$123.25 Sunday

 I actually got out of here at a bit after 4. 4:30 is what I'll say. I rode over to Whole Foods, left the bike there, and got on a bus, since the next #522 at 20 minute or more out (I'd just missed one) I got on the #22 that was arriving and in the end,  I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods and started busking at 6:15. 

I felt like it was slow, but as I always remind myself, it's paid practice and I'm here to learn. As usual I got some nice encouragement and got to talk to some interesting people, some of them ... "interesting". 

Like the homeless lady who came up and tried to talk with me about a guy named "Brazil", apparently. I thought she was asking if I could play a song about Brazil, but no, it was a guy who's street name was Brazil, passed away now and he was nice to everyone, yadda yadda. She was fingering a coin, and since I didn't want to talk for the next hour about this Brazil person, I started in on a song and she dropped the coin in the box and moved on. 

The coin was a 5-peso, kind of neat, but I chucked it into the short hedge that's there, so the next person digging around in there will find it. 

A bit later I heard a sound like something heavy falling down, and it was a guy, not an old guy either but maybe in his 40s, who'd stepped through a little gap in the hedge that people step through, and gotten his foot caught in the little slot between the hedge and the curb. And over he'd gone. He wrecked his glasses, too. With only about $7 in the tip box I felt fine about walking over and making sure he was OK, and helping look for anything he might have dropped. He was a fairly good sport about it, too, as much as you can be when you really hadn't planned on falling over and trashing your glasses on a Sunday evening. 

I played along, most notably a song I had stuck in my head a few days ago, that's one of the ones we played in the shakuhachi club. It's a neat sounding theme song to some anime, and I'm pretty sure the title is "Arigato" but there are a ton of songs named that. I'll had to dig through my shakuhachi music and see if I can find the title because I wrote it down. 

There are tons of kids, because people really like to take their kids grocery shopping and doing general things around there, and "Eentsy Weentsy Spider" seems to be a real hit with them. The Sesame Street theme is a fun one to play also. So I had a fairly good time because after all, other than these busking sessions it's just work, work, work around here. Just like life is supposed to be here. 

Pretty soon it was a quarter to 8 and I was talking to some guy on a bike and telling him to be safe and about how the guy had tripped and fallen and wrecked his glasses so you never know, and it had gone pretty dead. 8PM is late around here. So I played my sign-off song and did a count up: $123.25. That's really good. 

I walked out to Baraka Market and got olives and my yogurt drink, went over to the bus stop and a bus came maybe 30 seconds after I got there, and it was a #522 so it was just about perfect. 

I put things into the bike bags and used the loo and walked around a bit inside "my" Whole Foods but there wasn't anything I could think of that I needed. 

I rode around downtown just to see if much was going on, and there kind of was, and wasn't. I didn't see any other buskers. At Whole Foods while I was distributing things into the bike bags, a bum came up and did a lot of fiddling around with plastic bags and then asked me when Whole Foods closes and  I said 10, and he had to ask this a few different ways, always getting 10 as a reply, then he concluded that he had until 10 (it was now about 9) to set up and beg. So that's a performer, I guess. 

There's been one of those scam booths set up, Save The Animals or something, with one guy who obviously has a lot of "community service" work off or a lot of debt or something, because he's been at it the last couple of nights and I'd hate to have to compete with him. People *do* set up booths at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods but in that case I can always play in the parking garage. So Mr. Bum will have to compete with him, and maybe will get the money he needs for his drugs and booze. 

 

$74 Saturday

 Last night I photo'd 20 things and listed 10, as usual. Then I practiced and it went pretty well. I got decent sleep. I still didn't get out of here as early as I wanted to. It was close to 5:00 when I left. 

I rode right over to Whole Foods and only had to use the loo and then walked right over to the bus stop. There was some kind of concert going on and traffic was at a crawl, including the buses. I got on a #22 bus and got off at the stop opposite 5 Guys because the #522 stops there, and a few minutes later there came a #522. 

I actually got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30 although it took me a few minutes to get set up etc., so it was probably more like 6:45 when I started. 

It went pretty well. I got to talk to some interesting people, mainly an Indian guy who didn't have any cash so I said some people buy gift cards, and he went in and got one. When he came out he handed me one, for $20 which was pretty cool. I asked him if he played an instrument and it came out that his background is in sax, and he's been trying, a bit, to play trumpet. 

And having the hardest time! He can play G in the staff and not much of anything else at all. He bought a cheap trumpet somewhere, and I advised he take at least a couple of lessons at West Valley Music, and get the trumpet checked over too. I explained how he could have one valve piston turned around the wrong way and it might feel OK and play a G in the staff but not do much else. It's just universal best advice to, if you want to try the trumpet, rent one at your local music store and get at least a few lessons. The nice thing about renting is you know the horn doesn't have problems, and unless you do something really dumb, minor repairs are covered. 

At another point I had a family walk by and go up the stairs, and at the tail of the group was a fat kid, who smiled at me and I kinda did the smile with my eyes thing. A few moments later he came back with a tip, and I asked him if he plays an instrument. It didn't sound like he did, so I said he ought to try one, trumpet or maybe try a few and see what he likes, maybe the sax or the drums, who knows. So that was cool. 

I was offered food twice. One tall European-accented couple tried to give me a box of those cookies with chocolate inlaid into the top. I said I'm on a diet, no sugar or starches so I can't eat them. Another guy, later, tried giving me a little package of Driscoll's half and half blackberries and blueberries. I said No thanks. The cookies were kind of neither here nor there and maybe I should have accepted them, to pass off to someone else. The berries, I dunno, I hate the though of depriving a guy of the enjoyment of those berries. 

All in all it went pretty well. I think I'm trying to brute-force high notes less and that's good. And when my tone started getting rough I relaxed and played something really easy and the roughness went away. 

Once it was 8:00 things got dead though. After all, it's getting near bedtime for everyone in Sunnyvale. I counted up and I'd made $74. 

I walked out to Baraka Market and got my yogurt drink and some broccoli, and walked over to the bus. A #22 came and I didn't get on, waiting for the #522. I waited a bit and a guy who was playing rap music on his phone came and asked about the bus. I said I'd been waiting 15 minutes or so but that a #22 had gone by about 5 minutes ago. 

Then another #22 came and I decided Screw it and got on. Mr. Rap Music played his music loudly until the bus driver used the intercom, with some kind of creepy echo effect going on, to play it quietly, and he did, and then got off the next stop or so. 

I got back to "my" Whole Foods at about 9:20, and went in to spend the gift card. It turns out if I buy a bag of macadamia nuts and a bag of hazel nuts, it leaves $1.50-odd on the card. I went out and looked for the pretty rough looking homeless guy I'd seen outside, to give it to, but he was gone. Who was not gone was a homeless lady who Kenny, the Whole Foods worker, talks to. I gave it to her. 

Then I just rode for home but by way of downtown just to see if anything's going on. The answer is, not much. No other buskers. A busker might do pretty well playing in front of the "panda wall" because there were a ton of people around. Or San Pedro Square, assuming anyone carries cash there any more. But, nada. 

I stopped at Japantown and the little yakitori/kushiyaki table was out, and I ordered the pork belly. It's a sort of "pop up" thing being run out of "Aloha Fresh" which is a poke place, but the guy told me they're working on moving into their new place, which I believe is going to be the store front on 6th that used to hold a Hawaiian dance supply place, hula skirts and uli-uli's and such things. That will be great because they'll likely have some tables or chairs or something. As it was, my order was bagged up in a black plastic bag like it's a drug deal or something, and I ate it back here, by which time it was cold, but still delicious. I'd been meaning to try them out. 

 

We're just gonna keep winning

 I can tell how the "Iran War" is going to go. We're just going to keep on winning and winning and winning, year after year, until we're kicked out of there. Just like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. Perhaps with a bonus of tens of thousands of US service people killed and there won't be any Jewish casualties. 

I stayed up all night taking more things apart, then did a practice that went a bit better than the night before. One thing I'm starting to see is, in trying to hit a night note, there's a point where I'm pushing too hard, and by backing off, the note comes out. In other words there's a sweet spot and it takes quite a bit less pushing than I previously thought. 

I woke up around 4, had coffee and nuts and got cleaned up a bit, and went down to Walmart and paid the electric bill. That went fine. They have a whole sort of menu board on the wall showing what bills can be paid there, like the water bill. Also things like, if you're a jailbird and owe the jail haha. 

 

Playing close to the financial kill line

 The Chinese have a clever saying for how Americans live. They call it the "American kill line" and it's a term from video games. A player is close to the "kill line" when their personal power is so low, that any attack or misfortune will kill that character. 

Americans live this way. 90% of us are one or two missed pay checks, an auto accident, an injury or illness, away from becoming losing everything and living on the street. 

So why tempt this with bad money management? 

The day started with my checking the two envelopes the mailman had put in through the slot, one being a water bill that's overdue and needs to be paid by the 30th, and one an electric bill that needs to be paid before this Tuesday. For the water will, the 30th is far enough in the future to not worry about right now, but while I can work here without water and things just get less convenient, without electricity I can't do any work and that means Ken loses the sales that keep this place going. We piss off some customers, our rating goes down, etc. It's not good. It's approaching the kill line. 

I had 4-5 small things packed and on my way up to the post office I thought this out. It turns out there are places I can pay the electric bill, including the Walmart I go to all the time. They don't take checks but they take cash, which is good because if I pay using my card I'm afraid the electric company will set my card to be the payment account and I'll have to get Ken to reimburse me each month. It's enough of a hassle to just get paid. 

Since I've been lazy and not kept a cash stash lately, I figured I'll do cash backs at places and in that way amass the $248 I needed in short order. Since I got a bit of an early start, I went up to Dai Thanh Market first since they close at 7. 

It turns out Dai Thanh does do cash back, but it's limited to $40 and the cashier really didn't want to give me $40 cash back on the $3 purchase of a can of black coffee and a couple small bundles of cilantro. So I just forked over $3 cash and moved on. 

