So went Monday

 I woke up at a decent time, had practiced some octaves with the flute assembled the night before and ... sounded like crap really. 

I'm beginning to think the octaves exercises are either too hard for a beginner, too "tightening" on the embouchure, or something. 

Yesterday / last night I listed 20 things on Ebay, packing about 10, and moving a bunch of stuff around to have a dedicated shelf area for motors, and finally getting the place all cleaned up for Ken to arrive. I finally called Ken around 11:30 and he's back from Italy but "jet lagged" and will come by Wednesday. At least they're back safely! I'll have to ask him about any election hype he saw - Italy's back to being Fascist for now. The average length of an Italian government is about 2 years so it's not as bad as it sounds? 

I made and ate a nice big curry and that nixed practice because then I felt bloated, a bit headache-y, plus I didn't want a curry-flavored flute. So I went to bed. 

I woke up at about 11AM after some weird dreams. My new, earlier, schedule is beginning to stick. 

I packed a few more things and rounded up some stuff to donate and headed out at 4. I dropped the donations off at the little free library in Japantown, and found some interesting books in the regular three of them I check. I dropped off the packages at the post office then rode over to the used book store and looked around. They still don't have squat for flute books but then I have all the flute books I need. I have the one series 1-4 that's based on playing popular tunes, and I have the first Trevor Wye beginner book. If I can work through the two Wye beginner books and the series of 4 based on popular tunes, that will be good progress for the next two years so no more flute books for me. 

I looked at the Vonnegut books and there's one that's kind of interesting; it's a bunch of quotes from his stuff called "Kurt Vonnegut In America" I think. I looked at the wall of DVDs and found the Ken Burns set, "The War" about WWII and it was only about $9. I'd been able to watch, sort of, the first episode that ends with the war starting and that was it - like all Ken Burns stuff it was good so I figure this set which is 6 or 8 DVD's, is a winner. At the check out I told the gal how YouTube is becoming just about unviewable these days and she agreed. 

I went back to Whole Foods and got some chicken wings and since they didn't have any near-beer, got one of those big cans of Foster's. The can can be made into a camping stove, and maybe I'll do that, I thought. I went upstairs and had my chicken wings and about half of the Foster's, the rest going into a planter downstairs. It was ... OK. 

I would say I am less sensitive to any euphoric effects of beer but much more sensitive to the smell and taste of the alcohol in it and it's not pleasant. I could actually smell the alcohol on my own breath. I felt dozy and a little bit euphoric but in a doped up way, and after rinsing the beer can out and putting it in the bike bag I craved a coffee so I went and got a can of black coffee and hung out with the petition-botherers by the bike racks while I tried to get through the coffee. 

I walked up to the hardware store and got some Simple Green and some stuff that's purported to do something for toilet bowl rings, and some free samples of some other stuff that's purported to do something for toilet bowl rings. Then hopped on the bike and headed over to Lee's Sandwiches where I got a couple bags of day-old croissants for $3, stopped by TAK Market for near-beer, and rode home. 

While riding, I thought about how that Foster's was really not cheap at all, as not only was it almost $3 but so was the coffee I needed after it. When I eat chicken wings, I want something to compliment them, and I thought, what if I got something pickle-y from the salad part of the food bar? I could get olives, pickles, that sort of thing and that would work as well or better than beer to go with chicken wings. That would go for the greasy meatballs I get sometimes too. 

I got back here and went right back out to the "bountiful" dumpster where I got some salt water chlorination things that look interesting and went back out for some tomato boxes and that's it for the night.