The big lift

 I actually got in some practice, and then tucked into a bottle of cheap wine I'd gone and and bought from TAK Market (not that cheap!) and thus when my alarm clock went off at 8:30 I was able to get up and stay up etc. 

I had my usual cup of Elite coffee with cream, and got out of here a bit after 9. I went over to Nijiya where I found an onigiri and a can of Dutour coffee is $5.05. I ate quickly and then rode over to the temple. I was right on time, and there were a lot of people who'd showed up. A lot of us didn't show up on the signup sheet so we wrote our names in, and essentially what position we'd play. I signed on as a "lifter" and after some sitting around and schmoozing the boss-est lady told us all what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. 

My job as a lifter was to go up a narrow staircase and get banker's boxes of papers from a dusty little attic room and take them down the stairs, around the front, and into the banquet room. One of the guys was trying to set up something like a bucket brigade but this was not working and the reason was, the system he had in mind would only work if the weakest person could handle the heaviest package. This was not at all the case. Instead it made sense to have each person go up, pick out a box they could handle, and move it. One guy had a hand truck and that helped a lot as the boxes that stacked well could be transported on the ground level leg of the trip by him, and I single-carried a lot of boxes that didn't stack well. 

The trouble was, though, that not only my sciatica was a factor but my left knee started complaining. So I told one of the ladies to put me on something else, and no one officially did but what happened is I became a short haul lifter, moving boxes in the banquet hall that the ladies could not handle. This worked out great because I got a break between boxes almost always, and I made myself very useful. 

Past noon we'd done quite a bit, and we kept going because no one had signed up for the 2nd shift of noon to 2. Some people took off, most stayed, and I kept making myself useful where I could. The promised pizza eventually showed up, cheese and veggie pizza from Pizza My Heart, bought personally by one of the guys. I had 2-1/2 slices (one person wanted just half a slice) and I made myself useful by finding a knife in the kitchen and cutting the pieces apart because they weren't cut apart that well. That also made it easy to get one guy his 1/2 slice. 

It was almost 2 when I finally left, getting as far as where Tap Plastics and Upshift Cycles is, before realizing I'd left my trumpet in the temple. Oops! So I rode back and got it. 

I decided I'd play at the Old Spaghetti because the sun was really brutal. I went over there and played for an hour from 2 to 3. That made me $32. I was tired at the end of it, though. I'd made a handful of change too, handed to me by one of these weird international journalist soccer guys who were around. I think there's a big time team playing at Levi's Stadium, I want to say Brazil, and they're training somewhere. Some on Reddit say Stanford but I'd not be surprised if they trained at Bellermine. 

I decided to go to Whole Foods and play and that was awful. The wind was very strong, the sun was strong, and I didn't get a tip in half an hour. I eventually went back to the Old Spaghetti and made another $7 in maybe 45 minutes. I suppose I could have hopped on a "green" train and gone to the Whole Foods on Hamilton, but I was not in the mood. 

I had a few dollars in my wallet so I was able to round the $39 I made up to $40. The plan is this: I want to give $60 to the Biden campaign. But I want to stay within my budget. So, with the $20 I have in a jar, I now have $60 in the jar. When I get my next pay check, I'll take out $140, donate $60 to the Biden campaign, and the $60 I have here will go into my wallet so I'll still be starting the week with $200. 

I stopped by Nijiya for a package of "GreeNoodles" miso flavor and a small cabbage. Just like last week, the plan is to not spend money until my next paycheck. "My next paycheck" is going to be an interesting concept because Thursday's a federal holiday so I won't be able to deposit it until Friday. But I have another load of books and I can trade those for cash, and I could do some busking on Thursday. 

Thursday is the 4th of July and I plan to march with other temple members in the "red white and blue" parade. I believe I'm developing a reputation of someone who does things, who participates whenever possible. That's the idea because conversion isn't just taking a couple of classes, it's also being a part of the community, or as it's often put, non-ironically, the tribe. 

I'm playing a serious long game here, the desired end being to retire in Israel, as a Jew. It will take at least a couple more years because it's not just converting but also continuing to be part of the community for a year past that. At least that gives me more time to learn Hebrew. I just hope things here in the US aren't so much worse in a couple of years that it becomes hard to leave. I really don't care if the hillbillies here all shoot each other, I just don't want to get tangled up in it. 

Saturday night

 Yesterday went well. I listed 20 items on Ebay to keep things rolling, and got out of here with some things to mail in time to mail them, then go to Whole Foods to eat, then go to Target to get a jug of Persil, then get over to the temple in time for the service. 

We sang our cowboy songs and it was fun because we had a different cantor, a guy, who's relieving our regular cantor who's taking time off to have a baby. So we'll have a lil' cantor running around in no time. 

Afterward, I ended up sitting at a table with a guy, God forgive me, I call "Shrek" but not out loud and if you saw him you'd know why I've hung that name on him. And a guy who's some kind of officer in the temple because he always wears a little hard-to-read badge like all the other little hard-to-read badges the other officers wear. He'd skipped his usual solid yellow shirt, probably because I'd said last time he looked like he just got done winning a bike race, for a solid green one. So of course I had to tell him he's the most promising Junior in the bike race. It turns out he follows bike racing so I told him about a great book I'd read years ago by a British guy who rode the exact path of the Tour, and in the process related all kinds of interesting things about it. It's really a great read. 

Pistachios. It turns out the rabbi loves pistachios. So the next time there's a pot luck I'll have to make something with pistachios in it. 

The cop hadn't brought my cake pan back - he'd forgotten it - but will next time and we talked about guns and stuff. 

On my way back here I felt like stopping at TAK Market for a coffee beer but they've taken a lot of the exotic beers out and of the more interesting ones, you have to buy a 4-pack which can be north of $20. What they did do, however, is put in a whole section of "cutty bangs". I got a small bottle of Kahlua instead of a coffee  beer and made a Kahlua and coconut milk drink when I got back here which was OK I guess. Then dinner then for dessert I just drank the 2nd half of the Kahlua straight which actually tasted really good. I should have just gotten a cutty bang though. 

I woke up around 8:30 which is perfect. After an hour or two the guys next door started in with their pressure washer but I found that I could pretty much ignore it if I was deep enough into a book so I read the 2nd half of "Survival In Auschwitz" by Primo Levi. Then I read a bit more of "Sapiens" by Harari but I finally quit in a bit of disgust due to his having written things like "Nationalism is dying down" etc. 

I ended up reading about 1/3 of "Chronicles Volume One" by Bob Dylan which is pretty interesting. At least the part about how he first got started is. The guy was really, REALLY, obsessed with folk music. And at a time when it seemed like a bigger dead-end than Johnny Cash's fascination with gospel. He was young, fit, could sleep on anyone's couch or floor, and in the 50s and 60s one could make a living busking in NYC. Plus he used equal, large, portions of schmoozing and chutzpah. It's a fun read so far. 

The media loves fascists

 My plan was to get to bed early last night. It went so-so. I practiced trumpet a bit less than an hour while watching a documentary, then got out the cheese and pickles and a bottle of cheap wine. I still ended up staying up too late, and while I woke up at 8:30 which is good, I went back to sleep until a bit past 11. 

I turned on the radio and keep in mind this is NPR, they've been picking Biden to pieces for over an hour now. They could have been talking about the things Biden got right, like telling Dumpo he has "the morals of an alley cat" which was a good zinger. Instead they're picking out things I didn't even notice in the debate, and at one point were even talking about the Democratic Party switching in some other candidate which, this late in the game, would almost guarantee a loss. 

I don't understand if NPR is trying to be "edgy" to keep listeners interested, with the assumption that we'll all vote for Biden anyway, or if the big money behind NPR, like the big industrialists in Germany, have decided they're going to try to elect their "pet" fascist whom they think they'll totally be able to control. 

I don't understand how literally millions of people who are democratic politicians, writers, artists, and so on, don't understand that if Donnie Diapers is elected they're going to go right into the death camps. And that's if the chuds don't kill them in their own homes, a thing we got very close to when Dumpo was in control last time. Don't they see that this election is a life or death matter? 

The first Hitler so-called debate

 Ken came over,  I got my check, plus he brought me a burger and fries which I ate. He gets these deals out of the newspaper for things like 2 burgers 2 fries for $6.  So that was dinner sorted. That didn't keep me from having some honey-roasted nuts and a matzo with butter for a before-bedtime snack though.

I've done it, I've gone without spending any money since Sunday. I've got 20 things cued up to list tomorrow, and a few things to ship today. 

The first so-called debate (at best it will consist of the adult in the room, Biden, being normal and adult and low-budget orange sHitler throwing a tantrum or three and pooping himself more than usual) is tonight at 6 local time. I could find a local watering hole with TV and watch it while having a few drinks and perhaps dinner, or I could get out early, get back early, and watch it on YouTube on the CNN channel which would save me a lot of money.

I do want to budget beer money for the actual election, after all. I plan to go to the same place I went to in 2016, and a generous budget as if Democracy does not fail, I want to buy people a lot of drinks. 

But in the meantime I'm gonna cheap out as I plan this week to send $60, the same amount I sent to KQED, to the Biden campaign. So my "allowance" will be $140 this week. 

It's good to see my bank balance inching up to 5 grand again. If I busk enough, I should be able to keep a "float" in there of 10 grand. This is why I want to find a "shepherd's crook" (short) cornet because I can put it and my tip box in my bike bag, busk before going to the Friday night service at the temple, and thus bring an extra $40-$60 a week into my life. Plus I can experiment with a plunger mute which might be a lot of fun. 

I packed all the things that had to go, which were only about 5, that I could carry just fine. I got out of here around 3, went to the post office and dropped the things off, then the bank where for some reason, according to the teller, I have about $200 more in the bank than I thought  I did. Banks will never stop giving me the creeps. I'll feel better when my grand plan is all done and I'm retired in Israel because then I don't have to worry about having thousands on hand to fund my leaving, because I'll be there. 

I went over to the used book store and turned in my books, getting $25 and change in trade credit. then I went over to Whole Foods and got chicken and veggies and a beer. The beer was great for being cold and fizzy, but made me feel a bit sluggish so I got a can of coffee and drank that too. 

I went over to the Teen Challenge Thrift Store and gave them the books the book store didn't want and a bunch of OTC medicines and stuff I'd gotten also. I was told they'll excuse me this time, but I need to bring in donations before 5. I found another pair of glasses that looks pretty close to my prescription so  I got those for $3 so now I have two pairs. 

