Wednesday 08/23/2023

Took a short, 40 minute walk while my first load of laundry was running. Then finished the rest and then — deep breath — call up Joe to see how the new computer was working and if I could come down and try to make the screen more legible. For half an hour at least (felt like more) around 2am i was obsessing about this, and about what to do if this crochety dude was not happy.

But in fact he was very happy. Everything he normally does with the computer — he has a very limited repertoire of things that he habitually does every day — was working. I did go down and spent half an hour working over the settings in Firefox, Safari, and the MacOS system settings to make everything as visible and contrasty as possible. But that’s it, he’s settled, and out of my hair, and an enormous load off my mind.

After a chat with Dennis I headed down to FOPAL to sort for an hour. I’d have stayed longer but four other volunteers turned up and it was too crowded.

Later in the day I resolved a tech problem for my neighbor Edie — sensible and pleasant and constructive, like night and day.

After supper, on a whim, I played for myself Disc 1 of the two-disc set of The Fellowship of the Ring. It holds up; a very well-made movie.

Tuesday 08/22/2023

Did the round of gym machines. Then did “managing” for most of the morning: scheduling a meeting of the AV group for Friday. Making sure that the people I hoped would attend, would be able to attend. Emails. Booking the use of the 11th floor.

Writers meeting. Cue was “time of great happiness” or something like it. I had nothing, actually there were fewer pieces than usual. I couldn’t pick out a particularly happy time in my life. Not that I’ve been unhappy, just no special high points.

The whole afternoon was devoted to installing Joe’s new iMac. This is a pain in the butt. However I involved myself in this and I have to see it through. I don’t want to go into it. But it was a hard day all around.

Monday 08/21/2023

Started the day with the standard walk. (Excuse me while I check my phone: oh, 3.7 miles for the day, yay me. No wonder I was tired in the afternoon.)

Then it was time for the monthly Events Committee meeting, where everybody who sponsors or organizes events meets to make sure nobody is stepping on anybody else’s dates and like that. Nobody was. Finished in an hour, nearly a record.

Down to FOPAL where I found 6 boxes of donations and spent 2+ hours sorting and pricing and shelving. I may go down another day this week, probably Wednesday. There is a big backlog for sorting and Janette has been sending out “please sign up to sort” emails.

Back home I sat down and relaxed and immediately passed out in an hour-long nap. Had dinner in my room for the first time in a while. I like the flexibility of being able to order for carry-out off the regular dining room menu.

Sunday 08/20/2023

After the usual Sunday ritual (watering the plants, doing the big puzzle) I settled down to finish the C&W video. The task at hand was to get the hour-long video equipped with chapter markers, 21 of them, one to mark the start of each song. This will let me jump ahead over a song, or back to the start of one, with a single keystroke. Which I shouldn’t need to do, but in the last event, the Sock Hop, we did decide during the event to skip two songs because we were running long.

Annoyingly, none of the Apple video tools will install chapter marks. You have to go to a third party app to edit and save this perfectly standard meta-data. Oh well. Got it done and tested, and sent links to the finished video to the committee members to inspect and comment.

Then it was 12:30 and time to join Sandy for a run over to Oakland for a concert with Holland and Coots. These two have been honing their act for more than a decade. Holland is a great pianist with a deep knowledge of American music from the start of the 20th century. Coots is a subtle, inventive drummer, and the two have a polished comedy relationship, so: good music and funny jokes. I heard Danny Coots drumming for a different act at the 2017 Sacramento Jazz Fest, and I heard the two of them at the Redwood Coast Festival I went to in Euraka last fall.

Oh, about recollection? Dennis had a great idea, I should check his mother’s autobiography. He was pretty sure she mentioned me often. So I dug out my copy of my late sister’s self-published book. Unfortunately regarding the critical 1960-64 period she was as vague as my own memories. She mentions the main events but without dates, and with definitely some wrong details.

Sometime between now and tomorrow afternoon I have to give Gerald a list of how I want the training hours we get as part of the auditorium upgrade, broken down to classes for groups of people. Must think.

