Wed Mar 1 = This afternoon I went to this spectacular LA Fitness in Playa Vista for a heavy legs workout.
- While setting up for the show I got a phone call from the Hollywood Gold's Gym that I had left my driver's license there yesterday. It is lucky that I found out about it before heading down to San Diego.
- This evening's comedy show was pretty good and the only thing scheduled at the Elk's Lodge, which is usually closed on Wednesdays. All 32 audience members came specifically to see me... and for the eats.
- It is forecast to be 41 degrees, the coldest yet for me on this tour..
- Got to bed at 10:08 for 9:39 of sleep
Thu Mar 2 = I bade farewell to the Winchester Elks Lodge after breakfast and headed to the Hollywood Gold's Gym to pick up my driver's license, to do a heavy arms workout, poo and take a shower.
- The Internet was out at the library I found up in Ventura so I went on to the
VFW Post 1679 a little early where they welcomed me.
- The show was probably my best yet! Last night's audience came to see a comedian, and they did. Tonight's audience came to laugh and have fun, and the did. They did exactly the right amount of participating, appreciated my humor and were generous with their laughs, their tips and their donations to Alzheimer's research.
- After the show they scheduled for next year - the first show scheduled for 2024: Fri Feb 23, 2024; 6:00pm;
VFW Post 1679; 3801 Market St; Ventura, CA 93003 -
- I sold an album, two T-Shirts and got five new fans:
Shipley, Commander; VFW Post 1679; Ventura, CA; 3/2/23
Mark Masterson; VFW Post 1679; Ventura, CA; 3/2/23
Jenni Lopardo, Jen Masterson, Carly Simpson; VFW Post 1679; Ventura, CA; 3/2/23
- Got to bed at TIME for HOURS of sleep
Fri Mar 3 = This morning I hung around the VFW post almost too long, catching up on my Past Comedy Appearances and other thngs. I also paid my property taxes (over $1k) for half a year. That feat took me 20 minutes - not too bad.
- Heading south to Chula Vista for tonight's show, I stopped by a Shared Branch credit union to deposit my accumulated T-Shirt cash.
- My plan was to get to the
American Legion Post 434 two hours before the 7pm show to set up my camcorders and put out my merchandise. Thanks to very slow traffic on US 101 and I-5, I arrived two minutes before show time. Some of the guys at the post helped me check out the PA system and set out my ShirtCase display, but there was no time to set up the camcorders, so no videoing of the show.
- The audience of 22 enjoyed the show, but didn't laugh like last night's audience. I need to adjust my thinking and realize that it can be a good show withouth people falling out of their chairs laughing.
- After the show I sold some T-shirts and had a beef/chicken salad, courtesy of the post. Their kitchen staff did it right!
- Got to bed at 11:50 for 9:22 of sleep by sleeping in.
Sat Mar 4 = After breakfast I went to the nearby National City LA Fitness, had lunch and the went the National City Library to make some booking phone calls and update my website.
- This evening I drove up to The Madhouse Comedy Club to see tonight's 8pm show. It was pretty cool, although I was too drowsy to appreciate it fully. Although they were "sold out" they let me sit at the back at a booth. Some of the people with tickets never showed up.
- One of the employees there showed me how to sign up for Tuesday's Open Mic using Instigram.
- I parked in the Horton Plaza Parking Garage. It cost me $13 because I forgot to have my ticket valadated at Madhouse.
- After the show I drove back down to the American Legion Post 434 for the night in Chula Vista, topping my gas tank on the way. It was the most expensive cheap TopTier gas yet at $4.799/gal at ARCO. I figure it will get me accross the border to Arizona where gas will be about a dollar cheaper.
- Got to bed at 12:19 for 8:37 of sleep
Sun Mar 5 = Today's project was to get to Escondido in time for the comedy show scheduled at 2pm at the Moose Lodge there. I got to the lodge in plenty of time, especially because they moved the show to 3pm, followed by a speghetti dinner.
- On the way I stopped by the Chula Vista Walmart for frozen vegetables, the National City Library and the Escandido LA Fitness. I got these two new fans.
