Mon Jun 1 = This morning I got my trip organized, took a bath and headed for an appointment with my Neurologist. He told me that my EEG was normal and gave me a good bill of health from a neurologist's point of view.
- Next stop was at Esporta Fitness (re-branded from LA Fitness with added functional training).
- Then on to Fry's Market Place and Winco Foods for my semi-monthly grocery shopping. Cost me $50. Not bad for two weeks worth of food :)
-
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who was a retired as a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS until he succumbed to a three-week bout with Myasthenia gravis in March, 2018
liked complicated things. He certainly hit the jackpot with a Sangean ATS-909 radio I got. It has 40 buttons and dials, 24 LCD screen elements, lots of bands and memory for over 300 presets. I had to study the instruction manual to set the three timers and to tune the thing.
- My mailbox was a gold mine today. In it were 1) an AC/DC Adapter Power Supply Charger+USB Cord For my Panasonic HC-V770 Camcorder; 2) Cyxus 2-Pack of Clip On Blue Light Blocking Computer Glasses Anti UV Eyestrain Unisex Reading eyewear that I'll use in the evenings when I have to go online; 3) double female HDMI coupler from Best Buy. They all arrived well before their estimated delivery dates, so that is three less things to worry about before leaving on my road tour later this month.
- I got pretty drowsy and had low energy today. Don't know if I'm coming down with something. I lay down for a 30 minute nap at 3:30 and ended up sleeping for over an hour.
- Got to bed at 10:47 :(
Tue Jun 2 = Today's big
van project
converting my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan to a mini-motorhome where I will live during my road tours
,
continued to be the small cargo net to keep my emergency stuff from falling out of a compartment to the rear opening for the right sliding door. It involved buying a couple of large square nuts to use with magnets to hold the net in place. My second version of the net probably will do the trick. Mounting it will be tricky, but if I get it to work it will surely be cool.
- I checked out and analyzed and documented in my notes for the new power supply I got for my Panasonic HC-V770 Camcorder. Where possible I'll plan on operating on it instead of battery power because I will be recording over an hour for my tour shows.
- At the 32 & Bell I intended to do a short light fast torso workout but got carried away and did a slow heavy one instead and took a shower. Surely made me feel good! During today I had little drowsiness and normal energy. Guess I shook whatever was trying to get hold of me.
- Got to bed at 10:20 and had a good night's sleep (with my CPAP as usual). Went to bed heating my back and went 6:43 hours before my first pee. Back in bed, I iced my back for 10 minutes.
Wed Jun 3 = I tried to get a new Bank Of America 3% cash-back credit card (naturally with restrictions) from an offer I received in the mail, but couldn't. Probably because my credit is frozen. BoA's customer service could not tell me which reporting agency they pull from, so I'll have to wait until they send me a letter, which will probably arrive when I'm on my road tour. I was hoping to get the card before leaving, for 3% cash back on all my gas purchases. That is compared to my Citibank 2% cash back on everything. It looks like I'll lose a whopping $15 in cash back for this trip. I tried to thaw my credit reports but ran into a road block with Experian. My old password did not match their current requirements.
- I bought some things at Fry's Food since this is 10% Senior Discount Day, got in a slow short heavy legs workout at LA Fitness and here at home and had one of my Protein Frosties as a reward.
-
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
came down. I helped Cindy with her Chromebook while George and Zoee (one of their granddaughters) had fun with my LGB trains.
- This evening I got the right-side cargo netting for my
van project
converting my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan to a mini-motorhome where I will live during my road tours
anchored and the magnets glued in place, that will hopefully hold it.
- Got to bed, heating my back, at 10:22. I went a record of 8:18 before getting up to pee :)
Thu Jun 4 = This morning I couldn't resist an additional two hours of time to do things, so got up out of bed after icing my back for 10 minutes, two hours before my alarm. We'll see how I do the rest of the day with less sleep.
- I started organizing and bundling the cabling for recording my road tour comedy shows. Also I made a few booking phone calls and finished the installation of the right-side cargo netting for my
van project
converting my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan to a mini-motorhome where I will live during my road tours
.