Saturday 08/19/2023

Scott reminds me that the ’56 Fords did not have the flathead V8. Since I am positive my car had one, that means, it wasn’t a 56! Checking online, the last model year for the flathead V8 was 1953. Looking at images online I find a 1953 4-door sedan with the blue-on-blue paint job that I remember. This looks right.

I have a lot more places and cars to try to sort out. I only today remembered that for a year or so I was driving a dark green 1957 Chevy coupe. I can’t sort out the sequence of the yellow 65 Pontiac, the 57 Chevy, the 60 Ford, and the CHP car. Then came the Fiat 124 Sport Coupe that I bought new. That model was made, the internet tells me, from 1967 to 1975 and I can’t say what year I bought it in; probably 70. Anyway, I drove that for a good while, until we bought our Acura. (I sold the Fiat to Debbie Goldeen and a year later, a tree fell on it, total loss.)

You think the cars are a jumble? I also can’t sort into sequence of when I: shared an apartment with John Snow (308 Presidio); shared an apartment with Glen Fray in the Castro district (probably 18th or 19th street near Castro, which wasn’t completely a gay district then); shared an apartment in the Sunset with my sister Joyce (couldn’t say where, maybe 25th avenue?); lived alone in an apartment somewhere on the flanks of Twin Peaks (that one is associated with the memory of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, so 1968); shared ownership of a house with Joyce and my parents; and lived alone in the basement apartment in Daly City. I’m amazed at how peripatetic I was between 1962 and 1973 when I married Marian and we bought our house on Tasso st.

The Daly City place is associated with the end of the 1953 Ford: it blew a head gasket, and John Snow helped me replace it three times. (Why I’m so sure it was a flathead V8!) The head was warped, so the second gasket blew, then I had the head planed, and the third one still blew, and I remember John being in an absolute fury at the car and ripping through the third gasket replacement in a kind of berserker rage. And that happened in the garage space at the entrance to my basement apartment. Then I sold the Ford to Tom and Nan Kurtz (is that the right last name?). So I was probably right when I wrote last week, the CHP cruiser and the Daly City place came together. And both were early in the above sequence, in my first year or two with IBM.

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OK back to diary. In the morning I finished assembling the videos for the C&W party. Then I did the noon docent tour at the museum. On return I shucked out of my red docent shirt and chinos into jeans and a tee and bopped on up the street to the Varsity theater to see the Barbie movie. Meh. It had some amusing moments. The end was philosophically thin and unsatisfying. I was hoping they could come up with a more insightful ending than “be yourself”. But there you go. Pretty people, pretty sets.

The opening sequence, the little girls swapping baby dolls for Barbie dolls? Was a clever parody of the opening sequence of 2001 A Space Odyssey. I wonder how many in the modern audience catch on to that?

Friday 08/18/2023

Took a walk, stopping at the hardware store. There are half a dozen brands of “clog buster” chemicals for drains. They list their ingredients because they are poisons so I could tell they all have essentially the same mix of stuff, so I bought the one that was on sale. Tonight I poured the specified amount down my sink drain to marinate overnight.

For about 4 hours spread across the day, I worked on the video for the C&W jamboree.

At 10 I took part in a meeting with the auditorium AV contractor and we resolved a number of points. Then I wrote an email to my committee summarizing what’s going on.

Had dinner with Patty and the Allens. I was talking to Stew and Kathy in the lobby before dinner. They asked, who are you waiting for, and I said, “Patty and the Allens” and then we all laughed because it sounded like a bad high-school band from the 60s.

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Scott had a comment on the Police Car memory, which made me realize, once again, what a poor, fragmented, spotty memory I have for the period 1960-1975. Rather crucial years of my life. Well my memory since then isn’t so great either, but at least I have our trip reports and photographs to sketch out a fairly consistent timeline.

The timeline 1975-now is very simple: lived with Marian on Tasso street. It breaks into two segments, up to 1996 when I worked for a salary, and after. But from 1960-75 I lived in many different places, had various cars, various jobs, various lovers (well, actually only one). And I don’t remember it in any detail, just images, moments, and it is very frustrating to try to remember what came before what.

