Mon Nov 1 = I spent one and a third hours on the phone, mostly on hold, with Godaddy. They switched to a new c-Panel hosting which broke the way I update my website every day. Now it is fixed, only a little more complicated.
- Of course I ran out of space in my personal item (back pack) before I got everything on the kitchen island into it. Left over were the thermal underwear, gym shoes and extension cords, all of which I managed to squeeze into my carry on bag along with 30 T-Shirts, a sweatshirt and various other items.
- Got to bed at 10:26 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.
Tue Nov 2 = This morning I fixed lunch to eat at home and a bagged supper to take to the airport.
- At solar noon I sunned, a day ahead of schedule because I will not have another chance for a week.
- To not leave a bunch of food while I am gone, before leaving home I finished off the turkey, cottage cheese, lettuce and bananas.
- Planning was key to getting off to Alaska today. I organized everything I needed to do on 1 x 3" tabs, then wrote out scenarios. 1) Do my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
; take a bath and a nap then put on my Alaska clothes and leave for the airport or 2) Take a nap, drive to LA Fitness on E Camelback 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 full-body workout; change into my Alaska clothes and leave for the airport. Option 2 won out
- Once the planning was done, everything went like clockwork. I got to Sky Harbor Airport Parking right on schedule and to the airport and breezed through security with my TSA Pre-check and to my gate in plenty of time.
- On the direct flight from Phoenix to Anchorage I managed to do a little napping before the plane arrived in Anchorage at 11:40pm
- Angel picked me up at the airport and delivered me and my two bags (personal backpack and carry on) to my Airbnb home for the week. The weather was unusual - foggy with a little rain and so warm that most of the snow in town melted.
- Got to bed at 11:18 and got up at 8:30am, with my cell phone's alarm.
Wed Nov 3 = Alvaro, my Airbnb host was fantastic. He is a merchant marine and likes metals. Here is the view from the base of the exterior stair of my apartment to the street with parts of ships, airports and machinerery.
- This morning Alvaro took me shopping at Fred Meyer (a Kroger store) and then to the YMCA where we spent about an hour working out. He didn't have The Y on his schedule until I brought it up. You might say that I inspired him. That was cool.
- This is the panarama looking east from the upstairs workout room at high noon. Yes the sun is low in the sky, about 21.7° above the horizon
- Tonight's show was very interesting. The American Legion post had a whole different set of officers than those with whom I booked the show 14 months ago. Communication is not always the best there.
- Angel Whitney there, however, was awesome, arranging my Airbnb place, picking me up at the airport, having put out posters for the show.
- I'm surely glad Chuck Boring was there. Although no one had told him it needed to be done, he pieced together a PA and video system that did the trick for the show. He was the only person who sat at a table in front of the stage, paid attention and enjoyed the entire show. The rest sat at the bar and mostly listened to parts of the show.
- The show being in a bar, I should have known to make arrangements with a bouncer for possible action. A lady, who I later found out had a reputation as a post trouble-maker, insisted on visiting during my entire show, even after being told to be quiet and let others enjoy the show. She culminated her inconsideration by giving me the finger... yes, that one.
- I am trying to keep the same schedule as at home, literally. That means getting to bed and getting up an hour later clock time (ADT) so my body won't experience a time zone change from home (MST).
- Got to bed at 11:46 ADT :) with my cell phone alarm set for 8:47.
Thu Nov 4 = Having today off turned out to be a good thing. I didn't realize how much the last two days of sunning, traveling, gym and comedy took out of me. Last night I had a slight headache and a bit of a rough throat from the show. I spent today relaxing, taking a couple of naps, letting my voice rest and relaxing some more. For tomorrow's show I will try to make a point of going easy on my voice. This is the first time that I will do full hour shows three days in a row.
- Yesterday I overdid the weight with my shoulder presses, so am experiencing just a little discomfort in my right shoulder, not the muscles. It should be OK in a day or so.
- Got to bed at 10:10pm 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 Nov 5 = This morning I woke up early by the cheery voice of
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
. The SleepBot app on my phone supposedly shuts off all ringers etc. Guess it did not do its job. It was nice to visit with her while she was out on her morning walk in Christopher Creek, AZ.