It will be cool if the magnets work as I expect. Later I custom made a cardboard water-fill hose box to fit inside over the left rear wheel well.
- This afternoon I got confirmation for my Merch Signings for Charity at
Kitty Hawk Kites, Waves Village in Rodanthe the afternoons before my
7:00pm
Comedy-n-Sunset shows at Haulover, (1.6 mi S of Avon) on June 23 & 30 :)
- I did my short heavy slow arms workout at LA Fitness and here at home. Also, in anticipation of a possible morning fasting blood test, I had my even-day cereal for tomorrow's breakfast about 9:30pm tonight.
- To bed at 10:24 with alarm set early for a video appointment in the morning with my doctor. Due to the cereal, I had to get up and pee twice in the night.
Fri Jun 5 = I ran into some SNAFUs so did not have the 7:30 video appointment with Doctor Hagler this morning, but did get it rescheduled for 3pm.
- I sold my size 10 Oura Ring to a guy on Hollow Log Lane
in Birmingham, AL. What a name for a street. He got a good deal and I got about %115 for it, complete.
- My trip was to the post office with the Oura Ring package, to Walmart for a couple rolls of adding machine tape and 5-pack of black Sharpies for signing my merch on tour and for a short heavy slow arms workout at LA Fitness and here at home.
- I took a long nap this afternoon and, for my
van project
converting my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan to a mini-motorhome where I will live during my road tours
,
screwed the cardboard water-fill hose box to wall just behind the cup holder over the left rear wheel well. If I were more of a perfectionist, I would have sealed and painted it all to match
- This evening I projected my budget through September that takes me beyond the end of Arizona Lou's Veterans Appreciation National Tour, 2020. It looks like I'll still be solvent if I make good use of my Kia Sedona as a home and Walmart parking lots.
- I did my monthly blog rollover and didn't get around to riding my exercycle until 8:45 this evening.
- Got to bed at 10:45 :(
Sat Jun 6 = What a day - all unplanned. At 4am I woke up with some left-side chest pain that lasted over five hours. By morning I had decided it would make sense to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM and have it checked out since I will be leaving on my big tour a week from tomorrow.
- So I officially packed for the ER this time and checked myself in.
- In addition to installing an IV, by morning they had drawn blood five times looking at troponin levels (a complex of three regulatory proteins that is integral to muscle contraction in skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle - Wikipedia) which can indicate that the heart is under stress. Every time the test came back negative, but they kept drawing more blood.
- They admitted me to the HOSPITAL for the night to schedule a visit tomorrow from a cardiologist and maybe a stress test.
- The people here at Honor Health are very friendly and helpful. I just hope my 24 hours here is covered by insurance.
- I've been wanting to get rid of my spare tire so today should help. I had only two meals: breakfast at home and supper in the hospital. Yes, it included a salad; no dressing.
- To bed at 10:29, making up for last night and anticipating some interrupted sleeping tonight. Yup, they woke me up three times for vitals and to draw more blood, those vampires. Saturday nights I sleep without my CPAP any way so that part worked out well.
Sun Jun 7 = One week until I take off and here I am in the hospital! After letting me know that my heart and lungs gave me nothing to worry about, they discharged me. An unexpected and appreciated surprise was that they let me use my own two feet to walk out of the place. Due to my planning ahead, my van was in the semi-shade of a little tree so was not too hot inside, having had the sunshield in the windshield since I parked there yesterday morning.
- Here at home, I organized my
van
converting my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan to a mini-motorhome where I will live during my road tours
's
closet for the trip and used UV protective on the wet suit I'll be taking. Departure is set for a week from today :)
- I delivered my mail key, bag etc. to Jami and her son, A.J., neighbors who will be collecting my mail while I am gone.
- This evening I got things all set up for the Sunday We All Bond Over Bombs comedy show, but, again, it did not happen. I guess JD was out somewhere demonstrating for freedom of speech again.
- Since there was no show, I started tearing down my COVID-19 Home Stage, getting ready to pack things up for my van.
