Mon Aug 1 = This was a long hard day of driving. The only thing I did besides drive, take a couple short naps and eat meals today, was to check and adjust my tire pressures, which I always do the first of the month.
- It was a tough drive, but I arrived at the Back Alley Draft House in Albuquerque in plenty of time to do the comedy. Kevin Baca, the producer let me hook my Zoom recorder into the PA system's monitor output. I got excellent audio of just me. Camera #1 (Canon) got the best audio of the audience, but I haven't figured out how to combine the two audio tracks effectively. As a result it is not up on YouTube yet. It looks like I need sidechain compression, which would automatically adjust the audience level according to my talking.
Tue Aug 2 = This was one of those days... that makes you appreciate the rest of the days. Sorry to mention it, Anne, but my diarrhea the last few days reached an unpleasant peak this morning when I made it to the Walmart Neighborhood Market's family bathroom just barely in time... almost. My small load of messy mucus reached the outside world before my briefs and pants cleared the danger zone. I took my second Loperamide right after the event and cleaned up as best I could. When I got back to my van I changed to cargo shorts. I had been wearing (cargo) pants, because that is what many comedy clubs insist on.
- Today's schedule had been:
Best Buy
Library
Gym
Brickyard for comedy
but was now:
Best Buy
LAUNDROMAT
Library
Gym
Brickyard for comedy
- When I started my van I heard a strange little sound. Thinking nothing of it, I went to a Best Buy and bought a Square, so I can now take credit cards for my comedy T-shirts. I have lost several sales so far without that capability.
- Back at my van to head for the laundromat, my van engine would not turn over, in spite of all the normal remedies of charging with the LiFeMnPO, jump start, tapping the starter and tapping the battery connections. There went my plans for the laundromat, the library, the gym and the Brickyard!
- I phoned Amica Insurance who dispatched a towing service, which hadn't come after two hours, in spite of a 10-minute ETA along the way. I arranged my own towing service. About the time my towing man arrived, Amica's towing man phoned that they would get to me in about two hours.
- I spent the night at Clay's Automotive.
Wed Aug 3 = I'd recommend Clay Whitten and his auto repair shop (505 205-2560) to anyone in the Albuquerque area. He jacked the front of my van up and, armed with a multimeter, found that the signal wire to the starter had come loose, in spite of its having a latched connector. He didn't charge me anything for reconnecting it. After an oil change I was on my way to...
- Red Door Brewing in downtown Albuquerque. It was a good audiance of 34. However, the acoustics were horrible for recording and the lighting was not good. Here's the result,
Thu Aug 4 = This morning I started the process of opening a new savings account at DSFCU (Desert Schools Federal Credit Union) in Phoenix. I plan to use the account for deposits from Square for T-Shirt purchased with charge cards. That way my regular checking account will not be cluttered up with a lot of extra small deposits.
- I spent time in a library working on my website. Then I drove to participate in the final open mic at Kripton Blue. There was an audiance of nine, about half were the comedians. The acoustics were great, but the mic kept cutting out on me and the crowd was way accross the room and there was a lot of crashing balls from the pool tournament on the other side of the half wall. Because there were only a few comedians, we were told to do as much time as we liked.
- I learned several things;
Don't put getting a good video ahead of the audience. I wish I had stepped off the stage and done my set down near the audience.
The unexpected additional time would have been perfect for one of my longer bits, like Maui, OBX, or The Dominican Republic rather than trying to string a lot of short bits together.
- After the show, in the driving in the rain, I headed toward Arizona and spent the night at a Walmart in way western Albuquerque.
Fri Aug 5 = Driving occupied much of the day. I arrived in Payson around 4:30pm, thanks to gaining an hour with the change from the MT of New Mexico to the MST of Arizona. I hung out in my van in the shade of a tree, parked near Big Lots and caught up on my website. I heard that Star Trek Beyond might be a good movie to see if you like high tech, high dynamic range, Atmos sound, fight scenes... and have ear plugs.
- This evening I had supper with Rose Anne (my X) and her younger brother, Jay. We had a good visit. They were interested in what happened to my hand so I took the opportunity to do five-minutes of my Dominican Republic routine.
- I spent this final night of my road trip in my van in Rose Anne's driveway.
Sat Aug 6 = After more visiting with Rose Anne while I cleaned the white letters on my tires and discussing the inadvisability of installing a zipper in my vinyl T-Shirt bag, I headed for Phoenix after a little grocery shopping and getting enough gas to get me to Phoenix where it will be 40¢ cheaper. I also ran my van through an automatic car wash, with an undercarriage rinse at the Circle H Car Wash, 713 South Beeline Highway in Payson. What service! The young man and his assistant wiped down my whole van. With my tip the whole thing cost me $11. I also buffed my headlights.
