Saturday 10/09/2021

At 9:30 I met with Lennie to go over the interactive online Event Reservation Form she is building. We got to talking about Connie’s upcoming talk and how my plan for a Zoom simulcast, using a macbook air on a chair, didn’t please her because it showed her full height. I confessed that Bert thought it should be done with an iPhone on a tripod as that could move in closer. We decided to go try that out, so we met in the auditorium after I got my tripod and iPhone holder. In fact this did work better. Lennie, who is an experienced Zoom host, started a meeting on her iPhone. We clamped it into the holder and set the tripod 6 feet in front of the podium and it frames up a very nice picture of the speaker from the top of the podium to just above their head.

We called Connie and she came down and tried it and liked it. So that is how we will do it. Lennie will initiate the zoom from her room. I’ll join it on my iPhone on the tripod in the auditorium. She says she knows how, as host at her computer, to “spotlight” one attendee to hold them in the middle of the screen.

Afterwards I walked up to Ace Hardware to get another extension cord, needed to bring power to the iPhone on the tripod to make sure it doesn’t run out of battery.

That took most of the time to lunch. Between a pastry I had at 8:30 and a candy bar I bought at the hardware store, I didn’t feel like lunch. At supper I didn’t care for the look of the menu so decided to go out for … what shall I get… decided, Mexican. Ended up at Palo Alto Sol on California avenue.

edit: about that “paint” — I fiddled with mixing a particular color for an upcoming model. It’s another Chrysler, but I am determined this time, to do the exterior body first. The usual model instructions have you build the engine, sub-frame, and interior in that order, before you do the body. But it’s the body texture and its details (chrome strip!) that have given me trouble time and again so it comes first. When (if!) the body looks right, then I will build the rest.

Friday 10/08/2021

First thing to do this morning was to head down to the PAMF blood lab Los Altos for a blood draw. This is to check up on my metabolic function after two weeks of Spironolactone. The results came later in the day, all the numbers were at the high end of the normal range except two. My BUN was just high, and by GFR was just low. Which means what? Dunno.

I sent a message to DiBiase with my average BP for the week before I started that drug, and the average for this current week. The latter is a bit less than the former, but not enough lower to be significant, in my highly trained medical opinion. Shortly her nurse replied that the doctor would be back in the office next week and would reply then.

At three PM it was time for “Oktoberfest”. This was something our Dining Services cooked up: for the 5 Fridays of October, at 3pm, you can have a beer and a German-style snack. One had to sign up for it, and there is a charge. I didn’t mention it last Friday, when the snack was a quite decent baked pretzel. They are providing German, or anyway European, beers, different each time. Unfortunately only about 8 people signed up, so it isn’t really festive. This time the snack was potato pancakes but they weren’t very good, should have been thinner and more cooked.

At 4pm it was time for Rhonda’s weekly Covid Zoom. No bad news this time; but no real good news either. The public health directors of the 7 Bay Area counties have announce a complicated series of metrics under which they will relax public mask requirements. Santa Clara will probably do so in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately senior residences are also under state mandate, and will probably continue to require indoor masking. However Rhonda promised to have some sort of announcement on capacity limits for the public spaces (auditorium especially) next Friday.

Thursday 10/07/2021

Slept as late as I ever have this year: looked at my watch at 5:45am and thought, OK, get another 20 minutes. And next woke up at 6:40. Also did not do the aerobics this morning. Off to Yosemite at 9am. Where I tidied up a couple of database records, and then helped to pack and store several objects. After lunch, Aurora asked if anyone wanted to do boring database work and, since I had brought my computer glasses, I volunteered.

The boring work was, there are about 16,000 objects in the database that have “redundant child records”. The current system, when anyone edits the Object Name field, creates a child record with the previous name. Some notion of a history trail? The people creating the new database have asked that these be eliminated as it will assist the conversion process. For context, 16K is less than 10% of the total.

