Blog Archive 2014 Oct
Wed Oct 1 = I got word today from Jill, that I'll be appearing at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy here in north Phoenix on October 15th, so added that to
Future Comedy Appearances on my COMEDY web page.
- This evening's comedy was in the Big Room at StandUp Scottsdale. I presented a revised and improved version of Adam inventing clothing in the Garden of Eden.
Thu Oct 2 = Tonight's comedy was in Tempe at Monkey Pants. I was the first comedian of the show! My
old
friend, Jonathan Gregory was the headliner.
Fri Oct 3 = I almost lost my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
when I let it fly over our shade tree where I couldn't see it, then it was straight into the sun, or so I thought. I refrained from hitting the kill switch, hoping I would be able to spot it and not land it in the top of a tree. Thanks to Steve for helping me look for it and thanks to a lady with a baby who saw it crash about 450 feet to the east, over between some trash cans and the parking lot.
Around noon I took Carol to see her dermatologist under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
,
and stopped by LA Fitness, Moon Valley for the last workout (heavy torso day) in my series of six.
- I stayed up too late tonight... preparing, printing and cutting little schedules (of my upcoming comedy appearances) to hand out when I'm out and about, like at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
tomorrow morning.
Sat Oct 4 = My computer's
Windows search feature has not been working for a month or so. It started working today, thanks to a Windows 8.1 update.
- This evening I drove down to Nellow's Pizza, way down in Mesa for our weekly hamfeast
Sun Oct 5 = I'm going to try and make one comedy contact each day. Today's comedy contact was through Facebook to Angela Merkin Haines of The Turf in downtown Phoenix which has comedy on Mondays.
Mon Oct 6 = At various gyms, I am in my light, fast workout series of three days.
Tue Oct 7 = Buying day: I ordered a 21-LED UV flashlight after not being able to find one locally. Also ordered a 1/2 A 3-stage charger for my little new SLA battery.
Wed Oct 8 = I may have shorted out and ruined the neat new little 12 V 1.2 Ah SLA battery that I am configuring to power my helicase with iCharger. I do not know how it happened, but the battery reached 155° F while I was working with it. I diconnected everything and let it cool overnight.
- For tonight's comedy at Stand-Up Scottsdale I tried a new set on sports, boring sports... and the king of all boring sports, baseball. I got a few little laughs.
Thu Oct 9 = This morning was short, but good. Short after sleeping until 10:30, having gotten to bed at 2:00 am last night. The
morning
trip was a good one stopping by Home Depot for a Stanley Model # GR25-2 80 Watt hot-melt glue gun, which I located online first. My old 20 W Black & Decker one oozes hot glue out of all its seams, but not out of the tip. Next stop was 99-Cent Only store for a yogurt, Romaine lettuce and red seedless grapes. Then to the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
to fly my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
.
I beat my old record with 42 seconds flying inverted - as close as six feet above the ground, to boot. I don't count my inverted times unless I bring the heli back right-side up without crashing.
- This evening I gave my natal plum hedges a second trimming. That should do it until spring.
- Unexpected and unplanned comedy was great! After supper I looked at my comedy notes from last night and noticed that one of the comedians had told me about a new comedy open mic,
Chop and Wok - only 12 miles away from home at Shea and Scottsdale Road - so I decided to check it out. The show started pretty late, but was neat! A lot of my comedian friends were there - some of whom I admire because they can get a crowd going when it seems no one else, including me, can. Tonight,
I got the crowd going. It was totally fun! Josh, the host, gave me this neat introduction:
All right, the next guy we have coming up is his first time here. He's well known around town. Everybody give it up for Mr. Arizona Lou!
Fri Oct 10 = I retired my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flight battery
T and topped off new battery
W before heading out to fly at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
.
I crashed it a lot and the main rotor needed a little help to start. By eight seconds into the third battery it wouldn't even go, so I replaced the main rotor motor with a spare that I carry with me. That improved the situation somewhat.