- Back down in the hot valley, I stopped by an LA Fitness and filled up with gas. I arrived home about 3:30pm and got my van unloaded.
- What a trip! Here is the, 3,748mile, 3 week, 10 city route I took home from OBX, which included 15 comedy appearances in 6 states:
Arrived after 2 weeks, 2,761 miles and 7 comedy appearances in 7 cities
Jul 14
Rodanthe, NC
Th
Headed home after 2 months 2,832 OBX miles, 35 comedy appearances, 5 kiteboarding sessions on Pamlico sound
Aug 6
Phoenix, AZ
Sa
Arrived home after 3748mi, 15 appearances in 6 states in 3 weeks
Total
Trip
Almost 4 months, 9,341 miles and 57 comedy appearances in 10 states
Sun Aug 7 = This morning I researched 4TB hard drives and had a nice visit with Ken, my neighbor to the east. Things like this take time, but people are worth it. Ken is big into restoring old cars.
- I was ready to leave for my big trip of the day when I noticed that my driver's right rear tire was flat. I pumped it up and decided it would last long enough to go to Albertsons and back. After Albertsons, it was still OK, so I made the rest of my rounds without wasting time, armed with an air bottle, which I never needed. I went to Fry's Electronics for a 4TB hard drive for backing up my computer, bought new wheel cover (hub caps) at O'Reilly Auto Parts shopped for groceries at Winco, had a medium-heavy workout at LA Fitness, Moon Valley and bought a couple small travel cases for my T-shirts etc. from Goodwill at their half-off Saturday.
Mon Aug 8 = Today I got my new Square savings account finalized with DSFCU.
- END OF AN ERA: After over 9 years, I went back to standard size (90k) tires for my van. No more honkin' big tires. Thus I should save s little money, get better mileage... and be less cool. To make up in the cool department, I have installed a set of shiny new wheel covers. They go well with my shiny, new-looking repainted van.
- I took my computer and a video cable to the Union Hills Cave Creek Goodwill store and bought a new 17" monitor to replace the one that does not work most of the time. I am sure the check-out lady thought I had changed the price. After some polite, but persistent negotiating, I finally bought it from the manager at the marked price, much to the chagrin of the check-out lady. The price I paid matched that of the other 17" monitors.
- I finished off my trip with a medium-heavy arms workout at Fitness 1.
Tue Aug 9 = I have been trying to locate a small meeting room where I can get together with a few other comedians for writing sessions. So far no dice. I think I'll call the group Arizona Lou COmedy Writing WorkshopS, with an acronym of ALCoWWs, pronounced ALL COWS. Ideas?
- Pedro Ramirez, the landscaper who took care of my weeds while I was gone on my trip, came over today so I could pay him the balance of what I owed him for doing the deed. He did a good job
- I made two pounds of my cinnamon-ginger mixture. That should give me five months of delicious cereal, oatmeal and cottage cheese for my various breakfasts and lunches. Oh, yes, the ratio is 3 parts of powdered cinnamon to one part powdered ginger, by weight (similar ratio by volume).
- With some encouragement from my daughter, Anne, I am trying a new approach to SLEEPING at night. After observing my sleep patterns with SleepBot on my phone I determined that my normal sleep cycle is a little less than 1.5 hours. Last night, I set a timer for peeing after three hours of sleep, two pees a night. Both pees were only small voids. The first one's alarm jostled me awake, because I was sleeping fairly deeply.
- Tomorrow night I'll try setting my SleepBot as an alarm to wake me between 2:45 and 3:00 hours, waiting until the full three hours if I am sleeping soundly. In any case it will wake me gently.
Wed Aug 10 = I don't know what is going on with my Gmail, but today I had about 1000 requests to confirm my new membership in various newsletters and web services. Also I got confirmation for a $2500 Canon EOS5 camera body, which I did not order. Also I got a text message on my phone that someone from Omaha used my Gmail password.
- My myoporum #6 died while I was on my trip. The others were OK. I went to Moon Valley Nursery and got a replacement. They gave it to me at half price, since the original had died. Thanks, guys.
- Only one of my credit cards had anything charged last month and I paid it off.
- Sleeping last night, SleepBot woke me out of a very deep sleep to pee after the first three-hour interval and out of a pretty deep sleep the second three-hour interval. Both pees were generous.
- Tomorrow night I'll try setting my sleepBot as an alarm to wake me between 3 and 4.5 hours during light sleep, to get my pees in during light-sleep periods.
Thu Aug 11 = I decided to implement an idea that should increase the funny in my comedy, help other comedians and further the cause of comedy: conducting Arizona Lou's COMEDY WRITING Workshops. Today I made posters for the project.
