a little over $100 for my T-Shirt profits for August. I seem to sell lots more shirts on the road. Well, no wonder. Everyone in the Phoenix area who wants them have them.
- I did a light legs workout at LA Fitness this evening.
Sat Sep 2 = This morning I got my tires rotated at Discount Tire then took my van in to C & R Tire for a new crankshaft seal and power steering pump. It cost about the same as a traditional car payment and the rest of driving my van is almost free, because it is paid for.
- This evening I did a heavy, slow, torso workout at LA Fitness until they closed, then went to Anytime Fitness for a light arms workout.
Sun Sep 3 = Two things from the past today: First, I recovered my Tire Tread Wear spreadsheet file where I track each tire's location, miles and tread, trying to maximize tire life. The file was nowhere to be found on my
Vaio
Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 10, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
or my new
XPS
Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
,
to which I had moved the files from the Vaio. Thank goodness for the backup, which I had made on my road trip. I only lost the data from the last tire rotation. The hard part would have been figuring out the spreadsheet again.
- Secondly, I have been using twist-type pencil sharpeners for the past year until today, when I found my first class crank-type pencil sharpener... in my Comedy Writing Workshop tote.
- Tonight was my first comedy appearance after after my road tour, having taken three weeks off from doing comedy. The venue was at a new little cozy comedy club: Chris Zuiker's
Comedy off Main St; 38 S MacDonald; Mesa, AZ 85210.
The open mic was already in progress at Comedy Off Main Street when I sheepishly walked in, unannounced, and took a seat, late because I got lost on the way. The owner, Chris Zuiker, was at the mic, said Hi, Arizona Lou and asked me if I would like to go up. Of course I said, Yes. It made me feel like a celebrity, and I officially kicked off the publicity campaign for my Comedy Writing Workshop that begins on Monday, September 25th in north Phoenix.
Mon Sep 4 = My computer monitor #3 sometimes works and sometimes does not. and when it does, it is blurry. It turns out that not working is the computer's fault. Under Settings/System/Display I found if I click on that monitor, which is grayed out, and use the Disconnect pull-down menu to select "Extend" that the monitor activates. Otherwise the computer does not even find it with [Detect]. The blurriness was corrected, later, with a new VGA cable.
- Keeping my VAN going is pretty important. Today I added all its maintenance during my past trip to my Gas Mileage spreadsheet. That will make it a lot easier to find receipts in my stack of maintenance records, knowing when they were done.
- Also I summarized the seven, yes, SEVEN, breakdowns I had during the 13,000 mile trip. It is not as bad as it seems because, although inconvenient, they never effected my comedy schedule.
Four areas were problematic
The serpentine belt, which started coming off due to the oil thrown up from a leaky power steering pump. The belt runs all the auxiliaries. When it goes out, most everythin quits, including the water pump (immediate engine overheating), the power steering (watch those corners), the AC (sweat a little) and the alternator quits (thank goodness for good van and house batteries). Several times I got all black and greasy, trying to put the belt back on myself. It came off in:
5/30 Columbia, NC
7/13 Lexington, KY
7/30 Denver, CO
8/14 Las Vegas, NV
Radiator and cooling systm (marginalizes the cooling system) Had the problem and got it mostly fixed on the
Radiator fan relay: 3. Unnoticeable when on the highway with the ram air keeping the engine cool, but quick overheating at low speeds or when stopping. Had the relay replaced 7/10 in Lexington, KY and both the relay and its socket replaced 7/26 in Des Moines, IA.
Brakes, which outside left rivets were digging into the rotor. Firestone tried to rip me off for almost $1000, so I got new pads installed for $51, including new break pads and a $5 tip for the mechanic.
- Comedy appearances tonight were at the Time Out Lounge, a new place in Tempe for me, and The Devil's Advocate. I am reducing the laughs in my sets for this week, since I am pushing my Comedy Writing Workshop and have not figured how to make it very funny. Also I'm still trying to develop funny for my Road Tour.
