Lost 'em then got 'em back

 Last night was spent getting 20 things ready to photo and list, which was time-consuming because I had to clean heat sink compound off of a lot of things, yuck! 

I then found things that have to be packed and shipped, which is an effort of its own. 

I finally settled down to practice, and again high notes were there, then I lost them. But then I "strategically relaxed" and got them back. Yay! 

I look forward to when I can just pay attention to my playing and performing. Sure I'll be living in a small rented room around the university, but I'll be able to use the university as a practice place and even take/audit classes there. Plus whatever resources the Musicians' Union has. 

 

High notes were rockin'

 I did a bunch of stuff last night, by which I mean, took apart 4 things and rounded up some other stuff to dump out front for the scroungers. 

And that's what I did; listened to things on YouTube and took things apart. I was surprised how much scrap metal and junk I piled up out front haha. 

Then I practiced and wow high notes were a breeze. I was able to play all those crazy bugle calls and the exercises in the book I'm practicing out of were a breeze, until they weren't. I either tightened up somehow or just plain got tired, not sure. I kept practicing though because I've been learning that a mediocre practice one day will lead to a very good one the next. 

I woke up around 2PM which was a little early so I "rested my eyes" and then woke up again, at 5. Oops. I packed about 5 things that were both small and really ought to go out today, and took those to the post office. 

While frantically packing things, I'd been pleasantly surprised, around 5:30, to hear someone outside with a truck or some sort of vehicle, picking up the scrap metal. They'd only left a few plastic things, which I picked up and put in a dumpster on the other side of the complex after I got back. 

I should also mention that at the sign/car graphics place, I found a ton of ... starchy goods. Like buns of a few types, tortillas, bread, and an unopened box of cereal (breakfast candy) called "Honey Bunches Of Oats". Bird food time!! So I found a place along Old Bayshore, where the landscaping plants are new and haven't covered all the ground yet, that's perfect for laying out a feast for my fine feathered friends, which I did. 

That's the thing with following a low-carb diet. Almost all the stuff I find, isn't on my diet. If I were not on this diet, I might have kept the bread and the tortillas. But that's OK the main thing is it's fun to score free stuff that's useful to someone. 

I wasn't sure if Ken would come by tonight and apparently, not. He said he'd be in England and Scotland for "a couple weeks" I think so I guess I won't see him this week. I still cleaned up the bathroom and office as usual though. 

Plus, as I seem to be in the loop for these things, I got the new lease agreement emailed to me, so I printed it out for Ken. It doesn't look too bad, really. The rent's lowered a bit and gradually increases over the 4 years. And it won't be anything I'll need to even think about after 1 year. 

 

 

Tuesday - not enough good sleep?

 I photo'd 20 things, listed 10, and packed a ton of stuff. 

 

Monday after some good sleep

 I felt so tired last night I didn't do much of anything other than have my cheese and olives for dinner, and tried to get "up" for listing a bunch of stuff but didn't, and finally went to bed at 7AM. 

I woke up at 3 this afternoon, and the Monday "morning" weigh in shows me 1/2 lb up from last week. 

At least, for some reason, the elderberry lozenges seem to have done some good and my throat's better. 

I packed I don't know, 10, maybe 12 things, and got 'em to the post office, got things in 99 Ranch and H Mart, hung out in front of H Mart to enjoy a can of Mr. Brown coffee and some spicy peanuts, and didn't find much in the way of packing stuff *except* about 30 really neat "Kinder Country" boxes from the exotic foods place dumpster, which are a nice smallish handy size and of good quality. 

 

 

$65 Sunday

 I listed 10 things last night, all photo'd and ready to go from the night before. After having some dinner, I got involved in "just trying to find at least some of the next batch of things" which ended up meaning, "Get 20 more things photo ready"

I slept very deeply, then had a weird "frustration dream" about the airport, and getting stuff together, etc. It was pretty realistic; at one point I had this large, long piece of luggage to get aboard, and all I can think of it would have been something holding an electric bass because I can't think of anything else that long, but pretty flat. 

