Trying a bit earlier

 91st day sober. Last night I got all wound up in watching movies, one British one supposedly with that Postlthwaite guy in it but I didn't see him, good movie otherwise. The problem was, it was the kind of movie that uses long near-silences and the British being the mush-mouthed lot they are, plus the volume being low like some YouTube videos are, I could watch or practice but not both. 

The next one I watched, while practicing during most of it, was some B-grade movie about, like the first one, some sort of epidemic that breaks out. Yep, I was a on a "movies that predict covid" thing last night. I didn't go to bed until past 9AM. 

I was up at about 3:30, though. I made up bags of various medicines I have tons of little packets of, to drop off in the little free libraries, and did that on my way to Whole Foods. I had a rather nice dinner, "white fish" and a "chicken leg" plus veggies, and of course my customary can of coffee. The "chicken leg" I think was a deboned thigh, but had somehow had tons of batter packed in so while it was large it was probably about 50% batter. I'm reminded of an old National Lampoon joke ad for a fish restaurant's "batter platter"... 

I got started playing at 7, and it actually went pretty well. My first tip was a $20, and a couple of $5's followed. I floundered through Ave Maria and that actually brought a $10. I really got a nice amount of tips in a sort of burst from say 7-7:40 or so. Since all I'd needed to make my goal of $100 for the weekend was about $18, I'd made enough with the first tip. But I'd stay an hour, I told myself. 

But it started to drag from 7:45 on, as it started getting dark. I heard a lady mutter "Music, music" as she neared me on the sidwalk, and she came up to tell me how great it was that I'm playing music. This particular mental case had too much jewelry on and no concept of interpersonal space. I tried playing loud things to drive her off to no avail. She told me she was going to go in and get some cash to give to me, and I urged her to go do that before they close ... 

I played a bit more, until about 8:15 or 8:20, and finally decided the tip I was waiting for from the crazy lady would be about as real as the voices in her head, and packed up to leave. I went into Whole Foods to buy some broccoli, an onion, and some Brazil nuts, and took off. 

I rolled through San Pedro Square on my way back and no one was performing there. Leroy may have come and gone. 

I stopped for some O'Doul's on my way back and the ride home was no problem at all. Sure I hear  the zombies rattling around in the bushes under the bridge and such places, but at least they're not right out on the sidewalk or road looking for people to ambush. No more 1st street route for me. 

I got back here and counted up and had made $49, not bad for a bit over an hour. That makes a bit over $130 for the weekend. If I can do that back in good old Waikiki, even if it's over say 5 days instead of 3, that will keep me in Spam musubi etc for the week. 

While I was sitting at my desk here I kept seeing movement out of the corner of my eye and thought it might be one of the crickets that have been around lately, but I found myself looking down at the cutest little face ... a mouse. So I baited up a trap with some marshmallow fluff and it took less than five minutes to take care of that problem. Back at the old building, at one time I decided not to kill moths because they're actually kind of pretty. The end result was moths everywhere. So I'd had to come down hard on them. Same goes for cute little mousies. 

It will be an adventure

 90th day sober. Up at around 3, packed things that have to go to the post office because the post office isn't open on weekends. 

I got out of here at 6, with not only the post office packages but my tip box and the trumpet on my back. And my "explainer" for the ride home. I dropped off the packages then rode south on the street the post office is on, and went to the King Egg Roll place that's in one of the strip malls a major intersection or two down. The area has a strong suburban vibe although it's got tons of condos, and the egg roll place was being mobbed by doughy suburban people - it turns out they close at 7 and it was a quarter to 7. 

I got a "serving" of fried wontons which means 4, two egg rolls (they only had vegetarian left) and a bottle of water. It was expensive, around $10. 

I sat under a tree and ate. The egg rolls were not exciting at all and I only ate one. The friend wontons were amazing - they had shrimp and pork inside and the way they were made, they had big "wings" that, being deep fried, means you get your oil in case you're a quart low, plus lots of crunchiness. I saved an egg roll and the bottle of water to give to someone. 

I rode further down that street until I got to King, then turned toward downtown and pretty soon was on good old Santa Clara street, heading for Whole Foods. I looked for someone to hand off the bag with an egg roll and bottle of water to, and found one down-and-outer sitting on the sidewalk and handed the goodies off. 

I got to Whole Foods and got a spendy little can of coffee that I'm getting in the habit of getting there, drank that and used the bathroom and got ready to play, I figured for a couple of hours. I checked the time when I started and it was exactly 8. 

Playing went OK I guess, but the tips were not coming in very often. I still got thanks for people and the guy checking me out when I bought the coffee asked, "Are you the one playing trumpet out there?" and I said I was and he'd said it sounded great and was "a hell of a lot better than the people begging out there". 

Eventually a short, fat guy came up and listened, and asked me how long I'd been playing etc., and what other trumpet players I knew, and I said I'd taken lessons from so-and-so years ago and knew another highly regarded guy (didn't mention I'd sold him a mouthpiece) and the guy said he plays guitar and we both agreed we missed Cafe Stritch, and I finally mad a comment about his contributing to my "string fund" and he put in a $5 and we bid each other adieu. That was what I'll call the TGGT or Talkative Guitar Guy Tax. 

When it was 9 I felt that this was just not "my" night and I packed up and went over to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I set up there and played another hour. That place is not conducive to attentive listening, and I played tons of Saints, in every variation I can think of. Tons of drunks, and my final tip of the night was from some drunk gals (with a drunk guy) who started questioning me as I'd already packed the trumpet away but I got it out and one of them wanted to hear La Vie En Rose so I winged it and did fairly well for winging it. 

Then I packed up and didn't even count the money as I didn't want any more drunks getting in my face, and rode on home using my usual meandering route from St. John to 3rd then over to 5th after a few blocks, through J-town then 7th to Hedding to 10th and back here. Zero zombie problems. The thing is, while people go to 1st for their drug and prostitution needs, and there *are* two casinos along there, no one really goes to anywhere on my normal route for things like that and the only possible trouble area is where I go under the freeway because there are zombies camped there but even they, at this time of night, are busy doing zombie things or probably all drugged or drunk for the night. So it was a very peaceful, uneventful ride.  

Overall, I'd made $36.25 for the night. Someday, when I'm back home and playing around Waikiki and have made $36.25 for a couple of hours playing, I'll feel pretty good because that's plenty of money on a day-to-day basis.  

The drunks stumbling around at the Old Spaghetti Factory were annoying and I'm not sure if they were drunker than usual this night or if they're more noticeable to me when I'm sober. I'm also not sure I may not have been better off just staying for the 2nd hour at Whole Foods. Less drunks, but probably less tips too. 

My main failing was starting so late. 

I play the violin

 89th day sober. I was up at 3, washed my hair and cleaned up as best I could and got going for the bank a bit after 4. I put my check in and that was all no problem, and I'd decided not to busk with all the talk about the delta variant I'm hearing on the radio. 

So I stopped at the Amazon place to pick up some zipper bags I'd ordered, and at Nijiya for some groceries and some salmon on rice sushi and an alcohol-free "beer". I also got some tonkatsu. I ate the sushi and drank the "beer" over at the Issei building and then headed for home. I decided on the way home I'd go out and busk after all. 

So I got back and put things away, got out the trumpet and tip box and headed back downtown. On my way back from the bank at about 5, San Pedro Square had been really quiet. But now, going past it again, I could see a crowd developing. That's good news for Leroy, who was probably just setting up, it being a bit after 6 now. 

I got to Whole Foods and there was a guy with a booth set up, something something children. He said he'd not mind if I played some music, and he was friendly and fine with it. I asked him if he had a quota to meet and he said he wanted one more person to sign up ... apparently it's $33 a month to sponsor a kid. I said that's pretty good and I hope the kids get help because when I was a kid in the 70s, it was a very good month when I made $33 and it always went to feed my sisters and myself. (But who am I kidding? The kids that organization are using as bait might be getting a dollar a month, if that. It's almost all profit for them. The people manning the booths are probably not even being paid - they just sucker them in and after a couple of weeks of no pay, they figure it out and the organization just gets some new suckers.... this is how charity works in the US.) 

I started in playing at about 6:30, after having a can of coffee, reading the Metro, using the loo, and all that. I'd decided that I'd play for however long until I made $40 and at about 8:30 I'd made $41 and change. I got some compliments, and one guy came up and put a tip in and said he lives in the apartment building I'm facing when I play, and they enjoy my playing and open the door and windows etc. They have a kid, and I said they should get their kid a trumpet, but they said they want to wait and see what kind of instrument the kid likes. It's really good to hear the compliments I get, because I don't think I sound that great but so far I seem to be doing pretty well with the public as well as the Whole Foods workers. 

At one point a family walked by and the little boy, maybe 8 or 9 or a small 10, said something about my playing the violin. And who am I to argue with Mother's Little Darling(tm)? But it points out how exotic music that doesn't come out of a speaker is becoming. It's only very select schools that have music programs now. 

Also, when I pulled up at Whole Foods, even before getting the coffee, there was the very short lady with her Hillary For Prison shirt (does she ever wash the thing?) and since it's not good to have enemies on the street I told her I was sorry I'd mis-read her shirt, and had actually thought it was a pro-Hillary shirt. That got us talking anyway, and she told me all about how Hillary had come up with a whole dossier of emails or something all faked up to show Trump colluding with the Russians. 

(I didn't think Hillary was needed to prove Trump was the Russian candidate; firstly Russia can't take on the US militarily and the US has been busily surrounding Russia with NATO bases. Putin's duty is to fight this however possible and if he can help the US collapse under its own weight/hate then he has to take that chance. Plus Trump owes the Russian mob a ton of money. This is all obvious stuff.) 

So I let the Trump Stump go on about how this and that politician needs to be shot, and took comfort in the fact that she almost certainly doesn't, or can't, vote. 

I'd made $41.35 at a bit past 8:30 so I packed up and left, and rode through San Pedro Square where I could hear Leroy doing his thing so I rode over. I didn't want to just hang around because I've seen how people don't want to tip if someone is just hanging around a musician, so I got the trumpet out for show, but Leroy urged me to play some parts with his backing tracks and it went terribly, as it's not only songs I haven't practiced but they seemed to be in weird keys, at least for a trumpet player. But I guess it went OK as I prepared to go and Leroy handed me a $5. So that brought my earnings up to $46.35 for the night. 