A previous volunteer had created a Word document that is simply a list of object catalog numbers for objects with redundant child records. Imagine a list of 16,000, 9-digit numbers,

102610484

102610493

and so forth. So with that open in Word, and the Mimsy database program open, it turns out to be possible do this with mouse clicks and keystrokes as follows. I did this for 3 hours today so I know it pretty well.

1. double-click the next number
2. control-c to copy
3. alt-tab to switch to Mimsy
4. control-v to paste the number in the catalog number field
5. F8 to perform a search
6. take a sip of tea while the search completes
7. click three lines down on the first child record
8. shift-F12 to delete the child record
9. Enter to confirm delete child record
10. repeat from #8 until all child records gone (typically 2-4)
11. F10 to save the record
12. F7 to start a search
13. click in the catalog number field (preparing for #4)
14. alt-tab to switch back to Word
15. repeat from #1

I am going to bring my earbuds next time so I can listen to music or a podcast while I do this.

Wednesday 10/06/2021

Went for the standard walk. Messed about reading. Sorted my laundry and right after lunch, started it.

At 2pm I went up to the 8th floor for the RA executive committee meeting. Nothing very shocking today. Rhonda mentioned that the second floor work is ahead of schedule and everyone from there will be back in their apartments by the end of October. I think that means the whole huge years-long upgrade project will be over by November. This will surely be a huge relief for all the staff and the Board, and for the residents generally. There’ll be a major party I’m sure.

Two shipments came in: two pairs of trousers from Lands End, and the pair of Pikolinos shoes that I believe I mentioned a few days ago. The shoes were correct, identical to the pair I already have. I was a little surprised at how they fit. Three years of wear stretch the leather. But I’m wearing the new ones now and they are just right.

Tuesday 10/05/2021

Today was the second event I was supposed to do A/V support for. But more, because I knew that George, who supervises the First Monday Book Talk series and finds speakers, is not really capable of the rest of setting up the auditorium. I knew that the speaker, same guy as last time, wants a lectern for his notes, and a whiteboard. And I was obsessively concerned about this so I decided to forego morning aerobics and go and set up the auditorium at 8am. Ridiculous, I told myself, for an 11am event. Hah!

First thing I found when I entered the auditorium was that the chairs were still in the disarranged state they had been left after yesterday’s flu shot clinic. Second thing was that when I moved the lectern into place and plugged it in to one of the outlets set into the stage floor, the light in it, a little brass goose-neck thing, didn’t come on. Oh dear. I presumed the bulb in it, and odd tubular shaped bulb (later I learned it was a T10 shape), was burned out. Do we have a spare?

But the third thing I found when I went to turn on the audio system was, it wouldn’t come on. A little investigation and I found that the tall rack of equipment in the stage left wing area, normally a tower of green LEDs, was a dark monolith. No power. Panic.

I went out to the front desk and asked the lady there to ask housekeeping if they could please put the chairs back where they were supposed to be. Then I dithered a bit, and wrote an email to Vanessa, head of the IT department, asking for urgent help with the audio. But then I bumped into Paul, the main IT tech, who was just passing through the auditorium. He immediately shifted from whatever job he had been doing, to the dead audio rack. He realized it just had no power, and made a call to Facilities.

Meanwhile I went to the 11th floor to get the small self-contained lectern there. It contains its own amp and mic system, so it would do, presuming that I could plug it in. I brought it down the elevator and rolled it up the backstage ramp and plugged it in to the stage outlet. Nothing. So whatever power outage affected the audio system, also included the stage outlets. By now a guy from Housekeeping was tidying up the chairs. Great service!

Just then two guys from Facilities walked in, and in a few minutes had isolated the problem to a breaker in a breaker panel tucked away behind the audio rack. The rack stuff lit up and also the stage floor outlets came to life. Thanks guys!

So I verified the audio system was working, and laid out the two mics to use for the book talk. Then I took the little lectern back to the 11th floor, and in the process barged right through an exercise class that AJ was leading via Zoom. Sorry, AJ!

