Capacitors

 Ken came over last night with a load of capacitors. BIG ones. He said the larger ones were "about the size of a loaf of bread" well, maybe one of those extra big family-size loafs. And his pickup truck bed was full. 

So after my getting my check and Ken giving me a burger and fries (I ate the patty and "saved" the fries and buns in a bowl in the fridge, which were dumped outside for the gulls after Ken left ha ha) we got to work. It was about 2 hours' work to get them all inside here, but amazingly we did it. Now I have tons of big caps to sift and sort and label and store. Plus I'm considering finding some wire and making nice new shorting wires for them. 

The nice thing is, these are worth a fair pot of money, and the guy Ken got them from just wanted them out of his storage unit  so they were free.

Sharp as a G.D. tack

 I'm going to stop drinking Lipovitan because that stuff's sneaky. I can take some coffee in the evening to sharpen up and still go to sleep OK but I drank a Lipovitan last night when I started to get dozy then decided to call it a night and drank wine and tried to get to sleep, and ended up getting out of bed and getting out more wine and drinking that to sleep. Ugh! 

Then I woke up around 9:30 which is good I guess. There's a big interview/talk with Nancy Pelosi on the radio and color me impressed. Sharp as a G.D. tack! I've heard plenty about her being old as dirt, but she's still very, very capable. I don't agree with her on everything (I'd be considered to the "right" of her on Israel) but she's a good one. 

We got a notice to pay the water bill by tomorrow or it might get shut off. I talked with the customer service guy at the water company and we're in no danger and when Ken finally called back at 8PM or so, he said he'd paid it. Whew! 

I packed "the things" except for one large thing, and was able to carry them without needing the trailer so I rode downtown, mailed the things at the downtown post office, took the two FedEx ones to the FedEx on the Alameda, then went to Whole Foods. I got two bottles of cheap wine and a bottle of nicer wine for tomorrow night, a couple of $1 sticks of cheese, and a $2 can of Guinness. Except it wasn't. There's this sort of basket they put the single beers, ciders etc, in and this can was in that but none of them were labeled. 

The guy at the checkout checked with a more senior guy and it was "Those haven't bee processed yet, I can't do it" so I just got the wine and cheese, put the cheese in my pocket and the wine in the bike bags, and had gotten $5 cash back - the rattiest $5 bill I've ever seen too. 

I went back in and got a nice cold Trumer Pils and paid with the $5, saying to the guy that Well, these are 50c more but they're always icy cold. (The ones in the basket are whatever temperature the store is.) 

I ate my cheese and drank my beer and then made my way home, finding some books on the way so there's that. 

And eventually, I even found the one large thing I could not find which is a big relief because we do *not* need a failed transaction where I'd have to chalk the thing up as lost and refund the buyer. Like, really not. 

 

Welcome back, Farhan Alkadi Qaid

 The IDF rescued another hostage yesterday, a Bedouin fellow who has 11 children. The terrorists took hostages who were Israeli Jews, American Jews, Thais, Israeli Bedouins, etc. I'd honestly not be surprised if there's a Chinese or Filipino or two. 

The terrorists are everyone's problem and so many Americans (as with so many Germans in the 1920s) in the 2020s being all for the elimination of Jews disgusts me. 

Meanwhile their diaper-filling God is embarrassing himself more every day. Not that that makes a difference to about half of the people in this idiotic country. 

At least I got a lot of packages out yesterday, got a new shirt at Ross (I have to get back to a keto diet because a couple shirts I really like are too tight to look good now) and got some groceries. 

I'm "allowed" to spend about $20 more this pay period, to keep in line with spending $200 and saving $200 each week. I found a place that sells "rebuild" kits for the Conn trumpets and cornets, emailed them to ask which kit would work for my horn and have gotten no response. So I need to take a look in the valves and see which configuration they are, and decide which kit to get on my own. That will cost me about $25. 

Or I can go ahead and sign up for a thing happening at the Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos, which costs $18. There will be shofar blowing and food and dancing Russian-speaking Jews so I don't see how I can't go. That will be next week and is for the beginning of the month of Elul, during which one is supposed to blow the shofar every morning. This is a great practice regimen to prepare for Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. 

I left here at 3 with 5 or 6 packages and a load of books. I had $2 in my wallet and about $7 in change. First I dropped the packages off, then went over to the Recycle Book Store and let them look over the books while I browsed around. I found a large book of sheet music, "Songs Heard In Palestine" printed in 1928 and inside, looked like it was just printed yesterday. The cover is really nice and classy too, red with those embossed letters. That would cost me $20. 

I went back to the front and they told me $8 in cash or $13 (or something) in trade. I got the cash, took the books they didn't want out and put them by the bike, and went back in and bought the "Songs Heard In Palestine" book on the trade credit I already had. So now I had $10 in my wallet and about $7 in change. 

I took the books over to the little free library on Shasta street, then doubled back to Whole Foods where I bought a lb of hamburger, a bottle of wine, and a block of cheese. And $1.01 in change. 

I picked up bubble mailers and found one book on the way back, got back here and had some hummus and cheese and olives. 

There are details though. Like, when I turned from 4th street to St. John, by that barbershop there, I saw a lot of papers scattered on the ground with the wind blowing them, and a Sheriff guy, not really in shape to do a lot of stooping and picking up papers (which was bad at, maybe a nail biter) so I got off the bike and helped. The papers seemed to be about something to do with Internal Affairs, and I have no idea how he came to lose them all, but with my help (I'm glad I'm not a nail biter any more, myself) we were able to get them. 

I'd parked my bike by the entrance but obviously there was room for cars to go in and out. Which none were, anyway. But when we were almost done a car pulled up and started honking like crazy. I honestly thought it was someone trying to get the attention of someone in the barbershop or the hookah place there. because it was pretty obvious that the bike parked there was probably connected to the person picking up papers. 

I finally got the last one and handed them to the guy who was very thankful, then the guy yelled out of the car, "Is that your bike?? It's in the way!!" Idiot. There was room to go in so it comes down to two things: The guy's simply living the ethos of driving a car which is that everyone must treat you like royalty and make a wide berth for you, the holy one. Or, since most people who drive cars are idiots, the guy really had no idea of how close or far away he was from my bike, so to him it was scarily close. 

At least the guy I picked up the papers for was thankful, and I got the good feeling that I did a little bit to help our government work. 

And also I noticed at Whole Foods that on this fine Wednesday, there were plenty of people but no scammer booth. So except for the factor of the wind, I could have played and made a little moolah. 

And now Ken's called and won't be by tonight, but will be tomorrow night.

It's dangerous to be a librarian

 I listed 30 things yesterday so that's good. Now I need to pack and ship half that many. 

The usual things are being discussed on the radio. Except "usual" these days means how it's dangerous now to be librarian. It's dangerous to be a journalist or reporter. It's dangerous to be a doctor. It's dangerous to be a lot of things that used to be very ho-hum. 

The Nazis 2.0 are at present claiming Kamala Harris can't run for president because of the Dred Scott decision. You know, the one that was nullified by two, count 'em two, amendments to the Constitution. 

I'm beginning to wonder if I was very smart to sell my guns to Ken. The main thing around here would be "pests", zombies emboldened if their orange sHitler wins (most of the homeless are right-wing, which is one of the many reasons they're homeless) and "dotting their eyes" with a .22 would take care of them. 

Decades ago there was a gunsmith named Austin Behlert who used to make parts for Ruger .22's. I had a Ruger .22 pistol and I believe it's a "Behlert trigger" I installed in it to be able to shoot it more accurately. Back in those days catalogs were on paper and I remember looking at all the neat stuff in the Behlert catalog, lots of stuff for the 10/22 rifle and the pinnacle of this was the "Mossad Sniper" version of that rifle that you could order. 

I believe it was in this catalog or in a magazine review of Behlert's products that I learned that the Mossad or Israeli military in general, in urban settings, were doing their shooting within 100 yards and that the .22 was very good for this, being relatively quiet and very accurate. 

I'd prefer not to wind money up in guns again though. I'd rather just save my money. 

I've talked about taking a "strategic vacation" somewhere far away around election time (I'll have sent in my ballot by mail by then) maybe a nice package tour to Israel, but the thing is, the election can seem to go fine, things to seem fine, then they can turn very bad like the January 6th insurrection. 

So I could go, come back in a week or two, think things are fine, and get caught up in a civil war anyway. Or I could sit tight, and maybe enough of the country is as tired of the Nazis 2.0 as I am, and the end of 2024 - 2025 sees a lot of Nazis turned into good (dead) Nazis and the rest of 'em crawl back into their holes in trailer parks and shitty little towns and go back to killing themselves with booze and fent. 

The change

 After yesterday, all that busking, I guess I felt like taking it easy and I didn't go out at all. 

