05/16/2023

Took a short walk in the morning. I had agreed to let marketing show my unit at 10:15 to a prospective buyer. An odd sort of a guy looked it over. I kind of doubt he will buy in.

At 10:45 it was time for the writers meeting. The cue this week was “my brush with celebrity” and it got a variety of responses. Among us we have people who have met Yassir Arafat, Joan Baez, and others. I’ll put my bit at the end.

According to my Google Calendar, at 2:30 I was to “setup HSG”. I cannot remember what HSG was supposed to mean. Anyway I didn’t set it up, so I hope it wasn’t important.

At 4pm it was Rhonda’s open meeting, with the subject the changes they have been making to the dining services. Gloria, the manager — who has been here 20 years, starting as a server under Sodexo — and Chef Mark told about the new software they have with difficulty been installing. The goal is to make full nutritional info available to us, but that meant changing out the software they had been using to plan meals. The main problem is that the software vendor loads the system with their recipes, but those aren’t the menus that Chef Mark wants to present, so they have to load it with other recipes, and that apparently takes a lot of time and trouble.

They also talked about the substitutions they make to standard menus as a matter of policy, for example replacing panko crumbs used for breading with gluten-free panko, or changing out margarine for either real butter or oil. And they showed menus from other local residences, like the V and the Terraces, showing that those places don’t have the same range or choice or the vegan option, or the detailed nutrition info, that we have.

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Culling of the Troopers 1977

From 1975 to 1978 Marian and I lived in London, working for IBM weekdays and exploring London, and England generally, on weekends.

One weekend we went downtown early from our house in the suburb of Twickenham, hoping to see the annual Trooping of the Colours. (We just couldn’t stop ourselves from turning it into the Spoonerism, Culling of the Troopers.) It’s a ceremony held to celebrate the birthday of the monarch. The Queen would get to sit on her horse and watch the Horse Guards perform various evolutions while the band played.

We found our way to Horse Guards Parade quite early. There was nobody about, but there were bleachers set up, and since no-one told us not to, we sat in them. Those were innocent days; I’m sure security would be much tighter now.
People gathered to sit in the bleachers. We kept expecting someone to ask for our tickets, but no-one every did. A passing shower caused lots of brollys to pop up. Eventually band music started and the Guards showed up and Her Majesty arrived.

The Guards trotted back and forth. I believe the Queen gave them a little salute with her white-gloved hand at some point. The band played. It wasn’t very interesting, so I looked around and took a couple of pictures of the other people in the bleachers.

Later, when we got the slides back from Kodak, we worked out who we had been sharing the bleachers with that day. Fourth head from the left, gray hair and glasses? That’s Prime Minister of England James Callaghan. Next to him, Kenneth Kaunda, President of Zambia. Lady with blue hat, don’t know, perhaps Mrs. Kaunda? The lady in the pillbox hat is Mrs. Callaghan. Next to her, his excellency Hastings Banda, President of Malawi.

And not far away, Pierre Trudeau, PM of Canada. Trudeau was the only one we recognized at the actual moment. But that’s four Heads of State all within 50 yards of us that day.

Monday 05/15/2023

I had several things going on today, one of which was to do the post-sale triage and cleanup of my computer section at FOPAL. Ordinarily I would do that after lunch, but there’s more stuff in the afternoon today. So I decided to squeeze that in before the 10:30 Event Coordinators meeting. I zipped down to FOPAL and did my work and was back in plenty of time for the meeting.

Nothing too exciting to report; June is a slightly easier month for AV support than May.

Then at 2 I headed down to set up for the Channing House Choir tech rehearsal, preparing for their concerts on Wednesday. I plan to record those events so I needed to practice the camera moves and understand where the different singers and combos would be standing. Mary the director has planned a complex program supplementing the full choir (about 30 singers) with numbers from the Harmonica club, and from a flute-piano-bongo trio and a flute-violin-cello trio as well as an audience sing-along section. So that took until almost 5pm.

After supper I came back down. Nancy, our classic music impresario, had set up a concert by some local high school kids, a trio of piano, violin and cello, and a string quarter. These kids were very impressive, playing difficult music, Grieg and Mendelssohn and such, and doing it with what sounded to me like professional ability.

Sunday 05/14/2023

After watering the plants and failing to complete the NYT puzzle — they did a very tricky thing with the clues and I failed to figure out the double-twist — I drove down to FOPAL. It’s the middle of the sale weekend and I was right to check, my shelves were in a mess. I tidied them up and came back.

Not long after I headed out again for Stanford to watch a baseball game. This time I took along my clipboard and a scoring sheet and scored the game. Besides being the last home game of the season, and Mothers Day, it was a wild and wacky baseball game. Top of the first, the first two Arizona hitters reached base, and the third one hit a homer. 3-0 Arizona and nobody is out yet. The game went on like that. So many batters came to the plate on both sides, that despite them using the new 20-second pitch clock, it was 2:15 into the game at the end of the fifth inning. At that point the score was 16-9 Arizona and I was feeling the heat of the sun, so I left.