Between the beer and the coffee and feeling pretty good about having obtained another pair of glasses without paying hundreds, and the trade credit I have now for books, I was feeling pretty good and decided I'd try to watch the Biden/sHitler debate. The Fountainhead had it on but with the sound off and subtitles. I wanted to hear the sound and after looking in a few places, found it was playing in Teske's where I got bread and butter (free) and a 1/2 liter beer which I didn't finish. 

The debate was nothing special, El Dumpo spouting a lot of lies and Biden trying to assert normality. The best part I saw was Biden telling Donnie Diapers he has "the morals of an alleycat". 

Teske's was really dead. Like 3 other people in there. The bartender wasn't showing up so I left a $20 on the bar and took off. I wanted to see if any places were hepped up about it. In vein, as none of the other places I looked at had the debate on, but rather a soccer game. This is quite a bit different from 2016. 

I rode back here, picking up some books on the way, put things away here and went back out to H Mart and Sprouts for Shabbat shopping, wine, some roast beef, fish, etc. 

 

 

Whether to arm up

 The peanut gluten curry went well last night, and I got a little over an hour's practice in - as I should do every day. 

On the radio when I got up at noon they were talking about a book, something like "MAGA's plan to 'finish what they started'" and the author went on about how when Fat Orange was largely silenced for a while, it was "grassroots" organizing that kept the movement going. This of course is a direct parallel to Hitler being largely silenced and his base of criminals and cretins keeping things going. The famous book-burning wasn't started by a command from on high, but a spontaneous thing by Nazi students. In the same way the exact parallel today, of Nazi students linking arms and keeping Jewish students and professors from entering the campus, beatings of Jewish students and professors, etc. 

Arming up again would tie up a lot of money and I sold Ken my guns on the idea that I'd be out of here before I'd need them as a regular everyday carry item. The idea is to have plenty of money on hand to be able to, if needed, take a spontaneous vacation in Israel "to visit the birthplace of Jesus" or some shit, but mainly to get out of here. It could leave my conversion process unfinished but it's possible to complete it there. The main thing would be to be able support myself at least by playing the trumpet and blowing shofar, and of course there are tons of other things I could do. 

That's the question: Are we in the equivalent of late 1932, or merely mid-1922? As I'll keep saying, this blug is no "Berlin Diary" by Klemperer, but it may be interesting to read some years in the future, if Blogger isn't wiped out or Nazified to the point where only blogs by the Stormfront crowd are allowed. 

It's funny, I was all antsy to raise money by busking or selling books to get some peppers and a dozen eggs, but what changed it was finding that big can of really good tasting "honey roasted" nuts. I can turn in the books on Thursday or Friday for trade credit, and I've got plenty to eat here and found a couple of peppers and a big one in the veggie dumpster so I've felt no desire to get out and raise/spend money at all. So I guess I'm passing my little test of character. 

I packed all the things that had to go, most of them medium to large, and also had time to finish a load of laundry I had soaking, give myself a haircut, and when I was done packing, make and eat an omelet filled with ricotta cheese with fried jalapeno pepper pieces. Yum! 

I did my run, found packing stuff, and got back here, and did a good parking lot cleaning because it needed it and the cleaning guys had left some kind of big hairy (as it it intentionally looked like some kind of long haired pelt) comforter or something - at least freshly washed. The trash, gathered in a big bag, went into a dumpster and I put the pelt in a box out by Bayshore because maybe someone will be able to use it. 

Dachau II

 https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1do69fi/san_antonio_us_rep_chip_roy_says_he_wants_to/

Keep in mind that Dachau, the first concentration camp, was built to hold Germans, not Jews. Germans who didn't agree with Hitler. I'm linking the whole thread because the discussion is really good and brings up a lot of points - such as, that they want to eliminate rich whites with Ivy degrees. My father was far from rich (there's no money in programming computers) but he had an Ivy degree so presumably if he were alive he'd be rounded up. Lots of good points in there though, not the least of which being a reminder that Pol Pot specifically targeted the educated. And in the newly founded USSR is was a real disability, even a one-way ticket to the gulag, to be educated. 

This is all OK with the dumb yokels but I'm really hoping that in the actual election, the vast majority of people get out and vote and throw Donnie Stinko out on his very ample ass. 

I listed 15 things and packed a bunch of things, and took off at the usual time for the post office and FedEx. I stopped by Tom's on the way back to drop off some fancy but unsalted nuts with him. I figured he could at least use them to feed to his "pet" crow, as I'd noticed he didn't have any raw peanuts on hand the last time I was there. The truth is that I'd tried salting the nuts, and even putting some "popcorn" flavored salt from Walmart on them, and they were still Meh. Plus the flavoring had dairy in it so I had to be careful when I ate the nuts, not with a meat meal for instance. 

So I'd washed them and laid them out on cardboard to dry out up in the loft, and they were crispy dry in a day and I'd put them back into the can which I'd also washed out. Tom took them ate some while we talked and while I drank a LeCroy fizzy water he gave me. 

Tom's wife is living with him full time now, it seems. He's said as much. I think officially she's living in his truck camper and it would all be OK if he weren't befriending bums like James who get him into constant trouble with inspectors. I said to Tom at least she's saving a lot on rent. 

I collected packing materials on the way home and got back here, cooked up a peanut gluten curry which was pretty good, and found a thing I only had an hour left to find, and packed it. Whew! 

 

RIP Tamayo Perry

 Late last night I learned that the guy I'd known when he was a chubby little kid, and we all lived in the poverty-stricken cluster of houses next to Kaya's General Store in Punalu'u, the kid whose father had taught him "kung fu" moves and his mother fed so well he was big for his size, and I'd have this kid, about 4 years old, come up and bash into me and he weighed like 2/3rds what I did. He was so damn cute, and even his mother nick-named him "Tomato". 

He went on to become a champion surfer and then a lifeguard/waterman and then he went surfing in La'ie by Goat Island and a shark killed him. This guy was fit as hell and knowing ol' "Tomato" he would have put up a real fight if he'd had any warning but he apparently didn't. I always thought in the back of my mind that the little guy would outlive me but  I guess not. 

I'd always meant to get out to Goat Island if for no other reason than there's probably lots of kahelelani shells out there but I guess  I never will. 

When I was looking at things in Israel a while back, it depressed me that it's not a place you go for seashells. The Red Sea, where Jacques Cousteau had his first magical water experiences, sure. But the beaches of Israel are reportedly shell-free, or it could be that mollusks being treif, they're just not remarked upon. 

But Israel is outstanding for something that's seemed magical to me since I was a little kid - archeology. There are "digs" everywhere and very fertile ones too. There are even programs where even as a retiree you can go and help and I believe you get room and board. 

Plus to walk the same streets walked by the Romans, and even the Neanderthals, to be in the one patch of land (outside of Africa itself)  where humans have been just about the longest. 

Last night I managed to watch two videos, about an hour and a half each, one of "Relaxing Walker" walking from Jaffa to Bat Yam, and one with this one guy who goes to squalid places in the US, noted for his sarcastic tone of voice, who went to Oahu and went around on his own and then rode around with a guy who's a mainlander who'd been in Hawaii a dozen years or so. Hawaii's a bit greener in some places but Israel looks 10X more live-able. In "Relaxing Walker's" video, I saw no one homeless person or crazy or bum, only at one point some bags left on a bench and that was it. Happy birds, happy kids (I believe in Israel it's economically possible to procreate) and just ... normality. 

If nothing else, a move to Israel will be a big plus just to get away from the zombies. Zombies in San jose:  https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/1dn2izo/scary_experience_in_downtown/ Zombies setting zombie fires in San Jose: https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/1dna1s8/aggressive_fire_in_downtown/ Zombies just as bad (if not worse) in Hawaii: https://www.reddit.com/r/Oahu/comments/1dmrwa9/crap_you_have_to_put_up_with_walking_to_work/ Meanwhile in Israel the IDF will part their hair with a billy club if they pull that shit there.

Along with millions upon millions of others, I'm really hoping Shits-His-Diaper-Don doesn't get elected. I'm looking at arming up again in case things get bumpy, but would base my rifle/pistol combination on the 9mm I guess. But I'd rather not spend the money if I can avoid it. 

Stinkypants Donnie is mis-calculating on a lot of things though. For one thing, Hitler, his role model, wanted to genocide about 1% of the population - Jews, Roma, disabled, etc. Donnie Dorkus is talking about genociding at least 10% of the population and he and his followers would really like to kill off at least half - all political opponents, LGBT, Blacks, those obviously not "Aryan" to start, with whites who are not certified "Aryan" to be liquidated later.

The trouble with this is, in Nazi Germany, the random person had about a 1% chance of being killed by the Nazis. Under the MAGA regime, we're talking 10% - 30%. That changes things a lot. In Nazi Germany, you could justify your old high school teacher or doctor or that violinist on the corner downtown being shipped away as being foreign, even evil and not at all like you. But under a MAGA regime, we're looking at Ken's wife and kids, almost all of the people who work at my bank, the staff at most of the restaurants downtown, bus drivers and scientists at Stanford, and so on. Everyone, no matter how "Aryan" will have someone they know, someone they're related to, destined for the death camps. 

Plus, the Germans could liquidate 1% of their population and keep functioning fairly well. But taking 10% or more of the workforce out of the economy would be disastrous. Managing a slave army of 20 or 30 million would take a LOT of manpower by the "Aryans" plus I'd expect to see sabotage and other forms of resistance at epic levels. I don't see it really working at the level Dumpo and company want. but given the US has tons of prisons and is eager to build more, I can see things getting very bad for non-"Aryans" here and I want to be gone by the time that comes. 

And to think that not long ago I thought I could move just about anywhere in the US and be OK. To think I was considering retiring in New Orleans, because  I play the trumpet. When in fact crime and drugs are a way of life down there and Louis Armstrong left and never returned for a reason. 

At 3PM I heard a funny sound and looked outside. It was pouring rain. I looked at the weather radar and sure enough, a cute lil' storm cell was passing right over here. Refreshing and hilarious. 

