Friday 01/29/2021

Went for The Walk about 9am, which felt fine. Then I paid a couple of bills. Then I sat down at the big computer to edit the video I’d shot of the meal cart safety talk. This took an hour to get it organized.

I had recorded two of the 10-minute sessions. The speaker covered the same points in the same order, which was handy. The first session was acceptable, except that during his third point, somebody’s phone rings, and she walks in front of me to take the call elsewhere. The recording of the second session was OK also except that some male voices were having a conversation somewhere across the lobby and their chat is audible. However, I clipped out just the third point and cut it into the first presentation, replacing the woman with the cell phone.

If I ever do that again, I have to solve the audio problem. I need a lavalier mic on the presenter and somehow get that audio into the recording. Well, I probably won’t do that again anyway. Or, after the pandemic, presentations will be back in the auditorium where we have a proper mic setup with a mixing board and all.

Anyway the video is ok and will soon be up on the CH site with other useful videos.

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At noon it was time for the Stanford Women to play WSU for the 2nd time in 48 hours. They opened a 15 point lead in the second quarter and maintained it until WSU basically gave up, and both teams put in their b-squads.

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At 4pm it was CEO Rhonda’s weekly Zoom chat. The principal topic this time was: we are dumping Sodexo as our dining services! Instead, as of 20th April, food service will be fully in-house, staffed and managed by CH. Rhonda explained there were two reasons. First, “while we have good food, we really need great food,” and second, the pandemic has shown them that in an emergency it is crucial to have all management unified. “We have no complaints with the Sodexo staff on-site, but there have been times in the Covid crisis when their hands have been tied by corporate decisions elsewhere. We need everybody on the same page.”

All Sodexo employees are being offered employment as Channing House employees, retaining their seniority and at least the same pay. CH has signed a two-year contract with Strategic Dining Services to manage the transition, their first task being to recruit a Dining Services Manager who will run the show and report to Rhonda. They will also be developing supplier agreements to procure food. That’s a fairly big job, as we won’t have Sodexo doing all the shopping. Shopping for 300 meals three times a day is not like shopping for a household.

Aerobics class. Then looked out to see fairly heavy rain, but the forecast was for clearing later, so put off walkies. Made a new signup sheet for the meal deliverers, and publicized it. At 11, as scheduled, facilities came by to change out the filter on the HVAC units in my ceiling.

Yesterday we had an email alert that there had been a catalytic converter theft from our very parking lot. I had posted a warning to CHBB about this last October, based on frequent complaints on the Neighborhood website. Now I put together an info sheet and posted it. I will append it here. Several people responded appreciatively.

Then I was chatting with my cross-hall neighbor Florrie, as she came back in from what was supposed to be a drive, but in fact she had found her Prius sounding like a dragster. She was a second cat theft victim. She had just sat with James and reviewed the security camera take from two nights back, and yep, there they were — unfortunately the license plate of the thieves didn’t show.

Florrie says she had been considering giving up her car anyway, and she was taking this as a sign it was time to do that. You’ll still have to get it fixed, I said, and sell it? Nope, she has it all figured out; she is donating it to KQED. They’ll take it away and she’ll take a tax write-off.

Daubed a bit more clear coat on two small parts, and decided that although clear coat with a brush is adequate for touch-up it will not do for large areas that have to look good. Must be sprayed. I have two clear coat brands, and I sprayed another coat of the second one on my test piece of plastic. It is not looking good for Mission Models brand; it goes on with a fine orange peel that feels almost like sandpaper. But I’m almost out of the other one, and it will be days before the two bottles I ordered will arrive.

At 2pm it was time for Wanda to clean my unit, the first time in two weeks because of shorthanded staff. At this point I went for an hour’s walk, and still had to kill time in the lounge on return until she was done. Evening entertainment: Battlebots.

