomorrow, so I have 1/2 hour to wake up and 1/2 hour to ride to the temple to make the meeting with the rabbi I have, that is scheduled for 9AM. 

But today I packed a few things, had breakfast, etc., and got out of here around 11AM, went to the bank and first thing, asked if the last deposit I'd made, last week, was for $800. It was. Ken, last night, made out my weekly pay check for $400, but also gave me one dated December 1st, for $800. I said he'd already paid me, but I'll ask at the bank to make sure, and if I've already been paid (I have) I'd have the $800 check here for him to figure out what to do next. 

Post office drop-offs done and banking done, I rode over to Whole Foods to lock up the bike and get a Siggi yogurt drink, and walked over to the train station. I only had to wait about 15 minutes, and it seems during the middle of the day like this all the trains are locals so going to Menlo Park is no problem. The new electric trains are really nice too. 

I got my business done, and stopped in at the Starbucks there for use of their loo and to have some kind of pastry with turkey and rosemary or something in it. It was actually pretty good. 

I counted at least 4 shops on Santa Cruz avenue there, selling "Persian" or "Oriental" rugs. Really nice ones, the prices are probably like the prices of cars. 

I got on a train back, and got off at California Avenue to go to Mollie Stone's and got a few things, then rode back to Diridon. I went to the little store there and had a bag of popcorn while talking to the lady, who loves to talk about things relating to bicycles. 

I went back to Whole Foods and got a few more things, then rode to the Amazon place for some bubble mailers, then to Nijiya for a few things (like dinner) and then rode back here as it honestly turned from a little drizzle to rain. 

It felt good to get back in here and hang my wet clothes up and sit here with heater on. 

Tuesday 4th class session

 I did a shipping run, and got back in time to clean up, and take off for downtown. I decided riding to the Walgreen's on Santa Clara and 17th would be quicker than taking the bus, so I zipped over there and bought more Ibuprofen, then stopped by the Amazon place for bubble mailers, then rode over to the temple and sat on the low wall in front, eating pistachio nuts I'd bought at Walgreen's. 

I was worried there'd been a last minute change of venue, but at about 10 minutes before the start time people showed up. 

As it's been so far it was fun. The Hebrew part was fun, and the the Judaism part was fun too. We ended the session by going into the sanctuary and going up on the bimah, and getting to see up close the cool things there like the yad used there, which is from the 1860s or so. 

It was cold, and I had time to go to Whole Foods on my way back and get a few things. 

Monday was blah

 Just packing more stuff, getting it shipped, finding some packing stuff etc. At least I found a couple of pounds of walnuts so  I can keep feeding my birdies or eat them myself if I toast them first. 

This is but one example of how different life on the mainland is. I find cans and cans of food, pastries, bread, fruit, veg, pasta, all kinds of things discarded/donated all the time. If, as a kid in the 1970s in Hawaii, I'd found *one* package of spaghetti, or one can of tomato sauce, it would have been a striking lifetime memory. 

In fact in the 1980s, when I was in my first apartment and only working 8 hours a day, money was tight and I found a bunch of MREs in the apartment dumpster. I fished out as many as I could without climbing in (should have climbed in) and each day after work I'd go home and have an MRE. 

Another thing that's struck me lately is, here on the mainland there's been a lot of effort and even laws passed to make welcome those who are "immigrants" (non-white) but who were brought here by their parents while their ages were still in the single digits and thus, grew up as Americans. They're called "dreamers" and it's been acknowledged that it'd be unjust and cruel to send them back to a country they didn't grow up in and probably don't speak the language of. 

In Hawaii you can be 5th generation living in Hawaii (I've met a guy who was) and white and you'll always be an outsider. Hell we "local haoles" do that to each other. I thought my friend Pat was a mainland import but hope, he'd grown up in Hawaii as I had. 

I, with my olive skin, could actually pass as more "local" than most. By turning up the Pidgin a little and wearing a dress code that's subtle but that no tourist will ever crack, I could be considered "pretty local". But I'd get tired of the old place pretty fast. 

Sunday

 I went to the service on Friday night and that went well, pain not too bad, forgot my glasses so I sat near the front to see the screen, and had a good old hangout and schmooze session afterwards. 

On Saturday I actually woke up at 7, didn't get going until about 8:30 or 9:00 though. I rode out to the light rail station and the cold wasn't too bad at all. I had to wait 23 (I think) minutes for a train, took said train to downtown Campbell, then rode on Campbell blvd. to where it changes to Prospect and to the place. 

The service was still going on (it was just before 11) and Iris from my own temple (where she's one of the office staff) greeted me and showed me where we were in the siddur. "I'm gonna stick by you," I said, and sat next to her, only to find she's in a position only somewhat less important than that of the rabbis, and led a lot of singing and prayers. It turns out Beth David is her home temple. 

Afterward the lunch was all kinds of foods, most of which I should not eat but did. And talking and hanging out. One lady is in the class with me but I didn't see any other classmates. 

I rode home the way I'd come, and that's a fair old ride along Prospect / Campbell ave. It's a "stroad" along much of it and thus not very safe to ride on. 

I rode the train as far as Diridon and went over to the bike shop and test-rode the Brompton A-line bike. It felt a bit twitchy but then my main bike is pretty much the very opposite of a Brompton. I had to leave my ID and debit card with them and wear a helmet they provided, but I rode a few circuits around the large parking lot behind the bike shop and experimented with shifting gears which is very smooth. So I have some food for thought. 

First off I'd want to order fenders ("mudguards"), the bag mounting block that goes on the front, the rack, and I'd need a softer seat. I'd also want to put some better tires on than the stupid slick "Kojak" tires the thing comes with. All in all it would come to $1500 minimum. 

Alternatively, I could put the set of Mr. Tuffys for 20" wheels I already have in the 20" "Mobic" bike I have, that already has fenders, is light as a feather and should be easy to take onto the bus, and while it won't fold as small as a Brompton, will probably still fit into the trunk of a cab OK.  And it's all paid for; I even have a new seat ready to put on it.

I got back here and basically went to bed to listen to more of The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich, fell asleep, woke up again and listened to another chapter, fell asleep again, and on top of that went to bed pretty early, midnight maybe. 

I slept until 11 or so, and I think the rest is good for my back. Now, while I'm still starting my day with a Tylenol 500, it's not an urgent need and I don't need to lie down for half an hour for it to kick in. 

Better today again?

 WTF but nice. I woke up around 6:30AM which is the time I used to get up for work ... or more like the time I used to leave for work. I went back to sleep until 10:30. 

I got 20 things listed last night, washed my yellow bike jacket, etc. 

I finally had a look at the $10 mouthpiece I got from Austin Custom Brass, which was supposed to be a no-name 7C for cornet. Well, it's actually some kind of deep cup, looks new, and looks very well made. So I'm keeping it. I just wanted a generic mouthpiece so, unlike the guy I bought the Connstellation cornet from, I'd not have it without any mouthpiece. But this one looks like a keeper. 

More pain darnit

 Last night before Ken came by I did the last of the load of laundry I'd had soaking, really only 4 shirts and a pair of sweats, and hung those up in the loft, then vacuumed the office, with the end result that by the time Ken actually came by at 11:30, I was in a fair bit of pain. 

Ken had got himself one of those gas station sandwiches and a donut and I made him a tea. He keeps bringing by these tall, sturdy, paper cups he prefers his tea in, that he gets at the doctor's office. So he's going to the doctor about 2X a week. 

We talked about injuries and such, and I told him about Tom telling me he'd fallen down (not drunk or anything) and catching himself against a metro cart he had there, and now his left shoulder is all weird and makes popping sounds. Ken told me about some time fairly recently I guess when he was "all shaky" and said it was due to falling down. In fact Ken seems to fall down a fair amount. 

I'm fine as long as I'm sober and have my legs to catch me, but one time quite a while back I caught my foot on the edge of some cardboard and down I went. But the key is to sort of relax like when you're falling down when you were a kid. This is how I was able to zoom into the parking lot of the BevMo on Stevens Creek, not see the little curb thing until too late, do what must have been an amazing flip bike and all (I have the scratches on *top* of my bike light to prove it) end up flopped down with the bike on top of me, do "the worm" to get out from under the bike and check for injuries, and come out of it without a bruise or even any soreness the next day. 

It's when drunk, that's the problem, because who knows what script is running in my mind while my body is doing something else, and at the very least I can't catch myself. Which is why there's no more alcohol in my future. 

But back to the pain. I told Ken I must have overdone it with the laundry and vacuuming and he said "It's best to not over-exert yourself" and I got my check for this week and last week also, and once Ken had left a bit after midnight I had some cheese and olives and went to bed. 

And I even slept well, no wake-ups. 

I had two small things to mail so I packed those, took them to the post office, did some shopping in 99 Ranch and then parked the bike at H Mart and walked over to Ross where I found a pair of sweat pants, and got some things in Sprouts. And found some packing supplies on the way home. 

