Blog Archive 2024 Sep
Monthly Highlights:
- Started doing the crossword puzzles in AARP Magazines
- Increased my daily food variety
- Had an invasive squamous cell carcinoma excised from my left triceps
Sun Sep 1 = This was mostly a Linux day, using the Internet and the Mac's Terminal Mode to figure out the commands for automatically updating my, about 16, outdated Album #2's. Keeping all them identical is important with automation.
- Got to bed at 11:23 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Sep 2 = This was the final Linux day. I used some of my Album #2's to tweak the terminal command script I was developing so, by the time I had only about five drives left to do automatically, but they were slick
Just plug an old Album #2 into one of the Mac's USB ports and double click on Album2Mod. On the album, the script would:
- Delete five out-of-date files
- Copy five new or revised files to the album
- Rename Inverted Shrugs from 3GP to MP4 so the video runs native on either the Mac and PC
- Rename the drive from Untitled to "ArizonaLou2"
- Eject the drive
- Notivy me that it was done with three bongs
- This afternoon I took a 1:15 nap in anticipation of being out late.
- On the way to Tempe for comedy I stopped by the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness. Their 24-hour facility was closed :( So I went back home for my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and bath. It is the first time I've used my master bath tub in over two years, having showered at gyms or, in the rare case of taking a bath at home, used my hall bathtub. It uses less water and the hall bathroom is easier to heat in the winter f
- Tonight's comedy was at
Devil's Advocate down in
Tempe. I held my breath driving down there without my dash cam, but I had no accident or close call. More about that tomorrow.
- The show was my 48th appearance there, but my first in almost two years. I tried to do a little crowd work, a little new stuff, and ended up also doing some of my Gym set.
- It was a rare occasion but I wore shorts. At 99 degrees at 9pm on the Devil's Patio, I thought the heat would be unbearable wearing a comedy T-shirt over a polyester knit T-shirt, but I was OK. It was also OK that I got these three new fans:
- Devil's was out of the chocolate chip cookies they serve with ice cream, so I had an ice cream sandwich for my Monday-night treat here at home.
- Got to bed at 11:59 for 8 hours of excellent sleep, which was fine after my long afternoon nap.
Tue Sep 3 = Yesterday morning I gave myself a 50% chance of being successful gluing the suction cup back into the mount which I had carelessly torn out while adjusting the my Old Shark dash cam.
I used the latest Gorilla glue with
amino alkoxysilane and
HALS- sebacate. Interestingly enough the glue in the bottle needs to be exposed to light in order to not yellow and you dampen one surface when gluing non-pours surfaces. Yesterday morning I glued and weighted the suction cup in place and let it fully cure until this morning before touching it.
- SUCCESS! At least so far the camera is staying on the windshield, although I now handle it much more gently.
- At the Moon Valley LA Fitness I learned from Zerah (name from Matthew 1:3) there, who had had his prostate removed due to cancer a couple years ago, the benefit of combining Kagel exercises with thigh abduction and adduction exercis. Also I got a new fan, who works for American Airlines at Sky Harbor's Terminal Four:
- On the way home I stopped by Aldi for bread, bell pepers and eggs. I hope I remember to not buy their eggs in the future, as they are very expensive, being from cage free chickens.
- This evening I took care of my blog and redid a part of my
Album #2 Update shell script that I somehow deleted. My Mac's
Time Machine backup was not helpful.
- Got to bed at 10:57 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Sep 4 = Lots of good stuff, a little pain and maybe a crook today.
- This was my favorite breakfast with
- a mixture of:
- Grape Nuts
- cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg
- concentrated milk
- grapes
- walnuts
- mixed vegetables
- half a grapefruit
- After checking my emails, working on yesterday's blog and
- sunning
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
I drove up to Mountainside Fitness for a full shower in prep for an appointment with my nearby dermatologist's office. That's where a little pain came in when the doctor froze a benign growth back of my left ear. Next was not painful, but she excised a suspicious 10mm growth on my left triceps.
- Then back at Mountainside I did a slow heavy legs workout.
- Next stop was Albertson's for two vaccines (COVID & flu) and two grapefruit.