Sat Oct 11 = This morning I charged five
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flight batteries using my 12 V 1.5Ah SLA battery, testing the battery before I make it a part of my new helicase. Then I flew the Nano at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
- mostly practicing flips and flying inverted. I am keeping three data sheets: on the iCharger, on the SLA and the Nano.
- This afternoon I finished off and uploaded to my website a week's worth of blogging and got some comedy stuff ready to upload.
- In today's mail, among other things, came the 21-LED UV flashlight and the 1/2 A 3-stage SLA charger that I ordered on Tuesday from diferent companies.
- This evening I went to the new North Scottsdale LA Fitness for a 20-minute heavy torso workout on the way to Dicky's BBQ for our Saturday evening hamfeast.
- Tonight I used my new hot glue gun for the first time - on my Nano's lower left canopy post. While I was in the repair mode, I added canopy grommets to the top pitch-control links, hopefully to reduce a pesky shimmy, and installed brand new translucent fluorescent main rotor blades.
Sun Oct 12 = Well, I'm at it again; picking trash, that is. Out at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
someone had decided they had beat up their airplane enough and had tossed into the trash can, box with the foam padding, airplane and all. It is a little 16" wingspan P51D with controls for aileron, elevator, rudder - and a steerable tail wheel. Also it uses the same little 150mAh flight cells as my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. I simply selected memory #15 in my DX7s controller as an airplane, bound it with the airplane and checked things out. All appears to work OK, so I'll find the model on my PhoenixRC simulator to get a head start on crashes and such.
Mon Oct 13 = This morning,
under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
,
I took Carol to the lab for some blood work. This evening I made my first appearance for the open mic at The Turf Irish Pub in Downtown Phoenix. Good group.
Tue Oct 14 = This evening was my first appearance at the House of Comedy, a brand new comedy club in the Desert Ridge area of northeast Phoenix.
Wed Oct 15 = The shimmy was worse than ever for my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
, which
I flew at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
this morning.
- Comedy tonight was at Stand-Up Scottsdale. I tried completely new material from my road trip: Cult Fiction Underground and OBX park ranger. There was a pretty good crowd there - in the big room now, for the winter season. I was #28 out of 34 comedians, plus John Melendez' cameo appearance (featured for the weekend) and Dan Johnson, the host.
Thu Oct 16 = Today I transferred some rental and land money to my checking account and worked on some new comedy appearances.
Fri Oct 17 = This evening I participated in Chop and Wok's open mic Comedy and came dangerously close to bombing. Tomorrow I'll have some stuff to improve upon.
Sat Oct 18 = My little
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
is all patched up and still breaking - today the tail boom - again. I checked with Frank's Hobby House and they do not have a new Nano in stock, so I patched the tail boom with a little more hot-melt glue. This was after patching the boom with CA (supper glue) out at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
this morning. Thanks, Steve!
- I am having trouble deciding exactly how to configure the storage areas in the new heli case I am putting together, so have decided to make the battery box/iCharger platform first, use the case that way while deciding what to do for the rest.
- On the way to Gyro House (they pronounce it EURO house) for tonight's hamfeast, I found a new gym and joined it under the Silver Sneakers Program. The gym, Youfit, is next door, so I had a nice little heavy torso workout after the hamfeast.
- Instead of getting to bed early, I spent about an hour leaving customer feedback on the websites of our five main grocery store chains here in Phoenix - complaining about their grocery sale fliers arriving in my mail box today, three days after the effective sales dates. Why can't they get the fliers out on Tuesday, the day before the sales start???
Sun Oct 19 = I hung around the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
and visited with some of the guys after flying my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
.
The poor old thing's shimmy is almost continuous - even just sitting still on the ground sometimes.
- Steve helped me set up my Spectrum DX7s controller memory number 15 for my
new
little P-51D. All we had to do was to reverse the aileron. I'll do some more practicing on the PhoenixRC simulator before I try and fly the little bird.
