Moneypox

 I got an hour and a half practice in last night and that's what counts. I'd not practiced for days. I went to sleep at 3AM and sure enough, was awake at 11AM. 

I lay in bed for a bit was awakened the rest of the way by what sounded like a guy applying for work next door at the cleaning place. Loud, basically gringo as hell. He went on and on, and I could not imagine them hiring him. I finally got up and put my bedding away and looked at the video camera; the guy was still doing the walk around and talk loudly into his cell phone routine. I'm sure you can get hired, dude, just maybe not next door. They are quiet and courteous and the only loud thing at times is their music, which is very happy and which I like. 

I read somewhere in the last couple of days that in flute playing, there's the "pressure system" where you use the pressure points of chin, base of left finger, base of right finger and right thumb, to hold the flute. And there's a balance system, where the flute just balances. Using more pressure has made the flute shift less in my grip, but a big factor is, I looked at my hands and the key system and realized all my left hand has to do is is the "home" keys for it and that little paddle thing. And for the right hand it's the same except there's a different little paddle and a couple little roller things, which since I have good pinky independence I'm sure I'll learn to handle. 

This means I can let my left hand be a bit more "under" the flute, and I can worry a bit less. I've played a bit of clarinet and there's a ton of crazy shit on those, and the sax is even worse. I'm glad I've decided reeds are disgusting. 

I practiced up through page 18 in the Wye book, and it went fairly well. Especially after not practicing for days. After practicing, I got the cornet out and put it through its paces. If I'm going to keep it fully ready to go, I need to get a 3C mouthpiece for it, as the 3B I have with it now sounds different from my usual sound, kind of stuffy and old-timey. 

I'm hanging onto the trumpet and cornet because I know I can go out and make money with them.

Monkey, er, Moneypox, as the BBC assured me it's called, repeatedly, doesn't seem to be blowing up the way covid did. The "Beeb" lady very clearly said "Moneypox" and I thought, Did I heard that? Then she said it the same way again. OK, then, with all the recession talk maybe she's right.

It's become warm enough that I put the sweatpants away last night and got out some "indoor" shorts. Well, they're actually undershorts I got at Muji and great for wearing around inside here. And got out the ol' Crocs. They're the ones for food service that don't have holes all over, but then I made a punch and put ventilation holes in the sides where there are outlines for them. So I can drop things on top and they'll just bounce off like small nuts and screws and so on, but the shoes can breathe. My old ersatz-"Uggs" will be retired to the dumpster and good riddance - there was something wrong with the right one, making my right pinky toe quite painful. It'll feel great putting the brand-new ones on when the weather turns cold again. 

I packed a dozen things - it would have been 13 but one was outside the US and there's no service that will ship anything there any more - and had so much time I left here an hour earlier than usual. The post office drop-off went OK although the chute was jammed again, so I grabbed one of those bins that are often lying around and put my packages in there and on the counter. 

I went over to 99 Ranch thinking I'll pick up some pate' and some sardines. They had the pate' and I got 3 cans but they didn't have the sardines I usually get there, "Tiny Tots". I rode over to H Mart to get TP and also some macadamia nuts, as they've got some that are expensive but taste good, and lately Whole Foods only has some that are expensive and also really stale. But the nuts and seeds and such things aren't being sold there any more I guess. I looked through the whole store and nope, all that stuff is gone. And the pate' is there for 80c less a can. I ended up getting the TP and a package of a couple of Anaheim peppers. 

I got back here, not finding any packing stuff at all, but finding two salvageable red bell peppers at the veggie place so those were today's freebee.