Took a shorter walk than usual. At 10, met with AV volunteer Rich to talk about an event on Sunday. Memorial on 11, and relatives want to show a slide show on the mobile TV. Rich had signed up for this event before we knew about the slide show ask; now had to coach him on how to get a laptop connected which he hadn’t done before. He had set up to try it out with the relative at 2:30. I checked with them about 3 and Rich and the relatives were all happy, it had worked. This please me greatly, seeing Rich have a success. Being a manager.
Played some guitar, napped. Completely forgot I was supposed to be editing the Appreciation Fund video for Jerry to use. Now won’t have time before Sunday. At 6 joined the rest of the End Of Life committee for a wrap party dinner at Il Fornaio. Very pleasant chatting with them.
Cleaned up the apartment and left for Shustek. Only half a day today. Steve and I cataloged the original XO-1, the main product of the One Laptop Per Child project. That was a noble effort to distribute cheap laptops world-wide. It failed for a number of reasons. But they designed a cute little laptop that could be cheaply produced, the XO-1, and Nicholas Negroponte, the guy who founded the whole thing, gave what we were verbally assured was serial #1 to CHM. The machine had no serial numbers visible on the outside. Maybe there was a big Serial 00001 on the inside somewhere. But it ran, which was fun to see.
Then we all headed over to the Yosemite warehouse because they had agreed today was to be a group lunch and “show and tell day”, bring something to show. I had nothing, but I wasn’t alone in that. There were some cool things like a 1950s-era wire recorder that worked, with a collection of pre-recorded spools of wire. Curator Aurora showed off a jacket she made. Stuff like that. Then the volunteers left because the curators had an afternoon meeting.
Assorted CHM volunteers.
Toni Dave Bud listen to a 1950 football gameAurora shows off her sewing skills
Took a standard walk in the morning, felt fine. After, went up to the 11th floor and set up the lecternette for use by Peter and the final End of Life session, which was to be a workshop where people could get assistance filling out POLST and Directive forms.
At 1pm I had a haircut. At 4:30 we had our monthly 6th floor meeting. No important business, just a nice get-together. After supper it was time to meet with other fans carpool to a SWBB game. This was the first game I attended this season (there was an exhibition game last week but I stayed here to run an event). And at this game I experienced a complicated mix of strong emotions.
First, on entering through the door onto the upper mezzanine level of Maples Pavilion, and the sound of the Stanford Band hit me, I felt an intense wave of grief. I was close to tears for the next ten minutes sitting waiting for the game to start.
Tip-off of the opening of my last season here.
It’s been almost five years since Marian died, and I hadn’t felt this kind of grief in this venue since 2019, the first season after she was gone. For the twenty years prior, 2017 back into the late 90s, Maples and the SWBB team were central to her life and thus to our lives. Since then, in the 20-21, 21-22, and 22-23 seasons, I’ve just basically been a fan, going to home games and keeping tabs on the team, but no strong feelings.
I think what primed me for a major hit on today’s season-opener, was the thinking and feeling I’ve done over the past 6 months watching the PAC-12 dissolve, really internalizing that this is the final season of PAC-12 play. Between that, and the new rules that make the “student-athletes” into “student employees of fan donors”, and transfer rules that encourage the good players to shop around for the best money — starting this time in ’24 everything will change; all the old rivalries and the regular cycle of familiar opponents will be wiped out. And the tradition, and memories with them. So I was primed to feel loss, and it really hit me for a few minutes.
Then that emotion passed, and by the second quarter it was replaced by a different feeling: Boredom! I was just not interested. The players are good, play is just as skilled and intense as ever. But I felt further and further removed from it. I didn’t care. I was literally yawning. I spent some time on my phone, sending an email, during the third quarter. Athletic young women doing athletic things. Eh. That’s nice. Is it over yet?
I’ve been saying, because of the PAC-12 thing and the other stuff, the complete overturn of the old system, that when this season is over, I’m done. Now I’m feeling I may be done before the end.
This morning my thermometer died. Little green digital thermometer. I can remember using it at least as far back as 2018. I have been taking my temperature daily now for over a year, and I often wondered how long its battery would hold up. It did awesomely well, more than 500 readings, maybe near a thousand. I figured out how to open it up and replace the battery, I probably could replace it — with only the annoyance of figuring out what number of battery actually available on the rack at CVS is equivalent to an L736F, and the annoyance of no doubt having to buy a pack of several to get one — but when I looked closer I realized that the rubber coating of the part I stick in my mouth was pretty ratty and eroded. So let’s replace it.
