THE HIGHLY FUNCTIONAL MAN

Seeing as I did not have the usual jollification in Chinatown and North Beach last night, and in consequence would get a full night's sleep with no problem, I decided that today was the day I would go down to Chinese Hospital (my health provider) and do the once yearly blood tests. Which serves two main purposes: it gives my doctor and my cardiologist concrete data (because I'm one of those irritating patients who answers every question about his health with "I'm fine, no problems, nope, everything is perfect", even when bleeding from an open stump where my head was cut off), and secondly it reassures me that I am still human not a zombie see there's a pulsating vein dammit that needle hurt, might faint.

No food or drink for several hours beforehand. Nor any coffee.

First smoke of the day was grouchy time.

[Blood test lab: 抽血房、血液檢查實驗室 ('chau huet fong', 'huet yik gim chaa sat yim sat').]

Got through the entire thing including the urine sample and promptly headed toward sustenance. Cheung fan. With condiments. After which with pipe in mouth I went in search of coffee. The old fellow who ran an herb shop where before I had insurance I frequently bought salvia miltiorrhiza pills (丹參片 'daan sam pin') to deal with certain symptoms closed up a few years back, that location is now a friendly neighborhood grocery shop with tables and fresh coffee for the codgers. At a non-boba drinkie young snoots price. Real coffee.

So I spent a pleasant half hour on a bench near a siu mei dim (燒味店 "roast meats shop") actually waking up, with my pipe, before doing my necessary errands and shopping.

Got a dozen things done without English. Including cussing at the tourists under my breath.

[Tourists: 遊客、外地人、旅行外國人 ('yau haak', 'ngoi dei yan', 'leui hang ngoi kwok yan').]

It takes up to eight people to ask if there is Coca Cola on the premises, whether there are barbecue buns anywhere nearby, and do the staff hold it in for several hours or relieve themselves on the street. Remarkable. And very cheap! Five people, one donut.

My pissiness toward tourist was probably delayed grumpiness from being caffeine-deprived for the first five hours of the day.

That lack of caffeine would have been over with a lot earlier if I had not started working on the illustration above before heading into the bathroom, and had not stumbled out of the house between getting up and that time. But I did not have the energy to be quick.
That's what coffee is for.

It shows three people in a forested landscape just looking while the shitcan goes up.
That's all they can do, as they haven't had their coffee yet.
They cannot be proactive. Postactive only.
Not fully functional at that hour.


Other than that, it's been a lovely day.



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