Well, maybe a bit of busking

 Yesterday I not only listed the 20 things I had photographed, having fixed the picture posting problem, but I also gave myself a haircut, started a load of laundry, and took a big high voltage power supply apart and got 20 more things ready to list. As in, all cleaned, labeled, etc., so I only have to photo them and list them. 

I even got some practice in. 

I woke up too late to go to Sunnyvale though. To be there at a realistic time, I need to leave here at 4 and I woke up at something like 3:30 so that was out. 

So while I didn't feel like going out busking at all, I told myself I should do it one day a week anyway, and "plan your work and work your plan" and got out of here a bit after 7 I guess. 

I played at the Whole Foods on The Alameda and it was an interesting session, in that the tips started with a $20 and then another $20, and then finally a single. I put the $20s in my wallet for safety and busked on, telling myself I've done OK already and I can always count it as practice. 

It got chilly with the wind and general lowering of temperature, and since I'd started at 8:00 I made up my mind to stick things out until 9:30 and I actually managed to. When I did the count-up I found, among the singles and a $5, a $100. I have no idea who put that in there. 

One thing I've realized is that I think a lot of people who tip hang back and listen and sort of "evaluate" and I'm not even conscious that they're there. Of course I'd barely set up and played a single "Amazing Grace" to get warmed up and a lady put that first $20 in there so this is not always the case, but I think a lot of people *do* hang back out of sight before they decide to tip. One lady said, "Thank you for doing this" so I'd say she's one person who's noticed that buskers are just about extinct here. 

Each busking session *is* a practice session in that I always have things to work on like a steady tone, trying to get more crisp note beginnings, etc. But I will say this one practice session went really well. 

Of course when I was done I had to "check in" with Kenny and he wasn't inside so I thought he was gone for the night, but he was outside, talking to an old lady who's probably homeless. She could play an old witch in a movie, haha, even down to one, prominent, singular tooth in front. I told Kenny to guess what I'd made and he said $45, and I said actually $58, but really, ONE-58 and I had no idea who put the hundred in. Somewhere in there the old witch bitched out some homeless guy who was coming over to hang out, I guess, and apparently was going to light up a cigarette. 

"DON'T SMOKE THAT AROUND ME!" she yelled, "IT'S RUDE!!" etc. The guy scuttled off and I told her how I'd grown up in the 70s and we used to buy cigarettes for our moms, and of course for ourselves too, 50c a pack. And the Army! - Don't get me started! She wasn't hearing any of it, "Those people are on ventilators now!" she asserted. "Maybe some of them.... " I said. The thing is that smoking is a nasty habit and I'm glad I never picked it up, but a tiny whiff of smoke isn't a big deal and she was making it into one. Probably has little other purpose in life. 

Another interesting thing while I was busking happened, in that a large (both tall and fat) gal strode by saying something along the lines of, "I tried to play trumpet...." and I said it just takes sticking with it and she said something about not realizing how hard it is. So I guess it's logical that if something's hard you just quit doing it.  

 

 

The arc of history does *not* bend toward justice

 After changing out the memory card and re-shooting the photos, I still just got a black box when I tried to post one on Ebay, so I decided to try doing software updates on my computer. With my last computer, I had to do this periodically but on this one it seemed to do it on its own. 

The answer to that is yes and no. So I had all these software updates to do, and I found a nice long lecture on YouTube about a guy named Walter Benjamin to listen to while I took circuit boards apart and monitored the downloads/updates and the restart. 

The lecture was about 2 hours but wow did it ever clear some major things up for me. Walter Benjamin was a Jew born into a wealthy Jewish family so yeah, 10,000 goyim had to live in poverty and squalor so he and his family could wallow in gluttony and opulence. And much of the account of his life was of the women he f*cked and left behind, the neglected child or children, standard Jewish playbook. 

But when a parasite finds itself in danger, it might come up with some valuable insights, and Benjamin did. He shows how liberalism leads to Fascism. 

It's a core tenet, perhaps THE core tenet of liberalism that "the arc of history bends toward justice/progress". Benjamin, or perhaps the highly intelligent goy he cribbed the idea from a' la' Einstein and Mileva Maric, concluded that the "arc of history" doesn't "bend" anywhere. In a sort of Newtonian mechanics of politics, nothing "goes" unless it's pushed. Progress, regression, don't happen on their own. People make them happen. 

Yet, this "The arc of history bends toward.... " BS means that liberals are content to sit back and do nothing personally, believing that the system is self-correcting and somehow, automatically, bad actors will be punished and good people rewarded and so on. You can hear Chris Hedges intone this maxim in pretty much every speech he gives. It's a core, core belief. 

And it's why liberals are happy to sit back and let bad people take over. "Just wait until Mom gets home" is pretty much what's going through their heads. 

Also, Benjamin noted, Marx said that "Revolution is the locomotive of progress" and in return he quips that perhaps revolution is the unwilling passengers of the train, pulling the emergency brake. 

The Religion Of Progress is one thing, but I guess I never realized how liberals use it as an opiate and this is why they sit around stoned on goody-two-shoes-ism while right are taken away, ICE agents haul off American Indians to deport them to "where they came from", it's illegal to call attention to ZOG, etc. At this time of writing there's to be an "integration" of US and "israeli" militaries, showing the truth in my own maxim that "We are all Palestinians". 

And liberals just sit back while concentration camps are built, and many, many children are missing (this is particularly noted during the Jewish "High Holidays" as that blood matzo ain't gonna bake itself) and the net tightens around we .... Palestinians. Palestinians in spirit, Palestinians in identical situations, we're just, over here in the US, not affected as strongly - yet. 

After the lecture was done, and the circuit boards done, I got some sleep. I woke up at 5 in the afternoon and after some breakfast I tried posting a photo on Ebay and and it's working again. For now. I'd submitted a big report to Ebay so maybe that was it. 

I was able to post the 20 things on Ebay and all's well for now. The neighbors around here are popping off tons of fireworks which is awesome. One year back in Hawaii the Chinese New Year's festivities were described by one newspaper reporter as being "Like the Tet Offensive" haha. 

 

Friday before the 4th and it might as well be the 13th

 I was up around the usual time, 3:30 in the afternoon. I got things packed, and took off the usual time, but FedEx had closed early so I had to take that box back home. I didn't find much for packing materials, and just got back quick because I'd bought a lobster at 99 Ranch and was looking forward to making a lobster soup. 

I set about getting the meat out of the lobster and it was weird, the whole tail was just mush! The claws were the only part that had some actual meat. I looked online for why a lobster might be like this, and the answer is that it would have been left dead before cooking for an extended length of time, or frozen and thawed repeated times. And the sell-by date seemed to indicate that this was a fresh one, as it said it could be sold until the 8th. Yikes! 

I re-configured the bike to go back out for two reasons. First, the Quiksilver shorts I got at Ross are a pure win, and while I can find them online I can't be sure they're the exact ones, plus they're about double the price even on sale. The rule as Ross is, if you see something and want more of that thing, better get right on top of it. So I went back over to Ross and did indeed find another pair of the shorts, but in a 40 waist! I'll have to look in Ross in Sunnyvale... 

I settled for getting some socks pretty much like the ones I didn't buy last night. 

I went back over to H Mart and looked around and finally decided to just get some chicken that's 2 for 1 after 7PM. And some celery. I was going to use up some change doing this, but the guy said, "No cash, we're closing" so I used my card. 

I came home and ate the chicken and celery, and put the bones along with the lobster meat which I didn't feel like taking a chance on my health with, out for the birds. 

I did my usual thing, got 20 things ready to list, took the photos, and was going to list 10 of them anyway, tonight, and my photos started showing up just as black boxes. I got out a brand new memory card for my camera, took all the photos again, and still - just black boxes. 

So I guess I can continue listing and hope the customers understand that they're not allowed to actually see what the things look like, maybe link them to a blog page and they can go look *there* like it's 1996, or I can get Ken to set me up with a computer that works, or I can get out my newer laptop that uses the (blecch!!!) Microsoft browser and try to get Firefox installed on it or just get used to the Microsoft browser which will make me hate computers even more, if that's possible. 

This is why I hate Ebay and computers with every fiber of my being. 

I think my plan's a solid one; to hang in here until mid-September of 2027 because then I'll turn 65 and all kinds of magical things will happen. Like half-price bus fare, I can "audit" college classes for nearly free, and most importantly I'll start getting Medicare. 

The question is whether this business of Ken's, or Ken himself, will fall apart first. When Ken was over on Wednesday night his car sounded even more like an old jalopy and made a weird sound when he pulled up like something was dragging when he turned. And Ken was wearing some kind of belt plus back brace setup, so that when it came time for him to inject his two full syringes of insulin, he injected in his leg instead of his stomach as usual because "it's so much hassle to take all this stuff off". 

The thing is, I may have to "skedaddle" really quickly. This area being heinously expensive compared to Hawaii, and my having one "nest egg", one shot, to move on, I need to make that move count. 

Living here, working non-stop, never having any friends, never seeing the ocean again, just does not appeal to me. Paying at least a third more than I'd pay to live back home in Hawaii makes the prospect even worse.  

If I have to move out of here fast and I take the cop-out of finding a place here, I'll end up stuck here. 

I'd really like to put more busking in this blog. There are maybe 3 busking blogs on the entire planet and this awful thing is 1/3 of them. There's "Street Musician Daniel" which you can find by doing *just* the right Google search, then knowing to click on the title of the page because Google will feed you a post that's over 2 years old. Clicking on the title will get you the latest post. 

There's Marvin Naylor's blog, which takes being even more obsessive. First you have to search Google for "Marvin Naylor Busking Blog" then click on "Start Here" which will get you to his first post, well over a decade ago and maybe closer to two. From there you have to really snoop around, the Archives are most useful because you can at least read things from this year. 

