As much of a day off as I get, anyway.
I practiced last night, some shinobue and some shakuhachi. I'm getting pretty decent on "Golden Chain" except for my crappy beginner tone, of course.
Someone's got a nice bamboo shakuhachi on Craig's List right now for $450 and I'd really be tempted except I don't have the money and I've already got 2 Shakuhachi Yuu's plus probably going to have three Aulos shinobue's to transport in my checked bag back to Hawaii, plus my three silver flutes that will go in my carry-on bag.
I slept in until 4, and had a weird dream about ... Chet Baker. Like, knowing him and living around him as a regular guy like he's a regular neighbor who's always on my porch borrowing things or just hanging out. It was weird. Especially as the real-life Chet Baker was a druggie who'd steal anything not nailed down to buy his dope.
Part of the dream was my taking my own trumpet out and playing along with a band but not on the bandstand with them but off to the side, and my finding that as long as I played softly, somehow my fingers would move automatically and make the music come out with no wrong notes.
In real life, not only was Chet Baker a druggie and a thief, but that's only how music works when you've put in a ton of hard work at it, like hours and hours a day, for years.
This is why I keep telling my Oahu friend that my aim, once back in Hawaii, is to live doing as little documented work as possible, and probably to collect social security right away. I'd rather "work the system" getting food stamps and scrounging and playing street music and getting my fishing and foraging in, than work anything like a job which would take up tons of my time and limit me to practicing/playing only about an hour a day as I'm limited to now.
I left here at about 5, maybe a bit after, and rode up to 99 Ranch. First I got a couple of tea eggs and a can of black coffee and had that, then went inside and managed to spend about $35.50 of the $36 I had on me. I got all kinds of neat stuff though.
I stopped by Tom's on the way back and he wasn't there but Rob, one of his hangers-on was there, and Colin, the other hanger-on, the one with a speech impediment who's heading up to the Pacific Northwest "As soon as I can get a thousand dollars" he said. He gets Disability, works a bit for Tom, and earns a bit running errands for the bums on Crack Alley down the road, so he'll have it fairly soon.
I talked with Colin for a bit and whatever canned things Tom doesn't want, he likes, so I said Great I'll just bring it all over. Except the stale old cobwebby brown rice - no one wants that.
At least now Tom knows about his one dumpster that is great for collecting fruits and veggies especially it seems on the weekends and I'd told him about the bell peppers that were there and he'd gotten some. If he's going to be vegetarian and not spend on food, he's going to need fresh veggies.
I was going to go to a thing today, actually, that's over in Cupertino. It's really bad timing that they timed it for "tax weekend" and in the end I didn't go. For some reason my complexion has several blemishes on it right now, I need a haircut and a good scrub and clean clothes, and since "there's never a second chance to make a first impression" I decided not to go.
I'm worried about finances too. Ken didn't pay me last week so theoretically he'll pay me for last week and this coming one on Wednesday. Hopefully he'll be over his bladder infection and dehydration by then and all better and back to work.
When things collapse, they tend to do so "slowly at first, then all at once". I can probably earn enough to live on and keep a storage unit, sleep at Tom's, just by playing trumpet. But it would take the landlord probably 90 days to kick us out of here, plus they'd want to stall on it in case Ken finds a way to keep paid up or his wife Suzy does.
Plus if everything melted down here like gasoline hitting a Styrofoam cup, I could buy a new (used) laptop and use the internet up at the FedEx place ($35 a month or so to have a sort of "business presence" there) and I'd be out from under the non-compete condition I'm under with Ken right now. That means I could start up on Ebay again on my own and all the cool shit I find that goes into Ken's Ebay listings would go into my own.
Although, blasting out the pops on the trumpet involves no inventory, no shipping, etc yadda yadda and probably pays as well as an Ebay business would. This is a major thing with Ebay and online selling in general. You get to *handle* a lot of money, you're not necessarily *making* a lot.
I just need things to hold together for the next year and 2/3rds.
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