Fri Oct 1 = Doing a few inverted shrugs this morning on my new 59" high dip stand (first photo), I realized that the fairly high crossbar (33" below the grips) interferes with where my head normally goes. So I spent some time online re-researching dip stands and ordered one from Walmart (second photo), that will be lighter, smaller, cheaper and hopefully high enough (at 39") clear my head from the floor with inverted shrugs.
- At solar noon I sunned for vitamin D.
- This afternoon's trip was to Dollar Tree, Bashas' and Winco. I was tempted to stop at LA Fitness, Fry's, 99 Cent Only and to get gas, but figured I shouldn't push it.
- Got to bed at 10:14 with my daily alarm set for 7:48
Sat Oct 2 = After my 1:47am pee this morning I set a JUGGLING RECORD. I caught 13 consecutive low 2-ball tosses and five consecutive low 3-ball tosses. I might actually be juggling by 85!
- In the process of tweaking JUGGLING on my Definitions web page, I found a new video from OTB that explains how dropping your balls can help speed your way to juggling.
Well, with me, speed is probably not the correct word.
- I lied, but it surely looks good, adding Chugiak Alaska to the back of my handouts. I won't do a show there until Nov 7th (2021).
- No gym today; just exercycle.
- Got to bed at 9:52 :) with my daily alarm set for 7:48
Sun Oct 3 = During a break from my computer today for JUGGLING I practice the third-ball drop and found I was pretty good with my right hand but had difficulty doing it left handed. More practice, or maybe foreget starting with my left hand.
- This afternoon I paid the first half of all my property taxes. It took less than 15 minutes :) ... and over $2K :(
- The big project was taking care of the 1.757 terabytes of videos I recorded during my four-month Veterans Appreciation National Tour earlier this year. First thing was to make a paper chart for evaluating the videos, giving weight to laughs, cameras, audience etc. I have already produced three of the videos. Now to see if I want to produce any of the others. So I'll remember the factors and values, here they are, with a couple of shows for example:
Post-Show Evaluation
Date/Venue
Point Range
Audience
Laughing 1-9
Audio
Quality 1-5
Audience /10
Size 1-4
Lou's
Presentation 1-3
Camera #1
Quality 1-5
Camera #2
Quality 1-2
Camera #3
Quality 1-3
Camera #4
Quality 1-2
Total 33
Chattanooga, TN
5/20/21
9
4
4
3
5
1
2
2
31
Gulfport, MS
5/12/21
9
5
1
3
5
2
3
3
32
I consider producing and putting on my YouTube channel, shows with a total of 30 or more. Chattanooga, OBX and Gulfport are already on YouTube.
- Got to bed at 10:02 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Mon Oct 4 = At Albertsons this afternoon I got both my COVID-19 booster (third) shot and and my flu shot for this year.
- This evening's project was elevating the Fuel dip stand (#3) with 4x4 blocks so my head would clear the floor when doing my inverted shrugs (seen here in the Dominican Republic):
You might say I wasted an evening, two trips to Home Depot and $15 dollars on an 8' post. I'm glad I tried it out before drilling the dip stand and permanently mounting the blocks, because my head did not clear the bar, the dip stand is rickety and too narrow, even for a skinny guy like me. The only thing I liked about it was the smaller diameter grips.
- Back to dip stand #2. Possibly I can lower the bar by 9" and have proper head clearance.
- Got to bed at 10:07) my daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Tue Oct 5 = This morning I tried to contact alternate companies that silk screen t-shirts, in case there is an unexpected problem with the company I am currently using.
- It was an involved project, but I reorganized and emailed my T-shirt order to Design-A-Shirt for 69 garments with my logo.
- I set up a machine shop on my kitchen counter with my little drill press etc. The project was to drill eight holes in the verticals of the XMark XM-4443 dip stand. My reward, when I got the job done and all the machine shop put away, was to assemble my new dip stand. It is a little bulky, but it works perfectly.
