Another good investment

 I managed to get 10 things listed on Ebay last night, and amongst other things got tired enough, and noticed it was 7AM, so I went to bed. 

I woke up a bit past 2, had coffee and nuts etc., and stacked up the books I'd cleaned up, removed tags and stickers etc. from last night, and other than a brief stop to throw some trash into the secret trash can, went right over to the used book store. I handed the books off and looked around, and didn't find much. The guy told me they were worth $17 in trade, so I looked around and picked out a copy of Japanese For Busy People (it's actually used in a local Japanese class) for $8 and had the rest put on my card. So I've got almost $22 in credit with them now. 

I rode over to Lee's Sandwiches and got a chicken skewer which turned out to be $5. As I locked my bike up out front, a cracked-out zombess was staggering around asking for "a dollar for a bowl of noodles". More like a cup'O'crack, but I had a dollar and handed it off as I'd anticipated this sort of thing, and she went to hustling everyone else around for her cup'O'crack. I didn't stick around but packed the chicken skewer away and got out of there. I stopped by the little free library/pantry on 7th and put the books I didn't want in there (I'm keeping a few to put on Ebay) and then went over to my favorite bench on the campus and ate my chicken skewer while being entertained by the squirrels. 

Then I rode down to Wal-Mart. I had a good look around and got all kinds of canned fish and meat, couple cans of olives, etc. It all came to $46 and change and that's where the last $45 in $1's from busking went - a solid investment, I think. 

I pulled out my wad of 45 $1's to pay, and the guy behind me, a real wag, said something like "That's from your job when you said 'Make it rain' right?" and I said something like, "In fact, I got this playing trumpet for tips, and thanks to the spit valve, 'Make it rain' was definitely part of my act." He got a real laugh out of that, "You got me good!" 

I checked the little libraries on my way back and scored a like-new copy of The Martian. I've heard the book's better than the movie and who has the money for movies these days, or wants to sit in a theatre and huff other people's germs? I also found, on DVD, "September Dawn" which is probably pretty good and is about Mormons being Mormons, in this case massecre'ing a lot of non-Mormons and blaming it on the Indians. 

I took a side-trip on my way back here, overshooting here and taking a look at the dumpster where the fiber optic cables came from, to see if Saturday was a work day for them - it's not. In the veggie dumpster I found a head of frilly lettuce so I took that. 

On the way to Wal-Mart and back I'd gone through the area that's the "SubZero Festival" which is a sort of supercharged First Friday. Lots and lots of booths with what I'd very much call "wants not needs". Things really made to appeal to not the merely frivolous-minded but those truly with more "mad money" than common sense. 

It was really nice outside though. Not windy, overcast to cloudy, and thus cool and comfortable if a bit damp. Now that I have The Martian if it actually rains tonight and into tomorrow I can be very happy at home, in bed, reading.  

I've spent all but about $135 of this last paycheck. I not only spent at least $40 with JLSmith/Flute World, but took care of my $30 monthly pledge to the temple this week. And have spent some money getting started on my preparations for the move back home. I've been doing a pretty good job of saving half of each pay check, but I'm going to change the balance now, saving 1/3 or a bit less each month in the bank. And I also really really need to get out there busking, for the numbers vs. time to work out the way I'd like.