I packed 12 or 15 things and left at the usual time. They all had to go to the post office so it was a straight shot up there. I came back and Tom was home so I stopped by there and hung out for a while. I tried to interest Tom in some makgeolli from H Mart, he buys and I go get it, but he didn't have any cash. We just sort of hung out for a while, talking about little things. James tried to sell him an old, probably bad, go-kart battery which he turned down. Tom's wife got done with whatever it was she was doing in Tom's camper and went into the kitchen and started cooking bacon so eventually I left. 

On the way back I got some carrots, a couple jalapeno peppers, a red bell pepper, and a bunch of cherries from the veggie dumpster. Another dumpster yielded a big can of "honey roasted" nuts, about a $25 can of nuts, that looked like someone had opened it, realized they were honey roasted instead of being just salted or smoked or something and decided Fuckit. Their loss, my gain. They're delicious. 

A test of character

 I got home after all those adventures yesterday, didn't have much appetite but got into the bottle of wine I'd had just one drink of and finished that off, and went to bed to sleep. I woke up around 8 or 9 in the evening, then ended up staying up all night and going to bed around 6AM. It's half past noon now. 

I'm not going out busking for a number of reasons. First, I haven't been practicing so my tone is not going to be good and that's primarily what people relate too; good tone. Secondly, I didn't have my quiet day inside reading yesterday so I'm going to have my quiet day inside today. Thirdly, the heat is awful to be outside in and I got enough of that yesterday. 

So I have exactly zero money to spend until Thursday. It might be an interesting test to see if I can go until Thursday without spending any money. 

I had my nice quiet day, except I also prepared a load of books to take to the Recycle place, because if I don't feel like busking I can at least make enough on them for some eggs and veggies. 

I also got 20 things ready to list tomorrow so I can just do some minor cleanup (some things are dusty) and photo them and hopefully have them all listed by noon. 

To finish off the first of the half-gallons of milk I had, I made a fish curry that was milk based. It was pretty easy and came out well. It was a matter of sautee'ing the vegetables first, then adding cabbage and a little water, then 500ml of whole milk, the seasoning, and pieces of fish. And bringing that up to a small boil very carefully because milk can burn. It was good. 

Saturday evening - A British Tanakh

 The blintzes were a hit. I'd made 36 of them or so, was hoping to make 50 but I ran out of time. I'd made signs too, saying they're macadamia nut blintzes and contain dairy, macadamia nut chunks, and egg. I got complimented on the signs. I put the two containers of them in the fridge in the kitchen, and we had the service, sang our cowboy music, etc. 

Then there was about a 15-minute break, and a lot of people went home because they'd have nice Shabbat dinners waiting for them there. The cop was there, and I got out the stack of gun magazines Ken had given me, and gave them to him - he was overjoyed. I said I'm old enough to remember when The American Rifleman was like Scientific American but of course oriented around guns. Here's what cordite was. Here's a shot tower and how it works. The magazine is really lightweight now. 

We got our food out and the dishes people had brought were pretty much sweets and salad-y things. I got a plate and put a blintz on it and took it out to the cop, who was probably happy to get something more substantial than the salad-y things he's usually given. 

People stocked up on food and I saw my blintzes on a few plates. The rabbi wouldn't try one though, because he just plain doesn't like macadamia nuts. All in all, people only took a bit more than half of the blintzes, and that's after I ate one too. I finally had an idea and took what was left and put them in one of the cake pans and took them out to the cop, asking if he wanted them. "I'll give them to my shift buddies - they'll eat them up!" he said. 

The dinner came with a discussion about the situation in Israel right now. The rabbit does *not* like Netanyahu. I don't know enough about Netanyahu to have a real opinion on him although I am inclined to like him at least for now. I kept pretty mum, but made a couple of points that were very well-received. I forget the first one right now but the second one was that the Right loves Russia because Russia is a very "white" country and it's seen as some kind of last stronghold for whites. And they've thought that for the last 20 years at least. This was a surprise to the rabbi and others, who had apparently not been reading right-wing sites like I had, years ago. 

After that I ducked out to give the rest of the blintzes to the cop and we ended up talking long enough that the rest of the discussion group started filing out (and I'd made like I had to leave early for some time-constraint reason, oops) and one of the ladies said she liked the blintzes very much and knew they're a lot of work "Just making the 'skins' takes hours". 

So all in all they were a hit, as they should be as I spent north of $50 on the things. I think they will be my specialty, though. I can make some with a different kind of nut, for instance. 

I rode home feeling pretty good, and stopped in at TAK Market for a cheap bottle of wine. That used up my "folding money" but I wanted to drink a bit more then the less-cheap bottle of wine I had waiting for me. So I did that, got home, and really didn't have an appetite. So the long and short of it is I drank the cheap wine and one glass of the less-cheap wine, and went to bed. 

I woke up around 10, and about 10 minutes after getting up the guys next door started in with their pressure washer. They usually go a few hours with the thing, and for some reason I had a bit of a headache. 

So I went upstairs and got a good load of books sorted out and took off around noon with them. I still had a bunch of change, $7 or almost $8. I rode to Whole Foods first thinking I'll get a couple of hard-boiled eggs, get some soy sauce from the sushi area (my way of getting around the Whole Foods dictum that if you salt your food, you'll excite "animal spirits" and get covid) and that should be affordable. But there were no eggs so I got a dollop of hummus, cheese, some olives, and thought that's pretty light (food's charged by weight) but that and a bottle of water cost me all but about 89c of my money. 

I sat and ate, slowly, as the heat was already annoying. Then I rode over to the used book store and turned in my books. I wandered around, deciding which books I might get. I was offered something in cash or $24 in trade which is pretty good. So I got the most beat-up and therefore cheapest, copy of "Survival In Auschwitz" by Primo Levi, and a Tanakh that is of really nice quality and was only $20. It came to more like $25 and the owner said my trade credit and the less than a dollar of trade credit I had on a card was enough. 

Next I rode over to the Teen Challenge thrift store and gave them the books the book store didn't want. They were happy to get them and I looked around a bit - I'll have to try to have some money on hand when I go there. 

Now the ride home. I realized too late that I could have simply gone away from downtown, to Hedding or I think it's called Naglee there, and gone home that way. I decided to ride for Whole Foods to get another bottle of water and home from there. 

I rode past the St. Leo The Great church where there was a wedding or something going on, with a mariachi band so I stopped to listen to / watch the trumpeters. They play short phrases but put a LOT of expression/vibrato into the shortest of notes, at the end of a phrase. And there are a lot of breaks in their playing so they can keep having a great tone. I was given a nasty look by the only white person there, some kind of limo driver with a Rolls Royce "silver cloud" so I went and sat on the wall in the only patch of shade there was and no one could say boo. This is pretty nice, I thought, as I drank the last of my water. 

I rode to Whole Foods and got another bottle of water which was great because it was icy cold. Then I rode the back way, past "Microscopic Italy" and right to St. James Park where there were a bunch of tents set up and music playing so I checked that out. "Batman", the guy who dresses as Batman and hands out supplies to the homeless, was there and I said Hi, I'd played the Batman theme for him years ago and he remembered. I drank a little cup of coffee given out by a guy who was promoting coffee, and looked at the other booths. 

How strange it is, to have thought of myself as being a leftist, to see so many leftist people who genuinely want me dead if they see me as Jewish. The most ridiculous one was one that equated Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist who'd in the clink for shooting a guy, with the "Palestinians". I guess it's equating a scumbag with scumbags. If you shoot a guy, you generally go to prison. If you shoot a guy for political reasons, you tend to go to prison for longer. And if you shoot a guy for political reasons and the guy's an officer of the law, well, Leonard's not getting out any time soon. But of course to the Left he's a hero. (I just did a quick read of the Wikipedia, and it was two FBI agents, who were already incapacitated by gunshot wounds, and were "finished off "with close-range shots to their heads.) 

I found a few books on the rest of the way home and got back in here. At least it was cool inside here and I had my fan and could drink ice water. I took another look at the Tanakh and interestingly, it was printed in 2016 in the UK. The UK doesn't have different denominations of Judaism like the US does, it's pretty much all Orthodox with a head rabbi. It's in Hebrew and English. 

Friday blintz day

 I was so tired after riding around doing errands yesterday I kind of pooped out. So when I was up at 9 this morning, I had my coffee with cream and listed the Ebay things I was to list last night. 

Then I got the cooler I have down from the loft, cleaned it some more to make sure it's clean, and took a loop from Bayshore to 10th to 4th to some street named after a plant I forget, noticing there's a really good park there with tons of exercise stuff. Yay! Popped out at 1st street and rode North to the one place with cheaper ice. They only had small bottles of milk, though but said I should go to their other store, the 76. 

I went up there and they had half-gallons.  I got two which might be one more than I need. Gonna be drinking a lot of coffee with milk! I rode home and first made the filling by crushing the bunch of macadamia nuts I had, using a big metal bowl and the bottom of my coffee mug. Then added ricotta cheese, cream cheese, salt and sugar, and almond extract because most people don't really know what a macadamia nut tastes like and I feel it will bring out the flavor more. Took a taste and it was good! 

I put the filling in the cooler with the ice where I'm keeping the half-gallons of milk too, and mixed up a batch of crepe batter.

Surprise hamburger

 I spent the day getting things ready to list, and stayed in because of this. I installed my backing plate for the toilet paper roll holder and that came out great. The thing is, the walls are sheetrock, AKA glorified chalk, and a backer plate is needed. Now it works great and won't come loose in the forseeable future. 

I cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the office, and waited for Ken to come by. And waited ... I tried calling and no answer. I started planning for him to not come by, a small power supply sold and I packed that to ship, and once I'd done that Ken came by. 

He had one of his usual fast food specials, in this case a large package of fries and a large hamburger with two patties. He gave me half the fries because he didn't want to eat that many, and when he was cutting the burger in half I said, "I could eat the other half" so I got that too. Dinner was solved. 

I got my check and we talked about stuff, and among other things I mentioned how awful our numbers on Ebay are right now and how I'm not the least bit happy about it, and will do my best to get 'em up. But Ken is pretty carefree about such things. That's how you are when you grew up never moving, never wanting for money or food, never in the dog-eat-dog atmosphere I grew up in. That's OK, it beats working for someone who worries like I do. 

I got my check too. My system of depositing the check and taking out $200 at the bank and that being my allowance for the week is going well, as long as I get out busking on Sundays. 

I was up until around 2AM, and woke up a bit after 10. Surprise surprise, we'd sold a decent amount overnight and I packed the things to take them right to the post office today although they don't have to be sent until Monday or Tuesday. 

