Sun Mar 1 = Late Lunch Comedy in Scottsdale was at the Pho Cao Vietnamese Restaurant. I did my ?78 Moses routine and added some new stuff about his anger issues and beating up a rock.
Mon Mar 2 = This afternoon
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over to tech out with me. He showed me his new high-tech German wrench. We also talked about the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, the angles of the pyramids his drones and the ammeter I am trying to convert to a voltmeter. Our discussions are always stimulating.
- This evening's comedy was in Tempe atDevil's Advocate where I practiced my enhanced Moses routine.
Tue Mar 3 = I ordered glasses from Zenni Optical. My new prescription is half a diopter stronger than my old one from about two years ago.
- Comedy this evening was about four miles from here at Kimmyz, Tatum Point. Since it was my second time there, I did my Basic Economy routine and closed with my "OutOfTime" bit.
Wed Mar 4 = I ordered magnetic car signs for my Arizona Lou's Veterans Appreciation National Tour, without the year, so I can use them future years... if I survive this tour and haven't died yet. Ya know, I'm getting closer every day. Don't laugh. So are you.
Tonight was one of my rare local booked appearances. It was my second time at Lacuna Kava and my first time being booked there. Thanks, Durrell Hearns (King Diesel). I spent the 10 minutes on my Fit routine which included the Gym, Weights, Machines and the Towel Boy. The audience seemed to enjoy it.
After the show I stopped by LA Fitness for a brief, heavy slow legs workout.
Thu Mar 5 = ordered an 11x17" pull-up table-top banner of the posters I'll be selling on my road tour.
- I could hardly wait until Grand Ave Pizza comedy show tonight to try out a new slant on my Fit/Muscles routine and to practice my newly revised Moses routine. It was a good show.
Fri Mar 6 = Some of the retainer shivs on my neat SunPac tripods legs tend to come out when other people use the tripods. Then the leg extensions have no stop and just fall out. I tried to phone SunPac but did not get through.
Sat Mar 7 = Today I went to LA Fitness for brief, heavy slow arms workout.
- This evening I used my new ink-jet date printer while entering new email addresses for my fans - 45 of them. Since I had the date printer counting the swipes and printing the time, it was easy to find that it took me an average of one minute for each email. What slows me down is the emails that are hard to read :(
- Getting the list of my emails organized, I removed about 9 that had unsubscribed and tried to correct some that I hadn't read correctly the last time.
Sun Mar 8 = WELCOME TO DAYLIGHT TIME, you poor suckers in the rest of the US who lost an hour last night. Our MST now matches that of California PT, and we are three hours earlier than the east coast.
- Near the end of its life is the EZink toner cartridge for my LASER Samsung Xpress M2835DW B&W printer. I agitated the toner cartridge for about the fifth time the past few weeks. The printer straightened up... for about 4 pages. In the process I wasted 11 pages of the more expensive blue paper that I am now using for my little Announcement fliers. I finished the job with a new Success Premium compatible toner cartridge.
- An impulse inspired me to clean my kitchen counter, cutting board, sink and area. Also it sort of needed it.
- This afternoon I went across the street to Jamie's (Mike's old house), met her dad who was supervising the installation of their new Ring door bell by his grandson, CJ.
- I decided to work on my van project instead of going to three shows, Pho Cao, Phoenix Center for the Arts, and The Grand. Yesterday the guy who was supposed to give me a bid on spray painting some bare plywood of my reconfigured van bed frame with speckle paint never phoned or showed up, so I decided it would be less trouble to do it myself.
- Rustoleum appreciated me today. It took an extra trip to Home Depot for more spray paint. I started outside in my driveway and ended up in the garage where there was no breeze to blow the spray paint away. Altogether I used six, 12 oz cans. That's over a quart! Two cans of white primer, one can of gray primer (covered so much better than the white) and two cans of a texture finish. I was not impressed with the latter. The aerosol cans were very hard to spray with and you had to apply gobs of the stuff in order to get anything resembling the caps.
Mon Mar 9 = Yesterday and today I spent a lot of time on car magnets (GotPrint.com) and posters (Printivity.com). Both online printers needed me to redo the respective graphics to allow for full bleed of the edges. What a job! It didn't help that navigating their websites was not easy.
- Tonight's comedy was at Devil's Advocate.