Marvin's blog is the best, though, because not having a job or a crack pipe to distract him, he's out busking really often and even gets gigs occasionally, playing at weddings and things. He talks about the characters he runs into, or who run into him, in his busking sessions and there's where he's a real stand-out, I think because of being in the UK. The UK has this "walking culture" that the US doesn't have, and he actually has "regulars" who know him by name. I've never experienced this in the US, not even before the pandemic and at times I was out busking 3-4 days a week. 

I mean, I guess I can think of two "regulars" one, who I think of as "The Paperclip Bandit" is an old, I think Irani or Indian guy, who's never said a word, and drops off a couple of dollars held together by a paper clip. I think he gives his little gift to whoever is around, so it's not that I'm playing music but rather that I'm merely there. And one of the checkers in Whole Foods, Kenny, is always curious how I've done when I come inside Whole Foods after a busking session.  

I could busk for 200 years and I'd never have "regulars" like Marvin Naylor does, because that's not how US culture works. You're not here to make friends. 

 

Planning for the weekend coming up

 I think tomorrow might be a day off for the post office? And banks? I'll have to ask at the post office today. 

In any case, I've got about $14 in change (and I don't save pennies any more) so zero money worries. 

I packed things and took off the usual time, took things to the post office and FedEx, found a bunch of other the counter medications and stuff at the EMT training place to donate and things like off-brand Bactine that keeps me from having to buy the real stuff at Walmart. 

I got back here, offloaded, and took my receipt and the socks I'd bought last night, which were too large, and returned them. I found some other socks I liked but they're marked "one size" and I decided I'll hold off until next week and maybe the next re-stock will have the ones I really want. 

What I *did* find was a couple of pairs of shorts and I know those are good because I got to try them on. That was simple; the dressing rooms in back have a sign saying they're closed, and that there are dressing rooms up front. The ones up front have a sign saying they're closed, and to try the ones in the back. Everyone just ignores the signs and uses the ones in front. 

I put the shorts on my card because good ones are worth it I think, and came back and cooked up a "low carb" dinner. It was tasty, too. Just greens and some roast pork on top. 

 

 

He'll gladly pay me Tuesday...

 Wednesday night, and Ken came by, an hour later than the "usual" time. His car's been sounding bad and now it sounds awful. He said his main job seems to not be able to pay for their air conditioning which sounds strange but then that's high tech for you. 

I served him  up his diet Sprite and he'd brought me a double burger so I ate the burger patties and that was nice. I got my check but he doesn't want me to deposit it until next Tuesday so he dated it for then. 

He's got an appraiser coming out to look at his house next Tuesday, so he can get the reverse mortgage going.  Then, at least in theory, his finances will improve and thus, his ability to pay me. 

He also brought a bill for me from the IRS, that his wife had opened by mistake. I need to send them $137 because I didn't do monthly payments last year or something. That's really weird for a small fish like me, when Ken's paying once a year and he makes 10X what I do.

 

Dealing with the heat.

 Keep in mind, at its coolest, at about 58 degrees outside at around 5AM, it's still 78 degrees in here. This doesn't really happen in Hawaii because in Hawaii ventilation is a thing. Traditional houses don't have A/C because it's not needed.

I'd packed all the things that had to go last night, then got involved moving things around, putting things away, and taking some things off of a pile/stack because the layer below them was Tektronix things, and the layer below that, HP things. So, not so valuable to more valuable to most valuable in terms of taking them apart to sell the parts. 

I then set about taking one of the Tektronix things apart and that took the rest of the night. I went to bed and slept until 5 in the afternoon. At least I had all the things packed, except I packed two small things that had sold overnight and got out of here. I dropped the post office things off and made the mistake of putting the one FedEx thing, which wasn't that large, inside the plastic tub I generally carry on the bike trailer. 

The result of this was, I didn't notice it until I was halfway back here, and putting some things into the tub. Oops! I rode back over to FedEx and dropped it off, and got some chicken at H Mart which I ate sitting in front. I really stuffed myself on chicken which was a good thing because while I didn't realize it, I had a ton more to do this night. 

I rode back here and put things away,  and decided I'd be a good guy and get rid of this really large box full of yard waste that's been a feature around here for a while. So yeah, I was asking for trouble. I got it, too. I took the box of yard waste over by the bridge and when I lifted it off of the bike trailer the bottom fell out, leaving a big pile of rotten leaves on the trailer. So that needs washing off. 

Then, since traffic is so heavy I knew I'd have to ride up to the traffic light on Commercial, cross the street there, and then ride back, I had a loose dog, some kind of large pit bull mix, get interested in me. The dog started to follow me so I sped up, a lot, and seemed to lose the damned thing. But I wasn't going to ride back home that way so I had to make a big loop, Commercial to 4th to Gish to 1st to Brokaw to Zanker and back in here. 

I dropped off the trailer and re-configured to go out again, and rode back out to H Mart and locked the bike, and walked over to Sprouts for some vitamins and got a bunch of stuff at Ross. A pack of socks, a pack of two T-shirts and another T-shirt, an outer shirt, and I treated myself to a new wallet. 

By the time I was done in Ross (and of course there's always the extra bit of drama because the check-out lady didn't remove the security tag from the wallet and the security guy had to have the lady at the jewelry counter remove it) and had walked back over to H Mart, it was a few minutes to 10. Keep in mind that in San Jose, 10PM is the equivalent of 1AM anywhere else. 

The ride home was *very* quiet, because in this town, every night's a school night. 

At least now that big box of yard waste is gone, and what's nicer is the bums not only scrounged up the aluminum but the plastic case parts etc. from the big thing I'd taken apart, and dumped the scraps outside the door here. The plastic parts had brass inserts for screws so I guess it all goes into buying the day's crack. 

I need to lose weight and have been far too casual about eating sugar and carbs. So when I got back I took everything sugary and carb-y in the place and put it all in a Sprouts bag, and put that (heavy) bag into the seat of a wheelchair that for some reason someone had left by the dumpster, and wheeled it out to the other side of Old Bayshore and now someone else can eat all the sugar and carbs and use the wheelchair when their feet fall off haha. 

I've done this before; the really doctrinaire low-carb thing and even treating myself to sashimi pretty often, it's always turned out to be a quite affordable way to eat. 

 

Still no Swan Lake

 Dammit. In the USSR, which went through a quick succession of leaders as they kept dying of old age and decrepitude, when one would kick the bucket the people would turn on the TV or radio and they'd be playing Swan Lake. 

I keep waiting for Swan Lake here haha.

Meanwhile a very prominent female politician has screeched out online, "Death to all pedos" which means she's saying death to the President, who has been proven in a court of law to be a pedo. She's prominent enough that hers is a familiar name, so famous that I can't even think of her name now, that's how famous. I tried to find it on Reddit again and can't, but the threat is out there. 

I was able to pack one large order which I swear takes as long as if each thing in the order was packed individually. 

Ken has no idea of the hours I put in around here and if I were paid fairly I'd make $40k or $50k a year, huge, huge money for Silicon Valley where the vast majority of the population makes less than $20k a year and where I've been making just over $20k a year with no raises or adjustments for inflation, for 10+ years now. 

It's going to feel pretty damn good to, after keeping Ken convinced that I'm staying here, jump on a plane and get outta here in mid-September of next year. The call from the airport - ideally the Honolulu airport - will be fun. "Oh hey Ken, I won't be in. Ever again," haha. 

The last couple of nights have been quiet, since apparently the cops are really after someone or someones around here. There have been cars posted up, and taking off after anyone - probably pimps, ho's or johns - coming in here and seeing the cops cars and making quick exits. 

My dad bought 8 Datsun 240Z's

 I've been doing some thinking lately, and doing the math. One theory, that my older sister has, is that a friend of my father's, a John Bethune, somehow "took all his money". I don't know how that could have possibly happen and never heard even the slightest allusion to it from Dad. 

No, what ruined the family finances and threw the four youngest of us into deep poverty was my father's insistence on sending my older sister to Punahou School, the tuition to which cost about the same as if he's bought a couple of Datsun 240Z's a year. 

As it was, he did buy one Datsun 240Z, and man we had fun with that car. We'd jam 5 of us in there, and my father counted quite a few dips in Pupukea Homestead Road, the dippiest being "Dip Number 9" which we were sure to hit just right. 

That damn Punahou tuition cost at least as much as the house mortgage and probably more, and Dad got his wish. My older sis, who I ought to refer to as Hyacinth (anyone who's watched the British TV show "Keeping Up Appearances" will get the reference) went on to marry someone else who went to Punahou, and settled in to be a fat hausfrau who feeds feral cats. She was given absolutely everything, had a governess when she was little, went to the national spelling bee finals expenses be damned, and out of this, society has benefited by there being one more fat hausfrau who feeds feral cats. She was going to be a Great Writer and hasn't written a damned thing. 

Eric Blair ("George Orwell") knew he was going to be a writer also, the difference is, he actually wrote. 

I have no quarrel with Punahou School, as I'm convinced far more nice people come out of it than examples like Hyacinth. The carnival was always great fun, and I had tons of fun with the microscope I got at the "White Elephant" sale one year. 

What a stupid way to do things, though. We lost a very nice house on Portlock Road, where we knew tons of neighbors and were in the one good public school district on Oahu. We could have had one hell of a garden in the very large backyard, too, and I wish I'd known how to set one up, but I was just a kid. 

And example of how to do things right is, when I lived in Colorado, I rented a room from a Mrs. Sorensen, a widow whose husband had been an officer in the Air Force, and who had been a nurse. When I was sick I even passed the time by reading her old pre-antibiotics textbooks. Grim! But anyway she rented out rooms, and downstairs had one large room with a bunch of beds, so her sons could always come by and stay. They were all engineers or something. She and her husband had made sure they got good starts in life and even as adults they'd never be turned away. 

Ken's family, Polish Catholics, are the same way. None of 'em would leave any other of 'em in the lurch. So white people *can* do things right. 

