Monday, monday

 I really want to go out busking for the lunch crowd on a Monday and do that "Monday, monday" song. Plus all the other Monday songs I can think of, but not today. 

I really got on myself for being lazy yesterday and did some things like set up an area for all the Hewlett-Packard circuit boards to go, put a bunch of stuff away, packed 11 things to grab-n-go, etc. I was up late enough to notice no one at all driving by or any streetwalkers being dropped off, and only saw one police SUV come in, pull in in front of the place then back out and go on his way. So I think the party is really and truly over. 

I got out of here at about 2 with 10 things for the post office and one for UPS, dropped off the post office things downtown and took the UPS one to the UPS place on The Alameda, then locked the bike at Whole Foods and put $20 on my clipper card, and walked over to the train station where I only had to wait about 15 minutes for a train. 

I got off at Menlo Park, and stopped at this little sidewalk pastry stand, that half the time seems to have American/European stuff and half the time has Chinese stuff. This was a Chinese day, and I got a chicken shiitake mandu in a little paper bag which I carried with me to do my business (it didn't take long) and then had plenty of time to eat at the train station waiting for the train back. 

Here was my evil plot to cheat CalTrain of some money: I'd not "click off" at Menlo Park but would take the train back one station to Palo Alto, then click off there. The trouble here, now that I think about it, is that when  I got off at Palo Alto, I wanted to click off on the Northbound side, but I remember now that I forgot to do so, so I was charged the full rate as if I'd gone up to San Francisco. So I might as well have clicked off at Menlo Park then clicked on again and off at Palo Alto. Who knows what the system made of my then, after wandering around University Avenue for a bit, getting on a #522 bus at the Palo Alto bus station? 

I'd wandered around University Avenue thinking I'd stop in at the Starbucks and use the loo, but there was no Starbucks where there used to be one and for old times' sake I walked up as far as the old hotel which is still there, and I guess I looked white enough that the doorman let me right in. I'd gone in because the corner coffee shop was, the signs said, inside. But the restaurant inside looked more posh than I needed, and was closed. But the bathrooms were right there and unlocked so I got that taken care of. 

As I'd gotten to the bus station which bus was getting ready to leave but the #522. My body language was something like "Oh man.....!" and the driver stopped and let me on, nice lady. 

I rode as far as the Lawrence Avenue stop, and walked over to the Han Kook market where I bought 4 packages of cotton-swabs-on-a-stick as they're the only place I've found them with an actual wooden stick. And I'd run out. I walked back out to the bus stop where there were two people; a nice regular looking Indian gal and a crazy homeless guy talking to everyone and everything. I noticed a strong odor, B.O. or ... curry? It was a strong curry smell and it wasn't the crazy buy, it was the normal-looking Indian gal. 

I got off at Diridon Station and walked back to my bike and rode over to the Amazon place for bubble mailers and Nijiya for food and back here. It's cold out there, and feels more so because it's really damp and foggy. 

All in all today's adventures took me 6 hours. If I had a car it would be more like two. But the time-saving would be extremely expensive. The official figure of what it costs on average to own and operate a car is a bit over $1000 a month. Or a bit over $30 a day. 

All of this is boring as hell anyway. Hardly anyone wonders how it would be to live in San Jose, California. Some *do* wonder about how it would be to be a busker as a career, and I'm sure not writing much about that these days, because there's nothing to comment on. 

On my way to Whole Foods at about 2:15 I did see a guy leaning up against a building just to one side of San Pedro Square banging away on a guitar, but I didn't have enough time to hear if he was banging on it tunefully or not. And I've found that the 2-5PM time slot is really dead. 11AM-1PM, lunch time, is good. And 5-7PM, dinner time, is good also. Some swear by the late-night drunk crowd and I have no doubt that can work well in place where there is one of any size like Waikiki, Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, or ... New Orleans. 

In fact, if I had a blog about New Orleans, supposing I lived there, I'd probably talk about my daily live but in such a way as to make it useful as, unlike San Jose California, tons of people dream of running off to New Orleans to be a busker or a face-painter or a juggler or something. This is not to say they *will* do this, but daydreaming about it is very popular. 

So instead of just nattering on to pretty much nobody but myself, I'd imagine myself guiding a friend who's new to town around. "I got on the 'Desire' streetcar at 9 in the morning, which is a good time to ride it since the rougher element aren't awake yet. This street car doesn't run X days but on Y days it's every 15 minutes" kind of thing. Marvin Naylor used to, on his blog, go into some details about his regular donors or about unusual people who'd come across him. 

I just mention this as a way to, if one lives in an actually interesting place, to make one's blog interesting. 

Or maybe blogs are outdated by now and the thing to do would be to do "livestreams" on YouTube like "Jimi The Hobo" does, who's even more boring than I am, and seems to live just fine off of YouTube. Marvin Naylor does this now, and he is one find guitar picker indeed.