- I took me 45 minutes, using a special spreadsheet, to analyze the jokes in the 10-minute set of my 300th appearance in Little Rock, AR. My current goal is to reduce the frequency of my comedy appearances so I'll have more time for developing my skills. Analyzing a set a day is part of that goal.
Fri Aug 12 = I ordered a vinyl banner from for my Arizona Lou's COMEDY WRITING Workshops from Metro Printing & Copying, 13439 North Cave Creek Road, Suite 8, Phoenix, AZ 85022,
Moon Juiced my myoporums and adjusted the pressures in all my new tires to 35.5 psi, cold in the 95° F garage.
- At LA Fitness, Moon Valley, I had a relaxing time, which included the Jacuzzi, shower and heavier, slow torso workout.
Sat Aug 13 = I have been working long and hard on my Comedy Writing Workshops idea. Today I wrote up an information page.
- For my T-shirt project, I cut some semi-flexible cutting boards into 4" wide strips to made dividers for my new Goodwill T-Shirt suitcase. The idea is to be able to quickly retrieve or count my shirts of various sizes without having to put size stickers on them, which is a pain and takes a lot of time.
- This evening, on my trip, I did a really short (10-minute) heavy legs workout at the Moon Valley LA Fitness, and then went to the House of Comedy to see a show headlining Nick Turner, with an audience of 30.
Sun Aug 14 = I got my Comedy T-Shirts into my new Goodwill T-Shirt suitcase. At least for the time being, I don't plan on modifying the suitcase. I had considered putting a clear plastic window on the lid to show off the shirts, but that would be a lot of trouble and make possible air travel more difficult with it.
- Tonight was my first comedy appearance since getting back home to Phoenix... at the Phoenix Center for the arts. It was also it was the new host's (TJ) first official time. I got pretty good audio with m Zoom microphone at the front of the balcony.
,
I took Denise shopping. I guess she missed the shopping trips for the last four months while I was on my road trip.
- This evening I ordered 25 Arizonas Lou T-shirts; quantities and sizes depending on the past sales as per the records on my Square account.
- This evening I went, as an audience member, to the House of Comedy for the monthly Monday showcase (moving to Wednesdays next month) that Sidney Smith produces.
Tue Aug 16 = This morning I tweaked some stuff on various web pages at arizonalou.com, like past appearances' venues (108), cities (57) and states (26).
- I used a paint stirring stick and some Velcro to engineer a device to prop my T-shirt suitcase lid open at 90 degrees so it does not flop all around and also serves as a support for displaying my shirts.
- My comedy appearance this evening was at The House of Comedy. It was a good show with eight pre-booked comedians, given ten minutes each, including four of my comedian friends. After the show there was an open mic with three minutes each. All the audience stayed for it, and John K and I were the only open micers. I had a lot of fun and got a lot of laughs during my 3:11.
Wed Aug 17 = Quite a bit of driving today. It started this morning with me driving Lyn to her PT appointment under the auspices of
.
Then from home, LA Fitness for a short, but medium-heavy arms workout. Then back home to lay in the sun and eat lunch. Then to north Scottsdale for a dermatologist appointment, making several shopping stops on the way back home. Then to The Comedy Spot in Scottsdale for their excellent $10 on-going Wednesday improv class.
Thu Aug 18 = This evening was my first time back at Chop and Wok in Scottsdale since my trip. It was the usual crowd of semi-attentive bar patrons and comedians. Charles Engel is the new producer and host. Congratulations, Charles on a good show... and for starting on time, which is unusual with comedy shows.
Fri Aug 19 = It took me 27 minutes to check off my checkbook with April's statement. That's how far behind I am (blush).
- This evening I drove down to Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix to see host, Clayton Perkins, feature Andy Steinberg (who was on Tuesday's show) and headliner Ian Edwards.
Sat Aug 20 = I spent most of my morning familiarizing myself with some of the finer points of the Zoom digital recorder/microphone that I use for my comedy appearances, including the auto and manual recording levels in the four microphone configuration modes and line and microphone inputs.
- Early afternoon I watered my myoporums # 4 and 6, which are not looking too healthy, delivered a comedy t-shirt to Alissa at C & R Tire. She really appreciated it.
- This evening's big project was trying to add a sidechain feature to my CyberLink video/audio editing software. No dice with ReaComp. The goal is to combine direct microphone input of me with an audience/house recording that is automatically adjusted up when I pause for laughs etc. - all in post processing.
Sun Aug 21 = Today I mostly worked around the house on projects
Since January, 2014 my comedy has included:
21 Feature-length appearances (15-39 minutes)
11 Headliner-length appearances (40-60 minutes)
310 Appearances total
9,369 Total audience count
Mon Aug 22 = Today I probably went through and organized my recently arrived Comedy T-shirts.