I rant about this because I grew up in a Universe where most places would not hire me because of being white. And there's no rescue over the horizon, you're on your own. The best thing is to have some skill you can take anywhere. I was scared to try waiting tables because I was afraid I'd spill someone's food or screw up somehow, didn't have the money for barber college, and thought high tech was the way to go. 

High tech being the way to go has been partially true. Knowing how to buy and sell things is a very good skill, and knowing high tech things is good because there are tons of people out there who know antiques or books but few who know about high tech gadgets.  

I might have become a sign painter, and have done a few signs that are out there in the world. But, it requires having a lot of STUFF and a space to work in. Music, using an instrument that doesn't require amplification, so, one that predates electronics, is the way to go. Back in Hawaii you can hustle handicrafts in Waikiki but only if you're not white. Or Korean because the ruling group, Japanese, do *not* like Koreans. Music is OK though, for some reason. Nothing physical changes hands. And I guess a white person playing music has a certain novelty factor. 

Speaking of which, I got going earlier and didn't get to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods before 6, but I did start playing at 6:30. Again there were no problems playing in the underground parking structure, which I did again as the sidewalk was out in the wind and it was very windy. 

Again the Whole Foods employees buzzing around didn't seem to mind my music, I got compliments and smiles from the public, and besides getting the Whole Foods gift card which was in its own little tiny paper bag which is a cute gimmick they do, I had a couple of other interesting interactions. 

One was a very fat guy, who kind of hovered around, then told me the piece I'd been playing before the last couple reminded me of his dad. I said it was "El Solo Toro" by Herb Alpert and that my father liked him too. My father, I went on, had every Herb Alpert album that came out, and Alpert was the A in A&M Records, and had retired pretty much when A&M Records got into financial trouble so he came out of retirement and released a new piece, "Rise", that did so well it rescued A&M Records, and my dad bought that album too. 

The other was a couple of high school age kids, real sit-a-the-back-of-the-classroom types, who came up and asked me if I knew any "Stockton Rap". I said I know Stockton, and I know rap, but I don't know what Stockton Rap is, sorry. "Just play something" they said, by which they meant play something cool, if I could manage to. I played "Funkytown" which I'd not practiced but it came out pretty well and they were happy. That's a good, fun, song to be able to play so I need to work on it more.  

I played until 8:00 so it was an hour and a half, and felt a bit slow compared to yesterday but I made $31 and a $50 Whole Foods gift card so, $81. My only spending was bus fare, a bit under $5 for two Whole Foods brand beef sticks, and a bit under $4 for a yogurt drink from Baraka Market on the way to the bus stop. 

When I got back to "my" Whole Foods I picked out a bunch of things that I buy anyway or was planning to buy, and spent up the gift card plus had to put in a dollar and change of my own, in other words it worked out perfectly.  

I rode home the shorter way along Hedding, because the street was all blocked off by the police going the other way, and when I got back I had a look at Reddit and yep, a couple of people had been shot around San Pedro Square. I'm surprised it took this long for the bullets to start flying. It's not an event in the US if no one gets shot. 

 

Interesting last couple of days

 Wednesday night, after Ken left, the police found some reason to come in with about 4 cars and stage some kind of bust in or next door to the illegal night club. 

Thursday night, no cops came around and the illegal night club had a bangin' night. I called the cops of course, but they never came. There was even a pretty serious fight in the parking lot on my side, and I was hoping it would get serious as in knives or guns would come out and solve the problem but no such luck. 

Last night, being Friday night, there was a cop stationed at the entrance and no problems, except one kind of humorous thing. A small van came in my side, realized the fence was closed so turned around, but the cop at the entrance used his search light to check them out, and as the van turned around and hurried out, another cop came in and blocked him and they were talked to/checked out for a while. Other than that no problems. 

I have the numbers for Zonging, Vice, and the number to report illegal casinos all written down, but I keep being too busy during the day to call them and spend, I figure, a half hour or more on the phone. Maybe I should write letters. But then, the cops seem to  be pretty interested in the nest of crime that the building the illegal night club is in, is. 

Yesterday being Friday, I deposited my pay check and the one before hadn't bounce, yay. I had to do a quick out and back to do that and then came back here to load up FedEx packages and take them to FedEx. 

Today I was up around 3 in the afternoon, had some breakfast and did some things, and didn't feel too enthusiastic about busking but that was the plan. I left here at a quarter to 6. 

I went to Whole Foods the shorter way, along Hedding, and parked the bike. No Feet was there, doing his thing (begging) and the lovely (???) Stella was just leaving after apparently hanging out with him, now off on bum business. 

No Feet kind of said Hi, and I said he hadn't recognized me the other day. He said his eyesight isn't great, and I understood (the guy *does* have a carefully cultivated case of advanced diabetes, after all). I said my own eyesight isn't great and I'm planning to just get a state ID because I haven't driven a car since 2012 and haven't had or wanted to. 

I went in and got two store brand beef sticks and then waited at the bus stop and not for long because a bus came in a minute or so. Then it was just the bumpy ride to Sunnyvale. I got off at the Sunnyvale Road stop and went into Walgreens and got some standard notebook filler paper which I'm using a quite a lot of these days.  So that's another thing taken care of, because Walmart only has the college ruled kind. 

I walked up to Whole Foods and ugh, there was some kind of street festival going on and not over on Murphy Street but much nearer, in the new park it seemed. Well, I decided, I'd taken all the trouble to get here, I'll set up and play a bit. 

I set up at the Whole Foods doorway that faces the parking structure, and started in. And, it seemed pretty decent. The loud band and announcer did their thing but because I was around the corner people could hear me also. I'd started playing at 7:20 so I figured I'd play until 8:20. 

At around 8:00 a nice Whole Foods employee guy came up and told me I can't play where I am, because it's private, but I *can* play on the sidewalk (which means moving maybe 10 feet but where the loud band would be much more competition) or, surprisingly to me, that I could play in the parking structure itself, which is public. I said I'll try that, that I'm only going to play until 8:20 anyway, and I'll try it, and thanks. 

I went down there and set up next to someone's sport bike in the motorcycle parking area and wow is it ever different. It puts the Resonating Tunnel in Mountain View to shame. I have to play much more softly, so much so that it was actually harder at first until I adjusted to it. It's like a damn concert hall in there. 

And, the public seems to like it quite a bit. The tips started coming in much more frequently. A lovely Indian lady asked if I have Zelle, and I said I didn't, but that they do cash-back inside. So she went off, coming back several minutes later and informing me that cash-back doesn't work with a credit card. Hm! I said. I only use debit, good to know. She asked if I'll be there tomorrow and I said that I'm planning to, because it's been really windy and this is a place I can play out of the wind. So I need to try to be there around 6 tomorrow, the time she mentioned. 

It was now 8:20 so I played my sign-off and packed up. I did a quick count up and I'd made $67. Haha 6-7 as the kids say for some reason. 

Now, if I'm going to be consistent with the simulation, that I'm really broke, I can't take the train back because it costs much more than the bus. So I walked back to the bus stop, waited a bit, and a #522 came along which, being a Limited, made for a quicker ride. 

Pretty soon I was back at my "home" Whole Foods, and bought some macadamia nuts, using up the $7 in dollar coins I'd been given in Walgreens, and some $1's. It was now 9:30 and the place was closing up. In this town, every night's a school night. So I didn't buy anything else, and ended up riding back here. 

This new location, in the motorcycle parking area inside the parking structure, really has me intrigued. It's out of the wind of course, also I don't have to worry about the sun being in my eyes. Also even if it's raining I'd be dry, and the tips might be even better if it's raining. The people at Whole Foods seem fine with it, as the young guy who told me undoubtedly checked with a manager before telling me about it, or it may have been a manger who told him what to say. And the public seems like like my playing pretty well. The acoustics of the place are such that I have to make sure not to play too loudly, perhaps like a soloist in a concert hall does, not having to be heard over an open, noisy, space. This means I can work on more pieces that I might not be able to pull off while trying to be loud also. 

I want to play inside that parking structure all I can, so see how it sits with everyone. In the same way that Leroy always played at Johnny Rockets, I might make something like a career out of playing there. I've recently done the math and taxes, well, not taxes, most of it, but the money I have to send to the IRS amounts to about $70 a week. So my sort-of-goal of making $100 a weekend by busking is a sensible one. 

If/when I have to bail from here, having a place like that to play and make really decent money is a nice thing to have up my sleeve. If for some reason I can't, or decide not to, move back to Hawaii it's a really nice thing to have up my sleeve. That would have to be a case of Can't though, because this area is so much more expensive, so backward, and so indifferent to music compared to back home. 

 

Wednesday got paid

 I took my usual load to the post office, got a couple of things in H Mart, picked up some packing stuff, the usual routine. 

At least I did some practice before going to bed last night. 

Ken actually came by his usual time and I got my check, dated for Friday. So on Friday I can deposit it and then take the bus over to Sunnyvale and get some busking in. It's supposed to be really windy this weekend and the Sunnyvale Whole Foods has one entrance that's protected from the wind. 

Some of the stuff I'd put out last night ... the bum who takes scrap metal actually took some of the stuff *back* so after coming back and unloading the packing stuff I'd gathered, I loaded the stuff up and, the load being very heavy, did this sort of slow-motion ride to the bridge, where I left it for other scroungers I guess. And the double rack I'd pushed out near the street was finally gone, too. 

 

The good shop towels

 I was up at 3:30, not so good if I wanted to be out of here at 4. I washed my hair and cleaned up, and got going. I had things all packed etc., so it wasn't too hard. 

I dropped off things at the post office, then deposited my check in the bank and their math and my math agreed to the penny, yay. 

Then I took the one FedEx package to the FedEx down the street from Whole Foods and dropped it off, and doubled back to Whole Foods where I got chicken wings and broccoli, and a near-beer upstairs. 