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What I posted to the in-house bulletin board, CHBB:

We recently had a catalytic converter theft in our own parking lot. This crime is increasingly common, with reports in Palo Alto every week or so. Here is some info about it.
What is a catalytic converter?It is an essential piece of emissions control required on every car from 1974 on. Physically the “cat” is a melon-sized metal bulge in the exhaust pipe. Inside it is a metal honeycomb seeded with small amounts of the precious metals Palladium and Rhodium. These act as a catalyst to speed the conversion of nasty engine exhaust gasses into water and CO2.
Why do thieves want mine?Prices of the rare metals have spiked in recent years. A “cat” is worth $100 and more as scrap. The converters on hybrid cars are preferred because they get less wear, so there is more residual metal. The ones on Priuses are especially easy to get at, but other makes and models are also hit.

How do the thieves take it?It is easy to remove the cat if you don’t care about the condition of the vehicle afterward. You jack the car up a few inches with a portable hydraulic jack. You roll under the car with a battery-powered electric saw. You cut through the exhaust pipe ahead of and behind the cat. Roll out, throw the saw, cat, and jack into the trunk of your car, and drive off. It can take as little as 60 seconds. Here are videos that show actual thefts:
Theft on a street in England, total operation complete in just over 60 seconds:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybMIkySaXk
In broad daylight with getaway car double-parked. You can hear the saw working:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUlikgzaDOE
How will I know it happened?Oh, you’ll know! Your exhaust pipe has been cut open just after the engine, ahead of the muffler. Your car will sound like a dragster, or a water-ski tow boat. VRROOM!
What will it cost to repair?By California law the cat must be replaced with a factory part. Toyota charges $2,000 and up to replace one. On the Prius there is an exhaust temperature sensor just in front of the cat. The thief will often cut through that, which adds a few hundred to the bill.
Will insurance cover it?Only if you have the optional “comprehensive” coverage. Check your policy. With comprehensive you will pay a deductible, typically $500 or less. Without it, you pay it all.
Can cat theft be prevented?Yes, muffler shops and some dealerships will install a metal plate that blocks access to the converter, making theft impractical. This costs from $200 to $500.
Hope people find this informative,

Wednesday, 01/27/2021

First thing I drove to Sunnyvale to give blood for lab work.

I stopped on the way to fill the Prius gas tank. When I went to record the amount in my log book, I had to draw a line to mark the start of the year 2021. It was only five rows below the line for 2020. I filled up the tank five times in the plague year.

At the lab, the receptionist looked at my record and said, you have two sets of orders here, Doctor Marx and Doctor DiBiase. Well, I did the labs for Marx (see day 1.358, 11/24/20) except I had to skip the cholesterol test, so I guess that was still open. Then DiBiase had put in a blood panel, liver function, and another cholesterol.

The receptionist also said, you have a fecal test here, too. I said, yeah, I just mailed that in. He said, oh no, it will disappear, you need to bring those in by hand. What? said I; I followed the instructions on the package exactly, wrote the date, put it in the special return envelope, and mailed it. Yeah, he said, and they never arrive; I’ll make you up another one. And a few minutes later, while the tech was drawing my blood, he came through the lab and handed me a new FIT test kit. This is weird.

Back at the shop I did the laundry. I also tinkered a bit with brushing clear coat on the MG. Not sure about it but getting rather impatient with the whole process.

At 6:30 we had a SWBB game, Stanford at WSU. It looked like a runaway; Stanford just jammed the Cougar’s gears with defense while running the score from 13-9 up to 29-9, and at one point had more than a 30-point lead. But the Cougs worked their way back to only a 15-point deficit before the end. This game was a make-up of one that was Covid-delayed earlier. They play again on Sunday, and probably WSU will be harder to beat then.

Tuesday 01/26/2021

After morning aerobics it was time for the first monthly jazz lecture/concert by Stephanie and Paolo. After the series I’d enjoyed last month, I supported their patreon account and so now get a new concert every month. I would love to share the concert video here, but it is private to their paying supporters. Although I betcha some of their fans do share the URL (it’s just a YouTube link, not protected in any way), and you know? That’s fine. They’ll get more exposure. But it would be over the top to share the URL in a public blog like this, with my 3s of readers.

