Friday, May 30, 2025

Here's the deal

 I barely slept last night, although I kept telling myself the brothel is quiet tonight and I should be able to sleep just fine. I was up before my alarm was due to go off at 8AM. 

I figured I had time to pack one more thing to add to the few things I'd packed last night, get them to the downtown post office just a bit past when they open at 8:30, then go over to the temple for my meeting with the rabbi. I was right; it worked out just right. 

The meeting went well and I have my four essay questions written down. Each essay is to be one page. So for the next four meetings, I'll have one essay done and ready to turn in. Or I can email them then discuss in the meeting, or something. 

I showed off my new passport card, noting that (a) the photo of me is awful but it'll get me out of the country and that's all that counts. And(b) that the passport card affirms citizenship, but my California ID affirms I'm legal to drive a car or ride a motorcycle so I'll get the Real ID version of that soon. 

We talked about this and that. One lady who was a Temple member made aliyah to Israel a while back, maybe a year now, and she's thriving. She's in Jerusalem. I observed that "money is the universal lubricant, but knowing how to do things with little or no money is good too" (the lady is rather wealthy). 

Honestly, no amount of wealth could make a person happy in Israel or anywhere else, if their attitude isn't right, and the rabbi says hers certain is and he says mine is too. All in all it was a great meeting. 

After the meeting I went to Whole Foods and looked for something "keto" for breakfast. I had a piece of fish with their very bland version of Indian spices, and Indian spinach that's normally with paneer, an Indian white cheese, but this stuff's with tofu. And a fizzy water.

The "Save The Children" botherers were just setting up and it was 10:30 when I left. I made myself drink a can of Doutor cold canned coffee at Nijiya because I was really feeling the lack of sleep. 

The deal is this: I have about a week left of blood pressure pills. I can either try to get more of the pills, or I can straighten out my diet and lose some weight and *then* see if I still need to be on pills, by checking and logging my blood pressure. So I need to go back to a pretty strict keto diet. 


Thursday, May 29, 2025

Thirsty(?) Thursday

Well I've got my pay check and that big ol' dinosaur of an oscilloscope to continue to worry the parts out of this evening...



Wednesday, May 28, 2025

As much as a starter house

 There's a reason, I think, why classic Tektronix oscilloscopes cost as much as a starter house. There was a TON of handwork involved in assembling them, and I spent most of last night working on taking one apart. I still have a lot of work on it to go. At least the thing has a valuable CRT and is stuffed with some nice vacuum tubes. And other neat parts. 

I listed 20 things, packed about 5 small things and took them to the post office, got back here and cleaned the place up and did a practice session, and Ken came but a bit later because (a) he'd left his wallet at his desk at work so had to go back to get it and (b) could not because his badge is with his wallet. 

So he came by and needed something to eat. I offered to fry him a couple of eggs but he wanted something "bready" because when you're diabetic, bread and sugars are where it's at. I cooked him some noodles and he was happy with that. 

He also brought by my new passport and passport card. So that's a major thing taken care of. 

 



Tuesday, May 27, 2025

What saved us

 "What Saved Us;

In the US it was [Classical] Liberalism that saved us. Most of our grandparents, great-grandparents, (and at this point great-great grandparents), came to the US at the turn of the 19th into early 20th century. They came to the US to escape pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. And while not perfect, the US did offer something we as Jews never consistently had in Europe; we could be ourselves and there was no need to wait for emancipation. Emancipation of Jews throughout Europe was inconsistent in the 19th century, and seemed to go back and forth at times. But the US, while not perfect, Jews were treated far better than just about any time or place in the history of our people. We are accepted [by and large] as full members of society.

To other Jews, the ones that were not lucky enough to make it to the US before limits started being placed on immigration; it was Israel itself that saved us. The small number of Jews that had been sticking it out under rule of the Ottomans [and then the British], the remnants of European Jewry in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and ones who were refugees from the Arab world that were forced out with basically the clothes on their backs. These were Jews that had literally no where else to go. Israel was the only viable option.

So US Jews have a tendency to look at the world through the Classical Liberal world view. They also hold Israel, rightly or wrongly, to that standard too. Israeli Jews came from a world that had no such luxury. It was survival. They had nowhere else to go." 

- Haviv Rettig Gur

This is why although I am convering/joining Reform, which I wryly note in the US is most often the only choice, that or no Judaism at all, I consider myself to be quite a Kahanist. 

The other folks at the temple don't seem to have a feel for what it's like to be a permanent 2nd class citizen, to be hunted, to not be able to complain or appeal to the law, as doing so only gets you in more trouble. There's one guy who seems to know the score, maybe some more I haven't gotten talking with yet. 

 

Monday, May 26, 2025

Memorial Day

 The people running the brothel were trying their best to have a bangin' night but not too many people showed up on Sunday night and although there was some noise,  I didn't have to stay up all night. 

I got up around noon maybe, and before leaving I rounded up 15 things and had them camera-ready. Then I took off for Nijiya, got my bento box lunch and ate at the old hospital (the steps in front are nice and quiet) and then headed for Whole Foods. 

Bad luck, one of those "Save The Children" scammers was in front. But I didn't let that bother me, I just set up and played anyway. This of course resulted in neither of us making any money, and in a mere half hour he quit. Come on, guy, you've had all day to scam people. 

Then I started getting tips, and although it felt slow, by the time I'd soldiered on and made it to 9:30 (I'd started getting tips at 7:30 when the booth scammer left) I'd made $41.50. Not bad at all especially considering it's paid practice. 

I wandered around Whole Foods to find a few things to buy, and was complimented by one of the checkers, "Thanks for the music" etc. That's nice. I get compliments from the public, but it means a bit more from the Whole Foods employees, since they're kind of stuck there and if they find me annoying, they'd not say anything.  


