Wed June 1 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STAN! Today I checked Google Analytics. During the past 30 days there were two spikes in visits to my website - Saturdays, May 21 and 28. The 21st I told four real estate companies about my Free Comedy For Charity and also visited with Chad Bennett, his wife and her dad. The 28th nothing in particular happened except a lot of rain. People must have been bored holed up inside all day.
- Out at Haulover (formerly Canadian Hole), I took advantage of about two hours of sun, and unloaded much of the stuff in my van to dry out the carpeting where it got wet from driving through all the water as a result of the road flooding, as a result of the rain. Then RAIN, RAIN and MORE RAIN - most of the day and most of the night.
- I've got talent. I injured myself going into the pilot's lounge at the airstrip. The door has a fairly heavy spring and I caught its door knob with my arm so it wouldn't close on me with my hands full of computer case etc. I pealed back a patch of skin about 20 x 25 cm. I placed the skin back over that injury and did nothing else except applying some pressure to stop the bleeding. Since it is in a non-critical location, I'll plan on keeping it dry and open, only applying ointment if it looks like it is going to get infected. I figure letting my body take care of itself is the best policy... and avoiding door knobs.
- This afternoon's big project at the air strip, was to get my cantankerous Epson WF-100 portable printer working. After lots of trying different things, I finally coaxed out two sides of 16 pages of microposters for Comedy-n-Sunset on the front and Free Comedy For Charity information on the back, giving me 256 of 'em to pass out. Also I may have figured out the printer. It appears that I cannot connect to both the printer and Wi-Fi at the same time.
- Since comedy last week at the Half Moon Bar was so frustrating, I decided to not aim for a long set but, rather, just pick a topic and do it. I picked Yoga, starting with the Doggie Position. It went over well.
- Before I went on stage at 9:30 I got acquainted with an interesting group of guys... from all over, from as far away as Scotland. They were an interesting and assorted group who came to meet each other in person, having played a multi-player game for years on their Sony PS2 Game machines. I had also visited with a fun group, from Chicago, I believe. By the time I went up, they were all looking forward to my comedy.
- During my set, a couple of ladies spiced things up by chiming in, which gave me more to respond to and was more entertaining for the rest of the audience. It went well enough that, after about an hour, I did a second set, which I recorded. I wish I had recorded my first set, but forgot to turn on my recorder (uhg!). I sold T-Shirts to the ladies, an XL & 4xL. During some of the rest of the show, being music, I organized and inventoried my remaining shirts. After I sell about 4 more, it will be time to order 20 additional ones. Right now I am out of L.
- Spent the night at #A where I snapped this picture of my left arm.
Thu Jun 2 = MORE RAIN and continued flooding. We might have a decent sunset tonight, although most of a comedy audience might not expect it with all the rain today.
- It takes me about four times the length of a comedy show to fully process it, including editing the videos and analyzing my punchlines. This does not include calculating the laughs per minute or the percentage of time laughing. If I get the previous things down, those last two should also improve.
- There was no comedy show at the Haulover this evening. We had northwest winds gusting to 35mph, no one seemed to be interested in a show and it was threatening to rain. Not very camera or comedy friendly. Also the water level of Pamlico Sound was higher due to the combination of rain and wind, and was lapping around the area where I usually have my shows.
- I added 12 oz of power steering fluid at 318,981 miles after only 217 miles since it was topped off by Auto Tech in Nags Head.
- Spent the night at #4.
Fri Jun 3 = It makes me tired just thinking of everything that happened today. It started with knocks on my windows. I couldn't see the guilty person with the sun shields on the windows, and the he never identified himself. It was a Dare County Sheriff Deputy. What else is new? He informed me that I was not allowed to park at the end of a deserted cul-de-sac with no houses on the street for over two blocks. Also that a lady had called in that I was outside my van (which I was not at any time) urinating (which I was not at any time). A second deputy drove up.. Now, I thought the deputy swagger was something you only saw in the movies or on TV, like with Barney Fife, but this deputy had it down cold. I said, "Back-up for me? You guys make me feel special." The deputy appeared to be in the middle 30's, gauging by the blond hair. Gauging by the body, in the middle 40's. Gauging by the wrinkled skin, in the middle 90's. Of course I took the opportunity to tell both of them about my Comedy-n-Sunset shows. Deputy number two was trying not to laugh so I pointed that direction and said, "SHE really needs comedy!" and then to her, "You cracked a smile! I won't tell anybody though." The swagger returned as she declared, "I wasn't smilin'."
