https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olduvai_theory this is a great read!
I woke up Wednesday to ... no power. Which is OK, I figured, they'll fix it in a few hours.
A few hours turned into 4 days. Ken came over Wednesday night and after not answering my many calls, here he was in person. "Why's it so dark?" he asked. "Did you pay that last electric bill? I believe it was a final notice...."
The long and short of things is it took a couple of days for Ken to get around to paying it, and was going to amount to more days for PG&E to bother to turn it back on. I tried their telephone system hell, and didn't get anywhere. I had to charge my phone etc up at FedEx, and spent some time messing around with my newer laptop, as this one is about to be retired.
My check was dated for Friday so I deposited it then, and went up to West Valley Music where I got a Yamaha 14E mouthpiece to keep my 16E that the cornet came with, company. And I got the hard-to-find first Getchell-Hovey book. The one guy, Craig, at the music store dug around in some drawers to find it, and I was impressed with his extra effort. He's manager there and teaches trumpet also.
They were not able to order the "Gard" bag for a cornet I want though, so I might just buy that and put up with the extra time and precarity of having it arrive at Ken's house, if the porch pirates don't get it, and then the extra week or two for Ken to bring it here. At least I'll have it.
I went back downtown on the train, and rode over to the big Goodwill on San Carlos. BIG mistake. It's pretty obvious that's a really bad neighborhood. Between the pawn shops (not the nice kind, the kind with dirt floors) and used car riposs places, dive bars (real dive bars, the kind guys go to first after getting out of "the joint") and the number of bums staggering around, it really is one of the armpits of San Jose.
But the trouble is, it's still OK if you get out of your car, march right up to the door and go in, wearing a "Don't fuck with me" look on your face. But riding a bike means taking time to lock the bike and that means pausing for a few minutes, with all those drugged-up zombies staggering around.
So I had one of the zombies get in my face and no go away even while I was on the phone with the cops. By the time the cops came the zombie had staggered off, and the cops were trying to figure out who was really at fault here and what was the actual situation. Was I also a scumbag? Or was I a human with the bad judgement to go to that Goodwill? They "ran" my license and of course found nothing.
Besides talking about what the zombie had done and said, (the damned thing called me a "nigger" which is just bizarre, although I am a shade darker than fish-belly white...) I said Don't worry I'm not coming back here - I was after a flute case but I'll just buy one new, and Ross is better for clothes. I even said the bum was headed *that* way, pointing West on San Carlos, and I'm going *that* was, pointing the opposite direction. And did so, when we were done talking.
That place really isn't worth it. And if they can't keep a guard on duty then let the zombies prey on each other and leave me out of it.
Ken had called me when I was still in Mountain View, at the train station. He'd worked out how to pay, and the power should come on any time.
So when I got back it was still dark. Another night of dime light via flashlights, and reading books and that's about it. I did some practice too but I guess my heart wasn't in it or I was tired, and it didn't go well so I just went to sleep.
It was about 2AM when I went to sleep, and I woke up a bit before 6 which is really not enough sleep. I got up and had some aspirin, instant coffee, and a can of 7-Up, and went back to bed. And slept really well. I'd had grandiose plans of taking some silver half-dollars I have to sell to a place in Menlo Park but now it was 3:30 or so in the afternoon so that was out.
I heard all kinds of banging and clinking out front, and finally went out there, curious. The guys were taking apart hundreds of door locks. It turns out the one guy had bought, for $1 million, an apartment building and was changing out the locks because "These are old". So he and a couple other guys were taking 'em apart to sell the metal. We had fun talking for a while, and all I can say is that again I'm impressed with how smart and up to date on things these guys are. Bring on the Reconquista!
The wind was kind of strong and needless to say cold, and I thought if I go up to Mountain View I could avoid the wind, and do some busking. So I started on my day with that in mind. I cooked up my 1/4 lb of hamburger and 3 eggs because I have to use things up because I no longer have refrigeration. and I bundled up the cornet in my messenger bag, wrapped in a really neat thick towel I didn't know I had.
I got to San Pedro Square a bit after 6, and set up to play. After 20 minutes I had one tip, a $5 from a family, which was nice. But although there were plenty of people walking around, these days people who go to San Pedro Square are broke, and it doesn't pay much, playing for broke people.
So I moved over to Whole Foods. I'm here for practice, anyway, I reminded myself. I played a bunch of the "old favorites" and although it seemed slow, that was deceptive. It was also cold, but that worked to my advantage because it meant no hustlers with their booth, no skinny guy with a million petitions, etc. And the wind had died down quite a bit.
So I played along, got plenty of smiles and compliments, and one lady really wanted to hear "Beautiful Dreamer" so I played that, and she put in a rolled-up bill that turned out to be a $50. The tips picked up a little, as I think 7-8PM is really the golden hour.
I *was* going to stay until 8, as I think I'd started at about 7:45, but at about 10 before, some scumbag bum with a big beard came up and was going to either (a) waste my time or (b) grab the tip box and run. So I said I don't want to have anything to do with zombies, plunked the cornet into the tip box and gathered it up and walked off.
I counted up at the table nearest the door and thus presumably nearest the security guard, and had $61.25, which with the $50 I'd put in my wallet right away, I had a total of $112.25. Not bad for around an hour of playing, and the debut of my new cornet and its conical mouthpiece which I'm still getting used to.
Ken had called me while I was at San Pedro Square and told me he'd gone though PG&E's phone tree also, and gotten a supervisor and got them to turn the power on. I said I'm out "practicing" and will check when I get back to the shop. He said to call him when I get back and let him know in either case.
I didn't want to rush back to a probably still cold, dark, and electricityless shop, so I wandered around in Whole Foods for a bit, and picked out a bottle of Guinness. I don't drink any more but I'll make an exception for a Guinness once in a great while. I went upstairs and sat at the bar and watched a basketball game, except the ADHD method of filming a game is most unenjoyable. Some neat plays though. It was a say to take my mind off of things.
I drank half the pint of Guinness which I've got to say is a pretty nice amount to drink. I'd happily have ordered one of the "home" brews upstairs, but there's something about the taste of Guinness, for which there's no substitute. I can see why in British pubs it's a thing to order a "half" because it's a nice amount to drink for the flavor.
I got on the bike to get out of there, rode a little circuit around downtown where I saw very little going on and no other street musicians, then rode to Japantown. There was a live jazz thing going on at one of the little shops, and I hung out and talked with people, and after their set program there was a "jam" so I figured, why not? Except it turns out the kind of music they were playing is great for musicians showing off for other musicians, in other words, if I'm tuning around on the radio and hear this kind of mathematical jazz, I murmur "ok" and move on. So I moved on.
I got back here and turned on the light switch by the door and nope, still dark so I turned the flashlights on, then noticed the screen for the video camera was on, and of course the light controlled by the wall switch, the fluorescent lights overhead, have been dead for a while now because Ken's worked on them. In other words, the electricity was back on. I called Ken and told him, and asked him if he'd called someone at PG&E at home and rousted 'em out of bed or something, and apparently he'd just been more persistent at the phone tree than I was.
We talked a bit more and it was "OK see you on Wednesday" and I went around turning things on and plugging things in, and finished de-icing the freezer.
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