Sunday, May 25, 2025

Weekends are going to be hard

 The police are not going to do anything about the brothel. And for some reason I can't sleep with people talking right outside my door, car horns honking right outside my door, etc. 

So Friday and Saturday night I just stayed up and read books and watched videos. That actually kind of works. There are tons of old war movies to watch, and those are pretty good because there's often guns shooting in them and such noise plus they often have these great soundtracks done by an actual orchestra. 

I read "People Love Dead Jews" by Dara Horn, caught up on my Torah reading, and watched the rest of "War And Remembrance" up to the last episode which I'll watch today or tonight. 

It means I don't get good sleep on Friday and Saturday nights, but at least the rest of the week is OK. 

Interestingly, the clientele at the brothel seem to have changed. Tons of Priuses, the car of choice for illegals who drive under someone else's ID and somehow make that work, and DoorDeash under similar circumstances. So maybe they're having to attract a lower-budget crowd. 

So now as I write it's 2 in the afternoon on Sunday and the guys next door are having a cookout with loud Mexican music. I can't be mad at them, though. They work hard cleaning people's houses and restaurants and stuff all week. It's daytime and this is an industrial area. Plus I can't be mad at Mexican music, it's cheerful and there's always fun instruments in it like the accordion and the tuba. 

Aaaaaand... today's new treat courtesy of the Reich is, restrictions on covid shots. You've got to be over 65, or have some medical condition like obesity to get one. Or maybe it's to get one funded, which means I might have to pay out of pocket, which I'll do. 

Speaking of paying out of pocket, at the bank when I deposited my check, I asked about the gal who was from Israel. She'd moved on, something about training as a dental tech. I said that she'd told me that her boyfriend? Husband? was trying to get into a training program and I said I'd looked into the cost and some of the programs are a few hundred dollars and the medical assistant one is a couple thousand. I'd decided I could give her the money for the cheaper ones, and for the expensive one maybe I'll be able to arrange something through "my church". The gal I was talking with said that's awfully nice, and I said I don't make much but I save. 

You don't need to make much, you just need to save. That's the thing with a certain musician who went to New Orleans, was welcome at open mics, could possibly been a backing musician or helper of some kind for the famous Tanya & Dorise, etc., and instead chose to seek out the scummiest scumbags possible, and to eventually crawl up into the end of the ol' glass pipe and stay there. It would have been entirely possible for the guy to own a house by now. But, nope! Glass pipe! 

The guys next door actually had a live band over so it got pretty loud and after a few hours of that I'd had enough. I rode over to Nijiya and had a little fish and chicken box lunch, then rode down to Walmart for a few things, then went over to Whole Foods and started busking just a bit after 8. 

It went slowly but I had 3 $5's and a $10 so actually it wasn't bad. It's all about the practice, really, and I was going along when The Ditzy Gal came by. I'd swear this is the same gal that came by about 2 years ago and wasted tons of my time. She's really into music, but "played violin for a while" and seems to be fascinated by the idea of playing anything but ... violin. She asked/dared me to play "La Traviata" which I recognized when she sang/hummed a bit of it. So off I went and amazingly I was able to play it recognizably, and it was less rough the 2nd time. Hell I impressed myself and may add it to my rotation because it's a neat little tune. 

She finally was leaving and I tried to accelerate the process by playing "Blueberry Hill" nice and loud, and in any case while she hovered around to listen to that she was eventually off. 

I then noticed the guys were taking in the outdoor flower and plant displays, and thought, Maybe they're closing early because of the holiday tomorrow, and I want to shop. So I packed up quickly and went in, got my yogurt and things, and ask the checker, the nice older guy with glasses, if they're closing early tomorrow and he said, "Nope, just the regular time". I mentioned the guys taking the flowers in, and he said, "We start bringing stuff in around nine." 

So I'd played from 8 to 9:30 and I made $29.94.

 

Friday, May 23, 2025

Shabbat can't come soon enough

 I did some practice yesterday (along with listing 15 things) and I was at first dismayed at my not being able to play the highest note in Taps. But then after playing a while, I could play it just fine. Moral: Get good at warmed up before playing Taps at 3PM on Monday. 

And I note, hilariously, that one of the "Jewish" diplomats who was gunned down a couple of days ago was in fact a "Messianic", not a Jew as "Messianics" believe in Jeebus. And he was about to marry a Jewish woman. So, the Christians have canceled one of their own. 

I am sad for her and for the world we're in now, where diplomats can be gunned down, but it is at the Torah says, if you worship idols, it will not go well for you. And if you marry an idol-worshipper, it's pretty much the same. It won't go well for you. 

I went downtown, tossed trash, mailed things off, and deposited my check. The math checked out fine. Then over to Whole Foods for some chicken and broccoli, and then some shopping. Behind me was a female scumbag, tattooed and overweight of course - a nascent zombess. She'd had some kind of outburst in line behind me, something about someone being a cop. 

So as I was paying she whined something about me paying for her groceries. I said "No, but that's the short answer and maybe you want the long one; it's 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" 

Fuckin' zombies part 1. 

I'm riding home by way of Hedding, and pass what I thought was a normal guy jogging with his pit bull. He was going fairly fast, almost as fast as myself on my bike, so I said he's doing good etc., and the reply was a burst of unintelligible zombie word-salad. I said something like "OK! Great" and gave a thumbs up and rode on, while the zombie appeared to slow to a walk to have a breather. 

Past a small hill and quite a bit further on, I heard footfalls behind me - it was the zombie and his undead dog! The damned thing had fixated one me and as far as it was concerned, I was prey. I sped up and luckily put the thing far behind me; if it had been able to keep up I'd have gone into the police complex. 

Fuckin' zombies part 2 that was. 

I zoomed over to Japantown to buy a bag of 8-Mate arare at Nijiya, then came back here.

