Korean Toilet Paper

On our trip to Little Tokyo on Memorial Day to take some photos at the JA National War Memorial, we took a detour to what used to be Yaohan.   I have been searching for my cousin in Ohio, for some vitamin supplements that she can no longer get.  The store is located somewhere in that shopping center, but closed due to Covid 19.  Our detour took us to the Japanese market that is apparently owned by a Korean company.   At least I assume so due to half the products are Korean.  We had a great time exploring through the display of the side dishes they serve you at the Korean tofu houses.  But for the first time in months I saw a full display of TP.

At first I thought it was like at Costco, you get excited to see pallets of what looks like TP from the distance only to find out it is paper towels.  Not wanting to use a shopping cart (in theory it limits what she can put in the basket and no, it didn't work) I trudged through the market following the wife as she wandered through the aisles with the TP in my arms and a  overloaded hand basket of groceries.  I was afraid if I put down the TP, it would somehow disappear into someone else's shopping cart.  Paper is paper, and it does get heavy not matter how pillowy soft it is.

When we got home I was able to examine my precious purchase of Korean TP (don't ask how much it cost).

30 rolls, 

3 ply DECO (wow, beats Charmin)

Embossing and Soft Touch (flowers, bees and dimples)

100% Pure and natural (never occurred to me that it could be synthetic)

 A handle to carry the TP (too late, I already squeezed the TP.)

If I knew there was a handle I might have bought two.

Trend Setters

I couldn't tell if this was a fashion statement or a companion of wearing blouses inside out.

Uh, Mrs. Wada, are those supposed to match, just like your socks....... She will kill me when she hears about this post.  😀

Background In Front

Bacon Sakatani is one of those who is always in the background.  You would typically see him running around with his camera documenting events like the Memorial day ceremony at the Japanese American National War Memorial Court in Little Tokyo.  It was last year I remember him scurrying around in the background shooting photos.  I soon met him at another event and found out he is a proud Korean War veteran.  This morning (Memorial Day 2020) I ran into him as he was bringing flowers, to take photos and send to those who could not make it.  It's those little things that makes an impact.

Social Distancing part 2

Guilty Pleasures

I have a few guilty pleasures in life. One is the daily Los Angeles Times.  I grew up reading the paper and judged all others in comparison.  It is not that I am in agreement with it's political slant, but again, it is what I grew up with.  And it needs to be the paper version, so I can sit under the tree with my coffee to read while the gardner next door uses his leaf blower.

         
The paper version of the LA Times, tied up with polyester string and bagged in yellow plastic
The daily comics in the LA Times.  Can't live without it.
       Pearls before Swine, Dilbert, Zits and of course Peanuts.
LA.  Affairs in the Sat. edition. Don't ask why, but in some ways, things don't always work out, but      
       human attraction is universal.
The Sat. Sports Cartoon by Jim Thompson
Carl Eskine, his offbeat look on life and his vulnerability that he exposes with each column.  He will
       soon enter the I miss section.
The return of the FOOD section, though Im only a casual reader of the section.

I miss
Paul Conrad, the Pulitzer Prize winning Political Cartoonist that drove my formative years along with      MAD magazine.

Rex Morgan MD, Brenda Starr and Apartment 5G

Rick O'Shay, Tumbleweeds and the original BC

Morning Briefing in the sports section.  It had returned returned recently for a brief run.

Sports Page 2: TJ Simers.  yes he was a jerk, but I loved it.

Learning at Any Age

FaceTime is a wonderful invention for those who are separated by distance.  Now im not talking about communicating with the quarantined down the block.  I remember being aware of long distance charges not that long ago.  Now we facetime over the internet with no roaming charges.  The only problem is that the camera cannot catch up to the ever moving grand children.  We get motion sickness conversing with them.

The other day I overhead a FaceTime conversation with the wife and our seven year old grandson.  They both use the same online program for school.  She teaches (or at least she is trying to develop curriculum for her kindergarten students) and he gets lessons from his teacher.  I can hear her asking questions on the features of the program and the grandson explaining in great detail how the program works.

