Thursday 02/05/2026

Fun day. Off an on during the day I worked on the video of the book talk that I managed on Monday.

I walked over to CVS and got the different prescription that my cardio had set. I worked on a couple of other projects as well. I collected a couple of graphs that will go with my book talk in May.

About 2am I conceived the idea that it would be fun to do a talk on the Kessler Syndrome, which I recently read might be more imminent than previously thought. So for that, I went to Claude.ai and had Claude look up the relevant scientific papers, and then to help me find websites that show a good visualization of satellite traffic around the earth. (This is a good one.)

Finished the video and uploaded it, and checked my email and AHAH here was the notice from Stanford Live that the Paul Simon ticket pre-sale window was open! Two days ago I donated $250 to Stanford Live so I could be a “supporter” and get in on the pre-sale. And here it was!

So I clicked the link and entered The Worst 40 Minutes I Ever Spent With a Computer. Here’s the email I sent to Stanford Live 2 hours later. AXS is their unspeakable rubbish ticket vending web page, which is completely paranoid about preventing sales to ‘bots.

I just want to tell you — avoiding expletives with an heroic effort — that the experience of buying Paul Simon tickets was the worst 40 minutes I ever spent on a computer, and I’ve been using them over 50 years. 

And it isn’t over yet.

I tried to get AXS to acknowledge me as human using two different computers, and three different browsers on each. Oh, and two different wifi networks. So, about 14 different attempts to follow that link from your email. EVERY TIME it gave me its chipper message about “are you a real fan?” and point me to its useless help page.

Finally I noticed a coy little remark about “change to mobile data”. OK! I go to my phone, turn off wifi, and using Safari over cellular, it let me in right up to the point at which I actually selected two seats.

Then it said I needed to sign in. Sign in to what? Not Stanford Live, no that password won’t work. By the time I had gone through the AXS password reset process — which of course included an email confirmation code and a text message — when I did sign in to AXS it no longer knew about the tickets I had selected. No cart.

So I repeated the ticket selection process and finally actually managed to pay you the $550+. Huzzah! I had made it!

Haha, not so fast, humble consumer! You don’t really have tickets; you have bought the right to download them into our so-special app that you must use instead of, oh I don’t know, Apple Wallet, like every other venue on the planet?

So I go and get the GV app from the app store. OK. And guess what? The GV app wants me to sign in. Oh, ok, reasonable — but when I enter the AXS email and password that I just reset 15 minutes ago, it blocks me with “Are you a real fan?” On my own phone!

Dear Stanford Live — THIS IS MY DAMN PHONE, I HAVE A RECEIPT FOR MY DAMN TICKETS. WHY IN HELL WOULD AN APP ON MY OWN PHONE THINK I WASN’T A HUMAN?!?!

Stanford Live — AXS is a reeking pile of garbage and I hate you.

Dave Cortesi

Wednesday 02/04/2026

Joanne is back from a tour of Baja — whale watching excursion got close enough to a gray whale that she could touch it — and we took a leisurely walk first thing, bringing each other up to date on a week’s happenings. Sherry, a mutual friend, has covid. Her doctor (who is also my new doctor) prescribed Paxlovid, and Joanne ran the errand for her to pick it up. It was $800!

I was exposed to Sherry. She ran the poetry out loud meeting Monday afternoon. So I was 5 feet from her, in a room with the doors closed, for an hour. So today we made a stop at CVS to pick up some more flu/covid test kits. I’m clear so far, cross fingers.

I sat down to try to clear my mailbox. I only keep in my inbox, emails that I need to respond to in some way, or follow up on. There were about a dozen, I did enough follow ups to whittle it down to 6.

At 3 I put on my walking shoes and walked to PAMF for a routine consult with my cardiologist. She made a small change in meds and recommended I do a stress-echo, so that is scheduled.

Between two walks I ran up nearly 11K steps and 4.4 miles.

Tuesday 02/03/2026

Went down to our gym and did the round of machines. Our machines are HUR pneumatic resistance ones. I gather they are not real popular with most residents. But they cleverly remember all my settings, I just wave my id card at them and they know what resistance to set. Anyway that was something.

Then I cleaned up some desk work, paid a bill, checked on the availability of tax forms (not yet) etc.

Time for the writers meeting. This group, which meets on zoom since the pandemic, has had some erosion. Founding members losing the energy to participate and so on. So last week we began to talk about possibly adding members and this time the group had a good, substantive talk. I was really pleased with how constructive and thoughtful everyone was. We agreed on four people to invite to join, and on some simple, easy ground-rules for what constitutes actual “membership” and “participation”. Its so rare for a committee to just settle stuff, amicably and constructively.

After lunch I went to the line dance class. I skipped it last week, but didn’t dare this week, as Joanne returns from her travels today and I’m sure will ask. Following that, I walked to Town & Country, mainly to buy a pound of coffee at Peets. I meant to do that yesterday, at the Peets near FOPAL, and forgot. This turned out to be a good move, coincidentally. I decided to go into Trader Joe’s to look for the bread we like, they didn’t have it, but for fun I texted Joanne to see if she wanted anything. From the San Diego airport she asked yes please, her favorite Power Greens. So I was able to get that for her, and put it in her mailroom cubby for her to get when she dragged in about 7:30.

