Thursday 01/01/2026

This morning I had to edit the spreadsheet with my crossword numbers, to set up for a new year. This Numbers file has sheets for every year from 2013 through 2025, and now, 2026. What is on each sheet? Columns for the days of the week, in which I record the time it takes to complete the LA Times crossword puzzle. Each day. There is also a sheet of graphs and statistics, because what good are raw numbers if you don’t make graphs of them? Here is the summary graph for the days Monday-Saturday, from 2013 through 2025.

This graph doesn’t show Sunday, because Sunday, which is actually the big NY Times puzzle, takes 35-40 minutes. If I include those times, the other days of the week get squished down to the bottom of the graph and it’s harder to see the trends.

The point of all this, besides being conclusive proof that I’m a nerd, is to watch for deterioration in my mental capacity. And there is some, although not significant. Yet. The LA Times puzzles, like the ones in the NY Times, are graded in difficulty through the week. Look at the blue and green lines, the Monday and Tuesday times. These are the easiest puzzles. In 2013, my Monday puzzle times ranged from 6.5 to 9 minutes, with an average around 7. In 2025, Monday takes 8-12 with an average a bit under 10. That’s like 30% slower.

The picture for the other days of the week isn’t as clear. (I think the jumps around 2014-15 must reflect a change of editors, or something systematic that made all the puzzles harder in 2015, and then went back to normal.) Looking at Wed-Thu-Fri, from 2020 on, I had slightly faster times for 2025 versus 2024. That would be reassuring except for the spike in Saturday times.

The Saturday puzzle is more cryptic and has always taken 18-22 minutes to do. But there are days when I give up and don’t finish. What time should I record then? I elected to show only the times when I actually finish the puzzle, and to keep a separate tally of DNF days. In 2025, there were 19 Saturdays when I did not finish the puzzle. In 2024 there were 20, so no change in that.

Anyway, bottom line, possible minor deterioration, brain still basically functional.

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I picked up my supper sack at 9:30, then spent another hour in the music practice room. Here’s a song I am having trouble with: “Bring it on home” by Sam Cooke. You think you know something about music? Count that out. What’s the time signature? I am pretty sure it’s 6/8 but nothing, nothing happens exactly on the downbeat. It sounds so simple. Hah.

Jerry and Betty had invited me, Joanne, and Kay for lunch. This was a nice group. Kay was just back from visiting her daughter and grandchildren in Porto, Portugal. So we talked about what she saw there. I had brought an idea I had formed this morning. The SJ Merc had included a wrap-up of the best pop albums of the year, and of course I know zilch about any of the performers. And I thought, you know, we’re all stuck in the 60s and 70s musically, how about we have a regular event where we sit and listen to an entire album by somebody younger than our children? I proposed this and everybody jumped on it as a great idea. So I will look into creating such an event in coming months.

Then with the rain stopped and clouds clearing, Joanne and I went for my standard walk, crossing the creek twice. It’s flowing strong now.

Drowsed and napped for a couple hours, then it was time for another picnic supper. Just five of us in the 6th floor dining room, everybody else out with their relatives I guess.

Wednesday 12/31/2025

An open day, no scheduled activities. OK. Steady rain outside, no walking. I hit the gym for the first time in… never mind. Then I spent an hour in the music practice room, practicing music.

I killed the rest of the day with a bit of reading and youtube watching. At 7 I will go downstairs for the New Years Eve party, sponsored and arranged by the 8th floor. That’s Joanne’s floor, and she is one of the floor chairs and has been deeply involved in the planning of this party for weeks. So I hope it comes off nicely. I’m sure it will. I’ll write about it tomorrow.

Tuesday 12/30/2025

In the morning more or less on impulse Joanne and I took a nice walk around our neighborhood. Then I tidied up the room for the housekeeper, sorted my laundry, and ran my laundry. In the afternoon I read for a while and practiced music.

I and Joanne had been invited to share a dinner table with the Goldens and the Allens. Pleasant group. We finished just before 7, in time for the movie. The movie committee, who have retitled themselves Channing Classic Cinema, show a movie on 2nd and 4th tuesdays. Tonight’s movie was Our Souls at Night, Robert Redford (age 81) and Jane Fonda (80) playing lonely people who get together, sort of, then get separated by the demands of their grown children. It certainly played to our demographic. I was unsatisfied with the ending.

Monday 12/29/2025

Went out early, 7:30, for a standard walk. Back at 9, straight to the garage, drove to FOPAL. Spent 90 minutes going through 3 boxes of stuff. Which included a stack, I mean 30+, unopened, never-used, AOL trial CDs. Remember those? From like 1995-2003, AOL sent out CD-ROMs with its internet client app and “Free! 1009 hours” of AOL use. This donor had saved them. On eBay people try to sell them at $5 to $20, although I didn’t search on “completed items” so I don’t know what they actually bring. Anyway they have no sale value for our sales, although I think some may go (at $1/disc) at the vintage computer faire next summer.

Met after lunch with Brian to go over how to adjust the projector for the movies he likes to show. Then just fiddled around for the rest of the day.

