Wednesday 7/1/2020

Went for an early run; it felt fine. On the way back in I noticed Jerry’s door was open, and I stopped to talk and borrow his webcam. Next week I have to conduct a zoom meeting for some FOPAL people, to hand off the online sign-up stuff I’ve been doing. The principal person uses Windows, so I need to be sharing the screen of a Windows machine to show how stuff looks.

The only Windows machine available to me is the one in the 10th floor public computer room. It doesn’t have a web-cam, and didn’t seem to have a speaker, either. So I took Jerry’s USB webcam up there and futzed around with the Win box. I managed to persuade it that, yes, it really did know about the speaker in the Acer monitor, and could use that for audio output. It had no problem picking up on the webcam and its mic, so I was able to open a Zoom meeting and walked through what I wanted to demo, and test screen sharing.

In the afternoon I finished putting together my book talk and ran through it for time. I have about 35 minutes of material, which is fine; I will go that far and just take questions as long as anybody wants to talk.

Evening I followed a suggestion of Craig’s, and looked at Eureka on Amazon Prime. It’s a kind of fun sci-fi about mishaps and misdeeds in a small town in Washington state where the gummint has sequestered all their smartest scientists. It’s well-produced with lots of CGI effects and some fun characters. One appeal for me is that it is mostly shot in some town in what looks like the Olympic Peninsula. Lots of drippy fir trees and moss.

Tuesday, 6/30/2020

Did Veronica’s aerobics. Later did some email exchanges re the FOPAL thing. Spent 3 hours maybe working on my book talk. Set up the Instacart shopping list for tomorrow.

Did not do a blog post that evening so the whole day is a blur in memory. Sorry, diary.

Monday 6/29/2020

Went for a run, starting early, 7am, so as to be back in plenty of time for the arrival of the breakfast cart at 8:15. This was one of two days this week (Friday the other) where I opted to take the in-house breakfast, because French Toast. Actually I’m kind of sorry because Sunday I mixed up 4 shakers of meal replacements in all new flavors to me and I was looking forward to trying one. Tomorrow, then. Good to have things to anticipate.

On the run I was starting to practice my book talk which is just a week away. In the afternoon I spent about 3 hours working on that, writing it and accumulating images and graphs and stuff to put on the Zoom screen. At least another day of work on that.

I also worked on the FOPAL sale sign-up sheets, responding to emails. That takes a lot of time, crafting emails. I try to make sure I am saying what I mean to say, and not too much and blah blah, and end up spending 20 minutes or more on a short email.

Rejection number five came in this afternoon. I guess I’m pleased that agents do reply faster than I had been warned. Well, not so much faster, this one was almost two weeks out. Anyway better a slow acceptance, or something.

Sunday 6/28/2020

Nice Sunday morning, splendid weather. When watering the plants I dropped my moisture meter and it broke. Oh no, I will have to judge the plants by sticking my finger into the soil. Heck no, by noon I had ordered another. This one was made in China, as I suspect all of them are. Little green box with a meter, and a ten-inch metal probe. I opened it up to see if there was anything fixable, but no. It consists of a cheap microammeter, wired through a single resistor to the bimetallic point of the probe. Moisture creates a tiny current between dissimilar metals; that makes the needle swing — but mine couldn’t swing any more.

On Amazon you can see that there are at least 4 merchants selling the identical green plastic meter on a probe. There must be one Chinese factory cranking them out for middle-men to rebrand with their own decal.

Had a nice chat with Dennis, then headed out for a 3-mile walk. In the afternoon I played with Shortcuts some more. I succeeded in making a Shortcut that worked. Here’s the link, open that from an iPhone or iPad and you will be told you’re not allowed to open it. Because to use other people’s shortcuts you have to first go to Settings, Shortcuts, and enable “untrusted Shortcuts”. But if you do that you are shown the contents of the Shortcut and asked if you want to save it in your Gallery. You have no reason whatever to do that.

Every Channing House unit has a house phone extension. Anybody can call me by dialing 312. But to call from outside, you have to know that to dial an extension between 300 and 599, you use 650-324-7xxx while if the extension is above that range, you use 650-470-5xxx. Easy, huh? Not! So this app takes any extension, converts it to an outside number, and if you say OK, calls it.

