Day 173, OMCA, realty

Cannabis report: taking 10mg/10mg had little, if any, effect. I woke up a couple of times around midnight and two AM, and both times noticed something possibly THC-related. As I’m falling asleep, I often “see” abstract patterns of light or color, which are entertaining and fun to notice. This night, I noticed that I was seeing unusually varied and detailed images, like a crazy slide-show of abstract art. I don’t recall now any of the images, only that they had a different quality, more varied and more detailed, than my normal falling-asleep experience. Could have been the THC — except that this was 3 and 4 hours after consumption.

Friday, 5/24/2019

Shortly after waking realized that it is just over a week to the six-month anniversary of Marian’s death. Which is significant in that, absent any firm offer on the house, I need an appraisal done to establish its value. I had discussed this with Chuck last week, and he assured me he knew an appraiser who would do a good job on short notice. At that time we were expecting a possible offer from Lawyer Lady so left it to “next week”. Well, I realized this morning, it’s the last day of “next week”, and there’s a holiday next week.

So I texted Chuck at 7am to initiate the appraisal today if possible. He replied OK, but later I learned that an appraiser can be instructed to come up with a value “as of” a particular time. In this case, the appraiser will be instructed to state the value “as of” Marian’s death. Quite possibly that will be a higher value than the house will sell for in today’s market, with the result I might actually have a loss for income tax purposes.

Then it was off to Oakland to meet with Darlene to visit the Oakland Museum of California, or OMCA as they call themselves. The main reason was to view the photographs of Andrew Russell, who used a cumbersome wet-plate view camera to document the building of the transcontinental railway. He it was who took the iconic picture of the completion:

east20and20west20shaking20hands20at20laying20last20rail

The pictures are amazingly detailed. They’ve taken some of the 8-inch square negatives and printed them 8 feet square and you an walk right up and count leaves on bushes.

Darlene was interested in the exhibit “Queer California: Untold Stories”, pointing to pictures of marches she and Jessea had participated in. We had lunch in the museum cafe and then I headed back, arriving home in good time for Chuck to drop by.

His main news was the official offer from the Lawyer Lady (her name is Daphne, I learned). We went over the offer, and then we penciled out a lot of numbers starting with my goal for net proceeds, adding all the fixed costs and taxes that will be charged in escrow, adding in 5% commission (2.5% to each broker). This gives my bottom-line number, and it is surprisingly close to what the other agent stressed was an absolute top-line number from Lawyer Lady. There’s a lack of clarity about whether the other agent expects to take her 2.5% commission out of escrow, or if she will be paid directly by the buyer and so not be dipping in the escrow pot. In the worst case we’re only 4% apart.

After hashing it around awhile, I want to wait and not counter until next week. This is because of a foolish hope that a better buyer might see the ad in the Daily Post and call Chuck over the weekend. If that doesn’t happen he will present a counter-offer on Tuesday.

Later I went to CH for supper. On the way through the basement from the garage I stopped at Angela’s office. She was in and could give me good news on the unit. The custom cabinets for the bathroom are in, and the top (not clear if that’s the top for the kitchenette counter or the vanity counter), and demolition should start soon. There should be no problem completing the job for the 6/15 move-in date. We talked about how she should let me know when she has scheduled the last step, which is deep-cleaning the carpets. After that I can start bringing stuff in, if there’s anything I want to move ahead of the 15th.

Day 171, smoke alarms, lunch.

Cannabis report: took one of the 5mg:5mg chocolates at 8:30. Nice chocolate flavor and some aroma of espresso. As of 10pm I felt exactly nothing. And my night’s sleep was typical/normal, woke several times.

So I guess I have shown, one, that I am insensitive to THC at the 5mg level. I am curious to know how much it takes to feel any intoxication. And two, that 10+mg of CBD may have improved my sleep. I need to think about which of my purchases I want to double-up on tonight.