 

Hail to thee, Hoodie Bicycle Silencer Guy

 I could not get back to sleep last night after waking up at 4AM, and am pretty sure I lay awake in bed until about 6AM, then slept until 9:30AM. I think the problem is when I drink coffee that's fresh brewed, there are particles of coffee that don't get handled by my stomach but go further on to my intestines, where they're digested and more caffeine comes out. Coffee drinks that are bottled in a factory don't have these particulates, but fresh brewed stuff like the "flat white" I had at Starbucks last night will have this effect. 

Today's news is that some hero, wearing mostly black clothes, with a pistol and silencer which are just about given out as cereal prizes in the US, shot the CEO of United Health Care. In other words, he de-activated a ghoul with the blood of many thousands on its hands. Horray! I hope they never catch the guy. 

I also just took a look at the map and next time I have to be at Temple Beth David, I can take the green line to downtown Campbell, get onto Campbell Avenue, and just take that West and it will take me right there. Since I have to be there pretty early Saturday morning, I can just take the green line from the station that's about a mile and a half from here. 

Progress

 On my own part, certainly not on the world scene where Dirty Diaper Don is offering his paymaster, Pewtin, the 20% of Ukraine's territory the orcs occupy, as a sort of Sudetenland to buy off this new Hitler. 

On my own part though, I slept the whole night w/o the neck brace. What helped is I took some foam from my packing supplies and stuffed it into my pillow, making it less flat. 

I also not only packed 22 things and shipped them yesterday, but put all the things I've listed for the last few weeks and put them away in the warehouse, and found a thing that was *very* hard to find, and packed that to go. 

Tonight's the 3rd session of the class, which as I've said is the most important class of my life because this one can actually get me somewhere, whereas all those college classes only made me poorer for life. I have to pass this class, because if I don't I'll have to re-take it next year, and if my situation comes down to a choice of keeping Ken happy by being at his beck and call at all times, or going street homeless and being able to take and pass the class, I must choose the latter. 

Fortunately it's not going to rain tonight, and won't even be all that cold, in the 40s. This week's class is at a place that's 2 hours away by bike, I know, because I've timed myself when I've gone there in the past. 

I left here at 3, stopped at Nijiya where I got a "Hokkaido salmon belly" bento which was very good. I dropped off packages at the post office downtown,  then rode over to Starving Musician. The cornet I was interested in was in the back, and it was in good playing shape and seemed to play just fine, but I could tell it had been dented and (mostly) straightened out a number of times, and had one particularly nasty little crease the brass techs hadn't even tried to fix, not that it seemed to affect playing, but ugly. 

To not be a completely lookie-loo, I bought a bottle of Yamaha synthetic valve oil, which amazingly was only $3.25. That's like a third or less than anyone else charges. So that's a nice discovery. 

I rode down Saratoga until I got to Prospect and rode through this large strip mall complex until I found a Starbucks and stopped in there, spending about $14 on a "flat white" coffee and some pastries, and studied my books for an hour. Then rode over Temple Beth David, getting there just in time. 

The Hebrew part at the beginning was fun, and I'm a module ahead of the class. The Judaism part was pretty interesting too. It turns out that this Saturday, the Shabbat service and lunch I'm to go to isn't at Temple Sinai but there at Beth David. And I'm to try to get there at 9:30AM. 

The ride back was long, as was the ride there. I rode down Saratoga, turned right at Moorpark and rode that to Bascom, then to San Carlos, to Shasta, to The Alameda, yadda yadda. By the time I'd been riding for two hours I was thinking of a way to eat without having to cook or do dishes so I homed in on the M8trix casino. How nice it was to use the loo, break the $100 bill I had on me at the cashier, and sit at the bar, watch some of a basketball game, have a ice water to swallow a Tylenol with, and try the "Garden City Steak Bites" which were really good. 

The ride back here was easy, and now it's time to call it a night because I have to get used to being up at 8 in the morning. 

Hunter Biden pardoned.

 And I'm all for it. Under a normal rule of law, of course as I've said out loud, I want him to take his licking. But we as a country have voted for a Nazis 2.0 / Russian gangster empire, and no one can fault a father for trying to save his son from a long, agonizing, death in a torture cell. 

Hunter's crimes seem to involve some drugs, which are a basic food group for many Americans, and lying on a firearms form - which while it's not good, plenty have done (looking at you, potheads). Biden says Hunter was specifically singled out because he's his son and I buy that. 

Meanwhile the Nazis 2.0 have pardoned actual violent criminals who have murdered multiple people, and anyone who participated in the insurrection can be expected to be pardoned and given well-paying gov't positions. That's how gangster dictatorships work. 

Gloomy but at least not raining Sunday

 I slept in until noon, which was OK I guess considering I was up until 3AM. The prostitution operation several doors up is still operating, but I think they've told the customers to be less noisy and try not to park down at my end. Plus I sleep with my heater set on fan only to make a little noise so I don't hear every little word and footstep. 

I'm really getting to like "The New Reading Hebrew" book we're working from. It's tons of drills and seems repetitive but that's the magic of it. Even very advanced musicians still play scales, and it's that sheer repetition that makes the knowledge stick. 

I'm doing the recommended reading 2X, and have been listening to the song "Sholem Aleichem" tons of times. It turns out to be an important Shabbat song, and here I thought L'cha Dodi was the big one. 

The next class is at Temple Beth David, one I'm now well used to going to. This is where doing "all the things" from when I first decided on this path has worked out well for me. And there's no rain in the forecast so while it might be cold coming back it won't be wet. It's just wintry out. 

Today would have been a good day for busking if I were in shape to. At least I got the new cornet out last night and played a little, and made sure the slides are moving smoothly. My main concern was the smallest one for the middle valve, a slide that often gets frozen on horns that are neglected. Since the horn is new and the clearances tight, it could happen easily. But  I took it out and cleaned it and the tubes it goes into with a Q-tip and put some slide grease on there and I'm less worried now. 

Today being Sunday it's basically a work day for me. I packed 4 large things and took them to FedEx and collected packing stuff on the way home, then went out again for some shopping at Sprouts and found a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants at Ross. 

I got home (again) and cooked up a nice fish soup. I'm still in pain but I guess it must be getting better because I was able to cook fish soup. 

 

Saturday evening

 I was pretty busy on Friday. I could not figure out if the downtown post office was closing at 1 in the afternoon or their usual time at 5. In any case I wanted to be in Sunnyvale by 3. And I had to list 20 things. 

So  I got the 20 things listed on Ebay, packed two things that had to be shipped that day, and dropped them off at the downtown post office. Then I rode to Whole Foods, parked the bike, and after waiting a while got on a #22 bus to Sunnyvale. 

I walked across the street to Pizza My Heart and got a slice and some ice water, then back across the street to transact my business. That done, I looked around in Baraka Market and found a handful of things I wanted to buy but they don't have plastic bags so  I went next door to Walgreen's, got a couple of things and a bag, then back to Baraka's. 

Then got on a #522 bus back and got off at Race St. and went into the bike shop and picked up the new cloth part for my trailer. They were glad to see it go. They probably have a limited space to put things people are coming in to pick up. The gal counted up the credit I had, about $66 (and I still have no idea how I had credit at the bike shop) and I paid about $6 more. 

Then I walked back to my bike, put the stuff in the bags, got a few things there at Whole Foods, and rode for home. 

I stopped at Nijiya Market of course, and heard a saxophone. So when I was done there I walked to the corner and there was Leroy, tooting away. We had a good old time catching up on things, and he said he's actually headed for downtown to play after playing on the corner there, up from Nijiya Market. 

I asked about his new Selmer saxophone, which he'd bought, but doesn't want to take outside yet. He has to get used to it, since some of the buttons are different. I told him I'd just bought a new cornet and I feel kind of the same, about taking it out busking. 

I had so much fun catching up with Leroy I forget I needed to get back here ASAP because it's Shabbat. I got back in time though, and at the starting time, watched the "from home" service which was almost all various songs like "Shalom Aleichem" which I'm working on memorizing including the Hebrew lyrics, and a bunch of other good ones too. The service even ended with "Haktivah", a really good version. 

I lit my candles and had my grape juice and my dinner, and although I got to bed not too late, I ended up sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon. 

Thanksgiving day

 Well here it is, the day we're supposed to be thankful that we've genocided the people who were here before us. What remnants remain are marginalized, living on shitty land no one else wants. Let's celebrate! 

I slept in until almost noon. Ken had come by last night and we had the usual bull session but he could not find his check book so it said he'll (maybe) come by today with my pay check today. 

This would be a good day to go out busking except I'm not in shape to, and I seem to remember trying busking this day last year and there were no people around downtown at all. 

I was worn out yesterday from packing and shipping four large capacitors, each in its own box, plus I packed another smallish but chunky thing, and took those all to FedEx. And found some boxes and bubble wrap, not a lot but some, on the way back. Then listed the 10 things I'd photographed before doing the packing. 

