Bad air headache?

 Up a bit after 2. The air quality according to "Purple Air" is around 100 so maybe this headache's due to bad air. 

I did voice exercises last night; one of those 20-odd minute "daily workout" things. As I've said my plan is to do this for one month then see if my voice is stronger. So I must do them until November 12th then evaluate. From what I'm reading in the comments in the exercises on YouTube by "Jacobs Vocal Academy", if people stick with it, it works. At the one-month mark, I can star looking into getting a ukulele to accompany my voice and start learning simple songs like Christmas carols. 

I'll admit I'm in danger of being side-tracked. There's a guy on Reddit's r/SanFrancisco sub-reddit, who calls himself "Gorneaux" but his real last name's Gorney. He does these really neat watercolor paintings of buildings and things around San Francisco and I'm always happy when I see his latest. He paints in a simple style I really like. There's also Robin Galante, and there's a third artist I can't think of now. But back to Gorneaux, his origin story is thus: He's got pretty heavy-duty fine art academic chops, having gone to come pretty heavy-duty art schools, but his interest was in sculpture. His father falls ill in San Francisco so dutiful son Gorneaux comes home to care for him, going back to live with Dad in the Sunset district. The Sunset has neat buildings and wonderful light, so Gorneaux gets into sketching and painting, joining a group called the Sunset Sketchers. Having been largely a sculptor, color is new to him and fun. He's now got a fair business going with commissions, prints, etc. He's my age give or take a year or so. 

With his latest offering, a painting of a beloved sushi bar, Gorneaux talked about books that inspired him, including one by a German guy. The German's origin story is interesting also: He's passed off at a one-time punk band drummer who just happened to fall into art somehow, but in reality he also has heavy-duty academic training and has illustrated something like 60 children's books. But his book on "Urban Sketching" looks interesting enough that I've got it in my Amazon cart and may buy it. I can always give it to Suzy, Ken's wife, for a Christmas present.

I had a little coffee and aspirin and that took care of the headache, and left here on an empty stomach at 5 after 3. I had four boxes of this Indian (like made in India) "Masala Tea" which is in packets with the milk and sugar included, so due to the sugar, not on my diet. So I put two boxes in the blessing box on 6th in Japantown and two in the one on 6th. 

Then I did my bit at the bank and got a scare because the gal handed me the receipt from the customer she had before me, showing only about $500 in the account. She got that straightened out and got me the right receipt and there's my $4200-odd in there. Whew! We got talking about survivalist things and I tried to explain things like keeping a "deep pantry" and so on. Gal just said, "If something happens, I'm coming to your place! and I said that first, where you think I live is nowhere near where I really live and I don't tell anyone where I really live, and that the whole idea behind being a prepper/survivalist is to stock up so you can help yourself and help others, not go begging from others. I explained that a lot of what I have stored is for others, not myself. (Others being Ken and family, who'd not be very interested in my canned fish and black squid-ink spaghetti but would be in the #10 cans of corned beef hash and lifeboat rations I've tucked away.)

Next was Whole Foods, where I got a package of prosciutto and a couple little string cheeses and one of those beers that looks like I'm drinking an Arizona iced tea.  I ate and drank over at "my" corner across from what I think it a rehab place, and it was a pretty nice little picnic. 

I walked over to Marshall's and picked out three pairs of sweat pants, but when  I got to the register one didn't have the Marshall's price tag on it so I just got the two that did have Marshall's tags on them. I've just tried them on now and while they're a little tight they're not too short or anything and will be great for winter time bike rides because they've both got enough pockets to carry my wallet and keys etc. Lots of cyclists wear these expensive tights in the winter and I bet these are more comfortable. And do theirs have pictures of Michael Jordan doing his famous jump shot? I think not.

Then I went into Target and got paper towels and some dish soap and Tide pods, and noticed that the Windex is completely gone. It was all gone at Lowe's the last time I was there, too. 

I carried my load back to the bike and stashed it all away, then went to CVS for vodka and re-stashed everything on the bike, and went over to the Amazon hub and picked up the Alka-Seltzer I'd ordered. 

I stopped on my way back at TAK Market for a tall can of PBR and some "Beer Nuts Bar Mix". I was going to get a beef stick but they were out of the kind I like. All in all today was really uneventful. The cool nights have the zombies holing up by the end of the day or something. There wasn't even a nasty wind to fight coming home.