So yesterday on the bus ride I got out my phone and started making notes on what I do remember. I have zero intention of writing a “memoir”. My parents each wrote an autobiography? Joyce, too. Good for them. I don’t have the material, or the desire, and it would be a total bore anyway. But I would like to get a sequence of events more or less sorted out.

Here are the rough notes so far. Relatives feel free to point out mistakes.

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Places lived and cars used

The Ranch aka “Los Helechos” 1942- 1960

1953 Chevrolet sedan, green, parents car used on dates

1941 Chevrolet sedan, black, damaged in accident (my fault) continued driving despite dented right rear door, eg while working at WW State Fair Puyallup summer 1959 & 1960

Lander Hall Undergrad dorm, UW, Seattle 1960-1962

Memory: seeing the Space Needle being built 1961-2, and completion of the Ship Canal Bridge of I-5.

Roommate Michael Murphy. Memory of him showing me FORTRAN program cards.

Joyce got me a summer job parking cars at Cadillac on Van ness. Lived in her apartment at 9th&Judah. Was this summer 1961? or 62?

Returned to UW, hated it, depressed and in emotional turmoil. Dropped out of school.

Brief stay in a boarding house, University district Seattle, ?1962

Apartment ? Seattle 1962? No idea where.

Had a job, for the city in a group doing pet licensing enforcement-door to door in West Seattle. Terrible job that I sucked at.

Bought 1956 Ford sedan, 2-tone blue, flathead v8. Recollection: car ran smooth but low on power. Took to gas station at ?Madison @ Broadway? the guy said it just needs a tuneup. Points plugs timing and the car was transformed.

I can’t remember anything about my living situation for this time. I have a memory of working on the car, probably the Ford, something under the front end—steering rack?—and I had no garage nor jack stands so I put the right wheels on the sidewalk and crawled under in the gutter to work. This would have been outside wherever my apartment was, somewhere in central Seattle, maybe around Seattle University.

Joyce got said I could have the job at Cadillac again, so I drove the Ford to SF. Stayed not very long in her apartment, then moved to a one-room apartment in a building near USF Medical School, one of the very steep streets, maybe 4th or 5th avenue.

John Kennedy assassination 1963 – vague memory of talking about it with a female student, probably at USF.

Started hanging out with the drama students at USF. At some point I moved into a shared apartment somewhere between USF and the Panhandle — Hayes? Grove? shared with Dan —–? and Jackson DeGovia. (A Jackson Degovia can be found online at imdb.com and other media sites, he apparently has had a decent career as a production designer for theater and film. I think probably the same guy.)

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enough for now.

Thursday 08/17/2023

Well today there was a Channing House bus outing to Half Moon Bay. 16 people on the bus. Went first to the usual walking path along the clifftops for an hour stroll. Took a picture.

Then to lunch at the Miramar Beach Restaurant.

Then home, just in time for the 3pm Ice Cream Social on the patio. I don’t think I’ll go on any more of these type outings, though. People walk too slow, and the bus is jouncy. The next planned one is to the Marine Mammal center in Marin. Marian and I were there some years ago, I don’t need to go again.

At 5 I took off again for the Third Thursday open-air concerts along California Avenue. The City sponsors seven local bands of various styles, spaced out along the quarter-mile street. I started with Past Curfew, rock of the 60s-70s-80s.

From there I walked up and down to sample the other bands but came back. Past Curfew was clearly the best and had drawn a pretty good crowd.

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Oh I neglected to mention an important activity yesterday. 6 months ago, or so, my kitchen sink stopped draining. I called facilities and a guy came and removed the P-trap and did something. I asked what was clogging it; he just said “stuff”. Which is weird, I had never put anything down the sink but liquid (there’s no disposal). Well I was in the habit of brushing off the counter into the sink, so maybe crumbs? Anyway, since then I have been very aware of the drain and no longer put crumbs or any kind of solid down it. Anything but clear liquid goes in the toilet for flushing.