- So here's the saga of the dip stands in order of the photos:
The very expensive monster, the only thing I could find during COVID-19
The cheap too-short, too-narrow Fuel in a block test since it was shorter than Walmart said
The XMark stand that did not work because the cross-bar was too high for inverted shrugs
Testing a lower bar position on the XMark
Modified XMark with the bar lowered
- Got to bed at 9:49 :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Wed Oct 6 = Today I put this video up on YouTube of the fun time I had with a small audience in Gulfport, MS on my tour.
- During some computer breaks today I did a little juggling and disassembled, packed up ready to return to Walmart, the dinky Fuel Dip Stand. - I spent some time on the phone with
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
, who may be stuck in Wenatchee, Washington, having gone there to help a friend.
From CRC National: This Done Manifesto might help me break free from my perfectionism (courtesy of Bre Pettis and Kio Stark)
There are three states of being: 1. Not knowing 2. Action 3. Completion.
Accepting that everything is a draft helps to get it done.
There is no “editing stage.”
Pretending you know what you are 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.
- Got to bed at 10:19 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Thu Oct 7 = This morning I revised and typed out my Famous/Arizona Lou routine. I'll do the revision for the first time tonight at JP's
- I got all the paperwork done and the dinky Fuel Dip Stand boxed up and put by my back sliding door ready for FedEx to return to Walmart. The stand is a critical three inches shorter than they said.
- I took a 1:10 nap in anticipation of getting to bed late with tonight's comedy.
- Everything went like clockwork the rest of the day. For culinary variety, before leaving on today's trip, I fixed my brown-bag supper for which I opened a new 12 oz package of Farmer John braunschweiger (pork liver), which should last me about a month.
- First stop was Mountainside Fitness for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
, shower and short heavy slow legs workout.
- Then on to the Gilbert Winco Foods to exchange a bulging container of Cottage Cheese and to buy some fresh spinach.
- JP's Comedy Club Rob was next for the 7:00 show. My comedian friend, Rob Maebe, was the headliner, along with five other comedians, including the host. Attending the paid show, I got to sign up ahead of time for the open mic. I was number four.
- I only had time to set up one of my tripods with two cameras. Being conservative, I did not turn them on early, was called up earlier than expected due to a no show, so did not get a video of my set. I did get the audio.
- Got to bed at 11:39 with Alexa's alarm set for 8:40.
Fri Oct 8 = First image is a map of my Alaska tour, the first week of November. Second image will be my home for six days and five nights in Anchorage, thanks to Angel Rae Whitney, who made the arrangements and to the comedy venues who are footing the bill.
At noon while I am there the sun will be 12.7 degrees above the horizon and the days will be 7 hours and 56 minutes, sunrise to sunset.
- Here in Phoenix, Adam, my new FedEx driver, picked up the boxed-up dip stand for Walmart. I showed where to leave my packages as addressed: at the BACK sliding door. Adam seems like a good guy.
- It looks like
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
will be flying back from Seattle tomorrow. Surely glad it worked out for her.
George
my younger brother who lives in Mesa, AZ with his wife
is glad also.
- Two big projects today including trying lots of things, making tests and taking notes.
- First was backing up my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 laptop computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
with EaseUS Todo, not an easy task. The program has lots of features combined with poor instructions.
- Second, After a booking phone call after which my notes did not make sense, I decided that I was going to start recording phone conversations (yes legally). After reading lots of reviews, installing and then uninstalling several apps on my Android phone, I found nothing that would record phone calls while I am on my Bluetooth headset. They all required that the phone's speakerphone be on. If I need to do that, I just as well record the calls with a digital recorder while using the speakerphone.
- Got to bed at 10:11 :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen, with my EaseUS Todo doing an all night test recovery on my XPS.
Sat Oct 9 = This morning I printed new Emergency cards and laminated them along with copies of my new COVID-19 vaccination card. I also signed up for Improv Mania's Thursday Open Mic
- My date printer (right) started streaking with one clogged nozzle. A drop of distilled water and wipe with a paper towel corrected the problem. The original ink cartridge is still going strong after 19 months and 2,360 swipes :)
- I stopped by the Colonnade LA Fitness for a short heavy slow torso workout on the way to meet
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona and have a mountain place in Christopher Creek
at a Downtown PhoenixWendy's for supper. Then we went to the Celebrity Theater to see Jim Gaffigan. His opener did about 12 minutes, then Jim had the crowd laughing for about 69 minutes.