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When I started my van to leave, as they requested, the power steering was singing. By the time I drove the .9 miles to BP, the power steering was completely gone and not even singing. I bought two, 12 ounces containers of PS fluid because they only had three on hand and I did not want to take their last one. At 319,017 miles, 38 miles since the last dose I dumped in the first one. Thanks BP for helping me phone about eight mechanics before finding Rex, fairly close (in Frisco), who could look at my van today.
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Rex informed me that he unable to help me, with his current backlog. When I got ready to leave the power steering was singing again, so I added my last 12 oz of fluid at 319,032 miles, after 15 miles since last time, at BP.
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On the way north, I stopped by the NAPA in Buxton and bought three more 12-oz containers. Thanks, Woody.
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In Avon I bought six more 12-oz containers of fluid at Sunco, hoping I could make it up to north Nags Head.
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I stopped for lunch just south of the Oregon Inlet bridge on the way up to Nags Head to have Auto Tech fix the power steering. When I started the engine back up it was singing again, so I added another 12 ounces of fluid at 319,070 miles, after 38 miles. Most of the leaking seems to occur when the van is sitting.
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At 1:20 pm I got to Auto Tech. The van sat for a few minutes while I went inside for the paper work. My van left a trail of fluid as Scott manoeuvred the van into the repair bay.
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Fortunately I had my computer and lots of stuff to work on... or so I thought. I did not have the power supply, so only had about a half hour to work before my battery was very low. So I slept a little on their couch, making up for getting up extra early and read some on my cell phone, which battery also got low.
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A little south of Auto Tech is the OBX Sports Club. Naturally I stopped by for a shower (the first time I washed my hurt left arm) and a medium full-body workout.
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After the gym, I headed south and would have preferred to spend the night in Rodanthe, a 33 mile drive, but had to drive 64 miles back to the Frisco air strip for my Vaio's power supply. I finally found it strung out on one of the office chairs in the pilot's lounge. I got the computer recharged. I did not want the Lithium battery to go overnight at a low charge state - could significantly reduce its useful life.
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I phoned Ocean Air to arrange a jump lesson with Chris, probably one of the best kiteboarding instructors on the island. It looks like Sunday may be windy. They said Chris will phone me.
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I spent the night in Hatteras Village - the first time I have gotten that far southwest on this trip.
Sat Jun 4 = Luckily there were clouds (and more rain) this morning so my van did not heat up. I ate breakfast at the ocean parking lot opposite the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. There I had a nice visit with Ed, collecting his goodies for the beach.
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My left arm seems to be healing well. The flap of skin that I put back over the wound appears to be still living, receiving nourishment and protecting the wound. Just goes to show, you've got to let your body do its thing.
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It took me a while and I hope it is worth it. I removed the Velcro table/bulkhead retention Velcro from the port side of my bed frame and sewed some elastic between the two. Hopefully the elastic will keep give my table enough room to move so the Velcro doesn't keep peeling loose.
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I also did my monthly tire pressure checks. They were as expected, having driven eight miles before checking them:
DF 34.0
PF 33.5
PR 33.0
DR 33.0
- I sell my Hanes Tagless Comedy T-shirts for only $10, just to get my name out there, and donate all the profits to
.
This evening I sent them $144 for T-shirt sales up through June 1st. It's not much money, but I'm sure they will put it to good use. When I sell four more shirts, I will order additional ones.
Then I'll have an L and fill in other sizes where I am running low. I try to reorder at 20 at a time. That way the unit cost goes down and Duet gets a little more profit.
