Sun Dec 1 = Today I made all my booking calls on time - starting before breakfast!
- This was a Major Mac Morning: It took some web searching and a lot of trial, but I fixed the broken search function 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
by deleting the contents of the Spotlight data directory.
Here's what worked:
Go to my user directory & press Cmd Shift . (period) to show hidden files
Go to /Users/YourFolder/Library/Metadata
Delete everything within CoreSpotlight folder
Empty trash
Restart computer
Wait a few seconds
- I fixed my lunch,
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
and then ate the lunch.
-
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Flagstaff
gave me a "new" nine year old unopened Sentry Fire Safe. I'll be using it for my six backup SSD drives. The safe will join two others that I already have for regular backup hard drives.
- As simple easy preventive maintenance I drained four gallons of water from the bottom of my water heater. That is where the calcium and other minerals collect. Sort of like a lake, which needs to have an outlet to keep its water fresh.
- For today's gym trip, just before supper, I went to the Moon Valley LA Fitness for my third heavy workout - Torso and a new fan:
- It took some time this evening, but I cleaned up the "desktop" of my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
by deleting a bunch of screen shots.
- This evening I prepared for a phone meeting with Josh Boyle, my Social Media Guru.
- mixed up the powdered ingredients for my next batch of six
Frosties
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
and exhausted my supply of protein powder. I still have about five pounds of Body Tech Prime Body Mass powder left so I'll be ordering more protein powder in the process.
- Got to bed at 11:53 for 9:05 hours of sleep
Mon Dec 2 = My Kindel has gotten a little sluggish so this morning I rebooted it by holding the power button for 30 seconds. Now it is back up to speed.
-
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
phoned this morning. We covered lots of ground.
- Before supper time I researched protein powders on the Internet.
- After supper I packaged up my son's Christmas present, found how much it would cost me through Pirate Ship, printed out the label and got the package ready to hand over to Walgreens for UPS.
- It wasn't until I tried to give the package to the lady at Walgreens that I noticed that the package was for USPS. I was at the wrong place!
- Then to LA Fitness. Across their parking lot was a Discount Nutrition store so I thought I'd check out their protein powders: Has to be chocolate and close to the Amazon price. It was but it wasn't. The sales lady became a new fan:
- At LA Fitness I had a good light legs workout and two new fans:
- On the way home I stopped by Dollar Tree and bought a birthday card for
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Flagstaff
,
who will be as old as me next month.
- This evening I worked on my Christmas letter, worked on this blog and ordered 2 lb of protein powder for my
Frosties
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
and will have about a two-year supply if I calculated correctly.
- Got to bed at 1:24 AM for 8:45 hours of sleep after stupidly researching tattoos on the Internet.
Tue Dec 3 = -Lots of booking this morning.
- To use as part of my reels,
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
asked me to email him my logos and ten things that I do to stay healthy. I sent him 27.
- Google tells me that my website made 4,730 impressioons and got 178 clicks during the month of November.
- I drove up to the Boulder Hills Post Office before it closed at 4:30, mailed a Christmas package to my son and his family and got a new fan:
- This evening was a fun and interesting night. The Open Mic at
Rips Bar in Phoenix was a jam session for musicians. Oscar, the host and producer let me go up for 10 minutes of comedy for my first time at the venue. I did a variety of things, including my first comedy appearance at 83, and got two new fans:
- Got to bed at 12:22 for 8:39 hours of sleep
Wed Dec 4 = One of the neatest things on the Internet is the
Duet interactive map for volunteers. I added this link to to my Shops web page. The map shows shows where various volunteers are needed.
- Under the auspices of
I drove drove down to Sunnyslope to take Roger to LA Fitness and grocery shopping, after I phoned to make shure he was on. No answer. After I got to his place and waited about 10 minutes I went to his apartment. He explained that he had issues and was not able to go shopping with me tolday. My hour spent and 22 miles driven were not entirely wasted because I got his cousin as a new fan.
- So I rearranged my day's schedule and went home to do some booking and other things that needed to be done.
- Last night I learned about a Saturday open mic at
Rips Bar so added it to my schedule:
- After supper my plan was to work out at LA Fitness and then do the grocery shopping, but I first needed to make a new batch of
Frosties
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
. Time got away from me, so I only made it to LA Fitness, but I got in my heavy legs workout, the Frosty, my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower and six new fans:
- Back home, by the time I took care of yesterday's blog, I...
- got to bed at 12:18 for 8:22 hours of sleep
Thu Dec 5 = I did a little booking this morning, but the main event was getting my master toilet unclogged after two days. After "doing the deed" a couple days ago I couldn't believe that something actually came out of me that was that large. Evidently, neither could the toilet because the "deed" didn't go down until this morning.
- So I researched high-powered toilet plungers and ordered one from Amazon.
- 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
.
- I'm slow. This afternoon it took me an hour to check out and watch videos for comedians appearing at the the seven valley comedy clubs. I bought tickets to see Daniel Eachus tomorrow evening at
Stir Crazy in Glendale.
- My finger print padlock has not been opening very well with my right thumb
- My right thumb has not been opening my finger print padlock very well, so I added it to the lock again. Now the padlock opens fine with my right thumb in addition to some other "fingers."
- Today's trip's first stop was Safeway for fresh green beans, yogurt and two new fans:
- Then, for a heavy arms workout, to Planet Fitness. Since they not have a preacher curl I had to simulate one with an incline bench, but did not have to simulate three new fans:
- Final stop was Winco for my semi-monthly grocery shopping and another new fan:
- Got to bed at 12:52 for 9:30 hours of sleep, making up for last night
Fri Dec 6 = There is space for about six days left on my current Sleep Log Chart, so I improved the next one slightly by increasing the width of the last column so to not run off the page when recording my bedroom temperatures.
- Speaking of sleeping, for the past month I have mostly need to get up at night only twice to use the bathroom. Pretty good for me!
- Today I added 17 emails to my fan email list for the last 10 days.
- The big thing for booking today was working out comedy show details with the commander of the Harriman American Legion. Pending is finalizing the May date and his running it by the post board.
- Today I didn't get any new fans or make it to a gym but this evening went to
Stir Crazy in Glendale to see headliner Daniel Eachus. It was a good show with my friend Gene Moore as the hoast.
- This evening's project was adding commentary to Brooke's STEM Cardboard Boat Video. I learned, with
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
,
how to do it, which involved disconnecting the original audit from the video, adding a voice over track and adjusting the volumes of the now two audio tracks.
- Got to bed at 11:47 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Dec 7 = After only a week of working OK my Phonak hearing aids have quit connecting to the Phonak app on my cell phone. It is madening, considering how expensive they were.
- I had trouble with my website's Monthly Blog Rollover. It took me 36 minutes because I did not notice that I left out the period in a navigation link (:
- This evening I drove down to
Rips Bar for their monthly, what I thought was an open mic. It turns out it was a booked show. I met Sean Smith the producer. For the first time, tonight he changed the format to "Spelling Bee." After a brief introduction each comedian was given a word to spell. If correct they got one point. After a second round of more challenging words, each comedian was given five minutes to do comedy, and had to use their spelling words. It was an interesting show. My only hope, if I was given a word to spell, would be to come up with an outlandish and entertaining mispelling.
- I left the show a little early, went by the Colonnade LA Fitness, found they were closed, then by Fri's Food across the street for 5 lb of grapefruit on sale, then up to my nearly Anytime fitness for a heavy torso workout and two new fans:
- Got to bed at 12:03 for 8:39 hours of sleep
Sun Dec 8 = Today's big project was wading through 84 photos and one video for my PF-103 Photo Frame, which is identical to the photo frames I gave to the rest of the family.