Leroy's been really working hard, because he sounds about 100X better than when I first heard him, at his usual place in front of the new-defunct Johnny Rockets. The backing tracks help a ton but I think he's been practicing (or playing) a ton too. And his sound really fills up the space, not in front of The Old Spaghetti Factory but in front of some empty store fronts next to it. The sound really echoes there. 

I headed for home now, along First Street which may have been a mistake. There was a real collection of streetwalkers, crackheads, crazies, and general zombies along there. I had to watch out a few times for zombies that might lunge at me, and dodged a guy who staggered out into the street but was probably an act to try to snag me. Then, when I got up to Brokaw, I spotted a big fat scumsucker on a bike with no lights and some kind of big bags hanging off of him. 

I went into full alert when the scumsucker turned onto Brokaw right after I did, and tried to get my attention, saying "Excuse me"...  I sped up, thinking of plans and decided I should be able to keep ahead of him until I get to the fire station on 10th, there being no police station nearby. So I decided it was a speed + endurance run and raced up Brokaw, turned in where the new buildings have gone up and past 24Hour Fitness and around onto Bayshore and I'm pretty sure I lost him long before I got that far. I continued at a brisk speed anyway until I got back here and put the bike away. 

I don't know why there were so many zombies on 1st. It *is* where people visiting San Jose go for drugs and prostitutes, but why so busy tonight? Is it because it's close to pay day? The warm weather? Would my usual route of, say, 3rd to Hedding to 10th to Bayshore have been safer? I'd had to dodge zombies on that route, making me decide 1st street was better but it looks like the damn zombies are everywhere. 

I can start playing much earlier, where I'm just plain not out after dark. Not being out after dark has been my policy since all this craziness started anyway. Leroy's got a car now which means he's not out walking around or taking the (now defunct) light rail, exposing himself to zombies. That almost might explain his improvement in playing since he might be playing a lot more to afford the car. I'll have to ask him if it's the increased danger of being out after dark lately that made him finally get a car. 

Another possibility is that I start carrying my "explainer", the 22-inch bolt I've made into a sort of billy with a wrist strap, that I carry on my post office and FedEx runs. It doesn't look like much when I've got it stashed in my bike bag, and due to its "friendly" yellow color, so far cops don't look at me twice when I'm carrying it. I guess the yellow tape it's wrapped in makes it look like it's made out of plastic or something.

Who needs the schoolyard bully?

 88th day sober. I woke up around 3, had been up past 6AM of course, and had some some practice although it was not the most satisfying practice. 

I got up, packed stuff, and packed a "care package" of falafal mix, noodle "kits" I decided I'm not going to eat any more, almond butter and truffle oil, some fresh ginger, etc. and went by Tom's place to check on him. He was OK, and I handed him the package, telling him the noodles need to be refrigerated. I told him about how he'd been really knocked out yesterday, and how I'd closed the place up etc. 

His wife was there, and I suggested I get gyros for all of us on my return leg of my post office run. They gave me $30 and off I went. The post office run was no problem and I got the gyros plus yoghurt drinks for us, and went back over there. 

We had a great time eating and talking, and his wife remembered me from the time, years ago now, when I'd taken her around shopping for steaks and so on to grill, at the Gilroy place. We talked about Hawaii, and Iceland, and the weirdness of Silicon Valley, where it seems the culture is just to work and sleep. And a bunch of other things too. 

Eventually it was time for her to go back to Castro Valley where she lives, and she called an Uber to take her to the Milpitas BART. It was only $4-something, not bad. I took off to check the emergency kit place but their dumpster wasn't even out, so I stopped at the storage unit to see if we had more of some big filters I'd just sold some of, because I'm pretty sure the buyer would be interested in more. But instead I found a lot of stuff like seals and pressure gauges and so on, and got that stuff loaded onto the bike trailer. 

I was back here, sorting out stuff to list tomorrow, when Ken came by. He had tons of stuff they were throwing away at his day job, so we got that stuff unloaded and put in here, and Ken went through tubes and tubes of IC's, keeping some and most of them, putting in a box to sell. I got him a long box to fit them in, and then a 2nd long box. I'd moved the one long box over and put the new one in its place so Ken could keep sorting without missing a beat, and he just kept on sorting, then I noticed I'd stepped on something. It was his glasses, and I'd wrecked them. I'd not expected to find his glasses on the truck tailgate, on which they were just about invisible. And I guess Ken hadn't remembered they were there either. Who needs the school bully to sweep your glasses onto the ground and step on them when you've got me around? 

Ken said he'd been planning to get new ones and "just hadn't done it yet" and I asked if he'd be able to drive OK and he said he had some spares and didn't seem too upset. I told him how I actually needed new glasses too, and how they're not cheap for me, and I've been putting it off because I can see just fine for bicycle riding. (I used to always keep some spares in my car when I had a car.)

When he was done sorting IC's I offered him some lime water with ice but he said he was going to get going, so that was the excitement for today. 

Tongue level

 87th day sober. I got a practice in last night and my little exercise is helping right away. The higher notes are getting easier and clearer. I went to bed after this, at about 7AM and was up at 3. 

I had some coffee etc and packed all the things except one thing that I can't find. Got those taken up to the post office and FedEx. There was a brush fire North of Brokaw Road by a fair amount, that made a plume of smoke that, interestingly, went up into the sky, arching over where I was for the most part, then down again and concentrating for its plod towards downtown. According to Reddit it was bad in Japantown. 

Of course at the post office that chute was jammed. They really should just have someone who's there where the chute it, and takes in peoples' packages. And for some reason the post office was busy, with lots of people bringing in packages. 

I found some "cuties" little oranges being tossed out behind H Mart because a couple in the package had gotten squashed, but the rest were fine. I found a bunch of useful boxes behind the drone place, and ended up not only gathering those up but really cleaning and and organizing the area. 

I stopped by Tom's to drop off the oranges, and the side gate was open, the back part open with the light on, etc. I wandered all over and called for Tom, rang the Ring doorbell, etc. Finally I got a bit worried and went in where he actually lives and opened the door and saw he was passed out on his bed. And I mean really passed out if he hadn't heard all my banging around. So I locked up the side yard and made sure the place was secure, and took off. He's got some test coming up at work and maybe he's nervous about it and hit the alcohol kind of hard. I'll check on him again tomorrow I guess. 

When I got back here I called Ken and asked him if he could come over tonight to help me look for this one "lost" thing and he wanted to come over for a bunch of reasons anyway. I packed this Really Fucking Heavy(tm) signal generator that sold, Ken stood by while I looked One Last Place(tm) and found the thing and packed it, Ken wrote out my check and brought by some mail for me from the IRS. 

The good news is they "only" want $824 this time. The bad news is, it seems to be penalties from late filing my 2019's. I don't think I'll have penalties for my 2020's but I'm still convinced I didn't work them out right and owe them more than I paid them. 

At least at the rate I've been saving, I can cover this with no problem. $824 is basically 4 weeks' savings.

Come And See.

 86th day sober. Last night I was tired in that "don't really want to move" way but I got a practice in, and then got involved watching a Russian movie called "Come And See" which I've watched before, but I notice more stuff when I'm not blotto drunk watching it... it's quite good and a perfect depiction of Nazi thinking and the translation of such into real-world actions. German Nazis or American Nazis, doesn't matter. 

The end result is I didn't actually go to bed until about 6AM or a bit past that, and woke up at 1 only due to the FedEx guy pounding on the door and who got treated to the sight of me in my underwear wrestling the box of packing tape into here. 

I then went back to sleep, off and on, until past 3. Weird dreams too so I needed the sleep. 

At least when I was initially dropping off to sleep, I invented an exercise I can do while lying in bed or anywhere, that involves blowing a thin stream of air and while doing that, raising and lowering my tongue in an "OOO-EEE-OOO" type mouth shape. I notice a problem I have is "lazy tongue". It's just not used to moving in that way. I grabbed the trumpet just now and tried it on the horn, and I think I'm onto something. 

I packed some things that have to go out today and did my post office and fedex run, found a few boxes etc., and some paints and chemicals etc. one place was tossing out. I swung by Tom's just as he was pulling in, in his box truck. He unloaded groceries and I gave him a can of teak oil which is handy for restoring furniture. We talked about this and that for a while, and he gave me some avocados and a few "golden" kiwi fruit, which I just tried one of and are pretty tasty.

After hanging out for about an hour I took off for here and cooked some dinner, got Ebay stuff ready to list and listed it.

A Hawaiian schedule?

 85th day sober.  After listing the math books on Ebay I stayed up a bit later but not much, didn't practice, and went to bed around 6-7AM. I had a guy coming over to pick up an oscilloscope around 2, and I didn't sleep that much because I was worried about waking up in time. 

I woke up about 1, had my sunflower seeds and vitamins and so on, aspirin for my headache, and the guy came by maybe a   quarter after 2. It went pleasantly and we talked a bit. I pointed out with a laugh that he was getting a pretty good deal, a 500MHz scope with a bad channel 4, well, how many times do most people even use channel 4? 

After giving him some nice directions how to get back onto the freeway to Santa Cruz, I went back in and tried to get enthusiastic about doing stuff and failed. I packed one thing that for-sure needs to go to FedEx tomorrow, and other than that, all I wanted to do was go back to bed. 

My going out busking starting a bit after 6 instead of a bit after 8 went well. It gave me room to stay out longer and make the quota I'd set for myself. And I'm still yet to dip into that possible money-pot that might be the lunch hour. 

The thing is, I wonder if I might get back to a Hawaiian schedule? That doesn't mean sleeping in until the afternoon and all that; that'd be a New Orleans or NYC schedule. In Hawaii getting up early is really en vogue, because it gets hot in the middle of the day. So garage sales are rockin' by 6:30 in the morning and pretty much done by 10AM. The real action at the Pearl City swap meet is in the early morning and then everyone just sits around, baking in the sun and doing an occasional lazy sale, until it's time to go.  

It would mean bedtime being before midnight, but I'd get a ton done during the day.  It would also mean being able to be up early enough on weekends to try going up to Fisherman's Wharf to try the busking waters there.

An earlier Saturday

 84th day sober. I was up into dawn sorting a bunch of connectors to put onto Ebay and then listed a small part of them - all the sorting will pay off tonight when I can put more onto Ebay easily. I didn't practice because I felt so damned tired and instead read a bit of the Bill Mauldin biography and went to bed. 

