Progress

 On my own part, certainly not on the world scene where Dirty Diaper Don is offering his paymaster, Pewtin, the 20% of Ukraine's territory the orcs occupy, as a sort of Sudetenland to buy off this new Hitler. 

On my own part though, I slept the whole night w/o the neck brace. What helped is I took some foam from my packing supplies and stuffed it into my pillow, making it less flat. 

I also not only packed 22 things and shipped them yesterday, but put all the things I've listed for the last few weeks and put them away in the warehouse, and found a thing that was *very* hard to find, and packed that to go. 

Tonight's the 3rd session of the class, which as I've said is the most important class of my life because this one can actually get me somewhere, whereas all those college classes only made me poorer for life. I have to pass this class, because if I don't I'll have to re-take it next year, and if my situation comes down to a choice of keeping Ken happy by being at his beck and call at all times, or going street homeless and being able to take and pass the class, I must choose the latter. 

Fortunately it's not going to rain tonight, and won't even be all that cold, in the 40s. This week's class is at a place that's 2 hours away by bike, I know, because I've timed myself when I've gone there in the past. 

I left here at 3, stopped at Nijiya where I got a "Hokkaido salmon belly" bento which was very good. I dropped off packages at the post office downtown,  then rode over to Starving Musician. The cornet I was interested in was in the back, and it was in good playing shape and seemed to play just fine, but I could tell it had been dented and (mostly) straightened out a number of times, and had one particularly nasty little crease the brass techs hadn't even tried to fix, not that it seemed to affect playing, but ugly. 

To not be a completely lookie-loo, I bought a bottle of Yamaha synthetic valve oil, which amazingly was only $3.25. That's like a third or less than anyone else charges. So that's a nice discovery. 

I rode down Saratoga until I got to Prospect and rode through this large strip mall complex until I found a Starbucks and stopped in there, spending about $14 on a "flat white" coffee and some pastries, and studied my books for an hour. Then rode over Temple Beth David, getting there just in time. 

The Hebrew part at the beginning was fun, and I'm a module ahead of the class. The Judaism part was pretty interesting too. It turns out that this Saturday, the Shabbat service and lunch I'm to go to isn't at Temple Sinai but there at Beth David. And I'm to try to get there at 9:30AM. 

The ride back was long, as was the ride there. I rode down Saratoga, turned right at Moorpark and rode that to Bascom, then to San Carlos, to Shasta, to The Alameda, yadda yadda. By the time I'd been riding for two hours I was thinking of a way to eat without having to cook or do dishes so I homed in on the M8trix casino. How nice it was to use the loo, break the $100 bill I had on me at the cashier, and sit at the bar, watch some of a basketball game, have a ice water to swallow a Tylenol with, and try the "Garden City Steak Bites" which were really good. 

The ride back here was easy, and now it's time to call it a night because I have to get used to being up at 8 in the morning. 

Hunter Biden pardoned.

 And I'm all for it. Under a normal rule of law, of course as I've said out loud, I want him to take his licking. But we as a country have voted for a Nazis 2.0 / Russian gangster empire, and no one can fault a father for trying to save his son from a long, agonizing, death in a torture cell. 

Hunter's crimes seem to involve some drugs, which are a basic food group for many Americans, and lying on a firearms form - which while it's not good, plenty have done (looking at you, potheads). Biden says Hunter was specifically singled out because he's his son and I buy that. 

Meanwhile the Nazis 2.0 have pardoned actual violent criminals who have murdered multiple people, and anyone who participated in the insurrection can be expected to be pardoned and given well-paying gov't positions. That's how gangster dictatorships work. 

Gloomy but at least not raining Sunday

 I slept in until noon, which was OK I guess considering I was up until 3AM. The prostitution operation several doors up is still operating, but I think they've told the customers to be less noisy and try not to park down at my end. Plus I sleep with my heater set on fan only to make a little noise so I don't hear every little word and footstep. 

I'm really getting to like "The New Reading Hebrew" book we're working from. It's tons of drills and seems repetitive but that's the magic of it. Even very advanced musicians still play scales, and it's that sheer repetition that makes the knowledge stick. 

I'm doing the recommended reading 2X, and have been listening to the song "Sholem Aleichem" tons of times. It turns out to be an important Shabbat song, and here I thought L'cha Dodi was the big one. 

The next class is at Temple Beth David, one I'm now well used to going to. This is where doing "all the things" from when I first decided on this path has worked out well for me. And there's no rain in the forecast so while it might be cold coming back it won't be wet. It's just wintry out. 

Today would have been a good day for busking if I were in shape to. At least I got the new cornet out last night and played a little, and made sure the slides are moving smoothly. My main concern was the smallest one for the middle valve, a slide that often gets frozen on horns that are neglected. Since the horn is new and the clearances tight, it could happen easily. But  I took it out and cleaned it and the tubes it goes into with a Q-tip and put some slide grease on there and I'm less worried now. 

Today being Sunday it's basically a work day for me. I packed 4 large things and took them to FedEx and collected packing stuff on the way home, then went out again for some shopping at Sprouts and found a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants at Ross. 

I got home (again) and cooked up a nice fish soup. I'm still in pain but I guess it must be getting better because I was able to cook fish soup.