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.