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| Could this be one of the last times that I ever see sue? (taken just about an hour before our ill fated trip to the shamans shrine, and already showing her becoming invisible) |
She claimed that, since I am leaving and probably not taking her with me (because she is afraid of going), that we need not do anything to increase our affections for each other, because it will just lead to unnessesary hearache, especially on her part.
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| It's up to the krewe members on the float to quickly size up your wardrobe and throw the right colored beads to you or, as in my case, not throw any |
for that ticket that I got last Saturday. They are processing them fast, here. Pay your fines on the way out, see you next year...
To my credit? I was not swept off the streets on that Saturday, and transported to the jail to wait for Mardi Gras to pass, and the justices to go back to work, like so many were.
Missing in action were a whole slew of mostly "obnoxious jerks who can't hold their liquor" over the weekend and into Fat Tuesday.
I will try to work out a plea, whereby I inform the court that I could do community service, but that will hold up my departure. Note to self: Make sure you explicitly say "departure," and for Christ's sake, say it loud enough for the city attourney to hear.
Strings And Cable
After going to The Rebuild Center and being informed that no package had yet arrived due to what the Sister attributed to "the local mail probably hasn't even moved since Friday," I will return there two hours from now, and try to get the strings and cable that Alex in California has sent.
I will leave it to other people to call the post office and complain about them taking a long holiday, and hope that enough of them do so, that the postal workers will really get a move on, and deliver the mail.
Eating Healthy
I went so far as to go to the food stamp office where I was given a card with a website address on it, in lieau of waiting there until "the next available representitive is free."
I came back here to the library and registered online, filling out all kinds of forms.
I couldn't give them a phone number. There is a note on the application stating that the absence of a phone number could delay the process.
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| Made possible by a generous donation from a guy in California, who probably will be sick of my guts within a month, should I go there |
Goody Box Arrives
I got the box handed to me by the mailroom nun at Rebuild Center today.
To her credit, she didn't ask me for ID, though that is a policy of theirs. She has seen me a dozen times and has memorised my name and face, and common sense has prevailed and she doesn't ask me for my (expired) ID. Cool.
I now have a cable, which I have already used to load the picture of Sue at the top of the post, and some excellent strings. It makes me embarassed to think that other people, who have had the same opportunities as I, growing up in this great country, are in positions to send me strings, while my choices and decisions have lead me to be chasing a Colombian lady around one of the most dangerous cities in the world...
I'm sure I'd get sick of you, if I spent as much time around you as Howard does. But, I'm far out in the rural area just far enough to make going into town a pain in the ass - especially if you don't have a car or motorcycle, scooter, etc. So, with an hour's walk between myself and the bus, and 3 hours to get to say, Mountain View, a good busking town, I'm lucky if I'd be in a position to be around *any* other busker more than once a week.
ReplyDeleteRight now I can't justify having a car until I have the busking skills to play at a given farmers market, street fair, wine festival (oh yeah we're really big on wine festivals out here, you'd think the shit was Florida Orange Juice the way they push it) etc. and make decent money and by decent I mean, $20 an hour.
I just don't have the time, right now, to hang around with *anyone* long enough to get sick of 'em. Even if you "set up shop" in downtown Gilroy, which I'd actually suggest, since it's so much more relaxed than a lot of towns, I'd see you a few times a week at most. But I'd sure go busking with ya! We could perhaps become a fixture at the Outlet Stores, if the copz on segwayz don't run us off or run our asses over.
As for others being able to buy you strings, you're making money, you're talking about $50 days, $100 days, etc. Sure you get $7 days too, but you can just budget yourself a certain amount to live on and save the rest, That's what I do. I got spanked so hard by the Great Recession that I've learned to be very frugal. In your case, if I were you, I'd keep up with the beer, but I'd keep to dollar bin beer. Yeah it kinda sucks but so does the cheap whiskey I drink. For cigs I'd snipe it, actually I'd quit but I dunno if I could quit so I never started. So honestly I'd get those snipes and roll 'em. Because it's real easy to go through $5 or more a day on cigs. For food I'd go more into Mexican cuisine, because it's cheap. At least it is if you have scads of Hispanics around, like out here. TL;DR - I do really frugal shit so I can send ya strings ;-)
yeah, common sense tells me to roll as much $ as possible, back into my "business." This could be printing out songs at the library (at 15 cents a page; doesn't sound like much til you print out 6 pages and only have one song ("Desperado")to learn)then, there is the time spent sitting in a non busking spot and running through that classic Eagles song and spicing it up enough to make it servable; and taking time away from busking has a negative effect on your economy, even though when you trot out that "Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy; she'll beat you if she's able..." your hope is to earn dividends on the time spent.
ReplyDeleteSo, to get to my point; my higher intelligence tells me to starve for two weeks if I have to, to get an amp and a mic and etc. to go with it; and then put myself in the Royal Street market; and laugh at how short a time it took to all pay for itself...and then to resume eating...
That's what I would coach someone in my position to do; because I see it all around me, someone playing an elaborate rig; me thinking "hand me that guitar a second, I believe Jimi played it a little more like..." and then seeing three times as much as I had made that day in their tip jars! And, they sell CDs at $10 to $15 a pop (how much does it cost to burn one?)
But, that being said; I am already at a point where I am seeing a boost in earnings from the addition of the harp and that might be like placing a big enough piece of wood on the fire that, when it eventually catches, will create enough fire so that more logs can be thrown on (logs being metaphors for things like effects pedals [twigs] a second amp for stereo [log] and such, in case that wasn't obvious.
My "problem" with frugality is, the one part of the brain in charge of earning income tends to get lazy when it realises the miser lobe is doing such good work. It saps some of my ambition when I can realistically *live* on 7 dollars and fifty two cents a day!
Why play till the point of blisters trying to break 100 when the 50 you've made is 7 times what you need.
I wish I was like my friend Larry (see old posts)in the way that, the more he makes the harder he plays...."I've already got 25 in just an hour; I'm gonna stay and try to break my record; if it takes all night!" -Larry