- On a FAT32 micro SD card, the frame creates verious folders that include a UhalePhoto folder with an export folder and an import folder. All this strained my brain, figuring out which photos were on my picture frame, which ones were on
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Flagstaff
's
frame, which ones needed to be moved from where to the SD card's import folder and how to get the photos to not be automatically deleted or duplicated. I think I got it done and now the micro SD card is ready to load up Rose Anne's frame next time I see her.
- This morning I emailed my avails to Sean Smith the host and producer of the monthly comedy show at
Rips Bar, along with a video and some links to my website.
- Today, through
's
website, I logged my hours for 10 of the volunteer services I provided, up to today and catching up with 2023 when I was lazy and did not log my hours.
- Stopping by Costco for gas, I went up to the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness for another heavy torso workout (forgetting that I had just done one yesterday) and two new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:48 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Dec 9 = This moring I had Roomba vacuum the whole house. Roomba acted a little strange.
When vacuuming the living room it
wandered through the office
the north hallway
took a couple of swipes in the centeral hallway
wandered back throuugh the north hallway
vacuumed around the office
went back to the north hallway
turned off its vacuum
went to the living room
turned on its vacuum and finished vacuuming the living room.
Then this afternoon it
drove about three feet out of its docking station
sat there idling for three minutes
never turned on its vacuum motor
turned around
drove back into it's docking station and emptied its dust bin
the Roomba app on my cell phone said, "Job Complete."
- To waste some time I checked my Death Clock and found that I should have been dead nine years ago on Monday, March 9, 2015 at the age of 73 (if I have a normal mood). I question its accuracy. Although it asks for your BMI, it doesn't appear to use it in its calculations. The big factors in its calculations appear to be your mood and smoking. If I'm optomistic (which I think I mostly am) I'll have another seven years and be 90 when I die.
- While
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
today I listened to a Clark Howard Podcast, gaining some financial savvy along with some vitamin D.
- This evening I mada a test to have PHP open a text file with Xampp, my local host. It didn't work.
- This evening's trip was down to the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness for light legs and arms workouts and nine new fans :)
- Got to bed at 11:47 for 9:01 hours of sleep
Tue Dec 10 = This morning I got ready for this afternoon's big deal.
- After lunch I zipped down to Max Big Breakfast in downtown Phoenix for a video shoot with Josh and Randhal. I took a bunch of different colored T-shirts to switch out during the the shoot from the wardrobe department (a bush). We had a good background with murals. The videos will be material for future social media reels and videos.
- After the video shoot I drove north for my first visit to the LA Fitness on 7 Ave & Camelback where I did a light torso workout and got four new fans:
- In the same parking lot was a Fry's Food Store so I went in. When I tried to buy a bag of grapefruit on sale I learned that their digital coupons could only be used once.
- While I was gone my two-pounds of Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% whey double-chocolate protein powder and my bruxh/plunger toilet kit were delivered.
- Tonight I put on my Graphic Artist hat and started making posters for the five VFW and American Legion shows I'll be doing on my Antelope Valley California tour in late February.
- Got to bed at 11:32 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Dec 11 = This morning I came within one breath of disaster... of my own making, due to lack of dilligence. In the process of checking my emails and doing some other stuff I ran across a reminder to take Arlette to her doctor's appointment under the auspices of
...
and it was time for me to leave! I scurried around, traded my sweats for street clothes and rushed to her house. We got to her appointment, way over in Scottsdale, in time!
- After supper, on the way to do comedy, I went up to Mountainside Fitness for a heavy legs workout,
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower, a
Frosty
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
for doing the workout and five new fans
- The comedy was down in Tempe at Casey's Woodshed. It was my 20th time there although my first time in five years. Since I was there last, I added 614 performances to my list. I tried some new stuff and got a new fan.
- Got to bed at 12:30am for 9 hours of sleep hours of sleep
Thu Dec 12 = Today's big project was tegious. You see I have run out of appearances on the list currently hand out, so need six more venues. I made a chart, of course, of all the open mics I haven't attended yet this year in the Phoenix area by day of the week, using BadSlava and
Phoenix Comedy Open Mics. The chart should keep me busy and booked until time for me to leave on tour.
- This afternoon I took about a 40 minute long nap and slept like a log.
- It was interesting but I impulsed on Google's Satalite view following the 981-mile Ohio River from its end where it flows into the Mississipi in Cairo, IL to its source with the confluence of the Allegheny River from the north and the Monongahela River from the south in Pittsburg, PA. I got onto that tangent while researching veteran posts in Tennessee.
- This evening I was disappointed to discover that my neighborhood Big Lots has closed its doors, and I was going to do my white elephant Christmas shopping there. Alternatively I did the nearby Ross Dress For Less, discovered they have a lot of non-clothing items and found a couple good items and three new fans:
- Next and final stop was LA Fitness for a heavy arms workout and three new fans. Felipe there has been one of my friends for years. We always say "Hi" to each other. Tonight I got him (with the red shirt in the last pic) on my Fan web page. It wasn't until tonight that we both realized that we did not speak the same language: He a little bit of English and me a little less of Spanish.
- When I got home it took me 12 minutes to add five pictures with six new fans for an average of 2:24 minutes per picture and 2:00 minutes per fan.
- Got to bed at 12:12am for 9:08 hours of sleep
Fri Dec 13 = Naturally this morning included doing my emails.
- At noon 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
while
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
vacuumed the whole house.
- Today I finished the 15 posters for my five shows on my Antelope Valley tour in California - not as easy as it sounds. I had to make a bunch phone calls and texts to confirm the some show times at the venues that had not gotten back to me with that information.
- Toward evening I got the house ready for
Anne and Robby
My daughter and her husband who live in Flagstaff
's
visit tomorrow.
- I topped off the day at my nearby Anytime Fitness with a heavy torso workout and a new fan
- Got to bed at 11:33 for hours of sleep anticipating an early rise tomorrow morning, 8:33am CT (Comedian Time).
Sat Dec 14 = Before eating breakfast this morning I went to a Goodwill to find a monitor for my grand nephews to use with their Raspberry Pi. Most of the monitors were older with only Display Port, VGA and component ports. I checked about ten monitors before I found any that had the required hdmi ports. Several of thise did not work. I ended up buying a 21" Vizio VA22L FHDTV105 combination monitor/TV with 15 ports of various types.
- It didn't take but a few minutes and I don't know why I put it off so long, but after breakfast I popped three pints of Blueberries into a pleated quart ziplock bag and popped it into the freezer.
- Today's big event was driving on the Firebird Raceway in Chandler, AZ under the Xtreme Experience organization.
Anne and Robby
My daughter and her husband who live in Flagstaff
drove down to my house. Then I rode with them down to Firebird.
- As a true comedian, almost as much fun as driving was giving an official introduction to Gary Johnson, the instructor of the pre-ride classroom session.
- Here's how it looked when I took the wheel of a 610 HP Lamborghini Huracan for four laps around the 10-turn 1.25 mile track. At 4:56 in this video I passed a black car, without realizing that the driver was my daughter, Anne. On the .27-mile straightaway I reached 108 mph on my last lap.
- This evening, along with my three other monitors, I started using the "new" 21" Vizio VA22L FHDTV105 monitor to make sure it was dependable. Although it is fluorescent-backlit, much thicker, takes a lot more power and runs hotter, its picture was brighter with better colors and contrast than my thin, LED-backlight Samsung monitor. That was not acceptable, so I explored the Samsung's setting, turned off Sumsung's Magic Angle, reduced the brightness to 72% and increased the contrast to 100%. Now my Samsung 21" looks better than my big 43" LG monitor.
