$66 Saturday

 I got out of here at almost 5 instead of 4, but somehow got to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at a quarter after 6, so only slightly later than yesterday. 

The motorcycle was not there again, so I think the guy's found another place to park it or something. I played from 6:15 to 7:45 and made $66. It went pretty well, with no interesting "characters" to deal with.

I'd sure seen them on the ride over. There was a guy sitting on the steps of the bail bond place on Hedding and 1st, just crying his eyes out with loud sobs. Who knows what the story was. Did his dealer sell him powdered sugar instead of the stuff he'd paid for? Had he violated his parole and knew he was going back to prison? Had he lost a friend/partner in crime? 

Then, up the street where Hedding crosses Coleman, there was a crazy zombie hustling for handouts, going up to a work truck and yelling, "Hey, that loaf of bread looks good! You should cut that open and put some meat inside! That would taste really fucking good!!" etc. 

Give me nice boring Sunnyvale, every time. 

The first tip of the day was a $20 which was a nice start, and I got a mix of $1's and $5's, and a Starbucks gift card that I won't be able to check until Monday when I'll be by the local Starbucks. 

It went pretty well, except that I think I need to practice more. But then I always think I need to practice more. 

When I was done I packed up and walked up to Baraka Market and got a yogurt drink, which I drank at the bus stop. It was a different brand than the brand with the cow on it, but really good. There's always the regular flavor and mint flavor. Mint in a salty drink, for it is indeed salty, seems kind of strange but maybe I should try it. 

The bus ride back was kind of hilarious because the announcement voice was kind of screwed up somehow so it sounded like a crack ho'. All raspy and speaking more slowly somehow. It would be right at home at St. James Park. 

I got back to my "home" Whole Foods at 9, and spent my $1's on some nuts and stuff. Although it was still almost an hour to closing, it felt like it was really close to closing. Not many shoppers and things were already being put away. I had a nice quiet ride home. 

 

A last-minute morale boost

 I managed to get up early enough to have my coffee and nuts, clean up a little, and get out of here at 4. I dropped off donations at the little free library in Japantown, and went into Nijiya to get a package of Yakult and a can of coffee. 

The key, it seems, to using a probiotic like Yakult to get over the shitz is, to drink the whole package a day, none of this onesy-twosy nonsense. 

I dropped off a package at the post office, rode over to Whole Foods where I locked up the bike, and went out and got on a #522 bus to Sunnyvale. I drank the Yakult on the bus and some of the coffee. 

It's a pleasant little walk from El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Road over to the Sunnyvale Whole Foods. I had to use the loo, and saw that the motorcycle was there, where I've been playing. Well, I'll just have to not play too close to it, I told myself. When I came back out, it was gone. So that's nice timing. It turns out the bike rack area is on the other side of the elevator, so it's not like there aren't places to park a motorcycle. 

I started in playing at just a few minutes after 6. Since I'd left here at 4, it was honestly two hours to get there and it would be another two hours getting back. This is like living in Kahuku and only being able to go busking at Koko Marina in Hawaii Kai, or living in Hawaii Kai and only being able to busk at the Kahuku Sugar Mill. For those not familiar with Oahu geography, those are as far apart as two points on the island can be, and still have roads. 

It felt a bit slow, but hey, I've got songs to work on. So I did that, trying to sound good and play things people know well, and working on some new stuff. After an hour had gone by, I figured I might have something close to $30 in the box, in other words, nothing to get excited about. The economy *is* slow, I told myself, and I'm going to see if I can hold out until 8. 

So I played more, trying to avoid things with high notes and giving myself little rests to try to keep my tone from getting too rough, and it looked like I could soldier on OK. At 8:40 or so, a bit past 8:30 anyway and I'd just told myself I only had another half-hour to go, a sort of nerdy looking lady put something in the tip box, crouching down and looking kind of embarrassed like it was the least she could do. 

When she was gone and the tune I was playing was done, I had a look. It looked like a $20 but not quite. Nope, it was a $100. Well! Time to give my tone a rest! I packed up and counted up what I'd made besides the $100. I'd made $32 so my feeling was correct, it *was* slow. 

