So much for the book hustle

 I practiced last night, working on "Sakura" on the shinobue and the usual things on the shakuhachi. Then the deep breathing involved made me sleepy as usual and I went to bed. 

I got up around 2. I woke up about 3 times to pee so near-beer, even without alcohol, has something in it that makes a person have to pee a lot. 

I had two bags of books to take to the used book store. Last time I'd gotten maybe $12 I think, but this time would be better, I was sure. This time I'd get at least $15, maybe $20, and perhaps more than that. I got $6. 

$6! I could make that much going and and playing one of my flutes, even if I sound like crap, in an hour or less. And it's a lot less hauling heavy things around. Plus my back hurts like hell and lifting heavy bags of books sure didn't help. 

So I am quitting the book hustle. I'll still pick up books I want to read and put back, and even then I've got several to read right now. 

I took the $6 and the bags of unsold books and dropped them off in front of the "Mexican" library because someone will want them. I headed over to Central Cash & Carry because I wanted to look around in there but they were closed and had signs up saying they're closed and moving to a new location. 

I turned around and went to Walmart, locking my bike up at the Big-5 as usual. I had $26 to spend and I think I spent it pretty wisely, on paper towels, sardines, Parmesan cheese, and some kind of giant Slim Jim that was $3. It all came to $21 and change, plus I found a bit over a dollar in change in the Coinstar, although no silver and the only interesting coin being a British 5 Pence. 

I was both hungry and thirsty and headed back to Japantown which was hopping. No festival or activity going on either, there were just a lot of people and a lot of kids. Lots of kids is a good thing for a busker. If I were just a bit more practiced-up, I could play a few songs on the shinobue (which can be heard across the street) and I might have made "bank". 

I went into Nijiya and got a Coke Zero and some fried octopus, which was OK. The little guys actually had a nice texture. Then I looked around a little, and then sat on a bench has finished the Coke Zero and had the Slim Jim. I'd have been better off just having that, without spending $6 on the octopus. 

It was really nice, seeing all the people around, and I had a nice time talking with a young couple who had a small kid when I was sharing a table with them. I told them about some good places to go for take-out food and mochi/manju, and a bit of the history of the place like when the Japanese had come, how they'd been treated when WWII started, and how almost none of them got their land back, like the people who started Santo Market. 

On my way out, I'd heard what sounded like taiko drums and a shinobue being played by the temple, so on my way back I looked around but didn't see anything. I asked some people sitting by the front of the temple gym if they knew anything, and they didn't but they were curious about the shakuhachi so I told them how to get started on that. We had a good old time talking. 

Now it really was time to get back here so I did. The reason I wanted to charge out and do things today is, the book store is open on Saturday but not Sunday for book-buying. And Central Cash & Carry is closed on Sundays. 

I'm not doing any more book selling, and Central Cash & Carry is surely moving further out from downtown where it will be cheaper for them. I might check out a place called Evershing Trading that's not about to move so I want to check them out now. 

Since it's supposed to rain on Monday or Tuesday, which might linger into Wednesday, I kind of want to (although my back sure doesn't want to!) go out tomorrow to check out Marukai Market and also if I can get going early enough, the Cupertino cherry blossom festival. 

In other news, Craig's List has become an utter cesspool. It's hard as hell to get to to show the things other than the "weekend newspaper supplement thrown on the floor" appearance, and when I finally figured that out, I found idiotic things like garage sales from a month ago (I was searching "bamboo flute"). 

It's no wonder nothing's selling. Since I've sold a total of $30 out of all the things I've listed on Craig's List, I might bother to keep renewing the ads or I might just decide it's not even worth that minimal amount of time and delete the remaining listings and give away the stuff. 

Given I've made $30 over a month of listing on Craig's List, I can simply go out busking with a flute or two and come out far ahead. 

Fortunately of the things I still have on there, none of them cost me anything. Of the things I want to list that I've not listed yet, that I actually paid money for, I'm pretty sure I can sell those things to Ken over the next year and two-thirds. Between him and his daughter, they'll want the things which consist of guns, knives, tools, and a scanner radio. And I'll have a ton of stuff to simply give away of course.