 


Thursday, May 22, 2025

I hope I don't get a bill

 One of the pieces of mail Ken brought by yesterday was one from the ambulance company, asking for billing information for my insurer. I was worried I might get a big fat bill, but in the end I realized they simply didn't have the information. I also got two letters from my insurer saying they'd cover the days in the hospital, so now I know which of the two health insurance cards I carry is the one that works. I put the info from that card onto the form, plus Xeroxed the card and mailed it off today. Also a few Ebay things that had sold. This is why I didn't go downtown today. I'm not sure where there's a Xerox machine downtown, and I wanted the letter with the info to get back to them (in Los Angeles) ASAP.

After all that, I rode up to Dai Thanh because I'd not been there for a long time. I got all kinds of things and was yet again amazed at how good the prices are. 


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

III%

 Let's use the Nazis' language against them here - it's certainly warranted. The Nazis like to crow that it only takes 3 per cent, or III% as their idiotic cosplay military-esque patches spell it, to bring about a revolution. 

I woke up at noon and turned on the radio to hear the latest horrifying news. They're going full steam ahead on cutting back on Medicaid, most notably having a work requirement. This means I'm probably fine, but tons of people will not be. 

This, I posit that we're going to have at least three per cent of the American populace who will starve to death, die due to lack of medication or access to medical care, become homeless and die of exposure or violence, etc. Or will have a beloved parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt, sibling, etc., who will die in one of these ways. That's easily at least three per cent of the US population. 

Hell my youngest sister almost died of starvation and she was a nice kid. She hadn't become a hardened, psychopathic, "well adjusted" American yet. If she had actually died I'd still be angry about it, and this was back in the 1970s, a hard time for lots of people. I'm at least 4-6 inches shorter than I'd be due to the malnutrition I survived. Such is life in the US for the non-wealthy. 

I listed 20 things, cleaned the place up and was just doing some practice when I was cut off after about half an hour by Ken arriving. He got here early, interestingly. Imagine a life where it's extremely hard to get in an hour a day doing something one likes, and often it's difficult to get in even half an hour.

He had half a pastrami sandwich for me, in case the my blood beef level was getting dangerously low (it was not, as I had beef noodles for dinner) and I got my check. We talked about the recent happenings, like a nice Danish guy being put into a prison in Louisiana, where some of the US's worst prisons are and that's really saying something, for 4 months because of some small paperwork problem he'd had 10 years ago. I emphasized that stories like this are even bigger outside the US than in, and it's being talked about and it means even more people will smarted up and not come here. 

I also got a letter from the ambulance company. They don't have health insurance info for me, so tomorrow I'll photocopy both sides of both health insurance cards. I carry both because I know one of them works and I don't know which one, so I carry both religiously. I'll send the copies back with the form and that should be that. 

I also told Ken that one of my passport package has, according to the postal service, been delivered to his house and I'm not in a hurry to get it as I don't intend to use it this week, but just don't lose it and make sure it gets to me. 

There was a bum, two bums in fact, hovering around outside. The first bum actually came to the door and asked us if we wanted water, or maybe he was asking for water, I'm not sure. That became "I have a flat tire...." and I said "Sorry, we can't help you" and slammed the door shut. The second bum kept hovering around on his bike and may be a bum I've had trouble with in the past. Plus there'd been another bum, playing with a basketball and hanging around far too much. This is a dangerous neighborhood, I keep telling Ken, and I wonder if I should obtain at least an inexpensive shotgun, good enough to shoot a bum with, to keep here. 

Such is life in the Reich. 

 


Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Tuesday - KDFC

 I set the local classical music station, KDFC, onto memory #2 on my radio so when the Volkischer Beobachter gets tiring, I can switch to classical music. And it's pretty great. Just a short while ago I heard Wynton Marsalis play that intro to Masterpiece Theatre piece, and they mentioned "the humor of 2set" so 2set, the violin guys, have gotten onto the radio or at least are mentioned on the radio. Folks, when they know about you on the radio, you've made it. Forget TV, the internet, etc., the radio being the media that supersedes everything else, and when they mention you on the radio, you're a star. 

Another thing I've got to say for KDFC - I've only been listening a little bit so far but they've dared to play artists who were/are Jewish, and I heard one mention of one composer they played a piece by, "who later was killed in Auschwitz". NPR's genteel but very strong anti-Semitism would never allow such things.

In other news it's just more of the usual horribleness.

Monday felt like a Monday

 I woke up around 1PM. I got a bunch of things packed and took them to FedEx and the post office. I had $9 on me and spent that on some salmon and green onions and garlic to keep myself in dressed up ramen anyway. The salmon I buy is the skin pieces, which I take and trim the meat off, measure into portions, and freeze. If I were really on top of things I'd fry the skin but I don't want the place to smell like fish. 

So, so many horrible things in the news. The detested Elon Musk has done a ton of damage and now Krasnov is throwing him under the bus, and swapping in someone even more evil and probably actually competent - the guy who's head of Project 2025. Kind of like Hitler swapping out Roehm because he was embarrassing and swapping in Himmler.

I am just glad my passport is on its way and thus I'll at least be able to leave if I have to. If all goes to plan I'll have it next week. I can carry the card with me and keep the book in a safe place; I'm beginning to wonder if I should get a safe deposit box to keep important papers in. 

After all, I'm not above lighting out of here in a hurry if an opportunity presents itself or things get bad enough. My original plan, the one involving moving back to Hawaii, was to keep Ken thinking I'd make an exploratory short visit there over Christmas vacation, to move early in 2025, and in reality to leave on my birthday 2024 and give him a farewell phone call from the plane when it's over the Pacific. Let him drown in his transistors and diodes, I'm outta here! 

But since my older sister has retained and attitude she had in her early teens, that I, and my siblings it must be mentioned, are "beasts" and lower forms of life because we didn't go to Punahou, there's no reason to return there. The other friends I have back there are either dead or are insufferable flakes. I even looked up good old Elizabeth Weston and she's living back in "New Zayland" and good for her. As far away from most of the US as Hawaii is, ICE patrols are going hot and heavy and grabbing people even on the remote coffee plantations on the Big Island. I'd hate to think of her getting shipped to some death camp in El Salvador because someone overheard her calling a napkin a "serviette". 