- Now for the possible crook. This evening my house started heating up. The AC was blowing 90° F hot air. I checked and the compressor out back was not going. Someone had intentionally disabled the unit. It could not have been by accident. They had to:
- enter my back yard
- go around back to the AC compressor unit
- pull the side "lid" out at the bottom
- lift the "lid" to 90 degrees
- push the "lid" in at its hinge so it would stay open
- pull the shunt out by its T-handle
- turn the shunt over to "off"
- plug the shunt back in in that "off" position
- pull the "lid" out at its hinge so it would close
- latch the "lid" by lining up the catch and pushing the bottom of the lid in
- I'll be waiting tomorrow to see if anyone knocks on my door from an AC company.
- Thinking I might not be the only one, I went around to 10 of my neighbors and found none that none were experiencing a similar problem with their AC.
- Got to bed at 11:28 9 hours of sleep
Thu Sep 5 = Kansas Turnpike's KTag system is messed up. After driving on the turnpike in early August I registered several days later and attempted to pay my bill online. However their system said that I had no tolls and owed nothng. Tuesday I received a bill from them (KTag) for $7.26 for tolls plus $1.50 for mailing me the statement. I checked and their system still says that I owe them nothing. Evidently I had created my account before their system finished processing the "Pay By Plate" so they created a new account with a different account number, although all my other information was identical. The 316 phone number given on their bill was non functional. On their website I got an 800 phone number and waited on hold. It took 40 minutes to get things understood, straightened out and to pay my bill, including the $1.50 due to their mistake.
- I couldn't find or recover the shell script on my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
that I had used to automatically eject drives, so I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure it out again... never did
- It took me about an hour this afternoon to develop a big spreadsheet to track all the social media work that Josh Boyle is doing for me. This will make things more efficient for both of us.
- Considering that I had two vaccinations yesterday I probably overdid my elliptical this morning. This evening I was pretty tired but needed to do grocery shopping so I went to Winco without a gym stop.
- Got to bed at 11:56 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Sep 6 = This was a sort of low energy day. I took two naps totaling about 1:20 trying to store up some energy and get ahead for tonight's show.
- Yesterday I got tickets to see Dusty Slay at the fancy 2,197-seat Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix.
- It is difficult for me to get started writing comedy. One of the reasons is, for effeciency, I need to do it on my computer, but don't know where to start to keep everything reasonably organized. This afternoon I started a new folder, "Writing Topics etc," moved various files into it and started a new file, Cranks. With this new plan, I shoujld be able to get a quick start on my writing and still have things in an organized, searchable location.
- The rest of the day went like clockwork and I got everything in on time as planned.
- About 3:30pm I fixed supper to eat on the way to the Downtown EōS Fitness on the way to The Orpheum, which does not seem to have its own parking.
- I parked in the Cityscape underground parking, did a brief arms workout at EōS Fitness, got eight new fans
and validated the image of my parking stub that I had taken with my phone. It was a seven minute walk to The Orpheum.
- The large audience at the Orpheum loved
Dusty Slay's quirky style of humer. It was a sort of cult audience. Before and after the show I got nine more fans, breaking the 1,800 mark:
- I was parked for almost five hours which ended up costing me $10, which is a lot better than the $24 to $80 parking listed online when I bought my show tickets yesterday.
- Got to bed at 11:44 for 8:47 hours of sleep
Sat Sep 7 = After breakfast I spent some time purging and taking notes from my Sony ICD-PX312 Voice Recorder (mostly notes for comedy ideas). That lead to a comedy writing session. Then I did a little booking work for California in February.
- This evening I went to Planet Fitness for a heavy torso workout.
- Alexa is helping me get a little better sleep and saving me a little time, some figuring and potential mistakes.
I simply tell her to "Set an alarm for 9 hours." She calculates and announces the time I will be getting up. During the night I can ask her, "When is my alarm?" and she'll tell me how long until the alarm and when it will sound. I have the alarm set to start quiet and gradually increase in loudness, in order to wake gently. What a deal!
- Got to bed at 11:25 for hours of sleep
Sun Sep 8 = This morning I added 18 emails to my fan email list, catching up from August 10th.
- Several months ago the primary T-shirt image on my Etsy Store mysteriously switched from navy to white.
Buy T-shirts in 10 colors
It took me a while, but today I got it switched back to navy.
-
- Sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- This evening's project turned out to be a big one: Making these microposters for my upcoming shows:
- The hardest part was finding my the old files for reference that I had not used for about two years. I had forgotten that they all started with "AnnouncingStandups..." I kept the slips at 6-up but reformatted them. Instead of printing double sided flipped vertically, this new version prints single sided. As you can see, the fronts will all be the same and in color while the backs will be variable and in B&W.
