Conspiracy Thursday

 103rd day sober. Last night I did a load of laundry, gave myself a haircut, packed things to take to the PO today, etc. 

So ... Dear Old Biden (DOB?) has urged OPEC to pump more oil to keep prices down. I can just see it: 

Biden: OPEC, I really want you guys to pump more oil, I don't want to be the $5 gas president. 

Opec: Well, we can do that but what are you gonna do for us? 

B: What if I get our troops out of Afghanistan? I give 'em the word, they sneak off like thieves into the night, before anyone knows what's going on, they're outta there. 

O: That would work fine for us. Deal.

This stuff just writes itself. 

Anyway I was up at 3, did some practice last night and the high notes are coming back but in a weird way. Almost like I have more strength than I need but difficulty controlling it. All I can do is practice, practice, practice. The average trumpet player starts in 7th grade, right when I was supposed to start, and that makes it 5 years of, if they're to be a trumpeter, of diligent practice then they go into a college program which is 4-5 years, then into, say, one of the military bands. 

I took off for downtown just a bit after 4, dropped off packages at the downtown post office, and went over to the bank - the IRS cashed my check so I know that got to 'em OK. 

Then I went over to Lee's and got two egg rolls and a pate chaud and a bottle of water because I'd forgotten to refill the one I carry with me. I ate over at the college, sitting on one of the benches on this one walkway that's really shady and has squirrels for entertainment. 

Done eating I went over to Whole Foods and parked the bike and went over to the hardware store to get some of those things you use to fasten a mirror to the wall. The mirror in the shop bathroom is pretty large and is held up by only three of the things. 

Then I went to the drug store but didn't see anything I had a crying need for. One interesting thing, though, is that they had isopropyl alcohol and ethanol types of "rubbing alcohol" so ... in other words ... you can go to CVS and buy 140-proof white lightning if that's your thing. 

I walked back to Whole Foods and had an iced coffee and read The Metro and chewed gum and oiled the trumpet valves and set up to play - it was 6:20. 

It really dragged, too, or it felt like it to me. I was still having a real problem with a rough tone and I just figured I'll keep the volume low and try to work on a nice tone, and things just sort of went along. After an hour I'd made maybe $10, if that. As I got into the second hour, something happened. Somehow, my "old" better tone came out and the trumpet stopped making a random popping sound at times, and I could push things without my tone going to hell. 

I really liked this, and was playing along, the Black guy with the big motorcycle came by and I played Amazing Grace for him and Saints which he liked too, and a gal came up and started talking about busking and stuff ... she's seen busking violinists, she said, and I told her about my starting to learn violin and learning just how stubby my fingers are, while for trumpet they're fine, and she and I both love a YouTube channel called Two Set Violin (they're funny guys) and the long and short of it was that she's curious about playing a brass instrument. 

So I told her about renting, and about neat instruments like the French horn; how high school students tend to all start out on trumpet then some move to the French horn, and with her background in piano and classical it'd be a good match. I told her Park Avenue Music can rent her any of the brass instruments, and that she should go ahead and give it a try. I also told her my schedule so she can find me, and that we ought to have a sort of "brass family" to encourage each other. I said even having someone on French horn who can play this backing line for St James Infirmary would sound awesome, and demonstrated it (it's 2 notes) and then played a nice lugubrious version of St James which made someone turn around and drop a tip. So that was fun and who knows, maybe I'll see her again and she'll rent a trumpet or a French horn and it'll develop into something. 

I got back to playing and my bad tone was pretty much gone. I'm convinced now there was some kind of crud in the trumpet that was messing things up. 

The 2nd hour went better, with my tone better and one of the guys who works upstairs in the brewery/bar came up and said he didn't know I play and do I play any Herb Alpert stuff, and I said my dad bought all of his albums as they came out, and told him how Alpert got started and how he's the A in A&M records, and recorded Rise to rescue A&M records from bankruptcy etc. He was really impressed. Personally, I think it's weird enough that someone my age has decided Herb Alpert is cool, but this guy's probably half my age. 

I finished at 8:30, figuring I'd used up 10 minutes easily talking with the gal, and had made $51.05 so it wasn't as poopy as things felt. All in all it's a fairly effort-free $50 to have made, as I really should be practicing 2 hours a day anyway, and I get to meet people, and I think tonight I saw the fattest guy ever so far, so I crowned a champ of overweightness at least who can still walk. There might have to be a separate class for fatties who can't. And the sunset was pretty nice too. 

I passed through San Pedro Square on my way back and it was pretty dead for foot traffic. I think Leroy may have given up on it and found somewhere else, and I hope he's found a better place because with his backing tracks, he sounds really good.