Still feel not-too-great

 I actually did a ton of things yesterday, shipped out 27 things and packed another 3 when  I got back, put some things away, etc. 

I feel like junk and won't go to services tonight. I have a little scratchy/phlegm-y throat, tired, balance less good. Last night I made myself a huge bowl of "Universestar Ah-Sha Noodles with spicy sauce" which I'd been having a lot of lately but that's one thing that's changed recently so time to change that back to my more usual dishes which are generally lots of veggies, some meat or fish, and broth from a miso ramen packet. Or I have some more traditional liquid miso packets which go with little packets of seaweed etc. that normally go in miso - those are good with fish. Those dishes are tried and true. I'll leave what I have left of the "Universestar" noodles by the bridge for the bums.

Another factor is, I'm tapered way down from the sauce, and the half bottle of wine  I had yesterday is the maximum I should be having. If not just a half bottle on Friday and none the rest of the week. But I might feel weird because of this tapering down. 

Another factor is the weather has turned very hot. That's a stressor plus it means different dusts and pollens in the air. 

Another thing is, Ken called me yesterday saying he felt a bit sick so he thought it best to not come over this week and I agreed, then later sent him an email saying I'd seen on the r/hawaii subreddit that there's a bug going around in Hawaii, and people from Hawaii visit Las Veges, where Ken had just come back from, a ton. He'd been there visiting his daughter who's an airline stewardess.

I'd only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before last. Last night I worked until 4AM then woke up around 8 which is good but I wanted to get more sleep so I went back to sleep until 11:30 which is a lot better.

In other news I have a sort of blister thing on my lower lip, kind of looks like a blood blister but flatter. I think it's a bit of sunburn. So maybe I should wear a mask when I go out in this strong sun. This might preclude doing any busking on Sunday which is the only day I've got free to do it these days. 

In my economics "the sauce" makes a huge difference. If I were buying a half-bottle of wine each Friday that wouldn't be so bad. If I'm heavily using "the sauce" is $10 or more a day which means $300 a month which means $3600 a year.  A half-size bottle or even one bottle of wine a week, to the tune of $10/week, means $520 a year. Still bad but not nearly as bad. 

I'm also way off of coffee. No more buying cans of the French Market stuff and filters. No more making multiple mugs of it a day. My brand now is Elite instant from Israel and I'm averaging less than a cup a day. Today I'm starting my day with some Japanese green tea. 

I packed another big package and another small one, and left here to ship them at 2:30. The sun is strong this time of day so I wore a mask because I really want my lip to get better. My favorite food truck was there and I gave the lady the $1 I owed her, and got two big chicken drumsticks for $2.50 and ate them standing by the truck. I think the (Vietnamese) lady does all the cooking and I like her cooking, nicely flavored without being too spicy. 

I found some packing supplies as usual on the way back, got back and put things away, relaxed a bit, then was out again for shopping at Sprouts. I locked the bike at H Mart of course because it's not safe at Sprouts. I picked out the things I wanted, and it came out to $2 more than I had in my pocket so it went on the card.

But I feel pretty good anyway because it means that while my Shabbat shopping was $51, I actually had $49 on hand and the only reason I had that much was, when I was riding there, traveling on Rogers Avenue (bum city!) I ended up right behind a bum with a (empty) heavy-duty bike trailer who shot out of the really questionable scrap metal place, and I ended up right behind him. He didn't even seem to know I was there. Pretty soon I noticed him running over some leaves... wait, that's money. A little cluster of bills that the wind soon started blowing away. 

"I'll chase those leaves" I said to myself as I chased them and gathered them up. They could have been dropped by anyone, and been in a little bundle and the bum running them over made them spread out enough for the wind to catch them. Or the bum dropped them, but now the bum was long gone. I didn't think about it until I was well along Brokaw and there was the bum, messing around with his bike like maybe he was getting a flat. I now was richer by $15.

I rode on by. You don't want to get involved with the bums around here. Tom's many troubles and the fact that his place looks like an eyesore now, is an example of what you get for being friendly to bums. Another guy who was friendly to bums/meth-heads against my (and others') advice got his place burned. It was called the Bear Creek fire. 

May 30

 Somehow I packed a lot of things last night, was up through the night until something like 10AM, then tried to get some sleep. No alcohol in the house, thank goodness. I woke up at 1PM. Weird. 

I packed something like 30 things in total, and while  I was out taking them to the post office and FedEx, Ken called and said he didn't feel well and didn't thing it was good to come by. I said no problem, although when he comes by next week, he'll have to write a check for something like $1400. (three $400 pay checks plus $200 for a bunch of knives and multi-tools I sold him). 

My first stop had been at a lunch truck that parks on Brokaw from about 1:30 to 2:30. I got a chicken skewer from her and that thing was a meal in itself. I had to force myself to finish it, since I'd already had two fried eggs around lunch time. I owe her a dollar. 

After taking the packages to FedEx and the post office, I found shipping supplies and a cool rack shelf something or other thing to put on Ebay. It was hot as hell out there and we're not even out of the month of May. 

I  got back here and put things away, gave out my 30 positive feedbacks on Ebay, and pretty soon was on the road again to go to Nijiya for some groceries. I wondered about my nervous, slightly twitchy feeling and went back into Nijiya for a "One Cup" cup of sake. I went over to the old hospital to drink it and evaluate the results (slightly calmer I think?) and put the noodles from the 5-pack of miso ramen I'd bought in Nijya and a bag of those little foil-wrapped chocolate bottles that purport to be "Cointreau" and "Sobieski Vodka". I'd tried one and Meh. 

I found more books than I expected on the way back, just from the Japantown little free library and one on 4th that's usually full of utter tripe. 

The news on the radio has been more interesting than usual and we all know that now, that's not a good thing. Low-Budget Orange sHitler is following the Hitler program line by line. Everything from turning court appearances into stump speeches to using populism to make his followers feel that "We're all in this together". He's been judged guilty of something like 35 felonies. Rightly, he'd be put away for a long time. Rightly, he'd be shot. But I don't know what's going to happen. 

I'm a white wine drunk

 This shit has got to end. It's fucking with my sleep, my ability to do my job, trumpet practice is right out the window, and I'm shaky as hell when  I get up in the morning. 

I was much worse when I was drinking hard liquor in the past. Some of the shit I was drinking was Chinese and something like 120 proof. 

Red wine was really tearing up my insides so it was a good move to change to Chardonnay. Plus it's got less sugar in it than the sake I was on in a more recent drinking period. The Guinness I recently had was tasty and Guinness is only 4.5% alcohol. 

I'm very glad that I have figured out what was giving me those awful headaches. To be free of them in exchange for swearing off chocolate is, to me, the deal of the century. 

I also, the last time I dried out from drinking, told myself that in exchange I could drink all the coffee I like. I was drinking 4-5 big mugs of coffee a day. Now I'm just having one mug of Elite with cream and since I've used up the last of the cream I'll very happily drink a mug of Japanese green tea tomorrow. Other than that no soda, or anything like that, I'm just having ice water with a little lemon juice. 

So other than being on white wine, I've made some real improvements in my life. And since I'm on wine rather than, say, Stoli, I think the taper can go pretty well. 

In other news it was really nice just hanging out with Tom and his wife, Ronvig (if I'm spelling it right). She was fairly appalled that my family is all so separate, and that my older sister won't even talk to me. She's said, "In Iceland people do things together and here, people do things alone". 

It took a great deal of effort for me to simply finish the load of laundry I had soaking, and I'm not going out anywhere. I'm shaky as hell and am taking small sips of wine, but there's really no way out of this other than being miserable for about 3 days. 

I've got a lot of things to pack too ... what fun. If Ken comes by tonight I might see if he can take whatever things I get packed to the post office and FedEx tomorrow. Then I might have a load of stuff also, but between the two of us we can get caught up on shipping. 

At least I've got plenty of instant miso soup, and cheese, and veggies and things. 

There's a great interview with Yo-Yo Ma on the radio right now and it's made me realize why I dove so hard into the wine. It's the situation with my older sister. For decades I'd thought that all I'd have to do is go back to Hawaii or least wait a decade or two and she'd want to be back in communication. 

Well I can see now that it's not the case. I thought that, being 5 years younger and a lot more athletic, I could be around for my older sister as she ages and needs help with things. I'd seen a couple of times in the past how petty and mean she can be, and I guess not all people mellow with age. 

She might be barely holding things together with her migraines and just can't deal with anything extra in her life by this point. She might have become a raging Republican. She was a lot less "left" than she thought of herself as, a couple of decades ago. And very, very petty. She could be a raging Republican by now. 

Pissed the bed

 Just a bit but still!! 

In better news, doing the exercises and stretches advised by Dr. Google has me, amazingly, not waking up with tons of pain and making all kinds of old-guy agony noises. I mean, oh fuck, I pissed the bed because I got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and missed it. What's amazing is I was able to do this with no memory of it because it was relatively pain-free. 

Poor dear Mr. Biden. He's so damned .... normal. He's trying to walk a fine line; he's trying to let Bibi do what has to be done while making noises about those mean ol' Israelis. I've pissed the bed but the Left in the US has shit the bed. 

I will still vote Democrat though. For normal guys like Biden.  Can't we all just take a deep breath and be ... normal? Can't we have nice, normal politicians in charge like "Cece" Heftel? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Heftel

I feel like hell, managed to get 10 things photographed to list on Ebay, packed a couple of things that have to go out today, and upon hearing some anti-Jewish blather from Ro Khanna on the radio, wrote him an email saying I'll never vote for him again - I had in the past. I thought he was a worthy successor to Mike Honda but apparently the guy's a shithead. Good luck, because after they come for the Jews, they're coming for you. 

I packed two things that had to go out today, and took them to the post office. Then went to 99 Ranch for 2 cans of coffee and 2 bags of ... chips. The tea egg lady wasn't there so I'd changed my plans from getting tea eggs to bringing snacks to Tom's place and hanging out. 

So I went to Tom's place and his wife were there so we all hung out. I gave them the cans of coffee, and we all had snacks and hung out for hours. In fact, Tom eventually withdrew into his office and his wife and I hung out and talked about things.It was pretty nice! 

