shopping neighbor, did not feel up to the trip. She has been my neighbor for about two months and I am still looking forward to meeting her for the first time.
- I discovered that I had used the cost on my previous order T-Shirts as the profit, rather than the actual profit, so I recalculated it all correctly (thank goodness for electronic spreadsheets). That means next time, Duet will get about $32 more.
- Tonight at Monkey Pants, with an audience of 22, my total live audience count surpassed 26,000 with 26,030. That's the good news. The bad news is that the, somewhat irregular show put me late to The Bench. Bobby there, started his show about an hour earlier than the last several weeks, so I didn't make it up. I need to get used to flexible shows.
- While booking veteran's posts for
Arizona Lou 2020 National Road Tour, I ran accross this sad, funny and inspiring video:
Wed Oct 2 = Tonight at Toso's in north Phoenix and The Woodshed in Tempe, I tried a new bit on last week's bigest laugh... before the show started at Toso's. I offered a group of comedians on the patio a ride in my new minivan. It did not stop there. For the next five minutes they tossed around jokes about my offer.
Thu Oct 3 = I attempted to get some information about the setting on my sleep apnea mouth appliance from Go To Sleep. Anita there said the doctor would get back to me.
- When I scheduled my monthly credit cards pay-offs last month I evidently overlooked the one from Citibank. I got a notice that it was past due :( Of course I was embarrassed and paid off the total balance immediately. I had to do it over the phone because their website would not accept my payment.
- At Improv Mania, tonight I got some pretty good laughs about my old minivan problems, the big laugh I got before the Toso's show two weeks ago and the new definition I found for "toss salad" which of course I eat without dressing or croutons.
Fri Oct 4 = Today sunned at noon. The rest of the day was mostly catching up by paying my property taxes and my Citibank credit card bill, which I had overlooked about 20 days ago when I paid the rest of 'em.
- Thank goodness the thirty veterans' posts I have booked so far have been a pleasure to work with. That is not always the case. After making numerable phone calls at odd hours trying to book a free comedy benefit show in Columbus Ohio, I was informed by Nancy that "We aren't interest, That ends our conversation, Goodby!" and she hung up before I could thank her for her time and trouble. Probably working with them would not have been a good experience for me.
- On my trip out this evening I found exactly what I have been wanting, at the Goodwill on the way to my favorite gym: a compact camera bag for the two camcorders and two cell phones I use to video some of my comedy sets. The bag is well built, well thought out and probably made of leather.
- What a workout! I try to do heavy legs, arms and torso workouts on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, respectively. Too much going on this week so tonight I went to the Moon Valley LA Fitness and had a 1:30 workout. I did one light, fast set each muscle for all categories to loosen up and for cardio effect. Then one slow heave set each.
- Still catching up on stuff, I paid my property taxes online. They were due on the first but not yet delinquent yet.
Sat Oct 5 = I got my old van pretty much cleared out today. I learned while researching and updating John O'Leary on my Smart Stuff web page, that Sportscaster Jack Buck had died at 77 in 2002. Same age as I am now!
The cult of Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark
There are three states of being.
Not knowing, action and completion.
Accept that everything is a draft.
It helps to get done.
There is no editing stage.
Pretending you know what you're doing
is almost the same as knowing what you
are doing, so just accept that you know
what you're doing even if you don't
and do it.
Banish procrastination. If you wait more
than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
The point of being done is not to finish but
to get other things done.
Once you're done you can throw it away.
Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps
you from being done.
People without dirty hands are wrong.
Doing something makes you right.
Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Destruction is a variant of done.
If you have an idea and publish it on the
Internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
Done is the engine of more.
- Great phone call! By the end of my first call to them I had booked and made all the arrangements for headlining a comedy show! I wish all bookings were this easy: Thu May 21, 2020; 8:00pm;
VFW Post 4848; 2402 Amnicola Hwy; Chattanooga, TN 37406
Sun Oct 6 = When I plug the primary voice recorder (the Sony ICD-UX560 I use to recrod the audio of all my comedy appearances) my computer tells me there is a problem with it and asks me permission to scan it and fix it. I have always said, "No." That happened with a thumb drive also. Since there wasn't anything of value on the drive, I said, "Yes." All the mp3 audio files were ruined and unplayable!
- Tonight's comedy for me was at The Grand. My second appearance there.
Mon Oct 7 = Tonight at Devil's Advocate I talked about the sad story of my old minivan and did a new thing on Toss Salad. It went well with an audience of 38.
Tue Oct 8 = Comedy tonight at Tempe Tavern and The Bench Bar, as usual
Wed Oct 9 = Comedy tonight at Tosos as usual; and at Boycott. It is a new place that I just heard about this evening. Good crowd of 25 for my introductory Old Man routine.
