A few days on the other side of the Olduvai

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olduvai_theory this is a great read! 

I woke up Wednesday to ... no power. Which is OK,  I figured, they'll fix it in a few hours. 

A few hours turned into 4 days. Ken came over Wednesday night and after not answering my many calls, here he was in person. "Why's it so dark?" he asked. "Did you pay that last electric bill? I believe it was a final notice...." 

The long and short of things is it took a couple of days for Ken to get around to paying it, and was going to amount to more days for PG&E to bother to turn it back on. I tried their telephone system hell, and didn't get anywhere. I had to charge my phone etc up at FedEx, and spent some time messing around with my newer laptop, as this one is about to be retired. 

My check was dated for Friday so I deposited it then, and went up to West Valley Music where I got a Yamaha 14E mouthpiece to keep my 16E that the cornet came with, company. And I got the hard-to-find first Getchell-Hovey book. The one guy, Craig, at the music store dug around in some drawers to find it, and I was impressed with his extra effort. He's manager there and teaches trumpet also. 

They were not able to order the "Gard" bag for a cornet I want though, so I might just buy that and put up with the extra time and precarity of having it arrive at Ken's house, if the porch pirates don't get it, and then the extra week or two for Ken to bring it here. At least I'll have it. 

I went back downtown on the train, and rode over to the big Goodwill on San Carlos. BIG mistake. It's pretty obvious that's a really bad neighborhood. Between the pawn shops (not the nice kind, the kind with dirt floors) and used car riposs places, dive bars (real dive bars, the kind guys go to first after getting out of "the joint") and the number of bums staggering around, it really is one of the armpits of San Jose. 

But the trouble is, it's still OK if you get out of your car, march right up to the door and go in, wearing a "Don't fuck with me" look on your face. But riding a bike means taking time to lock the bike and that means pausing for a few minutes, with all those drugged-up zombies staggering around. 

So I had one of the zombies get in my face and no go away even while I was on the phone with the cops. By the time the cops came the zombie had staggered off, and the cops were trying to figure out who was really at fault here and what was the actual situation. Was I also a scumbag? Or was I a human with the bad judgement to go to that Goodwill? They "ran" my license and of course found nothing. 

Besides talking about what the zombie had done and said, (the damned thing called me a "nigger" which is just bizarre, although I am a shade darker than fish-belly white...) I said Don't worry I'm not coming back here - I was after a flute case but I'll just buy one new, and Ross is better for clothes. I even said the bum was headed *that* way, pointing West on San Carlos, and I'm going *that* was, pointing the opposite direction. And did so, when we were done talking. 

That place really isn't worth it. And if they can't keep a guard on duty then let the zombies prey on each other and leave me out of it. 

Ken had called me when I was still in Mountain View, at the train station. He'd worked out how to pay, and the power should come on any time. 

So when I got back it was still dark. Another night of dime light via flashlights, and reading books and that's about it. I did some practice too but I guess my heart wasn't in it or I was tired, and it didn't go well so I just went to sleep. 

It was about 2AM when I went to sleep, and I woke up a bit before 6 which is really not enough sleep. I got up and had some aspirin, instant coffee, and a can of 7-Up, and went back to bed. And slept really well. I'd had grandiose plans of taking some silver half-dollars I have to sell to a place in Menlo Park but now it was 3:30 or so in the afternoon so that was out. 

I heard all kinds of banging and clinking out front, and finally went out there, curious. The guys were taking apart hundreds of door locks. It turns out the one guy had bought, for $1 million, an apartment building and was changing out the locks because "These are old". So he and a couple other guys were taking 'em apart to sell the metal. We had fun talking for a while, and all I can say is that again I'm impressed with how smart and up to date on things these guys are. Bring on the Reconquista! 

The wind was kind of strong and needless to say cold, and I thought if I go up to Mountain View I could avoid the wind, and do some busking. So I started on my day with that in mind. I cooked up my 1/4 lb of hamburger and 3 eggs because I have to use things up because I no longer have refrigeration. and I bundled up the cornet in my messenger bag, wrapped in a really neat thick towel I didn't know I had. 

