Day 193, Shustek, realty, bed, TaskRabbit

Thursday, 6/13/2019

A strange emotional thing this morning. As I was starting my drive to the Shustek center for a day of artifact work, I was thinking about the impending move, and suddenly I was full of emotion, sadness, grief. I was driving down 101 wiping my eyes and cursing that I didn’t have any Kleenex in the car.

I’ve been cruising along, staying on top of the situation, managing the logistics of buying furniture, packing, scheduling, like a boss, and while occasionally feeling unfocused anxiety, not any strong emotion. And suddenly this business of moving house was a major thing. I couldn’t talk about it without my voice getting husky and breaking. It’s like grief for my lost partner, but now for losing a home. Or, as I wrote back on day 3 or 4, another big shard of the old life falling away.

Well, you can say this for grief, it sure clears the sinuses.

At Shustek, Greta asked me to do packing. After new objects come in and are cataloged, they move to the “need photo” rack.

Tray of seven happy artifacts waiting to be scanned

After they are photographed, they move to the “pack” rack. Now small artifacts get stowed in acid-free cardboard trays, which get stacked in acid-free cardboard boxes and, after all the bar-codes have been scanned so we know what box every object is in, the boxes will get shipped to the Yosemite warehouse for shelving.

The last time I did this work was seven or eight years ago, when the museum was packing the whole collection for the initial move to the Yosemite warehouse. It’s a nice Tetris-like puzzle game. The objects may be in this tray for many years. They shouldn’t be touching each other, because over time plastic can weld onto whatever it touches. We use archival bags and bits of foam to ensure that, and to keep them from moving. We test movement by tilting the tray 30º each way, nothing should move.

So I did that for three hours plus a break for lunch, then I had to leave early in order to meet with Chuck and Deborah at 3pm. Chuck had not met Deborah before; she was recommended by someone he used to work with but this was their first meeting. They got on well; I imagine he will call on her to manage client sales in the future. Chuck and I discussed the L.L. and her husband. He still isn’t sure what motivates her. She’s pretty tightly wound, apparently. We just don’t know if she is going to go through with the deal or will have a panic attack and pull out at the last minute. The last minute would be 5pm Saturday, when the time mentioned in the acceptance letter expires.

Chuck had just gotten a text from the other agent, saying that L.L. and her ex-husband slash architect wanted to do one more walk-through and inspect the foundation — on Saturday morning. I said, if they don’t mind stepping between guys moving boxes out to a van, sure. So maybe I’ll get to meet her. I’m not worried about them looking at the foundation, there’s a good story to tell there, about having it repaired and the house bolted down in 1990.

We talked about what to do if she does bail, and scheduled the day of the big estate sale with Deborah, for July 6/7.

About this time Bill, a client of Deborah who wanted to see the bed, arrived. He looked at the bed, gave me $200, and we arranged he could pick it up Sunday at noon.

On Wednesday I’d emailed Angela to confirm having Facilities help setting up furniture on Saturday. Today she wrote back saying I could have two hours of free facilities time and somebody would be available 2-4 Saturday however, the person might be called away if there was some higher priority item to do. What?

So now I tried to set up a TaskRabbit arrangement. But Angela said, they don’t allow outside workers without a Certificate of Liability Insurance. Now ensued a period where I texted back and forth with the particular “Tasker” I’d chosen, while myself delving deep into the TaskRabbit.com website, trying to find the elusive C. of L.I. He thought he’d found it, but it was at a URL that could only be opened by someone logged in as a Tasker, not by a Client. Eventually he sent me a screen capture of the document, which I forwarded to Angela, but by then it was after 5pm.

Later that Tasker just canceled out of the job. I restarted with another, but at 9:30pm he had no more luck at finding the elusive document. He said he’d try to get back to me by tomorrow at noon. Meanwhile I sent a late email to Angela stressing I would want a Facilities person between 2 and 4 Saturday. I figure if I also have managed to qualify the outside contractor by then, fine, there’s work enough for both.

I may end up assembling my bed by myself, and will be rather grumped if that occurs.

Day 186, Yosemite, realty

Thursday, 6/6/2019

Buzzed over to Yosemite for a day of museum work. Sherman and I did photography, and ran out of work to do about 2:45. While chatting in the lobby I got a text from Chuck. Two texts, actually, and an email. He was excited because he was actually on the way to a weekend trip to the Russian River, and nearly out of cellphone service, when he received the signed counter-offer from the agent for Lawyer Lady. She has accepted our price, and wants only extra time to complete inspections.

