Keeping on budget

 Last night I got 15 things listed, and did other various Ebay things. 

Finally I really didn't feel like practicing but in the end I did anyway and I'm really glad I did. That's the only way to get anywhere, regular practice. 

Ken was supposed to bring some things over so I wanted to get out of here. I woke up around 4 so I just made a coffee and got things together (a bag of trash) and got out of here a bit after 5. 

My first stop (after dropping off the trash) was Nijiya where I got a sort of cold noodle salad thing and a near-beer. It was really hot outside. I ate out front, then checked the little free libraries on my way downtown. I got a couple interesting fiction paperbacks and a big book on learning French by "The Capretz Method". 

I actually looked over the French book (it's big and heavy) and didn't take it  on my way out. I went over to Wal-Mart and got odds and ends, the most interesting "feature" of this trip being a crazy guy hanging around in front of Big-5 yelling, alternately, "BITCH!" and "HAAAAAAAAH!". As I was in the checkout at Wal's, I saw they had little bags of Werther's Originals for $1. On reddit they're always joking about how the old folks are always getting out the Werther's for you and I'm old now so I figured, why not? Maybe the guy's having a lot blood sugar episode due to undiagnosed diabetes. 

So I walked back to the bike with my stuff and he was still there, yelling. I tossed him the candies, which he took but I guess that wasn't all of the problem as he just kept up with his routine. 

On my ride back I was thinking about the French book ... if any book's going to teach me French, this one will. It's set up in little lessons where you read some stuff in French and if you can't understand it, tough tittie. But it's easy stuff to start out. And any fairly educated English speaker will know more French than they know they do. 

I decided, riding back, that I was going to get onto 5th street and follow it even as it weaves through the college campus. This was kind of fun, plus I found a big pile of boxes and tubs of stuff just left out. I went right to work on that. I took out things any passer-by, bum or not, might want like bottles of water and Capri Suns. I took out a big box of "Pop Weaver" microwave popcorn for Ken and his family. And I got a lot of keychains to stick on Ebay. So that was good. 

I continued following 5th along until I got back to the little free library where the French book was and it was still there so I picked it up and rode on home. 

I've done pretty well, budget-wise. I have about $14 cash on hand and about $14 left in what I'll allow myself to spend out of my bank account, to still save $100 out of this last paycheck. And the last paycheck, I saved $97 of.