Trouble is, people are noticing.
I woke up at 1 in the afternoon and turned on the radio and even on NPR, they're talking about how the Southern Poverty Law Center's antics have caught up with them, It's been a simple case of "cobra farming". In India, years ago, they paid a bounty for cobras. The result was people started farming cobras to turn them in. The SPLC has been manufacturing the thing they claim to fight.
This is a standard small-hat tactic.
Woke up at 3, got some good sleep I guess except crazy dreams. I stayed within my "beer budget" which right now is 2 small bottles of Guinness and 6 cans of Lagunitas IPA (not the "little sumpin' sumpin' which is a bit higher in alcohol content) and I think I want to go to where I'm having 1-2 small bottles of Guinness a day because I swear, drinking it is making me feel better but more than that is just excess.
This way when I'm back in Hawaii even if I live in a no smoking/no drinking room, I can pop into a bar and have a pint if I've had a good say busking.
So yes I woke up at 3 in the afternoon, and looked at the .. drops falling down. Still raining. In fact a particularly heavy downpour came through.
Last night I'd photographed 30 things and listed 10 of them then kind of ran out of steam and called it a night. Today I am greeted by an email from the landlord ... we owe 'em something like $1004.95. They actually used Gemini which got the math a bit wrong, they come up with $1004.97 and I calculated it and got $1004.42 but ... I count money like an engineer, not an accountant and I'm not going to bring it up.
They want Ken to drop by their office with a check by Friday. I'm nervous because I've got the paycheck Ken had dropped off Friday night, and want to deposit it but it's really rainy and stormy out there. It's supposed to clear up tomorrow in the afternoon, and I plan to get that check into the bank as soon as I can because Ken does things moment by moment, financially speaking. If I don't deposit the check, Ken will assume the money's still in his bank and something will bounce - either the check to the landlord or my check.
I wrote to my pal Pat in Pahoa, not that I want to come stay with him, but just as someone to talk to and also he might know some people back on Oahu. I need to write to a couple of people too. Email is not reliable these days, but the US mail is still working.
The way things are going, I'm leaving anywhere from mid-September of this year to mid-September of next year. If we're kicked out when our lease ends on August 31st, Ken's going to go into "frantic mode" and I don't want to be around for that. I'll go stay in a hotel, finish off my final affairs and buy plane tickets, and leave.
So between now and August 31, I need to sell off everything I don't need, get a good set of luggage, set up an account with the Navy Federal Credit Union because they're in Hawaii and here in SF, and I will use them for my Social Security check to go into. Once I've got my Real ID done, I'll set my present bank to stop sending me physical bank statements because I never read 'em anyway, and their main use is as something proving I live at my present legal address.
I'm really hoping I can arrange to "land" with someone in Hawaii. Pat was trying to arrange that with our friend Dave but Dave turned out to be useless. But he may know other people. Otherwise the good old Waikiki Monarch it is.
I don't know what's changed in Ken's finances to make things so difficult lately. I've theorized it's the new SUV his wife bought, but if she bought it with her own money then that's not it. But another thing has come to mind: Home insurance has spiked recently. That could easily have risen by a thousand or more per month. I suppose it doesn't matter what's made Ken's finances shaky, only *that* they are shaky and I need to base my actions on that.
I have thought long and hard about just staying here. I'd not have the moving expenses I have been saving for and thus would have a good "nut" in the bank. There's a plethora, there I said it, plethora, of busking locations. The weather by and large is very healthy (it's the lower humidity and on average it's cooler than the weather in Hawaii). I'd still have Ken and Suzy as friends, although at their ages they could blow away in the wind in soon.
But there's an underlying thing that's been lurking like a whale below the surface. I'm not local to here. I'm not even local to Orange County down South, and certainly not to Los Angeles county, even if I was born there. People talk about where they want to high school, places their worked their first jobs, things they saw changing, all those things that give you a sense of the history of your home, and I feel none of that here on the mainland. My schools, my college time, jobs, places I lived growing up, different experiences, are all on the dear old island of Oahu.
There's an excellent discussion on Reddit about this, something like "Growing up haole" and it seems like being local, local-ness, matters much more now, and race, while still always very important and life-defining anywhere in the US, isn't the only consideration. Being local is things like going to school there, preferably during your formative years, knowing the local places, knowing the local cuisine, etc. Being local is not having A/C and never thinking about missing it. It's knowing all the bus lines. It's knowing how to live without a lot of money, because most of the local people never had money and a huge portion of them came over as plantation workers.
It's things like body language, tones of speech, even what I'll call "eye language". In Japanese culture there's a great emphasis on being able to "read the air" and this has carried over to Hawaii local culture. This is what can get you pegged as Haole, as in mainland non-local haole. There's a huge sense of entitlement with those types, that I've seen even here on the mainland with regard to Hawaii.
I'm not sure how to describe this, but two notable examples: One, a nice younger guy who rides a cargo bike and I've met several times by the bike racks at Whole Foods. I made the mistake of mentioning perhaps retiring back to Hawaii where I'd grown up, and I wish I could recall his exact words, but the feeling was something like, "You'd better not screw up my portion of Hawaii". I stopped mentioning Hawaii at all around him. The second example is the guy who owns "Skewers And Brew" downtown. I mentioned going back to Hawaii and he immediately sort of demanded information from me, where should he live on Oahu that's high-end, where his wife can do her shopping trips etc. I said they'd like it best in Hawaii Kai or Kahala, the two most expensive parts of the island and nice and upper-end. It was his demanding information like he was owed a place there that was really weird.
So, here on the mainland, not only didn't I get to talk about where my first jobs were or where I went to high school or fun things I did growing up, but I couldn't talk about where I *had* gone to high school and where/what fun things I'd done growing up. Because then I'd have to say I grew up in Hawaii and then things would get really weird.
He made it to 100 years, sugoi! He was governor of Hawaii from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, so basically he was The Governor from when I was old enough to think about such things until the year I left Hawaii for the supposed greener pastures of the mainland.
It felt like he was the default, the guy who'd be in his position until he was carried out feet first, but he was not actually governor all that long, and the feeling was that he'd always be voted in, no one could run against him yadda yadda. I think it was just the griping of butthurt haoles who were irked that a Japanese guy was governor. In reality he kept being voted in because he was a good guy.
Doesn't it just figure; I didn't read up on him until today, having just learned that he made it to 100 and now hopefully is in the Pure Land. He was a good guy; born in Honolulu, went to a high school that I actually went to for a short while, served as a translator for the US Army in WWII, got his college degree on the GI Bill when it was really good for something, and went into politics.
The write-ups on various Hawaii news sources says it all, he helped preserve a lot of land for agriculture or nature preservation, etc. He was just a good, competent governor. I guess the worst thing he presided over was the heptachlor scandal. This was a pesticide that was turning up in locally produced milk over the legal limit. Ariyoshi's slogan was "Quiet, effective" and someone made T-shirts with the chemical diagram of heptachlor and the words "quiet, effective" haha.
I was living in a rooming house and going to college classes, working, a typical broke young adult experience. My room mates told me to pour out my milk, and I said that one more carton of milk isn't going to make any difference (I'd just bought a half-gallon and I drank a lot of milk in those days). I think the "scandal" was simply that Ariyoshi didn't act on the issue as quickly as some felt he should have.
Yesterday was just about the same as the day before. Went to FedEx to mail stuff off. Collected boxes and other shipping materials. Got back here then rode downtown to the Amazon place for some bubble mailers, then to Walmart.
I'd looked for Farmer John sausages to no avail there about a week ago, but this time I wanted to check out the cheese, and found for some reason, a huge amount of bacon and every Farmer John product imaginable, over at that end of the store. So while all I'd originally wanted was some Pledge, which I did get, I also got salami, cheese, and yep, a little box of Farmer Johns.
Then, the ride back. I'd looked on the map and decided I'd take Alma, the major cross street near Walmart, West until I ran into Vine, then ride that back to Santa Clara street and to Whole Foods. Well, that worked, but Vine's a one-way for a good part of it and I ended up pooping along on the sidewalk through this homey little neighborhood area for blocks upon blocks. I think I need to go North on Almaden then jog over to Vine which gets re-named to Almaden and becomes two-way and that's the way to do it.
I got over to Whole Foods and Petition Guy was there. I handed him more tape, as I had 3/4 of a roll of it I'd never use. He's about done with petitions so I may not see him for a while.
I went in and got a slice of pizza, but it was a big one with, somehow, what amounted to half of another slice kind of attached to it. The guy at the pizza counter agreed that yeah, that counts as one slice... And a beer. I ate upstairs because it's kind of nice up there.
Then I went back in and got more beer to take home, and I believe I stopped in at U-Save for some Guinness too but I'm not sure. It's been tons of riding and tons of busy-ness, trying to get my packing materials stocked up well again, and trying to work things around the rain that's coming.
So, last night instead of listing things, I packed everything that had to go and I was glad for the packing supplies I'd just gotten in. Rain was supposed to come in "after 11AM" so all I could do was try to get to sleep and then get up early enough to get out of here shortly after waking up.
