Fri Nov 1 = This morning I uploaded the audio files from Tuesday's comedy at Bullshooters. James Wennlune there asked if I would like to be interviewed for a podcast. Of course I said, "Yes!" I think I would have been a better interviewee if I had inquired as to the nature of the interview. The title of the podcast is Date Life Live.
- I finished my election research online. Among other things I listened to debates by the candidates for the Arizona Attorney General and for the Maricopa County Sheriff. While those debates were running I ran to the kitchen to prepare five pounds of grapes, put them in three plastic bags and then into the freezer. Now I'll have grapes when they are not on sale.
- After lunch I took Cindy to her doctor's appointment under the auspices of
.
On the way back to her house we stopped by a Dollar Tree for a greeting card for
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
.
and plastic spoons for Cindy. How delightful! She also became a new fan:
- After droppng her off at her house I went to LA Fitness for a heavy torso workout and a visit with my frind, Tim DePriest at his Power Station.
- Then on to Safeway to find they were out of both raspberries and blueberries, both of which were on sale.
I got home, drove into the garage and backed right back out because I had forgotten to go to Albertsons to buy the raspberries and blueberries. All Albertsons had were blueberries, but that, along with a raincheck will get me by. I also got a new fan there:
- This evening I caught up with
some, by logging 10 volunteer services I provided; mostly for transportation and "shopping with."
- Got to bed about 10:32 for about 9 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 2 = This morning I got my Past Comedy Appearances updated and the audio uploaded from Tuesday at
Bull Shooters on West Peoria Ave.
- Today's big event was the Arizona Authors Association Literary Awards Banquet. I was invited because
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
.
was one of the finalists.
- I had my act together enough before leaving to do a few things like taking a nap before getting dressed for the occasion. I also got my van all loaded and set so had about 10 minutes to sit on the couch to relax and read Raspberry Pi for Kids (A "For-Dummies" book).
- The awards banquet included some of the most talented writers in Arizona. What a group!
- Anne got second place in the "Unpublished Novel" category for her The Canon of Katrina Quinn - Here is the program, the proud father and happy daughter and my latest fan.
- After the program I drove out to Dear Valley Airport to get a new fan at Cutter Aviation and to see Anne and Robby off to Flagstaff in their slick Mooney airplane.
- On the way home I stopped by Safeway for some raspberries (not the Pi version) and a new fan in the parking lot.
- This evening after looking up comedy clubs in San Antonio and Austin TX, I found emails addresses for nine of them and added them to my States by Regions spreadsheet.
- Got to bed at 12:33 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Nov 3 = Today I finished reading the things that interested me in Raspberry Pi for Kids (A "For-Dummies" book). This gave me an introduction to the Raspberry Pi and some of the things it can do.
- This afternoon I learned the basics of MIT's Scratch, simple and entertaining, that teaches kids basic computer logic as they arrange blocks in a stack to make their sprites do things. It can run on the Raspberry Pi.
- Python interests me. It is a widely used computer programming language that even runs on the Raspberry Pi. I don't want to confuse myself by learning two languages at once so will put Python on the shelf and focus on PHP, which is an open source server-side scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages that can be embedded in the HTML code of a website.
- Since I was out of frozen mixed vegetables, for supper I decided to eat a can of clam chowder from my pantry.
- I had sort of a bum trip this evening. I drove to Esporta Fitness and did not remember that they close early on Sunday until I got there and saw the dark gym. Then I forgot to stop across the street at Fry's and buy frozen mixed vegetables and bananas on my way to Anytime Fitness for a light legs workout and a new fan:
Anytime Fitness is next door to Albertson's where, if I were thinking, could have bought the frozen mixed vegetables and bananas.
- Back home, I ordered a Raspberry Pi 5 and stuff from adafruit.com and a high yield toner 5-pack for my Brother printer.
- Got to bed at 12:11 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Nov 4 = 100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guise to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings shows an interesting angle of "Heaven Inc." from Miracle Workers TV show:
God checked out long ago. ah4 ei6e on w 3hi64 foufn in ahie unr45ehi56 wnr pwjwmw ho66ome wll rwy... He only got one planet in our solar system to work, most of it is too hot or frozen all the time, and he forgot to finish the middle so it's just full of fire. His family definitely doesn't understand why He gave His creations free will. Rookie mistake!
- For the last few days my house has been energy neutral with no heat and no AC, so while the rest of the country switched from daylight savings time, I switched to winter mode by removing four south and west-facing sunscreens to let in more heat from the sun.
