Thu Sep 1 = I am going to quit mentioning it, because it is pretty much regular now. I am working out six days a week in various gyms. Typically, brief light fast workouts Sun Mon Tue and brief slow heavy workouts Wed Thu Fri. Wed I have one of my protein frosties. My treat nights are Mon (usually a Hostess Cinnamon Streusel Cake) & Fri (usually an ice cream sandwich).
- I renewed my arizonaloukiteboarder.com domain with Godaddy, in case I decide to start using it again. Right now I show up first with an online search but the resulting arizonaloukiteboarder link does not lead to my website. My goal is for arizonalou to start showing up as #1. I realize that I am taking a chance of losing my top Google rank. Maybe not smart.
- Vector graphics can be enlarged an unlimited amount with losing resolution. Do that with normal pictures and drawings done with raster graphics and you lose resolution and see a severe case of the jaggies along curved and diagonal lines.
- This has been a problem for me since I designed my logo over eight years ago. I found vectorizer.io, a reasonably priced online program that will do the conversion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ihpItoTBA is an excellent 12.5-minute video that explains all the ins & outs.
Here is the result (zoom all the way in and look at the copyright symbol to see the differences):
45K First image is the original low resolution JPG (lots of jaggies)
24K Second is the same image vectorized
93K Third image is a high resolution PNG file with a transparent background (still some jaggies)
24K Fourth image is vectorized with transparent background
- I feel really good about what I accomplished, but it did put me to bed late... again
- Got to bed at 10:42
Fri Sep 2 = This morning, going over the notes from the comedians I met at the Wichita Loony Bin, I ran across some sage information from comedian extraordinaire Tommy Drake, about Heckling and working for a cruise line.
- I arranged to have my house painted by Hometown Painting.
- This evening I drove down to
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
checked out the washer & dryer there and took pictures of them.
- On the way home I stopped by the 32 St & Greenway Planet Fitness
- Got to bed at 10:43
Sat Sep 3 = This morning's project was to put the
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
washer & dryer on Craig's List
- Today was my gym day off and I drove down to 99¢ Only for eight of their $.25/lb over-ripe bananas.
- I worked out my available dates for a possible stand up comedy trip to Austria.
- I decided on a new bed/mattress configuration for sleeping on my Sleep Number Bed the next few nights to see if it is good for my back, then moved my sleeping stuff (CPAP etc.) back into my master bedroom to spend the next several nights on my Sleep Number Bed.
- Got to bed at 10:33
Sun Sep 4 = Today I found another stool image on my computer, only with all four legs showing. I vectorized it so there is no limit to how much it can be enlarged.
- Here are the results:
Vectorized black stool with transparent backgound
Vectorized black stool with white background
Vectorized dark gray stool with transparant background
Vectorized dark gray stool with white background
- It took a long time but I also reedid my Comedy-n-Sunset poster and magnetic signs with smoothed stool image and me without glasses.
- The thing that took me the longest for the above projects was finding where on my computer I had put the original source files for the images
- For my experimental bed tonight I put my Sleep Number bed on high #10 and put my 3" self-inflating King Camp air mattress on top. It felt real good.
- Got to bed at 10:49
Mon Sep 5 = This evening I made a batch of Protein Frosty without the .6oz of psyllium I have been recently ading. The result is six Buddy Blinder containers of Frosty instead of seven. That means the Frosties are a little more dense and hopefully will be a little smoother when it comes to eating them after they have been taken out of the freezer and soffened for a while.
- Got to bed at 10:23
Tue Sep 6 = This morning's project was to place an order with GotPrint.com for two new sets of car magnets for comedy. First set was an updated version of Comedy-n-Sunset magnet. The second set was a larger, high resolution, version of my comedy logo with with a QR code added. The old, smaller, magnets are getting brittle and cracking.
- I decided to pull the trigger on and commit to custom making my own bed so ordered the yookare 14 Inch Tall 3000lbs Heavy Duty Metal Bed Frame from Amazon.
