Read a good book

 I got out all three flutes (my fancy sterling one, the one I just bought, and the shinobue) and had "great fun" playing octave exercises last night. It's equally difficult on all three. I need to get a lot more diligent about practice, because I need to get out there busking. 

The internet is dying and as I've said, it may not be around in 10 years. I just need things to hold together for the next couple of years, but the decay is becoming hard to ignore. I'd just about given up on video. Or, for example, these days in my old neighborhood in Sunnyvale, along El Camino Real, there's an REI and a Dick's Sporting Goods sort of across the street from each other. I'd like to check them out. 

So I went on the web page for Dick's, with the idea of looking at their knives and multi-tools. You can verify that they *have* knives and multi-tools, and even get an idea of what brands they stock, as these things are all text. But pictures would probably take an hour or more to load. So the internet is more of a combined Yellow Pages and Thomas Guide. You can see what's in your town, their hours and where they are, and you may learn a bit about brands and services offered, just like in the old Yellow Pages. But for things the internet is supposed to be good for, like pictures, ehhh ... that's going away. 

Amazon still works well enough, and Ebay still works well enough and that's what I'm hoping will hold together for the next few years. In the meantime, I'm getting back into books. 

The Little Free Libraries are an amazingly good source of them. Last night I read "The Red Pony" by Steinbeck, a book I've read a couple of times over the years, decades ago. But I only remembered bits of it. And I'm about halfway through "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George. It's great if you're interested in falcons and falconry.

Not being able to view video on the internet will take an adjustment, though, because I'd gotten in the habit of putting on a video that's an hour, and practicing during it and thus knowing I'd put in an hour. I'll have to forget about that, because it's gotten to the point where it takes forever to find something interesting in YouTube's ever-decreasing catalogue, and then getting it to actually play. 

The shinobue I ordered (through Amazon) from Mejiro in Japan has arrived at Ken's house, so Ken will bring it over mid-week. I'll probably get the bike tire then too. And I already picked up the Victorinox rescue knife. Those things represent well over $300, and add in my monthly pledge to the temple and call it $400. So I'm surprised, pleasantly, to see that I'll be saving $100 in the bank out of this week's pay check. 

I really need to get out there. One thing I've found is that playing outside Whole Foods markets can work out well, and contrary to what I felt was good etiquette, playing for "terraces" or gatherings of diners at outdoor tables, can work great. It does in Sunnyvale, although on Murphy Street there it's possible to play while not being too close, so people who don't like it can tune it out, but those who do, on their way out, can tip. So, markets and terraces, check. 

Mountain View has terraces also, and I'm sure the people there would rather hear something rather than that ear-pain saxophonist. "Red", the flute player, used to in fact have a steady gig playing outside the little Chinese bakery and said they actually paid him. 

I finally got going at almost 7, and rode for downtown. I rode by Nijiya and noticed they were open, and got a package of fried fish for about $6.50. I ate that at one of the tables there, while last minute shoppers dashed in and out and they closed up. 

I went around the corner to the little free library and put in 12 pounds of rice I'd weighed out in 1-lb bags, plus a large jar of "chili crisp" to make the rice taste good. I checked the other libraries for books and found nothing I wanted. 

The sidewalks were very busy around the convention center because there's an anime convention in town. I went into the "SOFA Market" to use the bathroom, then rode down to Wal-Mart. I had just under $50 in cash on me and spent around $40 of it on things like rubbing alcohol, paper towels, canned fish and meat, and so on. I even got a bottle of HEET methanol to use for dissolving lacquer for working on flutes. 

Riding back, I thought about the fact that I could allow myself to spend just a bit over $10 more out of my bank account and still save $100 this week, and how, if I detoured over to Whole Foods, I could get cheese and stuff and not feel any need to ride downtown again until mid-late next week. 

So I rode over to Whole Foods and did that, and observed how busy or un-busy it was, it now being after 8 in the evening which is the equivalent of being after 10 or 11 anywhere else. It was not that busy, although a busker might do OK. Sometimes the tips get better this late at night... 

I rode home going through San Pedro Square to see what's up there. Loud Band was playing, and what appeared to be a busker with amps and at least one guitar and a mic and so on, packing up. He had some comedy routine playing through the speaker, with the comedian saying he liked to listen to the "raunchy" records to hear the bad words, and I said "Yeah, we used to listen to this Cheech & Chong routine called 'Earache My Eye'", and the guy said, "That's old school!". Other than Loud Band and him, I didn't see any other buskers, or beggars, or crazies, etc. 

The ride home was nice and peaceful and the wind had even died down.