You guys make it my business

 Saturday was spent taking things apart. I have a shelf that I want to clear and have it all where circuit boards go. There were two large HEAVY power supplies which I'm not sure I kept much of anything off at all, then a big frequency synthesizer that also got taken apart, that took a while. 

I got to bed at a decent time, I want to say half after midnight or so. I was awakened by some idiot parking right in front of here and having his car alarm go off, which he didn't seem to be able to shut off so I opened the door and helped by shining my big flashlight on blinking mode in his face haha. Then, since it was around 3 in the morning, the illegal night club was having a night and there was other noise, so I did the usual, called the cops and told the operator about it, and filed an online report. 

Eventually the cops cleared everyone out so that's good. They've made an enemy, and as long as they keep making it my business, I'll do whatever I can to mess 'em up. 

I watched the 2nd half of Angela's Ashes, good movie, and finally went to bed around 10AM and woke up around 1PM then again at 5PM. To make the number of items listed that I want to, for this week I need to list 35 things.  So I've got those lined up .... 

All this BS has kind of kept me from practicing. I think it's a good thing that the 6-hole flute is so darned easy to play, and there's so much material. It turns out (I read somewhere) that most of the Christmas carols are in G, and here I am with two G flutes. My thinking is I'd get an A also, but they come in all sorts of keys. 

The idea is, at the very least, to put enough time in that when I'm finally out of here, I'll have some kind of "base" to work from. For instance on trumpet I can, at this point, not play it for a year or three and then pick it up and sound OK right from the start and sound pretty good once I've been playing again for a bit. This probably goes for any instrument. 

But the thought of playing a trumpet in the tropics is ... not good. Not only is the Pacific/Asian culture in Hawaii such that there's an actual saying, "no make tan-turan" or literally "don't play the trumpet" meaning don't make a big deal of yourself. But the trumpet, being a closed tube, is a huge bacterial culture. That's why trumpets even here, in warm/damp places like Santa Cruz stink like hell. I suppose with fanatical cleanliness it could be a bit better but yuck, just yuck. 

Meanwhile a shakuhachi or simple flute are pretty easy to keep clean. I'm probably more fanatical than I need to be, brushing my teeth, flossing, then chewing Xylitol gum before practicing, because this level of cleanliness is needed for trumpet. The high air pressure, plus the lips being right on the mouthpiece and because they're vibrating, at the very least there are going to be skin particles coming off. 

This being November, I need to work on being ready to go out and play Christmas carols all I can in December. Right up to and including Christmas day. That will be my experiment to find out how the public likes the flute vs. the trumpet. 

I never got around to mentioning my plan if things suddenly turn to shit here. If that happens, the plan is to get a storage unit and grab everything that's mine and stick it in there, no sorting just get it all in there, and find a decent/cheap hotel to stay in while I sort out the stuff and get my ticket to fly back to Hawaii. 

Tom's said I could always stay at his place but it's pretty crowded. Because he was stupid and  associated with the local scumbags, the city inspectors have him under a magnifying glass and he's scared to sleep in his own place, sleeping in his camper truck instead. And he's got his wife living in there too. So yeah I'd be better off at the Motel 6 by the Denny's or something. 

 

 

Pearl Harbor Day

 Of course I won't call it that around Japantown! And haven't I spent a lot of time around Pearl Harbor! For one thing, Jack Wheat's surplus place was right around there, plus the junior college I went to, plus the good old Bowfin submarine, where I was a tour guide for a year or two. Memories of the place even go back to when we went with my older brother's Boy Scout troop, and it was pouring rain, and this hot cocoa machine there got jammed up somehow and kept dispensing cup after cup of hot cocoa. 

When I get back I want to really explore the place though. 

Last night I could not keep my eyes open and kept starting to doze off in my chair, so I went to bed at half after midnight. I woke up around 5:30 in the morning and made myself go back to sleep until a quarter to 8. It's only been getting down to 70 degrees in here but for some reason unless I'm moving around it feels quite cold. I guess I'll be well adapted for life back in Hawaii. 