I’m glad I did leave because the game didn’t get any more sensible after. At the 4 hour mark, bottom of the 9th, Stanford hit a three-run homer to tie the score at 18-18 and they went to extra innings. Top of the tenth, Arizona hits a three-run homer to make it 21-18. Bottom of the tenth, Stanford scores two runs on a double. With two out and the tying run on third base — the last batter strikes out. Loss, 21-20. Football? No, baseball!

Mothers day is one of the holidays where we give the dining staff an early exit. No dinner service; only brown bag suppers that you can order ahead of time. As is our 6th floor convention, those who were in the building for supper brought their brown bags, along with bottles of wine, to the floor dining room for a picnic.

Saturday 05/13/2023

Went for a moderate walk in the morning. Because I don’t have a saucepan. Or a stove. For fun I ordered some Vite Ramen. They are a small company that developed a complete-nutrition version of ramen. I’d tried some of their stuff back in, oh, 2017 maybe? When I was being an expert on meal replacements. It was good. Recently they had posted that they were back after some supply-chain problems, with new flavors, and just for fun I ordered a sampler pack.

Yesterday it arrove and only then I realized, you make this stuff by boiling the “noods” in a saucepan of water, and I don’t have a saucepan, or a stove to heat it on if I did. All I have is a microwave. Well, I could go down the hall to the communal kitchen for a stove.

So I set out at 8am and walked to good old Ace hardware. Good old, because they open at 8am and always have what I need. It’s amazing how often I go there. Every time, they ask if I have an Ace rewards card. I always say no; they always ask, “Do you want one?” and I always think, I don’t buy hardware often, and say no.

Rather than buying a sauce pan, I bought a 16-oz Pyrex measuring cup. I can heat water in it, in the microwave, and it has a handle that stays cool. Brought it home and made up a bowl of the “vegan spicy seiso” flavor. Oh my, that is actually too spicy for me, I couldn’t finish it.

Anyway my afternoon activity was to help Chuck run his monthly opera presentation. The one he picked this time was Akhnaten by Philip Glass. Unlike previous opera dvds, I actually stayed in the room through this one. This short video gives the flavor of it. Really fine visual stage images. Repetitive music. Silly plot.

I forgot to mention one thing about yesterday. I have been flirting with the idea of a new car for some time. Can’t be bothered to look back and find the references to the Chevy Bolt that I sort of almost bought but didn’t. I still had the Bolt in mind and was thinking I would look again when the ’24 models came out.

Then I found out a couple weeks back, that GM had announced that there wouldn’t be any ’24 Bolts; they were dropping that line of cars. Boy Oh Boy am I glad I didn’t buy one!

But I am still kind of interested in a small, electric car. Unfortunately there don’t seem to be any small electric cars, just full sedans and SUVs. Well, the BMW Mini has a BEV but it has very short range. Anyway poking around a Bolt user forum I found mention of the Hyundai Kona. It is a couple inches shorter than the Bolt, supposedly (164in vs 169in). But I would like to see one up close and perhaps sit in it.

So when I left the Shustek center in Milpitas, I went a couple miles north to the big Fremont Auto Mall where there was a Hyundai dealership. I pulled up in front and got out and walked through their front lot. There were a bunch of cars of various models, not all new (no price stickers). I looked in to the showroom and it was completely empty. Just a big open floor, room for maybe six cars to be displayed but nothing to see except shiny floor space. In one corner was a small round table where a sales person was talking to a couple of people, probably customers. Nobody else in sight.

I felt very rejected. No cars to look at, not even a brochure. According to their website they had at least 3 Konas in stock, but where were they? I went away. Not impressed with Hyundai’s marketing.

Friday 05/12/2023

First thing this morning I had a planned visit from a health care person. This is a service included in the new IBM health insurance package. She came equipped with all sorts of stuff. Gave me the routine questions about my health and mental attitude (three words to remember: ball, flag, tree). Took vitals. Checked my A1C, good news, I don’t have diabetes. She was very friendly and competent. I don’t think the visit accomplished anything. If they offer it next year I think I’ll decline.

At 1pm I left for the museum where I led the 2pm public tour. One of the docent trainees who is taking the on-going docent training came along to shadow me. He complimented me afterward, thought it was a great tour. Separately from that, staff member Jesse thanked me for my service and gave me a Starbucks gift card from the Museum. Nice.

Thursday 05/11/2023

Tidied up the apartment for housekeeping day. Put on my red docent shirt, but packed an ordinary shirt in my shopping bag, and off to give a tour. This was a private tour for what was to be 12 seniors from The Villages, which is a retirement community in south San Jose. In fact there were some dropouts so we were only 8.

As they weren’t pressed for time I gave them the bonus deluxe tour, mentioning the Alto. They seemed pleased.

Then I changed shirts and drove off to the East Bay to join the usual Thursday crew of volunteers for lunch. And then back to the Shustek center to process another box and a half of Sandy Fraser’s papers. This time I was seeing his files of patent applications. He secured a number of patents, allocating most of them to AT&T his employer.