But there are people for whom a $100 is like a $5 for me. I can't even conceive of making more than, say, $30k a year but there are people making 10X that or more. Other than Ken, who doesn't quite qualify as he doesn't make 10X $30k, but only 10X the $20k I make, I don't know anyone who makes more than a poverty or below-poverty income. But I know on an intellectual level that they exist. 

I took the bus back and stopped at Han Kook Market to buy some packing tape, because the tape they sell is something like 4X as much on a roll as the stuff Ken buys.  I still need Ken to buy tan tape from Uline, but these days that's the only packing material he has to buy. 

 

She really doesn't give a shit

 I got 20 things photo-ready last night, and took apart some big things that are a disaster to try to mail, but at least no one wants to buy. I put the parts out for the scroungers and they were still here today. 

So I went and did my post office and FedEx run, easy because it was only a few things and I didn't even need the trailer, got some things at 99 Ranch and H Mart as usual, la de da. I drank an entire package of probiotic stuff again, this time some Korean "Will" brand that tastes pretty good and was on sale. I've still got the craps but am maybe getting over it. 

I got back here and hitched up the bike trailer and took the parts out by Old Bayshore, and when I came back out to put something else out there, a guy had pulled up in a pickup truck and had loaded the things up. Great! 

On the radio, on NPR, they were interviewing a lady who was going on and on about how she really doesn't care about anything Diaper Don is doing, it's all about the economy for her. She really doesn't care, she reiterated, not anything at all, just the economy. These are the people who effectively run this country; the ignoramuses who only look at "line go up".  

I've got my "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday..." check from Ken and he says this latest reverse-mortgage thing is going OK, he just has to send them "a couple more things". 

The thing is, we're set up for an even bigger real estate crash than the one of '08. How is a bank going to loan Ken money on his house, which is by no means paid off because he's kept refinancing it over the years, assuming it may halve in value? They have to cover their asses. So from their end, I can see their assessing things at 1/2 or even 1/4 the present value. Count in how much "equity" Ken may have on his house, and if this latest lender only looks at that, well, he might get far, far less than he's been counting on. 

But at least Ebay sales are down lately.  

 

Watch out for the paint balls I guess

 Apparently there's someone in a black/dark SUV shooting paintballs at people right where I have to go, to go to the post office. Lovely. I mean, I'm on a bike, dressed in hi-viz, if I were a jerk I'd shoot at me. So I got some safety glasses out and will wear those. 

I listed 20 things last night so I'm back on track.  

Also, I wonder if I've got that cyclospora thing or I'm just "lucky". The long and short of it is, it's been a daily ass explosion around here and has been for close to a week now. This was another damper on the busking, in that if the public can perceive your mood, well, that may have affected my mood and helped make things slow. Still, just under $100 for the weekend is pretty good. 

 

91 Degrees (F) Tuesday

 It was a warm one today. I'm glad I had things all packed overnight when it was cooler and thus easier to work. 

I got out of here a bit before 4, with the small things to go to the post office. I dropped off donations here and there, and the small packages at the post office downtown, then went to the bank to deposit my pay check and everything agreed down to the penny, yay! 

I went over to the Amazon place and found a few bubble mailers, then rode down to Walmart and spent about $50 on my card on various things. But first I had a "meat" stick and a bottle of Coke Zero and just sat in front relaxing and enjoying those. Breakfast had been a very large black iced coffee and yet I didn't have to use the bathroom at all. 

I swung back by the Amazon place and got a few more mailers, then went to Nijiya to get more of my coffee pour-overs and a little cash back, so that's about $100 out of this pay check and I should be fine until it's busking time over the weekend. 

I got back here and put things away, and loaded up the large things to go to FedEx and took them up there. There was some zombie yelling and screaming in the parking lot, but it's funny I could sure hear the zombie but never saw the thing. I believe it was by McDonald's; the corpse-y smell of their food seems to attract them. 

