Wednesday 6/24/2020

Went for a run, which felt fine. That was a bit of a relief, because yesterday, on my modest walk to the hardware store, one knee was being a little painful. Fortunately that has gone and all the joints were just dandy today.

While returning I noticed that a couple of restaurants off University have set up outdoor seating platforms in what were parking spaces. University is to be closed for most of its length starting Friday. At the end of the day I had an email from Patty suggesting she, I and Gwen — the three who, by eating pizza in the lobby, caused a new rule to be imposed — eat at one of the outdoor restaurants.

I replied, “just get Angela [our infection control boss] to say it isn’t a gathering, and I’m all over it.” She replied “People are doing a variety of things. I think it would require we think it safe.” I’m a bit surprised at this.

Look, they just set up a special area in our parking lot where a resident can meet with family members from outside. Max 3 family and nobody under 18; the family must have their temperatures taken and state they have no symptoms; everybody wears masks and sits well apart. That’s what Channing House thinks is a safe gathering. Compare that to three of us without masks (eating), sitting around a small table, within a few feet of other tables of a number of unmasked people, none of whom have had their temps taken. No way would Angela approve that. I kind of wonder what she meant by “doing a variety of things”, but I’m just not going to reply.

I completely omitted to note the passing of the longest day of the year on Sunday; tsk.

It being one of the days when I can get back in the garage, I took the car out for a brief spin. Previously that was only allowed on Wednesdays; now it’s MWF, but somehow Wednesday seems the right time. I brought the key back to the room rather than leaving it in the car.

The other car in my life, the model one, got some attention. The clear acrylic came in so I set up for painting. Sprayed the light color coat. Sprayed two coats of clear. I am not at all happy with the paint texture but I don’t know what to do different, and I don’t feel like fussing any longer. I used a toothpick to remove the rubbery “frisket” masking.

And then used the chrome pen to chrome plate the shiny bits.

The chrome pen works well. You can’t really see in that picture but I painted black blades on the windshield wipers. And I think the 6 volt battery came out well. The kit includes clear plastic windows but I am not sure I want to use them. I will try fitting them and see. Anyway, final assembly will happen Friday and Saturday I imagine.

One more agent replied with a rejection. That’s four who replied in less than a week, which is not the slow response I’d been led to expect.

OK, now to watch one of the movies I recorded off HBO, Shazam.

Update: in the regular daily COVID email, I learn that our one staff member who tested positive and was isolating at home, has had to go into the hospital, as have several of their family members. It’s a real disease, folks.

I was very disappointed by the HBO Perry Mason. First, Tatiana Maslany didn’t even appear in Episode 1, except in a photograph. Apparently she will be playing a charismatic evangelist, styled after Amy Semple McPherson, but that character wasn’t in this episode except by reference. That left the show itself. I had to admire the production values; they spared no expense in recreating 1929 L.A., but my gosh they went for “noir” style big-time. Perry Mason is a pathetic loser, broke, getting beaten up, estranged from his wife, always going for the sarcastic wisecrack even when it alienates people. Quite a bit of very explicit sex, which didn’t bother me; quite a bit of very raw, bloody violence, which did. I finally deleted the show ten minutes from the end. I’ve got several HBO movies queued up to record, but I will cancel the sub before the next billing period.

Tuesday 6/23/2020

Did Veronica’s cardio. Later on I realized that my little digital kitchen scale’s batteries were dead and I didn’t have any AAA size. So I ordered a pack of them from the hardware up the street, and walked up there for curbside pickup.

I spent an hour working over the plan for sign-ups for the next FOPAL sale. I’ve been tasked with making sign-ups via Slottr.com, work. I ended up writing a list of questions to the other volunteers I’m working with.

Finally spent a little time trying to come up to speed on Shortcuts, which is the scripting/automation app for iOS. I’ve had it in mind to automate a couple of things on the iPhone and this is how to do it.

In the evening, I watched Titan Games, recorded from yesterday. And, hello! One of the competitors was Mitch Harrison. Who? Well, Michelle Harrison was a very successful player for SWBB 2006-2010. A couple of years after graduation, Michelle married a woman and began the transition to Mitch. Marian kept tabs on Mitch as she did on all the alumnae, so I was aware of this.

