Day 229, tree guy, shopping, painting, I suck at games

Friday, 7/19/2019

Went for a run. Felt fine. Didn’t have time to end the run with a stop at a coffee shop because I had to be at Tasso street before 10am. Which I was. Looking inside, it seems only the most basic prep work has been done. Plastic drop clothes taped down to the floors and over wood not to be painted. A start made at removing the wallpaper in the kitchen, and kitchen cabinet doors removed.

The tree guy,

Diego, took my notes and wrote up an estimate. To keep the oak branches off the roof, he recommended removing one large branch entirely. This is a branch about 12 inches in diameter at the big end and stretching easily 50 feet out over the house to the garage. However he pointed out there are plenty of big branches above it and the tree would look more balanced with it gone.

Since the tree is shared with next door, I went next door and got Jean, the lady of the house to come out and consult. She agreed to removing the big branch. She also dropped the small bombshell that they may be moving out and selling, too. They have bought a larger house deeper into Old Palo Alto, at Tennyson and Webster. Holy crap that must have cost them a bundle! She’s not sure what they will do with this house, but she was interested in meeting “your realtor”, so an opportunity for Chuck.

There’s a scheduling problem, however: the tree company doesn’t have any open slots for this 2-day job until mid-August, by when I sincerely hope the house will be sold. Possibly they can get me one day sooner, we’ll see.

I spent some time composing two long texts to Chuck detailing these items. Then I drove down to

Target

where I can buy my antacid Ranitidine (generic Zantac) cheaper. Target’s pharmacy is a CVS outlet, but everything there costs half what it does at CVS on University Avenue.

I also bought a bathmat. I’ve been wanting something to step on getting out of the shower; I’d been using a small hand towel which seems tacky as well as not very effective. I picked a cheapish one in a light beige which, when I got it back and dropped it on the floor, proved to be a perfect match to the color of the bathroom floor tile. Yay me.

From there I drove to Nordstrom’s in Stanford Shopping Center. I’m determined to get myself a

new blazer

and one or two pairs of “nice” pants. What I learned from trying on several blazers is that my size is 42 Short. Size 42 is just right to enclose my thorax and the sleeve length is right, but the hem hangs down below my butt cheeks and looks wrong. So, 42S would probably be perfect. I could be sure of that if Nordstrom had had any 42S blazers in stock, but they didn’t.

The only thing left on my to-do list for day was laundry, so I headed back to do that. I talked briefly to Craig in the hall about the puzzle of what’s happened to my Dean Linsky

oil painting

of Yosemite Valley. Just after moving in, it was hung opposite the 6th floor lounge. Since, several people have commented on it favorably. A week ago, when Angela inventoried my room in the pre-move planning, we discussed the painting and I thought had agreed it would be moved into my temporary quarters when I moved.

Two days ago I noticed it was not on the wall any more, along with quite a bit of other art, so I queried Angela, stopping in at her office in the basement. She disclaimed any knowledge, “We haven’t started moving any art; see your floor rep, Mister Allen must have moved it.”

I bumped into Craig in the hall yesterday and he assured me in rather vague terms, that the painting had been stored in a safe place. He didn’t say where. I emailed Angela to say this, and she responded rather firmly that since she didn’t know anything about it, the painting was not Channing House’s responsibility.

Tonight I ate dinner with Craig, Diane and Patti, and afterward got clarification from Craig. When he said the art was safe, he was not speaking from his own knowledge, he was just reassuring me of his confidence that the move process would be done right. He doesn’t have any personal knowledge of where the art has gone. So it wasn’t Angela’s crew it must have been Gentle Transitions? I will take this up with Angela Monday.

Meanwhile I tried a new

computer game.

I’d like to have a really deep, absorbing game to play, maybe for a couple of hours a day off and on. The one I’m trying is called The Long Dark, and by all accounts it is very deep in the sense of needing many, many hours to play through to any conclusion, and to have a vast terrain for the player to explore. Just the ticket, right? So I bought it when it was on sale at Steam (the online gaming store) and I had browsed a couple of tutorials so I knew the general objectives (don’t freeze to death or be eaten by wolves) and game play (wander through a post-apocalyptic frozen waste, searching for the things that will keep you warm and defended from wolves). Now I fired it up and tried it.