Back home for a quiet supper in my room.

Wednesday 05/10/2023

Went for a walk. At 11:30 I met with Susan in the auditorium so she could make sure her slides for her July book talk look alright on the big screen.

At 4:45 it was time for the monthly 6th floor meeting. They spent some time discussing proper recycling, and the new fitness system. Dinner afterward, me Patty Elizabeth Trish and Paul. Elizabeth tlked about her recent Road Scholar trip to Botswana and then everybody had to mention their Road Scholar trips.

Tuesday 05/09/2023

Did the gym round. Even earlier, I called the reservation number for Smithsonian tours. I had seen where they were offering a nice little 4-day eclipse tour for 2024. But no, all booked up.

The writers group cue for this week was “A Garden of Eden”. I wasn’t going to write anything because I really couldn’t think of a time of my life, or of any life, that could have the features of that paradise. Then I thought about it some more and realized that the features of Eden were actually contradictory in a deep philosophical sense. So I wrote about that. Maybe I’ll stick it at the end here.

At 2 I went to set up the Activity Room for the Hearing Support Group meeting. The Activity room, which is on the 2nd floor “bridge” to the Lee center, was messed about with a lot in 2020-22. It used to be a nice classroom-size meeting space with good sound and video facilities. Then it was coopted to be a Covid ward, and when it came back from that, all the sound equipment had disappeared. It has been being fixed back up but today I was surprised and please to find the sound amplifier was back and a working microphone, as well as the Zoom Room that was already there.

At 4pm there was a meeting in the auditorium to introduce the new fitness contractor, AgeStrong. I had heard this change was coming as part of briefings for the strategic planning committee. This was its introduction to the residents at large. Basically one full and two part-time fitness people who worked for CH, will now work for the parent company of AgeStrong. All existing fitness classes are to continue, and new ones to be added. Also for the first time ever CH will have on-site physical therapy available, billable to Medicare Part B. The presenter from the company was well prepared and very personable.

I had dinner with the Allens and Ann Marie. Right after I went into the auditorium for the third, no fourth meeting of the day. Our Racial and Social Justice committee had prepared a presentation on “Reparations 101”, explaining the details of, and some of the justification for, the recommendations about to be presented to the state legislature by the state Reparations committee. They had done a good job preparing also and I learned a lot more than the newspaper had been telling.

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(This is how I stayed busy from 9am to 10:30.)

The Dream of Eden

What are the supposed characteristics of Eden?

It must be a place of innocence, of safety, and of freedom from want. For the human spirit, the outcome of these conditions ought to be — must be presumed to be — surely would be — serenity. Right?

Without need to guard against any dangers; somehow provided with food, shelter, and other comforts received without effort; lacking any experience of malice or treachery; the human mind must surely be at peace.

Imagine the people in this Garden: fed, protected, not too cold or too hot or too wet. Are they not happy?

No. They are not happy. They are bored. They have imagination; they imagine more perfect things, and they try to make the things. They dream of huts, and begin to cut trees. They dream of castles, and begin to cut stone.

If there are two people in this Garden, there are inevitably at least three opinions on how the hut should be built. If there are more than two, there are at least six opinions on the proper way to resolve the dispute over the slope of the hut roof. Innocence vanishes with the first argument, the first hurt feelings.

When there are enough people, the slope-roof hut makers split from the flat-roof hut makers, two villages, then more. Reeds for thatching hut roofs are used up, and for the first time there is a scarcity in the land; and sooner or later but as sure as the dawn, a war over that.

We each live out the collapse of the Garden in our own lives when, safe and well-fed and clothed and housed, as toddlers we learn to say “No!” and as adolescents we claim to despise our home lives.

There never was a Garden of Eden; the conditions are inherently unstable. The Bible is wrong: Original Sin didn’t enter the Garden; it was there from the first.

Monday 05/08/2023

Slouched around late since I didn’t feel obligated to take a walk (see yesterday). At 8:30 went down to the auditorium to check on David G setting up for the RA meeting; he had it all well in hand. No exciting news from the RA meeting.

Then back to my room to review the materials for the Strategic Planning committee meeting which was at 12:30. No exciting news there, either, although I did get some insights on what progress staff are making on the various goals our Strat. Plan. set up for them.

Dropped down to FOPAL to give my section a tidy and make it ready for sale weekend. Then fiddled the afternoon away.

Sunday 05/07/2023

Didn’t do much. Took a walk over to the Cal. ave. farmer’s market. A bit over 4 miles for the day. Tomorrow the RA meeting is at 9 so I won’t feel obligated to take a walk then, or feel guilty for not.

Did some testing of the new 11th floor microphones. Turns out if you get the mic more than about 30 feet from its receiver, the audio starts dropping out intermittently. This is probably the result of buying a cheap, $150 Chinese knock-off system. But now that we know that limit, we can live with it.

On my walk I saw a very pretty succulent.