- I also researched the Sony - HDRCX405 HD Video Recording Handycam Camcorder - the only one that I have been assured will record long videos without the 4GB file limit.
- I took a 45 minute nap, expecting to be out late tonight with comedy, which I was. After the show I even stopped by Anytime Fitness for a quick workout.
- At Brigit's Last Laugh, I found that the show was not an open mic, but rather all booked. I wasn't the only one. Jo Whitey drove over three hours from ShowLow. They gave her three minutes. There were about 21 people there and 21 comics. Sean McCarthy, the host needs to clarify the "open Mic" thing.
- Got to bed at 12:23
Wed Sep 7 = SD (Secure Digital) cards were a part of my video camera research this morning. Since I don't like to do things more than once, I added this information to my Technology web page.
- I started the big project of moving the van's couch-back two inches toward the right sliding door so that my custom made mattress will fit better and give me a little more space. In the process of removing some mounting bolts underneath the couch in a very awkward place I put a lot of pressure the knuckle at the base of my right index finger. I guess I damaged the skin because it eventually started weeping.
- Tonight's comedy show at
Stir Crazy in the Westgate Entertainment District; in Glendale, was fantastic. Lamar the host did a good job. Two of the comedians were outstanding.
- My 3:47-minute Colonoscopy set killed and reminded me how rewarding doing stand up comedy can be. I exceeded my goals with an average of 7.9 laughs per minute and the audience laughing 35% of the time, which is not too difficult to do for only four minutes.
- I sold four T-Shirts and got two new fans:
neighbor and got her to her dentist early.
- While I waited for her I analyzed last night's audience response to my comedy set by counting and timing the laughs (I surpassed my goals), updated and uploaded my past appearances and updated this blog.
- Back home I ordered another Sony HDRCX405 HD video camera because the one I ordered yesterday seems to be lost in space with no expected delivery date.
- I left home in time to drive to Premier Title Agency in Chandler and arrive a little ahead of time in spite of heavy traffic and a car fire.
- While I was signing the papers there for the sale of
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
, I had to check with my Credit Union to double check my account number, so naturally I phoned them. I was still on hold after 25 minutes as I left Premier Title, drove to a credit union branch office about a mile away and parked. As I was about ready to enter the credit union office the credit union answered the phone and we took care of everything.
-
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in east Mesa, Arizona and have a mountain place in Christopher Creek
's was my next stop. We had supper and played TEN, a new, exciting push-your-luck and auction game.
- On the way home I stopped by Anytime Fitness for a slow heavy arms workout.
- Got to bed at 10:31
Fri Sep 9 = This morning I was trying to have my cake and eat it too. The cake is to be #1 for Internet searches, as I have been for years. Eating the cake is to do that without using my old website URL, arizonaloukiteboarder.com, because that confuses people who are looking for a comedian at arizonalou.com.
- While rearranging things to accomodate a new 1/4 x 48 x 51 piece of birch plywood as a foundation for my new bed, I bumped the knuckle at the base of my right index finger. It started bleeding quite a bit. It wasn't healing very well anyway. I got some paper towels to dab it while I was shopping for the plywood. Using the 48"-wide plywood for my bed might be a challenge because my "mattress" is 51" wide and the bed frame will be 38" wide.
- With Hostgator this afternoon I tried to set up another redirect from arizonaloukiteboarder.com to arizonalou.com, but it did not work. As a result search engines still cannot find me as #1.
- Then, with the help of a chatt with HostGator's Abhinandana from India, I was able to get arizonalou.com verrified by Google.
- This evening searching the Internet with Google for "America's Favorite Old Man" found my website, but not first - it was the third screen down. My website ranked higher with Bing and Duck Duck Go searches. At lest I can be found.
- Dahlia closed this afternoon. That means that it was recorded by the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.
