1.009 haircut, FOPAL

Wednesday, 12/11/2019

I had a haircut appointment for 9:30, so wanted an early run. Just to keep it short, I ran on the treadmill in the basement. 32 minutes of running there feels like more exertion than actually running on the street. I’m not sure why.

Actually could have had time for breakfast in the dining room, but instead had a Sated RTD on the way to Chris’s place.

From my haircut to FOPAL where I got the Computer section ready for the upcoming sale weekend. That includes counting the books on the shelves and generally arranging things for a pleasing layout.

I walked over to the grocery store for snacks and took a break in the car; then went back in for two hours of sorting.

A few days ago I think I mentioned that my anti-acid-reflux med, Ranitidine, had mysteriously disappeared from drugstores and online. This morning I messaged Dr. Julia about this, and she replied that Ranitidine had been recalled because of possible contamination with a cancer cause — but unlikely and don’t be concerned. Meantime, use Famotidine 20mg. So I need to get some of that.

Before supper I gave my wrap-up essay a final editing pass. I would like to get it read by Susan, who I know is a good editor, but I am a little afraid to do so. It’s pretty raw and open about emotions and it might be uncomfortable to expose myself this way to somebody here. On the other hand, why not? Well, think about it.

After supper (where I sat at an empty table and was quickly joined by Craig and Diane, which was nice) it was time for the Channing House Chorus to perform. I had bowed out of the Chorus back on day 326 (or 0.326 as it would be, by the new numbering scheme). Since then they’ve done a lot of work and did a pretty good performance. Most successful was a number in which two spirituals, Amen and Go Tell It were woven together; they actually swung it. There was drinks and cookies after, so very nice.

1.008 mostly writing

Had breakfast in the dining hall and then spent several hours finishing up the year-end essay. I want to go over it one more time, then will post it as a “page” of the site.

Later in the day I worked with ACDSee Photo Manager for Mac, and satisfied myself it would do everything that I have used Adobe Bridge for. It lets me organize image files in folders, retaining the Mac OS file structure; and I can edit image metadata with it. That was important for organizing our many scanned slides. They don’t automatically have a GPS location like iPhone pictures. Just the same, because they’ve all been keyworded by me, I could search for, e.g., “Toronto” and find all images taken there. Or all images created in 1993, or that are pictures of a bridge, etc.

I did all that keywording and searching with Adobe Bridge, but I can’t get an updated version since I dropped my Adobe subscription; and the old (pre-subscription era) version I’ve been using is a 32-bit app which won’t run in the next Mac OS. Hence the search for a replacement, and ACDSee’s product worked, had a usable interface, and could do the metadata management and searching. It has some added functions Bridge didn’t have as well. So I paid $80 to have a legit copy that I can use forever, and suck it, Adobe. With that and Affinity Photo I have good replacements for all Adobe stuff.

On the way to supper I was invited by Carolyn to sit with her, shortly joined by John and then by Lennie. We all had some degree of computer backgrounds (John especially from many years at DEC and then Google). Carolyn wrote a book about Silicon Valley and during the writing of it, interviewed Steve Jobs.

1.007 FOPAL, writing

Monday, 12/9/2019

I started the day with a run, out the door at 7:20, a bit earlier than usual, so that I could be back and showered and dressed in time for the monthly Residents’ meeting. Nothing too exciting there.

Immediately after I went to FOPAL to manage my Computer section, and found only one box of books waiting by it. However the yield from the one box was unusually good; I priced and shelved about 8 books, and found two high-value ones. Then I did sorting until 1pm.

Back home I had a nap, then spent another hour working on my year-end summary essay. Hopefully can finish that tomorrow.

About 4:30 Patty called, asking me to join a dinner party, which I was happy to do. Patty and Mildred and Craig and Diane and one other person whose name I didn’t get in the first place, so don’t have to confess to forgetting it.

1.006 blog tidy, year summary

Sunday, 12/8/2019

An uncommitted Sunday, per my Google Calendar. What shall I do? I think that I will use this day to get caught up on computer-based things. One, finish reviewing the first year of this blog, and tidy up the use of tags. Two, use the tag system to get a numerical summary of my activities. Three, start drafting an essay on my experience of this transitional year. Four, research a replacement for the Adobe Bridge app (since I’ve found an adequate replacement for Photoshop in Affinity). Five, explore the use of a different browser, the Brave browser, to possibly replace Chrome. Eventually I’ll report on the last two items to the tech squad.