Another thing I'd done is put the Connstellation cornet and the Getzen, in their boxes, under my desk here. The Yamaha trumpet is back upstairs in its original box and right now I'm tempted to sell the thing and also sell the Connstellation which is why I ordered a cheap cornet mouthpiece from Austin Custom Brass to go with it. Also I need to sell all my flutes. 

Starving Musician has two Yamaha shepherd's crook cornets for sale, one in lacquer that's about $700 and one that's an older version of the same model in silver plate that they want far too much for. I can probably knock $100 or more off the price of the lacquer one by paying cash, and that would be a good "stuff it in the bike bag and go" horn. A short, shepherd's crook type, cornet also fits in my bike messenger bag just fine. 

The idea being, of course, that on these Friday afternoons/early evenings, I could get in an hour or so of busking before going to services. As well as Sundays on lunch time or early evening. Plus now I can consider learning to play with a plunger mute. Not so great for Xmas carols but might be a real winner otherwise. 

I'm still in pain but I notice I'm waiting longer to take pain pills and getting up in the morning is less painful than it's been. 

Tiring

 Last night was very tiring

2nd session of the important class

 I managed to get 10 things together ready to photograph and list tomorrow, pack things that had sold, and got out of here around 2 in the afternoon. 

I made a side trip to Sunnyvale to sell a thing, so my next pay check can be deposited without taking anything out of it. That went well, and I went to Pizza My Heart for a slice and some ice water to swallow a pill with. 

Then got on the bus back to Whole Foods, got on the bike and rode to the light rail station. The green train was there in minutes and was pretty much empty so the ride to Winchester Station went fine. I rode down to Lark and then took Lark to University, which turned out to be a bad decision because University runs alongside Vasona Park and is narrow and not really great to ride a bike on in the dark. 

Then it got weirder. I got onto Blossom Hill and up and down some hills and then came upon the cross street I thought was a mile or more behind me, Santa Cruz. I did find the Whole Foods though, where I had two slices of pizza, some black coffee with cream in it, and got a bottle of black coffee for later. This Whole Foods was not a friendly place to study, in that the only seating area was outside in the cold next to some idling trucks. That may be a wealthy area but I'd have to be paid a lot to live there. 

After eating I found Cherry Blossom road easily and the place where the class was. I sat down and went through Lesson 1 in the Hebrew book, and other students started to trickle in. Needless to say the class was very good. 

My back pain wasn't too bad at all, and I kept up with my pills, and when the class was over I suited up for some real cold and took off for the ride home. Here was the 2nd bad decision. I rode to "2nd Santa Cruz" which turned out to be Bascom. I passed Lark and considered taking it to "1st Santa Cruz" which is Winchester, but decided Nah, I know I'm on Bascom, I'll just ride home. 

And what a long ride it was! I ended up getting lost on Park and found myself over by Santa Clara University. Once I knew where I was, I homed in on Temple Emanu-El and stopped there for a rest, some stretching, and to take a pill with the rest of the black coffee. It was a very long ride, taking me honestly 2 hours to get home from the class. 

So next time I'll take the green light rail to Winchester Station, to Lark, to 2nd Santa Cruz, to the place, and reverse that going home.

I'm just glad it wasn't raining! Up until a day ago the forecast was that it would rain. This is why I'm going to stop fucking around and go ahead and get that Brompton bike, because it's so easy to fold it up and put it into the trunk of a cab, or into a hotel room. On a rainy day I could ride it to the light rail station and from there to Winchester station, then call a cab to go to the Whole Foods on Blossom Hill then ride in from there. 

A joy

 After doing everything else, I played the new cornet a bit last night. It's a joy to play. I'm out of practice but I can tell this is going to be a great horn to play. This is in line with the reviews on Trumpet Herald, where people have said it's easy to play, slots well, etc. I'm feeling better and better about this. 

Today/tonight are supposed to get cold, but not rain more than a little drizzle. I really soaked my jacket and hat in the faux-Scotch Guard yesterday and hung them up to dry in the office here, making the place smell like paint thinner, but they might be a bit more water-resistant now. 

The once and future cornet

 The reason I dug the Connstellation out and replaced the errant screw and put in new water key corks is that last week I'd gone by Park Avenue music where I think I might have fallen in love with a cornet. 

I just wanted to see what they had, since I was in the area and had the time. There was one on the shelf, Shepherd's Crook type, let's look at that. It was not only a shepherd's crook wrap but had proper, not Amado, water keys and was a Getzen. With neat-o engraving on it no less. I asked to try it and was handed a 1.5 mouthpiece, and did mainly note-bending exercises and saw how high I could go, which was high, all of this sounding awful of course. 

The price? $2500, and I asked if I paid cash, Then I'd not pay the tax so that right there would save me $250. The guy at the counter was a bit snide; "How many?" he asked. I let that slide. I said I need to do some research. 

Once I got back here I did said research. The cornet, the Getzen 800DLX, seems to be very well thought of on every thread about it on Trumpet Herald I could find. I also researched the price and realized that $2500 is a deal. 

So today I enacted my plan. After listing 15 things on Ebay and waiting for the rain to let up, I dropped off packages at the downtown post office, then visited the bank where I took out $2500 in $100's. The teller counted them, then I counted them. I got a nice white envelope to put them in too. 

My "new" orange jacket is great in that it has plenty of pockets, and indeed is big and baggy making movement, even with a fleece on underneath, easy. However my first application of the off-brand faux-Scotchgard didn't make it very waterproof. It didn't matter though because it just drizzled or misted, and I really didn't get wet. And, a large inside pocket was perfect to put a nice white envelope containing $2500. 

I went over to the music store and a different guy was there, who knew about the deal made with the other guy. I verified they had the case and the papers and so on. I pulled out my own, 3C, mouthpiece and played it a bit - "Beautiful Dreamer" and a bit of "It's Been A Long Long Time" by Harry James. I'd played the Connstellation a bit the last two nights so I felt especially with the first tune I'd have a good feeling for how the horns are different. 

The guy said the other guy had misquoted the price but that they'd honor it, and I handed over the envelope. The guy counted it. Then he made out a receipt and we talked about random things. 

I mentioned my plans to retire "not in this city" and for busking to be my main thing. He mentioned a lot of cities along the East Coast and said he has a friend who makes $100k a year busking in Lexington Virginia with a saxophone. I told him of the guy whose byline is "Safe Sax" and plays in Las Vegas and there's no way he's making a mere $100k. 

He says his friend plays 8 hours a day and I told him about Tanya Huang in New Orleans who plays at least that, maybe closer to 10 hours a day, on her carbon-fiber violin. But that I found her playing a bit "mechanical" and I'd not want to grind away at something like that. He said he wouldn't want to, either. 

All in all it was a good friendly sale all around, I don't think they feel they got short shrift and I sure don't feel I did. The going price seems to be about $3k for this horn, with a 9 or 10 month waiting time. So I figure I saved $750 and got it right away, and they got a nice sale. 

Left completely unsaid is the fact that our new dictator may well turn the economy upside-down and his proposed tariffs will not only increase prices on imported goods but on all goods.

The cornet went into its surprisingly small case, which went into a plastic bag, which went into two concentric cloth bags, and I had great fun bumping it with my left foot all the way home as I pedaled the bike. 

Really, the root of all this is, my back is messed up to the extent that my strength in my left hand just isn't there and I don't know when it will come back. I really wonder about my ability to hold my left arm in the position to play an instrument like a ukulele or small guitar, and moreover to be able to hold chords down. But in playing trumpet or cornet, my left hand and arm only need to hold the thing up. With a short cornet like I just bought, I'll be demanding the least of my left side. Plus all the years I've put in, I'm finally to the point where I feel truly comfortable on trumpet or cornet. 

Heavy, man.

 Last night I got the Connstellation cornet out and put the screw for the 1st valve trigger back on, and installed new water key corks too. 

It's got a fair amount of wear but the valve compression is really good. Amazing. Maybe it's the quality of metal, and the care of whoever played it "In big bands and in Vegas". 

I messed around with a few tunes, the first bit of "Cantaloupe Island" and some Radiohead stuff. But it's a heavy bugger, weighing in at, with the mouthpiece in, just a tiny bit less than 3 lbs. 

This morning I checked the Yamaha trumpet - 2-1/2 lbs with mouthpiece in. More critically, while the Connstellation is a "short" cornet in terms of standard American types, the distance from mouthpiece to valve block, that my left hand has to support, is the same. 

I tried some tunes on the Yamaha and it doesn't sound as good. The Conn is a heavy little beastie, but given the choice I'd keep it and sell the Yamaha. And in fact I might. In fact there's a lot of things I want to sell and should get on it. 