- Before bedtime I scurried around and finished cleaning under and around my Sleep Number bed, stood it on end by the west bedroom wall and set up my experimental matress on the Sleep Number Foundation using the birch plywood, 4" test foam slab, some pillows and 3" thick King Camp self-inflating double-bed mattress.
- Got to bed at 10:22
Sat Sep 10 = This morning I put my queen-sized bed on Craig's List and NextDoor, resulting in only two scam contacts today.
- After being home a month I finally got around to disinfecting & cleaned my van's running water system with a little chlorine bleach and distilled water.
- I went to Fabric Depot and ordered two 51x80" foam slabs, to the tune of about $250 for the new bed I am making. One slab, 1" thick and the other 4" thick - both high density.
- Tonight's computer project was to start working on a new web page, my Past Tour Schedules. I am currently experimenting with different link structures to use. The page is not officially online yet, but you can check my progress Past Tour Schedules - My four new magnetic signs arrived from GotPrint.com. I took a break from my computer and trimmed the logo signs from 24" tall down to 21" so they would fit on my van. I put the new Comedy-n-Sunset signs with the other signs to take on tour next year. Why new Comedy-n-Sunset signs? Glad you asked. The new ones show me without glasses and are larger since my Kia van is larger.
Sun Sep 11 = I got up early this morning to visit with
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
on the phone. SleepBot evidently does not turn off the vibrator at night if you have it selected rather than the ringer.
- I started trying to schedule inspections and estimates for termites for my house to get any treatments done before repainting the exterior.
- I worked on my new van couch back plate today.
- Got to bed at 10:16
Mon Sep 12 = I didn't get around to updating my website today. I got busy preparing for tonight's comedy shows.
- Noon was the chance to sign up for Wednesday's Stir Crazy open mic. The sign-up screen appeared, but by the time I could type in my name and paste in my email, all 10 of the spots were filled.
- I went to two comedy open mics tonight. The first was in Phoenix at
Cruisin' 7th. I had not been there for five years. The show, starting at 8pm, is now run by, Brandi Bigley and Jennifer Giralo who are doing a good job making the event friendly to everyone, regardless of what their race, beliefs or gender identification. I did my set on being 80... and wrinkled... etc.
- The second was in Tempe at
Devil's Advocate, a well organized bucket list starting at 9pm. It was like a homecomng because I hadn't been there in two and a half years. So many of my comedian friends were glad to see that I was still alive. I felt the same way. The audience of 25 liked my picking on the host and my modified set on Alzheimer's.
- At the show I met Aj Coulter, a dialysis and kidney transplant survivor who combines comedy with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).
- Got to bed at 11:18 after late comedy.
- Got to bed at 10:24
Tue Sep 13 = Today I finished three big projects and feel good about myself. First, I finished putting my new bed frame together and had a termite inspector from Del Sol look at my house. I didn't sun today because it was cloudy aound solar noon.
- Second I checked my website rank on Internet searches. Before arizonalou.com shows up there may be arizonaloukiteboarder.com (which could lead nowhere or to bogus websites), videos, my YouTube Chanel, my FaceBook Page or other links. Here's what I found:
Our Website Search Results (s = https...)
Sep 13 2022
Google
Bing
Yahoo
Duck Duck Go
Search Term Used
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Arizona Lou
#7s
14m
#1
220m
#1
203m
#1
az lou
>#65
36
#1
422m
#1
422m
#4
america's favorite old man
#8s
313m
#6s
3070m
#1s
3070m
#1s
arizona comedian
>#50
14m
#16s
220m
#5
670m
#5
The biggest part of the project was making the above table. I'll probably track my website rank about once a month.
- Third big project was finishing moving my van couch back-rest two inches. It took me about a week and was pretty technical getting everything situated, anchored just right and painted. Now I have more space for my van mattress/couch.
- Got to bed at 10:29
Wed Sep 14 = It broke my heart, but after breakfast I set up my queen-sized Sleep Number bed, in excellent condition, out for bulk trash collection. It took some creativity for me to single-handedly get the frame, base, mattress, firmness control system and remote control out on the curb.
