Up at 3 and it's orange out there. The air quality isn't that bad, only orange on the purpleair.com map, but it's also literally orange, as the sun filters through the smoke which is up high now. I'm going to feel like I'm making my deliveries on Mars.
I took three packages to the post office and FedEx yesterday but two of them were big, the biggest and heaviest being one going to Canada. That was big and heavy enough that I took it to the loading dock at the back of the post office complex.
On the way back I found one useful box and an eggplant so there was that. I unloaded back here and went back out for some shopping at H Mart and by that time it was dark so I need to start getting out earlier.
When I got back, I did things like make a big salad, pack some Ebay things, take the "salmon trim" I'd bought and bag it up in portions and put those in the freezer, pack more Ebay things, make dinner, and pack the last few Ebay things. I wanted to be able to, the next day (today) just put the boxes on the bike trailer and go.
So once I was up today, I was able to just have my coffee etc. and I managed to get out of here at 5:30; out into the orange-ness. It's actually cooler, so that was nice, and traffic seemed more calm, I think because the orange tint looks eerie so people were being more careful. I had all my blinky lights going on my bike to make myself more visible in the odd light.
The deliveries went fine, and on the way back along with a lot of those "pillows" used in packing, I got a head of lettuce and a tomato, so I came back here and ate 4 Hebrew National hot dogs (I was that hungry) and made a lettuce/tomato/onion salad and had that also.
I vacuumed the place and cleaned the bathroom, and got in a good practice. Just Irons exercises, but I am slowly moving forward in the book. I got a little shofar practice in also, then Ken pulled up.
Ken wrote out my pay check with $50 extra tacked on, and brought by some stuff, lots of little valves and things, and I showed him a box of plug-ins that I think are the ones he was looking high and low for several months ago. We did the usual bull session about science things, and was happy with ice water with some lime juice in it, since I can't find diet lemon-lime soda any more.
It's a good feeling having my practice done, so after Ken left I could futz around taking the valves and assemblies apart into pieces to sell. It's stuff he got for "free-50" at his day job and yet the stuff should sell for $500 or more eventually.
The thing with the practice is, if I don't have the skill of playing trumpet, I'm just another skin bag. There are tons and tons of people with no outstanding skills at all. There are quite a few who can play guitar, after all, there's a major company called "Guitar Center" with branches in every town of any size. And there are actually quite a few violinists and clarinetists, as well as sax players. But I was always impressed when I was at Cafe Stritch and a trumpeter deigned to drop by and play. The crowd always acted like a celebrity had come by. I think a guy could be living in a cardboard box and if he were a decent trumpeter and managed to clean himself up a bit, he'd get the same worship there.
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