- Since it was late, I lazied out and did only one minute of elliptical just before crawling into bed.
- Got to bed at 11:52 for 8:52 hours of sleep
Sun Dec 15 = While checking my emails, text messages and going through the Firebird pictures that Becky had textd me, I found a picture of a fan that someone had textd me over 7.5 months ago from Whipper Snapper Comedy at Cedar Street Social in Mobile AL. After adding him to my FANS web page I discovered it was Jody, Josh Graves' dad:
- It wasn't until after lunch that I got around to organizing things to send out the five contracts and publicity kits for my Antelope Valley California Tour.
- When I didn't feel like thinking much, I wrapped the Christmas boxes for our family gift exchanges: Both four pounds; one 18" and the other 8." Our get-togethers are always fun.
- Although I didn't feel like it this evening, I went anyway - to the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness for a light legs workout and four new fans, bringing my fan count to 1,207 :)
- Got to bed at 11:53 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Dec 16 = After my morning routine,
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
phoned right on schedule for our weekly checkin. We mostly discussed my weekend experience and driving the Lamborghini. After his phone call I sent him all my video, image and audio files from the event.
- By then it was lunch time. During lunch I got a phone call from my neurologist's office saying they had an earlier appointment, so I agreed to go at 3:00 rather than 3:30 - not the best decision. Had I taken time to think it through I would have realized that I would not have time to get dressed, go to LA Fitness for a light arms workout,
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
(a day earlier than usual) and shower on the way. As it was I just did the
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower at LA Fitness, then went to see my Neurologist - actually Tracey Redish, the FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner), for followup for my tests.
- The results of my EEG (electroencephalogram) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) showed evidence of past small ischemic strokes, so I'll be continuing with 81mg aspirin every other day. Tracey ordered a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, which is a computed tomography scan, using X-rays) scan with a radioactive tracer to create a 3D picture. This will help determine if my memory problems are due to being old or to early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's. Now I will forget about that and worry about how to be a comedian.
- On the way home I stoped by my favorite Anytime Fitness, the Moon Valley Location on North Seventh Street, where I did a light arms workout and got two new fans:
- I got home in time to pause and then have supper.
- I was slow, but after supper I balanced my checking account... to the penny... the first time... :)
- Then I finished most of my blog for today and did my monthly credit cards' payoffs.
- Here it was bedtime and halfway through December and I discovered a major problem with my website. On the Blog I discovered broken navigation buttons leading to November, 2024, which was missing. Major and embarrassing. It was not too hard to fix after I did some diagnosis. The problem: When I did my last Blog Rollover, for the first time, I forgot to upload the November Blog and the Blog Menu Navigation files.
- Got to bed at 11:28 for 9 hours of sleep
Tue Dec 17 = This morning I fixed my odd-day breakfast to eat on the way to wrap Christmas gifts for grandkids at Duet. My van's low-tire warning indicator showed the right rear at 27 lb. After giving the tire a quick visual and back-of-the-hand inspection at a red light, I decided it was OK to drive, especially since I was running close on time.
- At LA Fitness I did a light torso workout and got a new fan:
- Then on to Duet to help wrap Christmas gifts for grandfamilies (grandparents raising their grandkids). I wrapped gifts for a grandmother and the eight grandchildren she is raising, ranging in age from 10 to 18. Iris, the gift wrapper across from me became a new fan (second pic):
- Across the street from Duet is a Discount Tire, so I stopped by there and got my right-rear tire aired up and...
- got home 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
while I listened to Rich On Tech
from my phone through my hearing aids
- This afternoon I made an appointment with the Desert Ridge Simon Med for the PET (positron emission tomography) scan, which is a CT (computed tomography , using X-rays) scan with a radioactive tracer to create a 3D picture.
- To keep going today I had to take two naps: 30 minutes about 2pm and 12 minutes about 7pm.
- After reviewing some of my past medical procedures I waisted, sort of, a little over an hour researching skin, skin layers and skin cancers. I remembered doing the research previously but could not find it on my website so did it again, today, from a slightly different angle. This time I put it on my Definitions web page where I can find it next time. Here's the result:
skin layers (top to bottom) and cancers - easy to detect and treat but deadly if not detected
Squamous cells - flattened dead Basal cells that sluff off
Basal cells - round cells at the bottom of the epidermis, eventually
flatten and get to the surface as squamous cells
Merkel cells - interact with nerves for touch, textures etc
Melanocytes - produce melanin for a tan and sun protection
- I'm batting zero in getting contracts back from the veterans' posts for the five stand up comedy shows I have scheduled for California starting the last of February.
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 8:30 hours of sleep, needing to get up "early" to provide
.
Interestingly enough, she protested when I took Bell Road. It turns out that she avoids Bell at all costs. Too dangerous, she says. At her doctor's office I got a new fan:
- When I got drowsy this afternoon I took a 40 minute nap to catch up on sleep from last night.
- After supper I went to LA Fitness for a heavy legs workout to earn my delicious
Frosty
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
.
- This evening I checked out some things mentioned in December's AARP Bulletin and ordered some related toys.
- Got to bed at 11:47 for 9:01 hours of sleep
Thu Dec 19 = In addition to a little booking, today I looked for a Diamond D40 airplane to fly. Although an FBO at Falcon Field was shown to have one, plus a variety of other planes, when I phoned them, I found that they only have one airplane, a Cessna 172 and it will be down for maintenance when I would want it.
- My heavy arms workout for this evening was at Esporta Fitness where I got a new fan.
- In preparation for tomorrow, on my computer this evening I made my semi-monthly shopping list on Google Drive so it will also be available on my phone.
- I also watched Taking Care, a film by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller-Rogen who have founded the Hilarity for Charity foundation. The film is a documentary about Lauren's mother who transformed from an involved, benevolent, responsible, in-control person into an unruly, yelling, out-of-control liability as the result of Alzheimer's, which runs in Lauren's family. This is a sort of depressing look at how bad Alzheimer's can become.
- If I get Alzheimers, I hope I am just a quite spaced-out ignoramus instead.
- Got to bed at 12:15 for 9:03 hours of sleep
Fri Dec 20 = Always learning new stuff: At noon a gentleman was parked beside my house in a new bedless truck reattaching his mud flaps with a 2x4. I asked him about a device on the side of the frame that looked like some type of turbine device. He explained that it was a DEF (Diesel Emissions Filter).
- I have been working hard trying to schedule six new open mics, but many of the venues do not answer their phones.
- Tonight's gym was a heavy but quick torso workout at the Moon Valley LA Fitness and three new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:47 hours of sleep
Sat Dec 21 = This morning I got word that I have been accepted for the New Faces show at
The Tempe Improv on Sunday, January 5th, so I added it to my calendar and to the appearance schedule on my website.
- My
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
did one of its tricks today. Running Firefox, it seems to have forgotten its cookies or such and Google, FaceBook, Instagram and TikTok saw it as a new device so I had to find my passwords and go through their complicated two-factor certifications :(
- I tentatively scheduled a Cirrius at Deer Valley Airport for the 27th. This will be a
- After watching videos for comedians appearing at the seven Phoenix area comedy clubs, I bought tickets for Gordie Brown at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy near Desert Ridge here in Phoenix.