- It was good to be back in my own bed at 10:10pm for a good night's sleep, having loosened my CPAP head strap. I went over seven hours without getting up to pee. :)
Mon Jun 8 = The house was cool enough (83° F) until 10:30 this morning so that I shut off the two fans I had on all night. I surely appreciated the quiet house.
- After a few minutes on the Internet this morning I decided to start eating the core and seeds of my bell peppers and to start eating red ones because they are ripe and are a lot healthier.
- I corrected some technical HTML issues on my Blog Archive for Jul 2014 web page. That interested me in our trip to the Erie Canal on July 2nd so I researched the canal some and added this interesting video and this chart:
The Potomac & happy group in a selfie
One of 74 locks on the old C&O Canal
Time lapse, going through Erie Canal today - 1 hour in 5 minutes
- I spent some time this evening measuring, marking, bundling with Velcro ties and marking the ends of the ties ties so they would be easy to unwrap for the cables I will take with me on my tour..
- At 8pm I took one 5mg tablet of cyclobenzaprine (generic for Flexeril), a muscle relaxant. My upper back muscles tend to get tight and start to cramp. Somewhere there's got to be a happy medium between standing erect with good posture all the time and relaxing and ignoring the posture factor.
- To bed at 10:24. I didn't notice any improvement in my back after the cyclobenzaprine, so I heated it for the first 10 minutes in bed. I had to get up to pee only once during the night :) then went back to bed, icing my back.
Tue Jun 9 = With no success, I tried to preemptively find out when and how I'll need to fork over the copay for my ER and hospital visit. Altogether, I think I spent two hours on hold.
- For today's trip I bought the last grapes before my tour. $.77/lb at Fry's. I also stopped by the nearby Pep Boys. They are closing the place, about half of their store is empty and what's left is half price. I found a 75A DC switch that I need to manually combine my van's battery and the
.
The automatic combining relay does not always do its job.
- Got to bed at 10:43 :(
Wed Jun 10 = This morning I organized a display for the merch on my road tour, made and printed out a price list for the display and went to Dollar tree and bought a 3-section project display. Attaching the stuff to the display, the foam came apart on the old adhesive squares I tried to use. They just made a mess so I couldn't do the display until I got a better adhesive system.
- The major stops for my afternoon trip were to Pep Boys for a half price triangle reflector I saw there yesterday. It is a compact 12" rather than the 18" of the two I already have in my van's emergency kit. Then at dollar tree I got their last two packs of adhesive dots for my display project. Then on to...
- Comedy this week which was at El Charro Hipster, down on Grand Ave in Phoenix. Comedian friend, Peter Jordan, helped me with my display by cleaning off foam squares and applying the new adhesive dots and mounting the elements of the display. Thanks, Peter! This was my last local appearance before leaving on road tour. I used it as an opportunity to do my full merch display. I even sold a T-Shirt! It was a fun lively group.
- Got to bed later than I wanted to because someone spilled some beer on the table with my display at El Charro Hipster. The display wasn't touched but the bottom of my shirt-case and other things were a little sticky so I had to clean them off when I got home. That, and updating this website for the day (which I had put off), put me to bed at 11:19, with my alarm set for 9:19am. This is the first time in 71 days (10 weeks or 2.3 months) that I cheated on my 7:59am alarm. I actually got up at 8:40 for 9:20 hours of sleep, which seems to be about right for me.
Thu Jun 11 = Today was a lot of finance. The hardest part was figuring out the fraudulent charges on Citibank's Master Card. I got my credit cards all paid off and downloaded my latest checking statement.
- For my trip out I got some #6 AWG crimp connectors for a switch to bypass the automatic combiner for my
,
stopped by Esporta Fitness for a shower (needed because I gave myself a haircut and cut my hairs this morning), Fry's for sweet pickle relish, Motor City Auto Wash for their $5 automatic Basic job and Walgreen for 9v batteries.
- Got to bed at 10:34 :(
Fri Jun 12 = I arranged with Sarah to do 10-minutes of comedy near the Painted Desert Visitors Center at the Petrified Forest National Park on Monday. The idea popped onto my head because I plan to stop by and purchase a Lifetime National Parks Senior Pass.