Sunday, May 18, 2025

Awaking on a happy note

 The brothel had another "banging" night last night although nothing was noisy enough for me to justify calling the cops, and I kept telling myself that actually the patrons aren't as noisy as my beloved neighbors when they get their pressure washer out and use it, typically Sunday mornings. I may have actually slept through the thing, too, as I woke up at 1PM after finally getting to sleep maybe 4AM but sleep I did.

I got up and checked my email and the State Department has approved my passport. So unlike Natalie and Aaron Jastrow in The Winds Of War, my papers will be in order. If things get bad before I'm prepared to leave in an orderly fashion, I can always take a "strategic vacation" maybe apply to work on a kibbutz alongside some starry-eyed Christians where I'll do farm stuff and hear way too much about their Jeebus but at least be out of here. 

The buzzing in my Kanstul trumpet was even worse last night and I looked around online a bit for ideas. One is that I ought to clean it thoroughly, then make sure the slides are greased well. 

I get endless ads on Reverb because long ago I bought a shofar on Reverb and then returned it, but Reverb might be the best way to unload the extra musical instruments I have around here, including the problematic Kanstul. Yes it sounds great when it's working well, but I"m sure there are other Kanstuls without rattles out there, maybe on ... Reverb. 

I went to Sprouts to buy some cream for coffee and to Ross where I found a couple of good shirts - I tried on three but one failed the pocket test by not having a pocket. On my way back I saw an electrical breaker box with interesting parts being thrown out, so I went back with the trailer to get it and the guy whose shop it is, was there when I got back and he insisted I ask before I take anything. I ended up getting his card and will see if he wants to buy some of the big stuff we have around here, and he said to come back later in the evening because he'll have another panel out for me. 

I got back and did some A/B testing of the Kanstul vs. the Yamaha and now it's the Kanstul that sounds like crap. I don't know what's going on with the thing but I'm glad I held onto the Yamaha. 

So I took the Yamaha trumpet out busking, after having a bento at Nijiya and chewing gum of course, I set up at Whole Foods starting at 7 and played until 9 and it was even slower than the last couple of times but still, in the end I got some good practice and made $28. 

I rode back here and sure enough the 2nd panel was out there and the guy was there. I rode back here, put things away, and went back with the trailer and got it. 


Saturday, May 17, 2025

Shabbat or not

 Friday night service was nice, the cantor keeps choosing different songs or different melodies for songs that have a number of melodies. It's great for her, since who wants to sing the same old stuff. And can she sing! She was out for a month or two, maybe longer, and we had a lot of different cantors and she's the best. 

After the service, as planned I went over to Whole Foods with a list and bought a ton of stuff, then got back here and had my whitefish spread on Tam-Tams and Kosher grape juice and so on, and when it was bedtime not only had my 15 drops of melatonin with my very watered-down small bottle of wine, but also some "Sleepytime Extra" tea which didn't seem to do a damn thing and I could not get to sleep. 

The idiots going to the brothel showed up in force after 2AM, and one of them knocked on the door I think hoping I'd think it was someone important and open up, then they could rush me, or maybe just verifying that no one's home so theoretically it's OK to park his car in front. 

That was enough, and I called the police and told 'em about it, and also filed my reports with SJPD and Crimstoppers. I gave up on going to sleep and stayed up, watching "Winds Of War". I actually got a callback from the police, the officer said they'd gotten a lot of complaints about the brothel and Vice is working on it; it's not just a matter of chasing them out for one night but really nailing them (my words not theirs but that's the idea). I thanked them very much. 

I didn't get to sleep until about 7AM. I woke up around 1PM. 

I spent the day reading David Sedaris' "Diabetes & Owls" book and it was ... OK. I think Philip Roth is correct in that there will always be readers of "long form" fiction and they may always outnumber people who read the ancient epics in the original Greek, but both groups will be very small. "Owls" is a good airport or laundromat book but that's it. 

I finally realized that I need to do something to tire myself out so I can sleep tonight, and a good way to do this, Shabbat or not, might be to get dressed and get the trumpet out, swing by Nijiya for a beef bowl, then go down to the Old Spaghetti Factory and busk. "Loud Band" will start at 9PM, and that will allow me an hour or an hour and a half there, then I can go over to Whole Foods by which time the Save The Children or whatever grift it is this week, will have cleared off. 

So that's what I did. Had my beef bowl and went over to the Old Spag., where I busked for a ton of people without a single tip. After a half hour I packed up and went to Whole Foods. It was slow there, but I played from 8 to 9:30 and tried out some new stuff like "Dark Eyes" and that "Leavin' On A Jet Plane" song I think in the right key for a change, and while it was slow and I kept reminding myself I'm only out there to tire myself out, in the end I made $35.40. The cold wind had chased the botherers off, so again being a bit more robust and playing an instrument that laughs at cold and wind, paid off.

I went in and got a couple things, and rode home. I like my new route taking the road that runs behind Whole Foods to the area by the temple and from there to Hedding and right back here. 


Friday, May 16, 2025

The Winds Of War

 It's probably only fitting that I'm watching, again, "The Winds Of War" on YouTube. It seems like a fantasy-land now, a US with a competent president, a nation united against the Axis threat. Of course it was the Pearl Harbor attack that united the nation, which is funny because Pearl Harbor was 1000s of miles away from almost all Americans, and pales in comparison to 9/11 (civilian target, in a/the major city, more deaths, broadcast in real time). 