How do I "process" this?

 I uhh, did stuff last night then realized it was nearly midnight so I made up a cold dinner, hummus, olives, cheese, cucumber slices, etc. and ate and drank wine and watched YouTube. 

I woke up enough to hear my alarm clock go through its spiel then actually got up at around 10:30. 

How am I going to "process" as is modern parlance, the fact that, apparently, no one in my family will speak to me at all? They are that Americanized. To be completely Americanized means to not give a flying fuck about anyone but yourself, and to not think ahead further than a week. Iks who drive cars. 

My father's father cared enough for him to send him to Dartmouth, and my mother's mother cared enough to pay to get my eyes fixed and to raise my mother and my mother's sister with enough to eat and everything. But their generation were perfect, American, psychopaths. 

My father was great, in a way, don't get me wrong. He bought all those great records of 60s music, all the Simon & Garfunkel, Kingston Trio, 3 Dog Night, etc. Everything Herb Alpert ever put out. But here's the flaw: He bought and played that music because HE liked it. Whether anyone else did was immaterial. He really wasn't capable of caring if even his own children had enough to eat, clothes to wear, etc. If you were around him and there was food in the house, well, great. And if not, he'd sneak out and make sure he never missed a meal, and his kids, his own kids, well, better be good at stealing or begging or foraging. 

Because this is the Christian ideal. Every individual on their own, just themself, isolated, with their Bible. 

To be Jewish is to be the opposite of this in every respect. To be Jewish is to feed your animals before your self, then to care for your group. You need 10 people together to properly pray - no going off into the woods and inventing a new, even more ripshit, version of the Christian idolatry. To be Jewish is to care about others and to help out, in any deed big or small, where you can. 

It's practically standing on one's head. For instance, good Americans don't care a hoot in hell about anyone who's old, and if they've died, they are forgotten. "History Is Bunk" said Ford, and it might as well be the nation's motto. In Judaism, 1000 years is a short time. 

I'd held in the back of my mind that if I just reached out, I could get back in communication with my family, at least my older sister with whom I'd been so close. Being a hated "haole" in Hawaii was a very lonely experience, and having her to talk to was a lifesaver. But looking back, she may have only cultivated the friendship for reasons of physical safety - when she had a little store at the top end of Kapahulu Avenue, she kept a shotgun under the counter. Maybe I was only befriended - even at arm's length - because maybe the mokes will attack me first and in killing me, be distracted from killing her. After all, she went to Punahou! I could be sacrificed. 

Out of the 5 of us, no kids. Because the American Deathculture, only caring about the immediate, does not care about, or care for, kids. In America I will be forever poor, but in Israel, if I can make it to there, I will do what  I can for Jewish kids. Imagine being too poor to care for any progeny! It's beyond Dickensian. Yet this is reality in America for many, many of us. Deathculture leads to death. 

This week's Torah portion is full of fire and brimstone but it is only speaking the truth which is plainly evident in the streets. Turn away from Hashem, and your land will turn barren and you will die out as a people. Plain and simple fact.

My belief in God is pretty science-fiction-y. For instance, I heard on the radio that the dream of the 7 fat cows and the 7 lean cows (Chabad discussion here: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2689/jewish/The-Seven-Fat-Cows.htm ) was a new thing, as the people of the time were fatalists, and if you had a famine, welp, that's just how it goes. The big new thing was, here was this Jewish guy saying, Plan ahead. That was an entirely new way to think. 

So I think if there is a God, then God is trying to get us to understand new ways of thinking. And I think a lot of it is like trying to get people who don't even know Ohm's Law to understand electromagnetism. This is why the actions of God are going to seem strange and even nonsensical. Imagine trying to tell someone how to design a microwave device when they have no idea of the Maxwell/Heaviside equations. 

I realized I'd better get going and left at about a quarter to 3. At 3,  I was at Bernal Park so I played Taps there. Then I went to Japantown and spent $10 on my card for a small bento and went over to the Japanese-American museum thinking  I ought to be able to finagle my way in, having been in the 442nd and all. But they were not open and I had a fun little talk with a lady who was volunteering there or something. 

Then I ate my bento on the steps of the old hospital. And once all tanked up on fish and rice, I played Taps by "The Spike", the memorial sculpture there in Japantown. 

Then I played Taps in front of the downtown post office, so the bums in St. James Park could know it's Memorial Day. 

Then, hugely regretting that I'd not grabbed my hat on my way out. I played for about 45 minutes at Whole Foods. I made $33, I counted it. That was all  I could stand being fried in the sun, then I went upstairs with a can of Foster's I bought downstairs. I figured I'd "zone out" for an hour or so then hit the Old Spag. 

I rode over to the Old Spag. and the area's still all fucked up. The vast corporate machine is doing its best to kill foot traffic in the area, and I had to pee. I found a twisty little passage that led me to the bathroom in 5 Points, and then into 5 Points. I went in and had a Guinness. My hemhorroid's acting up and I was just not in the mood to play any more. Plus, I don't know how this happened but after the Guinness I had $8 on hand so I don't know if I mis-counted my take, or gave someone effectively a large tip, or the wind blew some money away, or what. 

But I got to go out and do stuff and played a bit, so it's all good. And I'd photo'd and listed 10 things before leaving so I'm holing up my end. 

Lag B'Omer 2024

 Waddafuk. I guess it's Lag B'Omer, uhh... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag_BaOmer

I woke up at 5:30AM and thought it was 5:30PM no lie. 

I finished watching the movie I'd been watching on YouTube and went back to sleep until almost 2. Then I got a bright idea: I've not gotten even a nibble on one of my musical instruments on Craig's List, might as well pawn the thing off to Starving Musician. I never should have bought the damn thing, but right now it's money I want and I don't want to take it out of the bank. 

OK so Friday night I'd cleaned myself up and put on clean clothes because I wanted to feel good for Shabbat. I believe this is the origin of the "Saturday night bath" that Ken used to take, and that hearing Perry Mason on the TV would be his signal to do. 

I read the last 3rd of Voyage Of The Damned then read "100 Saturdays" about the memories of a lady, in her 90s, of her life in "The Juderia" on the island of Rhodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes and then her journey through concentration camps, Auschwitz, Dachau, etc. 

I regret more and more that I skipped out on visiting Dachau when I had the chance, and instead took this huge walk around Munich, the English Garden, etc. Politically, I was still a young shithead and it was probably for the better. 

I did some study in my Reading Hebrew book ("Z'man Likro" == Time, Z'man, for reading, Likro) and once all the reading was done, it was time for my dinner and havdala time, and I watched the movie "Voyage Of The Damned" which of course were nowhere near as good as the book (I can imagine Cuba just fine, having been there) but still was pretty decent. 

Haha and I'm muzzled for the moment on YouTube for standing up for Israel and against the pro-Hamas ads they insert into everything. Gonna Jew even harder. 

Crutch guy is still a thing. I see him walking around here, and I think he's employed and is seriously doing his physical therapy. It's good to see, and I don't regret handing him that $20 for a hot second. It's good to see a guy working to get himself better. 

A thing that was mentioned in the "Voyage Of The Damned" book - that the worst thing was feeling unwanted by anyone. THIS IS HUGE. Imagine being raised in the "Iks Who Drive Cars" American culture, where if you are poor you are the scum of the Earth, lower than something someone might scrape off of their shoe. We have an unspoken caste system in this country, er, "country". 

It turns out to be essential to being a human being rather than an animal, to help others. Now imagine all efforts to help are refused because they come from YOU. A poor. A haole. Whatever. In an Ik culture, helping another is  incomprehensible. 

I only broke free of this when I moved to that place in Gilroy, owned by a fellow Lithuanian, although not a Litvak. His understanding of "radical giving" isn't complete, but it was at least present. 

I headed out for this day's adventure around 2. First I dumped some trash, then rode to Nijiya. I had about $5.50 in change and I got some cold grilled mackerel for $4.50. I sat at a table with a bunch of people eating fancy shave ice / ice cream creations. I'm sure the smell of mackerel really enhanced their experiences haha! 

I had a musical instrument with me, and my next stop was all the way over to Starving Musician, where I told them I had about $400 sunk into this, would be happy to get $100, and they can probably get at least $250 for it. I wandered around the store while the guy did his research, and I got my $100, but in the form of a check. That's OK though, because it meant I could give myself permission to take $100 more of the bank. 

I rode over to Mitsuwa Marketplace next and got a bottle of green tea and salmon/tuna sushi. But first I'd gone into Kinokuniya to see if they had calligraphy pens. It turns out they do, but pretty expensive fountain pen ones. I wanted something simple and cheap so  I said maybe later, but not now. 

Right outside the door, was a lady who had a Brompton bike all folded up. So that got us talking. She was pretty tall, "What are you, 5-7, 5-8?" I asked, "Five-nine" she replied. I told her about my looking at Bromptons and my finding what's essentially a Brompton knockoff for $100. She told me about being in China and buying a bike for $300 and it had bags and everything and she was able to offload everything she was carrying onto the bike. I said, China? I've never been, been to Japan and Korea a couple of times each, but never got that far. I invited her to come eat with me, but she had to go. She was visiting the area from Berkeley. .It was a nice talk. 

I rode back along Stevens Creek, and figured I'd go to the little Japanese store that sells tons of pens in Santana Row. So I rode to Big-5 there, locked the bike, bought some paracord for $10 for a project, and walked over to "Satan's Row". Only to meet with, in effect, Satan Himself. It was a guy with a big Trump flag he had stretched between his hands, and I swear to God a Goddamned Trump mask, the kind that covers your whole head. 

So of course I got all up in his business, saying lovely things like "There won't be a warning shot" and "1000s of hours of practice for when it's time" etc. The trumptard responded with "All the same I love you" standard Christian horseshit. 

So I walked into Santa Row and checked out the stores. There's a jacket I like in Arcteryx but it's $400. And one a kind of like in Fjallraven for $300. I got to my little Japanese pen store and had to ask for help finding the calligraphy pens because I turn stupid when I go into a store, and for $13 I got a Pilot calligraphy pen of sorts, that uses those little plastic cartridges of ink. Or they had the same, more expensive, fountain pen set they had in Kinokuniya. The $13 one's fine for now. 