- Got to bed at :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sun Oct 10 = Today I found I found a couple new Louisms:
- While I was laying in the sun at solar noon, Amazon delivered, at my back sliding door :), my second set of Syantek RF Remote-control plugs I ordered two days ago. What service! I got them all tested. 100% worked properly. My remote controls are now more convenient with them in four rooms, rather than the previous two.
- This afternoon I made some booking phone calls and spent time chatting with Office Depot because their website does not track order deliveries, just when the orders were shipped. The chat was a waste of time :(
- This evening I bought some BBQ sauce and toilet bowl cleaner at Dollar Tree and then went down to Planet Fitness for a short light fast legs workout.
- Back here at home I made 23 more ounces of the BBQ/Onion/Black Pepper mixture I use on the supper sandwiches on my even-meals days.
- Got to bed at 9:55 :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Mon Oct 11 = Purging a file from Dec 9, 2018 from one of my ICD voice recorders, I listened to the awesome cruise ship comedian, Rich Aronovitch.
For the late, adult show, he didn't use much profanity. It was from Rich that I got the idea of my high tech USB albums. Listening again to his rapid-fire creativity, picking on and interacting with audience members and imitations, I realized how far I have to go with my comedy.
- I also ran across this high tech video, Wide Open by The Chemical Brothers, of a dancer whose body parts start becoming hollow frameworks.
- Today I made some comedy booking phone calls and strained my brain by figuring out which meals I will need to prepare in Alaska and what things I can take from home to save money, like nuts, raisins and Scottish Oatmeal.
- This evening I bought spinach at the 99 Cent Only store and did a short light fast arms workout at Anytime Fitness.
- Got to bed at 10:01 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Tue Oct 12 = After breakfast I spent over an hour on the phone talking with agents and on brief holds with United Healthcare to straighten out a $37 charge for lab services for which I should not have been billed.
- Here's a chart I created to make my trip planning more efficient. Yea, then I spent time converting it to HTML for you... and for me to use in the future. It is really slick to use with the time-calc on my Canon 027-36 calculator that also has a clock and calendar. I'm adding this chart to my Travel Tips web page, near the bottom, where it will be easy to find.
Trip Planning Chart (Fill in chart right-to-left, bottom-to-top-left)
Minutes
Driving to
Time to
Arrive
Minutes
to Stay
Time
to Leave
Location
-----
-----
-----
4:13
Home
12
4:25
70
5:35
Home
35
6:10
15
6:25
Winco Foods
20
6:45
-----
-----
JP's Comedy Club
Minutes
Driving to
Time to
Arrive
Minutes
to Stay
Time
to Leave
Location
.
.
.
.
- Tonight, after about six months, I found the 2-year pocket calendar that I use for medical and some other things. It had been out of sight in my office drawer standing on its spine rather than on its bottom edge. I transferred the information from my daily-log pad to the calendar, where I can see everything with just a glance a month at a time.
- Sad news: Fitness 1 on east Union Hills has shut its doors as the result COVID-19 and its repercussions. I phoned Kelly the owner and tried to cheer him up. Having to close a business you have put your heart into is not easy.
- So I went to Planet Fitness for a short light fast torso workout.
- I spent some of the evening researching contact and other information for TV stations in Phoenix and Anchorage. The plan is to contact them tomorrow morning about my Alaska Tour.
- Got to bed at 10:01 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Wed Oct 13 = After a phone visit with
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
, I contacted the various TV stations in Phoenix and Anchorage. It was actually fun interacting with the phone answerers. I also sent out two emails, as requested. It is a lot easier for me if I can direct them to my website where they can get all the information. Since the chance of success is slight with these contacts, I try to not spend much time on the project.
- Around noon my 33 pounds of 69 shirts were delivered to my back sliding door, thank you Design A Shirt!
