I woke up at around noon, then somehow drifted off again until 4. I had my coffee etc., and feel pretty crappy. Sniffly, cough-y, etc. Also shaky from the drinking last night so I need to taper that down.
I did some neck exercises because I'm beginning to think those are very useful for a trumpet player. It's been long known that trumpeters' necks will swell, and since higher notes are played using a higher pressure (thus swelling the neck) it seems that exercising this area would be beneficial. I see it as the difference between Miles Davis' tight muscular cheeks vs. Dizzy Gillispie's ballooned-out cheeks, which work for him because he's a very good player, and likes visual schticks like that.
I had one capful of booze before heading out, and took my 20+ packages on the bike trailer up to the P.O. and then FedEx and did my usual scrounging for boxes and stuff on the way back. I picked up another box of technical stuff from behind the Labcommerce place, not as good as last time but at least a few bits will be worth putting on Ebay.
I checked at a vegetable place I snag things from once in a while and thought I saw some good bundles of asparagus and a nice tomato box in there, at the bottom of their dumpster. So I unloaded my load at the shop and went back with the trailer and my "getter stick" which is a long piece of trim hardwood, with a large deck screw I'd screwed through the end - great for getting stuff.
The tomato box turned out to be rotten on the bottom and gross, and the asparagus was disgusting. All I accomplished was being seen around there scrounging. On my way back around the corner, I noticed the proprietors of a shop that sells both spices and beauty supplies, and stopped to ask them if they have rubbing alcohol (I've heard that some beauty supplies sell it by the gallon) and I don't think I was able to convince the couple, who were black, that a possibly scary looking white guy with a bike, trailer, and some kind of weapon in their hand, actually has a shop and has any legitimate use for rubbing alcohol.
I circled around to look for Rev-A-Shelf boxes where I usually find them and there were none, plus my rear tire was getting flat again. It held all through my trip, but it has this random leak that starts and stops as the "Slime" in the tube keeps plugging the leak, and I'm too lazy to get in there and change out or patch the tube.
I got back here and gave out tons of positive feedback on Ebay, and did some looking around on various sites about what I can do for washing clothes around here. I decided on a small washer-spinner thing that will cost me about $150 and won't come until the end of May or early June, but at least I'll have it. I think I can set it up in the bathroom here. It'll come to Ken's house and he'll have to bring it over, but that should be no problem.
In the meantime I think I'm going to try the bucket and plunger method. You take a plunger, which I already have, and cut some holes in it so the water can swish around. Then you take a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and cut a hole in the middle of the lid for the plunger handle. Fill with clothes and water and soap, stick the lid on, and agitate, empty, fill with non-soapy water etc etc. The only cost should be $5 or so for a bucket with lid from Lowe's.
I got my practice in, at least an hour grinding away on Irons exercises. This is good stuff for building up basic strength, and who knows maybe keeping it up will be useful if I've really got the crud.
Tomorrow my Big Adventure(tm) is to, among other things, see how easy to use the ATM at my bank is.
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