I got to San Pedro Square a bit after 6, and set up to play. After 20 minutes I had one tip, a $5 from a family, which was nice. But although there were plenty of people walking around, these days people who go to San Pedro Square are broke, and it doesn't pay much, playing for broke people. 

So I moved over to Whole Foods. I'm here for practice, anyway, I reminded myself. I played a bunch of the "old favorites" and although it seemed slow, that was deceptive. It was also cold, but that worked to my advantage because it meant no hustlers with their booth, no skinny guy with a million petitions, etc. And the wind had died down quite a bit. 

So I played along, got plenty of smiles and compliments, and one lady really wanted to hear "Beautiful Dreamer" so I played that, and she put in a rolled-up bill that turned out to be a $50. The tips picked up a little, as I think 7-8PM is really the golden hour. 

I *was* going to stay until 8, as  I think I'd started at about 7:45, but at about 10 before, some scumbag bum with a big beard came up and was going to either (a) waste my time or (b) grab the tip box and run. So I said I don't want to have anything to do with zombies, plunked the cornet into the tip box and gathered it up and walked off. 

I counted up at the table nearest the door and thus presumably nearest the security guard, and had $61.25, which with the $50 I'd put in my wallet right away, I had a total of $112.25. Not bad for around an hour of playing, and the debut of my new cornet and its conical mouthpiece which I'm still getting used to. 

Ken had called me while I was at San Pedro Square and told me he'd gone though PG&E's phone tree also, and gotten a supervisor and got them to turn the power on. I said I'm out "practicing" and will check when I get back to the shop. He said to call him when I get back and let him know in either case. 

I didn't want to rush back to a probably still cold, dark, and electricityless shop, so I wandered around in Whole Foods for a bit, and picked out a bottle of Guinness. I don't drink any more but I'll make an exception for a Guinness once in a great while. I went upstairs and sat at the bar and watched a basketball game, except the ADHD method of filming a game is most unenjoyable. Some neat plays though. It was a say to take my mind off of things. 

I drank half the pint of Guinness which I've got to say is a pretty nice amount to drink. I'd happily have ordered one of the "home" brews upstairs, but there's something about the taste of Guinness, for which there's no substitute. I can see why in British pubs it's a thing to order a "half" because it's a nice amount to drink for the flavor. 

I got on the bike to get out of there, rode a little circuit around downtown where I saw very little going on and no other street musicians, then rode to Japantown. There was a live jazz thing going on at one of the little shops, and I hung out and talked with people, and after their set program there was a "jam" so I figured, why not? Except it turns out the kind of music they were playing is great for musicians showing off for other musicians, in other words, if I'm tuning around on the radio and hear this kind of mathematical jazz, I murmur "ok" and move on. So I moved on. 

I got back here and turned on the light switch by the door and nope, still dark so I turned the flashlights on, then noticed the screen for the video camera was on, and of course the light controlled by the wall switch, the fluorescent lights overhead, have been dead for a while now because Ken's worked on them. In other words, the electricity was back on. I called Ken and told him, and asked him if he'd called someone at PG&E at home and rousted 'em out of bed or something, and apparently he'd just been more persistent at the phone tree than I was. 

We talked a bit more and it was "OK see you on Wednesday" and I went around turning things on and plugging things in, and finished de-icing the freezer.  

Don't have a lazy chin

 Practice last night went well, and I'm progressing in the Rubank book. I noticed when I was having trouble hitting the high notes in the exercises, if I thought about keeping my chin just a bit flatter, it cleaned those notes right up. 

It's not even tensing it up, just thinking about it and there being a bit of "support" and things start working out much better. 

I'm considering "splashing out" as the Brits say on this one Gard brand short cornet case I've found online,  that's a bit over $100 with the shipping, this one Yamaha short-shank cornet mouthpiece that's named after one of their sponsored players, that's $61 plus whatever the shipping it, probably another $10-$15, and one or two of those little Protec mouthpiece pouches that used to be everywhere for $10 and are now more like $20. I still like 'em a lot though. 