- At 8:42 I heard some commotion outside. A school bus was picking up kids... in the dark, of course it's Alaska in November.
- About 10:30am we started getting some light snow which melted as soon as it hit the ground.
- My granddaughter, Brooke got first prize in the state for this painting.
- Tonight was my first full length show for an Elks Lodge. The audience was supportive and had about the right amount of interaction. Here are some of them; new entries on my Fans Web Page:
- I learn stuff every time I do a show. Tonight: to have more confidence in my routine, to prime any BBW (big beautiful woman) for my Basic Economy bit and to erase files after uploading them from my wide angle video cell phones. Since I hadn't done that with the previous show, both phones ran out of memory about half way through tonight's show. Add to that, that I was off-center on Camera #1 (zoomed in on me) much of the time, the video will not be usable, although the zoomed-in audience camera was excellent.
- Got to bed at 10:35. When I got up to pee the 3.4 times I tweaked the thermostat for the heating system and, it appears, got it operating properly.
Sat Nov 6 = Sometimes things just don't work out. Two things in that department today.
- After I showed my landlord, Alvaro, how I had fixed the hot-water baseboard heating system, it started acting up again and going full blast, even when the thermostat was off. The apartment got up to 84° F.
- Second thing, when I phoned the American Legion about picking me up for tonight's show, I was informed that there was no show and the posters I had sent had never been put up. This is after email confirmations etc. Shawna there didn't seem very concerned "since it was a free show anyway." It will be interesting to find out what happened.
- With another and unexpected night off, I got some stuff done on my website and rested up for a rip-roaring show for tomorrow night: Sun Nov 7, 2021; 7:00pm; American Legion Post# 33; 21426 Old Glenn Hwy; Chugiak, AK 99567.
- Sunsets in Anchorage this time of the year take a long time and travel horizontally. Two minutes after sunset, at 5:46 this evening, I took this beautiful photo from the porch of my Airbnb. (The second picture is before I corrected it for perspective).
- Got to bed at 10:10pm ADT and up at 8:37am AST with the switch to AST at 2 this morning.
Sun Nov 7 = My cell phone correctly adjusted to standard time during the night :) It has trouble with time zone changes when I am traveling.
- I woke up this morning to a dusting of snow which stayed around all day, as the temperature hovered a little below freezing.
- I feel pretty rested and ready for this evening's show.
- I got my bags packed for tonight's comedy show and also packed a paper sack with personal items to add to my bags for the flight back to Phoenix.
- Kevin and Ann Robinson picked me up from my Airbnb and took me to the show in Chugiak and then, after the show, to the airport. Thanks, guys.
- The show was the best one of this tour... and I got it all recorded :)
- At the Ted Stevens Anchorage Airport I got this new fan. We were sitting next to each other at Gate C1
Camely Chavez; Gate C1 Anchorage International Airport; 11/7/21
- Didn't get to bed, but tried to get smatterings of sleep before and during the night flight.
Mon Nov 8 = This morning I had a little back discomfort. Maybe I tweaked it carrying my backpack around the airports. I'll be chilling it a couple times a day the next few days
- The plane landed in Phoenix on time, about 8:20am.
- Beside my van, where it was parked in the Sky Harbor Airport Parking lot, I found the right-hand leather glove, mate to the left-hand one I left at the Airbnb because I was sure the right glove was a goner.
- I had good energy all day. Must have been all the adrenaline from the trip. On the way home I did a full-body work out at Esporta Fitness.
- It wasn't until almost 11am that I ate breakfast, meager, because I used up most all my food before leaving for Alaska. For supper I opened a can of clam chowder.
- I got the videos from Sunday's show uploaded to my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
.
- I took a nap from 3:00 to 4:30, trying to catch up on some sleep after my Marathon Day.
- Got to bed at 10:14) with Alexa's alarm set for 10:28
Tue Nov 9 = Today I got some stuff unpacked from Alaska and put away and organized for my next tour... driving.