- Mail was good to me, well, sort of. I received my pilot's medical certificate, two credit card statements and some junk mail. It took 6.5 months to get the medical certificate.
- This evening I did a short heavy slow legs workout at LA Fitness.
- Got to bed at 10:30 with Alexa set to wake me at 8:30
/p>
Thu Oct 14 = Listening to the Leo Laporte Show, I heard about Secrets of the Solar System from Rod Pyle, one of Leo's regular guests.
- I mysteriously had a second colored goLEDgo sign (B) delivered by UPS from Amazon in Spartanburg, SC. The sign's WiFi programming works with my Nexus 6P cell phone but the left side of the sign mostly does not light up (works only with horizontal scrolling sometimes & then out of sequence with the right half of the sign). The sign shows no white but mostly red garbage in its place. I at lease now have a spare power supply. Here is a picture of three of the signs from Amazon's website:
- I got all my credit cards paid and had nice visits with Anne, my daughter, and
George
my younger brother who lives in Mesa, AZ with his wife
, who phoned.
- This afternoon I registered online for the Improv Mania open mic next week. I registered last Friday for tonight, but was not put on the list so will stay home.
- This evening I discovered a major problem with my website's Comedy Home page: past schedules from back as far as 2017 at the bottom that I had been commented out. Never did get it figured out but solved the problem by moving 740 lines of commented-out code to a different file.
- Got to bed at 10:09 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Fri Oct 15 = Today I cheated. I resolved my checking account for September by making a big adjustment since I didn't find the error after today's second triey. The first try was last month before the comedy show at El Charro Hipster. Probably not best thing to do where it is easy to get distracted. I also projected my budget through the end of the year.
- The big trip this evening was to LA Fitness for a short heavy slow torso workout and my last semi-monthly grocery shopping before Alaska.
- Got to bed at 10:09 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48.
Sat Oct 16 = Trying to sell the Deluxe TuffStuff Chin/Dip/VKR/Ab-Crunch/Push-Up Training Tower I bought during in May, 2020, during the pandemic, this morning I messaged Fitness4Home through their website.
- Tearing things up, as Mom would say, seems to have been my specialty throughout the years. Since the LED sign (B) I received Thursday did not work anyway, I decided it would be my next victim. It had no screws so I shoved a little jeweler's screw driver into some holes on the back and voila, the sign face and circuitry came out of the steel case. The 16 round silver things in the picture are magnets that held the sign together. High tech, and so very cool!
- I re-seated some of the plugs, but the culprit seemed to be that the left half of the sign was not getting proper power. Re-connecting the power plug (on the red and black wires) fixed the sign. So now I have a spare sign(B) in case sign (A) gives up the ghost.
- I figure the bag tucked in to the right is the WiFi receiver that is used to program the sign, and maybe for the memory to hold the programming.
- This afternoon I resolved my checking account for October, right on time.
- Jimmy Fallon, here I come, I hope. My Channelmaster and TV have not received signal for months. Not too big of a problem while I had recorded monologues to watch. Now that I have watched all of them, I need signal. I hooked a long coax cable from the TV to the foot square antenna I have been using. Even with the antenna held up outside there was no signal. I think the next step is to find a pair of rabbit ears at Goodwill, in case my antenna went bad.
- Got to bed at 10:03 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sun Oct 17 = In the middle of the night I thought of having a clamp-on pole for hanging a T-Shirt or sweatshirt for my merch table. This morning after breakfast I found they do not exist so ordered one that is actually designed to hold a camera or such, from Amazon, to be delivered free on Tuesday, having joined Amazon Prime for one week. Yes, I have on my calendar to cancel Amazon Prime on Saturday.
- Since July 23 2021, when my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 laptop computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
gave a TPM error, the computer has not been quite normal. I got it back today by figuring out how to sign into Microsoft. Now I have the choice of two accounts (Regular and Recovery), each with its own desktop and program settings; not necessarily a good thing.
- With both of my colored ledGOled signs, I increased some pause times to make the loop, before repetition, a little closer to five minutes, at about 4:55.