In other news I'm very disappointed in a blogger I used to follow, Ran Prieur. His latest is how he had a great time in Ireland, one of the most anti-Semitic countries outside of the Middle East. If there's a pogrom while he's there, will he join in and throw a few firebombs himself? Probably. 

Even Thailand isn't safe these days and there's a travel advisory against Israelis going there. For all the talk on r/AmerExit r/expats and so on, almost none of the places they talk about moving to are safe or advisable for Jews to go to. There's ONE country... 

I packed three larger things and took them to FedEx, and visited Tom on the way back. Then I got back here and got in plenty of lying-down time. The pain seemed to be a bit less bad today. 

 

Saturday night

 I got decent sleep, at least. Actually I was awakened after an hour's sleep by some of the yahoos going to the prostitution operation, but it wasn't a big night for them and there wasn't a crowd to speak of, just a few noisy people. And I was able to go right back to sleep.

Today I got lots of lying-down time and still managed to get some work done once it was evening. 

Good sleep helps

 Last night I got 10 things ready to photograph, and will do another 10, if small, things today so I'll list 20. It's not like I have to go out anywhere, with the rain coming in. 

I'm really glad I found that orange jacket yesterday. I have a feeling I'm going to be living in the thing this winter. 

I slept last night with the neck brace on and I think it made a real difference. It allows me to relax and I'm not in danger of, in my sleep, forgetting I'm injured and twisting around in some harmful way. I got some good sleep. 

More pain

 Today's been rather painful. I slept without my neck brace, feeling that it was causing more problems than it was solving but now I'm not sure. I probably need it because my pillow is flat as a pancake just about, and getting routine things like that is very difficult.

I got up and packed some things and more things kept selling so I packed them also, and left here around 11AM  maybe. I dropped off trash, took the packages to the post office, went to the bank to deposit my pay check where the the bookkeeping agreed to the penny. Then I went to Whole Foods and got a little snack of a couple of hard boiled eggs, cheese, and olives. The secret there is to take some soy sauce from the sushi case, because according to Whole Foods, if you salt your eggs you will die a horrible death from covid or something. 

After eating, I rode over to the big Goodwill store on San Carlos and found a Van Heusen jacket, orange and a bit too big (it's a Medium and if it were a Small it'd be perfect) but will work, and I think is at least intended to be waterproof, and looked unworn or nearly so. That was $12. 

I rode over to Crossroads and looked in there and didn't find anything, then walked over to the Teen Challenge thrift store, same. 

I rode for, originally, Whole Foods again but, noting another bicyclist riding along San Carlos in direction I'd go to go to Walmart, decided I'd just go straight there. 

All of this was not that much fun because the pain was pretty bad today. But  I did get there. and first thing got some Scotch Guard (or something like it) to waterproof my boonie hat, and this new jacket I'd just gotten. 

Then I went into Walmart and got a lot of things, only coming to $66 or so, because I'm not buying wine. I got a couple little bottles of Kosher grape juice from Israel, to use in place of wine on Friday night. 

I then rode back and the sun even came out for a bit. I stopped at Nijiya and they had "Holiday Chicken Leg" so now it's officially the holiday season. 

I'd just gotten back here and was having a snack when Ken of all people showed up, to tell me I had jury duty but of course he didn't have the actual paper with him. "It's not real if it's not on paper" I admonished him, and said he can just bring it by next week. Honestly, between the many hours it takes me to get to any court house I'd serve in, and having both a lawyer and a police chief in my family, I don't worry much about jury duty. 

I took a good long rest in bed listening to more Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich, and also got things Ken had brought over, ready to photograph and list. 

The rabbi talk

 I got up in time to sort out things to list on Ebay, then took off for the post office with packages, then Big-5 by Santana Row to return the gloves I'd bought because I don't need them, then after stopping in at Whole Foods for a quick bite, went to the temple for "the serious talk" with the rabbi. 

It went great. We talked about all sorts of things amongst them my personal plans. So although I am just beginning, I feel like I am really on track for conversion and eventual retirement in Israel. 

First day of class

 Or first evening of class really, this evening. 

2nd night sleeping without gabapentin and I slept pretty well. I'd taken literally a dozen things apart last night, things we can't give away but have some neat chips and parts inside. 

I slept in until 10, which is good because sleep is good. 

I listened to more of "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich" by William L. Shirer, on audiobook on YouTube while taking the stuff apart. I had the book decades ago, and must have skimmed a lot of it because there's a tone of fine-grained detail there that I don't remember paying attention to, yet little phrases I do remember pop out. 

And in 2024 we've got the same thing going on. Donnie Dumpo paid someone else to take all his tests, Ceaucescu had something like an 8th grade education if that, it's not all that certain Stalin had much formal education at all. 

I packed things to ship, took them to the post office and FedEx, gathered a little shipping stuff, and got back here. I left here at a bit past 4, went over to Whole foods to use the loo and eat a little food, and rode over to the light rail. By now it was about 5 or a bit past and dark. 

I got off at the Winchester station OK and rode down Winchester to Lark and turned in there, at Oka Road, and there I was. The class was in the adult lounge upstairs and since I was plenty early, I had a nice little lie-down on the floor for a bit. 

We books! 2 on learning to read Hebrew, a bencher, a Tanakh, one on mitzvot, one on holidays, and one on Judaism in general. Quite a stack, and they're ours to keep, as part of the $180 class fee I guess. A fair number of them from good old Behrman House. 

There are a lot of people in the class, something like 30, and it was pretty educational and fun. The building closes at 9 so we had to get out of there on time, and for the ride back I really bundled up and was plenty warm riding back. 

I got back onto the green line light rail and that took me to Diridon in no time, and I had time to go into Whole Foods and get some rather woody chicken wings that I just finished eating, and a bottle of cold black coffee to swallow a Tylenol 500 down with. 

The ride back here from there was quiet and really nice. So I did it; I got through my first class session with flying colors. 

 

 

Routine, if painful, routine

 My first night sleeping without gabapentin was last night and sleep was not great. Adequate, maybe. I got up, had my Tylenol and coffee, went back to bed to wait for it to take some effect, got up, zapped our facial hairs (ouch) then read some Torah, and photo'd and listed the 10 things I'd made ready to list on Ebay. 

Then I packed 13 things  I think, small ones, and took those to the post office and did some shopping in Sprouts. Cold weather is here. I was able to gather some bubble wrap, and was glad my Thinsulate gloves are still with me and in good shape, and in fact I'd washed them last Spring so they even smell nice. 

Another small increment

 I woke up around 9:30 which is great because sleep is good. Had my Tylenol 500 pill,  1/2 a blood pressure pill, and some good good strong coffee. Went back to bed for 1/2 hour maybe 45 minutes for it to kick in, then got up, washed head/hair and tried out my new toy from Best Buy. 

Said new toy is something called an "epilator". It pulls out hair. I honestly believe I've got some Central Asian thing going on, where I can grow a mustache and chin beard, but the rest of my face is these sparse, coarse, hairs. Shaving those buggers is a pain, and they have a habit of dodging the razor somehow anyway so I always find strays. I can't hunt them all down with tweezers, I've tried. So an "epilator" was the answer and after looking in Walgreens, Target, and Sally Beauty, all of which were supposed to stock them, I hit Best Buy and went and picked the thing up yesterday. 

I used it a bit today and it seems to work pretty well. Noisy, and a bit painful, but effective. And it was only $50-odd, I was prepared to spend more. 

Each day I seem to be a small increment better, pain-wise. If I can get over this, I'm going to be very big on exercise. Due to bike riding my legs don't need much work, just strength/flexibility exercises like what I call "side to sides". But my upper body, I can tell now, is going to need a decent program to build strength and keep flexibility. 

I packed a biggish thing, then a medium-sized thing  I made larger by putting some accessories in with it, then another biggish thing sold so I packed that. So I had a nice load for FedEx. I took the things up there to FedEx then rode up to 99 Ranch for a couple of tea eggs and a can of Mr. Brown then went back in for a couple packages of TP because they have the best price on it by a couple of dollars. 

Then I rode back, picking up a box or two behind the gym, where a crazy homeless guy was going on and on about covid-19 and all kinds of crazy stuff. He didn't bother me though. 

I rode over to Tom's because he's back, but only James was there and said Tom was headed down to Gilroy to pick up his truck and to do something with some tiles he's ga-ga over. Dealing in tiles and 2nd hand wood makes no sense compared to busking but that's what Tom's gonna do. 

I left there for here when it started to drizzle. 

 

Interesting medical experimentation

 The mornings have been the worst. I've slept and the drugs have had 6-8 hours to wear off. But last night  I did some reading on the synergistic effects of Tylenol and caffeine. The big ol' bars of Tylenol 500s I got at the hospital are probably that big because there's 100mg of caffeine in them too. The Tylenol 500s I got from Walgreens are bitty things. Easier to swallow I guess, but I'm guessing they're missing the caffeine. 

