114th day sober. I practiced last night and, frustrated with my difficulty above the staff, concentrated on that and ... ended up playing up high amazingly well - better than any time in the past when I'd felt frustrated about this and worked on it.
The other exciting thing last night was, the people next door have this Honda sedan parked in front, that's been there a while. I heard noises out front and looked at the camera view and it was comical. There were two guys in a black sedan with a Sawzall, one was being a lookout and had a hood on, the other a hoodie with the hood up and a mask. They were acting like stereotypical thieves, looking back and forth, everything about their body language showing they're up to no good. They finally got the thing, one of them dramatically left a Sawzall blade next to the car, and they took off. I'm surprised one of the security guys didn't come by but I think they had some accomplice distracting them somehow.
I have to be surprised how well I did this last weekend considering how much covid is in the news. To follow the model of the 1918 flu, the US needs to have 2 million deaths and I think we're gonna make it - we're back to our previous worst levels and it's only growing. It's like the powers-that-be want it to spread anyway, with even The Metro, a fairly leftist paper, running full page ads urging people to go out and go to restaurants and gatherings.
Yet, there's the booster shot thing now. So maybe it's some kind of weird morality test, where if you're smart enough to get your shoots and a booster, you're much less likely to get seriously ill or spread the virus to your circle of people, while for instance in the Southern states, bastions of stupidity, the virus is running rampant.
I packed some things and headed to the post office at the usual time, a bit after 6. As I was getting ready to leave, one of the guys next door was out there with his truck and I tried to tell him they took the catalytic converter out of the car, but I don't think he understood me. Oh, well, they'll find out.
I dropped off the things at the post office, then went over to 99 Ranch. I was hungry so first I went over to the dim sum area where there were a few things left, and got noodles, fried whitebait, some pork, with more noodles inbetween and noodles on top. They only charged me $4 for this and asked if I wanted to take more, but I said I was fine. I'd brought $4 in dimes but had forgotten to bring the bag in, so I just paid with regular money.
This worked out well because there was a crazy guy going through the trash cans and ranting as a million miles an hour, about how this needs a microwave and blah blah blah just crazy talk, while I walked around back to sit at the curb and enjoy my goodies. Mr. Crazy came around and in his constant stream-of-consciousness muttered something about something to eat, and I ignored him. When I was done eating and had left the pork gristle out for the crows, I walked back to the bike and got the dimes. Then I walked down to where the crazy guy now was, further along in the line of trash cans he was going through, and handed him the dimes. "There's $4 in there" I said, and he was really happy, Gonna get some chow fun, chow fun, maybe some lettuce from Iceland and corn from Norway, or some such meanderings.
I went into Paris Baguette figuring I'd get a croissant and once I'd decided which one I wanted, took some paper towel off of the roll of brown paper towel that was there, then picked out exactly the one I wanted without touching anything else, and went up to pay. I got hassled for not using the (sticky) trays, and the tongs (which everyone else has touched and likely didn't get cleaned any more often than the trays) and when that was done with, ate at a table outside (also likely only cleaned by the wind and the birds) and the croissant was OK. That's my assessment of that place: the pastries are OK and the cleanliness Meh at best. The croissants are better at Lee's anyway.
I wandered around in 99 Ranch but didn't find anything to buy. Ultimately I got a 2-liter each of diet 7-Up and Coke Zero and that was my shopping trip.
On the way back I stopped at Tom's to hang out for a bit, and told him about my $180+ weekend, and he'd not sold any wood at all, and I said he could probably hustle his little figurines just about anywhere up in the City, where it's only a big hassle to sell or busk at the very most primo spots at Fisherman's Wharf. He could sell his wares where the cable cars turn around and even if there's a musician there, he'd not interfere with them.
Tom ought to do something he's happy doing, and while I think his selling techniques were more cynical than I'd ever do, he was happy selling his figurines. I told him about the ins and outs of picking shells in Hawaii and how it can pay but between taking the bus to the good shell beaches and all the time gathering them, cleaning and sorting and so on, it can be a lot of work. Meanwhile all I have to do is play my trumpet for a couple of hours...
No comments:
Post a Comment