I didn't practice last night, and I think part of this is, I did packing during the day that should have been done the day before, then listed 20 things instead of 10, because I didn't list anything on Monday. It's just like college where if you don't keep on top of it the homework kind of balls up on you.
There was some police activity in the complex last night or more like early this morning, about 3AM. First a security guard who seemed very interested in the end unit and ran his baton down the roll-up door, making a loud rattling sound. He walked around and shined his flashlight around too. Then a cop came, then more cops, then another security guard from another guard company, then they gradually filtered away.
Either it was an attempt to break into "Star Zone" which sells things like cigarettes, vape juice, etc., or a theory I've had for a while: The end unit is a machine shop and a guy runs it... well, his brother, who I talked to when I was pretty new in here, lost his marriage and his job in Utah, and came down here and lives in that end unit. I think the guy might have some friendships with the homeless people around here and that's just asking for trouble. Maybe the homeless people even convinced him to try some delicious crack. So maybe the guy's letting the homeless run into that machine shop after committing a crime, or maybe he's out committing crimes himself. If that's the case, the owner of the machine shop isn't going to be happy, family or not, and maybe send the guy back to Utah.
I had my iced coffee and vitamins, and got going about 5:30. I dropped off trash in J-town, put a bag of tobacco in the 6th street blessing box, then at the 4th street one, there was a hardcover book of 65 short stories by Somerset Maugham. I didn't even know he wrote short stories - what a find! I put two bags of tobacco in there, and tossed the last two to various people in St. James Park.
I went over to the ATM and deposited my check, then to Whole Foods where I got some salmon and cheese pinwheel things I'd been looking at for a long time but now they were on sale, $3 off. And a package of Haig's falafel, cream for coffee, and a tall can of PBR.
I rode over to Diridon Station and went to my usual place, and had my little picnic. No one, not VTA workers or people traveling back and forth, what few people there were, blinked at my drinking a can of beer, and the salmon pinwheels were good. I didn't even start on the falafel, saving it for later.
After putting my trash in the can there and putting my maybe 2/3 finished beer next to it for some bum to find, I walked my bike through the station to to have a look. There was one guy working behind the counter and I exclaimed to him how strange it was to see the station so empty. It was indeed weird and there wasn't even a crowd, or anyone, waiting for the #17 bus to Santa Cruz outside.
I rode back along Santa Clara street and past City Hall where there were maybe two people out front and one one seemed like he might be protester so I raised my fist and got a nod, and rode up to 6th street and back along it. There's a bum who lives in a big nest of things and junk and trash and crap, and I could have sworn I saw the very same trumpet cast I have, so I circled around and asked him if it was a trumpet case. He said it was just luggage, and in fact it was a big larger than a trumpet case. It really looked like a Pro-Pac case for something, and to be sure, asked him if he had a trumpet, but he didn't. We got into this conversation about musical instruments, and the police, and then he went into a long saga about this and that ex-wife, and eventually I said I had to go, and went.
I got some sugar peas, eggplant, long string beans, etc from the dumpster on 10th so there's my veggies. This plan of getting most of my veggies this way has been turning out well. I'm not getting an ideal selection but I am getting a decent selection, and enough of them. Sure, they're coming out of a dumpster but I think supermarket veggies may not be all that much cleaner. At least with these, I know where they're coming from and washing them well. I'm saving $3-$5 a day, and even $3 a day is $90 a month.
So I got back, had a couple of hard boiled eggs and the falafel, and was just thinking about doing a practice, but I had two packages I had to pack before midnight, and was considering packing them first. I decided to check to see if my computer needed any updates, and there was some SCSI interface one that had my computer tied up for an hour! I packed the two packages, then did a hard reset where I pull the battery on my laptop, then after a lengthy power-up, I was back "on the air" and did the labels for the two packages so they're officially shipped. One was easy, but one was a power supply that's really long. I had to take a box that's long and flat, for a flat screen computer, and cut it down. What an annoyance!
I decided to get in a practice anyway, and did so. It went pretty well, I could play some crazy high notes, the Irons exercises went well, and I worked out a song call "Hall Of The Crimson King".
Then I needed to do two things: a load of laundry and dinner. I needed to do the laundry first so I'd have the sink free for dinner, and cleaned and prepped today's scrounged veggies while the laundry soaked etc. I tried a litchi and remembered why I don't really crave them - taste is kinda meh. Not that they're not sweet, I just don't care that much for the taste. The long beans and sugar peas went into a mix with garlic and mushrooms, that was all cooked up, then beef on top. It came out great.
But after all that, after relaxing after eating what was a pretty big bowl of veggies and beef, it was 3AM.
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