Why I am anti-Christian

 I just learned about this yesterday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis I'd known that famous monk who set himself on fire was a follower of the same branch of Buddhism I do, Pure Land, but I didn't know all the details because things like this are never-ever taught or even whispered about here in the Empire. 

And here I thought the Catholics were a bit less crazy than followers of other branches of that death-cult... 

It's also why I side with Israel come hell or high water. As an Abrahamic religion, Judaism is still insultingly stupid, but at least it's not evangelical. The other two branches, Christianity and Islam, have at their core the belief that it's convert-or-die, and that it's better to burn someone at the stake or torture them to death than that they not convert. Because they're going to Hell anyway yadda yadda. 

At least with Jews it's live-and-let-live. Jews also get points for actually having encoded in their religion and general beliefs the kind of long-term thinking that you find in Asian cultures, and the idea that family means something. In Judaism, you need a minyan, which is 10 people, together at least, to do proper prayers and it's even a thing in Jewish neighborhoods to, if you're Jewish, to have a fellow Jew come up to you and say you're needed to complete a minyan for prayers. 

In Buddhism we have the Three Jewels, being Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Dharma is how you live your life, and Sangha is your community. Supposedly the Buddha was asked which is more important of the latter two and he said Sangha because you might fall away from the Dharma on your own but your Sangha would get you back on track. 

And so it's come to pass that Jews are not badly thought of in Asia, as they think long-term, actually have a meaningful family structure and the idea of mutual aid, and they don't push their beliefs on anyone. It was hilarious when one of the "China YouTubers" who'd been in China long enough to marry a Chinese gal, found that her parents were disappointed that he was not a Jew. 

Yesterday and last night, having mailed off that big load of packages and done all that stuff, I came home and cooked up some dinner and by that time was getting tired enough that it was all I could do to stay awake to nearly midnight. If I'm used to being up until midnight, my schedule is still compatible with Ken's as he doesn't stay here much past midnight, and I'm still awake at 8 or 9 to have the day to do things. 

Just before the rain

 I woke up at 9 again, and packed a lot of things. A lot of large packages were in this load, so I had an impressive stack on the bike trailer. 

The post office and FedEx run went fine, and I collected boxes and padding on my way back. 

There's a big rain storm coming in and it may clear up a bit on Friday. 

9AM is late

 I could not stay awake that long, and went to bed, expecting to wake up, ideally, at 9AM. I woke up at 6AM, decided I needed more sleep, and went back to sleep until what I thought was past 10. I got up, did exercises, and was having breakfast and coffee when I looked at the clock more intently and saw it was a bit after 9. 

I packed things to ship, small things I don't need the trailer for. There were two things for which there were not complete addresses so those have to be held back, and one that seems to have spontaneously disappeared, a thing that happens too often around here. 

I could say that things being as hard to find as they are is my fault, as I'm the one doing things in here. But it's Ken's hoarding and keeping piles of useless stuff and taking up huge parts of the warehouse with things we'll never sell that is really causing the problem. I don't have any say on huge areas and volumes, then have to put things as best as I can organize them in twisty convoluted spaces. Ken will find out when I'm gone. This place is going to melt down like a Styrofoam cup with gasoline poured in it. 

Since my two friends I've been emailing with, one on the Big Island and one in Honolulu, are useless, I finally wrote a letter to another guy I knew just to see if I get a reply. Even if he doesn't have a room to rent or know someone who does, having someone I can cite as a reference is something. 

I included a S.A.S.E. so he can reply easily. I included my email address too, but email isn't as reliable as it was even 10 years ago and as the internet gets worse and worse I don't expect that to improve. So he might try emailing me and the email never get through. Hence the S.A.S.E.  

The good trumpeter is shy

 I could not keep my eyes open last night and I went to bed at 10. I woke up at 6AM then decided I needed more sleep than that and slept until about 9 or 9:30 and got up. I started listing things I'd photo'd last night, but could not really get up to speed so after doing about half of them, I got things together and rode downtown. 

The first errand was to get rid of a bag of trash and then I rode down to Lee's Sanwiches by city hall and got a chicken skewer and then decided to check out the Tung Kee noodle place just down from it and ended up getting three egg rolls - they would not let me buy just two. They were the same as as Lee's, maybe not as good so that was not a great decision. 

I ate my delicious fried foods at my favorite bench on the college campus and then rode over to Walmart. I got a bunch of things there, among them some of their macadamia nuts as the ones from Sprouts might be cheap but the latest batch I got from them are just about inedible. In fact, I took what I had of those, washed them to get the salt off, and put them out for the birds. The birds had not touched them at the time I left. 

There was a crazy zombie flinging his groceries, apparently, all over the back parking lot and screaming stuff, so at least someone was having a good weekend. 

I rode back to Nijiya and got some other things. One of the guys there, by way of small talk, told me it was slow today, and I said that's funny considering how busy it was yesterday. It was downright warm outside and there were lots of people walking around downtown, and in Japantown, at least for a Sunday. 

Leaving there, I noticed the "good trumpeter" was practicing so I doubled back to have a listen. I'd heard him a couple of weeks ago, quieter, and that time he was playing something that sounded like classical, but modern like 20th century classical. I think he put soundproofing in his apartment. So I was eager to hear what he was doing. But that last time, I'd tried to hover around to listen and the playing had stopped. This happened this time also. The playing stopped, and the guy even turned off his lights. So I think he has a good camera setup so he can see all that goes on around his place, which only makes sense. It's what I would have. It's just too bad he's paranoid about being heard. But then in my experience, paranoid is the best way to be, so he's only doing what I'd probably do if I had an apartment facing out onto the street. In fact the this time and the last, I may have been hearing a record he was playing and he might not actually practice there at all - by taking one class or by paying the student activity fee, he could use the practice rooms at the college and again, that's what I would do. 

I rode back along 10th and at one point there was a zombie with its undead dog by the side of the sidewalk almost in the road, so I had to dodge the zombie but at the same time there was traffic on the road so I had to pass a lot closer to the zombie and its undead hellhound than I'd rather. Of course the dog started after me and the zombie pulled it back by the piece of clothesline or whatever it was using for a leash. The zombie even admonished the dog, as if it didn't know its zombie dog goes after cars and bikes and people. 

Further down the road I heard some funny sounds and where there's a sort of meeting hall there Christian meetings or sing-alongs or something are held, across the street was a zombie with a bike, with the bike light on its "work", trying its darndest to pry a body panel off of the car. Lovely. I rode on. 

You don't know Lockheed?!?

 I woke up at 7:30, got out of bed an hour later than that, futzed around with things and finally got out of here around 1PM or so. 

I rode to Nijiya first and got a musubi with dried bonito flakes in the middle. Also, I inadvertently figured out how the packaging works, where if you do it right, you remove the plastic wrapping and it comes off in such a way that the seaweed, kept separate from the rice, stays wrapped around it with the plastic between them merely removed, so the seaweed is nice and crispy. It was yummo. I just wanted something small to eat and it was perfect. 

Then I went to the book store and handed over the batch of books I'd built up. Some years ago I might expect $20 or so for these. I got $8.50. 

I rode over to Whole Foods and locked the bike up and used their loo and walked over to the light rail station and rode the Green line to the Convention Center and from there got on a #523 bus to the stop, nearly at the end of that route, by Marukai Market. It was pretty neat, taking less than half an hour. Every time I've ridden my bike out there it's always been a long and tiring ride and I've thought, "Why am I doing this?". 

What's funny is, on my way to Marukai Market, I sat near a bunch of high school age (I'd guess) girls who were talking about, well, girl stuff/teenage stuff. An old Asian guy sitting in the very back started asking them if they "knew Lockheed" and of course they didn't, and he was astonished at this, "They went to the moon" then asked them if they were "American" and one gal said she was born here and another said she was not but is a citizen, and this old duffer was fairly sputtering over how any American should know about Lockheed. 