And failed utterly. This is really kind of funny. The game opens with you in a small office with a window opening onto a hangar in which a seaplane is visible. It’s cold and your first objective in this ultra-beginner tutorial phase, is to light a fire. Well, I managed that. I found the matches on the desk. I found some firewood. I found some newsprint. Now I had what the game requires so I could click on a little stove and say “Light Fire” and oh boy, a fire started, casting nice bars of orange light and warming my player character up. Freezing avoided. Next objective, “Explore the Hangar”. To do that, all you have to do is open the door from the office to the hangar. But it won’t open.

In the course of all this I was somewhat distressed by the slow, laggy response of the game to my mouse moves. When I got my monster 27in iMac I expected its graphics and CPU would be up to serious game play. So I’d started the game at full screen, 5000+pixel width image and all graphics options to High. But it was clearly struggling at those settings. So I cut the game back to a 3000×2000 window and reduced all the options (textures, shadows, etc) to Medium. Much better. Now I could get around the office smoothly and I looked at everything. Picked up everything pick-uppable. No kind of key or anything else that might work to open the office door.

I can’t get out of the first location in the game! This is so basic, that I looked at two different walk-through tutorials and they don’t even mention opening the office door as any kind of challenge. They just say, “now explore the hangar, look for this, that, etc.” But I can’t! I feel like such a flop. I suck at games. (Looking at another walkthrough video, I don’t think I want to play Long Dark anyway. But I should be able to get to the second step of the tutorial. Geez.)

Day 228, Yosemite, concert

Thursday, 7/18/2019

Thursday means a slower start, breakfast in the dining room, and a 9am departure for the East Bay, this week to the vast Yosemite warehouse of the CHM. My task this day was to take photographs of artifacts. Aurora, the collections manager, has embarked herself and her band of volunteers on what will be a years-long process, a 100% inventory of the collection. Unlike the prior cataloging projects I worked in during 2008-9 and 2015-16, which had the fun acronym of CARP, Collections Accession and Reconciliation Project, this much larger project has no cute acronym, nor does it have a grant to fund it.

Anyway, this involves bringing down each box of artifacts and checking that it contains what it’s supposed to. The check is easy because the Museum database, an app named Mimsy, allows searching for artifacts by box number. Then you have a list and a count of artifacts that should be in the box, and can quickly verify that they are there and whether they have photographs in the catalog. A visual check finds whether the packing is optimal, so artifacts aren’t crowded, and noting any wasted space that could be used.

Typically everything will match up and the box can be moved back to shelving under a new and more space-efficient stacking scheme. Space is a problem, as the warehouse that once seemed so huge, is approaching fullness, and the Museum continues to accept new artifacts. Aurora calls the problem of space-efficient box stacking as “museum Tetris”.

For various reasons, some artifacts had never been photographed, and maybe one percent will turn up, or not turn up, to be in the box they’re supposed to be in. Today I was photographing things that needed it. Normally photography is a two-person job, but it can be done by one, and I enjoy doing it by myself, so that was a fun day.

On the way home, responding to a text from Deborah, I stopped at Tasso street to verify that a large cabinet was still in the garage. She has a potential buyer. It is there; and I was pleased to see that there was also a painting crew busily at work prepping the interior. So that’s moving along.

I at supper with Rosina, Robin, Mel, Mary (another Mary, there are a lot of Marys around here) and Ed. Working on this.

In the mailbox was a letter from the TSA telling me “Congratulations!” my application for TSA Precheck has been approved for another bunch of years.

From supper I took a Lyft to Dinkelspiel for another Stanford Jazz Festival concert. This was a much-anticipated (by others, I’d never attended one) Evening with Victor Lin. Lin is an enthusiastic teacher and proponent of jazz and, based on what I heard tonight, a superb jazz pianist. He opened the show with two long numbers that were just lovely to listen to, and to follow him through all the variations he was doing. This was the 22nd “Evening” he’s run, where he introduces students and teachers from the festival, matching them in unexpected combinations, giving them things to do outside their comfort zone, and hilarity ensues. Like bringing out four other pianists and having all five of them playing blues on the two Steinways on stage, swapping seats and reaching over each other. Tonight some of the combinations didn’t work, and the whole second half seemed slow and a bit of a downer to me, and other people who’d seen previous shows agreed.