I went over in front of Tram Coffee where it's fairly quiet and told Ken about the bills and that I could pay the electric bill and he could just pay me back, since things are tight right now. He thought that idea was great, and "I can just pay you back next week". So now to just collect the cash. 

99 Ranch is now limited to $40, so that's new. I got $40 there, cash back on some boiled peanuts. 

I stopped at H Mart to hang out and eat my boiled peanuts and drink my can 'o' coffee, then went over to Sprouts. They ought to allow $100 back since Whole Foods does, right? Wrong. They're limited at $40, although I did that twice, getting some beef sticks for the weekend and then some sausage I've wanted to try. 

I went over to Lowe's next and gt some batteries which I need anyway, and yep, limited to $40.  

This is ... not so great, I thought. I might as well ride over to Whole Foods while it's cooler and the traffic is calmer, so that's what I did. I got some hazelnuts and $100 back there, and counting is all up, I have enough for the bill and "walking around" money besides, plus a $20 bill to put in a new cash stash I can add $20 to each week.  

I'd spent the night taking stuff apart, and as usual had put the scrap metal out front. Overnight people had picked through it but when I left there was still plenty out there. So when I came back here I thought I'd have to hitch up the bike trailer and take the stuff out by the side of Old Bayshore so it would get picked up, but when I got back here the stuff was all gone, so that was great.  

The thing is, Ken told me last night that one of his bank/checking accounts was closed on him because he'd gone into overdraft too many times, and he's changing over to the same bank his employer uses, in the hopes that his pay checks won't be held for so long. So he's been paid, but it's the usual thing with people who don't manage their money well; delays and holds and deciding which overdue bill to pay first etc. 

I wish I'd understood the money game better when I was young. Don't set foot on the huge scam that is every college campus, as college is only worth it if you're already so wealthy that you can afford to toss 4 years of your life and these days, maybe a quarter of a million dollars down the drain. You make the same minimum wage with a degree or without one. And save, save, save money. Never have any debt, and save, save, save, And amass self-sufficiency skills, survivalist skills, etc. But at least I don't manage money as badly as Ken, who seems to never worry about it because somehow, it's always coming in. Except it's not, as much, these days. 

I practiced before bedtime last night, and will spend tonight taking more things apart, and practice, and am glad to be in out of the rain, which started as I was almost all the way back here. 

Wednesday, might actually get paid

 I know, I know, it's high tech (or at least selling high tech stuff on Ebay) so getting paid is not a given. 

I just have to keep holding on until mid-September 2027, then I'm outta here. 

I'd been up all night packing things and was too tired to practice and slept in until 4. Then I woke up, packed more things, and got outta here. 

I dropped off the things, and got some char siu at 99 Ranch which turns out to not be so good, kind of dry. I ate half and ended up freezing half. 

I checked as usual behind the gym and didn't find anything, other than two bums with their bikes and stuff, looking for stuff also. One guy had a big roll of stickers, and he said, "Cheaper than buying tape!". I offered some whole wheat English muffins I was going to leave for the birds to the cheaper than tape guy, which he was glad to get and offered his hand to shake - it was black with grime. I kind of made a little "hi" gesture and said something about germs, that I'm just getting over COVID. Then the other bum came up with some kind of ice cream things, for him and the first bum, which was great. It's nice that the frozen yogurt place is smart enough to buy 'em off with some cheap treats, and keep in good odor with them. And sugar's bad for health so I'm happy to see bums living on it. 

I found a bunch of packing stuff at the circuit board place then, headed home, took a detour to get around some road work and thus, checked the "trackonomy" place, and found a bunch more good stuff there so I had a big stack of stuff on the bike trailer haha. 

I got back and put it all away. Whew that was a lot of things to ship, too! Probably 30 things. 

Ken came by, and I got my check for 4 weeks, so $1600. I'm not supposed to deposit it until next Tuesday, but at least he brought me a hamburger, today. 

It turns out the vacation had been on a cruise ship, yes it'd been paid for by his wife who has her own money and who was a travel agent, and it hadn't been to see the eclipse but just for the heck of it. Ken's own finances are as dodgy as ever, hence the check not supposed to be deposited until next Tuesday. Plus he dated it for the 2nd of August when it's the 2nd of September, but that's not too far out of date. 

Plus Ken's driving his truck because, he told me, he was driving his Toyota Corolla and somehow managed to pop the tires and ruin the rims on one side, due to hitting a curb at about 35MPH. It's a place he turns in all the time but this time .... oops! 

So yeah, it's maybe one more year Ken can hold himself together and then I'm outta here. And I managed to put in a comment, as we were talking, about how good an idea it is for me to stick around here for 4 more years, exactly the length of the new lease, until I'm 67. Not that I will do this, just that it's a good idea. 

 

 

Americans are cars

 I've been thinking this concept over for a while, and over the long term it holds up very well. Americans are cars. 

Someone online did a whole run-down on this; the point that stuck with me was that Americans think of their cars as their bodies. This explains reading all the time things like, "I scraped my oil pan" or "my girlfriend needs new tires". 

It also explains why, when say a bicyclist is bothered by a driver or even lightly bumped, and hits or slaps the car, it often results in an angry chase, the driver getting out to start a fight, etc. 

It explains why Americans are so averse, as a group, to exercise and health. Who needs those when all you have to do is press a gas pedal? 

It explains why Americans are LOUD. It's been observed that cities are not loud, cars are loud. American cities by definition are for cars, not people, and are full of them. Hence American cities are quite loud, and so are Americans. Louder is better, and this is why the quality of music is based, here in the US, by how loud it is as much or more than any artistic merit. 

It's why a friend of mine down in Los Angeles bragged to me about buying a new Rivian, possibly one of the ugliest vehicles ever devised, as if it's some life-changing event. As if I could give a damn what the guy drives.  

I follow Reddit sup-reddits like r/homeless r/povertyfinance and so on, and I read every day how people who are very poor, which it's very easy to become here, are killing themselves to keep one or more cars going. 

I wonder if this is yet another arrangement encouraged by the small-hats since if the US were not so car-centric, we'd not need oil from the Middle East so much and we'd not fight their wars for them. 

I think it's likely also a big thing with Boomers because the Greatest and Silent generations would have grown up with cars, but also many forms of public transportation and also, walking, bicycles, etc. 

The people = cars thing may have gotten a big boost in WWII because an army fights a lot more effectively if you can put your soldiers in vehicles vs. doing everything on foot or even by horse, which the German Army for all their neat tanks and so on, was very much horse and foot propelled. 

So the Boomers would have grown up with parents who were very pro-vehicle. And during the "golden 30 years" from 1945-1975, it was pretty affordable to exist so that you were only a person if it was you + a car. 

My older sister, born in 1957, one told me how rough her life had been, that she only had a small car when she was first out on her own. Somehow I bit my tongue, as I didn't have a car at all, and wouldn't until I was almost 30. 

I was 12 at the end of the golden 30 years, and ended up very skeptical of cars. A car was a thing that sucked up any money that was around, so that my mom's boyfriend had money to try to fix whatever car was sitting on our lawn at the time, but we kids didn't have food (unless I went out and earned some by weeding someone's lawn or something). So from my formative years I was car-skeptical while also yearning to have a car and hating that I had to take the bus, walk, etc. 

I like to think people younger than me are even more skeptical.  

 

A year might be stretching it

 Things are deteriorating so fast, I think that I've got a year left before it becomes very difficult or impossible to go back home, is optimistic. 

The internet is shutting down, for instance. Reddit is becoming impossible to read unless you're signed in, and you can only sign in if you're  in complete agreement with their politics. (And what people think their stance is, isn't. You have to be Zionist as hell, for starters. And you have to be a classic American liberal which means you show a facade of being Left, but in reality you're Zionist Right. To further complicate things, Zionist Right has very little to do with the actual political Right, and everything to do with being a good goy.) 

As another example of how the internet is less useful than the Pennysaver, there's no way to, using the internet, tell when downtown Sunnyvale will be monopolized by everyone's favorite band, Loud Band. I tried. So I just went there last night and it turned out to be fine. 

In fact, on my ride home last night I went through San Pedro Square and Loud Band was doing its thing there, and it was really loud. I like to ride around a bit, not least to see if any other buskers exist and I can say they're just about completely extinct here. 

I got 30 things together last night and photographed them and listed 10, and went to bed. I woke up around 4, but since I didn't have to leave until 7, it was OK. I had one thing that supposedly had to go to the Middle East and I'd tried mailing it on Friday with no luck. I tried again and it's still not possible so I just canceled the order etc. Another thing had to go to Canada and I simply could not find it. So I had to cancel that order too. That left a big order of 15 things to pack and get to FedEx. 

I had time to go to Lowe's for some Windex and since they have self-checkouts that take cash, I brought a bunch of change. I saw they had a sale on Dawn too so I got that, and found that the machine was "not processing cash at this time" so I paid using my card. At least the next stop was Sprouts where I got a bubble mailer and some cheese, that last for $5, and their self-checkout *did* take change. 

Then I dropped off the big box and got a cold coffee in H Mart and sat and enjoyed that along with some "seaweed peanuts" from 99 Ranch. I'm 2 lbs down from last week so  I'm doing something right. 

 

Last busking day of August

 I tried to get going a bit earlier today, but in the end I left at 5 anyway. But it was at 5, not some time after 5, and I got over to the bus stop pretty quickly too. But of course the 2-hour rule can't be broken under any circumstances, so this time the #522 buses didn't seem to be running at all and I rode a #22 and got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 7. 

It went OK I guess, except that in an area where 8 or 9 at night is considered really late, I need to start getting there earlier, maybe leaving here at 3. 

I played until 8 and made $35. Then it started feeling really dead so I walked back to the bus stop, stopping at Baraka Market for some olives, and got back to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 9. My bike was knocked over but nothing was harmed. Probably some kind of drama, as the bums are thick on the ground these days and bums love drama. 

When I'd arrived there and locked the bike, there was a bum-ess sitting right in front of the bike racks, very much on Whole Foods property, with the usual piles of bum-junk, and a really cute dog. And a sign, unreadable of course, because that's some sort of a law, that beggars have to have a sign that's unreadable. So maybe she'd gotten in a fight with another bum or something. 

