$102 Sunday

 I got going at an earlier time, having spent the night getting 30 things ready to list (as in ready to photo with no further treatment) and got ready to "launch" right after waking up and having some breakfast. 

The guys next door were whooping it up with their Mexican music as usual. I swear that place runs on Mexican music and beer. Especially beer. 

I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:15 and started in, and since it was a warm day I didn't need to dress warm. 

It went pretty well and high notes were coming out well. At one point a guy with a white meat department jacket on came out and for a moment I thought he was going to hassle me about something, but he was friendly and asked if I knew anything by Chuck Mangione. I said, "Only 'Feels So Good' and since I was playing well, I went for it. I actually pulled it off, too. I can't believe the guy played that high on a flugelhorn but then, Chuck Mangione is one of the greats of all time. 

So the guy was happy. I don't know if he dropped a tip or not but that doesn't matter. I wonder if the workers in there were shooting the shit and got talking about their new weekend trumpet player, and this guy scoffed and said it's probably one of those Gypsies with a set of speakers, faking it. Maybe they even got a bet riding on it. 

I mean, buskers are very rare these days. And buskers who aren't just banging on a guitar, really rare. 

I was going to play until a quarter to 8, but by then I was feeling pretty tired and I got talking with a guy of Chinese background, from Indiana. He's been a viola player and we got into talking about how antisocial everyone is here. I said the only way to make friends here is to find some hobby or interest and get into that, and for the hobby or interest, everything's hidden and it's really common to only find out about a thing after it's over, so you really have to dig for information. There *are* things, community band and jam sessions and so on, and I told him about Heaney's violin shop, and he said he might rent a viola there. 

By this time it was just about 8 so I was done. I counted up and it came to $82.75 but actually I got a $20 gift card too so it's really $102.75 because gift cards are always spent on things I'd buy anyway. 

I went to Baraka Market and got some broccoli and my yogurt drink, which I drank at the bus stop, and it was another relatively quick ride back to my "home" Whole Foods where I put $20 on my clipper card so I won't have to fiddle with it next week, and spent the gift card on some nuts, cheese, and sausage. 

 

 

$104 Saturday

 It's amazing how much time the supposedly half-time work for Ken actually takes up. 

I was up last night taking a few things apart, one of them being a vintage oscilloscope and those take forever. But I have lots of parts to list now. 

I practiced before bed, and one of the last things before going to sleep was hearing the boss guy of the cleaning place, who drives a red pickup truck, picking up the boxes of scrap I'd left out and loading them up. When I got up, I found only the round CRT left, and my two taped-together beer boxes, clean and ready to use again. I'll probably just list the CRT on Ebay as it's not as large and hard to ship as some. 

I got out of here around 4:30, rode right over to Whole Foods and put $10 on my clipper card, got a couple of beef sticks, and walked over to the bus stop. The #522 came in a short time and although I checked the time and found that it was around 5:30 when I was waiting, I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods in time to start busking at 6:45. 

It went pretty well. There were lots of people which helps, and the tips came in pretty regularly. After about an hour one of the local crazy guys came around and made noises, while I just kept playing 'Wonderful World' at good volume while watching the crazy out of the corner of my eye, and as he went into Whole Foods* and looked back my way, I just happened to have had to adjust my pepper spray by taking it out of my pocket to reposition it, and he just happened to see it. He didn't come back. 

*Sunnyvale's Whole Foods has an indoor area with tables, and the area is a magnet for relaxing shoppers, crazies, bums, nerds, various small clubs, exhausted moms with over-excited kids; the whole gamut. Mr. Bum likely went in to hang out there.  

Once it was 8:15 I packed up and counted up - I'd made $104 which is at least nearly my record for tips without someone dropping a $100. I'd had 3 people drop a $20 and also got a $10 and a few $5's along with of course a bunch of $1's so it's not hard to do with those $20's. 

Given these days that if you go into McBlecchs for a burger, fries, and a drink you're busting $20, those $20's are not that big to a lot of people. 

One of the $5's was from a couple of young guys who wanted me to try the theme from the movie "Lala Land". I said I don't know it but if he pulls it up on his phone I'll try it. He did, and I did, and we had a bit of a laugh, and I said I'll look it up on YouTube and see if it's a good one for me to learn. 

I walked back out to Baraka Market and they were having the first busy day I'd seen. I got my yogurt drink and some olives and walked out to the bus. And the #522 showed up in a short time so it was pretty easy to get back to my home Whole Foods and do a bit of shopping.  

 

Lost 'em then got 'em back

 Last night was spent getting 20 things ready to photo and list, which was time-consuming because I had to clean heat sink compound off of a lot of things, yuck! 

I then found things that have to be packed and shipped, which is an effort of its own. 

I finally settled down to practice, and again high notes were there, then I lost them. But then I "strategically relaxed" and got them back. Yay! 

I look forward to when I can just pay attention to my playing and performing. Sure I'll be living in a small rented room around the university, but I'll be able to use the university as a practice place and even take/audit classes there. Plus whatever resources the Musicians' Union has. 

 

High notes were rockin'

 I did a bunch of stuff last night, by which I mean, took apart 4 things and rounded up some other stuff to dump out front for the scroungers. 

And that's what I did; listened to things on YouTube and took things apart. I was surprised how much scrap metal and junk I piled up out front haha. 

Then I practiced and wow high notes were a breeze. I was able to play all those crazy bugle calls and the exercises in the book I'm practicing out of were a breeze, until they weren't. I either tightened up somehow or just plain got tired, not sure. I kept practicing though because I've been learning that a mediocre practice one day will lead to a very good one the next. 