That took until well past 10 and I wanted to go to the meal delivery safety meeting at 11:45, so I didn’t zoom to the writers’ meeting. I video’d the safety meeting, all 6 minutes of it, with the iPhone, getting much better sound than with the Nikon. I also video’d the final one at 4:45pm, and probably Thursday I will edit the bits together to make a smooth piece.

In between I did some organizing. An Amazon order arrived yesterday with manila folders, so I could do some tidying of my tax files, and also my collection of papers related to Resident Association Treasurer. That took all of 10 minutes. I did some minor experiments with clear paints. I actually think applying the paint with a brush will work best and fastest for small parts. Larger parts and curved parts need the spray and I’m still working on that.

In the evening a proper storm has moved in and wind is swooshing around my corner windows and causing things elsewhere in the building to bang and clang at odd times. Oooh and my lamp just flickered very briefly…

Monday 01/25/2021

Today I had set up an appointment to have blood drawn at PAMF. I used to drive to the PAMF office in Los Altos and just walk in and stand in line at 7:30am. But now one has to get an appointment, and the nearest location they offer is Sunnyvale. So I eat my usual breakfast and drive most of the way to the lab in Sunnyvale and remember, oops, I am supposed to be fasting. Shall I proceed and lie, or shall I bail and reschedule.

Not knowing how sensitive the stupid cholesterol test is to recent food consumption, I decide to bail. I pull off El Camino and go to the MyHealth app on the phone. (The Sutter Health MyHealth app, not the MyHealth app provided by Stanford Hospitals.) It proves to be very easy to reschedule a lab appointment, which I do for Wednesday morning. And drive home.

Before lunch and supper are two of the four scheduled safety talks that staff wants as part of their response to a minor accident among the food delivery volunteers. I attend. Matt from Sodexo does a nice job, presenting reasonable advice on properly handling the heavy carts in five minutes or so. I take some video using my Nikon, but unfortunately the Nikon’s built-in mic is not up to the task. So tomorrow I shall take more video using the iPhone.

I had asked Dr. Julia if I could take an FIT test as an alternative to the colonoscopy that I am a year overdue for. She agreed and sent me the kit, which arrived yesterday. This morning I used it, picking up a sample on the little plastic tool and mailing it off to the lab. Hopefully it will be negative and I can forget about colonoscopies.

Sunday 01/24/2021

Did my usual Sunday morning stuff. Decided to go for a short walk, and did. Then, thinking about how it is ten days yet until I allow myself to go into a grocery store (I have neighbors who routinely go to Trader Joe’s and such, and I have gone to a grocery store a few weeks ago, but February 2 is a magical mystical day now in my calendar, 2 weeks from 2nd shot, so that is the rule) and I am out of bread. Orowheat is commercial bread that just about never mildews. Yes it is probably loaded to the gills with chemicals that keep it pristine; I don’t care. The last time I ordered from Instacart, which is at least three weeks, I bought a loaf of Orowheat Whole Wheat and now it is down to 2 and a half slices and it has dried out. And ten days to go; and I would feel stupid using Instacart to order one loaf of bread.

So I got in the car and drove to the California Ave. farmers’ market, and stood in a spaced-out line for the bakery kiosk, and bought an almond croissant and a loaf of artisanal bread. Which when I got it home tastes very good indeed. I double-wrapped in a paper bag and a plastic bag. It might last a week and then will probably sprout a garden of inch-high fungus.

At 4pm it was time for Stanford Women’s Basketball. They are coming off consecutive losses. Can they bounce back? Yes they did. USC played them even for the first quarter. Then one of USC’s best players tweaked her ankle and sat down. And in the second quarter Stanford reeled off a 12-0 run and the game stopped being close.

Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.

Saturday 01/23/2021

In the morning I went for a moderate walk, circling back past the farmers’ market to pick up a nummy pastry. Shortly after I got back I had email from Marcia and Kim the HR. It seems that on Thursday, one of the meal delivery persons had somehow had an injury. Could we come talk to Kim about scheduling a safety class?