Here was my situation around noon:
65°F Back yard
79°F Hallway
502 ppm CO2 in the hallway
84°F AC vent temperatures
85°F Master bedroom
- This evening, using
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
's
multicam feature, I combined all five video angles from my 10/22/24 appearance at Jicky Jacks. The challenge was people walking in front of all the cameras and also a noisy visiting in the background. My use of FCP was the smoothest yet :)
- I did a light arms workout here in my home gym:
- Before bedtime I looked up 11 comedy clubs in Dallas and sent emails to six; three through their websites.
- Got to bed at 11:49 for 9 hours of sleep
Tue Nov 5 = My PCP gave me another referray to a neurologist since the neurologist for the previous referral was scheduled out to April. This morning I made an appoint to neurologist for Thursday and canceled the April appointment.
- Broken websiite: Most of the images were broken on my Van Life web page. For some strange reason the entire folder of "Van" images had dissappeared. It didn't take long to upload all 209 files from my computer, but leaves me wondering how it happened. Maybe I accidently erased those files??
- Today's
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
multicam feature,
project was adjusting the switch points of the camera angles in the video I made yesterday from my 10/22/24 appearance at Jicky Jacks.
- This afternoon I took a 30 minute nap. I also made my online shopping list but did not have time to do the shopping, or even time to drive up to the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
so I drove 1/2 mile to Anytime Fitness for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
shower and a light torso workout and a new fan:.
- Next door at Albertson's I bought yogurt on sale and got a rain check for their Vanilla Light.
- From there I went south about 3/4 of a mile to
Brigett's Last Laugh where I met Garret Swartz the producer/host for their open mic. I was the first to sign up so took slot four. Before the show I got these two new fans:
- For my five minute set I did the Old Guy Alzheimer's routine that I frequently do at my initial appearance anywhere. Most of the audience was comedian friends of mine who have heard that set so they didn't find it particularly funny. The four who were not comedians laughed some.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Nov 6 = I felt like an old man and looked like one too because for the past week, at my doctor's suggestion, I wore compression socks up to my knees to see if it aleviated some nighttime leg cramps and wrestless leg syndrome. During the week I had no leg cramps and only slightly slight wrestless legs. Now I will spend one week without the compression socks and see if there is a difference.
- After breakfast I started uploading my
Jicky Jacks (JJs) appearance to YouGube.
- Next on the list was to take Roger to his VA medical appointment under the auspsis of
.
It was a long drive down to the 32nd St VA office so we had plenty of time to visit.
- After dropping him off I was driving right by the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness. Although I hadn't had my nap and was pretty tired, I stopped in for a heavy legs workout. I'm glad I did not put off the gym. I also got these three new fans:
- After supper and the much-needed nap, I did my semi-monthly Winco grocery shopping. This time, Roger didn't go.
- Back at home, I got all my Winco purchases put away and got my website, including this blog, updated at 11:08 pm. Then
- got to bed at 11:45 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 7 = I wish I had started earlier, but it is what it is. Two of the three LED indirect lighting floodlights in the kitchen have quit working. They were about four years old so are no longer under warranty. I decided it would be nice to replace them before Stacie, my niese, comes over with her three boys and daughter, so I researched and ordered replacemnt lights. Unfortunately the new lights are not expected to arrive until two days Stacie. I'm planning on giving the kids the Rapsberry Pi that should arrive in plenty of time for their visit.
- This morning I spent a few minutes practicing drawing a clock face (which they frequently do to check for Alzheimer's), but by drawing an I at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 places, which I eventually filled in to make a Roman Numeral clock. You've got to have a little fun along the way. It turns out that this afternoon they handed me a tablet for the test - no clock. It was an interesting and challenging timed test. I got a standard score of 96 out of 200, with 100 being the mean for my age.
- This afternoon I saw Islam Abujubara, my new neurologist to see if my somewhat troublesome memory is early stage dementia or Alzheimer's. He said that my waning memory probably was normal age related, but to make sure he ordered a fasting blood test and some imaging.
- On the way home I went by the North 7th St Anytime Fitness that has the best equipment of any other in the valley. I did a heavy arms workout and got four new fans:
- Twice today I got to the point that I was falling asleep so took two naps, one if the afternoon and a second one early in the evening.
- Louism # 322: Don't spend so much time managing, that you fail to fulfill the roll of CEO: looking at the big picture - Barry Moltz. This is what I would like to tell one of my business friends, and also remember for myself.