Anyway, I actually set up to play some more. I started at a quarter after 9 and figured I'll try it out until a quarter to 10. It was really dead though. I probably only played until a bit after 9:30, making $8, then went in and got a bag of hazelnuts and had a nice conversation with Kenny about busking.  

They deported Milo

 Haha they deported "Milo Yannoupolis" or however the guy's name is spelled. Honestly, if he was going to stay in the US he'd need to Anglicize his name, pronto. 

Anyway he's a "far right" clown who was all for deportations, and the leopard ate *his* face so it's pretty funny. Back to the UK for him. I wish they'd find an excuse to send *me* to the UK, I can even pass their little online "cultural citizenship" test without any studying. 

I practiced last night and it went really well. I'm not sure how well high notes are supposed to work with the traditional deep cup type mouthpiece I'm using. I think it's leading to a better development of my embouchure where a traditional 3C trumpet mouthpiece is more of a "cheater". My thinking is, if/when I go back to a 3C, I'll be able to run circles around where I was before. 

I left here at 5, and rode right over to Whole Foods and locked up the bike. I had $4 on me so I got one beef stick, since that's the game (I'd left the $20 bill I had at home). 

There was a guy begging, standing about where I'd stand if I were playing there. He called out to people, "Do you want to donate to a charity?". He was not wearing any kind of a vest or anything, no booth or even a chair, and I'm sure his ankles and feet, in slippers and looking like they'd not been washed in months plus the guy might have diabetes, were quite convincing to the charity-donating portion of the public. So I'd just locked the bike and got my stuff together and got out of there so the guy would know I was not going to set up and interfere with his .... charity work. 

I got to the bus stop just as the #522 bus came so that was nice.  I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods and started busking at 6:45. There was a hitch, though. First, it was kind of windy, but mainly, there was some kind of really loud festival or something going on nearby. 

I set up in the parking structure and that was OK. The festival sounded like it was at least partially a Dolly Parton tribute and I could not compete with that. I played for an hour and made $26. I decided to get out of there and get back to my "home" Whole Foods and it would probably be late enough for the bum to have made his money and gone. 

I walked out to the bus and didn't even get a yogurt drink because I was going to play some more. At the bus stop there was a big Black guy with one pant leg sort of hitched up or taped up or something like he was riding a bike, but with no bike in sight. He was staggering around and talking and yelling to himself, and threw a pair of pants out into the road. Then went and picked up the pants. Then  threw them again. 

A chubby Indian or probably Pakistani guy came up, to wait for the bus too, and then a couple of gals who made the mistake of walking over by the bus shelter which this bum had sort of claimed with his erratic behavior. He hassled them so much they walked back, past myself and the other guy, and I guess just away somewhere. 

The guy came up to us and started demanding to know when the bus would come, which I didn't know, how long I'd been there, which was maybe 12 or 15 minutes. Then asked the other guy and I said he got here after me. He asked where I was from and I said Sunnyvale born and raised. Then he said he was San Jose born and raised and I said "My condolences" and then he wanted to know my age; he's 58. I said 85 and when that didn't seem to fly, I said "We vampires live forever" and made the kind of smile that shows my fang-y teeth haha. 

The bus showed up and the Pakistani guy and I got on, and I tried to tell the driver, through the barrier, that this guy's causing a lot of trouble and bothering everyone, and to not let him on. Too late, though, as he'd gone in the other door. A young, fit, but small Hispanic guy said he'd threatened him, too.  

So now it was up to the bum to, of course, come up to the driver and do his best to get in her face, and I'm sure she was thankful for the barrier. He walked to the back of the bus and then came up and ranted some more, walked back again, then up to the front and got off the bus. 

So the bus went on, and in a short while I was back at my "home" Whole Foods and I wasn't sure if I'd set up and play, as it was windy, but I thought, What the heck, let's do this. 

So I set up and played, and it went fairly well, considering. It was a little bit windy, it was 8:45 when I started, and there was some kind of custom car show or something going on so there were people with vintage cars - but somehow, modern sound systems - coming through every once in a while, blasting their tunes. And presently a ton of cops came down the road, sirens going. 

I'd made $26 in the hour or so I played in Sunnyvale, and made $27 in the 45 minutes or so I'd played there in Sunnyvale. Really I'd just made $7 in $1's when the bunch of police cars went by, and a lady spent a while digging around in her purse and seeming to think over things a bit, then put in a $20. I took that as my cue to leave and I packed up. 

Also, a weird gal with some kind of speech impediment that causes her to talk about 2X as fast as needed, wanted to donate something but off of her EBT as "All I have is my name". And EBT. As well as I could understand her. I said I sure don't want to take someone's EBT money but she insisted. So I said she could buy me a bag of hazel nuts as I buy those all the time and they're only about $6. 

She then hung out by the carts for a while, then came back up to me and said she's going in to get the nuts, and I said, OK. But then school of cop cars went by and the lady dropped in a $20 and I was set to leave. So I packed up and looked around for her inside Whole Foods and didn't see her. She seemed really scatterbrained and probably forget what she was in there for or something. So I just got two beef sticks for tomorrow and got on my bike and rode off. 

I wanted to see what all the cop cars were going to, and rode up The Alameda and all I could tell was they had an area blocked off to car traffic and it seems pretty serious. 

All in all things seemed kind of crazy today and sure enough it's a full moon. 

 

Does "israel" have a right to exist?

 Yes, I say, in the sense that it existed during the Ottoman Empire. If the good guys had won WWII, the rest of the small-hats would have been sent there and they could live as "dhimmis", or hosts of Islam, allowed to practice their "religion" such as it is (it's hard to call a regime of parasitism a religion) and not allowed to prey on the human population allowing them to live. 

When I started seeing the gaping holes in the supposed logic behind modern Judaism, I thought, Well, if I were really devoted to this religion I'd not mind living as a dhimmi, paying my dhimmi tax and being allowed to live humbly, do my reading and prayers and all that, and I would feel good that I'm not harming other human beings. 

But herein lies why I could never become a Jew, even though I thought so at one time. I see humans as humans, I see the natural world as something worth treasuring and caring for, and could never internalize the parasite view of the world, where all people other than fellow parasites are things to be used, the natural world a thing to be used, etc. 

To give an example of the right way for things to be done, the Amish/Mennonites are very devoted to their religion. So they've found a way to live that doesn't step on the toes of others. One could say they pay a "dhimmi tax" in that they have to pay income tax, register their carriages etc., but they do these things and life goes on. They're not taking over anyone's banking systems or media, or medical "industry" or loan sharking, or distributing drugs, or importing immigrants who won't fit in, etc. They are not parasites. 

I photo'd 20 things last night and listed 10, found things to pack today when I got up, and when I got up I packed them and was off to FedEx and the post office. I practiced last night but I was tired and it was a short practice. 

 

Quite a day for bums

 Ken didn't come by last night. I channeled my nervous energy into putting all the things I'd listed for this month, basically, away. It was a lot of things. 

Once it was clear he wasn't coming by, I got 20 things camera-ready, which also took up some time since I had to *wash* some circuit boards. 

Then  I got to work getting 24 things together that were all one order, putting them in a box with the sheet of notebook paper I'd written down each thing on and how much shipping there was on it. 

After all this, I settled down and got a good practice session in. The high notes were working quite well, so I was pretty happy and eventually went to bed around 8AM. 

I woke up at 4PM, had breakfast and coffee, and packed the one big order and had time to find one circuit board that really ought to go out today and which I thought I'd have to do a lengthy search for. It turned out to be easy to find and I packed it up and took off for the post office etc. 

I dropped off the two big boxes (I also had packed some BIG resistors for a guy) at FedEx and went over to the post office. 

I was leaving the post office, headed for 99 Ranch and waiting for the light on Brokaw when, as the light changed for cross traffic, a car went by and someone in it yelled something incoherent at me. Normally I'd worry but this person looked like a bum, and the car looked like it had been in several accidents and then hammered back into car-shape with an actual hammer. 

I have no idea what this creature was trying to say. I've mentioned how the underclass talks in what might as well be a different language, a sort of muttered mumbled yowling that I can't make head or tail of. I've had bums holding a conversation right outside the roll-up door here, which meant I could listen from inside, only a few feet from them, and I was still not able to understand what the hell they were talking about. 

So this bum in the bum-car, being driven by another bum, was angry at me, I think, for some reason. It seems some loud expletive was uttered, something the equivalent of "FUCK YOU!" but it was not any word in any language I know of. I don't know if the bum thought I was someone else, or what. I take care to not interact with bums because they are dangerous to anyone foolish enough to get close, friend or foe. 

I sallied into the parking lot of 99 Ranch and was just pulling into where I park, where the notice board used to be which is a nice sort of niche to park my bike and trailer, when, as I was coming in,  I saw at once *another* bum, shirtless and filthy, calling out to the occupants of a bum-truck, likewise filthy, that was driving through the parking lot. The first bum kept yelling something about "WHITE MAN" and I thought they knew each other. 

The bum appeared to follow the truck on its way out, and I thought, Good, they'll go fight or do a drug deal or whatever's up, and I'll have time to go in and shop. I went in an got boiled peanuts and a couple other things, and went back out. The bum was now sitting at one of the tables outside the "Bamboo" coffee shop. Lovely. 

I made the mistake of looking over at the bum as I rode out of there and it yelled some incoherent blather at me. It was quite a day for bums. 

I went over to H Mart and got a can of coffee and settled down to enjoy my boiled peanuts. I also called Ken and he's back from vacation. I said, "I didn't see you last night" and he said, "I was probably over Canada then". I'll see him again next week.

It's good to know he's still alive and everything's OK. I figure things might get pretty dodgy as time goes on, but all I have to last out now is another year.  

First day A.P. (After Parton)

 RIP Dolly. She was the paragon of what a good, famous, entertainer can be. Not Lennon, who was more self-indulgent than anything. Not Sinatra, who turns out to have been a raging Zionist so yeah, pretty much a shining example of evil. Nope, good old Dolly. Hell I turned on KPFK after getting up, and there was Davey D. talking about her. 