- I asked my Amazon Echo to play a song, and in the process was subscribed to Amazon's paid music service, so I had to spend time today canceling the darned thing.
- Not much of a trip today: to Earnhardt Kia for some touch-up paint (didn't do a very good job on some chips in the painted black plastic parts). Also I applied my tour magnetic signs.
- I got my Show Box (12x12x18 paper case box) organized and packed.
- For my van I completed the installation and testing of the switch to bypass the automatic combiner for my
.
The benefit isn't quite what I expected, but it should come in handy anyway. Now I can combine the batteries automatically or manually.
- Got to bed at 10:24 :(
Sat Jun 13 = Packed, packed and packed
- To bed at 10:29
Sun Jun 14 = This morning I got up at my 7:59am, finished loading up my van, checked the road conditions and secured the house and headed out; first stop, Payson. About a 1.5 hour drive. It took 4.5 hours because, after 30 miles, the Bee Line Highway was closed due to brush fires. I had drive all the way back to Phoenix, up I-17 and across.
- I did have a good late lunch and visit with
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
and attached her flag holder properly, since it was flag day.
- Then on to Christopher Creek to visit with
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
and eat supper with them. There was no time for our anticipated walk/hike. I asked them to critique five minutes of my revised Basic Economy routine. I left out one of the punchlines because of its nature. In evaluating the routine, George mentioned that that setup was sort of weak, so I gave them the punchline, "This isn't what you think it is." They both blurted out laughing. Cindy had to go into the kitchen, she was so embarrassed at laughing at a punchline that was not... exactly Sunday school material.
- To bed at 10:50, the first official tour night in my van. I slept well under a comforter and my big towel. The low was forecast to be 58 and it got down to 59 in my van.
Mon Jun 15 = This morning I drove up to the Petrified National Forest to do a 1pm 10-minute show at the Free Speech area at their Painted Desert Visitors Center. No show; no audience. Everyone was busy, of course seeing the sights and there had been no publicity.
- Then on east for the night at a truck stop in Tucumcari, NM
- Got to bed at 9:55. SleepBog alarm seems to have quit sounding so I got a long night's sleep.
Tue Jun 16 = The most significant thing today (or was it yesterday) for me was two things I saw on the BN&SF. I had never seen either on a railroad. 1) Westbound a long, long train of all FedEx semi trailers. 2) An even longer train, probably the longest I have ever seen. Never did see the end of it. It was pulled by three locomotives with seven (7) in the middle. At least some of the seven were working because there was a slight dark haze over that part of the train. The whole train was four-door and three-door hopper cars.
- Checking my email this evening in the Sallisaw, Oklahoma Walmart, Google fi said the payment for my phone bill was not good. No wonder it was my Citibank credit card, so I had to change it. By the time I got that figured out and done and my website updated by phone, it was getting late.
- To bed at 11:27 :(
Wed Jun 17 = I didn't get underway until 11:00 this morning, making booking phone calls etc.
- Today I drove from Sallisaw, OK to East Nashville, TN for the night at another Walmart.
- I think I'm getting things figured out. I need the fiber, but not the extra calories of more things like whole wheat bread. One Tablespoon of Metamucil seems to do the trick. Instead of psyllium it's Metamucil because I got a big container of it from
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who was a retired as a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS until he succumbed to a three-week bout with Myasthenia gravis in March, 2018
my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan configured as a mini-motorhome where I live during my road tours
: It only took me 23 years to figure this one out. What to put in the top basket and in the bottom part has always been a moving arrangement. Arranging them by meals is awesome. It takes less thought and even serves as a reminder for what to eat. Even meals items are now in the top basket and odd meal items in the bottom.
-
Kia
my 2020 Kia Sedona minivan configured as a mini-motorhome that I drive and where I live during my road tours
turned over to 8,000 miles today in Arkansas today.
- Everything went perfectly tonight by tethering my phone as an Internet hot spot. I took care of my emails and updated my website using CoreFTP, my standard software.
- Working late, got to bed at 11:05 :( :(
Thu Jun 18 = Today's big project was driving to Morganton, NC and spending the night at a Walmart. At one of my stops along the way there was a Staples. I had 20 posters printed. Staples certainly has helpful people.