Elliot Kochmann; Walmart, Chula Vista, CA 3/4/23
Maria Quevedo; Library, National City, CA 3/4/23
- The
Moose Lodge #1874 in Escondido was very supportive. The show was good. The way they had the tables arranged, I did the show from the middle of the dance floor rather than on their stage. Almost everyone stayed for the entire show, probably anticipating the spaghetti dinner.
- After getting my van all loaded up, in the lodge after spaghetti, I updated my website and calculated times to my remaining two comedy appearances, night spots and to home in Phoenix. After Tuesday's show at The Mad House Comedy club, I'll save about an hour of driving by spending the night at the Chula Vista American Legion (taking I-8) rather than at the Escondido Moose Lodge's campground (taking I-10).
- Down at the lodge campground by a flowing creek I topped off my spaghetti with fiber and fruit: some of my 100% whole wheat bread and a banana.
- It seemed a lot later than it really was since the show was early, it was cold (about 43 degrees) and dark.
- Got to bed at 9:06 for 9:30 of sleep
Mon Mar 6 = I filled my apple juice bottle to the brim last night by peeing 1880 cc, needed to go with no place to accomplish relief, so got up for the day, dressed and used the Moose campground bathroom. After my morning routine and breakfast I headed out, as there was no Internet available.
- The Mira Mesa LA Fitness was my first stop to finish my torso workout with a heavy torso rotation and, because of some mild shoulder pain, a light (5 lb maximum) delts workout. I got these new fans, including Nicholas, my first blind fan:
John Martinez; Mira Mesa LA Fitness, San Diego CA 3/6/23
Nicholas Galvan & Larry Misrok; Mira Mesa LA Fitness, San Diego CA 3/6/23
Tung Lai; Mira Mesa LA Fitness, San Diego CA 3/6/23
- I hung out at the Mission Valley Library and got my first missionary fans:
Sarah Caffrey & Naomi Fish; Mission Valley Library, CA; 3/6/23
- Then headed to
Lestats West; in San Diego for their open mic.
- The show had a variety of talents - mostly guitar with vocals. I was the only comedian. They let me hawk my T-shirts, but no one bought any.
- After the show, back down to the Chula Vista American Legion for the night, I moved the last six shows from my icd body mic to 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
and cought up on my LouOnStage PDF and XLS files. Finishing that project put me to bed late.
- Got to bed at 11:26 for 8:50 of sleep, getting up before the alarm due to left big toe cuticle pain.
Tue Mar 7 = United Healthcare has a problem they need to fix at their Cave Creek office (their closest office to me). My doctor is no longer there and no one there (maybe only one other doctor) can take me on as a new patient. About 3 times as far away is their Tatum office where I was going before. My old doctor there is not taking new patients, so they put me with someone I have never heard of to check out the random acutely painful cuticle pain with some of my toes.
- I spent the first part of the day working in my van w Internet (American Legion), no distractions, fresh air (471ppm CO2), a soft seat (my couch), 110v (my inverter) and my two screens. I downloaded the audio for 9 of my Favorite Talk Shows and updating my website
- On the I went to the National City LA Fitness for a poster trim and got a new fan:
Cal James; LA Fitness, National City, CA; 3/7/23e
- Madhouse Comedy's open mic tonight was great. I didn't go up until about 11:30, being 57th on the list of 65 comedians, the cleanest and the only one who killed the room,up to the time I left. I did Alive 81 FallOff WrinkledAlzheimers (abbreviated) T-Shirts. I sold a special order heather navy colored T-Shirt.
- I paid through the nose for parking in the Horton Plaza parking garage. Last night I forgot to have my parking slip validated by Mad House so paid $14 for parking. Tonight I took my ticket in, lost it and ended up paying $43 for 24 hours.
- Got to bed at 2:01am for 7:11 of sleep
Wed Mar 8 = Today was driving day. I took off and ate breakfast on the way.
- I made it to a Yuma ARCO with about 60 miles to spare. Gas was $1/gal cheaper than across the Colorado River in California.
- Knowing I had essentially no food at home, I stopped at Winco Foods on the way home. Before going into the store I took a 48 minute nap. I hadn't made a specific shopping list but bought everything I would need for the next 15 days and spent more money than ever before there, $123.