- I discovered Garmin's Trip Planner in my GPS's that optimizes the stops on your route. It's cool, but took some time figure it all out. I used it for this evening's trip to 99¢ Only, Fry's Food, LA Fitness and Winco Foods.
- With all the stops and shopping I got to bed late, at 10:59 with Alexa's alarm set for 8:59
Wed Nov 10 = Today's big project was the Alaska video from my last appearance there. I started preprocessing this morning by combining files created by three of my four cameras which split a long video into separate files.
- On the way to my doctor's appointment, I stopped by the Anytime Fitness gym for short heavy slow legs workout and a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and rewarded myself with one of my protein frosties.
- I changed to a doctor whose office is only one mile from home rather than six, figuring as I age, closer is better. I met him today. He was a youong somewhat portly bundle of enthusiastic energy... at 3pm.
- I got the Alaska video edited, produced and uploaded to YouTube (see Nov 7 blog). Not only was there a good audience, but I did everything right with the five devices, recording nine audio and video tracks:
- I thought it was a little stupid but did it anyway: The September 2021 AARP Bulletin had an article, Roll Away Pail in your joints with a foam roller or tennis ball, rolling your muscles and avoiding the joints. I got out my foam roller and a tennis ball and tried them all. I figured it was mostly a waste of time and an excuse to fill three pages the Bulletin.
- I finished getting everything stowed from my Alaska trip and...
- Got to bed at 10:21 my Sangean radio accidentally set to automatically turn on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Thu Nov 11 = This afternoon I took a 55-minute nap in anticipation of a late comedy show in Gilbert.
- I love a win/win situation. Mike Jones of the Purple Palace Pole Studio bought my massive dip stand. He got an awesome fixture at half price to use in his business, I got $400 and gained extra space here at home with my smaller one.
- Now I have a brighter outlook on life and on the outside world. I removed the sun screens from five of my south and west-facing windows to let in more light and to save gas by letting in more solar heat.
- Getting to JP'S Comedy Club for tonight's show was a real challenge with an accident on the southbound 51 and the streets closed off a quarter mile in every direction from JP's due to a fatal accident at Werner and Lindsey in Gilbert. My favorite comedian at the 7:00 show was Many Hernandez with 15 minutes of rapid fire creative stuff. My set for the 9:00 open mic was OK. Next time I'll not just off-the-cuff my Alaska comments, but force myself to make and use icons.
- Got to bed at 11:21
Fri Nov 12 = Today I deleted my dip stand listing from Craig's List
- I found two comedians who might be interested in opening for me in El Paso in April. John Cowan, who opened for me this year, is booked in Ohio at that time.
- This evening I did a short heavy slow arms workout at Anytime Fitness after I did inverted balancing here at home with my dip stand since they do not have a suitable one there.
- Got to bed at 9:59 :) 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 Nov 13 = I got up this morning full of vim and vigor... well, as full of vim and vigor as anyone pushing 80. Getting up at 7:47 with just enough time to pee, shave and exercycle before my Sangean radio turns on the news in the kitchen.
- It took over a half hour for me to revise the date on my Phoenix Has Talent poster, but I did learn how to select, duplicate and fill colors with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). I can't believe I did not leave the date ready to easily change. Well, next time, it will be.
- Right on time, I resolved my checking account... the first try... while dialing the Leo LaPorte Show, a national talk show with a thousand people trying to get in.
- I got on the show and asked Leo about an app to record phone calls with my cell phone. His idea of using Google Voice did not work for me. Google Voice seemed to want me to set up a new account and I already have an active Google fi account.
- I found some interesting things from four years ago when I cleared the stack off the IBM Wheelwriter 6 on my credenza... notes from 2017 from a Duet meeting about estates and wills. I also found what good quality is. Except for having to replace the memory batteries, the typewriter worked perfectly, the film ribbon was dark and crisp and even the correction tape still worked. Again, I will start using the IBM to print a professional-looking arizonalou.com at the bottom of my thank you notes and Arizona Lou Comedy in the In Honor Of section of the
donation envelops I carry on my comedy tours.
- Now to USE the thank you notes.
- 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.