In the meeting it developed that whatever the injury was — Kim couldn’t say who or what — it wasn’t hugely serious as it wasn’t reported until Friday. But then, as usual in a care facility where any injury of a resident is a Big Deal With Reports Filed, Rhonda was involved. It somehow involved the tall aluminum wheeled carts that volunteers use to roll a load of 20-30 trays to a floor for distribution.

Facilities had been involved. They had straightened some of the horizontal rails that were bent and had tsk-tsk’d over the condition of all the casters, which are pretty wobbly. Casters have been ordered and will be replaced. In the meantime, Kim has arranged for Matt of Sodexo to give a short safety talk to the volunteers, but due to Covid, we can’t gather them all at once.

Marcia had made a mailing list of all the people who had volunteered for meal delivery, with 39 names. So 40 people. Kim opined we could gather 10 at a time, so four sessions, can you guys assign them to sessions and let them know? Sure, said Marcia, Dave you can make one of those signup sheets you do?

So by mid-morning I had made a sign-up sheet so up to ten people could sign up for each of four sessions, and composed a cheerful email to our volunteers about the what and why, and sent it out to the list of names Marcia forwarded to me. Also promised to video the presentation.

Later Marcia found out the who and the what. The woman had been wrestling with a tray that got stuck on those bent aluminum rails, and somehow the tray had smacked her across the knuckles, causing tendon pain that she didn’t notice until Friday but had to see a doctor about. It’s fortunate it was no more than that. Rhonda knows how much the meal delivery program means to the people who do it, and a worse injury might have forced her to cancel it and return the job to staff.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet. I read, fiddled with my airbrush, and took a second walk.

Friday 02/22/2021

Went for the usual walk in the morning. Mid-morning I had an email saying the clear paint I had ordered had been delivered, so I went down and picked up the box from the foyer. Now maybe I could proceed with doing clear-coat using my airbrush. I moved the airbrush setup from the porch to the bathroom. I couldn’t do that with the spray cans, as the odor was too powerful. Airbrush paints are water-based acrylics.

I prepared a piece of plastic primed with a gray primer. When it had dried, I mixed up the new clear paint with just a bit of acrylic thinner to get the texture right and tried spraying it, and was shocked at what happened in the areas where it was thick.

The paint pulled back as if the primer was waxed, piled up in globs. Above and below the globby area you can see how the first couple of passes laid down ok; it is where on a third pass it got wet. Well, I would expect a wet coat to, at worst, run. Their website says put it on in “light, wet coats”. Ignoring the contradiction of “light” versus “wet”, you can’t work with something that at some critical point, is going to start crawling around like an amoeba. I’ll never let that near anything I care about. Later I realized I had a little drib of gloss clear acrylic from another company, and tried that. It was OK, at least it went down on the same primer and stayed put.

Rhonda’s 4pm weekly zoom meeting had 142 participants at the peak, but no real news. Well, 92% of residents, and 65% of staff, have been vaccinated. She reported that she attended a webinar with a number of other care homes nationwide, and the report there was 35-45% staff vaccinations, so our 65% was pretty good. But don’t expect any relaxation of restrictions soon. Nothing will be relaxed until we get “guidance” from health departments. (So the people who have been predicting we’d be back in the dining room for meals in March are likely wrong.)

At 7pm was a SWBB game. They had lost to Colorado last week, and now faced UCLA as #5 vs. #6. UCLA played them even for the first half, took a small lead at the half. In the third quarter the Bruins pulled ahead by 11 and things didn’t look good. Stanford came back to tie at 63-63 with 3 minutes left, and tied at 66-66 with a minute and a half left. But UCLA played smart, got a 2 point lead in the final seconds, Stanford had to foul and UCLA made their free throws. Loss, 66-70.

Thursday 01/21/2021 note: 21st day, of the 21st year, of the 21st Century.

Dropped out of the aerobics class when it hadn’t started five minutes late. Kind of crochety reaction, I wish I’d waited a few minutes longer.

Anyway at 10:15 I set out to walk to my appointment with Dr. Dibiase (dee bee ah say) at PAMF. Which of course only took about 15 minutes so I was half an hour early. Anyway we talked about medications and how my BP wasn’t as low as it should be. She made a change, and also ordered some labs. I’m to see her by video next time, in a month.