Back in the auditorium it was now 9:30 but I had everything set up, except that all the dry erase markers on the whiteboard were dried up. Hell, I’ve got time. I got my car and drove 2 miles to Staples, and bought a pack of dry erase markers and brought them back. 10am and everything is set for our speaker. Who arrived at 10:30 and all went well.

After lunch I decided to go give my section at FOPAL one last pre-sale check. Good thing I did. One thing I wanted to check was the value of what I thought were two original Windows 95 intallation CDs. Some might remember how Windows 95 install CDs were distributed in a sealed cellophane packet through which you could see the warning, “for distribution with a new PC only”, and an official looking certificate of authenticity? I had gotten one of those and another sealed envelope with a cryptic label about WIN 95/WIN NT, in a donation box.

I had put them on the shelf with prices of $5. But then I got to wondering, maybe they are worth more? So I took them off the shelf and over to a computer and started googling. Sure enough, similar unopened Windows CDs were selling for $10 to $40. But then, I happened to flex my sealed package and it bent. There was no CD inside, it was just the “install guide” booklet. Junk! And the other envelope? I decided I had better open that, and it wasn’t from Microsoft but some third-party add-on software on a 3.5-inch floppy. Trash!

So a good thing I checked and didn’t try to sell them.

Back to CH in time for a special CEO’s open meeting on the dining services. I haven’t written about that since April, when we kicked out Sodexo and started our own in-house system. It has had some ups and downs since then, and recently they began cutting back because they were spending over budget. So today was a presentation from the chef and the manager on what they’ve done and are doing, followed by a lot of questions from residents. I don’t want to try to summarize 90 minutes of that.

Monday 10/04/2021

This is the week leading up to FOPAL’s monthly sale, and time to tidy up my shelves and take a pre-sale count. Looking at Tuesday’s calendar, it looked crowded, so I decided to do that job today, and in fact to do it without taking a walk first, as FOPAL (I tell myself) counts as exercise. So at 9am I set off in the car — and got about 5 blocks and remembered, dang it, today is the day for the in-house flu shot clinic, and the 6th floor was to be called around 9:30. Woopsie. Turned around and went back.

I was actually called about 10:30. Went down to the auditorium, got my shot, and headed out for FOPAL. Finished up my work there at 1:30. On the way home I stopped at the grocery store and bought a 6-pack of Anchor Steam. Carrying that on the long walk from my garage spot to the basement elevators, the handle of the 6-pack was cutting into my fingers. While waiting for the elevator I tried to transfer the 6-pack to my other hand, and dropped it. Straight down onto a tile floor.

Only one bottle broke, putting beer and broken glass between the doors to elevators 2 & 3. I sped up to the first floor and told Ethan on the desk. He picked up a walkie-talkie thing and called “Lulu” who turned out to be one of the housekeepers. She showed up in a minute with a pan and a mop and in about 3 minutes had the mess completely disappeared. So up to my room with my five bottles of beer.

Sunday 10/03/2021

So, Sunday. Feed the hummingbirds, water the plants, do the big puzzle. Then I got out the car and drove to California Ave where I walked the whole thing, just because. I bought a cute little cyclamen in a pot, to occupy an open floor on my multi-level plant stand. Bumped into Harriet, said hi.

Back at CH I potted the cyclament. Then the plan was to eat an early lunch, and pick up neighbor Tom in the lobby, and drive to Maples pavilion for women’s volleyball. Lennie had offered three tickets earlier in the week, free. Tom took one, I took the other two thinking Dennis might come along but he couldn’t. I tried to get anyone at the lunch table to come along but everyone was fixated on staying in and watching the Giants to see if they could clinch the NL West in the last game of the season.