The “other people” in question were Jerry, Betty and Margaret from Channing House, who were sitting at the other end of the row I was in. I was able to get a ride home with them. During the ride Margaret, finding I was in the process of selling my house, went at length into her (fairly recent, I gather) home sale. She had an early offer for the house as-is, but the buyers wanted a contingency on the sale of their own home and 90 days to do it. Margaret’s realtor advised her they were unrealistic, and wouldn’t be able to sell their house at the price they needed, so she rejected the offer, and went ahead with the painting and staging routine, which she apparently found stressful. In the end, the best offer they got was from the original buyers, whose home had sold, but their new offer was $100K less than before. She felt aggrieved by this process, reasonably so.

Day 225, realty, FOPAL, book

Monday, 7/15/2019

After a run this morning, I passed time easily until 11am. Then I drove to Tasso street to meet with Amy and Chuck. I was early, and looked around the house. Looking at it now I see lots of worn and messy bits. It looks old especially the kitchen, and could definitely use upgrading.

Amy and Chuck walked around and Amy chose colors and decided how much of the woodwork should be painted over with light colors, something she likes to do to make a house look larger, lighter, and more inviting. OK, I can see how it looks “dark” in certain aspects owing to dark wood paneling and trim. But that’s in daylight, with the only source of light the windows. At night, furnished and lit up inside, it looks cozy. But buyers won’t see it that way; they’ll see it in daytime. I said to them, I don’t live here any more; you are the professionals; do your job. They deferred to me on a couple of minor points, but mainly I stood back.

One decision was that I would not have the fireplace converted to a modern gas insert. Buyers won’t even notice it, or be impressed if it were pointed out.

However, my idea to have a tree maintenance company trim the oak was seconded; and indeed Amy asked to have the other trees over the back yard cut back to not touch the garage or house roofs and let in more light.

From there I went down to FOPAL, stopping at the grocery store to buy some bread. I’m going to keep a loaf of bread in my room for those occasions when I just want a sandwich for lunch.

Back at C.H. I had a bit of a nap, then went down for supper. Sat at an open table with Rosina, Joanne, and (I think) Mary?

After supper I rebuilt the cover image for the book. I’ve gotten some help from the Affinity forum and solved another issue for myself, so I could do that. Then I started the lengthy Kindle procedure to process the book while I watched Jeopardy. And the Kindle site was happy with my new cover and book body, so it is ready to be published on Kindle, and to order a sample print book.

Day 219, realty and book

Tuesday, 7/9/2019

Started the day with a run, which felt not just normal but actually good. For an hour I worked on the book. Then it was time to drive to Tasso street to meet with Chuck.

There I met Sean, a tall, gangly guy with a wild blond hair and a gentle manner straight out of the 1960s. He’s employed by Deborah to house-sit for security. He’s been sleeping on the used McCroskey mattress and really likes it, so I suggested he talk to Deborah and buy it. (If he doesn’t, I’d just have to pay somebody to haul it.) When not house-sitting, Sean lives in the warehouse of a music store. He’s got a ten year old son in Munich and would love to go back to Germany, but he’s only just managed to qualify for SSI (bad back) and would lose it if he lived outside the U.S.

Aside from the mattress, there is very little left from the sale. All furniture is gone. The refrigerator is gone, and that pleases me; I had come to hate that refrigerator over the past six months and I’m glad it’s gone. Apparently they had trouble getting it out, having to remove not only the back door, but the refrigerator doors as well. But there’s a dusty space where it was. There’s yet another possible buyer for the washer/dryer coming Wednesday.

The only real surprise to me was that nobody wanted the Rorstrand dinner service. I really thought… well, what do I know. It was back on Day 6 that I started restoring it by ordering replacements for all the chipped plates. Then Denise didn’t want it. Just a surprise to me that nobody wants such a handsome, complete set. Well, I suppose it’s that anybody with a household, buys their dinner service early on, or gets it as a wedding present. And they don’t need another.