- Finished cutting my hairs this afternoon, with my regular 1/2" buzz, which took 20 minutes. I did the lower half of the project yesterday - took about 30 minutes.
Mon Oct 20 = This afternoon I made a batch of six of my delicious chocolate cinnamon protein frosties - the first time I did it without dribbling any while filling the containers.
- This evening everything went like clockwork.
Time |
Destination/Activity |
4:20 |
99¢ Only for cereal and broccoli
|
4:40 |
Harbor Freight for 100 zip ties - free!
|
5:15 |
LA Fitness on E Camelback for light, fast arms workout
|
6:15 |
Walmart at Tower Plaza for lots of Glucosomine Chondroiton
|
6:40 |
Ice House Tavern to do Introducing Old Man routine for the show at 8:30
|
9:00 |
The Turf Irish Pub to do Moses, fit, Maui, Shirt, SUP routine for 10:15 show
|
Tue Oct 21 = This afternoon things did NOT go like clockwork. I was trying to straighten out an account for
- Dahlia
- my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
and Southwest Gas phoned me back just as I was about to head out the door to have supper with
- George & Cindy
- younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
.
That phone call and the traffic put me about 20 minutes behind. George and Cindy were very understanding and we had a good visit, although I did not have time to stop at the Mesa LA Fitness on the way to the Mesa Library for a town hall meeting on the ballot initiatives. After the Town Hall meeting, I DID stop by the East Camelback LA Fitness on the way home.
- This evening I cought up on this blog and tried to measure the current my old
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
#7 takes, using my iCharger for a power source. The setup didn't seem to have enough power. Maybe the wires to the Nano were too long or too small.
Wed Oct 22 = Using my circular saw, I started cutting the 1/8" plywood panels for my new helicase. In the process I did a series of tests for preventing splintering. Most successful was using a hollow-ground plywood blade. It helped a little to apply masking tape before sawing. Scoring with a sharp utility knife was the least effective, as it was difficult to get the scoring exact or to follow it accurately with the saw blade. I finished up with some fine tuning and shaping with my belt sander until the belt broke at the seam. The brand new spare belt did the same thing - probably because the belts are about 20 years old.
Thu Oct 23 = What a day - in a good way! It started relatively early out at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
I set my alarm for 8:00 although I got to bed late last night, at 12:40am after doing comedy at Stand-Up Scottsdale. I wanted to get to the park while the good guys were still there to help me with the little
- P51D
- 16" wingspan with controls for aileron, elevator, rudder, a steerable tail wheel - and Horizon Hobby's AS3X stabilization system
I picked out of the trash a week ago Sunday. I received a lot of moral support from the group and some repair tape from Steve. Jim took it off, checked things out in the air and then handed the controls over to me. We were unable to do the buddy box thing. I did several takeoffs and always managed to
land
right side up - even the landing I made in the tree. The airplane flying ended when there appeared to be a loose battery wire inside the airplane. I flew my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
for the last two of the five batteries I brought out charged. Fortunately the little P51D uses the same batteries as my Nano.
- This evening I stopped by Frank's Hobby House and bought a new helicopter - my eighth
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
,
got gasoline and headed down to Monkey Pants in Tempe. Good group and good show run by Chris. He has a headliner as the tenth comedian, so the audience stays for the whole show. One of the comedians did not show up, so I was second! When Chris introduced me he questioned whether I was really "America's Favorite Old Man." Later he Googled the phrase, found my website first out of about 400 million hits and decided that it was really true - or I had a lot of money to buy my way to the top. Actually, that's impossible to do. Just run a good website and keep it up to date.
Fri Oct 24 = This morning was the first flight for my new
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
#8 at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
- so smooth. Only the first battery (R) had enough power to realy do anythig
- Later I took Carol to a doctor's appointment under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
Sat Oct 25 = My Galaxy S2 smart phone did a spontaneous reboot while I was talking on it. I hope that doesn't become more frequent.