"I needed a change, so myself and my partner decided to try out living in the UK. We moved to Scotland over a year ago, and we love it. From day one I was assumed to be local and treated as if I was living here my whole life." - u/Monkymadn3ss on Reddit. 

I post this because this is how Hawaii works. It's not even racism, it's color-ism which is how the US works as a whole. You can be just about anything as long as you're brown enough, and you'll be greeted from day 1 in Hawaii in a way a 5th-generation white-appearing person could never dream of. I hasten to mention that Scotland, especially Glasglow, is considered a sub-optimal and even rather violent place. But if you fit right in it's Home. 

This is the same thing I'm experiencing at the temple. It's taken for granted I'm one of the group. 

I packed all the things that had to go, since I could carry them without the trailer. And photo'd the 20 things  I'd prepped yesterday. But by then it was past 2, and I wanted to go out and do things. So I took off for downtown. After dropping off trash, I went to the post office and mailed the packages, then went to the bank and deposited my paycheck. Everything came out right to the penny - amazing when I intentionally keep my banking so shit-simple that it will be glaringly obvious if something funny goes on. 

After the bank I went to Whole Foods and got some chicken and broiled zucchini and potato, and a naer-beer and ate. It was about $12 including the near-beer so it is not only a good, but an economical, choice. At the checkout I remarked on it not being very busy, and asked how it was over the lunch hour. The guy said it's pretty darned busy from about 11AM-1PM which is intriguing. If I could scrape myself out of bed soon enough, I could try playing that 2-hour window on a weekday when the yuppies and desk drones are out for their brief window of freedom and perhaps dreaming of being a busker and having no problems, living fancy free. They might tip well. 

I went over to the train station and the lady had gotten her popcorn machine replaced. We talked a bit and she has something like four or five bikes for different purposes. I got a bag of popcorn and sat at a bench eating it. I hadn't noticed but they have pay phones there, three of them. A guy right out of the 1950s, a black guy in a brown suit with a fedora, did some very ardent dialing and finally got through to someone, made some sort of plans, then got on his bike and rode off. 

Next I went over to Good Karma Bikes to see what was up, and got a pair of gloves that might be good for winter as my Thinsulate ones are getting pretty worn. Those cost me $5. They were unloading cases of beer and I joked around about the beer and apparently they were setting to have some kind of a party with beer and I was invited, but I said I had to get things done so I'd turn this one down. 

I rode over to Walmart and got my Wal on, except I'd forgotten shabbat candles so I paid for my stuff then went back for 'em, and in the process realized I'd forgotten fish too, so I got candles and fish. The lady I'd been talking to in line was now at the checkout and wow, she was putting back tons of stuff, seemingly having had no idea how much money she had and no realistic idea of what she could get. That took forever. 

I rode for home, finding a few books on the way, and stopped at Nijiya for peppers and garlic but they didn't have garlic and only a few "meh" packages of peppers so I got a can of coffee and headed for home. I put things away and pretty soon was off again.

The first stop was Lowe's to buy some Persil but they were out of it, and out of Simple Green too. I ended up getting some screw eyes and screw hooks for a project. Then I went to H Mart, locked the bike and used the loo, and got garlic and peppers and a package of GreeNoodles for tonight. 

Then I walked over to Sprouts and got two packages of ricotta cheese, some cooked sliced "London broil" because they didn't have roast beef, and a bottle of wine. That came to enough money already. Now, tomorrow, all I have to do is dash out first thing and get ice, and get a gallon of milk at the same place I got the ice in all probability because the gas station store is manned by Indians and those guys always have gallons of milk for sale. So just a quick trip with the bike trailer. 

 

Fish blintzes

 I made the aforementioned fish blintzes last night for dinner. 1 egg + flour, milk, and a bit of melted butter makes 5 crepes and I cooked one piece of the frozen cod I'd got at Sprouts with lots of minced parseley, then once cooked, minced it up small and mixed in cream cheese, for the filling. They were OK, but kind of bland because Lo and behold, cream cheese dampens down the taste of things. But at least I tried them, and got more practice making crepes. 

They're doing an interview (actually the 2nd part of a long one they did the 1st part of yesterday) of Dr. Fauci and what a mensch. A lot of lives were saved by the "Fauci ouchie". I may well have had covid bounce off of me due to having kept up with the vaccinations. 

In this book: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-coming-plague-newly-emerging-diseases-in-a-world-out-of-balance_laurie-garrett/248564/item/5915195/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_everything_else_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=593719077582&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrLXICrQ8_KKlxb27jFNWhKq0fE-oH7GBGSzbLDBzOZAPLzbkqoyquhoCEsYQAvD_BwE#idiq=5915195&edition=2373560 which I read avidly when it came out, I believe I read that Bill Gates, not a doctor of course but very up-to-date on such things in the latter part of his life, thought that the next "plague" would be a coronavirus because coronaviruses are kind of the bane of humanity. And in fact we dodged a couple before Covid, SARS and MERS. Not to mention bird flu. 

And we'd been through the 1918 flu, the "Tokyo" flu which circled the Earth a few times and which I believe I got a taste of when I was 6 or 7, and the swine flu which I may have had in 2011 or so. And the mysterious "coughing thing" which Ken coughed on me and I got, and I remember having to make my dinners look pretty to induce myself to eat them. I wonder if that was Covid, because Covid may have been in the US on the West Coast as early as October of 2019. 

I can't believe I'm going to be here for the election. My plan was to skedaddle back to Hawaii on my birthday in September. Tell Ken I was doing a quick exploratory trip, and just not come back. Instead I guess I'm planning to stay here two more years at least, to do my formal conversion to Judaism and arrange to go to Israel. 

This means not collecting Social Security until I'm 65, as opposed to 62. Doing this solves some problems though. For one thing, there's something called the "Medicare doughnut hole" where you can get it but have to pay for it at age 62, but it kicks in automatically at 65. Plus I'd get kicked off of Medi-Cal. Plus I'd not see much of my Social Security check because I'll still work for Ken and the Social Security Administration would take a good part of my check back (to issue to me post-age-67 apparently so it's not all bad) and all in all it'd just be ... weird. 

Even if I get to Israel before I'm at age 65, I'll have enough savings to get by for the first year or so and then there's busking. It'll be the same as it's always been: I may be old but since age 18, official kicking-out-to-sink-or-swim age in the US, I've pulled my own weight. Even when I've been a panhandler which I was for about 6 months, at least I didn't do something really unethical like become a used car salesman. And as soon as I could come up with something that's like actual work, I took a pay cut to go do that. 

So I suspect I'll do alright in the homeland. 

Today being a holiday, I pondered whether to cash in a bunch of books at the used book store, or to take my trumpet and go out and play, perhaps playing pieces either written by black people are associated with black people. But in the end I found a couple of things to take apart, and after tossing the scrap metal out, got all the various bits and pieces worth selling all ready to just shoot the photos and list tomorrow morning. 20 things so it will be 55 for the week, and I really only have a standard of 50/week. 

Tuesday, tuesday

 How come there aren't songs like Monday, Monday, except for Tuesday? 

Last night I moved some heavy stuff around and thus had room for some oscilloscopes I was able to get out of the office and a line analyzer I listed too. I listed 15 things today, packed about 20, and took the things to the post office and fedex as usual. 

I didn't make any blintzes last night, instead finishing off some olives and grated cheese and had a few pickles too. 

I picked up shipping things like boxes and padding on the way home, unloaded, and went right back out. I locked the bike at H Mart and walked over to Home Goods and found a couple of nonstick baking pans with neat plastic covers that looked promising. I went over to Ross and didn't find anything even close, so I went back over to Ross and bought them, and some xylitol gum that might be good. That was over $30. 

I went to Sprouts and bought some eggs and cream for coffee, then back to H Mart to buy a cucumber and a large carrot, and headed for home. 

While gathering shipping things I'd come across a "Family Size" box of breakfast cereal (candy) called Reese's Crunch or something, so on my 2nd time out, I'd stopped at Tom's to give it to him. He was busy deciding whether to buy some (stolen) power tools, and it looked pretty busy at his place so I didn't stay long. I went and did my shopping. 

On the way back I stopped by again because the most direct path back here went right by Tom's. By now one of Tom's pet bums, James, was finishing a bowl of the cereal, Tom had had a big bowl of it also, plus Tom's wife was there and she'd had some. Breakfast candy all around! I tried a little handful of it dry, and the stuff really does taste like Reese's peanut butter cups. 

We talked about this and that, and I heard about a little squabble between Bum #1 (James) and Bum #2 (Robert) and that's just life among bums - always fighting. I don't know why Tom likes to live that way - allowing bums to hang around. I've been around tons of people all my life, with  4 siblings, in schools and in the Army and in rooming houses, but I prefer to stay all alone rather than be around bums. 

 

If you have trouble getting to sleep...

 Just eat 5 macadamia nut blintzes and you'll nod right off! I had real trouble keeping myself awake after that, and went to bed pretty early. I woke up at something like 6AM, then again at 10AM and got up. 

I'm going to try savory fish blintzes tonight. I have that codfish from Sprouts which is really delicious, and will only have  to cook it, mix it with some ricotta and seasoning, and that will be the filling. I'll leave the vanilla out of the crepes and will use S&B brand "seasoned pepper" instead of just salt. 

I think for filling in general, whole milk ricotta's the way to go. Cream cheese is heavier than needed, and as for farmer's cheese, it's meh. 

Sunday and technically morning

 Now that was a decent Shabbat. I studied Hebrew quite a bit, re-tracing what I've covered but I'd not been studying it daily so I felt I needed to do that. I ask myself, Why am I so good at English? Because I'm functioning in English at least all my waking hours, and I dream in English too. Of course I'm good at it. 

I remember teaching myself to type. I'd bought a daisywheel typewriter from Floyd's Piano And Typewriter, borrowed a book on touch-typing from the library, and did my exercises, starting from the home position. I didn't stick with it through the whole book so I ended up with some bad habits but at least I had the core idea, the home position, down pat. Then years of IRC and Ebay listing polished me into a fairly good typist. 

I suspect the same applies to Hebrew. I need to spend time "in" Hebrew and there are no short cuts. I need to do what I did yesterday, which was study in my Reading Hebrew book and watching movies that are in Hebrew with English subtitles, and so on. 