I woke up around 12:30, and it wasn't raining although the sky was full of interesting and dramatic clouds. It felt like everything was holding its breath. I loaded up the bike, with the large box that wouldn't fit in the plastic tub everything else was in, in a trash bag on top of the tub. And rode off.
I stayed perfectly dry. Everything was postal service and I dropped the things off there, then went to 99 Ranch for a couple of things, then rode back here without looking for packing stuff or anything, because I thought the way everything's holding its breath, maybe I can get downtown and deposit last week's paycheck and have a chance at getting more bubble mailers.
I did, however, take a little jog by the natural foods place that puts things out, and got about 10 more Ritter Sports, hazelnut, and a bunch of other cookies, candy bars, etc. I just put everything in the tub, and put the empty cardboard boxes etc. in the dumpster.
Right as I pulled up to the door here, I felt large rain drops. Well, I'll pull the bike in and see how this goes, I can still go downtown if it's just a little sprinkle... I thought.
But once I had the bike and everything in, it gradually started raining more and more, and now it's rainy and stormy out there and I'm staying in. The check can wait.
In other news, Our Most Zionist President wants banks to monitor citizenship, and if one is not a citizen, one is locked out of their bank account. A "Real ID" is specifically excluded as a proof of citizenship. A passport is OK, but if the information on your ID doesn't match the info on your birth certificate, it's difficult at best to get a passport. Examples are women who have married or divorced and thus had one or more name changes, or anyone who'd decided to change their name for any reason, trans people who have changed their gender marker, etc.
Under this executive order by the pedo pants-shitter in chief, I'd be OK and Ken would be OK, but what about Ken's wife? She's under a different last name than what would be on her birth certificate. They went to Italy on vacation not all that long ago, so she should have a current passport and even an old one is proof of citizenship, so she might be OK. But this means is you can't be sure if you don't have a passport.
Maybe this is a ploy, or more like an unforeseen consequence, that tons more Americans will get passports.
I packed things, got 'em to FedEx, had fried chicken at Krispy Chicken, no, wait, Chicken King, no that's not the latest name... Chicken Out. They still have Chicken King on their computer screen too haha. Delicious, and halal also.
I did a very thorough search for packing materials got a fair load, and stopped at Tom's to say hi and drop off some eggs I'd found behind H Mart, and Tom was in a talkative mood so we hung out for a while.
I got back here and re-configured the bike, and rode down to Walmart to get things, except I forgot the Pledge. Darn it.
I came back from Wally's and went to Whole Foods and by this time it was about 9:30. Petition Guy was there and I gave him a new roll of that blue masking tape I'll never use, and we hung out and talked and I got beer, then rode home.
By the time I got back here, it had to be 10:30 at the earliest. I decided to pack things to send out today using FedEx even for the small ones (they have a service where they hand things off to the post office, but rain's coming and I'm trying to avoid being out in the rain). That pretty much took up the night.
The illegal night club had a busy night but thanks to the fence being closed, it was no problem here.
Bill Gates is not exactly an exemplary human being, but back in the 90s I read a book about him and one thing that stuck with me was the idea of the "bozo bit". A bit being the most basic element of computation, a thing that it either a 1 or a 0, on or off.
The idea was, Gates would interact with someone and if they turned out to be a bozo, IE unreliable, unintelligent, etc., in some way a waste of time, the "bozo bit" flipped and he gave up on that person.
Ken didn't come by last night even though I'd called him in the afternoon and he'd said he'd come by. So he just plain forgot, or is juggling money such that he's had to pay something else and didn't have money left over for me (after all I'd told him if it comes to it, pay the electric company before he pays me because w/o electricity I can't get any work done) or something.
I'm pretty sure the bozo bit idea didn't require one knowing why the other was a bozo, just determining that they're a bozo.
I was thinking the 3rd car (SUV) Ken and his wife bought might have made their finances suck. Being devout Suburbians, they have to have N+1 vehicles and there are two of them in their McMansion, so a 3rd vehicle is as necessary to them as fish on Friday is to a devout Catholic. And as per AAA figures, it costs a bit over a thousand a month to own and operate the average vehicle in the US.
But, firstly, the SUV is his wife's and she may have bought it with her own money. She may have even paid cash.
Secondly, when Ken, with my help, got out of the storage units here and into that one large one in Milpitas, he decreased his expenses by about a thousand a month.
So, I don't know, Ken's just bad at managing money.
And our numbers are really good lately. We're talking 9-10 thousand dollar months. And it's not like Ken's buying the stuff I'm selling; he's got so much stuff it's just been drawing down on the huge pile of stuff.
But this happens, where a business will be doing really well but the expenses are too high or things are mismanaged and boom! They're out of business.
Plus there's that August 31st "deadline" where a new lease must be signed. Whether the rent's raised or lowered depends on how good and reliable a tenant we are.
I've said it ad nauseam but I really want to hang in here and white-knuckle it until September of 2027. I'll be turning 65 and will have another year of savings. But if we're thrown out of here, or given notice, on 31 August this year, that gives me two weeks to mid-September, and I can gather up my stuff - just box it up! - and throw it into the storage across from Tom's and sleep at his place or in a hotel while I sell off everything I haven't sold off already, figure out what I'm going to use for luggage, etc.
This is where Tom can be a real resource, because he flies to Alaska a lot, and I should pick his brain about luggage. I think I want something to carry on, and something big that can swallow up the cornet in its box, the cornet gig bag, clothes, etc.
It's too bad in a way I'm not going to New Orleans, because then it's just hop on the Amtrak. But then I'd end up picking piss-soaked weed roaches off of the sidewalk, smoking crack, etc. No. Thanks.
I packed a few more small things, gave myself a haircut, and took off almost an hour earlier than I'd usually take off for downtown. I dropped off trash, dropped off food things at the little free library, went to the Amazon place for bubble mailers (only got a few) then went to my bank and checked my balance. It was OK, so the last check I got some Ken hadn't bounced.
I went over to Whole Foods and got "a small snack" of chicken, a little mashed potatoes, and broccoli, and a tall can of Lagunitas IPA because they were out of Guinness pints again. I had a few rolls of masking tape with me to give to Petition Guy but he wasn't there. I remembered him saying he was about done; that almost all of the petitions had enough signatures now.
Basically not being paid, between buying and cash backs I took about $200, half of one paycheck, out of my bank account. That's my basic plan; put $400 in the bank each week, spend $200, and the other $200 is savings.
I got a 12-pack of Lagunitas but they didn't even have the six packs of the sour little bottles of Guinness. A perfect time to check out "Kuik Stop", I thought. This is a liquor store on Taylor street that I've gone past a ton of times, and seems to be very busy and popular with the ahem, "urban camping" crowd. Maybe their prices are really good, I thought.
So I went over there and checked it out and they didn't even have Guinness, and had your typical bodega type groceries, the cheapest beers, and nothing had prices on it. Run by Indians it seems. Meh.
I rode over to First Street and to U-Save where I got my six-pack of sour little bottles and a bag of pork rinds, and rode back here.
I found, on my desk, my pay check dated today, some mail, and one of those awful gun magazines "Concealed Carry" that Ken subscribes to. So, Ken was probably juggling a lot of things yesterday and just plain forgot. He *does* forget things. And I can deposit the check on Monday.
After the IRS cashes my check my bank account will be down quite a bit. This is why I'm really hoping things will be stable enough for me to sweat out an additional year here, saving money.
I put things away and put the trailer on the bike, and a big box that had to go to FedEx on the trailer and rode up to FedEx and dropped that off, and bought stuff in H Mart.
On the way back I hunted for packing stuff and found some so that was good. I also found two loaves of French bread which I dropped off at Tom's place.
A funny thing, though: On my ride out with the big box, I'd seen something rectangular and shiny on the bike lane so I stopped and picked it up. It was a package of Indian cigarettes, and they were all in there except one. I put it in my pocket.
So after I'd picked up the 2 loaves of French bread, I was riding around the back side of the strip mall out onto Brokaw, and there's a red truck with a topper that someone's obviously living in. It's been there for weeks, and I saw the person moving around, doing something. She shouted something out, to me or to whom I had no idea, but it sounded similar to "smoking" which reminded me of the cigarettes. So I circled around and asked her if she smokes and sure she does (we were now talking through the constant yapping of her small dog) and accepted the cigarettes thankfully, then went into how she's shouted to me "but you rode by so fast" about some *snow tires* she has that are for sale.
Like, who sees a bicyclist with a trailer with a plastic tub on it, in warm weather, in an area where it never snows, and thinks, "Aha! That's just the kind of person who's always looking for snow tires!".
I said I didn't need 'em, that in the snow on my bike if it gets thick enough I just walk it, really. And got the fuck out of there because who knows what other random things she was going to try to sell me.
This is a classic example of a certain type of homeless person, who always has this, that, and the other, for sale. Always hustling. The goods might even not be stolen. They could always put the things on Ebay or Craig's List. But that takes being organized and shipping things out on time, and in the case of Craig's List that's often where people look for things that have been stolen.
