I practiced last night

 I practiced last night, yay me. Yep, the same ol' pages in the Rubank book. And as I've started to notice is usual, I have trouble with the high notes at first and then once I'm warmed up, 15-20 minutes, I can do 'em and indeed, this time I could do 'em easily once I was warmed up. 

I woke up at 2:30 or so, and since rain was in the forecast, I wanted to pack things and get them out before the rain, presumably, started "mainly after 5". 

So I packed all the things, and had all but one inside my plastic tub so they'd stay dry. The large-ish box on top, I figured, would stay dry enough as long as I took it to FedEx right away. And indeed it was as it was only very lightly drizzling. 

After FedEx I took the small things to the post office, then went to 99 Ranch and when I came out, it was raining, not just drizzling. I rode down to H Mart and went in there for a couple more things (some more "Frima" coffee creama' and a tall can of cheap Hawaiian beer) and when I came out it was done raining so that's good. 

I'd picked up a couple nice signs made of foamcore after FedEx and that was enough for me so I rode right home. Except stopping at the EMT training place (nothing) and stopping to hang out a bit at Tom's. 

James, the homeless gambling addict and all-around scammer, has been living in a pile of junk and what looks like it used to be a tent, across the street from Tom and as Tom and I shot the bull, sure enough, he came shambling over to bug Tom about something; trying to sponge somehow. 

After James had shambled back across the street, not finding much "purchase" with Tom, Tom mentioned to me that someone had tried to burn James' tent last night. I said, that as much as James had scammed him, stolen small things and tried to sell them back to him, etc., it's almost certainly because he'd done that to other people around. 

James looks a sight - he's wearing not only the usual dirt of a never-bathes bum, but also a layer of car grime from his metal scrapping "job". Even his dog is no longer white, but is grey. Pretty soon a bum-ess came up on a bike and James and the female bum, no cleaner than he, started talking at length with each other in their raspy voices. Ah, bum life. 

I just can't get Tom interested in practicing his trumpet. I told him, Just turn on some TV show you'd watch anyway, and just do little things, half a scale, etc. Diddle-diddle-deedle-deedle. I dunno, he must have been pretty disgusted with high school Band when he quit it. 

Myself as a teen in the late 70s, would be astonished at myself now. Mr. Peyton said, "You will play trumpet" and no matter how much I try,  that's exactly what I do. I sure didn't want to so much at the time; I wanted to play 70s guitar riffs "not boring old Herb Alpert". And yet here I am. 

Tom and I parted ways while James and the raspy-voiced harridan continued their important conversation, probably about who owes who a cigarette butt, and I rode back here. 

Except riding back here was complicated. The cops had the street blocked off where the lunch truck place is, and a bunch of people sitting on the curb. I tried going up onto the sidewalk and sort of going on through, but they told me the road is closed. "OK! Sorry about that!" and I turned around, took the little street that got me over to the end of Junction Avenue, then went through the long parking lot that is shared by a few tech companies, and got out onto Queens Lane. The cops also had that closed off, and one of the the cops looked friendly, an Official Yamaguchi, so I asked him what's up and he said he can't say, and I said that's OK and that I'd seen him around, maybe at activities at the Buddhist temple, and he said Yeah he's around the area. I rode around to Old Bayshore and in here, and the cops had the other building, the one that hosts the illegal night club, all blocked off. 

I put the bike and things away and then went over to Accu-Vac and asked the guy if he knew what's up and he didn't. I filled him in one things, mainly that the illegal night club is still operating. He thought it was gone because he doesn't see the "debris" in the morning. I said No, they just have a guy who goes around sweeping up the broken glass etc. He got a new car, some black swoopy thing that's electric, made by one of the new electric car companies (no not Tesla, one that's even newer) and had sold his Mini. He can charge this at his shop there, and "industrial electricity is cheaper than residential". I congratulated him on the new car and went back here. 

I cooked dinner and cleaned up around here, and Ken showed up at the usual time. We'd gotten an email about a payment Ken owes, $500-odd for "NNN" which is something you have to pay for a unit like this, and I'd emailed back the landlord's secretary and said I'd try to get Ken to write the check and get it into the mail tomorrow. 