- My plan was to stop by Mountainside Fitness on my way to the comedy show, but I decided to fire up my
The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. Its 32-bit operating system with a x64-based processor is tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card helps.
instead, and make a bunch of tickets for my appearance at the Tempe Improv on January 5th.
- At the House of Comedy, Gordie Brown was excellent with all his impersonations and a lot of energetic actouts. Some I did not appreciate fully, not watching much TV or many movies. I did get a new fan:
- After the show I drove to Mountainside Fitness and found that they closed at 9:00. I went in anyway, checked in so they would get paid for a visit, walked back out and drove to Anytime Fitness for a light, fast legs workout.
- Got to bed at 12:30am for 8:36 hours of sleep
Sun Dec 22 = This morning I checked out and then added Hilarity for Charity to my Dec 19th blog. The organization supports caregivers of Alzheimer's victims.
- With my cell phone provider I double checked, that Number Lock is on to prevent criminals from doing any SIM swaping or porting my number.
- Thailand report: On my Google fi Flexible plan I would be covered while there - maybe 20¢ a minute with free texts and data up to 10 GB. Of course Thailand is a long shot.
- To my Technology web pate, I added the Garmin G500 TXi. It and the G600 TXi are newer than the fancier G1000, but have some more modern features like touch screens. They are less expensive than the G1000 and generally for smaller airplanes:
- To my email list I added 15 new fans since Dec 10th. Then I uploaded, to Mail Chimp, the 65 new email addresses I had back to Nov 9th and tagged about four as cleaned and two as unsubscribed. That wasn't all. Three of the uploaded email addresses were already in my MailChimp list and I had to correct three others that did not have a period before the email's domain extention. Net gain: 58.
- After supper I studied the Cirus CR20 airplane that I may be flying on December 27th. I printed out a checklist, V-Speeds, PFD (Primary Flight Data) screen and an airspeed indicator:
- This evening I went to the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness for a light arms workout and a new fan:
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Dec 23 = First thing this morning I prepared for the weekly phone meeting with Josh Boyle, my Social Media Guru. We had a very productive session planning some new approaches for future reels, including aviation.
- It took a little longer than I expected (what else is new?) but I put high-tech airplanes that I have flown on my Technology Web Page where it will be easy to find for me next time:
Diamond DA-40
Cirrus CR20
- At 5:00 this evening I left on the one-hour drive to Matt and Becky's in Mesa for the Hayse (
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Flagstaff
's
family) Christmas party. We always have a lot of fun with our gift exchange and good food. Rose Anne brought the photo frame I gave her and I loaded it up with more family pictures.
- I left in time to get to
Devil's Advocate in time for the last show before they close their doors. There were a whopping 105 people to see the comedy open mic, bringing my total audience count to 43,016. I sold three T-shirts and got these four new fans:
- Got to bed at 1:33 for only 6:57 hours of sleep, needing to get up "early" to go to the Bradford's in the morning for the Self Christmas party.
Tue Dec 24 = Early to rise, at 8:30 this morning to have time for an elliptical ride and grapefruit before heading to Andy's & Kimy for the Self (that's my real last name) Christmas party. We had a good time, as usual. Of course
Both George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife (who had a masive stroke in 2022) who live in east Mesa, Arizona
were there. They had arranged a special medical transport for Cindy. It was great to see her out and about.
- George, Cindy,
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Flagstaff
and I were the first generation. Here we are with our kids and spouses, the second generation:
- Their kids were the third generation:
- After our traditional breakfast casorole brunch we had some fun games for the third generation well planned by Kimmie.
- The first and second generations did a fun gift exchange with stealing. I made out with a little Singing Machine, a small Bluetooth PA system with two wireless microphones and a lot of other features.
- The third generation had drawn names so there were many happy campers.
- We said our goodby's and I headed home. When I got to my neighborhood I stopped by Albertson's for brussel sprouts on sale and Anytime fitness for a light torso workout and a new fan:
- After doing my blog, I got to bed at 1:02 for 9:14 hours of sleep
Wed Dec 25 = MERRY CHRISTMAS! It took all morning to check my emails and plan the day's project. I was going to include writing this blog, but there was not time.
- I got
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
started on the whole house and then
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
with a beautifully clear blue Phoenix sky.
- This afternoon I organized the next video project to start on after a gym visit. The only gym open was my neighborhood Anytime Fitness so that's where I went for a heavy legs workout and three new fans:
- The day's project was to process the semi-disaster recordings from the
Desert Ridge Improv last month. That includes two stage-veos from
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
,
one audience recording from my camera #3 and sound from my body mic. Since the host introduced me five minutes before expected, I did not get my other four cameras rolling. Also the house video was not working.
- I got Josh's videos cropped and saved so the next step will be to see what I can do with a simulated four-multicam project.
- Things were complicated for about an hour when my browsers were not loading my website.
- Got to bed at 12:38 for 8:42 hours of sleep
Thu Dec 26 = This mornning I called Phonak to see if they could fix the problems I am having with their myPhonak app on my cell phone.
- Today I ran out of bread so have been using hotdog buns from my freezer.
- Before supper I went to Mountainside Fitness for a heavy arms workout to earn my
Frosty
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
,
a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower and two new fans:
- On the way home I stopped by Albertson's for a loaf of bread, about twice as expensive as Aldi's, but a lot closer.
- Got to bed at 11:40 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Fri Dec 27 = This morning I felt fairly well rested. It may be the 9:20 hours of sleep, so I'll try ti get that much sleep for a while and see if it makes a difference.
- With
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
I tweaked some source videos from last month's Desert Ridge Improv (DRI) show, by re-cropping, re-sizing and increasing the exposure. Then I got the multicam video on the FCP timeline ready for combining of the four angles.
- After 20 days of not connecting, myPhonak (app on my cell phone) started properly connecting to both of my hearing aids. You might know that would happen after I spent about an hour on the phone with Phonak and scheduled a local audiologist appointment for next month.
- Today's trip was after supper to:
Aldi for bread. I bought their four remaining loves of 100% whole wheat
LA Fitness to check about being videoed there, a heavy torso workout and three new fans:
Planet Fitness to check about being videoed there
Goodwill where I looked at some shoes and bought a queen-sized comforter
Dollar Tree where I bought a couple CR2032 cells for my bathroom scale
- This evening I got the DRI video finished with four camera angles - pretty good, considering I started with only two cameras.
- Putting off yesterday's blog, I re-made my bed with a different philosophy. So far this fall, as the temperatures got cooler, I added layers (like a knit sheet, flannel sheet, bed spread, giant (52x108") towel and baby comforters for my feet.
- With the new philosophy I will go lightweight (and hopefully warm enough) with only a knit sheet, the big Queen-sized comforter I bought at Goodwill tonight for $7.50 and a baby comforter added to my feet. - Got to bed at 12:26 for 9:12 hours of sleep It turns out that the new covers scheme was perfect!
Sat Dec 28 = This morning I double checked my tour schedule and determined that I could drive a super car at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park raceway in Bowling Green, KY with Xtreme Experience as an activity while on tour. However I may try to save $90 by driving a Corvette CR Z06 rather than the Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 like I did here in Arizona.
- I also got the Desert Ridge Improv video from Nov 13th produced and published on my YouTube Channel:
- After supper I composed an email with Mail Chimp announcing my New Faces. Here's the scoop;
Sun Jan 5, 2025; 7:00pm;
Tempe Improv; 930 E University Dr; Tempe, AZ 85281 - New Faces 18+ w ID! FREE Admission if you tell the box office, by 6:30, you're there to see Arizona Lou
or show this ticket:
- My body wasn't excited about it, but I made myself go to the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness. The convincing argument is that the light, fast legs workout would be short. A bonus was having fun and getting four new fans.
