Friday 04/24/2026

Usual Friday morning walk with Joanne. Then spent some time editing a how-to manual for our AV equipment. I wrote that a year ago and there are some things that need updating. Also practiced for the Music Man rehearsal which was at 4pm. It went alright.

From that straight up to 11 for the monthly TGIF party where they had enough snacks that I didn’t bother going down to supper. At 7:20 i went down to the basement, met Joanne, and we drove to Los Altos to attend The Cherry Orchard at the Bus Barn. Bunch of actors working very hard on this long and complicated play. It was a bit of a drag to watch mostly because it didn’t seem to map onto our current societal problems. Hard to get into worrying about the problems of short-sighted Russian aristocrats of 1880. We checked wikipedia in the intermission and got a much better idea of who the characters were and how they were related that way.

Anyway, home just before 11pm and so to bed.

Thursday 04/23/2026

Early, 7:30, I was out for a standard walk (3.5 mi for the day). Stopped for coffee, and at Ace Hardware to stock up on AA batteries.

Then I sat down to work. I spent 20 minutes proofreading for Scribble & Sketch. I spent 20 minutes disputing an obvious scam charge at PayPal. I paid my non-owner’s driver insurance bill for the next 6 months.

Then I put in about 2.5 hours preparing all the material for the CMX that is coming up next Tuesday. I made a sign-up sheet and put it out, and I think it is filling up already. I got all the lyrics from Billy Eilish’s latest album onto a 9-page document. I will have to reproduce 25 copies of that, but that is not a big job, compared to copying them out of genius.com and editing them all into a neat document. This is going to be an interesting session; some of her lyrics are, um, rather spicy. Might have some people walk out? Nah, we’re all grown-ups here.

After lunch I spent a couple of hours finishing the slides and the script for my book talk on May 4th. So that’s done. All that’s left is to rehearse 2 or 3 or 6 times.

At 4:30 I went to a concert. One of our residents, Romie, plays cello in an amateur string quarter. She had brought her 3 friends and they played string quartet stuff for an hour at 4:30. I sat beside Joanne and we made quiet comments to each other. They were, well, amateur. But good hearted and fun.

Ate supper in my room; for lunch I had ordered the quesadilla, which was huge, so I had taken half it back in a box, and I had that an an orange for supper.

Wednesday 04/22/2026

Usually Joanne would organize a hike but rain was accurately forecast for this morning so she didn’t. Instead she and I took the car and drove to a coffee shop for a sip and a chat.

At 10 I went to the auditorium and met with Andrew of the IT staff and Jerry, and we worked out the problem with the audio board, which was a simple matter of a button being in the down position when it should be up. Much mutterings of “Doh!” and slapping foreheads.

At 1pm there was the monthly zoom meeting of FOPAL volunteers. Nothing noteworthy there. Then at 3:45 I had another meeting over the computer, a video visit with Dr. Tamrazi, about the size of my renal cyst as shown on the recent CT. Decision: be alert for symptoms, get an ultrasound in a few months. Drain as needed.

There was some talk of the California gubernatorial debate on the CH mailing list, so I volunteered to put it on the TV on the 11th floor, which I did, and a dozen or so people wandered in to watch.

Tuesday 04/21/2026

Busily tidied up and also sorted my laundry into the laundry basket and left it in the laundry room, to be started at 12 when Patty finished her assigned laundry hours. Then got a start on editing the event video for last Sunday’s presentation on trekking in the Himalayas.

At 10:15, launched the Zoom for the writers meeting. Betty who normally does that, had an appointment and asked me to do it. Writers group went fine, couple nice things, I had nothing but that’s ok. Over at 11:30 and I headed out to lunch, leaving the apartment to the housekeeper. And completely forgot to start my laundry. Spaced entirely.

After lunch I finished editing the video which I think came out rather nice. It’s a good presentation with some excellent photography.

After supper Joanne and I sat and watched episode 4 of Riot Women. Then I remembered my laundry, which if I don’t run tonight, I’ll have no underwear or socks tomorrow. So now I’m running it. I should be down before 11pm.

Monday 04/20/2026

Took the standard walk. Then at 10:30 it was time for the Event Coordinators meeting. I have little to contribute but have to attend because I am running an event series, the CMX series. The second will be a week from tomorrow.

Then off to FOPAL where I processed 7 boxes of books. Back a bit after 3pm. Next up, the staff open meeting. Rhonda turned it over to our CFO Jaisie who gave a report on marketing. We are turning over apartments much quicker than before, plus 50 or so people have put down $1000 to be in line for the new satellite, Arris.

Then to Yadira who reported on the plans to transform part of the Lee center into a “memory neighborhood”, a secure area for dementia patients.

Sunday 04/19/2026

Usual Sunday morning. Also did some gardening: I noticed that a plant–I don’t even know what it was called; I bought it on a whim at the nursery a couple of years ago and it has been taking up space in the corner of the balcony ever since without doing much of anything–was sick and heavily infested with mildew. So I chopped it up and took the green bags of twigs and the root ball to the compost bin on the third floor.

