Like a light

 I was up at 2 like a light switching on. Of course I had my bank appointment for 4 so that was perfect. 

I'd done a practice last night but since it was at 4AM it didn't go that well. Interestingly, though, I was able to work on the balance between firming up the diaphragm and the height/arch of the tongue, in doing higher notes. 

So I had my coffee and so on, and was out the door at 3:15. The blessing box on 6th has been knocked off of its stand, but for now the one on 5th is still there although it didn't have anything new. I stopped at it to drop off a lot of medicines, cold pills and pain relief pills and so on, that I'd found. These are the kind that come two to a little sealed packet, like you find in work break rooms. There's a company behind the Hyndai office on Brokaw that throws stuff like this out, and I'm not sure I'll ever have to buy aspirin again. But I don't use the other kinds of pills, and Ken didn't want any of them either. 

Next was the bank, and for some reason my account is $38 shy of where I think it should be, when normally it's really close if not dead-on to the penny. Maybe I didn't count something. 

After that was Whole Foods, where I got a "Sumpin' Easy" beer, for its $2 price, it's nice flavor, and its' can looking from any distance like a can of iced tea, and 1/4-lb of roast beef that apparently the cold-cut counter prepackages and has in the cooler near where the cheese it. There's some made/packaged by Something Farm or some damn thing, and it's way too salty and seems like it's been processed somehow, but this fresh-cut stuff was $3-something for a quarter pound, and tasted tons better. I walked up to the other corner and sat there and ate and drank, watching the world go by. On the way back I picked a bunch more acorns, because I think it'd be a good idea to learn how to use them and also to plant a bunch of them around. 

Then I walked up to CVS for my vodka and lip balm and mouthwash, and the lady had a hard time getting the security cap off of the vodka. She even let me have a go, and it *is* hard; I couldn't do it. Eventually someone at the other register got it off. 

Then it was back to Whole Foods for some serious shopping for the weekend. That came to $38 even. The kids at the booth set up in front have an interesting game. You take a water bottle with maybe 1/4 or 1/5 the water in it, and you have to flip it so it lands on its base. It goes back and forth, and the Asian guy won by 1. He had a better flipping style, I could tell.

I then went up to Dai Thanh for shallots and ginger, and that was $2.10. That place is cheap! Then I decided to get something from "Viet Noms" on 1st so I went in there and ordered the lemon chicken veggie bowl. Since a beer would go well with that, I took a look to see if The Fountainhead was open, and it was. $10 with tip for an IPA but what the hell. The lady asked if I'd ordered food, since somehow they can only sell me a drink if it's going with food, because of covid. I took my beer and went over and got my chicken bowl and sat out at one of the tables on 1st so I could keep an eye on my bike. And people-watching which used to be a lot better. 

The chicken bowl was really good. Originally I wanted "spicy beef" but I was warned that it's really spicy so I'd changed to chicken. The chicken was spicy enough. The IPA, called "Racer 5", was pretty strong so I didn't finish it all, but when done eating took the glass with maybe 1/5 of it in it, back to The Fountainhead. The bartender and a guy and I all got into a conversation about how things have changed in the 4 years since the 2016 election, that I watched right there at The Fountainhead. The guy said maybe the military will step in and Trump will end like Mussolini. I said a better comparison is actually Franco of Spain, who thought his scientists would turn lead into gold, and water into gasoline. Then we talked about Cafe Stritch, and the good times we all had there. I said my model for covid is the 1918 flu, which means three years of it, next year being a lot worse, then it will burn itself out. So if the owners of the Stritch can hold out for three years, they might be fine.

I next went over to the Amazon hub for bubble mailers and the book I've bought which I'll read this weekend. "Choosing A Jewish Life" by Anita Diamant. There's a sort of reading list of books for converts and I'm not sure if this is on any official list but it's one of those that are highly recommended. I really don't mind buying new books, especially considering how much I've been economizing in other areas. But I think I need to restrict my buying to the books I need to study for conversion. 

On the way back from there, I saw/heard Leroy playing at his spot in front of Johnny Rockets. He had a backup tape playing, if not the song "Git Down On It" than something nearly identical. He was really getting into it and I'm not sure how to explain it but compared to a few years ago he has a "bigger" sound. 

I got back here, did various things, including got a practice in. It went really well. With only an hour or at most two at a stretch a day, I'm doing mostly Irons exercises. But I sneak some songs in. 

Then I listed 20 things on Ebay and since packing stuff at 4-5AM is nuts, called it a night.