Eating around town

I'd put practice first before everything last night, with the result that I was doing my Ebay listing pretty late, but it all got done according to schedule and that's what matters.

I woke up at 3, did some touch-up on my neck trying my beard trimmer some more and the foil shaver, and tried doing a shave with the foil shaver. I think I can see why the commercials always say "Just as good as a blade" because it's not really. For shaving, not as good as a razor and shaving cream. It's not even as good as those little disposable straight razor things they sell in Asian stores; those are perfect for zapping those renegade neck hairs. So I'm returning the foil shaver, and luckily the amount I'll be credited will buy me a new bike bag set.

I took off at around 4, and stopped off in J-town to put trash into trash cans and then put a package of napkins and some odd face-washing strips I've been given as a free sample at the Amazon pickup a while back. They're supposed to get rid of blackheads but I think the idea is to have the perfume in 'em so strong you no longer can even think about your blackheads.

I went right over to Lee's Sandwiches and after a lengthy wait, got a chicken and rice with fish sauce plate lunch and a bottle of water, and went over to the same place, under the same pepper tree with a really massive trunk, on 6th street and ate. It wasn't as good as eating with a friend, but it was pretty good.

After eating, I rode back down to Santa Clara street and by City Hall, where there were protesters lined up with signs and people in cars honking to show their support. So, a little noisy but no problem. I rode down past my bank and it didn't look like it was messed with, and rode down to Whole Foods and locked the bike up. I walked up to Ace Hardware and got a large bottle of Slime, which cost a bit over $15. Wartime prices, man.

Walking back, I got into a nice conversation with a guy who had one of those bikes with the huge tires on it. He and "his husband" had traveled all over, and I guess a fair amount of it by bike. We talked about bikes, and covid haircuts, and all sorts of odds and ends. It was pretty nice. We told each other to "Stay safe" and after putting the Slime in the bike bag I went into Whole Foods to buy some expensive roasted salted nuts, a fizzy water, and a shrimp cocktail. Once you get to the front of the line, there's an employee routing you to whichever register will work for you, like cash, or card, or card and cash back etc. I told him I was going to use my card and get cash back, but when I checked out the option for cash back never came up. I told the checker it was no problem though, and I'd just do it next time. I want to get my emergency savings back up to $1000, as I'd taken $100 out yesterday.

I went over to Diridon Station and sat at "my" place there, and had my shrimp cocktail and fizzy water, and it was really nice. There was a window open there and some Diridon employee was working inside, but they didn't seem to be bothered by me.

I rode back downtown and decided to ride by Bicycle Express because of all the college students around there, always tossing interesting things out. Amazingly, Bike Express was open, well, not really, they were closed, but since all I wanted was a couple of Tip Top Touring bike patch kits, they happily sold me those. Then I mentioned wanting replacement nuts for my rear wheel because the ones on there seemed to be getting a bit worn, and the "Gandalf The Bike Wizard" guy (my name for him) fixed me right up. They were in the process of replacing the glass in their front door, which had been broken, with pieces of plywood.

We talked a bit about the difference between demonstrators and opportunists. Why bust up the best bike shop in town, really "the peoples' bike shop"? The lady said something about their yelling something about free bikes. They'd also busted up Pizza My Heart, the FedEx place, a cinnamon bun place, etc. all local places. I circled around a bit, and decided to get a slice from Pizza My Heart and went in and got one. A slice of "Big Sur" is $6 now, but it's really good. I sat on the wall by Circle-A skateboards eating my slice, and there were people walking by who sounded like they'd been in the demonstrations and were done for the day now.

I wandered down there and the demonstration was at the library, then after a bit of shouting etc we all moved down to City Hall. There was lots of chanting of slogans, and there was a sort of central point where there was bottled water and things people might need, and someone had a bullhorn. There were a lot of cops, and more kept showing up, and eventually the police chief said this is now an illegal gathering and everyone must disperse. There was not a lot of dispersing, but I dispersed, and looked enough like Joe Normal that I was able to go from the City Hall corner to the other side of 4th street and kind of wander down to the end of the line of cops and ask if I can go through there, and the cop at the end said, "You wanna go through? OK." and kind of swung aside like a gate and I went through.

I actually circled around and tried to get a good view of things without being in the area that the cops might "kettle" and eventually settled in right next to the Chevron sign on the corner where the Chevron station is. There was an older Hispanic guy there too and we got talking. He said one thing people don't know is that George Floyd and the cop who killed him knew each other. They'd worked as bouncers at the same night club. He also said that the SAP Center parking lot is full of police vehicles and a few helicopters, "These people don't know what's waiting for 'em".

There was a skinny white kid in a white knit cap who was mouthing off and shouting and really doing his best to try to start trouble. He was making 90% of the noise. One kind of cute moment was when a sort of SWAT van came in, that I guess has handled and running boards on its sides, and it loaded up with cops and then drove away like a mother possum with an especially large brood. The cops had some people in those zip tie cuffs, and I'd seen a sheriff's bus drive in, and I also noticed a helicopter circling overhead. "You know what that means? That means I can go home and watch it on the live stream" I said to my friend, and took off.

But not right for home. I rode over to the SAP center and looked at the parking lot and yep, lots of police vehicles, some fire, and a lot of ambulances. The helicopters he'd seen were undoubtedly in the air by then.

The ride home was ho-hum, which is just how I like it. The wind had been going to opposite way so going downtown was a real slog, but coming back was really nice.

And right around the corner of the building here I found a small refrigerator used to hold "snus" which is snuff, and apparently fresher if kept refrigerated, and 7 pounds of "Red River" pipe tobacco in a box, with each 1-lb bag slashed open. So there was kind of pipe tobacco everywhere. I balanced the small fridge on my bike and got it back here, and walked around again and grabbed the box of slashed pipe tobacco bags and took that back here. It turns out your standard blue Lowe's bucket will hold 7 lbs of pipe tobacco, if you pack it down. I just poured it in there, tamped it down, and I have a lid that seals fairly well. I'm thinking of bagging it up and having some handy to give to street people.  I'm not a big fan of smoking, but people do, and this would be appreciated.

Once I was back here and could check, it turns out the George Floyd and his murderer may well have known each other. They worked in different capacities, one being a cop and the other a security guard, so they could well have crossed paths.The whole thing's what the English call a massive cock-up, as the other cops watched the guy get murdered right in front of them without doing anything, and the murderer was known to be a "dirty" cop and the department didn't do anything.

Despite watching too much Bob's Burgers and other inane things on YouTube, I got a decent practice in. And I figured out what was wrong with the strap on my cornet gig bag; I'd had it adjusted all the way short. My plan to take the cornet downtown and play at various places, and I worked on "We Shall Overcome" to perhaps play that for the demonstrators.

I've started to notice the weirdest thing when playing my Irons exercises though. In my midsection, for higher notes I'm pushing "down" while for lower notes I'm pushing more toward my backbone and not so much pushing as making the air column as long as possible, like clarinet players do when playing the lowest notes. A lot of trumpet playing is learning to use muscles you normally never think about, and I feel I may be discovering something that the top players know about.