On schedule

 315th day sober. I slept well on that 3 oz. of prosciutto and cucumbers, no wake-ups during the night. I mean, that's not that many calories, so what was I sleeping so well on? My body fat; it has to be. 

I went to bed at 10PM, and woke up at 8:30AM. So a good 10 hours of sleep. I'd gotten together a batch of things to list, some motors and stuff, but simply had no energy to work on them so I set them aside for later. 

Ideally I'd be going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8-9AM. 

I got an email from my aunt, and I wish I were better at debate, because I'd been trying to point out to her that her daughter, K., had actually done something for us, spending her "vacation" money feeding us like any decent human would have done, while all other relatives either did the equivalent of do-nothing "thoughts and prayers" or pretended we didn't exist. She'd said if she knew how poor and hungry we were she's have pulled K. right outta there (and left us to be hungry, not a thing for us just get her daughter out) and all I've succeeded in doing is gotten her to double down. 

She said she'd have had Mom put in jail which would have made it even worse for us. Her loyalty to her social class matters more than anything. In other words, in communicating with her, I am staring into the unblinking, cold, calculating eyes of a dire class enemy. 

She called me "broken" in the way a well-fed dowager will look at some hungry kids playing in the gutter and go "Tsk! Tisk! Why don't they they just go out and have some money?" 

I, in turn, called her a "Garfield-the-cat, fell-upward sort of person" so things are not going the greatest. 

I don't think she owes me anything, but it's been amazing to get to talk to someone who actually grew up with my Mom and to fill in some questions about that side of the family. Also, she's going to leave the pile of money and property she sits on, Smaug-like, to someone. So far I'm pretty sure it won't be me. Not at the rate things are going. 

It'll probably go to K. as her only child, and as for K. while I'm glad she looked out for us when she was a teen, there have been quite a few years of class-indoctrination between then and now. Even in the 90s when I got in contact with her, she wanted me to drop everything and come work for her, for free. That's a pre-French-Revolution level of callousness. 

I washed up and cleaned up and shaved and so on, and got out of here around 2 or 2:30. I went right over to Whole Foods to lock up the bike, and missed the train to Mountain View by a few minutes so I walked back from the station to Whole Foods and got some pulled pork and vegetables for a small meal, then walked up to CVS to buy some Febreze and wanted a diet soda or something. There was a big fat guy out front who was wearing colorful underwear *outside* his sweat pants and asking people for money. "I'll give you a dollar," I said, and he said something like "How about 2 dollars or 3?" and I said "Woops, I forgot I don't have any money on me" and went in. They were out of diet Pepsi and actually the cooler was half empty. 

I picked out two flavors of seltzer at a little over $2 a bottle, one for me and one for the guy. But when I tried to give it to him he said "I don't drink water! I don't want it!" so I just shrugged and walked away - back to Whole Foods to stash the stuff in the bike bag except the one bottle of seltzer for me to drink. It was pretty hot around the middle of the day. 

I only had to wait a few minutes for the train which was great. I got to Mountain View in plenty of time and chewed sugar free gum while walking around, looking at restaurant menus along Castro Street. Once my mouth was good and clean, I went into West Valley Music. 

I'd been thinking long and hard about how I'd spent so many years learning to play the trumpet and how long I'd been telling myself that once I could get to high C or play to a certain skill level, I'd get myself a really good trumpet. I'd settled on the Yamaha Bobby Shew model and read a ton about it vs. other horns. I knew from their web page that they had a used Wayne Bergeron model for sale, too, but for sure they'd have the Bobby Shew model, the most popular of Yamaha's pro trumpets. And I felt it would be the best fit for me, being designed to not need as much air volume as some others to play. 

So I went in and asked, and the owner was vague, I mean *really* vague, about when they'd get any in. At least with the flute I originally wanted, she had a date of "May". This time, she sounded like she wasn't sure she'd see any again at all. 

She wanted to show me the Wayne Bergeron but was having trouble finding it, but in the meantime the one horn they had that wasn't silver plated in the display case was a Yamaha Eric Miyashiro model so I asked to try that. It took tons more digging around for her to find a mouthpiece and she managed to dig up a very old Olds 3C, a Bach 5C, and some old Yamaha. I played around on that one and wasn't sure it was much better than my student horn. It *did* have some interesting features like finger rings instead of finger hooks and clicky brass valve guides. 

The owner kept digging around for the Bergeron and eventually found it. So I tried that one. I'd read that this took more air to play than the Shew, and I didn't think it would be "down my alley" but I really liked it. I could get really loud, and taper down to really quiet, and I thought it sounded really good. 

So much for which horn is supposed to fit me. According to my reading online, the Miyashiro model is supposed to be halfway between the Shew and the Bergeron, so the Shew would be really "stuffy" feeling to me, I think. I think it would be like the old King "Master" cornet I had that was a fine player; it's a well-regarded model, but not my preferred thing to play. 

So I walked out of there with the Bergeron, one of those K&M stands that are so handy, and a new Blessing 3C mouthpiece. And a cleaning kit. The horn has a few scratches but no dents, and the proper type of spit valves, although it could use new corks and I know just where to get those - Park Avenue Music when the tech is in. 

My thinking on all of this is, if I needed to get out there and earn money, I'm not ready yet on the flute or the shakuhachi. But I can with a trumpet. And I'd promised myself for years I'd get a good one once I was at a certain level, and the money I earned last summer tells me I'm at a fairly good level. 

But also, if a major seller of Yamaha instruments can't even get them in, how bad are the supply chains getting? And I do not expect them to get better. The US is getting closer to being on a "war footing" and it may become impossible to get anything not essential from Asia. 

As far as that goes, while I feel like my returning to Hawaii once I'm 62 will not be a problem, how much worse will things be in two more years? It may be difficult to travel anywhere by then. I may be here indefinitely and that will mean busking here also. 

The Bergeron came with this big 2-horn case (meant to hold a Bb and a C I believe) so it was easy to put the stand and cleaning kit in there, and no problem taking it on the train, but I had to get creative to carry it on my bike. It turned out to be carry-able using my two Whole Foods cloth bags, doubled up, and some zip ties to hang it off the handlebar. I had to ride home at a slow, measured pace but it was fairly easy. 

When I got back I saw that Ken had been by and had dropped off 10 test instruments, two of them rather nice oscilloscopes, so I have my Monday listing line-up all lined up for me.