Tue Mar 10 = Last night I experienced a couple of stabbing back pains. I have been working on the sale of some of my raw desert land in the Wittmann area..
- Tonight's comedy was at Concierge.
Wed Mar 11 = In the middle of last night I made comedy decisions for my immediate future: 1) to quit working on new material and spend my time perfecting my organization of my one-hour tour show, 2) to quit seeking new bookings for the tour since there are so many venues to chase after for their show confirmation emails.
- Tonight's comedy was at Toso's. On the way home I stopped by LA Fitness for a brief, heavy slow arms workout.
Thu Mar 12 = Most of the day I was tired, even after getting a good night's sleep. I figured a bug might have its eye on me, so I stayed home instead of doing comedy at Improv Mania. Grand Avenue Pizza was out because it has been raining a lot today and they have the show out on their patio. Don't think we got any sun today.
- Instead of the comedy I did an almost perfect job of installing trunk liner in the kite-storage compartment at the back of my van. It took about three hours and about 50 feet of double-sided removable carpet tape. Surely looks nice!
- It took me 43 minutes to do my monthly credit card payoffs. About half of that time was figuring out the Citibank 2% cash back rewards, that I have started having deposited directly into my checking account rather than as a statement credit. As a result, I figure I'll gain about $9.60 per year (big deal).
- I even got to bed early, well, about 12:30am.
Fri Mar 13 = Today I finished getting all my eastbound and east coast tour stops confirmed by email :) All I have left is stragglers, 2 westbound and 2 in Alaska.
- Yea, it works! The print cartridges (that include the print head) for my new Reiner Speed i Jet 798 Date Printer cost between $26 & $35. The $14.89 HP 51604A print head I ordered arrived today. I tested it and it works just fine :)
Also I just found compatibles @ $5.57 ea, including shipping. More information and links are here on my Technology page.
- My pull-up poster banner arrived in my mail box along with my Zenni Optical glasses. No time tonight to try the glasses on because I have to get to bed early to go to a hamfest tomorrow morning, out west. It looks like the rain will be tapering off but there will be some clouds. Just about perfect weather, as long as there is not residual flooding.
Sat Mar 14 = By the time I usually get up, today I had already:
gotten up
fixed breakfast
driven to Surprise (about a half hour west to a hamfest)
gotten lost
found the location where it was probably supposed to be
assumed that it was canceled due to the last few days of heavy rain
enjoyed the clear sky and sunshine
driven home on a congested freeway, closed for construction
washed my van
put it up on a ramp
undercoated the floor penetrations for my table socket
repaired a mud flap in front of the driver's rear tire
sent an email
blogged a little for today
taken an hour nap to make up for a short last night
- SON and SUN after the nap. My son called and we had a nice visit. His family has had the flu and, shortly thereafter, their Disney World vacation wasn't the greatest with their low energy, but my granddaughter DID enjoy the Magic Kingdom. After the phone call I lay in the sun, which was impossible previous few days of clouds and rain - some heavy. Not at all Phoenix-like.
- I have toyed with the idea of increasing my vocabulary, but why? Most people like me, would not what the new words mean, but it might be fun. I come up with a lot of new
WORD
my new word of the week, to use as often as I can in my thoughts, conversations and comedy
s
reading Mark Twain, so why not... starting tomorrow.
- Toward evening I took another long nap, hoping to stay ahead of whatever might be trying to get me down.
- This evening I planned some booking phone calls for the next few days. Also I sent an email to The Tonight Show, "Corona won't stop Comedian, Arizona Lou, "America's Favorite Old Man."
Sun Mar 15 =
WORD:
my new word for the week, to use as often as I can in my thoughts, conversations and in comedy
garrulous [ gar-uh-luhs, gar-yuh- ] - excessively talkative about trivialities.
- I drove a half hour down to Pho Cao to find that the show had been canceled. So I drove a half hour back home. Fortunately there was no rush hour traffic today.
Mon Mar 16 = Winco was the target for my semi-monthly shopping. Most of the shelves were half empty or completely empty. No bananas, potatoes, broccoli bell peppers, distilled water etc. etc. I bought a few caned goods as I could find them because they might be good to have on hand.
Tue Mar 17 = I made the temples curve around my ear more on my new glasses from Zenni Optical so the glasses won't fall off when I get sweaty. It turns out that the new glasses, with the same frame and a .5 diopter stronger prescription, are 2g (8%) lighter than the old ones :) I got lenses with a higher refractive index on the new ones.