Sun Nov 14 = Getting up at 7:47 with just enough time to shave, pee, exercycle, log it and my night's sleep and get to the kitchen before the 8:00 news comes on certainly gets me off to a good start and adds to my energy because there's no time to dilly dally.
- Today I updated the posters on my website and chilled out here at home. I organized contacts for my Colorado River Tour and started making some phone calls
- Since it got a little late and most of the gyms close early, I did a short light fast legs workout here in my home gym.
- Got to bed at 10:03 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.
Mon Nov 15 = I got a notice that my 15 GB of Google storage was 70% full, so I purged a bunch of old emails from my Google Trash and Google Spam folders. That took me from using 10 GB a little over 2 GB.
- Unfortunately my Google Docs took a hit and I accidentally lost my Shopping File. Fortunately unscathed was a copy of the shopping list from about a year ago. Its information is out of date, but the best I have now. I used it for today's shopping, which I did at Winco this evening
- I booked two shows in Parker for April, at the
VFW Post 7061 and the
Elks Lodge 1929, so am now calling the three shows,
Arizona Lou's Colorado River Tour 2022. Still looking for more shows in that area.
This chart shows that the world's wealthiest region by far is North America (US and Canada) and the poorest is Africa. Out of 168 countries, here are some rankings:
1 Luxembourg
12 Canada
26 United States
43 China
91 Russia
118 Myannmar, with huge, expensive, religious buildings, released reporter, Danny Fenster today
168 Haiti
(Somalia in Eastern Africa is estimated to be poorer than Haiti)
- Wrapping up my Alaska trip, having produced the video of the best show, I archived just the audio for the other two shows.
- Got to bed at 10:26 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.
Tue Nov 16 = This morning the news was talking about Myannmar, so I looked it up and found a place with rich stuff and poor people. That led to a little Internet research for countries and the average wealth of their citizens.
- The wealthiest region is by far North America (US and Canada) and the poorest is Africa.
- Out of 168 countries, the wealthiest country is Luxembourg; United States is #26; Canada, #12. Here, by the wealth per adult, is a list of countries.
Of particular interest was the ranks of:
1 Luxembourg
12 Canada
26 United States
43 China
91 Russia
118 Myannmar, has huge, fancy, religious buildings; reporter, Danny Fenster was released today
168 Haiti
(Somalia in Eastern Africa is estimated to be less than Haiti)
- I paid off all credit cards tonight. It took me 35 minutes :(
- I forced myself to draw icons and titles for everything that happened in Alaska tour, trying to find funny stuff to use tomorrow night. Nothing funny except kicking the talker with my snow boots.
- Got to bed at 10:11 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
Wed Nov 17 = !--This morning I took my van into Ken Graff Kia (used to be Earnhardt Kia) to check an oil drip and coolant smell. They found an oversized oil plug, the wrong gasket and, but no coolant leak. They also found very dirty air filters for the cabin air and engine, which I had them change.
- This evening at LA Fitness, doing a short slow heavy legs workout I got three new fans:
Tyshawn Hester, Christian Fauver and Lamarr Becton; Phoenix; LA Fitness Moon Valley, 11/17/21
Then I did my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
, took a shower and rewarded myself with a protein frosty.
- 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.
Thu Nov 18 = After attending an online ASRS Webinar for dental insurance, I plan on saving some money each year by changing from no plan to CIGNA DHMO. This afternoon I researched dentists within three miles of my house, read lots of Yelp and other reviews, called four offices and decided on two finalists, Bright Now on North Cave Creek Rd and Desert Smiles on E Bell Rd. - For tonight's comedy at
Improv Mania
, I gave Hector Garcia his custom T-Shirt and got all my cameras set up. I lucked out and was centered in the frame OK for Camera #1 (Canon) although I forgot to turn on my 10" video monitor. Also I forgot to re-zoom Camera #3 (Panasonic), which defaulted on wide angle, which turned out OK because it records in HDR and Camera #4 (LG G-3), which I had set on wide angle did not do well with the dark audience.