That was an excuse for a walk over to CVS where I was confident there would be a selection of digital thermometers. Wrong. They had only one, and it was quite a bit larger and generally didn’t please me with its looks. So I finished the walk and went on Amazon and quickly found the identical slim green thermometer for $9, Prime shipping arrives tomorrow. Done.
The writers meeting had us writing about “my joy” and I had nothin’. Well I had written about a moment of joy back in April 2021, although checking back it appears I didn’t post it in the blog at that time.
Anyway at 3pm I set up the auditorium for the Appreciation Fund kickoff. This was a fun production. Performances by various of my neighbors. Jerry and Mary did a musical comedy number based on “If I Were a Rich Man”; other people played and sang. My only part was to set out the microphones and start the zoom meeting. It was not a general zoom session and the meeting link had not been distributed. We zoomed it just so that the social director in the Lee center could put it on the big TVs on two floors there, so people in assisted living could watch. Afterward there was a lot of food and drink served in the lobby, so much so that I don’t feel like having dinner.
The hummingbirds have finally gone away, or almost. After a week of heavy consumption last week, refilling the jar two or three times a day, suddenly there’s only one bird coming by and the juice lasts more than a day. I never posted my nice hummer shot here, did I.
It was like that for a couple of weeks. Now, nothing.
Also, yesterday when I went over to the California Ave. market, I spotted a parking space and pulled into it, and only when I got out did I notice the coincidence.
Same make and year and color (not the same model, the other one isn’t a plug-in), and license plates only 47 apart, 6VHU068 and 6VHU115.
Took a standard walk first thing. Then down to FOPAL where I spent 2:30 processing a shit-ton of books and getting my section all tidy for the sale next weekend.
Spent some time on guitar practice, but the news there is, I finally got time for a tete-a-tete with Mary to find out why and how exactly she wants me to perform. Her concept is there will be a general revue or showcase of everyone around here who plays anything. A relaxed post-holiday party in the lobby on 12/27. There will be a cello duo, a flute duo, piano and so on. Different people showing what they know. So I said, “So only one song?” Oh, no, at least two, maybe three. But things people might sign along with. So I am going to focus on that.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” was one I had suggested earlier and she liked it. Unfortunately I am finding that one just brutal to play. It has a really pretty chord sequence, G – Bminor – C – G – C – G – Eminor. Which if you play it right, gives you a lovely descending scale in the bass (listen). But the first G has to be a barre chord, stopping all six strings at the third fret, then smoothly down to all six strings at the 2nd fret for the Bminor. And my poor left hand just is having a hell of a time doing that, repeatably. So possibly I may give up and start with Malvina Reynolds’ “Sing Along” which is fun to sing and to play.
Other than that one, “This Land Is Your Land” is easy to play, but I would want to have all the verses memorized. Finish with “Jambalaya” which is super easy to play, only 2 chords.
This was fall-back Sunday, the day after the time shift. So of course I was up “early” i.e. t the same time as yesterday but now that was 5am. After the usual sunday chores and a little guitar practice it was — not quite 9am. So to pass some time I hopped in the car and drove over to the Cal ave street market. It was jumpin’, very crowded and cheerful.
Back for lunch than set up the auditorium so the Appreciation Fund committee could rehearse. The what now? OK. Like probably all senior residences, tipping, or indeed any kind of gifting to the staff, is forbidden. However, it is a long-standing tradition that each fall the residents hold a campaign to get everyone to write a check to the Appreciation Fund. The total is then divided into equal checks and given to the staff at the annual Employee Holiday Party. Pretty much everyone kicks in. Last year as I recall there were a very few hold-outs and certain generous donors wrote checks in the names of those people. The suggested donation this year is $1200, which seems rather paltry when you divide it by 365 and realize that at that rate, you are tipping at just over 3 bucks a day across all the staff, housekeeping, dining services, everybody. My check each year has been rather larger than the minimum ask — although still a bargain compared to daily tipping in a nice hotel, say.
Anyway the drive for the Appreciation Fund is managed by the A. F. Committee who are always trying to outdo last year’s committee. The rehearsal today was to practice for an event this Tuesday. Silly songs and skits.
Only scheduled activity today was to lead the 2pm tour at the CHM. Unusually, there was a private tour scheduled to start at 1:30. Ordinarily that would be no problem; half an hour of headway should be plenty. Unfortunately the docent who led that group — someone I don’t know, named Jim Holtman — was very slow and talky. So when I led my group toward the first stop, there he was still talking, half an hour after he started. And the rest of the way, I was having to constantly stop and stall, riffing about things I normally don’t cover, waiting for the preceding group to move on. I ordinarily finish the 2pm tour at 2:55, in plenty of time to send my group off to see a live demo that starts at 3:15. This time it was 3:10 before I could finish. Holtman was still yakking to his group out in the lobby at 3:15, almost 2 hours after he started. He seemed to be holding their attention all that time, I have to give him that.