So I’m listening to the bio of this handsome, very well-muscled guy with a goatee, and he’s saying “I played basketball at Stanford, we went to three final-fours…” and I’m thinking, Stanford Men’s Basketball has never been that successful, who is this? when he finishes saying “I played as Michelle,” and I realized: oh! That’s Mitch! The show did a nice little segment on his life, showing some SWBB clips, having him talk about being estranged from his “very conservative” family, etc.

Unfortunately, Mitch was put up against a guy who looked to outweigh him by 20 or more pounds and he just didn’t have the power to win, although he performed quite respectably.

Monday 6/22/2020

Today was the first Residents’ Association meeting since February, and the historic first one conducted over the internet. As anticipated, just over 100 people Zoomed in. That’s the same as for Rhonda’s Friday meetings, and probably represents the about-55% of the population here that has the technical ability to manage the internet unaided. There are probably another 20? 30? who do email but can’t manage Zoom. As I mentioned a week or so ago, the traditional, physical RA meetings pack the auditorium with pretty much all the 200+ residents. But there you go.

As Treasurer I was the 2nd agenda item after “1. Call to Order.” My report was short: last meeting we had $5300. Now we have $1000, owing to a large contribution to the item next on the agenda.

The next agenda item was Peter telling how he and others had organized a special employee donation, tapping the RA treasury and other groups to amass enough money to give a $100 bonus to the just-under-200 employees, including enough to pay their withholding so it was tax free. This as a small thank-you for the extraordinary efforts they have all put in over the past two months of continual changes.

The RA meeting was at 9am so I couldn’t do my usual morning run. I took a shortish walk after lunch.

The rest of the day I didn’t do much. Painted a bunch of small parts for the model. The next step will be final assembly of all the parts, but I can’t do that until I have completed painting the body, and the clear acrylic hasn’t arrived. But probably I can finish that up by next week. Then I’ll have to look at the couple of hundred dollars worth of tools and supplies I’ve accumulated building this model, and decide if I want to make another one, and if so, what?

Oh, this evening I got a second rejection from an agent. Two down, 20 or so to go.

Sunday 6/21/2020

Coffee, Sunday paper, crossword puzzle, water plants. Yup, it was Sunday. Then went for a walk. I decided to a different direction, North I guess it is, toward Menlo Park. Along El Camino, up the main shopping street of Menlo Park, and back on a quieter street on the other side of the railroad.

That was about it for the day. Oh, I grudgingly subscribed to HBO on the XFinity box. One of the nice things about leaving the Tasso Street house was closing the DirecTV account that was billing me nearly $130/month, and that with only one optional package, the enhanced sports group. My “digital select” XFinity subscription at CH started at $30/month for pretty much the same service. (Although they cranked it up another $6/month this month; apparently the first year was a reduced rate.)

When I skim the TV column in the Sunday paper there are always some shows I wish I could see, but they are on services I don’t get. There are so many of those: Netflix for a start; the optional HBO and SHO channels; and all the new ones from every corporation that can corral some content into a walled garden: Apple+, Disney+, NBC Peacock, CBS Max, Hulu. If I subscribed to all of them I’d be back to $130/month and more. Each of the services has maybe one show I’d like to see. Nope.

Apple+ is a peculiar one. As a streaming service, it comes over the intertubes. Now, my XFinity box is happy to host the “apps” for many streaming services. In particular that’s how I get my Amazon Prime Video. It also has apps for Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and 20 or so more, if I had subscriptions for them. But it doesn’t have an app for Apple+. Because I bought a new iPhone I could get a year of Apple+ free. But I could only access it on the phone or my laptop. Yes, I can and sometimes do connect the laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable. Yes, I could buy a Chromecast or Roku dongle and (I think?) feed Apple+ into the TV that way. But all those solutions mean getting out the TV remote and switching sources on both the TV and the sound box. I can’t be bothered. If it isn’t available by talking to my X1 voice remote, I don’t care.

But my hand was forced this time: I really want to see the rebooted Perry Mason because it features one of my favorite actors, Tatiana Maslany. Whatever she does is good. I hope. If it isn’t good, I’ll cancel the HBO next month.