I woke up feeling sore (my back, mainly) and had a bit of a headache so "breakfast" was coffee and aspirin. 

I left here at 4:30 and Lo and behold, was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at 6:30 so, a mere 2 hours. 

The busking went OK, about the same as yesterday. This time I just wore my fleece jacket which was borderline too warm but it was OK. It was overcast and a bit windy. I played "Long, Long Time" several times both to work on it and also because the Whole Foods employee who wanted to learn trumpet might show up again, I thought. 

"Eensty Weentsy Spider" was a big hit though, with a little kid and his dad, who didn't tip of course. It's a good one to have in my repertoire. I should learn the theme song for TV show "Bluey" but I'm not sure if that has that much of a strong theme song. There were just tons of little kids this time and I should learn more little kid songs. 

I was playing high notes well, so at one point I played the intro and ending music from the 2nd series Astroboy show, great fun but I'll be surprised if I ever run into anyone who recognizes them. 

At one point I *did* meet one of the Whole Foods Employees, a Karen type woman who's a manager, who told me exactly where the line runs that divides Whole Foods property from public property, where I can play and she "Can't do anything about that!". Even funnier, she talked while furiously chewing gum. I should have asked if it's nicotine gum, or if she brought enough for the rest of the class, or some snappy remark, but it's much better that I didn't. 

A very nice Indian lady came up and with her phone out, puzzled, she asked if I had Zelle or something, and I said I don't, but that some people go into Whole Foods and buy gift cards. I said it could be for $5 or $10, and one time I got one for $50 but that's an awful lot. She went away and I went back to playing and she came back surprisingly soon, and gave me a gift card with $25 on it. "Wow, thanks!" was my reaction, and I said I do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods, which is often cheaper than Safeway. (As if I go into Safeway these days, ha!) 

With that, after she'd left feeling good about doing her good deed for the day, I looked at the time and it was time to go. I'd made $40 cash including something like $4 in quarters, and the $25 gift card, making $65. 

I was surprised I'd done this well, and played as well as I did, because my throat's been scratchy and before getting on the bus I'd bought some elderberry lozenges from my "home" Whole Foods, and had some on the bus ride. 

I walked over to Baraka Market for olives and a yogurt drink, then walked over to the bus stop, and ended up running for the bus because the #522 got there a bit before me. 

This meant I got back to my "home" Whole Foods at around 9. The employees were getting ready to close, which they don't do until 10, and this always makes it feel later. There was a guy begging with a sign, very definitely on Whole Foods property but I guess no one was sweating it, as he wasn't being noisy, just holding his sign. I got a couple bags of macadamia nuts because I'll always use them, and a can of their tuna in olive oil which if anything is only about 50c more expensive than Walmart's version. That took care of the gift card. 

I had a nice calm ride back here, and had cheese and olives for dinner. 

$62 Saturday

 I practiced last night before bed and it went even better than the session before. This is good. I just need to be very consistent about practicing. 

Yesterday I shipped stuff, did shopping, blah blah. And got 20 things ready to list and listed 10 of them. I'll list the other 10 tonight. 

Today I got out of here at 5, and miraculously, found myself set up at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods at just a bit after 6:30, thanks to the #522 bus. As I walked past Baraka Market on my way to the Whole Foods, I heard a lot of squawking, and saw that the parrots who used to hang out by the hardware store, are still here, and in force. The hardware store's history but ... not the parrots. 

Last night I'd finished a load of laundry that included the clothes I wear busking and I'd put a fan on the clothes, hung up in the loft, before going to sleep. So I had nice clean clothes on, and with how cold it's been getting at night, I brought a fleece jacket too. 

So I got there and the wind didn't beat me up too much at all, and I was glad to not be in the parking structure because not only was the first motorcycle there, but some idiot on a Harley had to pull in and park his stupid toy in such a way as to pretty much take over the area. Then after a while, left, noisily. Plus car alarms going off for some reason. 

