Half-step bends

 Woke up around 9 I guess, stayed in bed until a bit past 10, it's 11 now. Last night I watched YouTube stuff and eventually the beer wore off. It was a carb-heavy meal I had too, with eating maybe 1/4 of the rice along with the sashimi, plus the bag of little corn/cheese chips that looked cute and frankly tasted pretty good. Plus whatever carbs are in an Imperial pint of beer. 

Around 1AM I felt a bit more normal again and did some re-arranging in the shop so I can have the trumpet on its stand with a cloth bag over it as dust cover, easier to pick up and play. And play I eventually did, for around an hour. 

My hero, Adam Rapa, talks about doing bends 1/2 note down and being able to do them on all notes, indistinguishable from playing 1/2 note down with the valves. It's not easy for someone who's not used to it! He says it's one of the exercises he was taught to do from early on (and the guy's only been playing since he was 8 or so, been in color guards and done it all). He says these days he doesn't do it lots but it's one of the "basic food groups" of his practice. He actually terms it that way. 

So I did a bit of that, plus played some songs. I'm sure the neighbor living in the unit next door appreciated hearing "Feliz Navidad" at 2AM. 

I went to sleep with a smile on my face because this half-note bend thing is just the kind of thing I need to do to get better, and Christmas songs are going well. 

I didn't wake up with one, though, because my headache is bad. I'm kind of allowed to feel like crap I guess because of that first shingles shot and also I did some leg exercises I need to make a part of my routine like I did years ago but unfamiliar exercises always add some recovery-load to the body. 

One interesting thing is, when I was done at the pharmacy, I decided to look for glucose tablets to see what they had. They don't have blood glucose meters, I'd concluded, but they ought to have some sugar pills. And along with the glucose tablets I found that they have tons of different meters and strips. The Walmart "Relion" brand are rumored to be quite good. 

So now I have a choice. I can order an A1C test from "Own Your Labs" and go over to a Labcorp clinic and get blood drawn, and that will tell me my A1C right from the horse's mouth. Or I can get a meter and do a classic glucose bolus test which is the gold standard for testing blood sugar regulation, plus I can test at other times. I could always do both, of course. 

The other thing is I think I'm going to quit eating sesame seeds as part of my coffee 'n' nuts routine. I'm eating 2 oz. of them a day, sometimes 3. That's just .... a statistical outlier. Nobody normal, at least not in this country, eats that many. It might be akin to the situation with Newman's Own black licorice. Fine if you have a standard serving. If you're inclined to eat the whole bag at a go as I am, you're gonna HURT. 

I could just fry a couple of eggs in the morning or have my macadamia nuts and some natto. I was into eating natto for a while and got to like it. It goes down nicely with some hot green tea. 

I packed just two things, to go to FedEx. Actually I packed a third, but it's going in the US mail tomorrow. I took off at 2, dropped the things off at FedEx, did my route looking for boxes and such, found a few, swung by the place near Tom's that throws out boxes on Tuesdays but I was too early, and then hung out with Tom for a bit. 

His truck is still in Reno. I brought him up to date on my latest busking adventures, and suggested he try getting an electric bike. James has not been around and I suspect is no longer all that welcome. That was about it, and I rode home by way of Junction Avenue. 

This was a good move because the guy who drums over on a side street off of Zanker, is now by the storage unit at the tail end of Junction. That guy *can* drum. I'm pretty sure he was playing a Rush piece. 

I got back, dropped off the trailer and stuff, and headed back out. I locked the bike at H Mart and checked out their hot food; I was actually very hungry. I got some cooked marinated beef and begged some chopsticks from the lunch counter and ate it out front. 

Then  I walked over to Ross and found a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt. The line was huge so I talked quite a bit with this Chinese lady about the best chocolate (Lindt) and how See's is right up there too. And other things but it passed the time. Paid for my stuff and went over to Sprouts. 

At Sprouts I got my macadamia nuts and a small tub of L-Arginine powder. That left me with a bunch of change and a single dollar bill. I walked back to H Mart and got a couple of packages of natto and some cucumbers, and there went the change, and now I just have a dollar bill unless I want to get into my cash-stash. Which I don't. 

I was cold now and dark and I rode back. This is kind of nice, getting out and getting things done in the middle of the day. 

I got back and eventually got into the L-Arginine. The suggested dose is 6 grams a day but I'm going to approach that cautiously. It doesn't taste good but it's not horribly awful and washes down fine with coffee.