Tuesday 03/16/2021

After aerobics I futzed around for an hour, among other things trying to shoot pictures of the MG model, all of which I trashed later. You would think…

For the writer’s group at 11, the cue was to write something about your name. Since I don’t have any strong feelings about my name in itself, I wrote about the guy who has been having a political career for the last 20 years under my name, almost: former San Jose City Councilman, former president of the Santa Clara County board of Supervisors, and currently State Senator for District 15, Dave Cortese. With a brief mention of Emilio Cortesi, who was the mayor of South San Francisco 1953-54, while Emilio Cortesi was living in Washington raising me.

Oh, the writing cue for next time? Write about what happened with you on 3/16/2020, the day Santa Clara County shut down. Hah, I will have no trouble with that, it was Day 1-105 appropriately titled, “Shit gettin’ real”.

Right after lunch I drove to FOPAL and worked on the computer section for 2 hours. Later in the day I got a call from someone who knew I lived across the hall from Florrie, saying she was in the hospital and did I know why? Well of course not. But later I heard voices in the hall and it was Florrie coming home. She’d had a fall in the afternoon, didn’t break anything but had some contusions.

Monday 03/15/2021

Took the standard walk which came to 3.2 miles about. The only thing I did the rest of the morning was to take a few pictures of the MG model, which I later threw away as not good enough. Then cleaned my desk, organizing and putting away all the modeling tools and equipment. A clear desktop, yay.

In the afternoon, I wrote a short thing for tomorrow’s writers’ group. I felt like I had to, because I’d blown them off the last two sessions. The cue was to write about your name. I didn’t want to do that, so instead I wrote about my nonexistent political career under the name of Dave Cortese, a well-known career politician in the San Jose area.

In the evening it was the NCAA selection show, announcing the brackets for the Final Four in San Antonio. Stanford is a #1 seed. They will have to beat either Georgia or Louisville (the CardinalS as in birds) to advance to the final four.

Sunday 03/14/2021

Up at 6 (allowing for DST of course) for coffee and the paper and a shower, and at 7:30 downstairs to wait for Dennis, who rolled up shortly and off we went for our Forest Walk. That is a supposedly restorative procedure which is really just “take a walk in the woods and appreciate it”.

Up to Huddart Park and off we went. Nice trails through dense patches of second-growth redwoods alongside a tiny creek. We did about 3 miles total, out and back. It was fun being in a damp woodsy woods. There were trilliums, which I remember growing in the ditches along the road to the old ranch.

So that was that. Back at CH I spent some time off and on through the day finishing up the MG model. It is 99.9% done. Here are a couple of quick pics of it.

The wheels turn and the front wheels steer. If you lift one edge of the bonnet and fold it back on its hinges, there is a fully detailed engine with spark plug wires. I need to go over it carefully, dust it off and get my fingerprints off it, touch up a couple of paint nicks, and that’s it, put the cover on the display box and set it with the other models.

This has been a frustrating build. Partly because of all the trouble I had learning how to use the air brush to get decent coverage. Partly because I kept spoiling the paint after it was on. That was due to the Tamiya clear being too soft, and also to my being a klutz and not thinking things through before doing them. Partly it was that many of the little pieces didn’t quite fit together as they were meant to do, and the instruction manual was not always clear, and … whine snivel complain. Never mind, I learned a lot from doing this model, lessons I can apply to the next model.

Saturday 03/13/2021

Quiet day, mostly in my room. Took a moderate walk in the morning, passing the farmers market for a pastry. The rest of the day alternated between working on the model (soon to be completed), reading, and napping.

Friday 03/12/2021

Started the day by going for the walk, which felt quite good. Any day now I am going to go out in shorts and try jogging sections of it again. (I haven’t since the Dissection at the end of September.)

Or maybe not. My BP has been annoyingly high, and trending up. Out of frustration I bought yet another BP monitor, this one a Welch-Allen semi-pro one rather than the Omron which is the usual consumer BP monitor. Nope, it reads the same as the old one within a couple of points. I will track it closely for another few days and then maybe talk to the doctor.

I worked a bit on the MG, assembling the windscreen and putting yet another coat of clear on the bonnet. The bonnet was looking great few days ago. Then while attaching the hinges and the side panels, somehow I applied some pressure and the clear coat took on the texture of the cutting board I was working on. After this model I won’t be using Tamiya paints, or at least, Tamiya clear. Even after a week of drying it is soft enough to take on fingerprints or other texture, which totally fucks it up so you can only sand it and respray it.

At Rhonda’s weekly 4pm meeting we learned of more eased restrictions. We can now be up to 4 in the elevator (up from 2, which was up from only 1 per car just a couple of weeks back). And the use of masks when meeting with other vaccinated people indoors is now optional.

Thursday 03/11/2021

Light day. Did the aerobics class. Drove to FOPAL and did 90 minutes tidying the computer section. If they ever have a live sale again, it will be ready. The way they are doing it now, people sign up online for an individual browse, where they meet with a volunteer and get to shop alone. Nice for some, but not a big revenue stream.

In the afternoon I did a bit on the model car, and read a book. Easy day.

