I practiced last night, lots of long tones. I got to sleep, hoping I'd wake up in time to get out of here before Ken comes by, and I actually had time to have coffee and nuts and clear out my bagged-up bubble wrap etc. area in the loft so Ken can get to the shelves he puts his personal stuff on.
His plan was to come over with a trailer full of stuff from the storage unit and move things around so he can pay for one less unit, maybe going from three down to two. And put the extra stuff in here.
I was headed out when Ken came roaring up in his truck with trailer, and I said I was off, had to meet a friend etc., and left.
My first stop was in Japantown. To "Ukulele Source" more precisely. The idea here is that shakuhachi practice has so far not yielded much that's very musical for me, but it has strengthened my breathing and actually helped my singing quite a bit, the tiny amount I experiment with it. I've been considering busking by singing for quite a while now, especially as I like to think up funny songs. Since I am dead-set against anything that requires electricity, backing tracks and a mic are right out. But a uke and voice could work just fine.
Since I didn't want to spend money at the evil Guitar Center, I wanted to get out of here in time to hit up Ukulele Source which closes at 5. I wanted a banjo uke because (a) they're cool, (b) they put out a fair amount of volume and (c) I'd actually taught myself the "George Formby" stroke years ago and am sure I can learn it again. If I'm to be out there singing, I'm really going to want something I can do to give my voice a rest between songs. Since I've never, ever, seen anyone use that technique in real life, it could be a real crowd pleaser.
Of course I talked and joked around with the nice old guy who's the owner of Ukulele Source. I said I hope that by buying this uke, I'll magically end up with extra time to practice it. The only way this might actually, magically, happen, is if I find playing the uke and singing to be more fun than practicing the shakuhachi which I do out of duty these days, and because it's more fun, I find myself doing it more.
After once hearing about "the guy who plays ukulele who's here later in the evening" at Whole Foods from that one lady, and inquiring of others who all swear he does not exist, maybe I will become that guy. After all, I'd swear there were people who confused me with Trumpet Rabbit Guy because he played trumpet and I played trumpet.
They had two banjo ukes there at Ukulele Source, a hideous plastic thing called a "Gem", and a Kala that actually looked like a solid instrument and had better be, as it cost more then twice as much. Both sounded about the same, both are rather heavy - the nice guy at Ukulele Source cautioned me that the Kala is heavy, but I weighed both in my hands and said the "Gem" is heavy also.
So I paid for my new uke, put it in its case and on my back and off I rode. I stopped at Nijiya for a small bag of peanuts and cash back, then went down to Walmart and got my flu shot and bought some small routine things.
Now, the thing with Ken is, when he comes over to work on things, I ended up "drafted", working for the day and I'm working more hours than I'm paid for as it is. So I thought up some more things to do.... I stopped at the Amazon place for bubble mailers, at the exercise equipment at St. James Park for, well, some exercises, then rode up Hedding to Oakland Road and on up to 99 Ranch for a thing and some more cash back, and got some tea eggs and ate those at one of the tables outside.
Next I rode to H Mart and locked the bike, and walked over to Sprouts for macadamia nuts, then bounced back to H Mart for some beef and more of those little cucumbers which are something like 65c a lb right now.Cucumber slices are my version of potato chips.
Now I really was done, and had done all this with the uke in its case, on my back. (I did take it off, and my shirt, for the flu shot.) I rode back here wondering what kind of to-do Ken might have going, but I got back and he was gone.
I eventually raised him on the phone because I wanted him to know it's going to rain tomorrow, in case he has anything in the trailer or at his house that's uncovered. He says everything's OK in that area, and he's coming by tomorrow again to do more re-arranging in here. I told him how I'd done a weekend's worth of errands today and how, if he's going to come back over, I might take the book I'm trying to read and go read it at the casino.
I'm glad I got ahold of him because of planning like this, what to do with this huge space heater that's appeared in the office, what to do with a big clunky piece of test equipment and the plug-in that goes with it (sell the plug-in, take the bigger piece apart and sell the pieces) etc.
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