I was up in plenty of time to clean up, mope around a bit, get my stuff together, and start on that ride up to the Milpitas library. I left at about 11:30 and I think it took me a bit less than an hour to get there.
I wanted to waste some time, and while I'd passed some Indian food places on the way to Milpitas, it appears that in downtown Milpitas, there are two choices: The gas station or a Mexican place called "Tequila Shots". I chose the latter.
I had fried zucchini sticks since I hadn't had them in a very long time, and their cheapest beer, which I drank half of.
After lollygagging there as long as I could, I rode the 100 yards to the library and locked the bike. There was only one zombie staggering around out front, who seemed to have his own little zombie hoard of stuff in a shopping cart and scattered around the cart. The thing appeared to be fairly clean for a zombie (some of 'em really smell like they're rotting) and seemed harmless.
I went in, made sure I could find the passport office, then found a copy of "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth and sat down to read on one of the chairs by the front door of the office. The lady in there asked me if I needed anything and I said, "I have a two o'clock appointment and I'm just early" and she said "Great! I'm going to lunch!"
I read up to page 69 in the book and now I really want a copy. The lady came back and then followed the most pleasant half hour I've spent with any gov't employee, and she was very impressed with how organized I was. She had me correct a couple of things on the form (I'd misspelled my birthplace town's name and put the actual number stamped into my old passport book in the back, because the form asked for the book number when what was needed was the passport number) and the awful FedEx passport photos were fine, and I wrote out the almost $200 in two checks, and it all went great.
I rode back as far as the VTA station, took my bike in the elevator up to the actual station, and got on. A guy who looked like a dangerous thug right out of Central Casting also got on and loudly announced that it's a Norteno train and any Surenos can step right up and he'll take care of them. And the blue a guy (an old, small guy wearing a blue vest, probably for his job) "Looks like shit!".
Great, I thought, let's hope this hothead stays cool for a few stations then I'm outta here. I got off at the Hostetter station and rode to the post office, dropped a couple of packages off, then locked the bike up at H Mart and walked over to Ross where I got some underwear and a T-shirt, and Sprouts, where I got some cream for coffee and a bag of pepitas.
I bounced back to H Mart and got some fried chicken and a beer and got back here and ate and drank. Whew! Being out in the middle of the day is exhausting. Everyone's zooming around, 99.9% of them in cars which means they hate absolutely everyone else and would welcome getting into an accident just to have a change in their miserable lives.
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