Now, walking back, I rehearsed, out loud because no one there gives a flying fuck and half of them are foreigners with no idea of American norms anyway, things to sing to Mr. Trump. "There's nobody here but us snipers" in the same melody as "There's nobody here but is chickens" and some other well-known tunes with lyrics about shooting, bombing, and otherwise unaliving Nazis and stacking the bodies up. I thought I had a pretty good schtick, but when I got to the intersection, Mr. Trumpanzee was gone. 

Gone! Now, there were some pretty tough looking Black folks around, so maybe they gave him a talking-to. But, I thought, I wonder if it was me? I've got a pretty good 1000-meter stare, plus my bad eye makes my gaze pretty scary anyway. And I don't say I'll do a thing unless I am 100%  prepared to do it. The idiot may have sensed that. 

I walked back to my bike, put all my change in the itty-bitty paper bag the stationary place had given me, gave it to the homeless guy living, apparently, on the sidewalk on the corner, and rode on outta there. 

I could afford to spend another $50 so I got eggs and two boxes of wine at Whole Foods. It was 7, and entering that magic time when the wind stops howling and things get a bit more quiet, and people are inclined to tip. But while I'd considered taking the trumpet with me I'd decided not to because I'm very lazy. But there were no petition-hustlers or beggars or Gypsies or anything. 

I rode back through San Pedro Square and of course it's destroyed. It's like this big corporate machine that doesn't really understand humans is trying to "encourage culture" but has no fucking idea how to do that. Imagine some huge alien beast, deciding something like, "I want to encourage art, so when I see an artist on the street, I'll have a City employee come up and throw a bucket of grey paint on them and their work, because throwing paint is creating art". 

In this case, they have the whole street blocked off and people can only sneak on these little ant-trail sidewalks on either side. It's hard for anyone able-bodied to cope with, and forget about if you're disabled. The street itself is coated with some kind of shitty grey paint, and the whole thing looks apocalalyptic and is a huge pain in the ass. 

I got, literally, a bag of books on the way back. So I'll be able to do some book trading this next week. 

And all day today,  I was overjoyed because I was walking normally. Dr. Google somehow knew what was going on with me, than I walked with an forward tilt, and led me to exercises and stretches, and I've been doing them (I'm old and need regular P.T. now) and I was walking normally. I could not wipe the smile off of my face. 

And on my way home, on 10th street, a car went by and a guy yelled "UH!!" at me so I went "UH!!" back and put on a big goofy grin so they'd know it was all in fun. 

Mr. Diridon

 I used up working time yesterday taking a bunch of things apart, then, well, YouTube, wine, some shofar practice... 

I woke up at 9 and got up at 10. I sorted out 25 of the smaller (but more valuable) parts and cleaned them and wrote a ton of little labels and got them all ready to photo. 

On the radio they had Mr. Diridon, the guy Diridon Station is named after, talking about high speed rail. That was pretty neat, hearing the voice of someone who must have been a real mover and shaker to have a big train station named after him. The Wikipedia entry for Diridon Station is pretty interesting. I just hope the lady who has the little shop can get her popcorn machine fixed. 

Another subject being discussed is how people think we're in a recession and we're really not. Wages are up, inflation is tamed, some places like most famously, Target, are lowering prices. President Biden is providing some student loan relief. What a scam college has been for me, personally, but at least I was able to pay off the 10 grand I borrowed in about 5 years. I just squeaked through. My fixation on going to college has prevented me from ever owning a house, though. And I was only able to squeak through because I had one of the last 5 electronics tech jobs in Southern California, and even then, I was paid less than anyone due to my race (I was told this explicitly) and could work any two other techs under the table. 

Nahhh ... I'm not bitter ... "Never forgive, never forget" I say. American hyper-individualism, setting races against each other. It's funny because when that company moved me to the mainland and I was put to work with a bunch of other techs, all Vietnamese or Cambodian, of course I was resentful. They all got paid more than I did, and did far less work. I felt I had to be more productive than anyone to keep my job. My Stakhanovism made everyone else speed up. 

But over time, I learned of the experiences the people had gone through, the camps, the attacks of pirates at sea when they were "Boat People". Pol Pot and how the Vietnamese essentially rescued the Cambodians from him. Viets and Cambodians are tight friends because of this, and they could not be more different. Theravada vs. Mahayana Buddhism. Utterly different languages. They look at different as can be. 

I ended up not only being a consultant on the quirks of spoken English, with sometimes hilarious results, but also regularly defending my Asian co-workers in talking with Americans, of white, black, or brown coloration. "You don't see *them* driving jalopys!" a Hispanic guy said. "Actually, they drive pretty humble cars, they just take good care of them", I countered. "When they came here, they were given $20,000 and a house!" a resentful white guy said. I said, if you gave average Americans $20,000 and a house, they'd blow through it in a year and sell off the house. I saw that these people, if they didn't have family, they'd make up families. A guy would live, in his 30s or even 40s, in a rented room with fellow Viets or Cambodians, until he got married. 

Americans will never figure out the recipe of the Secret Sauce. The Secret Sauce is working together. 

I got my 25 things cleaned up and made a ton of little tags and took the photos and got 'em listed on Ebay. Now time to get a couple of big things out, one that has to go out today. No time, energy, or desire to busk today. 

Oh, and I got an email asking me to check over how the plaques will look. Haha both of them cost the temple $90 so my "dues" this year are about $1400. 

I took the two big boxes I packed to FedEx, collected some packing stuff on my way back, and settled in for my nice relaxing Shabbat.

So glad I don't drive for Uber

 I woke up at 9 at the sound of the alarm clock, laid back down until 9:30, then got up and turned on the radio. They were doing a piece on how little Uber drivers make; apparently 6-7 dollars an hour. 

That's about what  I figured I made when I was hustling awareness ribbons. Counting the 3 hours each way to Santa Cruz and the time hustling them, it was about 7 dollars an hour. And that wasn't counting the time spent making the things. 

This is also why I like busking so much. Say I make $42 in a session. That's 6X7 so in an hour I'm making what an Uber driver (or a ribbon-hustler) makes in 6 or 7 hours. 

There was also discussion of that law that was going to make a lot of 1099 workers, like Uber drivers, full-on employees. I remember Ken telling me to vote against it, which I warmly reassured him I would, then of course voted the opposite way. The law was shot down, but Ken was in no danger of having to make me a full-on employee, that law would only apply to big fish like Uber. Not small fish like him. 

So what have we learned today? The big lesson over the last 24 hours is, that if you kill, rape, mutilate, burn, etc. lots of Jews, you get officially recognized Statehood. I'm already boycotting Irish products but I guess I have to boycott some others too. 

"Among the G20, ten countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey) have recognized Palestine as a state, while nine countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States) have not." - Wikipedia. 

That's a whole lot of boycottin'. I'm up for it though, and am working Israeli products into my life. Sippin' on my Elite & cream right now. 

I packed 7 things to ship out from the St. James post office, and it's not even noon yet. I'm overjoyed, because if I wanted to go to the Judaica store in Palo Alto, I could. Take the folding bike on the train, get off at California Avenue, and ride over to the place. Which would have me exploring the Jewish community center there also, as I'm pretty sure the Judaica store is just part of the complex. 

I'm not getting any bites on the stuff I listed on Craig's List. So no shopping trip until something sells. I have a few more things I can put on, and I can lower the prices on what I have on, but it's kind of surprising and not in a good way. 

I left here around 12:30, went to drop off some trash and found in the saddlebag I usually put empty bottles, cans etc in ... the 4-pack of cooking gas I'd bought yesterday! So now I had to carry this cooking gas around all day. 

I stopped in at Nijiya and got dried bonito onigiri, and ate that sitting on the only bench on the street with shade, the one in front of the ukulele school. I checked a few places looking for a calligraphy pen but no luck. 

Then I rode to the post office and dropped the packages off. Next was Good Karma Bikes where I bought yellow jacket for $10 and a bag to carry it in (as I joked) for $1. The jacket might need some work and especially some cleaning, but it's better than the one I have now and hey, I shopped local. 

I looked at their used, and new, bike seats and the used ones didn't look worth it and the new ones are $25. I said I'll get one but later. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and got my "Cheech & Chong" chicken and broccoli and a bottle of water, and ate. Nellie Numbers, whom I call so because she's always counting things or repeating words etc. was at the next bench doing her thing but she was pretty quiet. I'd also gotten $80 cash back so that's my "allowance" until Ken comes over on the 29th. My goal is to save half of every $400 weekday paycheck, but sometimes I can do it and sometimes I can't. 

I walked from Whole Foods up to the hardware store where I got a 3-foot piece of plastic coated cable. For a project. The young guy in that section was fixing a battery powered scooter thing this very fat, very short, but very cheerful lady had brought it. It just needed a bolt. He fixed it up with a bolt, 2 washers on each side, and a Nylock nut. The gal bought 3 sets of the same thing - she was pretty mechanically minded. While he was doing the repair, we talked about being old, how you have to exercise and stretch, and I showed her the twisting stretch I've been doing. My 3 feet of cable only cost me about $4. 

Then I walked up to TAP Plastics to buy a couple bags of little zipper bags, which is the whole reason I'd gone downtown. I have a lot of small parts to sort and label and I was afraid I might not have enough little bags. 

Then I went to Upshift Bikes to look around. They didn't have that bike-shop fixture, the box of used seats, but a new Specialized seat the guy said, "Oh, that must be on sale", was $20 so I got it. That seems to be the going price online. 

Then I went to the used book store to get a "Jewish" book, and for $8 I got "One Hundred Saturdays" which looks good. 

Now the final part of my plan, doing my "Weekly Wal". I rode down to Walmart and got stuff, spending a lot of money. 

I found a couple interesting books on the way home, the one  I really like being the exact same version of Black Beauty I read as a kid, that has the illustrations. And a really old one about Pinocchio. 