I woke up at about 1:30, decided to stay in bed and went back to sleep until 4. I had a headache, so it was vitamins and coffee and sunflower seeds and ... aspirin. It eventually went away enough, and I took off for downtown a bit after 5. 

I stopped at Nijiya for some coffee pour-overs and this stuff that's supposed to keep the toilet from smelling bad "one drop" it says.  That was about $10.

 Then after leaving a few rolls of Necco wafers and a jar of almond butter in each of my three regular little free libraries, I got over to Whole Foods. I didn't pick up any books, but I'd picked up 10 graduate level math books from in front of the Goodwill on 7th so I had those, in a cloth bag, hanging off my handlebar. 

At Whole Foods I made up a plate of tabbouleh, hummus, yoghurt sauce, etc., to be my breakfast/dinner/whatever and that was almost $10. I ate outside and then went back in to pick up a can of coffee and a liter of Whole Foods water because I use the liter bottle to keep water cold in the fridge. 

So I had my little can of coffee to drink during sort of breaks in playing. I decided I needed to make $40 today to make my goal of a $100 weekend. So I'd just play until I'd done that. 

I played from 6:45 until about 8:45 and it went fairly well. OK, I've decided, if $40 or better an hour is not going to be routine, then fine - I'll just play more than an hour. At one point I counted up and figured I needed about $6 more, and played a bit longer with eventually a guy with a big cargo bike I had a conversation with kicking in $1. 

I could tell it was getting to be time to go when a scumsucker came up. I was crouching down, counting, when this skinny druggie looking white guy came up and first asked for a smoke, and I said Sorry, I don't smoke. Then it was a light and I said I try to carry some matches for people who ask but I didn't have any right now. Then it was "some water" and I told him he could go upstairs to the "beer garden" and ask and they'd just give him some water, and I went back to my counting and then took the bills and put them in the zipper pocket on my trumpet case and closed it and stood back up with my foot inside the loop of the strap, and old big-city busker trick. By this time the scumsucker had gone to ask the cop something or other, and I went back to playing. 

Eventually I had someone toss $7 in, and I played the Lawrence Welk "Goodnight" song and that was my night. I'd made $44.10 making, for the weekend, $111 and change. 

I rode for home by way of San Pedro Square. I'm now thinking that Whole Foods is not that much better a place to play than The Old Spaghetti Factory, they're just different. It's a lot less noisy at Whole Foods, but at the Old Spaghetti Factory, or rather, in front of some empty store fronts just up from it, it's a lot more resonant. As I rode through there I noted no other performers and there was enough of a crowd that some money could be made, but not for me as I was done for the night. 

My endurance is building up, plus I'm noticing how easy it is to "sound out" things I've not played before and of course I don't have printed music for.

Blowin' those high notes

 83rd day sober.  Being sober is really great. I've had some interesting times, walking through the liquor aisle in CVS and looking at all the various tipples, and thinking, "I used to buy that one .... and I used to buy that one... " etc. 

After listing Ebay things I got some practice in and the higher notes are getting easier. I can also play things when out busking that I could not before. 

I woke up a bit after 3, packed things, and did my post office run. On the way back I spent "busking money" on groceries at H Mart, and came straight back here. After awarding feedbacks on Ebay and putting things away, I ate the "special" fried chicken drumettes I got at H Mart and then took off for downtown. I got to Whole Foods just in time to set up and play, but I was hot and sweaty from the ride so I bought a can of coffee and settled down and drank it and read The Metro for a bit. 

Then I set up, at about 20 after 8, and played until 9:45. I figure I made $20-odd there, and unlike in the Before Times, when there was a last-minute rush of people, often good tippers, nothing really happens tip-wise after 9:30. 

I went in and got some walnuts and avocados, and it really was empty in there; just staff hardly any customers. I think it's good that they see me buying things like coffee and avocados and walnuts, instead of, say, beer or wine. Or even seeing me coming back from CVS with booze, because it's amazing what people will notice and I'd certainly be the talk of the place, being seen packing a handle of vodka or gin away in my bike bag. 

All in all it was a bit slow at Whole Foods but it was fairly pleasant. But I wanted to play more so I rode over to The Old Spaghetti Factory and played for about a half-hour there and made about $15. Overall I'd made $37.63 tonight. The acoustics are very different at the Old Spag. There's more resonance, and it's noisier and people are generally walking by quickly. 

After this I just rode home. Got to rest up for tomorrow.

Yesterday really was ...

 82nd day sober. Yesterday really was kind of neat. Ken came by and since our sales are just a hair under 8 grand my pay check was $350 instead of $300, and I got my $1400 stimulus check. 

After Ken came by and brought stuff to list, I cooked some dinner and sifted and sorted things and found stuff to list and listed it. When I did my practice, things went really well. It seems being extra stubborn the practice before really paid off. 

I woke up at 3, and washed head/hair and shaved and cleaned up a bit. I left for downtown a bit after 4. Put both checks in the bank and the guy there joked, "Alex is taking us out to dinner and drinks!" and that led to my saying I'd quit alcohol on May 1st and their congratulating me; we talked about Blue Laws in some other states and so on. I mentioned a store in Colorado Springs where you can buy alcohol, tobacco, and firearms since they have a gun counter, all in the same place. Except on Sunday when you can't buy the alcohol... 

I went to Whole Foods next and got some pulled pork and green beans and broccoli for $7-odd, which I ate upstairs and washed down with an alcohol free beer, sitting upstairs where it's kind of entertaining to watch the goings-on on The Alameda below. Except the trees there have something like doubled in size so mostly it was watching the tree. 

After eating I walked to the used book store and found a biography of Bill Mauldin which I bought. I'd read "The Brass Ring" a bunch of times, and Mauldin wrote a couple other autobiographies, but this was, for a change, an outsider's view and looks like it will cover his post-WWII life where he'd left the war on top of the world with prizes and recognition and gave up a lot to be what's considered a Leftist cartoonist in this country. 

I walked back to Whole Foods and picked out a can of coffee and sat down outside downstairs with the book to read for a bit since it was still too early to start busking. After reading for about 15 minutes I hears a loud pop and the electricity went out. Whole Foods had an emergency generator so they kept enough lights on and, interestingly, the music - I guess it makes sense to have the P.A. operational if needed. A song called "That's All Right" played and people came out as they paid for their stuff, and eventually they started closing the place because they can't have people there without the power working properly. 

Not everyone had heard the pop but I had, and someone said PG&E was up the street. I packed up and rode over to The Old Spaghetti and it was not really viable. My usual spot was too close to an outdoor patio with music, and up the other way was a really loud mariachi band. I played a little but it was really not going to work. 

So I rode back over to Whole Foods and they had all the lights on and were open after all. So I set up and started in, about 10 minutes before 8. 

It went pretty well. The bicycle lady never came by, and people were very favorable, except maybe one blonde lady who gave me a hell of a look, but I think she may have just been looking around behind her as she and the guy she was with walked in, and was just wondering what was going on. 

An hour went by Sooner Than Expected(tm) and at one point I had a lovely time talking with a guy about Cafe Stritch and why it's called that and so on, as he'd mentioned just getting a Thelonius Monk record he was happy to find, and he'd only been here in San Jose for 6 months so he'd not know about the Stritch in its heyday. 

The one song I really worked on this time was Autumn Leaves, and that seemed to be received well. I played until 8:20 so it was an hour and a half, and made $29.50. 

At one point the guy who always drops off his tip wrapped in Kleenex and fastened together with a paper clip or two, stopped and asked (in what I think is an Eastern European or Middle-Eastern accent) where I live, and I said San Jose,  and he asked where in San Jose and I said by the airport, and he asked whether in a house or something and I said I work for a friend in a building I live in. "And he gives you food?" the guy asked. I assured him that he pays me, and that in fact it's not life-or-death out there on the sidewalk for me, and finally when I explained that trumpet playing is my side-gig, "Like driving for Uber or Postmates" that seemed to satisfy him. This probably means no more $2 wrapped in Kleenex from him but I'd rather have things straightened out with him having no misconceptions. 

I finally packed up and left, and rode back through San Pedro Square. The loud mariachi band was still at it, and while they were successful in producing a lot of volume, that didn't correlate to much of a crowd. The people sitting outdoors who are eating food from the restaurants were there in the usual number, no more or less, and there were not that many people walking around. If Leroy had come around, he'd probably found it untenable also.  

So all in all the day/evening worked out well. I even came back and now that I'm sober am keeping up with things like what night the trash trucks come by, and got a lot of stuff put into one dumpster, and took 38 nice bubble mailer liners out of the welding place's trash can, so that all worked out well. 

 

Wonderful(?) Wednesday...

 81st day sober. I got a good long practice in, although it took me some time to get warmed up ... I'd listed a bunch of Ebay things and was pretty tired but didn't want to skip a practice so, more coffee and practice while watching the last episode of War And Remembrance it was.

Out of the doghouse

 80th day sober. I got a good long practice in last night, and was particularly concerned with the higher notes where I think I was straining too much. In baseball they talk about a player "losing" his swing and "rediscovering" his swing, well, it was like the high notes have a "feel" when done right and I'd lost the "feel" and by being stubborn was able to find it again. 

Even though I was tired, practice is very important because it's essentially my safety net. It's my future/retirement career. 

I listed a bunch of stuff on Ebay too including a bunch of little parts that had to be counted out. 

I also ordered the Hario V60 pour-over coffee maker I'd been considering, and some filters. For some reason Amazon didn't allow me to choose the local Amazon locker as a pickup address so it's going to Ken's house. I emailed Ken to let him know, and right afterward noticed that Ebay had suddenly improved our rating from "Below Average" to "Better Than Average" or whatever they call it. 

So it had been a busy day. I got up around 3 this afternoon. I packed a few things, most notably 4 big water filter elements I'm happy to see go out of here, especially as there might be more of them in the storage unit. 

I made my post office and FedEx run, picked up shipping stuff on the way back, and it was all routine, enough so that I did some extra stuff. First I found a big box of bananas by the place I often pick up vegetables, so I put that on the trailer. I also found a lot of white sign vinyl at a vehicle graphics place and took that. I dropped off the bananas, leaning them up at an angle for good visibility, where people going by on Bayshore will see them. All kinds of workers and bums go by, plus it's by where a food truck sets up so they'll get picked up. Then I decided to check out this one food importer's dumpster that they'd put out and got all kinds of candy bars, Kinder Eggs, stuff like that. So I loaded up on that stuff. 