What I eventually want to do is to have a shortcut that will let me enter a person’s name or room number, and have it dialed. That will mean accessing the Resident Directory which is in a web page. Shortcuts can be used to scrape web pages. But there are several barriers, first that you need a userid and password to get into intranet.channinghouse.org. Second that the directory isn’t available on that page in JSON format which is what Shortcuts let you scrape. So. Nerd nerd nerd, nerd nerd.

Late in the day I got another agent rejection.

Saturday 6/27/2020

Per the elevator sign (the day’s events as posted in the elevators and also emailed every night), the garage will be open for returning cars this afternoon. So as I stood looking out at a lovely morning I was thinking, oh, where could I go in the car? I was also looking at my plants and thinking how I want to get some larger fuchsia plants (and dang is that a hard word to spell). And that led to thinking how I really would like to find some larger, good-looking, flowerpots. Well, clearly a visit to a nursery was in order.

First, though, I remembered that Saturday is Farmer’s Market day in downtown Palo Alto, and that is a permitted activity, so I put on my mask and a Panama hat and took my shopping bag and went off there. And to my delight, I found Blenheim apricots were in season. The market is in COVID mode now, meaning there are no tasting samples, and you are no longer allowed to touch the wares. You have to stand back of a tape and ask the vendor to bag it up for you. So I ended up with a couple of pounds of apricots because that was what the vendor put in the bag. Oh well; there was a fair mix of ripe ones and green ones, so I can get them all et before they rot.

Back at the apartment I put my ‘cots away except for about three of the ripest which I ate because they needed eating. Then I thought, if I’m going to get the car out, I should go visit Jean, and I can take her some apricots too. So I did that: drove down to Mountain View and socialized with sister in law Jean for a while. She’s doing fine; healthy and a bit bored but like me, she really doesn’t need a lot of society, and she reports several local or church people stop by often.

Then back up El Camino and San Antonio to Summerwinds nursery. No fuchsias. No nice pots. Jean had suggested the Allied Arts place in Menlo Park where there might be artisanal pottery. It was still early so I drove up there — and let me just say how very enjoyable it is to just drive around freely in my car like old times. But Allied Arts doesn’t seem to have anywhere near as much artisanry as it used to. I’ve not been there in lots of years, but I remember it as having quite a few little artist shops. Now, practically none. There was a wedding party, lots of people in sharp clothes with masks on. But no nice pots.

Back home I had lunch, then went out and moved the car from the street into the garage during the 1:30-2pm open hours. I worked a bit on the car model. The clear plastic windscreen does not fit well. I tortured it a bit and made it work. I’m not at all happy with the paint job. I experimented with brushing on the clear acrylic on some scrap parts and left them to dry.

Got an email: they are reviving the “first monday book talk” series, now on Zoom. Back in January I was scheduled to discuss my To Thrive Beyond Belief in this series in April, but the virus killed the series. So now it looks like I will be doing it by Zoom a week from Monday. I have a week to remember what I had planned to say.

Now to watch a movie.

Friday 6/26/2020

Started the day with a run; it was ok. Then I launched into the FOPAL project, preparing sign-up sheets for the August sale. Here’s my test sheet. Up to 16 people can sign up for either one-hour slot. I signed up a bunch of made-up names to fill the first slot.

It’s a fairly good system; I can export the signed up names and email from any sheet to an Excel spreadsheet for printing; I can send an email blast to everyone signed up to a sheet. Anyway I made up a total of six real sheets with the proper start and end times and days and so on, and sent an email to the people who care to check them out. Not good timing, some may not see it until Monday. Anyway, about 3 hours of work well done, I thought.

Middle of that, Bert, who runs the Tech Squad, sent me an email; a woman named Lynn needs help with her mac. I called her up and was able to coach her through a few things and she felt much better, or so she said.

So, wow, justifying my existence again.

