I was up around 10, and had time to list the 12 things I'd gotten ready last night, and didn't have to pack anything because I was ahead on shipping. Ken called and said he was going to come over with a guy at 3:30 to look for a piece of equipment. No problem, I told him, I'll be out doing errands so I won't be here.
But of course I was, because I had a lot of things to do from brushing my teeth to putting new laces in my shoes. It's funny, apparently I bought new laces 3 times but somehow they never made their way into my shoes. I was getting ready to do that when Ken and his friend showed up, nice guy, and we talked a bit and I led them to one piece of equipment I'm planning to part out, but the guy wanted something that was bigger.
So I left them messing around and I left here at 3:30 maybe 3:40.
I dumped trash and donated things in the Japantown Little Free Library, and rode right past the post office to the bank, more cheerful talk and the IRS has cashed my check so I've got about 5 grand in there now.
I went to Whole Foods and got some of what I call Cheech & Chong Chicken, a baked chicken with some spices and plenty of schmaltz. I put in extra schmaltz and put some rice in so after eating the chicken I stirred the rice around to soak up the schmaltz - heavenly! And, of course, a little bottle of chardonnay.
I thought, I really need an alarm clock. And Target should have 'em. So I walked over to Target and once inside, thought, I really need a vegetable peeler. The Oxo veggie peeler was something like $12 and I never thought I'd spend $12 on a vegetable peeler but here we are. I got it and a $6 Sharp alarm clock. My sciatica was bothering me so much that I didn't do the whole walk, I rode the bike over to Microscopic Italy and parked it in front of the little whine shop.
Walking back from Target to Teeny Tiny Italy, I stopped at the park to read the little history signs. There's a thing that's like a big circle of bricks with river rocks in it, not full of water or anything, just these big river rocks. A ... lady ... was sprinkling something all over the rocks. I asked her what it was, seeds? No, she said, glitter! And indeed she was, going around and around on the rocks, sprinkling glitter from a bottle. I said something like the glitter adds a certain something, and she said "Everything needs glitter!" Yeah. OK. I walked off.
Now to ride to Walmart for my Weekly Wal. I rode down there and somehow managed to spend almost $100. I got a lot of stuff.
I found a few books on my way back, and a half-dozen or so The Atlantic magazines. So the bike was pretty loaded when I rode for home. And somewhere around Dahl's Equipment Rentals I got the impression that I'd run over something harmful so I did the old trick of holding my shoes lightly against the rear tire to knock any piece of glass etc. that's working its way in, off. Something came off and now my tire went PSS! PSS! PSS! every revolution. I thought I had a leaf or something stuck in there making the noise. So I stopped and saw it was the tire, spitting air and Slime. But amazingly, the Slime was doing an amazing job of holding the air in, and I was able to ride it back as far as Galli Produce then had to walk it. Good show, Slime.
Once back I thought of some plans. Lowe's closes at 9, and it was a quarter to 8. I looked up the schedule of the Airport Flyer bus, and it looked like I could possibly, if I got out to Brokaw to one of the Flyer's stops, take the Flyer to Ridder Park Circle and walk in to Lowe's. And as I was out the door at 8, I thought, I'll walk right up Rogers Avenue to Tom's and see if I can hit him up for a ride, buy him some beer.
But by the time I got to Tom's I saw it has taken me only 10 minutes to walk there, and the bus stop's right there. Tom was out anyway. A bus came in a few minutes and and it was a nice little ride. The Flyer's the one bus that doesn't tend to have bums in it.
I walked into Lowe's and got their one, sole, lonely, bottle of Slime. And some safety glasses because when it's windy, they're necessary. I had a little green gnat fly right into my eye, riding home through Japantown.
I walked to Sprouts next, and got .... more stuff. So now I had about a 10-lb bag in each hand. Went out and a Flyer bus was right at the stop, so I massively jaywalked and went over and the bus was just sitting there. "Got room for one more?" I joked. The bus has one passenger, and now, two. Now, when I'd paid the first bus fare, which is $2.50, my Clipper card had a balance on it of $2.40. And I'd forgotten to ask for quarters in Sprouts so I thought, it might be a $3 bus ride. But each fare paid gives you 2 hours on the VTA system and there wasn't a charge.
The driver was a nice guy and we joked around and I told him about my getting a flat and how useful the Flyer bus was for me. He let me off at Zanker, no stop there (I think there is, by Junction) and I walked in. That was a bit of a walk, especially with the groceries. I'm very curious to see what the effect will be on my sciatica.
No comments:
Post a Comment