The guy eventually clammed up and the girls went back to their girl-talk and got off at Valley Fair. If the guy was trying to go *to* Lockheed, he needed to be not on this bus, but on the light rail that goes out to Mountain View, and stops at Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale. Long ago I knew a guy who had just retired from there, who called it the rocket factory or as he said it, "The rockit fact'ry". 

The first thing I did when I got to Marukai Market was get one of those packages of sushi with a lot of different fish on it, and went outside and ate that. Then I went back in and got cooking gas, coffee filters, and a sugar-free Lipovitan. 

I walked back out to the bus stop across the street from the one I'd gotten off at and got on another #523 back to the Convention Center and from there the short hop back to Diridon Station. So, it was pretty easy and quick. 

There was a hockey game on (our team lost) and lots of people around. I went into Whole Foods for a few things and as I was getting the bike unlocked and squared away, I saw that there were a lot of people going in and out, it was maybe 4:45 or so, and there were no buskers or beggars or anyone "working" the crowd. 

It was really warm today considering what time of year it was, and very grey all day. There's tons of green grass and things flowering, and even moss making an appearance. 

I rode over to the little free pantry by the Peace & Justice Center and put the leftover books in there. Then I went over to the Amazon place and picked up a lot of bubble mailers which is good. Then went by Nijiya again for a couple more things, and got back here. 

It's funny that at the Amazon place, they've given up on having a kiosk for people to sign in at, and people just go to the desk, ringing a little bell if no one's at the desk. Also I guess they're worried about electricity costs as the place is really dark inside. There's light near the desk and the lockers, and the rest of the lights are out. It's not all the way dark, but unusually dark for a business. 

Also I saw military jets flying around today which was pretty cool. They're hard to spot, being so small in relation to the amount of noise they make. But I finally spotted some, a pair of them going around and then a single one. 

So all in all it was a nice day of errand-running. 

My theory that it was chocolate that was making me have headaches is still holding up. It's not that obvious, in that it wasn't a sure-fire thing where if I ate chocolate I'd get a headache an hour later. But it seemed like the more chocolate, the more headaches and I'd been eating a fair amount of it. Then I stop eating it completely and the headaches, so far, have also stopped completely. 

Up at 7

 Now that's more like it. When I worked, by which I mean it was always "first shift" which starts at 7, I was up at 6 or a bit before and waking up at 7 was "late". But I'll sure take it. I'd gone to bed by 10 last night, and had some weird dreams but nothing too bad, and got up because I didn't want to sleep any more. 

Because I felt I had the time, I read one of my latest Little Free Library finds, Black Beauty. Of course I read this as a kid, but it was pretty great to go back to it again and read it as an adult. It was actually never intended to be a book for children, but for adults, keeping in mind that most of the author's readers would be those of modest literary tastes. It's as much a critique of English society as it is of that society's treatment of horses, and stands up quite well. 

Of course I skimmed the latest news and it's war and rumors of war. The Orange Blob, even while he's in court for insurrection, is trying to start up another insurrection in Texas, and encouraging other like-minded states to send *their* National Guard troops to fight Federal troops in Texas. 

Someone pointed out on Reddit that followers of the Orange Buffoon all think he can do something for them. Coal miners think he'll be able to turn time back to the 1950s so they can mine coal and live in coal-mining towns on company scrip. Racists think he'll re-enslave the blacks and let them shoot anyone not white. Businesses think he'll eliminate worker protections (and this is a parallel to I.G. Farben and Thyssen and so on backing Hitler) and enlarge the prison-industrial complex where the US already gets so much of its labor. And so on. And it's been pointed out on Reddit that even when Orange sHitler had a lot of power when he was in office and had a majority Republican House and Senate, he didn't do anything but "golf and grift". 

This all makes me wonder if I'll hold out until September here. Of course I've told Ken I'm sticking around until November, to vote in the election. I keep mentioning that in passing to keep the deception alive. But in this way I'll short-circuit his attempts, conscious or not, to make my life hell right during the time I'm getting ready to make this big, and final I hope, move. 

I keep hinting to Ken whether he's inclined to buy "anything extra" from me and he never is, so I'll have to find other venues to sell said things. In a way this is good, as it will enable me to keep the selling-off of things that are too valuable to give away obscured, and thus not give away my time line. 

The fact is, my plan has long been to not leave here until I actually reach the age of 62, thus making sure I'm eligible for Social Security as soon as I get off the plane. But already I could probably leave next week and scrape by OK. So I might want to make September the last possible time rather than the earliest. 

I packed 9 things and went to the post office and FedEx. There was a ton of traffic today and I have no idea why. I picked up packing materials on the way back. 

I got back here and "washed" the parts I'd taken apart yesterday, using Windex. I set them on a piece of cardboard to dry and they'll be ready to photo and list tomorrow. 

I think I've found the actual cause of "my" headache. I think it's chocolate. This is why I gave away the chocolate I had around here, and have cut chocolate consumption to zero. And the headache is zero. 

 

The sorrels were up, and so was I

 After Ken was here, I cooked some dinner and listed 15 things on Ebay, then decided if I can't move my schedule back with any success, maybe I should try moving it forward. 

So I stayed up all night, packed 12 things I could take with me without needing the trailer, left here around 11AM to drop the things off at the post office, deposit my check at the bank, double back to go to Nijiya where I bought a bunch of stuff, and back to here. 

It's the 4th week of January and the sorrels are up and flowering and it's not just a few in one or two places, but everywhere. Plus a lot of other flowering things like those little bitty daisies, and crocuses, I think, by one of the little free libraries. I haven't kept meticulous track of such things, but I remember seeing those little yellow sorrel flowers being a sign of Spring, in March or so. 

Instead of going right to bed after eating the food I'd bought at Nijiya, I did something to keep me engaged for a few hours; I took apart the power supply Ken had brought here last night. That was probably the dirtiest piece of equipment I've ever taken apart. Plus it was nice and complicated so it certainly did eat up some time. 

The idea is to stay awake until 8 or 9 or 10, then go to bed and wake up early in the morning. I used to get up at 6AM routinely, and in a place like Hawaii it's going to be very useful to be back to that schedule, as there, people get up early and get things done before it gets too hot, then take it easy in the hottest part of the day, then do more things when it cools down in the evening. 

Big beastie power supply

 I slept until 8PM last night, woke up, took a big beastie power supply apart and put the parts I didn't want out - they were picked up by someone in a minivan in minutes - and then proceeded to... 

Stay up all night again. 

Yesterday has been a rained-out day so no going out, so I guess in a way sleeping through it made some sense. 

Waking at at 8PM as I did, I had about 2-1/2 hours to have coffee, clean the place, and make ready for Ken to come over. Which he did, at his usual time. He brought his usual junk food (burger, fries, huge cup of diet soda) and ate, then brought in some things to list. List another power supply that's not the beast the one I took part is, but pretty big and beasty and thus can be sold for more if it's parted-out. 

Ken was on a roll tonight. He dated my pay check for a week ago which is OK, at least it's not for a week ahead as he's done in the past. And somehow, in turning around in his chair, he managed to spill the big cup of diet soda all over the floor. 

So I dived in with the paper towels and Ken helped out by giving un-needed advice and moving the roll of paper towels out of my reach so I needed to get them again. "Get that spot under the rack", he advised. "I see it..." then as I made ready to do the old lay towels down and walk on them routine, he advised that I do just exactly that. "I come from a family of 5", I retorted, to explain that I know tons about cleaning up spills, thank you very much. 

I, with Ken consulting, got it sopped up pretty well, and I made Ken a tea, and we settled into the usual bull session. After solving the problems of the world he took off, after using the loo and I discovered another special favor he'd graced me with on this fine evening. Somehow, I don't know how, he'd managed to make the toilet stop working and just run all the time. 