My friend, maybe I should say "friend" now, in Pahoa, Hawaii, is seriously creeping me out. First he's apparently arguing that Jerry Sienfeld is not a pedophile, and I guess Cheeto Donny isn't either. Needless to say he's a Zionist. 

I said in reply that I'm beginning to understand why he chose to isolate himself in Pahoa. I'm not sure I'll communicate with him any more. He's enemies with all of his neighbors, and for someone who was in the music/entertainment scene on Oahu as much as he was, he appears to have zero friends. 

I have a feeling mentioning that I knew him, in anything but disdainful terms, will hurt me in the future.  I think he's burned every bridge he possibly can. 

The only basis for our supposed friendship is we went up the Haiku Stairs together. Looking back, big whoop. The other guy, the Chinese guy with two houses and a condo and yadda yadda, who's really far-right politically, likewise for someone who worked for so many years for Hawaii Public Radio and the Honolulu Sheriff's, seems to have zero friends also and considering his views and personality, I'd not want to say I know him either. 

Se we went on this hike, really more of a "walk" for me, having grown up "hiking" for miles on various trails, barefoot too, and the next day I showed up for work as chipper as ever, and I didn't see the other two for a couple of days because they were so out of shape. Not much of a "bonding experience" really. 

And they might have had to spend the night in the jungle there if it weren't for me. It got so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face, but I knew how to feel the trail with my hands and tell where people had gone, and led us out. 

Time to rid myself of those two anchors around my neck! 

On to new worries... I got another email from the landlord's secretary, bugging us to sign the lease agreement. I replied that Ken's been gone on vacation, that I expect to see him tonight, and will bug him to do so. 

 

I guess I needed the sleep

 I over slept, waking up at 4. Oops. I had some coffee and aspirin and got to work packing things. Fortunately I'd found all the things last night so all I had to do was pack them, and then get them to the post office and FedEx. 

I felt really hungry so I when I was done with the deliveries I went to 99 Ranch and got a big can of Mr. Brown black coffee and some of their seaweed peanuts. I mean, I like seaweed, and I like peanuts, they ought to be good, right? And they were. Yum! 

I found a good load of packing stuff on the way back here, too. 

 

The grand tour

 In the interest of getting the things that possibly have the most delay, sent out, I packed the small things that have to go to the post office first, today. 

I left here at 6 with nine things, got 'em to the post office, came back as far as H Mart where I had a coffee and some raw peanuts I'd brought along, then decided this was a perfect time to make a Walmart run since I didn't have the bike trailer with me. 

I rode town Oakland Road to downtown, but staying on it seems to be quite a bit longer than doing my usual zigzag thing. I went to the Amazon place and found several bubble mailers which is a very good thing. 

Then I rode down to Walmart and they were out of pepitas, one of the main things I wanted to buy. But I got all the other things. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and by now it was about 9PM and I was really hungry plus having to use the bathroom bad. So I got there and took care of that and then picked out some roasted chicken just about floating in grease, a few meatballs, and a can of seltzer water. 

I ate upstairs and had a great time talking with a guy about politics and drones. That took me up to almost 10:00 and I got out of there, the guy and I walking downstairs and he, off to his house or to a bus stop or something, and myself to my bike. The ride back was nice and boring. 

 

$102 Sunday

 I got going at an earlier time, having spent the night getting 30 things ready to list (as in ready to photo with no further treatment) and got ready to "launch" right after waking up and having some breakfast. 

The guys next door were whooping it up with their Mexican music as usual. I swear that place runs on Mexican music and beer. Especially beer. 

I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:15 and started in, and since it was a warm day I didn't need to dress warm. 

It went pretty well and high notes were coming out well. At one point a guy with a white meat department jacket on came out and for a moment I thought he was going to hassle me about something, but he was friendly and asked if I knew anything by Chuck Mangione. I said, "Only 'Feels So Good' and since I was playing well, I went for it. I actually pulled it off, too. I can't believe the guy played that high on a flugelhorn but then, Chuck Mangione is one of the greats of all time. 

So the guy was happy. I don't know if he dropped a tip or not but that doesn't matter. I wonder if the workers in there were shooting the shit and got talking about their new weekend trumpet player, and this guy scoffed and said it's probably one of those Gypsies with a set of speakers, faking it. Maybe they even got a bet riding on it. 

I mean, buskers are very rare these days. And buskers who aren't just banging on a guitar, really rare. 

I was going to play until a quarter to 8, but by then I was feeling pretty tired and I got talking with a guy of Chinese background, from Indiana. He's been a viola player and we got into talking about how antisocial everyone is here. I said the only way to make friends here is to find some hobby or interest and get into that, and for the hobby or interest, everything's hidden and it's really common to only find out about a thing after it's over, so you really have to dig for information. There *are* things, community band and jam sessions and so on, and I told him about Heaney's violin shop, and he said he might rent a viola there. 

By this time it was just about 8 so I was done. I counted up and it came to $82.75 but actually I got a $20 gift card too so it's really $102.75 because gift cards are always spent on things I'd buy anyway. 

I went to Baraka Market and got some broccoli and my yogurt drink, which I drank at the bus stop, and it was another relatively quick ride back to my "home" Whole Foods where I put $20 on my clipper card so I won't have to fiddle with it next week, and spent the gift card on some nuts, cheese, and sausage. 

 

 

$104 Saturday

 It's amazing how much time the supposedly half-time work for Ken actually takes up. 

I was up last night taking a few things apart, one of them being a vintage oscilloscope and those take forever. But I have lots of parts to list now. 

I practiced before bed, and one of the last things before going to sleep was hearing the boss guy of the cleaning place, who drives a red pickup truck, picking up the boxes of scrap I'd left out and loading them up. When I got up, I found only the round CRT left, and my two taped-together beer boxes, clean and ready to use again. I'll probably just list the CRT on Ebay as it's not as large and hard to ship as some. 

I got out of here around 4:30, rode right over to Whole Foods and put $10 on my clipper card, got a couple of beef sticks, and walked over to the bus stop. The #522 came in a short time and although I checked the time and found that it was around 5:30 when I was waiting, I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods in time to start busking at 6:45. 

It went pretty well. There were lots of people which helps, and the tips came in pretty regularly. After about an hour one of the local crazy guys came around and made noises, while I just kept playing 'Wonderful World' at good volume while watching the crazy out of the corner of my eye, and as he went into Whole Foods* and looked back my way, I just happened to have had to adjust my pepper spray by taking it out of my pocket to reposition it, and he just happened to see it. He didn't come back. 

*Sunnyvale's Whole Foods has an indoor area with tables, and the area is a magnet for relaxing shoppers, crazies, bums, nerds, various small clubs, exhausted moms with over-excited kids; the whole gamut. Mr. Bum likely went in to hang out there.  

Once it was 8:15 I packed up and counted up - I'd made $104 which is at least nearly my record for tips without someone dropping a $100. I'd had 3 people drop a $20 and also got a $10 and a few $5's along with of course a bunch of $1's so it's not hard to do with those $20's. 

Given these days that if you go into McBlecchs for a burger, fries, and a drink you're busting $20, those $20's are not that big to a lot of people. 

One of the $5's was from a couple of young guys who wanted me to try the theme from the movie "Lala Land". I said I don't know it but if he pulls it up on his phone I'll try it. He did, and I did, and we had a bit of a laugh, and I said I'll look it up on YouTube and see if it's a good one for me to learn. 

I walked back out to Baraka Market and they were having the first busy day I'd seen. I got my yogurt drink and some olives and walked out to the bus. And the #522 showed up in a short time so it was pretty easy to get back to my home Whole Foods and do a bit of shopping.  

 

Lost 'em then got 'em back

 Last night was spent getting 20 things ready to photo and list, which was time-consuming because I had to clean heat sink compound off of a lot of things, yuck! 

I then found things that have to be packed and shipped, which is an effort of its own. 

I finally settled down to practice, and again high notes were there, then I lost them. But then I "strategically relaxed" and got them back. Yay! 

I look forward to when I can just pay attention to my playing and performing. Sure I'll be living in a small rented room around the university, but I'll be able to use the university as a practice place and even take/audit classes there. Plus whatever resources the Musicians' Union has. 

 

High notes were rockin'

 I did a bunch of stuff last night, by which I mean, took apart 4 things and rounded up some other stuff to dump out front for the scroungers. 

And that's what I did; listened to things on YouTube and took things apart. I was surprised how much scrap metal and junk I piled up out front haha. 

Then I practiced and wow high notes were a breeze. I was able to play all those crazy bugle calls and the exercises in the book I'm practicing out of were a breeze, until they weren't. I either tightened up somehow or just plain got tired, not sure. I kept practicing though because I've been learning that a mediocre practice one day will lead to a very good one the next. 

I woke up around 2PM which was a little early so I "rested my eyes" and then woke up again, at 5. Oops. I packed about 5 things that were both small and really ought to go out today, and took those to the post office. 

While frantically packing things, I'd been pleasantly surprised, around 5:30, to hear someone outside with a truck or some sort of vehicle, picking up the scrap metal. They'd only left a few plastic things, which I picked up and put in a dumpster on the other side of the complex after I got back. 

I should also mention that at the sign/car graphics place, I found a ton of ... starchy goods. Like buns of a few types, tortillas, bread, and an unopened box of cereal (breakfast candy) called "Honey Bunches Of Oats". Bird food time!! So I found a place along Old Bayshore, where the landscaping plants are new and haven't covered all the ground yet, that's perfect for laying out a feast for my fine feathered friends, which I did. 

That's the thing with following a low-carb diet. Almost all the stuff I find, isn't on my diet. If I were not on this diet, I might have kept the bread and the tortillas. But that's OK the main thing is it's fun to score free stuff that's useful to someone. 

I wasn't sure if Ken would come by tonight and apparently, not. He said he'd be in England and Scotland for "a couple weeks" I think so I guess I won't see him this week. I still cleaned up the bathroom and office as usual though. 

