323rd day sober. I woke up at about 8AM then went back to sleep until a bit after 10. I did the usual eating breakfast and futzing around and left here a bit after 1 I think.
I dropped off packages of OTC medicines and band-aids at the little free libraries, which were all cleaned out by someone. So there were no books to find.
Next I went to Whole Foods to lock the bike up and looked at the time. I actually had plenty of time before the next train and there was no one there. No beggars, petition hustlers, anyone. So I set up and played for maybe 20-25 minutes, making $18.
I got on the train and went up to Palo Alto, and walked over to the Whole Foods there. It's not really that busking-friendly, as the sidewalk around it is narrow, plus there was hardly anyone going in and out. There was a busker there, too. A black guy with an acoustic guitar and a microphone and amp, so he could get neat bluesy sounds out of it. I didn't want to step on his toes.
I walked back to Lytton Park and set up where I was on the sidewalk not quite in the park, sort of next to the park, a bit back from the corner. I actually did all right, making $16 in the half hour or so I played there. I might have done better if I were out *on* the corner. I finally quit when a black street bum with the "unique" skill of making popping sounds with his mouth, decided to start hanging around.
I walked up University Avenue to see what's changed. One of the drug stores is closed but still has a "resident" bum sitting on the bench in front of it, asking people for spare change. The other drug store is next door to the Apple Store, and out in front of the Apple Store was a place I wanted to try. So I tried.
I got nothing there. So much for buyers of Apple stuff being generous. I thought about it and thought, Well, when I buy something expensive I want to "trim my sails" a bit afterward. So much for the Apple people.
I walked back toward the train station and stopped at a sushi place for a sashimi salad. It tasted good, had tons of veggies, and made me non-hungry without feeling "full".
I got on the train and my next stop was Sunnyvale. The Whole Foods there is part of the new part of downtown that seems to be scaled for giants. It's roughly where the Target, or the old Target, used to be. The sidewalk by the entryway is wide, and there's the AMC theatre next door, and the new Target on the other side. So there were people walking around.
It worked out pretty well. Plus there were lots of little kids to play for and I like to think the parents seeing their kids utterly fascinated and refusing to leave until I quit playing or their parents pull them away, might think about getting their kids an instrument. I don't think I played much more than a half hour, but I got to talk to some nice people and made $16.
The reason I didn't play there longer was, I wanted to play in the downtown-downtown, the old downtown on Murphy Street. But when I got there again I wandered around and there were not enough people walking around and the people there, were eating outdoors, and in busking you don't want to force people to hear you - someone sitting down eating can't just move on. So that was out. And I missed a train so I wandered around a good deal. I found some neat cutting board things in Goodwill so there was that.
I got the next train and was back at Diridon Station in a jiff. I noticed as I walked to Whole Foods that it had become cold and windy. As I walked up to the bike racks I saw the petition guy was there, getting his ass kicked by the wind. His papers were fluttering everywhere. He was also in a heated argument with a guy, a white guy this time. Also the cargo bike guy was there and I said Hi and that I think I'd seen him a week or two ago but we determined that he was probably another guy with a similar bike.
I mentioned in confidence that the petition guy's in *another* argument tonight, and the cargo bike guy said he doesn't even talk to him any more. Then some idiots in the parking lot started honking their horns at each other and so I got *my* horn out thinking I'd send some noise right back, but by the time I had it out and the mouthpiece in, the offending cars had left.
But the argument was still going strong so I decided to play a bit to drown it out. I actually earned $7 fairly fast too. But then the argument ended, and I played on for a while with no tips. Eventually my hands were freezing and it was just too bloody cold so I called it quits.
I'd actually earned $56 today, even with all the hopping around. And I now know of another good busking location, the Sunnyvale Whole Foods.
I did all this to avoid being roped into more work by Ken, who said he'd come by this weekend but when I got back here I saw no sign that he'd been by.
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