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This year I started using a folded queen-sized comforter on my couch. Depending on the expected low temperature, at night, I can sleep on top with nothing on but the ceiling fan, under only a beach towel, under one layer of comforter or under two layers. Photo by Louis Self - Chris from Ocean Air never phoned me, so I'm not sure about tomorrow's lesson.
I spent the night in central Avon.
Sun Jun 5 = Chris from Ocean Air never phoned me about this afternoon's lesson so I went to the store where they explained that I would not be receiving a lesson this afternoon, but I was still on the schedule... whatever that means. It would have been nice to receive a phone update from you, Chris! They also said that the wind looked good for tomorrow morning and that I should phone them if Chris did not call me shortly after 9:00.
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I measured the wind on my way up to Planet of the Apes. After I launched the last guy, there was no one to launch me, so I did my first self-launch of the season. Self launches can be a little sketchy in a small beach area like The Planet. Since everyone had headed downwind and I was not interested in doing a self-landing back at The Planet, I headed downwind also. I didn't play around a whole lot on the way... except stayed in the No Ache Island slick and worked on jumps for a while and took both the Dog-Leg Canal and the Cross Canal. Since it was my first downwinder of the season and because I wanted to get to Haulover to publicize my Comedy-n-Sunset, I decided take out at the 3-mile point at
SDA
Salvo Day Use Area
.
My 8m Best Nemesis was a good call with my AXIS Vanguard 132 x 41cm twin-tip board. I was out about 50 minutes with a maximum speed of a little over 15 mph. Getting a ride back to my van at Planet turned out to be easy. Thanks Gino!
- Back down to Haulover for my comedy publicity, I met Brandon and Kristin Follett who just opened Hatteras Hostel & Westyground. Also I met a friend from several years ago and got to meet his wife and his daughter, Kia.
- I spent the night in Buxton near the Old Lighthouse Road - had a session of heavy rain around 3am.
Mon Jun 6 = This morning I phoned Ocean Air to find the status of my jump lesson. They said that Chris was with a customer, but would phone me right back. He never did. He must be allergic to telephones!!
- Since it was not very windy, I decided it was time for me to secure my van antenna with some epoxy putty that I bought at Ace a few days ago for that purpose. I think I got it fixed well, but wanted to let the putty harden fully before the wind or driving wiggled the antenna loose. I took that opportunity sitting around to add elastic to the table stowage bulkhead retention Velcro on the starboard side. This involved screwing, sewing and poking. Gauging by how well the port-side elastic has been working, this should solve the table-falling problem.
- A little before noon I drove down to the Bath House and lay in the sun for a little and did a beach run. I spent most of the afternoon at the air strip - mostly trying to get this blog ready to upload.
- No one was around at sunset at
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
(no wonder, it was overcast and raining), so holed up inside my van, I started proofreading this blog.
- I spent the night in Buxton near the Old Lighthouse Road - another rainy night. About 3am I put a towel over me. Although it was a little warm, it helped keep the mosquitoes from chewing on me. Four had already taken samples of my blood from both feet and both knees.
- Rain at night is not a good thing, since I have a little drip leak on each side from above by my back hatch. Another project to fix the leaks.
Tue Jun 7 = This morning I drove up to Food Lion in Avon in more rain, did a little grocery shopping, then made some other stops, telling people that I was going to stop the rain, and clear most of the clouds, leaving only enough for a beautiful sunset - all before my Comedy-n-Sunset show at 7:00. Mike, the new manager at Dollar Tree seemed to be sceptical.
- At the air strip, I made a new 2016 Full Show Sequence file that is essentially the same as the sequence icon page, and went through about 45 minutes of my 2016 Full Show Routine, modifying it to make sure it matched the 2016 Full Show Sequence. - I drove up to Avon for my comedy stool and down to
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
for supper and to set up for Comedy-n-Sunset. There was a good audience of 10, most from a Christian school, which I found out from the leader AFTER doing a PG-rated show. During the show, after I noticed that the audience was not laughing at some of the common places, I left out a few things that would not make good Sunday School material.
- I drove down to Tower Circle North in Buxton for the night.
Wed Jun 8 = I fixed breakfast out at
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
and unloaded stuff from my van to dry the carpeting out after driving through all the flooded roads.