So, off to Maples for the first time since 2019? Maybe there I went to a game there in the first weeks of 2020, I don’t remember. I could check, or what’s a diary for? Yes, last home game of the 2019-2020 season was on February 24th, 2020 (blog day 1.084). I came back from my trip to London and the game was a couple days later. And two weeks after that, Santa Clara County ordered a shelter in place, and there were no further basketball games at Maples in 2020 or 2021, until the upcoming season starts in a few weeks.

At Maples, bumped into who? Harriet! Hi again! Stanford dispatched Arizona in straight sets, boom boom boom see ya. Checked on the Giants who were cruising to an 11-4 win so that’s alright.

Anyway that was pretty much the day. But note: I attended a play Friday night; a play Saturday night; and a sports event on Sunday. That’s a good level of activity.

Saturday 10/02/2021

Took a short direct walk to the farmer’s market where I bought one of those amazing “peanut butter mound” pastries from the “other” bakery, the one that doesn’t offer hazelnut choc swirls, but does these monstrous cookies, my word that thing weighed half a pound I swear (I didn’t weigh it, should have). It occurred to me that the most amazing thing is, it’s over an inch thick, not overcooked on the outside, but cooked evenly, right through. Anyway I nibbled on that all morning and finished it around 11 and didn’t feel hungry for lunch. So my food today was that giant cookie, and then regular supper.

Much email back and forth among members of the tech squad about Bill, who I mentioned the other day. His short-term memory is increasingly bad, and one result is, he puts in a call for help with his computer, but by the time anyone responds, he’s forgotten what the problem was, and indeed forgotten placing the call. This has happened multiple times; and the conclusion was to punt the problem to Elizabeth, the house social worker, with a recommendation that Bill’s son be involved.

I spent some time writing an email to Nancy who at supper the night before, asked for science fiction recommendations for her 12-year-old grandson. She wants to buy books. I gave her some random suggestions, also suggested that she check carefully whether he actually wants printed books, or might prefer to read on Kindle on his phone or computer.

I spent some time setting up a Google Sheet to record requests for A/V assistance. And gave it a short URL, bit.ly/CHAVDOC. So, not entirely idle.

Patty had put together a dinner party including Joanne, and Stew and Cathy. Joanne talked about how she and her husband retired to Port Townsend. From that it turned out that four of the five at the table had some kind of connection to the San Juan Islands.

Which got me thinking about the years from 2000 to 2015 when every summer we went up to visit Paul and Katie on San Juan. Which made me sad.

Anyway, off at 7:15 on foot for the short walk to Lucy Stern theater for Palo Alto Player’s production of Working, a musical based on the working-people interviews of Studs Terkel. I give it a C at best. (Where Tiny Beautiful Things of last night would be a C+.) Not really a musical but a musical revue, a series of sketches with singing. A couple of them worked pretty well, carried by the verve and skill of individual performers for that number. But as a whole it had me regretting there was no intermission, because I would have left at one.

Friday 10/01/2021

Went for the benchmark walk; fine. Spent some of the morning beginning to search for a new Medicare Part D drug plan. Last year I had opted away from whatever I had then, to Anthem Blue Cross. It was an ok deal, cost $21 a month, paid for most of the cost of the meds I got. But they just sent a fat brochure detailing (very clearly, to their credit) how the plan would change next year. The premium quadruples to $90/month, the deductible goes up, and something else increases. What? Why?

Coincidentally Medicare had sent me an email saying, open plan election time is coming, and we have all the comparison data. So yeah, Medicare, to its great credit, has a very clear website where you put in your meds and your preferred pharmacies, and they show you all the plans that match and you can sort them various ways. There are several that are clearly better deals than Anthem.

Something I forgot to put in yesterday was ordering Pikolinos. Those are shoes. For many years I wore Mephisto loafers. Sometime 3-4 years back, when a pair of brown Mephisotos were wearing down, I went to I think probably it was Nordstrom? and bought a pair of loafers of some other brand. They fit, I liked the look, fine.