- It was getting late and most of the gyms were closed so I did my light legs workout here in my home gym. At least I'll have fresh microposters ready for my next outing and gym visit.
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Sep 9 = The plan for this afternoon and evening: Meet up with Josh Boyle to coordinate my social media, Do a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
at my first visit to the EōS Fitness in Chase Field, head for my first appearance in the new open mic at
Almost Famous here in Oldtown Scottsdale.
- Josh's stop went as scheduled. Toward the end, he mentioned that Almost Famous was a neat place, had had a pretty good open mic and that I might be able to get some good video for future social media reels.
- So I decided to skip the gym and, instead, buck the near rush-hour traffic and drive home for my video equipment and video my set.
- I got the video. There was dim lighting and a very small audience of 18 that didn't laugh a lot. Evidently liked me because they bought four T-shirts (As you can see in the picture three were of the
Lou Design) and six became new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 8.5 hours of sleep with up 30 minutes at 6am
Tue Sep 10 = This morning I had Low energy so only rode my elliptical at 47 RPM.
- It was mostly financial after I took care of emils. I sent a "Bill Pay" check through my CU for Grazing Lease services, recorded some credit card bills in my check register and took a detailed look at statements from Schwab and Fidelity (the latter online).
- Watching the presidential debate was on this evening's agenda. I had set it to DVR on both NBC and ABC so headed off to Mountainside Fitness for light Arms and Torso workouts and my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower a day late. I also became a criminal, getting a new fan there in the locker room. I believe not using cell phone in locker rooms is part of a criminal code.
- I should feel special, but I don't. Today I received four letters from John Allen, the Maricopa County Treasurer with all the bills for my property taxes, ugh!
- Taxes on the two new properties that I purchased on a 1031 exchange tripled. More research commin' up.
- Got to bed at 12:20 for 8:21 hours of sleep
Wed Sep 11 = My dermatologist's office phone that the growth on my left triceps was an "invasive squamous cell carcinoma, so I did a little research:
- Squamous cells are the flat cells in the upper (outer) part of the epidermis (skin), which are constantly shed as new ones form in the basal layer. When these cells grow out of control, they can develop into squamous cell skin cancer (also called squamous cell carcinoma)
- Squamous cell carcinoma is cancer stage 0: The cancer is only in the top layer of your skin (epidermis). This is also called squamous cell carcinoma in situ.
- Squamous cell carcinoma in situ, also known as Bowen's disease, is a non-invasive form of skin cancer characterized by the presence of abnormal squamous cells confined to the outermost layer of the skin. It has the potential to progress into invasive squamous cell carcinoma if left untreated. I'll find out more when I see my dermatologist on Monday to have the carcinoma excised. I will check my theory with him: Regular moderate sun exposure provides vitamin D and helps maintain a tan that looks good and protects against sun exposure. The carcinoma on my left tricep was likely caused by the injury, not sun exposure.
- It's awkward to do with a Mac computer, but I got my Brither HL-L3270CDW printer switched from WiFi back to USB - I think. The printer was taking up to 30 seconds to print out some color pages. B&W was OK at 2 seconds per page. Then the printer was streaking magenta. I mostly fixed that problem by cleaning the printer's magenta corona wire.
-This evening I went to LA Fitness for a heavy legs workout and three new fans:
- Before bedtime both of my hearing aids had done a low-battery shut down after 13:25 hours of use. Not good.
- Got to bed at 11:34 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu Sep 12 = This ws a good day with some of my favorite things like:
- an even-meal breakfast
-
- early shortened sunning
- I lay in the sun for 8 minutes on my back and 8 minutes on my stomach an hour before solar noon (when the sun rays would be maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D)
- providing transportation under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
for Pam
- while Pam was seeing her doctor, paying my first visit to the E Shea Blvd Mountainside Fitness for a slow heavy legs workout and four new fans:
- getting back to pick up Pam just as she was finished and taking her back home
- getting back to my house for a nep
- Booking shows for California veterans in February was on the agenda after all that. I never spoke with anyone, but I tried. I found a list of American Legion posts hosting district meetings and decided they would be a good place to start phoning. No one answered the phones but I left about three voice messages, an email and a text. My attempts to contact someone netted a score of
59 on
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Before bed I downloaded my checking statement. It did not resolve - missed the mark by $200. I'll let it ride until next month when the discrepancy might resolve itself.
