$71 Saturday

 I'd prepared and listed 30 things, and got 15 of them listed last night, and got some practice in. I really need to practice every day. 

I left here at 4:30 which means I got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30. It felt slow because it was kind of slow. It's getting dark earlier, and the crowd was different. There were gaggles of families coming through periodically, probably going to/from a movie at the theater. And lots of Asians going in and out; last night had been a moon/harvest festival and maybe they were getting regular stuff now that the festival was done. 

I got a ton of $1 bills, 36 of them to be exact. And three $5's and one lone $20. There was a skinny kid who kept sort of circulating around, and when he saw I was watching him, would go away and then a bit later, come back. So at one point I stopped to stack up the money and stash it away. I'll have to watch out for him tomorrow too, I guess. 

And at one point a weird Indian guy came up and kept looking right at me and smiling, while doing this weird stuff with some bills, a $1 a $5 and a $20, like maybe he was trying to get them into a roll with the $1 on the outside or something. I was in the middle of a song and kept playing, and when he left I looked and he hadn't dropped a thing. So I'll have to watch out for him too. If he comes back I'll just stop playing and get out the pepper spray. And I'll have to get into the habit of putting not just $20s but $10s etc. anything larger than a $5, away. 

I also, at one point, had a young Chinese couple with a cute little kid, get into my rendition of "Eentsy Weentsy Spider", so much so that they, as far as I could tell, went inside to shop and left the kid with me. Great. So now I'm a babysitting service. I contemplated packing up real quick and disappearing, but after several minutes the kid's mom re-appeared and collected him.  

Because of the long pause while I stashed my money to protect it from the kid, I stayed and played past 8, until 8:20. That 20 minutes got me an extra $9.  I'd made $71 in total. 

 

Bums will steal anything, part 4534534759572935

 In short, they stole an old B.O. smelling shirt from me. 

I got up at 3 thanks to my alarm clock, had one thing packed that had to go, some stuff to donate like the coffee on sale that turns out to taste like dishwater, and I brought a long-sleeved sort of waffle-weave shirt I've had for something like 10 years now, and in need of a wash, frankly. That was for when it cooled down later in the day. 

I went to the bank and deposited my pay check, all the numbers agreed, all good.

I rode back downtown and picked up 3-4 bubble mailers at the Amazon place, then rode along the Paseo De San Antonio and realized that walking along side me was Leroy, the sax player. So we had a good old hang-out time, catching up on things, while we walked to the long-closed Johnny Rockets and he set up. 

I told him about my two Whole Foods locations, and that honestly, people like the *tone* one is playing with, and generally have no idea what the song is. I've quizzed 'em, after getting a tip and gushing praise, asked, "OK what was I just playing?" and they have no idea.  It's all about the tone. 

 Then I went to Sakura Market and got a package of coffee, a single sugar-free Lipovitan,  and since I'd bought one of their small T-shirts which might be a bit too small after it gets washed, got a Medium one. I'd have a nice new T-shirt to wear over the weekend, out busking. 

I rode down to Walmart and locked the bike up at Big-5 as usual. I had one old Whole Foods bag with the bubble mailers in it, tied to one handlebar, and took one in with me. I had $34 on me and another $8 in change in my change bag, which I forget to take in with me and realized this once I was inside. So, no extras. 

I got T.P. paper towels, some pepitas, some Farmer John sausages, just normal stuff and it came to $30 so that was perfect. I got that all bagged up and walked back to the bike. 

The first thing I noticed was that the Whole Foods bag I'd had tied to the handlebars was now lying on the sidewalk, handles still tied in a knot, though. The bubble mailers were still in it. In the bags, my new T-shirt and my old long-sleeve waffle weave thing, complete with a lil' B.O., were gone. And in the other pannier, there was a goofy little bike cable with combination lock thing. Like a bum had taken the shirts, and left this near-toy thing as a sort of payment. I tossed that on the sidewalk, packed things away, and assessed the damage. 

