Lots of books

 I got 10 things ready to list last night and did a bunch of other things, and in the end didn't list them because one of the things turned out to have a part missing. Eh, I'll get 'em tomorrow. 

I got up in time to take two big bags of books I'd prepared last night, over to the used book store. I figured I might do well on these but I got $15, less then I thought I might get but they know better than I do what sells. 

I rode over to Whole Foods and got some chicken and veggies and seltzer water and then went over to the little free pantry in front of the Peace & Justice Center and put the leftover books in there, except for a few I want to read before passing them on. 

I decided to ride East on Santa Clara street and see what I find. I rode up as far as Kumar's Island Market where I looked around but didn't find anything I needed. The guy running it and I agreed that the mainland US is more expensive than the islands, but people on the islands are brainwashed to think it's the other way around. What a funny world it is. 

I retraced my route on Santa Clara, stopped at a little party shop for some balloons for a project, and Chaparral Market for a bottle of seltzer water and some of those mini M&M's and a bottle of 99% alcohol which I'd been told long ago they sell and they do. What the Mexican guys didn't tell me is how expensive it is - I believe they'd said it was $10 or maybe even $20 a bottle, of course this was in the before times. It turned out to be almost $30. But Ken had told me to get some and he'd pay me back. 

I even found a few more books on my ride home, stopping at Nijiya for some things. It was actually kind of nice and warm outside except for the cold wind, and once the sun got low it got just plain cold and I was happy to slog home against that cold wind. 

I got back around 7, and put things away and relaxed until 8, when a guy came by to pick up something he'd bought. So there was a happy customer. 

It looks like I'm keeping $125 out of this last paycheck in the bank, and have plenty of money on hand to spend. Plus I'd dropped off my April pledge at the temple first thing so that's a $30 bill taken care of. And my shopping's been done so I'm in great shape food-wise. And I've got enough cash in my wallet that I can shunt $40 of it into cash savings to tuck away - I can always get into it again if needed. 

I have to put more money into the bank each week because I've got to pay my taxes and that's always about $3k. So I have to make sure I have at a few hundred at least over that. Craig's List sales were supposed to make this easy but so far I've sold a grand total of $30 off of Craig's List since I sold the fancy flute that sold in days because I had it in just about new condition. 

Last night I practiced on the shakuhachi and worked on "Golden Chain". It really does require a lowered tsu note, and I worked on finding the right feel for "shading" the next hole down to get that half-step lowering. Rinban wants us to work on "Golden Chain" and work on it I will. The rest of the congregation has a distinct advantage as they'd have just about grown up singing it. So I'm listening to it daily, from a YouTube recording done by our own choir and I can even pick out Ben Yep's voice in there. I had fun at the choir practices but I quickly realized I can't afford to go to the actual performances.