- It took me 95 minutes to process the 59 minute show from yesterday, which was a factor of 1.9, not including the transfer of the files from my media collectors (cameras & audio recorder) to my Vaio, which I did last night. The result is above.
A recent AAA study found that the typical cost of a car was $8698 per year in 2015. Me? Subtracting out 42% for depreciation, which I do not have with my 20-year old van, gives $5044. Subtracting out 15% for collision insurance and financing brings it down to $3784 for me. Clark Howard noted that for the typical car it costs $4400 for just gas, maintenance and insurance.
- After lunch I gave my van a quick fresh-water undercarriage rinse/wash at Askins Creek BP in Avon before driving up to StingWray's Bar in Rodanthe to met with Howard, the manager and Penny the owner. We are going to do a non-advertised comedy show Monday. If everything goes well we will make the show a regular Monday event.
- For comedy tonight at Turner's Full Moon Bar, I did a new bit about the sheriff's deputy that woke me up by banging on my van windows last Friday, plus some other, older material.
- Spent the night on Tower Circle North.
Thu Jun 9 = Comedy-n-Sunset tonight was great - not so much for the quantity, but for the quality of the audience. I usually impress my audiences with how old I am. I didn't even try with this audience of 25. Dewey and Mary, owners of The Old Gray House in Buxton, are both older than me, as was, their friend, Sharon's 95-year-old mother. Toward the last of the show some young boys and their parents lined up along the railing and also enjoyed a few laughs.
- I spent my last night on Tower Circle in Buxton. Thanks, guys!
Fri Jun 10 = This morning I got up, wrote a thank you note to the kind folks who let me park in the spare parking spot at their house on Tower Circle North and mailed a thank you note to Dewey and Mary for their support. They had offered me a perfect place to park at night.
- A little before noon I drove down to the somewhat famous Futuro House (UFO House) where Leroy was being interviewed by Scott Mason of WRAL TV in Raleigh, NC for one of his Tar Heel Traveler segments. I got to see the inside of the place and also told Scott what I'm all about. Sharon, from last night, said he might be interested in doing a story about me. Scott was most gracious.
- I spent the night at my new parking place on Light Plant Road in Buxton. Private; quiet; shady in the morning! From this point on, unless I say otherwise, this is where I'll be spending my nights, getting good sleep, watching the stray black cat and serving as a little security. It will be nice to no longer be a nomad on
Sat Jun 11 - I had a most pleasant visit with Mary this morning in The Old Gray House. There certainly are a lot of nice people in the world.
- I have been working long and hard on my trial comedy show on Monday at StingWrays in Rodanthe. Since it will involve three 20-minute shows, I may call it Arizona Lou's Comedy ShortsHere's the plan for Monday:
Cut my hairs and take a shower
4pm Comedy orientation for the staff at StingWrays
7:00 pm Get a sound system orientation & test it.
7:30 pm Do a 20-minute G-rated show
8:00 pm Do a 20-minute PG-rated show
9:00 pm Do a 20-minute PG-13-rated show
Evaluate the shows with the manager and owner
Sun Jun 12 = At solar noon I did a Bath House sun-n-run, and hung around the Hatteras Mitchell airport until time to leave for Rodanthe. This afternoon I phoned the kite shops in Rodanthe, inviting them to Arizona Lou Comedy Shorts at StingWrays tomorrow. On the way north, I refilled my van running water reservoir and did a car wash with a fresh-water undercarriage rinse at the Askins Creek BP. Of course the Orlando shooting was all over the news.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe.
Mon Jun 13 = A good and full day! This morning I got up early, cut my hairs and took a shower. Thank you, Kitty Hawk Kites! When I started my van up this morning, my power steering was making a little singing noise, at 319,434 miles (347 miles after I had it fixed up at Auto Tech in north Nags Head). I stopped by North Beach for the 12 oz of power steering fluid.
- I spent the rest of the day going over my routines for this evening, taking a nap and, at StingWrays, creating a letter-sized poster for tonight's show and printing out copies on my little Epson WF-100 portable printer since StingWrays printer has no ink. Howard, StingWrays manager put four of the posters out at different camp grounds etc. Thank you, Howard.