But snow tires.... that's just so fucking random.
Well, tax papers and big check (just a hair under $3300) sent off, back here blah blah.
Ken had forgotten his check book (he switches between his truck and his Toyota Camry) so he's supposed to drop off my check today or tonight.
After he left I got to work packing things until I pooped out around 4AM then it was beer and YouTube before bed.
It's windy and blustery and supposed to rain on Sunday so no busking this weekend but hopefully some good practices.
I watched a wonderful BBC documentary from 1968 about their national band championship and the band "Black Dyke" won. They had/have bands the way companies in the US had/have softball teams. Even at the company I was with for a while, we had a guy who was a total goof-off but he could do no wrong because he was a good softball player. Even fucked up his ankle sliding into a base and didn't get fired for it.
The band musicians in the documentary were amazing, and playing amazing pieces. No doubt they could all read music like it's nothing. And it was all brass, from low tubas to the smallest Eb cornets; I didn't even see any drums. And apparently you couldn't just set up a band, the musicians had to be with some company or coal mine or something.
Now I really wish I'd hung onto the DVD of "Brassed Off" that was given to me by an old friend who was originally from Sheffield in England and was a regular at the electronics swap meets. It's not on YouTube any more, only bits of it, then you can watch it if you pay. Not putting my financial information on the internet, thanks! But at least among the snippets that can be watched is the scene where the gal plays, as the conductor calls it, "Aranjuez, or as you guys know it, 'Orange Juice'".
It's a great piece, and I might work on really getting it down. Of course being a dumb ear player, that, for me, will involve memorizing it then practicing to play the "recording" of it that's in my head. Just having the music in my head seems to work OK for a busking level musician like me, and it's not like I'm aspiring to play for the London Phil.
I can't play "Ave Maria" any more. I really put some work into that one. It was the first real piece I taught myself to play and I really worked on the thing, would go over it in my head as I rode my bike around the Gilroy countryside; a real Van Gogh landscape out there. I played it for the land owner when he got back from his vacation and he wasn't impressed - he's only impressed by things he's done, not anyone else.
But it was "my" piece and I played it at least once every busking session and now I can't play it because The Least Christian Man In The World has adopted it as "his" song, even "dancing" to it with all the grace of a drunken walrus. So it's dead to me now.
But "Orange Juice" is a dandy. I've played bits of it just from hearing it from memory, off the radio or something, I think bits of Miles Davis having used bits of it, and it's gone over well.
Financially, things are ... scary. We're doing well on Ebay, 9 and 10 grand months. But I think Ken has an "N+1" problem. N+1 refers to the rule in the US that however many people, N, live in a residence, there must be N+1 cars. A while back, maybe a year ago? - Ken bought his wife a new SUV. It might have been bought with her money, since she has some, and she'd traded in a car her dear departed sister had left her, a car she referred to as a "tin can" and having ridden in it, that's what it felt like to be in. But that "tin can" probably only brought a few thou in trade-in, and there's no way she paid in cash for the rest for the new SUV. That's not the American Way. Nope she financed it, guaranteed. And it costs at least a thousand a month to own and operate the average car here in the US.
So they're shelling out at least an extra thousand a month so Suzy can tootle to the antique store and the market, and their finances are stretched to the extent that I think that might have tipped things right to the edge.
I say this because my older sister has a theory that what lost us our Portlock Road house in Hawaii was a real estate agent lady who buddied up to my father enough to learn about his finances, and urged him to buy a sports car, a Datsun 240Z, and that was just enough extra expense to tip our finances to the point where we had to sell the house and move to a much cheaper house up in Pupukea (don't worry we got foreclosed out of that one not many years later). Real estate agents in Hawaii are bloodthirsty.
I had two big things to pack which exhausted my supply of actually large boxes and most of my bubble wrap etc. I also packed a number of small ones. I got going the usual time; Ken had not come by with my check. That's life in high tech. I wish I'd put all that energy and money into learning how to tap-dance or something actually useful.
I dropped off the things, got some things in 99 Ranch and H Mart, and really looked for packing materials on the way back, coming back with a good load. I called Ken to tell him an air compressor he brought over last night works, and just incidentally ask if he's coming over tonight. He says he is.
I got my taxes done ... call it 1 hour to print out all the needed forms, 1 hour to do the actual filling in and a calculation or two (much of it was the same) and 1 hour to write out my copies to keep for myself (easier than taking everything to FedEx to photocopy the papers) and write out a check and fill out the form V for Voucher and put it all in an envelope etc.
The big bugaboo is done, and I think I paid a couple-few hundred less than last year. I'd rather pay the couple-few hundred a year and have an actual government rather than the banana republic shit we have now.
Once I had everything in the large envelope, it was 5:30 and I took off out of here, dropped it off at the post office and bought some more stamps from the machine because (a) the only reason I had stamps was I had some that someone had left out by the trash at 99 Ranch, and (b) I like the stamps the machine prints out, they look neat.
Then I went up to Dai Thanh market and got things, bought some beer in the liquor store there which turns out to have pretty decent prices, then went to the Filipino market for an onion and checked out the 7-11 and the liquor store there, both duds. Then went to 99 Ranch for a tall can of Korean IPA they sell, then went home, stopping at the EMT school place where I picked up a big, "luggable" IBM laptop that might be good to put on Ebay because some of the old ones are "collectibles".
So I got in here and realized I hadn't even taken my trash with me, I'd been so intent on getting that envelope with my tax papers (and check) to the post office, but there's a dumpster out there tonight so I put the trash in there, plus went into the other, closer to me, trash enclosure and took out a box I'd thrown in there some days ago, put a bag of stuff that fit into it in it, and also grabbed a very big cardboard tube, 7 feet long or so, I'm pretty sure I put in there ages ago, and put those into the dumpster also. I'm not going to clean up the pile of stuff others put in there because I've learned that when I do, more just shows up. But I can sure take care of things I'm responsible for.
I cooked dinner and did odd things, and Ken came by. He'd forgotten his check book so he's coming by tomorrow again to give me my check, and my 1099 too. I said I have so much packing and shipping to catch up on that if I'm doing things right, I'm not going to the bank until Friday anyway.
Ken had brought by a very large Subway ham and cheese sandwich and gave me half. Granted I put in extra mustard and mayo, but it was surprisingly good.
I asked Ken if he'd gotten caught up on things ... apparently he still owes the landlord the $500-odd for that "NNN" fee, which isn't going to help our relations with the landlord. And he says he's got enough for me but is worrying over "some other expenses". That's a bit worrying.
At least he brought a letter saying I'm still on Medi-Cal which is great. And a voter registration thing and I'd been wanting one of those. I was hoping I'd take care of it when I went to get my "Real ID" but this is good, I can just mail this one in.
Yes, getting my "Real ID" will be the next thing.
I don't see much busking going on this weekend. I haven't been practicing, and the weather's been very blustery and cold. There's an inch of rain forecast for Monday.
So go out and buy the book or better yet pirate it somehow.
Anyway ....
No I didn't work on taxes last night, I packed stuff. And tried to get to bed early, which ended up a bit past 6AM anyway. It's a fight to move my schedule earlier.
I got up at 2:30 or so, packed some more things ... and Ken's not updated his financial information on Ebay so his payments are on hold right now.
There have been more financial troubles like this in the last month or two than in years before. Many years. I really need to get on the stick and be prepared to jump. As I've mentioned, our present lease here runs out on August 31st.
I'm not going to re-iterate my plan to leave mid-September of 2027 to Ken; I'm going to just keep on keeping on here, keeping the numbers good. And they are good lately.
The thing is, once I lose (or leave) this place, I'm going to start burning money. I'd rather burn said money back in Hawaii getting settled back in at home, and can't think of any good reason to stick it out here in the most expensive part of the country.
New Orleans is, interestingly, one of the cheapest parts of the country; a place kind to veterans and trumpet players. But with an absolutely stupendous crime rate, hurricanes, and I'm afraid I'd end up smoking crack, picking marijuana butts off of the piss (horse, and everything else) covered sidewalks, and somehow alienating every other musician who plays anything from the French horn to the kazoo, because that's what happens, right? I'm thinking it's one of the few places that are actually worse than Pahoa, Hawaii.
There are some Soviet and some Jewish prisoners. The commander tells the Soviets, "Take up those shovels and kill the Jews" and the Soviets say "No, we won't do that". So then he tells the Jews, "Take up those shovels and kill the Soviets" and the Jews pick up the shovels enthusiastically. The commander says, "See? This is why we hate them".
- joke/proverb told in Russia in WWII.
What makes it "funny" is, the Soviets, although officially being atheist, would have come from a Christian background, the story of the Good Samaritan and all that, and would have hesitated to kill fellow human beings. But to Jews, anyone not Jewish is an animal, and would think no more of it than killing fish or chickens etc.
Anyway .... interestingly, last night the police came around to the illegal night club again, or at least one car, which sat there with lights flashing until it was far enough into the 2-5AM operating hours that it prevented a big night for them, or even just a small gathering.