They hadn't taken the change bag with $8 in change in it, and bums love change! They hadn't taken the really nice flashlight that was in there either. They hadn't taken the package of coffee because using that would mean having hot water, and a regular cup, etc., things a bum, which exists by hand-to-mouth, sort of like a dog but with hands. Maybe the best comparison is a squirrel. They've got little hands but can't cook or prepare things, or open cans, or really do anything in the way of food preparation. 

Well shit, I thought, it could have been worse. I rode back downtown, right back to Sakura and bought another one of the same T-shirt because I had wanted one. 

I checked in with Leroy again who was making tips,  and we talked about the crazy things we've seen bums do. It's good to see he's making tips because downtown is so dead. What's funny is, he never heard about the real reason the Walgreens got closed, about the security guard shooting and killing a guy, or was it the other way around? In any case, there was a death and that was it for Walgreens downtown. 'You can look it up!" I said. 

On my way home I stopped at Nijiya and got a package of shrimp that was $7.50 or so and used the change to pay for that. I had shrimp soup for dinner and it was good. 

 

Sorry no janitor job here

 I spent the night taking some ugly stuff part and as usual, put the scrap metal out front. I did a practice session too, only because I need all the practice I can get for my weekend sessions. 

I really only had a few things to ship, that could go to the post office so I packed those, and headed out. I had $6 in bills and $5.75 in change with me and I told myself maybe I'd just use my card if I saw something good. 99 Ranch had some coffee on sale that looked worth trying; it was 2 boxes for $5 so I got a couple and some other things, spending about $14. 

I folded up the receipt and put it in the other side of my wallet from where I usually put my money, so I could pull it out when I got back and write down what I'd spent out of my bank account, because I used my card. When I went in there to put it away, what's this? There were two $20's in there. 

On the ride over I'd been thinking, How was I so low on money? I'd made something like $225 on the weekend. I guessed I'd just spent it. I'd also wondered, earlier in the week, what had happened to one $20 bill that had a couple of little tears in it. Spent it, I guessed. 

Well here was the distinctly torn $20 bill, with another one. So that's neat, as I have a trip to Walmart planned for tomorrow. 

I treated myself to boiled peanuts and rode over to H Mart, got my iced coffee, and ate the peanuts sitting in front. No Karen encounters or zombie incidents, just a nice boring day. 

Some time in the morning I'd been awakened by a knock on the door, and it was some Hispanic gal asking about a janitor job? I said no jobs here, try next door. She just got in her car and left so maybe she'd already asked there haha. 

I wonder if people could get used to just using GPS coordinates at their addresses? As I understand it they're just latitude and longitude, but with very high resolution so degrees, minutes, seconds, and whatever they're using for fractions of the angle-seconds. Kind of like how, at Burning Man, everything's set up like a big clock, so you know intuitively where you are or how to get someplace from where you are. I think the city of London uses a system kind of like that too. It might require more numeracy than the average person can handle though. 

 

Psychology Today is still in print?

 I was up packing things, to get caught up. Lots of medium and large-ish things with one large thing to pack today left. 

I went to bed around 6-7AM, OK all well and fine. Then I was awakened by a knock on the door and had to yell for them to wait a minute, while I moved the boxes and stuff I'd packed. It was a guy from the water company saying he has to work on the water and wanted to get an idea of what hours it's in use here. I said I'm generally here until 6 but "Hey, if you have to work on the water, you have to work on the water, don't worry about it". 

I started my coffee routine, when I looked at the clock again and realized it was only 11:30. I thought it was a quarter to 3. So I turned the kettle off and spread my bedding out again and went back to sleep. 

Then I was awakened, this time actually at a quarter to 3, by a phone call. It was some lady who's Doctor so-and-so from Psychology Today asking if I'd called them. "No.........." was my reply. She said something like Oops she'd gotten the digits wrong (that's easy to do with my phone number) and that was that. I wish I'd kept her on the line a bit. Psychology Today is still in print?? I know Boomers read the thing but, like, older Boomers who are Trump-old, like Ken's age. 

