But a COLD one. After doing a bunch of things, most notably getting some things ready to photo which took time, because they needed cleaning, boxes fixed up, new box for one, etc. I actually did some practice and then went to bed.
I woke up a bit after 2, maybe 2:30. I really didn't feel like going out and thought out the different scenarios (like if I didn't go downtown today, I'd have to pack and ship things today) and factored in that I've always been happy with myself when I got my banking done on Thursday, and got cleaned up and fresh clothes and all that, and headed out.
It's cold out there! I got rid of a bag of trash, and headed to the bank. Their accounting and my accounting agreed to the penny and even without busking this last weekend I only spent about $100 of my last pay check so my account is coming along nicely.
I didn't go to Whole Foods but instead rode over to the Amazon place to pick up bubble mailers. There was a neat little puddle of urine right in front of their door so I was careful to avoid that. Yes, even with the cold weather the zombies were out and about.
I stopped at Nijiya on my way back and got various things, and rode back here to put things away. Traffic was crazy all over, which makes me wonder if there's some kind of big holiday coming up. Lunar New Year isn't until February 10th and this Monday coming up is MLK day, so I wonder if people take long weekends this time of year and they're getting out of town.
I got back here and put things away and headed right back out to H Mart where I locked the bike and walked over to Sprouts. I was behind a guy who had a green T-shirt on with a stylized avocado and something "Avo" something, a Dad joke I don't even remember. I asked, "Hey, where'd you get that shirt?" he he said, "Oh, I work at a Sprouts and this is my work shirt. They have all kinds of jokes about the food". I said I thought he might be Australian because they say "Arvo" for "Afternoon" and thus we had a conversation started.
The poor guy's got a 4-year degree in "digital modeling" and can't find a job at all. Tons of layoffs are going on right now. I said he ought to check out Da Anza College as they have a really good CAD/CAM program and he said he was interested in CAD and will check it out. He's from Hollister and we talked about how boring Hollister, and Gilroy, can be. Although, I mentioned, Gilroy wasn't that bad as I was on a big ol' place and could shoot my .22 rifle from my computer chair.
We did all this talking as we walked along and he was surprised when I walked into Sprouts with him. He was there to work and I was there to shop! I got my things OK and now I'm wise to that stupid "round up" thing and pressed No. It'd be almost worth it to use self-checkout to avoid that BS.
I walked back to H Mart and got a bunch of things there, my spending today being the answer to the "64-dollar question". And change.
I need to mention that in my practice in the dawn hours, I did the usual noodling around at songs, some exercises, and the half-step bends recommended by Adam Rapa. Here's something I noticed: If I'm reach for high notes, like going from G above the staff to C above the staff, and have trouble making the higher one, if I do half-step bends on the lower one, then it's easy to pop up to the higher one. I think this is important.
The best analogy I can think of for this is, in baseball a batter won't just step up to the plate cold. He'll have warmed up, swinging a bat or a few backs around in lazy circles to warm up the muscles, then will do some practice swings not hitting a ball but just paying attention to form and staying loose. I think this is what half-step downward bends do. Adam Rapa talks about, when rehearsing or just practicing, if he's not getting the resonance he wants on a note, he'll take a few moments out to do half-step bends on that note.
Trumpet playing involves using some fairly obscure muscles, and often using them in unusual ways. I get the impression that exercises like this are useful just for getting in touch with, or back in touch with, the muscles at all.
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