I also watched some great movies, "Haven" and "The Aryan Couple" and some other stuff. I've discovered Jonathan Pollard, yes, *that* Jonathan Pollard, and I guess there's nothing like 30 years in prison to make one get one's views in order because he seems to be about the sanest voice out there. Pollard says Jews are never fully accepted but at best, in the diaspora, tolerated. 

That struck a chord with me because as the hated "haole", I was always tolerated at best, never accepted. And it doesn't matter if you're 5th generation, hanai'd into the royal family, etc. The pleasantness of Asians in Hawaii is merely tolerance, not acceptance. Try getting a job working for one of them and you'll find out. 

The welcome I've felt at the temple is a new thing to me. They don't care if I'm of modest means because while some there are surely quite wealthy, many are of modest means. It's not like being in a gaggle of fellow "haoles" in Hawaii because they always, always, cared about one's means. 

No, they are if I'm in it for the long run. That's the test. Will I learn Hebrew, will I learn the prayers and songs and do the things, and not for a month or three, but for a year or three and do the conversion process and perhaps an adult b'nei mitzvah which is a bar or bat mitzvah but for grown-ups. 

They don't know it yet but they're getting, I hope, a very capable ba'al tekiah and if any are interested, a firearms instructor. And perhaps a decent cook. 

The next service has a potluck dinner, and I want to see if I can pull off making macadamia nut blintzes, and I'm not letting the fact that I've never made a blintz stand in my way. I suppose I'll be eating a lot of blintzes this week, for practice. 

After the service and we'd sung our cowboy songs and I'd nibbled a bit of pastry and had some cucumber slices (yum about these last!) I went out to my bike and the friendly cop was there. I asked him if he'd checked Recycle Book Store for reloading books and he had. He'd bought a Speer reloading manual, and we had a fine old time talking. I told him I was really happy he'd checked the place out, that I'll recommend a restaurant or something to someone and they'll say they'll go, and they never actually do. So to have someone actually take up on my advice and for it to work well for them has me really happy. 

I also found (or YouTube found for me) an .... interesting ... video explaining antisemitism in terms of network theory, Jews being "hubs" and other people being "nodes" and using this theory to explain both antisemitism and the amazing endurance of the Jews while the groups who oppress them tend to end up in the dust of history. I'm pretty smart but I'll have to find it again and dig into what the guy's talking about in depth. At my level of understanding it seems to point to the conclusion that if you are a Jew, do the Jewish things. If you are not a Jew or not sure if you are a Jew, follow up on it and ... do the Jewish things. 

I had my cup of Elite coffee and cream, and tried to get myself motivated to go out. I finally left at a bit after 2 I guess. I dropped off trash and dropped off some donations at the Japantown little free library. Then I rode through San Pedro Square and it looked really good, lots of people around. 

So I rode over to Whole Foods and got some chicken and broccoli and a near-beer and ate and people-watched. The funniest one was a tall skinny motorcyclist who'd gotten one of those packages of sushi, so something in the $12-$15 range. He opened it, checked it out and for some reason it wasn't right and he went over to the trash with it and threw it out. He could have at least gotten a refund if it was bad. 

I went over my mouth with a toothpick and chewed xylitol gum, and was ready to go. I rode back over to the Old Spaghetti Factory and played for an hour. They have planters put out so the sidewalk is really narrow there where it was wide. It's obvious why they did that - at least before covid, musicians and artists used to go there and play music or display their wares, and as the culture here hates ... culture,  something had to be done. I just set up where I always have, narrow sidewalk or not, and it went pretty well until at the end of an hour the crowd had thinned out and the sushi place had been very gradually increasing the volume of their canned music so it was time to go. The funniest "customer" there was a guy who put in a few bucks and wanted to hear some Otis Redding, and this after his saying "Do you play anything else other than the national anthem?" The national anthem being Danny Boy I guess, as I never really get around to playing the national anthem. This guy was drunk, and carrying a drink in a plastic cup in his hand that seemed to involve vodka - I could not help smelling it. He was really crowding in close and I was trying to get rid of him without him realizing this so I played Amazing Grace and went on about it being a sobriety song and big at the AA meetings he really ought to go to, and that didn't work so I finally said I have Covid and that's why I'm outdoors and that worked. He sprang away and went to join his friends. 

I went back to Whole Foods, used the loo, and started in to play an hour there. It was now 4:00 so it would be easy to keep track of time. The good old End Times wind was blowing pretty strongly and I didn't have high expectations but it went surprisingly well. One old lady really liked my playing Danny Boy and gave me a thumbs up. It took her forever to get her groceries to her SUV and get them loaded and get herself into the driver's seat and to finally leave, but when she did she stopped by to hand me a $5 through the window and said she really liked it and she'll be singing it the rest of the day. 

I said "Great!" and after turning away, sang an impromptu thing about "Oh Johnny boy, why is my toilet so clogged...." etc. This got a real crack-up by a Black guy walking past, into Whole Foods. Later, when I was about done for the day, I had a guy challenge me to play "Chuck Mangione" so I played "Feels So Good" but of course could not hit the really high notes as I'd been playing at least an hour and a half by now. He said/motioned something about how I have to strengthen my midsection and I agree with this. 

When I had 15 minutes left, who should show up but Pee-Pee Lady. She was actually kind of friendly today, and people donating to me kept moving their carts past the yellow line, where the carts would jam. At one point she was really yelling at a guy and the guy said he got a bit scared and I said, "She's a scary lady". 

I told her I was only playing until 5 so I'd be gone shortly. I realized something about her -she's half deaf so it's no wonder she misconstrues things and has very different ideas of what's going on around her from what's actually going on. Still, we were able to do a bit of "shop talk" and she said she basically sticks around until she has $20 or whatever she needs that day. I told her I'd made $30 in an hour at the Old Spaghetti Factory and after an hour there at Whole Foods I counted up and had $27 so it was $57 for the day. 

That's almost exactly what I make at my day job here, if I take my weekly pay check and divide by the 7 days in a week.  I went into Whole Foods and bought some macadamia nuts. They had some in the bulk bins, and with two employees right there, I carefully dispensed about two nuts into my hand, popped them in my mouth, and chewed them up. Fresh. Good. The employees didn't appreciate that much, but I went on to get over a pound of them in a bag so I think that mollified them a bit. 

I also got some pistachio nuts, and some more vanilla extract because the Whole Foods generic stuff might be better than the Walmart generic stuff. 

I found a bunch of books, mainly kids' books, on the way home so all in all it was a good day. I'd left with $20 on me, had bought a nice meal, gotten some expensive nuts for cooking, and in the end had the same $20 on me. Plus some books. 

I got back and did things like burned sensitive trash, washed my hair, and sprayed another coat on the backing board for the toilet paper dispenser. 

I was hungry and decided it's time to put my plan in action, to make and eat a lot of blintzes to get good at making blintzes. So I made my first batch of macadamia nut blintzes and ate them. I'm really full now. They came out surprisingly well for a first try and keeping in mind I don't measure things when  I cook, it's just things like "some" flour, an egg, a bit of salt, a bit more of sugar, and so on. 

The filling is pretty easy and can be taste-tested. It's making the crepes that's trickier, and will get better with practice. 

Friday W00T!

 I was up too late/early, got all involved watching this Canadian movie that pretty much told the Sackler Oxycontin story with everything pseudonim'd of course. Plus it was filmed in Detroit which is apparently right near the Canadian border so there was plenty of icy/wintry atmosphere. I didn't plan to stay up watching the thing but it hooked me in. I'd say it was on a par with "Premium Rush" which was a definite B movie but I watched it when it was in the theater when I first moved here to San Jose and I thought it was pretty good. 

I woke up before 9, then kind of half-slept until about 11:30. Then time to get up and have my cup of Elite. The label says "Can also be used to make Cold Coffee" well, it makes excellent cold coffee, mixing better than any other instant I've tried. I imagine IDF soldiers in the field being very happy with the stuff. 

I'd spent most of the evening sorting a lot of integrated circuits, out of two large cabinets with tons of tiny drawer things. When I was done, I put the things out by the dumpster enclosure and was really happy to see some lady come by in a car and pick them up in the wee hours of the morning. I've bought those things a number of times myself and never had that much real use for them. 

I got a couple of neat Taps Across America stickers in the mail today. Nice of 'em. Too bad I was too much under the weather to actually, you know, go out and play Taps. I think there are 2-3 times a year when it's a good thing to go out and play Taps so I need to do so when I can. It's good practice. I don't like to think of anything happening to Ken but if so, I should be prepared to play Taps and also Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man. 

One thing I'm thinking is, I want to find a cornet that's the "Shepard's Crook" version as those are extra short. I can stick one of of those in my bike bag and no one will know it's in there. The reason for that is, on Friday nights, I can start for downtown, do the post office and the bank if needed, then busk for an hour or two then pack it up and go to the temple for services. I can also mess around with a plunger mute which might be fun. 

I actually got paid

 I actually got paid last night. Ken came by at the usual time like nothing's been out of order at all, I showed him my accounting showing he owed me $1800, he checked against the stubs in his checkbook and agreed, and he wrote the check. He also brought some things to list, and I just finished listing today's batch of things now. 

We also talked about science-y things as usual but also, surprisingly, the Bracero program of the 1940s - 1960s. Ken used to be pretty progressive, worked for the McGovern campaign, etc. I pulled up the Wikipedia page on the Bracero program and showed how the program gave immigrants far more rights than they have now, and that's why it hasn't been re-enacted. Braceros had basic workers' rights, and the big capitalists want slaves who, if one dies they can just bury them or dump the body somewhere and go on. This is why there are stories now of 11-year-olds losing arms or dying in food processing plants now. 

Other than that nothing so unusual. I'd finished and hung up a load of laundry before Ken came, and it's toasty dry now. The wall plate has one coat of paint on the front and since I can only re-coat every 48 hours I'll put more coats of paint on every other day. It will take all of 5 minutes to actually install the thing, and it will be installed when Ken comes by next week. 

The shiitake mushrooms were all nice and dry and I put those in a jar before hanging the laundry up. I guess I have been kind of busy. Dinner was just cheese and olives and some Romaine lettuce courtesy of the veggie dumpster. 

I'd even been up to see the dumpster in the parking lot get emptied and decided to be daring and tossed a bag of trash, two boxes of junk, and the leftover parts from the microwave oven I took apart in there. And sure enough, after toss that last thing, here came a damn zombie, shuffling toward me, attracted by movement and the chance of some nice yummy brains no doubt. I exclaimed "Zombie!" and got the hell back in here and locked up. The zombie, interestingly, turned around and shuffled off the other way, back toward "Crack Alley", my pet name for Rogers Avenue around the cement plant and lunch truck place. 

I woke up, I think, around 8 and then again at 11. 

I had my usual cup of Elite instant coffee with cream, packed one more small thing that had sold last night, listed 11 things, and got out of here a bit past 3. After dumping some trash, I went to the post office and mailed the two small things, then went to the bank and deposited the $1800 check and my accounting and theirs agreed to the penny. I puzzled over how I could have gotten off by $1100 or so and the teller looked in the system and didn't see anything deposited by that amount, going back to February. I said I think I goofed somehow, perhaps writing down the $100 check from Starving Musician as $1100. I still like my idea of taking my $200 weekly "allowance" out right after doing my deposit, because it means any use of my card will be out of the ordinary and easy to trace. 

I went then over to TAP Plastics and got a little bottle with a spray dispenser and some zip ties. The little bottle is to put Bactine in, because the spray top on the bottle it comes in stops working well once the stuff is about half used and it's annoying. 

Then I went to Whole Foods and got fish with mac and cheese, some shredded Parmesan cheese on top, and some feta cheese. And a piece of falafel and a samoza. And an alcohol-free beer. A nice milchig meal because it's still Shavuot. 

Then I rode down to Walmart and got some things, not a lot of things but still a worthwhile trip. I got a lot of kids' books on the way back, and at Nijiya picked up eggs and "seasoned pepper" which is 1/3 salt, 1/3 pepper, and 1/3 MSG. It's tasty! 

I got back here and put things away and caught up on Ebay and kind of zoned out for a while which wasn't the greatest idea because I had to go out again for more shopping. I went back out and it was cool outside so I rode fast to warm up. I parked the bike at H Mart, with a little worry because there was a tall black zombie staggering around and making odd noises and digging in trash cans etc. After locking the bike I walked away, trying to take a route to avoid the zombie. The zombie changed its route to intercept mine so  I gave it a nasty look and made like I was ready to walk *through* it, and it changed course again and I walked over to Sprouts. 

I got roast beef and pickles and a bottle of wine and walked back over to H Mart  - the tall zombie was now on the sidewalk waiting for the light with a wad of bedding under its arm and a plastic tub of junk. Maybe it made the staggering realization that it's not welcome in a shopping area that 99.9% Asian and where zombies are *not* appreciated. 

I went into H Mart for a couple of things and rode for home. The zombies were certainly active tonight, as on Brokaw I came across a zombess pulling one of those clothing rack things such as you might see in any large city in the "garment district", just tootling along in the bike lane. I checked for traffic and rode wide, out into the lane, to get around this particular representative of the undead. "Sorry" it said. 

Then up at the corner, there was a yelling, cussing type of zombess with a bike and trailer and I think another zombie too. Cussing and snarling and saying things like "AAARGH!". I went over into the left-turn lane to avoid going near them and rode down Junction Avenue as fast as I could, stopping where I could take the street that connects Junction to Rogers, stopping just around the corner to turn my lights off to make myself harder to follow. I rode quickly back here and got the bike inside and locked up. Let the zombies prey on each other, haha. 

 

A crepe pan

 I was up pretty late, brushed and flossed but didn't practice. I hoped to be up early but my staying up so late kind of precluded that. I woke up at 8AM wide awake, but then "rested my eyes" and woke up again at 11:30. The night-time and daytime schedules are fighting it out. 

Ebay sucks right now and I need to get out busking more or at least practicing diligently every day, because that's what I can personally count on. Ken can go on losing money for years but I believe the lease runs out in a couple-few more years and then what happens? 

My conversion process will take time. According to "Confused Jew" on YouTube, American Jews, even converts, are pretty welcome. We can be counted on to keep our noses clean and vote Likud,  I guess. 

I really wish I'd kept up some progress on the conversion process during Covid, but hindsight is 20/20. I'd hate to have to deal with conversion in a political atmosphere where America's version of Dachau is starting operations and then I suppose the US would annex part of Mexico (rhyming with Germany's taking of half of Poland) to put the actual mass-production death camps into. Or, the US being big enough, taking some of the more sparsely-populated flyover states like the Dakotas or Idaho and setting up the mass death camps there. 

This is why I think moving to Hawaii will not get me out of this. In Hawaii, being white-appearing makes me a target. There's no amount of worn aloha shirts and pairs of cheap "Locals" slippers I can wear that will make me anything but a target. Plus Hawaii's rotten with Christianity. It's kind of part of the South with coconut trees. 

Last night I made some little pocket things with cheese and chive filling, using won ton wrappers. They were OK, but I want to make the actual traditional blintzes, using a proper crepe pan or at least a frying pan. Making omelets in a saucepan is a big compromise. 

I packed the 4 small things that had to get sent and, with my "reserve" $20 bill back in my wallet, took off for the post office to mail the things, then 99 Ranch where all the frying pans are expensive. 

Next I went to H Mart where they were also all expensive but the "Hello!" brand had inexpensive ones and since I've been using "Hello!" saucepans for years now,  I got the smallest one - still big - and had money left over for a cucumber. 

I went around to a couple places and gathered a big bag of bubble wrap and picked up a package of Romaine lettuce from the veggie dumpster, and got back in here. Once things were put away etc. I made a nice omelet with a ricotta and poblano pepper (this last from the dumpster yesterday) filling. It came out great. 

Girl From Ipanema

 I took things apart and got a collection, I hoped, of 15 things ready to list in the morning/"morning". 

I made gefilte fish using the carp. It was blah. It reminds me of a guy I knew long ago who had a bread maker and only used the official bread maker bread mix. The result was the fresh bread tasted stale as hell. I can't fault my ingredients, the carp was fresh and not smelly at all, the matzos same, egg, that's gonna be fresh, onion, seasoning, etc. Still just bleh. 

I'll have to have another go with cod, since the frozen cod I got from Sprouts is really nice. 

Now or about now it's Shavuot, so it's gonna be dairy for the next couple-few days. I'm going to try making blintzes next.

Yesterday on my way home from H Mart I'd gone around back and "harvested" a good amount of shiitake mushrooms so I'd taken those right home and washed and sliced them and put them on cardboard up in the loft, and they seemed pretty wet in general and wine-y smelling, so before bed I'd turned a fan on them just to move some air, and they're a lot dryer today so I put the fan away. 

After taking all kinds of things apart, I did my usual winding-down routine, brushed and flossed and chewed Xylitol gum. Then I practiced trumpet a bit while watching YouTube. I'd played so much on Sunday that my high notes were gone but I gradually was able to coax them back a bit. This is why I need to practice every day. The most notable thing last night is I worked out "The Girl From Ipanema" fairly well. 

Lunch was a ricotta and jalapeno omelet, that was good! Now as I type, NPR is doing a piece on how they can't get people to work in electronics, in semiconductor factories. They gush about how the jobs are well-paid, but I'm not the only one who's wised up to "high tech". The jobs are very low paying, and take a lot of expensive schooling to get, in return making less than a dishwasher, line cook, or janitor. 

And the dishwasher and line cook generally eat for free or close to it, while the janitor is everyone's friend and gets to keep any goodies they find, within reason. My girlfriend was a kitchen prep person, not even a cook, and ate really good food for free, got paid better than any electronics tech I've ever heard of, and had a union. 

I probably spend too much time on r/homeless and r/almosthomeless but since like 99% of Americans I'm one step away from being homeless it kind of makes sense to keep up with things. But one thing that strikes me is that the people on these subs don't have any special skills. Not even shoe-shining and cleaning, or doing prison style poke-and-stick tattoos. 

I guess I have to be thankful that I was pushed to become an artist because that was a good trade 50 yeas ago, 500, 1000, 3000, etc. But I was treated like my art was only something to be stolen and sold, with myself getting none of the proceeds, or to be used as scratch paper if it was handy. Plus whenever I think about doing art I get this feeling of the poverty and hunger and despair I felt growing up, and I just can't do it. 

But music is a good trade, better than most perhaps because if you play a traditional instrument you don't need electricity or anything modern that can disappear in a wink. 

Trying to keep the numbers good

 I was up in time to list 15 things before 1 in the afternoon, then packed the 5 small things I had to ship, and left here a little after 2. I was in just in time for my favorite lunch truck where I got two baked chicken drumsticks for $3 and ate them, then rode up to the post office to drop the packages off. 

I rode back to H Mart and locked the bike, and walked over to Sprouts. Now, this Wednesday-Thursday is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which seems like a minor holiday but actually commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jews. That's pretty major. Traditionally, one does no work, eats dairy food, and stays up all night studying the Torah. 

I don't think I'd better even attempt the no-work thing. I can eat dairy food though, and I do have my new Torah and I could do more than the usual amount of reading in it. 

So I had some things I wanted to get at Sprouts. Soft cheese, for instance, to make blintzes, some feta for a feta cheese salad or two, and they sell jars of rendered duck fat which would be a good substitute for schmaltz for making matzo balls so I had my eye on that since seeing it last week. 

I thought I might cheat on the blintzes and make them using phyllo dough, but Sprouts didn't have it. They had other stuff though so I got a pretty good load of things. I walked back over to H Mart and got a little bag of flour to make the crepe part of the blintzes and since they had some carp in the fish department, got some carp. 

I hate computers

 I made the mistake of visiting the web site of a music store in Tel Aviv with the result that I got the bug that makes Firefox send tons of fake virus warning messages. So  I cleared all data in Firefox with the end result now that I'm shut out of Ebay until I can get someone at Ken's house to answer the phone and get a secret password number that I have to get from them, and key in here. 

Never again will I visit the web site of any music store in Israel, but will only do business with them face-to-face, if and when I get there. 

I'm also still dismayed that my accounting of what's in my bank account and what the bank's accounting is, shows about a $1000 difference. So from here on out, when I deposit my (normally) weekly pay check, I will take out, from the bank itself, the $200 I allow myself to spend, this making any use of my card in a credit card terminal a rare thing and easily tracked. 

Since I'm off of drinking other than a bottle of wine on Friday night, my finances should start looking really good again. In fact, even after putting $20 aside as I used to do, $20 a week to build up a cash-stash, I still have $60 in my wallet. 