I got back here, relaxed a little, put things away, then packed a thing that really needed to go out today and took that up to FedEx by making a tape "handle" allowing me to hang the large-ish box off one handlebar, and dropped that off at FedEx. One of the security guards at H Mart seemed like they might be giving me "the eye" so I went into H Mart and got a package of miso flavor GreeNoodles so he could see I'm a paying customer. Then  I walked over to Ross where I bought a package of underwear, and got my roast beef for tomorrow's dinner and some wine. The Sprouts buying meant nipping into the money I wanted to save by about $30. 

But, I reflected as I rode home, even if I can't busk tomorrow, I won't need to spend any money until Sunday, my standard day for busking these days. And I may not even feel like going out busking tomorrow because a cold front has come through and it may be too cold and blustery. 

When is it time to sprint?

 Photo credit: Ynet. 

Shown here is Gal Erad, an Israeli sprinter who was studying for a computer science degree in the University of New Mexico. Was. The university officials bought him a plane ticket and told him to leave NOW as they "can't guarantee his safety". 

Let that sink in. Black students told to leave because they "can't guarantee their safety". Female students told to leave because they "can't guarantee their safety". Catholic students told to leave because they "can't guarantee their safety". Etc. 

I learned about this on Reddit and one poster there is saying "If Defcon 5 is 'get out of the USA' then I think we're approaching Defcon 3. And accelerating" 

The thing is, there's a very, very, very consistent pattern that countries that treat Jews well, do well. And countries that treat Jews badly become shitholes. The US has done tremendously well because for all of its existence up until now, it's treated its Jews pretty well. There's been discrimination, but pretty much only on the level I've experienced as a hated "haole" in Hawaii. Not outright pogroms. This may change. 

I guess the question for me is, how long will it take to go from Defcon 3 to Defcon 5? We got very close to Defcon 5 on the day of the January 6th insurrection. In fact, our country was saved by a White House intern who had a solid head on her shoulders, and grabbed the box of electoral votes and went into the hiding place with the politicians. I remember the hearings on the radio - in the sea of useful idiots were some real "hard operators" who were planning to break through floors/ceilings "Like we did in Afghanistan" to get to the politicians and kill them all. I guess our country was also saved by that heavenly Secret Service agent who killed that drugged-up blonde zombie who was literally crawling over jagged broken glass to get at him and his group of agents, to eat their brains probably. He mad a dead thing deader. That one shot turned the herd, though. 

Come on, Secret Service, get a little more trigger-happy, OK? I've followed the reaction to this on Reddit, and it's very consistent - white people think it was no big dealio, and I, and POC, all think there should have been insurrectionist bodies stacked like cordwood on the White House lawn. 

So we got very close to full-on Nazism on that day, then stepped back from the precipice for the last 4 years, but now we're getting close again. It can happen slowly or it can happen fast. I'd prefer to be out already. But prior to the October e7th attack, I'm not sure how to say this, but Jews and Israel had become complacent. It was just complaints on Reddit. That's sure changed. And Covid, I like to say, was like that big foot in the animations on Monty Python. This big foot just stomped down on everything. 

I feel pretty good about one thing though; last night I was putting some trash in the dumpster and I found one box with 4 loaves of Bimbo bread and 6 little Bimbo cakes. I took the box and put the bread and cakes out by "my" dumpster enclosure and in a few hours, they were gone. And just now, Crutch Guy was hobbling through the parking lot and I went out and gave him a bottle of water and a bag of Borden shredded cheddar cheese. He only speaks a little English, mostly Spanish. I tried to ask him where he's trying to get to, and he said "Only walking... poquito." So, walking a little. He's got one calf bandaged up with an Ace bandage with some kind of lump under the bandage. Dammit this is the kind of guy the Republicans want cops to arrest and throw in a concentration camp. 

I may have already written about this, but I recall the time 20+ years ago when I was active on the Ebay chat board and I related how  I was in a Mexican restaurant in Huntington Beach, and this Mexican guy ate a meal, then tried to pay by cashing his pay check from his job there. I got the impression it was an arrangement he had with them but then something had changed so he could not do this, and now was on the hook for the price of his meal. They'd called the cops and everything. So I paid for his meal and that defused the whole situation. Well, the (almost all white) crowd on the Ebay discussion board sure didn't like hearing that! At that time, I bleached my hair blonde and drove a BMW and voted Republican, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Here was a human being, in a tough corner, and a mere $15 or so would fix things. No problem! But my Ebay compatriots acted like I'd done some evil thing. 

I used to think that if I liked I could move anywhere in the USA ... but on the radio as I type, there's a story about teen gangs - one called the Gilbert Goons - in the Phoenix, AZ area killing people and beating people up. I could have predicted that, as I remember sitting in the very large suburban house of a friend of mine in Gilbert. He was a sales engineer for Agilent, and we were talking pleasantly and one of his daughters came home from school and talked to my friend, happily, about the "Nazi Club" one of the teachers set up that she attends after school. 

This was not even remarked on by my friend. He didn't say, "Let's talk about this later". He didn't say, "Not now". He didn't say anything. Nazi clubs are A-OK in Arizona even to educated, affluent, householders. Maybe more than A-OK with that group, just as it was the middle-class burghers who supported Hitler the most. 

I was behind on shipping and had time to pack 18 things from large to small, and got those things to the post office and FedEx. I was able to dash into H Mart for some cooking gas and veggies, and a little bag of kimi boro I gave an Asian homeless guy I've seen around - kimi boro remind me of childhood and maybe they will remind him of his childhood also. He's very quiet, and just said, "Thank you". 

I found shipping stuff on the way back, and got in here. There have been landscape people cleaning up and weeding etc and now they were making a lot of noise and dust with leaf blowers. As I came in here, I saw this guy, the guy who'd been having some kind of car trouble quite a while back. So I started to say, "Are those both your cars?" but the damn leaf blower was too loud and I gave up, as he likewise gave up. 

I've figured him out now,  I think. Both cars are BMWs and have been here forever. One drives in and out and one just sits. The guy's clean-cut, and the cars are very clean, even the non-moving one doesn't have low tires or anything. The guy literally has a driving car and a sleeping car. The sleeping one has the windows black and out I mean, BLACKED out. 

I think the guy works some weird shift, maybe works for the airport or one of the casinos. Maybe he's trying to save up all the money he can, and I think he has a pretty good system. A person can live in a car in this parking lot for years on end and no one will bother them unless they make themselves a problem. 

That's also kind of interesting because I myself could do the car-life thing here because the people in this complex know me and are used to seeing me. Not that I'd want to, because living in a car is expensive. I want everything to hold together as it's been, so I can just keep my head down and in 2-3 years, move to Israel. 

Another day up too late

 I made a point of eating, drinking (wine) and getting sleepy and probably hit the sack around 1AM. Which I know from years ago is a bad thing. If I went to bed before midnight, I was able to be up at 8 to hit the garage sales with the guy whose land I lived on in Gilroy. If I was up after midnight (for instance Ken had come down to visit, or I was up late taking electronics apart) then I'd sleep in until at least 10, miss the garage sales, and get snide comments from people.

At least I did some shofar practice last night. I need to be practiced, practiced, practiced. The shofar takes a lot more finesse than the trumpet. I'm hoping this will help my trumpet playing. 

I was up at 9 due to my alarm clock but then turned it off and, sad to say, went back to bed until about 11:30. I got up, did crunches, glute stretches, then this twisting thing that stretches the glutes and the back somehow. I used to do it a lot when I was young because I could make my back make a sound like cracking your knuckles. Walking, yesterday, I felt kind of sort of normal. 

If it's spinal stenosis, it's likely progressive, and I may well find myself bebopping around in a wheelchair in the future. What fun. I was not joking when I said to someone that I might end up with a "bar body" IE someone who trains their upper body and not their legs, to look impressive in a bar. Training for upper body strength would make sense, as opposed to no-body strength. Bike riding and lifting things keeps my legs in pretty good shape for now. 

Oh, and I got up and turned on the lights and it was ... the light. Down to one bulb again so I plugged in my jerry-rigged light. I think I might have to learn to work on fluorescent lights, just like I'll have to learn more about how toilets work because the toilet here is finicky. 

I finished the load of laundry I'd has soaking for days, gave myself a haircut, did some foot maintenance. cleaned up in general, and set out at 3. I walked up to the light rail and missed the green line by 30 seconds or so, so I had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. 

By the time I got to Diridon Station, walked over to Whole Foods to use their loo, buy a little bottle of kefir, and get some cash back so I'd have "walking around money", it was 4:30. I drank the kefir with some wine mixed in, and walked over to Good Karma Bikes. The lady there had no problem once I showed her my receipt, and she got the bike out. "This is the bike I have to ride now", she said, indicating a large road bike. I was confused and asked if it was her bike and she said she has to test-ride everything that comes in. That explains why I'd seen her riding around in the parking lot on another bike when I got there. I said it's a pretty good job when your job is to ride bikes. 

I raised the seat and gave my "new" bike a try. It was very ride-able, I tootled over to Diridon Station to celebrate with some train station popcorn but they were out. Actually, the lady said, the machine just stopped working and the manufacturer says it's probably the thermostat and they'll walk her through fixing it. We talked about the bike, and the normally high-ish prices at Good Karma, and biking in general, and in combination with the train and light rail. I said I think electric bikes are a good thing and she made a face. I said I don't ever want one myself, but they get people out of their cars and on two wheels, and then she brightened up when she got my point. We talked about pleasant things like the huge array of railroad enameled pins she has for sale, and how well Dramamine sells, and so on, and then some customers came in so I left. 

I rode my usual route back, picking up some books, and stopped at Nijiya market where I got a small school of fried fish and vegetables and a beer. I sat at my usual place, the steps of the old hospital, and ate and drank. Then I went back to use the loo and got a package of GreeNoodles, tom yum flavor. I'd tried the miso flavor last night and they're pretty good. 

The ride home was a good tryout. The bike handles railroad tracks, potholes, and the various features of my daily rides just fine. 

This new bike needs a new seat, which I'm sure I'll find in the used seat bin at some bike shop or another. It creaks, but that makes sense being a folding bike. I'm pretty sure everything needs oiling. The cranks are shorter, I think 165mm instead of the standard 170's but that's because the bottom bracket is lower to the ground. The bike does better in wind, I guess because of less stuff to catch the wind. I can turn more quickly and accelerate a lot more quickly.