I packed All The Things(tm) last night, practiced, got some sleep, woke up around 2 in the afternoon (had my alarm set for 3) looked at the weather, yep still pouring, went back to some sleep until 5, then had my coffee and nuts and took off for the post office and FedEx and timed things well; I only got rained on coming back. 

I'd stopped at H Mart on my way back from the post office and gave them their package and it had started raining again. So I went in and bought a couple of things, and when I came out it was still raining so I went back in and found a couple more things to buy, then when I went out at least it was raining less. 

It was nice having nice clean dry clothes to change into back here. I guess when I'm back in Hawaii I'll be renting a room from someone and in that respect I'm going to miss all the room I have around here. I'm not going to miss the work, though. 

Since I'll be just turned 65, I'll be able to do things like sign up for classes at the university without having to pay more than a token fee, and that opens up things like being able to use their practice rooms, and being around the campus in general. 

I also plan to join the musicians' union which isn't that big a deal here in California, maybe a bit more of a deal in Los Angeles, and really only a big deal in NYC. But in Hawaii it may well be; they have their own building and recording studios and have get-togethers and building  maintenance days. 

It will be a bit of a shock after having had one routine, working for Ken, for so long. And I expect to burn through a lot of money. First I'll be staying in a hotel until I can find a room to rent and that may take some time. I'll be back to how I lived as a young adult, when I didn't do a lot of cooking for myself but ate cheap stuff from Foodland, the local supermarket chain I even worked for at one time. 

I got back from being rained on, hung my jacket up in the loft, changed out my other clothes and fixed up a cold-cuts dinner of cheese, sardines, olives, and the 2nd half of a big batch of kim chee cole slaw I made a couple of days ago. 

Then I packed All The Things(tm) again. I have to be ready to go when there's a break in the rain. 

 

Go, Jarrett!

 JarretForHI for the win, let's hope! Yep, I still keep up with politics back home. And if I were back there, retired, I'd have time to work for his campaign. He's anti-AIPAC and anti-ICE like any normal human would be, and gunning for Ed Case's Congress seat. Ed Case, who my older sister thinks is a wonderful human being (he's the extreme opposite of that) need to go. 

I mean, the Red Hill scandal, how folks out in Waianae are doing, the Jones Act and what Matson's up to, and the price of lychee (never litchi) nuts are things mainlanders have never even heard of, but they're big things back home. 

Yesterday it just poured all day. I went to bed after packing all the things on Saturday night, woke up around noon or 1 and miraculously it wasn't raining, so I loaded everything on the bike and got outta here to FedEx and sent everything off, got a thing or two at H Mart, and got back here. No matter how I tried to stay awake, I needed more sleep so I slept until about 7 in the evening. 

Then up all night, got 25 things ready to list, and got a good practice in. Both of the mouthpieces I have for the cornet are more of a deep cup type than are common for trumpet. Finding a Bach 3C mouthpiece for a trumpet is the easiest thing in the world, for cornet nearly impossible. At least for a cornet that takes a "short shank" mouthpiece which this one does. 

What I'd want is a Yamaha or Schilke 14B4, and the Yamaha ones seem to be manufactured but hard to get, and Schilke (which uses the same numbering system) doesn't make short shank ones. Wick does, but Wick doesn't make an exact 3C model as it's a British company and really, really into the British brass band thing. The Wick I have is a bit closer to a 3C and a very popular cornet mouthpiece among the British brass band set, but has a huge bore, making it louder and I don't think sounds as nice at the 16E the cornet came with. 

Since for busking louder is better, and if the Wick is a really popular British brass band piece then I ought to learn to play well on it. But I really like the Yamaha piece. 

I'm just not "there" yet, I guess a year off because I was fooling around with the shakuhachi and another year off because of a combination of sickness and my year fooling around with That Horrible Religion meant no busking on Friday nights, no busking on Saturdays, meant pretty much ... no busking. Plus I was only going out there and blatting away, not practicing at home. 

 

More rain.

 Well, I had a good practice session last night, but the tradeoff was I didn't wake up until 6PM this evening. So, no packing and shipping today. 

