Thursday 03/26/2026

Did a few domestic chores then walked to Cafe Zoe for coffee. At lunch and again at dinner people praised the CMX event Tuesday night. It was a real hit, it seems.

At 1:30 I joined 20 others in the 6th floor lounge to hear a talk by Sarah Dean, the artistic director of the Pear Theater. Some inside info on how they go about getting right to plays and other production details. Fun fact, Theaterworks, another local production company, is “professional” in that they pay everyone, no volunteers. Because of that, they are able to get dibs on the plays they want. So Sarah would love to do Come From Away but Theaterworks got a regional exclusive.

Then I walked to the Apple store with my poor broken MacBook. Turns out that because I paid for AppleCare and renewed it last year, my new screen will only cost me $99. And the battery showed up as under 80% capacity (78% exactly) so they will replace the battery as well. Only down-side: it will take 5-7 days. So I came home and spent an hour getting all the web sites and other things I access back up on Old Faithful, an “early 2015” model that I had kept around as a spare. It works fine.

Evening, we had a movie, another documentary in the UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival) series that our resident Social Justice Committee is running. This was Surviving the Silence, about the troubles of lesbians serving in the US Army.

Wednesday 03/25/2026

Morning activity was to take a hike. Well, a walk. It can’t be a hike if it is on city streets, can it? I, Joanne, Erica and Martha met to walk down to the Edgewood market, a round trip of 3.5 miles. In the afternoon I did some reading and a bit of music. I want to tackle Claude Code again and I just can’t make myself sit down and do it.

At lunch and later, different people went out of the way to say how much they enjoyed the CMX event last night. It was really a success! Which artist to do next? I’ve had two votes for Billy Eilish and two for Bruno Mars.

I was invited to join the Hartzells for dinner with tonight’s speaker. That was Phil Taylor, a recently retired sports writer who, after early years with the Mercury News, spent most of his career with Sports Illustrated. And his wife and his mother in law, my neighbor and friend, Carol Bachetti.

Then into the auditorium where Phil gave a fun talk about his personal highlights. Including being in Candlestick Park for the Loma Prieta earthquake. Hey, I was there, too!

Tuesday 03/24/2026

Patty gave me her laundry time so I could start at 8am, which I did, so it was all done by 10:30. The writers meeting was interesting. I had written about the drought of ’76 in England. Turns out, one other member had been living in London in 1976 and remembered it, and two others had written about the drought of 1976 in California.

Before supper I went up to 11 and arranged chairs for 20 people in the TV area. After supper I took my laptop up and got all set up with nice audio and a slide show of Taylor Swift pictures on the big TV. Everybody who had signed up showed up pretty promptly around 7pm and we listened to the 12 tracks of Life of a Showgirl, with a small amount of discussion between tracks. General feeling was that Taylor’s music is boring but her lyrics are interesting. And the general feeling was that it was a worthwhile session and we should do it again. Now I have a month to figure out which artist to do next. Billie Eilish? Bad Bunny?

Oh, and I broke my laptop. My nice M1 Macbook. I got the power attachment, the little magnetic thing, caught between the lid and the keyboard and smushed a black spot in the lower left corner of the screen. I can live with it for a while, but I know that it would cost a bunch to get it fixed. Well, it’s 5 years old, too. So I have to consider, is it time for another one?

Monday 03/23/2026

Off to FOPAL first thing, well, 9:30. Worked until 1:30 clearing 9 boxes of donations. Also tidied up some shelves and moved some stuff around.

Took a short walk with Joanne in the afternoon. Then after supper I used the big copier in the lobby to duplicate lyric sheets for the CMX tomorrow. Six pages. The copier doesn’t collate, well, I don’t know how to make it collate, so I had to do the collating afterward in my room. work work.

Then sat down to write something for tomorrow’s writers group meeting. Optional cue was “Drought” so I dug up our old 1976-79 journal of our time in London, because the first year, 1976, was a drought year in England. I wrote about conserving water and having no air conditioning.

Sunday 03/22/2026

Usual Sunday morning. Lunch. Then at 2, met with Joanne and we walked down to the First Congregational Church. (Total of 3.7 miles for the day.) This was to attend a concert called The Bluegrass Mass. There was a chorus of about 40 singers, including two from Channing House, Jerry and Carolyn. And a 5-piece “bluegrass” band. Well they had a bass, guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. I don’t think the musicians, except for the banjo guy maybe, were that experienced in bluegrass styles. But they did OK.

The Bluegrass Mass had the various sections of the Latin Mass, Kirie, Gloria, Credo, etc., each piece sung in Latin by the chorus, but this alternated with old American songs like Shenandoah and I’ll Fly Away (which is a fave of mine, I play it on the guitar). It was all nicely done and a good musical experience. Besides us there were at least another 8 CH residents scattered through an audience of a couple hundred. (It’s a big church, First Cong.)

Back in time for supper, which I ate with the Allens (who weren’t at the concert) and Lois (who was). Anyway.