I need to adjust some things. At least the tires look like new. I want to look into whether a bracket for my trailer will be able to be installed, because then I can tow my trailer with it if needed. 

Lately, my Reddit reading has changed dramatically. I'm reading all the Jewish subs I know of, of course. r/news, r/fuckcars, and recently have discovered r/genx - this last one feels like home. I think they need to update the boomer/genX divide to the year 1961 or 1962. I used to read r/povertyfinance but I'm actually a bit too well off for it, while being a bit too poor for r/personalfinance. The latter probably has more information that might apply to me though. r/retirement is useful, but kind of depressing in that so many people are retiring in their 50s - lucky them! I'll be eligible for Social Security by the end of this year but do not plan to start collecting it for a couple more years. 

One thing that can happen is, as I've remarked on in the past, is something happens to Ken. Then my situation here melts down. If/when that happens, I have enough savings to hang on, will apply for Social Security right away, and will go out and busk a lot. 

I'm kind of pinned down here until I can get my papers in order, complete my conversion to Judaism, then apply to move to Israel. I'm playing the long game. Also, if my back gets worse, in certain cases surgery can fix spinal stenosis. I could probably get the surgery here through Medi-Cal but only at the cost of having them clean out my bank account, and then in standard American fashion, my recovery will be while being homeless on the street. If I have to have surgery, having it in Israel would be 10,000% better. 

What could make things much, much worse would be if the orange bastard wins the election. Already the Right are talking about police being free to detain anyone they think might be in the country illegally. This basically means anyone who's not "Aryan" in appearance. That's going to get interesting. At least a third of the population would be in danger of being stopped and spirited away somewhere. 

One thing discussed on Reddit is the possibility of solving one's problems of being non-Aryan or having an unwanted pregnancy or whatever, by moving to a Blue state. It's a good short-term fix, but that goes away if these things become law on the federal level. Thus, moving back to Hawaii would not help me, and would hurt me considering I have one sister who's married to a police chief and hates me for not being a Jesus freaky like she is, and another sister who would just as soon see me have an unfortunate accident or something because I Didn't Go To Punahou. 

I started another load of laundry and now it's YouTube and wine time.

RIP (h)Eli Copter

 RIP dear brave "Eli Copter" who so bravely gave its life to take out the "Butcher Of Baghdad" and a collection of other crumb-bums. My condolences to Copter's family. 

What can I say? I got back last night, cooked up some "BT21 A-Sha Dry Noodles" that I've been buying at Whole Foods, 4 packs in a box with a bunch of cartoon characters on it. The noodles are interesting, nice and chewy. You have to cook the shit out of them, like 10 minutes minimum. I've found the key is when they float. I put in beef and a lot of vegetables of course. 

What I need to do is get to work on making my own noodles with "vital wheat gluten" then I can get even better chewiness and cut the carbs. 

Then I did the usual, watched YouTube, drank wine, studied in my Hebrew book, blew the shofar a bit. I woke up at 9 due to my alarm then went back to sleep until about 10:30. Maybe that's OK on a Monday, I don't know. 

Other than busking, my next somewhat important performance is on the 27th, to play Taps at 3PM. That's a holiday, Memorial Day, so I should busk that day also.  After that, the next thing coming up is the Red White And Blue Parade, which is on the 4th of July and some people from the temple will march in it. I'm considering taking the shofar and doing some blowing, but I want to check the etiquette of it first. 

The only time I marched in a parade was in the "graduation" from Army Basic Training, and I guess the Olympic Festivals I was in. So I've got a little experience. 

This picture (Credit: Chabad) shows the two different types of shofarot commonly used. The gal's holding the ram's horn type, while the shofar salesman is holding the kudu horn, Yemenite kind. Both are kosher, but I prefer the ram's horn by far. It's harder to play while the long one is much easier to play. The ram's horn is easier to carry, or to hide if needed. And a big one for me is, the Christians who like to LARP as some kind of Jews blow the Yemenite one because it's easier, and big and showy. There's even some ass on YouTube who's proud of his ability to play two at once. And some other clown actually sticks a trumpet mouthpiece into his, which is not kosher. I could carry a Yemenite one in a soprano sax bag, and I like a deeper sound, but I don't want to be confused with those cringy folks. 

I had to sort a ton of IC's I'd pulled out of three plugins that had ... tons of vintage IC's in them, then sort them out, then along with a bunch of other things, list the things, 25 of them. I then listed some things on Craig's List, and then did a grocery run at Sprouts and H Mart. Really just a box of wine from Sprouts and a few veggies at H Mart. Or, it started out to be, but I noticed they had some parrotfish in the fish department so I got one - Ah, the memories. So tonight's dinner was miso ramen with parrotfish.

Clowning intensifies

 I was up in time to turn my alarm off but then went back to bed until about 10. Then did some crunches and glute stretches and finally got up and turned on the radio. 

They're doing a thing on RFK, Jr. The guy's done a lot of good stuff for minorities and the environment. Tons. But he's also anti-vaccine, thinks the CIA killed his uncle, JFK. He's 70, had a decades-long heroin addiction and goes to 9 things like AA meetings but for heroin, a week. The Right loves him needless to say. 

Based on the "vocal fry" in his voice, he'd win. It's a 2020's thing that the more "fry" in your voice, the more seriously you are taken. The guy sounds like he gargles with gravel. 

I'd be worried, though, about the heroin thing. Addicts tend to relapse. He's also pro-Putin, so he wants to ride to the Presidency on the blood and bones of millions of murdered Ukrainians.

A good motto: "JFK = Go To The Moon. RFK jr. = Go To The Loon" 

I'm getting up early enough that I now have a slim chance of being able to go to Kodesh Judaica in Palo Alto. They're open 9-2 so I'd have to get a good early start. But like so many things here, it's placed such that it's a major pain in the ass to get to for those without cars. It looks like I'd take the train to the California Avenue station, then take a cab to the place. So if I go it will be a special trip and I'll be prepared to spend a serious amount of money.  And I don't want to do that until I've sold some stuff around here so I don't have to take the needed big wad of money out of the bank. 

Other way I could go is, get that backup, "train bike" as  I term it, take my faithful messenger bag, and just hop on the train and ride over to the place. No cab needed. Those 20-inch bikes at the bike shop are light as feathers and there's a bright red one. But again, that's $500 or so, so better sell some stuff first. 

Although that might amount to spending $500 to save $50. I also want to research BMX bikes because I believe they're plentiful used, simple and nearly indestructible, and a lot of kids my size ride them. 

As someone is asking on Reddit, "What is the end game here?" For me, I'm either going to Israel to retire or ending up staying here in San Jose, in either case, gonna Jew as hard as I can. 

In the nearer term, I need to get my papers in order. At least that's a lot less expensive than memorial plaques. 

I had trouble getting myself going, but then in my idle thoughts of a 2nd bike I thought of Good Karma Bikes and had noticed they're not on Lincoln Avenue any more. So I looked them up and they're on Montgomery near Diridon station. I could check 'em out on my way to Whole Foods. 

Also I saw a guy in the parking lot, using 2 crutches and barely able to crawl along. I rushed out and gave him a big bottle of water and a $20. That could get him a cab right to the light rail at least, or something. And in this hot weather, you need water. But that left me $9 in grocery money. 

That got me going. I also felt motivated all of a sudden and photo'd my musical instruments that I want to sell. So I did that, and then got my trumpet stuff together, some trash, and a big bag of donation stuff, and took off at about 3. 

After dropping off the trash, I went to Japantown and stacked my donations in the little free library box, and got a book. Then I went down to Third to check another little free library, where I got a big book of all the Madeline books. These were books about this little girl in a school for girls in France. I remember my school had one where Madeline had to have her appendix taken out, and had to stay in the hospital, where "a crack in the ceiling had the habit, of sometimes looking like a rabbit". 

Next I went to Good Karma Bikes and they're bigger than ever. I've been following their progress for years, into bigger and better places, in better locations. I told them I like this location because it's easy to get to by bus, light rail, or train. And told the guy that I'd been looking at very expensive folding bikes, Bromptons, that start at about $1200 and had been considering just getting a little 20-inch bike, like a BMX bike. 

They had a few of those, nothing very exciting, but then the guy said they had something that "just came in today" - a Mobic folding bike. He unfolded it, and it looked pretty good, especially for $100. I said I'd take it, and will pay now and come pick it up on Tuesday (they're closed Mondays). So, done deal. I'll take the light rail there on Tuesday to pick it up. 

I went to Whole Foods and got my Cheech & Chong chicken and broccoli and a bottle of water, and ate and people-watched. Got my mouth all clean to play and figured, hell, I'm starting so late, I'll just play at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  The wind was fierce and I needed someplace that's sheltered from it. 

I went over there and played for 20 minutes, and made $2. Plus Loud Band was playing to my right and what sounded like a guitar and piano jazz group warming up to my left. I'll go to Willow Glen, I figured. So I rode down to Willow Glen and played for 40 minutes or so, adding six more $1 bills to the two I had. 

The foot traffic there on Lincoln Avenue had thinned out so much  I felt like I was just playing to myself. I might as well go back to the shop and do something useful, and besides I should have the refund money for the shofar landing in my bank account this week. 

I wanted to stop by Whole Foods for a box of Chardonnay and some cream for my morning cup 'O' Elite coffee, which turns out to mix up cold just fine. And when I got there, it seemed like the wind had let up a bit, so why not try a bit to play? So I set up and played, and the wind didn't mess with me, and it seemed like everything got more quiet, and in about half an hour or 40 minutes I'd made $25. Then a lady wanted to give me a tip from her car, and when I went up to her car window she asked, "Was that 'A Wonderful World'?" I said, Yep, by Louis Armstrong, and you can find it on YouTube. The bill she gave me was a $20 and I packed right up. A dollar a minute's more my speed. 

I also found that "Enjoy Yourself" by Louis Prima is pretty easy to play, am working on that "September" song that's going to be popular once the theaters start showing "Robot Dreams" which I want to see, and Hatikva got several plays. Overall I'd made $53.