But Ken wasn't writing any checks. He's waiting to get paid at his job. I said I can wait until next week and the landlord here will just have to wait too. 

We talked about the usual things, tech stuff and politics, and odds and ends. When he left it was raining again. Good - this area can always use a good rinse. 

 

 

My arm is too many colors

 My elbow, really. First I tried to hide it by wearing my long-sleeved fleece, but that was too hot and stuffy so then I decided to not worry about it because no one's said anything. Hell not even Petition Guy. 

But it really looks awful and I wonder if it's affecting my tips, when I'm out playing. 

Right now I'm allowing myself 5 cans of IPA a day/evening but that might even be too much. I might want to go with four, or even eventually two. Guinness is the healthy stuff, but it's not always easy to get as I found last night, having a Foster's instead. 

I ended up sleeping late, until 4, with weird dreams that even at one point involved Miles Davis, not playing his trumpet, sadly. 

I was glad I'd picked out the things that have to go out today, last night, because then I had time to pack the things, put the smaller ones in the plastic tub with lid I use, and put the big box in a trash bag. But I didn't really get wet, and only a few sprinkles on the way back. 

I got a few things in 99 Ranch, and bypassed H Mart because I'd not eaten anything and just got back here for coffee etc. 

I have two problems right now: My Elbow Of Many Colors which a long-sleeved T-shirt will fix, and I can't believe it, there's a bunch of over-spray that I want to clean up and that calls for some more Goof-Off. Lowe's sells that and Ross will have the shirt. 

I dashed out again and Lowe's had the solvent and a scrub brush, but there was not a long sleeved T-shirt to be found at Ross. Wrong time of the year I guess. 

I parked the bike at H Mart and hanging out in front of the new food/boba tea place was Diabetus Legs Guy. He's 'wayy overweight, and his blood sugar has got to be something like 900. I was sure he was gone but he's still staggering around out there in the world. He told me about having three bikes stolen in quick succession, and also about how he's been left a house in this area and just needs to find out where it is, and something about a house (same house?) having a diamond buried in its wall that's 100s of carats. OK. "I'm going to Ross, be back in a bit" I said. 

Ross didn't have my shirt, but I got a couple of nice regular T-shirts, and some stuff for a cold-cuts dinner at Sprouts, namely some Swiss Swiss cheese, some Italian Italian salami slices, and a Munich beer from Munich. 

I walked back over to H Mart and Diabeetus guy was gone, but it was past 9PM and thus, like it would be at 1AM anywhere else. I got some green onions in H Mart so the security folks would see I spend money in there, and then took off for here. 

The warm weather brings the zombies out, but nothing too bad. 

Today a rather nice sort of cascade thing happened. In that, the cleaning guys next door threw out a rather nice half-height file cabinet, and I'd rolled it in here. It means I could get rid of this pale blue cabinet with drawers thing Ken had brought a few years ago, that was a screamin' piece of shit. And also, I got rid of the thing with drawers in the bathroom, that I'd found, because this new file cabinet being white, I can use it to put all our bandages and tape and pills and unguents, and the new file cabinet fits right under the tech bench in the office, so if someone is cut or injured or just has a nasty headache, they can get what they need without having to go into the bathroom and dig for it. 

This also means bandages and such things I have in the half-height file cabinet to the left of my desk here, can go into the new one and that frees up space for tools etc. So the introduction of one file cabinet can cause a lot of re-arrangement of things around here. 

 

 

Humid, gloomy Monday.

 I woke up at 3 or a bit after, had coffee and nuts etc for breakfast, and packed the things I'd that had sold and that I'd dug out last night. A big capacitor, a big hydraulic piston, and some smaller things. 

I got out of here the usual time, a bit before 6, and got the things to FedEx and the post office. It was very grey and gloomy and at the same time, warm and damp. I decided that if it's to rain the next few days, I should do my weekly visit to Walmart today. 