I rode back into the complex here as far as the entrance, where there's this very thick pole that's been "kissed" innumerable times by people driving in and out. I'm sure their vehicles took a fair amount of damage each time. I'd been thinking about this for a while; to cover it with light-colored sign vinyl. And that's what I did. Now, there are tons of people going in and out, to and from the race car place and I'd hate to see one of them mess their car or truck up on that pole. It was a quick and dirty job because I didn't want to be caught in the act but now the pole's very visible. 

I got back here and sorted out my haul. In the end, I tried one of the candy bars - too sugary! And am only keeping some jars of almond butter, bottles of truffle oil, falafel mix, and these three candy bars that have those light wafer cookies inside. I decided all those Kinder, Minions, Star Trek, etc candy and toy things were too much hassle to carry to the little free libraries so I put the stuff out by the trash enclosure. first just the candy bars which got taken pretty quickly, then the rest. And I still have Necco wafers and these ginger chews, as well as tons of medicines, to drop off at the little free libraries. 

A fairly productive Monday

 79th day sober. I was up a bit past 3, and had practiced last night. I don't get it; I can have trouble hitting F at the top of the staff or the G right above it, and then hit it easily and clearly. It's very inconsistent. I guess the times I can hit those notes clearly show that I'm doing things right at least some of the time. 

I logged onto The Trumpet Herald to see if they had a bunch of non-copyrighted music but they don't - I had them mixed up with one of the ukulele sites which does in fact have a huge list of music to make use of, as long as you're a ukulele player I guess. 

I read through some of the posts and one guy, "bflatman", said he heard it took 10,000 hours to get good at something, so he decided to take it on. He'd walk downtown, practicing all the way, busk for a few hours, then practice while walking home. It amounted to 5 hours a day. With rests between playing, he says. He didn't have a job to distract him, and the busking paid so he didn't need one. After about 6 months he was being asked to join bands. 

I sure can't do anything like that as long as I'm working for Ken here. I might be getting in as much as 8 or 10 hours a week as things stand now.

Sunday and the underclass are scared.

 78th day sober. Up at 4. I don't know why, but these busking sessions have really been tiring me out. I watched too much inane stuff on YouTube last night but did get 20 Ebay things listed and then went right to bed with no practice. I was that tired. When I woke up I was achy and still felt tired. 

I've been thinking more about my fall-out with Bicycle Lady. I don't think I can convince her I'm not a commie after all, because I remember now that I'd crowed about how proud I am of getting my "Fauci ouchie" shots. Although I can mention that as a young Boomer I remember vaccinations every kid in town would get; we'd line up in the school auditorium and all get our jab. It was Civic Duty! And that the Army gave me plenty of vaccinations too. So vaccinations are old hat to me. 

It occurs to me that there are now quite a few people who have not had the experiences I have; watching the moon rocket go up (because Mom made us watch it) and rubella shots and everyone watching the same show on TV in the early evening, typically Walter Cronkite talking about Phnom Penh or some such thing. As American life goes it was much more "collective". Everyone rode bikes in the streets and everyone went to Summer Fun and quite a number were in Scouts and so on.

But thinking more about the underclass ... I know, having been struggling and poor myself, that money seems impossible to save. And, once saved, what would one do with it? The instinct - which I've observed - is to spend it on "something to show for it". That might explain the fad for tattoos. 

There's this fear. Money is scary. You work and work scared not to have it. You try to save but something always comes up to snatch the savings away. You get lured into little comforts like cigarettes and beers and going to see some concert even though the concert always sounds awful compared to the album. Pretty soon the emergencies that take any money you have lying around are the lack of cigarettes, beers, or a concert that's coming up. 

So you perpetually have no savings; the "living paycheck to paycheck" that's talked about, and it's not even confined to the working or underclass. Ken lives that way also. 

People who live this way are scared. And scared people subscribe to whatever variety of politics tells them that next crumb is coming in OK, and even better if they're told the next crumb might be a bit larger. So you have people cheering because Trump told them their coal mining jobs will come back. And likewise when he implicitly tells them non-whites are going to be removed as competition. 

It takes a lot of bravery to be a Communist. To assume that you'll be OK no matter what, that you trust others. It took my few months as a panhandler to show me how many decent people there really are out there and this is experience no one gets until they're in extremis. 

And even then, it seems that almost no one will, upon losing everything and having to hustle for spare change, conclude that "the sea of the people" is fine to swim in. Instead they'll pine for the times before they lost it all, and even better, pine for what the Fascists tell them to pine for, some kind of pre-1965 crime-free exploitation-free white ethno-state that never really existed. 

So instead of the old-time hobo-Wobbly of the 1930s, we've got hobo-Fascists who will happily kill off, or try to, whatever minority their Fascist leader aims them at. 

I headed out for a shopping trip at H Mart at about 6:30. First I got some potstickers and ate them over by Starbucks, to get my greasy food craving fixed. Then I went in and got all kinds of things, spending all but a dollar of the busking money my wallet was fat with. 

I rode back and went to Tom's place - he had a huge pile of wood in front. He was there and I first asked him if he was a beaver or something. We hung out and talked for a while, and he's not been practicing his trumpet although we talked about busking and hustling crafts and all sorts of things. He's been selling wood, and making about 1/3 what I have, for far more hours of hard work. But if it's what he likes to do then it's what he should do. I told him about places I know of where furniture etc. get tossed out. Like all the school stuff left out at the Dept of Education site just up the road. 

And here's Saturday.

 77th day sober. I slept in until a little past 4. I needed the sleep, I think! I had vivid dreams, while also sleeping very deeply. One was where Fry's Electronics had all kinds of junky computer parts tossed out out back, but also stacks of unsent mail and addressed envelopes, and one pallet had tons of those with stacks of money inside - typically stacks of $20s with a $100 on top, so I was trying to snag some $100s and tuck them away in my jacket while not tipping off the other scroungers there as to what I'd found. And also wondering if the money was counterfeit, it being Fry's after all. 

I practiced last night, working a lot on tone, and how to "come back" even if I was tired. And watched more War And Remembrance of course. 

I got going for downtown at about 4:45 and visited the little free libraries, dropping off bags of various individually wrapped medicines that I have a big box of, and picked up a book called "Our Man In Havana" that looks interesting. I went to Lee's for something to eat, and seeing a down-and-outer sitting out front and rice plates being two for one, I got two waters, two rice plates one of them being easy to chew fried rice with scrambled eggs on top, and by the time I was back out front the down-and-outer was gone, so I rode down Santa Clara street and soon enough found a little old "ex" Marine with a sign, and gave him the food for which he was quite grateful. "Semper Fi" I said as I rode off. 

I locked up the bike at Whole Foods and used their bathroom and sat down at an outdoor table with the rice plate I'd gotten for myself, with chicken wings, and ate, and realizing it was only about 7, I went upstairs and got an alcohol-free beer and watched MMA. One fight was really good in that they were very evenly matched, and it went pretty long too. The winner eventually did his victory dance and almost passed out, falling on his ass and getting up with difficulty. That's how good a fight it was. The 2nd fight might have been good in a way, in that both guys were beasts and one guy better, getting more punches in and getting out of a few grapples, but then the less-good guy won with a choke hold. A Hemingway story of a fight. 

I found myself yawning so I went downstairs and got a cold coffee which I drank about half of, and pretty soon realized it was 8. So I chewed gum and went downstairs and got started, after using the bathroom (again) too. 

By this time it was 8:27, and I started in. It went fairly well, and lots of people appreciated my playing, but I had an idea I'd started too late, as I was now "committed" to playing until at least 9:30. It was cold enough that I put on my sweat shirt and jacket which felt a little too warm at first but ended up being just right. 

A certain older, very short, lady came out to load up her bike and since she had these weird things on her handgrips I mentioned them and we got talking. Somehow it ended up politics, and I said I'd voted for Hillary in '16 "Just like you", nodding toward the T-shirt she was wearing that said HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT etc. It turned out to say HILLARY FOR PRISON. Oops. She accused me of being a Communist which I proudly owned up to, and it went pretty badly. She called out over her shoulder, "It isn't too late for trumpet lessons!" and I called to her, "You gonna pay for them?" 

I thought about this on the way home, and have a plan to drag up my old conservative chops from when I was young and stupid and *did* subscribe to the National Review and all that. Tell her I was bored as I often get, standing out there with my horn, and since I'd done some debate in college (debatable) I was messing around seeing if I could convince her I held opposite political views than the ones I, of course, certainly do. And, I'd say apologetically, I'd not done a very good job of it. What Communist would be out here working so hard, after working their day job? 

And this was all a lesson to me: Never-ever engage with street scum. This person isn't street scum per se, as I don't think she's actually homeless. She's probably living off of of a deceased husband's pension or some such thing, and is existing just a half-rung above those living under bridges and along creeks. A very definite member of the underclass. 

And why do the underclass have such horrible politics? It's because the underclass are scared. They have every reason to be scared. Solidarity is the one way out of the scary, dangerous, lives they lead and it's the one thing they've been brainwashed not to do. Even if you'll never have more than a bicycle, some rented cubby hole to sleep in, and a can of beans for dinner, if you have solidarity you're not alone. Your suffering has a purpose. And it's exactly why anything but hyper-individualism has been ingrained so strongly in the underclass. 

And this is why, if I have any interaction with the underclass, I must assume whatever droplet of it I am conversing with, is a die-hard Trumper who will happily throttle a baby if its leaders tell it said baby is that of "Lib'ruls". 

And it's best to not interact at all. I might, like the character Syme in 1984, not hide my intellect, but even though Syme was indeed loyal to Big Brother, the fact that his loyalty was on an intellectual, rather than the gut, level made him dangerous and he was disappeared. Among Trump-troglodytes, loyalty is at the lizard-brain level. One must be prepared to grunt and scratch and sputter, "Hillary Baaaaad!". 

And why is a member of the underclass, scared and not least financially so, shopping at Whole Foods? I noticed her putting kooky things like soy milk into her bags, because a lot of the brainwashed far-right are really into kooky diets. The underclass can actually cough up a surprising amount of money when it comes to cigarettes, booze, tattoos, kooky foodstuffs and frauds like homeopathic medicine, and so on. 

They could remove a lot of the fear in their lives if they simply learned to not get sucked into fads and fraud, work out an inexpensive diet, and save up a financial buffer. But the same as class solidarity, they are taught the opposite of that. 