I went in for my wine and cream and Kenny was at the checkout so I told him all my news, how I'd just been playing and the money I was spending, I'd just made, and how I scored a folding bike for $100. 

I rode home, picked up some interesting little self-published "zines", and got back in here. Hm, the office has the typical two long rectangular fluorescent lights with two bulb each. And right now only ONE bulb lights. And Ken's gone until week after next. So I'll have to figure it out. 

The darkness from only having one functioning light was very depressing so I rigged something up and now the light is at least normal, and I have my system with the two flashlight bar lights bounced off of the ceiling for Ebay photo sessions. Feh. 

 

Saturday night havdala

 Yesterday I was up in time to: List 15 things bringing me up to 50 for the week, pack all the things that needed packing, track down one order where Ebay decided to re-sell something we'd sold months ago (this is an occasional, ongoing problem doing back decades; I think Ebay's using this as a way to "float" interest-free loans, in effect) and get all cleaned up for Friday night. 

I left here at about 2:30, dropped off the packages at the downtown post office, then did the bank. Everyone was cheerful as always. There's a new employee, an African guy whose name I think I can pronounce and will try the next time I go to him, but he was with a customer so I went to the Hispanic guy I regularly go to. I told him that "that guy" (meaning the new guy) had clued me in that I don't need to hand over the little card with my account number on it every time, as it's written right on the back of my checks and I write pretty neatly too. In other words, he's a smart guy, probably smarter than either of us. 

Next was Whole Foods where I missed somehow that they had "Cheech & Chong Chicken" and got some Korean barbecue chicken wings. And broccoli. I chowed down and people-watched for a bit and then I was off again. 

To the used book store. Yep, earlier in the day I'd had time to go through my latest finds and felt I had a load, so I went over there for my trade credit. They didn't take very many, and I got $5.25. I got a nice collection of Sholom Aleichem stores called "Some Laughter, Some Tears". 

I've found out the so-called Peace & Justice Center is pro-Hamas so I can't have anything to do with them. However, the Teen Challenge thrift store loves to get books so I took the books the book store didn't buy, over there. They were like, "Oh boy! Books! Thank you!!" 

I looked in the antique store where I'd gotten my wonderful silver Kiddush cup, and sure enough, the She-Wolf of the SS had another one there, but smaller and well, a lot chintzier. I'd really gotten the masterpiece. So I walked out of there feeling pretty good. 

Since I was down by Crossroads Trading, I might as well take a look, so I locked the bike up there and had a look. I want newer Doc Martins but low-quarters and they have a lot of the boots, but I didn't see any low-quarters this time. But - I found a pair of Uggs, actual Uggs, that fit me. Sure they're sky-blue, but only $22 and I've been paying Big-5 $40-$60 every other year for new Bear Paws. Uggs last a long time. They're actually a bit small, so I might wear them sockless which I think is how it's supposed to be done anyway. It'll mean less wear on my socks and I'll clean my feet more regularly. So I count that as a real score. 

Out in the parking lot was an overweight black lady going on and on into her phone about people following here and trying to frame her as a thief in stores and so on. I kind of wanted to get a word in, to tell her that's being white in Hawaii so I know how she feels, but I think she's actually doing some kind of thing where you livestream whatever it is you're doing and people give money through Venmo or something. Jimi The Hobo does this on YouTube and he's a lot more boring than her. 

I rode back towards Whole Foods but a strange route I may have taken before, and ended up going by the bike shop. So I went in and told them how I was thinking, instead of paying $1200 for a Brompton, I'm of a size that I could just get a 20-inch bike as a backup/travel bike. The 20-inchers they had in there were light as feathers. And we talked about other things and had a good old time. They had a table of free things, including a lot of La Dolce Velo reflective pants bands. I was allowed to take a wad of those. I'll sell 'em on Ebay, I thought. 

I rode back over to Whole Foods and bought a few more things and a kefir, and since it was kind of a zoo in there, I rode to the temple and sat on the low wall in front with my new book, kefir, etc. Tot Shabbat was ongoing and the kids who'd gotten disruptive inside, were outside, being allowed to run around and let off steam. They were pretty funny to listen to. 

At the service,  I sat up close to the front in an attempt to see the monitors better. It kinds of worked but  I really need those new glasses. I sat near some pretty nice people though. A kid whose Bar Mitzvah was today was doing some things, read a bit of Torah, and sounded pretty good. We sang our cowboy songs and did the usual things. This time I'm happy to say we sang Hakitvah also. I'm learning the songs by osmosis, as it were, and need to work on Haktivah a lot because the version I've been playing isn't exactly correct. Also it's helpful to know the words.

At the oneg, which is food and schmoozing after the service, the lady who'd sat next to me, beautiful singer by the way, said she was happy to have me near them. I didn't show much reaction to this, something like a smile and a quiet, "Oh, thanks". But that just bowls me over. In Hawaii no one was happy to have me near them. Too white for the locals, although a local myself, too brown or too poor for the white folks, and so on .

Hell we've got one guy at the temple, I'm not sure what's up with him, but I strongly suspect he's homeless. He might not be, could even be quite wealthy and just not good at taking care of himself, but people know him and like him. He's not just tolerated, but welcome. 

The trumpet player's kind of an oddball and on top of that, very "cheap" but he's liked. He has the distinction of being one of the tall people. Unlike, say, groups of Mormons I've seen who are a bunch of stilts, we're a short bunch. 

Then there's the photographer guy. He's a real character. I've found myself that being a character doesn't hurt, but this guy is like me only quite a bit more so. He was talking with a circle of the young guys - 20-somethings maybe, who I befriended last week or the week before. They were all talking about Hebrew school which, like Japanese school for so many classmates when I was a kid, they'd all had to go through years of. I couldn't talk about that, so I told them a funny story: 

"When I was a kid in Hawaii, before we became poor, we lived in a big house with big yards and an pond, and coconut leaves, you know they're in these long strips, right? And the way they're structured, when they rot, they get patterns of lines and square dots ... so  I found some like this, and I thought, 'Is this Hebrew? Are these Hebrew messages?'" 

That got a big laugh, and it's 100% true. We didn't do any religion but we had among our many books, a book about the world's religions so I knew what Hebrew looks like. About the thing I did when I was 5 or so, that looking back looks an awful lot like putting on tefillin, I have no answer for that. 

I had a chance to mention to the rabbi that that drink, the "Malt", was so delicious I had a second glass, and he said, "That makes one of us". Some people just don't like some things... I make fun because he seems a little over-invested in his hatred of kvass so a bit later I put in that it's a Russian drink so it might be natural to dislike it. We also got into a talk about which hospital in Los Angeles we were born in, because I wanted to see if he was born in the same one as myself, which he was not. So discussions of various places in L.A. went on, and neighborhoods, and the rabbi said that he never wants to go to L.A. again, that it's awful. Overcrowded, dirty, etc. Since it's 21 years since I've been through there, I can't comment but I believe it. 

The photographer guy used to be in bands and play the sax, and a guess at least some of the young guys have a "reed" background and it's becoming generally known that I play music of some sort, perhaps on a trumpet, so that's another commonality. We're all musicians in some way shape or form. The trumpet player was not there, maybe staying home to practice on the shofar I'd given him. 

That same cop was on duty and I had a good talk with him too - about the hybrid SUVs they have that when you gas it, it actually almost stalls. He's sure he's gonna get rear-ended because of that. And about survivalism and such things. Also, the kids wanted stickers and he was all out of them. So, I got out the reflective leg bands and gave them to him to give to the kids. 

The ride home was nice and calm. I just ride home on Hedding, so I'm not passing any place where I might be tempted to buy anything. I got back here, laid out a nice dinner and opened the bottle of Josh Cellars wine, and watched Jewish stuff like Art Spiegelman documentaries on YouTube and eventually hit the sack. 

But not so fast - it was not so simple. I had the wine opened and the bottle there, and my silver Kiddush cup, and the candles all ready to light, and there as a knock on the door - Ken! He'd come by to drop off some mail, nothing important, and I'd had to say "Wait a minute!" and ended up rushing up to the loft to stick the wine up there, and hid the cup somewhere, and by that time Ken had shoved the letters into the mail slot and was taking off, and I went out and yelled at him through the car window but he had his right-wing radio turned up so hard, he was really startled and jumped in the most hilarious way when I knocked on the car window. He'd just wanted to drop off the mail, that's all, and I said thanks, and have a good time on your trip etc. 

Now I'll have to invent a cock-and-bull story about how I was stripped down for a bath, and that's why I hadn't come right out at 10PM on that Friday night. And also, if I need to hide a bottle of wine, the bike bag is the answer. It's right there, will hold it fine and it won't spill. And Ken never looks in there. I could toss the cup and the candlesticks with candles right in there too, no problem. 

So ... that Josh Cellars wine is really good, and I ate and drank and watched YouTube and went to bed. 

Waking up was easy especially given the my neighbors, having worn out their old power washer, have gotten a new one and as everyone knows, the best time to use a power washer is about 7:30AM. 

I got up and read the whole Sholom Aleichem book. The story I most relate to is "Mr Green Has A Job "https://keesvanhage.wordpress.com/4-8/ naturally. But the best is probably "The Red-Headed Jews". Sholom Aleichem died in 1916. That must be kept in mind when reading that story. 

Then I read more of "Voyage Of The Damned" and am up to the part where they have to sail *out* of Cuba. It's one of those can't-put-it-down books. 

Now it was 9PM. I turned on the computer and caught up on Ebay things, verified that H-Mart closes at 10, and left here at about 20 after to go there, for some shopping. Mainly I wanted eggs, but all kinds of things. Surprisingly, it only cost me $27 and here I was thinking about what I'd put back if the $54 or so I had on me wasn't enough. 

Stealth

 This: https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/05/16/jewish-student-at-reed-college-is-struck-with-rock-a-day-after-vandalism-of-religious-symbol/

Is why I won't put a mezuzah on the door here. I can't afford to be firebombed. The bums/shitbirds/zombies around here may be drug-addled idiots but there will be that one who knows what a mezuzah is, and I've already had one piss through the mail slot. (That happened years ago and I reported it to the landlord and the city's homeless complaint line too. Gotta keep the zombies trimmed back.) 