Are magazine racks still even a thing in airports?  Fry's Electronics had a glorious magazine rack for a while. It was great; all kinds of niche hobbyist magazines like High Power Rocketry, needless to say magazines about knitting and stuff, the sailing mags, all the computer/tech mags, plus lots of porn, all mixed together. If that was too erudite, there was the same organization in the DVD racks. I picked up a cop of "Restrepo" in the part with the Barney The Dinosaur stuff. 

I'll have to look for magazines in the airport when I get outta here, just to see if they're still a thing. 

Since it was now time to actually get up, thanks Psychology Today! - I re-started the kettle etc. and got going. The big thing I was dreading turned out to be a lot smaller than the photo made it look haha. 

I got going to FedEx to drop off all the big/medium boxes, then the post office for the post office stuff, then went to H Mart for my iced coffee and hang out time on the curb in front with that and some spicy peanuts I'd brought from home. 

I'd parked my bike + trailer how I always do, alongside the "curb" on the side of the building, lined up with the bike rack, which at this time had an adult bike and a kid's bike. I heard a mom say to her kid, something about "Thank our Lord Jesus Christ for yadda yadda...." and pretty soon they came. The kid's bike was blocked in by my bike and the mom's bike but all the mom had to do was move hers, which a normal person would first, then get the kid's bike. Her poor little son had to hear her bitch at me for parking my bike where I did, and I pretty much ignored her. Eventually she just unlocked her bike, then went to get her son's bike but he insisted on doing it himself - I'm sure he's already tired of her. They left, probably with her bitching at the kid all the way home. 

H Mart is on the other side of  Brokaw from some kind of church that has signs out, shows free movies etc. so it's kind of surprising there aren't more psychos from there wandering around, frankly. 

I found some great packing stuff on the way home and got back here, had Korean "Gouda" cheese (which is every bit as awful as that sounds) and olives and a large cucumber for dinner, and got the place cleaned up for Ken. who showed up a bit late but better that than never. 

The property owner's secretary had sent an email saying Ken needs to sign the new lease or we'll just go onto the month-to-month rent which is more, and I'd printed it out for Ken and also told her I'd get on him about it. So that's one of the things we talked about. 

He'll either (a) sign the new, 4-year lease, or (b) won't, and he'll have to pay probably $500-$1000 more in rent than otherwise. In the case of (a) I just need to keep working, keep saving, and get ready to light out of here in one year minus about one week now. Or (b) keep working etc., and try to sit back and enjoy the show as Ken won't be able to pay the new rent probably, we'll fall behind, etc. I don't have to move back to Hawaii right when I reach age 65, I just think it's a neat and orderly time to do so. I can leave earlier... 

 

 

 

This time next year...

 I'll be back home. No more work for Ken. Where will I be, in particular? I'll still be in a hotel room, looking for a room to rent. But I don't plan to hurry, and I'll have probably found something fun to do like visiting the beach I used to surf at all the time (the windward side one) or wandering around "in town" to place I knew growing up, maybe visit the Pacific Trade Center building where my father had an office. 

Repamarations!

 On the radio today is a piece all about the "reparations" being paid to black people. Race-based, of course. And if you're black and a multi-millionaire, you still get the money I guess. 

The right way to do something like this would be to give the "reparation" sum to everyone whose family was here in the US in the year 1900, or pre-WWII, and have an income below the median. That would automatically pay black Americans but not recent immigrants from Africa who tend to be well-to-do, and it would included non-black people who have been put upon for more than a century also. Even if they're white, Oh, the horror. 

This is more Jewish divide-and-conquer policy of course. 

I packed what things I could before I had to go, went up to the post office to drop them off, then over to 99 Ranch and H Mart. I also wanted to buy paper at FedEx but ... every place was super busy! 99 Ranch was pretty busy, OK par for that course. The post office had been super busy, with lots of people who had lots of small packages like I did. 