- After a nap I wasted about an hour analyzing my Bantering With Veterans from four of my shows and decided to keep the current, Wasilla, version for my Press Kit:
- Toward evening, to be a little more active and not fall asleep, I packed my Pierre Cardin carry-on roller bag with 30 merch shirts, including two zipper sweatshirts for Alaska.
- Got to bed at 10:03 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Mon Oct 18 = This morning started out great, with the exercycle and the rest of my morning routine, right on schedule. The day did not stay great. I got an email from my
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
property manager that Martin, the landscaper had not shown up for almost three weeks, and he was supposed to be doing the lawn every two weeks.
- St solar noon I got a little vitamin D out in the sun.
- After supper I did a little grocery shopping. Back here at home, I wore my snow boots for 2 hours and my feet did not overheat: successful test.
- I phoned my landscaper and friend, Larry. We visited for one hour and 20 minutes. He loves to talk, which he did for 1:02. I talked for about 20 minutes :)
- This evening I went out front to get my mail and to reduce the watering days on the drip system and the old Dig controller (first pic), after 10 years of use, gave me a blank stare with a blank screen. A new battery did not fix the problem, so, from Home Depot, I ordered a new Dig controller (second pic). The new one will be solar operated and can automatically adjust for seasons. I may be able to use one of its 20 default programs without even needing to program it.
- Got to bed at 10:00 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Tue Oct 19 = Last night I thought of a new big project for today: to set up my #1 LG G3 cell phone that I use as a wide-angle camera when videoing my shows, to also program my colored goLEDgo sign. Pretty cool, as I no longer have to take my Nexus 6P phone on tour.
- I tried with my #3 LG G3 phone, but it will not install apps that do not come from the Google Play Store.
- Got to bed at :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Wed Oct 20 = Today was mostly getting everything ready for my appearance at the
El Charro Hipster Open Mic. There was more than usual to get ready, including the new shirt-hanging pole, wearing my snow boots and putting a new routine together.
- I got off at 1:30 this afternoon, a half hour later than my target, but still had time to stop by Dollar Tree for a Mini Mouse baloon to use with my hooded sweatshirt display and LA Fitness for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
, shower and short slow legs workout.
- I got to
El Charro Hipster by 3pm with the list scheduled to come out at 4pm. Being the first comedian to arrive for the 7pm show, I picked spot #4 :)
- First thing I did was to set up my new colored Chasing LED Sign and merch display using my new clamp-on display pole for a zipper sweatshirt with the mylar Mini Mouse balloon in its hood.
- Before the show I had time to socialize a little with other comedians, update this blog, add my FAA Medical to my Certificates web page and put my Craigslist.
- I had a great set with a great audience of about 22.
- Got to bed at 10:23 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Thu Oct 21 = After breakfast I revised Craigslist listing for my Power Tower, adding some dimensions and its weight of 175 pounds - 45 pounds more than me!
- I am constantly tweaking and improving my comedy routine. How to try out the tweaked version of a bit at an open mic without boring the comedians here in the Phoenix area who have heard the bit multiple times?
- The solution is to link together all the revised jokes from various bits into a new bit of its own. This idea was a big hit last night at
El Charro Hipster and tonight at Improv Mania. Tonight I exceeded my goals with 7.45 laughs per minute and laughing 32% of the time :)
- With Improv Mania's new online sign-up, I was on the 8:00 hour of the show that started at 7:00 and went up about 8:40. At tonight's show I sold a zipper sweatshirt and three T-Shirts: My first sweatshirt and 713th T-Shirt.
- On the way home I stopped by the Chandler Planet Fitness for a short heavy slow arms workout.
- Got to bed at 11:21 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48, having taken a long nap this afternoon in anticipation of getting to bed late.
Fri Oct 22 = This morning I labeled my T-shirt stores for Alaska.
- This afternoon, under the auspices of
, I took Irene to her doctor's appointment. She is an interesting person, seems to want to be in control of everything. Not surprised since she is from New Jersey. On the way to her house I stopped by Goodwill and bought a skeleton head.
- While waiting I got a lot accomplished on my website. On the way home I stopped by LA Fitness for a short heavy torso workout.
