Day 99, Home again

Monday, 3/11/2019

Up, dressed, brushed my teeth, out the back door of the Excalibur — avoiding yet another trek through the blinking noisy neon jungle of the casino floor — and a Lyft to the airport. At the entrance to the security gate a TSA woman was telling people to wait, “security is full except for pre-check”. But I have pre-check, so whizzed on up the stairs. There I found the regular security line backed up, a couple hundred people probably in a 5-fold snake, but only me and one other guy in the pre-check line and I was through in 30 seconds. Recent flights I’d been noticing the pre-check line was getting crowded, but not here. I guess most people who go to Vegas for a weekend, don’t travel enough to go through the pre-check registration rigmarole.

Routine flight home, but I noticed that miles of jumbled hills from I-5 west to the Bay were brilliant Irish green from a wet rainy season. I’ve noticed this wilderness before, hundreds of square miles, mostly roadless, that lies between US 101 on the west and I-5 on the east. But usually from the air it is mostly yellow with dry grass. Right now it is lush. If I was still a bike rider, I’d be planning a ride to Mt. Hamilton. Now I’m thinking, some kind of a weekend drive, in the next month before the green begins to fade. Down SR 25, maybe.

Once home I did a few useful things. I got out Marian’s jewelry box and the envelope of old receipts that show provenance. Tomorrow Suzanne’s friend Louise is going to come and practice appraisals on it. Then I paid a bill, filled out a survey questionnaire from the hospice company (all positive, they were great), and put in an hour filling out the tax accountant’s online workbook. Another couple of hours, probably, to finish the taxes.

A hobby I’ve had the last couple of years is doing video reviews of modern meal replacements. That’s going to end pretty soon, because when I move to an ILF, with all meals provided, I won’t have a reason to use these products. Right now I’m getting half of my calories from them. Recently I took delivery of a new one. It’s chocolate flavored, so I ordered bags of chocolate from two other, more established vendors. The second of those just came in today’s mail. So I shot stills and close-up video of the process of mixing a shake for each of these three. I put the shakes in the fridge to mature (they’re always better after chilling overnight). Tomorrow I’ll shoot myself doing a taste comparison.

I should have spent a couple hours scanning slides but I really wanted a nap, so I did that and then frittered away the time to supper on the computer.

Day 98, yet more Vegas

Met Harriet and Linda for tacos, and went into the arena. Oregon, a very powerful team this year (undefeated season, I think) had a lot of trouble with UCLA, and the game went to overtime. UCLA could have won it, almost did, but their coach Cory Close incurred a technical foul in the last minute, giving Oregon two free throws that turned the course of the game. At any rate, the Oregon players had a long and difficult game, which will hopefully slow them down for the championship game. Stanford had a somewhat easier time with UW, and Tara did a lot more substitutions than normal, presumably to keep her team fresh.

Sunday, 3/10/2019

Daylight savings started today. As a result I got to the terminal to print my Southwest boarding pass about 40 minutes after the 24-hour window opened. But still, boarding number A44, two positions better than the outbound trip, so other people must have slept in also.

I went to directv.com to set up a recording of tonight’s game, which I had neglected to do before leaving home. This used to be a snap, log in to directv, go to “Guide”, scroll the listing to the right channel, click record. Well, it still kind of works that way but since AT&T took over DirecTV, they have insisted on integrating the two websites, so now I have to navigate through layers of AT&T website to get to the same place. Despite being signed in with my AT&T login, it still cannot comprehend anything other than that I would want to buy a DirecTV subscription. Actually controlling or using my account… well, never mind. I got it done.

One benefit of the move to an ILF is that I will almost certainly not have AT&T as my internet provider, and not have DirecTV as my TV provider. Probably ComCast excuse me XFinity for both, I think that’s what C.H. has as the in-house system. I’ve been a DirecTV subscriber for … twenty years? Must be. Certainly since the 1990s sometime. XFinity will not be an improvement customer-service-wise, by all accounts, but I won’t have to deal with it directly.

I recall that while showing me around C.H. Craig mentioned that he was part of a resident committee that did tech support for other residents, and pretty clearly suggested I could be, too. Well, maybe so. Could be an aid in integrating to that community. I can start with figuring out the TV and internet for my own unit and go from there.