I'm not sure how one can do this just by flushing but he'd done it. So I opened up the tank and had a look around and re-positioned the flapper valve and put some of my super-duper cleaner in there to clean things up overnight, and it should be all right. 

 

 

Thanks, I hate it

 I listed the 25 things last night, managed to stay up all night then realized I needed sleep and went to bed. I woke up around 6PM and read more of the "Disappearing Spoon" book for a couple hours. 

It had, I believe, rained all day thus I gave myself permission to sleep through it. 

Finally up-up, I turned on the radio to listen to what's going on and thanks to NPR I know all about "Zyn" nicotine patches... These are, apparently, all the rage among high schoolers, sold by helpful cigarette companies... 

"Tobacco's for ninth and tenth graders!" said one kid, quoted by his mom. 

There are little pouches of synthetically-made powdered nicotine so there's no tobacco involved, and the US being the US, it's perfectly fine to advertise, and sell, these things to school kids. On the positive side, anyone my age will remember smoking in high school and there were next to no barriers to obtaining cigarettes if you were a 70s kid. The only thing was, if we wanted to smoke we were to get our own - no bumming Mom's ciggies. She had enough moochers among the adults. 

I decided smoking was not for me, having only the very odd puff over the years. One time in Santa Cruz a grape Swisher Sweet I was tipped, just out of curiosity - it tasted like smoking a cigar while swigging grape Kool-Ade. Another time I smoked a clove in front of the Blue Lagoon with some friendly guys and I still have fond memories of hanging out smokin' cloves together but I'm glad I never got addicted to nicotine. 

These Zyn pouches seem to be clean, either flavorless or minty I'm not sure, and I'm seriously considering buying a tin so when someone asks me if I've got a cigarette, I can hand 'em out. But I've already had good luck handing out book matches which are cheaper and have gone over well. 

But why is it suddenly OK for school kids to get addicted to nicotine, a substance notoriously difficult to get un-addicted to? 

There are supposedly good mental effects of nicotine, and schizophrenics famously self-dose, with it helping them keep steadier. However, my theory on this is that if you're reaching for a smoke instead of a snack, you're at least keeping your blood sugar down and thus keeping at bay the "brain fog" that attends a starch and sugar based diet. 

On this last, due to having given away my chocolate and having a keto-compliant dinner, Lo and behold, when I got up I had no headache at all. 

Being back in Hawaii will be interesting. There's rice and macaroni salad and noodles everywhere. I will also have to go through a period of doing next to no cooking for myself. I'll have to have the discipline to, for instance, buy two spam musubi and eat only the spam and nori. Or ordering my ramen with extra chashu and eating all but the noodles. 

So I'm having my coffee and reading the usual cheerful stuff on places like r/homeless. One thing I see, constantly, is that at least the people posting there have no "mobile" skill or trade. 

As an example, let's say you learn to detail cars. Not just work as a detailer in a carwash although that's one way to get started, but you've learned about the various cleaning products, techniques, done a lot of cars maybe cheaply or even friends' cars for free or for some beer or something, to get lots of experience. You like the work, like the physicality of it as well as the technique, and like not only having a somewhat enjoyable way to exchange labor for money, but like the social interactions with your customers. 

This example, car detailing, is something where you could hop off a train in a strange town and go right to work whether it's at a carwash or truck stop, or even setting up under a tree. It's a "mobile" skill. 

Busking is like this. Also bartending, tattoo'ing, barbering, a whole lot of things. When I was much younger, I thought doing airbrushed T-shirts was this sort of skill but I soon found out I could make $10 a week doing this, none of it profit. I could make OK money doing it, if I had $100k to put into equipment, van, etc. first. Conclusion: it's not a mobile skill. 

There are really quite a lot of skills that are like this when you get thinking about it. Busking is one, of course. 

So here I'm reading about someone on r/homeless saying they might go back to stripping - but they really don't have the body for stripping any more. But it's all they have. 

I'm beginning to conclude that on r/homeless what I'm reading about are the "beached sailors" people who've been kicked out of parents' houses (common) or couldn't keep up with payments on their house or got tons of medical bills (a bit less common but still common) or ruined their lives with drugs or alcohol (also quite common) and so on. They have no mobile skills. The ones who *do* have a good mobile skill aren't moping around posting on r/homeless, they're out coping with life. 

My coming to the Bay Area is actually a version of the "land in a strange town" thing. I was able to come here with really only a few thousand on tap, and rent then buy a car, get an apartment, and start my ebay business up - so I had an ebay account (although this is not hard to start up) OK credit, and a good reputation with the company that owned the apartment complex I rented in since I'd lived in another of their properties in Newport Beach. 

Without those things, but with the Ebay account or knowledge of Ebay, I'd have gotten started up just fine anyway. Ebay skill is actually a "mobile" skill. It's worked well enough for me for 27 years now and the only thing I'd do differently is avoid debt like the plague. 

What got me into busking was an interest going back to when I saw my first busker and realizing, in my $1000 a month apartment (mid-2000s) apartment in Sunnyvale with my Prius parked out front, that I had to sell $6k a month just to keep even, and had tons of bills and overhead to worry about, my banjo-playing pal Aric Leavitt really only had to worry about the odd broken string. 

I figured, just before the economy crashed and emphasized things for me, that I could busk and make $50 a day, live in a $500 rented room, get around by bike, and save plenty after food and everything else, out of the resulting $1500 a month income. And all I'd have to worry about is a broken string or something. 

Since getting around by bike is a lot more enjoyable than getting around by car, and I'd no longer have huge bills hanging over my head, I figured it would be a great way to live. Then of course the economy crashed. 

But interestingly, the math still works out the same. Social Security will amount to about $30 a day, and I don't assume busking will bring in more than $20 a day in Hawaii, and that's the same $1500 a month I'd calculated almost 20 years ago. I don't plan to have a car, and in 3 more years I'll be able to ride the bus for half price. Also take college classes for just the activity fee. 

I guess I'll be doing more and more "mental rehearsal" of How It Will Be(tm) once I'm back in Hawaii. When I left in 1986, I was juggling college classes and work, but the college classes at least got me away from the standard 40-hour workweek and I got a bit of a glimpse of how nice life could be. When I was back there in 2003, I had a lot less fun than I should have because I was trying to figure out how to make a living there, with the amount of debt I had untenable and being really burned-out on Ebay selling. 

A dry few hours

 Rain was supposed to come in today, but the forecast was that I'd have a window of time during the day... 

I got things ready to photo and list, then put them away, got some practice in, and some sleep. 

I woke up around 1:30 or 2, packed some things that go by FedEx but aren't so big that I'd need the bike trailer. This enabled me to put them in large cloth bags with handles that I hung off the handlebars, and amazingly it was dry so it was an easy ride up to FedEx. 

I dropped the things off, then locked the bike up and walked over to Ross and found a couple of T-shirts, actual Under Armor ones that don't have huge logos on them and that will go straight into my bag for when I go to Hawaii. One to wash and one to wear, but I might pick up one more if one more shows up at Ross, so I'll have two in the bag and will be wearing one. All kept new until the day I leave here. The shirts were $17. 

Then I went over to Sprouts for some things, and then returned to H Mart for ... more things. I also, when locking up the bike, had given my chocolate (a box of Meiji pieces and a little baggie of choc. chips) to an Asian bum who was parked up by the exit door. My headache was back with a vengeance when I got up, and I blame it on straying from the keto diet and eating chocolate, especially the chocolate. I'd bagged it all up to give to Tom but the old guy could use it more so he got it. 

I'd felt a few drops of rain but that was all there was, which was nice. I stopped at Tom's on the way back and told him the latest gossip which was that I'd seen a full-sized RV that had been painted black, and then was almost tipped over, leaning at a scary angle, on the edge of Coyote Creek. Tom was doing OK, but he and one of his hangers-on were heading out to pick up some marble countertops somewhere, so we parted ways. 