I've been thinking a lot about how my mind changed when Biden stepped down and Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate. I felt I was quite loyal to Biden, and was not too crazy about Harris. When the change-over happened, I felt unexpectedly happy and optimistic. Where did that come from? 

This has been nagging me because in 2003 when I tried moving back to Hawaii, I ended up really hating the place. Mainly because solving the financial situation I was in would have involved living on very, very little, single rented room, no car, etc. I was not able to make that big a drop in lifestyle and ended up with a large-ish apartment and a car, and no way to sustain that without using Ebay. 

I was very angry at the people there, as all the memories of being a 2nd class citizen for being white-appearing came back. It was like a monster inside me because I said things I still regret. Even now, I've come to realize that a lot of the things  I dreamed of doing if I go back there like gathering shells, are perfectly OK if you're brown and not OK if you're not brown enough. The best one can possibly hope for its to be tolerated. Not liked, not welcome, merely tolerated. And as South Park so comically illustrated, a ton of the gate keeping is from transplant haoles, trying to direct hate away from themselves. 

For those of pale pursuation, there are only three ways to go: Become wealthy enough to live in a bubble where you avoid the realities of the place. Or become at least as thuggish as a local and live like one, stepping in dog shit and hitting your kids and drinking lots of beer that come in green bottles and cursing "the fuckin' haoles". I've actually seen this. Or the third, getting out of there. 

So there are these sometimes unexpected frames of mind that lurk below the surface and stay hidden, most of the time. It's like there's a layer of logic on top, and then the actual deep feelings and beliefs below. 

I think a classic example of this is the times I've convinced myself that I ought to play the clarinet. It's got a ton of usable range. It's smaller and easier to carry. Artie Shaw played clarinet. So did Benny Goodman. It's used in klezmer music. And on and on. And so I'd go and get a clarinet, and mess with it a bit, and I just can't stay interested. It's like I really like the trumpet best and feel it's for me, but somehow can't admit it to myself consciously. I simply have concluded that it chose me and leave it at that. 

Sunday

 Well, Friday night was fun. I got things packed and was out of here about an hour earlier than usual. I listed 20 things on Ebay before leaving and because it was going to be cool, maybe rain a bit, I wore long pants instead of shorts. 

I dropped off trash, dropped off the packages, had something to eat at Whole Foods, and started on my ride down to Beth David in Campbell because that's where the service was this week. I stopped at Slav Shop and really looked around but all I could find that I had any interest in was a different kind of hamburger seasoning and a bar of Polish halvah, vanilla flavor. Not "the" halvah but not bad. 

This was a sort of combination service of my temple, Beth David, and anyone else who felt like showing up. It was a lot of singing and at one point a bunch of people, mainly kids, joined arms and dances around the whole sanctuary which was neat. I ended up sitting 2 seats from my own rabbi, and he's a life of the party kind of guy. 

So it was great fun singing along although I like the music at my own temple better. And the Hebrew, they go through it fast like auctioneers. Would you say the prayers that fast if they were in English? No, that would be kind of disrespectful. 

It was all great fun and they had free books so I took one, about a guy who was a kid in Auschwitz. A lady told me about the books and I said I'd already taken one and she said, "Take another" but I said I'm OK for now. I might take one each time I visit there. 

Some other people had seen me riding my bike there and I told them about the first time, ending up wayy down the road too far before turning around and finding the place. 

On the ride home it didn't rain which was nice, and as always I seemed to be on a gentle downhill so I didn't have to pedal very hard at all. 

Then it was just getting back here, having some nice food and watching YouTube. 

I got up Saturday close to noon I think, watched more YouTube, read a book "The Long Walk" or some shit, about a guy who's an advertising guy who loses everything and decides to walk across the US from Washington to Florida. First he's treated unrealistically nicely, then a "gang" (no mention of what color they are but given the book is from a white guy perspective I think I can guess) damn near kills him and he winds up in the hospital. The only phone number found on him was of a local lady he'd helped with a flat tire and the story ends with him not even out of Washington State, and this lady's going to take him in. Kind of blah. 

I didn't have this week's handout because we went to a different temple but it's not hard to figure out the next Torah portion and I read that. So far over the last three the zingers have been: When you take over a people's land, make sure to really wipe 'em out or they're going to cause you nothing but trouble. And don't marry non-Jews. Mixed marriages are a big no-no. And lastly, in this last one, don't have any idols or such things in your house even ironically. (I think of my Grand-Aunt Mary who had this ghastly crucifix right. over. her. bed.) 

And I made the mistake of watching some of the "Piece Of Hebrew" I think the channel's called, videos on "how to conjugate the Hebrew for 'to come'" It's got all the complications of English plus there are male and female forms. The only thing I can say for those at my level is, I might not be following what the F they're talking about but the Hebrew is put up on the screen with niqqud and it's good reading practice. 

I got out of here at noon, with the usual plan of riding to Whole Foods to use the loo and almost certainly there will be someone already there hustling the public so I'll lock the bike there and take the light rail down to Hamilton and busk at the Whole Foods there. 

There was one problem - the Pride Festival. The thing with that is, being openly gay is predominantly a white middle-class male thing, and when those guys want something, they get it. Even if it means shutting down most of downtown. I had to ride down to San Carlos street, shortcut up Barack Obama, to Diridon Station and through the station to get to Whole Foods. 

There were no booths etc., and I decided to set up there today. The tips came very slowly. At one point I noticed a large Black lady, at least very easy to pick out in a crowd, "crack spanging" in the parking lot. She'd go up to families mostly and not leave them alone until they coughed up something. 

So I put my stuff away, went in, and came out with the security guard and pointed her out. He ran her off, and I didn't see her come back. She'd have better luck crack spanging in the Pride crowd anyway. The tips picked up a bit. 

After 2 hours, 1-3PM, I'd made $26.75. I packed up and checked out a couple of things. Logically, Hedding Road should go right to San Carlos but when I checked Google Maps it got all weird where that's supposed to happen and I could not tell if it did or not. It looked like Taylor might. 

So I rode on Hedding past Park, into serious Stepford Wives everyone drives everywhere territory. Creepy! I finally came to Bascom which makes no sense. It's like space contorts and shifts and doubles back on itself. Too creepy for me so I went back to Park, got onto Taylor, and rode in the same direction, to check out a market called Zanotto's I'd heard of for years. 

I was not impressed, Prices are all 1.5X Whole Foods prices. It's full of Karen types. And what really seals the deal is the "prison chic" external decor. It's got this big cage around it. It was hard to figure out how to even get into the place. So that's taken care of; now I don't have to go to Zanotto's market because I've done it and felt the disappointment. 

I decided I was kind of in the mood to play another hour, but I'd kill a bit of time first. I went back to Whole Foods and got some chicken and asparagus spears and a fizzy water, ate and tried my best to rinse my mouth well. Then I went back in and meandered around a bit, which was worth it because I now know the one place perhaps within 100 miles where I can obtain "phyllo" dough. 

I set up again at 5 and it was slow going. I didn't make anything the first half-hour, then got a few dollars from a couple who'd pulled up on nice (expensive) electric bikes and come out with big loads of groceries. We'd talked about bikes and this and that, and it was only after heavy hinting on my part that I got the $3 or so. Then a bit later a guy in a big truck put some money in "Starbucks money" he said and I said I never go to Starbucks, it's too expensive and I make coffee at home. A Taiwanese guy (I think) with a son who really liked the music I was playing tipped me a $10 so that was nice. Pretty soon the hour was done and I'd made a further $17 making it a total of $43.75 for the day. 

I got odds and ends like cream for coffee and a little block of cheese and some cheap wine, and in doing so spent the last of the money I'd had with me not counting the busking money, so if it weren't for busking I wouldn't be making my savings goals. 

The reason I'd gone back to play a 3rd hour was not only to see if I could make a bit more money, but to work on some songs. One song, "Those were the days my friend I thought they'd never end" is a good one. Nice and weepy. Also "Celluloid Heroes" by The Kinks, and "Vincent" by that American Pie dude. People really liked the "Those were the days" song. 

The warm but not-too-warm weather brought the zombies out in force. They were everywhere. I dodged two of them just getting from the parking lot to the other side of Old Bayshore, one of them not too far gone yet and one barely maintaining the ability to wear clothes, and looking like it had been sleeping under a truck. That one made a sound and moved toward me so I gave it an extra wide berth. Even on the way home, I found a few books but didn't check the Japantown little free library as there was a zombie leaning up against it, staring at me dully (no doubt dreaming of tasty brains) and I went on by.

Erev Shabbat

 I was up around 10:30, had prepared 20 things all ready to photo today. 

I hate this. Our Ebay sales will start to look like they'll be good again and then we'll have a $20 day like yesterday. 