- Next stop was LA Fitness, mainly to earn one of my protein frosties by doing leg extensions because the machine was not available at the National City LA Fitness. I got a new fan there.
Richard Gambert; LA Fitness, Moon Valley; Phoenix, AZ 3/8/23
- Got to bed at 11:41 for 10:06 of sleep, making up for last night by getting up at 9:47am
Thu Mar 9 = My Kindle e-reader has gotten very slow. When I hooked it up to 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
it showed that the Kindle's memory was less than half full. I explored and copied all its files to the XPS as a backup then did a hard restart of the Kindle. All my books and documents and furthest-read points appeared to still be on the Kindle, but not my bookmarks and notes. Now the Kindle is very fast, just like new.
- This afternoon I got my oil changed at BrakeMasters and got Mike there as a new fan.
Mike James; Break Masters, Cave Creek Rd; N Phoenix; 3/9/23
- Then on to get my tires rotated at Discount Tire where I got my 432nd fan:
Emerson Ortiz; Discount Tire; Bell & Cave Creek Rd, Phoenix; 3/9/23
- Next I went to DFCU to have the deed release notarized for some land. I had held the mortgage myself and the buyer paid it off today.
- Mountainside Fitness was a separate trip after supper.
- This evening I brought the
in from my van to invert the 96W 6-port USB charger (center device on the battery). I had it what I considered right side up so the USB contacts will not collect dust.
However my Sony ICD-UX560 voice recorders have a USB plug that is offset the wrong way, so the sockets need to be turned over. I had done such a good job of foam taping the charger to the bottom of the battery, tonight I had to engineer a special contraption to remove it. I used a small pry bar weighted with two 4" cast iron C-Clamps.
- Got to bed at 10:51 for 8:56 of sleep
Fri Mar 10 = First thing this morning I went to see my new doctor about the painful cuticles on some of my toes. She and the documentation she gave me seem to be obsessed with infection, which is not a problem, at least not now. I try to avoid antibiotics because of what they do to your immune system. The main thing will be to cut my toenails straight across as they grow out.
- On the way home I stopped by Walmart for some stuff and Esporta Fitness for a brief slow heavy torso workout.
- Back at home I got Roomba going again and ready to vacuum.
- It turns out that it took 24 hours for yesterday's contraption to get the charger off and the foam tape removed from the my van's "house" battery. Using no chemicals, everything is now pristine with no tape or residue. Good thing I was not in a hurry, eh?
- My favorite cargo pants for comedy and general wear (bought at a thrift store) aren't going to last too much longer. I spent too much time finding the same Wrangler pants and ordering two pair from Wrangler. I also ordered two pair of Wrangler cargo shorts, with the same pocket configuration, from Walmart for $40.
- Got to bed at 11:07 for only 7:53 of sleep because I forgot to reset my radio to turn on the news at 8am rather than 7am.
Sat Mar 11 = I spent most of the day working on the rental part of my taxes. The thing that took the longest was finding out how much I paid in insurance premiums because I sold the property in September and received a refund credit.
- This afternoon I updated the software and maps for my Garmin GPSs: Nuvi 2589 and Garmin Drive Smart 55.
- I made a few booking phone calls and texts and got a score of 87 for
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
WORD
HoverDEFINITION
. I got a phone call from my contact at the Harker Heights, TX Moose Lodge and we worked out all the final details for the show in April.
- A long nap helped me catch up on sleep from last night.
- A statement from AZCMS (my HOA management company) came in the mail. It showed no previous balance. Evidently they removed the two $25 fines for not repainting my house quickly enough to suit them. They levied the first fine without telling me they thought it should be painted with up-dated colors. They levied the second fine without proper notification. As a resident and a former board president, I do not recommend AZCMS. I could go on and on about this.
- Today was a day off from the gym. This evening my stops included Home Depot for special Scotch Etreme indoor/outdoor double-sided mounting tape with which to reattach the 96W 6-port USB charger (only inverted) to my
battery.
- While catching up on this blog I soaked my feet in warm water, the doctor's prescription for the cuticle pain I have been experiencing.
