Election Day

 Up at 3. Feel very un-motivated. I didn't do my package run today because I just plain didn't feel like it - I can pack a few more things and take it all tomorrow. 

I went to wash my hair and my two Powerade bottles that I've drilled holes in the caps and use for hair washing and bathing are simply gone. I washed my hair using a booze bottle with the little flow limiter on the top which is where I got the idea in the first place, but it's not as good as those Powerade bottles. The thing with Powerade is, they make the bottles very easy to grip. So if you're sweaty or soapy or whatever, you can hold the bottle with confidence. 

I was worried that the post office might be a shitshow, and even FedEx and 4 years ago I told myself I'd go the same bar I watched the 2016 results in downtown, called "The Fountainhead". According to Google they're open until 9. 

So I rode downtown, parked the bike at Whole Foods, and walked up to CVS and got two bottles of Powerade and a big bottle of diet 7-Up. Walking back, I passed for the umpteenth time a place called, I think, "True Brew" and they seemed to be open but with not too many people inside and everyone spaced far apart. And election news on the telly. 

So I went in there and got "shrimp and shishito" which was sort of blackened shrimp with shishito peppers that was kind of interesting. The beer I picked out tasted kinda like dishwater so that was no treat. I watched the election news which was on CNN and it was annoying. First, the newscaster kept referring back to 2016 and switching back and forth and I thought, "Who cares about 2016, this is the 2020 election we're dealing with here". And the cameraman kept moving the camera around in a seasickness-inducing manner. 

So I figured I still had an hour to go over to The Fountainhead, finished my food and paid, got a couple of things at Whole Foods and $20 cash back because I could not remember if the drink I wanted to get at The Fountainhead, a "Maybach", was an $8 drink or a $12 drink. 

I rode over there and locked the bike up, and there was a bum with a guitar-shapes sort of thing. "Is that a guitar?" I asked. It was, and I asked him if he wanted anything from inside, and he said, "A soda, just any soda". Well, the food court where The Fountainhead is had just closed. I ended up buying the guy a Mexican coke from the Cuban place by the Blue Chip which has a little theater ticket window sort of setup. 

I brought it back and he was pretty thankful, Mexican coke being the very best coke. He started a conversation about "What's the very most valuable thing, when you're lonely etc." I said music, and that when I practiced my trumpet I felt like all the great trumpet players were there with me. He said something about angels always watching, and then I was saved by another bum coming up on a skinny-tire bike and giving the guitar guy a big grey blanket that looked kind of dirty, and the guitar guy saying "I don't need it" and I took off. 

I'd really wanted to go to The Fountainhead and now I wish I'd started out earlier and not messed with that other place. I wanted to joke around about how much things have changed and how, at the rate things are going, in 2024 we'll be sitting around a campfire built in the ruins of the building there and eating roast pigeon. 

In fact, it was pretty quiet out. No annoying Trump parades, and other than a few helicopters flying around, no sign that it was any kind of a special night. The cooler weather has the zombies moving more slowly too - like lizards, cold weather slows 'em down. 

I kind of wanted to get some other food for the sake of it, and went to this Korean place that the college students go to a lot, that serves tons of different kinds of "hoagies" but of course I got a bulgogi plate. That bulgogi plate was a mess by the time I got home with it, though. The salad was on top of the meat and it was all getting cold. It was still pretty good though. And even coming home at the scandalous hour of almost 9, the food truck was there on Commercial street - if I'd known it was there I might have tried what they had. 

The weather is depressing me, though, not just the zombies. Because October was so warm, it's like a switch has been thrown and suddenly it'd dark (especially with the time change) and cold etc. 

At least I have my vocal exercises. They really are starting to work. Trumpet playing has taught me that it takes consistent practice, over years, to get anywhere. I guess the average person doesn't talk that much, and even if they do, like phone work, they're not singing so they really don't exert their voice that much. I guess a good parallel might be paddling a surfboard, For someone who's not done it, it's really hard. It uses unusual muscles in unusual ways and if you're not used to doing it, you're going to be lucky to get about 100 feet before your arms and shoulders starting killing you. But work it up over years, like I did as a kid, and it gets more natural. This is probably why so many good singers come from a church background. There's a fair amount of singing in church. 

I'm not sure how Hawaii public schools stack up against mainland ones but we did a fair amount of singing in good old Koko Head Elementary, and of course there was my dad having me sing with him when I was little. I remember in high school we all went to sing for the old folks at the Lunalilo Old Folks' Home. So it's always been a thing.