Chuck arrived and we went over the next steps. In order they are: To get Amy to take a quick look and decide what paint colors she wants; then to get the painting contractor scheduled. When the painting is done, or while it is done, get the area rugs removed. After the painting, to bring in a cleaner to polish the wood floors and clean everything. And then Amy does her staging. Last or nearly last will be to get Richard to apply a new layer of garden mulch, and maybe get someone in to power-wash the brick walks and porch.

Can all this get done in July? Doubtful, I think. Can it get done in August? It damn well better had, because on September 5 I am out of here for two weeks. I really, really want the house sale wrapped before September 1, and I need to push everyone for that.

After Chuck left, the guys from the fireplace contractor arrived, Jose and Noah. They opined that the only way to get electric ignition and a remote control, is to replace the burner and grate that is in place now. Their boss, Eric, is to send me a quote. They didn’t say how much it would be, but I’m predicting it will come in over $1200. Less than $2K I hope.

Back at C.H. I spent a couple more hours on the book. I resolved a nasty problem with cross-references. The publishing platform I’m using supports x-refs but I’m trying to use them within my end-notes file to do op.cit. references, that is, cross-references from inside one note, to another note. Their software wasn’t quite up to it, but I found a work-around and reported it on their user forum.

I am just about ready to generate a final, print-ready PDF, which I can then use to build a book on Kindle Direct or one of the other on-demand publishers, Lulu or Blurb. But I also need to prepare a separate PDF of the cover. To now, I’ve only needed a front cover because that’s all an e-text needs. But a print book needs also a graphic for the spine and the back cover. It will take a bit of creativity to generate those, working from the nice front-cover graphic I purchased way back when.

Ate supper alone at a table for one, reading, like a nerd. But dammit, by comparison, it is stressful to sit with other people and make conversation. Not difficult while I’m doing it, but in the moment of entering the seating area holding my plate of food, faced with the options of, A, going to one of the open tables and smiling and saying, mind if I sit here? and B, going to a small table on the side and sitting down alone and bringing out my phone and opening Kindle to read while I eat, well, A is more stressful and B, more relaxing. That’s being an introvert.

Day 218, intro, bills, FOPAL

Monday, 7/8/2019

Today at 9am was the monthly Residents’ Meeting in the auditorium, at which I along with two other new residents was introduced. There were lots of other items on the meeting agenda of course. I hadn’t realized that Tom, who with Nancy had invited me to sit with them at dinner on day 215, was the president of the Residents’ Association and so ran the meeting. Well, part of that was that their last name in the directory is Fiene, and I had no idea that was the person “Tom Feeny” who was the president.

Betsy had done a nice job of summarizing the reminiscences I’d given her on day 211. The other new residents were Sally (one-time Registrar and assistant Provost at Stanford) and Tammy, biologist.

Now I texted to Chuck to remind him that today was the last day of the sale, and to arrange a meeting for tomorrow to plan the next steps in the sale. That out of the way I paid a couple of bills and looked at a medical appointment. Months ago my cardiologist had put in an order for an echocardiogram to be done in July, with a checkup to follow. I finally got around to actually scheduling those two appointments, the echo for the end of July and the exam at the doctor’s first available, mid-August.

I needed a few things: laundry bleach, a toilet brush (so I can not insult my housekeeper with a foul toilet) and if possible, a small waste can for the bathroom. So I walked over to CVS on University avenue and was able to get the first two items.

One loose end in the Tasso house is the fireplace. When we replaced it in 1990, after the Loma Prieta earthquake broke the chimney, Marian despised the replacement because it wasn’t as big and comfortable-looking as the old one. True, it had a proper heat jacket so it was much more efficient at warming the room then the old brick one. True it had a gas flame on very realistic ceramic logs so it was easy to start and made no mess from wood chips or ashes. But it wasn’t the old one, it was unnatural. So the one thing it would not have was an electric igniter with a remote to raise and lower the flame. It has a manual gas valve and you light it by hand with a match or a lighter.

OK, well, that’s in my opinion a detraction for selling the house. It should have an electric igniter with a knob, if not a remote, to raise and lower the flame. Nobody now wants to lean in with a lighter and have the gas go FFWOOFF at you as it lights. You can lose eyebrows on that thing if you aren’t careful. So I looked at Yelp for gas fireplace installers, and got in touch with one. In a later phone call, Eric said he’d stop by tomorrow about noon. That’ll be convenient, I’ll be there meeting with Chuck anyway.