- Tonight's Comedy Shorts was three 20-minute shows, G, PG, and PG-13 respectively. It was an interesting audiance. I think a couple of them had watched too much TV and figured that the role of the audience was to heckle the comedian. One guy, in particular, yelled, feigning laughter, at random inappropriate times. After the show, I didn't feel real good about the whole thing, but it was a good learning experience for me - one I would be willing to do every Monday, if they want to.
- Spent the night the night at StingWrays until about 3am, then moved to Kitty Hawk Kites for the morning shade from their well house.
Tue Jun 14 = First thing after breakfast I went to StingWrays to retrieve the cap for my 8oz comedy water bottle... the cap which I had dropped down their men's room sink drain last night. My tool of choice was a tie-wrap with a special hook on the end. Britney said she heard "last night's shows were awesome." I just wonder if I am the victim of society's current trend to tell everyone, especially kids, how awesome they did... even when they didn't.
- I stopped by next door to the south and found out from Less, the equipment operator who is building about a 15-foot high sand base for a big recreational complex, that a guy from Israel is putting in. It will include rock climbing, LASER tag,a zip line etc.
- I drove all the way down to the Billy Mitchell Airport where I gave pilot advisories and got two of the three videos processed from last night. Doing that brought back some emotions and was not much more pleasant than doing the comedy in the first place. I'll just keep learning!
- It was good to spend the night in the quite shade on Light Plant Road in Buxton. However, it rained, not extremely hard, but enough for my back hatch to leak. The leak announced itself by depositing drops of water right by my head. I got up an put a cottage cheese container in charge of catching the drips for the rest of the night.
Wed Jun 15 = This morning I had a nice visit with Dewey of The Old Gray House, and also explored inside the house. Neat stuff all over with Dewey's emphasis on sea shells and outlide outside and Mary's crafts and inside.
- On my way down to the Billy Mitchell airport I measured and cut and shaped special water drain channels for each side of my van's hatch and tucked them in above the trim. I'll have to wait until the next rain to see if the channels divert the rain water. Thank you for the use of your heat gun, Glen of AutoBanks!
- At the airport I caught up on my video editing. Since the airport's windsock is currently nothing more that a 10-foot shred hanging from the bottom of the hoop, I phoned Phil Lanier, the airport manager of NCDOT's Aviation Division at RDU in Raleigh. What a nice guy. He is genuinely interested in having a good airport. I believe he is responsible for several airports. That is the good news. The bad news is that Phil has to deal with the crazies from the National Park Service.
- Open Mic at Turners High Moon Bar tonight was fun. I came up with my routine about a half hour before the show, a combination of bits I haven't done at High Moon, at least not recently. Also, during the song before I went up, I went around and spoke to everyone and sort of got them tuned to the idea of some comedy. Alas, I forgot to turn on the digital recorder I had in my pocket.
- After my set I brought in my
Vaio
Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 10, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
and caught up on this blog, inside Turners. That way I could stick around and support Chad and the other musicians and, at the same time, keep up with what needs to be done.
Thu Jun 16 = At solar noon I sunned at The Bath House. I phoned Howard at StingWrays. He suggested I print out 5-10 more Comedy Shorts posters so he could plaster the Rodanthe area.
- Comedy tonight was fun. Before the show I did a series of mic tests and found that the Rode shotgun microphone doesn't do well in the wind, even with the Rode dead cat over its foam cover. The show started with a family of four on a blanket and ended up with an audience of ten. Young Kelly was my assistant producer and Bobby, her brother, my associate assistant producer. One of the other audience members told me it was her first time to see a comedian, live. After the comedy show I drove the 20 miles up to Rodanthe for the night.
- As I was entering la-la land I thought of a possible way to attack remembering the three 20-minute shows for Monday. Focus on nothing but one show a day for each of the next three days. Tomorrow it will be the PG-13 show; Saturday, the PG show; and Sunday, the G show.