I don't know who closed and locked the gates across the parking lot, and me, I'm not going near the gate, the lock, etc. The thing is, those no-good-niks have cameras here and there, these days any car can be assumed to possibly be as festooned with cameras as a Tesla, they could have a sneaky Ring anywhere, etc.
So I just stayed in here after getting in from my ride downtown. And ... while I packed a lot of things, I also got involved in listening to some interesting podcasts on YouTube so I found a big test instrument to take apart so I'd at least be doing something useful, and fortunately the thing - a real treasure chest full of gold plated boards - didn't have super tight screws like many do, and I got that done in record time.
Finally I was tired, fuggit. I drank more beer and went to bed.
I woke up kind of early for me, about 1:30 in the afternoon. Hell, if this illegal night club isn't in my damn lap 3 days out of 7 of the week, I might be able to get away with going to bed earlier and being up early enough to try things like making and keeping appointments with the DMV and the SSA, even busking at lunch times and at farmer's markets.
But today it was all about shipping, and I packed more things, and actually had everything dug out of the warehouse and packed, surprising myself. One big order I was sure I'd not have time to do, but decided I'd get started, and astonished myself by getting it done in half an hour. Among the things I had packed were two that probably should have gone out Friday and had for sure to go out today. So I was pretty happy.
It's cold and blustery out there! I hit the usual stops, first FedEx to offload the larger boxes in the big load I had teetering on the bike trailer, then the post office for the small things, then did some shopping in 99 Ranch, then over to H Mart.
Today's freebee: 2 bags of lychees I gave to Tom, because I know he likes them. They actually looked too good to toss out.
I rode back here and got back to work, packing more things, because more things have to go out tomorrow.
Well, the Hungarian elections are over, Orban has conceded to .... what's his name. But this is really important because it's an election, rules were followed, people voted, and the wannabee dictator has stepped down. I hope we Americans can do things this well.
Last night was interesting. The cleaning guys next door had their Mexican music playing loud-ish but not too loud, until past 2AM, Meanwhile the illegal night club started their "day" but there's a twist.
Someone, I don't know who, had closed the gate dividing the parking lot between the two buildings. This had happened during the day, and there's been a truck loading, or unloading, or something, some boxes or something, at the illegal night club.
So 2AM rolls around and the gate's closed, and pretty soon the pimps and ho's and johns show up, but ... the gate's closed and they're not up to park on this side and then sneak around the end of the fence. It's a narrow passage and dark and I think people pee there, and that's just not happening. So they'd just turn right around and drive out of this side.
It was plenty busy on the other side, but because they weren't over here, it was nunna my bizniz, and thus no need to call the cops. This ... could work.
But, at 4:30AM suddenly 4 or 5 cop cars swoop in, sirens and lights going. All I can think is that, well, all it takes is one shooting or stabbing and that'll bring 'em in like that. And it could even be a shooting, because however much people talk about having a "9 mil" there are a ton of "pimp guns" out there, little .25 and .32 ACP automatics, and this is just the crowd they'd be popular with.
That whole building is hinky as hell. The unit on the end, officially a cosmetics supplier or who knows what, always seems to have scumbag types on bikes loitering around. So maybe it's the next place the cops are going to focus on.
I got up at 2:30 this afternoon and the gate is still closed.
I had breakfast, looked for things, packed a thing I finally found and gave up on the other one, and decided I wanted to go downtown. I packed up my trash and headed out, dropped trash & beer cans off, then went down to the Amazon place for bubble mailers and got 5, then a nice guy asked if I wanted his, but needed help opening them (one was textbook easy, the other got some quick Swiss Army Knife work) and thus I got two more. Nice guy!
I decided that although I'm dressed really working-class, this would be a fine time to try out the sausage rolls at Trials Pub. But they were closed and so was Teskey's next door. Oh, well. I rode over to Nijiya and got veggies and some very thin Japanese spaghetti noodles, angel hair really. They had it in three sizes, like buying leads for a mechanical pencil. 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8mm. Hilarious. Also the package I got has this huge "3" on the front which led me to believe it's 3 servings, which at $7-odd is a bit steep, but once I got it home I realized it's 5 servings which isn't bad.
My disappointment with "Tangle" oil and garlic flavor led me to buy this, since it's probably just as easy to make actual oil and garlic angel hair pasta as the imitation. I also got some overpriced Kraft "Parmesan" cheese because it's got good flavor and is perfect for things like this, and along with the other stuff was $17 and change.
I then rode down to U-Save Liquors where I-Save. Their price for a 6-pack of Guinness bottles is pretty good, and they have Baken-Ets pork rinds which I've decided are my favorite, even beating out Da Heo brand. That was another $17 and change.
Then I just rode back here. Avoiding zombies all along, of course. Lots of 'em out there staggering around. It wasn't exactly warm out, but the recent warm weather seemed to "liven" them up.
It looks like the gates between the two buildings, which look the same but have different owners, are going to be closed for a while. I'm almost to the point where I'd say the other building is an "attractive nuisance" in that there's the illegal night club, the really sketchy unit on the end with the scumbags hanging around, and the car-repair place which might be OK or might be sketchy. I like to think it's just hot rod guys who like to work on their cars, plus their family/friends/coworkers getting routine car stuff done, but all it takes is one flake-O to decide it's a good base to sell drugs from or something, and there you go.
I woke up at 5 in the afternoon or so. Last night I'd photo'd 20 things and listed 10 of them, did various little time-consuming things around here, read too much Reddit as usual, and watched the antics of the illegal night club crowd and made my usual call to the cops to report the antics.
I think the phone calls carry more weight than the reports to the police suspected prostitution and human trafficking web site, so I'll just keep with the calls.
I need to widen the options though. I still need to call Zoning about this, and also call Vice/Special Investigations and see if there's an ongoing case, as I've been told. If so, I can ask them how I can be the best help.
Those fuckers are noisy as hell. Loud convos in Spanish right on the other side of my door, idling cars same, loud music although that will typically only last a few minutes as they get tired of it too, etc.
I mean, long in the past, I actually asked ol' Dr. Allison about renting an office upstairs at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital to live in, or I think I was asking about living there for free in exchange for some work, and he wanted to charge me rent which I didn't like the idea of at the time. I think it was $200. Laughably cheap, in other words. And it shows I was willing to put up with the noise of living directly above an animal hospital with kennels, that's right on Kapiolani Blvd.
So I dunno, I'm not paying rent here.
I'd sent an email last night to my pal on the Big Island, telling him to let me know when the Amazon gift card gets there. I got the reply today, he got it "weeks ago". In other words, the letter actually traveled through reverse time and got to him a week or two before I sent it. Neat trick. I replied that it may have felt like a few weeks due to the crazy weather there, but I'd only sent it a week or two ago. I'm glad he got it though, and he thanked me.
The weather there *has* been crazy, with lots of flooding. So in my reply I regaled him with my account of The Flooding Of The Haleiwa River Basin During The 1970s Gas Crisis. Good times.
The present flooding is worse, though, from the sound of it. And there's more beach erosion etc. Being back there is going to be wild. I"m going to want to go over that island with a fine-toothed comb. Having lived and worked all over the island, when I say I just about know every coconut tree there, it doesn't feel too far from the truth.
I've investigated to death, I think, all the ways I might leave the US and there just isn't anything available to me other than perhaps a desperation "vacation" somewhere like Thailand or Viet Nam where I connive some way to never come back. And that's only if things get really bad here; I mean worse than they are now. Like, I'm going to be deported to a concentration camp for being insufficiently Zionist bad.
I'm coming around to the theory that a lot of the stuff the Nazis did, the Nazis didn't actually do. What we "know" about Germany in WWII is largely a constructed world, a sort of lore that's agreed upon and this is vigorously enforced by people who make a huge profit from it.
Look at other constructed worlds. What witches do and how. The world of Star Trek or The Hobbit. Or King Arthur And The Table Round. Everyone knows the basic configuration and furniture of these worlds, and they're utterly unreal.
I believe our knowledge of "The Holocaust" (you know, the thing where Germans are accused of doing what Jews are actually doing in the Middle East right now, with a higher daily kill rate) is largely composed of projections; of things the Jews actually do to their enemies or "inferiors" (and to them, all Gentiles are inferiors) or would if they got the chance.
Author David Irving has researched all of this and of course there's a kernel of truth, the way a Faberge' egg might have an actual eggshell in there somewhere. But the enbroidery upon this kernel of truth is fantastic.
Hell this imaginary world even comes with its own invented language, "Modern Hebrew", kind of like Esperanto or Klingon, or the "pig Latin" my parents use to use from time to time.
And now this parasitical group, which our Founding Fathers innocently allowed to live here and establish a foothold, then power, then more power ... now feels it's powerful enough to strike. Thus what's going on in Iran. Thus new laws against anyone even looking sideways at one of The Chosen, hence the ending of the educations of college students, the ending of professional careers. This is not The Klan or The John Birchers or the DAR doing this, this is the people who did a damned fine job of brainwashing most of us that they were cute and cuddly and studious and not at all violent or genocidal, no sir!
