115th day sober. I practiced last night and despite the practice before, I still had to warm up and "break in" to playing the higher notes. Maybe it's just something people have to do.
The news about Afghanistan is constant, and what cracks me up is, after 20 years of this, now suddenly the people on the radio are pronouncing "Taliban" more properly, as opposed to the standard ignorant American Midwest pronunciation, sort of like how Americans say "EYE-ran" for Iran.
So now the Talibs are our buddies, and there are all kinds of signals being put out that we recognize them as a nation-state. And for them and the world, the lessons are clear: Just be stubborn and make life too uncomfortable for the American invaders, and sooner or later they'll lose interest and leave. It worked for the Vietnamese, and in fact it worked against the British when this lousy country was born. There was a bit on the radio about the Afghanistan embassy in Washington, which I'm sure will be flying the Taliban flag now and no one will bat an eye.
I woke up at almost 4. I had time to pack the things I'd rounded up last night, have coffee etc., and got going a little after 6. The post office drop-offs went fine, except as I was dropping it off, I noticed I'd put the label on a package going to Australia the wrong way around. It was a tube, and the way to do it is to put the label on in such a way that the barcode goes the long way. I'd put it on out of habit, how it would be oriented for a domestic label. But I think it will be OK.
On my way back I stopped at H Mart and got some things, and spent one of my $10 certificates. It turns out they don't give change for one "so you have to spend the whole thing". That was OK, I had cash too.
On the way back I saw something shiny in the grass across the street from Fry's and checked it out - it was a smartphone with a cracked screen but still working. Hm, I thought, and put it in the bike bag. Once back I checked and it's not an expensive phone at all, and I was able to figure out that it's on T-Mobile so I planned on taking it to the T-Mobile place just up the street from where I found it, and maybe they could get it back to its owner.
But a while later, the phone rang. It was some guy in Livermore, the phone's his friend's, and the guy asked if I was calling from Tracy. Nope, I said, San Jose, and the phone was found across the street from Fry's. There was a bit of hesitation while we both, I think, tried to figure out how get the phone to the guy, and he said the his friend is "kind of homeless". So I suggested I just mail it to him and got his address, and said it's a minor hobby of mine, returning stuff I find in the street. So I've got it all packed up and addressed, to go out with the next batch of packages.
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