Plus, as I seem to be in the loop for these things, I got the new lease agreement emailed to me, so I printed it out for Ken. It doesn't look too bad, really. The rent's lowered a bit and gradually increases over the 4 years. And it won't be anything I'll need to even think about after 1 year. 

 

 

Tuesday - not enough good sleep?

 I photo'd 20 things, listed 10, and packed a ton of stuff. 

 

Monday after some good sleep

 I felt so tired last night I didn't do much of anything other than have my cheese and olives for dinner, and tried to get "up" for listing a bunch of stuff but didn't, and finally went to bed at 7AM. 

I woke up at 3 this afternoon, and the Monday "morning" weigh in shows me 1/2 lb up from last week. 

At least, for some reason, the elderberry lozenges seem to have done some good and my throat's better. 

I packed I don't know, 10, maybe 12 things, and got 'em to the post office, got things in 99 Ranch and H Mart, hung out in front of H Mart to enjoy a can of Mr. Brown coffee and some spicy peanuts, and didn't find much in the way of packing stuff *except* about 30 really neat "Kinder Country" boxes from the exotic foods place dumpster, which are a nice smallish handy size and of good quality. 

 

 

$65 Sunday

 I listed 10 things last night, all photo'd and ready to go from the night before. After having some dinner, I got involved in "just trying to find at least some of the next batch of things" which ended up meaning, "Get 20 more things photo ready"

I slept very deeply, then had a weird "frustration dream" about the airport, and getting stuff together, etc. It was pretty realistic; at one point I had this large, long piece of luggage to get aboard, and all I can think of it would have been something holding an electric bass because I can't think of anything else that long, but pretty flat. 

I woke up feeling sore (my back, mainly) and had a bit of a headache so "breakfast" was coffee and aspirin. 

I left here at 4:30 and Lo and behold, was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30 so, a mere 2 hours. 

The busking went OK, about the same as yesterday. This time I just wore my fleece jacket which was borderline too warm but it was OK. It was overcast and a bit windy. I played "Long, Long Time" several times both to work on it and also because the Whole Foods employee who wanted to learn trumpet might show up again, I thought. 

"Eensty Weentsy Spider" was a big hit though, with a little kid and his dad, who didn't tip of course. It's a good one to have in my repertoire. I should learn the theme song for TV show "Bluey" but I'm not sure if that has that much of a strong theme song. There were just tons of little kids this time and I should learn more little kid songs. 

I was playing high notes well, so at one point I played the intro and ending music from the 2nd series Astroboy show, great fun but I'll be surprised if I ever run into anyone who recognizes them. 

At one point I *did* meet one of the Whole Foods Employees, a Karen type woman who's a manager, who told me exactly where the line runs that divides Whole Foods property from public property, where I can play and she "Can't do anything about that!". Even funnier, she talked while furiously chewing gum. I should have asked if it's nicotine gum, or if she brought enough for the rest of the class, or some snappy remark, but it's much better that I didn't. 

A very nice Indian lady came up and with her phone out, puzzled, she asked if I had Zelle or something, and I said I don't, but that some people go into Whole Foods and buy gift cards. I said it could be for $5 or $10, and one time I got one for $50 but that's an awful lot. She went away and I went back to playing and she came back surprisingly soon, and gave me a gift card with $25 on it. "Wow, thanks!" was my reaction, and I said I do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods, which is often cheaper than Safeway. (As if I go into Safeway these days, ha!) 

With that, after she'd left feeling good about doing her good deed for the day, I looked at the time and it was time to go. I'd made $40 cash including something like $4 in quarters, and the $25 gift card, making $65. 

I was surprised I'd done this well, and played as well as I did, because my throat's been scratchy and before getting on the bus I'd bought some elderberry lozenges from my "home" Whole Foods, and had some on the bus ride. 

I walked over to Baraka Market for olives and a yogurt drink, then walked over to the bus stop, and ended up running for the bus because the #522 got there a bit before me. 

This meant I got back to my "home" Whole Foods at around 9. The employees were getting ready to close, which they don't do until 10, and this always makes it feel later. There was a guy begging with a sign, very definitely on Whole Foods property but I guess no one was sweating it, as he wasn't being noisy, just holding his sign. I got a couple bags of macadamia nuts because I'll always use them, and a can of their tuna in olive oil which if anything is only about 50c more expensive than Walmart's version. That took care of the gift card. 

I had a nice calm ride back here, and had cheese and olives for dinner. 

$62 Saturday

 I practiced last night before bed and it went even better than the session before. This is good. I just need to be very consistent about practicing. 

Yesterday I shipped stuff, did shopping, blah blah. And got 20 things ready to list and listed 10 of them. I'll list the other 10 tonight. 

Today I got out of here at 5, and miraculously, found myself set up at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at just a bit after 6:30, thanks to the #522 bus. As I walked past Baraka Market on my way to the Whole Foods, I heard a lot of squawking, and saw that the parrots who used to hang out by the hardware store, are still here, and in force. The hardware store's history but ... not the parrots. 

Last night I'd finished a load of laundry that included the clothes I wear busking and I'd put a fan on the clothes, hung up in the loft, before going to sleep. So I had nice clean clothes on, and with how cold it's been getting at night, I brought a fleece jacket too. 

So I got there and the wind didn't beat me up too much at all, and I was glad to not be in the parking structure because not only was the first motorcycle there, but some idiot on a Harley had to pull in and park his stupid toy in such a way as to pretty much take over the area. Then after a while, left, noisily. Plus car alarms going off for some reason. 

So I happily stood out front and did my thing, and it felt a bit slow because it *was* a bit slow, but still, $62 isn't bad and is in line with a $40 an hour pay scale. 

It went pretty well, and one guy gave me a little bag of a type of popcorn they sell in Whole Foods, with a picture of a pink "Buddha" guy on it. It's not on my diet needless to say, so as I was getting near the end of my session, I handed it off to a guy with a shopping cart with all kinds of bags and things on it and hanging off of it, but it looked fairly organized. 

I finished up, and I might look at how to stay a bit later than 8 because the tips actually got better as it got a bit later, and the shopping cart guy started acting weird and cursing in some mix of Spanish and Crazy, and I thought, "Well, it's not my problem now..."  

I was putting things away and counting up when a young Whole Foods employee came up and wanted to know how to play "Long Long Time", the 1940s song that was in a recent Captain America movie. I said it's not that hard, but determined that he's really new at trumpet. So new he didn't have one yet. So I went through the standard advice; to rent one from West Valley Music, get a teacher or if he budget doesn't allow it, get one of the band books like Standard Of Excellence, and find people playing through it on YouTube. He said he hopes to see me out there more, and I'll have to put that song into my regular rotation. 

I packed up, walked past the crazy guy without incident because I'm the nice person who gave him popcorn haha, and walked out to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink and got on the bus back to my "home" Whole Foods. I went in for cheese and a couple of beef sticks for tomorrow so in theory all I'll have to do is ride there, park and lock the bike, use the loo, and go right to the bus stop. 

I also put on the fleece jacket which I'd left in the bike bag, because it was friggin' cold. While juggling various things, what goes into the bike bags and what clothing I'm changing out of and into, there were a couple of bums there talking with each other - hard to understand because there's this weird underclass accent/way of speaking that I find really rather difficult to understand. 

I said something to them like "Wow it's sure cold tonight!" and they agreed, and since I'd pulled my fleece jacket out of a very large, sturdy, zipper bag which I've got several of, I offered them the bag, which is a handy thing. The guy was thankful for it. 

The thing is, when I came back out after buying cheese and beef sticks, the two bums were still there and were only leaving to go off and do whatever else was planned for their evening. So  I figure they might have had a look through my bike bags because bums steal stuff. But when I got back here nothing was missing, except my little tube of lip balm. I guess they got that. Small victories. 

I was really hung up for a while on getting some "Chop Saver" lip balm which Craig at West Valley Music thinks the world of, and even gave me a tube of. That has disappeared, of course. So I had made serious plans to spend the few hours it takes to go over to West Valley Music and just buy some. I'd been thinking my cheapo Blistex is too greasy. But actually, it's not so greasy if I just use less of it. 

It's good if I can just get by with it, because  it's sold at a bunch of places and as I've mentioned, cheap. "Chop Saver" is enough of a hassle to obtain, even living here, must less living back home in Hawaii, that it would be easy to mail order it a few tubes at a time, and then losing a tube of it would be much more of a pain. 

So I just pulled out a new tube of Blistex out of the drawer here, and next time I'm at Walmart I'll buy a couple more.  

Paradoxical practice

 After doing a bunch of other things, I got some practice in before bed and it went really well. I feel like for the first time I got a bit of the feel for playing high notes without straining. 

Damned headache

 After getting back here and having dinner and staying up all night taking stuff apart, I developed a headache. I had visual disturbances too; haven't had those for a while but it's geometric patterns on the left side of my field of vision. 

In other words, I'm pretty sure I get a relatively painless, benign, version of the migraines that have been the bane of my older sister's existence. 

I really wanted to practice but I could not bring myself to, with the headache, so I went to bed. I had a weird dream where I was going to write the history of some big Asian market/company, like 99 Ranch but not 99 Ranch. Something like Yaohan maybe. I don't really have nightmares, just ordinary dreams but sometimes they can be kind of weird. 

I had two very large things to ship, both overseas. Both were above the weight/size limits and with one, the guy didn't even supply a viable address so I got to cancel both orders and have ending those listings. I'll just part the things out. 

I ended up packing two small things to go to the post office, taking those there, then going over to Nijiya Market by way of Oakland Road, to buy some coffee. Then stopped at the Amazon place for bubble mailers and found none. So those are going right out of style. 

Then it was down to Walmart for the shipping trip there I'd been promising myself. I had $60-odd on me and ended up speinding $41, leaving me with a $20 to put on my Clipper card. Of course it's OK to dip into my money in the bank, but the game is to do so as little as possible. 

When I got back the big pile of metal scrap from taking things apart overnight was still outside the door here.  

 

One year and one month

 Right now it's basically one year and one month until I leave. 

