2.0

 After getting everything else done, including listing 20 of the 30 items I'd photographed, (I put the other 10 aside for now) I got a good practice session in, and used one of the 2.0 reeds I'd gotten a box of. It makes a big difference in sound! So yeah I was ready for the step-up. My facial muscles felt more tired, but that's it, and I'm up to page 15 in the band book now. 

Unfortunately, New Year's Day and the day before it will be rained out. So I guess I don't have to worry about working up to page 18 or so in the book when I'll learn the C in the staff note I need to play Auld Lang Syne. I'll just be staying in. 

I got up today and am glad I practiced before going to bed because my headache was bad. I packed 6 or so things, some large some small, and was about to head out when I got a call from Ken, who wanted to come pick me up and we'd go to the new storage place and pick up a load of small stuff to put on Ebay. I said I have to go mail stuff, and we agreed that I'd be back here at 7:30, ready to go. 

So I took the things and mailed them, got two tea eggs at 99 Ranch and a couple of things at H Mart including a coffee that I thought was black coffee but actually it had non-sugar sweeteners in it. Blech. I sat there by my bike at H Mart and ate the eggs, and drank just enough of the coffee to rinse my mouth. 

I picked up 5 boxes of a certain kind that I like to use for circuit boards, and got back here. I had time to get all ready to go, and got another call from Ken. He was running late because he'd gone to Walmart and picked up a bunch of things and then realized he'd left his wallet at his house, so he had to go back and get it. 

He came by a bit later and after moving some things around in his hoarder's dream of a truck so I had room to sit, we were off. Ken started going on about how I haven't seen the new place ... I had to correct him and say I certainly have, was with him when we put the first stuff in there, and was there with him at the side of the freeway as we picked up the plastic rolling rack he'd had fly off of his truck. Geez. 

We got there and Ken had trouble getting the lock to work and I said he ought to check to make sure it's the right unit and it wasn't, his was the one just to the left. 

We started getting tubs of stuff to put in the truck and right away I barked my knuckle so now I had this thing bleeding and kept having to put it in my mouth and feel the flap of skin that was loose - lovely. Plus my headache really hadn't given me a break all day and wasn't now. 

Once we had 6 or 8 tubs loaded I said, "This is enough; this is a good load" and we shut the unit and I'd made sure the tailgate on the truck was fastened (or Ken would happily drive down the street with stuff falling out the back). 

He'd learned his lesson though, and didn't go on the freeway. He took surface streets, and got fairly lost, with my having to give directions like he was here, to the shop, for the first time. All the while he regaled me with stories of how good he is at having a sense of direction. 

We got back here and loaded the stuff into the office here and then he wanted to just rest and have a cup of tea which I fixed for him,  and we talked about stuff for a while. I asked if he felt like going to Denny's and he said he still had Christmas leftovers at home. I had some ice water and the last bit of a can of peanuts while we talked, and eventually Ken was ready to go, and went. 

As for my pay check, I told him he didn't pay me last week so it would be a double one, and he said, "I didn't pay you last week?" and I said he sure didn't, and showed where I keep track on the wall calendar, with little boxes for each week that I check off. 

The thing is, Ken's short on money and his workplace is "out" for all of this week so he can't bug *them* until next week. I said I don't mind waiting until next week, that this is why I save a bit of money etc. As long as he can catch up because then it will be a 3X pay check. 

So far I've always been paid, even if sometimes I've been very glad I'm not paycheck-to-paycheck like Ken is. This is the nature of high tech, and as mentioned Ken has to bug his boss to get paid, so I can bug him to get paid. High tech isn't nearly as smart a thing to go into as something that's government, unionized, and preferably both. I make a bit over $20k a year, Ken's promised in the past that my pay might go up to $30k a year but that dream's long gone, and I bet if I did the lowest job at a hospital or at the post office or the DMV, I'd make $40k a year. 

I just need to keep chugging along until mid-2027 when I'll be turning 65 so I'll have Medicare, and can make the move back home and forget I've ever heard of electronics. 

But for now, this is the time of year when everyone kind of withdraws and you don't see them until March or April or so. It being rainy on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day is just happenstance, but the normal thing to do this time of year is to hide as much as possible, not be out doing happy things like busking. 

One thing I've got to say for the clarinet is, the case it comes in is so small that I'm pretty sure it will fit just fine into my "Chrome" messenger bag that I used to use a lot, and have had sitting in a box for some years now. That makes it a bit easier to carry around than the trumpet was,  and thus easier to just happen to have with me to fit an hour of busking in, here and there. 

So to finish up the working for today, I went through all of those 7 or 8 tubs of stuff that were piled in the office and kept only the things that can be sold, and as  I went  I pushed tubs of the stuff I'm not keeping out the door, so by the time I was done there was a nice group of tubs and junk out there and the first of the scavengers already picking over it. That tired me out so I'll list the remaining 10 things I have photographed, later.