Fedex was the busiest I've seen it so after using their bathroom I decided to get paper later. And H Mart was really busy, so much so that they were out of hamburger so that's another thing put off. I'm not sure why places were so busy. The 15th payday would have been last week, and I can't think of any holidays coming up.  

I rode back here, not finding any packing stuff but I did find an (I think) almost-new pillow behind the gym. A bunch of stuff was put out there, women's shoes and a bunch of small-kid clothes and carrying bags and things. I'm about due for a new pillow, and while it seems yucky to pick up a used pillow, people don't mind the used pillows in hotels, do they? 

So I rode back here but first went over to the exotic foods place dumpster. There wasn't anything there except a couple dozen liter bottles of some kind of sugary drink, hibiscus and mango flavors I think. I hate to see things go to waste, so I took them out of the dumpster (they were pretty well hidden) and them outside the dumpster where they were easy to see. 

Then I came back here, offloaded stuff and loaded up my old pillow, and on the way back out, gathered up an office chair that's been in the parking lot for a while, and the big bag of trash someone had put on it. Those went with me, with the office chair placed out by the street where it's easy to see, and my old pillow and the bag 'o' trash going into the exotic foods dumpster. The bottles of juice were already gone. 

 

 

$96 Sunday

 I got back last night and after eating dinner and relaxing a bit, was so tired that while I tried to get enthusiastic about listing the 30 things I had ready, I just could not stay with it and went to bed around 4AM

I set my alarm clock for 3 anyway and good thing, since I woke up around noon and then went back to sleep until it woke me up. Fortunately I had everything ready to go as far as the trumpet, tip box, beef sticks, fleece jacket, etc. 

So all I had to do was have my coffee and nuts and head out. I actually got to the bus stop at 5, which meant I was starting out busking at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6. I'd play until 7:30, I decided. 

It was overcast, a bit cold, and a bit windy. But not too bad. I did my "paid practice" and got my compliments and tips. This session's "I want to play trumpet" guy was a guy who was here I think connected with work, because he said he's staying "At Moffett" and is from Wyoming. He played trombone "Don't hold it against me!" and I said trombones are awesome. It sounded like he'd messed around with trumpet and even French horn, and was still in the process of learning what I have, which is to just buy an instrument new and keep it forever. Don't mess with used stuff because you're just buying someone else's problems. 

We talked a bit too long, really, but I was being lazy today haha, and thus I got $86 and a gift card. Still pretty nice! And many, many little kids got to see a live musician, which is a very rare thing these days. 

I considered staying until 8 but by 7:30 I was pretty tired and it had also gotten pretty slow, so I packed up. I got my yogurt drink at Baraka Market and went over the stop and got on the first bus which was a #22. 

This matters because the #22 stops at Maria which the #522 does not, and that's the stop to go to Mega Mart, which is the one Korean market  I didn't go to on Friday. So I got off at Maria and went to Mega Mart to check out their tape situation: Their clear tape is 50c a roll more, and they were out. But, there was a display with odor-free Raid in the red can, the kind that's for roaches. I didn't even know they made an odor-free version. I mean, the perfume is nice, but I don't need to be reminded for 3 days that I'd sprayed a roach, and I don't need that interfering with my meals. So that was an instant sale. 

Other than that, Mega Mart isn't any better than Han Kook, so I'm not missing out on much of anything. And I got the desire to go there out of my system. 

I got on the next #22 bus and at the Santa Clara Transit Station the driver had us get off because there was something wrong with the brakes. So a ton of us got on the next #522 which was there in a couple of minutes. All good! 

I got "home" to "my" Whole Foods a bit after 9, and it was dead, dead, dead there. Good thing I wasn't busking there I guess. I got nuts and stuff and found out that the gift card was for $10 which is a very nice tip. So that brought the earnings up to $96. 

I rode around downtown and it was dead all over. It's Sunday night so it makes sense, it's just sad that Sunday night used to be jam night at Cafe Stritch, and I could have stopped in, bought some food, and enjoyed some live jazz. San Jose didn't deserve that place.