I think people really are worried about the economy, if Harris wins we'll keep chugging along and the working class will get some relief. If you-know-who wins, who knows? It'll be great for loyalists and I'm guessing, terrible for non-loyalists for whom it will be poverty or the camps. Thus people are hanging onto their money. 

I just can't get over that zinger

 It's the next day and I'm still laughing about that zinger Bill Clinton did last night. I remember when Bill was young and healthy and now the poor guy sounds so old because he *is* friggin' old. He's 78 and said he's still younger than Dirty Don. Of course the Dumpster is breaking down before our eyes. 

In other entertaining news, some pro-Hamas "demonstrators" or saboteurs or something put "maggots", almost certainly meal worms, into some of the food at the DNC. It's hard to get a lot of maggots on short notice but mealworms can be bought in quantity. Frankly, mealworms tend to be very clean because the animals they're fed to, various lizards etc., have to have very clean food. I have dim memories of some neighbors having a pet monkey and I think we were considering getting one, and that got nixed, I'm pretty sure, because the monkey was fed meal worms and with us little kids, it meant "One for you, and one for me..." I don't remember them tasting like much. So yeah, if Hamas has their way, you will eat ze bugz! 

Ken came by last night and dropped off a bunch of boxes of heavy power cords we're almost certain to never sell any of. Gee, thanks. But I got my pay check so that's good. 

It's overcast outside which is really neat. 

I packed 9 things and took off at about a quarter to 4. I dropped off trash, then dropped off the 9 things at the post office, then deposited my pay check (my math and the bank's agreed to the penny) and went over to Whole Foods where I had a $2 tall can of Guinness and a mix of chicken, fish, and a small chicken tender, a real 11-year-old's idea of an ideal lunch. Except the beer I guess. 

Then time for the Weekly Wal. I spent about $70 in Walmart. They had some Osem made-in-Israel consomme'/soup base powder in a big plastic tin, so I got that. I've been buying Gefen kosher ramen but really I should not be eating noodles and should be making gluten noodles or use thinly sliced cabbage or something. The noodles are kosher but made in Singapore, so switching to Israeli soup stock and veggies is a win. 

Now, this Walmart is the "neighborhood market" kind, a small one, and it's friendly and folksy as Walmarts go, but there was some big to-do with lots of yelling, one of the parties, apparently, being (of course) a white guy with what looked like a pitbull-mix dog (of course). I just caught the very end of it, the guy yelling something about "Not with his dog!" and "Equal rights! Equal rights!" (of course).

The ride home was interesting because on this little twisty street that's actually the easiest and safest way to get from Monterey Road to 3rd street, one of the vicious creatures known as car drivers had a go at me with his door. I dodged the murder attempt, with a hearty "SON OF A BITCH!! MOTHERFUCKER!! COCKSUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!" then as I was recovering from that attack, looking behind me to see if the coward had any desire to fight me not surrounded by a few thousand pounds of death machine (the coward did not) I was going around one of those idiotic huge trucks which was parked at a weird angle halfway in the bike lane, and swerving around that, another cyclist had been, apparently, behind me and to my left and he had to swerve also. We both said sorry, of course. 

I'd like to come up with something you can stick on a car that will emit an electrical pulse so strong that it cooks all the electronics in the car. Engine, nav, any cameras, all of it. But then a good fire does that too and my idea of a purely electrical device would probably be pricey. But a gallon of gas is cheap and matches almost free. 

I stopped at Nijiya for a few things and then got back here. How nice it was to put things away, settle down, and close the door! 

Kickin' ass

 The Democratic Party is kickin' ass right now. Since I was pretty much off the grid and thus wasn't paying attention I don't know if there was this kind of energy when Obama first got elected. But that's what they're saying on the radio. Yes, NPR has actually stopped pandering so much to Low-Budget Orange sHitler, and yesterday the whole afternoon/evening was broadcasts of the Obamas, Hillary, Biden, and a lot of others making great speeches and not without a certain amount of hilarious bagging on the Weird Old Man. 

I've been taking a bottle of wine, pouring it in equal amounts into two 500 ml bottles, then topping up with water. So a watered-down brew, maybe around 9% alcohol. This is all well and fine, but apparently last night I'd opted to have a 3rd 500ml prepared in this way while starting in watching a documentary on Max Ernst on YouTube. 

The Ernst was a great idea but the extra wine was not. I woke up around 10:30 or close to 11, with an awful headache. Cold coffee with cream, pickle juice, Emergen-C, none of these seem to have helped. 

I didn't want to move. But I eventually got to listing the 15 things I still had left over from last night, then packed two large things to go to FedEx. As I was leaving I noticed James with his truck loading up a bunch of appliances. I think the cleaning guys next door were throwing them out. 

I ran the packages up to FedEx and found some bubble wrap and stuff like that on the way back. Tom's supposed to be in Alaska right now but family health problems are putting that off for another month or two. 

Fun day at Crossroads

 The day before yesterday, I'd come across a big bag of 6-8 pairs of skinny jeans, all neatly folded and clean, in a bag someone had apparently just dropped off outside this clothing donation thing. So I grabbed that and took them home. 

I'd been thinking of taking my expensive Olukai slippers I'm never going to wear, and some other stuff, with the jeans to Crossroads Trading and see what I could get for them. 

So while I woke up kind of late, around 10:30 this morning, and had to photograph 30 things before I left, I left around 1 with the bike loaded down with trash, packages for the post office, two bike tires I don't want, and the big bag of jeans and my Olukai slippers, some cheapo Scott slippers, a pair of new "Ninja boots" (actually tabi shoes worn by fishermen) and a new pair of "Realtree" camo Crocs I didn't know I still had. 

So after dropping off the trash, and the packages, and the bike stuff at Good Karma Bikes, I rode over to Crossroads where I learned the wait would be an hour. So I got to wander around the place and just sit around for an hour. Finally they got to my stuff and they wanted the shoes, but not the jeans. I asked why - they were popular brands like Hollister - and the (plump) lady said "It's because they're *too* skinny, we're very picky about that". Yeah ... plump gals trying to get into 'em and then damaging them in the process of taking them off. 

I took the bag of jeans to the Teen Challenge store and they were glad to get the donations. I'd gotten $18 and change for the shoes. 

Then I rode to Whole Foods and got chicken and veggies and a beer. I could not get motivated to do a Walmart trip after all this, so I picked up a bottle of lemon flavored fizzy water for Ken when he comes by tomorrow. 

So I just rode for home, stopping by the Amazon place for a good number of bubble mailers, and finding some books on the way too. 

DNC starts

 Welp here it is Monday. I got up at a bit past 8, did exercises, and today the 1st priority is to get things shipped out especially a couple of circuit boards that I'll have to find. 

I finished reading the Max Kaminsky book on archive.org last night. That guy knew everyone, went everywhere, did everything. I'll have to go through it again some time and take notes because there were a ton of songs mentioned that I'd like to look into. 

The DNC starts today and there are some who want to make it like the DNC of 1968. I don't think they're going to do it, though, because the DNC of 1968 had huge protests because tons of young guys were being sent to Vietnam. It was a life-or-death matter for them. Now you've only got the pro-Hamas left which I think almost no one actually agrees with and any trouble they cause is going to hurt their cause. 

Someone on r/hawaii asked a good question, Do people move to Hawaii looking for community/family? The general consensus is, other than people who have actual family there and are "local" (means you have brown skin) a bit fat No. 

This is because American culture isn't about family or community. It's about the individual and it's sink or swim, and if you sink, the people who happen to have been your biological parents or who you grew up from babyhood will simply stand around and watch and laugh. 

This is what really tripped me up when I got out on my own. I had family members for whom funding my college would have been no more than a bar tip for them. No one seemed to understand the basic equation, that you help me now, and I help you later. 

It's like the whole culture was designed to be 180-degrees the opposite of Judaism where it's specifically spelled out in the Torah how to do things. You're supposed to look out for each other, especially relatives but other Jews in general, you're supposed to plan and think ahead, money's not good or evil but a tool to be used, etc. 

My own science-fiction-y belief is say there's some greater entity who's trying to get humans, at least some humans, to the next level of thinking and living. The God of the Torah has said explicitly "If you're not gonna follow my laws, I'll find some other people who will!" so there's definitely a desire to get at least some group of humans to the next level. So far it's been a bumpy road for the Jews but they've been the most promising group. 

That's about as technically sophisticated as I can get on this. I wish I could find this wild video I watched, again, because it was some big explanation in terms of ... network theory? About Jews being nodes and this is why Judaism has survived and all these other groups died out. Maybe if I watched it a few more times I'd understand more of it. 

