First thing was an appointment for a physical with my new PCP, Dr. Chu. His group office is just a block from the main PAMF building. This was good. He spent nearly an hour with me. He communicates very well, he listens closely and responds. We went over my lengthy medical history and talked about all my various problems, none of which need immediate treatment. He thinks I should look into hearing aids. Later I had my Airpods give me a hearing test and as before, it came up moderate hearing loss. I’ll think about it. Plenty of people around me who know the state of the hearing aid market.
I forgot that I was supposed to be fasting so I wasn’t, so I will have to go back Thursday morning for a blood draw.
I had to skip the writers group. I did make it to the Line Dance class at 1:30. At 7pm Joanne and I set out on foot for the Aquarius movie house. She wanted to see Hamnet. It was pretty good. We both had a hard time understanding the dialog early on. No, they were mumbling. Or it was the sound system. Anyway, massive acting job by Jessie Buckley in the lead.
First thing, drove down to FOPAL and spent 2+ hours getting my section all ready for the sale weekend coming up.
On return I found the tiny lapel mic system I had ordered had been delivered, so I took it into the auditorium and tried it out. It works. The sound quality isn’t great and it only works on one channel of the board, so we can’t have any more of them. But it should be enough for the drama group.
After lunch I took a tech squad call to help install an HP printer for Gloria. The tech squad is unanimous, the HP printers are the worst for installations. Don’t buy them. Here was what I wrote in an email closing this incident,
GIVING UP
Earlier I somehow got past the screen that says “Install HP software to complete setup”. I think I did it by a long-press on the power button. I was into the setup menus. I got the MAC addr I gave you earlier.
It was still in the menu when I went back after supper. I pointed the wifi to Channinghouse-Resident (which it already was, but with no password). I entered the password Craig gave me and triple checked it. Tapped Go and waited.
Incorrect password.
And now I cannot get back to the menus. I have pulled the power cord multiple times, I have held the power button down for a minute or more, I just cannot get it to go back to the setup menus. All it does is show that fucking “Install HP software” screen with a QR code.
I have installed the HP software on Gloria’s phone and her iPad. Same result on both — you walk through the setup to where it starts looking for the printer. It looks for it on wifi and of course, it does not find any printer, because the fucking printer isn’t connected to wifi and you can’t get into the menus to fix it.
I told Gloria rather loudly and insistently that the Tech Squad was at its limit, we are done. Maybe she can pay Paul Ma, or maybe she can get HP to send a tech. She has paid $300 for a “subscription” to some kind of extra support.
I should mention that she dialed the supposed support number earlier today and listened to hold music over 20 minutes. Hung up because that was when I had gotten what I thought was the MAC address.
Why didn’t Craig’s password work? I fear it is because the MAC address I wrote down was from the ETHERNET info. I never saw a MAC address for the WIFI interface. Could it have a different MAC for wifi? Lots of luck finding out.
Oh, I should mention, I tried multiple times to get it to print “Details” of the setup. There are multiple menu options for “Details” with a “Print” button. Other printers would print a nice page with all the numbers and MAC address and all.
This thing shows a progress indicator, a circle, and only fills in the first quarter of the circle and stops. So that function is fucked as well.
It’s a piece of shit. I would recommend we establish a tech squad policy — we don’t install HP equipment. Epson, Brother, anything else, sure, but no HP.
Rainy day. I had a half-formed notion to walk to Cal avenue in the morning but it was miserable wet, so no. I dropped by to visit my neighbor Edie who is in the Lee center recuperating from a heart attack. I wanted to find out the outcome of a care conference she had Friday. Coincidentally Joanne was also there visiting. She and Edie have a long-time custom of sharing coffee on Sunday mornings, and Joanne had been out in the rain to get their traditional latte’s. Edie will be coming back to the 6th floor, initially with the help of a temp caregiver.
There was a recorded lecture that had been sitting in our zoom account waiting to be edited for weeks. And I have a volunteer, Jean Yao, who said she would like to learn to edit these videos. So I called her, she was free, so we met in the training room and she watched and took notes as I edited the video. Which you can see here.
Then lunch, and a nap and an hour of music practice. I ate dinner in my room, cleaning up left overs, dolma and hummus from our lunch yesterday and some blueberries and a saved cookie.
So Joanne and I went to the City to see an exhibit at the Legion of Honor. The exhibit was “Manet and Morisot” about the professional connection between famous Impressionist Edouard Manet and a not-at-all famous painter, Berthe Morisot. She modeled for him, and later married his brother, but she also painted, very well, and exhibited her work at a time (1870s) when very few women did. The Legion has done a massive bunch of work to assemble paintings by these two from many other museums and collections so they can be seen together for the first time, and you can see how they were influencing each other. This is Morisot as painted by Manet,
And it is very obvious he repainted her left little finger so you could not miss her engagement ring, she being engaged to his brother. I about choked when I saw that hand because I am so used to see in AI-made images where the hands are screwed up. Come on, Manet, you can do better than Midjourney.
We spent an hour looking on our own, and then joined the docent tour at 11am and stayed through that. Then we wanted some lunch. The museum cafe menu did not appeal, it was all very hoity-toity salads described in French. So what one does now: haul out the phone, open the Maps app, look for nearby restaurants. There are of course plenty of restaurants along Geary but we settled on a neighborhood place, the Bistro Mediterraneo on Clement. This turned out to be a little corner store deli with three tiny tables inside serving mostly Greek dishes. And it was great. Nice soup, dolmae, pita and hummus. Second time in a couple months we’ve gone to a museum and had a good lunch at a modest neighborhood place (Day 6-351).
Morning Muffin Mosey, up to the pop-up bakery to get Joanne’s special bran muffin. Don’t know if I ever explained that. She has for a long time had lunch with the same group of women and she brings this very large bran muffin and they split it four ways. They’ve been doing this for years. So I get to tag along on her expedition to buy her weekly muffin, and then we have coffee and chat.
Today we came up with a plan to go up to the Legion museum tomorrow. There’s an exhibit that several people have told us they enjoyed. There’s a Channing House bus to see it next week but it conflicts with some other things, so we are going on our own tomorrow.
Next I did some tech. Last week, apparently I didn’t write about this, I bought off Amazon a wireless headset, planning to use it with a small amplifier when I perform at the Lee center. It is simple, the head-mounted mic has a small transmitter in it (instead of a separate transmitter pack like our usual wireless mics). And the receiver is a little plastic lump with a minijack sticking out of it to plug into any mic input. It works great.
Coincidentally Gigi, who runs the drama group that is rehearsing now, asked if they couldn’t have more and better wireless mics. So today I verified that the receiver of this mic could also be plugged into our main sound board, so the sound would come out of our auditorium system. Yes, it can. But then I showed it to Gigi and she vetoed it for the drama group. They need lapel type mics, because they are going to be wearing wigs so the headset won’t work.
So then I spent a long time shopping at Amazon, Sweetwater, B&H, looking for lapel type mics that are small and have a receiver that might work with our auditorium system. Finally ordered one set for $25. Gotta love them cheap Chinese knock-offs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Codgerville 