I got onto this line of thinking because I noticed I felt better after having my breakfast of a good spoon and a half of that good old Israeli product, Elite instant coffee, mixed with a bit of vanilla extract into water and heavy cream and ice. It can't be the calories, I thought. 

So today I got up to take my pills which I'd set out last night, the last big Tylenol bar and a half a blood pressure pill, and chased it with a spoonful of the instant coffee, which helped chase the pills down too. And 45 minutes later or so, I feel OK enough to be up typing this. 

I don't want to take caffeine in the evening, but for these mornings I think I'm onto something. Dr. Carter is in! Wait'll I get with Valley Medical I guess, to see about my general health and the blood pressure thing and I tell them I'd been having side effects from the blood pressure medication so I'm cutting the pills in half. 2.5mg instead of 5mg. 

The way I see my future right now is to complete my conversion and: 

(1) End up staying here. Repeatedly on Reddit I've seen the question, Which old-age homes are not hellish? And the answer is always: The Jewish ones. 

(2) Move back to Hawaii to be a bit of a 2nd class citizen because of my skin color or lack thereof, but at least I'll be able to say I went to high school Here and worked Here and Here and Here, and grew up fishing Here, etc. And I'll have what Jewish community is there as my "tribe". 

(3) The big banana. Retire in Israel. 

Now let's say I wanted to retire in New Orleans, which I certainly don't. But let's say I wanted to. I'd already determined that there's basically one streetcar that would take me everywhere I need to go from markets to the VA and the Social Security office. It's pretty great for those who don't have a car and can keep a bike running. New me, I'd probably have a blog and use something like "Tee Spring" to print up shirts I'd ling to on said blog. 

After all say my stated goal was to attain fame, perhaps by playing guitar and singing about my preferred mule and other New Orleans things. I'd have T-shirts, stickers, maybe go on Reddit and do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) because frankly, millions in the US dream of running off to a place like New Orleans and living off of their guitar and vocals about draft animals and other New Orleans things. 

So I'm typing away on this thing and I realize the first of a very important set of classes is this Tuesday evening. "The Talk" with the rabbi is the next day, Wednesday. It had been last Wednesday, when I figured I'd get a chance to ask where to show up for my first class. But now I had no idea where to report to, the office at the temple is closed on Mondays, and I could not guarantee someone who knows what's up would be there on Tuesday. 

I was pretty sure the first meeting would be at my home temple but was not certain. I had no idea why I wasn't emailed some instructions. But I knew today was a bat mitzvah, and thus the rabbi would be there. It was about 10:15 in the morning and the thing would start at 10:30. Time to crash that bat mitzvah. 

I got dressed and rode over to the temple, and went in and sat in the last row and joined in the singing. It was pretty long, but it was great. I sat there thinking, This is 180 degrees opposite the mainstream culture here. The gal who it was, who's probably destined to become a cantor at least, read from the Torah with cantillation, gave a speech about her personal world view, was complimented and lauded on her promise and the good things she's done, and encouraged to do more through her whole life. 

I'm not even sure I *had* a 13th birthday. There wasn't even much concern on anyone else's part whether I had enough to eat or not. 

When the service was over it was out to the courtyard for kiddush and ha motzi, and I ran into one of my favorite people, Phil Hankin. I was able to ask him about at least where to be for the first class, and he got right on his phone and dug up the syllabus and emailed it to me. Salt of the Earth, that guy. 

I got to talk to Rabbi a bit and told him Phil Hankin had "saved my life" and he said that if I miss any classes, he'll work with me to make up those classes. 

Then were was the oneg and it was great. Bagels with cream cheese and lox and tomatoes and cucumber slices and red onion and capers, plus other goodies like mushrooms with cheese baked inside, and some tuna salad, and a knish. Something else that was the same basic pastry and potato combination at the knish, but the knish was amazing. 

I sat with a couple other people to eat, and eventually Philip showed up. It turns out he's going to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York. He's really involved with theater stuff. Now I know why he's so careful with his money. He saves it so he can go do things like that. That's really great that he's able to do things like that. 

I left the temple into a clear, and cold, day. I rode over to Whole Foods to lock the bike, and walked over to Diridon Station to get on the light rail to the Convention Center bus stop, then took the #23 bus to Santana Row to pick up something I'd ordered from Best Buy. Since Best Buy is based in Minnesota, this had caused my card to be deactivated, but the company had called me - during the service no less - and I'd re-activated my card. 

I picked up the thing then walked to Big-5 and bought a pair of gloves that might be good for cold weather, since I'm not sure if I still have my Thinsulate ones or what kind of condition they're in. 

Then I took the bus further down, to Guitar Center where I bought a mandolin strap and the repair guys gave me one of those buttons used on the bottom of a guitar to hold a strap. They have banjo ukes but they're the Goodtime clear plastic ones, which are not really my preference. I think one of the Kala ones sold at Ukulele Source would be my choice.

Then it was back on the bus which I rode downtown and stopped in at the Starbucks for some water to swallow some pills, which they gave me but I put a $1 in the tip box anyway. Downtown is so dead but the Starbucks was doing fine.

Then walked to the bus stop on Santa Clara and got on a #522 bus to the SAP Center which is about 3 minutes' walk back to Whole Foods. I got a big bag of popcorn because I felt like it, and rode home. I had popcorn and some of the zero alcohol Japanese "beer" I'd wasted money on at Nijiya yesterday. Eh, it's wet and fizzy. 

Pain

 Funny thing, night before last sucked because I had my sleep prevented/interrupted by pain. Last night was pretty good. The night before the night before last I slept like a baby because I think I mis-counted and went to bed on two gabapentin capsules. That was nice! 

But the morning before this one, the pain upon getting up wasn't as bad but it was a bitch today. Also it's getting really cold overnight, down into the mid-30s so I'm not going to services tonight. 

The alcohol-free wine I got turns out to have a shitton of shit in it like turkey tail mushroom and all kinds'a weird shit. I guess as long as it tastes ... wine-y? 

I still think the purest thing for me to drink is to get that good old Osem kosher grape juice from my little Walmart, that's made in Israel. I even checked the OU web site etc., and grape juice is fine if alcohol is detrimental to one. Which is my case it certainly is. 

In fact, I'm thinking for Passover I'm going to get a bunch of it to bring by, for anyone who wants it - they sell it kosher for Passover at that time of year. 

It's funny though, I also got some senna leaf capsules, essentially the "Swiss Kriss" laxative Louis Armtrong used to enthuse about, and pretty soon after getting home, had a good poop. Well! That's effective all right. I didn't even have to open the bottle. Good value for the money, I'd say. 

Ken did indeed come by last night, thought he's left his check book at home, then it magically appeared so I got my check. So now I'm caught up. The idea today is to go out mid-day when it's warmed up into the 50s anyway, then get back in and find some things to list on Ebay, then it's Shabbat. 

It sucks that I had so much pain upon waking up today, as last night I'd actually managed to give myself a proper hair wash / head scrub out in the 30-something degree air out front of the shop here and I'd also made some nice cole slaw and put that into the fridge. And packed a few small things. 

No checkee

 Haha Ken came by last night with a burger for me, and we talked things to death, and it wasn't until he'd left and it was 1:30AM that I realized he'd not written me my pay check. So I called him and he said he's forgotten too, and that it was funny because he had his check book with him. 

So he's supposed to come by today/tonight with it. 

Want to distract an American? Bring a burger into the scene. 

This is actually pretty good because if  I get a check tonight, I should be able to deposit it tomorrow, drop things off at the post office, and go to the Friday night service. I'm willing to put up with a bit of pain to get my singing in. 

More on my plans once I get this pain to a controllable level. I've mentioned getting a ukulele and working on my singing. The kind of uke  I gravitate to is the good old banjo-uke, of which Ukulele Source has a couple at reasonable prices. Actually they have, besides the cheap "Diamond" one, two by Kala that are essentially the same uke but one's $200 more because it's got brass hardware. Whooptie-doo. I like the cheaper one which is only a couple hundred bucks. 

This area is a hotbed of ukulele activity. Clubs, groups, etc. But they all require you to have a car. Can't have the unwashed masses riding the bus to the meetings and get-togethers. So, their loss. 

The thing with the banjo-uke is, though, besides their being cute and loud and cool, is in the past I was able to teach myself the George Formby stroke. So I can pick that up again. Because I'll want to be able to play some instrumental pieces or just strings of chords that sound good, to give my voice rest periods between songs. 

Years ago, way before covid, there was a Black kid who showed up downtown, possibly kicked out by his parents I dunno, but he was a suburban kid who'd really gotten into Radiohead and could sing all their stuff, and he sounded good. But he pushed too much, didn't give himself breaks, and within a week had "blown out" his voice. I hope he recovered and is doing well, but this is exactly what I want to avoid. 

I packed one large 30-lb box for (hopefully) Ken to pick up tonight, and two small things. I really wanted to go out, to do Shabbat shopping (mainly some roast beef and check out the alcohol-free wine at Sprouts) and just buying things in general. 