 I listed 20 things last night so that's good. 

I did some practice before bed and it was awful. I'm thinking I should not take one day off, but should take a day doing long tones and such exercises for my rest day. 

 

A little trail of Big Macs

 Pedonald is so brave, he was so unafraid of the Iranis, that he hid out in a catering truck while Air Force One flew without him, and he flew on some smaller plane. 

No other US president has done this kind of shell game. Not during wartime or peacetime or any time. 

I wonder how his handlers got him into the truck? I imagine it's like getting a cat into a cat carrier, and imagine them making a little trail of Big Macs to lure him in. 

I did a lot of packing last night - overnight - because I had something like 30 things to ship. And also, took the 8x4 foot sheet of fiberglass, which is VERY heavy, 100 lbs easy, and "walked" it because I could not drag it, across the parking lot and got it stashed in the trash enclosure where it's essentially invisible and no longer our problem. Yay! 

I did my shipping run and didn't find much of anything for materials on the way back, just a couple of useful small boxes. 

Dinner was "freebee beef broccoli". How that works is, I found a nice big head of broccoli behind H Mart so that was the broccoli, and as for the beef, that's an interesting story. 

After my last busking session on Sunday, when I got on the bus there was one pair of seats, the pair I like to sit at, with a paper grocery bag sitting there. So I decided to just sit on down and put my stuff next to the grocery bag, and have a little look to see what's inside. Trash, probably. 

Instead I saw a couple of bags of chips, some kind of potato chips fried in avocado oil or something like that, and some other kind. And underneath, a package of bacon. The bacon was not as cold as it should be, so the bag had been sitting on the bus for a little while at least. So I just played it cool until I got to the Diridon Station stop and got off, and gave the chips away to a couple of guys; "I'll never turn down free food!" said one. 

I now had an opportunity to dig in the bag more, as it was pretty heavy for just a package of bacon left now. Under that, was what felt like a big cold burrito, but a quick glance told me it was a big package of hamburger so again I just played it cool and walked over to "my" Whole Foods and stashed my goodies away in the bike bag, did my shopping, and rode home. 

One home I could really investigate things. After all, if the stuff was bad the birds would always eat it. The bacon was the "sugar free" type I'd been considering trying, and the hamburger was the Whole Foods store kind, that had been on sale. There was the receipt in the bag and it was from Sunnyvale Whole Foods. The place I'd just been busking at. 

This makes for some very puzzling logistics. The original owner of the stuff had bought it at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods. But the bacon was not as cold as it ought to be, and if it *was* as cold as it ought to be, it means the buyer would have walked to the other nearby bus stop, by the PF Changs, and then gotten right off. 

The only way it all makes sense is if someone bought this stuff, got on the #522 going *North* and forgot their stuff somewhere along the line, then of course the bus would have turned around in ... Palo Alto. And come back, now being a Southbound bus, and then I got on. No one would have disturbed the bag. 

I know this last because those bags of chips were in it, and chips are  a classic hand-to-mouth food, the only kind of food bums can consume, as it's beyond them to cook or wash or peel or prepare in anyway, anything they eat. They live, and eat, at the animal level like a squirrel or a stray cat. The chips *were* below the level of the top of the bag, so it would take someone actually peering inside, and I guess no one had had the opportunity. 

Since  I gave the chips away to a couple of bummy guys anyway, let's say a bum had glommed onto that bag of stuff. Well,  again, bums don't prepare or cook their food in any way. They'd have thrown away the bacon and the hamburger. Or let's say no one had disturbed the bag until the bus went off service for the night. It would come down to the driver or whoever cleans the bus to do something with it; eat the chips and by now, discard the now-too-warm bacon and hamburger. 

So my taking the bag kind of looks like the best case scenario. I put the bacon in the freezer until it was firm enough to work with, and cut it up into portions and those went into the freezer. And likewise the hamburger, cooled for a while in the fridge and then portioned out into 6 portions since there was a pound and a half of it. 

And tonight I cooked up one of the portions, and it's fine. I like the hamburger from H Mart the best, but it's hard to beat the price for this stuff. 

I kind of feel bad for whoever bought the stuff, but if they're buying chips cooked in avocado oil and fancy bacon, they're not hurting too bad. Public transit giveth, and public transit taketh away ... years ago I bought a nice table easel and left it on the light rail. 

 

 

I'm down

 2-1/2 lbs woot! Yeah it doesn't sound like that much, since a person's weight can fluctuate more than that on a single day. Which is why I only weigh myself on Mondays, right after getting out of bed, so it's a consistent time and at least in theory, set of conditions. 

 

$88 Sunday

 Standing out on the sidewalk at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods *is* better, even if the wind gets tiring. I played the same 6:30 to 8:00 time slot I've been doing, and it was all out there in that wind except a couple of times where I moved to the parking structure to get out of said wind, and moving back out after a few minutes. 

 

$49 Saturday

 I got out of here a bit later today. 4:30 instead of 4. 

But, if I took the shortest route, by way of Hedding, cut across a tiny part of the Bellermine campus, then right over to Whole Foods, that might help. And it did. I got over there, bought my two beef sticks and did a visit to the loo, and walked over to the bus stop by the SAP Center. The #22 and the #522 came at the same time, and a bum at the stop went for the #22 and I hopped on the #522. 

There's a difference; bums go for the longest ride while some of us are actually trying to get somewhere. And I did, in fact, I was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods 15 minutes earlier than I was yesterday. Insight No. 1: Get the #522 bus when possible, it makes a real difference. 

Since I had a bit of time I checked their olive situation and it's the same as at my home Whole Foods so I didn't get any there. 

I set up down in the parking garage and it was really meh. It was not very busy, and I started to feel kind of abandoned down there. 

So I went up onto the sidewalk and while there was wind, and a lot of people just walking on by, I got more tips and more interactions, and all in all it was better. I may have done well in the parking structure, but Insight No. 2 is that I might well have done even better out on the sidewalk. 

Although the parking structure is good to know about in case of rain, excessive wind or noise, or if someone else is already set up on the sidewalk. 

When I was done I went to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink and a package of olives, and the guy greeted me, so I'm a regular now.  I'd made $49 and was glad to spend some of the many $1's I always end up with. 

The bus back was the regular old #22 so it was slower but still got me back to my home Whole Foods pretty fast, and I spent a whole $2, the $2 bill someone had given me, on some broccoli. 

 

$82 Friday

 I listed 20 things on Ebay last night, and when I was finally done I practiced, and it went really well. There's nothing like regular practice. 

I finally got to sleep and woke up at 3 in the afternoon thanks to my alarm clock. I got my stuff together and took off, dropping off trash and then some packages at the downtown post office. 

I was going to get my usual beef sticks at Whole Foods to eat on the bus, but hey, here was some beef jerky on sale that adds up to the same price, let's try that. 

On the bus I read the label and saw that the whole package (rather small; it wasn't a huge one so normally a person would eat the whole package) has 24 grams of carbs because here in the Land Of The Free, everything but everything has sugar in it to help us keep our trademark American physiques. 

Well, I ate it anyway, but I'll have to be more careful. 

I played at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods from 6:30 to 8:00 and although it felt slow-ish, I had some nice interactions with people. One guy wanted to film me and I said that's fine, as there are cameras all over the place here anyway, what's one more. He wanted to know my name and my back story and basically was one of these people who will donate a dollar (or nothing at all) and want to be talked to an entertained for half an hour, keeping everyone else from donating because you're busy talking to the pest. So I remembered I "had to" practice my pedal tones, which sound awful. A bit of that and he was off. 

And a delightful family, father, mother, and two kids, the kids and mom staying out by me while the father shopped, and wanted to know about my instrument, and about music stores, and I told them about West Valley Music for winds and Heaney Strings for violins, and even though as far as I can tell they only put in a dollar or two, it was nice. 

I even worked out that "Doo doo doo lookin' out my back door" song which has some weird lyrics but is a nice tune. I worked a bit on "Sunny Side Of The Street" too, but it turns out to have a ton of range, and will take more practice to sound good. 

In the end I counted up and had made $82, which is pretty nice for an hour and a half. 

It seemed to be getting dark earlier than I'd gotten used to as I walked to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink, and over to the bus stop. The next bus was a #522 so the ride back to my "home" Whole Foods was quick. It was still a bit past 9 and the employees were moving plant displays in and in other ways getting ready to close at 10 on the dot. 

I had a can of black coffee and some seltzer water since I'd been starting to fall asleep on the bus, and it was pretty dead there. And slightly cold, and windy.  

Here it is Thursday

 When I got up yesterday I tried something; I made my coffee with some Guittard cocoa powder but left out the Frima creamer. I thought this would make it tongue-curlingly bitter, but it turns out that the taste isn't much different at all. 

This means the Frima's outta here because while it's the best powdered creamer I've found, it's a weird processed substance that I'm not sure is actually food. 

I did my post office and FedEx thing, blah blah. Sales are very slow so there was not much to ship. 

I got back here and had the place all cleaned up when Ken came over. We talked as usual and I got my check, to cash on Friday which is tomorrow. 

Somehow Ken's got the money to go gallivanting off to England and Scotland for the next couple weeks. Worried about expenses and then this, it doesn't compute. 

But then, his wife is the opposite of him about money and she got at something close to half a mil when her sister died, and she was a travel agent at one point. She might be financing these trips they take. So off they go and I hope they have a great time.  

When Ken was gone, it was time to strike. And by strike I mean, drag out a huge piece of fiberglass, something like 4X8 feet and super heavy, out of here. It's something one of the homeless scumbags had given him when we were barely moved in, and all it's been good for is blocking the way to things. I put it out and some old centrifuges we can't give away and some other junk. 

Then I picked out an HP unit to take apart that I hoped had plenty of circuit boards with gold plated traces and I made a good choice. The one I grabbed had the paint flaking off of the front for some reason, and tons of gold plated boards. So that was overnight; taking that thing apart. 