- Back home I added 10 fan email addresses from the last week and uploaded them to MailChimp.
- Before going to bed I measured for and ordered a white 6' micro USB cable for the Echo Dot I am moving from the master bedroom entry to the master bathroom entry, and I want the cord to match the wall without an extension. The move is because I now have the Echo Show in the kitchen.
- The Echo Show does not have very good microphones. Maybe it is because they are on the back of the unit. When I talk to it from the office it does not usually respond, but either of the echo dots respond from the lab or the master bathroom doorway.
- Got to bed at 11:33 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Sun Dec 29 = This morning I tweaked the MailChimp email announcing my Tempe Improve appearance and sent the email out to the 585 people on my Phoenix area list.
- It took me almost an hour to find and watch clips of all the comedians appearing in the valley next weekend. This allowed me to see some different slants on stand up comedy. I decided on John Lovitz at the Tempe Improv on Friday the third.
- Today's trip could have been a total disaster. It started out with my leaving home and getting to Walmart a little early for my 2:30 oil change. While they were chaanging the oil, which took about an hour, I got my favorite: a 4-color Bic pen and stashed it under one of their check-out computer screens, logged onto Walmart's Internet with my computer and my cell phone and worked on this blog.
- When I checked out, I paid for the pen and stuck it in the special pen pocket in my cargo pants. Everything good so far.
- My light arms workout went well at LA Fitness and as a bonus I got Mike as a new fan. We had to take the selfie with his phone because I did not have mine with me.
- On the way driving home I noticed that the Bic pen I had just purchased was not in my cargo pants' pen pocket. So lucky because I made a U turn at Bell and 7th St and went back to LA Fitness.
- After retracing some of the exercises I had done, I found the pen beside the bench where I had laid on my back for barbell triceps extensions. I also noticed a cell phone nestled up against the end of the bench. How careless, or trusting, of someone to leave their phone there. I changed my attitude when I picked it up and noticed it was mine! During this expedition I also got another fan:
- This outcome could have gone south really fast and resulted in months of recovery from losing my phone. I feel very lucky and hope I learned my lesson.
- Got to bed at 11:19 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Mon Dec 30 = MailChimp, this morning, sent me five email addresses that had unscribed from the 585 that I sent out yesterday. Not too bad at .85%. Twenty three percent of the recipients opened the emails, pretty good.
- After reconfiguring the south kitchen counter outlet to accommodate my new Echo Show and all the other things I have plugged in there (don't worry, they're all low-power) this morning, this evening I decided to try the Echo Show on the return of my office desk because on the kitchen counter it does not work from the office. Initial testing shows it to respond from both the office and from the kitchen.
- This evenning I made 30 more tickets for Sunday's show and, since I was using the
The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. Its 32-bit operating system with a x64-based processor is tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card helps.
with my Dymo 280 as a printer, I also made a bunch of name stickers to put on my new little Singing Machine PA, its microphones and other things.
- Four days ago I had a sharp pain on the inside of my left foot's arch, for no apparent reason, when I put my weight on it. Maybe it is the way I had my foot turned. Since then the pain pops up more when I get up after sitting for a while. It is
unrelated to whether I am walking or running. After some Internet research (naturally) I have been heating, massaging, and doing specific exercises and stretches for the arch. Doesn't seem to be improving.
- Since I am going in next week for a PET scan of my brain I did a little research and added this information to my Definitions web page:
b. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses powerful magnets
c. CT scan (computerized tomography) is an x-ray scan
d. PET-MRI scan (positron emission tomography)
- While on my Definitions web page I browsed around for a while. Interesting!
- I never made it to a gym, so did a light torso workout here in my home gym.
- Got to bed at 11:59 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Tue Dec 31 = It took me all morning, but I finally got around to sending Kim Komando an email about being on my fan web page.
- Today I got the Dymo stickers I made yesterday (with my name or website and phone number) put on my new Singing Machine and got the rest of the stickers organized and put away.
- After supper I got all seven media files from last Monday's Devil's Advocate show uploaded and ready for
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
.
- Since it was the only gym open I went to Anytime Fitness for a light full-body workout, a nice visit with Bikrum, a friend of my who is a doctor and from India and a neck-down shower
- Preparing for my next shopping trip, I got my Google Drive shopping list ready and added all the sale items from this week's grocery fliers that arrived in todays mail.
- For organization, tonight before going to bed I laid out, on my kitchen counter, tabs for all the topics for
Jarrod's Coffee, Tea & Art thursday and arranged the tabs in a logical order.
- Got to bed at 11:35 for 9:22 hours of sleep
Wed Jan 1 = HAPPY NEW YEAR!
- While working on my website after breakfast I heated and massaged the arch of my left foot. Then I did a series of stretching and massaging exercises for the arch.
- After lunch I wasted, yes, really wasted, a half hour finding, downloading and making a transparent background for a new image of the Dymo labelmaker that was already here on my Technology page :(
- I am reading Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten. In it she explains why she includes coffee and vanilla in her "Outrageous Brownies" (which sold over 1,000 per week at her Barefoot Contessa store in East Hampton, NY). Of course having to check it out, I found her YouTube video (https://youtu.be/n9gv2IaeeqQ?si=F6hpunIsarhzhoU8): a complete recipe in three and a half minutes.
- This evening I drove to the 32 & Bell Fry's Marketplace, bought some blueberries on sale, two quarts of my annual eggnog and two 1.5 pints of fat free cottage cheese - all with my 10% off senior discount... and got a new fan, also in the entertainment business:
- Then across the street went to Esporta Fitness for a heavy legs workout and three more fans:
- Back home, I typed out my new comedy set for tomorrow evening at
Jarrod's Coffee, Tea & Art, which includes things about my brain scan tomorrow afternoon. I'm planning to use it for practice for Sunday at
The Tempe Improv - Got to bed at 12:15 for 8:56 hours of sleep
Thu Jan 2 = First thing after breakfast I phoned Simon Med to double check. And yes, they do want me to show up 90 minutes before my 3pm PET scan, so I ate an early lunch and then
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
early, rode my elliptical and took a sponge bath, all in time to leave at 1:15 for the PET scan.
- The copay for the PET seemed excessive to me at $300 (this evening I found that the low without insurance was $1500). You might say that I had a glow about me after they intravenously injected a radioactive tracer that needed an hour to distribute itself throughout my body. They had me in a comfortable easy chair and I did yesterday's blog with my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
The scan, itself, was pretty quite and took about 20 minutes. On the way back through the waiting room I got a new fan:
- On the way home I stopped by Mountainside Fitness for a heavy arms workout and three new fans:
- Back at home I fixed a sandwich/banana/cashew supper to eat on the way to
Jarrod's in Mesa where I was planning on getting a salad of some sort. They did not have salads so instead I got two new fans:
Jarrod's had relocated north from a Main Street store front to a house on University that they had converted to a coffee shop and art studio.
- We were given seven minutes so I did some of my old stuff that was new to Jarrod's before my new, new stuff about my testing for Alzheimer's. It went pretty well. I didn't sell any merch.
- Got to bed at 12:02 for 9:05 hours of sleep
Fri Jan 3 = This morning I sent text messages, emails and left voice messages, trying to get the wayward VFW posts to reply to do their job and reply to my emails with their contracts/publicity kits.
- My efforts paid off because on today's trip I got two phone calls and a text taking care of or promising to take care of the contract/publicity kit emails.