A decent Sunday

 On Saturday I read my Torah portion, studied a bit further in the Reading Hebrew book, and read a book called "July's People" by a lady who was from South Africa, and a liberal sad to say. It was about a presumed violent revolution over Africa in general and South Africa in particular, and a black servant, "July", takes the family he's employed by to his village. The whites gradually adapt to living in the village but it has a vague ending with the mother of the family running toward a helicopter and nothing more is said about the rest of them. 

I also read more of "Hasidic Tales Of The Holocaust". It's mostly about one family but still amazing reading. 

One thing I did not do was practice in the evening. The trouble is, by the time I feel like I have enough things out of the way to practice, it's past 10 at night. Last night it was 11 when I began to have second thoughts about making noises that reveal that I'm here, and sure enough, hearing a noise outside, there was a bum on a bike, who appeared to be standing watch for another bum who was banging on something. They took off. 

I did do a fair amount of free buzzing though. I woke up really early, around 8, and finally got up a bit past 9 and did a few things, and got ready to go out and play. I left at around 11:30, got as far as Bayshore when I realized I didn't have my mouthpiece and went back to get it. Then left again. 

I rode by San Pedro Square and except for a line to get into one of the indoor shops for some reason, it was really dead. So I rode over to Whole Foods and the black guy who sells little pies for, he says, $20, and hustles everyone, was there. 

So I got on the "green" light rail train and on the wait and on the ride, gave a quick tutorial on how to get around on the light rail to a couple who were here, they said, from Sacramento to buy a car. A Mercury Sable in fact. They must have been looking on line for $500 cars or something. They were your typical bummy looking types. He had one front tooth missing and the other one longer than it ought to be, and was wearing his T-shirt inside out and backwards, a thing you do when your shirt is so dirty that you try in desperation to hide how dirty it is. 

I started playing at the Whole Foods there on Hamilton at 12:15 and played for two hours, until 2:15. When I first set up I had people putting tips in right away and it was steady for a bit, then really died off, then picked up again around 1:30. And I had very little rough tone problems. I got compliments on my tone also. 

When I was done  I was really done, and walked back to the light rail station and rode back to Diridon Station and walked over to the Ace hardware store to see about X-acto knife blades of which they had none. It's a small thing but it's amazing how hard those are to get now. 

I went to Whole Foods, stashed my tip box and hat in the bike bags, and got some chicken and veggies and a beer. The pie guy was still there, with less pies. He says he started with 40 pies. It's a hell of a hustle he's got, except he really does have to hustle people hard, plus to carry all those pies and his table and all that, he's got to own a car, so of course he hustles like a junkie. Owning a car means you become essentially a junkie, hustling like crazy to come up with the payments, gas, insurance, repairs, etc. 

He asked me if I'd had a good day and I said it went pretty well. It actually had, and while I didn't tell him the dollar amount, it was $69.57.

After eating I went into Whole Foods and got a bunch of things, found a bunch of books on the way back, and had a very slow ride home because the wind had me really slowed down. 

The reason I'd gotten a bit of a late start even though I was up in plenty of time is that I'd been thinking of a book "My Life In Jazz" by Max Kaminsky. I'd been able to read bits of it on Google Books but now I thought it's been a few years, let's see if the whole thing is online. And it is, on Archive.org. The bits I'd read years ago encouraged me to keep at it, keep practicing. So to get to read the whole thing is amazing. I could hardly tear myself away from it. 

But  I finally did and started my day and interestingly, on the way home, I heard "The Good Trumpet Player" practicing. He played some bugle-call fanfare sounding stuff than some kind of riffs up and down. I wanted to hang around and listen but I still feel bad about that time I apparently scared him and he'd stopped. So I just rode a bit more slowly and enjoyed the sound as I went by. I wish I could tell him how easy it is to sneak into the practice rooms at the college, where the pianos are even tuned. 

Let's round it up and say I made $70 today. That's the same as Max Kaminsky back in the 1930s making $3.50.

Friday I guess

 Welp it's Friday. At least  I studied a little Hebrew before going to bed last night. I actually got out my calligraphy pens (they sell 'em cheap at Kogura's in Japantown) and tried writing some Hebrew letters. By "some" I mean gimel and dalet so I guess that's only two. 

I got up and did a few exercises, crunches and what I call side-to-sides. Just because my back is gronked doesn't mean I can get away without exercising and it's only going to become more important as I age.

Thursday

 Well,  I got up at around 9 and no weird blue screen on my computer. I've changed my Google password anyway and if there was one I'd just 3-finger it away. 

Ken came by last night and we talked a ton (this time about vintage CPUs) but he'd forgotten his checkbook so he's coming by some time today or tonight. 

I showed him my new lamp setup, and the new toilet seat which frankly reminds me of the ones you find in low-budget hotels. It would have been $50 or more for a really solid one and $50 or more for a toilet seat?? This one will be fine. 

I cleaned up and photo'd 25 things, packed another thing, and took off for downtown. Got rid of trash and dropped off the packages at the post office. Then over to Whole Foods where I had a plan. I had $5.29 in change and that would be enough for a bottle of their $4 wine and hopefully a can of fizzy water for Ken when/if he stops by. 

But I got thinking about how my day would go tomorrow and how I'd have to rush over to Whole Foods after the service at the temple and buy a ton of things, and decided screw it, I'll buy those things today. So I had chicken and potatoes and a Trumer Pils and got wine and olives and hamburger and all sorts of things. So that's $50 spent, so out of this next pay check I'll try to only use $150 of it. 

Sure enough, Ken came by at around 5, while I was listing some things. I got my check and a new flapper valve for the toilet, and he took off. 

I finished listing the things, and started a load of laundry. 

Starting the day with a nervous breakdown is fine

 I got up at about 9:30 (after having drunk a bottle of wine last night) to get a nice early start on things. And did the usual thing, turning on my computer. Microsoft tried to get me to log in, somehow, using my email and email password. Well, I tried a few variants of the two passwords I use for things like email, to no avail. So now I'm worried I might never be able to sign into my email again if I ever get signed out. 

Microsoft said they'd send me a code to my email, which of course I could not get into because I was locked out. I finally tried the 3-finger salute, signed out then signed in with a simple key press which is how this computer is set up. I'm back in for now. I was seriously looking at getting my ass over to Fix Laptop downtown for a new computer, preferably one with a legit copy of Windows. 

This one has a watermark on the lower left of the screen saying "Activate Windows" yadda yadda. 

A single cooling fan

 That's all that's sold since yesterday afternoon. A single little cooling fan. 

I'm really hoping things get better after the election. I've told Ken that I think that's what's going on, that people are uncertain because of it. If that's the case we can hold out for a few more months. If that's not the case, then things get interesting. I may have to take a cut in pay, if my pay goes down by 1/2 I can still live OK and busk for what more I need. I won't be able to save any more, but  I can live and do the work I need to here. I'll wait for Ken's initiative on this though. 

I installed the new toilet seat, which took about 5 minutes. It feels flimsier than the old one but it was about the cheapest that's American Standard brand at $35. The nicer ones were $50 or so. But hey, new is new and it's pretty nice. It even has this feature where the lid closes slowly when you put it down so there's not that "clunk!" 

Yesterday I got better at using the self-checkout too. I'd seen that the total for the light bulb and the first toilet seat was about all I had and I wanted to hang onto my cash. So I figured out how to "back up" in the process on the self-checkout and use my card instead of cash. 

I packed the one thing to ship, then gathered together a batch of books, and took off a bit before 4. I got rid of trash, dropped off the one package at the post office, then went over to the used book store to get trade credit for the books. What inspired me to do this is, on Reddit someone mentioned their reading "Hasidic Tales Of The Holocaust" every Tisha B'Av and I was sure I'd seen that title in the book store. 

So I traded in my books, and got the Hasidic tales book and a Primo Levi book I didn't have yet, and after buying those and combining my trade credit on one little card, I now have a bit over $31 in trade credit where I had $20, plus the "new" books. Pretty good deal. 

I doubled back to Whole Foods for some food and a beer, then I rode over to Shasta Street where there's a little free library that has a lot of room in it. I put the books the book store didn't want into there and sure enough, Karen with her two little dogs came out of the house the little free library is in front of. She asked what I was putting in there (she'd seen me put the now-empty plastic bags into there for people to use to carry books home) and I said, "Books". She said something about plastic bags and I said, "To put books in!" and rode off. 

I rode to Central Computers and found a USB DVD drive I'm going to just give to the folks at the temple. Then they'll be able to deal with any DVD they get. 

Now I just had to ride all the way down to Beth David but at least I knew what I was doing this time. I stopped at Sprouts for a $4 bottle of wine because I'd forgotten to get one at Whole Foods. Then on down there, where I was about a half hour early. 

