Chairs

 349th day sober. I got 15 things listed last night and got some practice in. My lips feel thicker and tougher somehow. I've complained in the past about them chapping or getting a peeled place, but if I play very much and consistently, they seem to have none of these problems. I had trouble playing anything above the staff though so maybe that's due to how much more I've been playing. 

I also am going to try moving my schedule to going to the bank on Friday instead of Thursday, so at least in theory I'm done with shipping once I've taken whatever things I've packed to to take to the downtown post office, then it's just go to the bank and then go busking. Busking would be Friday-Saturday-Sunday. 

I've ordered the "beginner" Cichowitz flow studies book which was about $16. There are different ones, and one of them which is just Volume I, is going for $60 and up. The one I'm getting has some of the more basic stuff I think, and is a standard Hal Leonard book - those can be relied upon to be reasonably priced, clearly printed, and no in some weird size or format. 

I've also sent off an email to the "Best Damn Trumpet Swab" guy for instructions to order one of his swabs. I'd given my away when I sold a horn quite a while back, and admitted to him that my own efforts toward making swabs has been "meh" at best. He said he himself lost one of his early, hand-sewn, ones in a dark orchestra pit after using it for 6 years. These are *not* something you just order off of Woodwind Brasswind. No, no siree. You have to be a real insider to even know about 'em. 

Today I got about 10 things packed and took off at the usual time. I did the post office drop-off then before heading over to FedEx I stopped at Kingwuu which is a weird Chinese place that specializes in things that are cooked and chilled and all ready to go in plastic boxes. Most of the stuff is pretty strange like duck heads. But they had a beef shank thing I wanted to try so I did. It came to $13, but frankly it was pretty good - slices of beef shank that was almost like roast beef with spices like 5-spice and star anise. It was 6 oz. so it came out to 4 oz. of meat for me and 2 oz. of gristle I saved for the birds. 

I dropped off the one FedEx package at FedEx and then looked in their dumpster in back in case there was anything good like small boxes or foamcore. There wasn't, and I got yelled at, I think, out of the horribly crackly speaker in back. Like, what the hell? I'm usually really quick in and out of there and I was yelled at so quickly they'd have to have someone sitting by a video screen just waiting for someone to "loiter" there. I wonder if they've been having a problem because there are certainly bums who hang around back there. 

Then I went to the storage place to check out the 3rd storage space, the one I don't think I've been to at all. The code let me in, but when I found it the key didn't work. So I'll have to ask Ken about that. I decided to visit the first-floor one that I always carry a key to, and found out what happens if I'm not coded in for that unit - an alarm goes off. It stopped as soon as I shut the door and locked it up again, and I got out of there. 

I only found a little packing stuff but I found a really neat chair that seemed to be of good quality and looked like new. And it fit right on the bike trailer. So I rode home with this chair on the trailer which must have looked pretty funny. I did a bit of research on it and I should be able to get a hundred for it on Craig's List. There's a running joke on r/cripplingalcoholism on Reddit - they say "chairs" instead of "cheers". This one would make a nice "loft chair" if I were doing any work up there but it gets too hot in the summer and the rest of the time it's always too cold in the evening.