- To bed at 11:04 :(
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
where I stopped in to say, "Hi" and did a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
.
- What fine people there.
- On the way, up in Nags Head, NC at the Staples, I took the first step of implementing an idea I thought of in the middle of the night a week or so ago: For my merch signing, have a list of all my appearances. I printed out the list; all 19 pages of 1,079 appearances.
- Also while driving, I went through my routine and figured segues between a bunch of bits... some of them rather stupid. Maybe that will make them funny.
- I got to bed in the KHK parking lot at 10:30 for a good night's sleep, getting up only once to pee. Got some really heavy rain during the night. My new van does not leak :)
Sat Jun 20 = This morning Matt Bissel, the
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
manager, and I decided to have my merch signing in the foyer. That way we'll catch the people going up to eat at Good Winds, as well as coming into the kite store. Also the people in the foyer will not count for the COVID-19 restrictions. KHK did a good job on the poster announcing the event. If I had thought about it I would have taken a picture of the poster for you to see. Maybe Tuesday when I'm up there for the signing.
- The rest of the day was mostly PR, heading south, telling people about my Tuesday show and putting up posters. It was good to see a lot of old friends that I have known for up to 19 years here.
- This evening, my furthest point south at the Billy Mitchell air strip pilots' lounge, I figured out how to display my Past Appearances list, along with my Comedy-n-Sunset poster.
- To bed at The Avon Motel at 10:24pm. I didn't manage my water intake very well today so got up to pee three times :(
Sun Jun 21 = I may have come up with a good morning plan: Log my night's sleep, head down to Canadian Hole (Haulover), run on the sound beach and then fix and eat breakfast. I worked some more on my show segues.
- At noon I headed down to the Bath House in Frisco to sun and for another run, this time on the Atlantic beach, then to the Billy Mitchel Airport where I finished my show segues and found that the US State Department website has no information available about my passport. I sent it in months ago for renewal.
- I wanted to get to bed early to phone Beach 104 at 6 in the morning, but that did not work out. I got to bed at 10:30 :(
Mon Jun 22 = After a short night I phoned Beach 104. Jody had his hands full and asked me to phone back tomorrow about 5:50 am.
- I went back to bed and got up at 8:30 in a warm van, had breakfast in front of Dollar Tree, went in and bought another wisk broom and dustpan to add to my collection back in Phoenix. Then out at
Haulover
The Haulover Day Use Area south of Avon, NC - sometimes called, Canadian Hole.
I fixed a back strap on my wide-brimmed floppy hat. Why that one? Because I could not find my preferred felt black hat before I left home.
- I stopped by the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and was told that they do not sell National Parks Senior Passes there :( While there, I took this picture of my new van on tour.
- At the Billy Mitchel Airport I confirmed a booking at
VFW Post#2133 in Cleveland. That brings my Ohio show count up to six for this tour.
- Got to bed at 9:51 in Rodanthe, NC to get up early and phone Beach 104. It was windy all night and a little warm, but I did OK with my little ceiling fan on low.
Tue Jun 23 = Jody put me on the air a little before 6:00am.
- This morning after breakfast I put on sunscreen and then moved some comedy stuff from my van to Kitty Hawk Kite's elevator room so I could get to my kite equipment. I went out on the water kiteboarding for 37 minutes. With my comedy schedule and the wind forecast, I knew this would probably be my only opportunity so I made the most of it. The winds were only about 16 mph so my 12m AirRush Union was OK - never too well powered, but what wind there was was pretty consistent.
My board never left my feet and my hat and my kite never got wet while, in both directions, I:
Rode a distance of 5.2 miles
Had a maximum speed of 21.7mph
Stayed upwind the whole time
Did some slide switch transition jibes
Did some jumps (not enough wind to go much above 5 feet)
Did some down kite loop jibes
Did some carves to toeside
Jumped to toeside, rode a little and carved to heelside
Did some regular jumps
Tried some jump jibes
Did jumps with kite loops
- I got my kite equipment wrapped up in time to set up for my first Merchandise Signing for Charity at
Kitty Hawk Kites, in Rodanthe, NC Didn't sell any merch but I did get some exposure and it was a good experience.