So I took the two packages to the post office, got tea eggs and coffee at 99 Ranch, then went to H Mart and parked the bike, walked over to Home Goods and Ross and Sprouts, did my shopping including a bottle of alcohol-free wine, got a couple of things at H Mart most notable some albacore sashimi which I really like and which is usually too expensive. I ate that at one of the tables by Starbucks, out in the cold. 

I rode home and put things away, and lay in bed for a while. 

In the news it's more of the same. Sex traffickers with drug problems, anti-science weirdos, conspiracy theorists, etc all being installed in high positions of power. Kind of like Germany 1933-45 where if you were a chicken farmer who dabbled in the occult (Himmler) or a washed-up WWII pilot with a serious heroin addiction (Goering) or a small-time pimp/human trafficker (Horst Wessel) you got a high position of power or were lionized and songs sung about you. 

 

 

Cautiously proud of myself

 Yesterday not only did I do all that shipping, and getting a few groceries and that plate lunch, but I finished the load of laundry I had soaking, T-shirts, sox, and a big bulky pair of sweat pants. 

I actually fell on the friggin' stairs to the loft. It was the next to the last step so it was a sort of halfway fall, I fell, making a big noise of course, but it was more like falling onto a 45-degree plane, and I was able to catch myself on my knees and right side, so amazingly it hasn't made me feel less sore this morning. 

I got all things packed last night so today, in theory, all I'd have to do is a haircut and clean myself up, get out of these clothes I've been wearing since Sunday the 3rd. 

My rabbi appointment just got moved from today at 3PM to next Wednesday at 2PM. I still need to go out and do things though, the post office downtown, the bank, Whole Foods and buying more pills at the Walgreens on Santa Clara St. At least there won't be room taken up in my panniers by wine! 

I got good sleep last night, too. I waited until 2AM when my next Tylenol 500 was scheduled, took it, snuggled up in my neck brace and I was out. Woke up around 6, had some ibuprofen, then back to sleep until around 10. The pain on getting up at 10 was enough to make me yelp, but not as bad as yesterday. 

I'm still firm about trying to make myself over as a singer rather than a trumpeter. I need to keep stress off of my back, and if I am not able to make myself over as a singer, I will have to play a short, "shepherd's crook" cornet, as the shortest horn in the trumpet family and really a fine instrument. 

But the possibility of being a singer is intriguing. Yesterday I found the song "Tzena Tzena Tzena" which has been sung by everyone, and frankly I'd love to be able to put across songs like "Everything Is Broken" by Bob Dylan and "Born To Love Volcanoes" by The Dead Milkmen. It would be letting my inner little kid, who burst out with imitations of silly TV commercials and things on the Checkers And Pogo Show, out. 

I left here around 3. Dropped off trash, used the loo at Nijiya because I really needed to, stopped at Ukulele Source to look at their ukes, dropped off packages at the post office, went to the bank to deposit my check, then went to Whole Foods to buy some stuff (a little fish and rice and some seltzer water) and sat and ate upstairs, then got another couple small things and got more money out. Then went to the bike shop to see if the bike trailer part I have coming is in, but it's not. Had a nice talk with the guy, we talked about how horrible the new regime is and I said I have to hold off on buying a folding bike because I don't know how bad things will get and right now my first priority is to get my passport renewed. 

Then back to Whole Foods to lock the bike up and took a #22 bus up to the Walgreens to get more of the OTC medication I'm on. That was actually pretty quick as, to go back to Whole Foods, the #22 bus came right away. 

Now I bought grocery type things at Whole Foods and rode for home. Although traffic was heavy, places like Whole Foods and San Pedro Square were dead. Maybe people are holding back on spending, to afford to get their passports renewed? 

I stopped at Nijiya for sashimi stuff and got back here. 

 

First time out in a week.

 Yesterday I packed 16 things, the heaviest of them being a big old HP manual in a big binder. So I had all the things slated to ship on the 13th, except one thing sold late at night so I did that one today. 

Things have been going ... OK. Recovery seems to be slow, but I feel it is happening. Getting up in the morning is a bitch because that's when the pain's really bad because the drugs have worn off while I slept. I set out my array of drugs (a Tylenol 500, half a muscle relaxant, a high blood pressure pill, a gabapentin, and a milk thistle for the sake of my poor liver) swallow those down with plenty of plain water, then back to bed to wait for them to kick in. Pretty soon they do and I can move around. 

I had a can of sardines for breakfast, not having much else around. Then packed the last thing and slowly got the bike and trailer and load all ready. I had just enough hand strength to shift the bike into a lower gear so I could just putt along slowly. I was starting out early enough I had all the time in the world. 

I actually rode first to ... 99 Ranch. I realized they have my sesame seeds (although they're cheaper and much less likely to be buggy from an Indian market) and they might just have heavy whipping cream since the young folks are catching onto it for coffee and boba drinks. So I went in and they had quarts of Organic Valley half and half, the fresher ones good to 20 December, so I got one of those and my seeds. I had a $20 on me so that was no problem. 

Then I took the post office stuff to the post office, forgetting to ask if they have passport services, then rode down to FexEd where I dropped off those packages. Around back of H Mart I got a carrot and a package of "King Trumpet" mushrooms. 

I rode for home and realized, as it was now 1PM, that Hu's lunch truck should be on the little road that connects Junction and Rogers so I rode over there and there she was. I picked out a chicken and veggies on noodles plate and she said, "For you, $6, normally $8" and I absent-mindedly handed her the $8 I had left but that's fine. She's a very nice lady, a good cook, and will let me get things even if I don't have any money on me and pay later. 

I told her I'd hurt my back and been in for a week, and how I'd found free stuff behind H Mart - the carrot and mushrooms to put in fish soup. For free! 

I rode back here and put things away and with a few breaks lying down, ate all of the plate lunch. Then back to lying down for a while. 

Kick Veterans In The Ass Day

 Well it's Veterans' Day or as I like to call it, Kick Veterans In The Ass Day it seems it's always a bad or inconvenient day for me. It's a rain day and I'm still in pain haha. 

Other than the high blood pressure pill and the muscle relaxant, the stuff I'm on is over-the-counter stuff so for meds, I'm OK. I have plenty of gabapentin due to Ken, and don't think I'll need or want to wangle any more. 

OK so last post I was talking about my doing little-kid songs and every silly or sarcastic song I could come across and in the 1970s, there were plenty floating around out there. Like, to the tune of "Frere Jacques"...

"Marijuana, Marijuana, LSD, LSD

Doctors make it, teachers take it,

Why don't we? Why don't we?"

We weren't sure what these things were, but we knew it bugged the adults and that was enough.  I was a regular little Alam Lomax writing these things down, but my mom had a habit of finding the Composition Notebooks I had them written down in and making them "lost". 

So it was a sick little 1970s version of Elvis singing his gospel songs and Johnny Cash singing his gospel songs, but maybe it takes more than gospel songs in this world we're heading into. 

A day or two after the election I was looking at some post by someone somewhere and they were despairing over the election as we rational people are, and at the end he appended a couple of YouTube clips, of which I listened to the first, Bob Dylan singing "Everything Is Broken" and I thought, as much as I love great classical music and rippin' Steely Dan solos and ground-breaking electronic music, as grand as all that is, maybe the music that has the most impact is that of people like Dylan, a lot of the '60's rock bands when they got political, bands like The Weavers, that kind of thing. 

Not saying I don't want to sing fun songs. I've got a notebook of parody songs, the one that comes to mind right now is taking "Slip Kid" by The Who and doing one called "Fit Bit". Not that I don't love "Slip Kid" and think it's a great song, but hey, fun! Come to think of it I could do one called "Slip Stick" for the slide rule fans out there, very niche but they'd love it. 

This stuff can be done endlessly. 

I have a pain-y night but somehow, being upright in front of the computer here at 9AM I feel fairly good.

Rogan's Hero

 Ken came by last night and dropped off a bottle of laxative powder for me to use. Also some more gabapentin. 

After taking my morning pills and getting more sleep, getting up around 1PM and taking some ibuprofin and getting up and turning on the radio, I listened to most of an interesting interview with a couple of SF authors and then came "On The Media", a show I like. 

In the universe I live in, Joe Rogan had interviewed El Dumpo shortly before the election, and revealed with a blithering idiot he is. But in fact, and I had to hear it from "On The Media", Joe Rogan endorsed Mango Mussolini glowingly. 

So half of us believed the Dump is the danger he is, and the other half believe he's some kind of obese, racist, Christ who will, as the joke goes about playing Country-Western music backwards, "Ye'll git yer dawg back, ye'll git yer truck back, ye'll git yer wife back..." 

And the orange turd won the popular vote. White women, if only counted, would have tipped the election decisively to him. 

Voted for a man who said this will be the last election. 

RIP USA 1776-2024.