The World Cup seems to be a continuous thing, and there were vendors just outside San Pedro Square, and a huge crowd in there. I saw they had what looked like vuvuzuelas, but they seem to have an electronic noisemaker built into the end you'd blow into, boo. I was going to get one as long as it was a traditional one. 

I rode down to Walmart and got fizzy lemon-lime for Ken, and other odds and ends. But I guess the highlight of the day was that I went to the hardware store just down from Whole Foods and they have the real "shop towels", the light blue ones that I can use one of, for drying my hands and face, all week and then use it to clean the toilet on Ken-Coming-Over night, and toss it. So one lasts a week. The ones I got last were from O'Reilley Auto Parts and a darker blue and really lousy. I'd been putting far too much thought into how and where to get the original ones and whether they're still made, and it turns out to be as simple as just going to the hardware store. 

It was nice having all my packages dropped off so I didn't have the hurry at Walmart, or on the ride home. 

Back here, I relaxed a bit and then got going getting rid of some stuff, the main thing being to take a big double equipment rack I'd even put a "FREE" sign on, and put onto Craig's List, and pushing it out onto the side of Old Bayshore so people driving past will see it. Some metal scrounger will likely take it. 

I also got a lot of other things out and this one bum who I think is camped nearby, took a lot of the things and I got out some sturdy boxes for him to put them in, and hopefully in the morning all the stuff will be gone as it's all small stuff, easy to take the the metal recycling place. 

So that's done. I've been pushing whatever may be the limits as far as getting rid of things around here and so far I haven't been criticized for it. That double rack was just in the way, it's not made by a well known company, and it had been modified. So, difficult to sell and actually, apparently, not that easy to give away. At least it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be to push it out to the main road. 

I also practiced before going to bed last night, so that's good. 

 

June 22nd

 Whew! Last night I got some good exercise getting all that stuff out of here, and taking the large things apart and all that. I had all kinds of weird dreams last night then got up at about 3:30 in the afternoon. 

I didn't have that many things to pack and had a bunch packed already so it was pretty easy to get those done and get out of here to the post office and FedEx. When I got back I used to bike trailer to take some things to the health food place's dumpster which was only about half full. I had people coming around to pick up the transformers etc., and when those were gone and I was getting ready to take a load to the dumpster, a guy in a red corvette or firebird or something came up asking about transformer. I said they were all gone but I'd seen one by the side of the road and described carefully where it was. He wanted "any copper". 

On my way to the dumpster there he was, picking it up. He'd found it. 

The heat is a bit annoying although at least it's cooling off in the evening. "Cool" is relative though because outside it's 59F and inside here it's 79F. It's generally 15-20 degrees warmer inside here. 

 

The best part of waking up ....

 Is the neighbors playing tons of Mexican music! They've been playing all these different tunes, no repeats. It's amazing really. Those guys are keeping the tuba, the accordion, the snare drum, and the trumpet popular. Plus a lot of the singing is genuinely operatic. There's one piece with a nice melody in it, with a clarinet doing a sort of call-and-response thing, that I want to learn because it sounds good and it might charm my neighbors a bit.

I listed 10 things last night then decided to quit on the computer because while I don't get migraines as in the headache part, I do get some of the weird visual effects and I was getting those and felt I should get away from the computer. 

I ended up finding some things to take apart, and was throwing the scrap metal out front for the scavengers at about 7AM and hit the sack. 

Needless to say, I'm not going out busking today. The $24 I made the day before yesterday and the $73 and change I made last night puts me within a few dollars of my "goal" of making $100 a weekend. I've got enough. Otherwise, I'd head down to Sunnyvale or maybe ride down to downtown Campbell. 

Even after spending about $25 on first, two slices of pizza and a can of seltzer for dinner, than then a bag of shrimp because the shrimp they sell there at Whole Foods are the only ones I've come across that have actual flavor, I still have a bit over $50 on hand. Yay me. 

For a day I didn't go anywhere, it was a busy and productive one. I'd wanted to get rid of a junky horrible equipment rack Ken had dragged in here, we'd sold the stuff that came in it long ago and it was not the kind I'd be able to sell on Craig's List. So the plan was, because of course the place was too cluttered up to just roll it out, to take it apart. 

I got partway done then realized I could move some things into the office to take apart, "lose" a few pallets we'd never use, and roll out a couple of mechanical/hydraulic lift things, and roll the rack out, then put the lifts back in. And I did this. It's great having the rack and things gone, and I spent the night taking the things apart, getting some parts to sell. 

 

 

You're not here to make friends ...

 https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1ub4cne/two_years_in_the_bay_area_and_im_losing_my_grip/

It worked! 

It's a good thread about how the Bay Area is all about, "You're not here to make friends, you're here to work!"

I had about $6 in my wallet, and decided it would be a good idea to go out busking, hell, I'd even have an early start. 

So I got my stuff together, and got over to Whole Foods while the sun was still up. There was a bum there begging people for money, and since he was wearing a World Cup sweat shirt, I told him about how I'd found out how to really rake in some money, the walking-spanging routine. I said he's got the right shirt on, and could pick up some World Cup brochures etc. up off the ground and he'd look just like another one of the crowd, and just go around asking. 

He wasn't too excited about this prospect. I went into Whole Foods to use the bathroom and found a bubble mailer by the Amazon counter, went back out and put that in the bike bag and started getting set up to busk. This did not please Mr. Bum, although he was standing where Needs To Peepee Lady used to stand, and I was by the bike racks, my usual spot. 

He did not like this and got threatening and cussing mad. I got out my pepper spray which I had in one pocket, which made him stop going all-out, but it was not good. 

I went in and told one of the Whole Foods people who told their security guard, who went out to talk to the guy while I stayed inside. The guard came back in and said there should be no trouble now. 

So I went back out and since the bum had set up where I was, I set up not where he'd been before, but a bit further away than that. Again the threats and cussing started back up, and I went in and told the security guy and he said there's a limit to what he can do. No problem, I said. I went back out and called the cops. 

Then it was a matter of waiting, and I had a few people tell me they're on my side in various ways. Even though it was a busy evening, the cops indeed showed up. They took my story, and were going to get his, but he'd disappeared. In the end, since the guy didn't seem to be around anywhere, the cops left, having given me an incident card sort of thing, and I set up to play. It was now 8:00 so I was starting only a half-hour earlier than last night, because of the bum factor. 

The bum never came back, I played, and it looked it the night was shaping up rather well. After a half hour I decided I'm not tired yet and it looks like I've done OK, and to get down to business and do the other half of the hour and then I'd be done. 

I got a lot of compliments, a photography student took my photo, and a few small kids were entertained. All well and good. I packed up after an hour had been done, good honest effort, and I'd made $73.55. Not bad! 

I went in and got a couple slices of pizza and a fizzy water, and ate while watching a textbook schizophrenia conspiracy theorist type nut at the next table do his thing. He'd been there since I'd gotten there at around 7, and I knew this because I thought it might be one of those hobbyists with notebooks full of cloisonne' pins that they collect and trade. 

The guy is nutty as a fruitcake, though, with his collection of papers and things and mumbling to himself and getting up to pace or to go somewhere out of sight and then come back. Some people passing asked him if he needed anything else, telling me that they'd bought him some food or something which was nice of them. 

After eating my pizza I got some shrimp because the shrimp sold there are the only ones with flavor that I've found. 

I started to ride home by way of downtown but the crowds were just nuts, and I ended up turning around and going back by way of Hedding.  

This may or may not be a holiday

 It's "Juneteenth" which commemorates when some slaves in Texas (of course it was Texas) weren't told they were freed when the South lost the Civil War for TWO YEARS after the fact. Typical employer or in this case, owner. They were finally told, or found out, on June 19th hence "Juneteenth". 

I'm getting mixed messages on whether the post office is open.  I actually packed some more things for the post office and a quantity order, 5 things, which I decided to send by FedEx. This was smart, because I rode up to the post office and it was indeed closed. 

I went over to 99 Ranch, for a bundle of cilantro, less than a dollar, but then I decided to get some other things which means I spent almost $5. 

I rode back to FedEx and dropped that package off, picked up some packing stuff and a couple of onions and a bunch of packets of Wet Ones type wipes, from the computer repair place. There was some really random stuff there. I also cleaned up the area because someone had left a mess. Keep doing that and they'll go back to locking their trash enclosure, people. 

I decided I'd go through with something I'd been thinking of doing, which is to go downtown and pick up bubble mailers at the Amazon place and busk for an hour or so at Whole Foods and use that money along with what money I had on hand, to buy nutritional yeast, butter, and a bag of macadamia nuts. 

So I got my stuff together and headed downtown. I stopped at Nijiya first because I was going to get a couple of boiled eggs from them, but they were out. But they had a new (to me anyway) dish of salmon chunks with a thin batter and fried, and pickled vegetables, for a dollar and a half more. So I tried that and it was good. That and a bottle of water because I'd forgotten to bring some cold tea, was about $7. 

I ate out front and as I was packing up, an old Japanese guy on a classic Schwinn cruiser came up and wanted to know how old my bike was. I said it's pretty modern, just styled like an old one. We had a great time talking about bikes for a bit, and he told me about how he and his friends had done things to improve the neighborhood like fixed some damaged bike racks and put some wires underground that had been above ground and such things. Pretty cool, and I got to tell him about my older brother's Schwinn Sting-Ray that I'd been passed down when he got tired of it, when we were kids. 

I got a few bubble mailers at the Amazon place so that's good. Commerce seems to be slowing down.  

I got over to Whole Foods and started in at 8:30. It was really slow at first. There were lots of people going in and out but they seemed to be in a hurry. It gradually slowed down and tips started coming in.

Annoyingly, someone on a Harley came up and parked further in than the bike racks, basically in about as "Look at me!" position in the area as could be gotten away with, which is completely on-brand for a Harley rider.  Jokingly I said "Potato potato potato...." as the bike had come up, and I noticed that the rider was kind of short. A Karen. She wanted to know what I'd been saying, so I told her about the "potato potato potato" thing, how people generally agree Harleys make that sound.

