Friday 08/20/2021

Nothing on the google calendar at all, and no errands to run. Huh. Went for the standard walk first thing. And pretty much played the rest of the day. Did a bit of work on this and that.

I had been looking forward to a bit of an adventure tomorrow. After weeks of tentative emailing, I had agreed to meet Ann for lunch again, and to walk around Marin Art and Garden Center. At the last minute this evening, she begged off as not feeling well. Postponed to 9/4 maybe.

So instead of a nice drive and visit I have an open Saturday ahead. Decided more or less spur of the moment to walk the baylands, with an early start, say 8am.

Thursday 08/19/2021

Ordinarily I would have tried to do the 8:30-9am aerobics, but I had that 9:30 appointment for dental hygiene, you know, rescheduled from Tuesday because I forgot the pre-meds? Which would uncomfortably tight, given the dentist office is a 10 minute walk away. But no problem because the instructor emailed last night that he couldn’t be there this morning. So an easy start to the day.

Dental hygiene went nominally; no new issues with my teeth. I did some good work on STIP if I do say so myself; this project just calls on my two creative talents, writing and programming, so is always fun.

At 1:30 I joined Bert in the auditorium where we went over in detail all the stuff that we wanted gotten rid of so the auditorium could be used for performances again. At the start of the pandemic, and all through it, as staff kept re-purposing spaces, turning rooms into COVID wards and into impromptu office space so staff could be isolated and so forth — every time they had something to move out of a space, it seemed they tucked it into the auditorium somewhere. Now, nobody knows where the stuff came from any more. For example a really nice white-board on wheels, or five (5) floor lamps, all different. A foam mattress.

A little after 2, Victoria, head of housekeeping, joined us as scheduled and we went over all the stuff with her. She’s a very cheerful, can-do kind of manager and didn’t see any problems. She will get some “muscle” to help and meet us early next week some time to move things.

At 5 we had a 6th-floor get-together, mostly to welcome our new “camper”, Jan, who has been displaced from the 2nd floor for the on-going improvements. Wine was provided by Oliver, who doesn’t live on the 6th floor but who has been collecting wine for years, and is now down-sizing, and giving his wine collection to other floors to be consumed. I had a few ounces of a wine bottled in 1970, which turned out to be a dessert wine, lighter than a port but still quite sweet. Two other people tried it and didn’t like it, so everyone insisted I should keep it. So I have this bottle I’ll probably never drink in my pantry closet.

Jan, it turns out, was born in the Netherlands, and came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Oregon. Where in Spanish class he met his wife, who was on scholarship from Australia. For a decade around the 60s he managed his father-in-law’s men’s clothing store on University in Palo Alto, and then went into real estate until the 90s, in partnership with one of his daughters the last few years.

Wednesday 08/18/2021

I started my morning walk early-ish and was back by 9:30. Then I went down to FOPAL, figuring there should be some books waiting for me. There were, but not many.

From there I went to IKEA. Over the weekend, there had been an IKEA desk chair up for sale. There are often sales of furniture left by departed residents. This desk chair didn’t suit me, but it inspired me to look at the IKEA online site, and there were some simpler chairs, basically cups on a stalk, that might substitute for the stool I use at my desk. So I found the office chair section and checked them all out and they were not to my taste. So that was a wasted trip.

In the afternoon I added more to STIP. I’m doing good work there but nobody will ever see it, probably.

Tuesday 08/17/2021

Did the aerobics class. Then about 20 to 10 I walked out and 4 blocks north to my dentist’s office, precisely on time for a tooth cleaning. “Mr. Cortesi, have you taken your pre-meds?”

Oh crap. I’m supposed to take 4 caps of Amoxicillin, an hour before any dental procedure. It’s serious business, because my artificial aortic valve is vulnerable to infection, and dental scraping can introduce bacteria from the mouth into the bloodstream. I know this; and I’ve been taking the pre-med before semi-annual cleanings for what, literally the last 20 years. But not this time.

They very nicely rescheduled me for Thursday. Fortunately this week there is no Thursday volunteer day for CHM, so I’m free for it.

This is really a week off; Connie is away so no writers group today either.

I added a new section to STIP. I worked on the Chrysler. I finished (I thought) detailing the dashboard complete with little decals for the instruments and clock. I took a picture

Looking at it with the sharp eye of my iPhone (with a close-up lens) I can see so many flaws. Yeah, sure, the whole thing is about 2.5 inches wide, yeah sure it will be inside the model, only visible if you put your eye up to a side window. Just the same, that’s crap, that is.

Monday 08/16/2021

In my email at 7am I found a tech squad dispatch. Gigi has a problem with email, and wants help right away. After I shower and dress I call; is this too early? No, come right up.

Gigi gets her email using Gmail in the browser (Safari). Sometimes when she clicks on a message title in her inbox, the message opens in what to me is a very familiar format, because I too use Gmail in the browser and have for more than a decade. But sometimes when she clicks on a title, it opens a modal dialog that I have never seen before, a white text window with no controls, no way to reply or delete or print, and no clear way to exit.

I can’t explain it. However I found that if you just click outside the text area, the damn dialog goes away and you are back to the normal inbox display. So that’s her work-around, just click the thing away and try again. Likely the next time you click on message it will open normally.