- Then I set up my new bed in its final resting place, still in its experimental configuration.
- At solar noon I lay out in the sun.
- My glass sparkles. Using my Karcher WV-50 electric squeegee, I washed the insides of all my van windows and, in my house, all the mirrors. They are so clean that it looks as though they do not exist.
- This evening I ordered four 13 quart under-bed containers for me to pick up later at Target.
- After picking the containers up I did a slow hevy legs workout at LA Fitness then came home for a Protein Frostie
- Got to bed at 10:35
Thu Sep 15 = Someone took my bed! That is actually good news. I had my queen-sized Sleep Number bed on the curb to be picked up by the City of Phoenix and taken to the dump, because no thrift store wanted it. I had notes on the bed saying:
Sleep Number Bed
Excellent Condition
FREE
Try It
You'll Like It
I guess someone tried it and liked it because this morning the bed was gone. I hope they are having pleasant dreams on it tonight.
- To celebrate I did my annual vacuuming of the tracks for my LG train set.
- At noon, Gary from Termtech checked my house and found one, termite location, probably inactive, and treated it.
- I wanted a clean van for shopping with Joan, so washed it and took time to wipe the headlights, rear view mirrors & back window.
- That made me one minute late to pick up Joann for our first shopping excursion, under the auspices of
,
to Winco for grocery shopping.
- Back for supper - got dressed and all ready to leave for comedy in Gilbert. Then I decided to skip it because it would be an 80 mile drive and take almost four hours.
- Instead, considering COVID and other factors, I researched US State Department and World Health Organization for traveling to Austria and did my monthly credit card payoffs.
- Got to bed at 10:27
Fri Sep 16 = Today while I was researching Austria and Europe I ran across this video which I put here on my Definitions web page.
- This afternoon I committed to Austria by buying airline tickets... to leave in ten days!
- This evening I located some possible open mics to add to Arizona Lou's Central European Comedy Tour. It was a big big job figuring where European places were, how far between, how long to make the trip on the train/transit/walking system and the dates. Three of them may not work out. I'll try to confirm them by phone.
- Got to bed at 10:55, but didn't stay there. You'll find out why in tomorrow's blog.
Sat Sep 17 = In the middle of the night, at 3:30am I got up to pee and stayed up to phone some venues for comedy in the Vienna Austria vicinity since it was about 12:30pm there.
- To avoid losing my mind and since I do better with graphics, I made this calendar chart or my Viena trip with rows for comedy shows, traveling, hotel in Vienna and hotels elsewhere:
- Still on the Austria theme, after breakfast I figured all the details of the 5 or six comedy shows & got them up on Future Trips of my website:
- To help keep track of my stuff on the European trip, I researched locator tags and ordered a four-pack of the Tile Pro.
- In my comedy routine I joke about all the boxes I have saved... because I read instructions that say, "Save the box." I decided to start getting rid of some of them. The other day I parked my blue recycle container in the hallway and, tonight, broke down four boxes and put them in for recycling.
- Rather than skipping my workout again, I did one here at home in my little gym.
- I ordered a pair of USB extension cables for powering my new Sony camcorder.
- Got to bed at 10:51
Sun Sep 18 = This afternoon's big project was to figure out parcels, property taxes and adjust my accounting for the raw desert land I have out by Wittmann, considering I split one parcel and sold it as three lots and split another parcil by five.
- While I was at it I paid $10 for driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike back in August.
- I figured and entered into my check register the property taxes which are due Oct 1st. I'll need to pay them before I leave on my Central European Comedy Tour.
- I spent about 10 minutes putting more boxes into my recycling container.
- Got to bed at 10:53 :)
Mon Sep 19 = Right after breakfast I went in person to deposit the $200k check from Friday into the DFCU account. Glad to get it out of my hands.