- Got to bed at 11:19 for 8:29 of sleep
Sun Mar 12 = It was a mess with the two pair of 32" Wrangler cargo shorts. First I saw FedEx dump the pouch on the front porch and run away as fast as he could before I could get the front door open to point out that he was instructed to "Leave package at BACK sliding door." There was only one pair and I had ordered two, and that pair was too big for me because they are stretchy.
- Next was, ordering two size 30 replacements. Only one pairwas available for store pickup. The other had to be shipped for a $6+ shipping charge.
- Next I got an email that the store pickup was not available and they offered to ship it free of charge. We'll see if all that works out
- This afternoon I sent a contract/electronic publicity kit to Harker Heights, TX 76548 and attempted to contact the rest of the venues scheduled for shows in April who have not replied to their contracts.
- After letting the 96W 6-port USB charger and special Scotch Extreme indoor/outdoor double-sided mounting tape set on the front of my
under a heavy weight for about 15 hours since yesterdat afternoon, I turned my effort to using the mounting tape to secure the Anderson connector to the back of the battery.
- Balancing my check book tonight, I learned that I did not save time by adding an entry BELOW the balance line for the month. After going through everything for the month a second time, all I had to do was to put the posted credits BELOW the balance line, in the debit column on my balance spreadsheet; and put the posted debits BELOW the balance line, in the credit column on my balance spreadsheet. I could have taken time to add additional entry lines ABOVE it.
- Got to bed at 11:13 for 8:34 of sleep
Mon Mar 13 = The 30" shorts arrived today so I got out my digital sewing machine and hemmed the cuffs of the navy pair to shorten them about an inch, to the bottom of the cargo pockets.
- Today was mostly working on taxes day. I hate congress for what they put me through each year.
- Got to bed at 11:10 for 8:38 of sleep
Tue Mar 14 = Another big day for taxes. Doing your taxes online is sort of like getting a pig in a poke. You're not sure what you are going to get or how much it is going to cost. I found out that H&R Block Online does not include the form I need for my 1031 exchange so I have to pay $130 extra for the help of a professional.
- This morning Roomba did not get lost vacuuming the whole house like last time. Last time, I did it in the late afternoon when sun was streaming though a west-facing window and onto a white wall. I think that disoriented Roomba. It even started vacuuming at a 60 degree angle to normal
- FedEx delivered the two pair wrangler pants on my front porch with their usual drop and run technique. For the delivery review I gave two stars and left a comment: "To avoid theft from my corner lot of the package, 'Leave at BACK Sliding Door' was part of the address. The driver does not read, is lazy, does not care, or maybe all the above."
- This morning I went out front and got acquainted with three neighbors trying to get an old Cadillac going who became my fans:
Chad Carrillo + Sandy & Mike Boroviak; N Phoenix AZ; 3/14/23
- I mixed up the dry ingredients for a batch of my protein frosties.
- This evening I returned the too-big relaxed fit cargo shorts with FedEx through the nearby Walgreen's store, then headed to Mountainside Fitness for my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
, poo, shower, light Legs & Torso workouts and this new fan:
Chirjiv Singh; Mountainside Fitness, N Phoenix; 3/3/14
- Today I scored 70 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Got to bed at 11:02 for 8:46 of sleep. Amazingly, I got up to pee only one time, even after having the last eight of 64 ounces at 6pm. When I was back in bed after the pee I realized that I might not have enough ice in the freezer for my batch of my protein frosties tomorrow, so I rousted myself out of bed to check. There was enough ice, but while I was up, to the freezer I added six 10-oz frosty containers and the "jar" for my Ninja BN701 blender.
Wed Mar 15 = Sort of tedious today, but probably worth it was customizing my two new pair of Wrangler cargo shorts so they and the cargo pants I use for comedy will have the same pocket configuration:
tech pocket on the left with a Velcro tab to keep my phone from falling out
special sized pocket on the right for a Sony voice recorder
special pen socket on the right that is accessible without opening the pocket
- The monthly pay-off of all my credit card bills took 29 me minutes. In the past I never timed it.
- A low central-vision project was necessary because I was experiencing one of my visual anomalies this morning. The project was to re-secure the negative cable (orange in the first image) that came out of the Anderson connector (the gray thing in the second image). If my crimper (third image) did not do the trick, I was already to find and rent a hydraulic crimper. It turns out my crimper worked (until the 24th). The cable wires even went into the Anderson terminal easily. All in all everything went more easily than I expected and I got the project completed in one session. The biggest challenge was removing the terminals from the Anderson connector. An Internet video helped with that.