Thu Oct 10 = It is a pain when my HOA increases our quarterly dues. I have go into AZACMS's awkward website to change my auto withholding, which I did today.
- Since Grand Ave Pizza moved to Thursdays I did it and then Jo Bot, a fairly near location, for my first appearance there.
Fri Oct 11 = Today I removed the 3rd row fold-n-go seats from my new van. It was easier than I thought, only needing to remove two bolds and two nuts for eah seat. Now I'll have a lot more storage space under the floor into which they wold be folded.
- Through Wireless Toyz, I ordered another new battery for my Nexus 6P cell phone, which will need to install my their tech. They said it would be in in a week, Fri, Oc 18th.
- Another first for me: appearing at Lovecraft Ale House, only about five miles from my house.
Sat Oct 12 = I did my monthly credit card pay-offs.
- Tonight I went to Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix to see Taylor Tomlinson. She was pretty good.
Sun Oct 13 = I am returning the DC Multifunction Battery Monitor to Amazon, whose website description was inaccurate. Their description says, "The blue backlight can be turned on/off manually," but does NOT say that the unit quits working with the light off. I have already ordered a replacement from Amazon that will monitor my battery without running it down.
-
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
took a ride today in an ambulence from church to an emergency room: not feeling too well.
- On this evening's trip to do comedy at The Phoenix Center for the Arts my new van's odometer rolled over to it's first 1,000 miles.
Mon Oct 14 = I took my new van in to Earnhardt Kia to check a clicking engine sound when I take off. It turns out that it is probably normal. I'll advise them if it gets worse. Also Clint the service advisor, and especially Leo, the tech were very helpful in removing the second row bucket seats. I'm glad I bought the Kia from Earnhardt. A bonus is that the dealership is one mile south of my house. About 2 miles driving.
- I lucked out tonight being drawn twice for CB Live's bucket open mic. I did a 3-minute impression of another local comedian and then a four-minute set on my Holding routine.
Tue Oct 15 = I updated my blog to Oct 14th.
Wed Oct 16 = This morning I applied for the Bird City Comedy Festival (birdcitycomedy@gmail.com).
- What does Google know about what you've been up to? Check it out at https://myactivity.google.com
- I finished posting my old van add on CraigsList.
Thu Oct 17 = This afternoon, under the auspices of
I met my new neighbor Patty for the first time and took her shopping at Fry's
This afternoon I took thes pictures of my old van and got the third seat installed.
- Tonight's two comedy appearances were at Grand Avenue and Jo Bot.
Fri Oct 18 = Rick Osborn, my Billings contact, phoned. Tap Inn there is going to build a stage for me - probably 5x6' and 6" high. Makes me feel important!
- Tonight I appeared at
LOVECRAFT. It made 10 appearances for this week. At this rate I'll make it to 1,000 by my 78th birthday!
Sat Oct 19 = Trying to stay ahead of the game, I updated my Christmas card list. Maybe I'll get the cards out on time this year, but don't hold your breath.
- I took my old van for a spin and found that the transmission is a little slow engaging into Drive and never does so completely. As a result I just reduced the price by $539from $1139 to $600. I am ready to get it out of here. I'll donate it if necessary.
- What a mess!! I did not realize that my washing machine drain hose had come out of the drain tube until I noticed a dark squishy area of carpet in the office by the laundry closet wall. My washer had pumped out about 13 gallons of soapy water onto the floor. Thank goodness I keep a wet/dry shop vac in the garage, but it had its own problems. Its exhaust started spewing little black flakes of plastic. I thought the vac was toast until I figured that its built-in foam intake filter had just spontaneously disintegrated. I vacuumed up about eight gallons of water from carpeting in the office and the hall and from the the tile in the laundry closet. I will have three fans running on high for the next few days to dry it out.
- Other accomplishments today were getting caught up on about the last two weeks of the audio recordings of my comedy appearances. That means adding the topics to my PAST COMEDY APPEARANCES spreadsheet, renaming the files in the Sony ICD-UX560 I use as a body mic, recording the times of my sets, uploading the mp3 audio files to 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
and putting the revised PAST COMEDY APPEARANCES online.
Sun Oct 20 = I did two loads of laundry, which I do about every six weeks to save water. I have enough clothes for that.
- Here are the old and the new:
- Every month or so I do laundry. That saves water and energy. Fortunately I have enough stuff to last. I did two loads, whites and darks.
- You've heard of Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center. Well, they are building an Arizona Lou Stage, and I am thrilled. It is going to be a piece of plywood in a Billings MT bar, but you've got to start somewhere!
- Tonight was my third appearance in downtown Phoenix at The Grand Cafe.