Rhonda’s weekly general meeting didn’t have any big news this time. The next general COVID testing of IL residents will be July 15th. Oh, and on Wednesday I had suggested to Kim that it would be nice to get some guidance on things like the many open-air restaurants opening up? Rhonda ended her talk with a little homily on how, despite how various things are opening up, the virus hasn’t gone away. Just because the county says you may do something does not mean it is safe to do it. She specifically mentioned getting your hair cut; apparently some people have been driving over the line to San Mateo county where salons are open.

She contrasted these businesses to our staff. We have a full-time infection control and safety officer who is constantly monitoring and counseling staff; all our staff get their temperatures checked and are sent home if they have any symptom whatever. Do you really think that the people serving at a restaurant or salon, or the other customers, are as scrupulous about symptom control as our staff is?

While she didn’t actually say “don’t do it,” she did say, “I know I won’t be eating in a restaurant or getting my hair styled for the foreseeable future.” So I know what to say in case Patty suggests dinner out again.

I have three movies off HBO waiting to be watched on the DVR. And the latest episode of Alone, love that series, and something else.

I gave up on Shazam! about half-way through. I don’t know if I would have walked out of it in a theater, but I would have thought about it. I could see it was going to turn into a special effects fest with the heartless (because his father didn’t understand him) bad guy wizard and the confused kid wizard hurling special effects balls at each other. I didn’t like either one of them. Hey, being misunderstood by your father doesn’t give you moral license to unleash demons on innocent people, or indeed on your father. And being an abandoned foster kid doesn’t give you license to walk out on your buddy. They were both shits and I didn’t care.

Thursday 6/25/2020

After Veronica’s aerobics, about 8:30 I headed out to walk to Midtown to meet Harriet for coffee. We chatted about SWBB and such, a nice change. Back home, I decided to do nothing until after lunch.

After lunch I cleaned the unit; it took about 90 minutes as usual. Good news: yesterday we had an email saying that CH Housekeeping will be reinstating room cleaning, not weekly as before, but bi-weekly, starting the first week of July.

From there I again consciously decided to do diddly-squat the rest of the day, just reading and watching the National Theater’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I’ve got several HBO movies in the queue now, but I think I’ll watch some of the regular stuff, like Naked & Afraid.

Wednesday 6/24/2020

Went for a run, which felt fine. That was a bit of a relief, because yesterday, on my modest walk to the hardware store, one knee was being a little painful. Fortunately that has gone and all the joints were just dandy today.

While returning I noticed that a couple of restaurants off University have set up outdoor seating platforms in what were parking spaces. University is to be closed for most of its length starting Friday. At the end of the day I had an email from Patty suggesting she, I and Gwen — the three who, by eating pizza in the lobby, caused a new rule to be imposed — eat at one of the outdoor restaurants.

I replied, “just get Angela [our infection control boss] to say it isn’t a gathering, and I’m all over it.” She replied “People are doing a variety of things. I think it would require we think it safe.” I’m a bit surprised at this.

Look, they just set up a special area in our parking lot where a resident can meet with family members from outside. Max 3 family and nobody under 18; the family must have their temperatures taken and state they have no symptoms; everybody wears masks and sits well apart. That’s what Channing House thinks is a safe gathering. Compare that to three of us without masks (eating), sitting around a small table, within a few feet of other tables of a number of unmasked people, none of whom have had their temps taken. No way would Angela approve that. I kind of wonder what she meant by “doing a variety of things”, but I’m just not going to reply.

I completely omitted to note the passing of the longest day of the year on Sunday; tsk.

It being one of the days when I can get back in the garage, I took the car out for a brief spin. Previously that was only allowed on Wednesdays; now it’s MWF, but somehow Wednesday seems the right time. I brought the key back to the room rather than leaving it in the car.

The other car in my life, the model one, got some attention. The clear acrylic came in so I set up for painting. Sprayed the light color coat. Sprayed two coats of clear. I am not at all happy with the paint texture but I don’t know what to do different, and I don’t feel like fussing any longer. I used a toothpick to remove the rubbery “frisket” masking.

And then used the chrome pen to chrome plate the shiny bits.

The chrome pen works well. You can’t really see in that picture but I painted black blades on the windshield wipers. And I think the 6 volt battery came out well. The kit includes clear plastic windows but I am not sure I want to use them. I will try fitting them and see. Anyway, final assembly will happen Friday and Saturday I imagine.