- The resultant video should make it up to my YouTobe channel by tomorrow. Here it is and here is Hector:
- From a comedy standpoint, the new Alaska stuff I tried out didn't do really well. That's typical of new stuff. Maybe I'll keep something about the boots.
- Got gas, got home and got to bed at 10:48 with Alexa's alarm set for 8:47, which was a BIG MISTAKE.
Fri Nov 19 = When I mess up, I tend to do it in a BIG WAY, as I demonstrated this morning. Fortunately I was able to recover and regain some of my dignity, if I had any to begin with. This morning I had my Friday all planned out in my head.
- Right after I got up at 8:48 I got a phone call from
reminding me that that I was supposed to have picked up Lynn to take her to her 9:00 cardiologist appointment.
- I jumped up, jumped into my clothes, jumped into my van and headed out, hoping that Lynn could be late and still get in. I picked her up about 8:15 and scooted off to the doctor's, arriving at 9:28. Those good people took care of her.
- After my 11:00 breakfast, I discovered that I had set my calendar for Lynn to PM instead of AM :()
- Planning on saving some money each year by joining the ASRS Dental HMO plan with CIGNA, I went to two dentists offices.
- Bright Now , 1.6 miles north, had one receptionist who kept me waiting a while, could not give me a tour, answered my questions and seemed to be just doing a job.
- Desert Smiles, 2.8 miles southwest, had two receptionists who seemed to enjoy their work, answered my questions, asked some about me and gave me a tour of their facility. I scheduled with them to make Akhil Mehta (Indian) my new dentist.
- Got to bed at 10:02 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 Nov 20 = This morning I researched a lot of fitness trackers as a Christmas gift for
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
and concluded they're all way too complicated.
- I created two forms in .DOC format. The first was a blank page with three lines for keeping track of my nightly sleep study so I do not have to draw it out every new page. Here's a page filled wth sleep information:
- The second was a Booking Checklist Sheet that may increase my efficiency in booking my tour shows and keep me from overlooking important booking items.
- I made a few phone calls and organized other contacts for booking for the next few days.
- Starting this evening I have to put my sweatshirt on very carefully because, the spoon slipped while I was pealing my grapefruit and I pealed a 7mm triangle of skin from the back of my hand by the thumb. Since the spoon was essentially clean, I folded the flap of skin back down, hoping it would not die and the injury would heal in the normal 18 days for me... if I don't scrape it against anything like my sweatshirt sleeve.
- Donning the sweatshirt was for making a quick trip to Anytime Fitness this evening for a heavy slow torso workout. They do not have a torso rotation machine, but I already did that at LA Fitness on Wednesday, showing off to my three new fans, with the machine's maximum weight.
- Got to bed at 10:03, shielding my left hand from the covers, 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 Nov 21 = My new scale arrived today, a Christmas gift from
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
, Thank you. This Escali Primo Model P115W food scale (right) gets top reviews for convenience and accuracy, and even gives negative readings when you remove an item after a tare.
-
I wish the platform was a little larger but it has everything else I want:
Soft grippy feet instead of hard slippery feet
Two buttons so you don't have to think about which one to press
Tares instantaneously, rather than in several seconds
17 lb weight capacity, vs 4 lb
Four minutes of non-use before turning off, vs 2 minutes
Negative readings!! (can tell you the weight you took off a plate)
RFI shielding so it is OK near my microwave oven
AAA batteries x 2, cheaper than 9V
- I booked a fourth show for my Colorado River Comedy Tour, in Bouse
- Got to bed at 10:23 and got up at 8:05, before Alexa's 8:23am alarm.
Mon Nov 22 = Carrie Hope Fletcher (left) is a internationally acclaimed stage star based in London. Her voice coach, Fiona McDougal (right), is also the voice coach for the Andrew Lloyd Webber company.
Fiona will be giving Katie, my granddaughter, a private voice lesson when Katie and Anne, my daughter, are in England later this week to see some plays. What a thrill! Thanks to Anne for pursuing this long shot. It will be my Christmas gift for Katie.