Harriet texts that she and Linda can meet me at noon. I’d suggested a visit to the Springs Reserve, so we’ll probably do that.

OK we spent a couple hours walking through this pleasant municipal thing, with its Butterfly experience, botanical garden with lots of cacti, etc. Then back to the hotel where I had a short nap and then it was game time.

Stanford started out well, taking a quick 6-point lead, and maintaining a lead of 6-10 points into the fourth quarter. Then Oregon caught up and the game was tied with 3 minutes to play, when Stanford got a couple of crucial baskets. In the final minute, Oregon had to start fouling; Stanford hit all their free throws, and the game ended with a Stanford win: champions of the PAC-12.

Had a late supper with Harriet and Linda then back to the room to get a good night’s sleep before an early departure tomorrow.

Day 97 more Vegas

Well that evening had some surprising turns. I met with fans Harriet and Linda for supper at Puck’s, then into the arena for the Stanford-Cal game. This was a close affair for 35 minutes, Stanford starting cold, catching up to have a narrow lead. With 5:00 to play, defensive sub Shannon, whose role had been to help contain Cal’s all-star center Christine Anigwe, stepped back and splashed a three. On the next three possessions point guard Keana hit a three, a three, and a layup, an 11-0 run to blow the game open.

I expected the second game, Oregon State vs UW, to be an easy win for the Beavers. And my streak of absolutely wrong predictions continued. OSU did have a ten point lead at the half, so I left, and followed the game back in my room, on the play-by-play scroll on the ESPN score page (Excalibur not offering the PAC-12 network on their TV system). UW caught up, then took a small lead. The game was tied with 0:05 left to play. A UW player snapped off a three from NBA distance, and it went down. Some UW players thought the game was over and rushed the court, resulting in a technical foul with the clock at 0:01. That gave OSU two free throws and possession of the ball. They made the free throws; then inbounded the ball with 0:01 seconds to play and did get a shot off, but it fell short, so UW won by 1 point.

So on Saturday it will be Stanford-UW at 8:30, preceded by Oregon-UCLA at 6pm. Everyone expected an Oregon-Stanford final, and that is how it is shaping up — but I am done making predictions during the tournament.

14,343 steps. Can’t say Vegas doesn’t give you exercise.

Saturday, 3/9/2019

Started the day with coffee and scone at the in-house Starbuck’s. Then I went out to try riding the Deuce, the shuttle bus that runs up and down The Strip. Went south first, to the famous Welcome sign where tourists were queuing up with the aid of an Elvis impersonator to take selfies.

Of course there is an Elvis impersonator. Then I rode back up to the north and got off to walk through Bellagio. This is the approach to Bellagio. Italian Lakes: Days 10-12 Como on Lake Como

OK, not really, that was the approach the the actual Bellagio on Lake Como, two years ago. The Vegas Bellagio is a huge casino/hotel whose decor is themed around polished marble and terrazzo floors and semi-classical decor. It’s actually nicer to walk through than either Excalibur or the MGM Grand, mostly owing to higher ceilings and wider aisles. But it’s still a casino.

Rode a bit further then the bus hung a right and left the Strip. Not sure why, but I got off. Then I couldn’t see an obvious bus stop for the return direction (I suspect the route does some kind of loop at this point so the return route was a different street?) so I just called a Lyft. I opted for a shared Lyft, with the result that there was another couple to drop off at a completely different resort off the Strip, so I got a bit more of a tour.

Now it is barely noon with hours to kill. I decided to just laze the rest of the day in the room, catching up on podcasts and youtube subscriptions that I’ve fallen behind on. That’s fine for today, but Lordy what will I do with myself tomorrow?

Game results in next post.

Day 96, second day in Vegas

Friday, 3/8/2019

Goodness but I do not like Vegas. Being in casinos is simply unpleasant owing to the visual overload, the constant noise, and the pervasive smell of tobacco. Outside is a bit better. I went for a walk this morning, to find The Park. It’s an outdoor plaza with plants behind New York New York. And it has music playing. Not as loud as inside a casino, but inescapable.

I rode the tram, surely the most useless mass-transit system ever. One way, it runs from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay. The return goes from Mandalay Bay to Luxor, to Excalibur. In other words, to get from Excalibur to Luxor, you ride to Mandalay Bay, get off, wait for the next train, get on, ride back to Luxor. Which I did, and walked around inside Luxor for a few minutes, then walked on sidewalks back to Excalibur.