- Am I glad I didn't leave home until I woke up! Sending back the defective Flash Drives, I had all the good drives in my van ready to return and the bad ones in my office to keep... until I switched them. Also on my trip I got my second injection of Shingrix (Zoster vaccine recombinant, adjuvanted) at Fry's, 32 St & Bell. My insurance saved me the $175. Thanks, United Healthcare!
- By bed time I had a little fever and felt pretty bad so went to bed early, at 12:19am.
Wed Mar 18 = UPS usually does a good job, but not this time. Their delivery guy dropped off two packages on my front porch instead of on the back patio where they would be safe and out of the rain.
- I should feel great, since those were the last items for my tour (magnetic car signs and 50 11x17" posters). But instead, I was miserable with flu-like symptoms as a result of yesterday's Shingrix vaccine. The misery will last me 48 hours.
- I was pretty well non functional this evening so went to bed early (before 11pm).
Thu Mar 19 = Last night I got nearly 14 hours of sleep, during the night my temperature broke, I felt so much better when I got up to pee at 12:04am, I spent two minutes on my exercycle at a mild pace before tucking myself back in bed.
- I took it a little easy today, Big projects were: 1) researching and ordering an 11x17" transportation folio for my posters; 2) shaping my van bed frame for a better fit and shaping the bottom right drawer to fit over the van's sliding door sill; 3) getting two critical screws at Union Hills Ace and grapes on sale at Fry's Grocery; 4) adding the pronunciation to Sunday's
WORD:
my new word for the week, to use as often as I can in my thoughts, conversations and in comedy
garrulous [ gar-uh-luhs, gar-yuh- ].
- While
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
were up by the creek trying to keep their brains young with Scrabble, I explored the source code for three online dictionaries and found one that had code for the phonetic pronunciation of words. I copied the code into Sunday's blog. However, to make it work correctly, I had to delve into my CSS code and added: }
.italic
{ font-style: italic;
}
... and I'm proud of my humble accomplishment.
- I'm also proud that I got one of my Wyze Cams working again. I thought they were a lost cause, but all I had to do was to log in and update the software. Never got the Wyze Cam Pan working. Never seemed to work well, anyway.
Fri Mar 20 = I've about decided to hire my taxes done for 2019, since Tax Act is being obstinate. I asked some small business people that I respect, who does their taxes and got a couple of good referrals to check out.
- Hiring my taxes done would give me extra time to re-produce the video of my 1000th appearance and roast... without camera shake - probably a 3-4 hour job requiring a lot of focus. While I'm looking for extra things to do with my time, I'd like to redo my picture of the flag set given me by American Legion Post 180 in Milwaukie, OR.
- This evening
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
called and suggested that we get together tomorrow around noon. OK, but very short notice for me because I have to get my computer backed up with an additional backup to give them. They will take it home as my off-site backup.
- So, instead of getting to bed early as planned, I stayed up real late organizing and getting the backups started, to continue while I am sleeping.
Sat Mar 21 =
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
met me at Chick-fil-A in Mesa. Chick-fil-A really had their act together. Drive through took less time than going inside would have if we were allowed to inside and order. They had six people taking orders and payments in the drive-through lane and one guy outside the pick up window handing the orders to the cars as they came by.
- We enjoyed our lunch and visit at Mesa's Riverview Park Kids Playground. I couldn't believe their 50' high climbing cable system. Fantastic!
Major van accomplishments this evening:
Got all the floor lining divots filled with closed-cell foam that I cut to shape/li>
Finalized the wiring for my running water pump
Got the bed frame temporarily anchored to the van's body
Put the mattress in place
Spread out the comforter
Spent my first night sleeping in my van... in the garage
- Each Saturday night I go without my CPAP machine as practice for my road tour, so sleeping in my van without the CPAP tonight was perfect practice.
- I am going to try to update my blog every day now. That should make it more interesting to my readers. The problem is, that I tend to get wordy, which may be entertaining (or not), but takes time that I could be organizing the routines for my tour shows etc.
- Oh, yes, this evening I replaced the door lever and latch on the door to my garage.