Fri Jun 17 = This morning my power steering was making a little singing noise at 319,563 miles (129 miles after the last 12 oz addition). I stopped by North Beach for the 12 oz of power steering fluid and, there in the window, was one of my posters. Thank you, Howard and North Beach.
- I found out that David Perez is the gentleman putting in the big recreational complex to the south.
- I spent the middle of the day in the corner of StingWrays working on my blog, adding my website to my comedy posters, reviewing my comedy routines for Monday and printing out additional Comedy Shorts posters on my Epson WF-100 (rather expensive). Maybe it was just me, but I felt a little out of place there. My 25 T-Shirts had been delivered. Penny had them there in her office. Thank you Penny.
- Since Howard was not there as I had expected, as I headed back south I left Arizona Lou's Comedy Shorts posters at:
Liberty
North Beach
Rodanthe Watersports
Kitty Hawk Kites
Camp Hatteras
KOA
Ocean Waves (confirmed already on bulletin board
Real Watersports
Blue Whale
- At Food Lion I saw my young friend Blake, for the first time this year. He contributes to society down here as a volunteer fireman and other ways.
Sat Jun 18 = At the airport I edited the 48:30 minute video from Thursday in only 1:10, which improve my performance ratio to 1.44. I also saw Carrie whom I had met precious years. I also saw a kiteboarder, son and family who flew in on their single-engine turbo prop. They remembered me from the first turn-out north of Avon last Saturday. They said that I looked different with my clothes on. I also started uploading the Comedy-n-Sunset video from Thursday's show. It took from 4:35 to 9:15, or 4:40 hours to get to 65% point for the 48.5-minute, 2.2gb video. While it was uploading, I sorted and worked on my blog some.
- Some time during the day I went to Frisco Woods Camp Ground, measured the wind, but didn't care for the off-shore direction.
Sun Jun 19 = I ate some old broccoli today. It smelled just a little rotten. I figured that that happens during digestion, so should be OK. Turns out it was. Don't worry, I don't plan on making a habit of eating rotten stuff.
Mon Jun 20 = I mostly organized the sequence and practiced my three-show routine for Arizona Lou's Comedy Shorts tonight. I also did a beach run and sun at Ramp 34 north of Avon.
- Before heading north I washed my van with a fresh-water undercarriage rinse at the Askins Creek BP. This time I went all out and also scrubbed the tires and polished the headlights. However, I didn't vacuum or wash the inside of the windows. I added 12 more ounces of power steering fluid at 319,653 miles (90 miles after previous 12oz).
- Comedy tonight was fun. The PG-13 show turned out to be a semi-open mic. I gave two other comedians the mic with Howard's blessing for a few minutes of noisy, silly jokes. The remaining crowd of about five thought they were great. Next week I may do an official open mic.
- I spent the night in north Rodanthe to be ready for the forecast southwest wind tomorrow.
Tue Jun 21 = The wind did not disappoint. There were amazingly few kiteboarders out the whole day. I rode about 40 minutes from the
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center with my 8m Best Nemesis practicing jibes with my Naish Custom Fish 5'2" x 17.5" surfboard with no footstraps. I made all but one of 15 jibes, using three different foot switch patterns. and it was the first time I rode the board in about a year!
- Around noon I headed down south for a solo Planet of the Apes run, when it occurred to me that conditions were perfect for the jump lesson that I have been trying to get in. I stopped by Real Kiteboarding. They had no instructors available, but could schedule me tomorrow, but ony for a three-hour lesson for about $450. Three hour lessons are good for beginners, but no sane person would want to take or give a 3-hour jump lesson.
- Then went back to Kitty Hawk Kites and they fixed me up with Dylan Murphy, who gave me an excellent, one hour, jump lesson using my 8m Best Nemesis, AXIS Vanguard 132 x 41cm twin-tip board and my
radio helmet system, which worked perfectly. He observed me, gave me appropriate pointers, explained things well and did occasional demonstrations. Just the right balance of everything. Thanks, Dylan!
What I learned:
Send the kite more aggressively
Send it past 12:00
Get and keep more board speed
Edge for a shorter time but more aggressively
Pop sooner
Practice, Practice, Practice
The peak gust on my van weather station while I was out was 31 mph
- Now I am itching to practice, practice, practice.
