I got a call from David the Water Jug Player last night.
He has acquired a bicycle, which needs to have its brakes worked on, and he was calling me about the tool that I have, which he had given to me at one point, which is a bicycle tool.
I had actually told him that I would ride down to the Quarter and bring him the tool. I was in the middle of drinking a Monster zero calorie energy drink at the time and warmed up from the brisk ride to the store for the Monster. It seemed like it would be good exercise to ride down to the Quarter ("I won't have my gear on; I'll be able to fly," I had told him) at that time.
After I had gotten back to the apartment and eaten, then smoked some "ambition be gone," and had put my radio on to discover that a pretty good football game was being broadcast, I began to rethink the situation with David the Water Jug Player.
I wasn't going to lie and say that I was having trouble finding the tool: I'm sure that I will, as soon as I have time (give me at least a day) to look everywhere for it. I put it in some random place; it might be in with the cutlery for all I know. I'll find it. Tomorrow, type of thing...
And then I thought more critically about the problem that David the Water Jug player has.
Even if he had no brakes at all, he would be able to manage, by keeping his speed down and just using his feet for brakes; Fred Flintstone style.
He wasn't going to crash and die any time soon, at least not for want of brakes, and so I reasoned that it would be ridiculous for me to go out into the unseasonably cold air to bring David the Water Jug Player the bike wrench thing, because it wasn't a real emergency.
Tonight, (Monday) I still have the wrench. I imagine David is making do with the brakes in whatever condition they happen to be in; and there is a football game on the radio.
I feel like I want to be at the Lilly Pad every night, and there is a ball of guilt in the front of my head and a bilious sense of fear in my stomach; at the thought of taking the night off.
For one thing, the 50 dollar tipping guy comes like a thief in the night.
For another thing: It would be a good deed to bring David the Water Jug Player the bike tool, so he can fix his brakes. It could give me the good karma needed to go on and have a lucrative night busking.
The money situation is a convoluted mess, which basically centers around the debate over whether to get one "big thing" with the money; or arbitrarily, 10 small things.
I'm really stressing out over the people cranking the stereo from the balcony near the Lilly Pad. They had done so last Friday night, throughout the whole time period when I would "normally" be making somewhere at least close to my 18 dollar per hour average.
I need to write Lilly a detailed letter, about the situation, and let it mull in her brain. She might just be more than up for the task of imposing order upon some AIRBNB renters; destroyers of decent neighborhoods that they so often are...
A new harmonica, maybe even a Hohner "Special 20," a couple sets of strings, a capo, some picks, etc. would be a sound investment into my "business," unless the cranking of music from the balcony becomes a nightly thing.
If such a point came where the Lilly Pad was no longer a lucrative place to play, because of the AIRBNB types; then the above items would still have been invested wisely into my business; I would just have to change locations, until such a point that I had an amplifier, whereupon I would return.
Prior objections that were voice to myself, or most infamously Johnny B., having an amplifier can now be rebutted by my advancing the logic that, if a certain amp was too loud, then surely music that requires that amp in order to be heard over, is also too loud.
I think I will stay in and write that letter.
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| Coming up upon 2nd anniversary of move-in |
He has acquired a bicycle, which needs to have its brakes worked on, and he was calling me about the tool that I have, which he had given to me at one point, which is a bicycle tool.
I had actually told him that I would ride down to the Quarter and bring him the tool. I was in the middle of drinking a Monster zero calorie energy drink at the time and warmed up from the brisk ride to the store for the Monster. It seemed like it would be good exercise to ride down to the Quarter ("I won't have my gear on; I'll be able to fly," I had told him) at that time.
After I had gotten back to the apartment and eaten, then smoked some "ambition be gone," and had put my radio on to discover that a pretty good football game was being broadcast, I began to rethink the situation with David the Water Jug Player.
I wasn't going to lie and say that I was having trouble finding the tool: I'm sure that I will, as soon as I have time (give me at least a day) to look everywhere for it. I put it in some random place; it might be in with the cutlery for all I know. I'll find it. Tomorrow, type of thing...
Even if he had no brakes at all, he would be able to manage, by keeping his speed down and just using his feet for brakes; Fred Flintstone style.
He wasn't going to crash and die any time soon, at least not for want of brakes, and so I reasoned that it would be ridiculous for me to go out into the unseasonably cold air to bring David the Water Jug Player the bike wrench thing, because it wasn't a real emergency.
Tonight, (Monday) I still have the wrench. I imagine David is making do with the brakes in whatever condition they happen to be in; and there is a football game on the radio.
I feel like I want to be at the Lilly Pad every night, and there is a ball of guilt in the front of my head and a bilious sense of fear in my stomach; at the thought of taking the night off.
For one thing, the 50 dollar tipping guy comes like a thief in the night.
For another thing: It would be a good deed to bring David the Water Jug Player the bike tool, so he can fix his brakes. It could give me the good karma needed to go on and have a lucrative night busking.
The money situation is a convoluted mess, which basically centers around the debate over whether to get one "big thing" with the money; or arbitrarily, 10 small things.
I'm really stressing out over the people cranking the stereo from the balcony near the Lilly Pad. They had done so last Friday night, throughout the whole time period when I would "normally" be making somewhere at least close to my 18 dollar per hour average.
I need to write Lilly a detailed letter, about the situation, and let it mull in her brain. She might just be more than up for the task of imposing order upon some AIRBNB renters; destroyers of decent neighborhoods that they so often are...
A new harmonica, maybe even a Hohner "Special 20," a couple sets of strings, a capo, some picks, etc. would be a sound investment into my "business," unless the cranking of music from the balcony becomes a nightly thing.
If such a point came where the Lilly Pad was no longer a lucrative place to play, because of the AIRBNB types; then the above items would still have been invested wisely into my business; I would just have to change locations, until such a point that I had an amplifier, whereupon I would return.
Prior objections that were voice to myself, or most infamously Johnny B., having an amplifier can now be rebutted by my advancing the logic that, if a certain amp was too loud, then surely music that requires that amp in order to be heard over, is also too loud.
I think I will stay in and write that letter.
Aren't bikes great? Modern bikes don't seem to need a special tool to work on the brakes but some of the older ones do. In fact, out of the small collection of specialized bike tools I have, I've only used the pedal wrench. Even with the bikes that "need" a tool, you can improvise something, have someone hold the brakes for you while you work on them, etc. It's something like you have to hold them closed while you adjust the cable, and you can even wrap 'em up with a piece of old inner tube to do that. So there are ways... the tool just makes it easier/faster especially if cranking out work in a bike shop.
ReplyDeleteSick as I am, I did a brisk ride to downtown San Jose by way of a local shopping center to pick up halvah and marzipan for T'giving dinner and I'd swear, although walking is more arduous, there seems to be something about the greater range of motion used by the legs in pedaling a bike that's beneficial. I just feel better if I get my riding in.
I dunno what to advise about the AIRBNB types. AIRBNB tends to attract the most obnoxious entitled assholes. Maybe Lilly is irritated by them also, and can do something.