Finally it came time for the first session. UCLA quickly took a 15-point lead over ASU so I left at half-time and came back to the room (9,457 steps so far) which had been made up. Following the notice about saving water, I had hung my used towels neatly on the rods. And of course they had been replaced with new ones anyway.

Now to plan the rest of the day. I expect the next game, Arizona-Oregon, to quickly turn into a rout because Oregon is just that good (but I’ve been wrong a lot so far). The game I really want to see, Stanford-Cal, doesn’t start until 6pm. I think I will hang here in the room, following the UA-UO game on the internet, until 4pm. Then go and have an early supper at (probably) Wolfgang Puck’s where I had supper last night, before the 6pm session. I will publish this now and finish the thrilling chronicle of events in tomorrow’s post.

Day 95, in Vegas

Thursday 3/7/2019

Slept badly as I always do before a flight. I know the alarm will go off at 5 (in this case) but I can’t help but keep waking up to check. No, it’s only 1:30, 3, 3:45, 4:10… Anyway up before 5 to dress, brush teeth, put two lights on timers, and re-check the contents of my bag. Yup, got everything. Get in the Lyft and as it gets a block away I suddenly realize that I did not in fact put the computer into the bag. It’s still beside my chair. Cue hilarious sequence as the Lyft driver makes U-turns to get back with me mis-directing him. Get computer, get back in car, carry on. A real senile moment, there. Seriously. Carefully checked that I had packed the power supply for the computer but omitted to go and fetch the actual computer and put it in the bag.

Anyway. No harm done. At the airport I greet and chat with three other long-time SWBB fans who are on the same flight.

The games are held in the MGM Grand Arena. To save a bit I opted to stay in the Excalibur, which is the silliest-looking of the casinos, with its faux-medieval towers. This economy is also getting me exercise. To get from my room to the arena, I have to cross the full width of Excalibur diagonally, take the bridge to New York New York, go through one corner of that casino, take the bridge to MGM Grand, and walk the full diagonal width of that huge casino to its furthest corner.

I just checked the Health app on the phone. It was 1,900 steps from my room to the arena. More than a quarter-mile. I went to the first session, at noon. Colorado against ASU. Colorado trailed most of the way. They had a flurry of hits and almost caught up in the third quarter but the magic went away and they lost.

Second game, Arizona against USC, I expected to be a runaway for USC, but it was quite the opposite, with UA ahead early and pulling away. At the half I decided to bail. I had left the ticket for the second, 6pm, session in the room so I had to go back anyway, and with this game decided I might as well get a head start. It was on this walk that I measured the 1,900 steps for the trip. Now for a bit of a nap, then return to the Grand to find some supper before 6pm.

Later: Cal won their game over WSU, although the Cougs did not go down easily, which is good because it means Cal will be tired when they play Stanford at 6pm tomorrow. I had dinner with fans Nancy and Rita, during which I confidently predicted that in the final game Utah (20-9) would easily beat UW (9-20). And of course the Huskies took a lead early and kept it to the end, so I was wrong on all my predictions.

According to the iPhone app, with two round-trips between my room and the arena, plus a long, long walk through the Vegas airport, I walked 14,005 steps today, or 5.3 miles.

Day 94, packing, real estate, FOPAL

I omitted to mention yesterday that when I was at the gym, I was accosted by a man about my own age who I kind of recognized. He identified himself as Mike F., an old IBM colleague who worked with Marian for many years. He very kindly expressed condolences and commented on how everyone knew Marian as “really, really smart” and “a programmer’s programmer”. That was nice.

Wednesday 3/6/2019

Since Chuck and his contractor will be here at 10, there isn’t time for a run — I tell myself. That isn’t strictly true; if I got off my butt and out the door at 8 there’d be time. Or I can take a run after they leave; how’s that for a concept? I’ll consider it. Right now it’s 8:20, and I’m dressed and finished with one of the two “things” on my schedule for today,

packing,

which brought up a couple of emotional reactions. Tomorrow morning I will leave for a long weekend in Vegas (baby), to watch the PAC-12 WBB tournament. Eleven games in four days, whee! Probably won’t watch all, or at least will probably walk out early from ones that turn into a runaway. But today I wanted to make sure I had everything ready.

