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.
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