I attended the Tuesday Night movie, The Competition. It’s soooo 1980s, the cars, the clothes. Richard Dreyfuss at his cutest. But I left early, 40 minutes in. Just couldn’t put up with the posing and the attitudes. OK, so the guy is determined not to let the cute girl affect his concentration — he could be polite, couldn’t he? Open about his concerns? Say something like, “Look, I just can’t think about anything but my concerto, let’s meet for drinks next week and laugh about it.” But no, they have to do clever verbal sparring and cute quips and insults, and hurt each other’s feelings. I couldn’t take the phony tension. Also didn’t care who would win the piano contest.

Monday 02/02/2026

Walked out, just up University for a coffee. Then it was time to set up for an event in the auditorium. For the first time we had a book talk delivered by a remote presenter, a Yale professor speaking from her faculty office. It worked out pretty well, except for me forgetting to start the recording until 3 minutes into the talk.

Right after I zipped off to FOPAL and jammed through 8 boxes of donations in a bit over 2 hours. I could afford to be very selective, since owing to that huge donation 2 weeks ago, I have 5 full boxes of saleable books that I can’t fit on my shelves. So I was really picky and sent I think a total of 6 boxes to the bargain room.

Back at 3, then to the Poetry Out Loud at 4. I read the lyrics to the splendid protest song “Minneapolis (History Chooses You)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGnj12mI5y8. I’ve trying to learn to play it but I don’t have it smooth enough to perform yet. So I just read the lyrics. Coincidentally, another person had brought a fresh protest poem about the same events.

Sunday 02/01/2026

Sunday morning: read the paper, water plants, do crossword. Then I walked (2mi total) to the Rinconada (main) Library and browsed the poetry shelves looking for something to read at Poetry Out Loud tomorrow.

After lunch I worked on learning this great Minneapolis protest song, “Minneapolis: History Chooses You”. I corresponded with the author to get the correct lyrics and chords. Actually I am thinking I would either read the lyrics at P.O.L. Or perform the song? That would be presumptuous.

Famous NYT columnist David Brooks is retiring and his goodby column from the NYT was put up on our CHOpinion mailing list. I read it and got pissed off at him, and spent 2 hours writing a critique that I posted on CHOpinion. I’d put it here but it’s longish and really, who cares?

Then I spent an hour setting up the 11th floor TV so it can show NBC Peacock and all the Winter Olympics stuff. And wrote an email to the AV and tech squad mailing lists saying what I’d done, so “when your neighbors ask if there’s any way to watch the olympics on the 11th floor, here is all you have to do.”

Nice phone calls in between with Dennis and with Laurel.

Nice supper with Gwen, Susan and Harry.

Saturday 01/31/2026

For a start I walked up to Town&Country. I wanted to browse Paper Source for Valentines cards. Then I figured to walk to CVS and to a grocery store.

As I was leaving Paper Source I got a phone call from the upholstery shop: my stool is ready! So I mentally rearranged my plans. I walked directly home, got in Fred, and drove basically the same route that I did yesterday. To the upholstery shop first, to get the stool. Which looks great. Compare to yesterday’s picture.

New padding and cover fabric, 24-hour turnaround, $180. I can recommend Morales Custom Upholstery. (They don’t have a website, find them via Yelp.)

Then to Safeway for a couple things I forgot yesterday, and to CVS to pick up the 80mg Atorvastatin, and back.

I spent the whole afternoon lounging in my chair doing not much at all. Well, it’s Saturday. My plans for tomorrow are even feebler. Going to dinner I noticed a full moon rising.

Friday 01/30/2026

After a day of prednizone my foot pain was mostly gone, although the swelling was not all gone. Feeling feisty, I walked to Midtown (1.8 miles) for a cinnamon roll, then took a Lyft back

Then wrote an email to my doctor about a prescription. He had recommended raising Atorvastatin from 40mg to 80mg, and I realized I had enough 40mg tabs for a couple of weeks, but that prescription was from the prior doctor. Within 2 hours I got a text from CVS saying I had a prescription for ATO to pick up. Concierge medicine is nice.

Then cracked open the online tax workbook from the tax preparers. I couldn’t make a lot of progress in it because there are so many 1099-whatevers still to come. But a start.

A couple weeks ago I looked at the padded stool I sit on at my desk. I bought it new when I moved here in 2019, and I noticed I had put a bit of wear on it. Actually what got my attention was finding black snowflakes of vinyl on the floor.

So I asked on CHBB for upholstery recommendations and got two. I dithered for a while but today said, pick one, dude, and I picked Morales in Redwood City. Tossed the stool in the back of Fred and off. A nice young lady showed me a black vinyl fabric that looked better than what was on it, she gave me a quote, and said maybe they could have it done by tomorrow.

