2 lbs down

 It's Sunday, and I started this day by weighing myself. I'm 2 lbs down from last Sunday. That's how the keto diet works. 1-2 lbs down a week. 

Friday was a trip to take things to the post office and FedEx, and to find things on the way back, shipping materials of course, but also an interesting gadget to list on Ebay and ... 6 12-packs of Diet Pepsi. I got back here and cleaned myself up and took off for the temple a bit after 6. 

The service was great, and I think the 12-pack of Diet Pepsi I put in the fridge was a good thing. We're not even having coffee most of the time now, just water, sometimes some flavored fizzy water. So this time some people (not myself) had Diet Pepsi. 

The service itself was great. Singing lots of those good old cowboy songs, and the rabbi called up anyone with a September or October birthday and that included me. I got a birthday pencil. 

It was at the oneg, the snacks and socializing after the service, that the Pepsi came into play. Also, the rabbi had said I could try out his shofer, that he said was very easy to blow, "on Friday" so I reminded him of this and then stuck to him like a bodyguard almost, while he went around and talked with every last person who was still there. 

Eventually it was shofar time. We went into his office, and there was an even bigger Yemenite type shofar than the gift shop had. Yes it blew fine. He said the shofar blower at the Heritage Theater takes as students anyone who wants to learn. He said I'm a "good guy". 

The thing is, I've been going to services and doing the things, since just before Purim. It's only very recently, that I guess a combination of committing to joining and paying real money to be a member of the temple, and my not making the odd noise on the shofar in the gift shop but trying the rabbi's shofar and showing that I can blow it. (He was like, "Wow, you can get two notes" and I said, "I should be able to get at least 5 on this one".) 

I guess my talking smack about Ha'aretz, being told by the rabbi not to do so around him, then my thinking a bit and then telling him that I realized now I'd not been reading it, just reading cherry-picked articles pointed out to me by influencers, and then not only confessing this as I realized this about myself, then not only doing that but atoning by subscribing to Ha'aretz, made a real impression. One of the prayers we say around this time of year is to not be influenced by cynics. So I changed myself, and I followed through. 

I guess a lot of people talk about this and that, talk about learning to blow the shofar, talk about joining, but then just flake off. I've seen a lot of "come and go" people. Right after Purim there was a temple open house thing that I'd gone to, and I was really hopeful this one lady would stick around because she plays the clarinet and I mean, good enough to play in a symphony probably. Can read music really well, the whole nine yards. And she was interested in klezmer music. But I never saw her again. 

There are these comers-and-goers every time. The tall, dashing Black fellow from the last service in the temple wasn't back. This time it was a tallish, dashing, sorta white or maybe Italian guy in a suit, who I overheard being surprised that men and women sit together in our temple. (We're not Orthodox.) I don't expect to see him again. 

So what can I say? Service was over, I joked around with "Rock" the cop about the California Motel, that super-depressing place, and then rode to Whole Foods for a few things and back here and dinner. 

Yesterday I finished The Handmaid's Tale and read the first part of Once A Dancer. 

I tooted the shofar a bit last night. It's not difficult per se, but it's a matter of it becoming very familiar because it's very different from the trumpet. Very little mouthpiece pressure is required, for instance. And as I watched some Japanese anime movie, outside once it was a bit past 2AM it was party time outside. The trouble with that is, with these illegal alcohol sales, bordello, gambling joint things, sooner or later there's a shooting or a stabbing and I'd just as soon that not happen here. So I wrote out a tip to Crimestoppers. 

I woke up at noon and NPR's playing the good stuff. A really neat interview with Yuval Noah Harari, who in my book is worth about 10,000 Noam Chomskys. 

I finally got out of here at about 5. I had to drop off a bag of clothes to Goodwill, some books and stuff to the little free library in Japantown, and since I knew I needed food I stopped in Nijiya and got a bottle of black coffee and a bento that other than the rice, was some nice grilled salmon belly and vegetable, and some seaweed. As usual I ate on the steps of the old hospital. 

Then I chewed Xylitol gum to clean my mouth while riding over to Whole Foods. The sun was behind the big building next door, there were no hucksters there, it was perfect. I started playing just before 6. 

It went pretty well and I talked to some nice people. As soon as it got dark, the weird people started showing up and at one point I gathered up all my tips except for $1 because some young guy with a basketball was hanging out, possibly considering whether he'd get an opening to grab my tip box. I think he thought I was leaving, and disappeared. 

In the end I played an hour and a half, and made $49.67. So I just about made back the $50 I donated today to the Harris campaign. I got a lot of nice compliments too.