Old Yamtits' latest genius idea is to sell off public lands in the West to give tax breaks to billionaires, and cut back on Medicaid to ... give tax breaks to billionaires. Ken and I even talked about the cuts to Medicaid part. I can verify that I work at least 80 hours a  month, and my tax records will verify that I'm working. But what about those people who can't work? Under Nazi ideology they're just supposed to die and Reddit is replete with people saying they *will* die without their medications, provided under Medicaid, for things from diabetes to cluster or "suicide" headaches. 


Thursday, May 15, 2025

The Volkischer Beobachter and Der Sturmer

 Ah, another day listening to the radio .... I've concluded that NPR is the radio equivalent of the Volkischer Beobachter, the mainstream Nazi newspaper, and the people they deride are the equivalent of Der Sturmer. The Beobachter was plenty anti-Semitic, of course, but they wanted to keep it genteel. And similarly, NPR will deride some other media for being anti-Semitic and doing it crudely. Then will immediately launch into one of their very suave, very smooth, spoken-in-moderate-tones, rehashing of Hamas propaganda.

Now in the Reich, Medicaid, called Medi-Cal here in California, will have a requirement that you work 80 hours a month or approximately half-time. Fine for me, I work that much, but those who *can't* work are just supposed to die. A drain on the Reich and all that. As it stands the new requirements are not supposed to start for another year or two or three, but the more ardent Nazis are calling for them to be implemented right away. 

Feh. I just have to start monitoring my own health. It still amazes me that I flaked out that badly and was in the hospital for four days, and it's pure luck that I happened to be at the Jewish community center, hence in the good hands of actual humans, when it happened. If I were downtown I'm not sure what would have happened. I'm sure I'd have lost my bike, my wallet and debit card and ID and all that. Moral: Stay in Jewish spaces when and where possible. 

Ken came over last night and interestingly, he thinks we're heading into a Depression. I said that because the kind of hobbyists who buy our stuff tend to be pretty financially secure, we'll probably weather things OK. I pointed out that business got better for us when people were locked down due to Covid. 

In reality I'll never tell Ken about my original secret plan to bug out of here to Hawaii on my birthday last year, after having set up an account with the Navy Federal Credit Union and selling off all my stuff. My plan was that I'd give him a final farewell phone call from the plane. But I've written enough about how living back in Hawaii I'd be a hated 2nd-class citizen, and how it's part of the Reich and thus not safe at all. 

Instead I'm keeping him up-to-date on my progress on the conversion and after that, the move to Israel. The only curve I might throw in there is to tell him I'm leaving at a certain date and in reality leave at a date that's a month or months sooner. And get a room to rent or a hotel room "to take a little vacation" because disbanding this business is going to be even more chaotic than the move from the old building and I want as little a part of that as possible. 


Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Nazi network forming up

 Qatar has apparently discovered, or more likely now decided to make use of, the fact that if you wave a bundle of money in Krasnov's face, his reaction is that of a toddler presented with a huge bouquet of Tootsie-Pops. "Oooh!! Gimme!!" 

So Ol' Yamtits is off on a junket to, yes, Qatar, and the lairs of other Arab baddies, whoever's paying. Qatar, it is to be noted, is behind the vast anti-Semitic network of neo-Nazi goons making US colleges very unfriendly to Jews, students and profs alike. 

Yesterday was a blur. I listed stuff, packed stuff and shipped stuff, went to Ross and bought stuff, that was about it. 

I *did* however get a decent practice session in, while watching The Winds Of War. Imagine! A nation where the government is anti-Nazi and wherein there's a basic level of competence. Of course this was due to the Depression being bad enough that people smartened up and voted in FDR. The US could have ended up with Lindbergh or some other Nazi and it may have gone very differently. 

Ironic that the Nazis in charge now, want another, bigger, Depression. They're really, really bad at "soft skills" by which I mean, knowing history and how dictatorships have fared in the past, and even understanding their own base. I recently saw a clip of Hitler thanking the German people, telling them they're responsible for his success (which they were) while Yamtits constantly insults his base. 

Insults, say, from a drill sergeant you respect, are fine and fun. But there's going to be a hell of a rebound when his base finally gets it through their thick heads how incompetent he is. 

As for myself, personally, I've been thinking for years now how best to prepare to get out of here. Should  I buy gold or silver coins or gold jewelry or something? These are not bad ideas, but the one thing I can "invest" in is my skill at playing the trumpet. Not only is the trumpet in Israel like the shakuhachi in Japan, an instrument with nationalistic and religious significance, but it's a great busking instrument. I may land in Israel with nothing at all, and if I can walk into a music store and convince them to sell me a trumpet on a payment plan, even a beat-up student horn, I can survive. And the key to doing that is a high level of skill. 

Latest r/hawaii news on Reddit is that ICE is even going over the coffee plantations on the Big Island, to find undocumented immigrants. There's no way I'd be able to hide out in Hawaii as every corner of the Reich is still the Reich. 

They "need" the undocumented workers and I don't doubt them. I remember my older brother and a friend went over there on the SeaFlite to get jobs picking coffee. Well, when they go there my brothers' friend could get a regular job doing that because he was "local" and because my older brother was "haole", he had to pick as a freelancer, maybe picking wild coffee beans or something, and picked that way long enough to afford the SeaFlite back to Oahu. 



 


Monday, May 12, 2025

Monday, monday...

 There are some great Monday songs and I should try them out busking, but I'm always too busy on a Monday. 

I held up surprisingly well, though, busking for two hours after not having been out there for something like a year, and my practice being so spotty. When I'm free of working for Ken, I'll be free to busk on Mondays all I want. In Israel the weekend is late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning so Monday busking will definitely be a thing. 

I woke up to it raining pretty heavily, went back to sleep and next thing I knew it was past noon. I guess I made up for the lost sleep the night before last. 