- Dinner tonight was at Andrew's BBQ, 730 E. Guadalupe Rd. down in Tempe.
Sun Oct 26 = My new
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
does not have enough power to fly, and then only a few seconds before it can not even hover in ground effect. This evening, using my iCharger, I cycled 150mAh flight batteries R and T four and six times respectively, from 3.00 to 4.20 volts at .66C (.1A). The process takes about seven hours per battery. Next time I might try cycling batteries in parallel.
- I bought five SPST micro toggle switches at Radio Shack to use for my new helicase. I'm glad Radio Shack still has stores around. There's none better for what I seem to need.
Mon Oct 27 = I got my tires rotated today, and they seem to be wearing as expected - and evenly. That's with a cold pressure of 33 PSI.
- Also I checked the expense ratios of my investments: low, but not as low as some:
Expense Ratio |
Ticker Symbol |
Name of Fund |
.34% |
FGSTX |
Vanguard Star Fund |
.18% |
VTTHX |
Target Retirement 2035 Fund |
.12% |
VTMSX |
Small Cap Fund |
.05% |
VTSAX |
Total Stock Market Index Fund |
.18% |
VT |
Total World Stock Fund |
Tue Oct 28 = Retired life is not so much fun when I never seem to be able to catch up with myself, feeling like a hamster in a wheel because I have too many irons in the fire, resulting in worrying about things that need to be done such as:
- Studying the issues and candidates or the Nov 4th election
- Getting my new
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
working properly
- Going out to the RC field to fly it
- Designing and fabricating a full-featured case for the heli
- Scheduling future comedy appearances
- Working on new comedy material
- Improving my older comedy routines
- Get my Vaio's cantankerous keyboard fixed by Sony
- Getting my Canon printer working on my Sony Vaio again
- Getting my Canon scanner working on my Sony Vaio again
- Keeping up with my website and its blog
- Getting YouTube to accept my Sassy Anne's video
- Ordering replacement prescription glasses that went bad
- Fixing a leak in the main bladder of my m Best Nemesis kite
- Replacing the chafed chicken loop tubing for my kite bar
- Repainting the back bumper of my van cuz it needs it
- Getting at least the top of my van repainted because it is pealing
- Go to the gym for regular workouts and otherwise staying healthy
- Tonight at Stand-up Scottsdale I tried out my tweaked
Yoga routine for the first time in Arizona. I was happy with the way it went, although unfortunately, I failed to get it recorded.
Wed Oct 29 = For my new helicase, I finished shaping the three initial dividers for the fit of hinges and switches - then gave the dividers their first coat of paint.
- Stand-Up Scottsdale tonight was my
first audience work when I asked an audience member her name. It was Lisa.
Thu Oct 30 = Good trip this morning, took me to:
-
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
to sit in on the training session for their new fingerprint scanner which I helped to finance
- Nineteenth Avenue Walmart for sweet pickle relish, broccoli and a quart of motor oil
- Union Hills Ace Hardware to exchange and buy hinges for the helicase I am making
- Fitness 1 for a light, fast torso workout
- DSFCU Credit Union to confirm how other people can send checks directly to my account
- In case you're interested in how electronic fingerprinting works, you can view the hour-long Duet remote training session in three parts on Youtube at 1: http://youtu.be/6rD3W5l3KRE 2: http://youtu.be/Y6p_64wUCeQ 3: http://youtu.be/dUshgmxAK8k
- Most of the rest of the day was preparing for and doing my Yoga comedy routine at the Chop and Wok in Scottsdale. It was my 100th appearance. You can see a list of
all of 'em here. Got to bed a little before 1:30am.
Fri Oct 31 = I ran across an entertaining YouTube exchange between Dennis Miller & Bill Maher on
Free Speech vs Political Correctness from 2002.
- Got home from the gym this evening to pass out candy to the last bunches of trick-or-treaters.