- Got to bed at 11:13 for 9:27 hours of needed sleep
Fri Sep 13 = This morning I finished the
2022 Central Europe Comedy Tour on my Trips webpage and uploaded it to my website on the Internet. It's about time, two years after the trip!
- I went to Winco to exchange some Oscar Meyer Jumbo Franks for Clasic ones since I am trying to lose 1.6 lb. On the way home I went to LA Fitness for a torso workout and a new fan:
- Then on to Target for a plush black hand towel to use over my face keep it "dark" for me in the mornings and for another fan:
- Before bedtime I organized some booking contacts for tomorrow for California American Legion and VFW posts, wrote comedy for about 15 minutes, started a new section on
Trips for this year's 2024 tour and outlined what I want to include in the section.
- This evening I did some comedy writing, trying to figure funy stuff about disasters like the hurricane, the debate and my comedy.
- Also I went over my blog for April through August and outlined what to include on
Trips for this year's tour.
- I finished the AARP Aug/Sep Magazine's crossword puzzle. Did better than the previous issue. Crossword puzzles help me to think outside the box.
- Got to bed at 11:54 for 9:03 hours of sleep
Sat Sep 14 = I did a little comedy writing this morning.
- The main project during the day was to check all the video segment s for my Tour Media, that all beach clips end in blank 4 seconds & play properly with my Neumi, Mac & PC
- Also I cycled the external Li battery for the 10" monitor and found that it lasted about 3 hours on a full charge. I was concerned that I had trashed the battery by accidentally leaving its switch turned on.
- The monthly monthly payoff of all my credit cards took 20 minutes for an average of 3:20 minutes each.
- The lack of keyboard shortcuts was hampering me on my Mac until I discovered there are lots of 'em. A well organized list is online
HERE.
Some particularly useful new keyboard shortcuts to me are:
| Cmd-H |
Hide the current window |
| Cmd-M |
Minimize the current window |
| Cmd-O |
Open the highlighted file (in Finder) |
| Cmd-T |
Open new tab; in Browser; in Finder |
| Spacebar |
Quick Look at the highlighted file (in Finder) |
| Cmd-Click |
Show the location of and highlight the file (title bar of finder and other apps) |
| Cmd-tilda |
Switch windows in the same app (like Libre Office) |
Here is a well organized and pretty complete list.
- After supper and after dark I went to Albertson's for grapes at 77¢ a pound then in the parking lot between Anytime Fitness and Burger King, respectively my destination and a place I try to avoid, I saw five people hanging around a smudgy 30' motor home, so naturally jumped at the opportunity of some interaction. Well, at my age I didn't really jump. I approached them with a wise crack like, "Is this a parking lot committee?"
There was:
-
Scottie, around 60, who was glad to see me and had most of his teeth. He said, "Are you buying or selling?" You know what my answer was.
-
Michael, who lived in a wheelchair. He reminded me of my closet space. What you have will probably expand to fill it.
-
Shantell, in her 30's, was probably the most rational person there.
-
A motionless gal laying on the floor of the motorhome just inside the open door, who was evidently descending from some sort of a recent trip.
-
A young guy zipping around on a motocross bicycle
Those people must be ignored or despised a lot because several times Scotty thanked me for coming over and visiting with them.
-
Three of them wanted to be on my fan web page. When I pulled out my camera phone the bicycle guy said a few choice words and zipped away.
-
I showed off how good I was at technology by putting my phone in 10-second delay selfie mode and balancing it on one of the motorhome's clearance lights for the picture (below).
-
I learned two things:
-
1) To avoid a washed out a nighttime selfie image, make sure a parking lot light light is not shining directly on the camera lens. I should have asked Scottie to move his head up two inches.
-
2) As comedians, we can add a little ray light into the lives of others if we take the trouble to go out of our way.
-
I gave Shantell a purple Anytime Fitness T-shirt that I got in Overland Park, Kansas while on tour.
- Got to bed at 11:50 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Sep 15 = My Phonak hearing aids are having battery problems, like low battery warnings starting after wearing them only 10:28 hours. by bedtime both of them have done a low-battery disconnect at 0% charge. To guaranteed making it through the day I have to put them on their charger in the middle of the day. Battery life is one reason I chose these pricy hearing aids.
- It was interesting and very well done. Today I took the AARP Cognitive Assessment. I wanted to get the result as a baseline for future reference in case I feel like I am losing it.