Two things: Firstly, I keep having second thoughts, that maybe once I am officially Jewish I should just move back to Hawaii and join the temple there. I may be a second-class citizen there but at least I know where everything is, I know how to hustle up money and how to fish and forage, and while "family" and "friends" I have back there are useless, I'd be a member of the Jewish community there such as it is, and I have enough tales of going to Sacred Falls and digging for glass stuff at the old Hale'iwa/Waialua hospital grounds and all kinds of old-time stuff like that, to convince people I'm pretty "local" for being that hated thing, a "haole". 

I'd be in part of the US Postal system, making selling on Ebay easy, and I'd be able to "work the system" pretty well for an affordable "senior" place to live. 

But this all eerily reminds me of what were probably the thoughts of so many German and Polish and Lithuanian Jews who felt they ought to stick it out in the country they'd been in for so many generations, where they spoke the language and served in its military and were so integrated. Things could not possibly get that bad, could they? 

The truth is that Hawaii's cuisine is just about based on pork, the US Postal system may become only a memory, the shells that are worth so much money from Hawaii can be found all over the Pacific and it's only a matter of time before people figure that out. Hawaii is absolutely overrun with Christians. Access to medical care has gotten much worse over the decades since I left. It would not be a win, at all. 

Everyone's "pulling in their horns" as it were. Countries from Portugal to Italy to the UK to the US (of course) to, well, everywhere, are making it harder to immigrate to them. It's yet another echo of the 1930s. Israel is not about to be shut off from Reform Jews any time soon as there are too many of us to ignore. Plus Reform has become pretty indistinguishable from Conservative in the last several decades.

This: https://gizmodo.com/gop-senator-introduces-bill-to-make-all-porn-a-federal-crime-following-project-2025-playbook-2000600994 is why I need to make all haste to get out of here. Not because I'm a consumer of porn, mind you, but because porn is whatever they decide it is. Advice page on your civil rights? Porn. Advice on how to sneak through the border out of the Reich? Porn. Advice on good nutrition? Believe it or not, porn. 

Wowwww..... just reading r/movingtohawaii and the asset limit for Hawaii's medicaid is $2k. For California it's $130k. I guess I'd have Medicare after a while or maybe once I got back there if I went, but wow just wow. I'd have to make my income completely on the underground economy. That's not a big problem, just another inconvenience and yet another reason that moving to a little island at the edge of the Reich is *not* escaping the realities of living in the Reich. 



Sunday, May 11, 2025

Stupid-ass brothel

 Well, last night was Saturday night and a bangin' (hehe) day for the brothel, with the result of lots of noise. I never got to sleep. The copz came on their own, chased most of the guys out, and the remainder set themselves up to camp out in the parking lot and set off car alarms and hoot and holler etc with the result that I called the copz again and they chased the last of 'em out but by that time it was close to 6AM then the guys next door came in and naturally when you have to get up early Sunday morning to go clean people's houses and stuff, you're gonna hoot and holler too ... I went to sleep at maybe 7AM. 

It's to the point that if I could spend the money I'd get a hotel room. 

But, at least I just had my watered-way-the-hell-down little "airplane" bottle of wine and my 15-16 drops of melatonin and while I have two more of those little bottles on hand, I didn't touch another. 

The thinned-down wine at this point, just one small bottle 1:2 with water and then some ice, is more of a ritual than anything else. 

The main thing is probably that I just sat around all day on Saturday, so of course sleep was difficult. Maybe I should have done exercises or taken a long bike ride. 

At least I *did* do a good practice session, while watching the first 2-hours-or-so episode of The Winds Of War on YouTube. It's been a couple-few years since I'd last watched it and it just seems so amazing now, that the US government would be anti-Nazi and that there would be a concerted effort to fight Nazism. It seems so strange now. 

When I got up I had fantasies of maybe taking the $10 cash I had on me and a few dollars in quarters, to get my bus fare down there, and going busking in Santa Cruz, a place I'd not busked or even been, for years now. 

Instead I listed 15 things on Ebay, and once that was done, packed my stuff up and busked at Whole Foods on the Alameda. It was slow, but after just a bit under 2 hours I'd made $30.52 and that's all right; that's decent money for a couple of hours' practicing. I got some compliments too, and the first tip was from a couple of young Black boys, one of whom said, "I like the way you play". 

I went right into Whole Foods and spent the money I'd made, of course. Then  I tried a new route home; I took the street that runs along one side of Whole Foods (the one that's not the Alameda) and that goes right to the neighborhood the temple is, and from there I take the same route as I do on Friday night coming home from a service. It works out pretty well. 


Friday, May 9, 2025

Exertion and excretion

 I made a big batch of cole slaw last night and had some after some Jin spicy noodles with some fish, normally a perfectly easy meal for my system to deal with but .... let's just say it's spring cleaning. 

I guess I'm still recovering, is the thing. That antibiotic must be strong, plus the three days of IV antibio's preceding it. Plus I did a ton of stuff yesterday, riding around and listing things and everything. 

Modern medicine is great, though. I suppose in the pre-antibiotic era the treatment might be some kind of horrible flushing and then maybe I'd recover or maybe not. Which is why life expectancy was in the 50s. 

I packed 15 things including two BIG capacitors, and got those out. Picked up a bag of bubble wrap on the way back and some neat Apple cables. 

Any more listing I'll have to do on Sunday or just make the extra effort to get my listings in on Monday to Thursday.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Pope Leo The Pretty Darned Cool

 There's a new Pope in town. There's a church downtown called St Leo The Great which always makes me laugh, I think of it as St. Leo The Pretty Darned Cool. It's where I hung out and watched/listened to that mariachi band that time. 

So this new guy's got to be pretty qualified or they'd not have chosen him. I hope he's less anti-Israel than Francis was. 

Ken was over last night and I got my check, pay for last week too so a double check. If he was not willing to pay me for last week, most of which I lay in a hospital bed, I'd have offered to put some flutes and stuff of mine on Ebay, to bring in maybe $500-$600, so he could pay me the $400 for that week. But it was no problem. 