- Due to my frustrations I am adjusting my approach to booking veterans' posts back to the way I started out... with a slight twist by contacting a state headquarters and asking some knowledgeable person which posts are active and might be worth my while contacting about stand up comedy shows. The twist is to mention that the most frustrating part of booking my shows is people not following through or getting back to me.
- This morning I started with John Jowers with the VFW in Austin TX and spent the rest of the morning following up on some of his leads.
- My challenge is to not overdo writing down information and still have what I need for followup. At this point, I start by taking notes in pencil and then, as appropriate, switch to my Bookings.doc spreadsheet and scheduling followups as Google Tasks.
- After lunch I went in for a non-fasting blood test, specifically looking at kidney function and anemia.
- Anytime Fitness for a short light fast arms workout was my late afternoon trip. I also ran over to the nearby Albertsons for fresh green beans.
- Got to bed at 9:56 :) 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.
Tue Nov 23 = I'm getting more used to the spreadsheet database I created for booking my tour shows. It is surely slick, to have what I need at my finger tips, but slow until I get more used to it.
- Today I added the ASRS Dental plan by CIGNA DHMO to my insurance. Actually I just submitted the request since it is open enrollment. I guess they have to approve it or some such before it is a done deal.
- Got to bed at 10:08 with Alexa's alarm set 8:07, but my Sangean radio automatically turned on the news at 8:00 in the kitchen because I didn't have the volume turned down.
Wed Nov 24 = With my booker's hat on, today I booked three new shows :)
- With my comedian's hat on, I did an open mic a ElCharro Hipster, talking about my Colorado River Tour etc.
- My BlueSeventy triathlon wetsuit arrived at the back door via USP :)
- Alace Valpey, pictured here, became the 100'th fan on my Website
Alace Valpey; Phoenix AZ; El Charro Hipster, the 100th fan pictured so for
- Got to bed at 10:16 with Alexa's alarm reset for 7:59 so I can turn the volume up on my Sangean radio for the news at 8:00 in the kitchen.
Thu Nov 25 = This morning was the first time this fall that I used my thermostatically controlled digital cup warmer.
- On the way to Thanksgiving dinner I stopped by Esporta Fitness for a short heavy slow legs workout followed with an elliptical, a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and a shower.
- Bernadette, (
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
's sister-in-law) invited the Phoenix family over for Thanksgiving Dinner.
Here is the group: Chet, David, Mason, Harold Dean, Eden, Bernadette, Matt, Becky, Issac, Lou, Alec. Then Angelique, Mason, David, Eden
... and Harold's Hayes-A-Tron, which does about 30 interrelated things at once, all powered by a single 1.2V cell.
- Last night a guy at El Charro Hipster wanted a 4x T-Shirt and I did not have it in my van, so this evening I put a special clear bag in the van with 4XL, 5XL and 6XL T-Shirts. I also organized some booking contacts.
- Since I was getting drowsy at my computer in the evening I decided to try and fix the leaking valve stem on my water heater, but the garage light would not stay on due to my old, worn-out, digital timer.
- The first job was to install the new digital wall switch timer that arrived Thursday from Walmart. It is so cool. You just press one of the eight buttons for a slew of timer settings.
- Then came the water heater. I used one of the stem packing washers I got at Ace Hardware on the way home Wednesday and got it fixed. Much better than the stem packing string. I've never had much luck with either the graphite or Teflon versions. The know-it-all guy at Ace said they did not have the stem washers and berated my old water heater for not having a ball valve. After he disappeared I found the washers that I needed.
- Got to bed at 10:08 with Alexa's alarm reset for 7:59
Fri Nov 26 = HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I finally had time to try on the Blue Seventy triathlon wetsuit that arrived on Wednesday.
My idea of getting it was to have something that was easy on / easy off. This was definitely not that. It took me about an hour to get it almost on, take some photos and get it off. Never did get it zipped up. I have about decided that kiteboarding in chilly water is not worth the trouble.
- Mountainside Fitness Gym closed at 4pm and I got my short heavy arms workout in before they did. Then I went south and bought a bunch of grapes on sale at Fry's and then to Walmart to return the poorly designed and poorly described wall timer that I had ordered through their website.
- Got to bed at 10:06 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.
