Danny Boy

 I took apart a piece of equipment that was DOA so now I have some pretty decent parts to list on Ebay. I practiced shakuhachi and shinobue both, and was happy to find that playing "Danny Boy" isn't hard on the shinobue at all. I'm greatly heartened by this, as it's such an excellent busking song, flute is a traditional instrument for it, and it's quite acceptable, even preferred, for it to have a "rustic" sound to it. 

If I can come up with a handful of tunes, say Amazing Grace, Danny Boy, Aura Lee, Nori No Miyama just to mix it up, a few others, I might actually think about doing some busking this weekend. 

That was last night. I woke up at 3. I had my usual coffee and a Lipovitan and aspirin, and packed all the things that were paid for and could be shipped. The drop-off at the post office went fine and so did the one at FedEx, and I checked behind H Mart for any "specials" - today's was 11 packages of 3 packs each of toasted seaweed with grape seed oil. I love that stuff! That's about $60 worth. 

I stopped by the EMT training place and got some finger cots, and checked the Hyndai dumpster and wow, they'd thrown out tons and tons of manuals. 

I hurried back with my stuff, dropped it off, and went back with two large boxes and filled 'em up, came back here to drop those off, and went back with one large box and also had noticed the boxes the manuals were there, flattened out but easily taped back up. I ended up with a huge, heavy load but avoided a 3rd trip. 

On my way back with this huge load I stopped by Tom's to drop off some fresh broccoli and a pair of shorts that might fit Tom. I have a bag of shorts that someone had laundered, folded neatly, then left by the dumpster on the other side of this complex months and months ago. Among others I had three pairs of Quicksilver shorts made of the same stuff as sweat pants, labeled Small but a bit big on me, and might fit Tom just fine. So I'm giving Tom, or Colin if Tom doesn't want them, the grey pair. 

Colin was there and I think Tom was too but he didn't come out. I asked Colin how the trip to the gym yesterday had gone and he said, "I got clean" - Tom just uses the gym to shower occasionally. I joshed that the mean ol' brandy bottle might have gotten Tom again, and as I write I'm thinking this might be why Tom likes to have Colin around, as Colin doesn't drink. 

I got back here, put my haul away, had something to eat, and cleaned the place up for Ken's visit. Ken was right on time, and I helped him unload things. Ken's legs are still wobbly and I'm walking funny due to my sore back, what a pair we make. 

Ken brought in a ton of stuff to list and I showed him all the manuals I'd picked up and how I'd re-arranged the office although frankly it was hard to notice with my pile of boxes of manuals and the stuff brought in to list. 

Ken and I hung out and talked about the usual things, and I showed him 3 equipment cases I'd been trying to sell on Craig's List and said he could have all three for $100 and he didn't say a word, just wrote out another check. 

Ken says he thinks the problem with his legs might be long covid, as he'd had covid. I'd forgotten he'd tested positive, felt lousy, and taken a week or two off, back there somewhere in these strange new times. In my own case I've not gotten so much as a sniffle for three years, have had 5 covid shots, and have no idea if I've had covid which I could have had, asymptomatically. I'm pretty sure I'm either one of those people who can get covid and not even notice, or I've been extremely lucky and just not gotten it. 

But if Ken's got long covid, that could throw a new wrinkle into things. Probably accelerate his schedule to take it easy and retire. But then, with my own schedule under two years and shrinking, there's less and less that can happen with Ken to influence my own plans.