- I did a slow heavy legs workout at the Moon Valley LA Fitness.
Tue Aug 23 = This afternoon I met with Betsey, PA for my new urologist, Dr. Bernard M. Gburek. She was very professional in her examination. Should I say she complemented me on my course-net underbriefs.
- Tonight was my first appearance at the Tempe Tavern. As usual, for my first time I did my famous Old Man stuff.
Wed Aug 24 = At noon I met with Tina McGomery at the E Union Hills
DSFCU
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
to go over my trust, will etc. The only things that I need to do, is to create an Arizona Mental Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Financial Power of Attorney.
- This afternoon I got a right testicular ultrasound image done as a base image for a very small lump that is unchanged from a year ago. Copay was $50!!
- Comedy tonight was at Toso's - my first time since returning. I included a new bit about self-driving cars.
Thu Aug 25 = My Canon printer has not worked since I got home and nothing seems to get it going again. It went through all the printing motions and printed nothing but blank pages.
- I spent most of the day researching LASER printers. After considering several all-in-one printers, I settled on a printer-only, Samsung Model M2835DW. It is VERY economical to operate, does auto duplex (double-sided printing), will fit the area in my office, is fast (about 2 seconds per page) and the printouts will look really good.
- At Chop and Wok in Scottsdale this evening I did a new bit on a bout with diarrhea on my trip. It went over reasonably well, although I was not as well prepared as I would have liked to be.
- After the show, I stayed up late and ordered my new Samsung printer.
Fri Aug 26 = I downloaded instructions for my new Samsung printer and familiarized myself with how to get it going when it arrives.
- Tonight I saw headliner, Mark Viere at the Tempe Improv's 7:30pm show. He was unbelievably funny for his 50-minutes. For my comedy education, I stayed for the 10pm show also, and he was just as funny for his73-minutes, although I knew what was coming. I kept statistics for Mark's second show. He had the audience laughing 41 minutes, which is a fantastic 56% of the time. He got 353 laughs, which was 4.8 laughs per minute.
Clayton Perkins was the host and Andy Steinberg was the feature. Interestingly enough, none of the three comedians did much crowd work. What they have in their comedy that I don't have in mine is more entertaining expressions and actions.
Sat Aug 27 = Those of you who know me know I like bells. I found a counter bell (like the ones you see at the front desk of hotels) at Dollar Tree. I couldn't resist. Now it sits on my desk for me to ring as a reward or completing one of my tasks.
- This evening I did 10 minutes of a heavy arms workout at Fitness 1 before they closed at 8pm.
Sun Aug 28 = This morning I got up late, having gotten to bed about 1:30am, still working on sidechain audio for my comedy videos.
- Around noon I drove to Mesa to lunch and visit with
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
.
George wasn't there, being on his way back from their Colcord cabin with a friend, so Cindy and I had a good lunch and visit.
- Next stop was the Kax Stage at the Herberger Theater. I was one of four comedians. The show started with poems from Barbara Leevely, who makes me look like a young kid. There was some very creative poetry.
- I topped off my trip at the LA Fitness on East Camelback Rd where I finished the heavy arms routine I started yesterday at Fitness 1, and then did a slow heavy torso workout.
Mon Aug 29 = I impulsed this afternoon and arranged the final stand and location for my new LASER printer that is due to be delivered tomorrow. Also, and the thing that took a lot of time, I researched paper thickness and found this chart:
US Basis Weights
Caliper
Metric
Bond
Text
Cover
Index
Points (1 Point = 0.001")
GSM (g/m2)
20
50
75
24
60
90
28
70
105
32
80
120
36
90
50
136
38
100
55
6.0
140
43
110
60
90
162
47
120
65
97
8.0
177
54
74
110
199
58
80
120
10.0
218
90
135
245
93
140
12.0
253
100
150
271
115
170
14.0
310
Bottom line: My .013" thick business cards may be too thick for the new printer, even using manual feed.
- My big trip today was to the mail box accross the street.
Tue Aug 30 = My new Samsung Model M2835DW B&W LASER printer arrived around noon. By supper time I had it working, and it is absolutely what I expected it to be. I think I will even be able to print my business cards, using the manual feed and the direct-exit-out-the-back features, as that gives the paper a flat path.
- It was good to get back to comedy at the Grand Avenue Pizza, hosted by Kapono Rowe. They have a real stage now - sort of. I included my new self-driving car bit.
Wed Aug 31 = I pretty well bombed tonight at Tosos. For the second time I tried a new bit on a bout with diarrhea on my trip. Also, some of the comedians were talking of a possible schedule conflict with my Comedy Writing Workshops starting Sep 12th for six Mondays.
- With all that on my mind, and deciding how to work through the forest, I went to bed about midnight... without checking my calendar for Thursday. So...