All I needed to do is print the document, sign it, scan it, and send the scan to Chuck’s office for it to be forwarded to the other agent. I headed home to do that, and had the PDF on the way before 4:30. The L.L. has nine days to find some problem and cancel the deal, but otherwise, the house is sold.

For the last several days, well, weeks really, I’ve been in short-timer mode. Bought toilet paper Tuesday and actually thought, last time I’ll every buy T.P. again. Tonight it was, I’ll only haul these garbage cans to the curb one more time ever. And so on.

Day 185, FOPAL, furniture, volunteer dinner

Wednesday 6/5/2019

Went for a run. It seemed a little harder than usual, possibly because, for the first time this year, the air was already warm at 9am. About 11:30 I went down to FOPAL for the usual Wednesday sorting session.

Back home I found an email from Katie the tax accountant, giving a list of the documents they will need to proceed with the estate tax filing, the infamous Form 706. It looks like an hour or more finding documents. I decided to defer that to Friday.

Also in my in-box: email from IKEA giving the delivery time for my bed and mattress: sometime between 9am and 9pm Friday. That led me to refresh the page tracking the order of my remaining furniture items. Back in April I went to West Elm and ordered a bunch of things (Day 137). A couple of items I took home that day as flat packs; they are now in the big pile in the dining room. A couple more arrived last week. Two other items were delayed. Now, refreshing the tracking page, I see that the last of them has arrived at the local warehouse.

Let’s see, I had a piece of paper documenting my last conversation with the West Elm deliver center, where did I put it? Panic, panic. Not in any penda-flex. Oh, there’s a banker’s box where I put all the stuff from the top of the desk. Hah! inside it, along with pictures and desk items, is the piece of paper with the receipt and phone number.

So I call the delivery center and the nice person sets me up for delivery on Monday. That will complete my furniture; everything will be here by Monday night, ready for the movers to take to CH on Saturday. Wow.

On the day I move I will need to unbox and assemble: a bed, a settee, a table, two chairs, an arm chair, and a desk. The bed is the only essential one, but I arranged with Angela to schedule a Channing House Facilities Person to assist me for three hours, 2-5pm that day. She is supposed to get back to me if that won’t be possible, owing to it being a weekend, in which case I will have to hire a gig worker, probably from TaskRabbit.com, the outfit that IKEA suggests for assembly work.

At 4:40 I headed out, to the Museum for the annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. A pretty low-key event, 50 or so gray-haired folks getting thanked by the Museum staff, free dinner and drinks. Some interesting news was mentioned by both Len Shustek (the board member and major donor, whose name is on the Shustek Center in Fremont where I spend alternate Thursdays), and by Dan’l Lewis, the CEO. When 20 years ago the Museum was able to buy its present building from the bankrupt Silicon Graphics (wow, has it been that long since SGI went under?), the $25M purchase included not just the big white building at Shoreline and 101, but 17.5 acres of land surrounding it. Most of that acreage is asphalt parking lots. Meanwhile Google has been buying up all the surrounding land, with future plans for a huge development, thousands of homes and retail.

Len reviewed some of the other computer museums, and talked about how difficult it was to create a museum that would last. The excellent Living Computer Museum in Seattle had only one major donor, Paul Allen, who died last year. Now its funding is in doubt. One I’d never heard of, the American Computer and Robotics Museum in (of all places) Bozeman, MT, is struggling. It was the work of a married couple, and now the husband has died and the widow is trying to carry on. So with these examples in mind, the Museum board is considering what they might do with some of their parking lots, possibly developing part of the space in a way that would increase the Museum’s endowment substantially and help ensure its longevity.

Day 179, Yosemite

Thursday, 5/30/2019

At 10:30 last night Chuck texted that he had confirmation our counter-offer had been received, but no response to it. He didn’t text anything today, so presumably the buyer is thinking and running their own numbers. I’m determined not to go any lower. My counter was a significant drop from the original asking price, and adjusted to get what I want out of the deal, and it’s my bottom line. If they turn it down, we’ll be on the route to multiple-listing the property, probably in early July.

I drove to Yosemite where I spent the day photographing objects. Aurora, the curator who rides herd on this group of volunteers, has embarked on a monumental task, examining every box on the shelves at Yosemite. There must be several hundred boxes. Each is a “banker’s box” made of archival (acid-free) cardboard. In each are cardboard trays, and in the trays are artifacts nestled in archival plastic foam. Several years ago I helped to pack some of these boxes when the collection was moving from the museum building to the Yosemite warehouse.

