Tue Sept 1 = My three main projects today were to go to Dr. Pyritz, my optometrist, for a refractive checkup, do my semi-monthly shopping at Winco Foods (Denise didn't go this time) and attempt comedy at the Hideaway Bar & Grill. Dr. Pyritz found that my right eye needed less correction (a half diopter) than in February. He said the the change was likely due to my destabilized cornea from the radial keratotomy (RK) 20 years ago. With the new prescription, I will get new glasses that will hopefully serve me better than my previous two pair.
Wed Sep 2 = Today I ordered a Garmin 2589LMT,which is their top-of-the-line automotive GPS, minus the drive camera and lane departure features. I'll get a 20% refund when I send in my old Nuvi 885T
After watching this 15-minute video I knew more than anyone should about padlocks. A line-up padlocks from least to most secure is from 2:37 to 2:58. More secure locks come later in the video. For a really good one, plan on spending about $100.
- I fired up my Husky air compressor to fill my air bottle and to do the monthly adjustment my van tire pressures to exactly 33 PSI.
- This evening I drove to Gangplank - my first time since March. I solved the problem of self-highlighting text on some of my web pages before I went. Someone there DID suggest InkScape, free, open source software for converting the CorelDraw file of my comedy T-shirt design to a more usable format. What a helpful group down there in Chandler.
Thu Sep 3 = Today I ordered new glasses from Zenni Optical, using the new prescription I got Dr. Pyritz on Tuesday. With the 15% off Labor-Day special I got these progressive, anti-reflective, UV protected, anti-scratch lenses in titanium frames for less than $100 that would have costed over $500 from a regular option. How could I afford that?!
Fri Sep 4 = Today I fixed my master bathroom cold-water faucet which had developed a very slow drip. It took me over a week of having the faucet apart to decide to put it back together because I was unable to remove the corroded cartridge. I turned the water valve back on under the sink and rotated the stem around in circles with a wrench to dislodge anything that might be in there. It worked! Now the faucet no longer drips!
- After supper I packed my laptop computer, a power cord and monitor cable and drove to Fitness 1 where I did a workout, then to Goodwill, looking for a computer monitor. I found a 19"
Neovo
Model F-419 (current versons selling from $145 to 223)
for $9.99, which will be $4.99 tomorrow on their half-price day. Except for a couple minor scratches, it checked out OK, so guess what I am going to do tomorrow morning.
Sat Sep 5 = This morning's big project was to get up early, go out 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
for my first time since March and say "Hi" to my RC friends; go to Goodwill and purchase the 19" computer monitor for $4.99 I checked out last night, stop by CVS for a return, go to Walmart for a watch battery and glucosamine chondroitin, go to LA Fitness for a light, fast legs workout and go to Home Depot to return the $10 unused faucet cartridge from yesterday's faucet project.
- This evenings project was to make a special bracket so the "new" monitor sits inverted on my desk so the minimum bezel is at the bottom and lines up with my other two external monitor. Now I have icons for my frequently used items on my 11.5-inch laptop below the other three screens to which I have extended the desktop: Left is a 17" ViewSonic in landscape mode, center is a 23.5" Asus in portrait mode and right is the new 19" Neovo. The colors on my old 17" Dell had become unstable.
- Between the evening and morning projects I analysed my last comedy appearance (Hideaway) as to figure why there was almost no response from the audience of about eight.
- By evening the first scabs fell off the fingers on my right hand - the right side of my ring finger - 41 days after the injury.
Sun Sep 6 = Today I got things put away from yesterday's projects and went to another Scottsdale Laugh Factory improv Class by Ken Ferguson. The talented and creative group pushes me to keep up, and that's good.
Mon Sep 7 = Labor Day: For a late lunch
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
met me at the Sweet Tomatoes in Scottsdale. I told them the story about my hand down in the Dominican Republic as I reviewed bits for my next comedy show. They appreciated the funny side of getting hurt and did a little laughing.
- I looked at my website to find the longest pages. Here's the result for the top three:
Tue Sep 8 = I designed T-Shirts on three different websites today and decided to go with TeeChip. Click this image to get your very own T-shirt... or click it on my Comedy web page.
- This evening for COMEDY, I did a modified Hand Routine at the Rec Room and, as a result got to bed really late.
,
I took Francis T to his doctor's appointment after a short night for me. It was an hour shorter than it needed to be, because I figured the times incorrectly. I'm going t have to pay a little closer attention to things.
- I also checked out some car-rental possibilities for Kansas and ordered four rolls of black-on-white labels for my Dymo LabelManager 280.