- Next was LA Fitness for fast light legs and arms workouts.
- At noon I tried, but did not get on for Stir Crazy's Wednesday open mic.
- I checked my website rank on Internet searches. Before arizonalou.com shows up there may be arizonaloukiteboarder.com (which could lead nowhere or to bogus websites), videos, my YouTube Chanel, my FaceBook Page or other links. Here's six days ago compared to today:
Our Website Search Results (s = https...)
Sep 13 2022
Google
Bing
Yahoo
Duck Duck Go
Search Term Used
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Arizona Lou
#7s
14m
#1
220m
#1
203m
#1
az lou
>#65
36
#1
422m
#1
422m
#4
america's favorite old man
#8s
313m
#6s
3070m
#1s
3070m
#1s
arizona comedian
>#50
14m
#16s
220m
#5
670m
#5
Our Website Search Results (s = https...)
Sep 19 2022
Google
Bing
Yahoo
Duck Duck Go
Search Term Used
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Rank
Hits
Arizona Lou
#8s
14m
#1
253m
#1
261m
#1
az lou
>#50
35
#1
520m
#1
5022m
#4
america's favorite old man
#9s
383m
#5s
3410m
#1
3410m
#1s
arizona comedian
>#30
24m
#9
220m
#10
663m
7
- I reset the times to match Vienna Austria, Central European Summer Time, (CUST) for all the video and audio recorders I'll be using there.
- Got to bed at 11:01
Tue Sep 20 = This morning I met
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in east Mesa, Arizona and have a mountain place in Christopher Creek
at a Chick-fil-A half way between our houses. Had a nice visit, and got my grubbies on the CO2 detector that I left at their house.
- On the way home I stopped by a Target and bought a credit card sized Tile Slim which has a beeper and helps you keep track of your stuff.
- The last stop before home was Mountainside Fitness.
- When I got home a package with four Tile Pros was waiting for me. I got all five Tiles pared with my cell phone. They might come in handy in Central Europe.
- This evening I sanded my bed board (1/4 x 48 x 80" birch plywood) so it would be ready for painting. Nils is going to spray it with house paint when he paints my house. It will be worth the extra $25 to get it painted. I hate to cover up the beautiful birch, but it will just be hidden under my bed anyway.
- Got to bed at 10:51
Wed Sep 21 = Today's stops were Dollar Tree, LA Fitness and Basha's where I bought one apple and one banana to tide me over 'til my Central European Tour.
It took a while on the phone but today, with the help of Priceline's Sam Perez, I booked all the hotels for my tour. I certainly recommend Priceline and Sam. Here's the way the hotels shape up:
(16 minutes from the airport)
ibis Wien Hauptbahnhof
CHECK-IN: Monday, September 26, 2022 (03:00 PM)
CHECK-OUT: Sunday, October 02, 2022 (12:00 PM)
HOTEL ADDRESS: Canettistrasse 8
Vienna 1100
Austria
Colloseum Hotel
CHECK-IN: Sunday, October 02, 2022
CHECK-OUT: Monday, October 03, 2022
HOTEL ADDRESS: Myslikova 282/26
Prague 12000
Czech Republic
ibis Wien Hauptbahnhof
CHECK-IN: Monday, October 03, 2022 (03:00 PM)
CHECK-OUT: Tuesday, October 04, 2022 (12:00 PM)
HOTEL ADDRESS: Canettistrasse 8
Vienna 1100
Austria
Dolce Vita
CHECK-IN: Tuesday, October 04, 2022 (10:00 - 00:00)
CHECK-OUT: Wednesday, October 05, 2022 (06:00 - 10:00)
HOTEL ADDRESS: 15 Kollárovo Námestie 3 Floor
Bratislava 811 06
Slovakia
ibis Wien Hauptbahnhof
CHECK-IN: Wednesday, October 05, 2022 (03:00 PM)
CHECK-OUT: Friday, October 07, 2022 (12:00 PM)
HOTEL ADDRESS: Canettistrasse 8
Vienna 1100
Austria
(16 minutes to the airport)
- Got to bed at 11:07
Thu Sep 22 = This morning a few minutes before seven, Nils rang my doorbell, ready to start preping my house for repainting.
- To the sound of Nick power washing my house, I spent most of the morning rechecking and charting my hotel and comedy stays for next week's Central European Tour.
- On my cell phone I installed the United Airlines app. It doesn't seem to be as user friendly as apps from other airlines - mostly trying to upsell.
- I got out my pack pack, roller suticase etc. and started organizing for packing.
- Somewhere I have numerous foreign power adapters but can find none here at home or at any of the stores in my area. Amazon to the rescue. They will be delivered tomorrow.
- A little research revealed that visas are not required of me for any of the countries I will be visiting.
- For the first time I added a colored microposter to my show slips. These list all six of my central European appearances. Of course I'll be passing them out to anyone who is interested.
- Before I could print them out I had to replace my printer's yellow toner cartridge, and before I could do that I had to read some printer instructions.
- Got to bed at 10:46
TOP of page)
Fri Sep 23 = This afternoon I got tired of being eaten up by insects (probably mosquitoes) so I turned my thermostat down from 84° F to 82° F and put on cargo shorts and a tank top.
- Nick and Joe are busy repainting my house. Today they sprayed the body of the house and, the piece of 1/4 x 48 x 80" birch plywood I'll be using for my new bed project.
- Google moved my arizonalou.com website up to 7th place. Headed the right direction.
- Got to bed at 9:38 :) The painters are going to start at 7am tomorrow.
Sat Sep 24 = I got a phone call from Fabric Depot that the foam slabs for my bed were ready to pick up. I got them and put the layers of my bed together and took a nap. Comfie.
- Nils and his crew finished painting my house, and does it look good! The front door looks better than when it was new.
- I hated it, but didn't use my $80 ticket to see the taping of Nate Bargatze's comedy special this evening. Just didn't have time. Today I did get my house painted, arranged to sell some land, went to the gym and got my bed done. Actually I forgot about the show until 6pm when I saw a reminder email about the show.
Here are some of the crew who painted my house.
Nils Emanuelson, Jesse Zanabria, Nicholas Walker; painted my house; Phoenix AZ 9/24/22
- Got to bed at 10:33, which is pretty good for me when leaving on a trip.
Sun Sep 25 = Things went pretty smoothly this morning. I got up at 4:10 and headed out at about 4:45, I hope with everything I need for Vienna.
- At Shy Harbor Airport I got this Blog done and added my house painters as Fans. On the flight to Washington DC I did my monthly Blog Archive 2022 Sep rollover in 17 minutes.
- At the Dulles International Airport in Washington DC I switched to an Austrian Air Lines' Boeing 767 for the 8'hour flight to Vienna.
- Of course I din't go to bed, but tried to sleep on the flight.
Mon Sep 26 = This morning below us on the ground someone was seeing a beautiful red sunrise. From 35,000 feet we enjoyed the texture of the sun paying with the fractocumulous clouds over western Austria.
- Our wide-body Boeing 767 with eight seats across in the main cabin, landed at 8:30am Vienna time, which was 11:30pm Phoenix time and my body's time.
- Taxying in I remembered that I had forgotten to shut off the water to my house. Since I don't have the phone number of my nearest neighbor I decided that I would gamble and no pipes would burst while I am on this trip.
- I strained my brain figuring which train to take from the airport to the Vienna Central Terminal in Vienna. Then how to get to that train. I never did figure out how to pay for the train so got a free 16 minute ride. All the trains are electric so there is a maze of overhead wires, especially in the switching yards
- At the Vienna Central Terminal I was looking for a table with a working outlet where I could work on my website and eat the sandwich I had purchased. I did not find one but did find these three young (25-40) comedians who are on a comedy tour raising money for their homeland, Ukraine. Eric was the only one who spoke English. Unfortunately our schedules will not allow us to see each other's shows. That is beside the point for me because their comedy is all in Russian.
