New trumpet gig bag

 I probably woke up around 1 in the afternoon. 

Not only did I practice some trumpet, but I made the mistake of looking up "how to make a shell trumpet that can play a scale" on Google with the result that the first site I checked out gave me a weird virus thing that kept popping up this little window, it was annoying as hell. It turns out all I had to do was clear my browser data and that just required digging around in my browser's controls to find out where that was hidden - the online tutorials were all for Google Chrome which I don't use. They all do the same things, there are just different layouts. 

After that was gone, I was still not inclined to use my card online, so once I was awake and had a handle on things, I called West Valley Music about trumpet gig bags. It sounded like they had the one I don't want, but a number of others also, and they suggested I just come down there and I said that's a good idea.

I packed this one thing that has to go out today, and walked out to the light rail. I made what was probably not the best decision, in that I decided I'd get off at Santa Clara and get on a #22 bus which would drop me off right by the FedEx on the Alameda. 

I had to wait a while at the Santa Clara and 1st bus stop, while all kinds of buses that were not the #22 went by. Finally, a 64b I think it was, stopped and I told the driver I'm just going to get on for one stop - this because something like the World's Smelliest Bum was lingering around, dancing in front of the bus, just in generally stinking up the place. The guy reeked so much that even though it was a cool, breezy day, the stink was horrible. 

So I hopped on and the next stop was the one right in front of my bank. And no bum. It took a while for a #22 to show up but one did, and I got off 3-4 stops down at the FedEx and dropped the package off. 

Then I waited more, for another #22 to take to the music store. That went OK other than it just being a long ride of about an hour, and Lo and behold, because West Valley has lessons, they have a bathroom. 

It was the usual tag-teaming situation where the lady I'd talked to on the phone was not the same as the lady I dealt with, who was the nice Chinese gal who plays violin and piano. She got out the various cases, a couple of Protecs and a "Max" all of 'em big. Then one shaped a bit like a "torpedo" case that turned out to be a Protec that's not as Protec-tive as the ones I've typically used in the past. And are probably overkill, I'd decided. That case and a snake cost me $65 and the case has the usual excellent workmanship Protec is known for. 

I grabbed my case and headed back out for the bus, and a #22 showed up pretty quickly, nice on this cold night. It looked like I'd get to a meeting I wanted to make, on time. I got off at the meeting place and went in, and I was just the right amount of early as the meeting started at 7:30. I got some useful bits of information, and someone else there "is" a trumpet player as in they used to play, and really lit up when I described the situation at West Valley and how they have a lot of "pristine" instruments in stock right now. 

The meeting was done at 9, I got out of there at about a quarter after, and went over to Whole Foods thinking I'd get something to eat but there was nothing that appealed to me at all and I got a "triple latte" in a can that I'd had before. Very rich and creamy and has caffeine. 

I walked over to the Diridon light rail station hoping I hadn't missed the last train or something, and a train showed up right away. I tried the latte which foamed up like crazy so I had to kind of huff it in to keep it from making a mess. Pretty good though. 

I got off at my station and went to the gas station to see what they had. Their beef jerky was very expensive, but somehow I was able to get a couple of "Monster" Slim Jims for not much more than Walmart charges for them. The convenience store was full of prostitutes and "tough guys" buying 3-packs of micheladas, which is beer with tomato juice in it, kinda gross. 

The walk back here wasn't too bad, I think I'm getting used to walking a lot.