- Thanks to Great Clips' online website, before I left home, I found that my nearest and preferred Great Clips had a 58 minute wait and another one sort of along my route had an eight minute wait, so I did the online checkin for them. I got my haricut but did not have time to stop by the Tempe LA Fitness for a workout, my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and a shower. I did have time to get the entire Great Clips staff as new fans:
- The evening of comedy was very expensive, totaling over $80. The chocolate cake (15) and ice cream ($5 for a small dip) was not worth the $18 and definately not worth the calories. Next time I'll wait until I get home for an ice cream sandwich. Although not near my house, Cracker Barrel's Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake is much tastier and a third of the price.
- Before the show I got two new fans, who I invited to the New Faces show tomorrow evening:
- The host was Josh and the headliner was Jon Lovitz who put on a good 1:37 show. After the show, for fans I got an educator and my exceptionally funny comedian friend, Gene Moore (second pic below).
- Got to bed at 12:53 AM for 9:19 hours of sleep
Sat Jan 4 = At 8:07 this morning my kitchen radio automatically turned on with Bloomburg becaause I failed to turn the volume down yesterday :( Being on on CT (Comedian Time) I still had two hour before my alarm. Since I was awake I went online to schedule an appointment for my neighborhood Discount Tire to rotate my tires and fix a slow leak in my right rear tire, then went back to bed.
- When I finally got up I only had time to fix breakfast and get to Discount Tire for an 11am appointment so postponed my morning elliptical.
- At Discount Tire, for longer tire life, due to the tires' wear patterns I had Discount fix the right rear tire and skip the tire rotation. While waiting I mostly worked on this blog. I couldn't upload anything because Discount's Internet was down.
- The rest of the day stretched into a long, long day (nder the auspices of
)
taking Roger to LA Fitness and shopping. At the gym I did a heavy torso workout, did a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
took a shower and got four new fans:
- Then we headed on to Winco Foods for our grocery shopping. By the time Roger and I got out of Winco it was turning dark and we were both tired, but I had two more fans:
- Got to bed at 12:30 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Sun Jan 5 = I was going to go to the Echo Church service this morning, but there were too many time-critical things to do. First thing after breakfast I got onto MailChimp and then on my computer, tagged four bad email addresses and one unsubscribe. Then I uploaded 20 new email addresses that I collected since Dec 28th to MailChimp.
- At noon I put in for the Wednesday Stir Crazy open mic, and proceided to compose an email announcing the show in case I get on. I included a reminder for Wednesday's show at
The Tempe Improv in Mesa.
- I got the gig at Stir Crazy so at 1:49 this afternoon I pressed the magic [Send] button and sent out 594 emails announcing the shows:
Sun Jan 5, 2025; 7:00pm;
Tempe Improv; 930 E University Dr; Tempe, AZ 85281 - New Faces 18+ w ID! FREE Admission if you tell the box office, by 6:30, you're there to see Arizona Lou
or show this ticket:
Wed Jan 8, 2025; 7:00pm;
Stir Crazy; E-206 Westgate Entertainment District; 6751 N Sunset Blvd;Glendale, AZ Come if you can.
- I got to the Tempe Improv (TI) in plenty of time, stopping by a Walmart for shoe strings and string locks but skipping a gym on the way. At TI Bryce set up a table for my merch right away. For the first time at an open mic I used my display poles to hang display T-shirts.
- I had a good set, still perfecting my new Alzheimer's/Brain routine. A lot of my old and young comedian friends were there and glad to see me. I sold three T-shirts, received two donations for Alzheimer's research and got three new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:57 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Mon Jan 6 =
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
's
scheduling is not very good as it does not allow for day intervals, just repeating days of the week. That is a problem since I want it to vacuum every four days; days when I sun myself. As a result I have to set the schedule for each automatic vacuuming time. This morning Roomba started right on time, at 9:30.
- 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
today, but...
- The big project today was engineering, designing and making new-style lanyards for the Sony ICD-UX560 Voice Recorders I use as body mics when on stage. I did have two. One I misplaced and the other one I lost. The lanyards are essential to comfort and quality recordings. Don't worry I have my website and phone number on these new ones.
- Using the shoe strings and string locks I bought yesterday at Walmart, I made two ICD lanyards. Their hooks have to be precise in order to fit into the hanging slots on the ICDs without the danger of falling off. I made two types of lanyards: One lanyard with a behind-the-neck sliding ball (more convenient but obvious at the back of the neck while on stage), and the other lanyard with the hook on the slider (less convenient, but more discrete).
- After supper I worked on my website and did my entire bedtime routine except undressing. Instead I switched from my winter around-the-house sweats to my cargo shorts and...
- Way late I went to Planet Fitness for light legs and mostly arms workouts and a new fan:
- Then when I could have been going to bed, I posted announcements of Wednesday's show on Facebook and Instagram with the Stir Crazy logo.
Next time I may also include a short slow-zooming video of the logo for TikTok, which only accepts videos.
- Got to bed at 12:04 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Tue Jan 7 = New morning routine for increased effeciency with maybe deminished memory:
shave etc
record sleep statistics
elliptical
breakfast
blog for yesterday
check text messages
check emails
check the nighttime notes on my Sony ICD-PX312 voice recorder
(Most mornings I expect this to take the entire morning as it did this morning, and then some)
- After I finally found my Neurologist's online portal, there was no report for the PET scan I had a week ago.
- In the comedy-booking department, I re-wrote the presentation of the contract I send out by email, in an attempt to get veterans' posts to not drag their feet. I will be including some humor and other ideas from
Audrey
That's what I call AI (Artificial Intelligence), in most cases ChatGPT
.
- After supper I redid the 8-up Stir Crazy handouts without dates so I can use my self-inking rubber date stamp to put in the dates. I will stamp the date on four sheets which will give me 32 microposters to pass out.
- I had spent a lot of time perfecting the grid for
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
,
but it was nowhere to be found 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
.
I did find the file on my LS2Tx9P C external SSD backup from Nov 30, 2024, so tweaked the file a little and then copied it to my Mac.
- Not knowing what other important backup files I might need, I decided it would be a good idea to back up LS2Tx9P C to a semi-permanent drive. So this evening I went through my three 5 TB hard drives. My Mac would not format the 5 TB hard drive B, but the others seemed to be doing fine. I started copying the Nov 30th backup to my 5TB C drive. Mac said it would take 4 days. Then a few minutes later it said about 19 hours and an hour later about a day.
- An evening routine worked so well the first time I tried it, that I tried it again tonight: doing all my bedtime stuff except undressing, and then going to a gym. Make sure you do that in the right order!
- This evening the gym was the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness. I got there about 10:20pm and, before they closed at 11:00 I got in a shower and still had time for a light torso workout with some arms thrown in. I had forgotten to take my gym bag so was unable to do my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
- Got to bed at 11:48 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Wed Jan 8 = This morning my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
was still copying the back up files.
- My morning routine was mostly completed by noon:
- I didn't plan it but was spurred on by an email so this afternoon I downloaded the last statement of the year for all of my investment accounts.
- Trying to arrange recording of the radio communication during Friday's flight, and not having enough lead time to order the right adapters, I put together a hodgepodge if 1/4", 1/8", male, female stereo, monaural and Y adapters. Hope it all works.
- On the way to Glendale I had my
Frosty
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
and stopped by the same LA Fitness in Peoria as usual. They permanaently closed their doors as of the first of the year.