Packing for one is stupidly easy. Everything fits in a nice little carry-on bag that fits under the seat, so I don’t even have to worry about space in the overhead. Which is a good thing, because I’m flying SouthWest, and I didn’t check in until half an hour after the 24-hour check-in window opened, so I’m number A46, the 50th or 60th person (allowing for gold members, servicemen, women with babies, etc) to board the plane. Don’t care, it’s a 90-minute flight and my bag fits under the seat hahaha.

Inevitably I contrast this to prior trips, where the two of us used at least a roller bag, two for a longer trip, plus a computer bag for our two laptops. We’d check the bag, especially in recent years where we had to go to the desk to check in in order to get the wheelchair Marian needed to travel to the gate. Now, in a moment of release (similar to what I felt back in the first week when I realized I could again walk to Sunday coffee), I realized that I can just print my boarding pass at home, pick up my bag, and bop on over to the security line without a pause. That’s nice.

Prior to that realization I had another moment, not exactly of grief but of combined relief and pity. I went to the “travel drawer” (oh jeez, yet another drawer I need to clean out) to get one of the small mesh bags we used to pack toiletries. The one I picked up had something in it: oh, Marian’s first-aid supplies.

For most of this millennium, she suffered from fragile skin: her skin would split or tear seemingly under a hard look, or at least any small collision with a corner of anything. So she always had to be ready with bandaids, tape, gauze, to patch a split. She handled this as she did all her other maladies, with intelligence and calm practicality. Your skin breaks; you swear quietly, patch it, and carry on. So one of the toiletry bags had this double-handful of assorted patching materials. I was so pleased to be able to throw all that out on her behalf. At least that isn’t an issue any more. As I finished writing that I saw Chuck pulling up so time for

Real estate talk.

Chuck brought his favorite contractor, Vassily, and we looked long at the kitchen and talked about how one could — or mostly how one could not — upgrade it. It bugs Chuck and his designer Amy that there is a door between the kitchen and the refrigerator:

It hasn’t been a functional problem for 45 years. The annoyance of having to open that door to reach the fridge, and close it to reach the pantry that’s behind it, was so slight it never occurred to us to do anything about it. Turns out that was smart, because in Vassily’s opinion, it can’t be done. One, the wall in which that door sits is a bearing wall for the sloping roof above and it would be hard to remove it. Two, if you keep the wall but do other work, because there is a furnace beyond it, the city will make you upgrade that door to a “20-minute fire door” which would mean replacing the frame and the door. If you keep the wall and try to put the fridge in the kitchen it replaces some of the counter, and anyway the counters are 24″ or less deep, so the refrigerator sticks out and you have a problem opening it. You could maybe put the fridge next to the stove where the pantry is, but then you lose all the shelf space in the pantry, plus, having a fridge abutting a stove is kind of weird.

I really don’t care; as I said several times (as much to myself as to them) “I won’t be living here, so I don’t care what you do.” But the decision to do such work does impact me, as I went over with Chuck after Vassily left. If they do remodeling, it can’t start until I move out, and then it will take at least a month (probably more, because that’s how this shit always goes) to finish. And that delays the selling of the house by that much.

We talked about the implications of that. If I move into C.H. they will charge 10% on the unpaid balance of the entry fee, which would come to circa $4000/month until the house closes escrow and I can pay the balance off. But Chuck says, if the upgrade work adds $100K to your sale price, you come out ahead.

Another option that we talked about is that I could go ahead and move out and take a temporary spot in another ILF (one with a month-to-month contract and no entry fee). Again that would cost circa $4000/month until such time as C.H. has an opening, but the work on the house and its sale could proceed.

Against that idea is my reluctance to change my address twice. But then I had the thought that perhaps I could change my postal address to C.H. right now. I need to ask Kim Krebs about that. She said that as soon as I paid my application fee (last Monday) I would be a “member” in the sense that I would get their newsletter and could attend any of their events. Maybe I could start converting all my various accounts to that as my postal address now. In which case I would not have to change addresses twice — only move all my earthly goods twice.