Wednesday, 5/22/2019

Started with a run, as usual. Fiddle-farted around with something, I don’t remember what, until 12:30 and time to meet Scott for lunch. Afterward I realized I was not too late to do sorting at FOPAL. Yesterday I did extra time there assuming I would skip today, but in fact went down and did some sorting anyway.

This evening, I belatedly realized, is when I’d booked myself for Mama Mia! at the Hillbarn. I think I’ve only been to the Hillbarn one other time, several years ago. It’s a nice venue. They had steeply-raked seating around two sides of the room, and an elaborate Greek Taverna on the other two. The house was packed and very enthusiastic. The lady next to me insisted on sharing with me all the other times she’d seen this show, and often urged me to have fun. The large cast worked very hard through a whole lot of choreography, my goodness so much dancing. The two female leads had good voices as well.

Heading home at 10:30, highway 101 was down to two lanes for construction. I didn’t get home until 11:30, so did not take any cannabis. I want at least an hour before bedtime to assess any effects.

Day 155, FBC and FOPAL and mixer

Monday, 5/6/2019

Started the day with a run, departing earlier than usual, 8am instead of my normal lazy 9am departure. That was so that I could get home, shower, and get back to the local coffee shop to meet with Harriet at 10am to talk about Steve’s idea for a

revived Fast Break Club.

This was an enlightening meeting. Harriet brought her friend Leslie who is a Stanford WBB alum as well as having worked in the WBB office.

We all agreed that Steve’s ideas were a complete non-starter unless there was real, enthusiastic buy-in and support from the WBB office, and Tara in particular. Leslie explained how, since the program is now completely funded from the Athletic department, there is no real concern about attendance. Steve’s strongest argument for a new fan organization is the slow decline in average attendance over the last decade, but the department and WBB coaches and staff really don’t care. Their job performance isn’t rated based on attendance. Only if we can find out what they do want, or what would help them with things that do count, like recruiting, would we get support. So job one, she thought, would be talk to the coaches and try to find out what would seem like a benefit to them.

After that, even with Office support, the problem remains of how to recruit new fans, especially younger parents with daughters. Here again Leslie knew something that I (nor I think Harriet) had known: that parents of high- and middle-school students, and the students, coaches, and teachers, all work off the school website and other social media these days. So if you can get any parent to post a fan-club event on their school’s site, that’s how to get things known.

We left it to Harriet to take these thoughts back to Bob and others in touch with Steve, and talked a little bit about Norway, where they want to tour next winter. My experience was only in the summer, and they’d read the blog, so there wasn’t much I could add, except to recommend Stockholm for a visit. Turns out Leslie has a relative in Helsinki, which is a reasonable ferry ride from Stockholm.

A bit later in the morning I found myself with

nothing to do,

and that’s a first! Almost nothing on the old to-do list. I’ve been expecting this time to come, but I thought it wouldn’t happen until I had moved in to CH. I pictured a day when I am moved in, all my furniture set up, I water the plants and then… nothing on the schedule.

That will be when I will have to start rearranging my days to apply time to three different long-term projects I’ve had on the back-burner for a year now, including two books. Well, fine, but not today. I decided to go down to

FOPAL

and make sure the Computer section was in good order. There were four boxes of books waiting. I went through them, sent ¾ on to the bargain room, and priced and shelved the rest. The section is looking quite good, if I do say so. I’ll hit it again Wednesday and Friday and it should be ready for the sale weekend. After an hour doing that, I spent another 90 minutes doing sorting, and had the sorting room almost tidy when the usual Monday volunteers showed up. So I came on home and actually played a computer game for an hour. Then I went over to CH to check the mail and for

supper,

which turned out to be a “mixer”. As you enter the dining room there’s a resident with a hat containing small numbers. If you are willing to participate you take a number, which is the number of a table. In this way you sit and eat with people you haven’t met before. I did it, although in fact I haven’t met anyone at all. But prior times I’ve eaten there, I’ve sat by myself and read a book. This time, I sat with — let me see — Carol, Julie, Betty, lady whose name I can’t pronounce, and Colin. Colin is a chatty guy with a bit of a British accent and wild bushy eyebrows. He just had a 90th birthday party last weekend; and he played tennis this morning. He said he always asked new residents some questions, I said go ahead, and asked if I play bridge (yes) but then he wanted me to play in his duplicate bridge group and I really don’t want to play duplicate. He asked if I sing, well, I can carry a tune, great, every Wednesday we have a sing-along over in the Lee Center, you must come. Do I play tennis? Sorry, no; this is where I found out he plays tennis regularly. Do I dance? Nope! I think I’m down as a poor quality recruit in his book.

