Because The World Is Round

After the magical Friday night of busking;

followed by attempts to unwind at home; which failed until just around sunup when I drifted off, then woke up at 4, just an hour and a half from the Lilly suggested starting time. To break the habit, in Lilly's words; of the guy with the dog, of showing up every night and giving Lilly a headache with his resonator guitar. I low-key think that what the dear lady is trying to do is not break anyone's habits, but to reform me and mine, into a habit of showing up every evening, just before sundown. 

But, I was up just before the "5:30" starting time that Lilly had strongly suggested I internalize. 
I managed to make it there at what turned out to be 6:20 p.m. and began to play. Initially this seemed to be to the consternation of a guy who was sitting on Lilly's other stoop, where he was apparently reading, and seemed to be jotting things down on paper with an actual ink pen...
My first goal was to get the guy on the other stoop to stop looking irritated.

I had decided to ride the street car down there; a cost of $2.50 for the round trip; but I was bloated with cash after having had about a 75 dollar Friday night.

On the street car there were hardly any empty seats, but a Latina looking lady in her late 40's perhaps, scooted over and made enough room for me to squeeze in between her and what turned out to be an operations manager in some industry in Colorado Springs, where she moved to at the age of 18 from Wisconsin, some city not far from Racine.

Squeezing into the seat was one thing, but dealing with the backpack and guitar was the more complex thing. I got the baak pack between my feet and then made some comment to the lady in her late 60's from Colorado Springs about the bag having had everything on Bourbon Street spilled on it.

I asked her if there were street musicians in Colarado Springs and she said yes, there were. But they were all in Denver. She must have thought I asked her if there were street performers in Colorado itself; and didn't hear the "Springs" part.

I got off the trolley and immediately found a fat roach on the sidewalk next to an ashtray outside the Paradise diner or whaever it is...
I got out to the Lilly Pad and tuned up and smoked some of that fat roach; then found myself vamping on "Brick House," by The Commodores. I realized in those moments that I had discovered a good way to idle down so you're not playing like a maniac the entire time you are out there. It is pretty easy to kind of get in a rocking (both literally and figuratively) groove and then just "Aww, she's a BRICK; HOUSE! (she's mighty, mighty, just lettin' it all hang out!" -ing your way through all the times that there are people within ear shot but not maney. 

Using that as filler and then just trying to rip away as best I could, with the knowledge that Angelique, the younger of Lilly's 2 daughters (the older one having just earned a master's degree in something, from I think Layola University) has been reporting to Lilly upon detection of music being played out front; who it is that is doing so.

When I called Lilly not long after I woke at 4, to find out if the guy with the dog and the resonator guitar was there playing.

He wasn't "But you better hurry up, Daniel." 

She then informed me that when Angelique had gone to the front corner window, after they heard something coming from out front, she hadn't even bothered to peer through the shutters; she could tell that it was me; and then Lilly passed on the complement of it having sounded "smooth and really nice" to Angelique.

I made less than on Friday, but was given a 20 dollar nicotine vape by a guy who had no cash but wanted to give me something. A nicotine vape was almost certainly where my next 14 bucks was going to go -for the cheapest kind...

And then, it just sounded good and the weather was perfect and I discovered the "idling down" method of pacing oneself and extending working hours thereby. I mean, do I really want to be doing some fancy pickin' when a skeezer is the only sould walking past? Sometimes yeah, actually; but I don't think that's because of the skeezer; you would feel the same regardless...