In less than an hour of opening, the electric cut out at the Thrift. This prompted a phone call to Dickens, whereby I heard a newborn wailing in the background. It was a baby girl, and I reset the breaker. Then I dealt with customers all day who didn’t really buy a lot of stuff. Gary, the guitarist, was back in and I took his phone number just in case.The exercise dude from the club next door says we are welcome in any time for free coffee or tea. I may take him up on that if things are quiet. I immediately think of coffee when quiet happens anywhere. The logic is simple. Nothing happens, so you get coffee, which means you get a good book, then you read and within moments, things are right again.
Some posts back, I wondered about the little magnets on my new glasses. Marion has supplied the answer. These tiny magnets are located near the hinges. It seems these prescription glass frames came with a matching pair of sunglass lenses. Instead of clip-ons, these lenses were held in place by magnetism. She showed me the feature on a pair she was wearing. It makes sense how, since accessories are the first part everybody loses that I’ve never seen any. Since it was a dumb idea to start with, I couldn’t figure it out.
In the slow moments, I searched for a high-hat on eBay. They all cost about the same, although it was interesting to note that most of eBay concerning musical instruments was retail ecommerce, not an auction. I won’t say I told you so. The prices are identical to the penny along with the merchandise. No bargains there. I’m saying everyone is selling the exact same things for the same price. Shopping around is meaningless under the circumstances.
How’s the Chinese coming along? I can now write days, weeks, months and years. Who remembers the old joke about Chinese arithmetic? Guys, it may be true. The way they write the numbers follows the pronunciation, not a graphical representation of value by position. Get it? In our system, the number five takes on different value depending on which “column” it occupies. In Chinese, to write the number, say, “seven thousand two hundred fifty-nine” would use six different words (count ‘em) instead of four numeric symbols with a thousands separator. Arabic and Chinese numbering are incompatible.
The grammar rules are not complicated but they follow unfamiliar logic. How you say thank you depends on whether someone opens the door for you or gives your grandson the door for his birthday. Counting things uses different words than listing things. At this time I cannot even fathom how arithmetic might be done in Chinese. I’m certain it will be most enlightening, ahem. And yes, it is best to learn Chinese by memorizing how to write each symbol until you get it.
Musically, it is back to first things first. I cannot get the high-hat rhythm down in my mind, which means I have to go buy one and, if you will, drum the pattern into my brain. You’d think with all the failed musicians in this town it would be easy to find a used set. Nope, I have to go to a music store and go through that ridiculous skit where they try to upsell me by quoting the trap and cymbals as separately priced units.
High-hats are one of the more loathsome examples of unbundling (pricing required combinations as individual components). In this example, neither is separately called a high-hat and high-hat refers only to the combination. Yet every salesman in this town will ask you which “piece” you mean when you say “high-hat”.
Ready for a laugh? Okay, I clean up after the trip y’day and put everything in a plastic bag. I set this by the door so I’ll take it to the garbage bin this morning. I’m getting ready to go and I hear this thunderous commotion. Pudding-Tat stuck her head through one of the hand-holes [of the plastic bag]. This snags around her neck and she panics. She races full blast in terror around her secret trails in the Florida room, shredding the bag everywhere except around her neck, round and round she goes. Strewing the contents in places I couldn’t find and finally running under my bed, where she still was still hiding when I left at 9:00 a.m.
Funny? I’ll tell you funny. You see, inside that bag was a four-day accumulation of soda cans, pistachio shells, coffee cups, used Kleenexes, candy wrappers and cat poop. Maybe she’d like a little trip to China, if you follow. I’m just glad I don’t smoke.