- Fasting for tomorrow morning's blood test, before going to bed tonight I fixed a nutritious dry even-day breakfast. After my vampire visit to LabCorp tomorrow morning, I'll just add about six ounces of water to the bottom part and eat:
Grape Nuts cereal, 1.8oz
Raw psyllium husks, 2oz
Cinnamon/ginger/garlic mixture, .5oz
Powdered Milk, 2oz
Blueberries and grapes, 2.4oz
Walnuts, .9oz
Grapefruit, 1/2
Mushroom, 1
Mixed vegetables, 2.4oz
- Got to bed at 11:14 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Nov 8 = This mornig I I hot-footed it to LabCorp for the fasting blood test. The waiting room was full! They are using more technology to be efficient with check-in kiosks so it didn't take but about 45 minutes for my blood draw... and two new fans:
- On the way home I stopped by the 32 St & Bell LA Fitness for a heavy torso workout and two new fans:
- Next it was across the street to pick up my prescription of 81mg aspirin which my neurologist wants me to take daily.
- Two interesting things: 1) I had an unopened container of 60 of the aspirins that had expired 13 years ago and asked the pharmacy tech if they would be OK to take. She said if they smelled like vinegar they were no good. I opened the container and smelled vinegar!
2) What a ripoff! The coated 81mg aspirin tablets that the doctor prescribed cost 30¢ each. The Kroger store brand off the shelf were 2¢ each.
- This afternoon I got word that I would be at one of my favorite comedy clubs on Wednesday, so got into gear.
With MailChimp, to my Fan Email List I added 10 more emails which gave me 37 new email addresses to import into MailChimp for a grand total of 519 recipients for the email I composed and sent out.
- I also made 30 tickets for the show and added to my website:
Wed Nov 13, 2024; 7:30pm;
Desert Ridge Improv; 21001 N Tatum Blvd; Phoenix, AZ 85050 (18+ WITH ID)
For FREE ADMISSION, before 7:00, tell the box office that you are there to see Arizona Lou
or show this ticket on your phone.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 9 = I fixed it! It was pretty simple after reading the instructions, but took some time. My Brother HL- L3270CDW color LASER printer has been leaving some magenta (red) blotches on the middle of pages printed in color. The toner cartridge was leaking toner, definitely not overfilled at 40%. I moved the HEAVY printer to the kitchen island. After putting protective paper around I removed all five cartridge units and the belt unit, which was sporting a little magenta dust in the middle. I also noticed a little yellow dust in the machine.
- I shook the yellow and maginta cartridges until no more toner was comming out, vacuumed the yellow and maginta cartridges and gently wiped the magenta toner off of the belt.
- Now the printer works as good as new and I didn't have to replace any of the toner cartridges prematurely. Five new high-capacity cartridges are standing by for when needed.
Toner levels now are:
20% black
60% cyan (blue)
40% maginta (red)
30% yellow
- Beating up the hard disk drive from my old Toshiba laptop into the shape of the letter "L" in a vice with a dead blow hammer was a quick way to destroy all the data on the drive and prepare it for recycling. After the deed, when shaken, the glass fragments of the disks rattled. Some of them fell out, as you can see in the picture.
- After an early supper I drove about 12 miles out of the way to deliver three old laptops (eeePC, HP & the Toshiba) to the Best Buy Outlet store at Tatum and Cactus for recycling.
- Then at the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness I did a light legs workout and got six new fans:
- Then at 6:30, across Tatum to The
Desert Ridge Improv to buy tickets for 8:30, their late show. I took a nearly hour-long nap in my van to get ahead on a short night's sleep.
- By now there was a long line of people outside for the 8:30 show. I got two of them as new fans and then, inside before the show, got six more
The comedians did little crowd work:
Zane was the host with 11 minutes
Tory was the opener with 16 minutes of almost constant audience laughter
Short Bus Steve was funny, as usual, with 27 minutes of new material about his severe handicap
Pablo Francisco was the headliner and phenomenal with 39 minutes of voices and sound effects
- I learned: The audience and I can have a lot of fun in 40 minutes when I share the stage with opening acts.
- Back at home, I added the day's new fans and did yesterday's blog.
- Got to bed at 12:55am for 9 hours of sleep, including my evening nap before the comedy show and the 44 minute escapade at 3:22 in the morning after I got up to pee.
