Monday, monday....

 I got back in yesterday and around 8-9 in the evening Ken came over to drop off 27 microscope illuminators (gee, thanks, I think...) and some other stuff to list on Ebay and he had time to drink some hot tea and we talked a bit. 

Once he'd left I took the meat I'd bought and cut it up and portioned it out and put it in the freezer, then just had a can of "white anchovies" in olive oil and some cheese and cucumber slices for dinner. 

Then I got to work listing the 10 things I'd prepped in the morning. I was falling asleep in my chair and had to push myself to do so. I hit the sack at 12:30AM and was asleep pretty much immediately. 

My "new" trumpet hasn't come out of the case. The new Blessing 3C mouthpiece is still sitting untouched, in the trumpet case. My sudden romance with Adam Rapa continues, though. I was into him years ago but since then he's put a ton more material on YouTube and it's tons of stuff I want to try. 

I woke up around 10, by noon was packing things to ship, and left here around 2. The $2 garage sale special Costco backpack turned out to be really handy, as I was able to put heavier things in it, as well as a sweatshirt and hat, some wet wipes, etc. 

I walked out to the light rail station and the train came in a few minutes. I ended up a in big conversation with a gal who'd been at the station with me and 2-3 other members of the underclass. Since they were the underclass, absolutely nothing was talked about that's even worth noting. 

I got off at St. James and walked over to the post office and dropped my packages off, and got on the train going the other way to Japantown. I walked up to Nijiya and got a couple of the large carrots that are used in curry, a couple boiled eggs, a small package of chicken karaage, and a can of coffee. By now the sun was starting to go down and it was cold outside, so I got the sweatshirt out and put it on, and ate and drank and people-watched at one of the tables outside. 

I walked back to the train station and rode (another episode of the Weird People Show) up to Tasman where I had to get off the "blue" train and get on a "green" one to go one more station to Baypointe, where I got off to get on the "orange" train to Hostetter. 

Then I walked over to Dai Thanh Market and got a bunch of things. Mainly a can of chicory coffee and a big bag of frozen shrimp but a few other things too. 

Then back on the train, got on a "blue" train at Baypointe and rode back to my "home" station and walked back in here. Now I was glad I'd brought a hat too, because it's pretty darned cold out there. 

I got back in here and sorted out the papers from today's packing session and did a "burn" which may have been a mistake. I prefer to burn papers when it's not quite dark, because once it's full-on dark the flame is a real zombie attractant. Sure enough, I'd lit the papers and a nice flame was going and I walked back in here and then heard a noise - a zombie on a bike was checking out the neat charcoal burner thing, with burning papers inside. 

I closed the door quickly, thinking Well, I'll have to buy a new burner now... then realized if the zombie shook the thing out to take off with the burner, there might be unburned papers which I'd better go out and get. I went back out and the zombie was gone. I took a couple of pieces of trash over to a box by the trash enclosure and the damned zombie was back now. I handed it a can of (made in China therefore questionable) smoked oysters I'd been tossing out, saying they're like smoked clams but taste better, then went over and got the burner with embers in it now, and took it back inside here. The zombie was saying now, "Hey mister.... Hey mister..." no doubt to beg for something and I didn't say a thing just went inside here, closed the door, and buttoned up for the night. Goddamn zombies, I hate the things. 

The charcoal burner had spilled surprisingly little ash on the floor as  I hustled it from the front door to the sink in the bathroom where I let it finish burning then washed the ashes down the drain. 

Dinner was what I call "shrimp boil" which means boiling some vegetables then when they're basically done, dumping in some "Louisiana Shrimp Boil" I got a bag of ages ago (it's lasting me forever) and shrimp, and as soon as the shrimp look barely done, putting that in a bowl with a good amount of butter and powdered garlic. The "boil" water then goes down the drain as the stuff's to boil things in, not a soup. 

I got 10 things ready to list, but then decided to call it quits. Except I didn't, because I got the new trumpet out. This thing really is very close to new, and I can't find a dent or ding on it anywhere. There was a big piece of fuzz or something in the leadpipe though and since I don't have a pull-through or a snake, I improvised using some gun cleaning stuff I had. I remembered that that's where I'd left off, deciding that there are better cleaning tools in a cheapo gun cleaning kit than you overpay for in a music store. 

I played a bunch of little things, some Christmas songs, with the intent to do some Christmas song busking for December, and also to do the things Adam Rapa says to do, low mouthpiece pressure, keep shoulders back, etc. 

What I did *not* do is a lot of the stupid drills I was getting all wound up in doing, before. Those were probably hurting more than helping, and as an argument towards this, when I was going to play flute I got into doing octave exercises on the headjoint along and it didn't take long for me to get so stiffened up that I was not able to do them. Adam Rapa seems to do either musical things or the kind of exercises that are not found in any book, like really extreme lip slurs, which are easy if you are following his advice. 

The conclusion is that the new trumpet plays fine, and I think I got a deal because the last time I bought a student trumpet from West Valley Music, it had been "loved" in that it had little dings everywhere, and it had cost just as much. The lady who owns the place would have charged me quite a bit more if she'd been there, but instead it was the nice Chinese gal. 

So I have a lot nicer, newer version of the same trumpet I did tons of busking with.