So I came right back here and put the bike trailer away, and headed for Japantown. I went to Nijiya first, and the thing is, I felt kind of weird, like one down when one is just starting to catch a cold. So I went into Nijiya and got a salmon belly slices (and eggs) on rice bento, and had half a bottle of Coke Zero I'd bought at FedEx. 

I settled down on the steps of the old hospital and ate and drank. I polished the whole thing off except for the parsley garnish and the konnyaku because I just don't care for the stuff. 

I then rode over to the Amazon place and found ... one bubble mailer. Better than none, though. Then down to Walmart where I poked around and found some interesting things to buy, as well as what I came for; mundane things like paper towels and some more little sticks of Blistex because I like to have spares. They don't have the foot powder I like though, and I may have to go to one of the big Walmarts to find it. There's only so much they can stock, and they have a few variaties,  just not the one I use. 

Late night, and in this town 8PM is late, at Walmart is always interesting and there were characters, but fortunately no actual craziness. I spent almost $50, so I'd really gone nuts. 

I rode from there back to Whole Foods, but somehow, by going on a street North of the one I used last time, I ended up much further South, of SAP Center, my landmark. That was weird! 

I did get there, though, and now it was 9, so a real night-owl hour around here. Petition Guy was there and was packing up. He'd been there for the day, and "had two signatures near the end" and seemed to be packing up. By the time I'd used the bathroom and talked with him a bit, it was closer to 9:30, and I went in and got, well, I was going to get a pint bottle of Guinness but they were out. I got one of those big cans of Foster's because it's cheap and you can make a neat camping stove out of the can. Maybe I'll actually do it this time. 

I sat at one of the benches and ate a bag of potato chips from Walmart (they sell these bags of chips that are just right for one serving and are a product of Canada, and only about $1) and had to do that fast because 9:30 is terribly late for this town and the workers were bustling around, cleaning tables, etc. 

In San Jose, you have to even relax in a hurry. 

I finished my junque food snack, had tanked the can of beer, and went out to the bike and put the 12-pack of Lagunitas cans I'd also bought, in a bag and tied that onto the bike handlebar. Petition Guy had set up again, and apparently wanted that one more signature... 

Now, he calls out, "California voter?" But it comes out more like "California voter" and he mush-mouths that. So I hung out there too, called out in a friendly way, "Registered to vote in California?". And in no time we'd reeled in a guy who looked a bit like the dad in "That 70s Show" and he got interested. So I left Petition Guy and him to do their thing, and got the bike squared away, and then brought it over, preparatory to hopping on it and riding off after a few final words. The guy finished up and Peitition Guy seemed kind of disappointed "the guy didn't sign them all". Well, some people just can't give themselves permission to be happy, I guess. I said maybe I should drop the trumpet game and just work by helping him get signatures. 

We had a few friendly words and then I said, "Well, see ya when I see ya..." and rode off. 

A Sharks game was just getting out and a good stretch of the road was blocked off to cars. So I had fun riding with the street all to myself, except for the shoals of fans, which were easy to ride around. And the cops didn't mind because I was being cool. 

The ride home was very peaceful. Traffic was very light today and I'm not sure why, except that this might be the week a lot of people get off for Easter which is this coming Sunday. And I thought, I need to work on some Easter songs. "Morning Has Broken" is a good one, being a Christian hymn tune. And "A Closer Walk With Thee" another good choice. And "It's Good To Be Humble", the Shaker tune that got used in a symphony, so tons of people have heard it. I used to play it a lot, years ago. 

 

A quiet night

 The illegal night club wasn't too bad last night, except the part where one drunk client backed their car into a corner of the trash enclosure, so it's a bit crooked now. 

I took three things apart, after listing the final 10 things out of the last batch of 20 I'd photo'd. So in the dawn, around 6:30 in the morning I got to make noise throwing case parts and transformers and junk out front in a pile, and as I tossed the last bit, sure enough, here came a bum, shambling up like it's a dinner call, to take the stuff away. I turned around, when inside here, buttoned things up, and called it a night. 