She said something about wanting to be heard and I said "Loud pipes save lives", another piece of motorcycle lore she'd never heard of. I said the way to go is to get a small fairing, and wear a white helmet, then people will certainly know she's there because they'll think she's a motorcycle cop. "I don't want people to be afraid of me, I just want them to know I'm a WOMAN on a BIKE", she said. 

She was using some kind of weird compartment on the side of the bike to store things and had to fiddle with it quite a bit to get out whatever she needed. (Now that I think about it, it was probably intended to hold a small tool kit, a traditional thing with motorcycles.) I said she might want to get a messenger bag, less sweaty than a backpack because it's just one strap.... she made the same kind of face she's made when I mentioned the fairing etc., and said, "No way!". 

She went in, and eventually came out then went back in for a while then came out ... and I guess had asked help from one of the guys working there in Whole Foods. I didn't know what was going on but I said I have a flashlight if she needs one. She'd found one, she said. 

At one point she wanted to hear some song she didn't know the name of but was Auld Lang Syne, and I found that this is really easy to play. I said it's customary to play on New Year's. "And funerals" she said, and I said yeah I guess it depends but yeah, at funerals too. (She's a boomer, she'll know her way around a funeral by now.) 

I'm gonna guess she's had her bike for a few weeks at most, and like all these boomers, thinks a Harley is just the coolest thing in the world while the rest of us think they're annoying and obnoxious, they and their riders both. The thing is, this annoying person probably cut into my tips with her attention-getting antics. 

I'd started at 8:30 and I noticed it was 9:30 so I told myself I'd try to hold out for one more tip, and when one came in, and the wind was making me a bit cold anyway, I called it a night. Harley Karen was still there, and called out "I wanna hear a song!" so I played my Lawrence Welk show sign-off and packed up. I'd made $24. 

I went in and got my nutritional yeast, butter, and macadamia nuts, which cost a bit under $54 and have $6 left over so yay me. 

Other than San Pedro Square, which was holding a "watch party" for one of the World Cup games and thus was full of out-of-towners, it was really dead downtown. 10:00 in San Jose is equivalent to 1:00AM anywhere else. The ride home was very peaceful. 

 

Not until next Tuesday

 I guess this is my life now. It's always been like pulling teeth to get paid, but now Ken's doing this thing where I get my check but can't deposit it until the next week. So the check I got on the 10th, wasn't deposited until the 15th. The check he gave me last night, the 17th, isn't to be deposited until the 23rd. He said he'd dated it for Tuesday and it "should be OK" to deposit then, but I said he'd dated it for the 22nd, which is Monday. But I can wait until Tuesday to deposit it. 

At least he *did* come by. And since he's working until so late, his choice by the way, the guy typically doesn't get out of bed until 4 in the afternoon, he's coming by closer to 11:30 than 10:30 in the evening. 

Of course nothing is open, and he called me to ask what I might want, food-wise. At least he's been pretty good that way. He ended up going to Carl's Jr. and I got a Super Star or whatever their burger is called and some fries. That was nice, and probably cost him $30 or $40 for the both of us the way prices are now.  

He also brought over some pretty good parts to sell, so I spent the rest of the night fiddling around with them, getting them and other things ready to list. 

He's still working on his "You're right, it's a reverse mortgage but for some reason they call it an HEI" thing. The catch is, they want him to go around his house and take photos, while he wants the other option they offer, of having someone come out and take the photos, of his house to assess its value. 

He says taking his own photos will take too much time. Yeah, surely, less time than his wandering taking his own photos and fiddling with his camera, probably breaking it, etc. Plus, Ken's the "anti-photographer". Whatever it is that Ansel Adams had, Ken has tons of the opposite. He takes awful photos. 

Of course this fly-by-night company probably needs X amount of photos however good or bad, and whoever they send out is probably awful at photography too. Real estate is built up to an even bigger  bubble than it was in 2005-2006, and they probably just need "some photos". 

So until Ken gets all signed up for his latest adventure into crippling debt (but that will buy him a year or two of imaginary relief) his economic situation is going to suck. 

My part in this is to just hang on through this rough patch and keep making the right kind of noises to Ken, about staying here until I'm 67 years old. Then of course boogieing out of here as soon as I'm turning 65. 

 

 

I don't even know what Wednesday feels like

 I was up in time to pack some things and get 'em to FedEx and the post office. 

Last night among other things I rounded up a lot of transformers, pretty big ones, about 20 of them, and put them out for the scavengers after taking them off of Ebay. Surprise surprise they were still there when I got up, so even the scavengers didn't want them. Lazy bums are lazy? 

 

Tuesday feels like Monday.

 Probably because yesterday didn't really feel like a Monday, with my going downtown and depositing a pay check etc. 

Just the various things that happen around here

 Yesterday I'd been working on reasons to go out, then found out the water was off. I thought maybe Ken hadn't paid the bill, but once I was all ready to go and getting the bike out, I went next door and asked the guys and their water was out too. They were probably puzzled that I was happy to hear it wasn't just me. 

I went out, then, and bought a few gallons of water and some cilantro, and on the way back picked up tons of these little flat boxes from the computer repair place. 

I got involved doing things, had dinner, and around midnight, as I was re-arranging things, decided it was a good idea to go back to the computer repair place and pickup the last of the little boxes and did so. It was good to get out of the heat. 

I ended up staying up, taking a thing apart and rounding up small things and packing them and finding things that go into large combined orders, and stayed up until 8AM. This was actually kind of good, because that's when I got a knock on the door. It was repairmen asking about a repair request for the A/C. 

I said I don't use A/C and for that matter, the guys on each side, they don't bother with it either. But as we puzzled over this, I mentioned the name of the place directly behind me, and it turns out they had the initials of the company on the repair order and didn't know the full name. When I mentioned the full name they realized it might just be them. So I was helpful, after all. 

They run big machines and might use A/C but I'm guessing it was a matter of the spinny things on the roof not working because when the wind's been crazy here I've not heard them spinning, and they probably make a real difference. I saw that the repairmen had gone up onto the roof with a big ladder and went to bed. 

And before beddy-bye, the water had come back on and I started a load of laundry.  

Another practice

 That's what matters, that I got another practice in last night. I also photo'd but did not list 30 things last night like I should have. But at least I photo'd them. 

The heat is annoying but hey it's summer. 

In the practice I started to go into the next page, further than I had before in the Rubank book. The thing is, as nearly as I can figure, is (a) I need to put in the hours because that's how endurance is developed. And (b) there's a sort of bad habit of tensing up too much. This can come from (a) not enough hours so muscles get fatigued, and also a sort of bad habit to be trained out. What beats it all is consistency, practicing regularly every day. 

The thing is, I honestly don't know from week to week when this job, this situation I have, is going to fall apart.  Ken doesn't even know, because he thinks, like any Boomer, that he can keep re-financing and setting up this or that thinly disguised reverse mortgage, never reading the find print, and everything will be OK. 

Interestingly, it was another quiet night last night, as there was a cop car stationed again at the entrance to the other building where the illegal night club operates, and it was really, really, quiet. It was nice in that respect. 

 

A good practice

 I got a good practice in last night, and interestingly, the police stationed a car at the entrance to the other building from about 1AM to 4AM, long enough to make it nonprofitable for the illegal night club to operate, so it was a nice quiet night. 

I was even able to play a high C which I hadn't done yet with this cornet and its conical mouthpiece. 

I decided I had reasons, just barely enough, to justify riding downtown. I dropped off trash, dropped off donations, used up the mix of bird seed I'd made of millet, chia, roasted sesame, and flax seeds by sprinkling it on a large bare/weedy area by the freeway bridge where I heard a lot of small bird chirping. 

I went to the Amazon place and found two or three bubble mailers, that's all. I rode down to Walmart and got a bottle of instant coffee and a package of notebook paper and a rather nice wooden ruler to use in photos because the orange one I recently got shows up closer to red in photos and really steals the show. 

The ruler was 97c or so, and yet when I got home and peeled the sticker off, it had an RFID thing in it, so I guess Walmart can bust a kid for stealing a ruler. There's also a video camera in that area and a screen which I played with for a bit, watching the little green outline stay on my face however I moved my hands and arms around haha. 

So I got done at Walmart for only about $14 and almost all of that was the coffee. 

I went over to Whole Foods and only bought a bag of buckwheat flour. I love buckwheat noodles, called soba, but 100% buckwheat ones are very expensive. I'm thinking I might try making crepes, which I can spread my nutritional yeast + butter + olive oil mixture on. In the interest of this, I bought a frying pan yesterday which cost me almost $20, and that was the best deal in town, I know, because I checked the prices at Ross and Homegoods before  buying the pan in H Mart. 

The yeast is a pain in the rear to eat on its own. It's great spread on bread or something, but I'd rather not add a lot of bread to my diet. I can buy these really flat Indian/Asian tortilla things, as well as just buying flour tortillas, but I'd rather try to be a bit more healthy. Hence the buckwheat flour. 

So here I was, going to Whole Foods and just buying one staple thing. No extras, no bottle of coffee or snack from the hot bar or anything. That's how the economy is now and I hope they're getting used to it. 

 

 

How the math is mathing

 Since I can't post links on here, I can only describe what I was just reading on r/hawaii on Reddit. 

People are talking about who moved from Hawaii to the mainland for cheaper living. Right away I started laughing internally because in my experience the mainland is more expensive than Hawaii, by quite a bit. 

But they're talking about having engineering jobs and such jobs, jobs that take special connections to get and a quarter-million or more for the education to get started. Jobs that apparently it's against the order of the Universe for me to get, no matter how smart and hard-working and I know; I tried. 

So horray for them, I guess. 