I can't believe I was going to join this group. I was going to the things, singing the songs (which almost all were, I don't know how, "settler" sounding, to where I could see the covered wagons cross the prairie when I sang them) doing the studies. I aced the Reading Hebrew class and at the end of it knew more than the teacher.
And I was doing what's necessary to make such a move, which is to basically stick my fingers in my ears and go "LA LA LA!" and only looks at the news and world events from inside a bubble that's exclusive to Jews and useful idiots like evangelical Christians.
I'm surprised I went as far as I did, because I've survived, especially my rather dangerous childhood and young adulthood, by having a acute bullshit filter. Finally I could just not do it. I could not make myself believe that "All Palestinians are guilty even children and babies". I could not believe that Jews were chosen by anyone, or special except in the way Professor Kevin MacDonald has researched, which is as an evolved parasitical group.
The idea of One God, the idea of a God, is only good for motivating your own group to go and kill another group, or Anyone Who Isn't You.
The equations, as I put it, don't need a God. A parallel I see is how what we call Maxwell's Equations today, are more properly the Maxwell-Heaviside Equations. The original Maxwell's version had a bunch of extra variables and were much more complicated. Genius nutball Oliver Heaviside distilled them down to their essentials and a bunch of those variables were not needed at all.
This is what Buddhism did with religion. Sure you have people who are more enlightened, bodhisattvas like the Buddha himself, or Jesus or Shinran Shonen. The Buddhist world pretty much explains it all. You've got animals, and Hungry Ghosts, and people, devas, bodhisattvas, etc. And as Rinban Sakamoto said, this is all around us. This is here, right now. I hope he enjoys his retirement in San Pedro, and I look forward to being in his home town, Mo'ili'ili, again.
So the Jewish god? The proper name is "Baal" and in Buddhist terms, it's a preta, which is a hungry ghost that has accumulated too much power. Read the Torah just read the damned thing, and it's all killing, killing, and more killing. Rivers of blood. The Talmud enlarges on this, in the most gruesome ways.
The message of Jesus was that you don't have to follow those ways. That you can care for your fellow man even if they're of an enemy tribe, hence the story of The Good Samaritan. Jesus helped, how he could, the poor and the outcast. There is none of this in Judaism. There is no concept of "poor and noble" or passing up personal gain in favor of morality. Christianity is not Judaism + Jesus, it's the absolute opposite of Judaism. The Catholics understand this, while the Protestants seem to be wannabee Jews, esteeming money over morality, happy to cooperated with Jews in American slavery and the rapacious American financial everything-is-a-scam system.
And that's what this country is ruled by. Because when the nation was founded, it didn't have immunity to the poison pill. It didn't have the ability to see that a poison people should not be let in. So now we're enthusiastically carpet-bombing brown children in the Middle East.
So I'm reading r/cripplingalcoholism on Reddit, for the stories as always and one guy mentions a Kelley's bar and being in Hawaii so I looked it up. Wow! Looks better than any "Irish" bar here in Silicon Valley and I've been in a fair number. Plus the prices are about 1/3 cheaper. That would be in keeping with the cost of living back there being 1/3 less than it is here.
This is in keeping with the theme here, of being indoctrinated in a thing and finding out reality is 180 degrees opposite. "Jews are poor, put-upon victims" and "Hawaii is expensive" and the lies are repeated and repeated, but that can't make them true.
I didn't mention that yesterday the clouds were spectacular.
Today, I woke up at 3 because I'd set my alarm clock, and had packages packed, so all I had to do was eat breakfast and such little things and I was out the door at 4.
There was a strong headwind I had to right against so I really pushed myself. It was a slog! But I wanted to be sure to get to the post office in time and the bank, plus I had to make an emergency stop at Nijiya to use their loo. But I did made great time.
I deposited my check and their numbers and mine only differed by 50c or so, and that only because I'd thrown away a receipt and wrote down what I remembered. So, not bad! If I'm a dollar off per thousand, that's 0.1%. I really like accounting like an engineer rather than like an accountant.
I got over to Whole Foods and it was so windy and blustery, I was surprised to see Petition Guy there. He said he's almost done, in that the petitions he's got almost all have enough signatures now. I guess it's kind of a seasonal job. I said I'm not busking this weekend because of the rain and it's a perfect time to get my taxes done. And that I'm going to go on the bus over to Han Kook Korean Market.
I went into Whole Foods and got some pork and cabbage, and a can of beer, and ate and people-watched. Then ended up waiting forever for the #22 bus and when it did finally show up and we got going, it was obvious there had been some kind of problem with the buses because we ended up right on the heels of another #22.
Eventually I got to the Lawrence stop and that can of beer had hit bottom. I really had to go, again. I decided to try the Burger King there, which has all these flags and balloons say they're NOW OPEN or something. It was excellent. The loos are clean and not locked, and the whole place is really clean. I decided to see if I could order some small thing because I always buy something, or tip, or something, in cases like this. The kiosk was easy to use, and I had the option of paying cash at the counter which was neat. I got these little cheese jalapeno things which were pretty good and only $2.
OK all done with that, I walked over to Han Kook Market and could not think of anything else I was interested in other than what I'd come for, which was clear packing tape. They sell tape that's $2 a roll and had something like 3X as much on the roll as the stuff Ken buys. It's thinner but the thin stuff is still very strong, and unlike some thing tapes, this stuff is very well-behaved. I really like it.
So I bought the 12 rolls they had on hand (I wasn't leaving anyone in the lurch, since there's another brand of clear tape they sell also) and walked back to the bus stop with my Whole Foods bag now holding $25 worth of tape.
It rained a bit on the bus ride back, and it was wet back at Whole Foods. Petition Guy was sort of set up at one of the tables under the roof, talking with someone. I went in and bought beer and a bag of frozen shrimp (the ones they sell there are the only ones I've found so far that have flavor) and loaded up the bike and rode back by the Hedding route. I didn't even get rained on.
There were some beautiful anvil-shaped thunderhead clouds today, and we might get some thunder and lightning. And I'll be inside here, doing my taxes.
Ken came by last night. I got paid. Cool.
I'd taken my stuff to the post office and got some things at 99 Ranch then went to H Mart and loaded up with two 6-packs of beer, hamburger, a package of 4 packages of "Tangle" ramen garlic oil flavor, one of mushroom (which everyone raves over) veggies, things like that.
I picked up packing stuff and stopped by Tom's. He was in a talking mood and told me the hot pot "kit" I'd brought by, priced at $29, had been wonderful. I said I'll pick up more when I see them being tossed out. We talked about this and that, and then I rode back here.
I got involved putting things away and various tasks and ended up realizing I'm really hungry, so I ate the package of Borden sliced Swiss cheese I'd bought, with some Kewpie/mustard mix I made. Yum!
I listed the final 10 of the 20 things I"d photographed, and cleaned the place up, and Ken showed up. He even brought me a burger, a "Bourbon" burger which is a cheeseburger with crumbled potato chips I think, and a sauce almost too sweet for pancakes. And a couple of slices of bacon. You can never go wrong selling something to Americans as long as you slather it in sugar.
We talked a bit, and I got my pay check for this week and the last, but can't deposit it until tomorrow (bank rule, I can't deposit a dated check before the date).
So I'll have to go out in the rain, I guess.
I started taking a thing apart and just plain tossed out some large things, and thus threw out a lot of metal for an appreciative bum at about 5 in the morning. Then it was bedtime.
I woke up around 3 I think. After too much thinking (it should not have taken that much) I realized the best tactic is to pack the big things, and I had a load of big things indeed, as well as a few small ones I'd packed before bed. I had a good load on the bike trailer today. And, we had a $1700+ day because someone bought all of these things we had a lot of that Ken had gotten for free, that are "hospital grade". I simply took the box of 'em off the shelf, put it in a bigger box with some padding, and off it went.
I got stuff at H Mart and 99 Ranch as usual, found lots of neat packing stuff too, so again I had a big load on the trailer when I came back, with rolls of bubble wrap galore.
Then it was just futz around, pack things, cook dinner, pack some more things, look for things that can't be found at least not right now, etc.
An annoying thing happened, though. I took a bag of trash to the welding place's trash can which will get emptied around 4-5AM. So I was taking a bag of trash, but also I'd found a really cool spider walking across the carpet and caught it in a clear plastic bottle with a thin cap on it, that probably to someone who doesn't know the plot would look like I was holding a shot glass.
So this red hot-rod car had driven in about 20 minutes earlier and parked a distance away. I'd decided not to worry about them. After tossing the trash and putting the spider in the bushes, a black hot-rod car drove up and the guys in it started shouting stuff about being drunk etc., and they'd slowed down, too. So here I was without a weapon and I've got to fight 2-4 guys, fuck that. So I ran back in here and both cars took off.