- I actually spent as much time putting together the above blog about it than doing the project in the first place :(
- This morning, for the first time, I tried the crush-ice feature with my Ninja BN701 blender. It turned the ice cubes into a fine powdered snow, all ready for making frosties later today.
- What a messy experiment I had this afternoon for making frosties! I won't try that again. The snow-like ice clumped in the blender and did not mix, even after repeated blending and Ice Cream Cycles. Only the top few inches poured out of the spout. In the corners and around the blade tree were hard clumps of ice with some still-dry powder inside. The clump around the blade tree was shaped like a donut. I managed to get almost six frosties out of the mess, from mostly liquid to normal to mostly ice. I broke the clumps apart and added them to the various frosty containers.
- With a little headache, I skipped the gym this evening, although I did a little shopping close by.
- I spent two hours sending out three publicity kits. It would have been four, but one post doesn't seem to have its act together and I am not sure where to have the kit shipped.
- Today I sent out physical publicity kits so didn't do much comedy booking and scored only 21 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Got to bed at 11:17 for 8:30 of sleep
Thu Mar 16 = Lately I have been spending about four minutes practicing juggling after my last nocturnal pee. Last night I may have set a JUGGLING RECORD of 6 throws. That would mean five catches. I count the throws because they are easier to count and because I believe that the key for me is throwing my balls accurately.
- This morning before breakfast I got a call from an El Paso American Legion. We confirmed the delivery address for their press kit so I ordered ordered it though Office Depot Online. Delivery is expected tomorrow!
- I am reducing the numbers of brochures I send because I don't think the venues use them much and if they want, they can print more from the publicity kit I emailed them. This won't save me any time and insignificant money, but will reduce wasted paper. Physical Publicity Kits include:
Past (Quantity and document)
1 Instructions and press release (2 pg)
5 Brochures
5 Custom posters, 11x17"
1 Custom poster, 24x36"
(12 Items total)
Now (Quantity and document)
1 Instructions and press release (2 pg)
3 Brochures
5 Custom posters, 11x17"
1 Custom poster, 24x36"
(10 Items total)
- I had an early lunch in order to get my van to Ken Garf Kia. They checked the cooling system which gives off a strong smell of coolant after a drive. It is important to get it done now before the van's warranty expires, which will happen during my big cross-country tour. After pressurizing the cooling system for 45 minutes they found no leak. Steve Martin, my service rep, and I concluded that I must be smelling the venting through the overflow reservoir.
- I went to LA Fitness for legs and arms workouts and got this new fan:
Anil Kumar; Moon Valley LA Fitness, Phoenix AZ; 3/16/23
- I was not sure I had time to do it, but it will be a lot easier and more efficient to make "dead cat" wind filters for the new Sony HDRCX405 camcorders that I will be using in the wind during my
beach shows in June. I tried several ideas and settled on sort of a bra with elastic that goes around the back of the camcorder. I engineered a design that appears to work pretty well and got two of the wind filters made.
- Today I scored 13 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Got to bed at 10:31 for 9:16 of sleep
Fri Mar 17 = Today I got a lot in. This morning I replaced the 50W LED above the kitchen cabinets for indirect lighting with a 60W. I ran across where I had stashed the 60W spare while retrieving a back-up hard disk drive to take to my brother's.
- Scoring 29 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- I sunned at noon with a nearly clear sky
- Today's big Trip was to:
Walmart to return the too-large Wrangler cargo pants
Honor Health to return a contact form and clipboard
Mountainside Fitness for a brief slow heavy torso workout and four new fans
Loren Hupe, Chance Nelson, Joe Lofano & Avery Williams; Mountainside Fitness, N Phoenix AZ; 3/17/23
Best Buy to deposit the defunct kitchen LED floodlight for recycling
Visit George & Cindy in east Mesa
Becky and Matt's in east Mesa to visit with them and
Anne's
My daughter, Roby her husband and their two daughters Katie and Brooke
, down from Flagstaff.