OK so, I have approximately 2 months before Kristallnacht. The "Day of violence" Shitler has promised. I'm not that worried being in an industrial area, and I have done nothing stupid like affix a mezuzah to the doorway here. Even if the rabbi had advised me to, my replay would be No, sorry, I can't afford to have this place firebombed. 

I'm still getting over this horrible back injury, this vale of pain. But I am, slowly, getting better. It's only been a week. 

I need to Xerox all the papers I have on my maternal side and give them to the lady at the temple who says she's a bit of a genealogist and let her find out what she can. For all I know I'm a descendant of the Gaon of Vilnius, or maybe just some Central Asian / Eastern European mutt on Mom's side. It does not matter, I intend to go through with this conversion if at all possible. 

I just need a passport I can fly somewhere on. And I need to be able to scratch out some sort of a living where I land. If we're going full Fascist I can expect my Social Security to be cut off so this is a dire situation. I may even lose citizenship when they get around to that. In other words, I'm not going to be in much better a situation than those who managed to flee Shitler's father figure's regime. But they managed, didn't they? 

And I have an arthritic back. I am so thankful I got to go in that wonderful CAT scanner and now know what's going on. 

Ken now knows I can't hump the heavy stuff any more and we talked about my new approach, that some of the big ugly equipment I've been taking apart and selling the parts. I pointed out a box of parts, circuit boards and stuff, and he said, "What were those from?" and I said, "That big HP analyzer that was there (pointing to a blank space in a row of instruments) and it night go for $200 on a very good day, but the parts will bring in $400 at least." He said at first he was kind of bothered by my taking things apart, but he's come around to my way of thinking. 

After all, he said at one time he's getting a bit old to hump the heavy stuff around any more, too. 

Now, with regard to my arthritic back. I hope to get back to where I was before, where I could work fine as long as  I didn't over stress it, and I had a good instinctual feel for that. I'd spell myself when lifting something heavy, etc. I hope I can use physical therapy to keep it trouble-free for a while. 

But when I was trying out playing violin, my left shoulder/upper back didn't like it and that was as much a factor as my stubby fingers for my deciding to quit it. Same goes for concert flute, my left shoulder/back were not happy. Even with the trumpet, I got a bit of complaints from that body part when out playing. 

I could switch to cornet and have that lovely Conn Connstellation waiting upstairs in the loft, just needing some new corks I think and new spit valve corks. That would bring my arms in closer and if I got a cornet with a Shepherd's Crook, it would be shorter still. And I always want to keep my shofar skills.

Clarinet is an option, but I seem to hate reeds. Sax is designed to be ergonomic but again, I seem to really dislike reeds and saxes are heavy. I just don't like reeds and all those pads to worry about. 

But there's one bright spot:  As Reform Jews, we sing a lot in services. Great songs. Plus a lot of the prayers are sung. So in spite of myself, I've been getting regular singing practice just about every week. I like it. I even sung along with the service that I missed, that I watched on YouTube. My singing apparatus seems to be separate from my back/shoulder apparatus. 

Eerily, our feedback on Ebay's last 4 digits have been echoing a previous dark time ... 1936 ... 1937 ... 1938 .. 1939 ... 1940. 

Depending on how carefully "they" comb through the data, I may be in real danger in 2 months, or I may be able to survive under "the regime" long enough to finish my conversion and make aliyah. 

On possible future is I leave for Israel just before Kristallnacht and skate along as an American tourist, then "the regime" clamps down and it becomes obvious that I qualify for refugee status. That's a very real scenario. 

Another is I flee to Hawaii and try to hide out, but I'd still be in the belly of the beast. Japanese living in Hawaii were indeed taken from there and put into concentration camps. And I can't count on either of my sisters living there to help me as one's friendship is conditional: that I become a Jesus freak, and the other one seems class-based in that I didn't go to Punahou. There is a Jewish community there but they might be busy enough looking out for themselves. 

Then again I might survive in Hawaii in the same way that Django Reinhardt survived WWII right in the belly of beast, playing his jazz tunes for Nazis while other Roma were shipped off. What else was he to do? He was able to save his family and perhaps many more, and there was nothing he could do to stop the trains to the camps. 

At least in Hawaii I speak the local patois natively, can say I went to school here and I worked here and I surfed here etc. 

So back to music. My singing apparatus is separate from my shoulder/back apparatus. But I need to have an occupation that does not involve stressing my shoulder/back apparatus. Sign-painting is, surprisingly, out. Painting letters of a size suitable for a sign involves reaching out quite a bit. That's out. Playing guitar is out, reaching out along the neck has given me complaints plus there are my stubby fingers. 

There's the "uke". They're light, are basically the top 4 strings of a guitar with a capo on the, I believe, 5th fret. The neck is short, and quite a while back I had a book of ukulele "jazz" chords and I had no problem hitting them all. There's a metric fuc'ton of materials and tutorials and support. 

To the process would be: 

(1) Work on singing, do voice exercises on YouTube and work on singing songs I'd like to busk with. Record myself (I've got a cheapo mic here)

(2) Get a uke. Practice singing + uke. Very simple songs. 

(3) Get out there. Play where amplification is not necessary. Keep it very low key. Like outside Caffe Trieste etc. 

(3) Get a good amplified setup. A small 2-channel amp, a "dead mouse" mic to pin on my front, some kind of pickup for the uke. 

If I skedaddle for Israel, I should have enough money to float on for a while, plus at least I can apply for Social Security and should get it at least for a while. And they sell ukes in ISR. 

I think back to my childhood. My earliest memories are of being with my dad, his teaching me little-kid songs which of course I sang in tune. Maybe that's why he seemed to get such a kick out of it. My teaching myself the alphabet by singing "The Alphabet Song". And my loving the music my father played when he was home, classical to Herb Alpert, Simon & Garfunkel, a bunch of those 1960s "folk" groups, American Pie, themes from spy movies, everything. 

I remember lying in bed, deciding to "play" the Hawaii 5-0 theme, and did it, with my little voice, that big bombastic piece done by a full orchestra. And when we got a little tape recorder, the kind with the little row of buttons on the front, loving what was on the tape that came with it, "Kites Are Fun" and an instrumental version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" which I thought was about all the interesting fish in the world. (I'd come across a copy of McEligott's Pool" by Dr. Seuss at school). I was to become, from time to time, an avid constructor and flyer of kites just because of this. 

We did "funny stuff" we younger kids (not the oldest) and our father and the material was hilarious. We could have easily gotten it played on the radio. My mom took a dim view of this. She eventually erased or threw away the tapes. We were to return to doing this when we were in my teens, and my mom threw away the tapes and told us she had. 

How can someone who played the accordion and sang, with her sister, my Aunt Anita, in the Odeon theater, have done something that cool, and never tell us kids? Even discourage us from doing anything creative like that? I have a theory, as Mom had quit the act when she started to "develop" that she must have been molested or something, saw a darkness in "show biz" and wanted to insulate us from it. Hence her pushing me, the one who could sing in tune, so hard to be an artist. 

We sang all these funny, snide songs for fun, we'd get together and say, "Let's do funny stuff" and we'd go somewhere away from Mom and sing silly songs and imitate things on TV. It was our relief valve, our rebellion against Mom's overbearing-ness and our never being able to "behave". 

What I'm saying is, I may not have had the wholesome childhood of singing gospel music that Johnny Cash or Elvis had, but I certainly had music from the beginning. At times even as an adult, especially as an adult, music is all that kept me going. 

Saturday

 When I woke up around 7 this morning, THE PAIN! Holy shit I hurt! It wasn't my center-of-top-of-shoulderblades area, it was like the fronts of my shoulders got trashed. Maybe from holding up the little paperback book last night,  I didn't know. I was groaning and yelping, it was horrible. I'm not improving! I'm getting worse! It scared the shit out of me. 

I took my morning pills and a bit of the childrens' ibuprofen also, mixed into water, and put the neck brace on and got some more sleep. After a few hours' sleep I was up again and actually felt pretty good. I listened to the radio for a while and then got up and am typing up all of this. 

It finally occurred to me. I'd slept without the neck brace. I'd probably twisted around all sorts of unadvised ways in my sleep. 

Friday

 Friday I was feeling good enough to actually fry up a couple eggs, and later in the evening had some cabbage leaves dipped in Chinese hot oil and vinegar that comes in these little packets, delicious by the way. And only one twin packet is fine for a serving of raw cabbage leaves. I had cheese with this also. 

I felt like I was improving, and did little tasks around the place. Ken still didn't come over. Maybe it was Friday I read the book. I was doing without the neck brace, and felt I could sleep OK without it now. 

Thursday

 Thursday I woke up, took my morning prescription pills and did little tasks, and also read an SF book, a small paperback that was easy to hold. Ken actually came by and dropped off my pay check and some gabapentin, but could not stay to talk much because he had to get to work. 

