Anyway, here's Easter

 I practiced last night, doing OK. New songs, old songs ... I'd also listed 15 things on Ebay. Our sales are down again which is hopefully just due to the holiday. It's a major one for Christians, more important than Christmas in their scheme of things. 

I woke up at 3, not good. Too much wine again. For some reason I'm sleeping right through the night again instead of getting up at least once and it was often more than once, to pee. My coffee drinking is way down. Ideally it's one cup in the morning and that's it. I'm having maybe 2 cups a day and that's far, far less than I was drinking. 

I got out of here at about 5. I dropped off trash, donated stuff in the Japantown little free library, and went to Nijiya Market for a can of iced black coffee and something to eat. I ended up getting a $10 thing of salmon sushi and managed to eat that at a table out front without the wind blowing things away. It was windy and cold today but at least not raining. 

I chewed gum to clean my mouth out, and rode toward Whole Foods. I passed through San Pedro Square and decided it looked a little too dead. So I rode on to Whole Foods and set up and started playing. I made a dollar in the few minutes I played, as a guy coming out half-yelled something at me that I didn't get. I said something like Pardon me? and he repeated, that they're closing in 10 minutes. So they were closing at 6, because it's Easter and all. 

Well! I played a few more minutes but people didn't have the time for it so I packed up and tried going in myself, but the guy would not let me in - they're closing after all. I thanked him and hopped on the bike and rode out. Old Spaghetti Factory it is. 

After the sushi I had about $7 cash in my wallet so I wanted to at least make an effort. I've only taken $109 out of this last pay check and want the other $291 to stay right in there. 

I set up at the Old Spag. and told myself I'd treat it as much as a practice session as anything else. And on my way over there I decided I ought to work on "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens and in fact I did, and it went pretty well. Also "Blue Skies" which is a pretty good song. And a bunch of other things, trying to see if there's any one song that people particularly seem to want to hear. Marvin Naylor calls it the "Song of the day". 

By the time I'd put in an hour, I was starting to tire but I really wanted to make $50 and it looked like I might make it if I stayed a bit more, so maybe another half-hour. There were not that many people but there was a steady trickle of tips and appreciative comments. A guy set up across the street with a loud radio on his bike but I out-stubborned him and he eventually took off. 

A "Groundwerx" guy was there, sweeping the one stretch of gutter there over and over. "Thanks" he said, eventually. He was happy to hear the music. 

Eventually I decided I'd been there long enough and probably made $50. I did a quick count-up and I'd made $75. And it'd been exactly an hour and a half. I packed up and on my way out of there, talked with the Groundwerx guy a while. "Danny Boy", to him, was a song with lyrics about standing at Calvery and things like that. I said that the song we know as "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" is actually "God Save The Queen" (or king, these days) in England. 

The Groundwerx guy wants to learn the ukulele, and I told him of the good places to go, about the San Jose Ukulele Club, and the jam sessions that are held around this area. Outside of Hawaii itself, it's the best city to learn the ukulele in. He seemed like a pretty smart guy and since comp sci grads are to be found stocking shelves and hardware engineering grads are jerking coffee, it makes sense that a pretty smart guy would be out there sweeping gutters for Groundwerx. 

I rode home, stopping at TAK Market for a couple bottles of wine. They're Indians and don't close up early for Easter. They have other holidays, including one where they play Indian music and whoop it up, and they still mind the store. 

I got back here, made and ate a delicious curry, prepared and photo'd 15 things, and called it a night because for some reason my computer decided it was an hour later than it is. I thought my wall clock, which I haven't adjusted yet, was somehow 2 hours slow, then finally consulted my faithful flip phone. For some reason doing a "time sync" with the Microsoft time server fixed it. Just had to check in with ol' Uncle Bill.