With this possibility in mind I asked Chuck to get me a referral to his favorite estate sale manager. I’d like to get a handle on that situation. Anyway, it’s all very complicated. And so off to FOPAL with three boxes of books.

next day… forgot to hit “Publish” on this. Also, forgot to note that since the FOPAL book sale is coming up this weekend, the sorting room is really crowded, so the three boxes of books stayed in the back of the car for next time.

Day 93, paperwork, real estate

Tuesday, 3/5/2019

Because of light rain I drove to the Y instead of walking. Did a while on a treadmill and a couple of exercises but it was crowded and every apparatus I wanted was in use, so left.

Filled out the questionnaire the financial manager sends in preparation for my annual consultation, which is on the 19th. Added a list of questions we need to discuss. Put it all in the return mail envelope. Wrote a check for my annual membership in FOPAL. When the cleaning lady arrived I took both, and my computer, and went to the local coffee shop for lunch, mailing the two envelopes. Isn’t this interesting?

Back home I spent a couple of hours scanning slides, and lost track of time and forgot I was to meet with Chuck at 2pm. He called to remind me at 2:15, very embarrassing. He came down to the house. We went over some comparables he had collected. He wants to come back tomorrow with his staging contractor to talk about redoing the kitchen. He’s convinced it would make a big difference in selling to an owner-occupier. I remind him he was going to talk to a developer to get an idea of what a developer might pay. He sends a text to one he knows. Maybe we’ll have that tomorrow.

I’m conflicted on the marketing of the house. I would emotionally prefer to sell it to people who would live in it and remodel it. But I don’t like the idea of spending money and time (tens of thousands, and weeks if not months) on remodeling, on speculation that it will raise the price.

Do more slide scanning; I’m more than half done with that. Filled three boxes with books to take to tomorrow afternoon’s book-sorting session. There’s no more than three boxes’ worth left on the shelf.

Last night I deleted the SYTYCD episodes.

Day 92, C.H. application in

3/4/2019

Started with a run, usual length, felt good. Drove to the Los Altos clinic and picked up the paperwork Dr. Marx had prepared. Put it in an envelope with the other 8 pages of the C.H. application packet, and then decided I wanted to make a copy of the whole thing before turning it in.

Drove home via the grocery store, picking up a few items. My grocery shopping is very easy these days. Well, except for one thing. I’m getting about half my calories from a meal replacement that you mix partly with heavy cream. Most stores only carry heavy cream in 8oz units, but my Safeway has been carrying it in quart sizes. Only today they didn’t have it.

Copied the whole application packet, put it back in the envelope, and drove on over to C.H. to turn it in. I was going to ask Ms. Krebs a couple of trivial questions, but she was just sitting down with other clients, so I left the packet with the receptionist. So that deed is done. I hope to hear something back from them soon, but it could well be weeks.

Headed home for a session scanning old slides. While the scanner whined away I worked with the new laptop, Godot, downloading the apps that I use on the old laptop. Pretty soon I’ll be able to switch entirely to the new one.

Day 91.5 grief (again) (yawn)

In the afternoon I drove to a Best Buy store and walked through their wonderland of TV screens. Gosh, TVs are impressively good these days. Of course they program very contrasty, heavily sharpened material so the images jump out at you. Anyway, many of their demo TVs had sound bars attached. And there was even a setup with ten different sound bars and you could in theory switch from one to another to compare. Only in theory, because three or four of the ten didn’t make any sound, broken or unplugged, and as for the others, someone — customers? bored salesman? — had turned the volume up all the way so when you switched to one, it blasted you and made heads turn across the store. Main problem, the item I’d decided from trawling the internets was the most interesting, a Yamaha one, was not in the store anywhere. Apparently Best Buy doesn’t stock them. (Nor did Fry’s.)

So I made some food and burned off quite a bit of programming from the backup on the DVR. One glob of DVR space is the folder of saved episodes of the last season of So You Think You Can Dance. There have been 15 seasons of that show, and Marian and I watched all of them together. It was our favorite TV show, and sharing it was a pleasure. For several of seasons, I left the episodes on the DVR to watch again. We’d play them back and select a few of the very best routines, the ones that made us say “Wow!”. These I would record off the DVR onto the computer, and from there (with several hours of work) make a compilation DVD.