My advanture

 Yesterday, Wednesday, the 6th, I was in enough pain that I decided I'd better not "Lone Wolf" this and take advantage of modern medicine while it's still available, considering how the election went. 

I called Ken and asked him about a ride to the hospital. He said the only one he knows is the one up in Northern Fremont. I said I wanted to go to O'Conner hospital because I've been there before. I thought that with Med-Cal, ambulance rides are paid for, so since I was in so much pain being upright, I'd call 911, an ambulance would show up, on the ride they'd check my blood pressure and stuff, and they'd take me to O'Conner since I'd tell them I've been there before. 

This is where it turned into an adventure. I tried calling 911 on my flip phone and it didn't work. I got a warning screen about false calls and then it went blank. It could not get it to un-blank. I had the shop closed, and an "overnight" bag packed, and was ready to go. 

So I walked 2 doors down to good old Accu-Vac and asked the guy in there if he could call 911 for me. The guy, named Guy, did so. The 911 op talked to him and then to me, and an ambulance would be dispatched. 

Then we waited a long while, and during the time I found if I leaned on my elbow on the desk there, I could be pretty much out of pain. In that position, we talked about stuff and I talked about what we do, and said we've actually got some high vacuum stuff including some big lines, I guess bellows, that he can pretty much have for free and that when I'm well enough, I'll take him over here and show him what we have, give him those lines if he wants them, and give him a deal on the other stuff. 

It's only struck me in the last day or so that "Accu-Vac" means they specialize in vacuum/high vacuum stuff. 

So the ambulance gets here except they're on the other side of the building and can't figure out how to get to us. Guy walks out to them, and guides them around. So we're all standing there by the taco stand and I talk with the fireman, who has a glorious mustache. He says that just for a ride, I'll be charged $2500 and since there's no medical service like a heart attack or something, Medi-Cal will not pay for it. So I told them thanks but I'm not gonna do it. 

So Guy and I walk back over to Accu-Vac and I start thinking of plans, and finally I ask him if he'll drive me to O'Conner Hospital and he says, darnit, he will. So he makes sure the other guy knows what's going on, and we're off, in his zippy little Mini Cooper. 

We talk on the drive, and I ask if they're Mormon and they are. I said I'd lived as a kid for a while in Hau'ula in Hawaii, the next town over from La'ie where there's a huge Mormon temple and every 100 years it has to be re-consecrated so there's a period when "gentiles" can go in, and I got to go in and it was beautiful. It's a lot of Mormon cred for a "gentile" like me (I didn't say this part). 

Also that I had a friend who was always advising  I read "A Pearl Of Great Price" and Guy said that might be the shortest Mormon book but it's pretty important stuff like how they lived in the spirit world then decided they needed to have bodies, bodies that can sin, etc. 

Pretty soon we were there, I remembered the old bus route so I told him to get onto Stevens Creek and turn right where the old Safeway was, then go one street in and turn right, well it'd been a while since I'd been on the bus going past there, and we had to go on a bit, but after a dip under a bridge there it was. I thanks him and as I'd already told him through this, "You're a saint!" 

I went in the regular entrance, told the people at the entrance desk my situation, and the guy got a wheelchair and wheeled me into Emergency. Where  I filled out a paper and was wheeled into the waiting area. I got a quick assessment of BP, they looked me over and asked if my breathing as OK and things like that, then was wheeled back to the waiting area. 

The wheelchairs are not the kind a patient can move themselves. In fact they're locked, with a bar parallel to the handle that an orderly has to squeeze to the handle. So where I was pointed, I was pointed. This means even though there was a TV there, on something like Fox, ew, I couldn't watch it. 

Watching the people was more interesting anyway. Far more. There was the skinny, scraggly, homeless guy who looked like something out of a horror movie. He wanted to be put onto a 72-hour psych hold, but he and the hospital staff could just not communicate. The guy has lost everything, phone, ID, everything. And they wanted a phone number and ID... 

There are the usual bumps and bruises, little kids with parents, some extreme obesity cases, the homeless gal who attributed her scrapes and abrasions to dog bites but they didn't look like dog bites, they looked like ... maybe she'd been shackled on her legs? There were people with parents in their 90s. 

It was decided I'd get a CAT scan of my thoracic region. The doctors kept promising something for the pain and I kept asking but I was high and dry there. I'd told them I'd taken 400mg of ibuprofen at about 6AM and 400mg of ibuprofen at noon. Maybe that was why. Anyway the CAT scan was great. I went into this big machine that had soft lights in nice colors, pink and blue and green, and I was careful not to move a muscle, remembering the book I'd been shown by Dr. Allison at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital, of what fine detail can be gotten with X-rays. 

Then it was back out to waiting in the wheelchair. Eventually one of the docs, a very nice young Asian lady, told me they'd found no fractures, just "a lot" of arthritis. "Arthritis!" I exclaimed. "Well, general degenerative conditions...." later I heard them say the same thing to a patient which I'm pretty sure was one of the old parents in their 90s, taken to the ER by their kids. 

Lovely. So at least I know there's no major fracture or something. So, more waiting and eventually it was my turn to go into one of the little rooms, I was (finally) handed a little cup of pills and some water, which I eagerly gulped down. I was told about my prescriptions, Tylenol 500s, a blood pressure pill, a muscle relaxant, those little pills to be taken 1/2 at a time, once a day. And lidocaine patches. 

I was to pick those things up at the Valley Medical pharmacy that's way down on McKee and something and I said, "That's very difficult for me to get to! Is there a clinic here at O'Conner?" Yes there was so they changed it, not the papers, but sent the prescriptions to there. A clinic I could just walk to. And I walked to it, and they were having trouble with their printer. I advised that there may be a small shred of paper, crinkled up, caught in there or even paper dust. I'm magic with printers. And just my words ... fixed the printer. 

So  I got my pills but they didn't have the lidocaine patches and I said I didn't need 'em. I don't think the lidocaine would penetrate far enough to where the problem is. But I got the pills and a neat little pill cutter. And none of this cost me a dime because of Medi-Cal. 

Now, with the pills and papers stuffed into my little OSH tool bag/overnight bag, I had the problem of getting home. I had $24 on me. I remembered the #23 bus going right by O'Conner but that was years ago. I went to the bus stop but now it was for some other bus I've never even heard of and may not even run very often or very late. I needed a #23. 

Just to make sure of my directions, I asked a couple of nice Indian guys if Stevens Creek was "that way" and they assured me it was. I thanked them and started walking. It was a couple of blocks, then I had to cross it and walk down to find a bus stop. I waited and waited, a #523 went by, then finally a #23. I'd actually tried flagging down a couple of cabs that went by, but they apparently were going to pick up a fare or something. My $24 would have at least gotten me to Midtown Safeway where I could take money out of an ATM and pay the rest of the way to the shop here. 

But that would be too easy. I got on the bus, full of people who all smelled like cigarette butts. I rode that smelly thing all the way to the Paseo de San Antonio light rail stop - the driver skipped right by the Convention Center stop which I'd wanted but he'd done me a favor because both the blue and green line stop at Paseo de San Antonio station and I was able to save 15 minutes by getting on the blue line. 

I got off at the Karina station, and walked up to the gas station to use their ATM and got $40 out. That was a $2.50 charge but I didn't care. I went to the Denny's and got the double cheese burger but with no cheese. That must have been a half-pound burger and it took some work to eat it all. There was a hobo right out of Central Casting who came in and sat in the little booth near me (I was sitting at the counter) and at one point I offered him my food, the 2nd patty, the buns, and enough lettuce etc left over to make a good big burger, but in his unintelligible hobo muttering he managed to convey that he didn't want it. Then he ordered the T-bone steak. 

I finished up, paid, with the tip $24, and called a cab. The local cab company has the number, after the area code, 777-7777. It went pretty smoothly. First I dealt with a robo-voice, then the robo-voice confirmed cab no. 1717 was coming, then the actually guy with cab #1717 called me and I told him where I was (I'd walked to the literal corner of Brokaw and First) and pretty soon he picked me up. I gave directions for the quickest, easiest way to get here. The robo-voice had said the trip should cost $17-something, and the cabbie, a nice Indian guy, said he'd take $15, and I said I'll pay him $20 so he was very happy. He said driving a cab used to be a good job but since the last 5 years there's so much competition. 

The guys next door working at the cleaning place were just leaving for the evening and I'm sure it was something for them to talk about, seeing the guy next door being dropped off by a cab. 

I got back in here and the two large-ish things that had to go out the next day by FedEx were still sitting there with the boxes I'd picked out. As G-d is my witness, I packed the damned things and I packed them well, labeled them, all ready to pick up. 

Ken showed up and I had things set up where he sat in my chair and I lay on my bed on top of the sleeping bag and we talked about the usual things. But he'd forgotten his check book. But he gave me some of his gabapentin capsules, advising me to take two at bed time. I took one, along with the other medicines, and I actually slept.