I rode back here and after it was dark, got to watch some people apparently break into (or make a good try) a large truck that's some kind of food transport. I'd never have noticed except they were shining flashlights all over and really bright ones too. Absolutely zero light discipline. 

Rained in

 I had trouble getting to sleep last ... night? Day? I finally got into my little 3-pack of Underberg and drank all three, which gave me a little buzz and I was able to get to sleep. Woke up at 7PM. 

It's raining, it's been raining, and it's going to be raining. According to the local NPR station, right through the week, too, off and on. 

I can still get things to the post office and FedEx, by putting the packages inside large plastic bags to keep them dry. 

I had some great dreams while I slept, though. Probably the best part was where I met someone who was in the sport I used to do, but after the time I'd done it. He was Japanese-American from the old place, and we talked about old times, and he gave the most inspirational pep talk to me that made me feel like I could jump over mountains. I wish I remembered what he said, now that I'm awake. 

Worked my plan

 Rain was scheduled to come in, depending on which report, either "mainly after 10AM" or "in the afternoon" so I stayed up all night, packed everything that had to go (all small things because I'd gotten the big ones out of the way) and at 9AM it was still dry outside. 

I hopped on the bike and rode to the main post office and dropped the packages off, then went over to the bank and deposited my check. I was eager to do this plan instead of just blowing off the check deposit because if I did it this week I'd end up with a really neat number - $5005.xx. It was indeed very close to $5005 and I'll take it. I actually had my balance up around $10k for a short while, then I got spendy and it went back down. Now I want it up there again before I leave for home. 

Then I doubled back and headed for home. Since it was Friday, I wanted to do some chin-ups on the bar at St. James Park and there weren't *too* many zombies around, although the zombies were certainly out and about, staggering around. As I came up to the exercise equipment, there were two big black guys sauntering up and I thought, "Great, they're either going to offer to sell me drugs, or seeing me do chin-ups will turn into a big chin-up contest and who needs that?" so  I rode on.

I went to Nijiya and got a lot of things including a big bento. I also saw the moch/manju shop was open with some people waiting for their orders so I got a peanut butter mochi for $2.50 because I wanted to finally buy something from the place and now, here it was open. 

I came home and ate the bento and went to bed.

More screwed-up sleep schedule I guess

 It's a great schedule for someone working 2nd shift. 

I woke up around 3, had coffee etc., and came up with a plan. I packed all the larger, FedEx things, 9 of 'em as it turned out, and left here at 7 to run 'em up to FedEx. 

I also got some veggies and things and because hot-case foods are 2 for 1 or 1/2 price if you only get one *and* they know/like you, I got a "potota hot dog" which cost me $2. Win, I figured, and I sat down to eat it less than 10 feet from where the security guards were sharing a pizza, just sitting on a different side of the pillar in front of H Mart there, with little curbs at their bases and this prime perching places for us working-class types. 

Well, the "corn dog" was ... interesting. I didn't expect actual corn in the coating but ... "potota". But the hot dog itself was actually a fish sausage. Which was OK with me, just not great. And it had a light sprinkling of sugar on the outside..... 

I picked up some good boxes and bubble wrap on my way home which is great because rain's going to wreck everything until next week. So that was a good move. And I have all the big/medium things sent even ones that are due to go out on Monday. 

Screwed up sleep schedule

 My sleep schedule is all screwed up. At least, after sleeping from about 11AM to 6PM, I was up for a bit, ended up doing things like starting a load of laundry, and got some practice in. 

I need to come up with a list of songs to play, like I did for December except my December card was all Christmas songs. So now I'm starting a list of ... non-Christmas songs. 

I worked a bit on "Summertime" which is a good, classic song. One I thought of when I got up today was "Paper Moon" which is another good one. I remember when I was 15 or 16, we were having trouble even getting enough food, and my father would show up once in a while, and one time he visited out of the blue, and took me to the local theater to watch "Paper Moon". I don't know why, it was really random and it was nice, too. It's a great movie. I may have even been able to buy a small popcorn which would have been my dinner. There's a *reason* there was so much nostalgia for the 1930s in the 1970s. 

This weekend will be rained out, so there's no reason to worry about busking. 

I spent some time last night looking up hotels in Hawaii, prompted by some hints I found people giving each other on Reddit. It appears there's one near the airport, one near Ke'ehi Lagoon (yuck!) and one in the Ala Moana area that's probably the one I'll land at. I'm going to try to find a place in the general Waikiki/University/Punahou area, where there are always lots of students and "non-traditional" students like older folks getting that degree they promised themselves, visiting professors etc. 

Before Ken came, I wanted to finish taking apart the last 5 of 8 of these instruments from which the actually expensive parts had been taken, so I wanted to strip out the meters, circuit boards, fans, etc., and I actually got all that done, stashing the parts I didn't want like the cases inside the trash enclosure so they'd be out of sight. 

I also checked the other trash enclosure, the one with a perpetually-overfilled dumpster in it, and actually picked up 2 smallish tubs and 1 large tub (the smaller tubs with the stuff and the large tub our own) of medical stuff like blood pressure meter parts, stuff I can sell without problems because it's not prescription and doesn't go into the body, so that's at least a cool $100 and probably at least twice that, that I just had to walk across the parking lot for. 

Once that was all done and this latest haul spread out on cardboard up in the loft (the stuff had been rained on) to dry, I vacuumed the shop and generally cleaned up around here, and Ken came by so we had our usual bull session about science and things, and I got my check. 

I told Ken that with the rain coming in, I will probably either deposit my check on Friday or put it off until next week, because tomorrow's the only dry day in the forecast for the next several days so I have to prioritize getting the packages out. I can stand getting a little bit wet on Friday or just put it off until next week. 

Once Ken was gone I cooked some dinner, and took care of the parts. While eating dinner, I watched a bum come around and take a lot of the parts, pretty much all the parts that are metal, and go over and make a mess in the other enclosure where I'd pulled the medical stuff out. He was long gone when I got the bike and trailer out and took 3 trailer-loads of the stuff to the salt place's dumpster which they put out on Wednesday nights but only like every other Wednesday night so I really wanted to get that stuff into there tonight. 

Eventually I did some practice, about an hour as usual. Maybe a bit more. 

Another all-nighter

 I stayed up all night packing things and then started in taking some things apart (3 down, 5 to go) then headed out for the post office and FedEx at 8AM. 

I dropped off packages at FedEx first, because the post office doesn't open until 8:30. I actually went into H Mart and wandered around but didn't find anything I wanted to buy. That killed around 10 minutes though. 

I rode up to the intersection the post office is on and decided to ride around the big strip mall 99 Ranch is in, just because it's kind of eerie when these places are all closed. Everything was. But Paris Baguette was open, so I went in and got a croissant with a hot dog in it for $5. It was pretty good but next time I'll have 'em heat it up, then it will be lovely. 

I dropped my things off at the post office and headed back. I stopped in at Tom's because I'd seen his light on, on my way out. He answered my knock and looked like hell "I've screwed up my back!" he said. I commiserated, and we hung out while he poured the last of his coffee (I turned the offer of some down) into a cup, heated that in the microwave, started to brew another cup, and did dishes no-running-water style. 

He said he followed my advice and put his trumpet by his TV and actually practiced for 10 minutes or so. We talked about crazy things you see in San Francisco, and he offered me a cookie out of a kit he'd gotten where the cookies are all made and you're to put icing and little sprinkles on them. He went on about how the cookies is hard "I'll break your teeth" so I tried it and it wasn't hard at all. I reminded him of "Our idea of a good snack back in Hawaii" pilot crackers. Then he went on about those, "What do you have to do, break 'em with a hammer?" so now I'm wondering if Tom has bad teeth. Because pilot crackers were no problem at all, no harder to deal with than ripe coconut or chewing sugar cane. 

