Just in time.

 I woke up at 1. My bank appointment was for 2. I washed my head/hair and trimmed and shaves, cleaned up the rest of myself and put on fresh clothes, and got on the bike and go going. 

I was at the bank 5 minutes late which was perfect. It beats being 10 minutes early and having to wait out front with the bums and the crazies out there on the sidewalk. 

Done with the bank, I rode over to Whole Foods to lock the bike up. There was a petition guy, middle-aged black guy, who was doing it right, I think. He was jolly and making friendly comments to everyone, and I bantered with him as I locked the bike up. 

I walked down to the drug store and bought some witch hazel and a couple little bottles of rubbing alcohol - image that being there! - and walked back to Ace Hardware to look for a polishing buffing thing for my drill to buff the bathroom floor with but there wasn't anything. Not even one of those things you stick sandpaper on which I could use with T-shirt scraps. The salesman helping me, a black guy, was super helpful but it was just no dice. 

Done with all that, I rode over to Dakao thinking I'd get some boiled peanuts or something, and ended up getting two pork egg rolls and a flaky pastry that had pork pate' inside. It came to $3.45. I rode over to the SoFa marketplace area where there's the food court and tables outside and ate my goodies. That pork pate thing was really good! Two of them would make a meal, so if I were a working person in the area I could go there and get a nice lunch for under $4. 

I decided to go inside and get a beer at The Fountainhead, the very bar I was in on election night in 2016. The tall skinny black guy who's been there from time to time was there and we really got talking. About Cafe Stritch and how we didn't appreciate it enough when we had it, and about instruments, and music in general, and how awful that night in 2016 was. I told him about my trumpet and shakuhachi adventures, and he told me about playing the sax, the clarinet and the flute, and that he found the sax the easiest. I said if I took up the sax I'd go with the soprano instead of the alto like everyone starts with, because the soprano's easier to carry. 

I also told him what I told Ken about last night. That I'd gone through all this trouble to build a theremin from a kit and it worked OK except the circuit drifted which is like playing a violin whose neck gets randomly longer and shorter ... so I realized if I was going to play the theremin, I'd have to get Moog's modern offering, which is about a grand. But meanwhile I'd learned of the Chinese instrument, the erhu, which is spit-simple and sounds exactly like a ... theremin. Not close, exactly. 

So this was why I find the shakuhachi so interesting because you can get so much interesting sound out of it and it's so simple. 

We talked and talked, and since there were no bar stools and no standing allowed at the bar, I took me $10 Racer IPA ($8 and $2 tip) over where I could sit and watch basketball with the volume off on the TV. Then talked a little more while handing my glass in, and went out to the bike. 

He apparently was leaving or taking a break, and I noticed he had a Needle In The Groove shirt on so I raved about how great that place is, and he said the owner of that co-owns The Fountainhead or something like that, and gives out stickers etc. so I asked for a sticker and he went in and got one for me. 

Of course we talked about the need for Socialist revolution, and I think I've got a friend. He's only got 3 days a week at the bar, and is considering learning more about his father's business, and I told him about my busking success in the Before Times. 

I wonder if I could get him into busking once this virus thing is all over? The guy's been playing sax since he was pretty young, and maybe like my viola-playing friend years ago, just needs someone to go out with him the first time or two. It's a great way to make side money and might really help him and his family. 

So I'm going to make it a habit now: After going to the bank, go to The Fountainhead for a beer. I'm not good enough to perform anything but Hinomaru on the shakuhachi now, but I can at least demonstrate how it sounds. So I should get a soprano sax gig bag to carry it in. And not the cheap'n'cheesy one I had for my Yuu, but a good one like a Protec. I need to get another Yuu also, because I don't know if the bamboo shakuhachi I have now actually plays better or if I've improved from all the trumpet playing. I've heard some amazing stuff played on a Yuu. 

I rode over to the Amazon place and picked up 19 bubble mailers and my pickup items: a large brush pen and Koga's 2nd book on the shakuhachi. Much more advanced stuff in there, and I only got it because in the 1st book he says to look up something in the 2nd. 

I stopped in Japantown and first went into Kogura's to get a chopstick rest. When using the disposable ones, I'd just fold the sleeve they come in into a rest, but now that I'm using non-disposable ones, I need a rest. I got a neat one that looks like a tuna fish. 

Then I went into the shop that resells clothes, and got talking with the guy. I'm pretty sure he's not a young boomer like myself but a member of generation X, and he sure had a lot to say about "kids these days". Socialist revolution is needed but will they be willing to do the work? Keyboard warriors etc. 

I then went to Nijiya and got sake, a beer, some sashimi, a little container of sugar peas, eggs, some senbei, etc. I had also found, in one of the free libraries, "The Norton Shakespeare", a very thick book with, apparently, all of Shakespeare's writings plus commentary on his life and times. A good one to have when the internet winks out. 

So I rode home, against a somewhat strong and cold wind so slowly. The only problem was, coming around from Queen's Lane to Rogers Avenue, a bum calling out to me, "Heyh! Heyh!" so I sped up and figured that even if the zombie broke into a run, I could get into here and have the door all locked up before he could catch me. And that's what I did. I even looked in the security camera if the bum was out there but I think he lost interest once I was around the corner and out of sight. 

I settled in and had a meal of sashimi, senbei, raw sugar peas, and beer. NPR had an excellent interview with Jon Batiste, the Tonight Show music guy, and I guess there's a reason he's the Tonight Show music guy because he can do everything - sing, play many instruments, compose, knows a ton of music theory and history, etc. This is why I pretty much keep my radio locked on NPR.