And so home. Chuck messages that he has a potential buyer who wants to see the house, can I clear out around noon tomorrow? You betcha!

Day 143, parking, filing, house ad, fopal

Wednesday, 4/24/2019

Opened the day with a run. Then I was about to set to work organizing files when I remembered getting an email yesterday evening about parking at CH. Checked the email, it was from a staff member named Payal, saying to call her to look over available spots. Oh! There are available spots? I called, she was at her desk, and we arranged to meet at 10am, it then being 9:40. She said, good, she had another person to show around at 10am also.

I zipped over to CH and said to the desk person I was there to see Payal. Desk person picked up the phone and called and said, “Mr. Cortesi is here to see you…” She knew my name! This is kind of neat.

Payal is a tall, 30-something woman with a pleasant manner (like every other staff member I’ve met). The other person looking for a parking space turned out to be Tammy, a diminutive Japanese(?) lady who like me is just moving in, to the third floor in her case. Together we descended to the garage to look at available spaces. After reviewing several, Tammy settled on one, asked my opinion on it, I concurred it was a good one. It’s just on the right of a pillar, and I pointed out she would always have room to open her door, nobody could get close on the left.

After Tammy left, I explained to Payal how I really want a spot within a few feet of an electrical outlet so I can keep the car charged. I would just hate to go back to driving a “normal” Prius, getting the ordinary 50mpg and toting around 100 lbs. of batteries I don’t use. So we looked at the available spots in this, the Tower garage (under the main building), and there was one that would do. However there is also the option of the Lee garage, under the new skilled nursing annex. OK, let’s look at those.

It’s something of a long and winding road through the basement of the Tower to get to the Lee garage, so that’s a bit of a drawback. OTOH, the Lee spaces are $10/month cheaper. And it turned out that there was a 110v outlet in reach of almost every space there. I picked #10, a wide spot with a wall on one side and an outlet right next to it. So that’s settled, and a great relief to my mind.

Actually I’m feeling better about CH for several reasons. Night before last I had a middle of the night tossing session, feeling some buyer’s remorse about this large step. But after the very friendly floor meeting yesterday, and yet another pleasant and productive interaction with the staff today (plus getting the exact right parking setup), I’m feeling happier about it all. It ain’t cheap — it’s about the daily fare of a cruise ship, which offers about the same level of service — but I have to remind myself that not only am I getting a comfortable residence, food, and service out of it, I have the assurance of lifetime care if (when!) my health deteriorates. Never to be a burden on, nor dependent on the good will of, my few relatives? Priceless.

So home from that to finish up the file organizing. Penda-Flexes in a banker’s box, but all ready to drop into the file cabinet I bought, which is still in its cardboard box over there, waiting to be unboxed after it gets moved to my unit. Whenever that happens.

Chuck called saying he’d just emailed the copy for the house ad! I made a few comments, and asked that he change the specific street address to just “Old Palo Alto”. This is very exciting. I am expecting he will be bombarded with queries. I hope I won’t be disappointed in that.

After a quick lunch I was about to leave for FOPAL when I checked my calendar and realized I have an appointment for a hair cut at 12:30! Glad I looked, off I go for that. Chris was enthusiastic about Channing House. From there I went to FOPAL and spent 90 minutes pricing and shelving books for the Computer section, and another 90 minutes doing sorting. Home to chill and hydrate and perhaps nap.

Day 142, dentist, lunch, floor meeting, dinner

Tuesday, 4/23/2019

Began the day by walking to a mile-plus to my appointment for dental hygiene, and walking the return, stopping at C.H. en route to check my mailbox. Disappointed that with all that walking, the phone shows only 7,000 steps.