Lou Scatter Notes
Sun Mar 22 = I finished arranging the Scatter Notes for my full tour show. I write my topics and bits on color-coded pieces of paper so I can put them in different orders until I settle on a good arrangement. Pink is a normal bit; Orange is repeated callbacks, as being old; green is for adult audiences; yellow is venue specific.
Sixty-five year-old actor, Denzel Washington's 10 Rules To Live (paraphrased by me):
Remain disciplined!
Make A difference
Luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it
You must have goals
Fall forward (You have the talent to succeed, but do you have the guts to FAIL BIG)
Lift others up
Do what's right (learn to say, "no")
We all have a gift - understand it
You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too
Say, "Thank You"
Also, in a speech to the graduates at Pen State University, he said, "Don't confuse movement with progress."
- This afternoon I uploaded my updated PHX email list and sent an email out to 470. The email said:
Corona Won't Stop Comedian, Arizona Lou - Email you requested. Everything's shut down... except Arizona Lou
Everything has been shut down, including the Tempe Improv where I was going to appear this Thursday, Mar 26, 2020 at 8:00pm
This Thursday, the 26th I plan to drive down to the Cornerstone Mall (location of Tempe Improv), in case some show up for an 8pm comedy show, and will be prepared to do a full show, out in the fresh air where we will be able to keep our distances, on the sidewalk, at the base of the grand staircase, just east of The Tempe Improv at 970 S Rural Rd Tempe, AZ.
Use your judgment about coming, and don't come if you feel sick. In any case, keep your hands away from your face, stay healthy and keep laughing!
Thanks,
Lou Arizona Lou arizonalou.com
America's Favorite Old Man
- I even have a comedy bit ready in case the police show up. Think I'll land in jail?
Mon Mar 23 = Today I thoroughly swept off my back patio & hosed off the furniture. I figured all the fall leaves from my neighbor's back yard oak tree had fallen... considering that it was green with new leaves now.
- From my OuraRing I learned at: https://ouraring.com/circadian-rhythms-bedtime
Ideal Bedtime Similar to how the sun rises each morning, your body plays out your circadian rhythm, whether or not you sleep. If you want to optimize your sleep, try to match your bedtime consistently with your body's natural rhythm. Always keep in mind-you are unique, and so are your rhythms.
Look for these positive signs to spot when you're aligned with your circadian rhythm:
You had a full night's sleep (7-9 hours).
You fall asleep in a short period of time (5-20 min).
You aren't restless throughout the night.
You get 20-25% REM sleep.
You get 15-20% Deep Sleep.
You wake up feeling well-rested.
If you want to identify your circadian rhythm more quickly, say goodbye to your alarm for a few days-or a week if you can-and observe your body's natural wake time.
You can also try resetting your body by trading in your bedside lamp for the sun's natural pattern and go camping for a weekend. If you're feeling truly adventurous, you could even follow in the footsteps of early sleep researchers and try living in a cave!
Lou Scatter Notes
Tue Mar 24 = I did the final installation of my bed frame. Left is the bed frame standing on its end looking from what would be the lower rear. The 2" holes on the left are for access for screwing the frame to the wall through the holes on the right. Right is the installed bed frame with the spacer blocks and fillers to the right between the frame and the van's irregular wall. I used the long Jerry-rigged screwdriver thing to reach through the left side holes to install the screws on the right side that hold the frame to the wall. I used my new 24" 1/8" drill bit to drill one of the pilot holes. Sort of like working by remote control.
- Also I did a little shopping. This evening spent about two hours going over the full show I plan to use Thursday and for my tour, using my scatter notes (pictured). It was an hour and 23 minutes.
Wed Mar 25 = Here is an excellent list of Wars Involving the US. I should know about that stuff, doing shows for veterans.
- Today I got a complete set of icons drawn for my newly reorganized 2020 full show routine, all my camera and camcorder and PA batteries charged up for tomorrow night's possible use and for the trip.
Thu Mar 26 = What a waste of time! After I spent a couple hours meticulously retaking photos of my flag array, editing and tweaking them and then uploading the best one, I decided that the original one was better and changed it all back. Which picture below do you think is better? Hover over the pictures below to find out which is now residing on the Home Page at Arizona Lou Stand Up Comedy Firsts.
original one I decied to keep
new one I didn't like as well as the original
- I'm glad I did it, just because. I spent 2.5 hours driving, waiting and driving some more. Just in case anyone showed up for a comedy show they were going to get one from me on the sidewalk. I drove down to The Tempe Improv, which we knew was closed. What I got was... a take-out salad from a nearly restaurant, which I ate while sitting on the steps of the Cornerstone Mall Grand Staircase. Nary a one person showed up, so I put my comedy stool back in my van, drove back home and reworked the sound for my 1000 Roast show. Due to the audio situation there, I'll never be satisfied with the audio but improved it a little.