 

Toot toot tweet squeak

 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. 

 

Election day

 I was up at 11, packed a couple more things, and did my post office and FedEx run, stopping first at my favorite lunch truck for some good old lunch truck spaghetti and a diet Pepsi. 

By the time I got back here, cleaned up and shaved so I'd look as much as possible like my passport photo (and I brought my passport) and was walking to the light rail station, it was a bit past 4. What's to worry about, I thought. I have 3 hours to get there. 

3 hours ended up cutting it close. I took the light rail to the Milpitas BART station and checked the buses leaving there. None of them are ones that go by Ohlone College. So I called for a cab, which did eventually come, at just before 7. The ride was quoted as $51-odd, and I gave the guy $60. It was a fair old distance too. 

During the ride, the driver, a nice old Sikh guy, and I talked about ways to get back. He'd be off duty; been driving since 7AM. I might not have very good luck with the cab company and I said I know as it's a Santa Clara County cab company. I said I might take a bus because if the bus gets me to one of the BART stations then I can always go on BART back to the Milpitas station. 

We got to the college and it was easy to find the voting area as it was right out front next to the on-campus Starbucks. The voting was easy, it was only two things anyway; Prop. 50 and Measure B. 

While waiting in line I started sussing out people to talk to, to be able to bring up the subject of my having $50 for anyone who can give me a ride back. I made some small talk with the guy right behind me, a skinny, quiet guy with long hair. Quiet enough that I decided I'd not broach the subject with him. 

Done voting, I went out front and started sussing out people again, and who should come up from behind me and say he'll give me a ride but the skinny guy. Fair enough! 

We got in his Prius and had plenty of time to talk about our occupations and situations and some funny stories and observations. He'd "done NASA work" but was laid off, and is jobless. Not in dire need but getting by selling his deceased dad's stuff and getting money from his mother, now out in flyover country, who'd sold their house here in the Bay Area. 

I could not describe an easy way to get to Milpitas BART, and the guy's navigation thing couldn't deal with something that vague, so I said he could go to the intersection of First and Brokaw, which is easy to find and not at all far from Milpitas BART. So we did that. I gave him $100 which he really appreciated. I may have done him a real solid, and he sure did me one. 

Now, I could just walk home, but I'd planned to go to Whole Foods to get a couple of things, have some food and a near-beer, and watch the election results. And that's just what I did, hopping on the light rail again to go down there, except for the election results. The guy at the bar said a guy'd come in there with a Trump 2025 something or other, and so the rule was no politics in the bar. Fair enough! 

I finished my food and beer and rode the light rail back here and that's it. I'd not missed what may be the last election until this horrible regime is gotten rid of. 

Apparently Zohran Mamdani has won in New York, he's their new mayor. That's great news.  And Prop. 50 passed. If anything even better news. 

A quiet night

 Which I was up all of, getting back to a daytime schedule is harder than I thought it would be. I practiced, so at least there's that. At the concert I was getting out some nice clear tones so that's a good thing. 

I have a theory that as a shakuhachi is played and cleaned, the bore gets smoother over time and that's part of the "increasing skill" of the player. I'm going going to experiment on the "enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu I have though, but the factory stock one is fair game. 

The illegal night club was quiet and a cop car drove through periodically.  I set my alarm for 2 in the afternoon, and went to bed around 8AM I think, so we're talking 5-6 hours of sleep. Still not enough. 

I packed as many things as I could after eating something, and of course it takes time to find the things also. And got 'em to the post office and FedEx, and then spent a bunch of money in H Mart on sugar free 7Up which is 2X the price it is at Walmart, a tub of Sky Flakes and a little can of liver pate', a jar of kim chee, such things. 

I only found a couple of boxes on the way back and stopped and said Hi to Tom, since on Monday night the place next to him tosses out packing stuff so I kind of need to stop and check there. Tom's doing OK, and about to call it a night so we didn't talk much. I think he's up at 6 in the morning or maybe even earlier. 

