I was going to do a dry run

 I drank too much wine(tm) and went to sleep, I guess I woke up around 8 and turned my alarm off then slept - weird dreams! - until 10:30 or so. 

I was going to do a dry run to the Los Gatos Jewish center but two things: First, it looks kind of daunting going from the Winchester light rail station to the place, considering the roads I'll have to cross. But it might not be that bad. The 2nd thing's the killer. They're working on the rails so there's a "bus bridge" and not only do I detest those but I can't take my bike on one. 

The other way to do it is, to lock the bike up at Whole Foods, take the Green line to Winchester station, then call a cab. A cab ride from Winchester Station to the place probably won't cost all that much. 

I'm a bit worried about the roads I'll have to cross, on a weekday too. But if I get a really early start, like the thing starts at 4:30 in the afternoon and is over with at 7:30 or 8, so it will be after the hectic traffic on my way back, and if I leave here just after noon, I'll get that nice slack time and it might not be that bad. 

I've ridden from Sunnyvale to Los Gatos on the Sunnyvale-Saratoga-Los Gatos road and it's not a bad ride at all, although I did it on a skinny-tire bike. 

I think I'll get an early start and just ride from Winchester Station to the place. 

I had real trouble getting going today. One thing I did was put things away, and get out things to ship. That got me moving at least. I got bogged down for a while after that on that great time-waster, Reddit. 

I eventually got out the door at maybe 3:30. I dumped some trash, and donated things - my pour-over coffee maker, filters, and a half-used can of coffee - to the little free library in Japantown. 

Then I rode over to Whole Foods and got what I call Cheech & Chong Chicken and broccoli. I sat and ate and people-watched. There were two chess players again, this time two skinny old white guys. It's amazing to see, because in the Red areas I've lived, playing chess in public can get you in trouble so no one does it. Even checkers is too intellectual for those areas. 

It was windy and there weren't even any petition-gatherers or charity hucksters so that told me the wind was making people not feel like giving at all. I rode down to Willow Glen and went to my little niche in front of what used to be a movie theater and is now a mini-mall. I set up and played there and the tips were not frequent but they were $5's. One guy apologized because he only had 5 $1's. 

After a while it felt slow and I saw a big crowd by the ice cream place so I moved over there and didn't get a tip at all. There was some kind of free ice cream thing going on and people who are getting free ice cream don't feel like tipping street musicians. 

I went back around by the niche, debating whether to play some more, and I noticed the bar right by there had something like a big front window, only the window wasn't there, it was just open. And there were two gals with a violin, a harp, a melodica, etc. She gal with the harp complimented my playing, and I said the harp was really cool. I didn't want to play any more so close to them, so I left. 

I rode back to Whole Foods, and the wind had died down a bit so I set up there and no one was feelin' it except for one guy who gave me a dollar. 

I left there and went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. There were a lot of people around, lots of little kids. So I set up and the tips started trickling in. All the people were there because it was some kind of absolutely huge wedding. I played maybe 30-45 minutes and made another $12, plus a quarter one guy dropped in. 

So all in all I'm up by $33. 

The thing to do would have been to get a good early start and try playing at the California Avenue farmer's market in Palo Alto. If I can make this daytime schedule work, I can just play a farmer's market on Sundays.