Well anyway, quiet day otherwise. I walked out in the morning to enjoy a sinfully large almond croissant at Madame Collette’s coffee place.
I am seriously questioning the time and effort I am putting into guitar. What am I going to do with it? Am I going to perform for others? I have been kinda shaping toward that, trying to put together a little set list of songs I wouldn’t be ashamed to do in semi-public. But do I really want to? And if so, when and how often? Or is this just for my private fun — and if so, am I enjoying it?
I meant to take advantage of the fact that Mary, the choir director who informed me that I would perform “in late December”, eats dinner about the same time. I meant to go down and sit with her and have a heart-to-heart about this. However, at the elevator I met my neighbors Leon and Margaret, who immediately invited me to sit with them, and how could I turn that down? So… later.
First day in a long time with nothing at all in the google calendar. Took a walk, worked on the novel, played some guitar. Somehow it passed very quickly.
Going back to yesterday, I’m always taking pictures and forgetting to post them, here’s the view of Andrew Binder, the police chief, addressing us, as seen from the A/V desk.
So many screens, huh? From right to left, a monitor showing the views from our two cameras and which one is selected. A screen showing the output of the Zoom Room PC, the image from our center camera. Below it my Macbook, being the Zoom host. The small one is an iPad that controls the Zoom Room software. In the center an iPad that controls all the hardware.
So this morning I edited the video for End of Life session 4. That I had recorded directly to disk from the video switcher (out of frame on the right). It takes an hour or so to edit a 90 minute video when it’s simple, no slide show. Just go through it and snip out any empty pauses while people are shuffling their microphones around or whatever. Then iMovie takes half an hour to process it to make a movie file. Then I run it through another app, Handbrake, to compress it further. Then I upload it to Vimeo and when that’s done, send the link to various people.
I went out to buy more hummingbird sugar at 10:30, while the Macbook ground away in iMovie export. On return I checked and it was time for the 6th floor to come down for the flu shot clinic. Except when I went down, they didn’t have my name on the list. I am dead sure I did sign up for it, but somehow I got lost. No problem, they could take me after the scheduled shots later.
So back to my room and edited the video from Chief Binder’s talk. That was recorded in the cloud by Zoom, so I had to download it first. Then same deal, into iMovie and trim the beginning and end and any gaps during. Export, compress, upload. All done for lunch, then down to get my shot.
Afternoon I played guitar and cleaned the apartment, then out to let Wanda do her thing. Wanda, our highly valued 6th floor housekeeper, just got her U.S. citizenship, and we are all congratulating her.
I went down to supper and for the first time in a long time, I was displeased. There was nobody I wanted to sit with, and the menu didn’t interest me, so I didn’t sit down, walked through the dining room and on down to the garage and drove over to Town and Country and had a burger and shake.
Walking around T&C after, went into the bookstore. Nice bookstore, hadn’t been in there in literal years. There was a time when Marian and I would make regular trips to dinner and a bookstore browse.
Hoo boy. Finished editing and uploading the travelogue video (want to see it? Here.) Then it was time to set up for the fourth session of the End of Life series. No media to show for this one, so it was easy to run. All about dementia and the great difficulty care-givers of all types have, deciding when someone is competent enough to make medical choices. There’s a lot to it. Details of VSED and assisted suicide, and the legal ramifications.
Next up: lunch and laundry. Managed to get a 20 minute nap and then it was time to go down to see the Happy Birds. I didn’t have to run this show, Bert did. It was a good show, quite entertaining. Cockatoos and Macaws and Parrots, several of which talked or sang. Two rode bicycles and one rode a teeny little skateboard.
Another 20 minute nap and time to go down for dinner, as invited by Gloria, who was hosting the evening’s guest speaker, Andrew Binder, the Palo Alto chief of police, to dinner before his talk. Seven at table, me and Ian and Kay and Edie and Shirley and Gloria and the chief. He’s youngish (probably 40?) and very articulate and personable.
Then off to the auditorium to set up for his talk, which came off very smoothly. He answered some tough questions very smoothly. I managed not to screw anything up.
So tomorrow I have two event videos to edit, the EOL panel and the police chief’s talk. But not much more on my schedule than that.
Codgerville 