 

Bad Scales

 I woke up at 3:30 actually woke up around 1 maybe, went back to sleep for more weird dreams then got up. I thought, when the illegal night club people were making so much noise instead of just leaving quietly and doing burnouts and making noise right outside my door, I got the cornet and the Denis Wick mouthpiece out because it's much louder than my other one, and played "Deutschland Uber Alles" as loud as I could. This seemed to have a small effect, but I really think the way to do is to play scales, badly. 

What I was playing was actually musical, and the idea is to play something that's really unpleasant to listen to, and bad scales have worked well in the past. No one wants to hear someone who apparently can't play for shit, try. The people who were running the illegal nightclub eventually got the pimps and ho's and johns cleared out and it was actually quiet at 6:30AM. 

I washed the piss off of the front of this place, watched some YouTube, drank beer, and went to bed. I'd started a load of laundry, had the cornet all ready grab and go, and went to bed.

When I was up I thought for a hot second about going to Sunnyvale, and decided Nope I'll just play locally. I dropped off trash, stopped in at Nijiya for a bottle of "seasoned pepper" and $40 cash back, then went to the Amazon place for some bubble mailers, and then went over to Whole Foods. 

It was 6, and I decided OK, I'll play until 7:30. But I ended up playing until 8. It was slow, and I tried out some new things that worked out well. "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens sounds good on the cornet, "Annie's Song" in a lower key sounds good, and "Blowin' In The Wind", ostensibly by "Bob Dylan", went over well - with Petition Guy at least. 

I also worked out "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" and that's kinda fun. 

When I got a chance, I explained to Petition Guy that Bob Dylan probably plagiarized "Blowin' In The Wind' like 99.999% of his material, that he's a huge Zionist, and what disgusts me the most is, that weird way of singing he had, was copied from Woody Guthrie after Guthrie had gotten very ill from Lou Gehrig's Disease and *he* sure didn't want to sound that way. This, the only reason I'll even play the song is that, "Dylan" being a parasite, it's almost certainly not actually "his" material. 

Finally it was 8, and I counted up: $33.50. My aim is to make $100 or better on a weekend, and I've done that. 

Now, I normally take $200 out of my $400 pay check each week and that's my allowance. But, when I'd taken $100 out, the guy at Whole Foods had given me a $100 and taken care to give me a "good" one, so I could not resist stashing that away in the cash stash. So I can take $300 out of this week's check, and so far I've actually only taken out a little under $100. And I've been buying stuff and beer, and have $70 on hand. 

 

Wut protests?

 I woke up at 3 in the afternoon, completely forgetting there were big protests scheduled today. I might have tried to get up earlier and go, just to look around and say Hi to Batman and check out the booths, maybe buy a sweet keffiyah I dunno. 

Well, anyway, too much beer really. But at least I got a big thing all taken apart (I'd started on it the night before) and while the illegal night club did its thing, it wasn't too annoying I guess. 

After waking up and having coffee etc., I masked off my lines again and masked off the other concrete stopper I hadn't painted, and then happily blasted $20 worth of white striping paint on everything. The guy who's the head honcho of one of the cleaning companies, whom I've heard called "Chuey" but I don't know if I'd call him that because it feels too informal, but anyway ol' Chuey had had a few cervesas and kept calling out to me, "Lakota" which I haven't the slightest meaning of the meaning of. Google was no help. Eh, I just went about doing my thing. 

Once I was done, I packed up the horn and tip box and trash and headed out. It was now around 6. I dropped off the trash and stopped in at Nijiya for a can of coffee and a couple of boiled eggs, and got $40 cash back so I'd have some money in my pocket. I sat and had my eggs and coffee with a group of people at the one table in front, which I discovered is a really popular place for people to eat shave ice from next door, and spill the same around, so the sidewalk under the table is a sticky mess. I think from now on I'll be less social and sit somewhere else. 

I chewed gum on my way over to Whole Foods, and got there and got situated and started playing at 7:30 so I'd play until 9. Things started out well with two $5 tips, then it got sparse because of two things: An ambulance parked on the street right by me, and there were police cars with their lights on at the intersection. And this big crowd of people came through, which turned out to be fans of college basketball, who had been at the U. of Arizona / Purdue game. And none in a tipping mood. 