Mon Oct 21 = I went to see a vascular specialist, Dr Wait because of a probably innacurate test done during House Calls. The test compares the systolic (high number) blood pressure of your upper arm (brachia) to that of your foot - usually measured at the ankle.
- The House Calls test was done with my tow so got a Brachial/toe index of 89% (right leg) and 75% (left leg). That is normal... for the toe. Since Dr Wait could feel the pulse on the inside of my ankle she concluded that my brachial/ankle index was near 100% which is excellent and that the House Calls took the toe measurement as if it were the ankle measurement. That made it appear low.
- Tonight's comedy was at Devil's Advocate, a good set. I announced and bragged about the new Arizona Lou Stage.
Tue Oct 22 = Only one comedy appearance tonight - at the Tempe Tavern. I drove down to The Bench Bar but Bobby was having an all-ladies show.
- I got to bed late, impulsing on an after-bedtime project: making a sample poster for my Arizona Lou Special: Thousand show which will be on November 27th. The poster DOES look pretty good, though.
Wed Oct 23 = No one seems to have the huge #55 Torx driver I need to remove the middle row seat rails from my new van.
- Comedy tonight was my usual Toso's and Woodshed. In the shows, I have started including information about my upcomming Arizona Lou Special: Thousand open mic on Nov 27th. It will be my 1,000th stand up comedy appearance.
Thu Oct 24 = I started my day today as I like to start most of them... by waking up. I finally turned my fans off after five days - everything appears to be dry now, according to my thermographic camera.
- Auto Zone has, in stock, the large Torx driver that I need to remove my new van's seat rails.
- Taking my computer, I got to Grand Avenue Pizza in time to do a neat project on the EPK of my website - I added my poster templates. Then, of course I did the comedy and followed that my more comedy at nearby Jo Bot.
Fri Oct 25 = I sold my old van to a guy and later bought it back. He didn't realize the DRIVE function of the transmission was so far gone, made it about two miles to the parking lot by an Arizona DMV office and that was all she wrote. The DMV showed that Desert Financial still had a lean on the van, although I had paid it off at least 18 years ago. I had to go to DFCU and get it straightened out. It would be nice if people would do what they were supposed to do. Now my van is in the parking lot about a mile south of my house.
Sat Oct 26 = This being my one night a week off from doing comedy, I went to the nearby Anytime Fitness, working out a light set for each muscle, then a heavy, slow, arms workout.
- I updated the information sheet in the window of my old van this evening and got the rest of the second row seat rails removed from my new van in preparation for converting it to a mini motorhome.
Sun Oct 27 = I am surely glad the instructions for my new Kia Sedona told me to close the doors before driving, to keep my body parts out of the way of the closing doors and to not open the doors while driving. I'm sure I'll come up with other stupid actions.
- Tonight's comedy was my first in Goodyear AZ and my first at
Roman's Oasis.
Mon Oct 28 = I've got a birthday in one more month! When we were kids, just learning about time, this is what we would say as we'd run around the house back in Agusta, KS.
- Today I sent out 16 emails through Mail Chimp to Billings about my show there on Saturday.
- Tonight's comedy was at Devil's Advocate, since my name was not drawn at CB Live.
Tue Oct 29 = Today I did a gnarly test to find the maximum recording length for the various cameras (below) that I use for my comedy appearances. They are mostly limited by a maximum file size and then by the battery capacity. The camcorders split a long recording into several files :( missing nothing. The cell phones do the same but lose about 1.5 seconds :( :( with each split.
All this means more time spent in post processing.
- Comedy tonight was my usual Tuesday appearances at Tempe Tavern and The Bench Bar. All week I have been promoting my Arizona Lou Special on Nov 27th.
Wed Oct 30 = Busy these days dividing my time between:
packing for Billings
selling my old van
getting it out of impound
testing my video cameras' max recording times (above)
configuring my new van as my home away from home
making arrangements for Billings
working on my full-length show
booking stops for my 2020 Road Tour
keeping my website up to date
finding sponsors for the Arizona Lou Special
making arrangements for the Special
going to open mics so I'll have 1,000 appearances by my birthday
appearing at Toso's tonight
appearing at Boycott tonight
making sure I do not get bored with this retired life
Thu Oct 31 = Before I flew to Billings today I drove north in my new van and got my old van out of hock and said, "Good by" with a small check which I then deposited by phone.
- On the flight, the flight attendants said it was a first, for anyone to do pushups on the plane. Hey, I've got to keep my blood circulating! Beverly, Rick Osborne's daughter, picked me up at the airport and checked me in at the Super 8 by Wyndham Billings, all expenses already paid by the VFW post. Thanks!
, I ran accross this sad, funny and inspiring video:
