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.