Fri Mar 27 = -You can say that you saw it first here. Goodyear is developing a new non-pneumatic tire concept based on spider silk that will regenerate itself and be able to adapt to changes in driving style, road conditions, seasons, etc. Don't hold your breath, though. It might be a decade before it is ready for market.
- Today I did a load of whites with hot water. I also recorded a bunch of audience laughs from the Internet to use with my Sunday Zoom appearance on the Internet and tested my smart phone on a tripod for the show, my mic stand, wireless mic and speaker on a speaker stand near the phone for hopefully good audio.
Sat Mar 28 = A few minutes after midnight this morning, I ordered two 5TB Western Digital My Passport USB hard drives (for the videos during my tour) and selected that they be delivered here at my house on April 2nd. Weird, but they said I was to pick up one at what they call my store, which is not close. So this afternoon I drove 27 miles down and back to the Camelback Best Buy to pick up one of the drives. While at it, I stopped at Dollar Tree and Fry's for some grocery-type items.
- For my van, I got the right side utility drawers sorted and installed. I also re-did the Velcro retainers for the Plexiglas cover for my
and checked all four cells for balancing, and they were perfect at 3.29v each :)
- I did a light full-body workout here in my home gym.
- About 12:40am I decided I'd get a head start on tomorrow's breakfast, which was going to be late, so I ate a bread, yogurt and cereal mixture. Also, maybe I was a litte hungry.
- Earlier in the day I had done a load of colored laundry in cold water and it felt good to crawl into a clean and clean-smelling bed. I spent the night without my CPAP and actually got a pretty good night's rest.
Sun Mar 29 = Most of today I spent experimenting with Zoom, an Internet conference app that J.D. Kavanaugh is going to use for a live online comedy show. He has invited me to open the show with 10 minutes. I will do the first 10 minutes of my tour show that is now on hold.
- The show was fun. I have seen major comedians like Jimmy Fallon of the Tonight Show, trying to be funny without an audience and pretty well bombing... even with their professionally written jokes. So, I engineered audience laughs. I even had fun with my imaginary audience.
- Below is the set up for my home stage from the comedian's viewpoint. The right tripod has a camcorder for recording my set and my cell phone to interact with the Internet through Zoom; The left tripod is a speaker stand with my PA system (viewed from the side here), set at low volume and pointed toward the cameras and connected to my wireless mic and, by audio cables, two voice recorders for the laughs. Voice recorder A was for generic laughs and Voice recorder B was for the beginning and closing audience applauses etc. See it in action in the video to the right.
- About bedtime I realized that now, with COVD-19, might be the best time to book a low-priced flight to Alaska, so I started researching and then booked my flight to Alaska for August. All that took some time. I got to bed a little before 3:00am :(
Mon Mar 30 = Today I canceled my Alaska flight and re-booked it, hoping to get a lower price. Didn't work. Just took a lot of time.
- This evening I ventured out for Romaine Lettuce. Albertson's, my nearest grocery store was closed... at 9pm, so no lettuce.
- I am going to get serious about good sleep hygiene since I am not going out for comedy nowadays. My goal is to get to bed by 10pm every night. Tonight I got close, about 10:23pm. after a light full-body work here in my home gym.
Tue Mar 31 = Today I never found a 2.5 hour block of time to reprocess my Roast Video, which was on my list of things to do. I did cancel my Delta flight in August to Alaska... again, figuring that rebooking it toward the last of May will give COVD-19 time to settle down and also be in a time frame allowing me to dispute the credit card charge if necessary.
- In the van department, I spent way too much time labeling the isolation switch for my
,
but it surely looks cool. The last hour or so before bedtime I got the switch soldered and in place, installed marine carpeting over a leveling floorboard inside the left sliding door, added the same kind of carpeting to the center aisle of my van's living quarters, and trimmed the jerry can trivet for the van's running water supply to fit the new van.
- Got to bed at 10:25pm.
