Tuesday 01/30/2023

Such a day. I’m tuckered out and it’s only 4:30. The planned first activity was to go, with Leah, to see Charley Tucker, my agent at Prime Fiduciary. Back in August of 22 I set him/them up as the successor trustee on my trust. It’s been a while and I wanted to make sure they had my health directive with Leah as first responder, and meet her and verify that they would be able to pay her fees.

Before that, though, CH issues occurred. I had reported the problem with the 11th floor blu-ray player to the combined tech email list, and a couple of people had responded saying, did it every play blu-rays? Raising the issue, had I tried to make a plain DVD player play discs it didn’t recognize? That would be embarrassing. So I went up to 11 to check, no, it is plainly labeled “Blu-Ray” on top and sides. It’s just a piece of old gear. Then Stew wanted to test the karaoke screen on Thursday so I had to contact Gerald to get hold of it. So I emailed Gerald.

I fussed around finding all the documents I wanted to share with Charley. Then went down and brought the car up. At 10:20 Leah walked up and we went off to meet Charley. This meeting went very well. We talked about a lot of things, details of how my affairs can be handled when I am incapable or dead. Both I and Leah got a clearer picture of what the Fiduciaries can and will do. For example, if I get really old and am not completely incapable but just tired of paying my bills and such, I can just hand my affairs over to them and they would manage things on an hourly fee basis. At any rate, everybody knows who to call in what circumstances.

One point is, either Leah or the Channing House nurses will likely be the one to call the Neptune Society to take my remains away. So both should have info on my Neptune account. I had made copies of that info; when we got back I ran up to get a copy for Leah. But it’s on my to-do list to add that info the folder at the nurses’ station.

More on the to-do list of things to settle. Charley needs to know, is my SFCU account under my name or the trust’s? I had no clue. Who’s the beneficiary of my IRA? Ditto. So I emailed Howard at my financial advisors, I think he would know about the IRA. I contacted SFCU. They have both my name and Marian’s, and the trust, on the account, except it’s the old trust, not the current Survivor trust. Apparently I never told them Marian had died. Now they may need a death certificate. I think I still have one. I have a pretty good idea which file box to look in, anyway.

Got with Gerald in the afternoon and arranged about the karaoke screen for Thursday. Emailed Stew to tell him to be ready at 9:30 Thursday.

Mary M. filed an EPF for a new event, just two weeks ahead on 2/14. Full auditorium + zoom lecture event. The A/V volunteers commit to their tasks at the end of the month, for the next month. Added events like this mean I have to email the volunteers and beg for somebody to handle the event. Probably I will end up having to do it. I was fairly harsh with Mary M. but she wasn’t actually the perpetrator — she was acting for a person who is vacationing in Paris. How nice for her. It isn’t clear if the Paris person knew about the event any earlier or what. But how can we keep people from doing this? If you don’t book your event at least 30 days in advance, it won’t appear on the monthly calendar (which was just distributed around the building last week), but could we also say, “you better be ready to do the A/V yourself because the regular crew aren’t interested”?

Talked to my friend Pam, who it turns out is head of the committee that wants to show blu-rays on 11. Told her we should replace the player with a new Sony XBR-700, do they have money to reimburse me for the $180 cost? Yes they do, so I sat down and ordered one.

At the end of the day I was able to send Charley an email answering most of his open questions. I also completed purchase of a California-legal POLST bracelet, so will be carrying a DNR signal on my body. Not sure if I will actually wear it, but I’d been meaning to order one ever since the End of Life series a few months ago.

Such a day.

Monday 01/29/2024

First business today was to set up the auditorium for Oscar to rehearse. He is doing a book talk in a week, and his talk consists of him narrating the story of the book Passing by Nella Larsen, about a black woman passing as white in Harlem in the 1920s, while playing clips from the Netflix film of the book. He has a friend, David Richardson, who is doing his tech support: he has collected the movie clips on him computer and shows them on cue while Oscar talks. Richardson is real geek, arriving with not one but two backpacks full of gear. At least two Macbooks. So all I had to do was set up the system, lower the screen, then get out of the way.

