First day A.P. (After Parton)

 RIP Dolly. She was the paragon of what a good, famous, entertainer can be. Not Lennon, who was more self-indulgent than anything. Not Sinatra, who turns out to have been a raging Zionist so yeah, pretty much a shining example of evil. Nope, good old Dolly. Hell I turned on KPFK after getting up, and there was Davey D. talking about her. 

My friend, maybe I should say "friend" now, in Pahoa, Hawaii, is seriously creeping me out. First he's apparently arguing that Jerry Sienfeld is not a pedophile, and I guess Cheeto Donny isn't either. Needless to say he's a Zionist. 

I said in reply that I'm beginning to understand why he chose to isolate himself in Pahoa. I'm not sure I'll communicate with him any more. He's enemies with all of his neighbors, and for someone who was in the music/entertainment scene on Oahu as much as he was, he appears to have zero friends. 

I have a feeling mentioning that I knew him, in anything but disdainful terms, will hurt me in the future.  I think he's burned every bridge he possibly can. 

The only basis for our supposed friendship is we went up the Haiku Stairs together. Looking back, big whoop. The other guy, the Chinese guy with two houses and a condo and yadda yadda, who's really far-right politically, likewise for someone who worked for so many years for Hawaii Public Radio and the Honolulu Sheriff's, seems to have zero friends also and considering his views and personality, I'd not want to say I know him either. 

Se we went on this hike, really more of a "walk" for me, having grown up "hiking" for miles on various trails, barefoot too, and the next day I showed up for work as chipper as ever, and I didn't see the other two for a couple of days because they were so out of shape. Not much of a "bonding experience" really. 

And they might have had to spend the night in the jungle there if it weren't for me. It got so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face, but I knew how to feel the trail with my hands and tell where people had gone, and led us out. 

Time to rid myself of those two anchors around my neck! 

On to new worries... I got another email from the landlord's secretary, bugging us to sign the lease agreement. I replied that Ken's been gone on vacation, that I expect to see him tonight, and will bug him to do so. 

 

I guess I needed the sleep

 I over slept, waking up at 4. Oops. I had some coffee and aspirin and got to work packing things. Fortunately I'd found all the things last night so all I had to do was pack them, and then get them to the post office and FedEx. 

I felt really hungry so I when I was done with the deliveries I went to 99 Ranch and got a big can of Mr. Brown black coffee and some of their seaweed peanuts. I mean, I like seaweed, and I like peanuts, they ought to be good, right? And they were. Yum! 

I found a good load of packing stuff on the way back here, too. 

 

The grand tour

 In the interest of getting the things that possibly have the most delay, sent out, I packed the small things that have to go to the post office first, today. 

I left here at 6 with nine things, got 'em to the post office, came back as far as H Mart where I had a coffee and some raw peanuts I'd brought along, then decided this was a perfect time to make a Walmart run since I didn't have the bike trailer with me. 

I rode town Oakland Road to downtown, but staying on it seems to be quite a bit longer than doing my usual zigzag thing. I went to the Amazon place and found several bubble mailers which is a very good thing. 

Then I rode down to Walmart and they were out of pepitas, one of the main things I wanted to buy. But I got all the other things. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and by now it was about 9PM and I was really hungry plus having to use the bathroom bad. So I got there and took care of that and then picked out some roasted chicken just about floating in grease, a few meatballs, and a can of seltzer water. 

I ate upstairs and had a great time talking with a guy about politics and drones. That took me up to almost 10:00 and I got out of there, the guy and I walking downstairs and he, off to his house or to a bus stop or something, and myself to my bike. The ride back was nice and boring. 

 

$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.