One more agent replied with a rejection. That’s four who replied in less than a week, which is not the slow response I’d been led to expect.

OK, now to watch one of the movies I recorded off HBO, Shazam.

Update: in the regular daily COVID email, I learn that our one staff member who tested positive and was isolating at home, has had to go into the hospital, as have several of their family members. It’s a real disease, folks.

I was very disappointed by the HBO Perry Mason. First, Tatiana Maslany didn’t even appear in Episode 1, except in a photograph. Apparently she will be playing a charismatic evangelist, styled after Amy Semple McPherson, but that character wasn’t in this episode except by reference. That left the show itself. I had to admire the production values; they spared no expense in recreating 1929 L.A., but my gosh they went for “noir” style big-time. Perry Mason is a pathetic loser, broke, getting beaten up, estranged from his wife, always going for the sarcastic wisecrack even when it alienates people. Quite a bit of very explicit sex, which didn’t bother me; quite a bit of very raw, bloody violence, which did. I finally deleted the show ten minutes from the end. I’ve got several HBO movies queued up to record, but I will cancel the sub before the next billing period.

Tuesday 6/23/2020

Did Veronica’s cardio. Later on I realized that my little digital kitchen scale’s batteries were dead and I didn’t have any AAA size. So I ordered a pack of them from the hardware up the street, and walked up there for curbside pickup.

I spent an hour working over the plan for sign-ups for the next FOPAL sale. I’ve been tasked with making sign-ups via Slottr.com, work. I ended up writing a list of questions to the other volunteers I’m working with.

Finally spent a little time trying to come up to speed on Shortcuts, which is the scripting/automation app for iOS. I’ve had it in mind to automate a couple of things on the iPhone and this is how to do it.

In the evening, I watched Titan Games, recorded from yesterday. And, hello! One of the competitors was Mitch Harrison. Who? Well, Michelle Harrison was a very successful player for SWBB 2006-2010. A couple of years after graduation, Michelle married a woman and began the transition to Mitch. Marian kept tabs on Mitch as she did on all the alumnae, so I was aware of this.

So I’m listening to the bio of this handsome, very well-muscled guy with a goatee, and he’s saying “I played basketball at Stanford, we went to three final-fours…” and I’m thinking, Stanford Men’s Basketball has never been that successful, who is this? when he finishes saying “I played as Michelle,” and I realized: oh! That’s Mitch! The show did a nice little segment on his life, showing some SWBB clips, having him talk about being estranged from his “very conservative” family, etc.

Unfortunately, Mitch was put up against a guy who looked to outweigh him by 20 or more pounds and he just didn’t have the power to win, although he performed quite respectably.

Monday 6/22/2020

Today was the first Residents’ Association meeting since February, and the historic first one conducted over the internet. As anticipated, just over 100 people Zoomed in. That’s the same as for Rhonda’s Friday meetings, and probably represents the about-55% of the population here that has the technical ability to manage the internet unaided. There are probably another 20? 30? who do email but can’t manage Zoom. As I mentioned a week or so ago, the traditional, physical RA meetings pack the auditorium with pretty much all the 200+ residents. But there you go.

As Treasurer I was the 2nd agenda item after “1. Call to Order.” My report was short: last meeting we had $5300. Now we have $1000, owing to a large contribution to the item next on the agenda.

The next agenda item was Peter telling how he and others had organized a special employee donation, tapping the RA treasury and other groups to amass enough money to give a $100 bonus to the just-under-200 employees, including enough to pay their withholding so it was tax free. This as a small thank-you for the extraordinary efforts they have all put in over the past two months of continual changes.

The RA meeting was at 9am so I couldn’t do my usual morning run. I took a shortish walk after lunch.

The rest of the day I didn’t do much. Painted a bunch of small parts for the model. The next step will be final assembly of all the parts, but I can’t do that until I have completed painting the body, and the clear acrylic hasn’t arrived. But probably I can finish that up by next week. Then I’ll have to look at the couple of hundred dollars worth of tools and supplies I’ve accumulated building this model, and decide if I want to make another one, and if so, what?

Oh, this evening I got a second rejection from an agent. Two down, 20 or so to go.