- The evening's show at Stir Crazy was another good one with these comedians:
- Not so good was that neither of my audience cams worked - probably operator error, but I thought they were recording just fine. I did my new Oyster/MRI/Sildenafil routine, sold one T-shirt and received two donations for Alzheimer's research and got six new fans:
- On the way home I wanted to earn the
Frosty
The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
that I had already eaten so stopped by the West Thunderbird Rd Eōs Fitness in Peoria. As a former Gold's Gym, it was one of the largest and busiest I have seen. A good place to get seven more fans:
- Got to bed at 11:31 for 9:18 hours of sleep
Thur Jan 9 = This morning I had to sort of relearn it, so I download an instruction manual and programed four Deer Valley Airport frequencies into my old Radio Shack Pro-43 200 channel scanner. Now Rhandal will be able to know where Josh and I are when flying around tomorrow.
- I also organized my pilot information for Deer Valley Airport, downloaded and printed out an airport diagram, reviewed the taxiway designations, downloaded printed and reviewed checklists for the Cirrus SR20 I will be flying tomorrow and got my flight case all rearanged for the occasion:
- I was so proud of myself for having everything ready to go for tomorrow.
- Then via phone calls and texts I found that, due to the Cirrus's starter going bad, we may have to adjust tomorrow's flying schedule. That may take some doing with everyone involved.
- It took a while this evening to add 14 new fans from yesterday and do this blog for yesterday. No gym today.
- Got to bed at 11:06 for 8:55 hours of sleep
Fri Jan 10 = "As The World Turns" Evidently it changed its course a little so our plans to fly did not work out. Specifically the plans of Josh, Randhl, Kevin, John (CEO of Legacy Aviation) and me. As you know, we had scheduled a photo-shoot airplane flight at Deer Valley Airport. After several rounds of texts and phone call we canceled the photo flight and will have to reschedule for a later date.
- I sent emails to Office Depot, hoping that they will be able to give me the 20% discount on my publicity kits I will be ordering.
- Check book calculators have multiple memories which are handy for calculating the weight and balance of an airplane. I was researching those calculators when I got the bright idea to check out calculators designed for pilots. I found Sporty's Electronic E6B Flight Computer for Pilots which has a host of other features that will be handy for every-day stuff.
- I joined Amazon Prime for a week and proceeded to order a bunch of things:
12-pack of Bic four-color pens
monaural 1/4" to stereo 1/8" 5-ft cable to use during the photo flight
monaural 1/4" 6" Y cable
Ceramic Fiber insulation for the fire resistant boxes I use for my backup drives
Sporty's Electronic E6B Flight Computer for Pilots
- After being prodded by an email from one of my fans, I found, scheduled, calendared posted and prepared the back of my microposters for six new appearances. The job took most of the afternoon and evening:
- So far as the microposters for my appearances, I had 20 left over for Stir Crazy and about 30 from the previous six weeks of shows. Today I made 60 new ones to pass out for the six weeks until I leave on my California Antelope Valley tour.
- By the time I got the microposters made, it was too late to go to a gym, so I headed for bed.
- It was the coldest yet. Frequently my toes are cold when I crawl into bed, but usually they warm up by my first answer to nature's call. Tonight the toes were still cold at first call, so I: A) added a second baby comforter to my feet and B) heated the feet area of my bed by shooting in hot air with my blow dryer. The second call to nature, my toes were nice and warm and stayed that way until my alarm rang.
- A freeze was forecast from midnight to 9am, so I set the alarm for by backyard thermometer for 29.5°F. Good news: If we don't really get a freeze I won't have to cover my Natal Plums. Bad news: I may have to get up in the middle of the night to cover them.
- The result: It only got down to 33.0°F so my sleep didn't get interrupted... except by nature's calls.
- Got to bed at 11:52 for 9:19 hours of sleep
Sat Jan 11 = Next door to the east there was a busstle of activity so I dressed, went over and met my new neighbors, Logan and Hailey. They have three kids.
- Today I checked out the weather the first of August and overnight parking in Boling Green, KY in anticipation of driving a Lamborghini Hurricane on the NCM track there. Here is some information about that track, compared to the Firebird track where
Anne
My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Robby her husband, their daughter Brooke and Bromley, their Australian-bread Labradoodle
.
and I drove Lamborghini Hurricanes the 14th of December, 2024:
- It was a treat as I finished off my two quarts of Christmas eggnog, but not a treat that it took two naps today to keep me going.
- Before my bedtime, routine I downloaded my electronic checking statement. It took me 1:17 to balance my checking account... to the penny... the first time... in spite of a pretty harry situation.
- Got to bed at 11:14 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Sun Jan 12 = I don't believe what I did this morning. I went to the nearby Echo Church. Why? Not to worship
MIMF
My Invisible Magic Friend
(God), but for the fellowship and because three people came to my house, including Terrabce Alfraro, the pastor, and invited me a couple weeks ago.
- At 77, Bryan Johnson's goal is to live forever. As an Internet multi millionaire he is working hard at it and has the money to do so. It appears that he has turned back his biological clock. For about five years he took the immunosuppressant rapamycin, which transplant patients take to help prevent organ rejection. He is not a comedian so he is early to bed and early to rise and his morning routine includes over 25 pills and supplements, as compared to my zero. Here is a 37-minute video of his morning routine:
- I found out about Bryan from the Kim Komando podcast and then this video by searching the Internet for "watch kim komand video Amazon bans drivers from singing? - Kim Komando"
- This evening I went to Planet Fitness for a heavy torso workout and a new fan:
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Mon Jan 13 = This afternoon Amazon delivered my:
12-pack of Bic four-color pens
ceramic fiber insulation blankets to add to the the fire resistant boxes I use for my backup disk drives
monaural 1/4" 6" Y-cable to use during the photo flight with
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
to record ATC (Air Traffic Control)
monaural 1/4" to stereo 1/8" 5-ft cable to use with the Y-cable above
-The first pic is the old jury rigged adapters that might have worked. The green cable would lead to the stereo recorder.
- The second pic is the way to properly split the monaural, and feed stereo signal into a digital recorder. The black cord going to the right is my headset.
- Today's trip was earlier than usual. First to Planet Fitness to find from Danny, the manager, that
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
would not be able to video me working out and interacting with other members there.
- Second stop was LA Fitness where the manager also told me
that
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
would not be able to video me working out and interacting with other members there. I had a light legs workout and got three new fans:
- The final stop was 7th St & Bell Rd Target for a 6x18x24" storage tub for under my van's bed. I also got a new fan there:
- Here at home I got too drowsy to finish putting today's four fans on my Fan web page, so took a second 15-minute nap.
- Got to bed at 11:33 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Tue Jan 14 = I spent quite a bit of time on the phone and on the Internet with Preferred Home Care trying to oder CPAP supplies. Their website was not working correctly and kept saying, "Something went wrong..." It took about an hour on the phone, but I got the supplies ordered. They should be here in about two weeks.
- Today
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
vacuumed while 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
.
- For this afternoon's trip I went to Mountainside Fitness for light arms and torso workouts, a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower and nine new fans:
- Then at the Desert Ridge Target I got a 6x18x29" tub to go way back to the front of my van's bed.
- This evening I found a broken video link to my August 2nd, 2022 appearance two and a half years ago on KAKE TV. Their website no longer had the video. After doing a little digging I found it on one of my backup drives and uploaded the it to YouTube.
KAKE TV for my appearance with hosts Shane Ewing and Anette Lawless (my 1360th appearance):
- Their large studio was awesome with a lot of fixed cameras. Their teleprompters were simply screens just above the camera lenses.