Tue Sep 5 = I think I finally got FaceBook under control. My web browsers kept loading the wrong account, so I figured out how to delete accounts and deleted BOTH accounts. Then I resurrected Arizona Lou, the one I wanted. I'll not log onto anything else for the 14 days that it takes Louis Self, the one I do not want, to drop off the face of the earth - er the Internet.
- Tonight I made three comedy stops, but went up on stage in two of them: Dos Gringos and Grand Avenue Pizza. I am working on some new stuff related to my trip, so not getting a lot of laughs on it... yet.
Wed Sep 6 = I am the proud owner of a new PayPal payment button. It is on my Comedy Writing Workshop page, so now people can register for my workshop online. I put the button together at Gangplank this evening. It took me about an hour of tweaking to get it right, but all I had to do was to create the button at paypal.com then paste a few lines of code into my web page.
- Gangplank was the first stop of seven on my 81-mile drive. The last stop was in Tempe at The Woodshed bar for their 9pm comedy open mic where host/producer, Jarrett Nez, gave each of us 10 minutes due to the short list of comedians. It was a small but good audience and I enjoyed doing my Yoga routine, among other things.
- Back home, I should have gone right to bed, but decided to phone
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is retired as a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
and then do an abbreviated heavy, slow, legs workout, in order to earn my Wednesday Protein Frosty, which had mostly melted on my trip.
Thu Sep 7 = For the first time since I got it, my
Vivoactive
Garmin smart watch that has GPS, specialty timers, heart rate monitor and is connected to my phone via Bluetooth
locked up while Deleting. Turning it off and back on solved the problem.
Fri Sep 8 = I believe I am becoming a night owl. I went to see Alex Hooper at Comedy Off Main St in Mesa. After the show got out, I hunted up an Anytime Fitness where I did a full, slow, heavy, arms workout. It is the biggest Anytime Fitness in Arizona and the biggest that I have ever seen... but hidden on the back side of a shopping center at 3135 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 8501. It was almost 2am before I got to bed.
Sat Sep 9 = I got my sewing machine out and sewed a cargo pocket divider in a pair of pants and the hem of a Goodwill workout shirt I shortened.
- On today's trip I stopped by three more ATMs where Bluebird online clamed I could withdraw my prepaid funds without a fee. None of them worked. The DSFCU came close, with a $4 rip-off fee. Typical of that credit union!
- I also bought a new 19" wide screen monitor to replace the 17" 3:4 Goodwill one to the left of my screen aray. It has become blurry. The new one was also blurry until I later put on a new monitor cable.
- I guess it's called momentum. It seems I put off getting started on something, but once I start, it's hard to quit. Case in point. I have filled one of the electronic folders on my Sony ICD-PX312 voice recorder with comedy notes and have needed to get them written down in their various locations. Tonight I spent about four hours, and came away with some good ideas to add to my routines... but got to bed a little after 3am :(
Sun Sep 10 = Busy day for comedy, but not going over for a delicious dinner with
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
because of missed communications. Herberger's Kax Stage was interesting, with only nine people in the audience and five performers, including Ken, the host. Before the show, an old guy, in the hallway waiting for a play to end, told me I was not funny and that my jokes were no good. His name isn't Oscar, but he certainly is a grouch... never laughs at anything. The only other guy who told me that, was also old, only saw stand-up comedy once, years ago, and had never seen me perform. That kind of talk is a blow to the ego and confidence, but I have to remember that I am improving and there are always negative people around.
Mon Sep 11 = After finishing my computer-monitor research online, I had a big trip this evening, and everything went like clockwork, with a stop at Walmart to have my glasses adjusted (Thanks, guys), get computer paper and to look at computer monitors. Second stop was Fry's Electronics to look at computer monitors. After checking them out and doing some measuring, I decided a 22" wide screen monitor would fit me better than the 19" wide screen size I was planning. Third stop was Best Buy where I bought a 22" wide-screen that will fit in perfectly with my other three screens.
Tue Sep 12 = Today's BIG project was to dye the giant white beach towel I made to dark brown. I used my washing machine and the result is fantastic. While I was at it I also dyed a T-shirt, a couple pair of white socks and a pair of under briefs.