Each box is opened, the artifacts lifted out and their numbers looked up in the database. Various errors can turn up, for example objects having the wrong location code, or battery-powered objects with batteries still in place. For some boxes, or some trays, there are no photographs in the database, and these are being set aside for photography. Today I and another volunteer worked through two boxes, maybe 50 objects. Including a box of slide-rule type artifacts, a Jeppsen flight calculator, another big circular computer used to calculate radio-frequency reflectances, and… a Micky Mouse Math rule that did addition.

Day 172, Shustek, room divider

Thursday, 5/23/2019

Drove over to Shustek for a day of cataloging. Only notable item was a Kuri robot, a cute little thing made by a Redwood City startup that unfortunately didn’t achieve much in the way of sales and terminated after a year.

In the midst of cataloging, Deborah the sale lady called. She wants to pick up the big room divider/media stand. She and her daughter came by in two cars, and with some effort we moved the three pieces of the stand into them. She took a few other things and gave me my share in cash. This is not at all a money-making proposition. I look at what we paid for these things in the home inventory that Marian carefully maintained, and stuff is selling about 10 cents on the dollar. No capital gains to report for sure.

I think I’ll double up the Kiva chocolates tonight: 10mg/10mg. Later: 90 minutes after taking two of the choc. squares I feel: nothing unusual. I’m yawning, but I always do this time of night. Hmph.

Day 158, Shustek and music

Thursday, 5/10/2019

In the morning I wrote a check to pay for income tax preparation, addressed and stamped it. Left a few minutes early for a day at the Shustek center in order to post it. I get tense about this, did I address the envelope correctly, put a stamp on it, will it arrive? Bleagh. (No, autocorrect, I did not mean “Bleach”. Since when has aggressive auto-correct been a thing? Here at WordPress, on Reddit, everywhere, it seems you can’t be cute any more without idiot computer telling you what it thinks you really meant.)

Cataloged a lot of stuff, most interesting being a collection of chips and a an actual lithographic mask (a beautiful thing, elegant pattern on a thick piece of glass) for the first Berkeley RISC chips. This grab bag of stuff was donated by David Patterson, who (according to that Wikipedia link) “coined the term RISC”. It was like old home week, it seemed, because another volunteer, Alan, still works for a company founded by Patterson’s student and co-author, and has met Patterson often.

Well, we have a message for Patterson; he’s been sitting on a CHM artifact for (presumably) years. In the donated collection of chips was one that had an old-style CHM accession number on the back, and was marked “ENIAC chip #3”. A quick check of our database, and yes: there it was, with a photograph and description matching this chip; its last known location a rack at Moffat Field. So sometime 15 years ago or so, when the CHM collection was mostly held in a warehouse at Moffat Field, this chip — one of a very small run of a student project to reproduce the WWII-era ENIAC machine as a VLSI design — was removed from the collection. It somehow made its way into the possession of D. Patterson, a highly-regarded professor at UCB. And here it was back home again!

This is what passes for excitement in the museum business.

Back home I had a simple supper and then went out again to hear a musical performance at CH. I mostly wanted to get a look and listen to the auditorium there. It’s a nice space, folding chairs for maybe 150 people, a low stage. Overhead, a large video projector and I could see where a big screen would roll down over the stage. Presumably that’s how they show movies on “classic movie night”.

The performance was by Bella Sorella, two sopranos that have been performing together since their college days. Accompanied by violin and piano, they performed light classical and some folk tunes and it was very pleasant, a highly skilled performance.

One of my interests in this was to watch how the sound system was managed. I’m thinking one way I might contribute at CH is to participate in the performance committee that runs this kind of event. The sound man, a resident, Herman, seemed kind of out of it. There were only two mikes in use (I could see several more on the sound console), one hand-held by the lady who introduced the show and one on a mike stand on stage for the performers to use introducing their songs.

Well, the mike on stage didn’t work, or its volume was set too low. There was an embarrassing moment when one of the singers went to introduce their first number, tap tap is this on? No, can’t hear you says the audience (this audience of oldsters was not at all shy about shouting “can’t hear you”). Herman just sits smiling. Performer takes mike off stand, looks at it, tries again, holds it close to lips — no amplification. Herman sits buddha-like smiling. Eventually somebody in the front row says, give her the mike Carla was using. The mike the introduction person used is handed up to the performer on stage, and it works. The dead mike is handed to Herman who accepts it with a smile, and the show proceeds.