I also said that given this business is going to be wrapped up when I retire, I'm considering going through our stuff shelf by shelf, and just go through and cut prices in half, which will make the things show up better in searches and move the stuff. Ken thought this is a good idea. 

So I'm being given the green light to be a bit more independent - more than I already am - to make sales and move stuff. 

I have to go through the rest of my conversion, then be active one more year in my synagogue and community, then I can apply for aliyah and that can take anywhere from mere weeks to months or another year. But I'm pretty I'm pretty squared away, no kids/pets/criminal record/chronic health problems and am doing well with Hebrew. 

Plus with the trumpet skills I will always have a job. Plus my buying/selling/hustling skills. 

Now that I don't have the weekly class that's about 10 hours a week I get back, but I have to keep going with the Hebrew. And I need to work out a way to work busking back in because it's valuable practice. 

I packed a few things and went downtown, the usual routine; drop off trash, drop off packages, deposit paycheck, go to Whole Foods. I'm down to a bit over 7 grand in the bank which makes sense between the IRS, the State Dept. (passport) and being spendy because I've given myself permission to be so while I'm taking the class. 

I went around and did things like buy a couple more paint brushes at the hardware store, some plastic bags at TAP Plastics, looked around in the bike shop and the book store. 

Then back to Whole Foods for groceries. I got some probiotic chewable pills for kids because those are the cheapest, to help get my system back in order. Doubling the dose gives me a 2-week course of those and of course I'm keeping it up with the yogurt. 

 I was buying a little 6-pack of eggs and some Boomer sitting on one of those scooters said something about "That's how you tell the haves from the have nots!" I was like, "Huh?" and he said, "Buying eggs..." and I said actually the price has been pretty constant, I was buying eggs at the Japanese market for $3.25 (for 6) for years then it's gone up to about $3.50, and here they're $3.69 or whatever, and in any case, I went on, I overhear enough Trump talking points in my day and don't need 'em while I'm grocery shopping, and walked off. Leave it to a stupid-ass Boomer to give some poor person a hard time for buying a half-carton of eggs. 

I got back here and put things away yadda yadda. I've done some looking around and I think the next step in my Hebrew learning will be to buy the first Ulpan Ivrit book, except since I'll be working on my own, it appears I want the 3-DVD set also because that has the answers in it, to books 1-2 and maybe a bit about book 3 also. So I'm in for a big buy, $100-$200 but that's cheap as serious language learning goes. 



Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Gotta stock up on yogurt

 I gotta go to Sprouts and stock up on yogurt first thing. Last night I got off the light rail at the Metro/Airport stop and went to Bay 101 and treated myself to their "shaking beef" which is really delicious. I demolished it. I only had to banter with some guy and his aging Canadian blonde bimbo friend, and there was even something pretty interesting on the TV called Shaq Life. 

All of the delicious food is coming out ... liquid ... so I need to re-establish a healthy flora and the best thing I've found so far is Siggi's yogurt. 

I've also been taking one small "airplane bottle" of red wine, very diluted down, at bedtime with my 15 drops of melatonin. The ritual may be as important as the alcohol in telling my body it's time for sleep. 

I packed some things and took off for the post office and FedEx around 2. I wanted to get that yogurt and not wait. I bought some stuff at 99 Ranch, then parked the bike at H-Mart and went to Sprouts where I got a big tub of Siggi's Vanilla and some other stuff including a six-pack of Athletic Brewery non-alcoholic IPA. 

I went to Tom's and he was in and gave him one of the "beers" because while I'd raved about the stuff, I'm not sure he ever got around to trying it. We sat and drank for a bit and talked, and I offered him another one but he'd been inside and wasn't as hot as I was; I had another. 

After a bit I took off to get back here, put things away, weighed out and froze the hamburger meat I'd gotten (H Mart has the best in terms of price and flavor) and had a good bit of yogurt. I find myself hungrier, perhaps due to maybe 1000 less calories a day since I'm not drinking a bottle of wine and a bottle of beer per diem, plus the way things are going through me right now haha. 

I finally buckled down and put a ton of things away, and got a project done I'd been dreading: Cleaning up a lot of microwave modules all gunked up with heat sink compound. That's all done now and I have 24 things camera-ready to list when I get up tomorrow, and will pull something large off a shelf to make it 25 since my rule is I have to list one large thing per listing session. 


Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Final class day

 Today is our final class session, for those of us who are converting a discussion of what's next, and a sort of graduation ceremony. 

I just ran a package over to FedEx, and picked a few more parts off of the screen printing machines haha. No nosy security guards around in the daytime. 

And class went great! I was one of the two students with a perfect attendance record, one of the older ladies there looked after me after I became disoriented on Wednesday and it sounds like I acted OK. I led the aleph-bet song, and all in all it was great. We visited the mikveh, had some good questions and answers, and it was just as nice as could be. 

I thought we'd get certificates and maybe we will in the mail or something. This is why I was so keen on being an outstanding student so I'd stand out and no one could say I hadn't attended the class or deprive me of credit for it somehow, a thing that's routine for a "haole" in Hawaii. This is now Hawaii, of course, but I retain that deep need to over-achieve in the hope of getting results that someone else might not have to work very hard for. 


Monday, May 5, 2025

I don't remember much II

 Firstly, when I found my bike there at the bike rack at the JCC just fine, I found 4 of those little "airplane" wine bottles, so I'd bought one of those little 4-packs but had not had even one. And I found a green tea bottle about 2/3rds full of "California Cider", a Whole Foods favorite that's the same ABV as beer but I think a bit less carby. 

So I'd likely gone to Whole Foods and gotten something to eat, and a cider and drank half, and saved half. Maybe had another swig just before going into the JCC. In other words, not enough alcohol to explain my medical episode. 