- During the dying process I got my new Samsung 22" wide-screen monitor going. It was blurry like the 19" wide-screen Good Will monitor it was replacing, until I used the new monitor cable that came with it. Now it is crisp as can be.
I took Carol to her dentist appointment. Then, Joining the Arizona Federal Credit Union was supposed to take 5-10 minutes but took me 25 minutes. Partly because I had to take a photo of my drivers' license.
- On the way to tonight's comedy, I stopped by Z'Tehas restaurant to check out the room where I will be doing comedy for a Duet group next month. James there, was very accommodating. Then I went on to my second appearance at The Woodshed in Tempe.
Thu Sep 14 = This evening I arrived at
Improv Maniain Chandler; in time to sign up for the 7:30 show and was informed, with no notice to me, that tonight's Open Mic had ben moved to 9pm. So, with my two hours I did my heavy arms workout split between LA Fitness on Dobson and a new-to-me Anytime Fitness on Chandler Blvd.
- It was good to see my funny friends again at Improv Mania, being my first time there in four months. The show went well.
Fri Sep 15 = I ran accross Isaiah 40:31:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Philippians 4:19 makes about as much sense: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Try telling THAT to a Christian family who just watched their little girl suffer and then die from lukimia.
- This evening I went up to
Rick Bronson's House of Comedy to see headliner, Mo Amer, host, Paul Alia and feature, Ian Jones. Good show
Sat Sep 16 = Busy trip day: This morning I went over to Francine's, my new shopping partner so we could get acquainted. She is frail, but delightful. She won't be going shopping with me this time around, as she is already well stocked. Then I went on to LA Fitness for cardio and a slow, heavy, torso workout; then to Winco Foods for for my semi-monthly grocery shopping. Spent about $55, which will last me 'til the end of the month.
Sun Sep 17 = Today I backed up all my files from my
XPS
New Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
,
then used my
Vaio
Old Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 10, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
to shuffle the backups to other hard drives for off-site storage.
- Comedy at
Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix was great... for most of us. Nick Giasullo did a good job hosting. However, the first comedian was a gal who was squeezed into her green dress so tightly that she was almost popping out the top of it. She acted like she was God's gift to sexiness, strutted around and trashed the stage with cupcakes, cheetos things and a doll. She said a few boring things, went over her time and then left the comedy club right after her set. Not cool, not supporting the other comedians.
- It was a tall order when I had to follow her and turn the room around. I guess I did a pretty good job. During my five minutes, I got 37 laughs (that's 7.4 laughs per minute) and had the crowd laughing 30% of the time. Rob, the producer, said that I "connected with the crowd better than any time before." Maybe all the experience I gained on my 3.5-month road tour is paying off.
Mon Sep 18 = At noon today, I lay in the sun for 20 minutes.
- This afternoon I processed the video from last night. Dring the show I had my Zoom recorder on the wrong setting so recorded ambient sound rather than that of the PA system, so the sound on the video is from my Camera #3 - not too good.
- This evening I went to Goodwill, armed with two flat-pannel computer monitors: One to donate and one to return. Then to Fitness One to have a guy photograph three spots on my back that concerned my determologist. If they change in a few months I'll have them checked into.
Tue Sep 19 = It took me 21:30 minutes to process and produce my 9/14 appearance. The audience mic was located close to the PA speaker and picked up a good balance without having to duck it with the PA output. This made the processing about twice as fast.
- I also finished resolving my check register for the last couple of months.
Wed Sep 20 = Today I continued some extensive testing of my old Galaxy S2 cell phone's video camera to see if it recorded at exactly the correct speed for use in recording my comedy shows. No dice yet, as it gets about .2 seconds behind in 18 minutes, or .02%: no good for lip sync.
- Rob, from
Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix, sent me an email that I have been accepted for their New Faces show in October, so I got busy, made a bunch of tickets to give away and printed out updated Appearance tabs to pass out. For my previous appearance there I got a 6% turn-out from the tickets. Maybe people get busy, forget or take the tickets just to be nice... but they don't show up. We'll see what happens this time around.
- I topped off the evening with a slow, heavy legs workout at LA Fitness where I gave tickets to six people who said they would go.
- Tonight I organized some new comedy ideas, mostly related to my summer road tour, updated my Comedy web page and worked on this blog.
- I stupidly got to bed way late (4:58 AM) doing stuff like finding where I was in Mark Twain's Complete Works on my Kindle, because it lost my place, recorded in my book log and then removed a dozen or so books from the Kindle, in case that was contributing to the problem, projecting my budget until the end of November, and analyzing Google Analytics for my website, which result was (see tomorrow morning):
Thu Sep 21 = The last month my website was visited by 352 users in 633 sessions in which 1,126 pages were viewed. Particular interesting was September 17th, the day I appeared at Stand Up Live. That day there was a big spike of 88 users in 105 sessions. 85 (81%) were new visitors (much higher than usual) :) They were mostly (99 of them) from the US. Interestingly enough, they were from states scattered all over the US. Unexpectedly, California had almost twice as many sessions as did Arizona, and I'm not sure of why. Maybe people from all over the US were visiting Stand Up Live. Three visits were from England & Canada and one visit was from Norway.
- I got to bed just before midnight, forgetting I have to be up early tomorrow morning for Carol.
,
I took Carol for a doctor appointment, lay in the sun for 20 minutes then sprayed my weeds in the back yard and out front.
- I phoned Wireless Toyz nearby and spoke with Shawn, the owner, about my need for a junk phone to use as Camera #2 for my comedy recordings. He said he happened to have an LG-D851 G3 that was not usable as a phone because it had a bad SIM card slot, and that I could have it for $50. I stopped by bought the phone on my evening's trip.
- I seem have trouble getting to bed early when I have a reason to get up early the next morning. This was no exception. I got to bed about midnight with both my SleepBot and Alexa alarms set for 6:30am because I HAD to get up.
Sat Sep 23 = I woke up early at 6am after one pee during the night, got up and around, including a fast 2-minute ride on my exercycle, fixed breakfast, which I ate while driving way down to the Doubletree Resort by Hilton in Tempe for the
FIRC
Flight Instructor Referesher Course where I renew my flight instructor's licence every two years
.
I arrived in time to take an 11-minute nap in my van before going in, in plenty of time.
- I opened up the FIRC with a killer introduction of Gerry Fairbairn, the presenter from AOPA. He was amazing for the entire two-day event. Unexpectedly I didn't get drowsy, even in the afternoon after lunch.
- On the way home I stopped by the El Zaribah Shriners, hoping to check with Elizabeth Banta on a couple things for
before everyone left after their Supporter Appreciation event. The place was all locked up.
- After that, there was just enough time to drive home, get a good night's sleep and drive back in the morning. Of course I didn't quite accomplish that. By the time I updated my website and planned and practice a three minute comedy introduction of Gerry Fairbairn it was nearly midnight.
Sun Sep 24 = Up early again (6:00fm) for the
FIRC
Flight Instructor Referesher Course where I renew my flight instructor's licence every two years
.
I made it there in time for the FIRC, but not early enough to introduce Gerry. Gerry DID let me do a couple minutes of comedy while he was passing tout the test papers. It was fun picking on some of the pilots there who were older than me.
- On the way home, I stopped by Whole Foods, looking for treats and broccoli. I had gotten distracted and locked my keys in the car and my hidden magnetic key was no where wo be found. That was a mystery. I had Quick Pik Towing come to my rescue. It cost me $50. During my hour wait for the Quick Pik man I went into LA Fitness for a slow heavy torso workout. Making lemonaid, here. After that I drove, accross 20th St to Fry's Food for the Hostess Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cakes and broccoli which I did not find at Whole Foods.
- I got to bed just before midnight, going for a long night to make up for the sleep I have lost the past three nights.
Mon Sep 25 = I took my new LG-D851 G3 phone (for my wide angle video recording) into Wireless Toyz and Shawn installed a new phone jack so the sound would work. Then I did enough tests for some good news: The phone syncs with my other recording devices without overheating. Bad news, it stops recording at a 4gb file size. That gives a maximum video recording time of about 43 minutes.