We celebrated Katie's birthday
Ate spaghetti and cake
played Uno, all nine of us. I felt pretty good as a new player, being the only person who won two out of the five games. Very unusual for me to win at anything, unless it is being stupid.
- Back here at home, I finished up my supper with some good fiber and protein (100% whole wheat bread and plain non-fat Greek yogurt and a large strawberry).
- I finished off the evening by making the last two "dead cats," saving putting my sewing machine until tomorrow.
- Got to bed at 11:20 for 8:27 of sleep
Sat Mar 18 = I spent a lot of time on taxes today. There are some good things about H&R Block, but it does not seem to be any better than any other software. We'll see how their Professional Review works out.
- Finally I took an updated picture of my Home Gym.
First image is with the monstrous Power Tower which I sold (manually stitched panoramic in 2020). The second image is with the new dip stand that I mostly use for inverted shrugs
(panoramic with Pixel 4a cell phone) Video: Inverted shrugs (Dominican Republic)
- Today I did a big load of laundry. Now I have enough socks and undies to last over a month.
- Got to bed at 10:46 for 9:01 of sleep
Sun Mar 19 = First thing this morning I straightened up the house for company, which involved cleaning off my desk and return by arranging the three clip boards (booking; comedy; website) and accumulated papers into a single stack... more of a jumble now, but it looks a whole lot neater. Did sort of the same thing with the kitchen counter.
-
Anne's
My daughter, Roby her husband and their two daughters Katie and Brooke
came by the house on their way home. We had a lovely short visit. They got to see my giant, 43" computer monitor, my Roomba that empties itself, my O-Gauge train after Roomba got lost and plowed into about half the cars; and other stuff.
- I drove down to EōS Fitness for a light legs workout and a new fan:
Alan Rivera-Garcia EōS Fitness; N Phoenix AZ; 3/19/23
- In the booking department, I researched open mics in Tucson then added to my calendar and website:
Wed Apr 5, 2023; 7:00pm;
Sky Bar; 536 N 4th Ave; Tucson AZ 85705
and
Thu Apr 6, 2023; 8:00pm;
Laffs Comedy Cafe; 2900 East Broadway; Tucson, AZ 85716
- I got my Arizona taxes completed with the H&R Block online software. That is why it was late when...
- I got to bed at 11:42 for 8:58 of sleep until the alarm I reset from 7:47 to 8:40am
Mon Mar 20 = United Healthcare seems to have a major case of dementia. On the 18th I received a letter dated the 9th saying that on the 1st my doctor is no longer going to be part of the network. They found a new doctor for me, THE SAME DOCTOR. They even sent me me an ID card with my new doctor on it - the same one!
- Doing taxes, I kept my fingers crossed as I put in the information requested by the online H&R Block software. It insisted that I arrange payment to the IRS and Arizona... and sign my INCORRECT RETURN before sending it to their tax pro for review. I figure, due to deficiencies in their software I actually owe about a third of what they say.
- I made 22 posters for 11 venues in 49 minutes, an average of 4:30 minutes per venue.
- This evening I sent out contract/publicity kits ,that included the posters I made earlier, to the eleven venues in Florida, scheduled for shows in May. Because I was so slow it took me 20 minutes to set everything up for the operation. Once I got that done it took only an average of 3:30 minutes per venue.
- I got most things cleared out for my United HealthCare House Calls visitor tomorrow, but my G-Gauge train was a mess thanks to Roomba knocking the cars around. Can't have that for tomorrow's visitor so I put train cars back on the track, moved the engines to the track from their vacation location and tested it all out.
- Just before bed I did a 3-minute light fast arms workout here in my home gym, which means I...
- got to bed at 11:06 for 8:41 of sleep
Tue Mar 21 = When I got up I made my bed. The only time I do that is when I expect company. After breakfast I sent out two Contract/Publicity Kits that I sent out yesterday, only with corrected email addresses. Then went to Mountainside Fitness for a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower. Didn't have time for a workout because I had to get home for the 11am United HealthCare House Call by Anthony.
- I had fun with him when Anthony gave me a circle and asked me to draw a clock face. I put a vertical line at each of the 12 number locations and then proceeded to fill them in for Roman Numerals. Early on he figured out what I was doing - said it was the first time anyone had done that. You know, I like to be first!