By lunch I have finished the review and tagging. By 2pm I have cleaned up the tag usage and can offer the following

authoritative summary of activities

for this first year of Codger-dom. First, regarding difficult emotions,

Days on which I reported feelings of Grief: 46 (most, but not all, in the first half).
Days on which I reported feelings of Anxiety: 13 (all in the first half).

More detail on those emotions in the essay, later.

One goal I set for myself was to get the F out of the house and attend performances of various kinds, and visit museums and galleries. At this I succeeded, reporting

Days I attended a musical concert: 14.
Days I attended another kind of performance: 33. This includes theatrical performances, lectures, baseball games, and a day at the Scottish Games.
Days I visited some type of art museum or gallery: 14. Includes two visits to SFMOMA, and a morning wandering around Carmel looking at galleries.
Days I viewed a movie: 12. Four were at home on TV, the others in theaters.

I used volunteer work as a way to structure the week and see other people. In the year I counted

Days of artifact conservation at the Computer History Museum: 43.
Days when I led tours at the CHM: 58. Wow, more than one a week.
Days that I put in hours at Friends of the PA Library: 84. Once a week in the first few months, but after I was asked to manage the Computer section, twice a week.

I gratefully noted meeting with a friend or friends on 36 days (thanks, Scott!) and with family members on 35 days (thanks, Dennis, Jean, and Darlene!).

Meanwhile I did amuse myself with some hobbies, reporting

23 days when I did some creative writing, mostly on my novel in progress.
36 days when I did some kind of handicraft work, restoring tables or a plant-stand or repairing something.

I was away from home traveling for 21 days, in two trips, one to Las Vegas, one to Greece.

On 18 days I reported some kind of medical/dental item, an appointment or procedure, mostly routine.

On 65 days I reported something to do with selling my house: meeting with agents or contractors or paying bills or signing papers or making phone calls. Thankfully that is all over and done!

And I went for a morning run on 104 days. That’s twice a week, less than my goal; but I also reported “Exercise” on 58 other days. (A regular exercise routine is an ongoing issue.)

As planned, I got 500 words or so into my wrap-up essay, then spent an hour looking at alternatives to Adobe Bridge. And now at 5pm I am settling down for a quiet watch of some youtube videos. A new episode of Project Binkie is in!

1.005 Laundry, Docent, images, SWVB

Saturday, 12/7/2019

I was scheduled for the noon tour, which meant leaving at 11am in my red docent shirt, which needed washing. So I started the laundry before 7am, in order to get both loads done and the shirt ironed in time.

Went to the museum and led a tour that started with about 15 people. Picked up another ten or so on the way, then they evaporated and I ended up with 12 at the end. They seemed interested.

Back home, I spent some time learning the ins and outs of Affinity, the app I am starting to use to edit my old photos and print them out large on the new printer. The standard for decades has been Adobe Photoshop but as I wrote before, they changed their business model a few years ago, from selling software to renting it. When I finished converting all the old slides, I dropped my Adobe subscription. Affinity is a replacement. It cost only $40, but it has just about every feature that PhotoShop had, and a user interface that is pretty close to it. At least, a number of the PhotoShop keystrokes in my muscle memory do the same thing in Affinity. But as was true with PhotoShop, there is no bottom to the depths of things you can do with it. I ran onto a big set of free tutorial videos for using Affinity, and watched several and then immediately went and applied them to a picture.

It doesn’t show well at this resolution, but the picture on the right is improved in several ways, and the point is that each component was improved separately. The wall and the people were separated from the distant hill so it could be made darker and greener. Then I selected the man and child–including the wisps of their hair–from the masonry wall. The wall got a little darker and bluer. The faces and flesh tones got subtly brighter and easier to see. I see that their shirts should get more saturated; since they are on a separate layer now, that will be easy to do without affecting anything else.

day 5 – boat ride to malcesine

Soon it was 5pm and time to call for a Lyft to Maples and the second round of the NCAA for women’s volleyball. Stanford had no difficulty in disposing of Cal Poly in three sets. The dining room wasn’t open when I left, and it was closed when I got back, so once again I had a salami and cheese sandwich and a beer in my room.