I spent a whopping $1.50 in H Mart, haha. And got back here, only finding a couple of nice packing boxes, and got back in here. It's in the mid-70s outside now. 

 

1-1/2 lbs down

 It's Monday and time for the Monday weigh-in. And I'm 1-1/2 lbs down. I've switched back over to avoiding sugar and carbs, and the idea is to lose maybe 1/2 lb a week, to lose the amount of weight I want to lose in a year. This is assuming things are nice and linear, which of course they'll not be. Plus I'll want to work exercise back in; I mean more exercise than I get from just doing my job and daily activities. 

I'd packed things last night so only packed a few more today, and went to the post office and FedEx as usual. There were only a few drops of rain. I didn't pick up anything for shipping, and had checked the recycle bin at Sprouts for bubble mailers while going in there for a bottle of olive oil, but nothing. 

But my reward was to come. I had a bunch of boxes of chemicals and stuff that Ken had sitting around here for years, and the stuff was less than useless. So I'd put them out by Galli Produce along with other stuff I'd found, for the scroungers to have at. 

They'd long taken what they wanted by now, and since I'd put the stuff there it was my responsibility. So I went over to the dumpster by the imported foods place to check for room. Lo and behold it was full of candy bars; Cadburys and Toblerones and such things. So I loaded up the tub on my trailer and when I was close to done, a homeless guy on a bike with a trailer pulled up and wanted to see what's up. 

Now that I think about it, I'm convinced the guy was "Cowboy", who used to have an SUV but that was years ago and now he's skinnier and on a bike. I told him Candy bars and bottles of no, not wine, but oil. I finished up a good load and took it back here. It's got to be a good 30 lbs. I went back and got a few more candy bars, and Cowboy had gotten what he wanted, too. 

I then took, in two loads, the chemicals and stuff and put them into the dumpster and shut the lid. 30 lbs of imported candy bars isn't a bad reward for my work, even though of course I won't eat any of them, but will sort them out and let's just say the Little Free Libraries are going to have some sweet treats for a while. And I also got some bottles of oil, walnut and "truffle" so that's kind of nice considering my bottle of olive oil, same size, had just cost me $12. 

 

Slow, muggy, Sunday

 I took another large thing apart last night, and left the parts out front. Since busking counts for practice, I didn't have practice to worry about, and went to bed. 

When  I woke up, the parts I'd left were all gone, and the ones from the thing before that. So the crackhead(s) is back on the prowl for scrap metal, which saves me some work. 

The plan was to play in Sunnyvale today, and I left here around 5. By the time I got to Sunnyvale and I'd started, it was 7. And I'd taken the train, too. So no matter how I do it, it's 2 hours between Sunnyvale and here. (It's 3 hours each way between here and Santa Cruz.) 

The first hour went OK, and I made $35. The plan was to play from 7:00 to 8:30 but at 8 things just ... died. The weather was warm and muggy and felt like there was a big lid over everything. My final tip came from an old couple; He said he used to play cornet, and has a bunch of mouthpieces still, and She put $2 in the box and we talked a bunch about how "underground" jazz has become these days. They'd have happily talked all night too. I ended up blowing some low notes than a pedal tone or two and it was, She: We'd better get going!

I called it quits at a few minutes after 8 and got onto the 8:30 train back to San Jose and once back at the Whole Foods there I set up to busk some more. The late-night people are generous, I reasoned to myself. 

I got to do more work on new songs but in the 45 minutes or so, I only made another $2, it was that dead. At least I worked more on "Summertime" and "My Favorite Things" and since I read the Wikipedia on the movie "Blue Velvet" I'm starting to work on that one too. 

The ride home was very peaceful, and I noted that in the houses, almost all had no lights on because in San Jose, 10 at night is the equivalent of 1 in the morning anywhere else. Most people will have gone to bed at 9. 

All in all, my busking income amounted to $96 for the weekend, and that was only playing two days. And even after putting $20 on my clipper card and buying a bag of macadamia nuts at Whole Foods, I've got $66 in my pocket.