It still seemed like a good idea

 21st day sober. I'd been up until 4AM, decided it's sleepy time, had my melatonin and less water which meant I only got up 3 times in the process of getting my sleep in, instead of what, 5? It's been nuts lately. 

One of the things about the "keto" diet is, people have observed that they're "pissing their fat away". I'd not say I'm following much of a keto diet these days, what with the noodles and banana chips, but I'm not guzzling 2 liters of sweet wine per 24 hours so there's that. 

I got up at 1:30. Last night I'd done a lot of reading around online, looking into Yamaha clarinets. A sax would be an ideal busking instrument, at least if I were to ask the ever-stylish Leroy. 

But I did not feel ready to try an alto sax. I'd rented one from Park Avenue Music and the thing just had so many buttons on it and was so much bigger than a trumpet, it didn't enthuse me. But a clarinet; I've played some clarinet. And it's in Bb just like a trumpet and has a few buttery low notes the trumpet can't do. 

I looked on Craig's List and there are a few Yamaha ones around, with various degrees of used-ness, and one with some kind of receipt for work done on it, maybe from when Clinton was on office it was hard to tell.

West Valley Music showed two Yamahas, a Buffet, and interestingly, a Yamaha 250 "new back stock" for $400. Considering that a new Yamaha student clarinet is over a thousand, it sounded pretty good. 

The thing is, if I'm going to teach Tom Price how to busk, I don't want to go back to working on trumpet because I'm done with trumpet. The high abdominal pressure needed, the tiniest flaw in my lip making my high notes a bit rougher no matter what else I've done to optimize my high note playing, the spit valves, the way nastiness can get down into that tubing and hide in there... I'm just done with it. 

Clarinet, I thought, is easy to carry on a bike, is in Bb the same as trumpet, and maybe all the trumpet practice I've done would make this already easy instrument even easier. So I went to bed. 

When I woke up it still seemed like a good idea. So I called up West Valley Music in Mountain View and asked if they had the back-stock Yamaha 250 and the gal I talked to couldn't find it. I said I'd come over anyway, as I'd noticed they had a couple of used Yamahas which she said they indeed had, so I'd come over and look around. 

So at straight-up 3 I left here, walking. It took me 25 minutes to walk to the light rail station, and the trains (I had to change trains to go to Mountain View) got me to Mountain View at 4:30. Perfect. 

I walked over to West Valley Music and asked about the B-stock Yamaha. The gal had still not found it but ... the owner was there. She said she'd just had her hands on it a few days ago, and started looking for it. I said I'm happy to stay around while they look, and picked out a band book (yeah band books are kinda lame but it's something to get going on) and a "care kit" and told a gal trying out a uke that yes, indeed, her uke was in tune "My dad taught me how to tune one when I was 6 and I never forgot". 

Lo and behold, the owner found the Yamaha in question. She said she'd been looking at it a week or so before and wondered how she was going to sell it. I said that indeed there are Yamahas out there on Craig's List and so on for $250 or so but then it involves dealing with weird Craig's List people and you don't know what the clarinets have *really* been through. Easier to just go with new. 

Since it was no difference in price, I got a Fobes Debut mouthpiece, and she sold me a Rovner ligature for $20 and even marked down the care kit by a third. And only charged me $20 for a box of 10 reeds. I mentioned Park Avenue would charge almost $40 for the reeds and she was astonished and I said, "But then they've got all those band kids; a captive audience". The clarinet even came in the smaller type of case, and the owner said she was really disappointed when Yamaha went to a larger type of case that's harder to carry.

All in all it came to $501 which I can afford. She even found a bag from some high-priced Waikiki resort which I joked about, having grown up in Hawaii and never, of course, having been there. Perfect for carrying a clarinet and things. 

So now I had all I need. I even got to listen to some really crappy sax playing, as a trumpeter (or his girlfriend who was with him, not sure) was buying an alto sax. And the gal I'd reassured was playing an in-tune uke, play some fancy chords. 

I walked up the street a bit to look around at how Mountain View had changed. The bead place has antiques now, so I'll have to check it out when it's open. Easy Foods is still going, and what's really neat is, most of Castro Street is closed off to cars now. So there were lots of people walking around freely, instead of being prey. 

I went to Maru Ichi for some ramen and got ... ramen. Nothing special at all. That place used to really be something - kim chi at the tables, and the ramen came with lots of neat stuff in it especially their signature one. But what I got was very ordinary and if I wanted extra seasoning the choices were both salt and pepper. 

After ramen I walked around a bit more, in the direction of the train station. There was one busker, a blonde middle-aged gal with a microphone and amp, singing to backing tracks she had on her phone. She was singing "Puff, The Magic Dragon" and getting no tips at all. 

I got talking with her (I'm not sure she isn't the same gal who sang stuff like "How Much (arf! arf!) Is That Doggie In The Window" back in the days when the Mountain View farmer's market was a great place for buskers) and she said she makes maybe $5 in an afternoon. I said she ought to get a ukulele or guitar to give her hands something to do, or hold the mic in her hand so it's more obvious she's singing. She holds still and sings with her head down (because she's looking at the lyrics on her phone) and that's the thing - you need to have lyrics down cold to sing a song. I said that busking seems to involve tons and tons of "paying your dues" and I'd certainly spend many afternoons only making $5 or so. 

I walked the rest of the way to the train station and got on the light rail that was waiting there. I'd helped a gal get off on the right stop to go to Grocery Outlet (and told her about the big Mexican market around the corner from there) on the way to Mountain View, and on the way back helped some Indian folks who seems to know the ins and outs of light rail travel, but didn't know the press the thing to request a stop, so I pressed it for them for the next stop and explained how that system works and that they'll just have to take another train back to their intended stop. 

I got off at good old Karina station (the McDonald's is closed and the site for sale, likewise the skeezy hotel next door) and went into the little convenience store by the gas station in search of non-alcoholic beer of which they had none. The Indian guy there was suspicious of the bag I had, on my way out, so I showed that it was full of clarinet stuff which he highly approved of. I'd looked around for anything I might want to buy but $5 for a jar of dip and almost that much for chips was not to my liking. 

I walked back to here (still some brassica buds to pick out there) and saw Ken's truck in front of here. Ken was here because his wife, Suzy, "is on a cleaning rampage" back at their house. So Ken stashed things away and re-arranged things, and I flattened the boxes he'd brought and stashed them away, and we ended up having tea and talking about things. It was a pretty nice visit.