350 Blanks

Ken came by last night and wrote me my check, and I stayed up late doing stuff, and got to sleep early-ish because I wanted to get going early enough to go to Hilti and get some .22 blanks, hopefully the least powerful ones which are color coded grey.

I got over there, and it turns out the only ones they have are the green ones, which I didn't get. I went over to Lowe's and got a gallon of Windex which they're my only source for, and cleaned out their .22 blanks, of which they also only had green. Green ones will propel one of the pellets I'm getting at about 2000 feet per second while what I'm really interested in is something that would replicate the performance of an air gun, so 700-800 feet per second. But the way things are going, I'll take what I can get. So I ended up with 350 of the things.

I stopped at the lunch truck on the way back and got some food, ate it and finished packing the packages I had ready (by the time I've found a thing, matched it with an envelope or box etc., and printed the label, 95% of the work is done) and was soon out the door again with the packages which I took to the post office and FedEx.

I didn't do any of my usual looking for packing materials, just came right back and put the trailer away, and went downtown to deposit my pay check. I rode through San Pedro Square on my way, and there was Rabbit Trumpet Guy. I stopped to talk, and asked him how he liked the new setup where it's blocked to cars and there are restaurant tables set up out in the road etc. "I've only made a dollar today" he said. I told him that about a year ago when they blocked off the street and had games and stuff set up and I'd played, I didn't make a thing.

He'd been playing something, reading off of music and when he'd finished I'd asked him what it was, and he said it was "Mon Cherie Amor" by Stevie Wonder, a well-known song at least until a busker gets a chance to mangle it out of all recognition. I mentioned being able to do high C on demand now, and he said he can "hardly get 3rd C" and blew some partials up to a momentary high C.

I bid him adieu, and rode around the corner to my bank, where the ATM was not accepting more deposits. So I'm not sure if the hopper is filling up, or they're just setting it to not take deposits when the bank's not open. So I'll have to try again on Monday or Tuesday. It's just an example of how money seems like something that could go away at any time.

I couldn't think of anything else to do downtown, especially with everything closing by 6, so I rode home. I took a slightly different route and noticed a really cool caster bean plant on Empire and 2nd that I might want to get some seeds from. The green seed pods are bright magenta and it's a very impressive looking plant.

I stopped by TAK Market and they're still out of rubbing alcohol. I rode back to the shop and went down by Grill-'Em to the veggie dumpster where I picked up a 5-lb bag of shredded cabbage, lots of green beans, and a bag of shallots, unfortunately they're peeled and the root end cut off so I'm not sure how well they'll keep.

My dumpster veggies plan is working out well. I throw away a lot but it's all going to be thrown out anyway. I had a nice onion and tomato, both scrounged, salad when I got home and watched some YouTube while sorting through the green beans and trimming them and putting into bags for later.