I decided to make a 99 Ranch run though, and rode up there leaving here at 8. I got a few things and started to feel a little rain on the way back. I did, however, stop at the laptop repair place and got a large bag worth of padding materials, which I spread out up in the loft to dry when I got back since they got rained on a little. 

Needless to say, no busking tonight. Last night would have been a great night though. Everyone buying flowers and in a cheery mood, even though it was cold enough to make the booth-botherers leave their usual station at Whole Foods, the same place on the sidewalk I'd busk on. 

I'm just not all the way back up to strength yet. This is kind of how things work here, there's a busking season, from April to September, and there's a non-busking season, which is the end of September to the end of March. Of course if I were retired and didn't have to work for Ken any more, then I'd be out busking all year. Sure I'd make less in the "off season" but I'd still be out there. And this doesn't mention that the month of December is a very good one for busking, and there's also New Years' Eve. 

Of course back in Hawaii things would not have this seasonality to them. It's pretty warm and sunny the year around, except when it's raining and even then it's not cold. And tourists come all the year around, with the tourists who come during winter considered a little classier than the summer ones. 

 

Foggy Friday

 Foggy Friday the 13th! Except no bad luck as far as I could tell. I packed things, cleaned up, sent off packages at the post office, and got over to the bank to deposit my check and my math and their math agreed to the penny. 

I went over to Whole Foods and picked out some fish and mushrooms (keeping my diet very "keto" these days) and the lines were L-O-N-G in fact the longest I'd seen there since the covid days. 

So I made the mistake of joking around about it with a guy behind me, a Black working-class seeming guy, and we ended up talking about music and he got into this thing about Elvis Presley and he was on a roll. You see, ol' Elvis couldn't sing for shit until he sacrificed a chicken (I think??) and God gave him the ability to sing. I tried to mention that he simply started young and spent a LOT of time singing, and learned from gospel and blues singers. 

But my buddy was on a tear, and by the time we got to the checkout and I was able to put my still-kinda-warm fish on the belt, the guy was going on about how the only real Chinese, Mexican, etc people are black, and how certain people are devils and I'm pretty sure he was talking about the dreaded "white devils". The nice gal who was checking was Chinese and didn't seem to appreciate this data-dump, and I kind of rolled my eyes to her a bit and said this guy's "on a real wingding" which fortunately the guy didn't seem to notice, and next thing I know one of the guys working there has come over, and then the security guy, and I paid for my food and got my cash back and got outta there. 

I ate upstairs to avoid the guy coming after me for "calling security on him" which I hadn't, really, it was the checker's decision. Upstairs was busy too so I just ate my fish and watched the traffic go by on The Alameda below me. 

I went back in after eating for a couple of things and to get more cash back so that I've taken pretty exactly 1/2 my pay check and had it in my pocket to spent however I will. This is standard procedure when I'm being thrifty, and if I'm busking also then I might only spend $100 out of the paycheck or none at all, although it's good to do one withdrawal every week anyway, to remember my PIN. 

It was cold and a little windy, but no booth-botherers and if I were busking it looked like it could be a really nice night. Plenty of people going in and out and a big line for bouquets, which the workers were making up on the spot, which was kind of nice. 

I rode over to the Amazon place and got a ton of bubble mailers which was also nice. Then I rode down to Walmart. First thing I wanted to get some of the little button batteries to put in the little keychain flashlight I had, which was pretty nice - a dumpster find from the EMT training place. Big-5 didn't have them, and Walmart turned out to, but it would cost me $20 to put new batteries in the thing. 

So I just paid for my things and went back into Big-5 where I picked up a nice little flashlight for $5.50 that will work great, and I was nervous about using a flashlight that was attached to my keys, anyway. Great way to end up in a dumpster, throwing everything out of it in a frenzy like I'm a crazed tweaker, because I'd dropped my flashlight with my keys in it. 

I went to Nijiya on the way back and after getting things I took the small flashlight off of my key chain and left it on the table there for someone to find. The one I just got isn't small enough to go on a keychain, but it's small enough to be handy. 