I don't think they were connected with the illegal night club, but more likely with the hot-rod shop up the street. This is just a really shitty neighborhood. And they're the kind of guys who are still living with their parents, paying 39% interest on their car loans, and probably shovel shit for a living. If they live long enough, they'll regret their choices. I know I do, but at least I only got into motorcycles which are a magnitude (10X) cheaper than cars, or at least were. (In the 80s there were tons of used bikes out there, often for a dollar a cc engine size or not much more, plus a lot of really neat new bikes.)
Yesterday as usual, as one of the first things when I wake up, I turned on the radio to listen to our "left/liberal" NPR station. And they were running some piece, some reporter supposed to be over there in Iran, and she was going on and on about how the Iranis want to be bombed, how every Irani she talked to (probably in some Palahvist/expat bar) wants to be bombed, bring on the bombs!
I was astonished, naturally, but they went onto some other piece and my day went on. Then later, in the evening, I saw some thing on Reddit about how "Mark Levin", a local far-right Zionist small-hat, had been ranting on his AM radio show about how .... the Iranis want to be bombed, every Irani he knows says so, bring on the bombs!
The Iran war grinds on, with Iran winning of course. This is another Vietnam. I know why the US fought so hard in Vietnam before getting its ass kicked too - it was about rubber. Your standard car tire probably has little to no natural rubber in it. But truck tires, industrial tires, military tires... those are a different story.
I learned about this is an unusual way. Somehow I was reading about these sneakers made by these cool Socialist skater punk kids, I wish I could remember the brand name. It wasn't Black Ball, it was some other name. And they used natural rubber for the soles. Where'd they get it from? Easy! They explained it on their web site. They bought used dragster tires. The guys at the drag strip would go through tires like crazy, and they had to be natural rubber to perform as well as they do. Just ... like .... military ... tires.
And what was Vietnam a French colony primarily for? Those Michelin rubber plantations. During WWII there was a saying something like, "Our military moves on a sheet of rubber". This is serious business. So serious that it's only by reading about cool skater dudes making their own hi-tops out of natural rubber, that I was able to learn about it. Serious enough that it's not talked about. The Vietnam debacle is always explained away as being for Freedom or Preventing Communist Domino Theory, or something. It was about rubber.
Obviously Iran is about oil. And do we Americans love our oil! We have something like 2X the carbon production per capita as the next runner-up. An American is not a person, but a person + a car (or two). And I can't be too smug, because I ride a bike on rubber/petroleum tires imported from Germany, on a frame imported from China, other parts from Japan, etc.
I was a little kid when the Vietnam war was going strong. I remember the name Pnom Penh because ... I liked pens. I remember the STOP signs having "WAR" painted on them so they said STOP WAR and thought this was normal. The adults, a lot of them, must have been freaking out. Of course there was the hippie thing, and "Canadian Geese" which meant that draft dodgers who got up to Canada were given asylum. Imagine Canada doing that now! There was Nixon's "wage and price freeze" and again, imagine any president doing that now.
Right about that time there was a shipping strike in Hawaii, too, and since our sugar was sent to the mainland to process it into white sugar, we used something called "SugarTwin" which was awful. There was also something called "cyclamates" in food that had to be avoided. And some pretty crazy inflation, hence Nixon's wage and price freeze.
What I'm saying I guess is the 70s were pretty crazy, and the boringness of the 80s to the mid "oughts" is probably the unusual thing.
On Reddit again someone talking about If only Ruth Bader Ginsberg hadn't refused to retire when Obama was in office. That puzzled me also, but now that I've Noticed, it's all pretty clear. She knew exactly what she was doing.
It ties right in with my monthly scheduled talks with the rabbi, Mr. nice reform Jewish guy from L.A., whom everyone likes. We'd been talking about Trump, and he'd said with real fear in his eyes, that we'd have had a civil war if Trump didn't win, so it was good he won....
Keep in mind this is from the "left", popularly considered far-left, part of Judaism. Yep, MAGA as hell because Trump's their tool. And Ginsberg, being one of the Chosen, was of course going to keep Obama from installing a possibly too-Goyish supreme court judge. It's all very transparent.
And on that civil war; I'm convinced the small-hats would have done their damnedest to start one if their prize idiot, Trump, wasn't installed.
Yes I watched/listened to while taking things apart, the documentary "Europa The Last Battle" last night. And yes, it's quite good. It certainly deserves better treatment; to be re-done by an Oliver Stone or an Adam Curtis.
Last night, I still can't say whether those big wooden crates were being moved in or out. The idiots with the truck and forklift may have been simply trying to get the forklift onto the truck, because eventually with the help of someone else with a forklift, that's what they did, and drove off, with 4 large boxes as well as the first forklift on the truck.
The most interesting thing is I got a look into the interior of unit 1663, and it was bare, with just a few large wooden crates. Whether they're boxed up gambling machines, or machine shop machines, and whether those boxes are going in or out I can't say.
I didn't wake up until 4, cooked and ate 3 eggs and had some coffee, packed a few more things, and headed out to the post office.
Today's freebee was some bananas and a sort of Korean hotpot kit that was meant to cost someone $29. I stopped by Tom's and gave those things to him and we got to talk a bit.
I talked about how things are around here, financially. Ken didn't pay me last week and may not be able to this week. He owes the landlord $500-odd for this NNN thing, owes the electric company $363 or so, and this in addition to the usual rent which he may or may not have paid.
In short, it's getting scary. I said that I guess I could leave a year earlier than planned, mid-September of this year rather than the next. And our lease is up on August 30th so I might want to try to be ready to leave by then, because if things are falling apart I want to make that One Last Move while I can.
I got into how Ken's money management is like my Dad's, frankly. One school year my father had rented a "winter rental" on Balboa Island which cost, I believe, $700 a month. It was a nice 2-story house. My younger sis and I went to the local elementary school and I did a great selling job of convincing my dad it made more sense to buy us bikes than to pay for the school bus, because on the bikes we could go other places besides the school.
My father stopped coming around, though, and stopped paying the bills. He'd set up a bank account I could access too, write checks, etc., and I remember bugging him for money and he sent some, and I went around and paid the bills, and then the money was gone so I asked for more and he got angry because I'd paid the bills in full; I was supposed to pay them just enough to keep them from shutting things off or evicting us, not pay in full.
Of course we were eventually evicted, and my uncle being a good American uncle and thus not wanting to help at all, could not wait to put us on a plane back to Hawaii to be my father's problem (or sink or swim, who gives a fuck, which is pretty much what happened) but this gives an insight into my father's financial style. And I'm coming to realize it's Ken's also.
I woke up around 3, had my coffee etc., packed All The Things(tm) kind of surprising myself because I didn't think I had the time but ... I did.
I got ready to go and there's a pink envelope from the electric company. They mean business when they get out the pink envelopes. They need $300-odd by the 10th. Great.
I got going and dropped off the FedEx package at FedEx and tried to raise Ken on the phone. He answered, neat.
I told him about the notice, and it being in a pink envelope so they really mean business. Ken needs to update some payment stuff on Ebay and he said he'd do it but he's not; after some thinking I realized he's been holding off because generally when you update financial information on something, that something will withdraw some money to make sure the new information is good. And Ken's not been paid, so he's been holding off for that reason. I told Ken I understood why he's held off on that, to avoid spending money, and now there's this. $363 I think. I said it's not due until the 10th and I know he'll be over on the 8th, Wednesday, but I wanted to give him more lead time to think about it.
He says he's "going to see what he can scrape together" and I said Look, if it's between paying me or paying the electric company, I can wait. I can't do any work when the electricity's off.
Oh, and there's still the $500-odd we owe the landlord for that NNN thing.
And one might wonder why I drink! At least I'm only drinking beer, and I think I've discovered something. Expensive beer like Guinness and Lagunitas seems to be a lot easier on me than cheap beer like PBR or Bud. I guess if I were eating bread, I'd feel a difference between eating Wonder Bread or eating Dr. Oetker's Health Bread imported from Germany, too. I know I feel this difference in chocolate, with the exception of Guittard pure cocoa powder, milled not far from here, I'm only eating European chocolate and not the low-end kind either. Ritter Sports and Cadbury stuff for the European market is very different from stuff made for the American market.
But getting back to finances, I know our present lease runs out at the end of August. I don't think we can get kicked out before then. And I don't think things can collapse that quickly although all bets are off if something happens with Ken's health.
What I'm getting at is, it might be a good plan for me to assume I'm leaving September of *this* year rather than the next. That means sell off a lot of things and prepare to hop on a plane. If things get super crazy here I can split for a hotel and I've got Tom for moral support. He flies all the time on Alaskan and that's the airline I'll take.
I hung up the phone with Ken and ran the smaller packages up to the post office, got some things in 99 Ranch, some more things in H Mart, dropped off fruit I'd found at Tom's (he wasn't answering the door) and got back today.
Today's freebees: 11 packages of dried squid, apples and bananas for Tom, some weird white chocolate "enrobed" Oreos I'll donate, and some interesting motorized blinds I might slap onto Craig's List. Also a bunch of make-up stuff, Estee Lauder and so on, and now I've got a whole Lulu Lemon goodie bag of make-up, little bags, all kinds of goodies, to give to Ken to give to Suzie.
