A/B testing

 I went to sleep, good and tired, at midnight. I'd watched one episode of the 1990s movie "The Stand" which was actually kind of good. I mean it's Stephen King, not fine literature here. 

I also did some A/B testing between my regular and "enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu. The regular one, with the wood stain outside and painted red inside, doesn't just look like a hunk of plastic these days. The idea being, of course, that with it looking at least a bit like a bamboo flute, I'd go out busking with it. I was planning to put some bindings on it also - not necessary at all but for decoration. 

My conclusion is that I like the "enhanced" one a lot better and I don't think the regular one was harmed much by my painting the bore, but that they're very different from each other and it's hard to go from one to the other. And I would not go busking with the one I decorated to go busking with. 

I'm only taking ONE with me to Hawaii and it's not going to be the un-enhanced one. I actually want to buy this carbon fiber one made/endorsed by Daisuke Kaminaga which is about $200, apparently better than the Yuu, and "the closest thing to an Aireed-X without the price". But I want to hold off until I'm back in Hawaii. My little 28-liter backpack has to hold everything I take with me, after all. 

(And I just read something about Alaska Airlines, the one I plan to fly with, being described as "Hunger Games for carry-on baggage". This seems to apply to overhead bins, as the space under one's seat is still pretty much one's property. But at least I'll have 3 flutes in the bag and will be a Musician complete with union card so I think I can get by just fine. Plus I'm not taking a trumpet with me, even I'm to be a trumpet player who plays a bit of shakuhachi for the breathing exercise. I'll either leave my trumpet here for Ken to mail to me once I'm settled in, or I'll sell it and just get another when I'm back in Hawaii.)

I woke up around 7, and checked my blood pressure. Still high but the lowest reading so far. 

The thing now is to figure out how best to order my day as a person who's back on a normal schedule, up at 7 or 8 in the morning and doing their work during the day. 

By noon I'd prepared 10 things to list on Ebay and was heading out the door with one box to go to FedEx that wasn't too large to easily carry. The walk was pretty pleasant, I saw some mushrooms and general Nature stuff and found 4 packages of "Airheads" candy which is gummy strips. I figured Tom would appreciate them - $8 or $10 worth of candy. 

When I walked past Tom's, though, his new truck wasn't there so I kept going and left the Airheads by the little trail that homeless people use to go to their camps along Coyote Creek. 

I went to Ross first and found two T-shirts, then to Sprouts and got my macadamia nuts. Then I went over to FedEx and dropped the box off, and got beef and pork and veggies and stuff at H-Mart. Then on my way back I got some eggs and a can each of sardines and "white" anchovies at Sprouts again. 

The walk back was fine but those bags of groceries got pretty heavy. I remembered now how I'd have my messenger bag and put the heavy things in it, then any hand-carried bags would be made as light as possible. I think tomorrow I'll use the neat CostCo backpack I'd picked up at that garage sale for $2, that I thought I might use if I had jury duty. 

On the way back I looked at Tom's place again .... truck still gone but there was Tom. I turned and walked over, calling out to him "Where's your truck?"  We hung out and talked and fed peanuts to the crows and eventually it came out that he'd gone to Reno, to a place called Circus Circus, to see the trapeze act but then been too late to see it, so he'd just spent the night and taken his truck to a place to have a camper put on and then the truck ... died. It's been close to two weeks now, and they still haven't found the problem. 

So Tom got a rental car and came back here, and when his truck is done he'll rent a car again and go get it. Also because of befriending James and thus taking on James' blood feud with that one business owner, making it now James' and Tom's feud, Tom now has to have an architect inspect and sign off on things that have been done to his building. 

While we sat and talked, periodically, some different instance of bum life went by. A guy with another guy on the back. A couple riding close to each other, bickering. Just assorted scraggly individuals, and eventually James, on a bike, riding with another guy on a bike. James called out that his chain was too short, to Tom. Tom said his grinder isn't working, and I said you really need a special tool, to take it to a bike shop like Bike Express on 4th and William. I mentioned this shop because they're likely to charge little to nothing. The pair rode on. 

Not long after this, a minivan pulled up and Tom had a customer, for some wood and maybe some shelves. So I set off for the rest of my walk home. 

I got a couple heads of lettuce from the veggie dumpster and got back here. Whew!