Petition Guy was there, and was not mad at me for the other night. In fact, he complimented my playing a few times. And with the tips not coming, I got into a kind of "fuck it" mood, and worked on things I don't normally play at least so far. 

Once the ambulance had driven off and the crowd was gone, some tips trickled in, but by now it was late and there were not very many actual customers going in and out of Whole Foods. I tried pushing myself past 9 but while it did get me one more tip which was nice, I quit at a few minutes after 9. 

I'd made $28, $3 of it in handfuls of change from a couple different people. And I had some nice interactions with people, and I'm to learn a tune called "Gabriel's Oboe" because I promised a lady I would, and I've heard the title a bunch of times; it might be a banger. 

I grabbed a cart and went in and got a 12-pack of Lagunitas because it's cheaper there than anywhere, a pint of Guinness to have with dinner, and a bag of frozen shrimp. I got to talk with Petition Guy a bit, told him I'd made $28 which sounded really good to him, but is kind of low for me these days. But considering the big crowd of tightasses from the basketball game, and the ambulance and cops, I did surprisingly well. 

Petition Guy and I got to talk a bit, about finances. As mentioned he thought $28 was good for an hour and a half. I said my main job, which gets me what works out to $57 a day, has to take precedence and so this is why I came out a bit late tonight. But that when I'm retired, I'll be able to devote more time to playing music. He didn't think $57 a day is "big money for Silicon Valley" and said engineers make much more, and I riposted with "When they have jobs, and as far as that goes, my boss makes about $200k a year and he's paycheck-to-paycheck, and clips coupons to take to Burger King". Then we got a bit of good old Judenhass in and parted happily. 

I rode home by way of Hedding, I swear that hill is good for my legs. I got back here and removed the making tape on my paint job and looks like there's still some overspray but I'm not going to worry about it. At least the lines are night and bright, the narrow places are fixed, and the stoppers are nice and white and easy to see. Time will take care of the overspray. 

I got 20 things all photographed and listed half of them, the illegal night club was raucous enough that I ended up calling the cops 3X, plus at the time they knock off for the night, 5AM, instead of just all leaving, they hung out and one bunch of them hung out right outside my door with loud music and a guy pissing on the front of this place here.

I need to get one of those air horns so I can pop out and honk it at one of these pissers, that would be fun. 

They also did burnouts in the parking lot, again, around the time they normally just relatively quietly leave. It's like trying to co-exist with Israelis. The burn-outs were the reason for the 3rd call to the police, who were apparently too busy to come by but at least the call was made, and those do get tallied into where the crime hotspots are.  

I'm going to see if I can coordinate with the landlord of *this* building about this, because it's been a problem for them, too, and I'm not the only tenant who's complained. The best outcome is we can trigger an asset seizure of the other building, which is owned by an absentee landlord in Arizona.  

Sometimes the answer is 46

 Ken came by around the usual time last night, I got my check for this pay and the one before so it's caught up, and we talked about stuff. I'm keeping the numbers good and it had been a $900+ day so the mood was pretty good. And I had a bag of flashlights to give to Ken and a couple of cute cat dishes for his wife, so all was well. 

When Ken left, he almost left without his checkbook and the flashlights and stuff and I was lucky to flag him down as he was in his truck and leaving (this is pertinent because now, at 11:30 Friday night, he's just called me from his wife's phone as he's lost his and wondered if it was around here. He's only got 3 messy labs at his work and his very messy truck so it could be anywhere....) 

The illegal night club was a bit busy which was unusual for a Thursday night, but not too bad. I got started taking a thing apart, and drank beers and eventually went to bed around 7AM. 

I had everything done like packing packages, and when I woke up at 3 in the afternoon, I only had to clean up and pack up the trash, gather up the packages, tip box, horn, etc., and get going which I did at 4. I dropped off the trash, deposited my check in the bank where my math and theirs matched to the penny, and headed over to Whole Foods. 