1.004 FOPAL, tech squad, SWVB

Friday, 12/6/2019

Today I wanted to put in some time at FOPAL, since I was unable to go on Wednesday. I pictured many boxes of computer books piling up. However, I began the day with an indoor run, 32 minutes on the treadmill. Last time I did an actual run, I timed the main “legs” of my route, and it came out to (roughly) 16 minutes, 8, and 8. The two breaks are bridges where I slow down and walk for a short distance over the bridge. So that’s what I did on the treadmill, and on the Health app it came to very similar step counts to a real run.

Then to FOPAL where I found… only two boxes of computer books. And mostly dreck; I ended up shelving only 5 books. Then I started sorting, and was shortly joined by two new volunteers, a couple, Andrew and … damn, can’t remember her name, starts with a C and isn’t Clarice or Cordelia… This was another instance where completely new volunteers showed up at 10am when, had I not been there unscheduled, nobody would have been able to welcome them and show them the ropes. Well, it worked out.

Approaching 12, I left, picking up a few grocery items and then back to CH for lunch. At 1 I. was to meet Craig to install a printer on the 10th floor. This is an upgraded floor, and hence all wi-fi work goes through the ClearPass system (which I wrote about way back in June, Day 183). Craig had already gotten the Epson printer to report its MAC address, and input that to ClearPass as being part of the subnet for that apartment. Now we got the printer to join the wi-fi net. Next up, grab Barbara’s MacBook and tell it to forget its old default printer and look for a new one. At first, the printer didn’t show up, but then we checked and the Mac was logged into the building wi-fi, not the proper ClearPass one. As soon as we logged in to that network, the printer popped up instantly in the add printer dialog.

In a glow of accomplishment I left to take a nap. At 4pm I went via Lyft to Maples Pavilion. Mark and Susan, friends from SGI days and from Canopy, had invited me to join them for the NCAA first round of women’s volleyball. The first game, Georgia vs. Cal Poly, was close. Georgia won the first two sets. Then Cal Poly rallied to win two sets. In the fifth set, Cal Poly took a quick lead and won the match.

The second match, Stanford vs Denver (who?), went to Stanford in three sets. Tomorrow I will return to see Stanford/Cal Poly.

1.003 Shustek mostly

Thursday, 12/5/2019

Pretty much a quiet day. Drove to the Shustek center and spent the day photographing. By the end of the day I and Tom had completely cleared the “to be photographed” shelves.

Two interesting new donations. One was a military computer. Alan did the online searching to figure out it was a Data General Nova minicomputer inside, but it was packaged in a long black box shaped like avionics, suitable to rack into a helicopter or something, with mil-spec cable connectors, and it weighed 90 pounds. The other was a TV Typewriter, a home-brew box with a keyboard and amateur-looking toggle switches. The design for a circuit that would put 16, 32-character lines on a TV screen was published in 1973, and was used as the primary user interface to many home-brew computers in the 1974-1979 era.

That was about it. Back to CH, had a short nap, then went to dinner. Decided I didn’t like anything on offer, so ate a sandwich in my room.

1.002 Docent, A/V work

Funny thing now. Yesterday I had worked out the 11th floor mic setup — or so I thought — to supply a single hand-held mic. I woke up at 1:45am with the thought, “Was that all they wanted? Because I was given a copy of the event request form (ERF), and why the hell have I not actually read it?” So I got up, turned on a light, and read the ERF, and oh crap, they want a lectern with a podium mic plus a hand-held.

I put on some clothes and in the deep quiet of Channing House at 2am, I go up to the 11th floor. Desperate exploration reveals a little podium (brand name “Lecternette”) which appears to consist of just a speaker cabinet on a wheeled cart. The instruction sheet taped to it refers to two wireless mics on channels 3 and 4 and a podium mic, but all I can see is this speaker cabinet.

I go back to my room and compose an email to the other members of the A/V committee asking for some info on this, where are these two mics supposed to be? Then go back to bed.

Wednesday, 12/4/2019

I have a docent tour at 11, so I have to leave at 10. I shower and shave and dress in my nice docent clothes, then go to breakfast, then go to the 11th floor and resume inspecting the A/V gear. After poking and prodding the “speaker cabinet” I finally discover how the top of it opens up to reveal a lectern surface with a light, a nice mic stand, a mic to put in the stand, and in another concealed drawer, two wireless mics. I plug in the power and with only ten minutes of futzing around, I have the podium mic and one wireless hand-held working. No idea why the other one won’t, but there it is.