- About 1:30pm I checked into my hotel.
- the ibis hotel is awesome - probably the nicest three star hotel I will ever stay in. Everything was brand shinny new, well designed and tastefully implemented. They keep it at 3 stars and keep their rates down with reduced amenities.
In your room you will not find a:
closet, but a stylish clothes hanging area
dresser
desk with drawers, but a stylish inverted U desk
bed-side stand with drawers, but a stylish inverted U stand
clock
electric iron
ironing board
microwave oven
refrigerator
safe
suitcase stand
bath tub, but a large shower
continuous electricity, but a a card socket by the door that "turns on" the room
- How lucky can I be. About a two minute walk from my hotel is an Aldi Grocery Store. They didn't have everything I needed for my six-night stay here, but most of it.
- The oposite direction, in Vienna's Central Terminal was the Muller, a variety store, and MobiNil, a phone store, where I bought a bluetooth headset (Remax RB-T33) to replace the one I lost somewhere in Phoenix.
- I wasted a lot of time researching, taking notes and making JPGs of the instruction manual for the Remax RB-T33 because It would not turn on and would not charge.
- Got to bed at 10:47 under a comfy comforter
Tue Sep 27 = For breakfast I had two peaches, some spring mix vegetables, granola cerial, grapes with their seeds and 500g of yogurt from a 1kg tub that will become my cereal bowl for the next few days.
- I ran back to the MobiNil store where the nice lady from last night exchanged the non-functioning Remax RB-T33 Bluetooth headset for an XO-B29. She did not charge me the difference in price, which I appreciated, because I will not use its additional features like playing music..
- I did not set an alarm for my afternoon nap, so slept for 2¼ hours, which sleep I needed after the past two days.
- After supper I went across the street to Vienna's Central Terminal, armed with a lot of questions, like how to get around and how to buy a Vianna City Card which will give me 24 hours of public transportation. The card cost about $15.
- The next two hours I spent familiarizing myself with the busses, trams, trains and escalators. I rode them all. You might call it being lost - for the two hours. I never made it to my destination, a Humana Trend thrift store, supposedly 16 minutes away. I DID make it back to my hotel (white with rectangular windows), which you can see in the background in this train picture.
- At one point I was the only person on a train. It stopped, not at a station, for about 20 minutes. All the power went off along with the AC and lights. It was obvious that I might be spending the night there. Finally things came back on. Like they had to reboot the train. It reversed direction, which was good, so I could get back "home" to my hotel.
- Got to bed at 11:43 but got a full night's sleep anyway by sleeping in.
Wed Sep 28 = Today was a pretty good day transportation wise. Traveling to
The Church International Pub; here ; in Vienna went well after I found and got on the correct tram (Tram 0) until, after about ⅓ of the way, it started going the wrong direction. Thank goodness for my cell phone. I have about the same batting average in figuring out its navigation features as figuring out public transportation here in Vienna.
- Comedy was epic this evening, with the help of my new-found comedian friends:
Sam, who called out, "Arizona Lou" when she saw me. She was the one who had invited me to come to Vienna in the first place.
Eric, who paid an Uber to take me to Mi Barrio so I could get in an additional open mic. Otherwise I would not have found the place until October. I blieve it was my first ride in a hybrid auto - a Toyota Corolla.
Samatha Lackner& Eric James; The Church International Pub; Vienna, Austria; 9/28/22
Kat, at Mi Barrio who was hosting her first show since COVID
Eric again, who scheduled me late in the show at The Church International Pub open mic so I could do Mi Barrio
Shane, who laughed a lot during my set and gave me his cell phone number in case I ran into problems during the rest of my stay in the Vienna area.
