I did my bit

There's some guy who wanted everyone who can play it, to play Taps at 3:00 sharp today - it's called Taps Across America. So last night after doing Ebay stuff I shined my shoes, washed my hair and shaved, and got in a good practice session. This will depend on whether I wake up in time, I decided.

I woke up in time, around 2. I made a coffee and listened to a couple of Army players play Taps on YouTube to make sure I had the right swing to it, and left at 3 sharp with the trumpet.

First stop was J-town where I dropped off a bag of trash and had a nice conversation with a mailman who, surprisingly, was working today. We talked about our time in service. He'd been in the Marines and kept getting deployed to war zones. Of course my time in service was pretty easy as there were no wars going on. He said he'd finally left the service because he was sick of repeatedly being sent to really gnarly places.

Next stop was the blessing box where I dropped off some toe socks I don't need any more, and a package of napkins I'll never use.

I'd researched the monuments in St. James Park and decided I'd like to play Taps from the Robert Kennedy memorial, but when I got there and rode around, there were bums everywhere. Where there were not bums, was in front of the post office. So I set up there and tried to get warmed up. I honestly think I over-practiced last night, because I just could not get high notes. I tried playing some lip slurs to get warmed up and get up there, and it just wasn't happening. I played Fanfare For The Common Man as a bit of a preamble, and then right at 3, I played Taps with the 1st and 3rd valves held down, the low version, but it works. Moments after I was done, the church bells started going, so it was nice how things synced up. I'm not sure the bums or the lone security guard who was wandering around noticed or cared, but I did my bit.

I packed up and figured I'd ride around a while. I rode up 4th to Williams and then down 1st and paused by the Stritch, but there was a gaggle of bums set up there. There was also a gaggle of bums set up right across from Caffe Frascati.

I jogged over to 4th again and tootled along, and heard an electric guitar - Guitar Guy was there, playing. We said Hello and I parked the bike and started digging out things to give him. A cable and a connector adapter I'd been saving for him, and other things like a book of matches, some zip ties, an a P-51 can opener.

We jammed for a while, where I found the notes that match what he's playing, and then sort of played backup. It went pretty well. We talked about our time in service, in Korea especially. And them jammed some more. We talked about Miles Davis and Reggie Conyers, the trumpet busker who knows classical tunes and travels around. My friend said he used to run a restaurant right there in San Jose. We both hope he's OK.

It was all going pretty well, but there are tons of bums downtown and more and more of them started to collect around, and a bum-ess came up and I guess he was old friends with her and she had cigarettes, so they got all involved talking and I said I have to go, so we waved 'bye and I took off.

Downtown was just full of bums, some splayed out on the sidewalk or a bit of grass, trying to stay cool. Also lots of cars parked but running, with their drivers staying cool using the AC. It was just bums and zombies everywhere. Too hot for the screaming crazies it seemed, though. 

I didn't want to take any more money out of my bank account. I'm down to having saved only $50 out of my last check, so I had about $6.50 in bills, a few quarters, and $3 of it in dimes. I thought about my options and went over to TAK Market and got a tall PBR and one large Slim Jim and two little ones. I'd have another poor man's picnic in the park.

I rode over to the park, which is on 7th, and saw a nice tree to sit under, but it was at the "yuppie" end of the park with the nice white people and their retriever dogs, and figured I'd last about 5 minutes there, drinking a beer. So I rode to the scruffier end, and found some nice shade by the restrooms. I was much entertained watching a black guy who looked like a very devoted athlete, but quite short, do all kinds of drills that he maybe learned in football. Sprints and jumping up and off of a bench, and all kinds of crazy footwork. So I had my Slim Jims and some beer, and was much entertained by things like this.

Once the Slim Jims were gone, I decided I'd play, just songs, and make it my practice. I started at 4:30 and played until 6. I just worked on a lot of different things, and it was pretty fun. No one seemed to mind, one way or the other. Once it was 6 I played that "Good Night" song from the old Lawrence Welk show, and packed up.

On my ride home, along 10th street, a car slowed down and they tried to hand me a Krispy Kreme box, probably full of donuts, through their window. "You tryin' to give me the beetus?" I said and the box was pulled back in. Come on, do I look that scruffy? That's a $120 gig bag on my back, with an almost $500 trumpet in it. My hair's cut, and there are no bags of cans hanging off my handlebars. Sheesh!

Speaking of hair cuts, I'd picked up my foil shaver from the Amazon place, so I have that to try out when I've got time.

Dinner was an interesting dish, fried eggplant with bacon. It turns out eggplant, at least when cut crossways, soaks up oil like no one's business. I had to use a lot of oil plus the grease the bacon produced. It came out good, needless to say! I've got an idea though. I want to try cutting eggplant the other way and see if it's still so oil-thirsty.  It could also be another good argument for getting an air fryer.

I got 12 things listed on Ebay, all of them things I've found out on the street or from the welding place throwing that tub of stuff out. In the middle of it, I packed a package going to China, and did something new - I was sent a bunch of forms from the buyer in China, had to assemble a rather complicated "form sandwich" into one of those clear envelope things that sticks on the box, and I'll take it up to FedEx tomorrow. The buyer wanted to have the FedEx truck come by the shop here, but it would probably come at some time like 9AM and I'd be sleeping like a dead man.

3AM snack: nuts, Parmesan cheese, some of the diet 7-Up I'd bought for Ken, and some celery off of that stalk I'd picked up from some discarded stuff left out by Bike Express. I'd taken the really green stalk, put it in some water and let it sit at room temperature, and it's crispy and good (I washed it well). I used to do that at the rural place; pick a few collards or some chard and put them in water, and they'd be nice and fresh hours later or even the next day when I was ready to cook 'em. Picking my vegetables from dumpsters and roadsides is certainly a shift of gears, but it's working out well.