Saturday, 11/16/2019
Went for another walk with Dennis, starting at 7:30. Whitney and Ted came along. We all strode along to the Pacific Grove city limit and back, about 3 miles. I had already packed up so I checked out and drove home, back to CH by 11.
Later in the day I spent half an hour cleaning one more tier of the plant stand (three to go before I can paint it), and then did the laundry.
Oh, from the dinner last night, kids with phones.
Friday, 11/15/2019
Met Dennis at 6:45 to take a walk, his preferred daily exercise, and very sensible, too. We walked along the public trail/bikepath from the hotel, near the wharf, as far as the Aquarium and back, about 2.5 miles.
I then drove down to Carmel and spent an hour and a half walking around looking in art galleries. At the New Masters gallery I hoped to see a Linsky, as they represent him, but nope. I saw lots of splashy abstracts, lots of incredibly detailed photo-realistic still lifes, some plein-air California landscapes although none as nice as Linsky’s. Nothing I felt really attracted to.
I took the 17-mile drive back to Monterey, stopping several times to try to capture waves as they swelled up massively,
And then broke explosively.
Ansel Adams I ain’t, but it’s fun to try. (Here’s Adams’ version) Just as I was walking out of the garage at the hotel, I got a text from Dennis suggesting lunch. We ate at a place that emulates an English pub. He reminisced about a pub he found tucked away under one of the Thames bridges. I said I’d look for it on my trip.
Back at the hotel I dressed in my finery, i.e. my nice new blazer and slacks, and a white turtleneck. Walked to the wedding venue, The Barns. Was early. Here’s Judge Loftus checking out the microphone.
I didn’t try to take a picture during the ceremony, and was pleased to see only a couple of other people were holding up their cell phones. There will certainly be enough pics; there was both a professional photographer and a professional videographer around the whole time. Denise, the bride, was walking across the venue before the ceremony, a bit to the right of the above picture, and you can see how low the sun was. The pro photographer was trailing behind and I thought, oh, it’s lighting up her hair, and I said to him loudly, Get that back-light! He hadn’t noticed but that made him look, he lifted his camera just as she turned to look back,
and I think he got an excellent shot. So, Denise: if there is a spectacular pic of you with the sun behind making you look like Cate Blanchett as Galadriel only with smaller ears? You can thank me for that.
So there was a nice short ceremony, the bride and groom read vows they had written for each other, very nice, very touching things and well-phrased, too; and that was that. Well, not quite; then came about 90 minutes of standing around under the pine trees drinking and talking. Or in my case, not talking. There was really nobody to talk to. I got a case of the shy’s, and just couldn’t seem to insert myself into any of the circles. In the old days, in similar situations, I would get first embarrassed, then resentful, and then leave. But I’m older and know myself better now. I just wandered around trying to look engaged and was a little bored.
I missed an opportunity at one point. There was a pair of women, one dressed a little butch so I presumed they were probably partners, and I noticed that they were not talking to anybody but each other. I have no idea who they were, presumably friends of the bride? but they reminded me of me and Marian at some parties in the past, neither one of us knowing anybody. I kept circling past them on my lonely orbit, thinking, alright, go up to them and say, ‘so are you friends of Denise, or Jason?’ and start talking. But every time I circled past them, they seemed to turn toward each other and talk more animatedly. I should have imposed, but I was afraid they were seeing me as the creepy old uncle wanting to hit on them, so I let it slide.
Eventually we went in to the Barn and had a nice supper. I had some conversation with the people next to me and across, so that was alright. Lots of toasts, nice things said. When the dancing started, I felt I could bail, and did.
Thursday, 11/14/2019
Today is the day to transfer to Monterey for Denise’s wedding festivities. I depart about 10:30 for the 90-mile drive, arriving at our fairly posh hotel at 12:30. My room is pleasant, with an amazing surplus of pillows, I think it’s five per bed.
I meet Dennis for a drink in the bar and a chat in the middle of the afternoon. At 4pm a pre-dinner crowd begins to gather in the hospitality parlor off Denise’s suite. Lots of people I’ve seen at various family occasions, lots of people from the groom’s family that I’d never met before. Small room, loud conversations.
At 5:30 we move on to a restaurant for what is nominally the rehearsal dinner, although most of us didn’t attend the rehearsal. Here’s the bride, the groom, and the groom’s father.
Partly shown, the hair of Judge Loftus who is a long-time family friend and will perform the ceremony. Fully cropped out, the father of the bride, as his face was in shadow.