I got back here and put things away, and got some boxes of fluorescent tubes and a box of big incandescent bulbs, that are unsellable these days, and loaded those up along with the same sort of thing I'd put out in the parking lot a week or so ago and no one had picked up, and took everything over by the bridge to drop off. Someone will take them, or not. 

Liver pate' on Sky Flakes crackers is a pretty good meal, but I remembered I had "The King" surimi in the fridge so I made a "crab" salad with that, and that was dinner.  

 

Trying to get back to daytime schedule

 I was so tired last night it was a struggle to stay up until 10PM, when I figured I'd go to bed and wake up around 6-8 in the morning. That part went OK, but then I woke up at what the wall clock told me was a few minutes after 3 in the morning, but since the time shifted back an hour, was a few minutes after 2AM. 

Just the time the illegal night club starts up, usually. And it did. I put in my little report online and whether it was coincidence or not, pretty soon the cops came around and there was the "rats leaving the sinking ship" thing where tons of clients of the nightclub/brothel came streaming out. 

Then the power went out because of course it did. I figured some disgruntled "john" or another had messed with the electrical switches etc. on the side of the building, right where a horde of them were walking around, and decided I'll go to bed and figure things out in the morning. 

So I went to bed and was just dropping off to sleep when the power came back on so I turned off the lights that were on, and went back to bed. And slept in until 11:30 in the morning, actually 10:30 in the morning because of the time shift. 

 

Shakuhachi "concert"

 Yesterday among other things, many other things, I went to Low's and returned the light that was too bid, and got a couple of LED lamps that are not too yellow, and put one in the fixture I have here in the office that had a yellowish one, and in the other, took the lamp I had up in the loft and put it in and put it here in the office. Between the overhead light, now yellowish due to Ken's "improvement" and my two "daylight" lights, the office had decent light again. 

I got back here and my day's work was getting things ready to list, which went into the evening as it takes a lot of time to take those old oscilloscopes apart. The problem here was that I was up past 2AM and the illegal night club operated but with a smaller crowd than they'd been having, and the honest truth is that if I'd gone to bed at a decent time I'd have slept through the moderate amount of noise. 

I practiced, and that longest song, "Always With Me" is still  in progress. All I could do is try my best. 

I woke up at 8 and was over at Nijiya at 9:30. I got a little package of gyoza and a can of coffee, and ate and drank at the table out front. I went back in and bought a bunch of senbei, and went over to the event at the temple. 

It was interesting, I picked up the calendar I'd paid for at the office, and it was lots of short speeches and such things. We actually had some local politicians there and Buddhist Churches Of America people, and so on, so that was impressive. The lunch was amazing. So. Much. Food. I had some char siu, soba, poke on rice, potato salad, and importantly, some cucumber pickles. I ate fast, as I'd noticed everyone else had their music stands set up. 

Once I had eaten, I used to bathroom and rinsed my mouth, then went out to the bike and got my music stand, music, and shakuhachi. I set my stand up with the others, and after everyone had eaten, there was an announcement and we were on. 

It went just like practice/rehearsal. We played the songs in order, and I didn't miss too many notes. Plus on that long song, when I got lost I was able to jump back in. Poor Paul Endo, playing next to me, hadn't been able to get any notes to come out in practice, but he got some out this time, and when we were done I told him he'd sounded pretty good. Overall it went well. 

We went off the stage as the choir went on, and they sang some neat stuff. Then it was more speeches and things, and then we had the hall for another hour to socialize. We each got a set of 5 Rinban Sakamoto trading cards which is a pretty hilarious idea, and I especially like the one about his shakuhachi playing since it shows his whole career, starting out under a teacher at the Mo'ili'ili Betsuin Temple, where I may indeed find myself playing and learning, not too long from now. 

There was so much food, and the food *they* had being friendly to older people's teeth, they hadn't even put my senbei out, and I got it back so I have lots of senbei now. And I came back here because it's enough excitement for one day. Last night and the night before I got 4 hours of sleep so I need to get to a schedule that gives me a full 8 hours of sleep and it's not that safe to be out riding around until then.