I found this kind of baffling; Herman didn’t seem to follow what was going on at all, but he was in charge of the sound desk. Hmmm. Definitely some room for others to contribute here, but I do not want to come on too strong, or get myself responsible for a volunteer gig that is too demanding, either. Tread lightly as you enter a new situation.

Day 151, Yosemite and email

Thursday, 5/2/2019

First thing this morning I found in my email, a message from Angela saying that I could move in to CH in May as scheduled, if I was willing to put off the kitchenette and bathroom remodels until after I had moved out again in August. That’s a tough choice! I really don’t like the old stuff; it looks…old. It would be galling to have to live with it for several months. Big issue would be: if I hang around in the old house until mid-June, does that impact the process of selling?

While I was thinking and killing time for my 9:15 departure to the East Bay, Chuck stopped by pick up those pesky forms. He sat to chat for a few minutes, and reassured me that it should make no difference to selling the house, if I move to CH in May or in June. That was the only real consideration, so I decided that I’d take the later date. Among other things, that means that the delivery of my last couple of pieces of furniture, scheduled for the first week of June, can come here, and I’ll have all that I ordered for moving in.

So, off to Yosemite for a day of cataloging. Fun: we cataloged a robot, a big one, over 6 feet tall, called “Baxter”. The cute eyes aren’t there, it’s just an LCD screen. rethink-robotics-closing-down-3

I rode to lunch with Toni and asked her opinion about a problem I’m having with the museum. The manager of docents is Katherina, and Katherina doesn’t seem to communicate well. I have signed up to lead a tour for a group of computer science students from UCSC on 5/11, and I really want to make sure they get a 1401 demo. I emailed Katherina about this last week, and left her a voice mail on Monday. No reply to either. What did Toni think? She thought, call the front desk, find out which person was in charge of booking that tour, and talk to them. So I did that; turned out the person responsible is Poppy. So I called Poppy: not in. I left a voice mail explaining my concern. She didn’t call back this afternoon. Maybe she will tomorrow. If she doesn’t, I’m going to cancel out of that tour. Let them find another docent for it.

51nxkcatq4l On the way home I stopped at Westwinds nursery to see if they have any solution to The Wax Plant Problem. I want to keep the two wax plants; they hang from hooks in windows; there is no hanging place at CH. I have this hook-stand in my Amazon shopping cart but would like to buy locally. Westwinds didn’t have anything like it. I think I’ll check Wegman’s tomorrow

At home I sat down with the intention of chilling out for an hour. But first I sent an email to Angela confirming that I wanted the work done now with the later move-in. I also questioned the cost of one item in the quotes she’d sent me. Late in the afternoon she acknowledged that she’d miscalculated, and sent updated quotes for a couple of items. Hah, glad I checked. But she says I need to sign the quotes for work to start. Tomorrow first thing I need to call her and find out when to meet. I also replied to an email from my insurance agent, and to Darlene about a date to see an exhibit in Oakland. And my hour of chilling-out was gone.

Day 144, Shustek, play

Thursday, 4/25/2019

OMG, I forgot to click Publish on Wednesday’s blog, and didn’t write this on the day. Went to the Shustek center for cataloging.

On return home had a quick meal and went out again to the Bus Barn (aka Los Altos Stage Company but everyone likes the old name better) to see their production of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. At lunch, Gretta said she saw this play produced a few years ago in Seattle and it was a wonderful experience.

This one, not so much. Half an hour in I was thinking, OK, they’re trying hard but I will leave at intermission. One hour in I was thinking, Oh no! They aren’t going to have an intermission! Then they did take a break, and I went home. The problems were multiple. The stage dressing had to serve as the backdrop for all scenes, interior and exterior, and it just didn’t make sense for a lot of the script. A more serious problem was the acting; several in the large cast just were not up to being convincing, let alone engrossing. Ma Joad was excellent, Grampa Joad was entertainingly manic until he died 20 minutes in. Tom Joad was hard to understand and his “okie” accent came and went. Oh well.

Day 137, Furniture shopping

Thursday, 4/18/2019

Began the day by going to the Yosemite warehouse for museum work. Unfortunately the work got hung up on trying to make a camera work. Museum IT staff had loaded a donated laptop with Windows 10, and the camera utility that they use to drive a Canon SLR to take pictures of artifacts, wasn’t compatible. So time was being wasted trying to download a new utility. Then we all went to lunch. After lunch there was little more progress, so I bailed early.