The movie was really good. It was all a sort of storyboard with really good artwork for each scene. This makes it sound lame but it was most certainly not. It was about the destruction of the 2nd temple. Then we had a discussion session afterward and coffee and juice and snacks. I had black coffee and 4 madelines. 

The guy who's retired from Adobe wasn't there. He really was fixated on the idea that the movie was being shown at Temple Sinai. 

The ride home was pleasant but there's no getting around that it's a long-ass ride. And it seems Shabbat next week is going to be held at .... Beth David.

At least one cool thing: On my way down there I noticed a sign: SLAVIC SHOP. This is a place I'd looked at on Google Maps but had decided was far out of my way. Well here it was. I got a can of "Icelandic" codfish liver and a package of "Burgery" seasoning for ground beef. They had a sign by the register saying that any profit from any products from Russia will be given to Ukrainian charities.

Monday - Tisha B'av

 Today, or tonight starts it, is Tisha B'av. My own temple isn't doing anything but the little handout had information on other temples doing things. 

I drank a bottle of wine last night. 750ml is better than drinking a liter, but still! 

In any case I woke up in time to do the things  I had planned. I packed a bunch of things and took the two FedEx ones to FedEx and on the way back went to Lowe's and bought a new toilet seat. And one of those LED lights with a bunch of LEDs that screws into a light bulb socket. 

I got back here and the LED light works fine, it's just about a perfect fit in the lamp I just got at Goodwill. But the toilet seat was the wrong type, "Round" instead of "Enlongated". So I took it back to Lowe's, got a return, and went and bought the right one. 

I had time to get back here and set the new toilet seat away, clean up a bit, load up trash and packages to take to the downtown post office. and got out of here a bit past 4. 

I dropped off the packages and then had a little breathing room. I stopped at Whole Foods for a Trumer Pils and some chicken, mostly skin which I like, and some zucchini and a bottle of wine and a bottle of water. 

I ate and drank, and then went over to Santana Row, checked USB DVD drives which are about $40, and looked for a "chef" store of some type which I thought they'd probably have. I was told there's a Williams-Sonoma which I'm not sure is the same, and I got all kinds of weird directions before I realized it's probably over on the other side, in the mall, and gave up. 

Next I rode over to Starving Musician. It was about 10 minutes to closing and I went and looked at the Yamaha cornet I'd been considering, that has a shepherd's crook. It actually looked OK, but it's a student model and they'd tacked a "1" on the front of the price. $700 for it is a crime, $1700 is ludicrous. 

Next I rode down to Mitsuwa Marketplace because  I really needed to use the loo. That was no problem, and now it was time to get going to my end goal - one of the temples that was observing Tisha B'av. 

I rode down Saratoga Avenue to Prospect and followed the numbers on the houses on the right side of the road, eventually getting to where I was certain I'd overshot it, so I rode back, thinking Well, they've got it hidden pretty well and maybe I'll have better luck next year. 

Then I found it. There was the little side street and there it was and I wasn't late after all. It turns out the other side of the street is a different city, so the numbers don't line up the way they usually do. 

I really hit it off with one guy who's apparently been pretty big in Adobe before he retired. Leave it to me to find the techie. The service didn't have a ton of people, and there was a lot of Hebrew, generally read very fast. At least it seems fast to me. The actual Tisha B'av part of the service involved taking off one's shoes if they're leather shoes which mine are, and if one is able, sitting or reclining on the bima. So off when my shoes, I was glad I'd put on clean socks, and we lit a lot of little tea light candles (most of them anyway) and then it was readings of Lamentations by some really good Hebrew readers/cantillators, then a bit in the "supplementary reading" which was 10 or so sheets stapled recounting all the various things that have happened to the Jews that are remembered on Tosha B'av. 

This temple is Conservative, and I guess my own, being Reform, doesn't observe Tisha B'av because it's a downer, man. It *is* a real downer, that's the point. One is not supposed to wear leather shoes, sit in a chair, study Torah, eat or drink, etc. Well,  I can do some of the things. I can wear my Crocs all day. I can at least eat plain foods I don't have to cook. 

When the service was done, the Abobe guy and I talked some more and laughed it up about MAD Magazine which we both grew up on. There's supposed to be a movie tomorrow night and a "breaking the fast" nosh but the guy thinks it's not at the temple but at Temple Sinai which I think I've been to. 

Now the ride home. I honestly was on the bike for 4 hours today. It's a lot of riding. I rode out to Prospect Road, then looked for a place that would have a loo and be a source of coffee. Starbucks was closed, but I'd remembered seeing a Sprouts and went to that. A very nice Indian gal told me where the loo was and told me the code, then where the coffee drinks are and I got a can of strong black coffee, for $4 of course but I needed it. 

Then it was just riding, riding, riding until I was back around San Pedro Square. Five Points had a band with two tenor saxes and they were sounding good, with a good crowd. The other place that was hopping was O'Flaherty's where it was karaoke night. I talked a bit with the security guard there who I've talked to before, and then from there it was just the ride home. 

Sunday

 On Friday I managed to get things sent out, and got to the service in time. This time they had musicians, not the full band but two guitars, some drums, and flute. It was pretty great. 

Then on to the barbecue and here I saw why there was such a large turnout. It was excellent. I had tons of brisket, some beans, and lots of cucumber salad. Before eating I got to talk to the flutist and we knew some people and places in common, and she might be interested in buying my flutes. In the solo in one of the songs she's done this really cool note bend and I'd started by complimenting her on that. I was able to get her card, and we might be able to do a deal. 

I came back here and just had some fish with my red wine, as I'd had plenty of beef. I watched a lot of videos about klezmer music which is pretty cool sounding. 

I woke up after half-sleeping a good part of the night, because I wanted to be up around 8. I got up around 8:30, cleaned up a bit, and took off for the temple for a thing we held today. Plus there were bagels. And by bagels I mean tons of schmear, onions and capers, and I picked out a bagel with big salt crystals on it which I proceeded to pile high with schmear, put some capers on top, and plenty of cucumber slices and red onion on the side. 

So I didn't have to worry about breakfast. 

After the thing was done and I'd schmoozed a bit, I took off for Whole Foods. There was a "Save The Children/Give Us Your Credit Card Info" booth so I had to busk elsewhere. I walked over to the light rail station and had just missed the train to go to the Whole Foods on Hamilton. I thought, I have time to take the 522 bus to California Avenue and try out the farmer's market there. 

So I walked back, and realized I could take the train and get there a lot quicker. So  I got on the train and was there in short order. I set up on the sidewalk where there was shade, and got no tips. I moved to just under a small tree that was part of the central "island" and played and got no tips. I went into Mollie Stone's and got some of those "Candle Lit" things I use (although I think I'll start making my own out of aluminum foil) and went to the train station. 

I can only conclude that the poor people of Palo Alto who were swarming around the farmer's market are too financially impoverished to tip a street musician, and so culturally impoverished that they don't appreciate live music or really even know what it is. The poor, poor, people of Palo Alto. 

I took the train to Sunnyvale (and it was one of the new electric trains which is neat) and tried playing on Murphy Street but there was not much foot traffic at all. So I walked down to the Whole Foods. There are two possible spots there - a windy one out on the sidewalk next to the street and across from this little park they've just put in, and the other spot's outside their other door where one can be seen/heard by the people going back and forth to their oh-so-important cars in that cathedral to modern culture, the multi-level parking lot. There was a scammer booth set up out on the windy sidewalk and at the entrance by the parking lot entrance, I'd only have to share the sidewalk with some watermelons. 

So I set up and it was slow, but I played what felt like an hour and a half and was probably an hour. I made $35 in bills and $7 and change from one Indian lady who also included in the torrent of change she dumped in the box, two Indian coins, a 5 rupee and a 2 rupee. 

There were a ton of people going back and forth and most had no use for music live or not, but a few did and that's what made the difference. I finally decided I was really tired and had done enough. I got on the train again and back to Diridon station and walked back to Whole Foods. 

I got some "Crispy" fried chicken and a beer and then cleaned my mouth and chewed gum and decided to put in an hour there as the scam booth was gone now, and made about another $12. 

So why did I do that additional hour? Mainly I'm only able to busk one day a week, and I wanted to get more time in before going back to the old grind. Secondly, while my free buzzing is helping me attain high notes more easily, it's not magic and I was still getting a rough tone. I simply need to play more. Also it's about the money to some degree. Also I wanted to play some different songs and played "If I Were A Rich Man" a bit, Hava Nagila, and Haktivah and other oddball things like Rubber Ducky which I want to work on - I'd like to have that one nailed. 

I was complimented on my tone, profusely, but one guy today and another guy asked if I was a "professional" player (just like that lady did the last time) and I said Well, this is it, I'm playing for money so that's professional. But that I'm self-taught. The guy knew about the electronics swapmeets and sellers and we talked about that for a while. 