Once I got back near here the traffic got a bit less crazy and I got back in here and "buttoned up" for the night. 

Practice last night (really, early this morning) went pretty well, and the Rubank exercises are getting easier.  

Whitewashed

 I stayed in while it was all wet and drippy outside, listed things, finished a load of laundry, did a bunch of things like that, and Ken came by at the usual time so I got my check. I also got the copy of "The Art Of Brass Playing" by Philip Farkas so ... that was about 2 weeks between my ordering it, it being shipped, and add a week for Ken forgetting to bring it by last week. 

He also brought by ... my ballot from the last election. This is why, I told him, I'm just signing up to vote in person because mail is just not dependable. If there's an election, that's my national holiday, and I'm taking the day off and spending what I have to, to vote. 

So buying things and having them delivered to my legal address which is Ken's house, takes time. But probably still a bit less time than when I was a kid in Hawaii, to get things sent from the mainland. 

This matters because I want to order one more mouthpiece for the cornet. So far I like the one that came with it the best, a Yamaha 16E I think it is. The Denis Wick one I have, has a much larger hole in it, to the extent that the cleaning brush goes right through. I don't think it has as good a sound. I'd like the Yamaha equivalent of a Bach 3C but those seem to be hard to get. There *is*, however, a mouthpiece Yamaha makes that's named after a noted French player and that one might be good. After all, the Yamaha "Bobby Shew" mouthpiece for trumpet is a good one. 

After Ken left last night I packed all the things I wanted to send out today, and eventually settled down to do some practice and that went well. Practicing every day is important. 

I practiced while watching Episode #3 of a TV mini-series, I believe just called "Holocaust" with Meryl Streep. I remember watching this as a kid in 1978 so it's a bit of a nostalgia thing and also it's kind of fun to notice new details in it. It's all a lot of Zionist propaganda, of course, and it's sickening how two of the characters, who are fated to emigrate to Palestine, talk about the orange groves, and having a farm, and all that sappy stuff but somehow don't mention all the indigenous families and children they look forward to butchering because that indeed is what the Zionists did, and do. 

Propaganda like this  was accepted at face value in the 70s. Now people have ways of being informed. They are noticing.

I ended up waking up at around 5 in the afternoon. Ken is tiring, laundry is tiring, packing things is tiring, and then practice is tiring I guess. I was glad I had the things all packed! So, a quick coffee and nuts, and I was outta here. I got the things all delivered, bought a few things at 99 Ranch and H Mart, and got back here. 

Oh, wait, I also finished worrying a large piece of equipment apart, no wonder I was tired! 

 

When it's better to not practice?

 After doing a bunch of other things yesterday/last night I practiced, but I went about it ... not ideally. First I didn't warm up with long tones. Big mistake I think. Secondly I was just not enthusiastic about it. 

I went to bed at something like 8AM, and told myself I wanted to be up around noon to pack a couple more things that had sold and get them to the post office before the rain starts. And amazingly I was up at noon. It was more like 1 when I got out of here, with 4 things, and rode up to the post office and back, and then on the way back (I could see ominous rain clouds coming in) I went to Lowe's. 

What fun looking in the cleaners section of Lowe's. For some reason they sell Scotchguard there, which a while back I hoped to find at Big-5, since it's used on sports equipment a lot, right? I only found some off-brand, and here it is, the genuine stuff. So that's good to know. 

I was looking for floor wax/sealer though, and am still kicking myself for tossing out my tin of Johnson's floor wax, the real old-school stuff, which takes a little effort but the stuff wears like iron. So I was thinking of trying some Minwax which is for furniture which would be the closest thing, but first I'd look at the liquids. Back at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital, we used to use some stuff called Mop And Glo, which I figured was no longer available but there it was. I had $15 cash with me and it came to $15.18 so I had to use my card, but now I can take care of the bathroom floor. 

I got back here just as a few rain drops were starting to fall, and a few minutes after I got inside it started to rain in earnest. Which is why I was so eager to get everything sent out early, because it's going to rain heavily tomorrow (Wednesday) and I'll stay in.