So for the past few days the drain had been very slow to clear and yesterday it stopped completely. Well, water would ooze away over ten minutes. So I decided to see what the “stuff” was. I got my big adjustable pliers from my toolbox in my basement locker and I took apart that P-trap.

Yick! The stuff was just sludge, greenish-brown, the consistency of peanut butter, with a dank smell. I took the two pieces of pipe, one straight, one U-shaped, to the shower to clean them out. Then I had to scrape the vertical sink outlet with a knife. Very unpleasant. Also unpleasant, forcing the three joints to line up and tighten so as not to leak. I hate plumbing.

But now I have this puzzle: why did my sink drain and trap grow a thick coat of sludge? And how can I prevent it? I plan to check the hardware store for drain cleaning chemicals, but how often do I need to use them?

Wednesday 08/16/2023

First thing was an 8:30am appointment with Dr. Marx, my and Marian’s PCP for, gee, most of this century? For an annual checkup, now called a medicare wellness check. I seem to be well.

Both yesterday and today I have had to spend time helping Joe with his email. I don’t much like Joe, but he has a genuine problem that I haven’t solved. I got Craig involved, he had a suggestion that didn’t help, and Paul the IT guy. Waste of my time and the problem not resolved.

At 1pm I joined the monthly FOPAL post-sale zoom call. The sale last weekend brought in close to $20K. I was asked to talk about the VCF sale as well. Later I was asked to write a couple of paragraphs on VCF for the newsletter.

At 7pm, Palo Alto Mayor, Lydia Kou arrived to have a town hall. I was running the AV which was pretty simple. Ms. Kou is a smooth politician, with ready answers for all the questions the audience had. She is only mayor for another year, but is already running for a seat in the State Assembly.

Tuesday 08/15/2023

Did the gym machine round. Then I spent some time, and more in the afternoon, starting work on the video for the Hoedown event coming up. I want to have a fixed picture of old barn doors between each song. Then when it is time to start the song, the barn doors split along with a rolling-door-sound effect, and the video starts. At the end of the video, there is that sound and the doors close over the video.

I did some tricky stuff with iMovie to create this effect, and got it pretty much right. Then I put together the first two videos, with the barn-door transition between them. (The Carter family singing “Hearts of stone” followed by John Denver “Take Me Home Country Roads”. Hey, I didn’t choose the program.) It’s looking good and I feel good about it.

Then the writers meeting, with the cue “An automobile”. For once I was early, finishing on Monday, instead of writing something at 10am for the 10:45 meeting. I’ll put what I wrote at the end here.

At 4pm it was time for the 4th in the CH lecture series on levels of care. This one was specifically about the process that happens if/when somebody needs to move from independent living to a higher level of care. If found this discussion profoundly depressing. They have to think about and be alert to all the various ways a person can lose it — dementia, stroke, general inability to get around. Over supper with Susan P and the David and Helen, we all agreed that it is very sad to contemplate the fucking inevitability of this. Susan wanted to know if there were any actuarial numbers to say, “what’s the chance I’ll die in IL before I have to transfer?” Which is definitely preferable. David G. was sure those numbers exist because Channing House’s entire business model rests on predicting how long a person is likely to stay at each level.

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Monday 08/14/2023

Went for a walk, a bit shorter than usual, 1.8 miles, but I see by the end of the day I’m up to 3.3. Lotta walking around FOPAL I guess.

Met with Ian to experiment with the Zoom Room hardware in the Activity Room. He runs the weekly Current Events discussion group, which has been zoom only since 2020 and he’d like to get back to a physical meeting, but with optional zoom attendees. It will probably work.

Then down to FOPAL to do the usual post-sale triage of my section. Talked there with Frank about the FOPAL PCs. He and I have been in a running email discussion about how to speed up these pathetic objects. They are Lenovo M820Zs, which was Lenovo’s attempt to make something like an iMac, just a fat screen standing on one foot. They are seriously slow and we have a plan to speed them up by replacing their hard drives with solid-state ones.