Back to the hotel by 8 and early to bed.
Wednesday, 11/13/2019
I didn’t think anything was planned for today but just had an uneasy feeling I should check the calendar and, hah!, I am having a haircut at 10am. So glad I checked.
So I drove up to Ladera center to have Chris cut my hair. And for the first time in weeks, I had little flashes of memories of Marian (who always enjoyed seeing Chris, and had her hair cut there and her nails done just a couple weeks before she died); and pulses of grief. It is so unpredictable, these bursts of sadness and pity. It’s also too bad that my strongest memories of her are the most recent ones, when she was in failing health. I don’t get flashbacks to times she was healthy. I guess those are too far back.
Now I had to kill time until my next event, a meeting at 1pm, so I drove to IKEA to check their selection of area rugs. Someone around here told me they had a good selection. I beg to differ, boring, drab, frankly ugly stuff.
At 1pm I met with Patty to have her sign my Channing House Communications Representative form. CH has this program: a resident can designate another resident to be their communications rep, if they have some medical problem and are away. The comm. rep. answers any questions about the resident’s health status. I’ve seen this in operation a couple of times already: a resident has some issue, goes away to the hospital for a week, people want to know what’s up, how are they, when are they back. They ask the front desk, for example. Their designated communications rep answers such questions, so the person who is away being treated, only has to talk to one person.
There is a form, actually two forms. One is signed by the resident (me) and the person who agrees to be communications rep (Patty), and the original goes to the front desk, so they know who to refer questions to. The other form is a release form that authorizes Channing House (i.e. the front desk) to give out information on whether the resident is hospitalized or what. Not their condition, just the fact that they are hospitalized, which by HIPAA they couldn’t do without authorization.
So Patty agreed to be my rep should I need one. I gave her the info on my medical agents, Dennis and Darlene, so she could talk to them. In the event I am hospitalized, she might find out first and tell them; or if not, she could find out from them what would be valid to say to other residents about my condition.
From that meeting I went quickly to FOPAL where I cleaned up the Computer section. Six boxes of intake, of which maybe 20 books to keep and shelve, 4 boxes on to the bargain room. I wanted to get this done because I’m away for the rest of the week. I would normally have stayed and done sorting until 4pm but today I had to cut that short after about 20 minutes to come back and attend,
A social event put on by the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor only became apartments 3 and a half years ago, after the completion of the new wing containing the Russell Lee nursing center. Previously the 2nd floor was the assisted living space; then it was converted into 20 rather nice (as I would find out) apartments. The 2nd floor people decided to hold a tea party for new residents and I was invited, along with at least 8 others who’ve come in this year. (At the Residents Association meeting Monday it was announced that all available units have been sold, so I guess I was fortunate in my timing. There will be another 20 units freed up in two years when the renovation is over.)
Anyway the 2nd floor had catered soft drinks, cookies, coffee, and some rather nice brownies and provided printed name tags, and 30 people stood around and chatted for an hour. One new couple, Frances and John, both worked in the Apollo Guidance computer program, working directly for Margaret Hamilton. Then, five 2nd floor people had open house, so we could visit and admire their units, which are indeed spiffy. They have full kitchens and generally are snazzier than the older units. I expect my upgraded unit when I get back to it, will be as nice. No cooktop, but I don’t care.
I had had enough snacks there that I skipped supper.
Tuesday, 11/12/2019
Went for a run. Then took care of some admin. First, scheduled a payment to the BofA credit card. It will go through tomorrow, so from Thursday on it will have a zero balance and I will close it out.
About two weeks ago–I don’t see any mention of it here–I went to the MyMedicare site and did plan comparisons on my health plans. I found that the Anthem/Blue Cross prescription drug plan appeared to be a significantly better deal than the Humana one I’d been using since 2007, so I opted for that. Soon after I got a letter from Medicare saying my application should be processed in ten days, and if I hadn’t heard, to contact the provider. It has been more than ten days, so I did.
Annoyances: I tried to use the Chat facility on the Anthem site. It kept showing me that some person had connected, enter a message, then that they had disconnected, then went back to showing me “a representative will be with you shortly.” Tried two browsers. So called the number shown. Very short menu: 1 to buy a new plan, 2 for an existing plan, 3 for a provider. OK, 2. Thank you, as a member, please call the customer service number on the back of your membership card, goodbye. But… but… OK, try again, this time select 1. Lady takes my name, address, date of birth; says, well you have called the medicare purchase line, but I see you in our system (oh good) let me transfer you to the medicare service line. Which works but of course, that lady also has to take my name, address, date of birth because heaven forfend the info should transfer along with me.