Then I did a pretty productive practice session. If I can get to play the same range I had on a 3C trumpet mouthpiece, with my deep-V cornet mouthpiece, then if I pick up a trumpet again with a 3C, I might just be a real barn-burner. And once I'm back home, I might well pick up a trumpet or three, since my moves will be all done with and I'll be where I'll be. My life's dream back there will be if the Royal Hawaiian Band needs a 4th trumpet. 

I've realized that there's no need to feel guilty about skipping out on Ken in mid-September next year, because the guys on both sides of us will take over the lease in a heartbeat. 

I got out of here with various donations to drop off, a bag of clothes and household stuff I left in front of Goodwill, and a bag of foodstuffs I left at the base of the Little Free Library in Japantown. I also got a couple of hard-boiled eggs and a bottle of tea at Nijiya, and ate out front, as I had a big Walmart shopping trip planned. 

I went to the Amazon place and got a nice load of bubble mailers which is nice, and then realized I didn't pack the bike lock; the bike bags still had bungee cords from my last shipping trip. Which means I could not go much of anywhere, other than perhaps to Nijiya again,  so that's where I went, where I got some cold grilled mackerel and some eggs, and came back here. 

I've forgotten the bike lock before, so this is not a new thing. But I've used the one chance I have to go to Walmart that I have per week or so, and I'll have to be more careful for my one shot at it next week. This is why I keep stocked up on things. 

 

Tuesday because Monday isn't even worth mentioning.

 It's the usual, listing things on Ebay, packing and shipping Ebay things ..

I'm still thinking about the idea of being very aware of how exactly my lips are placed on the mouthpiece and how they tend to drift out of position, especially with my cheap greasy Blistex lip balm. I've looked all over and can't find the "Chop Saver" Craig at West Valley Music swears by. 

This means I'll have to go back there and buy another tube of it, so the first one, which he gave me, will re-appear. It might be worth it though. 

I went by H Mart to buy broccoli and ground beef and stuff, and the homeless guy was there with his huge bags on the bench. He got and and walked toward me, but sort of walking/looking past me like a zombie. I called out, "You still want the charger?" and he said something like, "No; already got one!" and that was that. No thanks for making the effort etc. 

The other day he'd given back some goodies (free samples from H Mart which are often pretty good things and these were) I'd given him. 

So ... OK. I left the charger on top of one of his bags as I passed, and went on with my day. 

 

 

Some progress

 Not in weight loss, as I'm still where I was last week. At least I didn't gain. 

Money-wise, yeah it's great I went out and busked. I bought a bunch of stuff so I'm left with $77 or so in my wallet, but all I need for the week is "cilantro money" in other words, money for small daily things. 

But in the trumpet playing itself, I feel like I've learned something new. I believe that for a long time, I'd just play and wasn't paying that much attention to the position of my lips on the mouthpiece or how that position would drift. Hence eventually sounding a bit like a duck near the end of a busking session. 

Now I'm suddenly aware of how the position is drifting, and re-positioning is a huge help. Maybe this is why Craig at West Valley Music is so fond of "Chop Saver" as opposed to the cheap lip balm I use. 

 Unfortunately, I can't find the tube of "Chop Saver" he gave me, and will have to go back there to West Valley Music to buy another, to be able to find the first one.  

$25 Sunday

 I played at the Alameda Whole Foods from 7:30 to 9:00 and made $25. It makes sense given we're in a Depression. 

I came home and started to use my super sharp veggie peeler to peel a piece of daikon radish and nailed my right index finger which makes it hard to type. The peeler and the radish went right into the trash. 

I'll eat something else for dinner.  Cheese and olives.

I think I should have started at 6, because once it was 9, things got dead and the workers started putting things away. 9 in this town is like midnight anywhere else.  

A slightly more decent busking Saturday

 I was up early enough but didn't get out of here until almost 4:30. I went over to the Alameda Whole Foods by the quickest route, over the hill on Hedding and cutting through part of the Bellermine campus. I bought my two beef sticks and got right over to the bus stop, and waited while two #522 buses went by, with plenty of time before the first one for me to have walked up to the other bus stop where the #522 stops. 

I still got to  the Sunnyvale Whole Foods in time to get started at just a bit after 6:30 so I took that as my starting time and played until just before 8. 

It felt slower than yesterday, but when all was said and done, I'd made $94, $10 of it in the form of a Whole Foods gift card. 

I also got to talk to the guy whose motorcycle is there, and he's not irritated with me or anything, and I think I set his mind at ease about any worries that I might even actually touch his bike. So that's cool. One he had left  with his bike, I was able to set up where the bike was, essentially, instead of some distance in front of it and in an odd position because of this.  

Someone had lost a little bag with a bunch of cheapo earrings inside, probably something for a craft project, and it was lying on the parking lot there and I didn't remember it being there when I'd started so when I was done I turned it into the customer service desk there in Whole Foods. 

Then I walked out to Baraka Market where I got my yogurt drink and then to the bus stop where I drank it and pretty soon a #522 bus came so the ride home was surprisingly quick. I still didn't get back here until almost 10:30 

 

 

A decent busking Friday

 Last night besides photo'ing and listing stuff, I gave myself a haircut and got things ready for an early (for me) day. 

I woke up at 3 in the afternoon because I'd set my alarm clock for that time. I had time to have breakfast and clean up and put on fresh clothes, and left here a few minutes after 4. 

I dropped off donations and packages, and got over to the bank and deposited my pay check. The numbers agree and it's looking like it won't be long before I'm back up to 10 grand which is nice. Hopefully when I leave here I'll have twice that. 

I went over to the Amazon place and got a whopping one bubble mailer, then went over to Whole Foods where I got a few more. I also got two beef sticks and a can of fizzy water I ended up not drinking. 

I put $10 on my clipper card and went out to wait for the bus, which came in about 15 minutes. The whole point here is that I didn't dilly dally around, yet after leaving here at 4, I was at Whole Foods in Sunnyvale ready to start busking at 6:30 so it's really an hour and half each way. 

This is like living in Kahuku, and only being able to busk at the Koko Kai Center in Hawaii Kai. Or living in Hawaii Kai and only being able to busk at the Kahuku Sugar Mill shops. You can't go further on the island of Oahu without hopping on a plane. 

Whereas, walking from anywhere I plan to rent a room, to Waikiki to busk is about the same distance as walking from my shop here to the nearest light rail station.  

I started in, and it seemed to go slowly but this is for practice as much as anything else, so I did my best and entertained some little kids a lot which the parents appreciated (but none of them tipped) and got through it. 

It turns out I made $65 which is pretty decent for an hour and half. Most of that was made in the first hour. It would seem to be better to start there at 6, but I'm not sure how easy it will be. 

When I was done and had counted up, I walked right over to Baraka Market and got a yogurt drink and drank that at the bus stop. A collection of characters gradually built up and then the bus came and the characters gradually decreased. I got off right across from my home Whole Foods and it was 9:30. I got some things there and rode right back here and it's almost 11 as I write. So again it's a bit of a commute. 

I could not exactly settle in and just busk at my home Whole Foods as there was a booth there with some scam, with the usual kids in vests calling out to everyone passing by, plus a methed-out "lady" with a wheelchair and a huge collection of junk in bags and boxes and just piled around here, and the standard sign, "HUNGRY HOMELESS ANYTHING HELPS GOD BLESS". Plus it was quite windy.  

The underground parking there in Sunnyvale could become a lifetime gig, kind of like how Leroy kind of owned the spot in front of Johnny Rockets, when Johnny Rockets was a thing. 

And from here it's only 5 hours a day commuting.  Let's say I can busk for 2 hours a day, that makes 7 hours a day of work, for let's say $50 a day. That would put me at a penny under the federal minimum wage of $7.15 an hour. In other words, I'd be living on what most people make in this area. 

Pedonald is ruining gold for me

 "TSA Gold Plus" wtf is that going to be? The guy just spray-paints gold on everything, uses it in every name for a thing his syphilis-addled brain can come up with. 

I mean, I always liked the color of silver more, and for instance the ancient Vikings preferred silver, but I can abide the warm color of gold given how valuable the stuff is, it's being corrosion-proof, etc. But  I swear Pedonald has just made it piss-colored for me haha. 

I practiced last night, determined, even though I'd stayed up right to 7AM, to get my practice in. And I'm glad I did because I played markedly better than the practice session before. Regular practice is the only way. 

I was up in time to pack three large things, two just plain large and one an order of 10 things all in one box. And got going to FedEx just before 7. 

There's a homeless guy who's kind of parked at this one bench in front of H Mart. It's not right in front, but kind of between H Mart and FedEx and the guy's clean-cut and surprisingly, Asian. So today I got talking with him and ... apparently in every aspect of his life, he's been foiled by "criminals" who have caused him to lose his job, cause the food bank people to hate him, caused him to lose his place to live, and for all I know if his balls are itchy, that's them too. 

He didn't want anything from inside the store although I offered. He went on about not being able to charge his phone, so I had him go with me to where my bike is parked, where I showed him two of those things with a spring-loaded door, each one containing 2 outlets. 

Then it's a matter of a cable, and he showed me his phone and yep it's got a USB-C connector so I said I'll look through my cables and see what I can find for him, no problem because I keep an assortment of them around. 

All I'd bought in H Mart was a bundle of cilantro and an iced black coffee, so my daily spend for this day was pretty low. I headed back here, put things away, and headed back out with the trailer. 

The trash can I'd put the "FREE" sign on, that was out in front of the exotic food place, was still there. In fact as I rode up, a guy/gal couple was just finished looking at the trash that was in it. It was time to be responsible and get it out of there.  I rigged up a sort of hobo bike trailer + trash can thing by leaning it way over, and zip tying it to the back end of my trailer. Then I pedaled this cumbersome setup to the bridge, and left the can there. With the "FREE" sign still on it. 

When I got back in here, I looked through my cables and stuff and found one of those little cube-shaped chargers with a  USB-C cable on it that I can give to the homeless guy so he can charge his phone. And another genuine Apple one for me. 

I might decide to go back to the "Apple ecosystem" once I'm back home.  