Im not sure who I was impressed with most, my grandson for his knowledge and his ability to describe in detail the program from memory, or the initiative and drive from the wife in asking the grandson how the program is being used in order to provide better content for her students.

All I know is that Dick Tracy (Chester Gould) is somehow smiling on how we are finally catching up.

Consequences

I have to admit, after 3 years, I am starting to understand the after affects of my colon cancer.  I am still classified as one of those, a cancer survivor.  I commiserate with my fellow survivor at work.  I am more fortunate than her as she has severe side affects, but she also inspires me to go on.

I find myself feeling sore in the fingers at night more when I'm using them extensively during the day. Fix it projects and things to do list items still require manual dexterity.  The more they are used, the more the stiffness similar to what I guess arthritis sufferers feel.  Mine are from the knuckles up.

I still pace myself.  If I work longer than my allotted eight hours, im useless the rest of the night and the next day.  I recently took a day off from work, but it cancelled the purpose out as I had worked 10 hours the day before and need the day off to recover and then some.

I limit my time in the sun, I limit the length in time of projects, I take additional supplements and seem to be adding more each month.  My BP and heart meds make up a small minority in my pill box.  I do check my poop at each occurrence.  Yeah, it's a little weird, but it is to see if blood ever shows up again.  You do notice which type of food does not decompose as much in the digestive system.

But the psychological after affects are what bothers me most.  Most of which I haven't even begun to deal with.  Just starting to recognize as "issues".  The most difficult aspect of it all is determining which have always been there and which are new.  I have been finding that most of them are pre existing.  And that the new ones are by products of the pre existing ones.

Damn,  the wife was right again....

Grumpiness Justified

I  just finished watching the first episode of Hiyao Miyazaki produced by NHK on PBS.  Miyazaki is the famous Anime creator of Studio Ghibli and films such as Totoro and Porco Rosso.  There is a spot in the documentary where he admits he is grumpy and that it is part of his creativity.  He sees nothing wrong with being grumpy.  He is my hero.

I did get some validation of the creation process.  Each person is different, and each one has different methods or created environments to spur their brain on.  There are theories on this and last week I had to spend my lunch listening to someone who studied the process.  OK, I drifted off after 10 minutes.  Engineers studying physiology is not a good mix.  Among all the theories on creativity, there are just a few things that help me out.  Isolation (no surprise there) and the quiet stillness of the night.  10pm to 2am still is my peak time.

Of course that type of schedule is not sustainable while you still have a 9 to 5 job to go to.  Right now  Im contemplating creating an outside patio atmosphere during the day to try out.  My laptop, another monitor, there are already 6 in the house keeping my electric bill alive.  Do I really need more monitors or do I lug one out there each time.  Wait, I can sit under the tree in front on my adirondac chair creating my videos? Too comfortable and too difficult to climb out of due to my numerous breaks.  Plus it is just outside the window where Gayle can scream at me for help on the computer.

Under an umbrella in the back on a picnic bench?  Not enough shade, too much work to set up and too distracting looking at my two car garage packed full of stuff that will never know the presence of an automobile.

Look like the midnight hour wins and in the words of Wolfman Jack:  Let the Midnight Special, shine it's ever lovin' light on you.

I Surrender

I had dropped off of Facebook when I found pictures of my grandson posted on my website.  It was definitely one of my pictures, but I didn't post it.  Due to my ignorance of how Facebook works, I deactivated my page.  Little did I know that it is very difficult to delete your page.  Without my IT consultant, I figured out how to deactivate. The page was still there but not open to be viewed.

Little did I know that if you deactivate, you cannot get into other pages.  My cousin has been sending me notices of events and new videos on Heart Mountain.  Our parents were interned there during WWII, so it is of special interest to us.  But in order to view it on Facebook, it kept asking for my login info.

OK, I give up.  I reopened the page, deleted most information, accepted a few friend requests and put a link to this blog.  Uhhhhggg.......

On the bright side, the oldest grandson turned 7 today.  Life is measured in time, and the most obvious gauge of life is through our children and now grandchildren.  It's a little frightening that in 10 short years he will be off to college.  Apparently Pokemon is not a accurate measure of time.  It seems to have an eternal life of it's own.