So enough about the lumpenproletariat. I continued playing, got many thanks and more donations, and all was well. I played until about 9:40 and I made $26.52. So my total for the weekend was just over $110. 

A typical Friday now I guess

 76th day sober. I woke up around 3, and of course practiced last night while watching yet another episode of War And Remembrance. It's amazing watching it as a non-drinker, as I was missing so much when I watched it before, where I'd be pretty drunk by the time I was halfway through an episode. 

I had a few small things packed and was going to go downtown early enough to drop them off at the downtown post office, but when I got up there were several more things that had sold, and a couple of larger things one guy bought for $800 that needed to go by FedEx. So  I packed it all up and took the things to the post office and FedEx that I usually go to. 

By the time I was back here it was a bit after 7, and I put things away and re-configured the bike for a busking mission, and took off for downtown. A place I wanted to stop and eat in Japantown had a long line outside so that was out, and Lee's was closed. So I headed for Whole Foods and partway there, noticed the La Victoria on Santa Clara street and stopped in there and got a Super Taco. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods and locked the bike, used their loo, and got set up. It was 8:10. I went about my routine, tooting away, and even worked on "Miss American Pie" by Don McLean which seemed to be received well. Not that I was playing it well, because I wasn't. But even the little phrases in it sound good. Some songs are like that. 

When I was about done, a guy came up and asked if I could do "the beginning part of 'You're Still A Young Man' by Tower Of Power" and I said I was not familiar with it - wait, bring it up on your phone, I advised. He did and ... yeah... it starts with some screaming trumpet, higher than I can go I'm pretty sure. He said it's that he used to play saxophone, and I laughed and said that Tower Of Power was famous for having a horn section with the hottest players around. He put a tip (I think a $5) in and we had a good laugh. 

I worked a bit more on "Miss American Pie" and then thought, what else did Don McLean do? Oh yeah, that song about Vincent Van Gogh, so I played that for a bit and got another tip or two and called it a night. I'd played until 9:20 so an hour and 10 minutes, and made $39. 

I went inside Whole Foods and bought eggs, green onions, and a big bag of frozen shrimp and paid them all in $1's. As I was packing things away and unlocking the bike someone thanked me for playing and I thanked them for the compliment. I've been getting a lot of thanks, and someone today even asked if I was going to play there regularly and I said I planned to. 

I wasn't nearly as windy and cold tonight as it was last night, so I didn't need to get out the sweatshirt and jacket I'd packed but I'll bring them tomorrow just in case. I worry about being an annoyance to the people in the apartment buildings around there but since I'm only playing for an hour or so and not playing after 10 at night, I think I'm OK. 

I was also thinking, while out riding around today, that a little gadget I'd picked up for free out of dumpster had just sold for $75 or so, and that's a lot less work than standing on a corner for a couple of hours playing trumpet. But then, I thought, I found it because I regularly "patrol" a route of dumpsters to find packing materials, so there's the time doing that. There are Ebay expenses which are at least a third, right off the top. There's the time photographing, listing, storing, packing and shipping the thing. 

It comes down to, I could live in a Gypsy wagon and making a living playing trumpet. I could not do Ebay unless I had a lot of storage, a good internet connection, thousands of dollars of "buffer" money, hours to spend on researching, photographing, listing, shipping etc., so there's just tons of overhead.

Freezing my butt off in July

 75th day sober. I wasn't sure I'd make it to the bank today, as I practiced before bed and then was up at 8AM ... and 9AM ... and 10AM ... I decided I'd go to bed, get some sleep, and see how things go. 

I was able to get decent sleep but in chunks, so I was up at about 3:00, and left for downtown at almost 4, getting to the downtown post office in plenty of time to drop a couple of packages off and to the bank to do my deposit. 

I considered busking at the Old Spaghetti Factory to pass some time and make enough money for a meal in San Pedro Square there, but rode through and it was not very busy at all. So I rode over to Whole Foods where I locked up the bike, and walked over to Target where I got large boxes of different sizes of zipper bags for the shop, and some tape. But before going there, I went to Cost Plus and browsed for quite a while, eventually buying a bottle of "Marshmallow Fluff" for $2, which is half the cost of peanut butter and ought to keep indefinitely. It's supposed to be the very best mouse/rat trap bait. 

After walking back to Whole Foods with my haul I was happy to see they had about 1/3 of the hot buffet going, so I got a plate of food  and got an alcohol-free beer upstairs and took my time eating up there. 

After that I browsed around in Whole Foods for a while and then went outside to pick my teeth and chew gum and read The Metro, and after a short while the SPCA guy packed up his booth for the day and took off. By this time I think it was 7:30. 

It was both windy and the sun was annoying, but I felt that playing might at least warm me up. It didn't, really. It was slow going, but tips did dribble in. One the sun got very low and then went down I started getting really cold and my hands stiff etc. Eventually I looked at the time and it was maybe 8:20, and I decided I wanted to stick it out until 9. I played a bit more, and at one point a guy came up and put a tip in and said he really liked seeing someone playing trumpet out here. I said I hope I can improve and will keep working at it. He left and I saw his donation was a $20, and there were a couple of $5's in there amongst the $1's and I might as well call it a day. I'd been playing close enough to an hour. I'd made $45, and if the guy hadn't come along and put in his $20 I'd have played a bit longer and made $30-odd anyway. 

I thought I might play a bit more over at the Old Spaghetti and rode over there and Leroy had just set up. We talked a bit and he said Johnny Rockets had closed. Without all the conventions coming through, there was no point in trying to stay open. I wished Leroy well and rode over to that area and down by Cafe Stritch and indeed it was pretty dead. 

The homeless guy who always sits around there was there, and I gave him a buck. We talked about odds and ends. I realized I was standing on, and had parked my bike on, the patch of bird seed he throws out for the birds on the sidewalk. That's his act. Besides having a dog and a cat with him always, he buys bird seed and feeds the birds. 

I rode my little circuit up to the end of the street and back, and noticed a place called "Good Spot" looks, well, good, but is a bit spendy. The kind of place you go with someone else, and you know you're going to spend $100 or so between the two of you. 

I rode on home, through J-Town past 7 Bamboo ... to think at one time I thought 7 Bamboo, known as the "best" karaoke place in the area, had to be some kind of incubator for aspiring singers and one could get "discovered" there. Instead it's where you get plastered and sing badly and bare your soul in front of your co-workers, just like karaoke places in Japan. 

I got back here and put things away.

Busking Eve

 74 days sober. It's Wednesday, the day before the night before the day I get up and go to the bank, find a way to waste time until the sun goes down and it's tolerable to busk at Whole Foods, and start my Thursday-Friday-Saturday busking week. 

Needless to say I practiced before bed, and it went well. So far I'm working nowhere near as hard as I did when I did that sport, at which I eventually was practicing 5 hours a day to work for very small increments of improvement. 

I did the usual things upon waking up and packed the few things that needed packing, not needing the bike trailer, and did my post office run, did some shopping at 99 Ranch, then dropped off the one FedEx package and checked the dumpster by the medical place which was not even out. 

But the Hyundai place had thrown out tons of manuals and CDs and stuff, so I rushed back to the shop and dropped off my goodies and hitched up the trailer and went right back over there and picked up tons of Hyundai stuff. 

So, when Ken came by and I had the place all vacuumed and cleaned including the bathroom, I had a nice big Hyundai haul to show off. 

But, on the way in with said haul, I checked out a couple of boxes left up at the front of the complex that looked like good ones and they were - and full of things like cans and cans of chili and fruit salad and such things. So after offloading the Hyundai stuff I went back out front and grabbed those. I ended up keeping 19 tubes of Necco wafers for myself which ought to last me just about forever, some Orville Redenbacher popcorn and seasoning oil for Ken, and many boxes of sugar-free Jell-O to give to Ken next week, and the rest of it went into the trash enclosure. 

I got to work sorting out Hyundai stuff and had the door open, and pretty soon heard a bicycle - a scumsucker was circulating around on a kid-sized BMX bike so I closed the door and secured things quickly. The scumsucker went into the other trash enclosure, and after I'd sorted out stuff and had a boxful to put out for anyone who wanted to pick it up, it looked like the scumsucker was staying in there. 

Ken came by and dropped off a camera to list, hunted around for something he was looking for, and wrote out my check of course. And we talked for a while. After he left, I moved the goodies out of the trash enclosure and put them on display in front of it, and made the mistake of looking in the other trash enclosure with a flash light - the scumsucker was apparently spending the night there. I walked away, muttering not-all-that-quietly, "Damn zombie is still there". I wanted to keep track of what's thrown out there because it seems the trash truck empties the dumpster there on Thursday nights and it's handy to know if I can dispose of anything on that night. 

My theory is the scumsucker, I believe female (under the dirt it's hard to tell) was spending the night in the enclosure to get away from other scumsuckers she'd fought with because as a rule, they continuously squabble and fight. So they're always moving around and hiding out from each other. What a way to live! In any case, some other scumsucker with a small SUV with the required bikes and ladder and crap strapped on the back came by and picked up all three boxes of stuff I'd left out. Hope they enjoy that 2016 chili.

Watching the country slide ...

 73 days sober. Up at a bit past 3. I turn on the radio and it's like it was a year ago; watching (or listening) to my country sliding into Fascism. Texas Democrats have left en masse to prevent a vote on a new set of Jim Crow voting laws, and in return the Fascists are saying they will imprison them when they return and make them vote in the Jim Crow laws. 

I practiced last night, working forward in the Rubank book. I also have Harry James' solo from It's Been A Long Long Time printed out, that I was very fortunate to find online. And amazingly I'm able to play it. 

Of course I watched an episode of War And Remembrance while practicing, and while The Winds Of War is more eerie as it depicts the run-up to full-blown Fascism, even with the war on, there's this hope that Dr. Jastrow and his niece will get out of Europe. Last year I told Ken I felt like Dr. Jastrow myself, in that I'm not sure if I'm OK sticking with my schedule to move back home, or if I should leave here ASAP. 

I had breakfast yadda yadda and packed things, and loaded the bike up (didn't need the trailer) and took the things to the post office, did some shopping at H Mart to the tune of $26 or so, stopped by the storage unit and picked up some things to list, and then stopped by Tom's place. His truck was still gone, but I noticed the side door of the building was open. 