- After he left, I did a five-minute light fast torso workout here in my home gym.
- Be careful what you ask for. For booking leads I asked Kristen of the Pennsylvania State American Legion office for a list of active posts. She did it! She sent me a list of the 725 American Legion posts in the state with 192 of the active ones marked. This afternoon I input all 192 into my States By Regions spreadsheet. Now to find out where some of them are located in PA.
- at bedtime I made all the rest (14) of my web pages phone friendly. That is all but the blog pages before 2023. Always something to do in the future.
- Got to bed at 11:25 for 8:23 of sleep
Wed Mar 22 = What a difference from American Legion! This morning I gave the Pennsylvania state VFW office a phone call. The lady was of no help at all and would not give me any information about active posts there.
- A lot of today, I spent on an unscheduled project: researching something to replace my Vitamaster exercycle since the right pedal crank split. All the exercycles available seem to be recumbent, which is not what I want
- I settled on an elliptical - vertical format to take up less floor space (still bigger than my old exercycle), the ProForm HIIT H10. New from the factory they cost about $1200. I found one on liquidation in Peoria for $600. I could pick it up tomorrow and the box would fit in my van.
- I gave Play It Again Sports a phone call. Chris there said they had a ProForm PFEL09915.4, which is essentially the same as the HIIT H10, with a 7" non-touch screen, for $400 and a lot closer than Peoria. I stopped by and bought it and loaded it in my van on the way to Mountain Shadows Resort in Scottsdale.
- That is where Banner Health held its Gratitude evening out. I was invited because I give all the profit from my merch and comedy to Banner Alzheimer's Research. I was humbled by all the really generous people there.
- The program was an interview with Nathaniel Ross who will be attending Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar - the first American from ASU in 20 years.
Nathaniel Ross, Banner Health Gratitude event; Scottsdale AZ; 3/22/23
- That is not all.
In December he graduated from ASU with four degrees... in three years. Bachelor's degrees in:
biological sciences
political science
applied quantitative science
history
... and a minor in dance
- That is not all. At the age of 8 he was diagnosed with eosinophilic disorder (a chronic immune disease that affected his esophagus). Imagine having to learn to pronounce eosinophilic! It means he cannot eat most foods so, since that diagnosis, has had to live with a feeding tube coming out of his stomach and a formula bag for nutrition.
- I am proud to have Nathan as my latest fan.
- Back here at home, I used my "new" elliptical for the first time - for my usual two minutes of cardio. It is a little different. The arms levers swing about as far as my arms reach - probably a good thing. Also, I will be getting a better legs, especially glutes, workout because my legs support my entire bodyweight, with no seat. The vertical pedal travel is only 14".
- It's a good thing I accidentally kicked my "new" elliptical pretty hard with my left foot. Yes, it was painful so I elevated my foot for about a half hour. Nothing was broken or bloody. The good part, I learned early on to avoid that in the future.
-
- Got to bed at 11:40 for 8:08 of sleep
Thu Mar 23 = Day off from booking:
- I finally got my taxes done. I think the H&R Block pro did a good job straightening out the mess created by the H&R Block online software. I am not sure I would recommend it unless you have a very simple situation. They did not have some of the forms I needed, did not ask for necessary information and showed me owing $100,000 more in taxes than correct.
- While I could have been heading to a gym this evening, I did something that was good to get out of the way. I added the HTML code in my old blog files, 162 of 'em back to 2009, to make them cell phone friendly.
- I finally got to the gym for combined heavy legs and arms workouts, a disgusting frosty from the 15th... and a new fan:
Pete Montoya; Moon Valley LA Fitness; 3/23/23
- Got to bed at 11:40 for 8:08 of sleep
Fri Mar 24 = This morning I booked, and uploaded to my show list, two shows in July in eastern Pennsylvania at residence homes for veterans - my first shows at veterans' homes. That gave me a score of 63 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Banner Alzheimer's Research received $2888 in 2022 through my comedy efforts, and that's no joke. That includes donations given to me, donation buckets, my merchandise sales, and donations sent directly to Banner from individuals and the venues where I performed.
- I took 16 pictures of my exercycle for Craig's List.
