Election Day

 I actually watched the 2nd half of Interstellar which someone had put on YouTube. Neat movie. 

Amazingly, I'm sleeping painless once I drop into sleep. With the help of 1 bottle wine, a bit watered. 

I tried some of the children's ibuprofen liquid and I guess it's OK. I struggled through the things I had to do, and actually packed the 5-6 packages that ought to go out today. It took a "medicinal" Guinness to get loosened up enough to do that. 

I put the ebay store on vacation mode for 5 days, emailed Ken about it and said if I can take it out of vacation mode sooner I will. But that it might take that long for me to get functional enough, and that we've weathered worse. 

I tried making a neck brace and I think I can make it a good-ish one but my plan is to go to the Walgreens on Santa Clara and get whatever they have. I seem to remember passing a medical device place on Santa Clara on my way over there before, so if that appears I'll stop in there. 

So, out to ship the shipping and spend lots of money again. Right now I'm not gonna worry about the money. 

Pain just pain

 I woke up around 8 or 9. I packed 11 small packages, doing a few then going to bed for a while then doing more and back to bed... the pain is really something but I'm not experiencing things that I should go to the ER for like numbness or tingling in the extremities.

I have a route planned that's pretty flat and easy. First the post office downtown to drop the packages off, then I'll see if I can get some ibuprofen at Nijya where at least I can buy something and get cash back. If they don't have it I'll try Smile Market, and if *they* don't have it, then I'll go back to TAK Market to get it. Then I'll get back here and spend the rest of the day/evening in bed. 

I left at 3, dropped off trash, stopped at Nijiya for some things and some cash back, dropped off the packages at the post office, then  decided to hunt around for this bodega called AK Mart where I might find some ibuprofen gels cheaper than they are at TAK Market. 

I didn't find it because I realized there's the 7-11 across from the Amazon place where I got a lot of bubble mailers. I went in there and I specifically wanted the gel caps. They didn't have them but they have some liquid for children that I thought was about $7 but turned out to be more like $12. 

I then went to Nijiya again for another $20 cash back and a package of cucumbers. Last night I'd had a burger from Wienerschnitzel, this time I got one from Fosters. They both cost the same. 

All of this routine was very painful especially the waiting at Foster's for the burger. If I go there again I might try laying my head on my arms on one of the tables, like a kid having "rest time" in 2nd grade. Standing hurt like hell. Interestingly, riding my bike isn't that uncomfortable except having to stand on the pedals a bit to go over bumpy places. 

I got back in here, put things away, tossed the burger buns out for the gulls, and ate the burger which was much better than the Weinerschiztel one. Now I know why there are always more people at the Foster's. 

I'd really exerted myself today and going to bed didn't provide the relief it did before the ride. The ride had started in a typical way too - a truck behind me, a car coming from the left, and one speeding up *fast* from the right, all thirsty for my blood. I had to sprint straight across into the refuge of the CalTrans parking lot then sneak out. 

I have a feeling this back injury is going to take a while to get better. At least as long as  I keep the numbers good, sales are coming in. 

Another horrible night

 I'd done everything right last night except drink too much wine. I was even to bed relatively early, but then around 2AM a bunch of people came in for the most-nights-ly prostitution party in the old Salt Unlimited space. And some of these bozos parked right in front of here, making noise. So I opened the door and shone a big flashlight at 'em on strobe mode, got called some choice words but they took off. 

I walked over to Salt Unlimited to try to get a look at things and some guy said something and I put on a New Zealand accent and said something like "Alright, mate! Cheerio!" and wove my way through the cars back here. And back here I called the cops and told them what's going on, and put in a report to the human trafficking thing. 

I was one bottle in, and now I "needed" more wine to get to sleep again, and it was too much. I slipped and fell in the bathroom, somehow messing up my upper back. It's really painful and I'm seriously considering seeing if I can Door Dash some Ibuprofen gel caps. 

I don't get why these bozos have to park right here, in front of the only door that has a sign on it saying video cameras are in use. 

I told Ken by email that I've injured my back and will be on aspirin and lots of bed rest for a few days. And that I'll get the shipping done even if I don't do much else. 

It's very painful to be upright. I don't dare try to ride the bike to get the aforementioned gel caps on my own. And I've realized, this is where a Brompton bike would be really helpful. It's a step-through so it would be much easier to get on and off of, and can be taken into a store in trolley mode. 

I've just got Brompton on the brain. I've pretty much determined myself to buy one if the election goes OK. 