Sunday 12/28/2025

Friday, I thought I had signed up to do a docent tour at the museum today, Sunday. When I got home yesterday I discovered that I had actually signed up for the noon tour 12/27, Saturday. Meaning I had been a no-show for my scheduled tour. I wrote to Jesse, the volunteer manager, apologizing. He wrote back, no problem, we were covered, but do come in tomorrow anyway, we can use extra coverage.

So I did go down for the noon tour. Dave Hoyt had signed up for it, and another guy was there to do a 12:15 if needed, so I was superfluous, but the other guy said he didn’t care, he’d go home. Apparently yesterday was a real zoo with 50+ people in the noon tour. Today wasn’t quite as busy, but Dave Hoyt led off at least 25 people at 12, and I still had over 20 when I started at 12:15. Nice tour, appreciative crowd.

Then I zipped home in time to catch the end of the 11-2pm window for Sunday Brunch. I was just finishing that up, sitting alone in the nearly-empty dining room, reading on my phone, when Joanne walked up. She kidded me about having dessert and said she was just going to walk to Trader Joe’s, did I want to come along? I said I would have to change out of my red shirt, she said she would wait in the lobby “tapping my foot” while I did that. So we had a nice walk on a cool bright day.

Later I did something I haven’t done in probably 10 years: proofed a couple of pages at PGDP.net. Something had reminded me of that site, one of the first and maybe the most successful of the “crowd-sourcing” sites, and I just thought I’d check in and see if it was still there and still remembered me. Yes, and yes. Along with Zooniverse.org, one of the places you waste time in a socially productive way, online.

Saturday 12/27/2025

The big project of this day was to drive to San Gregorio, 40 miles west over the mountains on the coast, to hear the Keller Sisters. I and other CH residents have gone to San Gregorio at various times (days 4.255, 4.344, 5.135, 5.261, 6.094, 6.228), mostly to hear the Keller women, one other group once. This time there were 6 of us. The Morrisons drove themselves. I drove Fred with Joanne, Erika, and Joanne the other one. They put on a great show. Lovely weather, scattered clouds, clear post-rainstorm air.

I shot one video. It will be here on my public dropbox for a week or two.

Friday 12/26/2025

Today I was able to spend a lot of time with Joanne. We took our usual Friday morning “muffin walk” where she picks up a special bran muffin from the local bakery’s pop-up store. But when we got back from that we hopped in the car and headed off to the City, for a planned outing to SFMOMA.

Traffic was pleasantly light and we got to the museum jut a few minutes before it opened at 10. The special exhibit was KAWS: Family, a collection of the works of the Brooklyn pop artist KAWS, sculpture and drawings in a particular cartoon-based style. Here’s one of his space figures. The shiny chrome is reflecting the colors of a huge, colorful painting on a nearby wall.

We spent a couple of hours looking at that and a couple of other exhibits. Then we headed south and Joanne suggested we have lunch in downtown Burlingame. Lots of other people had that idea, too, but after a while we found parking and had a nice lunch at SaltWorks.

Then home and off to our individual fun. I took a nap, then took my guitar to the music room for an hour of practice.

Thursday 12/25/2025

Had no plans for the holiday. On the spur of the moment I contacted Joanne to join me for breakfast, and later we took a walk down to Edgewood Market (3.5 mi for the day).

I spent the rest of the day doing end of year stuff. Paid my estimated tax payments. And used Charity Navigator to donate to 25 worthy causes.

Visited my neighbor Edie who is in the Lee center recovering from a heart attack. Then did some reading, I am slogging through The Embodied Mind but it is hard going. And played a bit of guitar.

Then it was time for supper. As usual on holidays, supper is a a brown bag sandwich I picked up after breakfast. I took it to the floor dining room and ate with Craig and Diane and Gwen.

Wednesday 12/24/2025

Went out for a walk in the morning, mainly to hit the 7/11 to cash my Powerball winnings. The ticket I bought on Monday had two lines with the powerball number, and one had an additional number, $11, whee! All I had to do was give the clerk 9 more dollars to get my next 10 quick picks. Still chasing that big jackpot.

About 5 I took the car and drove a couple of miles to James’s place for the Minnis-Mills extended family gumbo party. Christmas Eve gumbo is a long-standing tradition with them. I think I was the oldest person there. Of the 30 or so guests, there were plenty of 40-sumpin and teens and tots. General good times and feelings.

Tuesday 12/23/2025

In the morning Joanne and I took advantage of the fact that the writers meeting had been suspended to next year, so our morning was clear, and we went for a nice version of my standard walk, over across the creek and back, and stop for coffee. San Francisquito Creek is running a steady flow, nothing dramatic yet.

A quiet day otherwise. About 5 I dressed for dinner, i.e. put on my only sport coat and a clean turtleneck, and walked the few blocks to Il Fornaio, our local fancy restaurant, for dinner hosted by Toni and Dennis. Also there, Toni’s sons James and Ted, Dennis’s son Jeff, and Denise, and lots of spouses and kids. I sat next to Jeff’s eldest Will, and across from James’s daughters Hannah and Harper. And next to Denise and Jason and their four(?) year old Tyler, who kept his parents busy. Excellent food and a pleasant experience all around.