I woke up at something like 8:30 then the neighbors got out something noisy, pressure washer or something, and I went back to sleep until about 10:30.
I checked my email and Ken asked which of the two things, bubble mailers or tape, I needed more as he's "low on cash". I said I've got tape and I can use the mailers I get from the Amazon place for free.
What's going on is, this business is supposed to be self-supporting or even, rare in tech, run at a profit. And our sales are really awful right now. Ken's no stranger to running things at a loss and if it weren't for his wife he'd be living in a van like so many techies end up doing. But his wife, being much smarter about money than he is, is likely telling him, No, he can't take money out of his retirement fund, or hers, etc., to keep this business going.
And to think not long ago Ken was going on about buying a building. I thought about that idea seriously for a week and then gave him a serious talking to about it. None of his kids are interested in this kind of business, I'm not interested in it, so there's no need to buy a building in his mid-70s as there's no one to take things over. I haven't heard a peep about it since.
Ken *does* know, or his accountant knows, some tax tricks so one bad year won't be all that bad, but you can't run a business year after year at a loss. Fortunately I believe last year was profitable. This reminds me of 2008 though.
If it all goes to shit here, of course I can rent a safe deposit box for valuables/papers to keep them at my bank, and with Tom's wife living at their place, it's a bit more "homey" and I could always sleep there. I'm sure they appreciated getting 20 lbs of frozen crepes and a bunch of fruit (Tom's on a smoothie kick) from me. I'm always finding things like that and giving them to Tom.
This is also why I'm doing as many of the things at the temple as I can do, because I want to be known as a good person who helps out, and then if I'm stuck for a place to live someone might have a spare room or a garage or something. I'm betting that I'll have the shop here to live in long enough to get my conversion done with but there's no guarantee.
Moving to Israel requires, as I understand it, not just conversion but continuing to participate in Jewish life for a year after the official conversion, then there are papers to fill out etc., but if the shop is here to live in at least up to the conversion, then someone among the temple people might be willing to help me out with a room or an attic or garage, given that I'd be "traveling", just getting my papers in order to leave. People are more willing to help others who are traveling.
I'm getting my savings up to 5 grand again. Lately I've been really looking at getting a cornet, the very short kind with a "Shepherd's crook". The thing with one of those is they look neat, they're easy to carry in a bike bag, and due to being shorter, I can mess around with playing with a plunger. Austin Custom Brass has one, a Shagerl https://www.austincustombrass.biz/schagerl-academica-k-451l-bb-cornet-in-lacquer/ that's about $700. That means 14 Fridays before temple I'd not play otherwise, to pay for it. It would be neat for Christmas playing, looking all neat and coppery, and Xmas carols with a plunger mute could be a blast.
I missed the lunch crowd again. This is the first time I've had Ken tell me he's too broke to buy shipping supplies and I felt pretty depressed. This is why I'm always making plans for what to do if everything turns to shit quickly. Even in the 1929 stock market crash that started the Great Depression, there were warning signs well ahead of time, but when it happened it happened fast.
I got going, finally, and rode over to Whole Foods and got some chicken and broccoli, a Trumer Pils beer, and a bottle of water. I ate, people-watching, and then tried out busking in the shade of one of the trees. In 10 minutes or so I got a nickel from some guy, and a couple of dollars from someone else. I decided that was too slow and went over to the Old Spaghetti. It was awful there, with no one even eating at the outdoor tables.
So I went back to Whole Foods and stuck it out, playing about an hour and a half in total and making $26. Kenny walked by, on his way to work there and asked how I did and I said I'd made $26 which is better than not having $26.
I wanted to get some things at Walmart so I rode over there and got things like diet Sprite for Ken. I was drinking diet 7-Up/Sprite, but these days all I want is water with a little lemon juice in it and the lemon juice is pretty cheap and easy to keep around. And another jar/can of Elite instant coffee, a box of wine, odds and ends.
I loaded the bike up then loaded up some bubble mailers at the Amazon place, then got some books on the way home so the bike was really loaded up. It was hot, windy, and of course there were tons of zombies around, staggering, gibbering, yelling, etc.
In fact, when I was busking at Whole Foods the security guard came out and since he was holding a phone in his hand I asked him if someone had lost their phone - he was looking around. He said No, but someone stole something and ran right out of the store. I hadn't seen a thing so I wasn't able to be of any help. The thing is, a bum with a sign makes more than I do, so they could have their sandwich or whatever it was all paid for in very little time. The undead are not very smart though.
About the busking: It was not terribly lucrative today but I had some very nice interactions with people, and a theory I'm working on is working well in an unexpectedly short time. All I'll say now is it's based on some little comments by a guy named Berton who knew Bix Beiderbecke when he was in his prime and wrote a book about it. If it works out as well as I think it might, I'll discuss it at length. So as a practice session, today's busking was great.
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