Saturday 6/20/2020

Kind of a wasted day. Well, not quite. I did my laundry. And I finished submitting queries to all the agents on my list. One agent has already replied! That was unusually fast; typically it takes weeks for a reply, if there ever is one. It was a rejection, but with a short, polite, one might even say sympathetic, note. Anyway, all the queries are out there. I will wait until (probably) mid-August to get all the rejections. Then I’ll reconsider my options. Self-publish? It would mean finding a cover, among other things. Eh. I’ll worry about that no earlier than then.

I spent a couple of hours on the car kit. It’s quite amazing how much time you can spend on one of these, if you take enough care with it.

I didn’t leave the building, and in fact I only left the 6th floor once, to go down to the lobby and check my mail. Funny thing about mail. In the mail room there is a large plastic garbage can for recycled paper, and every day it is filled and overflowing. I am not the only one who finds that can convenient. Pull the mail out of the box, turn around, flip flip flip like a blackjack dealer, all the brochures and catalogs and ads go in the can. Most days I walk out of the mail room empty-handed.

In hindsight not going out for some kind of walk was a mistake. Felt very low in the evening.

Friday 6/19/2020

This was the second morning in the week where I’d ordered house breakfast, because it was pancakes. Next week’s menu, which I turned in yesterday evening, didn’t offer pancakes or french toast, so that’s the end of that experiment.

Instead of going for a run, I decided to do a long walk. I was curious to see the experiment of closing California ave. to be a pedestrian mall with outdoor restaurant seating. It made for a four-mile walk. Turns out, 10am is not the best time to judge this experiment. A few empty chairs is all.

Back at CH I filed another half-dozen agent queries. Another 8 to finish my list. Then I worked on the car model. I mentioned wishing I could do spark plug wires, and old friend Pat wrote suggesting that 30awg hookup wire would be about in scale. Last week I added a spool of that to an Amazon order and today I tried it and it worked pretty well. The modeling toolkit I bought way back had a set of twist drills and I used the smallest, 0.7mm, to drill holes in the head so I could seat the wires into the head.

They don’t really connect to the distributor; I just formed them to reach to it, but gimme a break. Now, does anyone want a spool with 99.5 feet of hookup wire?

A disappointment was when I thought I’d do the spray of clear coat on the body. I applied “frisket” for masking. Then I looked more carefully at the gloss clear bottle and realized it was enamel, not acrylic. I can’t use enamel because I don’t have anything to thin it with or clean it up. I don’t want to mess with paint thinner in my apartment or on my desk; I insist on water-based colors. So I’d messed up and ordered the wrong thing.

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I haven’t reported any grief experiences in months, because I hadn’t had any. Today I was reading about Stanford Women’s Basketball. Two assistant coaches have left; two new ones have been hired including Katy Steding, who was Tara’s first-ever Stanford recruit and, along with classmate Jennifer Azzi, founded the program’s reputation. That’s interesting in a gossipy way because current “associate head coach” is Kate Paye, another star alumna, who graduated in 94, just four years later than Steding and Azzi.

Anyway, part of that reading was a quick review of the prior four seasons of SWBB: the 2016, -17, -18, and 2019 seasons. Reading through the names of the players and mentions of key games: I watched all those with Marian, helped her document them for the website, and it just brought a rush of grief. It’s making my eyes prickle now. And yet–and fortunately–I was able to attend games last season and enjoyed them for their own sake.

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Rhonda’s 4pm meeting had some news and changes. This week they did over 300 tests of residents and staff, and all came back negative, a major success. She mentioned that accomplishing the prior two weeks of tests took 318 hours of staff time, equivalent to 4 full-time people, but done by existing staff. The one resident who tested positive two weeks ago now tests negative, has left isolation and is doing fine.

They are creating outdoor visiting areas where residents may meet with family members. The requirements are still tight: a resident, or married couple, can meet with people from just one other household. The visitors have to first check in and have their temperatures taken. No children under 18. (Don’t understand that one.)

The NBC World of Dance was meh, but I guess I’ll keep watching it. It has J-lo anyway. She and Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef are alike in being drop-dead gorgeous, seemingly gracious and graceful, and almost the same age, 50 and 49 respectively.