Anyway, yes, my application is in the system, a membership card was mailed to me on 11/5, and a welcome packet should arrive separately but soon. So all good.
After lunch I added 1300 words to the novel.
At 4:30 it was time to attend the 4th floor meeting. Each floor has regular meetings to cover whatever domestic items come up. There’s an elected floor rep who chairs the meeting. (I first attended a 6th floor meeting back on day 156, after I’d signed the contract but before I moved in.) Fourth floor meeting was to be followed by 4th floor eating dinner together, they’d reserved a large table. But Craig, the 6th floor rep had also reserved a table for a 6th-floor-in-exile get-together dinner, so I ate with them.
Monday, 11/11/2019
I wanted to attend the monthly residents’ association meeting at 9am, so ate a regular breakfast. These meetings are a reminder that CH is a functioning community with a degree of self-governance. The long-range financial and other decisions are made by a Board, and day to day administration is by a CEO and paid staff; however the residents association has some discretion and input, and the meeting is run formally with a (fairly lengthy) agenda, committee reports, etc. As I’ve frequently noted before, the residents here ain’t no dummies, but retired professionals, most with all of their wits about them.
Following the meeting I met up with Susan who wanted help with her Mac. She has a wee little Macbook 13in, connected to a bit (23in?) monitor. She wanted to not be prompted to log in every time it came out of sleep, and a couple of other tweaks.
Next I went to FOPAL to do the post-sale triage of my Computer section. Before the sale it had 409 books, after it had 299, net 110 books sold. I looked through all the remaining and sent another 70 or so off to the bargain room because they’d sat too long without selling. Reduced the prices on some others. Priced and shelved two boxes of new. Did a little sorting.
In the late afternoon and evening I did more research for a possible London outing. The dates will be Feb 14-23. I made a list of 20 or so museums and galleries I might visit. Since several of them justify a full day of exploration, obviously I won’t get to all of them. At least the biggest are open every day; the days of museums being closed on Mondays are gone.
Sunday, 11/10/2019
Walked to Verve or coffee. Afterward, walked by the hardware store to pick up some abrasives and cleaner for the plant stand.
Around 9:30 I drove down to FOPAL to see what kind of mess my section was in after the Saturday sale day. Actually it was quite neat; I think some of the sale-day volunteers must tidy up the shelves. I could see where books had been sold, and not always where I had expected sales. For example I had had four books on various aspects of digital signal processing, and three were now gone. I had about 18 inches of various editions and volumes of Don Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming (with a post-it label calling it out as “Knuth Korner”), and it looked like none had been taken.
I spent an hour starting cleaning the iron plant stand. I cleaned the top tier and sprayed it with rusty-metal primer.
At 12:45 I started to a house concert in Castro Valley. The location was one where I’d attended house concerts at least three times, probably four, over the past decade, with Marian. The host recognized me when I came in. The performer was “Mark Hummel and the Deep Basement Shakers”. Mark Hummel has himself introduced as “Emmy Nominated Mark Hummel”; he specializes in blues harmonica. At one point the lady in front of me went to the bathroom, giving me the opportunity to get a brief video. Here’s 40 seconds of Hummel on a solo.
I stuffed myself on the snacks everyone brought. The drive out and back was unremarkable. Generally a nice experience.
Saturday, 11/9/2019
The big event for today was to attend a SWBB game to be held at the new Chase Center in San Francisco. This was an event arranged by USF, with the USF women versus Stanford at 3pm and the USF men versus Princeton at 6pm.
In the morning I went down to FOPAL just to check my section at the start of Sale Day. Looked fine, but customers hadn’t begun rooting around in it yet. On the way back I stopped at the hardware store to buy a couple of screwdrivers. I wanted to assemble one of the 11×14 picture frames, and it needed a straight screwdriver, and I didn’t have one in my kitchen drawer. When I went to the storage locker in the basement and checked my toolbox, the multi-bit (“six-way” they are called because they feature two sizes of straight bits, two of phillips, and also fit two sizes of nut) screwdriver that I thought I owned, wasn’t there. I assume it got lost in the last or previous Repair Cafe day?(*) Anyway, I wanted a new one, hence the stop at Ace Hardware. I bought a “six-way” or the kitchen drawer and an “eight-way” for the toolbox.