That out of the way (Lordy but my mornings are productive) I headed off to FOPAL. We are coming up to sale weekend, the place is overflowing with books. But my computer section is just comfortably full of I think some really interesting stuff that I think will sell.

On the way back to C.H. I stopped at the hardware store and found a nice little brushed-steel trash container to sit behind the toilet, so that’s crossed off.

By coincidence I ran into Craig Diane and Patti on the way to supper so sat with that group. Pleasant chat, and I learned things about C.H. internal politics and policies.

Day 212, book, museum

Tuesday, 7/2/2019

I began the morning by driving to the Y for a small workout. I departed late enough that the dining room was open, and I picked up a bagel and banana to eat while I drove. However, I want to be able to do my workout here, and drop the YMCA membership. However, that will mean changing the workout, as two apparatus that I use, aren’t in the C.H. gym.

Right now, the fitness director has announced her departure, and a new one hasn’t been appointed. There is a buzz of email on the house list of people lobbying for the director’s assistant, Clark, to be promoted. He’s apparently very popular with the residents. I have no opinion; he seemed nice enough when he evaluated my fitness back on Day 152.

Anyway, when that is resolved I intend to get with whoever is director and ask for help in mapping out an exercise routine that will strengthen the particular muscle groups that I’m concerned about, and that I can do here.

That done, I edited another chapter of my book, and explored one of the websites where I might get hard-copy made. That would be Blurb, which I used to produce two photo books for the Cardinal WBB team back in 2012 and 2013. I still need to check out Kindle Direct, because why not be able to sell through Amazon?

During this I was getting emails from Chuck with documents to e-sign and return. We are finally and definitively separated from Lawyer Lady, and good riddance.

I had a quick lunch and headed off to the museum to lead that tour that I accepted yesterday. Stopped briefly at Tasso street to sign Deborah’s sales agreement. The tour were a dozen residents of The Terraces at Los Altos, another upscale senior residence. They could have been a random selection from C.H. Anyway I had fun with them and they seemed appreciative.

Back to C.H. in time for the monthly Upgrade Progress meeting held by Angela. She went over again the timeline for the 7th floor moving back and the 6th floor moving out. No changes but a little more detail. Our common areas, except for the laundry room, will be closed for renovation starting later this week.

Between 3:30 and supper time I began to explore a replacement for PhotoShop. I am a bit of a PhotoShop power user, very familiar with it, have used it to process hundreds of scanned slides etc. A couple of years ago, Adobe changed their pricing so that one no longer could own the latest PhotoShop (or Bridge or LightRoom, etc) but only leased them via an annual payment for Creative Cloud membership. I put up with this while finishing up my slide scanning, but did not renew when it came due this spring, and all that software has stopped working. Actually I still have a five-year-old PhotoShop that works, but it would be nice to have something current and supported.

There’s The Gimp, the open-source image editor. I picked up a book on it last week at FOPAL, so downloaded the program and checked it out. It lacks several features that I used heavily, as well as having a confusing UI (and the book wasn’t very good either). No.

For certain things, GraphicConverter is very useful and I have it on both computers, but it isn’t my favorite tool for image editing.

Some time ago I bought a copy of Pixelmator and it would probably do most of what I want. However I recently heard of Affinity Pro and decided to try their trial download. And Wow! am I impressed. For $39, here was a program with every feature of the latest PhotoShop, and more. I watched a couple of their tutorial videos, tried out a couple of things, and immediately bought it. Yes. Nice.

Day 211, book, museum, dinner

Monday, 7/1/2019

Began the day with a run. There was nothing more on the calendar until noon, when a person from facilities had made a date to take some kind of inventory of my Comcast equipment in preparation for the move.

I spent a couple of hours, then, on a light edit of my book, To Thrive Beyond Belief. I had declared it complete just a year ago. At supper with Betsy Young the other night, she had mentioned it: she’d googled me and knew the name of the prior book. Another guest, Bob, had expressed interest in it. He and Betsy said, can you put a copy in the library here?