- How to get the skeleton head to suspend itself in the hood of a display sweatshirt? Do a little experimentation then apply a little ingenuity to a customized popsicle stick, a magnet and some low-temperature hot glue.
- Got to bed at 10:08 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sat Oct 23 = Here the skeleton from Goodwill is ready to display my one remaining sweatshirt for sale at Phoenix Has Talent next Saturday at
Urban Beans.
Trying to look a little more buff, I sewed the sleeves up three turns on my new xS polyester T-Shirt.
- I had a headache most of the day.
- Before heading west, I started the drip's manual override since the automatic controller is not working. I remembered to turn it off at midnight, after about nine hours :(
- Because I needed a working printer, after extensive research I decided on the Brother HL-L 3270CPW LED Printer, since the only one in the area was over 40 miles away, I ordered it and drove way out Surprise to pick it up.
- While setting the printer up I noticed a few things that indicated that it may have already been used:
The Spanish language information packet bag and the tape were wrinkled
Seven of the eight orange toner shipping locks were unlocked
The protecting sheet for the black belt was missing
The paper tray had no silica gel
The paper tray had six sheets of paper in place of the protecting sheet.
The yellow, magenta and cyan cartridges showed about 90 % remaining toner
When I got it all set up, it did not work, printing only magenta. Next time I will print out a test sheet before I waste my time setting everything up.
- I wrenched my back getting the 43 lb printer nestled back into the center of its big box and into the packing-foam insert :(
- Before bed, the only Brother HL-L 3270CPW LED color printer I found that could be delivered before my Alaska tour was a refurbished one from Amazon, so I ordered it and a set of five generic high capacity toner cartridges.
- Got to bed at 9:58 :) with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sun Oct 24 = I took it easy today, starting out with a mild exercycle ride. The scab fell off today of its own accord from where I skinned the back of my right arm just above the elbow 19 days ago. I previously measured 18 days for things to fully heal, so that means that my body is still healing OK.
(left) My new friend, modeling the only sweatshirt left for sale. Hopefully he will help me to sell some merch at Saturday's show
(right) During my afternoon nap I chilled my back, after tweaking it yesterday evening with this big 43-lb printer
- This afternoon I returned the Brother HL- L3270CDW LED Printer to my near-by Office Max, thank you. I am a little disgusted at the Surprise store for wasting my time and money, selling me a bad printer.
- I stopped by LA Fitness for a short light fast legs workout and by Fry's for some HoneyCrysp apples on sale.
- Got to bed at 10:00, chilling my back with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48
Mon Oct 25 = This morning my back was pretty well OK after I wrenched it on Saturday and then iced it three times.
- My trip out today was after breakfast to PVCC for a PCR COVID-19 test in preparation for Wednesday's EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy).
- The new ambient-light-powered drip timer arrive and I programed it to automatically adjust for the season each month, which it will do by adjusting the watering times, leaving the watering days and start times the same. That means in the winter my plants will never get a deep watering.
After talking to Larry, my landscaper and friend, I reprogrammed the new timer just like the old one
Now about four times a year we'll have to change the interval for the days of watering.
- The five generic high capacity color toner cartridges for the Brother HL- L3270CDW printer arrived from Amazon in their product box, somewhat crunched. There was no outside shipping box. I hope they will work, although I won't know until I receive the printer tomorrow and use up its initial cartridges. Hopefully that will be within the return window for the cartridges in the crunched box.
- With the help of the Internet, I finally figured out how to access individual files that have been backed up by EaseUS Todo.
- This evening I purged about 3.5 GB of show folders from my last tour, saving only their audio.
- Got to bed at 10:14 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:48 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Tue Oct 26 = I sewed the shirt sleeves up three turns on my small Hanes Cool Dri 100% polyester T-Shirt. Now the sleeves are a little short to wear over a T-Shirt.
- I spent most of the morning finding and phone numbers and leaving voice messages at Lackland Air Fore base. I actually got one call back later in the day, but no show.
- At solar noon I sunned for some vitamin D and road my exercycle.
