Wednesday 01/10/2024

One of those days when I make a scribbled check list of a bunch of little things I’ve been neglecting to do, and I did them, all interleaved with trips down the hall to cycle the washer and dryer as I did my laundry.

So what did I get done? Well, the laundry. And since it was raining outside, I walked 1.5 mile on the treadmill. Only 1.5 because I only had 40 minutes while the washing machine ran.

Then I talked to Gerald of IT about borrowing a karaoke screen, just a small tv on a rolling stand to show karaoke lyrics. Stew, organizing the next good times event, wants it for rehearsals, he is organizing 5 people to sing like the Beach Boys. Anyway, long story.

I set up appointments for the car: on Monday I will take it to be detailed, and then on Tuesday for its 75K service. I would have liked to get the detailing done by one of the several mobile detailers in the area, but CH staff told me no, we can’t have a detailer working in our front parking lot, no room, insurance, blah blah. So I have to take it to one with a proper place of business, and there are fewer of those than there used to be.

Also on the list was work on the novel and guitar practice, got both of those done. And met with neighbor Harry to show him how to connect his laptop to the TV on the 11th floor for a party he is planning.

At 4:30 it was the monthly 6th floor meeting followed by dinner. So a busy day.

Tuesday 01/09/2024

First up today was to remember to take my pre-med. Having your teeth cleaned can be the cause of releasing bacteria into your bloodstream. Tooth scrapings getting under your gums or something? Which can possibly lead to bacteria taking up residence on the artificial aortic valve, which would not be good. Anyway because of that I am supposed to take a dose of amoxicillin before a dental procedure, which in the past I have sometimes forgotten to do which is very embarrassing and annoying because either I can cancel the tooth appointment or take the dose there and spend an hour in the waiting room for it to be effective. Well anyway this time I remembered to take my four fat caps of amoxicillin with my other morning pills at 7:00 so I was all set like a good boy for my 8:40 tooth scraping.

Back at CH in plenty of time for the writers meeting. Which we spent part of talking about AI writing assistants. One of us, Peter, had quite an interesting story chat with Bard.

At 12:15 a nice lady from the IBM Insurance came by to do a very superficial wellness check on me. This is an annual part of the package. (It is still TBD whether Sutter Health/PAMF has settled terms with United Health Care. It could be the next time I go to PAMF my insurance will be rejected.)

After lunch I followed up on a tech issue that has been open for two weeks and been worked on by three members of the tech squad. Ann had bought an Epson printer which we couldn’t make print double sided. I had one more go at it, then finally resolved that definitely, this printer does not support auto-two-sided printing–even though its online user manual seems to say it does.

Monday 01/08/2024

First order of business was the monthly resident association meeting, at which I meant to make a plea for more AV volunteers. I did, and got a couple of possible recruits later.

Then down to FOPAL for a 2:45 stint of work getting my section ready for the sale next weekend.

Sunday 01/07/2024

First thing, I did a Covid test and it was negative. I went down to the IL Nurse on 3 and informed her that I was clear. No further restrictions.

I did a lot of other little things to fill the morning. At noon I met with Lennie and we, the two-person carpool, drove to Maples for the SWBB game. It being a clear Sunday afternoon, the other car-poolers opted to bike or walk to the campus.

The game was competitive; UW actually led for a while, and it was still close in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th, Stanford pulled away to win.

Played some guitar and wasted time other ways the rest of the day.

Saturday 01/06/2024

Because I am in the exposure protocol, I kept a low profile today. I felt fine and healthy. Tomorrow morning I will take my day-5 Covid test; I expect it to be negative, then I will be clear.

For today, I drove down to Midtown and had a luxurious capuccino and cinnamon roll, then went on to buy a pound of coffee at Peet’s. Back home I spent about 90 minutes on the guitar. Then over two hours trying to find ways to make an AI be a useful writing assistant. And you know? This may work. It is quite astonishing how creative Claude’s responses can be if you ask the right questions.

Friday 01/05/2024

Tested: negative. Felt fine, normal temperature, no symptoms all day. Took a short walk.

Took care of a bunch of stuff pending in my email inbox. One was, to call Cirenis, the head nurse at the Lee center, about these memorials they keep scheduling. People die, then their relatives want to have a memorial service on the 11th floor. They get dining services to cater snacks and drinks, Housekeeping to set up chairs and tables. And OF COURSE they want the sound system turned on, and the mobile TV so that the daughter or somebody can put up a slide show of pictures of the departed throughout their life. Which means, somebody on the AV team. Or else some IT staff person has to come in on the weekend to do it. So what I proposed to Cirenis was that I would love to train one of their Activities people — they have two, maybe three with that title — to do the setup of mics and the TV on the 11th floor. She was dubious but said she would discuss it at their staff meeting.

