Getting hairy in chinville

I got a practice in last night, photo'd up a bunch of HP/Tektronix/etc catalogs to list, but was so tired I didn't list the things, and just had more corned beef with shallots and mustard for dinner. That's three meals out of a can, and that's not so bad even if it's $6-$8 a can.

Regular practice is great. I'm able  to go above high C, and high C is kind of becoming routine. And an hour a day of practice is nothing, given that when I did that sport I used to do, to keep at a world-class level, I was practicing 5 hours a day.

I don't know what I'd do or how I'd feel if I didn't play trumpet. There are only a few trumpet players in this whole area. At Cafe Stritch, they were very happy when they had a trumpet player. Tons of saxes, but it was like trumpeters were heroes. Are trumpets that much harder to play? I look at all those buttons on a sax and get dizzy. If I play at the protests this weekend I'll be one trumpet player among tons of artists, a few guitarists, maybe the odd drummer.

The bum traffic around here is amazing. I was watching the cameras a lot last night, and there were bums on bicycles patrolling around and I was a bit worried they might mount an attack, so I took the 10/22 out of its protective plastic sleeve and put a loaded magazine in, although I didn't chamber a round. I just wanted it more ready to go. Crazy Chrissie came around and talked with/at the ice cream guy who was here late, and all I picked up was something about the cops being too worried about the virus to do anything. There's a truck painted all flat black with green letters about being a landscaping service or something that looks hinky as hell. Basically once it's dark I "button up" for the night and that's it. What I probably need is a good fire extinguisher(s) because they can be used against fire, of course, but also apparently you can really fuck up a bum by spraying it in their face. Goes for their nasty dogs too.

According to my calculations, I've spent all but $63 of my last pay check, so that's OK but no more spending out of my bank account until the next check. My zombie-chopping hatchet and the shaving stuff came to just about $100.

I set off for downtown at a minute after 5. My first stops were in J-town to throw out trash, visit a chalk painting someone had done by the temple and see it in person; they'd told us all about it on Reddit. It's neat! Then I went to Nijiya and got a couple of things including some liquid fabric softener, because those sheets I've been using at the laundromat have a habit of sneaking down the toilet with my new method of laundry-washing. So my dryer sheets are going to Ken's household.

I put a small bag of tobacco in each of the blessing boxes; the one on 6th, the one on 4th, and the one on 5th downtown. I got in return, a kid's book in Spanish called "Quien Esta En La Choza?" which, I dunno, might encourage me to learn Spanish. And a sort of kiss-and-tell book by actor Peter Ustinov.

Next I hurried over to the Amazon hub and picked up my shaving stuff and that's good because it's getting hairy in chinville here.

Drop-offs and pickups done, I was now free to go to Lee's Sandwiches and boy was I ready to. I was gonna get my plate lunch + water + a mask special, but they were out of masks so I got a chicken on rice plate lunch + water + 2 pork egg rolls. I went over to the pepper tree and had my little picnic. The pork egg rolls were really good, and reminded me a of Rada's piroshkis. Back in the 70s when  I was a kid, and they'd just banned cars from Fort Street in downtown Honolulu, making it the Fort Street Mall and changing it from a blighted place no one went to, to a "destination", there was a shop called Rada's Piroshki. Not pirogi, Piroshki. And they were heavenly. Keep in mind, I'd been riding the bus with my mother for about 2 hours to get there, then walking however  far, and it was a huge treat to get a piroshki there. As has been observed in experiments with (other) starving people, I'd eat it slowly, savoring every crumb. Lee's egg rolls have a little bit of the same flavor, and it kinds of makes sense, again that Eurasian thing.

After eating, I rode by Bike Express and esp. their dumpster, where I picked up a free tube, and then decided to just ride around a bit. I rode over to City Hall and to the booth set up with snacks and water, and gave them a roll of white sign vinyl, telling them it's good for making signs, and I can get a steady supply of it. And I can, since there's a car-graphics place by Grill 'Em that tosses out lots of white vinyl. They were very appreciative.

I decided I'd ride down Santa Clara street and explore my town a bit. There's a lot of neat stuff along there, esp. Vietnamese restaurants and stores. I came across some Hispanic guys painting a NO JUSTICE NO PEACE sign on a boarded up window, and stopped and asked them if I could help. I ended up painting the half-tones on the NO PEACE words, while we talked about being an artist and stuff. I told 'em how I'd been pushed to be an artist, with the result that I'm a trumpet player. But I've got certain artist skills, and they told me I'd painted my part pretty fast, while I felt I went pretty slow. I should try to jump in and help with more murals if I get the chance.

I finally said my goodbyes and rode up to 13th street, then back along it. I saw interesting houses and things, and came across a store called GURU MARKET. How nice; a store catering to the needs of gurus, who will not have many needs, but will have needs all the same. But instead of flying carpets, pillows to sit on, strings of beads, etc., I found a fairly normal bodega, with a nice Indian guy behind the counter. I bought a little bottle of Patron tequila "gold", for $8. As I rode off from that store, I realized I needed to buy more er guo tou jiu (Chinese hi-test white lightning) to keep stocked up, and since I was down to $8 or so, could not even buy one bottle at H Mart, where my card almost never works. So, I rode 13th up to Brokaw then up to 99 Ranch, where I got two bottles of lightning and some other odds and ends to the tune of about $30, using my card. The guy checking me out seemed surprised I was buying such strong alcohol, but I assured him "I can handle it".

This is so strange; that white people assume I am the same as them when really I'm very different, and Asian people assume I'm very different from them and really, I'm not all that different.

I rode around to the street behind 99 Ranch and had a can of Mr. Brown coffee and tried out the Patron. And the mystery was solved. Years ago now, I was  busking in Mountain View and a Mexican guy came up, restaurant worker type, and insisted on pouring some tequila in my bottle of iced tea. "It's Patron" he said. It was delicious. After I'd finished the tea, he pushed more on me, pouring it into the empty bottle. It was delicious on its own too, Patron is very expensive. How does a restaurant worker get it? Did he filch it? Or maybe work on event where the staff got to take opened bottles home. Doesn't matter; he treated me to something like $40 worth of the stuff and wow, it's yummy. I've tried other tequilas since and none of them taste that good. Them dang Mexicans, if you don't watch out, they'll take you home, feed you dinner, introduce you to their sisters, and fix you up with a job.

I rode back here, and it was very nice and peaceful. I put things away, and the little book in Spanish book is interesting. It's got all kinds of animals, and I'm sure the story is very funny. I wanted to learn German back when I was in college; part of that "find my white people" thing, and never stuck with it. More recently I've wanted to learn Hebrew, but that's not gonna go. I kind of want to learn Russian, as I've been watching a lot of Ushanka Show and Life Of Boris on YouTube. But more realistically, I am here in California, where I was born, and while I feel "stuck" here I can think of tons of worse places to be stuck! It could be really useful to learn Spanish, as there are a lot of good people and good comrades who speak it. And Mexico's got AMLO who is a great President. Learning Spanish might make learning Russian later, easier, as I believe Russian borrows a lot from French, which is another Latinate language. I could have the goal of calling Suzy, Ken's wife, on the phone and doing the whole call in Spanish.  She's a fluent speaker, if with an "el Norte" accent, and said she got along fine in Italy because Italian isn't so different.