I woke up around 2PM which was a little early so I "rested my eyes" and then woke up again, at 5. Oops. I packed about 5 things that were both small and really ought to go out today, and took those to the post office. 

While frantically packing things, I'd been pleasantly surprised, around 5:30, to hear someone outside with a truck or some sort of vehicle, picking up the scrap metal. They'd only left a few plastic things, which I picked up and put in a dumpster on the other side of the complex after I got back. 

I should also mention that at the sign/car graphics place, I found a ton of ... starchy goods. Like buns of a few types, tortillas, bread, and an unopened box of cereal (breakfast candy) called "Honey Bunches Of Oats". Bird food time!! So I found a place along Old Bayshore, where the landscaping plants are new and haven't covered all the ground yet, that's perfect for laying out a feast for my fine feathered friends, which I did. 

That's the thing with following a low-carb diet. Almost all the stuff I find, isn't on my diet. If I were not on this diet, I might have kept the bread and the tortillas. But that's OK the main thing is it's fun to score free stuff that's useful to someone. 

I wasn't sure if Ken would come by tonight and apparently, not. He said he'd be in England and Scotland for "a couple weeks" I think so I guess I won't see him this week. I still cleaned up the bathroom and office as usual though. 

Plus, as I seem to be in the loop for these things, I got the new lease agreement emailed to me, so I printed it out for Ken. It doesn't look too bad, really. The rent's lowered a bit and gradually increases over the 4 years. And it won't be anything I'll need to even think about after 1 year. 

 

 

Tuesday - not enough good sleep?

 I photo'd 20 things, listed 10, and packed a ton of stuff. 

 

Monday after some good sleep

 I felt so tired last night I didn't do much of anything other than have my cheese and olives for dinner, and tried to get "up" for listing a bunch of stuff but didn't, and finally went to bed at 7AM. 

I woke up at 3 this afternoon, and the Monday "morning" weigh in shows me 1/2 lb up from last week. 

At least, for some reason, the elderberry lozenges seem to have done some good and my throat's better. 

I packed I don't know, 10, maybe 12 things, and got 'em to the post office, got things in 99 Ranch and H Mart, hung out in front of H Mart to enjoy a can of Mr. Brown coffee and some spicy peanuts, and didn't find much in the way of packing stuff *except* about 30 really neat "Kinder Country" boxes from the exotic foods place dumpster, which are a nice smallish handy size and of good quality. 

 

 

$65 Sunday

 I listed 10 things last night, all photo'd and ready to go from the night before. After having some dinner, I got involved in "just trying to find at least some of the next batch of things" which ended up meaning, "Get 20 more things photo ready"

I slept very deeply, then had a weird "frustration dream" about the airport, and getting stuff together, etc. It was pretty realistic; at one point I had this large, long piece of luggage to get aboard, and all I can think of it would have been something holding an electric bass because I can't think of anything else that long, but pretty flat. 

I woke up feeling sore (my back, mainly) and had a bit of a headache so "breakfast" was coffee and aspirin. 

I left here at 4:30 and Lo and behold, was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30 so, a mere 2 hours. 

The busking went OK, about the same as yesterday. This time I just wore my fleece jacket which was borderline too warm but it was OK. It was overcast and a bit windy. I played "Long, Long Time" several times both to work on it and also because the Whole Foods employee who wanted to learn trumpet might show up again, I thought. 

"Eensty Weentsy Spider" was a big hit though, with a little kid and his dad, who didn't tip of course. It's a good one to have in my repertoire. I should learn the theme song for TV show "Bluey" but I'm not sure if that has that much of a strong theme song. There were just tons of little kids this time and I should learn more little kid songs. 

I was playing high notes well, so at one point I played the intro and ending music from the 2nd series Astroboy show, great fun but I'll be surprised if I ever run into anyone who recognizes them. 

At one point I *did* meet one of the Whole Foods Employees, a Karen type woman who's a manager, who told me exactly where the line runs that divides Whole Foods property from public property, where I can play and she "Can't do anything about that!". Even funnier, she talked while furiously chewing gum. I should have asked if it's nicotine gum, or if she brought enough for the rest of the class, or some snappy remark, but it's much better that I didn't. 

A very nice Indian lady came up and with her phone out, puzzled, she asked if I had Zelle or something, and I said I don't, but that some people go into Whole Foods and buy gift cards. I said it could be for $5 or $10, and one time I got one for $50 but that's an awful lot. She went away and I went back to playing and she came back surprisingly soon, and gave me a gift card with $25 on it. "Wow, thanks!" was my reaction, and I said I do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods, which is often cheaper than Safeway. (As if I go into Safeway these days, ha!) 

With that, after she'd left feeling good about doing her good deed for the day, I looked at the time and it was time to go. I'd made $40 cash including something like $4 in quarters, and the $25 gift card, making $65. 

I was surprised I'd done this well, and played as well as I did, because my throat's been scratchy and before getting on the bus I'd bought some elderberry lozenges from my "home" Whole Foods, and had some on the bus ride. 

I walked over to Baraka Market for olives and a yogurt drink, then walked over to the bus stop, and ended up running for the bus because the #522 got there a bit before me. 

This meant I got back to my "home" Whole Foods at around 9. The employees were getting ready to close, which they don't do until 10, and this always makes it feel later. There was a guy begging with a sign, very definitely on Whole Foods property but I guess no one was sweating it, as he wasn't being noisy, just holding his sign. I got a couple bags of macadamia nuts because I'll always use them, and a can of their tuna in olive oil which if anything is only about 50c more expensive than Walmart's version. That took care of the gift card. 

I had a nice calm ride back here, and had cheese and olives for dinner.