I had a hard time getting going because I don't really need the money, but I do need to get out busking at least once a week for the sake of practice. So I finally got going maybe 3:30 in the afternoon. I got rid of my trash at my secret trash can which is only frequented by zombies -a different set of zombies than the zombies around here - and then went over to Nijiya and parked the bike. 

I walked across the street to Kogura's which miraculously was open, and they had calligraphy pens in 3 different widths so I got all three since they're only about $2.25 each. I also marveled at their new assortment of Hario coffee making stuff and told the guy there how great Hario stuff is. He was thankful to hear this because apparently it was his decision to stock it. I said the only place I know of to get Hario coffee filters etc is all the way out at the end of Stevens Creek Boulevard at Marukai Market. It's a *long* bike ride. 

I got a nice bento at a can of coffee at Nijiya and went over to the old hospital to eat. Then I swung by Nijiya again to use the loo, chewed gum to cleanse my mouth, and now was all ready to go right over to the Old Spaghetti Factory to busk. 

Except I went there and there was some kind of really loud band going on so that was out. Over to Whole Foods. It was windy there, but the wind had the effect of keeping the grifters away because it's hard to grift when your booth blows away. I set up right away, and after playing my first song it was 4:39. 

I actually stuck it out until 6:39 and made $42. That's decent money in this town. It was hard going because of the wind, and I got a lot of $1's plus a couple $5's and a $10. In the last half-hour, a "Save The Children" grifter set up, with no booth so I thought this was just a freelance beggar. I stuck it out, played my "Goodnight!" jingle, packed up, and talked with her a bit. She was nice enough, and I'm not sure what the racket is - maybe getting ahold of people's credit card information and cleaning them out, not sure. 

I went in and got a cucumber, butter, lemon juice, odd things like that but forgot cream so I guess I'll have to pay H Mart's high price tomorrow. Unless I'm going back downtown which I might be able to do, if I only have a few small things to ship. I won't know what's going on until Ken and I team up to hack into Ebay again. 

I was supposed to call Ken at 9 but he didn't answer. I tried again at 11 and still no answer, then called his house number and said Ebay'd sent, a few times, a code number to his cell, and could he tell me the latest one. That got me back into Ebay so I can get back to work.

In between 9 and 11, I took a lot of "prepper stores" I had around here, stuff I thought I'd sell on Craig's List for the most part, and put it out for anyone to pick up. We're talking several hundred pounds of stuff. Nothing is moving on Craig's List right now. I need to concentrate not on trying to sell on Craig's List but on getting out there busking.

Saturday havdalah - a Torah for now

 Well let's see. On Friday I was up in time to list 10 things, I'd rather have listed like, 30, but I chose 10 fairly high-value things. Then I packed the things that had to be shipped and got going a bit before 4. 

I got going on my way downtown to dump trash, then stopped by Nijiya hoping to get an onigiri but there were only ume ones left, so I just bought a can of coffee to be buying something. 

Next was the post office, where I mailed the things. Then over to Whole Foods. I just got a couple of those "Volcano" lemon juice things and some food and a can of seltzer water. I ate, going from hungry to, well, I think my stomach was confused by my combination of grilled asparagus, feta cheese, a samoza, a dolmas, Kalamata olives, red onion, and I'm probably forgetting a thing or two. 

I went over the Recycle Book Store next, because I had a little over $20 in credit. I got two Primo Levi books and a Torah. Now, this is an English-only Torah but at least the print's big enough to not need a magnifying class, and it was $10 whereas the really good ones, with Hebrew also and even some commentary, are like $60 or $75. This one is good for now. I can read each week's Torah portion online of course but it's nice having it on paper. 

Next I went over to the temple and sat and read outside for a bit, sipping on the can of coffee. I had my "new" glasses with me, all cleaned up and ready to go. Then I realized the service was outdoors and they had siddurs to read out of because there are no screens outdoors. I didn't need the glasses after all, not this time. 

So we did the service and sang our cowboy songs and it was a fine ol' time. I sat next to a big tall guy and we helped each other stay on the right page here and there. The cantor's a wonderful singer, my only bug being that in the key she sings, myself singing an octave lower, I can't do about the bottom 3 notes of her scale very well. I try to sing the best I can though, because maybe it will help me be a better trumpet player. 

Being outdoors was great. There were birds doing all kinds of bird-drama up in the trees overhead, and it was very cheerful being in the fresh air. At the end of one verse or prayer or something that Rabbit had just finished, I let out this huge sneeze. (If I were indoors I'd have jammed my finger under my nose or ducked down behind the pew like I was diving on a grenade but this was outdoors and it was one big sneeze or two smaller ones) and several people said "Bless you!" and I said "No one said 'Gesundheit'" and Rabbit said sometimes the services feel like he's in a Marx Brothers movie. 

Seriously though, I grew up with "Gesundheit" and "Bless you" has always sounded weird to me. It's what the Christians say and I never want to be confused with a Christian. 

The "oneg" food after the service, was almost all sweets. It's like no one's heard of diabetes. Actually out of a congregation of a few hundred, only one was lost to covid which is pretty amazing considering the average age has to be north of 50. So it's a deceptively healthy bunch. I just had one lemon bar because I had good food to eat back here at home. 

That one cop I've talked to a bunch was parked there in his police car, and I stopped by to tell him that the Recycle Book Store has an amazingly good section of books about guns and gun smithing and reloading. He's particularly keen on books about reloading so I'll have to keep an eye on that section in case anything good comes through. 

I looked around in the gift shop but didn't see anything I needed very badly. Actually I should buy some of the Shabbos candles they have, big boxes of 72 of them and maybe not as cheap as the ones from Walmart but I'd be helping the temple not Walmart. 

I just rode home along Hedding, right on back here, got my dinner things out and opened the wine and lit candles and found "Jewish" things to watch on YouTube. And went to bed fairly early, midnight or 1? I drank the whole bottle of wine.

I woke up about 8:30 this morning and it wasn't long after I was awake that the guys next door did their pressure washing for a few hours. I felt OK despite drinking the whole bottle of wine. I can probably do that on a Friday night as long as I don't drink any other nights. 

As usual I started my day with good old Elite instant "can also be used to make Cold Coffee" and cream. Then made an interesting smoked salmon salad/spread and tried it with the Straits matzos I'd bought at Whole Foods yesterday. That came out pretty well. 

Lovin' the sober life

 After Ken being here, I did the math to get an idea of where my bank account should be, then for some reason or another fished around in my wallet and found the $100 check from Starving Musician. Oh, well then, I have an excuse to go to the bank. I'll deposit that, get my balance, then take out $200 for this week's "allowance" 

I got a load of books bagged, packed a few things (except one thing I can't seem to find, grrr) and had decided last night that I'll do a haircut today because I want that super-short "astronaut" look to be "my look" and if I go too long between cuts, it just ends up being weird when I get around to cutting it and it's super short. Phil Hankin at the temple either cuts super-short or shaves his head but his "look" is consistent. 

I didn't go to bed until late, late. Like 6AM late. Awful. I thought I'd be doing well to wake up at noon, but I actually woke up at 11:30. 

I'd finished off the hummus from last weekend - little tahini, water, mix well so it's super smooth, add za'atar, olives, and olive oil. Then remembered I had another little package of blackberries. The first package had had mushy ones and was pretty marginal so I didn't have high hopes for the 2nd. Instead, the 2nd one was fine, not one soft or bad one, they were perfect. So I had a big bowl of blackberries with cream. Yum! 

I just did the 3rd pass looking for one of the things that has sold and it's a simple case of dematerialism and my own powers of magic/imagination not being strong enough at present to manifest it into being. So I'll have to refund the customer, but as per my standard procedure, I'll wait until it's 15 minutes before the item goes "overdue" then and only then tell the customer they're out of luck. 

I gave myself a haircut to keep myself in the very short hair Middle-Eastern standard. I need to cut my hair about every 2-3 weeks, preferably 2.5 weeks at most, to keep to a consistent look. 

I took off at maybe 2 in the afternoon, mailed 4 things at the downtown post office, then went to the bank and deposited the $100 check from Starving Musician, and got my balance. I had about $1000 less in there than I thought I did. I don't know what's going on there. I either need to keep a much, much more detailed financial diary, or I need to drastically simplify the way I handle my money. 

So, after the deposit and getting the balance, I withdrew $200 in $20's and that's my allowance for the week. Since I'm going to the bank in person every week anyway, I think I'll just do this each week. That way, if I need to use my card, it will be the only other transaction other than the $200 withdrawal immediately after depositing my $400 check each week. 

I have no idea how I'm about $1100 off, except that I show a deposit of $1100 in my own records but at the bank they say they never saw that. So I don't know what the hell is going on. It makes me want to put all but an essential amount, say $1000 kept in the bank, into silver coins or something. I don't trust banks and I don't trust computers and I don't trust people in banks who use computers. 

At least taking my $200 out right at the bank each week should simplify things by quite a bit. 

I went over to Whole Foods and got my chicken and broccoli and a can of seltzer water, and ate and people-watched. Then I rode over to Recycle Book Store to trade in the two bags of books I had hanging on the handlebars on the bike. I picked out 3 books in the Jewish section, one of which being a big thick history of my own temple. Or one of the very same name and denomination up in San Francisco. I'll find out when I read it.  And two by Primo Levi. 

It turned out I got about over $40 in trade and after buying my books still have a little over $20 in trade. So I did really well this time. I rode over to Crossroads Trading and locked the bike, and took the two bags of books the bookstore didn't want to the Teen Challenge Thrift Store where they were glad to get them, then looked around. They sell used eyeglasses there and I found a pair that are sort of semi-aviator style, made of that super light high refractive index stuff so they're my prescription without being heavy, and while they have the odd chip, they're good enough to get me through some services until I get over to Iconic Eyes and get some glasses made. These were only $3. I love it when things work out that way. 

I wasted some time looking in the antique stores, finding a flute and a clarinet but nothing trumpety. 

I then rode South on Lincoln to Willow to First, and down to Walmart. Did my "Weekly Wal". Then rode back downtown to the Amazon place for bubble mailers, and picked up a bunch of books as I wended my way back, stopped for coffee and peanuts at Nijiya and talked a bit with a Filipino guy, then rode back here. 

My sun hat is not up to the strong winds here, and I'd say it's good for the middle of the day when the sun really beats down, and later in the day my high-vis ball cap is the one to wear, because the stiff bill doesn't flip up in the wind and I can keep the sun out of my eyes. 