And now I'm being entertained by some guys with a forklift, then another forklift they used to un-stick the first forklift which they'd gotten stuck, running around like The Three Stooges trying to get some big wooden boxes off of a truck and apparently deliver them to the site of the illegal night club. Gambling machines maybe?
Update: The Three Stooges fucked around for a while and then ... drove off with the boxes? So now I have no idea what's going on. The thing is, when I rode in I happened to ride in from Rogers Avenue so I went past the place, noticed the truck there which had just come in when I'd left, and got a look into #1663, which looked bare except for some big wooden boxes.
Dinner was a big bowl of guacamole courtesy of the 4 small avocados that were also free. I used pork rinds for chips, and washed it down with a nice refreshing Jeju Pellong Ale, which is pretty good.
I got 16 things camera-ready last night, and that involved taking a big thing apart that's a "Heathkit". These are not actually Heathkits or they'd be worth more, but are electronic instruments produced in-house by one of the nuclear research labs, and have their own internal model numbers etc., but are not recognized commercial products. And no one wants the things. But the parts are worth something.
The illegal night club was noisy as usual and I called the cops as usual and they were too busy to show up as usual, it was Saturday night and they were working on a missing person case. I don't blame 'em, they have to prioritize things. And at least the call goes on the record.
The best answer I've come up with so far is to simply stay up, doing things that keep me occupied enough or are noisy enough on their own that I don't care. Which is why I grabbed this big thing to take apart and had a fine old time taking it to bits and tossing the bits I wanted to sell in one box and the ones I didn't, in another, as well as a small pile of case parts. The stuff I didn't want went outside the door here at about 5:30AM.
I woke up around 3 I guess. Now I had a choice about this day. I've been wanting to try busking at my local H Mart, which is crazy busy on Sundays, and/or the 99 Ranch up the street. But I was also curious how Easter might be at Whole Foods on the Alameda. Now, lunchtime was probably great. But staying up all night, that was not going to happen. Best case I could play 4:00-5:30 leaving me a bit of time to shop.
In real life it was 5:15 to 6, and there were tons of people going in and out but they were all in a hurry, and I made $9. Petition Guy was there and got someone/sucker to sign all his petitions but that had taken him being there all day.
I wanted to see how it was when Whole Foods was closing and turning people away, thinking I might get a burst of tips but that didn't happen at all. People were in a hurry and that's it. But I got to get some good playing in, so it was worth it.
I packed up and tried San Pedro Square by the Old Spaghetti Factory, trying to play over the canned music that's always playing there now, from 2-3 different sources. I didn't get a thing. I'm convinced everyone who goes there is dead broke, look like they're doing OK because you can find pretty nice clothes at Goodwill or by just cruising around trash day, and they go there hoping to meet someone who isn't broke. With little success, I surmise.
I took a little ride around, thinking if there are people hanging around camPUS burger, I might try there, or at Leroy's place by the long-gone Johnny Rockets (famous locally for looking like the neutron bomb had gone off and everything just how it was when people put down whatever they were doing and left, with napkins, salt and pepper shakers, etc., even a Starbucks cup, just how it had been left 5 or more years ago) but there were just no people around.
I stopped in at U-Save Liquor on 1st, where all the scumbags congregate, got a 6-pack of Guinness in bottles and a bag of pork rinds, and got out of there, to back here.
And dinner eaten, 30 things all ready to photo, and the cops put on a show outside. It was just after 2AM, and the illegal night club looked like it would have a few people show up, mainly the people running the thing, so it really would not be a bother (although they've had some really busy nights on a Sunday-Monday overnght) and they came in just a bit after 2, and have been chasing people out, honking their horns, siren, lights, etc. They are *on* it. Probably because tonight's probably pretty quiet and so the illegal night club has floated up near the top of their to-do list.
The best way to manage this problem from my vantage point is, to keep things "warm" for 'em with the cops, and just get used to staying up and doing things that make noise anyway etc., as I've described. I'm probably not going to get to a regular daytime schedule until I'm actually retired, not living here, and besides in Hawaii it's really warm in the middle of the day so there's a tradition of getting out and doing things early, then taking it easy, then going back out to do more things later when it cools off.
Today's interesting ICE fact, courtesy of someone on Reddit. The reason they're grabbing day laborers and agricultural workers and well, workers in general is, they're they least trouble-making, hardest-working people they can grab, and they're being put in prisons and put to work at about a dollar a day.
That's why ICE isn't going after actual bad guys. Or bums. Actual bad guys have got some fight in them. And bums are, well, bums.
There was a period leading up to our Civil War where people from the slave states would go up into free states and grab black people. A free black person, a worker, a cook or housemaid or farmworker or cobbler or what have you, made fairly decent wages. And they were proven, healthy, workers. So they'd grab them and if they could get them to the South, they could sell them for a pretty penny and then these new slaves might get room, board, and probably a small "allowance" and that was it. It's a pretty close parallel to what's going on now.
This explains why people who came here and got permission to stay, and are going through the long and difficult process to become residents and then citizens, people who work for a living, are being grabbed. I'm all for a process for deporting those who are not here legally, but there has to be just that; a process.
And ICE isn't grabbing Germans and Danes and Finns and Russians even, who came over and overstayed their visas and have been here for years. They're white! It would raise a huge hue and cry if *they* were enslaved. But brown/black people? Pff! Who cares?
This is a major hurdle in that it needs to be done, to get people to understand that in the eyes and ethos of those who run this place, we are all goyim. We are all cattle. We are all Palestinians. All but the Chosen are on the menu, some of us are a lot further down than others, but we're on there.
Between that can of Sculpin, the tall can of "Weekend" or whatever it was strong IPA, then a tall can of Guinness, then downing 6 regular cans of Lagunitas before bed on the theory that the illegal night club would not bother me if I was passed out, it was a beery night.
I'd taken out $170 in two cashbacks to give me my week's pocket money, but done a lot of spending. On a bag of mac nuts, beer, cheese'n'olives, beer, beef sticks and chips and sour cream, and beer.
I'd also put $20 on my clipper card so I'd have bus or train fare.
I have $154 on me right now, so I really only used a bit less than $20 of my paycheck money. And I could sure do with less beer...
I woke up around 3 I think, and realized I had time to get some large packages out of here and I'd feel horribly lazy if I didn't, so I packed the things, and got them over to FedEx. Since H Mart was out of tall cans of cheap Hawaiian beer, I got a large bottle of cheap Japanese beer, and come home and cooked up fried eggs with hot sauce, and had the beer.
I got my stuff together and rode the short way, by way of Hedding so I got to pause and relax at the top of the hill and start chewing my sugarless gum to clean my mouth, and once I got to Whole Foods, all I had to do was use the loo and I could start right in playing.
I played from about 8:20 to 9:30 so I'll just call it an hour, and made $43. Not bad, really. Petition Guy was there and I'd brought 4 Ritter Sports with cashews for him, but he didn't want them. I had a fine time playing, and it seemed like when I tried new songs people liked that more, so it was pretty good. It was nice and quiet so the acoustics were good.
Petition Guy had me watch his table while he went and got his car and parked it closer, and it being 9:30 I decided I was done anyway, so I packed my stuff up and counted up the money, with a pause for a guy to come up and give me a $5 and thanked me. Just like yesterday, I got some nice compliments.
Whole Foods is open 8-6 tomorrow so if I get going early enough, I could play the 4:30 - 6 time slot. Petition Guy says it's very slow on Easter, but then on special days there can always be that guy with a $100 bill...
What I didn't do tonight was hang around with that collection of people; in fact I didn't even see them this time. I did see Kenny, and gave him the latest stats. My aim is to make at least $100 on a weekend, and right now I'm at $98.
I went in and got my 12-pack of Lagunitas and a tall can of some kind of pils, and packed those away on the bike. A down and out looking Black gal came by and I offered her the bag of 4 Ritter Sports and she doesn't like chocolate.
So I rode downtown thinking I'll find someone to give them to, since I didn't want to take them back home (I'm eating the ones with hazel nuts, slowly, on my own, trying to give away the cashew ones at least until I get around to trying one, then I might decided to keep them, and have a lot of "johgurt" ones too, which are good.)
I rode around and eventually came to a sleeping form wrapped in in a dark blanket. I parked the bike and snuck up and put the Ritter Sports near the guy, and out of a group of Sharks fans walking by, a guy gave me a fist bump. That raises the number of fist bumps to 4 for today.
I stopped at TAK Market for some pork rinds, and got back in here. Time to button up for the night.
Iran is fighting for all of us, and according to NPR it's 3 US planes down. Probably more, but even NPR will admit that many.
After a year or more of trying to get myself unsubscribed to Nextdoor, I'd finally gone on there and been free with snark and salty opinions. Jesus was a Palestinian and someone's yappy little dog being almost snatched by an eagle, so we need more eagles, etc.