This incident is also why I'm thinking, if I feel I need to arm up again, of the .357 revolver/carbine combination. Perfect for urban warfare. I may end up teaching temple members how to shoot too. Wait'll they find out I'll want to train them with airguns at least to start off. The thing is, we can probably set up an airgun range in the temple or some facility. We'll have to pay to use an indoor range and I want it to be as easy as possible for people of all shapes, sizes, genders, and ages to get used to handling a gun. And there are airguns that are good simulators - the Umarex Glock I had, and the Crosman .357 revolver air pistol - this last having the fearsome "shootemupski" action. 

NPR's now reporting on Israel Independence Day / Israel 76 / Yom HaShoah which they're saying are this weekend. Except that was all last weekend. Maybe they're trying to help, we've already held our observances and any far-left/far-right/far-nutzo types who want to mount attacks, will find no big Jewish crowds to attack. Thanks NPR for stealth?

RIP Eric Bolvin

 

 

 

I only found out about his passing away last year in a thing on Reddit on r/sanjose, about a concert being given by a band "in honor of their late trumpet player". I took a few lessons from this guy. He could really yell. He also showed me what inspired him by playing for me a clip of a famous, late, trumpet player noted for "screaming" IE playing high notes. It sounded like pigs being slaughtered and did not inspire me. This guy was really, really serious about playing the trumpet. He published books of easy songs, and a guide for working through the Arban Method that I'm still considering buying. He was 62 when he died, the age I'll be in a few months. Maybe it was the yelling. RIP the Bolvinator.  

It looks like all text in this post will be centered. Too bad Eric Bolvin's not around to yell at the designers of this blog software. 

After Ken being over and then some YouTube and plenty of wine, I went to bed and woke up at 11. That's the trouble with associating with a night owl. "My schedule's contagious", Ken's been known to say. I'd looked at Pilates exercises for sciatica / spinal stenosis and they seemed to be about strengthening the general area of the "abs" and stretching the glutes, so I tried some glute stretches I can do lying down. Just using my arms to stretch each leg. This is promising. The trouble is, if I've got spinal stenosis as 11% of Americans do, my life is going to get a lot more difficult. 

I might end up being like this wheelchair athlete I met at the Olympic Training Center. He was a real card. We talked about the possibility of going down the steps while doing a wheelie or something so he tried it. The result was him going ass over teakettle, him going one way and his chair another, my doing something like going "Oh no!" and before I could do anything he'd scrambled over to his chair and gotten back in it. 

Fortunately I can still ride my bike just fine. I'm kind of like a guy I knew named Clark Howard in that way. His problem was just being old and very overweight. He had a Moulton bike and when he wasn't able to walk well he'd tootle around on it at the ham radio swap meets. He owned the geodesic dome house in Alviso - he'd built the thing himself. 

"Back in Hawai’i everyones filled with so much aloha and welcoming and there’s a sense of community and family no matter where you go..." - noahtargaryen on Reddit. Well, it was sure not that way for me. There were friends, fellow haoles, and places where I was more tolerated and less, but one had to be always on watch, always aware of possible danger. 

The news is scary as has become the usual. I guess I need to get my papers in order, get a new passport, so I can travel. I've sold my guns because I felt that if the time comes that I need them, I'll have waited too long. But I wonder ... on paper I am "white" and should be able to buy new ones. But where I had a .22 rifle and a 9mm Glock, I think this time around I'd get a Ruger .357 revolver and a carbine chambered for .357 also. I guess I should prioritize getting my papers in order though, because the last time I bought a gun I had to buy a fishing license also because for some reason the fishing license is a federal form of ID. Never went fishing, and it cost me $50. 

If I put off being a paying member of the temple for a year, and they won't push me about this, I can afford to "gun up" again. I'm an outlier in preferring a revolver but I like the simple "manual of arms" of a wheelgun and since I can shoot accurately with one, I can do more with 6 shots than most people can do with 10. If I'm able to go to Israel, I'll sell 'em to someone in the temple, cheap. 

Today I'm prepping items for easy listing tomorrow. I also had time to scramble some eggs for "lunch" (breakfast was a mug of Elite coffee with cream) and then pack everything that has sold. I can *really* relax with regard to having to get things done because anything that sells won't have to be shipped until Monday. I'm really enjoying observing Shabbat. 

Long ago I wrote in this very blog that there were two reasons I'd fallen away from converting to Judaism and retiring in Israel. One was that I'd be required to hate the Arabs. Well, that problem solved itself on October 7th. The second was that I'd have to believe in God and I have decided to. 

I was sitting on the steps of the old Japanese Hospital in Japantown, a favorite place to sit and eat a bento, and was watching a swarm of gnats doing their gnat thing. They must have some awareness, as they were very good at staying in one place in space, yet there's no way they'd be conscious that one of the large lumps near them is a living creature who could kill them in one spray of bug spray, or set out gnat-food and care for them for 1000s of generations. 

Another thing that's decided me is, when I was in Gilroy we had a flock of chickens who were in abysmal conditions. In a horrible 4x4x4 foot metal cage, stepping on each other and in their water, dirty eggs scattered about, living in a sea of mud, eating their food out of the mud. They had no way of knowing I spent a week building them a big, bright, clean chicken house with lovely nesting boxes and perches galore, and two separate watering systems. Then I took the chickens out of the horrible cage and carried them, one by one, to the new house. All the chickens knew was some horrible ogre was grabbing them and taking them off, then coming back for another. Oh, the wails of despair! Chickens invented opera. It was so tragic it was kind of funny. 

A third example is, if you have people who don't understand RF electronics/physics/electromagnetism, and you say things have to be done in this certain way, and you have to have metal here and something that's an insulator (which they may not understand the idea of) there, it would sound weird and crazy and complicated for complication's sake. 

So I choose to believe in God, and the bases for my belief is pretty science-fiction-y, but that solves the 2nd problem. 

I had time to sort and label a LOT of extension cords, then got the idea to take some CAMAC memory units apart for the DIP ICs because I think we can get more for the ICs than the whole units. Then I made some scrambled eggs for lunch, and packed 13 things that were all that had sold. I left here at the usual time for the post office, then FedEx. I had $2.65 on hand and went into H Mart and was able to get a package of jalapeno peppers. 

Then I picked up packing materials and dumpster-dived some small things to sell, so in the end I have a good batch ready to photo and list tomorrow, and can worry about sorting the IC's into batches to sell, later. I aim for 50 things listed a week, and I'll be set for that. 

Somehow listening to a pledge drive is easier ...

 When I've kicked in my fair share. What really got me was when the people on NPR started talking about defending free and independent journalism because that's a real concern. Even here in the "enlightened" SF Bay Area we've got NPR, KPFA, maybe a college station or two, and the rest of the non-music stations are all Clear Channel / Sinclair / Der Sturmer crap. 

I think I might be eligible for "KQED Passport" now which means I can watch a bunch of neat videos they have, lots of Ken Burns stuff for instance. 

Yesterday I was all done listing 10 things and when I came back from my post office / FedEx run, I was all done with work for the day. Except I had a test instrument lined up to take apart, as someone had already taken some parts off. 

First I cooked up some of these "BT21 Ah Sha Noodles" I'd gotten a package of on a whim at Whole Foods, this time with some codfish that was ... ehhh ... fishy. So to thaw the cod I put it in a big bowl of water with some lemon juice in, while I prepared the noodles and veggies. By the time I was ready to cook the fish, it was pretty much fine. I'd gotten it thinking I might try making gefilte fish but it looks too time-consuming. 

Then I got the test instrument out and the tools and went at it. That took some hours while at least I listened to YouTube documentaries. Then it was just brush teeth, wash hair, get ready for bed, wine and YouTube, and studying in my Hebrew book. And then bed. 

I actually woke up at something like 7:30 and went back to bed to half-sleep until just before 9. I did some crunches on the theory it will help my back, then got up and put the things I'd listed yesterday, away. It's a way to get myself up and moving around. Then I made myself a cup of Elite, as will be my morning routine at least until I used up the cream I'd bought. It's OK. I think I can get used to it because it tastes like the instant coffee my mother used to make for herself each morning in the 1970s. 

This thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/1cs6gle/whats_your_only_in_israel_story/ shows a lot of why I'm pretty turned on about the prospect of retiring in Israel. It's how my 1970s childhood in Hawaii would have been if I'd been of the dominant ethnicity/color. 

I had time to list 25 things on Ebay, pack 12 things, make the post office and FedEx run, and do some shopping at Sprouts and H Mart. 

Then come back and make a beef curry with lots of veggies, put listed things away and get out things that are to be sent next. And clean the bathroom, office, and do a good parking lot litter pickup. 

Ken came by a little later than usual, and we talked, and I got my check but he'll be gone for a week and I guess I'll next see him on the 29th when we'll settle up - I'll get a double paycheck plus I sold him my collection of knives and multi-tools so that will be another $200. 

Then we sat around talking, mainly about radio/engineering stuff. He left a bit after midnight.

Weirdest phone call ever

 And I'm even factoring in the "dirty" phone call I got when I was a kid when we lived in Pupukea. The connection was bad and I kept saying "What?" and only after I hung up did I realize that it was a "perverted" phone call. 

But this one was stranger. I was actually half-awake around 8AM, and at 8:30 I got a call from a lady who's a traffic investigator in Fountain Valley. She said my name came up connected with a vehicle I've never owned, she mentioned street names and I blurted out, "Boy do those streets bring back memories" but said I've been here in San Jose for years, don't drive a car but have gotten around by bike for years, etc. She even mentioned another last name, which she said was "like" mine, but it's really not - it starts with Q and mine with C. I was very cheerful on this call because the whole thing was so silly. The lady seemed very satisfied that I had not, on Sunday, crashed a Ford Escape into someone in the fine town of Fountain Valley. 

There are two possible things: The call's real, in which case I have to wonder how in the world my name and phone number would have come up in this case. Or, it's a private investigator trying to find me because one of my family members is looking for me - in which case they have. 