I started to go and noticed it had started to rain and took off, forgetting my gloves which I'd laid down on the back of the bike, which made Tom yell as I left and I turned around to pick up the one glove Tom had while the other was still on the back of the bike. Oops. I really want to keep those gloves through this last winter here. 

I went up a side street and found a food truck and bought an egg and sausage thing for $4 and took that back here and ate it with plenty of hot sauce, and went to bed. 

I was pretty disappointed to see it dry outside when I got up, but pretty soon a real soaker came through. I could have avoided doing an all-nighter but I didn't want to risk getting soaked if I went out in the 5 or 6PM time slot I usually do. 

Besides, being up and out early in the morning reminds me of when I was a kid, when I'd get up early and go out and wander around. At times I'd even get up at 4AM to go look for glass floats on the beach when we lived on the windward side. 

The Nazi caucus

 I got some practice in last night which went "meh" but it was over an hour, and there are two things going on: First, I kind of got a boost from the Christmas season because I knew all those carols and there was the whole mood of the season, with people highly appreciative of them. Secondly, I've not been practicing the past couple of weeks which kind of makes sense in that it's cold, often rainy, and no one's in the mood including myself. 

The radio is full of news about the Nazi caucus, held of course in Iowa because Iowa checks two boxes, (1) it's the least-educated state of the US while also being (2) almost completely white. And of course they're slobbering all over Low-Budget Orange sHitler. 

I had a brief thought while making coffee today. What if Ernst Roehm had somehow managed to avoid being killed by Hitler and instead, prevailed? As far as I know, Roehm wasn't rabidly anti-Semitic the way Hitler was, and he actually took the "socialist" in the Nazi Party's name somewhat seriously. Germany may have ended up with a nationalist, even Fascist, party but with regard to Jews it may have been how things had been developing, with Jews integrating more and more into German society and many serving bravely in WWI. There may have been "Germanification" programs for the flood of Jews coming in from the new Soviet Union, instead of their being used as a scapegoat by Hitler. It might have been perfectly fine to be a Jew, as long as one was patriotic enough. 

They'd still have ended up head-to-head with the Soviet Union, as the latter had the intent to take over Europe. They may have done it more intelligently, though, leaving England alone, going *only* after the USSR and thus having the rest of the "Western" world cheering them on. 

In any case, it's present history that's a lot more interesting, if by "interesting" is meant rather terrifying, now. We've dodged having a dictator in this country a few times. Huey Long was assassinated. Charles Lindbergh seemed to have lost his guts for politics and much of his appeal, after his kid was kidnapped. The "Business Plot" of the 1930s was spiked by General Smedley Butler. 

But now we have this idiot, who Americans on the bottom third of the IQ distribution have had on their TV sets for years. And the bottom third are perpetually angry and almost incapable of reason. One would think that myself, hovering as close to homelessness as I do, and playing street music, would have befriended quite a few "street people" and gush over them on here about their being Noble Savages or some such thing. 

But the truth is, street people really are "deplorables". They live on fast food, tooth-rotting sugary drinks, cigarettes, and any drugs they can get their hands on. They hate everyone. There is absolutely no cooperation on the street. They hate and prey on each other far too much. They're Iks who (don't, generally) drive cars. 

Get talking with these street-Iks and they all think Trump is great and moreover is super-smart. He probably is, compared to them. I think they believe that once Trump wins (because they can't imagine he won't, just like they can't imagine a lot of things) he'll come around and hand each one of 'em a really big bag of crack rocks. 

Fortunately most of them are felons or don't have their papers in order anyway, and until polling places start giving out street drugs with every ballot, are not motivated to vote. 

My point here being that they are the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpenproletariat

I woke up around 3, and after coffee I set out for Walmart where I got things, and happened to be where then a mom and her daughter were emptying the daughter's little backpack, full of coins, into the CoinStar. I came up and said I'm a coin collector and will buy any "oddball" coins that the machine won't accept and in the end got two silver dimes and a 1941 nickel the machine didn't like, plus some interesting foreign stuff and the inevitable Chuck E. Cheese token. I gave them a crispy $1 bill for this, which the daughter thought was great. 

I then hurried over to Nijiya for ... other things ... and had a little quiet time sitting on the long bench on the corner with a package of seaweed flavored peanuts and a can of black coffee. 

Then I hurried again, back here. 

The silent treatment

 I slept through the day today, finally getting up at 6PM. I had a weird dream that I was walking out Brokaw to First Street to get the light rail to the #23 bus except there was a #23 bus stop along there for some reason, and I was walking with some people and some nut with a gun started shooting at us. With a Glock for some reason, it was odd that I knew this, because my reason for being out there was to take the #23 bus downtown and go to this bar frequented by old white guys to sell one of them ... my Glock. 

So much for sleeping in! 

I *do* need to sell off everything possible in preparation for the move back home, though. 

I got an email from Dave in Honolulu in response to my sending one floating the idea of my "landing" at least at his place for which I'd pay him. His response was that I "land" at Pat's place on the Big Island, which made me write a big long email with all the reasons I'd not do that. Dave's mentally still "together" enough to manage selling the email address he's been using, which is a really neat one. So he's still thinking about keeping his bills paid and things like that. 

Pat, on the Big Island, however, is giving me the silent treatment. I can't think of anything I've said or done to anger him, and in fact had been sending him things like the good hospital-grade band-aids I'd been getting from the EMT place and he'd said they're useful. 

My theory is that, along with all the other things that make Pat's place unlivable for anyone normal and almost-unlivable for Pat, is that he lives day to day stewing in a hot tub of constant drama. I imagine each day a constant bicker-fest between Pat and his girlfriend or common-law wife, plus who knows what else he can raise in the way of discord, maybe his cats causing problems for the neighbors, or Pat pitching a bit because a neighbor grilled some hot dogs (Pat's so doctrinaire vegan that I can't even bring up the subject of fishing in emails) or something. 

A quickie FedEx run before the rain

 I'd packed four big things last night, and planned to take them today after the overnight rain had passed and before the next rain comes through. 

I stayed up all night again but at least did some practice, then went to bed. I woke up around 2, and didn't even bother with coffee, just (slowly) got dressed and ready to go and loaded up and went up to FedEx. 

The zombies have been largely chased off of Rogers Avenue but they're all over the little side streets and even in the cold and going-to-rain weather the damned things are out and about, doing zombie things. Street drugs don't take a day off. 

It was nice and dry out, and the trip a quick out and back, with a stop by Tom's (who was probably out since he didn't answer the door; that or passed out from a night guzzling cheap booze). Tom's place looks like hell. He's got a trash can and other crap right on his front doorstep and the side yard is so full of crap you could barely walk through it. 

I rode back here and got in and all buttoned up. I'm glad I made this run today (was thinking I might have to do it on Sunday) just as I'm glad I got my bank run done on Thursday. 

Cold post office run

 I woke up around 3, had coffee etc., and packed a bunch of small things because while I can go to FedEx over the weekend, the post office won't be open until Tuesday. 

I took off at the usual time, dropped my packages off, went to the place nearby that has outdoor gym stuff and did my chin-ups. There was a security guard car there but no sign of whether there was anyone in it since the windows were darkly tinted. If the guy was in there, all he'd have seen me do is my chin-ups with some time in between picking some pieces of packing foam out of the loading dock area. 

I got some stuff at 99 Ranch then went to H Mart and got some things there too. Between that and my phone bill being paid out of my bank account, that's it for spending until the next pay check - I'll take money out of my cash-stash if I need it. 

It is really cold out there. I remember hardly needing my hat and gloves over the last few winters but I sure need them this year. 

A dry day?