In my experience, if you're making the same $5 or $10 an hour in Hawaii or on the mainland, your $5 or $10 an hour will go almost twice as far in Hawaii. This is because in Hawaii you can live like a local, which means no A/C because no real local ever needs it or misses it, maybe in a 2nd or 3rd floor walk-up with an extra charge for parking but who cares because no one in their right mind would have a car, given how expensive they are. 

So for one instance one commenter talks about topping out at $77k for his engineering job and the same job starts at $90k on the mainland but is generally $125k, well, great for him. 

The most I've made, with my own Ebay thing going, was a gross around $70k. Taxable income was about half that. So the most I've made is $35k, which is just a bit more than minimum wage pays here in California. But then there are California expenses, 2X Hawaii expenses, for everything. 

And my Social Security, about $1400 a month I think, or $16k, will be the same here or back in Hawaii. I'd be a fool not to go where expenses are 1/2 or at most 2/3rds what they are here. Plus it being easier to get around, this area being arranged where everything is 30 miles from everything else. 

What's funny about Social Security is, I'm allowed to make a bit more per year than I do now, about $20.6k, before they "claw back" some of the monthly payment. And even then, if my understanding is correct, the money "clawed back" is kept for me and added to my payment at age 70. 

I actually practiced last night. I need to get back in shape to get out there busking regularly. 

 

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"

 I finished a load of laundry and hung it up, did my Mop & Glo routine in the bathroom and on the plastic chair shield thing under my desk, vacuumed, had the place all spiffy, and right on time, Ken showed up. This is becoming the exception to the rule. 

He'd brought a hamburger for me because Real Americans must eat at least one hamburger or... they turn ghey or something. Ken had one too and fries, and his blood sugar alarm kept going off because his blood sugar was high. He told me he's forgotten to bring insulin so he'll just have to deal with it. 

We talked a bit and then I raised the subject of a pay check. This started a big search through his car and he was sure he didn't have his check book, and I said, "Let me get my flashlight and be a second set of eyes" and started searching myself when, miraculously, he found it. 

So I got my check, but dated for Monday. So I guess if I'm lucky, each week I'll get the pay from the week before. 

I asked again if he'd gotten involved with Bitcoin or "crypto" of any type because it's halved in value over the last 6 months and would fit in well with the money problems we've been having. He said that no, it was more a matter of timing. He throws money at problems, on credit. So he's paying a loan on his new furnace and on some other things. 

I asked about this reverse mortgage thing he's getting into, and he said it's an HEI, and mentioned the name of the company again but they're so dodgy I don't remember the name now, only that it's an "HEI" and totally, totally, not a reverse mortgage. No, this is better because it can be traded on the open market ... wtf? Anyway he's waiting for an appraiser to come around and put a value on his house and that's why it's been taking so long. 

He said the main reason to get into this is to pay off high-interest things like credit cards. and I said that might be one of the very few "use cases" for something like this. Ken, myself, and a friend of ours have all gone through this, where credit cards at say 6%, went up to around 36%. 

I talked about how, when I lost everything in the crash of 2008, I was sure I'd have to do a bankruptcy, but I hit the books and learned that a bankruptcy only makes sense when one has an asset they want to protect, like a house. In my case it made more sense to just drop off the grid for a while. Ken can't do this, of course. 

However Ken pulls his fat out of the fire, the effects should last a year or so and that's all I need. Of course I made more noises about the eminent sensibility of waiting until I'm at my "full retirement age" of 67 to retire, which means a little over 3 more years. 

I packed 10 things and took them to the post office, went up to Dai Thanh Market for a few things, then to 99 Ranch then H Mart, then on my way back found a bunch of neat stuff behind the gym, like 4-5 different kinds of seeds (millet, flax, etc.) to make a bird seed mix for the birds, and 4 kinds of instant dashi, 2 kinds of katsuobushi, and ryukakusan for if I get a cold plus some health food store cold tablets, probably homeopathic but who knows may they'll work. Plus a few things I decided to toss or donate, plus I left behind a lot of things I didn't want like tons of toothpaste and medicines, flour, dried figs, things like that. Instant dashi is great for soup, better than salt. 

 

A trip downtown.

 I woke up around 3, got ready and went downtown. Dropped off trash, dropped off a couple of packages at the post office, got a few bubble mailers at the Amazon place, and deposited the check I was given last week, in the bank. 

There were what looked like a father-son pair trying to do something, maybe set up an account for the son or transfer his old account at Wells Fargo to this bank, something, and it took forever. But I finally got to do my deposit and the numbers agree to the penny. 

I had some chicken and Indian spinach stuff at Whole Foods, and got $40 cash back. The food was rather pricey though and I could have gotten my favorite banto at Nijiya and spend a dollar less. And I only got one bubble mailer from there. 

I hit all my favorite places to find free stuff and found nothing. Of course, I thought, it's a Depression economy. I'm glad I sold off those silver coins I had, maybe a month ago, as silver keeps dropping every day. It wasn't any sort of a grand plan; it's just part of lightening the load in preparation for having to leave on short notice. 

That's what I have to do. I have to keep Ken thinking I'm set to stay here for about 3 more years, while actually planning to be out of here in one, or less than one if things get worse. 

 

 

The dreaded phone call - "Not yet!"

 I'd just woken up at 1:30 and was deciding how long to lay in bed when the phone rang. It was Ken and he sounded nervous. He wanted to know if I'd deposited the check he gave me last week yet. "No", I said, "I'm about to in a couple of hours". He told me to wait, and he'll tell me when to deposit it. I asked if he's coming over Wednesday night and he said he is. 

I'll have to ask him then, if he got involved in Bitcoin. That particular scam has halved in value in the last 4-5 months and that would fit neatly with the advent of our continuing financial problems. Especially, like a lot of old boomers, he got involved in some form of Bitcoin where they dress it up on a plate with some mystery sauce and a sprig of parsley on the side, figuratively speaking, in other words, it's "leveraged" in some weird way, so he gets screwed even more than those who simply buy the magic beans straight across for cash. 

I guess I'd better have some plans on deck in case I have to leave very soon. It will take a while for Ken or anyone to change the locks, although a hostile takeover by the landlord or an auction company could have me "trespassed" I suppose. 

My plan would be to put a LOT of my stuff into the storage across the street, I think. In any case I have plans to give 95% of the stuff I have, away. There are a few things I want to sell on Craig's List but it's really, really slow because we're in a Depression economy. 

I also need to get my "Real ID" ASAP and I'm not going to try to retain my car and motorcycle ratings because I've not had any use for these qualifications in 12+ years for car, and 15+ years for motorcycle. So I'll just need to show up with some things verifying my legal address, and that I am who I am, which would mean my new passport. 

Then when I get back to Hawaii, I can, again, go to the DMV and get my state ID for there, probably with zero problems because they greatly respect California ID's. 

I gave myself a haircut and got cleaned up and went downtown anyway. I dropped off USPS packages at the downtown post office, dumped a bag of trash, picked up some bubble mailers at the Amazon place, and checked in with my bank - my last payment from Ken had *not* bounced, whew! 

I went by Whole Foods to buy a bag of macadamia nuts, and that was that. It was windy as hell, but I suppose if I were busking I'd just do so at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods where there's some shelter from the wind, or down in Downtown Campbell, where there's an ex-movie-theater with a nice large recessed area in front where I've had decent luck. 

Other than picking up a couple more bubble mailers, that's all I did at Whole Foods. Use the loo, pick up the mailers, buy the $12 bag of nuts, and be on my way.  

On my way back from Whole Foods I scanned the streets for little free libraries I might not know about, and things left on the curb. I stopped at an almost-uninteresting bunch of bags and found three "upscale" purses + three coin purses, plus a big "Sports Sac" bag to put them in which I'd also call upscale except for a small tear in a mesh exterior pocket. But all the other stuff fits in it so it's useful too. 

I got back here and loaded up the FedEx packages and took those to FedEx. I called up Ken to tell him to be sure to come by tomorrow because I have three purses for his wife, Suzy. He said I can deposit the pay check now so I guess I'll go back downtown tomorrow and do that.  

$3.50 in H Mart got me two "Sesame donuts", actually sesame flavored balls of glutinous rice that are deep fried, and a can of seltzer water. So I had my nice little snack, sitting out front. 

I got back here and among other things, took care of the rest of the "weeds" growing in the cracks in the driveway. Ken does *not* like the way my garden grows. I was happy to let 'em go, as once in a while some people come around and trim them so they never get huge. But Suburbians hate to see green things growing other than manicured grass so they had to go. 

 

 

 

USS Liberty Day

 I was pretty busy yesterday, listing things but also throwing things out that have not sold for years and years and will likely never sell (keeping in mind also it'll be a miracle if this place is still going 6 months after I leave). 

The illegal night club did its thing but they didn't have tons of cars and noisy people over on this side, so I didn't see any need to call the cops. 

I woke up today and had some mocha coffee and nuts and packed 10 things and got 'em to the post office. I actually got rained on a little bit on the way back. 

 

Reefing the sails

 Last night I: Put things away that had been listed, a bigger deal than it sounds because I've been prone to putting that off until I have a stack of boxes of things yet to be put away that have to be hunted through to find things that had sold. And listed 15 things. And called the cops on the bozos and their stupid illegal night club. 

I have $30 until Tuesday which seems like no problem. I don't think the Owners realize how much we workers can reef our sails, in terms of spending. 

I watched a "Metal LEO" YouTube video; the "GONE Nowwww!" guy. It was entertaining but also a nice virtual walk down good old Pacific Avenue. It brought back memories of hustling my "awareness ribbons" and other things I'd come up with. But thinking back, I'd hustle my shit and then get some restaurant meal. I'm kind of amazed at old-me spending that much. These days, I'd bring a bottle of cold tea I'd brewed here, 3 hard-boiled eggs, something to sprinkle on them, and that would be my reward meal for a good few hours' work. 

(Of course going down there really doesn't pay well on an hourly basis, since it's 2-3 hours each way to go there, plus the time making whatever handicraft I'm selling, then the actual time hustling. It adds up to $5 or $6 an hour.) 

