The Sky Crawlers

 What can say,  I did tons of work last night, tons of work as soon as I woke up, and have tons of work to go this evening. 

I discovered an anime move that's old enough for me to finally have found out about it, called "The Sky Crawlers" which is pretty good. I'm almost halfway through it. Computers have made me, along with everyone else, stupid enough that it's taxing to pay attention all the way through a normal-length movie. 

While watching I got some practice in and my breathing exercises and having learned to relax instead of press harder, from playing the shakuhachi, are paying off.  Regular practice, and experience and thinking about how to go about things, are amazing. 

I packed a 17-item order and what's more fun, I had to calculate all the individual shipping fees and do the calculations and it turns out we owe the guy $100 so I'll have to guide Ken in PayPal'ing the money to the guy when he's over. 

Since that one thing took so much time, I aimed for FedEx only things which meant I had another hour of time to work in, had left here at 7 with a good big load of FedEx boxes. It was a bit cold again so I dressed warmer, and it was actually nice weather for a ride - as it almost always is. 

I zoomed on up to H Mart and went in and got a Coke Zero, a bunch of celery, and because it was after 7 so everything was half price, two packages of grilled pork belly. Sort of like bacon but thicker and not smoked, but with a mild seasoning. That all cost me a bit over $10. I was starving and had been debating in my mind whether to go to the "Oh no!" Hawaiian Barbecue place or what, but this was the best bang for the buck. 

I dropped off the boxes at FedEx and finally asked the gal there what had happened with the bathroom. That corner of the store had been cordoned off with fans blowing for days now. She said the bathroom "got bloody". Eesh. I told her about the old hydrogen peroxide trick that I'd learned working at the animal hospital. 

I went over in front of the pizza place kind of but to the side, and settled in at one of their tables. I was able to eat without anyone bothering me because it was too windy and cold for anyone else to be outside, otherwise I'd have found somewhere else. 

After eating I followed my usual route to find packing stuff and came up dry. I remembered that I used to always stop by the old shop on Mondays because the people next door throw out packing materials. Why had I gotten out of that habit? So I steamed on over there. 

I loaded up a big black trash bag full of stuff and filled another smaller but still large bag of my own with loose pieces of packing stuff, so it was a pretty decent haul. Tom had James over with his truck and trailer and there was another truck there with a camper on it. 

I went over and How's it going and all that. James had a haul of stuff most notably an old claw foot bath tub. We all hung out and I learned the camper on the truck is Tom's that he got off of Craig's List on Tom's truck. The whole shebang cost less than 10 grand and I marveled a bit that with some more saving, I could buy the same thing, if I wanted. The camper is actually really neat and I'm not sure why, maybe its shiny dark grey exterior, has a "cop" or "government" look to it. Tom says he's going to put the word "SECURITY" across the front of it and keep it parked in front of his place. 

Tom and James were working out where to put piles of wood and stuff, and I suggested across the street, "It's not in the way of anything, and it's pretty obvious the stuff is up for grabs..." This does not seem to be possible these days as they told me whoever it is in the business there now, takes the stuff and puts it back on Tom's property. I was puzzled, because I'd lived there with no problems for years. "Yeah, you were low-key", said Tom "But *this* guy ..." meaning James. 

It was a pretty good time, really, and I told Tom I'll drink a beer if he offers me one so he got one out of the cooler in the cab of his truck (or something, that's where he got it out of anyway) and he got himself a fresh one too. I asked if he can use 3 jars of spaghetti sauce and some spaghetti and he said he sure could, so I'll bring that tomorrow. 

We were talking about places to find surplus, and places to find packing stuff, and I was relating how a couple of different places I got packing foam from have reacted by making their places super neat and clean which is kind of cool actually. And we talked about finding "technical" stuff which James said is actually much easier to find up in Fremont. 

At some point there was a pause in the conversation and James said that on January 1st he'd taken something he thought was OK to take, and was not. James got 6 hours in jail and it made the news and there's a court case coming up. Tom showed me pictures on his phone, of the thing and of James cutting it up, and gave me some hints on how to find the news story. "This is why I need to come here on Mondays! Packing stuff and the latest gossip!" I exclaimed. 

Tom and James both explained to me how it was a perfectly rational mistake that anyone could make, taking the thing. I was a good listener and agreed; from what they were telling me, it was pretty cut and dried. 

I finished my beer said I'd get going, and rode back here. The thing with the beer is interesting in that I really didn't feel anything from it, and my thirst for it was just that - I was thirsty and there is something rather refreshing about good old watery American beer. It really didn't feel different than drinking a near-beer which is just how I like it to be.