25 cents will buy a carrot
$3.00 a bale of hay
$8.00 a bag of grain
It gets mention because I was totally unaware that the female horses had to pay their way by getting pregnant. Insert snarky welfare comment here. How large is a bag of grain? I knew the price of granola but swear I just found out about the hay. I have no contact information except a reference to “Happiness Farms” (not the same outfit that Google finds).
Non-believers beware, I bring sad news. My condition is subtle, the problem occurs not while I’m carrying out stressful activity, but overnight and into the following day. All my heart attacks occured not while I was working, but while I was asleep later. So pardon me if I skip sleep when something is wrong. That little bit of coding (see last post) had me up at 3:49 AM. Now able to detect the tiniest onset of symptoms, I measured blood pressure of 147/93, serious enough in my case. Did I mention having minor indicators for the past twenty years but until recently didn’t know what they were? The conclusion is plain, no matter how young and tough you think you are: avoid stress.
As promised, my equipment was moved and Jag was over for almost three hour’s rehearsal. He keeps overplaying the guitar parts but I understand this role takes unusual discipline. I further know this evolution can take years where Jag has been around less than nine weeks. I normally associate overplaying with rock and blues bands, yet Jag assures me he has not been practicing with his other people. The immediate game plan is another paid practice at Jimbos this Friday, then on to Buddy’s next Monday.
I rounded up a dozen hardcover books and took them to the book exchange. That’s less weight to move if it comes to that. Then, pen in hand, I calculated all the likely scenarios that could occur in the next three weeks. The bicycle with the motor looks affordable and would be nice for the winter weather. Borders, the bookstore, is now closed and the next nearest is the Barn (Barnes & Noble), a forty minute pedal. It is a real disincentive to bicycle that far if one only wants an evening coffee.
Again, it brings home the fact that there is nothing to do in downtown Hollywood. Not even a movie theater. There is Starbucks, whose entertainment has difficulty competing with TV basketball. There are a few Internet cafes right on the Boulevard, but that entire strip has degenerated to shicka-booba club style restaurants blasting incomprehensible Latino disco onto the chair-blocked sidewalks. (The nearest Latino community is Hialeah, twenty city miles away to the southwest.)
A motorized bike will help, but it is not the perfect solution. It is well known on the streets that the local police half ignore bicycle theft. Thus, one is confined to the few places that have indoor parking and to tasks that otherwise don’t leave the bike unattended for more than a few minutes. There is the beach, which I admit to not visiting more than ten times in ten years. My reasons are what parking exists is expensive, it is too far to commute by regular bicycle, and the bus is inconvenient at best.
Hopefully, the motor will change that. Bicycles park for free. The beach weather approaches ideal during the winter. I also don’t like doing anything where one has to keep checking the time or get a parking ticket. That destroys the moment for me and the local meters are purposely designed so you can’t park all day. You doze off reading a good book and you’ll awake to a $75 fine. Way to go, Hollywood.
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