I never said I was fast.
- Got to bed at 11:24 for 9:24 hours of sleep
Mon Sep 16 = Today was a big day with a big 90-mile trip:
- Just before noon I squeezed in a session of
- sun
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- I made my second visit to the spacious Mountainside Fitness in Scottsdale for a light torso workout,
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
shower, change from shorts into comedy garb and four new fans
- Then on to see Dr Frank Tobin my dermatologist in his Scottsdale office. He excised the invasive squamous cell carcinoma on my left triceps:
- Winco down in south Chandler was my next stop for some powdered milk, prunes and bananas.
- Next was the main event, an open mike at the
The Whining Pig way down
in Gilbert.
- I tried some new material about disasters and something else new for me: doing a little crowd work at every show. My little bit of crowd work tonight got the bigest laugh of my set and the bigest laugh of the evening..
- I also got two new fans. This one before the show
and Jacob Airington, the bartender, after the show. He was very supportive, good with my five cameras around the room, made a donation to Alzheimers for one of my stickers for his sticker wall and bought a T-shirt. Thank you, Jacob!
- It was a 42-mile drive home so I:
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 9:09 hours of sleep
Tue Sep 17 = Due to my surgery yesterday, I took it easy on my elliptical this morning, only using my legs with a resistance of 9 at 44 rpm, as opposed to my usual ride with legs and arms with a resistance of 12 and 48 or 49 rpm.
- I took my van into Discount Tire for a needed tire rotation. Other than that, I stayed around home.
- Most of this evening I spent looking up veterans posts' information for phone calls tomorrow. I made a couple calls tonight. The bars at some of the posts were open until midnight so I figured they were just getting wound up by my 10:00 phone calls
- Got to bed at 11:59 for 8:57 hours of sleep
Wed Sep 18 = Due to my arm surgery, still using only my legs on my elliptical this morning I did my two minutes with a resistance of 9 again but upped the speed from 44 to 48 rpm.
- Redressing my arm with the sutures, after I washed it and blotted it with paper towels I finished drying it with my blow drier on low heat. I noticed that there was sort of a buble under the skin. An area seemed to not be connected to anything below it and was sort of flopping in the drier's brease. Figuring that the epidermus needed to be heald in place to grow onto the layers below, I put a compression bandage, not too tight, around my arm.
- Under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
I have a new shopping partner... I think. I tried to phone Roger and only succeeded in leaving him voice mails and a text message. Although he lives down in Sunnyslope, he likes to shop at Winco, which is always my first stop. On the way we pass by an Anytime Fitness, a Planet Fitness and a Safeway. All good possibilities.
- Today's BIG job was to locate, plan, post
here on my website, print out two-sided 6-up announcement sheets and cut them into microposters for my open mics through October. The simplest thing would be to go to the same open mic each week, but no. That would be too easy and not as much fun.
- Due to that and catching up on this blog, I...
- got to bed at 12:54 for 8:45 hours of sleep
Thu Sep 19 = Last night I set reminders all over the house (well not quite, just on Alexa) so I would not forget to take Lyn to her doctor's appointment this morning under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
.
We both plan to live to 100. She is ahead of me with only 4.5 years to go.
- Her doctor's office is not exercise friendly. Their third-floor stairwell door is the only one that is locked. I found this out after running up, two steps at a time, six flights of stairs. My solution was to run on up to the fourth floor and take the elevator down to the third floor.
- Got to bed at 10:43 for 9:06 hours of sleep
Fri Sep 20 = Today I made some booking contacts for my two-week California tour and scored
61 on
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
.
- Two stops on my rare morning trip: LA Fitness and Winco.
- LA Fitness was for a medium-weight legs workout and, especially, to tell my friend, Tim at
The Power Station there about the surgery on my left triceps.
- I accomplished my semi-monthly grocery shopping at Winco and head home.
- I was so proud that I got everything done and home by 11:20 AM.
- When I got home it seemed that everything I had added to my van fell appart.
- The panel I use to monitor my
- LiFePO4
- my van's 100 Amp-hour Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
house
battery
came off the dash, supported at an odd angle by its hook-up cable
- The remote thermometer with which I monitor my AC fell down, dangling by its wire, because it sits on top of the LiFePO4 monitor
- As I drove into the garage my
- GPS
- Garmin 885T with voice recognition and traffic
suction cup let loose so the GPS came crashing down and left dangling by its power cord
- Since the GPS power cord looped around the suction cup mount for my OldShark 1080P DashCam, the dash cam was yanked out of its suction cup and left dangling by its USB power cable
- So I was left with all these things hanging and dangling
- I did get my groceries all stowed in time to
- sun
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- About supper time I noticed heat coming from my over. It was mysteriously been on Broyl and was about 450 degrees insice.