I was a bit embarrassed to have to say no, the current version was an online e-text only. I investigated later and there are several ways to create bound copies of the book, and I think I’d like to do that. But before I do, it needs one more edit. I’m finding a number of minor typos and less-than-clear sentences. So there will be another version and I’ve started on it. This is one of the back-burner projects that I set aside last year when Marian got ill, and it is a pleasure to return to it. Writing and editing are really satisfying for me.

Right at 12, the facilities guy knocked on the door. All he ended up doing was to note the modem and DVR and put his own barcode label on each. It’s not clear to me why these need to be treated separately from my other furniture, but whatever.

At 2pm I started for the museum where I had signed up along with five other docents, to provide gallery support (which means, standing around in the exhibit area and answering questions) to a group of 120 students from a Stanford summer course. The students arrived with a scavenger hunt, a sheet of 20 rather vague riddle-like clues to objects they were supposed to find. So we gave them hints, when we could figure out the allusive clues ourselves.

Returning to C.H. on the freeway I thought I would stay on until the University Avenue exit. This proved to be a mistake. Apparently a lot of people want to exit to East Palo Alto at 5pm, and I spent about ten minutes in standing traffic before reaching the exit. Once on the exit, there was a clear lane for University Avenue west; all the traffic was going east. Note to self, in future take Embarcadero road and Middlefield.

I’d been invited by Patti and other sixth floorians to supper at 6, and barely made it. Pleasant conversation about C.H. politics and national politics. I’m living in a building full of raging liberals! Thank goodness!

In the middle of the day I’d had email from the new volunteer manager saying that they needed coverage for a tour of senior citizens tomorrow. The slot was still open after supper, so I took it. I can squeeze in a tour before I have to be back here for a meeting at three.

Late in the day I got an email from Chuck with and attached PDF of the cancellation paper we had been expecting the Lawyer Lady to sign. Thinking this was it, I texted him to ask, should I print, sign, scan and return it? Um, no, that’s the unsigned form. Wait until we get the actual one signed by her. Which we haven’t. This was just him, forwarding to me, the email from her agent, in which her agent said, Chuck, here is the form I sent Daphne to sign. I’ll let you know when she does.

Stranger and stranger. If it wasn’t for the fact that L.L. is in fact an attorney, I’d be asking, have we any legal recourse? Can we threaten to take her deposit? But you know, I don’t think I want to get into a legal pissing contest with a partner in a law firm.

Day 206, many errands, FOPAL

Wednesday, 6/26/2019

I started the day with a run. At several points my pace was interrupted by texts from Chuck. Lawyer Lady’s agent had texted him, quote,

Chuck, I just received this text from [Lawyer Lady], “Lyn, I am so sorry about the delay. I am in negotiations (complex license). As for Tasso, I would love to buy it but I cannot swing it at the [our counter offer] price.” Chuck, this was my first communication with [Lawyer Lady] since last Friday. I think it is best for your seller to move ahead without us. Again, my deepest apologies, Lyn.

In further exchanges — Chuck likes long text conversations — Chuck noted that right at the start, Lyn had given him a “qualification document” showing that this buyer was qualified to finance the price we set in our counter. So “cannot swing it” really means, either “don’t want it” or “I want to dicker”. I texted to Chuck, and suggested he quote it to the agent,

We are not interested. We would accept her PROMPT acceptance of our original counter. Otherwise we are done with this negotiation.

We agreed he’d give them a deadline of Thursday noon, after which he would inform the escrow company that we are “out of contract”. I am not sure what happens then to the deposit she placed to open the escrow. Probably goes back to her, although I think we would be justified in keeping some of it, after the amount of jerking us around she’s done.

Back at the barn I assembled some stuff and headed out for a day of going and doing.

First stop was the Wheeler Accountants office in San Jose, to turn in the thick packet of documentation I have assembled so they can compute the actual value of Marian’s estate, and thus how much of her estate tax exemption transfers to me.