I'd been getting kind of worried about Tom, so I since I know the combination to the lock I went in, and he was in there, just fine, playing a video game or something. We ended up hanging out and talking about all kinds of things. I told Tom about my 2nd successful weekend busking, and I think I might have him hepped up to do some actual practice on his trumpet. 

When we were all talked out I came back here and divided up and froze some pork I'd bought at H Mart and cooked up some fish ramen for dinner. Then besides too much time reading Reddit, I listed some Ebay things.

Gotta make really (en)sure.

 72nd day sober. I was up about 3:30, and had practiced last night needless to say. Listing things first and then taking care of the packing later, when it's cooler, worked out pretty well. 

I got up, did some exercises, had coffee and vitamins and all that, and some egg salad. I got out of here at 6 with packages, and some trash and junk to get rid of. Everything went fine, and it wasn't even hot out there, being about 70 degrees.

At the post office someone had thrown out many bottles of "Ensure Plus" so I picked those up and left them by the bridge that goes over Coyote Creek, by the entrance where the bums go in and out. I hate to see things go to waste.

I went by the storage and used the bathroom (I'd remembered there was one from the first time I ever rented a unit in there, years ago) and picked up things to list, then went by Tom's place but he wasn't there so I just picked up a big bag of packing foam from the place next door and got back here.

A sunday that's actually a day off

 71st day sober. I slept in until 4. I got a good practice in before bed, and I notice that the regular practice I've been doing has enabled me to play higher notes not only in practice but when I'm out busking. Being able to play higher notes greatly increases the possible songs I can play.

I watched the movie "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro" last night, which was really Meh compared to the book. 

I did things kind of differently, doing my Ebay listings first and then doing the packing. It might be the way to go, as the coolest I can make it in here is about 79 degrees and that's at 2 and 3 in the morning. It's really uncomfortably hot during the day.

A nice warm Saturday.

 70th day sober. I got a decent practice in last night and this is where I'm doing things differently from when I was busking before. Before, if I busked on a given day/night I didn't practice also. But I am seeing a real benefit from doing a practice as always before bed. 

I was up at 3:30 in the afternoon, feeling very tired too. 

I left for downtown about 5. First I went to Nijiya for coffee pour-overs (expensive but good, and better to be addicted to these things than to alcohol) and was going to get a bento but there were none. So I got a "super taco" at La Victoria on 4th. 

I rode right over to Whole Foods and found that there were no petition-botherers there, and it was about 6. I set up and played for about 20 minutes and got absolutely nothing. I'd had to turn at an angle to avoid the sun and I theorized that it was enough for people to keep track of, trying to see while looking almost directly into the sun, not run into things like the bike racks, wonder if their cart was going to lock up on them, plus watch traffic coming in and out of the parking lot, to worry about some trumpeter. 

So I packed up and rode over to the Old Spaghetti Factory and played there. After about half an hour I had $9 and I decided I'd get one more dollar then pack up and right then a lady dropped a $5. So I packed up and went back over to Whole Foods. The sun was still annoying so I got a can of black coffee and this time upstairs they had the Lagunitas alcohol-free beer, so I got one of those. One of the bartenders asked if it was me playing earlier, and said it sounded good. "Were you playing some Glenn Miller?" he asked and on the principle of never arguing with a customer, I said something like "Yeah". 

I got back down to play at about 10 after 8, and started in. I played until 9:10, making $20. I might have done as well staying at the Old Spag., but I thought Leroy would probably set up there at 8 and I didn't want to interfere with him.  I counted up my money, making $34.25 this evening, and put a dollar bill that had a tear in it into my pocket, thinking I'll give it to someone. That opportunity came up quickly, as, waiting at the light at the corner in front of Whole Foods, I heard a rustling in the bushes. A female zombie, thin as an Indian fakir, unfolded herself from, perhaps, a nap in the plants there, and I offered her the dollar "You need this more than I do". "Thanks" she muttered as she took the dollar in her unwashed paw, and *skipped* up the street. Can you buy very much in the way of drugs for a dollar these days? 

I rode back through San Pedro Square and Leroy wasn't there. So maybe I could have stayed there all along and done better, or maybe I'd just missed him. In any case I've made $112 this weekend.  It's been tiring but I think I'll get used to busking three nights a week and of course my long-term goal is not only to build a safety net in case things go sideways with my day job but to toughen up for when busking will be my retirement job. 

Inheritor as I am of The Last Busking Blog On Earth(tm) I am always curious about what buzz there is about busking and "street" ways of making a living in general. For instance, I just finished reading a thread on Reddit by a bunch of people in Plano, TX discussing a "family" of man, woman, and kids who panhandle there. It sounds like it's Gypsies, and it's being suggested that they just go work at Amazon. 

But there's a reason they're not working at Amazon, besides the fact that they may not have their papers in order, and since their kids can't work there, they'd have to pay for child care while they work there. The street won't fire you for not having fashionable enough clothes. The street won't dock your pay for taking a 20 min. break instead of a 15 min. one because you have to take a dump. The street doesn't care if you want to take a day off, or if you want to work a ton because it's an especially profitable day. 

Working a regular job sucks. You have to dress right, eat right (woe unto you if you don't eat from the company canteen, the approved lunch trucks that come around, etc.) drive a car and it'd better be the right kind of car, and so on. All of this costs money. You can actually be fired for being poor and at one time I thought I was about to be fired for being too skinny. I think what saved me there was being an intern - I'd never have been hired there as a regular employee as I lacked the car, the clothes, and so on. 

So this is why you have a panhandling "act" on the streets of Plano. I myself prefer to play music but everyone does what they're good at. If I were good at standing on my head, I might do that instead, and probably make more money. 

It's a good thing that most people are merely concerned about the increasing number of homeless and beggars on the street, because there are actually much larger problems. I've found a series of lectures on YouTube by some people I've been following for years and some others who are new to me, but it appears that due to the global warming we've cause we are Utterly Screwed(tm), the point of no return having happened back in about 1950. 

It's not going to matter if white cops in the US keep shooting black people or black cops in S. Africa keep shooting white people, or what kind of blustering blowhard is elected leader anywhere. It's not even that, locally, the blackberry patches I used to visit have been mowed down and likewise the purslane, that we're in something like a 1200-year-drought here in California, or that entire towns in Canada (Canada!) have been scorched off of the map. It's that the whole Earth is cooking, exactly as Svante Arrhenius warned us of. 

I'd been into doom from 2005 or so. I discovered the Peak Oil theory, and gotten into doom and collapse in general, and the crash of 2008 assured me that I was on the right track. But the survivalist place I ended up living on came with a set of beliefs that one had to subscribe to, and like in the movie "The Postman", one had to believe that global warming was a hoax, and that while something was wrong with human society that would cause it to self-destruct, the Earth and Nature would be just fine. Green and verdant, just waiting for Right-Thinking Survivalists to repopulate, modestly of course. 

In fact, the survivalist vision that I think reigned at this place, and that is in effect in survivalist groups in general, has almost a point-for-point match with the Nazi version of how the Earth would be lived on and managed, once all the pesky non-Aryan people were gotten rid of. A peak world population of nice white people living with tons of forests around, and waters abundant with fish, and everything managed just right - all white. 

In other words, this dream - so common on Reddit - that all one needs to do is buy a few acres "in the country" and life will be fine, is false. The water may well - probably will - dry up at most of these places. Weird whipsaw weather from heat domes to strange and severe ice storms may make raising crops difficult to impossible. 

The Earth is going to cook, and quite likely no vertebrates will survive. We're headed to a die-off more severe than any prior. How much of this I'll see in what time I have left I'm not sure. Things will be interesting in Hawaii but they're going to get interesting everywhere. It's become really apparent that there's no refuge in moving to the Midwest, or to Canada if I had the million dollars it would take to do so, or to any other country I can think of. 

About all there is to do is to try to live life doing as little harm as can be avoided, and just go along with the program. For now there are groceries in the markets, and money spends, and people tip street musicians, and my Social Security checks will *probably* come through OK in a few years and I'll be able to get back to Hawaii somehow. 

We are all on the beach.

A tale (tail?) of two bums

 69th day sober.  Up around 3, I'd practiced last night before bed, listed 10 small things on Ebay, etc. 

It's funny; yesterday there were two different bums who stood out to me. One was walking on 1st street past me while I waited for the light on my bike. Leroy was playing just down the street, and this bum was a skinny black guy in the usual motley assortment of clothes and rags, with his chest bare. Also, he was black. I braced myself for a stink when he went by and ... he smelt lovely. Like some kind of coconut soap and nothing else so it's not like the soap was masking some basic funk. It was a very pleasant experience as he wheeled his cart by. 

The 2nd was one of a couple of trashy white guys at an outdoor table at Whole Foods, that I walked past to get out to my bike. They were laughing and carrying on in their scratchy bum voices. And at least one of the guys had a stink that trailed past him like a long tail. Phew! How can the guy stand to reek like that? And how do his friends/partners-in-crime stand him? 

In fact in all my life I've only known of one stinky black guy; it was a guy who did some work on the USS Bowfin and I think he actually had mental or substance problems. I hope he got things straightened out for himself. 

I only had 3-4 small things to send out but the way Ebay is tracking shipping times, I needed to get them out today. So I packed a couple of them that weren't packed yet and got out of here around a quarter to 6. On the way back from the post office I did about $40 worth of shopping at H Mart, including a dish of fried fish cake and green onions and some kind of vegetable, that I used to get all the time. 

I might want to get out of here earlier on Fridays because the scumsuckers, who seemed to be laying low during the shutdown, seem to be out in their prior numbers and after the workers have gone home the scumsuckers tend to consider the area "theirs" as, if you're not a worker, why would you be around here unless you're homeless also? 

Going out busking doesn't seem to be much of a problem because I head straight to downtown and come straight back in. I even take a different route coming back, going up First Street to Brokaw and in. 

I got back here and put my groceries away and ate, and got out of here about 7:30. I started playing at maybe 8:05 and played until 9:15. It felt slow, and I worked on some new tunes like the theme from M*A*S*H and that "Leaving On A Jet Plane" song. I finally decided I'd tired myself out enough, and packed up. I'd made $29.30. I got a lot of nice "Thank you"'s and people were nice. In fact when I left Whole Foods after I was done and had bought some things, the cop there smiled at me so when I was all packed up and ready to go, I said to him that it must be tiring having to listen to my trumpet and the guy said that actually, he enjoyed it. That was pretty cool. 