- There was no audiance for Comedy-n-Sunset tonight. Maybe it had something to do with the wind. It was so strong that it blew my stool over.
Wed Jun 22 = Great day, in spite of there not being enough wind or kiteboarding. This morning Dewey told me how much he appreciates my keeping an eye on The Old Gray House. I went out to the first turn north of Avon (my GPS waypoint HANOR1) and confirmed that there was not enough wind for good kiteboarding.
- I have been exploring several possibilities for making my T-shirts available in Avon, since I can't sell anything at the
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
according to the National Parks rules, in spite of the fact that all profits go to charity.
- On the way back from HANOR1 I stopped by
Ride Hatteras
where Charlie, the owner agreed to sell my T-shirts. He even set me up with my first display rack where I proudly hung 14 of 'em. This dovetailed perfectly with my newly received shirt order. The world is surely full of nice people. Thanks, Charlie!
- For Chad's Open Mic tonight at Turner's High Moon Bar I included some new stuff in my five minutes of comedy. The audience was pretty attentive, for a bar crowd. I declined when Chad asked me if I wanted to to a second set. I met Kevin, a drummer, who is in his second year of teaching at the elementary school here on Hatteras Island. I stayed after my comedy set for a couple of hours and worded on my blog here. I felt good about getting some stuff done and, at the same time, supporting the musicians.
- I got to bed just before 1am.
Thu Jun 23 = I was awakened, a little early this morning by a knock on my van's window: Dewey, letting me know that the Orkin man was coming for the monthly spray of mosquito repellent. The parks department won't let them spray a larvicide. Thanks, environmentalists, for all the diseases you propagate!!
- LARVACIDES: I learned that they may be contact poisons, stomach poisons, growth regulators, or (increasingly) biological control agents.
- At the Billy Mitchell Airport I added to the order I placed with the ZipperShipper (zippers for my vinyl t-shirt bag) and caught up on some blogging.
- There was no audience for Comedy-n-Sunset this evening so I visited with Chet a while, added 12 oz of power steering fluid, then drove the 60 miles up to Auto Tech in Nags Head for the night.
Fri Jun 24 = Auto Tech, this morning told me that the power steering pump was leaking. We scheduled the repair for Monday. It will cost a little over $450. Hey, that's about the cost of one car payment... and the rest of my transportation is free, since the van is paid for.
- Then to the Dare County Older Adult Center to edit the audio from Monday's three shows: G, PG & PG-13. I got all three shows recorded as a backup on my Sony voice recorder and succeeded in dovetailing that recording with the PG-13 recording on my Zoom, which I did not start until part way into that show.
- I took a break and met Neel at the Outer Banks Sentinel, who is graciously going to run my press release and a schedule of my shows. I also stopped by the Virginia Pilot Publications office. Molly, there is going put my schedule in The Island Breeze. Thanks, guys!
- This evening I went to the Comedy Club OBX for their show. It was a good show. Of course Leslie was there and Ed was the host, introducing the feature, John and the headliner, Mike S. It was a good show. After the show, John bought two of my Comedy T-Shirts; one for him and one for Mike. Thanks, John!
- I spent the night at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Kill Devil Hillsd.
Sat Jun 25 = Today I phoned some auto shops down south closer to where I am staying for repairing my power steering and spent some time at the Kill Devil Hills Library and went to the
OBX Sports Club
in Nags Head. About supper time I drove the 60 miles back down to Buxton. It was good to be spending the night back home.
Sun Jun 26 = This morning I spent some time at
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
,
doing PR for my Comedy-n-Sunset on Tuesday there. I was well received. Someone said they saw my poster in the Things to Do book at their rental house. Never did find which rental agency to thank them. Then I stopped by my poster locations around Avon (mostly rental agencies) to make sure they were still up and up to date. Also I added a poster to my shirt rack at Ride Hatteras. Thanks again, guys!