The movie version of Passing, or what I’ve seen of during Oscar’s rehearsal, is very powerful. So many scenes have me just cringing, oh no, don’t do that, don’t say that agghhh you said it…

That out of the way, I went to FOPAL and processed two boxes of donations. Then bought coffee and peanut butter at the store next door. Back home, worked a bit on the Strollin’ video. Then it was time for Rhonda’s open meeting, this month discussing numerous changes in the ancillary fee schedule — none very significant to me — and some changes in Dining Services, again which seemed common-sense and no problem to me. Although like any hint of change in a senior residence, they provoked many questions and comments.

The meeting ended at 5:30 and obviously 75 people would now head into the dining room, so I went to my room and had my other can of mushroom soup and a sandwich. One number reported today was that although the CH contract promises 3 meals a day, the average resident only eats 1.8 meals a day, on average. Well today for me, that was 0.0 meals in the dining room, although 1.8 is a pretty good average for me.

Neighbor Brian reported the DVD player on the 11th floor wouldn’t play blu-ray discs. I went up after supper and tried it, and yes, it plays DVDs fine but gags on blu-rays. Hopefully one of the resident committees has money to buy a new one.

Sunday 01/28/2024

So the usual Sunday round — the balcony plants need very little water this time of year, I finish that chore in about 3 minutes — and then pass time pleasantly until lunch. After which I go off to the Museum where it is Apple Employee Day. Closed to the general public but full of Apple employees and their families. I lead the 2pm tour, about 30 people, big crowd, and I manage to keep them all interested to the end. Of course the crowd knew a lot going in, at the point where I explain integrated circuits, I kind of said, well, who am I talking to, you know all this stuff. But there’s enough history they don’t know. Anyway, they stuck with me and gave me a nice round of applause at the end.

Three different times today I practiced “Who Put the Bomp”. This is my performance bit for the upcoming “Strollin into the Sixties” party and I need to get it totally memorized — get “off book” as they say in theater. Very frustrating when I screw it up. “Come on you know this shit” I chastise myself.

Meanwhile I’ve assembled a book of songs I can play, with a recent addition, “Jennifer Johnson and Me” by a songwriter I had not heard of before, Robert Earl Keen. Really simple to play, fun to sing.

Saturday 01/27/2024

Did a few things today. In the morning I made a list of my various financial account numbers, bank, brokerage, credit cards. Charlie the Fiduciary requested that for our meeting next Tuesday.

After lunch I went down to FOPAL. Frank had asked me to look at a bunch of old Mac software he had collected in the bargain room. This was software packages, some in the original shrink-wrap boxes, dating back to 2005 and earlier. Would they sell in the bargain room? Frank should know as that’s his bailiwick. Would they sell better at the Vintage Computer Fest next summer? That was what we talked about. There are complicated compatibility questions. From 1984 to 2000, Apple put Motorola 65K chips in Macs, and used what we now call Classic Mac OS. There were a few software packages in Frank’s collection dating to pre-2000. But he says that, with the current 40th anniversary of the Mac, lots of hobbyists have been making online videos of pulling out their old 1990-era Macs. So they are still around.

Apple used the PowerPC chips from 2000, when they introduced Mac OS X, to 2006. Mac OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” in 2006 supported both the PowerPC and the Intel CPU chips. Then with 10.8 “Snow Leopard” in 2008, they dropped the PowerPC support, except that old PowerPC apps could still be run under an emulator named Rosetta. With 10.7 “Lion” in 2009, all support for the PowerPC chip was dropped.

Some of the software on Frank’s shelf dates before 2006, and calls for OS 10.3. Those definitely require pre-2006 hardware to run. But, some people still have those. Some of his collection dates to 2008 and later; that requires a 2008 or later machine to run. He decided that the few boxes in original shrink-wrap we would put away now for VCF. The rest will stay on the shelf for the next sale weekend. What doesn’t sell then, he’ll put away for VCF also.

Except for pre-2006 copies of “Norton Utilities for Mac” and Microsoft Word for Mac. I designated those as garbage, nobody in their right mind would want either, throw them away.