Spent some time organizing penda-flexes. (No, auto-correct, it is not panda flexes!) I like making sense of all these old files, discarding outdated and irrelevant stuff, organizing the remainder into simpler categories that will be easier to remember.

Then it was time to meet Scott for lunch. Pleasant meeting, I’d say just-ok food at Dan Gordon’s, who, Scott pointed out, was presumably half of the former Gorden-Biersch Brewery, whose restaurant was once in that same space.

On the way to lunch I stopped at MaxiMart Pharmacy to get a refill of the antibiotic pills I take before any dental procedure (to protect my replaced aortic valve). Oops, prescription expired. Leave it, we’ll apply for a renewal, check back tomorrow. They know me by sight, partly because I’ve gotten meds there for 20 years at least, but more because I was in there what feels in retrospect like every other day all last fall, picking up one or another med for Marian. It was probably only once a week, really, but I had some bad emotions walking up to the door, from all the associations with her long illness. But now, this is for me, and I’m not ill, just getting a preventative med. So it was alright.

On the way back I stopped for a few groceries, including the indispensable peanut butter. Should I get a big jar? I’ll be on a full meal plan in a few weeks. Oh hell yes, I can have peanut butter in my room, to eat at my own bistro table in my kitchenette.

Soon it was time to leave again for the Sixth Floor Meeting. Craig was in the chair and did a good job. There were 30 or so people there; I learned the names of about five, and was pleasantly greeted by all. The topic of the meeting was the upcoming move off the sixth floor so the great rolling renovation can have it. Here’s the time-line:

August 12-23, the seventh floor people move out of temporary units and back to their renovated permanent units.
Temporary units are cleaned.
August 26-September 6, sixth floor people move into temporary units.
Around January 2020, sixth floor moves back, fifth moves out.

Angela, who I met with a week ago to choose decor options for my unit, is in charge of this. So far they have done the in/out swap for the tenth, ninth, and eighth floors and have it down to a science. She explained the process in detail and pretty well satisfied everyone.

From there I went to supper with Craig and Diane, and damn it four other women whose names I didn’t get. Wait, one was Eva. I also met Jerry and his wife (name?) and saw their apartment, on which they did an extreme renovation when they moved in two years ago. It’s very attractive, extremely “modern” with gray and black cubes and track lighting. Jerry is very technical and has a complex computer setup with multiple large monitors. I’m going to like him, I think; I certainly intend to call on him as a resource getting my various devices working with the CH systems.

I excused myself after one cup of coffee to go to a Stanford Baseball game. Got there at the bottom of the second, Stanford behind 4-1. The next two innings Stanford hit three or it may have been four homers and went ahead 9-4. I left after two hours and it was only the sixth inning.

Day 117, estate no-sale, lunch

Friday, 3/29/2019

Exercise today was to walk (not jog) to the nearest ATM for my bank, the Stanford Federal Credit Union. That’s 1.8 miles each way, per Google maps, and the iPhone agrees, showing 9,338 steps for the day.

Chuck the realtor arrived at 11, along with Sheri Galvin, a vivacious older woman who runs estate sales. She looked the house over, admired it extravagantly (“I’d buy it myself if I didn’t have my family living with me”) but ended up saying, “I don’t see $10,000 here! I need to see that before I can afford to run a sale, I have to pay my assistants and make a little myself out of my 35%.”

She did offer to help me run the sale myself, if I wanted to. For a fee she would come for a day and price everything, loan me card tables for displaying stuff, and so on. I’m thinking seriously about that.

Meantime, as I explained to her and to Chuck, I am in limbo, waiting on Channing House to come back to me with specifics. Here’s what I know will have to happen.