 But a COLD one. After doing a bunch of things, most notably getting some things ready to photo which took time, because they needed cleaning, boxes fixed up, new box for one, etc. I actually did some practice and then went to bed. 

I woke up a bit after 2, maybe 2:30. I really didn't feel like going out and thought out the different scenarios (like if I didn't go downtown today, I'd have to pack and ship things today) and factored in that I've always been happy with myself when I got my banking done on Thursday, and got cleaned up and fresh clothes and all that, and headed out. 

It's cold out there! I got rid of a bag of trash, and headed to the bank. Their accounting and my accounting agreed  to the penny and even without busking this last weekend I only spent about $100 of my last pay check so my account is coming along nicely. 

I didn't go to Whole Foods but instead rode over to the Amazon place to pick up bubble mailers. There was a neat little puddle of urine right in front of their door so I was careful to avoid that. Yes, even with the cold weather the zombies were out and about. 

I stopped at Nijiya on my way back and got various things, and rode back here to put things away. Traffic was crazy all over, which makes me wonder if there's some kind of big holiday coming up. Lunar New Year isn't until February 10th and this Monday coming up is MLK day, so I wonder if people take long weekends this time of year and they're getting out of town. 

I got back here and put things away and headed right back out to H Mart where I locked the bike and walked over to Sprouts. I was behind a guy who had a green T-shirt on with a stylized avocado and something "Avo" something, a Dad joke I don't even remember. I asked, "Hey, where'd you get that shirt?" he he said, "Oh, I work at a Sprouts and this is my work shirt. They have all kinds of jokes about the food". I said I thought he might be Australian because they say "Arvo" for "Afternoon" and thus we had a conversation started. 

The poor guy's got a 4-year degree in "digital modeling" and can't find a job at all. Tons of layoffs are going on right now. I said he ought to check out Da Anza College as they have a really good CAD/CAM program and he said he was interested in CAD and will check it out. He's from Hollister and we talked about how boring Hollister, and Gilroy, can be. Although, I mentioned, Gilroy wasn't that bad as I was on a big ol' place and could shoot my .22 rifle from my computer chair. 

We did all this talking as we walked along and he was surprised when I walked into Sprouts with him. He was there to work and I was there to shop! I got my things OK and now I'm wise to that stupid "round up" thing and pressed No. It'd be almost worth it to use self-checkout to avoid that BS. 

I walked back to H Mart and got a bunch of things there, my spending today being the answer to the "64-dollar question". And change. 

I need to mention that in my practice in the dawn hours, I did the usual noodling around at songs, some exercises, and the half-step bends recommended by Adam Rapa. Here's something I noticed: If I'm reach for high notes, like going from G above the staff to C above the staff, and have trouble making the higher one, if I do half-step bends on the lower one, then it's easy to pop up to the higher one. I think this is important. 

The best analogy I can think of for this is, in baseball a batter won't just step up to the plate cold. He'll have warmed up, swinging a bat or a few backs around in lazy circles to warm up the muscles, then will do some practice swings not hitting a ball but just paying attention to form and staying loose. I think this is what half-step downward bends do. Adam Rapa talks about, when rehearsing or just practicing, if he's not getting the resonance he wants on a note, he'll take a few moments out to do half-step bends on that note. 

Trumpet playing involves using some fairly obscure muscles, and often using them in unusual ways. I get the impression that exercises like this are useful just for getting in touch with, or back in touch with, the muscles at all. 

Rain all day

 I woke up and it was pouring. It was wet all day and into the night so I'm glad I got all those things sent out yesterday! 

I'm worried about my next-door neighbors. It's a machine shop owned/run by some Vietnamese folks, and I think they have someone living in the space that corresponds to the office and loft here. That's fine, except I hear thumps pretty often, and what sounds like arguing or fighting. Except it might not be. It might be someone drinking themselves into a stupor, passing out for a while, then essentially sleepwalking and doing stupid drunk person stuff. That would explain the banging and thumping, the voices that are raised but not really in a full-on argument, and it happening in the middle of the night. 

I think they have some older family member living in there, regardless of his problems, instead of kicking him out into the street like Good Americans(tm) would. 

Ken came by and I got my check and we talked about the usual odd but mostly science-y things. 

Trying to change back to day mode

 Last night I tried to get to sleep by midnight which meant 1, which meant I actually went to sleep a bit past 2AM. 

I woke up around 10, packed 17 small things, and left for the post office around noon. There was just a slight sprinkle going on. I dropped off the post office stuff no problem, then came back to H Mart and dropped off one small FedEx package and went inside to spend money - on a cucumber and a split grilled mackerel. 

I stopped by Tom's on the way back and caught up on things; he still doesn't have his truck back. It started to sprinkle just a little bit more, and I said "I'd better get going" and as soon as I was across the street it started actually raining so I got a bit wet just coming back here from Tom's. It proceeded to rain pretty hard once I was back inside, and it got really wet out there.

I got back and hung my damp clothes up in the loft, and settled down to eat the fish. I didn't think I'd be able to eat it all but I was - burp! I kind of zoned out for a while then realized I'd better check the weather. 70% chance of rain tomorrow and I realized I had time to pack the big things I had left and make a run to FedEx. It had dried out by now.

So I did that - another 17 things but a bunch of them were all in one box for one buyer. I took off with those at 6, and traffic was really backed up along Brokaw. The train signal between Oakland Road and Coyote Creek was going off, and traffic was *really* backed up. But, on my bike,  I could just walk it under the gate and since there was no train in sight, I did. 

I dropped the boxes off and got a chocolate bar in H Mart with the dimes, nickels, and pennies I wanted to get rid of. On the way back, the train signal was still going off and traffic still backed up but that was no problem for me. 

I picked up a surprising amount of packing stuff for a rainy day. I even picked up a few interesting things from the HVAC place, and got back in here. 

Freeze warning

 Of course there's a freeze warning. Although, we used to venture into the 20s in the winter and we're "only" going down to the 30s. 

I pulled a lot of things out to pack and ship, and put a lot of things away - I list things and they build up. I might have to finish building my lighting system too, that's based on two flashlights/worklights that are battery powered because I have one electrical socket and that has to be reserved for plugging things in to show they work. The overhead light usually has 3 out of the 4 bulbs lit but it often goes down to 2/4 of them doing dark, which makes it gloomy in here and not good for photos. I mean, it's Silicon Valley, it's supposed to be gloomy and depressing but it turns out dim, dark, photos are not good for selling things... 

I practiced last night emphasizing doing long or long-ish anyway tones, high notes, and the half-note downward bends Adam Rapa says were part of his training from early on. (Anything he does can be assumed to be right.) 

It's up in the 50s during the day so not *that* cold but it's still cold.

Cold overnight

 I listed 25 things on Ebay last night so horray for me. It got down to 34 degrees last night so it was cold. I didn't go anywhere. 

Instead, among other things, I watched a video by "Photo Luke Hawaii" of a driver's eye view of a drive from Kaka'ako in Town to Ka'a'awa on the windward side, then turning around and going back to McCully in Town again. 

I tried looking for things I knew on the windward side like the art supply where I actually had an account in high school. I believe it was called Windward Art Supply and was run by some New Zealanders (or Australians, I'm not sure) and when I first went to get something one of them made a crack about "Sign your life away" which made me feel deeply embarrassed. I  think they did me a favor, though. 

And I tried looking for the place we'd last lived with my mom, close enough to Chinaman's Hat that I could paddle, with a double-ended paddle I'd made, to it and back on a big varnished hollow wood 1930s/40s surfboard we had. The place is/was well hidden though, and I could not identify it for sure. 

Likewise the set of A-frame houses on the beach where we first lived for a few weeks when we got to Hawaii in the late 1960s. I remember my older brother getting me up in the morning to go to a place nearby on the beach with a big crab hole. And over the other way, there was an old washing machine in the ocean a short distance out, and my dad had great fun trying to throw rocks to land in the barrel of the thing. I didn't see the A-frames either. 