Actually at the thing at the temple one gal there knew all about techie stuff and I mean really techie stuff, so we had great fun talking about ... really techie stuff. I told her how I got a tour of the Melles Griot (laser manufacturer) HQ in San Diego. 

The main focus of the meeting was ... well, largely that we gotta stick together because as one panelist put it, about 25% of the country wants us dead. Having read the excellent book "Danik! A Holocaust Survivor" yesterday, I can see that even the Catholics are far from our friends. 

In fact that might be why my Big Island friend has stopped communicating. He's a Catholic, product, like Ken, of a thorough Catholic education and like Ken, talks a good line about being a friend of the Jews but an interesting thing happened with Pat shortly before he went no-contact. I told him of my plans to retire in Israel "as is the dream of every Jew" and he retorted that the dream of American Jews is the visit Israel, not actually move there. 

This leads me to believe that other than being Catholic, Pat may actually be politically far-left and we've seen how the far-left and the far-right have teamed up due to their love of the idea of exterminating the Jews. A Jew moving to Israel is something they really don't like. 

As for Dace, the guy on Oahu, he's never seen a Qanon conspiracy he didn't like and swallow whole, and health-wise he's circling the drain anyway. He's pretty much useless, and fortunately this means useless to the far-right/far-left as much as useless to me. 

The same goes for Pat. He's so extreme vegan that I can't even mention fishing around him (it's funny, his Jesus ate fish) and seems to have a plethora of probably self-created health problems. Plus he's blown through the couple-few million he inherited in the mid-80s when that was real money and gets by on welfare and food stamps and various hand-outs. The far-left or far-right could recruit him to bomb a synagogue and they'd have to pay for his travel, then he'd pitch a fit when they take him to eat at In-N-Out. Useless, useless, useless. The both of 'em. 

Big order out

 I drank a whole bottle of wine (750ml) last night and had a headache when I got up. Whole Foods was out of those Tetra-Paks which are 500ml. 

I was up in time to pack 10 things which had to go in 3 boxes, all to the same guy. I got out of here around 3, and my favorite lunch truck was there but she was getting ready to drive off. I came up and she got out of the truck, went around and opened one of the side covers, and had her helper hand me a dish of two fried bean burritos. "Three dollars for you!" she said and I forked it over. I got hot sauce too. After all that exercise packing those things it was good to get something solid into my stomach. 

I dropped the packages off at FedEx and got back here around 4. 

What it takes to get paid around here

 I had the place all cleaned and when Ken's time to show up had passed, I started with the phone calls. He turned out to be in San Francisco, helping a friend of his with his industrial robot(s). Ken could come by but it would be "after midnight". I said that's OK. 

He showed up at 2:30 in the morning. I got my pay check and we talked a bit, I gave him the print-out of the scary email saying we owe the landlord 4 grand, which he tried his best to lose along with his jacket, then he was off. 

I drank the Tetra-Pak of wine I had and got into some of the Ciroc, hence the headache. 

I woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Ken's schedule being imposed on me. I'll be happy when I never have to deal with anything "tech" again. 

I got out of here at about 3:30 with a load of books, and 8 small things I'd packed last night to pass the time waiting for Ken. And my headache. 

I dropped off trash at my sneaky trash can on Taylor, and left what was left of the Ciroc next to the can. Let someone else drink that stuff and get a headache. 

Then I went to the post office and dropped off the packages. Next was the bank where again my accounting and theirs agreed to the penny. Next I went to the used book store and turned in the books. I got $20 trade credit. 

THEN .... I went to Whole Foods and got a slice of pizza and a near-beer. Beer and pizza is good for headaches, and that made most of it go away. 

Then I rode over to Shasta street and put the books the book store didn't want, half into one little free library and half into the other. Actually the other one seems to be a little art gallery of little-kid drawings and things their mom thinks are cool, but I moved the stuff over and re-arranged it in a (I hope) tasteful way, and put the books on the other side. I'll see what the reaction is the next time I visit. 

Then I went over to Crossroads Trading to, as always, look for Doc Martens. I found a bright yellow ball cap "All Good" brand with a reflective triangle on the front saying "All Good" and bright yellow. Frankly, good enough to be my spare when I'm washing my main high-vis cap so I decided to get that even though it was $18. 

Then I looked around in the shoes and found some actual Doc Marten low quarters. They're the kind that are being sold now, made in China. But they're almost new, felt comfortable, and I figured worth a try. So I got those. The hat and shoes left me with $7 after handing them the $100 bill I'd gotten at Whole Foods. 

I then went over to the chef store to look around, and they were closing in 10 minutes so I only looked at about half of the store. I know where I'm going to buy my zipper bags from now, though. I'm on the lookout for stuff to make candies like those round See's candies that come in the little paper cups. So I'd need the little paper cups, a muffin pan with holes that small, and a saucepan with a pour spout. I've got an idea to make pistachio candies and I'm considering just going to See's and buying their "baking chips" for the chocolate. The chef store didn't have those things, though, and I'll have to look for candy making supplies. 

I won't have time this week anyway, but for instance tomorrow night is "sha-barbacue" at the temple, Shabbat and a barbecue afterward. I'd like to bring something and that crowd likes sweets, and if I had the materials on hand it would be pretty easy to make some candies. The rabbi liking pistachios and my knowing that you get a real pistachio flavor by getting the ones in the shells, I think I can make some really good ones. Next time... 

I went over to Goodwill with my $8 on hand and looked around. I found a clamp-on light that I can really use and it was $7. It was fun looking around through the odds and ends as there were a couple other guys who were looking around too and we commented on things. There was a Luxman stereo receiver that I said a guy ought to jump on because they could make some real money flipping it on Ebay. I told the guy to check on his phone and after I'd gone upstairs to look at the high end stuff he came up and said they go for about $250 on Ebay. There you are,  I said.  Frankly if I had a car I'd have bought it for the $20 or so they'd have wanted, but I can't due to the effective non-compete I'm under so Ken would make money not me. I was happy with my lamp. 

I rode back to Whole Foods and had another slice of pizza and another near-beer. That got rid of the last of the headache. I had the idea I had tons of things I had to get but when I went back in it was just a bottle of wine, cream for coffee, pickled herring, and one of those little lemon juice things. 

I went by the Amazon place for bubble mailers and here something funny happened. Apparently they were emptying their trash cans so I dove right in there, asking the worker if I can have the bubble mailers and going into the big black trash bag for what I thought was one. But it wasn't a worker, it was some customer and she had ... some kind of ... oversized purse?? .. that's basically a huge black trash bag on wheels. It was full of all kinds of crap too. I've seen a lot of things but I've never seen one of those. She was not happy. "Anyone could see it's someone's bag" she said, with a weird little dry laugh. And wheeled the thing out the door.

I got some bubble mailers anyway, and found a few books on the way back. Just another day in the life...

Am I enjoying spending my money though! I looked at the calendar at the temple web site to see what's coming up in the next month or two, and it turns out Rosh HaShana is early in October. It literally means "head of the year" and is the start of the Jewish year. There are some various services that are important ones and they're the ones that are notorious for being expensive to go to. There's a 2-volume book I have to buy and of course the temple had a link to Amazon. Feh! I went to the CCAR Press site and bought it there. It's the hardcover version which is more than the softcover on Amazon but less than the hardcover on Amazon. The main thing is I didn't buy it on Amazon. 

Business is bad

 I had very little wine last night before bed. So I'm pretty much off it. I have a Tetra Pak that's like 1/2 bottle saved for Friday night and also some Gefen Kosher grape juice - I might mix half and half. 

I got an email - for some reason I'm the "point of contact" for the landlord - and it appears Ken owes them about 4 grand? Lovely. I printed it out and right here I'd like to say, How come it's impossible to print out emails cleanly? There's not even a little icon for print, and I have to use Control-P and it ends up cutting things off on the right margin. I had to complete a couple of words in pencil. 

At least sales are picking up at least for now. I spent a day - it's a day's work - taking a 7000-series oscilloscope apart and that brought in a ton of sales of the parts but then the buyers also noticed I had other parts and other things so it's been a really good thing. 

It looks like Ken's paying a ton of rent for this place though. Knowing him he'll keep on keeping on until he can't and then he won't. What this means for me is I need to be prepared, which I always am mentally because I'm pretty paranoid, for things to go all to shit and my having to leave here. 

I'm pretty mentally rehearsed that I may have to spend the last year or so past my official conversion and prior to moving to Israel, bouncing around this area without Ken's help. I may have to rent a room, stay in motels, something. 

This is why I don't regret buying the Connstellation cornet. A backup horn in case something happens to may main one. Plus a rather unique one having such a large bore and thus a "big" sound. 