And it was also kind of refreshing to have the security people there have no idea of anything that went on Wednesday night, so I'm pretty sure I didn't make a scene. I may have wandered around the event acting a bit "off" but then there would have been a lot of people around and I may not have stood out that much. Maybe I found some out of the way place and took a snooze, in an unused classroom or something. They might have just let me be, assuming I was with someone who'd round me up or I'd snap out of it myself. 

I'll find out tomorrow because tomorrow's the last class session and 'graduation' and I'm going even if I have to cab it each way. If I don't pass the class, I'll have to take it *next* winter and that sets my escape plans, at least to Israel, back by a year. 

So I've got pills and vites and month's supply of blood pressure medicine, and I need to start measuring my BP regularly and my blood sugar too. At least now I know how to use the little meter right. You put the little thing into the meter, then touch it onto the blood drop. And you press the pricker firmly into your finger then let it do its thing. Squeeze out a drop of blood, wipe away, then squeeze out another and touch the tip of the little thing to the blood and there ya go. 

If I can't get/keep my BP down naturally, then I'll have to stay on the BP meds. 

Another note: Yesterday would have been a great one for busking. My "El Condor Pasa" isn't bad, "El Solo Toro" is a pleaser, and while it was windy, I've often busked when it's windy and I just buy a big bottle of water in Whole Foods and put it in my tip box to keep it from blowing away. 

I packed something like 19 things and got 'em to FedEx and the post office, and did a study session at the Baguette. Then I found a bunch of good quality buns and brioches etc. behind the gym and took those over to Tom's and hung out for something like two hours just talking about stuff with Tom and his wife. It was pretty nice really. 

Then after that I was determined to make my usual rounds so I went around and found a good load of packing stuff, and at another place, a business complex, someone has put out some kind of T-shirt printers or something so I got busy taking small parts off of those when a security guard pulled up. "Oh, hi", I said, "I'm just taking some small parts...." The guy asked if I was supposed to be there and I said, "Not really, probably ... I can take off..." and he said it's a good idea, people call him, etc. So I took off, making sure to go the most direct route out of the complex. 

In the short distance between there and the shop there was a car accident where someone had overshot the freeway exit and their car was partway up on the sidewalk, and past that a zombie staggering around. Always a good time in the middle of the night around here. 

I got back in here and finally found a thing I had to pack - I'd not have to refund the guy's $250 or so which is good, and since Ebay seems to allow ONE message to be sent to a buyer, I couldn't message him and say, "I found it, I'll pack and ship it tomorrow" the only way to let him know I found it was to pack it so it's packed. It and another small thing. 

Now that it's May and busking season has started it's really been bugging me that I've not had time to practice much less busk, but tomorrow night will be the final class session.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

I don't remember much

 I remember planning to go to the Israel '77 thing at the Addison-Penzak JCC, remember that it was something like 4:30-7:30, and getting out of here early and probably dropping some things off at the post office downtown. 

Then I was in the "Good Sam" hospital. A night in the ER receiving sort of area, then I was moved up to a room of my own. 

It turns out I was wandering around in an altered state of mind at the JCC, they got my emergency contact which was Ken, called him, and he said to just call an ambulance. Which they did, and I was picked up around 9:20 Wednesday night. The JCC closes "hard" at 9:00PM so their wonderful security people must have stayed with me etc. 

At the hospital they were worried about my having had a stroke, and I got the full stroke protocol, including going in an MRI that played a lot of "techno music" and was frankly pretty cool. 

Then I was moved to my own room upstairs, and tons and tons of blood draws and checking BP and blood sugar and meds from aspirin to Librium, and tons of very nice medical personnel. That place is a regular United Nations and they were all nice to very nice, and I overheard tons and they all seemed to be happy and get along with each other. 

Finally it came out that I had a UTI and I got 3 injections over 3 days of an IV broad spectrum antibio. My doctor, a lovely Indian lady, said now we're waiting on the culture to see, while we know it's e. coli, if it's a drug-resistant strain or not. It would take time because the sample had to be sent to Los Angeles. But she called them today and it's non-resistant. 

The food was good and I got to order what I liked off of the menu, and I had a TV to watch, and it really wasn't bad. Since I was on "the cardiac floor" they were impressed with how "independent" I was, I guess a standout among older people who seemed to have a lot of strokes and UTIs. 

TV was fun. I got to see the main-line CNN views on the awful administration in charge, and I learned that competitive cornhole is a thing. It looks like a blast too. Next time I see the cornhole boards set up downtown I'm gonna play. The main sponsor was, you guessed it .... Corn Nuts. 

Once I was out of there I used my free cab ride to go back to the JCC (and tipped the driver $5) which the hospital was not very far from at all. I went in and no one had any info on my behavior Wednesday night, and my bike was there in the bike rack with nothing touched. 

So I unlocked it and hopped on and rode to the Winchester station and got on the light rail to Diridon and rode to Whole Foods and had a Siggi yogurt (which I'll try to do daily as long as I'm on the antibios at least) and tried taking the bus to the Walgreens down by 17th and Santa Clara but the buses weren't going down there because it was full-on Cinco de Mayo time. So I walked back and got on my bike and went down there, waving a cheering a bit for the cars that had the farm workers' eagle flags. 

The prescriptions were no problem, the lady had them all ready so it was just a quick pick-up.

I rode back to Whole Foods, locked the bike up, and got on the bus down to Sunnyvale to Dick's Sporting Goods because at the hospital a security guy had me hand in my pocket knife and I never got it back. I complained but really it's a small thing. But I feel naked without my handy Swiss Army Knife and I knew Dick's ought to have them. They did. So I got that and some pepitas from Sprouts next door, and bused it back to Whole Foods where I hopped on my bike and went to Nijiya and bought a bunch of things including some stuff for dinner so I'd not have to cook and got back here. 

Everything here was fine. 

 

Early Tuesday morning

 I'm about all back from that cold. I even practiced a bit last night and the one before, and will now before bed.  I've been listen...