Later I put the announcement of CMX, quote

This Tuesday evening, a group will meet at 7pm on the 11th floor to listen to a complete album of music by a musical artist from this decade.

We will listen to the music while reading the lyrics, and perhaps talk a bit about our reactions. The session will fill about an hour.

The goal is to become acquainted with the popular music of the present time. We may not necessarily like, or approve, or enjoy the music (but we might!). At least we will be able to discuss it intelligently with younger people.

Because the TV lounge area on 11 is small, there is a limit of 20 participants. There is a sign-up sheet by the stairs.

The signup has only been out 24 hours and I had not made any announcement until now. There are 7 names on the sheet as of now.

Saturday 03/21/2026

Nothing on the calendar. I took a modest walk in the morning. After lunch I settled down to finish editing and uploading a video . Then I did all the preparation for the event that I’m sponsoring on Tuesday. I had this idea some time ago for what I’m calling Contemporary Music Exposure (CMX) the idea being for us oldsters to sit and really listen to some music produced in (gasp!) this century. Maybe even this decade. But to listen to unfamiliar music you would also need to have the lyrics printed out. So I picked the artist and album and made up a printout of the lyrics for all 12 songs. And wrote a little 2-paragraph introduction. Yesterday I put out a sign-up sheet for the event, since I plan to use the 11th floor tv lounge which will only hold 20 max. So that’s all set.

Had a crappy dinner, first really poor food from our dining room I’ve had in years, so I’m grumpy now. So there.

Friday 03/20/2026

Morning walk with Joanne. Then at 11 the AI interest group; lots of talking to no purpose.

At 4 I met with Mary and Arlene to practice our Music Man number. Evening, Joanne came by and we watched episode 3 of Riot Women.

Well, that was about it.

Thursday 03/19/2026

Did little housekeeping stuff in the morning. At 10:45 I reported to the auditorium as directed, to take part in a marketing event. The marketing group has these luncheons periodically where they invite the prospective residents on the wait list, excuse me, members of the Advantage Club, to have a nice lunch and hear a talk about Channing House. They get one current resident to sit at each table. There were maybe 10 or 12, 6-person tables set up. At my table I sat with Tony and Gael Lee and a couple name of Lovin whose first names I tried to memorize but now I forget.

Anyway we listened to an over-long talk about the main features of CH and our new satellite, Arris. Then they served a very tasty lunch. We five had a nice conversation, and I think I represented the residents well.

Right after, I met with Jean on the 11th floor. We sat with our laptops and each edited a recorded talk. Spent two hours and neither of us finished. It really takes 4 hours to finish processing a one-hour lecture.

Early supper, then I set up the auditorium for a concert by The Rounder Circle, the group I discovered and who were here for a concert in November (Day 6.332). They did a great job, nice music, everybody was pleased. I had some problem with feedback, but talking to the group after, it turns out they have had that problem with their equipment before, so probably it wasn’t anything I did.

Wednesday 03/18/2026

Wednesday morning has been hiking day for a while. Today Joanne had asked Martha for a shaded route on what was forecast for a hot day. She suggested the Coal Mine Ridge trail, which was new to me. It was a nice trail, shaded most of the way. “Only” 500 feet of elevation gain, compared to 650 at Wunderlich last week. It wasn’t really hot, just high 70s, but when I got home I had to change shirts.

Later I answered a query from the income tax preparer and did a bit other stuff. Played a little guitar for the first time in several days. Studied some of the packages recommended by Claude. I don’t know; I think I need to give up. I’m not a programmer any more. Too out of date, and find it too hard to give it the intensive focus it needs.

Tuesday 03/17/2026

Today was the day I was to present my talk on the origin of personal computers, “1975, the year everything changed” for the Fellowship Forum (see 7.099). I carried my script on my iPad; I had already sent my slide package to the organizer. I met with David M and we walked up to the Sheraton at 11 am.

I don’t usually think of myself as small, but in a room with 50 other men all wearing suit jackets, somehow it seemed like almost everybody was at least 6 inches taller than me. Anyway, I gave my talk and it was well received, good applause, several people went out the way to say “great talk” afterward.

David M had to sit with a committee of the F. F. so I walked back alone through 80+ degree heat. Got home all sweaty and tired. So I took a nap and then a shower and put on a clean shirt.

By arrangement met with Joanne at 5:30 and we went out for dinner. I had a yen to go back to Kirk’s burger joint. It moved to Midtown a couple years ago, I had been to that location just once. So that’s where we went. But probably not again. It’s just a typical sports bar, 6 or 8 screens showing different games. The burgers are nothing special and, the main problem, the room is noisy. I can see where they have put up some acoustic paneling on some parts of the ceiling. It ain’t enough. There were noisy family parties and… well, Joanne summed it up. As we were walking to the car, she said “You know there’s something wrong when you feel relief at leaving a restaurant.”

But we were back to the CH lobby by 6:40 and in plenty of time for the St. Pat’s day party. Hosted by the 7th floor and they did a great job, with Irish coffee and Irish Stout and lots of green cookies.