I wanted to visit Living Spaces, a large furniture store recommended by Amy. It is on that side of the bay, convenient to the warehouse. I’d planned to visit it at the normal quitting time of 4pm, but took the opportunity to go early.

Amy recommended another place too, West Elm, and I’d seen several attractive pieces on their website, but all with extended delivery times. So maybe Living Spaces would have something.

It’s a vast place but had little to attract me. The had a couple of L-shaped desks, but they were in a faux-rustic style, deliberately crude finishes. Ditto the media centers. No bistro tables, no love seats. One fairly attractive accent chair, but upholstered in a strong autumn-brown which would stand out, or else force me to buy everything else in a matching color.

So I drove back to my side of the bay and went to West Elm. There I arranged to buy the things I want. Two items I could have immediately from stock: a chair and a bistro table. A media center will come in a week, so it will be delivered here. Two chairs to go with the table won’t come until the first week of June, so will have to be delivered to me at C.H. (and in the meantime I won’t be able to sit at my bistro table). The very nice love seat, really a short couch, will come after that. So on moving in I’ll have only two chairs, the new one and my recliner, and a box to set the TV on. Well, and a bed and a coffee table and some plants and pictures from here.

In between these, I was trying to buy tickets to concerts during the Stanford Jazz Festival in July. Supposedly members could begin to buy tickets today, but I couldn’t. Email to support got sympathy but no improvement. At the end of the day I’d bought one of the five events I want to attend. Unless their website magically starts working over the weekend, I think I’ll try to buy in person at the Stanford ticket window.

But that’s for next week. The next few days are busy. Tomorrow is a big day, I go to C.H. and sign the contracts and become an official resident. Not able to move in, but at least I could eat meals there.

Saturday is a tree planting for Marian. I’ve been practicing a 3-minute talk.

Day 130, Shustek and taxes and legal

Thursday, 4/11/2019

My tax return is ready at the accountant’s in south San Jose. Their office is open at 8, and I need to be at the Shustek center in Milpitas at 10. OK. At 8:15 I leave for the first stop. I pick up my tax form, which includes addressed envelopes and forms for,

Federal tax return
State tax return
Federal estimated tax returns for four quarterly payments
State estimated tax returns for three (I get to skip September) quarters

The amount I need to pay immediately is rather large. Unfortunately my financial advisors, or rather the brokers they rely on, realized a lot of gains this year. Due to this misfortune of making a lot of money, I need to pay a bunch of tax. I put the papers in the car and proceed to Shustek, arriving just before ten.

The usual gang, Toni, Don, Steve, Dave, and Greta work on cataloging a bunch of stuff and chatting. I leave for home at 4.

At home I sit down for serious check signing. Marian established the tradition of writing tax checks against our unmanaged Schwab account. I log in and check; oops, there isn’t enough cash in it to cover all the taxes. Well, this is the account whose mutual-fund assets I intend to liquidate to pay the C.H. entry fee. So I place an order to sell one of the mutual funds. Good practice for selling the others next week.

Then I write four tax checks (return plus first-quarter estimate, federal and state) and triple check that the right check is with the right form in the correct envelope. Then look for stamps, and oh dear, only one stamp left in the desk. Well, I wanted to get this properly posted anyway. I drive to the California Ave. P.O., buy stamps, re-re-check that every check and form is properly addressed, seal the envelopes, stamp them, and post them.

Back at the house, I work my way through nine (9!) pages of realtor disclosure forms, signing and initialing. So that’s ready for Chuck when he next stops by. Next up, the forms needed by my attorney. Yesterday I got a statement from her listing what documents she needs to properly handle the details of Marian’s death, and oh yes, how much it will cost. So I assemble the documents and write that check.

One of the documents she needs is a copy of a recent property-tax bill. I’ve been fretting about that all day, where would that be? Finally realize it will, or should, be part of the wad of supporting documents in the 2018 tax return folder. Out to the garage where the box of tax forms went yesterday. Yup, there it is!

Then I try to fit the documents into the attorney’s post-paid return envelope and they don’t fit. So I supply my own return envelope and two stamps.

I call Darlene to confirm I’m joining them for lunch tomorrow. Somehow one or the other of us gets the call into FaceTime mode (except I can only see my face) and then neither of us can figure out how to end the call. I think I’m tired. A little TV and bed.