Next was a visit to Yamagami’s nursery in Cupertino. My aim is to replace a pot that broke on moving day. It was one of a pair of elegant high-fired pots. Actually I want to replace both, because the remaining one is only 9 inches wide and the plants really need 11-inch pots. I don’t know where Marian bought them but I was hoping, Yamagami’s. They do have a very large selection of pots, many more than any other nursery I know, but nothing like these. However, I bought a pair of I think rather pretty glazed pots.

I used the phone to find the nearest US Post Office, just a mile away, and went there to drop off the DVR for return to AT&T.

Next up, the grocery store next to FOPAL to lay in my favorite no-cal drinks and some snacks for the room. Then, about 11:30, I went into FOPAL and spent 4.5 nonstop hours, cleaning up the Computer section and sorting.

At this point I am not ashamed to say I felt a little bit tired. I headed home but via the T-Mobile store where I meant to return my micro-cell. We always had lousy T-Mobile reception at Tasso street, one or two bars in the living room and “No Service” at the back. That was only an annoyance until Marian got sick and we needed to make lots of phone calls. T-Mobile very nicely gave me the micro-cell, a box that hooks to the wi-fi and acts like a local cell tower. Four bars in every room, it was wonderful!

Now at Channing House I have an acceptable 3 bars everywhere, so I don’t need the micro-cell box. However, the nice young lady wouldn’t take it because I “didn’t have all the parts”. She particularly noted I didn’t have the original yellow CAT-5 cable that came with it. On the way home I remembered there is also a little antenna dongle that I hadn’t brought either. So now I have that to do over.

Anyway, home to chillax and have some dinner and maybe watch the Democratic Debate.

Oh, that revealed a weakness in the voice search for the X1 box. When I said “find debate” all it could find was the PBS show, “The Debate”. When I said “find democratic” all it found was some Netflix show called “Democrats”. Only when I said “find democratic debate” did it find “National Democratic Presidential Debate”. Why couldn’t it find that title for the first two searches? (It’s definitely artificial but I don’t know if it’s intelligent.)

Day 205, Basketball camp, laundry

Tuesday, 6/25/2019

As planned I headed out at 7:15. I decided to take a Lyft rather than cope with the parking. Met Lily and the rest of the usual SWBB fan crew and had a quick breakfast at Jimmy V’s, the cafe next to Maples. For the opening of the one-day camp I was assigned to the “trainer table”. The actual trainer wasn’t there, I was supposed to take notes for her. Each camper whose mom had noted any kind of physical restriction–almost always exercise induced asthma–on the application, was redirected from the sign-in table to me. I was supposed to ask if she felt ok, had any needed meds or inhalers, and remind her to call Katelin, the trainer, if she had any problem whatever. As there were only about 5 campers out of the 100 affected, I didn’t have much to do.

All were checked in by 9:30. Then, it turned out, there was nothing for volunteers to do until 12:30, when check-in for the “elite” camp began. The elite camp is a four-day residential camp.

I walked across to the location for that operation so I knew where it was; then I decided to fill the time with acquiring a few things I’ve been meaning to buy. The first was an antacid, Ranitidine, that I take daily. I called a Lyft to CVS on University avenue. I was about to buy two 90-cap boxes when it occurred to me the price seemed high. Hey, it’s the 21st Century. I got out my phone and in under a minute found that the same 90-pill bottles were literally one-third the price at Target. OK, Target would probably also have the other things I want, too.

So I walked home, got in the car, drove to Tar-zhaay in Mountain View. It took a while but I found what I wanted there, including: three teaspoons, forks, and knives. I could have taken these and more from Tasso street, but I didn’t want to break into the 12-setting set there. (One supposes that a good 12-place set of stainless flatware will sell for more than a 9-place? OK, probably not much.)

From there I drove back to Stanford and parked in the underground Wilbur garage, and walked to the elite camp check-in place. Here I was assigned to the group selling parking passes. Parents who want to spend any time watching their kids need a parking day-pass, and we sold them for $5. We also told parents where to park etc.

During this period, Chuck texted from Tasso street where he was getting a painter’s estimate on the house. He will also get an estimate on replacing the linoleum in the kitchen.

About 3pm that was all over and I drove myself back for the day’s last adventure: Laundry! My first laundry at Channing House. The 6th floor washer and dryer are heavy-duty Speed Queen models that worked fine. There’s an iron and ironing board and I ironed my Docent shirt and pants.