- The escapade? I spent 44 minutes cleaning up after bumping the back of my right heal on the adjustment handle of my workout bench, causing an injury about the side of the period at the end of a sentense. Since I am now on a daily dose of 81mg of aspirin, I bled, not realizing it until I had deposited some blood a few places on my carpeting. I got the bleeding to stop, bandaged the wound and got all the blood cleaned up.
Sun Nov 10 = Moving further into the winter mode, I fired up my Cosori digital cup Warmer to help keep me warm with thermostatically controlled hot water.
- This afternoon, after a nap to be allert, I resolved my checking account. It went quite smoothly.
- I set the stage, in my bedroom gym for a filming, using four cameras, a session of me on my elliptical. I had to move stuff for a refined background. Everything will be ready for tomorrow morning when the light will be better.
- After supper I went to the Moon Valley LA Fitness, passed out a few tickets for Wednesday, did a light arms workout and got a new fan.
- On my way home I stopped by the 7th St & Bell Rd Safeway for some grapes on sale, 99% alcohol and, of course another new fan
- On the way to the Safeway, driving across the parking lot, I saw these four having fun outside the Cold Stone Creamery, so parked nearby and joined in with the fun. Naturally they became fans:
- This evening, approaching bedtime I did my blog's monthly rollover from Oct to Nov in 18:56 minutes. Not a record, but not bad.
- Got to bed at 11:41 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Nov 11 = First thing this morning I checked the camcorder setups turned all four on, plus two audio recorders and videoed my elliptical session, wearing sweats.
- This evening I put together the videos and audio from this morning's elliptical ride. I think I'm getting pretty good with
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
,
at least with its multicam feature.
- After that I rewarded myself with a trip to the Deer Valley Cracker Barrel for my birthday cake: their delicious Chocolate Coke cake with ice cream. I tried to not get fat by giving half of the cake to a family at a neighboring table.
- While enjoying my cake I updated my blog for yesterday.
- Back home, I posted announcements for Wednesday's show on Instagram, FaceBook and X(Twitter).
- On YouTube I uploaded my Elliptical video Jacks
- "DO IT" was all that an email said that I received from Shark Comedy in Dallas, TX
- Got to bed at 11:25 for 9:30 hours of sleep, trying to build up for a short Wednesday night.
Tue Nov 12 = This morning's main event was to prepare for this evening's comedy open mic. Also I phoned last night's Cracker Barrel. They said they had, at the check-out register, the black foam stadium pad that I had left in my chair.
- I
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
.
The warm sun feels good on these cool days.
- Today's involved trip started about 15 minutes later than ideal and was a little more involved than I had planned, because driving northwest on the 101 to the Cracker Barrel I missed the somewhat confusing turn-off to 27th Ave and ended up on I-17. That took me about five miles out of the way and included waiting for a long SPUI traffic light.
- The Cracker Barrel stop was quick. No one was at the check-out register so I helped myself to my black foam stadium pad and headed east to Mountainside Fitness. I needed to get gas before the end of the day's trip so decided to stop by Costco and fill up, figuring as an option I could skip Mountainside if necessary.
- After my fill up it was on east on the 101 to Mountainside Fitness where I had only time for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos and a quick shower
before heading way south to the Biltmore area for my scheduled MRI.
- At Simon Med they did a brain scan, looking for indications of early stage dementia or Alzheimers. Fortunately they found a brain. For more information I'll have to wait.
- As expected, the drive back up north was a little slow with rush hour traffic but I made it to
Brigett's Last Laugh in plenty of time.
- It was a good show with about three non-comedians in the audience. As usual I stayed for the entire show, unlike most of the other comedians who were probably heading out for an additional open mic or two.
- When I got home I found that the Raspberry Pi and accessories for my grand nephews had been delivered to my front porch at 6:24pm while I was at Brigett's Last Laugh. Naturally I had to check that everything was in the box and glance at the 278-page instruction book.
- After doing all that and updating my website I...
- Got to bed at 11:57 for 9:30 hours of sleep, trying to build up for a short tomorrow night
,
I took Wanda to see her doctor.
- Josh tought me about a rolling shutter. Rolling shutters for digital cameras can distort a moving object like focal plane (curtain) shutters in film cameras. The remedy is to use a digital camera with a global shutter or a film camera with a leaf shutter. - At tonight's comedy show I was listed as fourth. Somehow after the show started and while I was setting up my five cameras and audio, number three was crossed off the list so I unknowingly became number three. I only got one camera going, an audience camera. The house camera was not working so what was going to be a seven-camera shoot became a two camera shoot: Randhal's camera and my audience cam.