So I go off to the museum and lead a tour for a group of 22 college students from Mexico, who have, according to my info sheet, “good English”. They better, because I talk fast and have nada de Español. Pat Buder is there, a 1401 docent, getting ready for the Wednesday afternoon 1401 demo, and volunteers to do a private demo for my group. He also suggests that maybe I should do 1401 demos, too. I demur, having plenty of things to do already, although I agree to “sometime” let him show me the ropes.

The tour leader tells me they have “maybe an hour.” Why do groups do this? I get him to agree to an hour and a half. Then I rush through my tour, skipping several points I normally make, and get them to Pat at 12pm. This group was, in Pat’s word, “squirrely”. Of the 22, I don’t think I ever had the full attention of more than 10 at a time. The rest wandered around or gawked at their cell phones, or cracking each other up with jokes in Spanish. Well, some seemed interested anyway.

So, straight back to CH, skipping my usual Wednesday FOPAL stint. Nancy, a CH resident, was already at work setting up the 11th floor for the Canopy party. I moved the podium out to the right location and got it all ready, then helped Nancy move tables and chairs around. Eventually Maika arrived. She was one of Marian’s favorite people ever; Marian adored working with Maika on her Canopy volunteer days. Maika was surprised and pleased to see me, as was Catherine, the Canopy CEO. The two of them had visited Marian a couple of weeks before she died. At that time, I’d asked them for advice on what to do with Beau, the 7-foot ponytail palm. Catherine remembered that and asked about Beau’s fate, and was glad he had a new home.

With the help of a couple of staff from the CH kitchen, they set up a big table of catered goodies and wine and mulled cider. Eventually 30 or so CH residents, and a dozen invited guests, drifted in to nosh and listen to Catherine and three others describe Canopy’s work, and make a low-key pitch for volunteers and donations.

By 5:15 people were drifting away, so I struck the podium and put everything away, and was just in time to join the other 6th floor exiles for the monthly 6th-floor supper. Except I’d eaten so many snacks I didn’t really want supper. But anyway we were joined by future residents Leon and Margaret, I think mentioned them before, and one more person who has bought in but can’t move in until February, and whose name I forgot as usual.

Watched about 3 hours of impeachment proceedings I’d recorded on the DVR. And so to bed, hopefully not to wake in a panic at 2am.

Day 365, errands, Anthem, A/V, Jean

Well. One year ago I was visiting the Neptune Society offices to make arrangements, and writing about my first experiences of grief. Quite a lot has changed in that year, and over the next few days I plan to assemble some kind of retrospective essay, summarizing what I’ve experienced, what I’ve done, and what I’ve learned. But for now, I will just carry on with daily posts.

However, going forward, shall I keep the Day number headings? Once we are past 365, they stop being meaningful. Maybe change the numbering system to a year and a day, e.g. supposing this has been year zero, then tomorrow could be Day 1.1, and so on to 2021 when Day 1.365 changes to Day 2.1. Or maybe drop the “Day” and just use a number, 1.15.

Tuesday, 12/3/2019

Over the past few days I’ve accumulated a lot of mental “should-do” items and finally made myself write a list, which proved quite lengthy, so devoted this morning to doing these things. Some bills. Paid up the Apple Card and then had another unsatisfactory exchange with the Apple help text system. The Apple Card just does not want to do things in ways I would like. I’ve mentioned how I can’t schedule a payment through my usual SFCU Bill Pay system. There’s no reason they can’t support that. Today I asked if there was any way I could view my balance or statement or make a payment using my iMac instead of the little iPhone screen. Nope. They do not support such a thing. There’s no support for the Apple Wallet on the bigger systems.

And that decided me: I am going to cancel the Apple Card, and not the BofA card. Which is a bit of a close shave for the latter, because I was going to close it after its balance was zero, which I thought it would be when my payment cleared. However in the interim I took an Uber (Sunday, to the Dish walk) and I had forgotten that I had that card as the payment option for Uber. So now it had a new, $9 balance and I put off closing it to next month, and now it will survive.