Thursday 6/18/2020

Veronica seemed to crank it up a bit in this morning’s aerobics; I was sweating and panting by the end. I got all the housecleaning done by 11, which was good because at 11:30 I had to receive a delivery.

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Two days ago one of my neighbors, Susan, fell and cracked her pelvis, so she was sequestered in the nursing facility. Not the COVID part, but still, isolated. One day ago she put out a call for help from the tech crew: she’d left the charger for her MacBook off-site (“the cottage” which is I suppose someplace she and her husband own). Did anyone have a charger to spare?

Everyone was immediately sympathetic to the plight of a Mac user, stuck in bed, watching the battery indicator drain away. Emails flew around, but nobody had one. So the next solution is to order one from Apple. At first we weren’t sure which type she needed. Some thought she had a new Air, which would be the 30W USB-C one. Eventually she pulled herself together and sent me the model and year, it was a three-year-old MacBook, so it needed the 60W USB-C charger, and as one of the tech crew pointed out, a charging cable as well. I ordered the parts to be delivered today (only $9 to have it “delivered by courier”). And in fact it came in the first minute of the 11:30-1:30 delivery window. So, Susan saved from a dead battery. Wonder can she charge her phone? Not my problem.

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I sent another batch of agent queries. It is so annoying; no two of these are alike. Some use a web form. Some take email. On the email, each one has a different requirement for how the subject line should read. And every one of them has a different amount of sample text they want included: first three chapters, first 5 pages, first 10 pages, 2000 words. Several have used a consistent web form provided by the QueryTracker site. But they still ask for different amounts of text. One today had their own web form, but you didn’t paste your text into it. Oh no. You put your query and your sample text into a file of type .docx (not .doc, mind you, .docx, which is different) and uploaded that document into the form. Of course I’m using OpenDoc and/or Pages, neither of which knows how to make a docx file. But I found an online conversion tool.

You have to scrupulously follow each and every detail, because you just know that they (or the minion that initially vets the email) is looking for any reason to reject. So you got to get it right.

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In today’s COVID update email from staff, two important items. Of 139 IL residents tested yesterday they have results back for 136 — all negative. Here’s the second item:

Previously, the Channing House position has been that residents and staff would be permitted to attend a public demonstration/protest and not be subject to the 14-day isolation policy. However, given the frequent images in the news and on social media of protesters without masks and in large crowds, we are reversing this position for the protection of the Channing House community. Effective immediately, attendance at a public protest is subject to the same restrictions as other Gatherings. The resident or employee will be subject to 14-days isolation… we encourage you to support the Black Lives Matter movement in manners other than by attending public demonstrations/protests.

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Worked on the car model, finishing up the front suspension and chassis rails.

Firestone tire. Eventually a chrome hubcap will cover up the carefully-painted lug nuts and bearing cap. But I’ll know they are there.

Front suspension. Rusty brake drum. The “rust” model paint isn’t quite dark enough. Slightly out of focus, note the detailed e-brake cable along the frame rail.

Wednesday 6/17/2020

First thing, a run. Second thing, fill the hummingbird feeder, and mix up five more meal replacement shakes for my breakfasts. All that was done before 9am. I always surprise myself by getting a lot done early. I do a bunch of stuff and feel accomplished, and look at the clock and it’s 8:55 and I think… crap, what am I going to do with the rest of the day?

I was invited down the hall for my ‘rona test about 10. Everyone knows what this is like by now. But I shared Scott’s zinger with the nurse: “I’m giving blood today and also getting tested, and a friend said, ‘Oh, so you’ve got a blood donation and a booger donation.'” It got a real laugh.

Thus at 11am I was free to get the car out and go donate blood. Well, not quite. At 11am I got to the garage door. At 11:10 I was back at the garage door, now with the car key which I had forgotten for the second damn time. I solved that problem for good now: I left the key in the car when I brought it back. Next time I may have a panic attack when I can’t find the key, but at least I won’t have to trek back up to the 6th floor to get it.

The flea bottom-ist at the blood center was most complementary about my left-arm vein. It’s big and prominent and easy to stab. Well, it ought to be; it’s been giving blood donations for a couple decades now.