Wednesday 03/10/2021

My right foot was feeling sore this morning, for no reason I can figure. So I passed on the usual walk. About 8:30 a facilities guy came around to shut off my bathroom water again. It was later turned on about 12. About 12, two facilities guys came around to do a visual inspection of my fire alarm and sprinklers, which took all of a minute.

Around 10 I went out to the UPS store and had the two-page amendment to the trust notarized. Brought it back and installed it in the book, after making a copy to install in the spare copy of the trust. So that and the taxes, two long-pending chores, are out of the way.

I spent another hour studying strategic planning for elder care marketing documents. What a lot of platitudes. Did you know a whole bunch of people born a few years after me are now reaching the age where they think about moving into an elder facility? True fact. As a result, the market experts say, there is an unprecedented boom in new construction of such facilities, so you have to watch out for all this competition coming your way. Uh, guys, have you seen what land and construction costs around this neck of the woods? Ain’t no bunch of new construction happening close to Channing House. Shit, the combined efforts of the state and the county can’t seem to get any more single family homes built, let alone any elder campuses.

From 12 to 3, did the laundry and worked on the incredibly fussy and mistake-prone MG TC model. I keep screwing things up and having to back out and re-do. I’ll spare the details.

At three one of my newest neighbors, Leon Beeler, gave a talk (zoom) on the history of Sunset Magazine, where he worked for 30 years, from the 70s through its demise at the hands of venture capitalists. And that was the news of the day.

Tuesday 03/09/2021

After aerobics I sat down at the computer to finish the tax workbook. And found to my surprise that there were no more pages that needed filling. Foreign taxes? Foreign income? nope and nope. So I uploaded all my documents and the workbook and that was that. A couple of hours later tax lady Katy, who has processed my return at the accountant office for several years now, emailed that she had it and would contact me if she needed more.

I had decided not to participate in the writers’ group this week. I gave the leader, Connie, the excuse of doing my taxes, but the real reason was the cue this time: write a letter to a sibling, dead or alive, or imaginary if you like. I tiptoed up to the edge of the pit I would have to look into, to write about either half-sister, and pulled the lid over it and tiptoed away. Nope. I think I have a mature understanding of them as flawed human beings but… nope. Not going to write to, or about, either one, to share with the public.

So I did an errand walk around downtown Palo Alto. CVS for a prescription. UPS store to verify they did provide notary service, and they do. Then to the T-Mobile store to enquire about the same kind of signal booster that I used to have at Tasso street, a box that connects by internet and acts like a little local cell tower. They don’t stock them in the stores, call customer support.

After lunch I drove to FOPAL and did 90 minutes of book processing for the computer section. Back in time for the 4:45 monthly 6th Floor Meeting. No real business to transact, just an hour of zoom chit-chat.

Monday 03/08/2021

The big event today was to be the Resident Association meeting. Big because I and Marcia were an agenda item to declare the end of the volunteer programs. I did three minutes on the history of the program, and the astonishing numbers of meals delivered, etc. Marcia did about the same, talking about all the keen things people can do with their time now in-house restrictions are being lifted, in case they miss their volunteer gigs.

Afterward I got what felt like a big job out of the way, rewriting the “will” portion of the family trust. Turned out there was just one part, Paragraph B of Section Seventh, which spelled out how the value of the estate was to be divided among various beneficiaries when the final Trustor (me) died. Marian had crafted most of this, allocating almost equal shares among a long list (nearly 20) of the second generation after us, of Cortesi and Lacrampe relatives. I wanted to make some adustments in that, and to add one more beneficiary, so I worked up a new “Amendment to Paragraph B of Section Seventh of the blah blah long name of trust“. Now all I need to do is to get it notarized and insert it in the famous Brown Binder of estate documents.

You would think Channing House would have an in-house notary. I asked the email bulletin board and at least 20 people told me that Priya (a well-known member of the staff) was a notary. So I wrote to her, and nope, her commission has lapsed. I called the Financial Advisors but they are doing office work yet. Priya recommended the UPS store. I’ll check them later.

Sunday 03/07/2021

First thing, after reading the paper and watering the plants, was to meet with Marcia and work out how we would present the end of volunteer activity at the RA meeting tomorrow.

Then, I wanted a good long walk, so I took off and walked to California Ave (almost 5 miles for the day). There I would have bought an excellent almond croissant, but the line at that booth was much too long, so I settled for a lesser pastry elsewhere.

After lunch I did a bit of work on the MG, and finished studying the book on marketing retirement homes. At 5pm it was time to go to the 11th floor to watch Stanford in the PAC12 tournament final game. The game was to be on ESPN2, but unfortunately the really important Big Ten Wrestling Championship was running overtime. They announced that the tip-off had been delayed to 5:15; then when the wrestling was still going, they said the game was on ESPNews. Unfortunately, the Xfinity box on the 11th floor is not authorized for the Sports and Entertainment package, of which ESPNews is part.

I returned to my room where I was pretty sure I could get ESPNews. And I could. Stanford started off hot, ran out a 26-point lead in the 2nd quarter. Then they went cold in the third, and UCLA closed to within 9 points. In the fourth, Stanaford found its stroke and finished the game again up by over 20. Weeee are the Chammmm Peeons!