So then I could take my walk. After lunch I drove down to FOPAL and took my post-sale inventory count. Sadly it appears that my section only sold 16 books over the sale weekend. Over the next couple of weeks I plan to get rid of a lot of non-selling books.

In the evening I got word that T-Mobile has had a major data breach, with stolen data including everything needed for identity theft: addresses, SSNs, phone numbers. I spent an hour going around the three credit agencies ensuring that my credit records are frozen. I knew I had done that, but couldn’t find any paper record of it, or the passwords etc I would have used to set up accounts on Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Could have swore I had info on that in the fireproof box? I got the first two squared away before supper. TransUnion appears to be down.

Sunday 08/15/2021

Did my usual Sunday morning things: watered the plants, all of which are thriving; did the Sunday puzzle. Then drove to FOPAL to check things out. This is the weekend of the first public book sale in a year. From past experience I know that shoppers usually make a mess of my shelves, pushing books around and reshelving them in the wrong places. So I like to go in the morning of the 2nd day to tidy up and see if there has been some sales.

Well, for the computer section, it looks like a pretty quiet sales weekend. Only a couple of shelves needed arranging. Some gaps, so there have been a few sales.

In the middle of the day I played around. About three I got off my ass and went for a walk. That’s about it.

Saturday 08/14/2021

Indulged in a giant cookie which supplied both breakfast and lunch.

Futzed around with various hobbies. Went to bed without a thought of blogging.

Friday 08/13/2021

Went for a walk in the morning. At 10, met with Bert in the auditorium to play with the new AV equipment. Learned a few things, identified a few problems.

Later, turned to the Chrysler model. There are four pieces to the interior, two side walls, front seat, back seat. All to be painted ivory. I ordered an ivory acrylic and it came the other day. I had painted some onto the pieces with a brush, but the paint was quite thick and it went on with a bad texture. So today I cleaned it all off the four pieces, and resolved to spray it instead.

I thinned the paint down to the right consistency for the air brush and then went to get my spray booth off the back porch where it had been sitting for a couple of months or so. Something was wrong with it, it tried to collapse as I picked it up. Well, it was originally designed to fold up into a suitcase size…

But when I set it down in the bathroom where I like to do my air-brushing it was clear something more was wrong. The plastic floor plate was loose. On inspection, it was broken, several cracks and a broken piece at one corner. Hinges broken free from the metal back.

All I can figure is, at some point, it had fallen from the chair where I had left it, and smashed that corner into the hard patio floor. And then it had been put back on the chair. Only three people could have done that, one being me, and I didn’t do it. I do not plan to take this up with Wanda or the temp housekeeper who did the room once lately. Because what’s the point?

I set to work fixing it. First I used my bottle of thick cyanoacrylate glue to fix the cracks and the broken piece. But there was no way to glue the broken plastic hinges, so this base plate could not be attached to the main box. OK, how about… Duct Tape! I went to the resident workshop and dug around and sure enough there was a roll of duct tape. I used strips inside and outside to reattach the base plate, and to secure a couple of other seams that wanted to fall apart. Fixed! It will never fold up to a suitcase again, but that isn’t a problem.

Then I sprayed the interior pieces with a coat of ivory.

Thursday, 08/12/2021

Did the aerobics class, and headed out for a day at Shustek. I was the only volunteer in the morning so I cataloged alone, cataloging an Optacon, basically a tiny scanner that converted black and white text to fingertip pressure from an array of little needles. This was one of the first ever made, owned by a chap who was was head of a national association for the blind. I tried to make it work but although it would power on and the scanner wand would light up, the finger-sized array of needles didn’t work.

In the afternoon I was joined by other-Dave, Bennett, and we cataloged, at last, the final remaining cryotrons. That took months to get done.

Back home, I had a bad reaction to the dining room. Having been sociable and eating with groups for several nights I thought I would sit alone, and in fact one of the few two-tops was available, but I got to the table, looked at the menu without sitting down, and just didn’t want what was on offer. Nothing bad, General Tso’s Chicken if I recall; but I just had a wave of… boredom? irritation?… and walked. I’m apparently not liking our revised dining experience. Had a beer and a cheese sandwich in my room and enjoyed solitude.

Woke up at 2am with a slight headache. Took a tyolenol and remembered I had not blogged today, so am doing that, in the dark. So if there are typols, that’s why. Going back to bed now.

Wednesday 08/11/2021

Went for the standard walk for the first time in a while. Then was happily killing time when at 10 I got a text from Harriet, saying where she and Stephen were sitting at Cafe Borrone. Oh! I had had a feeling I should be checking my calendar! I’m meeting Harriet and Stephen to talk SWBB at 10. Fortunately Cafe Borrone is not very far. I texted back, running a little late, be there in ten minutes, and I almost was there in ten minutes. Maybe 14.

We chatted and talked about the upcoming season for most of an hour. Back when it looked like the pandemic was winding down, I had been fairly confidently thinking about going to away games, starting with the traditional Thanksgiving weekend tournament, which this year is to be in the Bahamas.

Travel is looking a bit more iffy now. Besides the Bahamas, the pre-season includes a trip to North Carolina and to Tennessee. Those are long flights. (The Bahamas would probably route through Atlanta.) Will that look feasible, and attractive, to do in November?

In the afternoon I did the laundry, paid some bills, and then started painting the interior of the Chrysler.