I packed what has to go out tomorrow, and had just made dinner and was on the toilet when I thought I heard a knock on the door. I took a peek through the mail slot and it was Ken. He had several more boxes of stuff to sort out and list, and a package that had bounced back from a buyer in Miami ($100 for some little O-rings) and I tried sending it back to him and Ebay won't let me edit the address. And Ebay showed it as delivered. So I just refunded the guy and re-listed the things and told the guy it might be best if someone he knows and trusts can buy them for him, and make sure they have a good address. 

In 13 months Ken's going to find out how much work this business is! 

 

Tonk

 W the actual F.... 

 Yep made the mistake of turning the radio on again ... the old WWII if not earlier term "Tonk" is being used again, this time around for (supposed) immigrants, actually anyone who fits the racial profile, who ICE are apprehending. For the same reason too, it's the word a billy club hitting a head makes. 

We really are re-playing the 20th century, aren't we? If this is 1926, if it were rhyming closely, we've got maybe 2-1/2 or 3 years before a catastrophic depression. 

I'd better start inventing a medical history for my older sister, starting with it just being found and mild. Keep dropping it into conversations with Ken here and there, so it becomes part of the background of things. Then she'll get much sicker in about a year, and for fear of never seeing her again, will go to visit in mid-September '27... 

I did stuff, packed stuff, ate stuff, etc., and Ken came by at his now-usual time of 11:30 at night. He'd brought a huge Carl's Jr. burger for me, and had one for himself and onion rings. Now, these burgers are massive, and I ate the patty and a bit of the lettuce, and later when Ken was gone I tossed the bun up on the roof for the birds haha. They love 'em! 

The point of this being, though, that Ken is *not* eating the kind of food he should be eating with his diabetes, and today he was really kind of staggering around in a feeble way. He said he was having trouble with balance, and that his legs have become really weak. But he's going to see the doctor soon, as he's scheduled to. 

He ate all the burger and half the onion rings (saving half for later) or maybe he'd eaten all the rings and saved half the burger, not sure. It's not the kind of food he should be eating at all, and as usual these days, he injected two full syringes of insulin (I think one is fast-acting and one is slow-acting).   

I got my check, to deposit on Friday, and he also brought a bunch more things to sort through and sell.  Good thing there was plenty of room in the dumpster that's out on Wednesday night, because I put a big box of junk in there, and put a smaller box of metal scrap type things outside the door here. 

 

Doing things right

 Last night I cleaned up thoroughly, had my packages packed, and was ready to, when I woke up, just have my breakfast and hop on the bike and go. 

I even got a decent practice in, as I did the night before too. 

I got up exactly an hour before I had to leave, had my breakfast etc., and got out of here. Dropped off packages at the post office, went to the bank and deposited my pay check (my math agreed with theirs to the penny) and was feeling pretty good. 

I rode down to Walmart and got a few things; paper towels, sunflower seeds, pepitas, and a bag of macadamia nuts just to have a different brand, and for a treat I guess, got a 3-pack of water filter cartridges. Those darned things are over $15 each now, but the 3-pack was $30. 

I noticed a lot of things there are marked down, as people are just plain buying less and prioritizing their shopping. 

I stopped at Nijiya on the way back and got a bag of coffee pour-over things. Those are almost $14 for 16 of them so they're not cheap, but they're far cheaper than my beloved Doutor canned black coffee which I've stopped buying because it comes in a weird small bottle now. 

Oh, and between the bank and Walmart I stopped in at Sakura Market which is a real Japan-style kombini. I was able to get a nice refreshing sugar-free Lipovitan for a dollar and a half, and while the prices are a bit more than Nijiya's for the same things, they have cheap things like this ramen bar setup where you buy a package of ramen and cook it up there and there are add-ons, and there are small things like a single fried sausage etc. 

I was going to get sashimi at Nijiya, but they've raised the price by a dollar and it looks like the portions are a bit smaller. And I didn't see anything else I liked so I just got the coffee and got back here. 

Then I went back out and went to Lowe's for a couple of those cheap bristle paint brushes, Ross for socks and pillowcases, and finally H Mart for some Frima and a cold black coffee which I relaxed and drank sitting in front by my bike. 

I *was* able to pay by cash so it's not that they don't take cash after 9 but more than they've closed out their drawers by the time it gets close to closing.  

Vinegar

 I realized I needed vinegar. 

My plan for the weekend was to clean all the stickers off of the heavy duty storage boxes I'd scored, then put them on Craig's List. They'd bring a minimum of $500, and that might be just selling the two big ones and keeping the smaller one for myself, which would be the heavy-duty-est rolling suitcase, with wheels and an extendable handle. VERY heavy though. 

I'd do this instead of busking. 

So after taking care of a bunch of other things, I started in on cleaning up the small one, that I might keep for myself, and after a while realized I don't want to mess around with this, and I don't want to deal with Craig's List people. So I put them outside along with some other stuff I wanted to get rid of, and that was that. 

Yesterday was taken up getting 20 things together to list (I managed to list half of them) and I decided I'd not go to the bank today but would get caught up on things instead. 

So I didn't go out today except at about 9PM I realized I needed vinegar to clean the coffee maker. I hopped on the bike and rode up to H Mart, where I got that, and T.P. and a few other things, a bit over $20 and they don't take cash after a certain time in the evening so it had to go on the card. I think it's a new policy of theirs because ... 

The zombies truly own the night. I mean, I packed my stuff in the bike bags and was going to sit for a few minutes and enjoy my can of "black" Mr. Brown coffee, when I realized I'd been fooled again, as it has sugar in it. The really black stuff is in a grey can. Oops. At least it was only $1.29. I gave it to some guys who were hanging out at a table in front of the bagel place and we talked sugar and carbs a bit, and I rode off. 

I went around behind H Mart and there by the dumpster enclosure was a zombie with junk and bike parts spread out all over, working on his zombike. 

In front of McDonald's, there were two more with bike sort of settled in, and one of them called out to a third, rattling up on a bike. They were everywhere. 

I got back here and unloaded and now it was time for neighborhood improvement. I hitched up the trailer and cleaned up a plastic tub and a bucket and associated "bum droppings" (trash, trashed clothes, etc.) and collected up some other stuff and big plastic car bumper and put them in the exotic food place's dumpster. Even then, when I was by the dumpster tossing things in, a zombie walking across the street called something out to me. Night's when they come out to do their zombie stuff. 

I was thinking they're not handling cash after say, 9PM, to prevent possible robberies but now that I think about it, street types don't tend to have cards. A couple handfuls of grimy change, more like. So if H Mart doesn't take cash when the zombies are out and around, it not only cuts down the chance of being robbed, but it keeps them from coming in to buy anything (and shoplift even more). Plus it's nice to walk around the place without smelly bums being all over. 

 

Uneventful Friday night

 I took things to the post office and Fedex, bought stuff, blah blah. I'd gotten a package of Blue Diamond salted roasted walnuts in H Mart, which I remembered as being really delicious, to go with my cup of iced coffee, and the walnuts were so stale as to be inedible. Oops. I ended up going back in and getting spicy peanuts. 

A nice windfall

 I re-photo'd the capacitors last night and can list them now. 

I did my post office and FedEx run, with small things, bought the usual couple of things (OK I spent $1.50 on a bundle of "minari" for tonight's soup) and on the way back checked on something. 

Last night I'd swiped the foam from the inside of these large protective boxes a place had left out. The boxes themselves are of very high quality, but were covered with stickers and looked scruffy as hell. I knew what they are, and was surprised to see them left out by a dumpster. 

So today I went by there again, expecting the boxes to be gone either because someone at that business wised up and brought them in, or someone else got them. But they were still there. 

So I got back here and offloaded things and hitched up the bike trailer, and got 'em. It took two trips, one with one of the big ones, angled because it's wider than the bed of the trailer, and the 2nd trip with the smaller one on the bottom and the other big one on top. I had to hustle because it's generally considered suspicious if one is skulking around a business park past 8 or 9 PM. 

 

Wednesday bank day I guess

 I had such a huge number of things to ship, I put off going to the bank until today. I was up in time to clean up a bit, collect my donations and a couple of packages for the post office, and get going in time. I dropped off the donations and packages, and deposited the check, that I'd gotten last week, in the bank and their numbers and mine added up fine, plus the IRS cashed my check so that's that taken care of. 

I picked up a few bubble mailers from the Amazon place and stopped at Nijiya for a couple of things, and got back here. I was working on packing a large package to take to FedEx and the neighbor from the welding place came over. It turns out the illegal night club had been busted and it had even made the news - pretty much all channels. 

"I don't take a newspaper so I didn't know..." was my reaction. All the news agencies possible doesn't matter in the least to me, because I'll never know. If I took a newspaper, I'd read the thing and have found out a couple of weeks ago when the bust was done. Or, a neighbor catching me up on the latest gossip, that works. 

Ken came by around midnight, and brought me a big hamburger from Carl's Jr. because like any good American, he looks out for his friends, making sure the beef level in their bodies is adequate. Then we had fun hunting for his checkbook, somewhere in the clutter in his car and I found it this time. I got my pay check, to be deposited on Monday. 

He also brought a bunch of stuff to sell that looks like a good batch, so that's good. 

When he was gone, around 1AM, I set about photographing the 22 high voltage capacitors I'd been working on, but the counter in my camera that numbers the photos "rolled over" with the result that, as far as I can tell, the photos are utterly randomized and will have to be taken again. 

This is something that's going to be highly amusing to me once I leave here. Ken will find out how much work this business is, and the whole thing will melt down. And quickly. 

It's nowhere near as easy as it was in 2012 when  I started doing this job. There's much, much more effort in getting things to list because I have to dig around more and take things apart. Shipping is insane now and on large, heavy things, the shipping generally comes out double the original quote that the customer pays. The internet is slower, and so is Ebay itself. Both are buggier. And a lot of mundane things that used to sell well, don't any more because everyone is selling them now. 

I'd also asked Ken how his reverse mortgage thing is going, and he said, "They make you jump through all these hoops" and apparently the company found all kinds of old liens on his house, some going back to the 90s. 

Oh well time to shoot all those photos again...