Saturday 08/14/2021

Indulged in a giant cookie which supplied both breakfast and lunch.

Futzed around with various hobbies. Went to bed without a thought of blogging.

Friday 08/13/2021

Went for a walk in the morning. At 10, met with Bert in the auditorium to play with the new AV equipment. Learned a few things, identified a few problems.

Later, turned to the Chrysler model. There are four pieces to the interior, two side walls, front seat, back seat. All to be painted ivory. I ordered an ivory acrylic and it came the other day. I had painted some onto the pieces with a brush, but the paint was quite thick and it went on with a bad texture. So today I cleaned it all off the four pieces, and resolved to spray it instead.

I thinned the paint down to the right consistency for the air brush and then went to get my spray booth off the back porch where it had been sitting for a couple of months or so. Something was wrong with it, it tried to collapse as I picked it up. Well, it was originally designed to fold up into a suitcase size…

But when I set it down in the bathroom where I like to do my air-brushing it was clear something more was wrong. The plastic floor plate was loose. On inspection, it was broken, several cracks and a broken piece at one corner. Hinges broken free from the metal back.

All I can figure is, at some point, it had fallen from the chair where I had left it, and smashed that corner into the hard patio floor. And then it had been put back on the chair. Only three people could have done that, one being me, and I didn’t do it. I do not plan to take this up with Wanda or the temp housekeeper who did the room once lately. Because what’s the point?

I set to work fixing it. First I used my bottle of thick cyanoacrylate glue to fix the cracks and the broken piece. But there was no way to glue the broken plastic hinges, so this base plate could not be attached to the main box. OK, how about… Duct Tape! I went to the resident workshop and dug around and sure enough there was a roll of duct tape. I used strips inside and outside to reattach the base plate, and to secure a couple of other seams that wanted to fall apart. Fixed! It will never fold up to a suitcase again, but that isn’t a problem.

Then I sprayed the interior pieces with a coat of ivory.

Thursday, 08/12/2021

Did the aerobics class, and headed out for a day at Shustek. I was the only volunteer in the morning so I cataloged alone, cataloging an Optacon, basically a tiny scanner that converted black and white text to fingertip pressure from an array of little needles. This was one of the first ever made, owned by a chap who was was head of a national association for the blind. I tried to make it work but although it would power on and the scanner wand would light up, the finger-sized array of needles didn’t work.

In the afternoon I was joined by other-Dave, Bennett, and we cataloged, at last, the final remaining cryotrons. That took months to get done.

Back home, I had a bad reaction to the dining room. Having been sociable and eating with groups for several nights I thought I would sit alone, and in fact one of the few two-tops was available, but I got to the table, looked at the menu without sitting down, and just didn’t want what was on offer. Nothing bad, General Tso’s Chicken if I recall; but I just had a wave of… boredom? irritation?… and walked. I’m apparently not liking our revised dining experience. Had a beer and a cheese sandwich in my room and enjoyed solitude.

Woke up at 2am with a slight headache. Took a tyolenol and remembered I had not blogged today, so am doing that, in the dark. So if there are typols, that’s why. Going back to bed now.

Wednesday 08/11/2021

Went for the standard walk for the first time in a while. Then was happily killing time when at 10 I got a text from Harriet, saying where she and Stephen were sitting at Cafe Borrone. Oh! I had had a feeling I should be checking my calendar! I’m meeting Harriet and Stephen to talk SWBB at 10. Fortunately Cafe Borrone is not very far. I texted back, running a little late, be there in ten minutes, and I almost was there in ten minutes. Maybe 14.

We chatted and talked about the upcoming season for most of an hour. Back when it looked like the pandemic was winding down, I had been fairly confidently thinking about going to away games, starting with the traditional Thanksgiving weekend tournament, which this year is to be in the Bahamas.

Travel is looking a bit more iffy now. Besides the Bahamas, the pre-season includes a trip to North Carolina and to Tennessee. Those are long flights. (The Bahamas would probably route through Atlanta.) Will that look feasible, and attractive, to do in November?

In the afternoon I did the laundry, paid some bills, and then started painting the interior of the Chrysler.

Tuesday 08/10/2021

Did the morning aerobics class, which today had 4 participants, not a record but nearly.

Sat in on the writers group, although I had nothing to contribute.

Worked on STIP a bit. Thought about working on the Chrysler, because the ivory paint I need for the interior arrived yesterday, but didn’t.

Tomorrow looks equally exciting, with laundry to do.

Monday 08/09/2021

First thing, I went down to FOPAL to tidy up from the weekend sale and prepare for the next.

I transferred the cash box, the iPad and the card reader back to Susan and we did the numbers. Sales from our vendor table at the VCF had brought in just under $600, $400 in cash and the rest in credit card sales. Not a huge result. In fact I had the passing thought that it was just about enough money to pay me and the other volunteers minimum wage for our time over the two days. Still, I think it would be worth doing again next year.

Then I spent 2 hours tidying my section and counting the books. Each section manager is supposed to report the count of books on their shelves before the coming sale. This coming weekend they have their first public sale since the pandemic started. My count was 572 books.