- I could have delayed my set and have gotten all my cameras working.
- Needless to say, I was taken by surprise when the host called my name. I grabbed my stage stuff and, since I was on the wrong side of the stage, crawled up onto the 30" stage from the showroom floor.
- Mine was a good set, with making fun of myself for not being prepared and then, for the first time, doing my Pearl bit for a large audience. They liked it and also my Sildenafil, boxes and Avalanche bits.
- I sold four T-shirts and got a $20 donation to Alzheimer's research.
- Got to bed at 10:55 for 7:06 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 14 = Up at 6am for a flagstaff trip to see
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
:
and Brooke in a race of cardboard boxes. I got off about 6:50am after fixing breakfast, which I ate on the way.
- I arrived at Flagstaff High School well before the event and had time to look at all the boats made by students in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) students; made using only cardboard and duct tape.
- It was a race and also an endurance contest to see if the student creations could survive six laps across the swimming pool. If their boat did survive they would vie for the boat that could hold the most students. (Video coming).
- I got five students as new fans during the event and later an additional fan at Walmart
on my way to
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
's
for some fellowship and food.
- Robby was under the weather.
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, their daughter Brooke and Bromley, their Australian-bread Labradoodle
.
and I had a good visit walking Bromley around the lake and then taking him to the groomer.
- I got away well before dark and home well after dark.
- Got to bed at 12:15 for 9.5 hours of sleep
Fri Nov 15 = To my Technology web page and to Wednesday's blog, I added a video and image about cameras with rolling shutters. Check it out
- This afternoon I went to my Neurologist for an EEG; more checking for possible early stage Alzheimer's.
- On the way home I went by Fry's for eight pounds of grapes on a 97¢ rain check. I'll have to freeze all of them since I already have about five pounds in my refrigerator here at home.
- At anytime fitness I did a heavy arms workout and got two new fans. Trevor Tilman, personal trainer there, is my 2,000th fan (fist pic).
- Got to bed at 11:28 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 16 = This morning, from the last eight days, I added six email addresses to my Fan Elmail List.
- The big event for today was Stacie and her four kids driving up from Marana for a visit.
- As soon as they saw my trains they wanted to play with them. They each took a turn running the trains around, blowing the whistles, ringing the bells and blowing the horns. It will take a while to get all the cars right-side up, on the tracks and straighten up all the workmen etc, but it was so much fun watching them play, it will be worth it.
- Another big hit was my gym - particularly the elliptical, the chest press, the dip stand and the latt bar which hangs from the ceiling.
- What they really came for was the little Raspberry Pi. Particularly the two older boys were excited about building their own computer. Of course I made a big production of giving a little explanation of each part as I pulled it out of the box.
- To replace the ones that quit in the kitchen, the 3-pack of LED lights arrived this evening. They are very light and flimsey, compared to previous ones I have bought which have 144 LEDs, masive aluminum heat sinks with fins and get up to 219° F, are rated at 100 W and take 100 W. These new ones have 50 LEDs, a very thin painted sheet metal back with no fins, get up to 173° F at one location on the back, are rated at 50 W and take only 15 W. Maybe it's new more effecient LED technology.
- I used this very accurate Kill-a-Watt meter to measure the Wats.
- The FDA may never approve anti-aging drugs because they do not consider aging a disease. At least that's what the AARP Bulletin indicated.
- Just before turning in this evening I had the bright idea to rearrange things on my bedside table. Now my phone and wireless-charger, nail file, oral thermometer, clock and hearing aid charging box are within easy reach and and the CPAP is not easily acessible because it does not need to be as it turns on and off automatically.
- Got to bed at 11:55 for 9 hours of sleep
`
.
It is their annual fund-raising gila event, with food, entertainment, other goodies and alcohol. It was neat to attend the event, which I am sure was successful because there were a LOT of people there.
- I received several unsolicited compliments on my attire. I wore a Goodwill sportcoat with a long-sleeved turtle-neck sweater. The sweater is about 50 years old and started life to match
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
's.
- The emcee was Kayle O'Kelley, anchor for ABC Channel 15 news, who became a new fan:
- On the way to my car I met these two ladies, also on their way to their car from the event, who also became fans.
- On the way home I stopped by the 32 St & Bell LA Fitness for a brief heavy torso workout and two more fans:
- Back home, I'm a little behind on a couple of things: I paid off my Capital One credit card and updated my blog for the 14th of November.
- Got to bed at 12:35 for 8:42 hours of sleep
