I practiced a bit last night and all it told me is I need to be practicing for hours a day. At least I got to watch "Everest For Mountaineers" which is a good documentary on climbing Mt. Everest. A thing I have zero interest in doing but it's fun to watch others do it. They encountered unusual heat this year.
I listed 20 small things, packed 7, got up and exercised and had coffee and nuts, checked Ebay and one customer was livid that he got charged Ebay's sky-high shipping charge so I refunded him.
Then I checked my email; not a good idea before I've had my first mug of coffee. Apparently we've not paid September's rent, incurring about $400 in late fees and the ire or at least bewilderment of the building owner.
I tried calling Ken and couldn't raise him but I should see him tonight.
Half of this month is gone but this month is kind of important. For one thing, it will start the one-year countdown to leaving here that I've planned. Also, this month I do the final bit of one of my major preparations, at least the part that involves spending money.
I've got our cash flow back up, and it will take them months to rout us out of here if Ken's simply not paying rent any more. I have a lot of papers to get in order but if push comes to shove, I don't need a "real ID" until 2025 so I can flit out of here fairly quickly if things start turning bad a lot faster than they've already been turning bad.
I packed a big thing - really heavy - then tried to ship it and there was no way to ship it for less than $200. The guy's paid $50 for the thing and $50 for shipping. So I canceled it and refunded the guy and didn't re-list it, to part out later.
I then scrambled to get as many things packed as I could before I had to leave and left here with 10 packages. Off to the post office and then FedEx and the fried chicken I'd had yesterday was so good I got it again today, then went around finding packing stuff, boxes and foam.
I got back in here and among other things at least got the heavy things unpacked and put all my new largesse of packing stuff away, and got the heavy things out of its case (not easy) and then put a black bag over it and cleaned the place up for when Ken came over.
Ken gave me two checks to give to the lady coming over for the building owner, so Thursday's an "in" day probably, because I have to be around.
After Ken left (we'd had a good time, talking, and watched a Cody's Lab video on YouTube where he builds a Sprengel pump and uses it to evacuate a Crookes radiometer. Pretty interesting.)
When Ken left I cooked up a pork curry soup and then got down to taking the heavy thing apart. That took hours. So now I have parts to sell tomorrow because I'm not listing any tonight.
I thought about how I got into electronics. When I was a teen I really liked synthesizer music. There were some great musicians creating it in those days - my favorite was Isao Tomita but there were tons of others too. So I guess I had the vague idea that if I got into electronics that somehow that would enable me to get into synthesizers.
But not only did it take me years to get into any kind of work in electronics at all, but when I did it was by no means an entree into the music world. About the closest I got was, many years later, building one of the original Moog theremin kits. I actually thought it would be great to go busking with the thing, but then realized I'd need two AC cords to do so. I was familiar enough with farmer's markets and outdoor spaces in general by then to know how impractical that is.
That's what got me interested in an instrument that doesn't need electricity - kind of negating the reason to be involved with electronics at all. I also lost all interest in the theremin when I found that the very same sound is made by the erhu, a pretty simple instrument that the Chinese worked out quite a while ago with no electricity involved.
I just wish I'd learned a lot earlier about the shakuhachi and about simple 6-hole system flutes. I really like the idea of an instrument I can at least theoretically make myself, and I have in fact made a flute. That was the PVC one I made when I lived in Gilroy and was too broke to obtain anything else. It worked out really well considering it was my first try at making a flute. I could have figured out how to make them as a teenage for sure.
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