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.