Another weird thing happened last night. I was watching YouTube and I clicked the YouTube logo to go back to whatever the algorithm wanted to serve up to me to find a different video to watch, and my computer went blank, dark screen. I unplugged it to make it fully reset and went to bed. 

When I got up this morning, I turned on the radio and KQED is having a hard time with their fundraiser. So I got the computer booted up in time to give them a donation of $60 and that's tripled due to some rich benefactor. So I'm finally paying my fair share for the sound track around here. 

I know my busking tips are down, and as I said to the checker who complimented my playing at Whole Foods, the economy isn't bad right now, it's improved quite a bit, but people *think* it's bad. Inflation's down, pay's up, there have been a lot of tech layoffs but in general it's not really bad at all. Store owners tell me shoplifting is up, but to them maybe, shoplifting is always up. 

I was thinking, though, that if this computer starts failing, or had failed, I'd better get down to the "fix laptop" place downtown right away. I'm dead in the water without a computer.  When I was thinking of bailing to Hawaii in September, I asked Ken if, if this computer died, he could provide me with one. But now that I'm "signed up" for 2-3 more years here, if my computer goes kaput I'll just go over to Fix Laptop and get a new (used) Dell. I'm a big Dell loyalist. 

I'm surprised I'm increasing my bank account by about $113 this week. The Israel '76 thing cost me $20 and I spent another $20 on the Bring Them Home dog tags thing. I just sent KQED $60. Sending the wonky shofar back cost me $24. And, sadly, I'm sure I'm spending too much on wine. At least on this last I'm going to change from Cabernet Sauvignon to Chardonnay. And tapering down; it's just not worth it. 

And I am happy that I have "people" now. If Trump wins the election, it's going to get scary. As I understand it, I have to go through my conversion and then live an observant life for a year more, and then there's the process of getting my papers in order to go to Israel. But at least I'm part of a community here. 

If things get dicey, I'm pretty sure my new community will have my back, as I will have theirs. I have been very quiet about what I bring to the table. My sports accomplishments, my survivalist skills, the fact that there will be at least one new ba'al tekiah in the community, and if I can get the other trumpet player on board, we'll have two. The fact that I am very serious about going to Israel to retire, am learning Hebrew, and that I don't think there's anything a kibbutz could call on me to do that would phase me. 

News on the radio: In Germany, politicians are getting beaten up in the street. Greens, although the AFD folks (modern Nazis) are getting some punches too. When I was in Munich in the 90s, there was an election coming up and there were tables near my hotel, and I got a neat sticker from the Greens. No one was punching anyone.

Happy 76th, Israel!

 I watched YouTube(tm) and drank too much wine(tm) although less than the night before(tm) and woke up due to my wonderful little alarm clock(tm) at 9, then fell back into bed to rest my eyes(tm) ... got up at 11-something. 

I got an email from the music store in the Midwest with a good reputation(tm) and they said just send the shofar on back, on my dime. So I boxed it back up in the original box, with a copy of the email and the original receipt, and they'll get it back and then $185 or so will re-appear in my bank account bye and bye.

I packed 5 things also to take a good load to FedEx. 

I looked over the map again, and I'll go on my bike on the Green light rail to Winchester, then head West to Winchester blvd. and ride South on that to Lark, left on Lark, and on in to Oka Road. 

It's a bit further than my routine rides to Willow Glen, but I've ridden from Sunnyvale to Hellyer Park and that was a bit of a ride, even on a skinny tire bike. My mistake was stopping in at a convenience store and buying some distilled water on sale. I could have damn near died. What I needed was a nice salty V8 and some regular water. 

I got an email from good ol' Dave in Honolulu, and told him in my reply about my converting to Judaism. That's plenty of grist for his conspiracy-theory mill, of course. 

I got a nice stack of books on my way home last night so I'll do another book-trade pretty soon. This is good because there's a DVD in the book store I think I want, something about Golda Meir's balcony or something, doesn't matter because ... Golda Meir. I swear if I find myself in Israel I will have two big pictures on my wall, one of Golda Meir and one of David Ben-Gurion. I'll hang a maile lei over each one, or something close to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyxia_stellata I think bay leaf would be close enough. 

As nearly as I can determine, Tel Aviv weather is pretty much the same as Los Angeles, a place the Nazis call "Tel Aviv West".  Even a broken clock is right sometimes. 

I didn't get "moving" until 11:30 or noon, but I packed 5 large things and the shofar, and took them to FedEx. I had to mail the shofar on my own dime and it cost $24 to send it back. I should get the refund OK though and I'd never be able to get $150 or so for it on my own. The two shofars, that one and the Kosher one I have now, blow exactly the same note! 

I stopped at my favorite food truck on the way to FedEx and got three little fried taco things with just potatoes in them. I ate the potato-y parts and left lots of crispy parts in the gutter for the birds. After FedEx I stopped by my favorite place to find packing materials and got a good load of 'em. And rode back here. 

There was no way I was going to be on time. My plan was indeed to ride to Diridon Station, get on the Green train with my bike and ride down to Winchester. On my way, going by way of Hedding to hopefully get there a little bit quicker, I got a bright idea. I'd stop by the temple and if anyone's going from there, maybe I could carpool with them and pay $20 or so for gas. But it's Monday - no one was in except one guy who wasn't going. I'd have to follow my plan. 

I stopped in Whole Foods to use the loo, buy a chicken tender, and that great accompaniment to fried chicken, a package of 4 little bottles of Chardonnay. 

I rode over to the light rail station and I had a train coming in 9 minutes, so I was able to eat my chicken and chase it with wine. And when the train came there were very few people on it so my bike was no problem. 

I rode down to the Winchester transit station, got out and pedaled to Winchester Blvd., to Lark, to Oka Road, and there the place was. It was very easy. I checked in, got a little ticket for the meal (and I wonder, maybe for a prize drawing) and the "service" was just starting so I wasn't late after all. 

We watched things about Israeli soldiers' lives, and sang cowboy songs, and said the Kaddish (I need to memorize that one) and the room erupted in applause after a bit about Ben Gurion. Then more songs and prayers and then a speech including some mention of playing of trumpets and then some AWFUL shofar blowing. And the guy had one of the long Yemenite ones too, those are easier. Well, next year ... 

Then we all trooped out and I got right over and got a hamburger. I wanted to put onions and mayo on it, a "rifle range burger" but they just had red onions and the closest to mayo was mustard. They had salad also and I should have done what I saw one of the Israelis do, which was have the hamburger on a bed of salad. There were forks for the salad, and she just speared the burger on her fork and ate it that way. That's how to eat a burger. I, on the other hand, ate the burger w/o the buns which I took because of course a burger has to have buns. And later grabbed a bag of potato chips. 

Once I'd eaten, sitting on one of the blue and white picnic blankets that had been spread out on the huge grassy lawn, I went to the booths. First there was one about the communal type laundry service the kibbutzim had. I said something like, "Washing machines, how effete!" and described my home laundry method. And there was a game where you take 3 socks and try to toss them into the washing machine prop and if you get at least one in, you get a prize. I got one in, and got a little package of fruit chews. I went around to the other booths and it was great fun. 

I got one of those dog-tag type necklaces, "Bring Them Home" in English and Hebrew, and they wanted a donation of at least $15 and I gave them $20. I talked a bit with a Conservative rabbi - great guy. I got around to the booth held by my own temple, and it was a "kibbutz bar" with drinks, non-alcoholic of course. There was an Israeli "Malt" drink and I said I'd try it. My own rabbi was there and boy did he lay into that drink. "That's the drink of covid, only drinkable if you have no sense of taste!" He kept going on about how horrible it was, while they poured me out a cup of it, on ice. I tasted it and said it's pretty good. "Do you like liver??" Rabbi asked. "I do!" I said. Rabbi took off to schmooze with someone else, and I got a 2nd cup of this drink, which I finally pinned down - it's kvass.

Years ago I followed a YouTube channel called Life Of Boris. He was funny and did a lot of cooking stuff. At one point he actually made kvass, and by that time I'd gone to one of the European markets and bought some kvass and tried it. And this "Malt" drink is, actually, just good ol' kvass. I said to the people manning the booth that if you expect this drink to taste like beer, or like cola, you will think it does not taste good, but in fact it's its own flavor - kvass. Someone said they'd first had it on a hot day in Eilat and didn't like it. It's just about made for a hot day in Eilat. 

I tried to find Rabbi with my full-again cup of kvass in hand but I could not find him. Eh, he's a busy guy. The band had started up by then but they didn't inspire me. So I went inside (the place is huge) and looked around, used the loo, had a nice chat with the security guys out front, changed my shirt etc. again, and rode for home. (I'd started with a T-shirt and safety vest and my orange safety hat, then changed to woven shirt and kippah, then when I left changed to yellow jacket and orange hat. 

I rode for home, finding the ride very pleasant. Going down there was slightly uphill and downwind, and going back was downhill and upwind so, about the same effort both ways. Traffic was light. I overshot the turn for the Winchester Transit Center by a block, turned back, and a train was waiting right there. 

Coming back was no problem, I got off the light rail at Diridon, rode over to Whole Foods for a few things like cream to try in the Israeli "Elite" coffee I have, a box of Chardonnay, etc. The gal checking me out asked if I was going to play music today and I said I can generally only play on Sundays these days, and that what I really want to do is get up early enough to play at a farmer's market. She said that would be a great idea. 

I went to the Amazon place next, and got a big load of bubble mailers. They were bagging up their trash and I asked if I could go through the bags for bubble mailers and they liked that - it's less for them to throw away. So I went through the bags, re-tied them, and bagged up my haul and rode for home. 

I didn't find any books, but got two nice coat hangers from this place on the corner of the parking lot of the Mexican market where people drop things off. I got in here and got some capacitors from the HVAC place but they might actually be bad. 

One neat thing about that Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos - there are tons of people who speak modern Hebrew. I even asked an old lady there if she knew where the gift shop it (I thought they had one) and she told me she only speaks "Ivrit" - Hebrew. The people sitting around me in the service spoke Hebrew.