- This evening it took 1:02 for me to pay off all my credit cards, including getting some rewards.
- Got to bed at 11:50 for 8:50 hours of sleep
Wed Jan 15 = It took me most of the day to get everything ready for an assembly line approach for having publicity kits shipped to the five veterans posts for my California Tour. Updating my brochure, publicity kit instructions and media form was maticuluous and involved some research and a number of files in different formats.
- I got one publicity kit ordered. It was for the VFW in Frazier Park. Four to go tomorrow.
- The flight calculator arrived from Sporty's Pilot Shop today. It is pretty cool, although not as intuitive to me as expected:
- This evening I phoned my son, Scott, and
Shane
My nephew, George's son who is an engineer for a high-tech company
about driving high performance supercars at the NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, KY in August. It would be too long of a drive for Scott.
- There is a relatively new technique race car drivers use, called trail braking that evens the weight distribution and increases the steering traction when cornering. I have started practicing while driving my minivan. Although it is definitely not a supercar, I can get the sequence and feel. The technique cuts a little time off of laps but likely doesn't effect my top speed. At least I can throw around some of the latest high racing terms.
.
- It was pretty late when I made it to Anytime Fitness, trail braking around the corners, for a heavy legs workout.
- Got to bed at 12:10 for 9:05 hours of sleep
Thu Jan 16 = After looking at my email this morning it took me an hour to organize everything for ordering physical publicity kits. Hopefully my finding and recording all the file locations will pay off next time. Thanks to my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
a file had been saved in an odball location in one of my Finance subfolders. I learned to more carefully watch where files are saved and to document everything for myself.
- You might say that I am now an award-winning comedian. I received an "Ahwatukee's Got Talent" medal for winning "The Same Topic Challenge" (New Years Resolutions).
With it came $50 which I donated to Alzheimer's research. At 83, my resolution was "Staying Alive" with a callback. Also helping Alzheimer's research was the profit from the two T-shirts I sold.
- Here are the comedians, including me wearing my medal.
- and the seven new fans from the show at Cactus Jack's:
- After the show I stopped by the Ahwatukee Mountainside Fitness. The front desk remembered me! I did a heavy arms workout and got seven more fans:
- Got to bed at 11:10 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Fri Jan 17 = First thing on this morning's schedule was an appoint with my audiologist, Kevin Kristalovich. He patiently answered my questions and showed me how to reconnect my
Phonaks
Phonak Audeo LRL-90 fancy waterproof hearing aids bought in October, 2023 from injoyhearing.com
to
myPhonak
the app on my phone for my Phonak hearing aids made by Snova of Switzerland
myPhonak app on my phone by having myPhonak forget and reconnect. I thought I had already tried that several times.
- On the way home, of course I stopped by a gym. In this case it was my favorite Anytime Fitness on N 7th St, for a heavy torso workout and a new fan:
- At the gym my sunglasses fell off my head and broke when they crashed onto the tile floor in a bathroom, so I stopped by Dollar Tree on the way home for a new pair for $1.25 & :)
- Absolutely not necessary, but a fun challenge (You know that it is hard for me to resist a challenge): Tonight I fired up my
The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. Its 32-bit operating system with a x64-based processor is tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card helps.
,
dug out a roll of white-on-transparent label tape for my Dymo 280 Labler and dressed up yesterday's medal with my information:
- Got to bed at 12:06 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Sat Jan 18 = Today's trip was to the east and early this morning - early for a comedian, about 10am. First stop was to my favorite automatic touchless car wash. Of course I had to remove my Comedy and
magnetic signs first, but now my van sparkles.
- Second stop was Discount Tire. The my rear tire has had 3 lb more pressure than the other three tires since Discount fixed its slow leak. Now all tires have the same pressure.
- Today was a rest day with no gym.
- Back home, still sort of part of the trip, I cleaned the magnetic signs and reinstalled them. Then I organized and shuffled some of the van's storage areas. The area under the van's bed which had been for kiteboards became under-bed storage tubs for my kiteboard harness, booties, a little PA system, jumper cables and other stuff. The third-row seat fold-down compartment which had been for all my kiteboarding equipment will become a spare T-shirt "warehouse."
- This evening I searched world-wide for the right-sized containers for the new van "warehouse." The only three containers that were close, I ordered from Temu to be delivered between Jan 25 and Feb 1:
- Congratulate me for doing something that should help me lots. This evening I prepared for making four booking phone calls tomorrow.
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Sun Jan 19 = Today was mostly filled with booking. Success! I booked a show in Trenton, TN. Jason, there, and I worked out all the details. The post has had a lot of bad luck with illnesses, AC etc. Hopefully my show will help with turning things around. Technically, all that is left is to get approval by the post administration.
-
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
:
With the addition of points for planning contacts the evening before, I scored 171 :)
- This evening I emailed video files and an audio file from my set at Ahwatukee's Got Talent to
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
...
not good videos, because the audience had evidently come to watch some comedy but not to laugh. Josh may find something in them to use in a social media reel.
- I got all ready to roll into bed, then put on my clothes and drove down to the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness for a light legs workout. Since I forgot my phone, when I got two new fans, only one of their emails came through:
- Got to bed at 11:02 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Mon Jan 20 = My
Phonaks
Phonak Audeo LRL-90 fancy waterproof hearing aids bought in October, 2023 from injoyhearing.com
quit working with
myPhonak
the app on my phone for my Phonak hearing aids made by Snova of Switzerland
this morning, after working for only 2.5 days.
- Roger, my shopping partner
under the auspices of
,
phoned that he would not be able to go with me for the gym and shopping at 2 this afternoon, so I worked on some bookings, added demensions to the image of my van's warehouse box and took a nap.
`
-------- Latest Update Begins Here --------(back to TOP of page) - It wasn't until evening that I finally got around to my gym/shopping trip. First stop was Aldi for eight loaves of bread, some turkey and a new fan:
- Then to the Moon Valley LA Fitness for a light arms workout and two new fans:
- Last stop was Winco for my semimonthly grocery shopping and another new fan near an orange juice display.
- I got home, got the groceries all put away and got to bed at 11:38 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Tue Jan 21 = Today, I think, was the longest transport I have ever had under the auspices of
.
I took Laura to her new hearing doctor: a nice guy, a pilot and a talker. For almost an hour before he took care of Laura's hearing we heard a lot about some of his piloting adventures, the leg he lost and other things. While there I did a little work on my blog, did a lot of visiting and phoned
Josh
Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and my social media guru
in response to his well-written outline for our photo flight on Thursday. Also I got three new fans (two of them older than me):
- On the way home I went to Mountainside fitness for a light, fast torso workout, a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower and three new fans:
- After all that, I didn't have lunch until about 3:30pm. I still had supper on time at 5pm.
- During my phone call with Josh, I learned that he does not have a GroPro for the rear-facing dash camera in the airplane, so I decided maybe I could use one. Finding one that might be delivered by our flight on Thursday was a challenge. The camera had to have a front selfie screen. I found an Akaso Brave 8 with an expected Thursday delivery - hopefully before noon - if I were a member of Amazon Prime, so naturally I joined for one month.
- That wasn't the end of it because the Akaso does not include a suction cup mount for the airplane's windshield. I found a mount that will arrive tomorrow.
- It put me to bed a little late but I downloaded and perused all the instructions for the Akaso.
- Not to bed yet. Then I discovered about four fans from the 20th that I had missed putting on my Fans web page. I took care of that and...
- got to bed at 11:16 for 9:20 hours of sleep
- While on my 
.
