bye bye books

 112th day sober.  I'd practiced last night before bed, mostly doing the long tone routine, plus some exercises out of the Rubank book and a few songs. 

I woke up at about 20 to 4, and had some coffee and aspirin and got out the door at almost a quarter after 4. I had to ride into a pretty strong headwind all the way to the Recycle Book Store, but I got there in time, and handed over my set of "Buddha" by Osamu Tezuka. I got $26 in trade credit which sounds low but I know there's a glut of such things on the market. 

Once done there, I went over to Whole Foods and got some hot bar food and a near-beer, and ate up in the balcony area. It was pretty nice, and most of the smoke was out of the air today. There's some sort of carnival with rides set up in the parking lot of the SAP Center, I think the same one that normally sets up on Park Avenue but Park Avenue is a construction site these days. 

I had two guys who work at Whole Foods up in the balcony ask me if I'm playing today and saying they're really happy I'm doing so. And a cashier downstairs also. 

I started playing at 6:10, and only played Amazing Grace a few times tonight. I played a lot of other things. I'm noticing my tone getting better, although at the end of the 2 hours I was starting to sound tired. But I kept going the full 2 hours, thinking even a poopy day, being out there and putting in the time is the right thing to do. 

I was kind of surprised when I'd decided that one more tip and I was outta there, got a $5 from a taciturn guy (those are in a way the best, because taciturn guys really mean it), played the Lawrence Welk "Goodnight" song, and packed up and was counting up and knew I had at least $55. It turns out I'd actually made $69.06. 

I took a quick ride around downtown, got a bunch of bubble mailers at the Amazon place, and rode on home. 

So yesterday was the really poopy day. And that might have been because I was worried about that guy who paid me $10 to *not* play Amazing Grace. He was a yuppie type, and that so often means a psycho. But as far as I know he didn't come around today. And maybe he saw, yesterday, how a lady had me place Beautiful Dreamer "into" her cell phone. I guess she wanted a recording for some reason, and gave me a $5 tip. Why not just shoot video like most people do I don't know, but I really get a lot of positivity out there. 

So my total for this week is a little over $186. This busking thing is working out pretty well so far, especially for a thing that's really just training for when I'm to be a busker back home.