So I happily stood out front and did my thing, and it felt a bit slow because it *was* a bit slow, but still, $62 isn't bad and is in line with a $40 an hour pay scale. 

It went pretty well, and one guy gave me a little bag of a type of popcorn they sell in Whole Foods, with a picture of a pink "Buddha" guy on it. It's not on my diet needless to say, so as I was getting near the end of my session, I handed it off to a guy with a shopping cart with all kinds of bags and things on it and hanging off of it, but it looked fairly organized. 

I finished up, and I might look at how to stay a bit later than 8 because the tips actually got better as it got a bit later, and the shopping cart guy started acting weird and cursing in some mix of Spanish and Crazy, and I thought, "Well, it's not my problem now..."  

I was putting things away and counting up when a young Whole Foods employee came up and wanted to know how to play "Long Long Time", the 1940s song that was in a recent Captain America movie. I said it's not that hard, but determined that he's really new at trumpet. So new he didn't have one yet. So I went through the standard advice; to rent one from West Valley Music, get a teacher or if he budget doesn't allow it, get one of the band books like Standard Of Excellence, and find people playing through it on YouTube. He said he hopes to see me out there more, and I'll have to put that song into my regular rotation. 

I packed up, walked past the crazy guy without incident because I'm the nice person who gave him popcorn haha, and walked out to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink and got on the bus back to my "home" Whole Foods. I went in for cheese and a couple of beef sticks for tomorrow so in theory all I'll have to do is ride there, park and lock the bike, use the loo, and go right to the bus stop. 

I also put on the fleece jacket which I'd left in the bike bag, because it was friggin' cold. While juggling various things, what goes into the bike bags and what clothing I'm changing out of and into, there were a couple of bums there talking with each other - hard to understand because there's this weird underclass accent/way of speaking that I find really rather difficult to understand. 

I said something to them like "Wow it's sure cold tonight!" and they agreed, and since I'd pulled my fleece jacket out of a very large, sturdy, zipper bag which I've got several of, I offered them the bag, which is a handy thing. The guy was thankful for it. 

The thing is, when I came back out after buying cheese and beef sticks, the two bums were still there and were only leaving to go off and do whatever else was planned for their evening. So  I figure they might have had a look through my bike bags because bums steal stuff. But when I got back here nothing was missing, except my little tube of lip balm. I guess they got that. Small victories. 

I was really hung up for a while on getting some "Chop Saver" lip balm which Craig at West Valley Music thinks the world of, and even gave me a tube of. That has disappeared, of course. So I had made serious plans to spend the few hours it takes to go over to West Valley Music and just buy some. I'd been thinking my cheapo Blistex is too greasy. But actually, it's not so greasy if I just use less of it. 

It's good if I can just get by with it, because  it's sold at a bunch of places and as I've mentioned, cheap. "Chop Saver" is enough of a hassle to obtain, even living here, must less living back home in Hawaii, that it would be easy to mail order it a few tubes at a time, and then losing a tube of it would be much more of a pain. 

So I just pulled out a new tube of Blistex out of the drawer here, and next time I'm at Walmart I'll buy a couple more.  

Paradoxical practice

 After doing a bunch of other things, I got some practice in before bed and it went really well. I feel like for the first time I got a bit of the feel for playing high notes without straining. 

Damned headache

 After getting back here and having dinner and staying up all night taking stuff apart, I developed a headache. I had visual disturbances too; haven't had those for a while but it's geometric patterns on the left side of my field of vision. 

In other words, I'm pretty sure I get a relatively painless, benign, version of the migraines that have been the bane of my older sister's existence. 

I really wanted to practice but I could not bring myself to, with the headache, so I went to bed. I had a weird dream where I was going to write the history of some big Asian market/company, like 99 Ranch but not 99 Ranch. Something like Yaohan maybe. I don't really have nightmares, just ordinary dreams but sometimes they can be kind of weird. 

I had two very large things to ship, both overseas. Both were above the weight/size limits and with one, the guy didn't even supply a viable address so I got to cancel both orders and have ending those listings. I'll just part the things out. 

