Sunday

 Amazingly, after the Friday night service I stopped by TAK Market and got a 4-pack of Guinness in tall cans, got back here and drank 'em, and went to bed early (for me) around midnight. The end result being that I had my alarm set for 8AM and woke up at 7AM. 

I was out the door at 7:30. I rode over to the Japantown light rail station and took the light rail down to the Winchester station. I don't know why, but for some reason the Winchester station seems to be a haven for bums, crazies, druggies, etc. Some undead character was yelling about something and I just hustled out of there. 

The ride down to "King's Court" which of course is an example of that great American contribution to world culture, the strip mall, was easy. It was weird seeing everything in daylight. 

I stopped at the Peet's there and got a coffee and a cheese danish and sat outside by my bike. The place was crammed with Boomers all talking loudly and preparing to camp out there for hours, and besides, being dressed for cold it was too warm inside. 

I hung out a bit with the nice Muslim lady and her daughter selling Girl Scout cookies and we ended up talking about migraines, which the lady gets and which I think are the basic type of headache I get if I eat chocolate. When my coffee was finished I wished them to sell lots of cookies, and took off. 

The reason for all of this was this was one of the "Shabbat Experiences" we're kind of "volentold" to go to as part of the class. It was supposed to start at 10, and since it was a bar mitzah also, there were tons of people. 

So I was there a bit before ten, great, and I ended up in this Torah study class that was being held, the actual Shabbat service starting at 10:30. The service was OK, except as seems to be a constant, I prefer the way we do things at Temple Emanu-El. Rabbi Nico at this place says/sings Hebrew so fast he sounds like an auctioneer, and what's the utility in that? 

Afterwards was a nice big oneg and I loaded up on veggies and a dab of shakshuka and lox on pieces of bread etc. It was good. I ended up with a table of people, talking about stuff and then "I had to go". 

I got as far as outside, where by where my bike was parked was some guy and the security guard was there and also a bit of wind came through so I told the security guard about how I was one long ago and one time I was to catch the culprit who was throwing leaves into the pool of this hotel, and I found that the culprit was the wind. 

The guy by my bike chimed in and we talked about how overstated Hawaii is, and how tons of places are better and far, far cheaper. Then he told me all these stories of hustling for money by holding places in line at different tourist sites like The Louvre, and we talked about money in general. The biggest spenders I've seen are poor people, who spend money like water on beer and cigarettes and fast food etc. 

Then I got around to saying I'd only gone to this event because it was part of the class I was taking and I normally stay home on Shabbat, read my weekly Torah portion, etc. This was too much work! And I took off. 

There was more zombie drama at the light rail station, with some homeless guy on the nod and refusing to wake up. Eventually after much cajoling and a few packets of cookies given by a nice old Indian lady many seats over that I passed along, the bum was convinced to sit up and at least put on a good simulation of being alive, and we took off. 

I got off at the Japantown station and rode along Ayer street to see what the hell that's all about because for years I'd wondered at this weird house that looks sort of like a castle and what might be down that street. Older houses, that's what. 

I rode over to Nijiya and got a bento and a 4-pack of Asahi beer and got back here and just relaxed the rest of the day. I drank the beer and it was OK I guess but I feel like it made my blood pressure go up and it was really not all that refreshing. Like I should have just gotten a big bottle of Perrier instead. 

The illegal casino/brothel/whatever it is had a bangin' night last night and thus I sent in a report but there had, according to Reddit, some big bar fight downtown and apparently all the cops were down there. There seems to be some kind of private security guy going around in a little white car and maybe he's actually hired by the brothel because they must be making money hand over fist between the whoring and the suckers losing all their money. What needs to happen is a good old dispute, with some loser shooting some other loser than and only then will it get shut down. 

I woke up just before noon today. If I'd gone to bed nice and early, I might have considering having a try at going out busking, but of course this is not the proper season for it, it being the half of the year when there's no work. 

This is different than Israel and Hawaii, where there's no real off season, and while the summers are hot, you can just go out and play at night, and the winters are often the better season because it doesn't get so hot. In Hawaii they talk about summer visitors and winter visitors, with the winter ones having more to spend.