It was a nice virtual visit, though. People say Oahu is crowded and it is certainly so compared to the other islands, but there are vast areas of Oahu with absolutely no one living there. Maui is about the same size of Oahu with maybe 10% of the population if that. The Big Island is, well, huge, and is so sparsely populated that it really is the Wild West there, where if you leave for the weekend without having someone to guard your place you can return to find everything including and especially your water catchment system stolen, and where it's too common to be killed by packs of feral dogs.

Anyone who pines for the Apocalypse just needs to move to the Big Island and try Apocalypse Lite on for a try. Save up $10k or $20k, buy an "unpermitted" place (they all are) and have fun! 

It was nice "visiting" the old Windward Side though. I really wonder how things are for the ecosystem because when  I was a kid in the 70s subsistence fishing and foraging were a thing for quite a few people. The waters off of Hau'u'a and Punalu'u were somewhat barren, overfished. There were not a lot of feral domestic animals around. I'm pretty sure they were eaten. Not by people originally from the mainland, probably, but the place, then as well as now, is a mixing-pot of peoples, to some of whom meat is meat, and even to a few of whom, within living memory, people ate each other. 

Now it's been a generation or two eating American type food, and since the mid-80s portions got bigger and kids got fatter and the old-fashioned hunger I grew up with seemed to have ceased to be a thing. Feral animals are everywhere. The fishing might actually be very good, at least for a few years until things get further into the heat-death we've engineered for the Earth. 

I was up all night and woke up around 4. Maybe 4:30. I ate etc., and left here at 6. I rode up to Dai Thanh for some things, then 99 Ranch for some other things, then lastly H Mart for yet other things. 

It'll get down to the low 30s here overnight and yet, as cold as it was out there, I still saw zombies out doing zombie things. So I still had to dodge 'em. 

I got back in here and put things away and ate the hot food I'd gotten at 2-for-1 at H Mart, and reflected on how I still have $12 in my wallet and I've only spent a bit less than $100 of this last paycheck. 

 

Cold and rainy both

 Well here it is Saturday and the rain came in as predicted, although later in the day, maybe early afternoon. I woke up around 3-4 and red the rest of "The Violinist's Thumb" which I'd started on quite a while back. It's OK, although it has some of what I'll call intentional errors for the sake of sensationalism.

 First, Jane Austen did not, according to all the other sources I looked at, die of adult chickenpox. It's kind of believable to me because I had it and got pretty sick and might have been sicker if I hadn't been given some Acyclovir and had a landlady who was fine with my staying in bed when I wasn't having some of the excellent chicken soup she'd made just for me. She'd been a nurse before/during (and I guess after) WWII and when I wasn't sleeping I read a lot of her old nursing books from the 1930s. They were from the pre-antibiotic era (and also before a lot of the vaccinations we have now) and a lot of the care involved keeping the patient as comfortable as possible until they died or got better. There were lots of recipes for sorts or slurries that could be gotten into them for nutriment, which consistently had whiskey as a major ingredient. 

Second was the matter of Evelyn Einstein. She was either a bastard child of Albert or an adopted child of Albert's son I think it was, an according to the author was both mentally retarded and destitute. I felt sorry for the old gal and looked her up, and according to Wikipedia, had not only a college degree but worked at a number of jobs you need connections to get. Yes, she was destitute for a while after her divorce, which is almost required in the US. She lived in her car and dumpster-dived. This is an esteemed American tradition. But she got back onto her feet and when she died was "worth" about $1 million, thus making her, in the American value system, a good person. 

It's good and wet, and cold, with freeze warnings overnight. No busking this weekend.

Beginning of a cold weekend

 It's supposed to be cold and maybe a bit rainy tomorrow (Saturday). 

I got back in and rounded up a handful of things to list, dug things out to pack and ship, and just felt very tired so eventually I went to bed, and read (in bed) the rest of "Going Solo" by Roald Dahl. It's an amazing book and apparently he was an amazing pilot. He got 5 confirmed, making him an ace, but plenty more that were not confirmed but shot down all the same. I'm convinced it was English public school that made him an ace. He was best in school at that game he did, and the sense of duty and not letting your mates down along with the athletic skill to excel at that game made the whole package. He could have rested on his laurels for the rest of his life. 

I woke up around 3 or 4, as I'd told myself I can sleep all I want.  I packed 6-7 things and left at 6 to take them to the post office and FedEx. What's funny is, I was only waiting at a light at the final intersection before getting to the post office when I noticed I'd forgotten to use any bungee cords to fasten the packages down. But they'd all been fine. 

So I continued, mailed them, then went to my chin-up place that's in that area and did some. An older Asian guy on a bike rode up and did some exercises where he just hung, which is good for the body too. I picked up some boxes from the loading dock in between sets, then got out of there. 

I stopped at H Mart and bought some veggies and dropped two packages off at FedEx, then rode over to behind the computer repair place and picked up a lot of small packing things and odds and ends. 

Just a usual Friday I guess.  I rode back here, picking up a bunch of those big cookies that are one to a package and a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper at the vending machine place, and put those out when I got back here for whoever wants 'em. Along with one of those big boxes of "Sky Flakes" that I'd eaten some of, and that are most certainly not on my diet. 

Tomorrow's to be a rain day so I guess I'll stay in.

Mouse pad

 Last night I'd packed tons of things, 22 of them in fact, and put them into two large plastic bags, one from Ross and one from Big-5. The things would have filled up four of my Whole Foods cloth bags. 

So when I woke up at almost 3, I was glad I had everything ready to grab and go. I left here just before 4, stopped by the temple to drop off my January pledge, then went over to the downtown post office to mail all the packages. 

Next was the bank, with my record and theirs matching to the penny. That's a nice feeling. 

I went to Whole Foods to lock the bike and walked over to Diridon Station and caught the green line to the Convention Center, then got on a #323 bus to the big mall across from Santana Row. 

I walked into the mall via the valet parking entrance which turns out to be a great move, as I discovered there are very nice bathrooms there, benches to sit on, and the Apple Store which I was headed to, was right there. 

The guy there checked the Apple gift card I had and told me there's $10 on it. They also don't sell mouse pads. They sell some expensive "track pad" gadget and I just wanted a regular old mouse pad. No problem, I told the guy, and retraced my steps except I walked across the street to Best Buy. 

Best Buy had mouse pads for $5, and when  I got home I put my old, curling, one into the package the new one came in, taped it up, and put it with the couple of printers someone's left by the trash enclosure. 

I retraced the bus and light rail routine and went into Whole Foods. I asked at Customer Service if I can use an Apple gift card there and the guy said, with the mien of someone talking to someone who might be very stupid or crazy, that it's only good for Apple stuff like music and so on. 

By now I was pretty hungry and it's very cold out there so I got some meatloaf which today had a sauce that's close to pure oil, dumped some rice in because you can't beat beef+oil+rice, and had that with a "Mocha Stout" near-beer. 

I rode away from there and took a loop by Christmas In The Park. I thought the thing runs until the 10th and maybe it did, in the past. But it was being packed up and frankly was sad as hell. Hokey as it is, it was quite a downer to see it all fenced off, everything being packed up. 

I rode over to the Amazon place and picked up a good batch of bubble mailers, and gave the Apple gift card to the gal there after asking her of she or any of her co-workers could use it. She said she thinks one person can. 

Then I just rode home. It was about the normal amount of zombie-dodging on this trip. One annoyance is a zombie camp right on the corner of 10th and Hedding, where getting past can be a delicate balance, avoiding cars on the left side and hitting a filthy zombie on the right. 