I ended up packing two small things to go to the post office, taking those there, then going over to Nijiya Market by way of Oakland Road, to buy some coffee. Then stopped at the Amazon place for bubble mailers and found none. So those are going right out of style. 

Then it was down to Walmart for the shipping trip there I'd been promising myself. I had $60-odd on me and ended up speinding $41, leaving me with a $20 to put on my Clipper card. Of course it's OK to dip into my money in the bank, but the game is to do so as little as possible. 

When I got back the big pile of metal scrap from taking things apart overnight was still outside the door here.  

 

One year and one month

 Right now it's basically one year and one month until I leave. 

 I listed 20 things last night so that's good. 

I did some practice before bed and it was awful. I'm thinking I should not take one day off, but should take a day doing long tones and such exercises for my rest day. 

 

A little trail of Big Macs

 Pedonald is so brave, he was so unafraid of the Iranis, that he hid out in a catering truck while Air Force One flew without him, and he flew on some smaller plane. 

No other US president has done this kind of shell game. Not during wartime or peacetime or any time. 

I wonder how his handlers got him into the truck? I imagine it's like getting a cat into a cat carrier, and imagine them making a little trail of Big Macs to lure him in. 

I did a lot of packing last night - overnight - because I had something like 30 things to ship. And also, took the 8x4 foot sheet of fiberglass, which is VERY heavy, 100 lbs easy, and "walked" it because I could not drag it, across the parking lot and got it stashed in the trash enclosure where it's essentially invisible and no longer our problem. Yay! 

I did my shipping run and didn't find much of anything for materials on the way back, just a couple of useful small boxes. 

Dinner was "freebee beef broccoli". How that works is, I found a nice big head of broccoli behind H Mart so that was the broccoli, and as for the beef, that's an interesting story. 

After my last busking session on Sunday, when I got on the bus there was one pair of seats, the pair I like to sit at, with a paper grocery bag sitting there. So I decided to just sit on down and put my stuff next to the grocery bag, and have a little look to see what's inside. Trash, probably. 

Instead I saw a couple of bags of chips, some kind of potato chips fried in avocado oil or something like that, and some other kind. And underneath, a package of bacon. The bacon was not as cold as it should be, so the bag had been sitting on the bus for a little while at least. So I just played it cool until I got to the Diridon Station stop and got off, and gave the chips away to a couple of guys; "I'll never turn down free food!" said one. 

I now had an opportunity to dig in the bag more, as it was pretty heavy for just a package of bacon left now. Under that, was what felt like a big cold burrito, but a quick glance told me it was a big package of hamburger so again I just played it cool and walked over to "my" Whole Foods and stashed my goodies away in the bike bag, did my shopping, and rode home. 

One home I could really investigate things. After all, if the stuff was bad the birds would always eat it. The bacon was the "sugar free" type I'd been considering trying, and the hamburger was the Whole Foods store kind, that had been on sale. There was the receipt in the bag and it was from Sunnyvale Whole Foods. The place I'd just been busking at. 

This makes for some very puzzling logistics. The original owner of the stuff had bought it at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods. But the bacon was not as cold as it ought to be, and if it *was* as cold as it ought to be, it means the buyer would have walked to the other nearby bus stop, by the PF Changs, and then gotten right off. 

The only way it all makes sense is if someone bought this stuff, got on the #522 going *North* and forgot their stuff somewhere along the line, then of course the bus would have turned around in ... Palo Alto. And come back, now being a Southbound bus, and then I got on. No one would have disturbed the bag. 

I know this last because those bags of chips were in it, and chips are  a classic hand-to-mouth food, the only kind of food bums can consume, as it's beyond them to cook or wash or peel or prepare in anyway, anything they eat. They live, and eat, at the animal level like a squirrel or a stray cat. The chips *were* below the level of the top of the bag, so it would take someone actually peering inside, and I guess no one had had the opportunity. 