I've also been doing the "free buzzing" thing regularly. I'm getting to where I can start to play little tunes which is more interesting. It took me forever to be able to carry a tune whistling, and being able to carry a tune well free-buzzing will be an impressive feat. I'm training muscles that will be very useful in trumpet playing. 

I listed 16 things and packed 16, which went in only 3 boxes because two of them were combination orders. I told one customer I'll send him his things as I find them, finding them being a very time-consuming process. I did get most of them out though. 

I was a cool 85 degrees here when  I got back, so that's a relief. 

 

 

Ballz to the Walz

 Future President Harris has chosen her running mate, Walz. I was hoping for Kelley but it was being said that that would make both candidates from the West, and there may have been a small undercurrent of Kelley's wife having been shot, would make for too much "baggage" and might make Kelly more anti-gun. 

The unions like Walz and he's a hunter, and they're raving over him on Reddit - about his Dad jokes and his overall suitability for the post. 

I cut up some strawberries to put them to dry in the loft last night and started a load of laundry. And got 15 things ready to list today. 

I woke up around 10, and listed the 15 things except it was 14 things because one of the things turned out to not be working. And packed 14 things I could take on the bike without needing the trailer. So on my way back I was able to park the bike at H Mart and walk over to Home Goods for some of the sugar free gum they sell there, then Ross for a couple of T-shirts, and then Sprouts for some roast beef and peppers. 

 

Aw Nertz

 I woke up at 10, had "some" wine last night but not to the point of being drunk, went to bed and slept soundly, and got up and started to plan my day. When I plugged in the jerry-rigged light I had set up to compensate for one of the overhead lights being out, I lightly bumped my fan with my foot and then noticed it wasn't running. 

I don't think it was the bump though. This fan runs on something like 9VDC through an AC adapter but the actual fan mechanism is the standard AC motor so I think what's going on is there's actually a little inverter in there. And inverters can be delicate. I think when I plugged in the other thing a little spike went out and killed the inverter. 

This means I could go in there and wire it for 120VAC directly with an in-line switch, but for now I need to hie me down to Walmart and get a new fan. I have a back-up fan but it's a little noisy and I don't want to listen to the thing. I use it to blow on my drying laundry in the cold months. 

If I can I'll get this very same model of fan because I really like it. I just need to be careful about unplugging it when I plug/unplug the jerry-rigged light. So it's off to Walmart and the bank. I need to deposit the check I just got from Ken and the weather forecast is for "Hot, and then hotter" so I need a new fan.

Elite (made in Israel!) coffee and cream to wake up on and reading Reddit of course. On r/homeless someone asks "How do you get a job when homeless?" The thing is, you're probably not going to get a yuppie type job. But you can get a lot of jobs like detailing cars and so on, and you can do any of a number of entrepreneurial things. But its' really hard to have that "This is an opportunity!" mindset. It was hard for me and I grew up pretty feral as they say, plus split off from the working world to do that sport, a thing almost no one does without a solid middle-class or better family supporting them, then got into swap meet selling and Ebay. And even then, it really knocked me down when I lost everything. So your average well-adjusted type will have trouble. 

I left here at 11:30, rode over to the bank and deposited my check and my calculations and the bank's agreed to the penny so that was good. Then I went over to Whole Foods and had chicken wings and a near-beer. Then I checked the fans at the hardware store and didn't see anything I was that eager to buy. So I rode down to Walmart and among other things, got the very same model of fans, the Better Homes & Gardens on. 

I'm thinking *washing* the fan may be what killed it. The fans I had before were simply an AC motor and a mechanical switch. That kind of thing can be rinsed with clean water and be OK. But this fan has much more circuitry and I think I should be much more careful in cleaning it, is all. 

Buzzing is a win

 I practiced last night (decided to subject the people next door to only a bit over a half-hour) and I can tell the free buzzing I've been doing is great. I'm as "in shape" as ever although I haven't been practicing for shit. 

It reminds me of when I first taught myself to surf, the first break I went to was walking distance from our house next to Kaya's Market, the break was at the Punalu'u river across from The Aloha Stop (a sort of convenience store with a few pinball machines) and it was almost always surf-able. Kinda lousy small break but I had fun. 

When we moved to Hau'ula the local break was better when it was going, but often flat. No problem I'd go collect shells or go fishing or something. But because my surfing was sporadic I wasn't in as good shape to take advantage of a good swell when it came in. I discovered that push-ups of all things would keep me in shape. 

Free buzzing is great because I can do it just about anywhere and any time. It's not loud. I imagine it being a huge edge after I've been doing it for years. Because once I retire I'll be a professional busker and will no longer have to worry about transistors and diodes but simply in getting better and figuring out what works so I can put a book or two out there for free under a "Copyleft". 

I drank a lot less last night than the night before with the result that I didn't sleep well but I did sleep, and I didn't feel shaky nor do I feel shaky now. This is absolutely great because alcohol has been taking up a huge part of my "food" budget and also it saps ones' energy. 

I was up what felt late but it was around 7 in the morning. I rested in bed and stretched a bit and got up at 7:30. It had cooled down to a balmy 78. 

Since I had such an early start on my day, I got the Connstellation cornet out. I was really worried I'd actually bought myself a "cornet shaped object" in that, when I was testing it out, it was so noisy at the Sunnyvale train station that I could not hear the little "thump" when I tested each valve for compression. Nor could I feel it - with all that noise vibrating the horn I guess that makes sense. But now in relative quiet I can tell it's got surprisingly good compression. That actually makes sense as it played rather well. I need to re-install the loose screw which I think I want to do carefully, cleaning the screw and the hole it goes into, and applying some Loc-Tite. 

I left here at almost 11. After getting rid of trash, I stopped in at Nijiya for two reasons: To get something to eat, and to get a box to put tips in because I'd realized I'd forgotten my red cloth tip box and didn't want to go back. I found a shallow-ish box that looked like it might be OK. 

I ate a couple of breaded fried fish and then got my mouth clean, chewing Xylitol gum so by the time I got where I was going my mouth would be very clean. By the time I got to Whole Foods, though, I'd realized I needed a deeper box as the wind was rising. So I went in and used the loo and got a box that held iced tea or something, that was nice and deep. 

I played from 11:24 to 1:24 and made $54. It would have been a lot less except near the end of the session a guy tossed in a $20. And no coins so it was pretty good. The wind got stronger, and also a plain cardboard box may not give people the hint to tip as well as a cheerful red one. But it was pretty OK, especially as I wasn't buying any alcohol. 

One lady tossed in a few bucks and asked if I was a "professional". I said that I was not, really, that I'd taught myself as an adult so not really. She then said it was good to see someone "working for their money". So yeah a little Puritan nonsense. I mean, what do you do if you don't have any skills? 

One guy wanted to know if I knew any Artie Shaw stuff like Stardust or Frenesi. I had a try at a bit of Stardust but I'll have to work on it. I told him that a lot of people don't know this but Artie Shaw put in about four years on the road playing the saxophone before he switched to the clarinet. The guy said Artie had always wanted to be a writer, and I said I'd been listening, late at night, when I lived in Southern California, when Artie was interviewed on the radio. I also said that among clarinetists, Artie was considered to have really good technical skills. Maybe one of the best players ever. 

By the time I was done the wind was pretty strong so it's a good thing. I had some chicken and zucchini and an alcohol-free Guinness. I got some cream for coffee and headed for home, finding a few books on the way. 

Back here, I thought a bit and decided to make an H Mart run. As I went by Tom's place, I noticed everyone gone - Tom's two trucks and James' truck and RV. A car swerved around a in U turn to have a try at me and I evaded, then the guy parked by James' stuff and started going through it. Not my problem. 

I got a couple onions and some celery and a lb of hamburger and around back, found some blueberries and some Korean melons that Tom likes. When I went by Tom's again he wasn't there but James was and I just left the melons on the table outside Tom's door. 

I rode fast back here to get past the zombies on Rogers Avenue before their worm-addled minds could realize I was there, haha. And got back in here and put things away and realized I was *very* tired. In fact, I'm kind of amazed at how well the busking worked out and how much I got done, while still detoxing from alcohol and getting maybe at a stretch 4 hours of lousy sleep. 

How well the busking went ... I've not been practicing for shit, or even getting out there every week, not at all. But after doing the free buzzing for a week or so, I was amazed. I was able to play high notes almost as easily at the end of my 2 hour session as at the beginning.  When I was playing and practicing a lot I'd gotten a glimpse of that, but now with free buzzing I was able to do it better than ever. 

 

Trying to beat the heat

 On Friday I packed a bunch of things to take with me and drop off at the downtown post office. I left a little early to try to find one of the covid test booths but they were all done for the day. I had ten tests, thought I had eleven, but my math was off when I told Ken I had ten tests he could have. 