That was pretty much the day; the rest of the day I spent adding a chapter to STIP and generally futzing around on the internet.

Sunday 08/08/2021

Got up, read the paper, watered the plants, did the crossword puzzle, and it was time to leave for VCF. Spent the day sitting behind our table. In the two days we got rid of about 3 boxes of books (based on how many boxes we took back at the end) and made around $500 for the library.

Went to Wahlburger’s for a solitary supper. This because, since I spent a weekend in a “gathering”, I might have contracted the Covid. Tomorrow at 1pm I am scheduled for a rapid test. In the meantime I want to minimize contact with other residents here.

I don’t think I caught that or anything else. Everyone was being very good about masking, I think I only saw one adult with a mask mis-placed under their nose.

Now home and headed for an early bedtime. Closing ceremony? Bah humbug.

Saturday 08/07/2021

Departed at 7:30 to drive to the Computer History Museum for the Vintage Computer Fest. Yesterday we just dropped off the 8 boxes of books. Now, from 8am to 9am I arranged them attractively on our two large vendor tables. We are in a prime location, anyone who walks between the exhibit area to the consignment area has to pass us. And many took time to look at the books.

We sold quite a few, I didn’t count but it was more than half of what we had brought. It was a long day with lots of boring spots in it. Got a lot of reading done on my phone. Here’s a picture of our setup.

I got time during the day to look at the exhibits. The most interesting one, well, the one that has the most sales value, would be this one.

That is the first made Apple I, serial #1, personally gifted by Steve Wozniak to the woman standing behind it. Her name is Liza Loop. She claims we have met. Possibly, around 1977 or so, when I helped organize a display of microcomputer systems at the Menlo Park Library. Anyway, given that Apple I’s have auctioned at $500K, what do you suppose serial #1 is worth?

She also owns the serial #1 Apple II. She and Steve Wozniak were close.

Anyway I’m going to bed early because I have to do it again tomorrow.

Friday 08/06/2021

The morning was devoted to medical stuff. First I took a Lyft to Stanford’s Imaging center on Sherman, same place as I’d had two prior CT scans. I know the drill now. Strip down to underwear, put on a gown, pajama pants, and their hospital socks with the no-skid nubbles. Then the nurse comes and puts an IV in my arm for the contrast fluid later.

Since the vein in my left arm is where I usually get blood draws etc, and it is looking kind of gnarly, standing out lumpy, I said, let’s do the right arm this time. Well, she messed it up, couldn’t get the IV set right. So a second nurse came and set one in the much-abused left arm. So now I left with colorful stretchy stuff holding bandages on both arms.

Had some breakfast at nearby Starbucks, then a Lyft to the main Hospital for my one-year follow-up with Dr. Watkins. She’s looking great. I thought back in February she was preggers but she isn’t now. One doesn’t like to ask. Too many possibly embarrassing explanations.

ANY way my aorta looks good. The space between the wall and the lining, the “false lumen” has continued to clot up. However they also want the aorta to become narrower, or at least not widen.

Mine has widened, not much, 5 millimeters, and most of that happened between the CTs of November and February, only 1mm more between February and now. So maybe it is stabilizing? She wants a 6-month callback. If the aorta continues to widen, she might then recommend “a really simple, low-risk procedure” to place yet another stent. So I have that to look forward to.

Oh, they said my renal cyst did look flat on the new CT. I had also alerted Dr. Tamrazi to the new scan so he presumably will check his work.

About 2:30 I drove to FOPAL where I was to meet Frank and Susan at 4pm, to prep for the Vintage Computer Fest.

Looking back in the blog, it turns out I attended the VCF exactly two years ago, Day 245, 8/4/2019. I’m not sure how much I’ve said about the one coming up this weekend. Coincidentally FOPAL got a bunch of old computer books and I proposed we try selling books at VCF. The organizer gave us vendor status and two big tables in a great location. So Saturday and Sunday I will be standing behind tables of books.

Frank was to help me load the 9 boxes of books I’ve selected as likely to appeal to this crowd, into the Prius. Susan is the FOPAL treasurer and keeper of the cash box and the iPad with the credit card reader. She talked me through the process of using both. Then Frank and I loaded the car and we took all the books down to the Computer History Museum — whose doors I had not entered since maybe January 2020? — where the VCF was to be held. Stacked the boxes of books behind our vendor tables. Checked that the iPad could find the Museum’s wifi. Met the organizer. I dropped Frank off back at FOPAL and came on home.

Wednesday 08/04/2021

Went for my standard walk which felt fine. Worked on STIP for a bit. Went out to meet Scott for lunch at Gombei, a restaurant I haven’t been in for more than two years. Maybe since 2018, with Marian? They still make a nice bowl of Udon noodles. There were only two other parties in the place at 1pm. Good seeing Scott.

There wasn’t much else to the day. I completed an experiment with paint color for the Chrysler model. I had some Testors Transparent Red and I wanted to know how transparent was it, and how it would look when painted over a gray primer, or a gold undercoat, or a silver undercoat. Turns out it looks really good over gray primer.

Patty invited me and Marcia and Kent to supper which was pleasant.