He also said the petition-signature gatherers and so on were still coming around, and quitting around 7:30. I'm thinking I should start playing a bit earlier, and it sounds like at earliest I might be able to get there a bit after 7 and wait for the petition guys to pack up and leave, or maybe I'll be able to play and it won't disturb them.

I start my new schedule

 68th day sober.  I got 10 things listed on Ebay last night and got a practice session in, and am all ready to start my new schedule of busking Thursday-Friday-Saturday. 

It was a cool 78 degrees in here when I woke up at 2:30, and I can hardly wait until it's around 90 in here and that's cooler than outside when it's over 100. 

People will say Hawaii's warm and humid also, but every time I've stepped off the plane back home I've felt instantly at home in terms of the temperature and quality of the air. Maybe it is a constant 75-85 day and night but here on the mainland, you have to adapt to temperatures in the 40s up to the 90s year in and year out, while back home at least you get used to (as in grow up with) a fairly narrow temperature range and that's it. 

I left here at about 4 with my first stop being the post office downtown where I dropped off two packages, then went over to the bank and did my deposit. Next I wanted to get something to eat and sent to Da Kao and got some curry and rice and ate over at the college - it was a big meal for $6.75. 

It was a big enough meal, in fact, that I wanted to give myself some time to digest it. I went over to the Amazon place and picked up a small order I had and got exactly one bubble mailer - the one the order came in. 

I then rode over to the used book store to see if I could find a copy of Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov which was recommended to me by Morris Berman. They didn't have it, but I got "The Portable Nabokov" for $3 (leaving me about $21 in store credit) and rode over to Cahill Park. I checked out the book and it's got Pnin in it, in full. I sat in the shade and read a bit of that and one of the short stories. 

Eventually it cooled down a bit and I got out the trumpet and sheet music and worked on playing Beautiful Dreamer correctly. Once I thought I had a handle on it I rode over to Whole Foods and locked up the bike. 

I felt like I really should drink something because being really dehydrated seems to hurt my tone, so I picked up a bottle of cold black coffee (all of this paid for with cash I had on hand) and went upstairs and sat at a table - after asking the guy - that had just one guy sitting at the other end of it. 

"Is that a violin case?" he asked, and I said that it was a trumpet and we were off to a good long time of talking. About halfway through I went to the bar for an ice water and thought to ask if they have any non-alcoholic beer and they did, for $3 a bottle. So I got a bottle of that and it was really good, being icy cold and fizzy and it went well with the black coffee. 

When we were all talked out and had finished our drinks, it was just about 8 and the sun had gone down enough that it would not be in my eyes. 

I got to work playing at about 5 after 8, and played until 15 after 9, although in those last 15 minutes I didn't get a single tip. Maybe the 7-8 hour is better but I'm going to need some way to keep the sun out of my eyes. My earnings were $48.55. Not bad. 

I couldn't think of anything more I needed to buy from Whole Foods so I took off, and rode through San Pedro Square to see what was up. Leroy was there, just packing up. He was surprised to hear what time it was since he usually is done by 9. We talked a bit then both decided it was time to go. 

I noticed a certain beggar there, a guy who'd hassled me no end a couple of years ago when I played trumpet there. I finally called the cops because the guy kept getting in my face, and once I did he packed up and took off in record time, his dog having to run after him with her leash dragging. Now he has the same bike it seems, and a puppy. Leroy seems to have taken over at the Old Spaghetti Factory from the now-disappeared Trumpetman, and the beggar probably knows what time to show up, after Leroy's normally gone, to beg his drink/drug money from the crowd. 

I rode home without stopping anywhere and buying anything, so that's how I got through this payday with spending only $3.25 for the near-beer (my last cash dollar was the tip) and now have $48 in my wallet.

As advertised

 67th day sober. Up at 3. I got a good practice in before bed. I also set out two snap traps for the mouse before bed and one of them worked as advertised. So that's pretty neat. 

I had coffee and vitamins etc and packed a couple more things, and took a big load up to the post office and FedEx. Interestingly, the post office was *really* un-busy where yesterday it was quite busy, with lots of people mailing boxes. Probably people sending souvenirs home. I remarked on this to one of the workers there and thanked her for being so helpful yesterday (she got to hear people gripe about the chute being stuck). 

FedEx went fine, and I picked up a good load of packing stuff on the way back. I swung by Tom's place to say hi and we hung out for a while. I told him I made $110 over the weekend, and he told me how he made -$5 on his first scrap wood sale because he sold some wood for $25 but the buyer managed to steal his hammers, which were worth $30. 

I asked him how his barbecue went yesterday and he said it was pretty much a non-event. I'd been invited but didn't go because I thought it might be a fiasco. Tom asked me if I wanted to try a "Korean cake" and handed me a daifuku, a nice traditional one with black bean paste inside. Yum! In unwrapping his, Tom managed to not only drop it but knock it under a wooden rack he was going to take apart, so he had to dig a bit for it and dust it off. That's one thing about Tom: If he invites you to dinner and your food's got dog hair in it or something, you can be sure he's eating dog hair himself. 

I realized it was after 8 and had to go, and rode down Rogers then cut across by the African place and checked the tire place for big boxes and no luck. I had a big capacitor to pack that's bigger than most boxes and has to be packed carefully because it's got high voltage terminals sticking out and mounting brackets also. If I could pack it in time, I could foist it off on Ken to take to FedEx tomorrow. 

I got back here and checked all my boxes and all I had that would fit is a really big one that I cut down to 24 inches long, and after artfully doing that, artfully also packed the cap and padded it well and got that ready to go. Then I had an active microwave filter thingie that needed a pretty large box too but nothing custom, and packed that up. 

Ken came by after I'd cleaned the bathroom and relaxed a bit. Ken dropped off a bunch of stuff and he'll take the big boxes to FedEx which is great. He wrote out my check and we did the usual BS session and it was a good old time. 

He left about a quarter to midnight and I got out and cooked some shrimp, broccoli and garlic, fish cake and fried tofu, all in a big bowl and ate. It was quite good.

A mouse in the house

 66th day sober. I slept in until 4 again, but I got a good practice in last night while watching the first chapter of War And Remembrance. 

I've also downloaded "Beautiful Dreamer" for trumpet and the version I got, for some reason, has it all except the very last note but that's easy enough to figure out. I'd been doing the middle part from memory and while it sounded fine it wasn't faithful to the original. If I'm gonna play a song, I want to make sure it's right. There are people out there who will know the song well; better than I do. As an example once I was playing a song that one of the noted sax players had as his "signature" song, something about somewhere in the Caribbean. Well, a guy walking past sang along, with words. The thing had words? That was news to me. That's the kind of guy who'd notice if I got one note wrong. 

My "assignment" this week is to get "Beautiful Dreamer" down pat, and also "It's Been A Long Long Time". It's kind of like I've signed up for a college class that "meets" for an hour on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and that I have to study for. But in this case I get paid instead of paying, and I'm actually learning a useful skill. 

When I put my bedding away in the loft I saw what a thought for a moment was a roach but it was a mouse. I'd heard chewing a week or so ago and have bought a rat trap (we did have rats at the old building) but now I know it's a mouse. So I need to get a mouse trap as a rat trap is far too big. 

I left here at about 6 and took the packages to the post office. The chute was jamming about every 3rd customer and for some reason there were lots of people mailing packages - maybe there's some holiday I'm not aware of? I did eventually get things sent. 

Then I went to H Mart for a few things, and then over to Lowe's where I got a gallon of Windex, a package of paper towels, and a package of 4 mouse traps. 

I got back here and relaxed and had some snacks from H Mart as well as here, and then got to work packing more things. The mouse was running around in sight when I went up into the loft - I'd put some packing "peanuts" that are made of corn starch or something, the "organic" ones, to give the mouse something to eat so it would not get into more important things, and the little guy had eaten all but a couple of them. 

Effective Sunday

 65th day sober. Since it's a 3-day weekend with today a federal holiday, this week my Monday is an effective Sunday. And that's a good thing since I didn't get up until 6! 

I'd watched the 7th, last, episode of Winds Of War and practiced. Before, when I was busking, I'd not practice on busking days. But I've since learned that Benny Goodman practiced every day even when he was performing and leading a big band. I'm sure all my other heroes do, too. 

The Real Busking Schedule(tm) is going to be Thursday-Friday-Saturday; the same schedule Leroy follows. Normally Sundays are pretty dead. Thursday is pretty easy since that's my bank day, so all I have to do is bring the trumpet along, do things around downtown until that annoying sun goes down, then go to work at Whole Foods. As for the other two days, I'll have a FedEx and post office run on Friday and a possible FedEx run on Saturday before going out to busk. 

Sunday might be spent sleeping most of the day just like today but at least I'll be getting to what I need to do; develop as a musician and as a busker, and build for myself a sort of safety net that's not working for Ken, so if something happens with my main job I have something to fall back on.

It's just scientific curiousity

 64th day sober. I got up at 4 in the afternoon. Last night after getting 10 things together to list on Ebay (and a fairly good set of things) I decided I'd done enough and put them aside for tonight. 

Then of all things I watched the 6th episode of The Winds Of War and practiced. What can I say? I wanted to practice being relaxed on high notes and I really like the exercises in the Rubank book. Some are longer and some are shorter but they all teach various things, not only new, higher notes and different scales like F so far but different rhythms. 

So it's no wonder I slept in so long.  I had vitamins and coffee and chased them down with raw sunflower seeds and packed up the trumpet and headed for downtown a bit after 6, I think. 

My first stop was TAK Market, because I'd seen Tapatio hot sauce for sale there, and got the size bottle I normally buy, for less than $2. It was less than a regular store charges, I think. 

My next stop was the little bodega that's my connection for rubbing alcohol, and that's what I got a bottle of. 

Next was La Victoria on 4th where I was going to have a taco but they were closed. Lee's it is, I decided. Lee's was open, and I got a chicken on rice thing and was offered to take a 2nd one for free because (I think) they were about to close so I got two and a bottle of water and the usual napkins etc. in a bag. 

Out front I took the chicken and rice thing I wanted for myself out and handed the bag, in which I'd put $2 also, to a guy out front who looked like he could really use it. 

It was really dead downtown. I rode over to the college and ate, and then went over to Whole Foods. I had a couple of problems: It was dead, and the sun was still high enough that it was really annoying. I went in and bought vitamins and some olives and such things, and that gave me an opening to ask a guy inside if it's normally very busy on the 4th. "Not really, especially in the evenings" he replied, and also he told me they close at 9. 