Last year the Mephisto pair started to pinch on my growing bunions, and I started wearing the black loafers all the time, and have been wearing them daily for a year. It occurred to me that, putting on 15-20 miles a week, they would be wearing out. So I should see about lining up a replacement. For the first time ever I looked at the brand: Pikolinos. Which turns out to be an upscale Italian line.

Few minutes of searching and I was able to identify the exact model and size of the shoes I’m wearing. And just in time, it turns out; they must have been discontinued recently, because everywhere they are on offer, they are discounted by about half ($90 vs. $150 for similar models of Pikolinos) and available in only a few sizes. But I found the exact same shoe and size online and ordered a pair. Now I’m good for footwear for several years to come.

After lunch about noon I looked out my window and realized it was a beautiful day and I should get out in it. But I also had things to do here at 3pm and 4pm. But I started out to go for a bit of a drive. In the lobby the staff were greeting everyone with little goody bags of fall candies and treats. I took one and went on to the car. Driving up Sand Hill road I was also trying to open the goodie bag. Turns out, one goody was a packet of hot cocoa mix, not well sealed, and it flipped over and got cocoa and sugar on the passenger seat. So now I had a new goal, to get the car vacuumed. I completed a short drive through the hills and back to the car wash place on El Camino. It was time for a wash anyway.

At 7pm I left for the Bus Barn theater where I saw Tiny Beautiful Things, a play based on a book by Cheryl Strayed. Strayed apparently at one point in her checkered career had a gig as an advice columnist with the pseudonym Sugar. The cast of four has one playing Sugar, the other three play various letter writers who present Sugar with a range of problems from silly to heartbreaking; and Sugar answers with heartfelt homilies about the need for openness and love, often exposing her own sad history and current problems. Patches of it were good; patches of it were trite. I disagreed with a lot of Sugar’s advice, but maybe I was supposed to.

Thursday 09/20/2021

Did AJ’s aerobics class. For the second time this week, and for the second time in a row, I was the only attendee, on the 11th floor or by zoom. Just AJ leading and me trying to do the same things at the same speed.

Afterward, straight down to the computer history museum, the actual museum, not either of the east bay locations. Today the regular volunteer crew was doing cleaning. There is a regular janitorial service but they only dust the plastic cases and don’t touch the artifacts.

The cleaning was not because they had scheduled a re-opening. They were going to reopen on Sept. 1 and backed away from that when the County got strict again. Now the management don’t say or predict (“Not a whisper” said Aurora the curator), but they have promised the staff 30 days notice of it. Aurora guesses it won’t happen until they can reopen with few restrictions to enforce (vaccine proof but no masks, maybe?).

Anyway, I got assigned to plexiglass cleaning. Many many exhibits have objects in plexiglass boxes. I had a spray bottle of plastic cleaner and microfiber towels, and worked my way around the winding path of the “Revolution” exhibit space, along with Toni, wiping and wiping. Couple hours of this before lunch, another couple after lunch. There was also some tall sheets of glass.

Here’s Dave Bennett (aka “the other Dave” on our team) dusting a robot.

Having my nose rubbed in it, so to speak, alerted me once again to how well designed that exhibit space is. There are just tons of things in there and all well displayed and explained. I also discovered two things about the place I hadn’t even known, despite hanging out there for years. One, there is a whole alcove of stuff about computer music generation that I’d never seen. Two, there are men’s and women’s bathrooms half-way around and I never knew that!

At supper I shared a table with Mickie, Gloria, Jan and Robyn. Robyn talked about trying to sell her car. It’s a 2001 Toyota Avalon, 100K miles but basically clean. She is asking $3000 but I did a quick look online and similar cars are going at up to $4500. I told her she should ask 4K and settle for nothing under 3500, but she wasn’t interested. Anyway, my main point is why she is selling. Which is because her license expires in November. And at age 95, she doesn’t feel like renewing it! Robyn actually doesn’t look 95. I’m not that good at ages but I might have guessed 80 maybe. But there you are.