I was up pretty "late" into the early morning, and could not get motivated to practice. I need to have my practice during the day when I can really concentrate and have other things I don't care so much about - like my actual paying work - get done when my ability to concentrate is less.
I slept until about 8AM and decided I needed more sleep so went back to sleep for a good while and looked at the clock - 8AM again. The clock needs a new battery. It was 1:30 or so.
Ken's probably leaving Italy about now - he'd have seen at least the final run-up to the election there and maybe seen the announcement of the first Fascist leader since Mussolini. As I type, exit polls say Meloni, the Fascist, has won.
Meloni, what a name. It reminds me of the movie Back To School, where one generation of the guy's family says something like "Keep your chin up, you're a Melone" and the next one is "Don't forget, you're a Melon".
I really need to get geared up to get out there playing the flute. As I've mentioned, I've got two different flute method books. I've got the Wye beginner book, the first one, and then I've got a series of 4 that have an opposite approach, that of getting the student playing well-known, popular tunes as soon as possible. The Wye book has the student playing lots of exercises and unfamiliar tunes, I think to force the student to read the music and count things off.
I appreciate the Wye approach, as there are probably far too many lazy players like myself, who will hear a thing and then just play it, without looking at the printed music. But at the same time, it's hard to maintain interest if you're playing obscure things from the 15th century.
One thing for sure; if I'm going to get out this "holiday" season that's coming up, I need to learn a bunch of Christmas carols and a handful of other things like Danny Boy.
I got going for downtown at about 4. First thing, I dropped off a big can of corned beef hash and a couple of books at the little free library in Japantown. It's pretty active, as the stuff I left yesterday was gone, along with a lot of things someone else had left.
Next I rode for downtown, intending to check out the "SoFa" street fair music thing, but on the way over decided I'd have a slice of pizza at Pizza My Heart. I pointed out what might have been the lone slice of their poshest pie, as it was $6-something but it was sure good. It was kind of neat looking at all the pictures of surfers on the walls too - a lot of them names I'd known in my teens and a few were even people we'd known in person and it was nice remembering all the old beaches too.
I rode/walked through the street fair and it was OK I guess. There were three different bands, all spaced apart fairly well, food trucks, and booths with various arts and crafts things.
I rode down to Walmart because I wanted to get some diet 7-Up so when Ken comes over I'll have it for him to drink. They in fact did, in both cans and bottles. I got a 12-pack of cans and a few other things.
After checking out, I heard the unmistakable sound of someone putting coins in the Coinstar. I hung around the Lotto machine and got talking with the sisters(?), Pakistani I think, who were putting a big ol' jar of coins through the machine. Explained how I'm a coin collector, said I'll buy any oddball coins ... they didn't have many at all. Out of a big plastic jar, they had one zinc penny that was all corroded, a car wash token, and a dime - "This one won't go," one of them said, and they handed it to me. "This is what I look for," I said, and handed her a $1 bill. It's a nice 1954 silver Roosevelt dime. The car wash token went back into the jar for next time.
I rode home, in no hurry, and even for a time trailed a large family on bikes going quite slowly. It was nice, warm but not hot, and not too windy. I stopped to check out a bag of stuff left out on 3rd and it was a lot of groceries. There was good stuff like a big jar of peanut butter, instant udon noodles, etc. I decided to keep three "Tasty Bite" type packages of Indian food and put the rest out on the curb so it's easy to see what's there. Up at the corner I saw a down-and-out sort of guy with a scooter and a cardboard box on the scooter, smoking a cigarette. I told him about the food about halfway down the block, back the way I came, and he was glad to hear about it.
Then on 10th, there was a car stopped and a gal out of it, in the middle of one lane. I thought she might need a push and stopped to help. What had actually happened is her phone and all of her cards had fallen out of her car somehow (how does that even happen?). She'd had some gal on a bike yell to her, "your cards have fallen out!" or something and she'd stopped right away, and was hunting around for her stuff. She'd found it all except for her EBT card. This woman was stout, tattooed, and her T-shirt was rather filthy. Her little boy was with her too. I helped her look but the EBT card seemed to be gone for good - she thinks the gal on the bike took it.
As I rode off, I thought, first, how can someone use a stranger's EBT card without their PIN number? And why would a gal on a bike take just the EBT card? Why not just take it all? Scoop it up and sort it out once she's safely away. And how do your phone and all your cards fall out of your car anyway? If it was all a ruse to get someone to feel sorry for her and flip her some money then it all makes sense, but I only had about $3 on me.
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