- Comedy-n-Sunset went very well. The crowd of 12 showed up on time, I got the show started on time so did a 1:02 hour show. I think it is the first time. Part of the fun was adjusting my routine as kids came and went. I learned that I need to work on remembering my segues and knowing my Sequence Icons better.
- Got to bed at 10:40 at The Avon Motel.
- Oh, yes, for the show I used one gallon water jugs from Dollar Tree as weights so my tripods would not blow over in the wind. After the show, I added the water to my van's water storage container.
Wed Jun 24 = After breakfast I mailed a thank you note then spent 1:15 washing my van. It had a generous plastering of bugs from the drive out from Phoenix. I used Turtle Wax Bug and Tar remover ($$) on the right half and plane water on the left half. Noticed little difference, so in the future I'll use water on the bugs and save the Turtle Wax for tar. My van surely looks nice now.
- I spent most of the rest of the day at the Billy Mitchel Airport processing the videos from Tuesday's show. It all took about 6.5 hours of computer time to get 9 files of 32gb produced down to one finished 3-camera file of 7gb (22%). It was so windy during the show that, in spite of my dead cats on the mics, the cell phone (Camera #2) audio was so bad that it would not sync by audio with the other recordings. Had to sync that video manually.
- In the process I learned that dealing with the wind is not enough. This video had a lot of wave noise in the background. That means two things next time: 1) move the show farther from the water, 2) plug in some headphones as a test and find the best place for my mic's wind cage.
- Got to bed at 10:03 at The Avon Motel :)
Thu Jun 25 = This morning before breakfast I ran on the beach at the Haulover Day Use Area (also known as Canadian Hole) of Pamlico Sound for .24 miles in 2:48 with a pulse after 10 seconds of 144, then before lunch on the Frisco, NC Atlantic beach I sunned (it was overcast) for a half hour, then ran .24 miles in 3:00 with a pulse after 10 seconds of 146. I met lifeguards Mason (blond) and Coleman (taller and dark) on duty there. Of course I told them about my appearance at Turner's tonight.
- Why the delays of 10 seconds? Because my fancy but stupid Vivoactive is not a very good stop watch.
I like it because it looks good on my small wrist, is always readable, has GPS and, most importantly, I can set it to vibrate when it is time for me to get off stage.
- For Jun 22, I finally got this picture up of my van on tour.
- This evening was COMEDY! Rory gave me five minutes to open up their Thursday Karaoke/Music show at
Turner's High Moon Bar; Avon. Of course I included being old, COVID-19 and finished up with my Basic Economy and T-Shirts (I sold four, all before the show started). It was one of the best karaokes I have ever seen. The second guy for karaoke was spectacular with his energy and talent. My new lifeguard friends Mason and Coleman came to see me, but unfortunately could not stay for it, having to drive up to Duck with a friend.
- Got to bed across the street at 11:24 at The Avon Motel, which wasn't too late since I prepared by taking a long nap this afternoon
Fri Jun 26 = After breakfast I drove down to Frisco's Bath House and did a beach run. Then my BIG project was to research cell phone alarm clocks. Nothing I found had the features of my SleepBot, which has been doing its own thing with alarms, pretty much unrelated to my settings. I decided and installed Android Sleep from Google as a back up.
- Then I uninstalled SleepBot and re-downloaded and installed it. It is amazing how many [Download] buttons there are on websites, all for junk that you do not want, but none of which are for the subject of the web page, like SleepBot. I finally shot a QR code with my phone, and with my fingers crossed against malware, installed Aptoide on my phone which allowed me to install SleepBot, which had been removed from the Google Play Store. I just hope that my new installation of this familiar sleep tracker/alarm program will solve the erroneous alarms I had been getting, like last night waking me up at 3:59am, but not at 7:20am when I had the alarm set :(
- To bed at 10:27 at The Avon Motel. My newly installed SleepBot worked!