- This afternoon I drove up to Rodanthe and had a salad at StingWrays. As we agreed, no more Comedy Shorts, although loud Jeff said he missed it. I DID want to be there because posters were still around town for the show. Howard said that he will remove the posters tomorrow.
- All the way back down to Buxton for the night.
Mon Jun 27 = After cancelling my van repair scheduled for this morning, way up north in Nags Head, I tried to find someone on Hatteras Island to repair my power steering. Not easy, I found. The best I've done so far is Glen at Auto Banks. The problem is that he can't do it until he s back from vacation on Jul 11th, and that is only three days until I will be leaving - no time for contingency. I found dead ends at Light House Auto and Beach Performance.
Tue Jun 28 = Good day and good comedy this evening. Van-wise it was not so good. I've been feeding it power steering more fluid about every day or so. I found Mike at Beach Performance who might be able to do the pump. He also found that I need to replace the right half drive shaft (I had already figured it would be one of the next things to go). He said he would figure the cost and let me know by phone. He never did.
- I didn't expect a comedy show, considering it was overcast and had just quit raining a little. About 20 minutes until 7 I started setting up my cameras, just in case. In spite of it being overcast, a little before 7:00 my audience of 11 arrived; specifically for the comedy show. That is the best kind of audience. They even enjoyed not having to look into the sun, did not do a lot of loud laughing, but you could tell, by their body language, that they enjoyed the show. My longest set yet at 56:05.
In review I learned that I need to:
make sure I get my segues in so I don't get out of sequence
think of a location tag so I can resume where I left off before audience interactions or distractions
Say, What shall I talk about next? rather than I forgot what comes next?
Wed Jun 29 = This morning I drove down to Beach Performance and arranged for Mike to replace my right half axle tomorrow. It is not going to work out for him to do the power steering pump.
- Then, while in the pilot's lounge at the Billy Mitchell Airport I got a phone call from Jacqueline, a volunteer with Team Clark (Howard) thanking me for my email. What a delightful person, who was interested in my website, my comedy - especially in Charleston, Charlotte and Atlanta.
- Also Phil and crew from the NC NDOT Aviation Division flew in from Durham. What a neat group. The renewed my shaky confidence in government employees.
- It took me about 2.5 times as long as the video to process the one from Tuesday.
- Weird things happen at the airport here. Previously, FedEx had come to deliver a package... and no one is here. Today Avis, from the mainland, dropped off a rental car... with no one to accept it.
Thu Jun 30 = I got up early so I could be the first customer at the shiny new Dollar General store in Buxton. Sherry, there, had told me that they would have a soft opening at 9am today. It turns out that they had already opened for a couple hours yesterday and had opened about 8am today.
- After that I went to Beach Performance in Buxton. Yesterday Mike there said he would get my right half shaft installed, for sure today if I showed up between 10 and 11. He told me that the half shaft had not come in yet and didn't want me parking anywhere on his pavement with my leaky power steering pump, that I could hang out somewhere and that he would call me when the part arrived. I hung out at the airport and never got a call. I added 10 more ounces of power steering fluid at 320,106 miles (27 miles after previous 10oz)
- When uploading a video to YouTube, you want to use Google Chrome. You tend to get errors and it takes longer when using Firefox. Also when YouTube says to not close the upload window, that's what it means. As a test, I tried shutting off the computer while uploading my 16-second Osprey video. That did not work. It is OK to put the computer to sleep and unplug the source drive and leave or change Wi-Fi hot spots. Just have everything back online when you turn the computer back on. The upload will resume when your WiFi resumes.
- I didn't have an audience for Comedy-n-Sunset until after 7:30, so the show was only about 30 minutes long, but it was a good one. It was refreshing to see the result of good parenting: kids that had not been sheltered and over protected. As a result they made a personable and delightful part of the audience of seven. The video, now on my YouTube channel is 26:50-minute long. While the rest of the family was enjoying comedy, the mother was out showing off her
SUP
Stand-Up Paddleboarding
prowess, not even falling in. And it was her first time.
radio helmet system, which worked perfectly. He observed me, gave me appropriate pointers, explained things well and did occasional demonstrations. Just the right balance of everything. Thanks, Dylan!
