I practiced trumpet last night, using my new idea, "the song method" where I just worked on ... songs. It turns out "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is super easy to play and sounds nice. It went pretty well, I'd say. Since I've not played for so long my lips are not back in shape and I'd get a rough sound as they tired out.
But, interestingly, at the end of the practice session, a bit over an hour, I was trying to play that little bit with the high notes in "Feels So Good" by Chuck Mangione, when I got that rough sound, I tried my best to relax and repeated it, getting a smoother, and then a smooth, nice sound. Hm! I did it that way because that's how I did things like that when I was practicing the shakuhachi. Relax and try it again and do a few repeats. The result was the opposite of what I thought would happen, and before, I'd have just quit after trying it the first time and the notes coming out rough. I don't think the time playing shakuhachi has been time wasted at all.
I had grandiose plans today of taking a couple of things to FedEx downtown and going to Walmart, but those plans were far too aspirational for reality. I had quite a few things to pack and tomorrow's going to be a rain day. So with breaks for coffee, food, etc I packed those things.
And while going down the stairs from the loft, I fell, again. The problem is, at the bottom of the stairs there's stuff stacked up so coming down, you have to turn your leading foot inward for it to have a place to go, while you're descending the stairs with whatever you're carrying, in this case a somewhat heavy plastic tub. I went down, cussed the requisite amount, and may have fractured my little toe. It feels like I did; sharp pains.
I may need to tape it to the next toe and just take it easy on it. I need to move that crap away from the foot of the stairs as now I'm convinced it's dangerous. It's just another reason I hate working here. Ken has actually told me he loves his day job, and obviously he likes his surplus business as he's done it for many decades. That's what you get when you're middle-class, you get an occupation you don't hate. Even actually like. Being working-class, I can't conceive of having a job I don't hate.
That's the reassuring thing about picking up the trumpet again. I can make at least a sort of a living with it. For instance the $32 I made the other day. $30 a day is not a lot of money but it's pretty good for Silicon Valley. It's enough for a gym membership, a storage unit, keeping a bike or two rolling, good camping gear.
And in a year I'll have that precious little trickle of money, about a thousand a month, from Social Security. That will go about twice as far in Hawaii as here. I've already started to look at extended-stay hotels back home and that first month might cost me quite a bit but that should give me time to find a room or cottage or something to rent that's within my budget.
Then I'll pick up a trumpet on the local market and I'll have something I can "do". Having something you can "do" like you're a skilled bartender, or barber, or sign-painter, or musician, or tattoo artist, some portable skill that you can plug yourself in anywhere you go, is very nice. If it's a skill where you don't need a bar, or a barbershop or a tattoo studio but can set up anywhere, really on your own, is the best.
On the radio, that unimpeachable source of Truth, they said they finally got Tommy Tuba to lift his freeze (I have no idea how one right-wing extremist can have this much power) on military promotions. The Republicans hate the military, as, being the party of the rich, they look upon the military as "rabble". I think also a big factor is that their odious "Project 2025" is becoming pretty well known. It's stated in there that they intend to install Nazis into all key positions, in the military as well as government.
I just heard on the radio now, Biden saying if the Dump weren't running again he'd probably not run but as it is, we can't let the Dump win. I think Biden realizes that if the Nazis win not only is the US over with, but Biden, his family, friends, any associates, will be some of the first into the death camps. Hell the Dump was calling for the killing of one of loyal minions, Mike Pence, in the insurrection attempt and I think they'd have chopped his head off and stuck it on a flagpole and waved it around if they'd caught him. Things are that serious.
Ah, hopefully to be watching this all from a great distance, perhaps on a good old tube TV in a bar in Waikiki, or better yet on one in a sento in Hokkaido. It's not any secret what's coming; it's a pretty faithful replay of the early 1930s in Germany.
I packed 12 things, most of them for FedEx so they were large, and got going at about 4:30. All the drop-offs went fine, I bought some veggies in H Mart too. I went over to the chicken place and got my two thighs and ate them over at the tables. There was a guy fiddling around with, I could not tell, electrical stuff maybe. When I was done eating I got talking with him, his name is Miguel and he works for the California fish place, and used to play trumpet. So we had fun talking about trumpet things. I urged him to get a trumpet again and go back into it.
I found some packing stuff on the way home and mainly a big box that's just about perfect for shipping this one big thing I need to ship. With tomorrow being a rain day it probably won't go out but I'll see.
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