Exciting times in Palo Alto, huh?

Day 196, settling in

Sunday, 6/16/2019

I definitely need those blackout curtains. Or well, I suppose I could buy a sleep mask but I don’t like wearing those. Anyway, awake at 6. Paper didn’t arrive until 7:30; I hope it will come earlier on a weekday.

Awake, and dressed, with no paper to read, I started assembling the desk. It went together fairly easily, and was done about the time the paper arrived. Later in the day I unboxed and set up my big iMac and the file cabinet. Here’s how my almost-complete bedroom/office looks now.

Panorama makes it all wonky. The printer will sit on the cabinet to the right. Out on the deck are some boxes of stuff yet to be sorted out, as well as a big pile of empty boxes to be disposed of.

I took the paper and walked out to find Sunday morning coffee and a baked good. I first looked in at Blue Bottle Coffee on University. Not a nice atmosphere, dark and cave-like, and I didn’t think much of their baked good selection. So up the street to Paris Baguette. Better baked goods. Still not right. On the way home (note word choice) I noticed that The Prolific Oven is even closer than the other two. That’s where I’ll try next week.

Now I launched on a long mess of errands. Things to get from the old house, things to buy. Paper towels for a fascinating example. At Fry’s I got a short coax cable to solve the splitter interface problem. Then at 12, Bill, the buyer of the bed, came in his large SUV, and I helped him in the half-hour long task of breaking down the bed. It was pretty complicated with various drawers and frames. Eventually he got all the pieces fitted into his car and off he went. Unfortunately he did not want the fine McCroskey mattress, so now I have that to dispose of, along with the pillow-top and the mattress cover that were over it. And the feather duvet. Well, that might sell.

At 2340 I took down the AT&T internet modem and tossed it in the car. After a few more stops, and thinking I was done, I remembered it. Oh heck, I have to back-track to the AT&T store at Page Mill and El Camino. I do that, and walk in with the modem under my arm and say, I want to cancel my internet. Oh no, says the friendly young floor rep, you have to do that online. Then they will send you a return kit for your modem.

Meanwhile, I’ve received an email saying the return kit for my DVR is on its way. Despite the fact that I’m positive I purchased the DVR, I realized it is stupid to refuse to return it. It has no use to me anyway, and nobody would buy it. So, I’ll return it.

Back at 621, I fiddled with getting the TV to work, and set up the big iMac, and took a short break before heading out to meet with Chuck. I did not feel like driving more, so on impulse I took a Lyft to his office just off California Avenue.

Bottom line from a long discussion: we really don’t understand L.L.’s motivations or her situation. She has treated her own agent as well as me, rather badly. However, that deal isn’t over yet. She put $50K into escrow. The deal isn’t over until she presents a document for me to sign, telling the escrow manager it is ok to return that. She hasn’t presented it, and conceivably still could come back to close the deal.

In the meantime, we are under no obligation to her, and can market the property to anybody and sell it if we get another offer. So we talked about the timeline for doing that. The critical path item is to get the house emptied, so that it can be painted. That can’t happen until The Sale. Later I talked to Deborah, and she really can’t hold the sale before July 6-7. After that she needs another couple days to clear any unsold items either to trash or a charity. So Chuck is now to schedule a painting contractor to start work on 7/11. He will also get a quote on my favorite upgrade, converting the step-in tub/shower to a walk-in shower. And if the L.L.’s foundation inspection has any action items, we can do those as well.

Back home again, I set up my new Comcast X1 DVR. Its remote has voice input, which I rather pooh-poohed but in fact it works amazingly well. You hold down the mic button and say “Find So You Think You Can Dance” and release the button, and it immediately shows exactly the words you said in text on the screen and executes the search. In this way I quickly set up subscriptions to the 25-odd shows I had subscribed on the old DVR.

The only time the voice unit failed was when I asked for the car show, “Find Fantom Works” and it looked for “Phantom Works” and said it couldn’t find it. Ok, B for effort.

Anyway, the TV is working, the DVR is working, sound bar is working, both computers are up, all the furniture is assembled. I have a stack of boxes as well as a lot of stuff that is just piled in a closet to sort out, but it’s a good start.