Also did some guitar work, and some reading and watching YT.

In the afternoon I did the AV for a talk. This was an account of guided trekking in the Himalayas. The son of a resident and his wife, paid for a guide and two porters to lead them for 20 days walking around the Himalayas, including the Everest Base Camp and a bunch of other spots. Serious hiking for a couple of 50-sometbings, even though the porters carried most of the luggage.

After supper, Joanne brought a DVD that a friend had recommended, and we watched it on my TV. The Taste of Things, in French, about a gourmet and his cook. Subtle and very slightly romantic.

Saturday 04/18/2026

Activities today: bit of a walk in the morning. Then down to the Museum to lead the 12:00 tour, 10 folks, appreciative.

Back home, some plinking on the guitar and such. At 7pm, a movie. The movie committee picked this: San Francisco from 1936, with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald, winding up with the 1906 earthquake. Not a great movie. I almost left half way through but I wanted to see how they showed the earthquake. Which was pretty well done for 1936 special effects. Unfortunately they only killed one of the three lead roles.

I asked Joanne if she thought Clark Gable was handsome, she said “I guess had different standards then.” The music was the best part of the show. Certainly MacDonald was a great singer (neither imdb nor Wikipedia suggest that her voice was dubbed).

Friday 04/17/2026

Usual walk with Joanne in the morning, up to Town & Country for coffee and to shop Trader Joe’s. Then she went to her doctor while I walked home, stopping at my bank to deposit a check.

Listening to the Security Now podcast about the Anthropic Mythos announcements I gathered some info on that and brought it to the AI Interest Group meeting at 11am. Better meeting than the last couple and not just because I had something to say. What I brought in–some technical info and better detailed explanation of what Anthropic had done, than had been in the press– sparked some good conversation around the table.

Did some reading, some guitar practice, then it was time to set up for another rehearsal of our mini-Music Man show. Two other cast members were absent so I played stood in for both those parts.

After an early supper we met at the garage and drove the mile to the First Congregational Church, a place we’ve been so often for one event or another I call it “First Cong” and leave it at that. Anyway this was for a concert of early (13th-15th Century) music by the Voices of Music organization. This was a miscellaneous collection of dance music and love songs, plus one original composition, all performed on instruments like Viola da Gamba, lute, and harpsichord. One player performed on a total of four harps of various sizes and periods. All very skillful, but the star was a soprano, Molly Netter. Really amazing voice, so pure and accurate.

On the way home we were joking about how we’d seen three concerts this week, Samara Joy on Monday, David Byrne on Thursday, and this on Friday, and they had all been good, highly skillful and enjoyable, but so completely different from each other. You wouldn’t think the notes of the musical octave could be put together in so many different ways.

Thursday 04/16/2026

Spent most of the day in my room, reading or writing or practicing music. Reading the long (long!) New Yorker story about Sam Altman. So he’s a sleaze, fine, glad to have that established. Writing on my book talk for next month.

Practicing: I am trying to get my fingers to play the simple guitar accompaniment to Leonard Cohen, “You Got Me Singing“. It’s a simple pattern, “do do do BA de do do” over and over, but I want to get it nailed into my synapses so I can keep doing it while singing.

Finally at 5:30 Joanne and I headed out, to park the car at Town & Country village, where we had a quick simple supper. Then we walked 15 minutes onto the Stanford campus, to Frost Amphitheater, for the David Byrne concert.

The show was spectacular for the visuals and choreography, and I enjoyed the second half when he did the old songs, “Psycho Killer” and “Once in a Lifetime” and such. The sound was too loud and the lyrics were not understandable.

While fiddling with the phone I accidentally took a portrait of us two.

Wednesday 04/15/2026

Morning project was to take a hike. Joanne had organized it, and other walkers were me, Joanne #2 and her partner Erika. Martha was to come but begged off at the last minute. So in Joanne #2’s car off to Arastradero preserve. It was a very nice day, cool with clouds and everything green.

We saw deer and wild turkeys. The male turkeys were showing off.

After lunch Joanne and I drove to the Stanford campus and scouted the approach and parking situation for the Frost Amphitheater. I’ve never been in this outdoor concert arena, and Joanne doesn’t remember doing so either, even though she practically lived on campus for a couple of decades.

Tomorrow night we are going to a David Byrne concert, and it will be a big deal, lots of people. Eventually we decided we would eat at some restaurant in the Town & Country center and leave the car there, and walk across campus to Frost.

Another resident, Romie, has suggested that we do something for an upcoming thing in July, me on guitar and her with her cello. Today Joanne was playing music from her phone through the car stereo and Leonard Cohen’s “You Got Me Singing” came on, which has a super simple guitar accompaniment with a violin part. Perfect! I spent an hour getting sheet music for it to show Romie.