After lunch I met with Patty who wanted a ride to the game, and off we went. The nav. system in the Prius refused to admit that the Chase Center parking at 1800 Owens street existed. Note to self: get GPS updated next time you get service. So Patty set up guidance on her phone. Entry to the parking, like entry to the arena, was controlled by an e-ticket on the phone. It all worked fine. The new Chase arena looks like — any other big commercial arena, and I’ve been in a few. Well, the monster video screen above the court is better than any I’ve seen before. But I can still carp. Big professional TV presumably maintained by professionals, right? And you can stand there and look up at the screen showing the court and the players, and down at the court and the players, and it is very obvious that the color balance is off. The players look like they have a sunburn and the wood floor is pinkish-yellow instead of brownish-yellow. Sheesh. The lighting levels and colors are completely under their control, how hard is it to tweak the video so it actually resembles the subject it is showing?
Got back to CH in plenty of time for dinner.
(*) Days later, I found it neatly stowed in the case where I keep my power drill. Now I have three.
Friday, 11/8/2019
Went for a run. Do not remember (now, 24 hours later) what I did between then and 11am when I left for the Museum to do the 12pm tour. There was a Go Language conference on the upper floors, and those people had filled the parking lot, but in fact museum attendance proper on the ground floor was very light. My tour group was just six people. But they stuck with me the whole way.
Back at the “land-locked cruise ship” I took a short nap and then (anything to avoid actually writing) made some notes on the next phase of the novel, then spent an hour printing big pictures on my new printer. It does very nice, 11×14 prints. It would do 11×17 if I only had any paper that size.
That was about it; for supper I took one of my cans of beer to drink, big whoop.
Thursday, 11/7/2019
Drove to the Yosemite Ave. warehouse for a day of working with artifacts. In the morning I put away some artifacts that had been brought out 3 weeks ago for a researcher. People researching computer history can ask to look at artifacts. When their project is approved, the relevant things are found and moved out to tables in the open area of the warehouse. In this case, the person was researching keyboard technology, and ten or so things with keyboards had been brought out. Aurora the curator said he got really nice photos, but I haven’t seen them.
Anyway, you don’t just put something away any old where. You look up its object number in the database; verify the location it came from (row, block, shelf numbers); walk over to find that location and make sure there is space on the shelf and nothing is in the way of transporting the thing; walk back and pick it up (or for heavy things, put it on a cart); move it to the location and shelve it. With over 110,000 objects, it is imperative that you know where objects are at every point.
Some of the things had been in boxes. In that case you have the additional step of repacking it in its box with other artifacts, then shelve the box where it came from.
In the afternoon Steve and I worked over inventorying more boxes. Lucky us, the boxes we took down from the shelf turned out to be part of the big collection of slide rules that the museum received in 2005. You do a database search on the box number; that turns up records for all the objects supposedly in the box. You verify that there are that many objects in the box (one box had 35 rules, one had 54). You go through the list of object numbers, finding each object, verifying that its database record is complete (often it isn’t) and that it has a photograph (often it doesn’t). If anything needs photographing, the box moves to the to-be-photographed cart. Or if it needs repacking (as the box of 54 rules did, they could be much better arranged) it goes on the repacking cart. Or rarely, the box goes on the “reshelve” cart so Aurora can figure out a more efficient place to put it. The box’s location record gets updated for each of these moves, of course.
Coming back, I stopped at FOPAL to hang up a cute picture in my computer section.
This came from a wonderful collection that Frank found, of pictures of anime characters holding computer books. I mean, the internet is a wonderful and bizarre place. Somebody has created and curated a large collection of pictures of anime characters holding computer books. Just specifically that.
Back home to rest. Then at 6:30, out to attend a play at The Pear. This turned into a fiasco. I thought to just buzz down 101 to Shoreline. Hah! When I hit 101 it was bumper to bumper creeping. I got off at San Antonio with fifteen minutes until start time. Went up to Middlefield and started South with ten minutes to go. Somehow — and I don’t like the implications of this — I missed the left turn onto Shoreline and found myself too far down Middlefield, at Ellis. Back under 101 and north to Shoreline, by which time it was 7:10 and no possible way to make the curtain. So I headed back home, but retracing my steps back to Shoreline and Middlefield. Yes, I know this intersection. Yes, I am positive I came down Middlefield 20 minutes ago, through here. And I didn’t see it. Was I distracted? I don’t know. But I don’t like it.