- From
Clark Howard I learned that there is a temporary over supply of appliances and that it might be a good time to buy. Although my washing machine is going great guns, it is an older agitator type, which means that it uses more water and detergent, does not clean clothes as well and is harder on clothes although it is faster than the front-loading machines.
- So I went on an Internet binge, researching clothes washers, mostly using
Consumer Reports. After a lot of research I decided, if I were getting one, on the LGWM6500HWA with a 110 minute normal cycle for $945 plus $280 for its pedestal. Then I measured my laundry area. All the regular-sized clothes washers are too big so I had been wasting my time.
- It was late, but I couldn't quit now. I started all over researching COMPACT front-loading washing machine. At least I knew what features I was looking for. After midnight I zeroed in on the Miele WXD160WCS - EXPENSIVE at $1499 plus an unbelievable $579 for its pedestal, but it does an excellent job of cleaning, is pretty easy on clothes and pretty quiet.
- Got to bed at 12:45 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Sep 21 = During the day and evening I scored
94 on
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- I have gotten a little shaggy. My last haircut was a little over three months ago on June 12th at a Great Clips in Mebane, NC on my way to do a show at the Black Mountain Veterans Home, so today, online, I checked in to my neighborhood Great Clips (20235 N Cave Creek Rdin the Cave Creek Marketplace shopping Center) and got the haircut. Julie was a little agressive so now my little quiff will take a couple of weeks to grow back to normal.
- Then on to Mountainside Fitness. Before I went into the gym I reattached my
- LiFePO4
- my van's 100 Amp-hour Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
house
battery
monitor to the van's dash using some old double-stick foam tape. I hope it holds. I figure there's a 50% chance it will. In the gym I did a medium-weight arms workout and took a shower, to get rid of any prickly hair, to wash the sutures on my left triceps and to get a new fan:
-This evening when I got drowsy at my computer I sorted a huge amount of laundry, including comforters, bed spreads queen sheets etc. Tomorrow I'll see how much of it will fit in one of the giant front-loading machines at Papa's Laundromat, 19401 N Cave Creek Rd.
- Got to bed at 11:23 for 9:01 hours of sleep
Sun Sep 22 = The sutures in my left triceps have become a little painful. At the gym yesterday I may have overextended my arm doing some inverted shrugs. So washed it with antibacterial soap and rebandaged it, forgetting to apply vaceline. It is slightly red around the sutures. I don't think it is infection, but will monitor the situation.
- Yesterday I had used some old WeldWood contact cement to reglue the suction cup into the mount for my Old Shark dash cam.
When I mounted it on my windshield, surprise, surprise, it didn't come appart.
- About 11:30 I took about everything I own to Papa's Laundromat. It took a $10 giant front-load washing machine plus a $4.50 medium machine for it all. Including drying, about 80 quarters. The staff there was very helpful and the closest laundromat to me although it definitely not the latest technology, not taking credit cards and not having wifi. I also got a new fan there:
- It was a little daunting here at home, putting away all my clean comforters, towels, sheets shorts etc, but I got it all done.
- This evening I had an excellent phone conversation with
- Anne
- My daughter, who live in Flagstaff, AZ
.
- Got to bed at 11:40 for a good night of 9:22 hours of sleep
Mon Sep 23 = The skin around the sutures on my left triceps is a little red and it is a little painful. I don't know if it is infected or normal, so wanted a pro to take a look. The problem is that I have a really full schedule starting this afternoon and ending in Avondale with a comedy open mic.
- Pinnacle Dermatology worked me in and PA Fiona said my arm looks normal for the situation. Thanks guys!
- That was the first stop on today's 80 mile trip. The next was to Josh Boyle's for a work session on social media and
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
- Next was way out west for my second appearance in Avondale, AZ. It was my first appearance at the
Tap2 Craft Beer & Wine Lounge. I tried new stuff and remembered everything in the correct order, except I forgot to plan or do crowd work. A gentleman there was the first to use the QR code I have for donating to Alzheimers. Thank you for your generosity, John.