But good old Metal LEO, he does such nice walks. The New Leaf health food store is ... GONE Nowwwww.... The Motif book store is long gone. A whole lot of things are gone. His video was done on a Friday afternoon, and the street was just dead. I think he found one busker. One. I used to count a dozen guitarists, not counting those playing other instruments or doing other things, along Pacific. 

I'd really like to go down there and play, on a Saturday or a Wednesday, since Wednesdays are their farmer's market days if there's still one.  

What I'm getting at here, or what the World is trying to tell me, is that things feel even more bleak than they were in 2008. As bad as things were in '08 the streets were far livelier than now, there was the feeling that there were sectors of the economy where, with training, one could get a job. That all seems to be .... GONE Nowwwww..... 

This is where the owners/small-hats may start to see their comeuppance. We The Consumers can stop buying our damn energy drinks and our fast food and economize, really economize. 

We're starting to ask "antiseptic" questions like, Why does Israel get free health care and free education through postgrad and free this and free that, when the bottom 90% in the US are getting utterly screwed? We the workers are getting angry. 

I propose that the amount of money sent to Israel by the US taxpayer be added up, everything since 1948, and be given back to the US taxpayer in the form of ... universal health care, free education through post-grad, etc. Not one penny more for the small-hats, and the small-hats to pay reparations to the US. 

 

Taking stuff apart

 .... is good therapy I guess. I took a bunch of stuff apart and put a bunch of stuff out for the scrappers. Like some big used motors; we've not had good luck with used motors as they have a way of coming back and we lose money. 

If Ken depends on this operation for his finances to work now, then I have to keep the numbers good. So I not only took some things apart just to get 'em out of here, but also took another HP gadget apart because of the circuit boards with gold plated traces, which sell well. 

If Ken's 14 years older than myself, then he's got to be 77 or 78. Advanced age often brings poor financial decisions. This (I think it's a) reverse-mortgage thing he's taking so much time to get approved might be a good example of a very poor financial decision. 

Or, did he "bet the farm" on Bitcoin? Apparently it's halved in value over the last 4-5 months, and that would sync with the recent money troubles. 

I left here around 6PM, went to Nijiya for some instant dashi and got myself a bottle of tea and a musubi and $40 cash back. Then went back in for tea bags I'd "forgotten" and a small bag of spicy potato chips on sale, and another $40 cash back. So that's just under $100 out of my bank account. 

I went to the Amazon place but it's never that great on a weekend, and I got zero bubble mailers.

Then I rode down to Walmart and got necessities like T.P. and paper towels, a new water filter cartridge, some sunflower seeds and pepitas because they're both good and very cheap as "nuts" go, and a few different flavors of sardines to fill out my "fish library". That leaves me with $30 to last until Tuesday when I can deposit last week's pay check and see if any prior checks have bounced.  

 I know I should be out busking but I'm just not feeling it right now. I can get by fine on $30 for the next 3 days and .... I don't think the owning class really has a handle on how much we, the workers, the producers, can decrease our spending and get by. I see cutting back on spending as good practice for when I'm back in Hawaii and may have to be very thrifty, at least for a while as I get settled in. 

 

 

The best possible way to use this Friday night

 Would be to go downtown in time to drop off the 4 small packages I had to ship at the post office downtown, then visit the bank and check on my balance to make sure everything's OK, then post up at the Whole Foods on the Alameda or go down to Sunnyvale, and busk. 

So of course I didn't do that. I was up all night taking things apart, then slept in until about 4, had breakfast and packed the 4 small things, and took off for the post office I usually go to. 

I was early enough to go over to Dai Thanh market mainly to find some little kitchen tool or something for digging the weeds out of the cracks in the pavement here. Ken doesn't like how my garden grows! He talked about bringing over some weed killer but I said I'll just use boiling water on 'em, costs next to nothing and really works. I found a little tool that will work for 99c and also found a can of cold tea for $1.25 or so, and got a package of peanut butter mochi for $2 so it was a pretty good time on the cheap. And now I can dig out the weeds and then put boiling water on the roots and they'll be gone. 

I went to H Mart next and picked out two things at the bakery, but it had just turned 7:00 and the gal told me that the 2 for 1 after 7 isn't cut and dried, it depends on the manager yadda yadda so are you going to buy that? I said No and put the things back, and went to the hot case at the back of H Mart and picked out two breaded hot dogs that cost me the same and no drama. 

I had those and the tea sitting out front. The Yeo's brand tea is pretty good since it's not just green tea, but green *jasmine* tea, so it's got a really nice flavor. 

I found plenty of packing stuff on the way back, then got in here and found some things to put out front for the scavengers. And spent some hours taking things apart. 

That Ken plays his financial game right up to the edge, really bugs me. Now he depends on me to bring in enough or I guess it's more of what I've been seeing; bills not paid, electricity shut off, etc. This final year or so is going to be a real slog. 

At least I made some noise when he was over about my having come over to his way of thinking, how I'm going to work for him until I'm 67 years old, my full retirement age, blah blah. How surprised he's going to be when I actually get the hell out of here as I'm turning 65, will Not Be My Problem. 

 

Mr. (real estate) Bubble

 Ken came by last night, even called be before and asked if I wanted a convenience store sandwich, I said Nah I'm OK (why spend whatever Godawful prices they charge now for a sandwich when I've got food here?) and he came over with a hot dog and a sugary donut for himself (I might have said yes to a hot dog and they weren't expensive it turns out) and I made him a tea.

He brought over beat-up rack mount oscilloscope with 3 plug-ins and some boxes, and I got my check but he dated it for Tuesday next week. It *should* be OK to deposit, he said, and I said my bank doesn't allow me to deposit a check before it's dated so no worries about my depositing it early. 

We talked about the usual random shit but also, I asked him how he figures he's going to vacation in Scotland in July or so, when he's having trouble (he still hasn't paid the landlord their $1000 what a stupid hill to die on) and by the way, how's the debt consolidation going? 

He said he's still working on it .... he mentioned the name of the company he's dealing with and that was a huge red flag because I'd never heard of them. I'm as advertising-saturated as any Good American, and there are a ton of companies out there and that he's going to a no-name rings all kinds of alarm bells with me. 

He said it's some setup where "They don't want the house until we're dead" so basically whatever they're calling it, it sounds like some kind of reverse-mortgage deal. 

No paying off the house which should have been long paid for. No leaving it to their children. Two sons and a daughter, one son doing well, daughter doing well-ish for now, one son doing OK I guess but he'd better get used to the idea of "urban camping". Something could happen with any of their kids and now, once they're gone, no family wealth to lean back on. 

Ken's wife has savings, but any medical problems and those will be gone quick. 

And also, Ken's leaning more on what I can bring in for him on Ebay than before. Before, this Ebay business just kind of puttered along, if the money was good that was good, if it wasn't so good it was still OK. But now he's playing things super close, hence being given a check last night, a Wednesday, and being told not to deposit it until next Tuesday. 

The end result of all of this is, as always, for me to sell things off, give things away, conserve my money as best I can, and be prepared to jet out of here. 

Ken's assuming things will keep going the way they've been since about 2010. Real estate going up and up and up some more. In reality the real estate bubble's pumped up even higher than it was in 2005. 

2006 was a slow deflation and that's when I had guys coming up to me at the ham radio flea market saying if they hadn't waited to sell their house that 6 months, they'd have gotten $50k more, etc. 

To put not too fine a point on it, we're setting up for another nice real estate crash. And for Ken, it doesn't even have to be a crash. He's got his finances stacked up like a Jenga tower where the slightest financial wind will tip it over. 

 

Steyer vs. Hilton vs. Becerra

 The full results are not in, and the information is hard to get, hard to find online and they're not talking about it much on the radio. But it looks like it's still undecided who will be the top two, to be voted on for California Governor in 2028. I voted for Steyer, because Becerra is endorsed by our evil electric company, PG&E, and Hilton is a baby-raping Republican. I'd rather not have a Sabbatean Frankist in office, thank you! 

Since I plan to be out of here 3/4 of the way through 2027, if not before, I won't get to vote on this. I want to be registered to vote back home in Hawaii so I can vote against my older sister's friends like the evil Ed Case, ASAP. Plus, since I'll be able to walk to jury duty since everything is *not* 30 miles from everything else, I look forward to being a juror. 

 

Election Day

 It's the mid-term election day. This is where we see if voting is enough. This is what people outside the US are saying; that people in the US think they can just sit back and vote, or sit back and sit out the vote and that's enough. What they're saying is we need to develop some guts, like the French. 

There's also this 250th anniversary thing going on, which the present regime is trying its best - and it's very good at these things - to make it something people will try their best not to remember. 

I was up all night packing I dunno, 35 things in 4 different boxes. These combination sales are really not much less time-consuming than if the things were all individually ordered by different customers. 

The talk today - anything to distract from the Epstein files - is about taking people off of Medicaid, which in this state is my beloved Medi-Cal. If the present regime gets it wish, this will kick in January 1st, 2027. I'll have to prove I work at least 80 hours a month, which translates to 20 hours a week. I certainly work that, but there might be some form Ken will have to fill out saying I work that many hours for him. 

I believe I'd be out from under the requirement once I turn 65, so just add that to the pile of magical things that happen like half-price bus fare and college courses for the cost of the student activity fee. 

I got the packages sent off and found a ton of packing stuff on the way back, then came back here and unloaded and went back out, this time without the trailer, to go to Lowe's for another ruler because the one I was using got stained with blue ink, and a new table cloth for a photography background because the grey one I've been using is still too dark I think. So I found a white one in HomeGoods. 

I had a couple of corn dogs (2 for 1) at H Mart too, and by the time I was back here it was almost 10, the equivalent of almost 1AM in any other town. 

 

What a hill to die on

 I woke up around 2:30 in the afternoon. Packing that 15-item order had taken a ton of time. 