At 4pm we had a much-anticipated meeting to announce new parking policies. I had been slightly worried that I would lose my garage parking slot, since I don’t technically own a car. But no. Nobody is getting kicked out of the garage. All the changes are in the surface lot at the front of the building. Quite a few people, over 40 cars, park there, taking any available space, no charge. That’s how Joanne kept Fred until recently. And we’re still used to coming in and parking in the lot whenever we plan to go out again soon. But not after March. They are going to repaint and re-sign the lot, and assign personal slots. And the charge will be $85/month for such a slot. No more free ad-hoc parking.

There will be other changes, but they don’t affect Fred. Staff thinks that some of our Webster street neighbors use our lot. Now, if a person paying for a slot comes home to find a strange car in it, they will tell the desk and the strange car will be towed. In effect, making residents into parking monitors. Clever. Also it seems there have been instances of cars in the garage that were not being driven, semi-abandoned by owners who didn’t really drive but kept them “so when my son comes to visit he won’t have to rent a car” etc. No more of that; if a car isn’t moved in 30 days the owner will be contacted and told to get it out of the garage. All quite sensible.So long as we can keep stall #32, it’s ok.

So tonight I had tickets for The Yaga Play at the Bus Barn. Since Joanne is out of town, I invited Patty to join me. Patty is an old-timer here, she mentioned on the way back that in a couple of months she’ll have lived 20 years at CH. Anyway, the play was excellent, really well done. The lead, Joan, is CEO of a company that runs a chain of yoga studios. At the beginning she and her aides plan a major campaign to sell a new line of yoga pants. Then a BBC reporter does an exposé on child labor in their Bangladesh factory. How to counter the bad press? Obviously they need authenticity, and set out to recruit a guru to represent them. The guru, an absolutely brilliant acting job by Chris Mahle, who has been in several other plays at the Bus Barn and the Pear, turns out to be the very opposite of authentic, and hijinks ensue. Lovely job of staging and production and wonderful acting by all 5 cast members.

Thursday 01/29/2026

I finish Tuesday’s entry, that my ankle gout attack has continued for over a week now, and my right ankle and foot have become quite swollen and puffy. So yesterday I was thinking what to do, what to do, maybe wait and see if it gets better, and I could hear every woman ever in my life, including Joanne from down in Mexico where she’s on a tour, saying Really? You have a concierge doctor on call you know. So on Tuesday I called Dr. Chu’s office and got an appointment for this morning.

So out the door at 8 for an 8:30 visit to Dr. Chu. His take was that it is likely gout, my uric acid has always measured high-normal and I have a history of it. He prescribed a 5-day course of Prednizone to get the swelling down and “we’ll see.”

So I got the car washed and went to CVS and picked up my new med, and home. I did some other stuff, played the guitar for the first time in a week, finished off the fruit compote for tonight and took it up and stowed it in the refrigerator in the 8th floor dining room where the dinner will be. Then to the semi-annual Rsident/Trustee meeting where the staff breaks down the budget for the next fiscal year. Our rent goes up 4.5%, well, that’s inflation. Otherwise we are in good financial shape.

Then time for the planned “talk about death over dinner”. I covered the details on Sunday. Seven people including me. Was to be 8, but Marcia had a bad cold and couldn’t come. Delicious pot-luck food. Nothing profound, just people speaking honestly about deaths that had affected them. At our ages, we have had a lot of such experiences. One of us, my 6th floor neighbor Bob, was the only double widower, he’d buried two wives.

So it goes.

Wednesday 01/28/2026

Got a lot of complimentary emails from the drama group. Very unnecessary, they did all the work, I just flipped switches. Gigi stopped by with a gift of fruit. It’s a rule, it seems, you do Gigi a favor, you get fruit.

But that fit into my plan to make a fruit compote for tomorrow night, so I dug out all the fruit I’d bought on Sunday, and chopped fruit for an hour. The pineapple was nowhere near as good as I know pineapple can be, but it isn’t tart and has some sweetness. The berries had not broken out in mildew in the refrigerator, so that’s a win. I borrowed a big glass bowl from Dr. Margaret but I didn’t assemble the final dish. I need more juice, and it isn’t practical to get juice by manually squishing the spare fruit. So I’ll buy a bottle tomorrow.

I edited the video of the Drama Group performance. It’s uploading now. I am going to attend a lecture on the environment, but I am going to sit near the back. The guy better have a new slant on global warming or I am out of there.

Tuesday 01/27/2026

Today was the day when the Drama group performed their skit show twice, once at 10am and again at 7:30. Both shows came off quite well. About 40 people in the morning, and a full house, 90+ at night. I didn’t screw anything up in the AV department. This was the first show where I attempted lighting changes, beyond simple blackouts. And we had a bunch of microphones in use. We (the director and me) told the actors they should not worry about switching their body mics off, we would mute them from the sound board. Which meant that before each of the 9 skits, I had to make sure to unmute the mics in use for that skit, and no others. And I managed not to screw it up, so yay me.

In between the morning and evening show I tidied my apartment and sorted and ran my laundry. Also nursed my right foot which is being slow about recovering from gout, if that’s what is causing pain. What else has a sudden onset and causes pain in one specific joint and not the matching one or any other. But Colchicine did not relieve it, so…