Back home I did a clever thing. I have to start preparing the video stream for “Strollin’ into the 60s” coming up in 3 weeks now. Like previous Good Times shows, we will have videos of the music on the big TV on stage, and I have to prepare that hour-long stream from downloaded YouTube videos. For the C&W Jamboree last fall, I did a cute clip of worn barn doors that shut at the end of each video and opened to reveal the next. For this one I wanted just theater curtains. I found a curtain video that would do. But I needed it also to close. In fact I wanted a clip that had the curtain closing, one second of it closed, and then opening. Also that one is too slow, I wanted it twice as fast, 3 seconds instead of 6.

So in an hour and a half of intense work before supper, I downloaded that video, I made it faster, I copied it and made the copy play in reverse. I stuck the two copies together into one clip that closes, pauses one second, then opens again. And I tested it and it works nice. iMovie supports the green screen, so the green part disappears and lets the underlying music video show through. Curtain opens on Chubby Checker doing the Twist, curtain closes, curtain opens on Little Richard doing Good Golly Miss Molly, just as slick as you like.

I feel like the video master.

Friday 01/26/2024

Took a shorter walk in the morning. Then did a couple of minor things and some guitar practice until lunch at 11:30. Right after lunch I put on my red docent shirt and left for the museum. There I led a custom tour for 20 Stanford Law students. I adjusted my usual route to include the Atanasoff sort-of-computer which I normally don’t cover. But now I could tell law students about the huge Sperry-Honeywell patent suit that invalidated Mauchly’s ENIAC patents and established that the digital computer was a public idea for anyone to use.

They stuck with me through my extended tour, probably an hour and a quarter, and seemed interested, so that was flattering.

Thursday 01/25/2024

Tidied up and left for Shustek a bit earlier than usual. Today all the Thursday volunteers, those who work at Shustek doing cataloging, and those who work at Yosemite doing other curatorial tasks, were to meet at Yosemite for lunch. Ordinarily we all meet at one of a rotating list of restaurants. But today would be Gretta’s last day so lunch around a table at Yosemite and say goodby to Gretta. Which meant bringing something to eat, so I left early to stop at the store and buy a sandwich.

Gretta started with CHM in 2015, so I’ve known her for nearly a decade. For the past three years she’s been in charge of the acquisitions (“acquisitions registrar” is I think the job title), and on Thursdays that meant managing a crew of us old fart techies(*). The other days of the week I’m sure she had other things to do. But she always kept this diverse crew busy and focused, and always was cheerful and constructive, quick on her feet, ready to answer whenever somebody said “Gretta….?” which was about every ten minutes through the day. I am very sad to see her leave. She’s moving to Vashon Island in Puget Sound, where her husband has gotten a job running a year-round environmental campground.

I left Shustek about 3:30 which was later than I meant, because at 4pm was the annual Resident-Trustee Budget meeting, where the financial state of CH for the past and next fiscal year would be discussed, and the rise in monthly fees revealed. But traffic on 101 was backed up at Shoreline, so I moved over to Middlefield, and it was 4:10 before I got there. I didn’t miss much. The rise is 6%. The good news is, we are losing less money next year than this, and look like reaching break-even again in FY26.

(*) including IBMers me, David Bennett, and Steve Madsen, and Paul Laughton. Paul’s claim to fame, though, is that he wrote most of Apple DOS for the Apple II.

Wednesday 01/24/2024

Ran the laundry, and while waiting for machines to cycle, I put in 1.25 miles on the treadmill, and began the task of downloading videos for the Strollin into the sixties event.

Then down to FOPAL to tackle that huge pile of boxes. There were 8 to go when I left on Monday, today there were 10. I got through 6 of them and then had to leave because I needed to be back before 3, because the marketing people had asked, could they show my apartment to a prospect at 3pm.

In fact the prospects never showed, so that was a waste. But I got the rest of the videos downloaded. On Saturday I’ll start making them into a single video.

So I made myself a sandwich for supper and left for FOPAL again. Another 2 hours there and the floor by my section is completely clear. Back home at 7:30.

Tuesday 01/23/2024

Took care of some stuff in the morning. Went to the IL nurses office and reviewed what they had in my folder. Replaced the Advanced Directive form, verified the other stuff. Wrote an email to the Prime FIduciary guy (and am surprised at no reply by day’s end). I have a number of questions, mainly because I do not see in my files, where I modified the Trust to make them first successor trustee. Which is kind of the point of having them.