I went back out and put my groceries away and decided to try somewhere else. I checked San Pedro Square and it was dead. I had visions of a city fireworks display with a lot of families setting up in Discovery Park to watch it and myself playing nearby and getting good tips so I rode over there and it was just about deserted. The area around Cafe Stritch was dead, and it looked like I'd picked a bad day to go out busking. 

I finally decided that going back to Whole Foods was more interesting than just going home, so I went back there and set up. It was after 8, maybe 8:15 or 8:20, when I started playing, and besides routine stuff I did a lot of work on that "Long Long Time" song which a gal identified right away as being from a movie that she told me was part of a series of movies made from Marvel comic books and had been the highest grossing movie for 3 years. So I guess a lot of people have heard it and it's a nice tune so I'll work on it some more.

I probably played about a half-hour's worth, and got $19. This isn't bad considering the short time playing, super slow day, etc. It puts me at over $100 for the weekend and I remember my goal being $50 for a weekend a while back. I've spent $95 out of my most recent pay check, and have $36 on hand which is more than enough to last me until the next pay check.

Pretty good.

 63rd day sober. Yeah, I'm gonna keep counting the days because since coming to the mainland, I've never gone so far as a month without alcohol and even after quitting and feeling that I was very determined about it, I only lasted a matter of months. 

Due to the busking, Tom giving me $50, and my finding $25 I didn't know I had set aside, I have added another $50 bag of small bills to my cash-stash bringing it up to $300, have my $30 pledge for July set aside, and still have about $31 in my wallet. I'll put $20 on my Clipper card out of that. 

My anticipated future, of living in a rented room or perhaps a subsidized small apartment in the Honolulu area and going to Waikiki to busk, is looking very possible. If I can make $30 in a bit over an hour, I think I can be OK. I'd not be playing as loudly in Waikiki, and might make a lot of use of the kind of mute Miles Davis used, since it's a neat, quieter, sound. 

I tried calling FedEx to see if they're open today and how late, but the number doesn't go through. I have no idea why I can't call a place that's about 3 miles away but it's just another little thing that's breaking down. I packed three packages and took them over, and they were open. 

I stopped at the falafel place and it was open so I got a gyro. The owner and a worker were talking about something in Turkish I guess, really loudly. It was none of my business so I figured it was just about the weather or something. When I got my gyro the owner told me they were talking about his father, who was living in Georgia and had just died the night before from covid. I said they're very anti-science and anti-vaccine in places like Georgia so his father may not have gotten vaccinated. The guy said that makes him so mad, that there are lots of doctors "in the community" by which I guess me means Turkish, and they are all pro-vaccine, yet there are people who are so backward and don't want to use science, which makes peoples' lives better. 

He's also retiring to Turkey in a few years (I think) and I told him of my similar plans to go back to Hawaii where it's half as expensive as here. 

The gyro, which I ate at a table out front, was delicious as usual, and now I was all fueled up for the rest of my day/night. 

I picked up a bunch of packing stuff on my way back and unloaded that here, and changed things over in the bike bags to what I need for a busking trip downtown. It was 7:30 or a bit later, maybe closer to 8, when I got going, 

I dropped off some books in two of the free libraries, and headed for the Old Spaghetti Factory first. I figured I'd play a bit there just for old time's sake then move over to Whole Foods. So I rode there and set up, and played a little, but there really wasn't that much of a crowd. I decided to take off and was walking my bike along the sidewalk there when I heard Leroy's sax. 

Leroy was there with another guy who sings and plays guitar. They had a pretty classy setup. I played a little there with them just for fun then took off for Whole Foods. 

When I got to Whole Foods and was all set up and starting to play, I checked the time. It was 8:45. I decided I'll play until 9:45 and that'll be perfect. I didn't feel that enthusiastic but I'd told myself I was going to do this. I played the usual things, Amazing Grace and so on, but what people seemed to like was "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Fly Me To The Moon" ("In Other Words"). 

It felt slow, but when I saw a $20 in the tip box and then a bit later, a 2nd $20, I realized I was doing OK. As I was getting down to the last 15 minutes or so, a short, portly guy walked past then doubled around and looked interested in my tip box. He gave me a story about having his RV stranded, out of gas, behind the SAP Center and we discussed where the nearest gas stations are. I said if he wants my spot he can have it, as I'm tired and have played enough. I packed up while he begged a $10 from a lady, and then I noticed as I prepared to ride off that he wasn't using the spot but had wandered off. I wonder if he was pondering whether he could get away with grabbing my tip box and running off with it. And if his RV was stranded, why didn't he have a gas can in hand?  

I'd put in, I'd say, 50 minutes at Whole Foods and made $56.25. I rode back by way of the Old Spaghetti Factory and Leroy and his friend were still set up so I joined in, just trying to accompany and fatten up the sound a bit. That went pretty well and Leroy was really getting into it. We had a "Danger Dog" cart right across the sidewalk from us, so some people were stopping just for that, but Leroy and Co. didn't seem to be getting much in the way of actual tips. 

Leroy and I got to talk a bit; he's getting a new sax fairly soon ("Selmers have the sound, and Yamahas have the action") and as things normalize he might start playing further away, like Palo Alto. Leroy had to leave for a party or something but kept doing the "just one more song" thing which was pretty fun. 

Finally he did pack up, and insisted, as in, if I didn't take the money he might actually get angry, in giving me my share of the tips - $3. I always got the impression that Leroy was not exactly raking it in, but thought he might actually be doing quite well and just really good at making it look like his busking income is very modest. I hope that's the case. 

So with maybe another 10 or 15 minutes' worth of goof-off playing with Leroy and Co., that brings my earnings up to $59.25. 

The ride home was uneventful because I just stayed on 1st street up to Brokaw and then to here. It's a longer ride but for some reason there's not the wind on 1st that there is on 10th so I can really fly along.

3-day weekend coming up

 62nd day sober. I got some decent practice in last night, listed Ebay things, and went to be around 7AM. Woke up a bit past 2. I got pretty solid sleep due to my being so tired, and had also practiced over an hour. 

I finished packing things and got out of here a bit past 5 with things for the post office. On the way there I noticed Tom was back and he saw me so I waved as I went by. I dropped the things off and stopped by the storage unit for a few things to list, then rode over to Tom's place. "How was Alaska?" I asked as I rode up. We talked for a while and I mentioned the "compensation" he'd brought up when we were talking over the Ring device. 

I'd taken $10, a $5 bill and $5 in change, with me with the plan in mind of getting a gyro at the falafel place but they'd been closed. So when Tom said "Will you take $50?" I said "Sure - I've even got change" so I got 3 $20's from him. We talked about things for a while, and I mentioned my plan to do my first busking since the shutdown. He hasn't been practicing but maybe my getting out there will inspire him. 

I finally said I had to go, and that I'll be by tomorrow, and took off. I got back to the shop and got the trumpet and my tip box together, and headed for Japantown. I'd planned to get a bento from this one place that I thought for the longest time only served ice cream, but when I got there it was kind of busy so I went down 4th street and stopped in at the La Victoria there and got a "super taco" for $5 which was just the right amount of food - enough to keep me from being hungry, but not enough to feel bloated. 

After eating I rode to Whole Foods, noting that downtown looked fairly busy, especially the San Pedro Square area. I locked the bike up at Whole Foods, picked my teeth and chewed sugarless gum until the flavor was gone, then set up to play. 

I played a lot of Saints and Amazing Grace, but did other things too. Some high school age kids were hanging around, just enjoying being out of the house it seemed, and after a couple of tips from a couple of them for "sounding good" one of the gaggle of them started singing some song I've heard before, that one that goes Kiss Me Once And Kiss Me Twice and something about it being a Long Long Time so I played a bit of that which impressed them. That led to another tip or two, and I asked if they play anything. One kid plays clarinet "A little" and another plays violin. 

A couple of them wanted me to play "Fly Me To The Moon" which I did, then explained that the song is actually titled "In Other Words", but the funniest thing is, tons of people *my* age love a band called The Who and there's a song by them everyone knows as "Teenage Wasteland" but the real title is "Baba O'Reily" and if you call it "Teenage Wasteland" to Who fans it really pisses 'em off. I'd seen it time and time again and it's really funny. 

Things felt a bit slow but I was getting a steady flow of $1's. An old lady had her family stop the car (the exit to the parking lot is right there) to put a tip in, and I played My Funny Valentine for a couple of Sikh guys who wanted to hear something "jazzy". All sorts of people tipped, including a bum who walked up and stashed his pack behind the stack of carts, gone in and shopped, then come out with a paper bag of groceries. 

All in all it was pretty good and I got to work on some songs, and my high notes didn't go away on me. I put in an hour, which I felt was enough. That hour earned me $26 consisting of one $5 and the rest $1's. I'd played the 8-9PM hour. 

I went into Whole Foods and couldn't think of a single thing I wanted to buy. The sardines in there I like have gone down in quality and are over $4 and no better than the $1.50 ones  from the Asian stores so those were out. I'm not eating beef or dairy so fancy cheeses are out. I finally ended up buying a 6-pack of Beck's non-alcoholic beer to try for about $8. 

I started the ride back and noticed it was very busy around San Pedro Square and also the Jesus freaks had taken over the intersection of Santa Clara and Market, yelling over megaphones etc. I thought about the old trumpet guy who always has a rabbit with him and thought, If he's still alive, he'll be playing at the Old Spaghetti Factory. So I doubled back and rode over there to check it out. He was not there. There was a bum a short way down with a bike and a lot of packages, selling something or who knows what, but not close enough to be a problem, and the usual space was open with no bums, beggars, artists, etc. 

So I set up and played a bit for old times' sake. It was so noisy there that only simple songs could cut through, and once I made $4, in a few minutes, to bring my night's earnings to $30, I packed up and left. 

I rode back here by taking Hedding to 10th and riding along that, avoiding the zombies on Commercial street which I'd have to ride up if I rode on 7th, but I still had to dodge two different zombies on bikes on 10th near the fire station and on Old Bayshore. The safest route is probably to take 1st up to Brokaw and then come in that way along Zanker. The zombies are certainly active - I stopped to look at an interesting pile of stuff (and what I thought was a Halliburton briefcase) by the side of Bayshore but it was all junque and the zombies in the zombie nest across the street started fighting loudly, probably over who would get to eat my brains. So I got out of there quick.