- I got home in time to add these four fans from the comedy show to my
Fans web page.
- Pinnacle Dermatology's website communication is messed up. This evening I received an email saying, "You have an update in your QualDerm Partners Patient Portal." They had me follow a link to the portal sign in. Then they told me there were no messages available and to wait for a phone call from my provider. Thanks, Pinnacle for wasting my time!
- Got to bed at 11:22 for 8:43 hours of sleep
Tue Sep 24 = Patty phoned from Pinnacle Dermatology this morning phoned about the invasive squamous cell carcinoma excision eight days ago, that the margins are clear so I have nothing to worry about.
- I'm glad I got my mail and checked the grocery adds before I left home this evening because I saved a stop. I was going to get grapefruit and bananas at Fry's Food, but the bananas are on sale starting tomorrow, 27¢ a pound at Albertson's.
- My only stop was the Esporta Fitness at 32nd St & Bell, which they have recently renamed back to LA Fitness. In spite of my somewhat painful left tricep due to sutures, I gingerly did a heavy torso workout and got these six new fans.
- Got to bed at 11:52 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Sep 25 = My neise, Stacie phoned from Marana and invited me for dinner tomorrow, along with my brother from Mesa and Joyce, our cousin from Tuscon. Now I've got to get in high gear for the 120 mile trip.
- This afternoon my dermatologist replaced the sutures with glue and Steri-Strips. My left biceps feel a lot better.
- On the way home I stopped by Mountainside Fitness. I couldn't do my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
because I didn't have my gym bag, so I did a heavy legs workout and got these two new fans
- I projected my budget through November.
- This evening's big project was to take a short video, process it with
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
and then export it in different formats to figure the optimal way (*).
Final Cut Pro Video Exports w No Difference In Quality:
| Format of File | File Size MB | Mac Plays | Windows PC Plays |
| Source from camcorder | 586.7 | yes | yes |
| Apple ProRes 422 | 3,200.0 | yes | no |
| Apple ProRes 422 LT | 2,180.0 | yes | no |
| * H.264 | 355.8 | yes | yes |
- Got to bed at 10:55 for 9:13 hours of sleep
Thu Sep 26 = A BIG day! At 9 this morning I listened to and sort of watched a presentation by Fidelity Investments of Ben Bernanke and others discussing the financial situation considering the upcoming election.
- For my website I added to my table-making skills, the "text-align:right" style, as you can see in yesterday's table for the "File Size MB" numbers. Always something to challenge the brain.
- About 12:30 I headed south a couple hours on I-10 to the Marana
Snap Fitness in Tucson. Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules, I was not able to meet Ben, the owner and there was not enough time for a workout but I did get in an overdue
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and two new fans:
- Then on to see Stacie and all. We had a lovely visit. The boys showed me some of their stuff and how they could jump on their trampoline.
Pictured below:
- Frankie, 5.5, recently earned his white belt in Karate, is full of energy, a real extrovert and likely a future comedian
- Rocco, 9, remembered me, was interested in how I added pictures to my fan web page and is an all around neat kid
- Gabriel, 10, is into music and played his violin for me and the other guests
- Hope, 2, was a little bashful, but of course she did not know me
- Then of course there's their mom, my neise, Stacie. Dave, the dad was away doing air force stuff.
- I left Marana a little after dark and had a good drive home, shelling and eating some sunflower to stay alert. I didn't get drowsy for the whole trip.
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Sep 27 = This morning's big project was to get my house straightened up a little for
- Anne
- My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
's
brief visit before we head down for a Wendy's lunch and then to Sky Harbor Airport. She is flying to Denver for a Youth Writer's Conference.
- My main source for raw desert land, Richard Arambula of
Sotheby's Russ Lyon Realty, phoned this morning and we caught up on what's been going on in our respective lives. He is certainly a neat guy. He is going to have his assistant, Patrick Cole, send me a map with my and nearby properties' taxes.
- In Marana yesterday evening I got four gallons of Cheveron Top Tier gas, hopefully enough to make it to Costco today. After delivering Anne for her flight, I headed noth to Costco.
- I arrived at Costco Gas with 5.8 miles of gas to spare. After filling up I went into Costco, itself. As usual, I found nothing to buy. They had no grapefruit or fold-top sandwich bags and their 100% whole wheat bread was way more expensive than Aldi's. At the back, by one of the food-sampling stations I did get a new fan:
- After Costco it was down to Anytime Fitness for a heavy arms workout, modified slightly because my triceps wound is still healing.