Latest was posting a thing about the illegal night club, and that probably did it, because I'm finally not getting their stupid little notices. Mission accomplished.
We're seriously in the beginning stages of a meatgrinder like Viet Nam, though. Fun times ahead.
I did some practice last night, and also listed 20 things on Ebay so that's good.
I woke up with time to clean up and pack one more thing, got my stuff together and took off a bit before 4, and dropped off the two small things I'd packed at the post office. Then I went to Whole Foods and locked the bike. Petition Guy wasn't there and I had some "Ritter Sport" bars I wanted to give him, so I gave them to the Gypsy woman begging there with a sign. At least she wasn't by the bike racks at all, maybe choosing to stay out of the sun, but the sun had down down enough that the space by the bike racks was shady.
I wanted some food first, and came up with a concoction of olives, feta cheese, a dollop of this creamy dressing, a bit of tabboueh salad, and some ground-up bacon. And I took more than I really needed, too.
I got some lime flavored fizzy water with this, and sat at a table with a guy sitting there, I dunno, looking at his phone like 99.999% of people do now, or something, I ate, and he did his thing, and somehow we ended up talking and had quite a talking session. He gave me one of the beers he was drinking, a "Sculpin" IPA with grapefruit flavoring, a beer I'd never have tried on my own, and it was really good.
So we talked and I tried to talk while getting this gop I'd put together eaten, which took a while. I finally finished, and I had to go. He'd been waiting for a friend who coaches softball, and he'd still never shown up. So it was all good.
I set up and started playing at 6:30, and played until 8:00. I screwed up more than usual because part of me didn't want to be out there, but most of me wanted to make the best of this paid practice session, and to work on things like tone. I got some really good compliments too.
When I finished I counted up, and was packing things away and organizing my money (I had a lot of $1's to spend) and I'd made $51 but two different people came up and gave me $2 so the total ended up being $55.
I went in to spend my dosh, and got a 12-pack of Lagunitas, some cheese and olives, and was going to get a pint of Guinness but they were out. Out of a lot of things, and I didn't want to just drink a tall can of Lagunitas, so I got this other stuff, some kind of "Noon Time" IPA in a tall can that was a bit stronger.
I went to sit down and eat and there was my friend again, with his friend, some really old, ditzy, lady, and a middle-aged street type gal with a guitar, the guitar one I've seen around there, owned by various people, for at least a year.
The word was my friend's friend wanted to buy the guitar for $40, while I thought the ditzy old lady wanted to buy the guitar. These people had been there a while and "You never noticed me caterwauling away on my trumpet?" I asked. They'd never heard me and had no idea. That's how noisy it is there and it's the quietest Whole Foods.
So we hung out and talked and after tons of talk about Iran it eventually came around to talk about the guitar. By this time I'd finished my two Whole Foods brand beef sticks and my can of strong IPA, and it was 9:30, when the employees of Whole Foods really want people to finish their shopping because they close at 10, so they made an announcement over the P.A. saying so.
On the ride home I wanted to pick up some pork rinds, but the place I thought might have them didn't because they were closed. Being open past 9PM even on a Friday night is being open too late in this town. TAK Market had some little hard ones, which I didn't want, and after I'd picked out a bag of Mexican cheese flavored potato chips and a little tub of sour cream, I noticed they had some other ones that might be pretty good, but I was decided. I got the chips and dip and a tall can of Guinness.
After Ken left last night I finished getting 20 things photo-ready, and finally went to sleep. I woke up around 3 as usual, maybe 3:30. I'd gotten out the things that need to be shipped, so I was able to easily pack them and took them up to the post office.
I had a little over $3.50 in change, and I could get something at 99 Ranch and get cash back, or just get something really cheap, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
I ended up getting three packages of "Mama" brand ramen; a green curry, a yellow curry, and a shrimp tom kha, and that took care of $3. I'm sure they were glad to get the change.
After that, I rode to H Mart and I was thinking that just for fun, I'd see what I could get for my remaining 64c, some kind of vegetable probably. But, they were closed! Closed for the day, and with the required mis-spellings on the signs they'd run off on their inkjet printer. with the sign on one door saying "WE LOSED" which is hilarious.
So, OK. I used the bathroom at FedEx and rode for home. Except I felt like I should gather some packing stuff so I went by Noah Medical and got a nice big bag of that anti-static bubble wrap so that was good.
I stopped by Tom's to fill him in on the latest gossip, namely the big police situation last night, and he found that mildly interesting and didn't have any info on it himself. And he wanted to get back to watching "Taxi".
I got back here, cooked up dinner, etc.
It was windy and cold today, and if it's going to be like this while I'm out busking I'll have to prioritize busking in Sunnyvale because I'm pretty well sheltered from the wind if I'm at the parking structure doorway of their Whole Foods.
I practiced last night, yay me. Yep, the same ol' pages in the Rubank book. And as I've started to notice is usual, I have trouble with the high notes at first and then once I'm warmed up, 15-20 minutes, I can do 'em and indeed, this time I could do 'em easily once I was warmed up.
I woke up at 2:30 or so, and since rain was in the forecast, I wanted to pack things and get them out before the rain, presumably, started "mainly after 5".
So I packed all the things, and had all but one inside my plastic tub so they'd stay dry. The large-ish box on top, I figured, would stay dry enough as long as I took it to FedEx right away. And indeed it was as it was only very lightly drizzling.
After FedEx I took the small things to the post office, then went to 99 Ranch and when I came out, it was raining, not just drizzling. I rode down to H Mart and went in there for a couple more things (some more "Frima" coffee creama' and a tall can of cheap Hawaiian beer) and when I came out it was done raining so that's good.
I'd picked up a couple nice signs made of foamcore after FedEx and that was enough for me so I rode right home. Except stopping at the EMT training place (nothing) and stopping to hang out a bit at Tom's.
James, the homeless gambling addict and all-around scammer, has been living in a pile of junk and what looks like it used to be a tent, across the street from Tom and as Tom and I shot the bull, sure enough, he came shambling over to bug Tom about something; trying to sponge somehow.
After James had shambled back across the street, not finding much "purchase" with Tom, Tom mentioned to me that someone had tried to burn James' tent last night. I said, that as much as James had scammed him, stolen small things and tried to sell them back to him, etc., it's almost certainly because he'd done that to other people around.
James looks a sight - he's wearing not only the usual dirt of a never-bathes bum, but also a layer of car grime from his metal scrapping "job". Even his dog is no longer white, but is grey. Pretty soon a bum-ess came up on a bike and James and the female bum, no cleaner than he, started talking at length with each other in their raspy voices. Ah, bum life.
I just can't get Tom interested in practicing his trumpet. I told him, Just turn on some TV show you'd watch anyway, and just do little things, half a scale, etc. Diddle-diddle-deedle-deedle. I dunno, he must have been pretty disgusted with high school Band when he quit it.
Myself as a teen in the late 70s, would be astonished at myself now. Mr. Peyton said, "You will play trumpet" and no matter how much I try, that's exactly what I do. I sure didn't want to so much at the time; I wanted to play 70s guitar riffs "not boring old Herb Alpert". And yet here I am.
Tom and I parted ways while James and the raspy-voiced harridan continued their important conversation, probably about who owes who a cigarette butt, and I rode back here.
Except riding back here was complicated. The cops had the street blocked off where the lunch truck place is, and a bunch of people sitting on the curb. I tried going up onto the sidewalk and sort of going on through, but they told me the road is closed. "OK! Sorry about that!" and I turned around, took the little street that got me over to the end of Junction Avenue, then went through the long parking lot that is shared by a few tech companies, and got out onto Queens Lane. The cops also had that closed off, and one of the the cops looked friendly, an Official Yamaguchi, so I asked him what's up and he said he can't say, and I said that's OK and that I'd seen him around, maybe at activities at the Buddhist temple, and he said Yeah he's around the area. I rode around to Old Bayshore and in here, and the cops had the other building, the one that hosts the illegal night club, all blocked off.
I put the bike and things away and then went over to Accu-Vac and asked the guy if he knew what's up and he didn't. I filled him in one things, mainly that the illegal night club is still operating. He thought it was gone because he doesn't see the "debris" in the morning. I said No, they just have a guy who goes around sweeping up the broken glass etc. He got a new car, some black swoopy thing that's electric, made by one of the new electric car companies (no not Tesla, one that's even newer) and had sold his Mini. He can charge this at his shop there, and "industrial electricity is cheaper than residential". I congratulated him on the new car and went back here.
I cooked dinner and cleaned up around here, and Ken showed up at the usual time. We'd gotten an email about a payment Ken owes, $500-odd for "NNN" which is something you have to pay for a unit like this, and I'd emailed back the landlord's secretary and said I'd try to get Ken to write the check and get it into the mail tomorrow.
But Ken wasn't writing any checks. He's waiting to get paid at his job. I said I can wait until next week and the landlord here will just have to wait too.
We talked about the usual things, tech stuff and politics, and odds and ends. When he left it was raining again. Good - this area can always use a good rinse.