Sound like a nerdy thing? Something one of Sheldon’s flatmates might do? Yeah. Let me check: in my file of recorded DVDs I have highlight discs of SYTYCD seasons 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Don’t know what happened to 7, 9, and 14. It is season 15 sitting on my DVR now.

This sounds like the slides all over again. DVDs take up a lot less space! But the issue is the same: I carefully curated imagery, stored it, only to never view it again. Before I resolve that, I want to think about about

Grief (good grief, again?)

So I played back an episode of Season 15 and got the strongest wave of grief I’ve had in days. Why? Part of the answer is a couple of paragraphs back: watching SYTYCD was a shared experience, and I’ll never share it again. But there’s another aspect. The words going through my mind were, “She loved this so much…” and it’s that which triggers the emotion. The same thing happens when I stop to look at her favorite azalea in bloom — a few days back, when I was showing Chuck around the house and was going to mention the azalea I couldn’t make my voice work. Something about realizing that here was something Marian loved, and that she can’t enjoy again, is just a very powerful inducer of grief.

Well, what about those DVDs of past seasons? Would I watch any of them again? Could I watch them — remembering that they were specifically the highlights she most enjoyed? And what about the current folder of season 15? Is there any point to re-watching those shows, or making a compilation from them? I think “no” to all. I’ll mull it a day or so then probably throw everything out.

Day 93, forms, desk cleanout

Sunday 3/3/2019

Sunday morning. Up and out to the coffee shop by 7. Pleasant sit reading the paper and doing the puzzle. I’ve only patronized this place for 30 years or so, usually coming in wearing a hat, and they never seem to recognize me.

Home theater dreams

I walked home and then drove up to Fry’s to shop TV sound bars. I designed my present TV setup years ago. Every audio and video source (TV, Blu-Ray, VHS deck, laptop) feeds into a receiver by HDMI cables; the receiver drives five speakers around the room and a woofer. It worked, but it is over-complex. Looking ahead at an ILF unit, I figure to dump the receiver, connect the Blu-ray and computer into the TV itself, and generate audio with a nice subtle sound bar in front of the TV. I’d already confused myself mightily by looking for “best tv sound bars” online and thought I’d get some clarity looking at actual hardware at Fry’s. But no, they only had a couple of brands and no real info.

Paperwork

Last night I realized that I forgot to go by the PAMF office in Los Altos and pick up the medical forms that the doctor was going to prepare for me. She was to have them ready for pickup Friday and, I thought, was going to message me when I could pick them up. In which case I’d have had an email. But I should have checked Saturday. The office isn’t open Sunday.

OK then, so let’s get the rest of the Channing House (C.H.) questionnaire ready. I sat down at the desk and spent an hour carefully filling out about 10 pages of questions. I was pleased to find, checking my Schwab online accounts, that Marian’s IRA has finally been combined into my IRA. For a while there was a little matter of $360K that I couldn’t access, but it’s back now. I was pleased to see that I have more than enough assets to pass the C.H. requirements. So all the paperwork is done, except for adding the doctor’s statements. Tomorrow I will pick those up, put the whole thing in an envelope, and drop it off at C.H.

Office supplies

Since I was at the desk I started cleaning out its drawers. If we hoarded anything, it was pens. We each had our favorite type of pen, and to avoid the annoyance of one running dry or not being to hand, we tended to order them in boxes of 12 from Amazon. Plus years’ accumulation of paper clips and post-its and… It took a good 90 minutes to inventory all office supplies and neatly bag up the excess by category.

I emptied the shallow desk drawers, wiped them out with Pledge, and restocked them with a small selection of tools (stapler, staple remover, eraser…) and a modest supply of paperclips, rubber bands, and post-its. Put a lot of stuff in the trash. Set aside a box of neatly sorted surplus items for the eventual estate sale. Anyone want a bag containing 39 roller-ball pens in assorted colors? Or a bag containing about 15 Sharpies of various sizes and colors? Or one with a dozen highlighters?

So now the desk drawers are organized, and ten of the eleven drawers of the tall cabinet beside the desk are empty. One has a tidy assortment of other office stuff: mailing labels, a small paper cutter, scissors, rulers, etc.

Basketball

Stanford is at UW at 2pm. I streamed the audio as I edited this post. Stanford had another easy win by 20+ points. That ends the regular season. I will be attending the PAC-12 tournament next week in Las Vegas.