In the afternoon I submitted several more queries, and did a little work on the model car. At 5 I ordered my Wahlburger, shake and tater-tots via Uber Eats. That was my gourmand meal. (Gourmand: “one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking”; vs. gourmet, “a connoisseur of food and drink”.)

For TV I’ve got NBC World of Dance. Will it be a watchable replacement for So You Think You Can Dance? The latter has been covid-delayed from its usual early-summer start. How did NBC get away with producing their show?

Oh, last night I watched, or rather tried to watch, the original Stargate movie and the first episode of the Stargate SG-1 series on Prime. The movie didn’t hold my interest, although I had to respect all the production effort that went into it. The series opener recapped the movie’s ending, so at least I was spared looking that up in wikipedia, but it also just didn’t convince me or intrigue me. Jut-jawed military dudes. Dudes with glowing eyes. Reptiles coming out of belly buttons. No.

Tuesday 6/16/2020

Did Veronica’s cardio. Sometimes I’m tempted to post the zoom meeting ID and say, y’all should join in. But no. Anyway there were 5 people this time, so it’s growing.

Rest of the day, meh. I did three more query submissions. You wouldn’t think composing an email or filling out a web form would be emotionally difficult but this is. How can I please this person based on the brief and ambiguous comments on the agency website? Have to keep working on “it’s not a judgement of me, it’s a judgement of my work…”

My mood was not improved by finding a small typo about 8 paragraphs into the sample text that I sent out with the first three queries yesterday.

Took care of a long-standing minor irritation. When cleaning the apartment on Thursdays I’ve been annoyed by a light coat of calcium water stains on the glass shower door. The otherwise useful spray cleaner they gave me doesn’t touch it. So today I finally did something, namely ordered some “Lime Kill” cleaner from Ace Hardware, and walked up to Ace and took curbside delivery of it. Brought it home, squirt squirt wipe wipe, wow! Shit works!

Today came word of the new garage hours: from now on the garage will be open for returning cars from 1:30-2pm, MWF. No longer just Wednesday mornings. Also, afternoon not morning.

Which means, my plan to donate blood tomorrow is back on. I’ll get my ‘rona test sometime between 9 and 11am. Then I’ll get the car out, go give blood, return the car at 1:30, and be back to my apartment in time for lunch delivery at 1:45.

Did some detail painting of the chassis of the model car. The suspension is very detailed teeny little tie-rods, roll bar, springs.

Monday 6/15/2020

Woke up feeling good. Went for a run and felt energetic. I was just back and showered by 8:15am when the doorbell rang for my breakfast. This week, for the first time since March, I ordered official breakfast on two days of the week, namely, the day with french toast and the day with pancakes. (The other days I continue breakfasting with a meal replacement shake.) So: french toast and bacon. The day is starting very well!

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It was exactly a year ago, Sunday June 15 2019, when the movers came to take my stuff out of 2340 Tasso and I took up residence in Channing House. It’s been a pretty good year, all told. I am a little surprised when I do the math and realize that a full quarter of it I’ve been locked down in ‘rona-ville. I feel fairly confident that by my second anniversary, life will be back to something like normal. “God willin’ and the creeks don’t rise,” as my parents used to joke about any plan.

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During the day I submitted my query letter to the first three of the 31 agents in my list. These three take submissions using a web form in which you fill in your query letter, synopsis, sample of the first few pages. It was nerve-wracking, meticulously verifying every field was filled out exactly as they wanted.

I also spent a little time clipping the parts of the model car front suspension, sanding off the flashing, thinking about how to paint them.These parts will take a lot of careful detail painting. I need a better “dirty bottom of a car” color.

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In the evening the expected email about in-house testing arrived. The sixth floor will be tested Wednesday between 9 and 11am. They will knock on your door to tell you when to come to the lounge and be tested. That kind of upsets my plan to go out and donate blood that morning. If they call me early, there would be time to go down to the garage, get the car, drive to the blood center, and get back for the 11:30 garage closing. However, with so much of the staff involved in operating the tests that morning (on floors 2-6 during that 9-11 period, 7-10 in the afternoon), will there be anyone free to open the garage anyway? So, probably just forget it for this week.