I checked my email and yep, Ken's still not paid the $1005.00 to the landlord. I mean, the rent's like 4 grand, why has he chosen this hill to die on? 

I packed all the things I could and headed out to the post office and FedEx and called Ken from behind FedEx. He said he'll call the landlord tomorrow but right now he doesn't have enough money in his account. 

The thing is, as is required in  the Suburbian religion, he has to spend all the money he gets and a bit more. 

I have a ton of things to pack, something like 60 things, almost all going to 3-4 different buyers, plus I need to keep selling things off and getting ready for the big move back home, which may be with short notice. 

One nice thing is that I've made it all week without using any money from my bank account. All busking and selling off some flutes for $50. So maybe I'd have taken $50 out of the bank. The main thing is to save all I can, while I can. 

I'm rather proud of myself that last night, after busking at Whole Foods and going around with Petition Guy inside Whole Foods, I didn't spend a thing. There wasn't anything I needed, so I didn't spend anything. 

 

 

Zombiful afternoon

 I woke up around 3 or 3:30, packed one thing, and took off to take it to FedEx. I also had some stickers I'd made last night to "enhance" one of the political signs that had sprouted up. Sunday's a good day to do that, less people around. 

I was able to do both things, send off package and deploy stickers. I rode outside my usual route to find any signs by the particular politician and found a few more than I'd have otherwise, so that's good. 

But there were zombies just everywhere. The warm weather brings 'em out. My zombie avoidance skills had to be really on point. 

I got back here and decided my trip downtown would be dual duty. I had a ton of over the counter drugs and bandages and stuff I wanted to donate, so I put those in two large bags, and got the cornet and tip box and so on, and headed out. 

I wanted to donate the stuff to the "Peace And Justice Center" and I was happy to see a NO WAR WITH IRAN sign up front. You know the local Zionists hate 'em haha. They had their back yard fenced off so I just threw the bags over the fence. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and got settled in. I started busking at 8, and it went fairly well. No Feet and other beggars were not there, and while there were hinky types wandering around, I had my eye on 'em and they knew it, and by 9 they'd drifted away. 

I got a $1 tip right away, then tips were slow but trickled in. A young guy came up with a slice of pizza from Pizza My Heart and tried to give it to me, "Have you eaten today?" I said I was fine. He said he was giving out pizza to homeless people and I said he should look on Santa Clara street downtown because he'll find takers for his pizza.  

I wanted to make at least $20 since I'd spent about $14 at H Mart, and by 9 I had $19 and a Target gift card I was told had $5 on it. I wanted to hand it off to one of the hinky types but they'd all left. I decided I'd try to busk until 9, and made it to about 9:30. 

Whole Foods closes at 10 and I think there's a sort of attitude among the later shoppers that anyone out playing music that late deserves a tip. And Petition Guy showed up, not to set up his table or anything but to shop. So I packed up and accompanied Petition Guy while he shopped. He just picked out some yogurt and juice, something like that, and got in a discussion that might have been an argument with a Black lady who was shopping in that area too, that he knew by name. 

It came out that Petition Guy had been happy when Trump was first elected, but has since changed his mind, hard, like so many have. But she's under the impression that he's a Trump supporter. "She's got a bad attitude about everything", he said. I said, "Some people are like that", and said he should not worry about it. Truth is, he has a bad attitude also, which is why those two seek each other out to fight with. 

I got a chance to count up my money and I'd made $28, plus the $5 Target gift card which I'd given to Petition Guy. The ride home was peaceful, as it should be, as it was past 9PM which is the same as past midnight anywhere else. 

I was up all night, besides making and eating dinner, there was "playing with my food" by which I mean dividing up and freezing portions of beef and pork I'd bought. And then I packed an order of 15 things for one guy. He's bought a lot more than that, but doing batches of 15 or so things seems easiest and even then it's not easy because I've got three customers all making these big orders like this, then all the normal, 1-2 items orders, all of them all mixed up in order of when they were ordered. So it's a lot of keeping track of things. 

 

 

A quiet night

 Last night I got 30 things photo-ready, and decided to make it an "early" night and actually went to bed by 6AM. I stopped fiddling with things around 3-4AM and got some practice in. I need to practice every day and make progress, because being able to play music, and on a "difficult" instrument at that, is the major thing to differentiate me from the horde of NPCs staggering around. 

(These days I don't consider trumpet to be difficult. It doesn't use up strings, doesn't go out of tune, laughs at rain, doesn't need an amp, is as easy to carry around as a violin or ukulele and is much more durable, and there's a lot of neat trumpet repertoire.) 

Well before the illegal night club normally sets up, around 1AM, a cop car posted up at the entrance on Rogers Avenue with its lights on and the cop presence kept up until 4AM, so, long enough to make sure nothing happened and only a couple of potential customers came by on my side, circled around, and left. I'm certain they have something like a Ring camera set up that they can access online, so they can see if da copz are there and stay away. 

I started in listing the things and then after 8 or so, realized I needed to get cleaned up and go out busking if I'm going to. 

I got to Whole Foods at 7:45 and started right in. No Feet was there too, yelling at people to give him $5 or $10 and yes, he directed his yelling at me also, at least at one point. He has no memory of me from when we hung out and talked at the bus stop, I'm just another ambulatory dispenser of money, if he just yells persistently enough. 

So I just did my thing, and he did his thing for a bit, then the Wolverton-esque Stella showed up and wheeled him off, leaving a Target bag full of empty cans which I moved over by the trash can. 

Tips were slow but it was kind of cold and windy (official busking season isn't until June, and lasts until the last day of September, so four months which have not started yet). 

Plus pretty soon a couple of police cars were flashing their lights right across the street, then eventually a fire truck, and then an ambulance. 

I tried to last until 9:00, but by 8:45 I was not competing with the ambulance very well, it had gotten fully dark, and the zombies had started to show up. There was one, a tall Black guy, lurking, pacing up and down on the sidewalk behind me. And another, a crazy looking old White guy with an Amazon box under one arm, wandering around to the front of me to no purpose. 

I made $23, went in and got a couple things I'd have bought anyway, and so it's a nice feeling going out and practicing for an hour, buying things, and heading for home with $10 more in my wallet than when I'd started. 

I took a little ride around downtown to see what buskers or performers might be about, it being Saturday night. And there were none.  

 

Made it to Friday again

 I woke up just in time to get ready and go downtown to the bank, I made it a quick out-and-back mission. My idea of my balance and the bank's idea of my balance agreed to the penny so that's good. 

The guy at the bank and I got talking, as we often do, and he's no longer commuting down here from Sacramento, but lives something like a 12-minute drive away. We'd gotten talking about vehicle costs, and of course he drives a truck (his girlfriend or wife  I forget which will have her own car, and like 99.9% of traffic here it's one person in each vehicle) and I guess it's unthinkable for him to take the train or get a bike or something. Probably his girlfriend or wife, I forget which, would leave him and his PP would fall off, in no particular order. Gotta have that truck!  

I didn't take any money out by my usual method of cash-back at Whole Foods, since the name of the game is going to be to keep as much in there as I can, and get by day to day on busking income with maybe a little out of each pay check. 

I got back here with enough time to pack a few things and I'd filled in my ballot last night, and rode up to the post office to drop the things off. Then I rode up to Dai Thanh market for some things, picked up some packing stuff on the way back, and got back here. 

It was pretty crazy out there between the numerous zombies and the bloodthirsty drivers. In fact I learned a lesson a few days back. Normally when I'm at an intersection where there's a left turn lane on each side and the green light applies to the left turn lanes and the straight ahead lanes, I'll wait and made sure I have a car or preferably something big like a truck, going straight. That way, the attacking car or cars in the left turn lane have to go through them to get to me. But even that's not careful enough, as I learned the other day. 

I made the mistake of riding out ahead of the vehicle that was "running interference" for me, and the fact is, the blood-lust of the attacker is often such that they won't even look out for their own well-being; their urge to kill me is so strong that they don't care if they get T-boned, as long as they can cause my death. 

In this case, the attacker stopped, right in the perfect position to get T-boned by the vehicle running interference for me, but sadly, that vehicle stopped also. I'd have loved to see a car-ghoul get taken off the road, preferably on a stretcher with the sheet pulled up over its head. But no... In any case, I have to keep in mind not to go out ahead of the vehicle I'm using to block access to me by an attacker.  

 

 

Fucking Scotland wut?

 Since it rained so hard overnight and the forecast today was 60% rain, I decided I'll take my $800 check to the bank tomorrow (Friday). 

Ken told me he's "still working on" his debt consolidation. He's still not paid the $1004.95 to the landlord. What a hill to die on. But, he said my check should cash OK, and that he's planning to vacation to Scotland and I guess around England in July or August. 

There's the old saying that the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, is this something like a Boomer can keep coming up with money, mysteriously, longer than any normal (GenX like myself or younger) can conceive of?  

I'd made my noises about coming around to Ken's way of thinking and might as well work until my "full retirement age" of 67, yadda yadda. The *real* plan is to stay and save up money, and be prepared to leave when things get too bad, but hopefully holding out until my planning time of mid-September 2027 when I'll be turning 65. 

Now, I could go back to Hawaii and maybe between savings and earnings be OK and still not collect Social Security until I'm 67, but the main thing is eventually the planes *will* stop flying and I want to be home before then. 

If we're heading into a 1970s or worse Depression, I forecast a lot of people will leave Hawaii. 99% of them think the mainland is some kind of cheap paradise where you can buy a house at 1960s prices and the jobs all pay $50 an hour. Tons of them want to go to Las Vegas, Nevada, or Texas, or Florida. Again, Americans love and crave the stupid, and gravitate to where it's thickest. 

This will make rents and property prices even lower than they already are in Hawaii. After all, who wants to live where you're eating local foods and getting around by bicycle? The way I plan to live, even pre-Depression.