Sag Nov 27 = Today I got the wetsuit all boxed up and ready to return with the UPS shipping label. I delivered it to UPS on the way to Phoenix Has Talent this evening.
- I made three booking phone calls and added tag boxes ([]) to my booking database spreadsheet for each question I need to ask when booking. I hope they will allow me to bypass taking paper notes during the phone calls and then having to transfer the notes to the database. That process could also introduce errors.
- On the way to Urban Beans I dropped the wetsuit package off at the UPS Store, but didn't have time to stop at a gym. I DID get to Urban Beans in plenty of time.
- We had some special excitement during the show out on the patio along 7th St. We heard an extended crashing sound about a half block south. When I looked up I saw what looked like an explosion, but it was probably sparks from the impact, and two cars recoiling from the colision and car parts flying around.
The streetlight pole and what is left of the black car - probably the product of a DISTRACTED DRIVER
- What we figured is this black car, with no attempt to slow down, ran up the curb, put a kink in the streetlight pole and then careened through the air about 75 feet and into the back of the white SUV (in the background) which was innocently stopped at the traffic light. Both cars were totaled but fortunately no one was injured and no one was walking along the sidewalk at that time. More information on my Channel.
**************** DON'T GET DISTRACTED ****************
while driving, even by the messages designed to divert your attention on those stupid electronic highway signs.
- For the talent show I did a set, mentioning of course the accident and some of the previous acts, and then a PG-13 version of my Fit routine.
- This was the last show at Urban Beans, as they are moving to bigger and better location. Bryan, the producer is moving the show north to another venue near Dunlap and Cave Creek Rd.
- Got to bed at :) 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 Nov 28 = I TURNED 80 TODAY! My son, Scott, gave me a Zoom birthday party with quiz games and all. I thought it was going to be a simple Zoom call, but the whole family was there. Scott and his family, Anne and Katie from England, Robby and Brooke from Maryland,
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona and have a mountain place in Christopher Creek
from Mesa and
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
from Payson. Thanks, Scott!
- Got to bed at 10:07 and got up a few minutes before Alexa's daily 7:47 alarm. I slept 7 hours, the longest in recent history, without getting up to pee.
Mon Nov 29 = This morning's project was to collect booking leads for American Legion posts in Atlanta, GA. Sandra Jordan, of the Georgia American Legion Services Office was very helpful.
- For the first time this morning, I used my booking database spreadsheet (BDS) live while I was on the phone for booking a show, and it was slick.
- My DBS came in handy and greatly increased my booking efficiency and reduced the chance of errors. I booked five more shows today using the DBS :) Of course I have the DBS backed up to the cloud.
- I culled the possible posts to contact by eliminating those who did not show up on a Google search with a map, hours or phone number, figuring they likely do not have their act together.
- Got to bed at 11:04 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.
Tue Nov 30 = I have started going over my full length show a little at a time, making a point of figuring out how to remember where I left off. Good practice for when I get distracted during a show. Always fun, but a little embarrassing when I have to ask the audience where I was.
- This afternoon I stopped by the Mountainside Gym for a quick
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower on my way driving way over to eastern Scottsdale to the Advanced Hearing Group for a hearing test, mostly as a baseline.
- Kelly Lewis there said I was due to get hearing aids, and could experience further loss if I didn't. From my point of view, not only would hearing aids be very expensive (up to over $4,000 a pair), but they would be a major pain. According to my research, my midrange hearing is better than a kid's and my high frequency (8000 kHz) hearing is about the same as other males my age. My overall hearing is normal in my left ear and slightly subnormal (maybe 90%) in my right ear. My SRT (Speech Recognition Threshold) was normal in my left ear at 25.0 and a little below in my right ear at 27.5.
- The graphs below depict the loudness required to hear the various frequencies of a pure tone (PTA): Averages by age and my averages.
- At this point, my plan is to do nothing but monitor the situation, maybe another hearing test every 5-10 years.
- On the way home, I, again stopped by the Mountainside Gym, this time for a short light fast full-body workout.
- Got to bed at 10:17 with Alexa's alarm reset to 8:07