Thu Sep 10 = COMEDY tonight went pretty well at Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix with a crowd of 50-60. I had passed out lots of free tickets for the show with about 100 people telling me they would definitely come, including one guy at a 24-Hour Fitness who was thrilled about coming and wearing Arizona Lou T-shirts during the show. I carted around five T-shirts f various sizes all night and he never showed. Five people actually showed for me; 4%.
Fri Sep 11 = Today I got all the confirmations printed out for flights, car rental and motels for my trip to Kansas next month.
- I came unbelievably close to buying a Garmin Vivoactive smart watch/fitness tracker. I spent much of the day reading reviews and comparing it to the Fitbit Surge. My motivation was for a sleep tracker and a smart alarm that wakes you within a window during a light period of your sleep. I found the solution in SleepBot (version 3.2.8 Build 10080075), a FREE app for my Samsung Gaaxy II Android phone. There is also a version for the iPhone. The idea is you put your phone under your pillow and it records your sleeping patterns (and later graphs them) by detecting your movements. It wakes you within your alarm range when you are sleeping lightly, so you, theoretically rise less jolted and more rested.
Tonight I'll see if a freshly charged battery will last the night. Leaving the phone on a charger all night could overcharge the battery and shorten it's life.
Sat Sep 12 = This morning my relatively new phone battery, #D, had 49% charge remaining after all night with SleepBot running.
SleepBot has all sorts of settings. After the first night here are some of my settings that take effect when I press GOING TO SLEEP...:
Automatically put the phone into Flight Mode
Automatically silence the phone
Automatically turn the WiFi off
Automatically turn the alarm on
Automatically turn off the screen (uses less battery power)
30-minute alarm range (wake window)
Movement sensitivity high (since I don't move around much at night) - under Sleep Tracking (new)
Sound record off
Delete older sound files (so memory does not fill up)
Optimal hours of sleep = 9
Bedtime reminders
Re-Punch-in Guard = 30 seconds
- My final arrangement for flying to Kansas next month was arranging $4/night Parking at the Airport Days Inn. I get a bargain on parking and they get a little income from an otherwise unused parking spot. Thanks Nimesh Ahir! Neat concept!
- I used my right hand for the first time today... to wipe myself; 47 days since my Juy 27th injury. Hey, that's a milestone!
- BIG GOAL before I leave for Laughlin, NV is to:
Make tickets for the Tempe Improv on the 30th
Keep my website up to date
Make announcement sheets made for upcoming appearances
Resolve my Checkbook
Get the video, edited and uploaded to YouTube and my website from Stand Up Live last night
Complete the Phoenix
FIRC
AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Course
.
Finish all paperwork & basic programming for my new Garmin 2509 GPS
Vacuum the house
Arrange to have my house treated for termites
Attend a comedy show at The Tempe Improv
Do the Monthly blog roll-over for Sep
Get physical therapy for my hand
Cut my hairs
Attend an Improv class at the Scottsdale Laugh Factory
Rewrite my Dominican Republic routine in first person present tense
BIG REWARD is to buy either a Garmin Vivoactive GPS Multisport with Heart Rate Monitor or a Garmin Epix with Heart Rate Monitor.
Now that I've stuck my neck out and told you, I'll either end up with egg on my face or a fancy watch.
- This evening I went by Youfit for a workout and then joined other ham radio operators for our weekly hamfeast.
Sun Sep 13 = This morning, for my OfficeJet 100 portable printer, I had to refill the high-capacity black ink cartridge. It took me a while, but I finally got the printer to shape up nd recognize it. This seemed to work:
Resetting the ink counter
Turn on printer
Open cartridge access lid
Remove both ink cartridges from the printer
Remove all power (remove battery & unplug) for about minute
Turn the printer back on
Insert both cartridges
Press RESUME (I think that was my last step)
- At noon I lay in the sun for 20 minutes and did my 2-minute high-speed exercycle ride.
- I also downloaded the waypoints from my old Garmin Nuvi 885T, updated them and uploaded all 636 of them to my new Garmin Nuvi 2589. After accomplishing that, I packaged up the old 885T for shipping back to Garmin for 20% credit on the 2589.
Mon Sep 14 = I am now touch typing pretty much normally with both hands, but my right ring finger doesn't always land correctly on the 9, O, and L keys. As a result, the Dominican Republic became the Dominican rePUBIC.
Tue Sep 15 = Today I was too busy - because I forgot something very important. In the morning I phoned Jawad at Garmin about their Vivoactive and Epix fitness watches. At noon I had my first hand therapy session with Jeff and, on the way home, mailed my old Nuvi 885T back to Garmin for credit. I should have gone directly to pick up Delores and take her to the doctor under the auspices of
,
but I forgot until I got a phone call from Duet. Then it was too late, according to Delores' doctr. The thing that bothers me the most is the black eye for Duet (blush).