I was going to busk today. I was going to play "Harry Truman" by Chicago. I'd played it just before Obama got elected the 2nd time, feeling in some way it would help. "Harry you'd know what to do", the song goes. I was going to play "Rally 'Round The Flag". I was going to play this healing song we sing in temple, for my country. I'd probably have had some good conversations with people about Harris, maybe tick off a Republican or two (although "Rally 'Round The Flag", a Union song, was adopted by the South also and most people would just recognize it as a Civil War song). 

I *did* start off last night right though, by donating a final $100 to the Harris campaign. Maybe that matters more than playing "Harry Truman". 

At 7PM I'd been in bed long enough for the pain to subside a bit, and was actually able to ride the bike up to TAK Market and buy a 4-pack of tall Guinness cans, a couple bottles of wine, a can of olives, and two of those little, expensive, packets of 4 gel caps each of Advil. 

Then I went to Fosters Freeze and got a double cheese burger with no cheese to take home. I don't know what all this cost but I left with $47 and came back with 13c. 

By this time the pain was kicking my ass again so I painfully ate the burger patties, took an Advil, and got through two of the cans of Guinness. The idea of the Guinness and food is to make me shit. I'm seeing a (shitty) pattern here, where I'm not getting any exercise of any type on Saturday, with the result of not shitting, then being constipated on Sunday. This horrible upper back pain makes things much worst. But in any case I need to either take a nice long ride on Saturdays or take a laxative on that day. 

Saturday

 I can't believe it, on Friday I had time to take things to the post office and FedEx, with a stop at Hu's lunch truck to start off, got back here and listed 25 things that I'd photographed before taking off, and since a lot of them were circuit boards all out of the same gadget the listing went fast. 

Then I had time to go over to Whole Foods and do my shopping for Shabbat, a nice bottle of wine, two bottles of the cheap stuff, roast beef, cucumbers etc. I kept the roast beef cold by wrapping it up with a package of frozen rockfish filets that were decently priced. Plus it's sure cooling down overnight. 

I also had time to drink a bottle of "Space Dust" IPA because why not, I keep getting ads for the stuff, and eat a couple of these gamey tasting No Sugar beef sticks. Looking at the wrappers, they use "beef, beef hearts and beef liver" well OK it's the liver. They're not bad. 

I got over to the service and did my sign in etc. There were lots of people there because there were Bat Mitzva parents there plus a celebration of ... Shomrim students? As far as I can tell, Shomrim is the volunteer quasi-police force places like Crown Hights in NYC have so I dunno. 

I felt kinda bad wearing sweat pants (clothes I'd not feel too bad getting wet in) but one kid had a great Keith Haring sweatshirt on over his woven shirt and there were some pretty casual dressers so it was all good. We got our singing in, I'd brought my glasses, and we did our prayers which I'm slowly learning through sheer osmosis. 

The food afterward was .... just about all candy. There's always cheese, but if I'm going to go right home and eat beef that's not quite on. And there's hummus but that's kind of carb-y especially considering one needs crackers or something to eat it with. 

I actually didn't socialize much other than telling the kid his Keith Haring shirt is great and I had a friend who was really into Keith Haring and was an artist, with a style like his but his own style. The kid's dad said (about Keith Haring) "He's really popular in our house". 

(I actually looked up the old friend and he owns a big liquor store / market / lounge  with a cigar lounge in Central Arizona. Amazing. I suppose I could hit him up for a job or something but then I'd have to live in Central Arizona... ) 

I wanted to get home before the rain started and it was just starting to sprinkle when I took off. I got back here dry and fine. 

Today I was up a bit earlier than usual which is good. The Judaism 101 classes are once a month while the Intro To Judaism are more often than that I think. I'm all signed up but I just need to get a schedule on where to be and when. The classes are all Tuesday nights something like 7-9 PM. And yes they're during the rainy season. I'm serious enough about this thing that I'll just do what it takes to get there and back, even if it means taking a cab or something. 

So we're back to Square 1 on the Torah. I read Bereshit which means "Beginning" then Noach which covers Noah and the flood and the tower of babel and they got their speech scrambled haha. 

And I did a certain amount of geeking out on Brompton bikes. They're really pushing the G model which has the larger, 20" tires at the bike shop and I think it's a great bike but it's also $2500 and counting, whereas the traditional, 16" tire A is maybe $1200 out the door and I want to keep things very simple and basic. Assuming Bromptons are as fun as everyone says they are, my dream line-up would be the A for fun trips, taking it on the bus or train or into a hotel room, and the G for the kind of hauling I do with the cruiser.