Since  I gave the chips away to a couple of bummy guys anyway, let's say a bum had glommed onto that bag of stuff. Well,  again, bums don't prepare or cook their food in any way. They'd have thrown away the bacon and the hamburger. Or let's say no one had disturbed the bag until the bus went off service for the night. It would come down to the driver or whoever cleans the bus to do something with it; eat the chips and by now, discard the now-too-warm bacon and hamburger. 

So my taking the bag kind of looks like the best case scenario. I put the bacon in the freezer until it was firm enough to work with, and cut it up into portions and those went into the freezer. And likewise the hamburger, cooled for a while in the fridge and then portioned out into 6 portions since there was a pound and a half of it. 

And tonight I cooked up one of the portions, and it's fine. I like the hamburger from H Mart the best, but it's hard to beat the price for this stuff. 

I kind of feel bad for whoever bought the stuff, but if they're buying chips cooked in avocado oil and fancy bacon, they're not hurting too bad. Public transit giveth, and public transit taketh away ... years ago I bought a nice table easel and left it on the light rail. 

 

 

I'm down

 2-1/2 lbs woot! Yeah it doesn't sound like that much, since a person's weight can fluctuate more than that on a single day. Which is why I only weigh myself on Mondays, right after getting out of bed, so it's a consistent time and at least in theory, set of conditions. 

 

$88 Sunday

 Standing out on the sidewalk at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods *is* better, even if the wind gets tiring. I played the same 6:30 to 8:00 time slot I've been doing, and it was all out there in that wind except a couple of times where I moved to the parking structure to get out of said wind, and moving back out after a few minutes. 

 

$49 Saturday

 I got out of here a bit later today. 4:30 instead of 4. 

But, if I took the shortest route, by way of Hedding, cut across a tiny part of the Bellermine campus, then right over to Whole Foods, that might help. And it did. I got over there, bought my two beef sticks and did a visit to the loo, and walked over to the bus stop by the SAP Center. The #22 and the #522 came at the same time, and a bum at the stop went for the #22 and I hopped on the #522. 

There's a difference; bums go for the longest ride while some of us are actually trying to get somewhere. And I did, in fact, I was at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods 15 minutes earlier than I was yesterday. Insight No. 1: Get the #522 bus when possible, it makes a real difference. 

Since I had a bit of time I checked their olive situation and it's the same as at my home Whole Foods so I didn't get any there. 

I set up down in the parking garage and it was really meh. It was not very busy, and I started to feel kind of abandoned down there. 

So I went up onto the sidewalk and while there was wind, and a lot of people just walking on by, I got more tips and more interactions, and all in all it was better. I may have done well in the parking structure, but Insight No. 2 is that I might well have done even better out on the sidewalk. 

Although the parking structure is good to know about in case of rain, excessive wind or noise, or if someone else is already set up on the sidewalk. 

When I was done I went to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink and a package of olives, and the guy greeted me, so I'm a regular now.  I'd made $49 and was glad to spend some of the many $1's I always end up with. 

The bus back was the regular old #22 so it was slower but still got me back to my home Whole Foods pretty fast, and I spent a whole $2, the $2 bill someone had given me, on some broccoli. 

 

$82 Friday

 I listed 20 things on Ebay last night, and when I was finally done I practiced, and it went really well. There's nothing like regular practice. 

I finally got to sleep and woke up at 3 in the afternoon thanks to my alarm clock. I got my stuff together and took off, dropping off trash and then some packages at the downtown post office. 

I was going to get my usual beef sticks at Whole Foods to eat on the bus, but hey, here was some beef jerky on sale that adds up to the same price, let's try that. 

On the bus I read the label and saw that the whole package (rather small; it wasn't a huge one so normally a person would eat the whole package) has 24 grams of carbs because here in the Land Of The Free, everything but everything has sugar in it to help us keep our trademark American physiques. 

Well, I ate it anyway, but I'll have to be more careful. 