- Then to nearby Albertson's for the grapefruit which neither Costco nor Winco had, for fold-top sandwich bags at a penny each and a new fan, which is priceless
- This evening I used Patrick Cole's map to calculate taxes per acre and found that my taxes average three times as as much as nearby comparable properties.
- Got to bed at 11:59 for 8:48 hours of sleep
Sat Sep 28 = I learned my lesson today. Pay close attention to what my MacBook is doing. Sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own. Due to the comeputer and to my own doing, I ended up with various versions of
AARP Wish of a Lifetime in three folders on my computer and in the cloud on Google Drive. It took a while for me to combine all the changes and pare it down to one file (which I will back up online, but not Google Drive) with alias' linked to it.
- After some experimentation I got Alexa to do what I want - somewhat. I like to spend five minutes each uncluttering things like the kitchen counter, kitchen table, desk return, desk and credenza and want signals at 5-minute intervals when it's time to switch. Alexa has no such, so I set an alarm for five minutes. Each time it sounds I simply say, "Alexa, snooze five minutes."
- Moon Valley Planet Fitness was my trip this evening. I picked it because I have gotten no fans from there in about a month. After tonight, still no fans, but I did get in a heavy torso workout.
- A 355 page pamphlet of ballot issues arrived in the mail today. I started wading through it and covered the
first two propositions.
- Got to bed at 10:48 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Sep 29 = While I was using my big old IBM Wheelwriter electronic typewriter to automatically fill in blanks on Banner Alzheimer's Foundation donation envelopes, the typewriter quit working. Its print hammer quit. Probably a loose connection somewhere down inside. Restarting the typewriter, changing its print wheel, the impression setting and wiggling some wires did not fix the problem so I explored another avenue... my Brother laser printer.
- It was a most-of-evening project, but I got the laser printer to work better and faster than the typewriter ever did. I ended up using Libre Office Draw text boxes. What took the longest time was adjusting the line spacing and shifting the text boxes so they exactly matched the check boxes and lines on the envelopes. At bottom of this picture is the original typewriter version and at the top is the Brother Laser Printer version:
- After supper I went to Planet Fitness again. I did light legs and arms workouts and got four new fans!
- Then on to Fry's for 77¢ grapes and a father and son as two additional fans:
- I got a message from
- Anne
- My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
that she won the big SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) award in Denver for the book she is writing:
The Canon of Katrina Quinn. I'm so proud!!!
- Checking my email before going to bed, I found that Wednesday at 7:00 PM I will be at
Stir Crazy in
Glendale. It's always a full house and a fun show. If you're interested here are
.
Tell me when you arrive. If I have 3 or more guests and I'll get double the time.
- That kept me u pate so I got to bed at 12:20 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Sep 30 = For three days my left hearing aid has not been connecting to
- myPhonak
- the app on my phone for my Phonak hearing aids made by Snova of Switzerland
.
- Other than that, this was one of the best and busiest days of the month and not because I drove 94 miles around in the city of Phoenix.
- The day started off by taking Jim to his doctor's appointment under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
until a little after noon.
- After a late lunch and fixing a bagged supper I took a nap, did my blog for yesterday and worked on my comedy set for this evening'sx show.
- A little after four I headed to Sky Harbor Airport to pick up my daughter from her trip to Denver for the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference.
- While waiting in the Cell Phone Waiting Lot, I ate my supper and mused over the four handicapped parking slots near the sign that said no one was allowed to leave their vehicle and everyone was required to stay in it. There was no place to go! Maybe they figured that the handicapped were blind. In that case, I didn't want to be on the road.
- Naturally Anne was very tired after the conference but very happy, having won the top award at the conference for her writing. I heard all about it on the delightful drive up to my house where she had left her car. I congratulated her with a card, a camcorder, a tripod etc. I'm so proud... and she became my latest fan:
- After I saw her off for Flagstaff I headed down to the
The Joy Lush Club in
Uptown Phoenix for comedy. For my set I did a rant about our county's Transportation Proposition 478.
- Here are some of the comedians on the show:
- Comedian, Karl Goldthorpe and I matched because he wore the stool-design comedy T-shirt that he had previously purchased. Tonight he helped support Alzheimer's research and bought another T-shirt. This time one with my headshot. What a guy! He also became a new fan:
- Got to bed at 11:41 for 9 hours of sleep