Recall how a few days back (Day 353 actually) I was unable to get into the Anthem system to investigate my new drug insurance. Try again within 30 days of the start of your coverage, was the advice. So, today I tried again. The symptoms were different, another vague error message, “We can’t seem to complete your log-in” and offering three possibilities: wrong username or password, not yet registered, or account is locked. So I called the help line, and once again got a minimum-wage person with a heavy accent (Philipino?) who offered to reset the account password. Well, I had already been through resetting the password, but ok, and of course that didn’t help. She suggested I should wait until coverage actually starts. Sigh.

I went out, stopping first at Bed Bath and Beyond because I was thinking maybe I want a duvet. I was kind of chilly a few nights, but that was when the bedroom radiator wasn’t working. But maybe a not-too-arctic duvet with a colorful cover would be nice. They didn’t have any. They had duvets, but only boring gray or beige covers, and anyway a Queen/Full set would be over $300 and… nah. fuggedaboudit.

On to Target where I hoped to stock up on some Ranitidine. I had gotten that there before (day 229) and remembered exactly where they should be. But they weren’t. Name-brand (Zantac) but no generic. I also looked for note pads. Simple, 4×6, pads of white paper such as I want one of by the phone and one on my desk. Nope.

Crossed the street to Walmart. They, also, had no Ranitidine, although they at least had posted a “temporarily out of stock” note on that bit of shelf. Later, shopping online, I still can’t find it. What, is there a global shortage of the Ranitidine plant or something? No paper pads, either, plenty of spiral books and legal pads but no plain small ones.

Palo Alto once had not one but two complete stationery stores, one on University and one on California Ave. Both closed earlier this century. I stopped at a paper store in Town and Country, but they were all about wrapping and place cards and note cards, nothing so plebian as a pad of white paper. So guess what? Amazon Prime. Stack of 10, 4×6 note pads, on its way to me, $11, free shipping. Wonder why all those stationery stores closed?

After lunch I remembered that I am running A/V for a big Canopy do on our 11th floor tomorrow, and I have never touched the 11th floor mic equipment, only the stuff in the auditorium. So I went up there and fumbled around and couldn’t work it out. But eventually I unearthed the instruction sheet under a bunch of other stuff, and got squared away, so am prepared. The contact person for the event is Maika Horjus, who is a person at Canopy that Marian loved to work with when she did volunteer stuff in the Canopy office. She will no doubt be surprised to see me.

Jean had invited me to supper. We talked about various things for an hour. I had wanted to assure her of financial support if she couldn’t live independently. Turns out, she’s already worked out where to move if needed, and figures she will have enough money, but was glad I would be able to help with any shortfall.

Day 364, men’s group, FOPAL

Monday, 12/2/2019

Started the day with a run. Felt fine. At 10am the Channing House Men’s Group had a meeting, to welcome and introduce a new resident, David Thornton. That makes a total of five Daves in the house, me, Dave Torin, David Morrison, David Golden, and this guy. Who has the mild manner of a minister, which he was for a few years out of Yale Divinity School. Then for three decades he had various positions with the YMCA, including the last 15 years as CEO of the Santa Clara Valley group of Y’s.

From there I went to FOPAL where there was only a couple of boxes of computer books and, even more astonishing, a vast reduction in the mountain of boxes waiting to be sorted. Somebody (notably I believe, Frank McConnel) has been doing a heroic amount of sorting. I took it on myself to pull out and sort all remaining non-standard boxes, i.e. moving boxes and shopping bags and such, leaving only firmly-packed (hence stackable) banker’s boxes. Those, I stacked neatly in 3, 5-high stacks, or 15 boxes. I estimate there is room now for about 45 boxes which would bring the mountain back to where it was a month ago. Then I got out the house vacuum and vacuumed the carpet. The whole sorting room looked neater than I have ever seen it in a year.

Coming in, I bumped into Chris of the facilities group in the hallway and asked him to take a look at the radiator in the bedroom of my temp unit, which doesn’t produce any heat. Later that evening Luis came by and worked on it, replacing the thermostat for that room. The thermostats in these un-upgraded units are interesting antiques. There is an air compressor in the basement, and an air feed to the thermostat. The thermostat unit itself has several cams and levers that operate a small valve that controls the amount of air being sent through the wall to the valve on the radiator. The radiator valve controls the hot water flow based on air pressure from the thermostat. Real antiques. I can see why the floor by floor upgrade includes a complete replacement of the HVAC system.