Sat Jun 27 = Did another Frisco Atlantic beach run, this morning before breakfast. Of course I said, "Hi" to my lifeguard friends Mason (blond) and Coleman (taller and dark). They hope to come to my Comedy-n-Sunset show on Tuesday.
- This afternoon was mostly dedicated to videos. I tried to make the best of a bad situation by re-doing the January 10th Tempe Improve appearance from last year that the hot-shot videographer ruined for me by panning all over the place with my audience camera. About two weeks ago I found the wide-angle audience video that was lost on the cell phone I used as a video camera back then.
- Attempting a little closer to perfection and also trying to understand Cyberlink Power Director 18, my video editing software, I made two switch/fades between the audio from the audience camera and by body mic using the keyframes feature. The audio was better for the Dustin Rounds, the host on the audience cam, but much better for me on my body mic. Here's the way it looked in the editor. The eight yellow dots on the two audio tracks at the bottom do the magic.
- To bed at 10:15 at The Avon Motel.
Sun Jun 28 = SleepBot did not wake me this morning. Maybe it is the sequence in which I set the alarm. I'll try to figure it out with some testing.
- Before breakfast I ran on the beach at the Haulover Day Use Area (also known as Canadian Hole) of Pamlico Sound for five minutes with an ending pulse of about 136.
- Today I wore my Booking Hat, trying to find open mics on my way across Ohio. I made about a dozen phone calls and booked one open mic: Tue Jul 14, 2020; 8:00pm;
Wrigley Field Bar & Grill; 6527 E State Blvd; Fort Wayne IN 46815 - To bed early at 9:22pm at The Avon Motel.
Mon Jun 29 = I got up at 5:41am this morning to phone Beach 104. There was no answer at 5:50. They did a short interview with me about 6:15 and asked me to phone back at 6:35. I like that because the later, the more listeners. Moose and Jody did a long interview. It was awesome.
- About 7:00 I drove out to the Haulover Day Use Area (also known as Canadian Hole) and slept an hour to finish off my night's sleep, with my ceiling fan on low. Then did a little socializing and Comedy-n-Sunset publicity with the early birds out there.
- Then, at the Billy Mitchel Airstrip I redid most of my show slips to pass out in Ohio. I didn't finish them up though, in case I get another gig to add.
- At solar noon I took a three-hour time out and went down to the Frisco Atlantic for a beach sun and run. What took so long, before leaving the parking lot I fixed and ate lunch and did a gnarly project:
- The short clothes bar was a good idea but poorly designed with a rubber ladder to hold it, so I replaced the rubber ladder with my own stainless steel safety wire. It was so involved because I had to shift my stuff around to get to the long-term storage bin under my bed for the safety wire, then juggle things around to get to my tools. The van's clothes hook was not very strong, so I anchored the safety wire under the grab handle mounting screw.
- To bed at The Avon Motel at 10:38.
Tue Jun 30 = This fantastic day started out by driving down to the Haulover Day Use Area (also known as Canadian Hole) for breakfast and to do a little publicity for tonight's show.
- Then I drove up to Rodanthe, bought some gasoline (a nickel cheaper than the least expensive in Avon), did a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and took a shower at Kitty Hawk Kites. Thanks, guys! At 1:00 I set up for my merch signing, which I had from 2-3pm. A number of people looked and one guy gave a donation to Duet.
- Then south to pick up my comedy stool from Dollar Tree in Avon and then on south to the Billy Mitchel Airstrip in Frisco to finish my Ohio Show Slips and chill out for a while.
- About 5:30 I headed up to the Haulover Day Use Area for my Comedy-n-Sunset Show, stopping a couple of places to retrieve my show posters since this is my last show here this year.
- Had a good 59:55 minute show with 17 people... all adults. Three lifeguards I met down in Frisco came up for the show and later bought T-shirts through Ride Hatteras: Mason Johnson (blond L), Coleman Marlatt (dark XL) and Justin Piercy (short hair XL). I successfully recorded the entire show with a stereo audio recorder in my wind cage and all four cameras working perfectly on tripods anchored by gallon jugs of water - all on battery power.
- To bed at The Avon Motel at 10:41 :(