At 2pm I met with Ian to go over how to use the Zoom Room setup in the Activity room, for the weekly Current Events class he runs. It’s done by some prof from Foothill College, and has been zoom-only. Ian wants to bring people into the Activity room for more interaction. Should be straightforward but he hadn’t done it before.

Then I took a tech squad call to my neighbor Dr. Margaret to try to resolve some email issues. She had multiple email addresses, one very historical, and some mail didn’t get picked up by the Mail app on her mac, and other complications. I mostly straightened it out.

I was going to go to the SWBB game tonight, but some members of my car pool party were dubious about riding with me. Very reasonable, I can’t disagree. And anyway, the protocol for exposure is that I am supposed to avoid “group activities” until I have tested negative on the fifth day, which will be Sunday. So I am staying home, watching the game on TV.

Thursday 01/04/2024

Lovely day except for a couple of things. I had lunch scheduled for tomorrow to introduce Leah to Dennis, and Dennis called to say he was sick. Then before I could decide whether to cancel, I got an email from Susan, one of the actors in the drama class whose rehearsal I was at yesterday, saying that she had tested positive for Covid. Since I was in the same room with her for a couple of hours and talked to her one-on-one, I’ve been well exposed. So now I have to avoid all group activities and the dining room until I have tested negative on the 5th and the 7th. Assuming I do.

Other than that I took care of some stuff, worked on printing out some of the guitar music that I have been playing off the screen of the computer.

Wednesday 01/03/2024

Because rain was promised, and there was actually a blob of green approaching Palo Alto on the weather radar map, I did a 2-mile walk on the treadmill. In fact, no rain fell.

I paid a bill and practiced some guitar, and I got rid of some of the model-building paints. Then after lunch I worked AV for a tech rehearsal by the drama workshop group. Setting up mics, and practicing capturing video. That ran 2 hours.

In the evening I worked at getting some song scores printed out off the websites I’ve been using, so I don’t need to have my laptop when practicing.

Tuesday 01/02/2024

Remember when you used to write checks? And when the year turned, and you’d write a check and put the wrong year on it? And swear, and have to tear up the check and write “VOID” in your checkbook for that check number? Ah the good old days. I spent the morning and some of the afternoon working to set up an AI writing assistant. Hoping to jump-start my novel. We’ll see. I also spent some time down at FOPAL, partly because I had a couple of complicated donations I didn’t know what to do with, and wanted to catch Janette, the boss, for advice. And I did. So those things somewhat dealt with.

I haven’t mention the big screw-up. I was getting less and less happy with the 240z project, it just wasn’t working out, and then I was pressing a decal into place and broke off a piece of the body. To fix it would be a lot of work and I just said fuck it, and not only did I trash that project, I also decided to clean all the model-building stuff out of the closet. Today I gave away the airbrush and my collection of paints.

Monday 01/01/2024

I opened the new year with the standard walk, and felt fine. So that’s nice. On return to CH I got the news that the talk that was scheduled for 11am, the one we helped Dr Basso rehearse for on Friday, had been canceled, as he felt unwell. Had it not been canceled for that, there would have been another problem, in that the AV desk in the auditorium was still covered with a plastic tarp after the weekend’s rain had produced another leak. But it was relief all around that he’d canceled.

I had been invited by Carolyn to join her and Edie and Gwen for lunch. As normal on a holiday, lunch was a big deal meal, and then dining services all pack up and leave right after for afternoon with their families. So the menu was a little fancier than normal.

I asked the ladies what kind of songs I should be rehearsing with the guitar, and one said, Peter Paul and Mary, and another said, Pete Seeger. So after lunch I spent some time collecting guitar music from those, and have a bunch of songs to work on. One Seeger number, I think the title is “Get up and Go“, is going to work very well. It’s funny anyway but I can “sell” it (better than Seeger, if I dare say so). So that is definitely in my “set list” for the next time I perform. Which is not scheduled in any way.

At 5:30 there were only 6 of us who met in the 6th floor dining room to share our sack suppers. But a friendly little group, me and Carolyn and Edie, plus Dr. Margaret and Diane and Craig.