Last night I patched together a little essay for the writers group which started at 10:45 as usual. The theme was something like “what you keep and what you lose” which caused my mind to flash back to day 1 of this blog, when I de-invalidized the house, getting rid of all the evidence of disease and illness. (The “it started here” link goes there.) I padded that out and generalized it a little bit. Then I worried about sharing it; and then I realized how silly that was. I am quite sure (and they confirmed this after) that everybody in the group has been through some variation of bereavement. I knew a couple of the writers had lost children; most had lost spouses. So it was well received.

At 3:30 I went down to set up the auditorium for an easy event: running Patty’s son’s documentary Piano Girl (here’s the link if you want to watch it). There was an employee meeting in progress when I got there, and I eavesdropped. Rhonda was giving staff the good news that because of new minimum wage laws, and other reasons like the competition for staff in this sector, wages would be going up. She also mentioned that they would be seeking ways to increase revenue, including charging for things that had previously been free. Not sure what that means. I guess I’ll hear about that at the annual Resident-Trustee meeting Thursday afternoon. Rumor has it we will hear monthly fees will be up 6%.

Anyway by 4:05 the auditorium was almost full. I was surprised at the turnout, although everybody knows and likes Patty and her son Jeff. The hour-long show went smoothly — you might say of course, it was a simple job of driving the projector from my laptop — but you just never know. Glitches happen. The audience was very quiet and attentive and lots of applause after, so good for Patty.

Kay had arranged a dinnertable for 6 for Patty and some others including me, so that was nice.

Monday 01/22/2024

It was wet outside so I did my walk as 2 miles on the treadmill in the gym. Then a little guitar work and soon it was 11:30 and time to go to the lobby to meet my lunch guests. This was Dennis and Patty, to meet with Leah Lin. Leah is a paid consultant that I am hiring to be my medical representative, number 1 on my advanced care directive. That puts Dennis as number 2, relieved of the responsibility to respond instantly if something happens to me. Over lunch we talked about end-of-life issues, what I want or don’t want in the way of treatment. And revealed several things I need to do to get these issues covered.

After lunch I headed down to FOPAL where I found an incredible amount of donations waiting for me to process, at least 12 boxes. I got through about 1/3 of them; I’ll go back on Wednesday for the rest.

I want to add something to yesterday’s note. I wrote that in a hurry — I had already gone to bed and then remembered I hadn’t blogged, so I had to get up and blog in the dark before going back to bed. But I had intended to record an emotional reaction. A “transition” reaction, what this blog was originally meant for. See, right up there in the subtitle?

I was going into Piazza’s grocery yesterday morning. They have a double row of fresh fruit displays outside. Walking between these banks of fruit, a sudden memory of our typical Sunday morning shopping expeditions came back with great force. Maybe it was the smell of oranges? Normally I can go in and out of Piazza’s without strong memories, but that moment I was back in, say, 2017.

We normally planned our meals for the week on Sunday morning, debating what would be fresh and what we had on hand and what each of us felt like cooking on our alternating cook days. We’d make out a shopping list and, in the winter, like now, we’d head straight to the store. Summer we’d go first to the California Ave market to get fresh fruit. But winters, we’d be heading into Piazza’s, list in hand, past that same fruit display, picking what fruit we wanted on hand for the week. How about a melon? Oh look the little oranges are in. And so on.

Something about the time of day, the ambient light of a cloudy winter sky, the smells, whatever, brought that whole memory of our partnership back very strongly. I could easily have broken down and cried. I was walking through the store to pick up what I came for (a bottle of laundry bleach) with blurry vision and a sniffly nose.

Sunday 01/21/2024

Today, a very easy start. At 1pm, down to the basement to meet the carpool and go to the SWBB game. The game itself was close, the OSU Beavers were within a couple of points until the 4th quarter when Stanford pulled away.

Then it was time for a big celebration, as this was the win where Tara became the college coach with most all-time wins, at 1,203. I and Marian were there for her 500th, 900th, and 1000th wins, too. The hoo-rah afterward this time went on and on, and eventually the CH carpool left while it was still going.