Jerusalem Day

 It's the 28th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar, Jerusalem Day. 

As soon as I turned on the radio today there was someone blathering about how awful it is that ... Israel is winning the war. Let me see, out of all the books I've read and documentaries and movies I've watched and actual WWII veterans I've talked about, I've never read or seen or heard anything about how mean the Allies were to not send food and money to the Nazis while they were fighting them, nor was there any objective but to wipe the Nazis off the face of the Earth. We chased 'em right back to Berlin and Germany went through extensive de-Nazification for years after the war. There was never anything about feeding anyone until the Berlin Airlift. The Germans did not expect to be fed, they'd lost and that was that. Keep up your good work, Bibi! 

In Israel, there's a neat event to take part in:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_Flags

Here in the US it's also the anniversary of D-Day. My old neighbor Burt Butler (RIP) was in the Navy in WWII and took part as far as being part of the fleet. 

Last night after assessing how much Chardonnay I had, I drained out the liter I had in the opened box, and sad to say, ended up drinking it. I tried using 100ml in cooking and that just made my cooking taste a bit weird so that use is out. I drank it, staying up until about 4AM, "to get tired". Pretty dumb. So of course I woke up at 2 in the afternoon, the old nigh-owl schedule I don't want to follow again, ever. 

So when I got up after putting my bedding away and all that, I dug out the unopened box and put it out, along with some circuit boards, for the bums. The circuit boards and the wine disappeared pretty fast. I am traditionalist enough that I'll buy a half-bottle of wine for Shabbat dinner and that's it. 

A quick note on the weather: It's 81 in Honolulu, 76 in Tel Aviv (granted it's 1AM there but the high is 81) and 95 here. 

My original plan had been to tell Ken I was leaving for Hawaii after voting in November, but to take an "exploratory" trip around my birthday in September, and just ... never come back. But now of course those plans are all out the window. Converting to Judaism will take, I assume, 2 years. That's not just taking the classes but obtaining papers that will allow me to move to Israel. Then it's either move to Israel or hunker down as a retiree here. 

To think I was, at one time, considering moving to New Orleans. It's cheaper than here, on the order of Tel Aviv or Hawaii. There's one streetcar that would take me everywhere that's essential to go. As a trumpet player I'd fit right in, and there are even special programs and perks for street musicians (and those who call themselves such, however much they actually suck). Street musicians = tourism dollars and the Powers That Be know this. 

I'd watched every episode I could get ahold of, of the HBO series "Treme" which was most of them, that I was buying on DVD from Fry's. I'd watched a ton of other things on YouTube too. I'd figured if nothing else I could always contact Dorise Blackmon (RIP) who would always be there, renting out houses and rooms. I'd rent a room from her. 

Well, Dorise is gone, New Orleans is the murder capital of the US which is really saying something, it's like a place being the vodka-drinking capital of Russia. It's a cesspool of drugs and violence, and being part of the South, hatred. There *is* a Jewish community as there is in every major city in the US, but I'd be drastically shortening my life expectancy if I moved to that shithole. Let the crackheads keep it. 

I packed 11 things and did my post office and FedEx run, and my new sun hat did seem helpful. The brim flops back too much in the strong winds I have to deal with, though. 

I got 2 tea eggs at 99 Ranch and ate those, went back to H Mart and now it was past 7 but they didn't have anything in the hot case I wanted. I got some peppers and things, a package of GreeNoodle miso flavor, a little 50c Korean candy bar that turned out to have a thin chocolate coating but nothing to worry about, and some interesting wheat based sweet potato flavored jerky. 

I pickup up packing materials and boxes, got back here and did a good parking lot cleanup and got in here and turned on the radio. They're in a big harangue about Miram Adelson, who's donating to causes she believes in and publicity she believes in, and this is Very Bad(tm) because she's a Jew. It'd be perfectly OK if it were an Aryan doing this. 

Sad to say, Miriam Adelson is pro-Trump and I can only think that she thinks Trump can be controlled more easily than a Democrat - since the US could tip into pogroms and death camps under either party. I wish I could caution her that the big German industrialists thought they could control Hitler, and they found to their dismay that they could not. The several attempts to assassinate Hitler - the ultimate off switch - all failed. 

After eating I realized it was 10:15. Oops. I vacuumed the office and washed the dishes, the bathroom had stayed surprisingly neat over the last 2 weeks so I let that slide, as Ken drove up. We had our usual hang out and talk time, he offered me a burger but I said I'd just eaten so it's better he save it for later. Unfortunately, Ken is "kind of out of money" so he has to wait until he gets paid, then he can pay me. That means instead of getting $1400 this week, it'll be $1800 next week. I said it's no problem, this is why I save money and I'll just keep track of the missed paychecks. I said I was glad to see him and glad he's well and that I'd worried a bit about him. 

We had our usual talk about how various rockets work, and I showed him some hilarious footage on r/dronecombat and all in all we had a good time. I gave him my last unopened "volcanco" lemon juice thing to try, because I'll just go to Whole Foods tomorrow and get some more. It turns out he likes to put lemon juice in gin & tonic. As for me, I'm done with sodas and things like that and have come to really like just drinking ice water with a squirt of lemon. 

Just about normal now

 I did more trumpet practice last night but it wasn't an epic practice session. But as a trumpet player I need to be "on tap" haha, to play Taps on short notice just as an aspiring ba'al tekiah (shofar blower) I need to be ready on short notice to blow the shofar. 

I watched a documentary on Golda Meir last night - amazing. Talk about walking through history. 

I got 20 things all ready to photo and photo'd them, and refunded a buyer for a thing that was listed back in 2009, at least 2 moves ago and dating to 3+ years before I even started working for Ken. Told them if it miraculously turns up, I'll re-list it and let them know. 

Then, it being almost 2, I took a bag of trash (which I just tossed out on the other side of the complex in one of the dumpsters there) and rode up to my favorite food truck where I got a chicken wings on fried rice dish for $5 and ate that there, leaving the bones and about 1/3 of the rice for the crows, in the gutter. I love that lunch truck lady's cooking and she's awfully nice. 

I rode on, up to Ringwood and North on Ringwood to Grainger to pick up the sun hat I'd ordered yesterday. It fits OK and is closer to being a boonie hat that the photo online makes it look, so I'm convinced it was the one I'd seen someone wearing years ago and complimented, and they'd said, "I got it at Grainger". That place is like a candy store, and I'd love to order some decent thread gauges, an Xcelite spline driver set, and such goodies, but for now I'm happy with the hat. 

I then rode over to 99 Ranch and got some things including some beef ribs to cut up and freeze, and ginger and such things, and got a $2 package of peanut butter mochi and two cans of no-sugar Mr. Brown. 

Then I went to Tom's and he was getting pieces of plywood out from the back of his place with a guy, who it turns out had done some electrical work for Tom and getting the plywood as payment. Tom likes the mochi but he was busy working, and I had a piece or two of mochi and drank my Mr. Brown, and eventually I put Tom's food and Mr. Brown in his fridge, and noticed another no-sugar Mr. Brown in there, untouched. Tom says he doesn't care that much for them, really, but his wife might. But it's been months since I brought one by, so I drank his ice-cold one too, ha! It was a hot day ... And in there I got to show off my new hat, and Tom said he goes to that Grainger all the time too. 

It was not terribly hot but according to NPR it will get vary hot tomorrow or so. Which is why I got the hat. 

I cut up and deboned and weighed out the beef I got at 99 Ranch. It was flanken rib slices, and the meat to bone ratio looked really good so I paid just a hair under $20 for 1.25 lb. After deboning, it came out to a pound of what I know is really tasty beef. So $5 a 4 oz. serving. That's higher than I'd like it to be, but considering a 1/4-lb hamburger is $10 or more at McDonald's I guess I'm still coming out OK.  

That done I read Reddit for a while, and then I thought, Wait a minute, I was drinking a lot of Chardonnay, do I still have any? And I pulled out the drawer where I hide my boxes of Chardonnay and Lo and behold, I have something like 4 liters left. An unopened 3-liter box and one with probably a liter or maybe a bit less in it. Yet I have no desire to drink it. I have no urge to drink the 1/4 bottle of "Apothic Red" I have here. 

It's weird. It's like ... I remember having my Shabbat dinner, London broil and lox and horseradish and cucumber slices, and of course red wine. I don't remember drinking a terrible lot of it, maybe 3/4 of a bottle between some other wine I'd bought at TAK Market and some of the Apothic. Then I'd had a small cup or two, one standard glass all told, on Saturday night, and then didn't want to drink any at all. 

This is quite a break from how it's been in the past where if there's alcohol in the house I'm gonna have some and maybe more than some. And my tapering off this time hasn't been like in the past where I channeled my anger at alcohol or alcohol dependency and dried out through determination. No, this time it's because drinking alcohol to the point of dependency is *boring*. It's a terrible bore, drinking to get sleepy at bed time, drinking to just get back to feeling normal. 

It's like I went through some kind of a mind-reset, like when I slept maybe Friday night HaShem went into my mind and twiddled things a bit because HaShem needs me to not be alcohol-dependent. And the twiddling may not have been 100% perfect, since it seems like I had a bit of a mild mind-reset. Speaking as one who is a tiny gnat compared to HaShem, HaShem may not be perfect or perfectly all-powerful, but at my level it doesn't matter - I assume HaShem is. 

I'm not sure what I'll do with about 4 liters of Chardonnay, maybe I'll eke it out in cooking or give it away or something. The main thing is that I'm not buying much more in the way of wine other than a very small amount of red wine for Shabbat dinner so my finances should get back on track. 

The nice thing is, I'm off of the many cups of coffee I was drinking a day, and my morning cup of Elite instant coffee with cream or Japanese tea is less expensive than coffee and Macadamia nuts. 

I'm listening to the radio as I list Ebay items and wow just wow. On one side are these really reasonable, normal, politicians like Scott Wiener and others, and on one side they're very calmly trying to deal with real issues, and the NPR interviewer acting like everything's normal, and in their calm, collected voices the politicians are relating how they're getting threats of their wives and children being raped, mutilated, tortured, killed and of the same happening to the politicians. And a few cases of some of the Nazis threatening this getting out of whatever trailer parks they're holed up in and getting out loose and so far, being caught. But only so far. Did Wiemar Germany feel like this?