All the people who laughed at my jokes and the ones who let me pick on them (like they had a choice). - The tram ride back home to my hotel was perfect. I boarded Tram 0 just outside the bar and got off with a 4-minute walk to my hotel.
- Got to bed about 11:30
Thu Sep 29 = This morning while fixing and eating breakfast I listened to the BBC news on TV and heard about the Russian probable responsibility for the Nord Stream pipelines explosions, about Liz Truss, Prime Minister of England's massive tax cut and the resulting market impact and crashing of the British pound and about Florida's hit by Hurricane Ian.
- Today I started eating the entire orange after looking up how neutritions the peels are.
- I ran across a most excellent Ted Talk by Dr. Riley, Moynes TEDxSurrey, from last May: The Four Phases of Retirement and how to squeeze all the juice out of retirement, which I am already doing.
- You remember on tuesday, that I spent two hours on public transportation trying to get to the Humana Trend thrift store and never made it. Today I made it to the store with a 9-minute jog from my hotel. There, the delightful ladies helped me find long underwear , sort of, to help me stay warmer when I am out and about. For the bottom it was a pair of lady's fairly snug-fitting sports pants that had a front zipper, one of my requirements. For the top it was a long-sleeved black Adidas techfil compression T-shirt.
- I kept their dressing room busy for a while trying them on. I had to take off my shoes and strip down to my underware, to put the new stuff on and then add all my regular clothes on top to make sure everything fit and the proper body part was easily accessible. Of course then I had to take it all off and put on all my regular clothes to buy the new stuff. Then, back in the dressing room to do it all again to begin wearing my new stuff.
- Fortunately, nearby was an Aldi where I got some 1.8% milk and a Billa supermarket where I got some mixed frozen vegetables, which Aldi did not have. On my walk back to the hotel I saw my first Amazon 18-wheeler from Amazon.
- I had only two meals today; a big but late breakfast and supper. That is probably going to be my norm here because I need to eat all of the food that comes in a container since I don't have a refrigerator.
- I did some reading about tourst sights that I will not be seeing, since I am concentrating on comedy. I don't get a thrill of seeing opulant places and churches that are the result of indulged emporors at the expense of the common people. I'd rather make the common people laugh! I DID see the Schönbrunn Palace out the train window riding from the airport.
I read about:
Schönbrunn Palace, the 1,441-room Rococo emperor's summer home
Hofburg Palace which was for centuries the seat of the Habsburgs emperial rulers of Austria until the end of WWI
St Stephen's Cathedral, the product of oppressing people and making them feel sinful
Fri Sep 30 = This morning I went down to check out the hotel's breakfast area. It reminded me of that of a cruise ship, at about $13, which I will plan on Sunday morning so I can get off to Prague in a timely manner. I hung out, facing north, in one of their booths by a window. Facing north in an attempt to keep my directions straight. I, hopefully correctly, figured out my route for tomorrow to the
Café Votiv here in Vienna and the route to
The Globe Bookstore And Café in Prague on Sunday.
- This afternoon I esigned documents for selling a 5 acre parcel of my Wittmann properties to my realtor who will subdivivide it and resell it. For both of us the deals will be 1031 exchanges - a good deal for both of us.
- After eating some vegetables I walked from my hotel about two minutes over to the Vienna Central Station where trains arrive from all directions to destinations in all direction as well as connecting to bus lines, tram lines and a subway (U-Bahn).
- I started off by finishing my supper with a custom-made pork sanwich. Using my phone and a little patience, I found the various locations from which to depart for each of my next and last four shows (in three countries).
- I learned that trains operate on 15,000 Volts AC from the overhead lines.
- I also figured out most of trams operate from the east or the west end of the station, most of the buses from the west end and the trains operate from 12 platforms up on the top level. The train number and platform number to your destination may vary depending on the time of day. Find out which platform to go to be locating your train on a giant digital schedule board on the lower level before going up to the platform, because the smaller digital schedule boards there may not show trains for other platforms.
- Got to bed at 10:37
