Let's see I did a shipping run yesterday, found a lot of firm foam pieces at the medical surplus place that I went back with the trailer to get - two loads. Then I settled in and found some things to get rid of, mainly a lot of big rolls of wood veneer strips no one's wanted for years and I wanted the shelf space. But to get to them, I had to get this other thing down and part it out first, then I got the veneer rolls outta here. Plus I found 6 aluminum boxes that turned out to have holes drilled in them (a customer told me about this and I sent him a new one that wasn't drilled because I'd sent him, unknowingly, one with holes).
So I had some metal stuff going out and Lo and behold there was a bum looking at the fridge and two dishwashers that have been sitting around here forever, so I gave him the metal and then gave him an OSH tool bag I never use any more and a bunch of socket drivers we never use so he'd have a kit of tools to take apart things like the fridge and dishwasher since they're all put together with these little hex head screws.
Ken came by his usual time and I got my check and we had the usual hour or so of talking. I told him about my voting adventure, and how baffling and complicated the voting by mail system is. I don't think Ken actually voted, and since Prop. 50 won by a landslide he didn't need to.
One hilarious thing: In the mail Ken brought me there was a letter from Medi-Cal saying they won't cover weight loss drugs like Ozempic. They had a list of them, and I showed Ken, laughing over my favorite weight loss drug name, "Zepbound". Like, you're bound to look like a Zeppelin if you don't take our drug... In truth, you can change your diet and get a little exercise and get the same effect as those drugs without the cost and side effects.
Once Ken had left I decided I should get some practice in, and I ended up playing more than an hour on the Hall flute. I tries out tunes in the Christmas carols book and it was really great - everything I tried, I could play no problem. If I'm going to get out there and busk Christmas carols I need to practice every day
After practicing, I found the movie "The Wind Rises" by Studio Ghibli, a movie I've wanted to see for years. It's dubbed into Chinese with Chinese subtitles, but it's still an amazing movie. I watched the first half of it and then went to bed.
I woke up around 2 this afternoon, had breakfast and packed 4-5 things and did my usual drop off trash, drop off packages, go to the bank routine. Then I went to Walmart for things, and got back here. Now it's the time of year when it's going to be dark from something like 5 in the afternoon on.
Last night I actually joked around with Ken about how fast things would fall to pieces if something happens to him, just to see what his reaction is, and his reaction, since I'd likened it to when someone pours gasoline into a Styrofoam cup (instant meltdown), to talk about various interesting chemical reactions he's done.
I've given up getting any information from him on how long we have left on the lease. I am coming around to thinking I should leave here in 2 years rather than one, so that I won't have an interruption in medical coverage - I'll go from Medi-Cal to Medicare, since I'll be 65.
I'll also have that much more time to get better on the shakuhachi and the Hall flute. In about a month I'll find out how the glass flute appeals to the public compared to the trumpet. It's sure a neat little gadget, and even as a beginner on it I have far more range than I did on the trumpet. There are songs I could play in practice but unless I was just starting a busking session, I could not play for the public; my range would go away. There are songs like Danny Boy where that high note would come out OK when I was fresh, but generally be a strain and eventually sound rather awful because I could no do it.
Ultimately I'm not all that sure if I was getting tips because I sounded good, or because I sounded desperate. After an hour or so I'd start sounding like someone stepped on a duck. I think the glass flute might appeal to the public pretty well because it's got a nice sound for homey, folksy tunes as Christmas carols are. I was delighted to find out how easy "Silent Night" is to play on it, a song I liked singing in elementary school and also a song I could generally not pull off on the trumpet.
What I like is it should be fairly easy to carry the Hall flute with me. I should be able to make a case for it out of PVC pipe and I could keep it with me fairly easily and fit busking into my errands.
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