145th day sober. I got up at 2, and if in a real hurry would have been able to be out the door at 3, but I was out the door at 4 anyway.
I'd practiced last night and it went kind of Meh. I'm not sure if I was tired or what. This Meh practice would have been called a good one a month or two ago, though.
So I got out of here at 4, dropped a couple of things off at the post office downtown, and went over to Lee's to get what I could get for $5. That turned out to be a bargain bag of 3 pastries, two chicken wings, and a water. There was a guy sitting out front who'd just come there to sit down, and I asked him if he was hungry and he was, so I got out one of the pastries and gave it to him, which he thanked me for, but he didn't want the 2nd one I tried to give him.
I went to eat over at the shady benches at the college, and it was fun because the squirrels were out and I had fun beaning them on the nose with chunks of pastry, which they'd then grab and take away to eat. Those little guys are hilarious, and they sure love to wave their floofy tails around.
I got over to Whole Foods, used the loo, and started in playing right away. The "Give Us Money Which We May Or May Not Give A Penny Of To A Poor Child" booth was there but they packed up. It was 5:25 when I set up so maybe they were going to leave at 5:30 anyway.
My idea was, the mood changes once it's dark so I'd busk before it got dark and sketchy out there. But, I noticed that same disgusting zombie was around and said zombie even had the temerity to come by and say it liked the music. I think the reason why, last weekend, I made $80 on Friday but only barely $30 and $40 the next two days was, the zombie was going around hassling people. Hence two changes to how I'm going to do things: Playing earlier, before "zombie hours", and doing what I can to make the zombie unwelcome.
So I played along, not making much, and at one point three roughneck types stopped by and tipped a dollar and said they liked the music, and I said I might not be out there much any more because of that damned zombie (and pointed it out) and said said it'd be a good thing if the zombie got "the beatdown". I'm pretty sure the zombie overheard this, and it kept its distance more, after that.
And at one point the zombie ventured close enough for me to say to its face that he belongs 6 feet under and even deader than it already is, and I'd be happy to put it there.
Another rough type tipped some coins, and complimented my playing and again I said I might not be out there much any more because of the zombie, who hassles people who want to tip me and hence I'm making half what I usually do etc. and the guy said, "Oh, that's (female name)" and said maybe I could try the other corner and I said I'd been here first and it wouldn't matter as the damned zombie follows me around.
When the cop who does guard duty came around, at 7 I guess, I told him about the problem too, and he said, "Welcome to San Jose" and I laughed, but now he knows about the problem too and that the zombie was hassling people in their cars and may have been trying to get into any cars that were unlocked.
So I made it very clear that the zombie is not welcome. And tonight, the zombie did a fairly good job of keeping its distance, for a zombie. Even rotten brains can calculate some kind of basic self-preservation moves.
When 7:30 finally rolled around I was done, went into Whole Foods for a few things, and rode away from there. The zombie was up on the corner, having dragged a box of shit up to the corner for whatever reason, and was muttering to itself. The damned thing "lives" around there and has got that area to hassle people for crack money 24 hours a day, and I'm only there 2 hours a day, 3 days a week. So for those 2 hours a day out of 3 days of the week, if I can make "life" miserable for the zombie, I will.
But mainly I think playing and getting out of there before it's fully dark was a help. It was slow going at first, but in the end things went OK and I made $63.56.
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