Tue Sep 26 = This morning I bought and downloaded Cinema FV-5 (camcorder software) for the LG-D851 G3, which should solve the maximum recording time problem.
- I went to LA Fitness at 32st & Bell for a shower and light full-body workout, then to C&R Tire with my van for three concerns: 1) I smell gasoline when driving; 2) The passenger vents always blow hot air (I've got them taped over); 3) I smell gasoline in my garage right after topping the tank off. That's not good, considering I have a gas water heater, although it IS elevated.
- I stayed up late checking the airports, kiteboarding locations, possible hotels for comedy and flights to Trinidad and Tobago in the December to January time frame. Got to bed about midnight.
Wed Sep 27 = When I got up to pee in the middle of my night, it was already 11 in the morning in Trinidad, so I made a bunch of phone calls to hotels there for possible comedy and then went back to bed for the rest of my night.
- Around noon I lay in the sun for 20 minutes and then zoomed on my exercycle for two.
- This afternoon I did the ultimate video test recording: a little over two continuous hours of my TV by my:
Canon VIXIA HF R600 camcorder
new LG LG3 phone, running Cinema FV-5 camcorder software
Panasonic FZ150 camera taking video
Sony ICD UX560 audio recorder (my usual audience mic)
Zoom audio recorder (my usual PA system recorder)
This afternoon I checked, and everything synced almost perfectly.
- Speaking of multiple cameras, here is one of my appearances in Newport News, Virginia. The first 30 seconds includes shots from all three of the cameras. In this case I was using my Nexus 6P as the wide angle camera from the rear (Camera#2). For the sound I combined my monaural recording from the PA system with my separate stereo recording of the audience, and then synchronized that with the videos.
- A quick heavy legs workout in my home gym earned me my Wednesday post-workout Protein Frosty and got me to bed about 1am.
Thu Sep 28 = Today, at the suggetion of
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
I watched Sunday's guest sermon by and interview of Joseph Sojourner at the Mission Comunity Church in Mesa. My take-away was that we need to be fearless in what we believe (or don't believe) and say what needs to be said. Also Isaha 40:31 is essecentially meaningless if you look honestly at what happens to people.
- I did a slow, heavy arms workout at the Moon Valley LA Fitness.
Fri Sep 29 = I must have miscounted because today I located 12 states in which I have NOT done comedy. That means that I have done comedy in only 38 states plus the District of Colombia (I call it 39 states) - one less than I had thought.
- I left home in the pickup loaner truck from C & R Tire, on what turned out to be a six-hour trip. At C & R Tire, I traded the truck for my van with a replaced fuel rail. The new fuel rail is a salvage part... that does not leak gasoline. New fuel rails are not available. Then on to Scottsdale and several firsts today:
The first time I got a barber shop haircut in about 20 years, courtesy of a half off coupon they gave me at LA Fitness, Moon Valley yesterday
The first time, ever, I got a hot towel shampoo (courtesy of Sarah, since she is a good gal and no customers were waiting)
The first time (I think) that I got a square razor trim in the back. It sure looks cool, just like my comedian friend, Charles Engle
My first visit to the Scottsdale Road and Thunderbird LA Fitness
The first time I visited the 2-month old Olives Mediterranean Grill with a coupon the manager gave me in the locker room of LA Fitness, Moon Valley.
- I ran across some interesting lists of countries' GNP per capita (how rich the people are). Here is a chart. North Koreans are 4.5% as rich as South Koreans and 2.9% as rich as people in the US. Kim Jung Un certainly is a bad egg!
Sat Sep 30 = This morning I tried to pay thie first half of my property taxes online, totaling about $2,330 (UGH!). The county website was really slow, probably because the first half of the taxes are due tomorrow. About half way through, my Internet connection stopped working (my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
's
fault), so what was going to be an hour job took over half a day. I finally brought out my
Vaio
Old Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 10, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
,
which was OK on the Internet and finished paying the taxes.
- This evening I drove down to
Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix to see headliner, Bruce Bruce, feature, Moka, and host, my friend, Brian Ricci.