Photo by Comedy Club Connection
- This evening I went to The Hideaway to do comedy. It went pretty well. I was encouraged, because some more experienced comedians, and even a professional, Barry Sobel, struggled with the room.
- I got to bed way late (2am), staying up and comparing the Garmins Vivoactive and Epix. The former will give me my speeds, times and distances and that's most of what I want. Every day it would be neat, relatively small and light. The latter would give me navigation and track logs, which I use only a few times a year. I would use its locations (waypoints), though, several times on almost every kiteboarding trip to locate new kiteboarding beaches. It would be awkward, but I could use my Nuvi 2589 instead.
Wed Sep 16 = I got a lot done today, keeping my nose to the proverbial grindstone, trying to reach my Big Goal. I resolved my last-month's checking account. It was a mess because of about nine
DSFCU
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
rip-off fees added while I was in the Dominican Republic. DSFCU acts more like one of the giant banks than a credit union, which should be more interested in its members.
- Just before bedtime I started my
Vaio
Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 8.1, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
backing up... and got it donef twice overnight.
Thu Sep 17 = Today I upgraded my
Vaio
Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 8.1, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
to Windows 10 Now all my printers work! This afternoon I went to PT for my hand and this evening
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over, probably the first time in about six months.
Fri Sep 18 = My new gasses arrived from Zeni Optical today.
Sat Sep 19 = What an unusual day! I got up at about 6 this morning, fixed three meals to take with me and headed down to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Phoenix Airport for my biennial
FIRC
AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Course
.
AOPA's Pat Brown, doing the entire course by himself, did an excellent job.
- After the FiRC I ate supper on the way to The Tempe Improv for the 7:00 show where I saw a good white male host, Feature and friend, Jill Bryant and then headliner, Tom Cotter. The place was pretty well packed and Tom was great, keeping the place rolling.
- I headed toward home and then realized I'd get there with insufficient time for night's seep before needing to head back down for the second and final day of the FIRC. Then the light went on: Since the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Phoenix Airport was only about ten minutes away I drove there for the night in the parking lot in my van, having a bed floss, tooth paste, tooth brush, hair brush, deodorant etc.
- The challenge was to stay cool during the night since the van had been sitting out in the sun all day and it was 92° F both inside and outside the van at bedtime with an expected low of 87° F for the night. I didn't get much sleep at first, not wanting to become overheated, sleeping on my back as usual. My two-wet-washcloth solution worked: Putting one from my lower abdomen to just below my breast bone and the other one from there up onto my neck. Turning my ceiling fan on low cooled me just enough and my LiFeMnPO house battery had plenty of juice for the night.
Sun Sep 20 = Long day at the
FIRC
AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Course
,
but it was good to see so many of my flight instructor friends. This afternoon the ugly, scabby fingernail fell off my right ring finger.
- After the FIRC I went to the tail end of the Improve class at the Scottsdale Laugh Factory. Jack, Matt and I were the only students, along with Tony Vicich, one of the instructors.
Mon Sep 21 = Today I finished the paperwork and registration my new Garmin Nuvi 2509, and vacumed the house, reaching my BIG GOAL. The REI smart watch specialist isn't in today, so I'll wait to get my reward.
- This afternoon I went in for physical therapy for my hand.
Tue Sep 22 = Today I rewrote my Dominican Republic routine in first person present tense, cut my hairs (badly needed) and went to the LA Fitness on West Northern for a shower and trimming my toenails on the way to the Grand Avenue Pizza, just observint the show. West Fillmore St. there is really dark at night and one has to be really careful when turning around, which someone wasn't. I saw the driver crunch the front bumper of Trevor Skies' Prius.
- I don't understand my Galaxy S2 phone sometimes. This evening it got up to 148° F (the SIM card was the hottest part) with nothing but the telephone active. Of course that drained the rest of the power from my battery D.
Wed Sep 23 = I went to REI and got a Garmin Vivoactive for my BIG REWARD. It was almost an anti-climax, having been obsessed with the idea and working hard for it for about two weeks.
- Tonight was my debut at the Scottsdale Laugh Factory and in the field of Improv. Jack, Matt and I opened the show with World's Worst; 77 Entered a Bar; Esteemed Poet with topical input from the audience. The show was rounded out with four comedians, Jack Galvin, Alexis Grossman, Floyd Haas, Michael Longfellow and Tony Vicich. The small audiance of about 14 seemed to enjoy the show.
Thu Sep 24 = I was tempted to lazy out and not bother going on this evening's trip. However, it seems that three-to-nine days prior to an appearance is the ideal publicity window. Then people have long enough to plan, but not long enough to forget. We'll see how this works out.