With Christmas In The Park gone, I don't want to get into the rut of just playing at Whole Foods on the Alameda all the time. Even though it was a cold Thursday night (observed around 6PM but "night" starts at 5PM in Silicon Valley) there were a fair number of people around, enough to make it look worth it to me, but not enough to be worth it to the singing lady or the preacher guy. 

A dry day

 I listed 15 things, got things ready for packing, cooked a beef curry for dinner, got into dry clothes after coming in from the rain first of all, etc. last night. 

I was up most of the night, but at least I found a radio station that played some fairly decent classical music so that was nice. 

I woke up around 3. It was dry! And will be for the next day or so anyway. I packed what I could of things that had to go out today, concentrating on bigger things. I left at 6, did the post office and FedEx, went into H Mart for a can of coffee, bought some paper at FedEx as well as dropping off a big package, etc. 

I was going to get my traditional Wednesday night fried chicken from the chicken place but they've changed their setup - they say they will take cash but it looks like the guy there (only one guy there) has so much to do it would be a long wait if using cash. You're supposed to use a kiosk and pay by card now. 

I actually kind of like ordering from a kiosk. I first encountered it in Japan in the 90s and think it's a neat system. There's no chance of errors you didn't make yourself, and the guy cooking your food doesn't have to handle money which is a lot more sanitary. But, not taking cash at all is the problem here. I was happily spending the $7 or $8 in coins I'd amass each week, and they were happy to get the change. Plus the prices are up a bit. 

I figured I'd see what they have at the fish place - they have a sign in their window saying they're card only now, no cash. So much for them. At the "Hawaiian" place, a mini-meal is something like $14. 

I went back around to H Mart, remembering their hot case of snacks they have now, with grilled fish and slices of pork and Korean blood sausage and such things. I got a thing of thinly sliced beef that was priced $8 which seemed fine after looking at the prices at the other places. It was just before 7, and after 7 you get 2 for 1. 

By the time I was at the checkout it was a bit after 7 and the lady said it's 2 for 1 and don't I want to get something else? I said I really didn't, just the one is all I need. So she charged me half price! So I forked over my 4 $1 bills and now I still have the big bag of change. I got some chopsticks from the plate lunch counter and ate out front. It was a lot of beef, like half a pound. (This by the way was a tastier version of the beef I grew up with in Hawaii especially in the public schools. They'd take low-grade beef, slice it thin and cook it with teriyaki sauce, and there was your "teri beef"). 

The thing is that on Wednesdays Ken comes over and I have to work even more than usual, so it's best to eat something "on the road" and not try to eat here. I have to clean the place up, pack things, etc then entertain Ken and I can't get anything done when Ken's around. 

After eating I went around my usual route, picking up packing stuff, then got back here and put things away. Today's freebees I guess is were a couple of neat little Honeywell portable heaters, one of which looking like it needs a good bath, a big package of Sky Flakes, and a weird high-end thermos. 

I got back and put things away, and packed the rest of the must-go's to take with me tomorrow and cleaned the place. 

Wet January 2

 I was up pretty much all night. One of the many things I did was watch the French series, "The Effrondement" which is a series of little stories about the doom times. It was OK, but mainly because the internet is so slow, I had to watch each episode in little snippets so it was sort of watching an old "serial" where you had 2-3 minutes of Tom Mix doing something or other, then another snippet... it was fairly good, though. Not as stupendously good as people were talking about, but a fine thing to do on a New Year's Day. 

I woke up a bit past 2, had some coffee etc., and realized rain is coming so I grabbed the things that I'd already packed and not been able to send out on Friday due to rain, and took those to the post office and FedEx. 

I found an almost ripe pineapple in the electric lighting place's dumpster, so I swung by Tom's place and gave it to him and got caught up on things. It's funny too because I took off and as I rode away, saw that pest James driving to Tom's. 

I got back here, put the trailer away (didn't find any packing stuff) and took off again to do some shopping. I rode up to 99 Ranch and after I'd shopped there and had a couple of tea eggs and a can of coffee, it was starting to rain but just sprinkling. 

I rode to H Mart and locked the bike there, and now it was more like actual rain. I walked over to Ross where I bought a couple of T-shirts, then to Sprouts where I got my macadamia nuts and a cucumber, and when I came out it was pouring. 

I hung out in HomeGoods for a while, and bought 20 little chocolate bars for $4, a good deal as they're Cadburys I'm pretty sure from England. I looked around there some more, then looked around in the phone stores, while the rain lessened a bit. 

Then I went into Habit Burger and got some tempura green beans, and while eating those I noticed a young, skinny Asian kid kind of hanging around, like he was looking at the menus longingly. And he seemed to be asking some people at a table ... something. I had $5 left so I got up and said something like, "Hey dude. Are you hungry? I've got some money you can have...." it turned out he was waiting with his family and the father actually thanked me for being so considerate. So that was kind of cool even if it was a faux pas. 

Now the rain has tapered off quite a bit, and I walked back to H Mart, got my bike and rode home very slowly so I don't have a grimy, mud-splattered bike to clean up later. 

First day of 2024

 Well, here we are. After busking last night, eating dinner, coming up with 15 things to list, etc., I stayed up watching all these videos about this weird guy called Daniel Larson and this other guy who I forget the name of who came up with a combination of Pikachu and Sonic The Hedgehog and calls it "Sonichu" and is a bigtime weirdo too. 

Before I knew it, it was 7AM. Time for bed! 

I woke up around noon then dozed off a bit more with tons of strange dreams. This is the schedule I've tried to get away from, going to bed when most people are going to work, waking up about the time first-shift workers are going home, not getting very good sleep, and being in a rush to get things done like trips to the post office. 

I felt really weird when I woke up but had coffee and food, did exercises, normal-type stuff. And busk I must, because I'd made my mind up to. 

So I took off for downtown, stopping at Nijiya for a can of coffee and a little box of Meiji chocolates, as they were getting close to closing at 6. They were very busy and the guy accidentally gave me two bags which is kind of funny. 

I rode downtown and over to Whole Foods to (a) see if anyone else was busking/performing/begging there in which case I'd go somewhere else, and (b) to spend up the about $23 in $1's I wanted to get rid of. 

Except ... on my ride downtown an "interesting" thing happened. I rode on 3rd I think it was, whichever one City Hall is on. And I felt so faint, I actually stopped the bike on the sidewalk diagonally across from City Hall, got off it, and and got down on hands and knees on the sidewalk. If you faint, what can really fuck you up is falling when you're not conscious because you can't catch yourself. So I was on the sidewalk in a sort of a ball next to my bike for a few minutes then felt like I was OK, actually sweated a bit, but OK. 

I got up just as a bum came along asking me if I wanted to buy a purse he had - whether he'd nicked it out of a store or stolen it from some lady he'd mugged I had no interest and told him No, Thanks. He was going along the street trying to sell it because who wants a purse when you can have a rock of crack? 

I felt OK and rode, not too quickly, to Whole Foods. I locked the bike up - no one was there and it was pretty calm customer-wise. I went in and got a lot of things, using up the $1's and among the things, getting an alcohol-free coffee/latte beer of some type, and some water to rinse my mouth out after having the coffee stuff. Amazingly, I was thirsty enough to have no problem finishing the thing. 

I set up to play a bit before 7, and played until 8. I may have missed a huge surge of customers as whoever was on cart duty gathered up a ton of them from the parking lot. But, considering my light-headed spell I felt pretty good being out there at all. 

I played away, and except that it was pretty cold it went pretty well. I didn't get a lot of tips but a lot of people seemed to appreciate my playing and I got $42.50, stopping just a bit under the full hour mark as it was cold out there. And Whole Foods was closing. I thought they closed at 9 tonight but they closed at 8. So I timed it just right. 

I got back, ate, pulled a lot of things out of the warehouse that I need to pack and ship, did the final bits on getting things ready to list, and watched too much YouTube.