I played at the Sunnyvale Whole Foods from 6:30 to 8:00 and although it felt slow-ish, I had some nice interactions with people. One guy wanted to film me and I said that's fine, as there are cameras all over the place here anyway, what's one more. He wanted to know my name and my back story and basically was one of these people who will donate a dollar (or nothing at all) and want to be talked to an entertained for half an hour, keeping everyone else from donating because you're busy talking to the pest. So I remembered I "had to" practice my pedal tones, which sound awful. A bit of that and he was off. 

And a delightful family, father, mother, and two kids, the kids and mom staying out by me while the father shopped, and wanted to know about my instrument, and about music stores, and I told them about West Valley Music for winds and Heaney Strings for violins, and even though as far as I can tell they only put in a dollar or two, it was nice. 

I even worked out that "Doo doo doo lookin' out my back door" song which has some weird lyrics but is a nice tune. I worked a bit on "Sunny Side Of The Street" too, but it turns out to have a ton of range, and will take more practice to sound good. 

In the end I counted up and had made $82, which is pretty nice for an hour and a half. 

It seemed to be getting dark earlier than I'd gotten used to as I walked to Baraka Market for my yogurt drink, and over to the bus stop. The next bus was a #522 so the ride back to my "home" Whole Foods was quick. It was still a bit past 9 and the employees were moving plant displays in and in other ways getting ready to close at 10 on the dot. 

I had a can of black coffee and some seltzer water since I'd been starting to fall asleep on the bus, and it was pretty dead there. And slightly cold, and windy.  

Here it is Thursday

 When I got up yesterday I tried something; I made my coffee with some Guittard cocoa powder but left out the Frima creamer. I thought this would make it tongue-curlingly bitter, but it turns out that the taste isn't much different at all. 

This means the Frima's outta here because while it's the best powdered creamer I've found, it's a weird processed substance that I'm not sure is actually food. 

I did my post office and FedEx thing, blah blah. Sales are very slow so there was not much to ship. 

I got back here and had the place all cleaned up when Ken came over. We talked as usual and I got my check, to cash on Friday which is tomorrow. 

Somehow Ken's got the money to go gallivanting off to England and Scotland for the next couple weeks. Worried about expenses and then this, it doesn't compute. 

But then, his wife is the opposite of him about money and she got at something close to half a mil when her sister died, and she was a travel agent at one point. She might be financing these trips they take. So off they go and I hope they have a great time.  

When Ken was gone, it was time to strike. And by strike I mean, drag out a huge piece of fiberglass, something like 4X8 feet and super heavy, out of here. It's something one of the homeless scumbags had given him when we were barely moved in, and all it's been good for is blocking the way to things. I put it out and some old centrifuges we can't give away and some other junk. 

Then I picked out an HP unit to take apart that I hoped had plenty of circuit boards with gold plated traces and I made a good choice. The one I grabbed had the paint flaking off of the front for some reason, and tons of gold plated boards. So that was overnight; taking that thing apart. 

Then I did a pretty productive practice session. If I can get to play the same range I had on a 3C trumpet mouthpiece, with my deep-V cornet mouthpiece, then if I pick up a trumpet again with a 3C, I might just be a real barn-burner. And once I'm back home, I might well pick up a trumpet or three, since my moves will be all done with and I'll be where I'll be. My life's dream back there will be if the Royal Hawaiian Band needs a 4th trumpet. 

I've realized that there's no need to feel guilty about skipping out on Ken in mid-September next year, because the guys on both sides of us will take over the lease in a heartbeat. 

I got out of here with various donations to drop off, a bag of clothes and household stuff I left in front of Goodwill, and a bag of foodstuffs I left at the base of the Little Free Library in Japantown. I also got a couple of hard-boiled eggs and a bottle of tea at Nijiya, and ate out front, as I had a big Walmart shopping trip planned. 

I went to the Amazon place and got a nice load of bubble mailers which is nice, and then realized I didn't pack the bike lock; the bike bags still had bungee cords from my last shipping trip. Which means I could not go much of anywhere, other than perhaps to Nijiya again,  so that's where I went, where I got some cold grilled mackerel and some eggs, and came back here. 