- Tonight's main event was the
ARA
Arizona Repeater Association (ham radio operators)
meeting down in Tempe. On the way I stopped by the LA Fitness on Southern in Tempe with only time there to pass out a number of my Show Sheets, a few tickets for the Tempe Improv next Wednesday... and one quick biceps dumbbell set.
- Then to the ARA meeting. It was another good one. Two tower climbers informed the us about the in's and out's of climbing, safety, assistance and rescue. New thing for me was suspension trauma which can lead to death by heart attack etc. You do NOT treat the patient the way paramedics would, by laying them down, but rather, keep them in the W position for 30 minutes to give the stale blood in their legs time to slowly get back into circulation.
- Next stop, on my way home, was the East Camelback LA Fitness to complete my arms workout and pass out more Show Sheets and a few more tickets for the Tempe Improv. Most everyone appreciates it and thanks me.
Fri Sep 25 = My new Vivoactive smart watch makes me feel stupid. It took me two days, armed with the instruction manual and a phone call to Garmin, to figure out how to set the time and how to use it as a simple stopwatch, although an awkward one. I kept my eyes pealed most of the day to locate where I had put its heart-rate strap so I could use it for my exercycle sprint. Finally I found the strap in my van in the Vivoactive box. I had checked in the wrong box (the one my Nuvi 2509 came in). What was I thinking... or maybe I was not... or maybe I'm losing it. I hope this is just the result of having a lot of things on my mind and not a sign of dementia. I WILL try to turn my brain on before embarrassing myself with more STUPID STUFF.
Sat Sep 26 = Today I figured out how to use that heart-rate monitor strap with my new Vivoactive (I think it's awkward the way Garmin does it), sunned, exercycled twice, made more tickets for Wednesday's show at The Tempe Improv, researched shotgun microphones and ordered the Rode VideoMic Pro Compact Directional On-Camera shotgun microphone. I would have preferred a STEREO shotgun microphone, but one with decent sound would have been way out of my price range.
- I rounded out the day with a trip out west past 59th Avenue for our weekly
Hamfeast
a group of ham radio operators meet somewhere every Saturday for supper
and a nearby 30-minute LA Fitness legs workout. Got to bet a little after midnight.
Sun Sep 27 = Busy morning. I got up early to phone
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
about getting together before our trips: Mine to Laughlin and Kansas and theirs to Scandinavia.
- After confirming no rain in the forecast, I washed my van thoroughly, including the tires, the inside of the windows and polishing the headlights. After I got everything cleaned up and put away I remembered that I forgot to do the inside of the windshield. After I did THAT I cleaned up again. The main part of the clean-up job is to clean and rinse my Karcher vacuum squeegee. I finish with with a distilled water rinse.
- I went to the
five-member women's steel drum band from Glendale, AZ
.
Beautiful mellow sound. I sneaked up to the stage and asked the leader if they could play one song without the digital percussion so we could hear just the drums. She announced that they would for this, their last number, but would need a Conga Line... and that I would be the leader. Now, I had never heard of such a thing, so the leader said just walk around and others would follow. So, that's what I did, adding a little style to it. By the end, the Conga Line snaked all around the room with about a hundred people.
- On the way home I stopped by the E Camelback LA Fitness for an arms workout and then to the near-by Trader Joe's, publicizing my comedy appearances all the way. People seem to be so appreciative when I tell them about the shows, that makes me feel good. Now... to be funny!
Mon Sep 28 = Today I took Arlene (blind) to her doctor's appointment under the auspices of
Tue Oct 29 = This evening I stopped by the West Northern Avenue LA Fitness on the way and did my Dominican Republic Hand Injury routine at the Grand Avenue Pizza. It went well and was fun, not worrying about laughs as much as connecting with the small audience.
Wed Sep 30 = Troubleshooting my finger and a most unusual comedy show tonight: This morning I went to the Core Institute (my hand doctor's office) where Josilyn, PA, removed, hopefully all of a suture that had been left hiding under some scabs on the right side of my right ring finger. We hope we got all, considering it was embedded in the healing skin. This afternoon I went to Physical therapy so Jeff could manipulate my hand.
- This evening I drove the 25 miles down to the Tempe Improv with all my camera and stuff in plenty of time to participate in their scheduled New Faces comedy show. The place was closed and no one was around... except 12 people who arrived from south Phoenix, Peoria and North Phoenix to see me. They came for a show and I wanted to do one and had my stool in the van from last night, so I produced a 30-minute for them under the stars there at the picnic tables at the base of the big staircase of the Cornerstone Mall. It was a good group. We all had fun. After the show we sat around for a while and visited some about comedy philosophy.