Now, I basically had no money with me. The usual plan is to go to Whole Foods right after the bank, and in the process of buying some things, take out $200 of my weekly $400 pay check, and that's my allowance for the week.  

Since my busking sessions are as much practice for my retirement years as anything else, I decided, having about $6 on my clipper card so enough for one day's travels on the VTA system, I'd do the day as if I'm broke. So, when I bought a couple of beef sticks and a fizzy water and got $100 cash back, the checker gave me a $100 bill and took the trouble to pick out a nice one, I put that in my wallet to go into my cash-stash. 

Being broke means no train when the bus will do, and I took the #22 bus to Sunnyvale. The two-hour rule being unbeatable, since I'd left the shop at 4, there's no way I'd be in Sunnyvale before 6, and indeed, when I'd walked to the Whole Foods and set up and played my first tune, it was 6:18. 

I set up at the front door instead of the parking lot door, as the parking lot entrance had a guy with a table with some signs with stuff about kids and drugs and so on. So I decided it's a good time to set up on the other side and see how it goes. 

It ... didn't go well. I got a $2 tip right away, then nothing. The wind was really a problem, as wind makes people not want to take money out. So at 7 I moved over to the parking lot side, the table guy being away for a piss/smoke/crack break I could kind of justify setting up by the door as always (he was off to the side, on the sidewalk). 

I got to playing and it was slow. The thing is, last Sunday night, I'd put the horn away and not touched it all week. I played along and tips trickled in, and I determined myself that I'd stay until 8, making it an hour and a half. Every time I looked over at the table guy, he gave me the ol' hairy eyeball, and eventually he packed up and left. He'd have been entirely justified in yelling at me, "Hey! How long do you plan to be here?" and I've have said, "I'm only staying until 8, and them I'm outta here!" whereby he'd know that I'm a temporary nuisance, and he'd still have two sweet hours to get the late Friday crowd. 

Finally it was 8 and I had counted up, $46 which isn't that bad. For an hour and a half, pretty good, something like $30 an hour which is huge money in Silicon Valley. 

I walked back out to the bus stop, stopping in at Baraka Market for a yogurt drink. By the time I got back to my "home" Whole Foods, it was 9:30 and since I'd left here at 4, that's 5-1/2 hours to make that $46. And in most of the area of the US, you have to be in the tippy-top elite to make more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour so I have to call this good.  

So I got back to my "home" Whole Foods and offloaded some of the stuff I was carrying onto the bike and went in for some shopping. In the end I got cheese, olives, a 12-pack of Lagunitas IPA in cans, mustard, and put the remaining $7 on my clipper card. 

Petition Guy was there and called out to me. He wanted me to watch his table while he went to the bathroom. I was happy to help, but then instead of leaving to use the facilities, he then stayed here, moving things around and trying to get me to read and perhaps sign, his petitions. I said something like he'd better get going and use the bathroom, and he kind of started to, then went back to moving stacks of things around and I should read all the petitions. ... I put up with that for a few more minutes and then said, "Deal's off" and walked back to my bike, unlocked it, got on it, and rode off. While Petition Guy stood there, staring at me. Funny as hell. 

I come from years of dealing and selling at gun shows and swap meets. There's a code. If you ask someone to watch your stuff while you go pee, your end of the contract is you leave immediately, go to the loo, and come immediately back.  You don't stay there sorting through your shit and trying to get your benefactor to buy some of it. Nor do you tarry after having peed, there's no coming back 15 or 20 minutes later with a bag of groceries. If you break the code, no one will cover for you when you need to go take a whiz, nor should they. And I mean, not just the person you've burned, but word will spread and no one will cover for you other than whatever sketchy types are around whose time is worth nothing. 

Swap meets and gun shows where people all know each other are great; they're one of the closest things you can be involved in where people act as a tribe, and have codes about things like this, that aren't written out on paper anywhere but are known and followed, with consequences if one doesn't. 

And Petition Guy can just stick to having sketchy people watch his stuff for him.  

I got back here and it was something like 10:30.