- This afternoon on the Internet, of course, I explored possible places to see the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) while I am in Alaska next week... but it is forecast to be cloudy while I am there :(
- The Brother HL- L3270CDW color printer arrived from Amazon. Everything I checked out was OK. Getting it going was an anti-climax. It was hard to be excited about it after I had worked and worried for three days.
- Got to bed at 10:29 with Alexa's alarm set for to wake me up early for tomorrow's EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopic) procedure.
Wed Oct 27 = Up at 6:50 am go check in at the Honor Health's Deer Valley hospital for the EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy) procedure at 9:00. Doing it without anesthesia was somewhat a challenge with the tendency to choke although they numbed my throat with a special gargle. Dr Ferris said I did fine. He found a hiatal hernia and prescribed pantoprazole40mg for the resulting GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).
- The EGD result in order, top to bottom, with the location number:
Location numbers from where the images were taken
Middle third of the esophagus - 8
GastricbBody of the stomach - 3
2nd portion of the duodenum - 1
- On the way home I stopped by a gym
- What a messed up day. Due to their numbing of my throat, I couldn't safely eat or even drink any water until 12:30 this afternoon. By then I NEEDED hydration and nutrition. To become rehydrated, I drank my last of 64 ounces of water for the day about 10pm
- I spent all afternoon adapting the Phoenix Has Talent poster to me and my poster dimensions and adjusting the 8-up format to match the backs from my old printer - Ugh!
- Since I am constipated, I drove to Albertson's for a bag of prunes (which I started taking 5, twice a day) and Anytime Fitness for a short light fast arms workout.
- Got to bed at 10:33 with planning to catch up by sleeping late.
Thu Oct 28 = I knew my new Brother HL- L3270CDW color printer was a lot larger than the old black-and-white Samsung Xpress M2835DW printer that ran out of toner. Here's proof. The Samsung was designed to be small. In fact the paper tray stuck out the back when expanded to legal sized paper.
- Making up for yesterday, today I drank 64 oz of water and, this afternoon, took a long nap.
- MyChart sent me a email with a link and when I got there the page said, "There is no component information for this result." Thanks for wasting my time Honor Health!
- This evening's big project was to back up my computer with EaseUS Todo. It is not intuitive but I think I've got it perfected so it should be easier in the future.
- Got to bed at 10:38 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:47 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Fri Oct 29 = Today I finished going over my full show routine in preparation for Alaska. I also located gyms in Anchorage near my house and added them to my Anchorage map. Evidently no one answers the phone at the Anchorage YMCA :(
- I phoned Alvaro, my Air B&B host in Anchorage. I can't wait to meet him. Seems like a nice guy.
- This evening I did a short heavy torso workout at Anytime Fitness and put five of tomorrow's posters on their bulletin board.
- Got to bed at 10:01 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:47 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sat Oct 30 = Today was getting ready for the big event: my appearance in Phoenix Has Talent at
Urban Beans. It turned out to NOT be a big event. Including the people who worked there and those who did not stay for the whole show there was an audience of 15, including the performers, the staff, the producer and
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona and have a mountain place in Christopher Creek
. Several of the scheduled performers did not make it to the show. I was embarrassed.
- I hope Brian Flesher, the producer does not get discouraged. When COVID-19 is over and they can move the show back into the Aside Theater maybe it will do better.
- Before leaving for Phoenix Has Talent I swept all the tile floors in the house so I can mop them tomorrow.
- I was startled by a sudden loud loud raspy screeching scraping sound as I was updating this blog tonight. It turned out to be the partially deflated Minni Mouse balloon I bought Wednesday. Before starting on the blog tonight, I had adjusted Minni Mouse to be neutrally buoyant. As she was floating around the house she was captured by my high tech bladeless fan and complained loudly (the noise).
- Got to bed at 10:17 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:47 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Sun Oct 31 = Today I mopped all my tile floors and, on the kitchen counter, spread everything to go into my back pack carry-on.
- I could not update my website after trying three different ftp methods. I'll have to phone Godaddy tomorrow.
- Got to bed at 10:10 with Alexa's daily alarm set for 7:47 and my Sangean radio set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