I've forgotten the bike lock before, so this is not a new thing. But I've used the one chance I have to go to Walmart that I have per week or so, and I'll have to be more careful for my one shot at it next week. This is why I keep stocked up on things. 

 

Tuesday because Monday isn't even worth mentioning.

 It's the usual, listing things on Ebay, packing and shipping Ebay things ..

I'm still thinking about the idea of being very aware of how exactly my lips are placed on the mouthpiece and how they tend to drift out of position, especially with my cheap greasy Blistex lip balm. I've looked all over and can't find the "Chop Saver" Craig at West Valley Music swears by. 

This means I'll have to go back there and buy another tube of it, so the first one, which he gave me, will re-appear. It might be worth it though. 

I went by H Mart to buy broccoli and ground beef and stuff, and the homeless guy was there with his huge bags on the bench. He got and and walked toward me, but sort of walking/looking past me like a zombie. I called out, "You still want the charger?" and he said something like, "No; already got one!" and that was that. No thanks for making the effort etc. 

The other day he'd given back some goodies (free samples from H Mart which are often pretty good things and these were) I'd given him. 

So ... OK. I left the charger on top of one of his bags as I passed, and went on with my day. 

 

 

Some progress

 Not in weight loss, as I'm still where I was last week. At least I didn't gain. 

Money-wise, yeah it's great I went out and busked. I bought a bunch of stuff so I'm left with $77 or so in my wallet, but all I need for the week is "cilantro money" in other words, money for small daily things. 

But in the trumpet playing itself, I feel like I've learned something new. I believe that for a long time, I'd just play and wasn't paying that much attention to the position of my lips on the mouthpiece or how that position would drift. Hence eventually sounding a bit like a duck near the end of a busking session. 

Now I'm suddenly aware of how the position is drifting, and re-positioning is a huge help. Maybe this is why Craig at West Valley Music is so fond of "Chop Saver" as opposed to the cheap lip balm I use. 

 Unfortunately, I can't find the tube of "Chop Saver" he gave me, and will have to go back there to West Valley Music to buy another, to be able to find the first one.  

$25 Sunday

 I played at the Alameda Whole Foods from 7:30 to 9:00 and made $25. It makes sense given we're in a Depression. 

I came home and started to use my super sharp veggie peeler to peel a piece of daikon radish and nailed my right index finger which makes it hard to type. The peeler and the radish went right into the trash. 

I'll eat something else for dinner.  Cheese and olives.

I think I should have started at 6, because once it was 9, things got dead and the workers started putting things away. 9 in this town is like midnight anywhere else.  

A slightly more decent busking Saturday

 I was up early enough but didn't get out of here until almost 4:30. I went over to the Alameda Whole Foods by the quickest route, over the hill on Hedding and cutting through part of the Bellermine campus. I bought my two beef sticks and got right over to the bus stop, and waited while two #522 buses went by, with plenty of time before the first one for me to have walked up to the other bus stop where the #522 stops. 

I still got to  the Sunnyvale Whole Foods in time to get started at just a bit after 6:30 so I took that as my starting time and played until just before 8. 

It felt slower than yesterday, but when all was said and done, I'd made $94, $10 of it in the form of a Whole Foods gift card. 

I also got to talk to the guy whose motorcycle is there, and he's not irritated with me or anything, and I think I set his mind at ease about any worries that I might even actually touch his bike. So that's cool. One he had left  with his bike, I was able to set up where the bike was, essentially, instead of some distance in front of it and in an odd position because of this.  

Someone had lost a little bag with a bunch of cheapo earrings inside, probably something for a craft project, and it was lying on the parking lot there and I didn't remember it being there when I'd started so when I was done I turned it into the customer service desk there in Whole Foods. 

Then I walked out to Baraka Market where I got my yogurt drink and then to the bus stop where I drank it and pretty soon a #522 bus came so the ride home was surprisingly quick. I still didn't get back here until almost 10:30