I'd figured I'd test myself before going to the service but I didn't, to save those ten tests for Ken. I dropped off mail and trash, and went up to the bike shop to see if the tire I'd ordered was in. It was, and I either never got the text they were supposed to send me or I ignored it as I get a lot of political texts these days. 

They had it, so I rode back over to Whole Foods and got a slice of pizza and a non-alcoholic Guinness. I can't believe they only charge $2 for one. In fact their price is better than anywhere I've seen for singles, 4 packs or 8 packs. At the checkout the young guy there kind of shook the can and I said, "Don't shake it" and he said it feels like there's something in there. I said there was, and if you shake it at all it really foams up. 

So when I opened it it really foamed up but I knew what to expect and kind of inhaled the foam as it came out. When I was done enjoying my beer and pizza, I went into the loo and cut the can open in the sink and rinsed it out well, and went back to show the guy what he'd felt rattling around in there. I said the Guinness in cans has those little nitrogen balls in them but some other brands might too. 

I still had time to kill so I went over to the book store and after looking around quite a bit, got a book of Cordwainer Smith short stories called The Instumentality Of Mankind and with my trade credit, only had to hand over another dollar. 

Now it was time to go over to the temple, and we did our thing, sang our cowboy songs, and the 90-something doctor was there so I was able to tell him I now know the Hebrew words for right and left, and how to say "to the right" and "to the left". 

After the service I had a fair amount of hummus because I'd not get to eat back here until almost midnight, I figured. They also had a special thing this time, a lot of artwork was in a room and we could go in and each take a piece, donating if we like. I didn't see anything I wanted though. 

And then it started to rain a bit. Not very much, but you never know if it will get heavy. So we all got out of there a bit quicker than usual. The cop was there but in the middle of an apparently important phone call, and my cake pan was on the bike, so I put that in a cloth bag and rode home with the tire hanging off one handlebar and the bag with the cake pan off the other. 

I got back here and put things away and cleaned the bathroom and office and even had time to wash my fan which had a fair amount of crud on it, running 24/7 as it does. It's why I cut the front screen away, not only to make them a bit more efficient but to make it easy to clean them. Just some Windex, a bristle brush, and some hot water. Then I just plug it in again and run it and it dries itself out in no time. 

Finally it was past 10:30 and then past 10:45 and I decided it was time to sling a little magic. I called Ken's cell phone number and then Ken's house and as the phone was ringing at Ken's house, Ken pulled up in his truck. It really was a quick hand-off. I handed Ken the bag with the 10 covid tests and another bag with some OXO cooking utensils for his wife. Of course this being nearly midnight on a Friday I couldn't go to the bank, will be too busy (I think) to go to the bank on Monday, and I might as well wait a couple more days and I can deposit both week's checks next Thursday. If I get a check next week. That's the thing with high tech. The pay's not as good or dependable as if I were a balloon-folding clown or a tap dancer who also does magic tricks. 

Oh yes and it's almost midnight as I write and it's 83 degrees here. But at last next summer will be warmer.

Biden's art of the deal

 Biden just keeps hitting them out of the park. The biggest prisoner swap since the USSR days is all over the news. 3 Americans and I guess a lot of people of other nationalities? Yeah we had to trade some baddies back to the orcs but no worries, Pootin will just have them pushed out a window anyway for disloyalty for being caught. 

Of course politics are hot and boiling over as usual these days. While I did my things today (listed 20 things, getting cleaned up to go to service tonight) I thought, the assassination attempt went, if you can say that about such things, as well as possible (except for the one guy getting killed of course). 

Dirty Don didn't get killed or even more than "pinked", so we didn't end up with a right-wing martyr. The assassin turned out to be one of Dumbo's base. And now the Secret Service is going to be on their toes for years, which is very good if we're to continue with a normal government and let Donnie Diapers fade from relevance and fade away.

Here comes the oil...

 I put a ton of things away, and moved a bunch of stuff to make things better, so that's good. By that time it was pretty late at night and in the process of putting stuff away I noticed that oil was leaking in through the back wall from the machine shop behind us. There had been a little leak a few days ago and I'd put cardboard down; now the cardboard was soaked. 

I finally put my outdoor clothes on and went over there and knocked, in case anyone was there but got no response. So I came back here, wrote a note, and took that over and taped it onto their door. 

I finally went to sleep and woke up around 9, amazingly. I checked the oil situation and it's drying up again. The oil seems to soak into the concrete over time so it'll go away, it's just yucky. 

Most of today's work in worrying apart an old oscilloscope we might get $50-$100 for, but in parts can get a few hundred. Worrying indeed, it takes hours to take one apart. At about 1:30 I realized if I made a FedEx run with the two medium-sized things, and packed them quickly, I could visit my favorite lunch truck. Being flush with cash ($6.94 in change) I felt like a treat. 

So I packed the things (one for FedEx and one for UPS) and got going. I'd timed it just right, the lunch truck lady was there. I got 4 pieces of breaded fried fish and two tartar sauces for $4 and it was a delicious lunch. The thing with the tartar sauce is, not only does it make the fish even more delicious, but it's like a lubricant and enables eating the fish about twice as fast haha. 

Then I went back around the corner to Tom's and knocked on his door. And yelled a bit. He was on the phone - he's work-from-home so he's probably on the phone a lot. I said I was here to take the frozen crepes. He made a motion like "go ahead" and went back to his call. He'd been talking about getting rid of them because he's about to go on one of his month-long vacations and doesn't really like them that much. 

So I loaded them all into a big plastic bag, 30 or more pounds worth, and strapped that down on top of my two boxes and took off. First I put the crepes by the dumpster behind H Mart. There are people who regularly scrounge there so they stand the best chance of being used if they're there. 

Then dropped off the FedEx box and went across the street and dropped off the UPS box. 

Then I picked up some boxes behind the gym and rode back here. I realized if I were quick, I could check out this traffic safety place to find a high-vis baseball cap like the one I already have. I want two, one to wear and one to wash. So I went there and they didn't have them and had a bit of an attitude etc. (It turns out there's the real place and this place which has a similar name - Interstate and Intrastate or something, I've never been to the actual place and will try to draw myself a map because it's complicated to get to the actual place). So I was like Fuck it I tried. 

I stopped by the Mexican market and there was a covid test booth there. The lady took care to make sure I got the freshest tests, which was nice of her. In the summer I look like I could be Hispanic, and this helps me sometimes.

I rode over to Nijiya and got a little sashimi thing and some green tea. The sashimi thing was well worth it as, unlike other places that make their dishes to look like there's more than there is, this was carefully crafted to look smaller. It was a good serving for $4. I got $40 cash back too. 

Then I went back in for a bottle of Kewpie, joking with the guy about Kewpie anxiety when you don't know if the mostly-used bottle you have is your only one or if you have a backup. And got $40 cash back. 

Now I was equipped for my Weekly Wal.  I stopped on my way at the burger bar place and paid $1 for a cup of ice water, freshened up my iced tea and put the ice in a veggie bag and put that in the bag I had the covid tests in. They're not supposed to be stored too hot and I take that seriously. 

On down to Walmart where I spent most of the $80 I had. Instead of a box of wine I got a bottle of Manischewitz. I think one kiddush cup of that on a Friday evening is all I'd want, and I'm supporting a Jewish company. And the usual other things - roast beef, fish, some cucumbers, Parmesan cheese, yadda yadda. 

On the way back I got some bubble mailers at the Amazon place and some books. I also drank an entire Coke Zero I got at Walmart, as it was really hot out there. 

Got back and finished worrying the scope apart. Wow, I think I've taken apart 2200 series, and 500 series, but not a 7000 series and I can see why they were big money way back when. There  was a ton of labor in putting them together. Now I have a bunch of circuit boards etc to list. 

Dinner was "burger in a bowl" about 1/4, maybe closer to 1/3 of a lb of ground beef from H Mart, on top of diced jalapeno peppers and onion, not cooked just put in there, then the burger is, as my mother used to say, "kibbled" so it's easy to cook and doesn't spit much grease around. That's put on top, then a little mustard and a lot of mayo. Really good! 

I called Ken around 10, and he said he's not coming over tonight as he's still testing positive. I said that we could just push it off until next week. But he really wants the covid tests I have for him, 10 of them now. So he wants to do a quick hand-off of my paycheck and he picked up the tests. He's planning to come by late tomorrow night, past 10. 

I finished the load of laundry I had soaking that I'd started last night. It turns out letting it soak a week and each Sunday, finishing the load that's soaking and then starting another to soak, isn't a good idea. Three of my T-shirts shed a lot of their dye and are now a blotchy black and brown.