Kim Krebs calls me in to show me a contract.
She and I agree on what upgrades will be done to the unit, for example re-do the kitchenette, replace the drapes, and — Chuck reminded me — I take a close look at the bathroom and maybe ask for improvements there.
That gets added to the contract; really, want it on paper.
We agree on a time-line for the unit upgrades. That work is done by C.H. in-house maintenance staff, and I have no idea how fast they work or what kind of back-log they have.
I liquidate the mutual funds in the one Schwab account to fund the needed entry fee. Here I’m not certain of the exact procedure, do I do it over the web, or should I have my financial advisor do it?
Money gets wire-transferred from my Schwab account to C.H.; same questions as the preceding step.
I have legal occupancy of the unit, yay! Except, can I start moving in, or do I have to wait for the upgrade work, and how long will that take?
At least, with legal occupancy, I can bring Tyra the decorator in to plan, and I can start moving items from the house to the unit, if only to stack boxes in closets.
Tyra has a design and she and I go buy furniture to be delivered.
When (almost) everything I want to keep is out of the house, schedule Sheri to assist, and set a date for a sale.

All that could start happening as soon as C.H. finalizes my application. I don’t know why that didn’t happen this week, after I got medical approval. I picture my application sitting on somebody’s desk while they check my credit rating. (Hmmm…. I put a freeze on my credit ratings a year ago. Well, if they need to know, they can ask me. Now, where did I put the info on how to un-freeze a rating… I think I know…)

With all this in mind I went to lunch with Scott and Steve. Lots of talk about our mutual pasts at IBM.

Back home I ran the DVR through the WBB games that involved PAC-12 teams. Sixth-seed UCLA gave 2-seed UConn a scare, but finally lost. Oregon State gave 1-seed Louisville a respectable game and lost. ASU lost to 1-seed Mississippi State. Oregon, a two-seed, started slow against upstart 6-seed South Dakota State, but pulled ahead in the second half to win.

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 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 86, flat tire and a game

Sunday, 2/24/2019

I tried something new for my Sunday morning coffee. Going to a coffee shop on Sunday morning to read the paper was a ritual for Marian and me for decades. I’ve written earlier in this series about the experiences, both positive and negative, around doing it without her.

A constant so far has been that I would do the NYT crossword at home, before going out for coffee and to read the rest of the paper. But that sequence was a consequence of the fact that Marian liked to sleep in, and I didn’t. So I would get up and spend an hour doing the crossword and futzing with the internet; then when she got up we’d go out.

So, um… I’ve no reason to wait now. So today I got up, dressed, and walked to the coffee shop at 7am, where I read the paper and did the puzzle in comfort, with a scone and a cappuccino. Not exactly an earth-shaking revolution, but still, one more break with the past.

At noon I went out to go to the final SWBB game of the year, and found that the car’s left rear tire was flat. I had noticed a low-tire-pressure warning yesterday, but I looked at the tires before I went in to the movie yesterday afternoon, and they looked alright. I’m glad it held up for the return trip from San Jose, 75mph up I-280 last night.

But, what to do now? The plug-in hybrid has no spare (no room because of the large battery in the trunk) and anyway I wanted to get going. So I called a Lyft. At the game I met with Harriet and her visitor, Bridget, who were using my pair of tickets while I sat in her single seat. She agreed to give me a lift home.

The game was against ASU, and the Sun Devils are usually a tougher opponent that the UA Wildcats who came so close to beating us Friday night. But this game went Stanford’s way early. They had a modest lead at the half, and in the third quarter blew it up to 20+ points and cruised to the end.

This was Senior Day, the last home game of the season (ignoring the fact that Stanford is almost certain to host the first two games of the NCAAs) and I had a bit of trouble controlling my emotions. I kept remembering how Marian had hoped to last out this season, and how pleased she’d have been to reach Senior Day and applaud Marta, Shannon and Alanna who she’d watched grow up for four years. So I couldn’t have talked coherently for a while, but fortunately had no reason to talk.

After the game Harriet wanted to show Bridget the outside of the Cantor Museum and the Rodin sculpture garden, so I walked along with them to that. Then she drove me home where I made an appointment for a mobile tire repair outfit to come tomorrow afternoon, then had a pleasant evening watching TV.