After lunch I put in the request for the video appointment (later granted, although not in the time interval I requested, but a week later), and made a firm appointment for the lab work. I have to be fasting, and will drive to Sunnyvale for that on Monday morning.

Oh, and the Palo Alto Dental office called to offer a hygiene appointment. I had thought from their site that they weren’t doing hygiene until June, but apparently not so. Anyway, got that scheduled.

With nothing to do, I decided to haul out the novel again. See if I can make the opening more grabby. Or I might possibly just self-publish it this time. Spent an hour going over the file of notes and back-story, and tidying up the folders where all the related stuff has accumulated.

At the doctor’s office I studied some posters about taking your own BP, and asked her about it, and found out I’ve been doing it wrong. I have been doing it sitting on my bed, with the test arm relaxed on my lap. Turns out it makes a difference, you are supposed to have the arm elevated on a table. (But the nurse doesn’t actually do that when she takes your vitals at the office.) Also, the first one in the morning? Immediately on arising. Get up, urinate, take BP. I’d been waiting until after I’d been up an hour and took my shower and all. Also wait 30 minutes after eating — I’d been taking it right after lunch and supper.

So I start a new regime of taking BP, with arm supported on the kitchen table, after arising and 30 minutes after meals. The first two I did that way are significantly lower than I was getting. Maybe I will hold up the meds tweak she suggested, until I have a few days of data.

Wednesday 01/20/2021

In the morning, instead of going for my walk first thing, I stayed in my seat and supervised the presidential inauguration. I was really worried that Trump wouldn’t go — but he did, quietly — or that something ugly would happen during the ceremony — but nothing did. So after all the drama, just government as usual after all.

At 10 I could relax and go for my walk. After lunch I did some desk work. Yesterday I received my printed tax workbook from the tax accountant. So I opened that, and also logged in to their site. Prior years we have filled in the workbook electronically, on the accountant’s site, as well as uploading all the 1099s and other docs through their system. No mention of that in the package that came by mail, so I wrote an email to Katie, the person I’ve dealt with the last couple of years, asking about that. I have never met Katie except through email. So I was pleased to see that she was “employee of the quarter” or such and had her picture on the site. She’s a cute 30-something blonde, which is nice to know.

Another thing was to reply to a note from Chris Johnson, who had cut my and Marian’s hair since the late 1970s. (Yes, really, we started with her while our IBM group was located on Sand Hill Road. Scott would know what year that was; I’m just going to guess 1978.) I got a postcard from her yesterday announcing her retirement. She lives in Grass Valley, and for the last several years has driven down to a shop in Ladera Center to practice 2 or 3 days a week. Marian really liked Chris, loved to trade stories and recipes with her. Marian and I went to her for haircuts a month or so before Marian died. I went to her alone throughout 2019 and maybe twice in 2020 before the lockdown. But that will be it; I’ll probably never see her again. I wrote her a nice note, while sniffling and wiping my eyes.

A package arrived today, looking as if somebody had been playing soccer with it.

As I believe I have mentioned my breakfasts are meal replacement shakes. This is a hang-over from 2015-2018 when I played a meal replacement expert online and posted review videos on YT. I’ve been having mostly KetoChow because of their wide selection of flavors. But since about 2016 I have been aware of another small company (except for Soylent, all meal replacement companies are small) based in England, Genesis foods. I’ve exchanged a few emails with the founder, Joe Barrow.

In December, Genesis announced they were now able to ship anywhere in the world. Well, heck, I’m curious; I ordered two sampler packs from them. And that was what was in the rather distressed box. It took 14 days in transit. The contents were in fine shape.

So now I have 24 meals in 12 flavors. Unfortunately earlier in the day I mixed up five breakfast shakes in KetoChow. I only have 5 blender bottles, so I can’t try any of these until at least Friday.

Joe makes a big deal out of the fact that all their packaging is not recyclable but compostable. Degrades in 60 days, they claim. But how does it taste? What’s the texture like? We will see.