- This evening's van project was to shift the portside under-bed drawers I use for kitchen utensils food and toiletries about 1.5" farther under the bed to give me a little more maneuvering space with my feet. Now they are tucked under the bed instead of sticking out a little. The project involved redrilling four anchor holes.
- I promised to reward myself after finishing my taxes with a flight in an airplane with a Garmin 1000 glass cockpit
so this evening I looked up a bunch of flight schools and, of course, made a chart for them.
- Got to bed at 11:48 for 7:59 of sleep
Sat Mar 25 = For my two-minute morning aerobics, I switched from the old exercycle with the broken pedal socket to the ProForm PFEL09915.4 which really works my glutes!
For variety I am going to try two days at a resistance of 15 and 35rpm (which is actually 35 foot cycles per minute) alternated with two days at a resistance of 12 and a speed of 42rpm. Daily I'll alternate between panting and deep breathing.
- I got the old exercycle up on Craig's List this morning along with 16 images. If you're interested I can give you a special deal on it.
- I projected my budget through my
Veterans Appreciation National Tour. The budget will be a little tighter since I won't have anything coming in from
Dahlia
the Phoenix rental house I had on Dahlia Drive
.
- My sleep for today was really fragmented In the middle of my nap to make up for last night's short night, Alexa woke me up with a reminder to check the drips. I'll have to remember to plan around that daily event.
- They are not needed very often, but after this evening's session with my IBM Wheelwriter 6 I have about 70 donation envelopes ready for Banner Alzheimer's Research. Occasionally a venue or a person wants to mail a donation directly. Alternately they can go to a link on my website for the donation page for Banner. A paper envelope has the advantage of being a reminder for them to get it done.
- Got to bed at 11:42 for 9:01 of sleep with the alarm reset to 8:43
Sun Mar 26 = Getting ready for my tour, I calculated all the nuts I will need for the four months of meals in my van and made a shopping list that included all those nuts.
- On the way to Winco Foods I stopped by LA Fitness for a brief light legs workout. At Winco I did my last shopping before the tour and got this new fan, who has seen me at the gym numerous times.
Chelly Gary; Winco Foods; N Phoenix AZ 3/26/23
- Although I didn't schedule any new shows it was a busy day booking with a score of 131 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Got to bed at 11:02 for 8:45 of sleep
Mon Mar 27 = This morning I did some booking and phoned Granger, finding that they do not crimp terminals. Also that no one else does either
- Roomba did a pretty good job vacuuming the whole house except skipped the master bathroom because I had a little power cord stretched across the .
- Among other things for my tour, I Booked Waynesville NC and arranged all the details for a score of 91 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- After spending the last three days trying to find someone in the Phoenix areablog updated for yesterday at that could crimp the positive Anderson terminal that came loose for my
and also researching hydraulic crimpers ($35 to $1300) online, I decided to use my 15" lever crimper again. I put a strap of steel around the terminal in hope that the crimper would squeeze it harder.
- This afternoon I made new calendar grids for my 2024 tour. I already have one show scheduled: Fri Feb 23, 2024; 6:00pm;
VFW Post 1679; 3801 Market St; Ventura, CA.
- This evening I got the job finished. However I won't plan on connecting the battery until the day before my tour. I figure the shifting around of the battery with it connected is what caused the positive cable to come out of its terminal.
- Trying to be a good guy and avoiding toll problems, just before bedtime tonight I ordered a Uni 19-State Portable Toll Pass (EZ-Pass) for overnight delivery. This is a little transponder that goes in your windshield and supposedly makes tolls easy and cheaper in these 19 states:
- Got to bed at 10:56 for 8:51 of sleep
Tue Mar 28 = Three big projects today:
- 1) In the booking department I made a lot of contacts and booked an additional show and scored 191 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- 2) My e-pass transponder was delivered this morning with Amazon's overnight delivery. Overnight delivery was only $3 more. Getting this 4.5" long device registered and funded was supposed to be quick and simple. Since it wasn't, I had to call the Help Center and jump through a bunch of hoops. Their system did not like my license plate, FLY NOW, but did like FLY N0W (with a zero instead of an O). They said that the letter "O" was not used with licence plates.
- 3) This evening I reviewed the flight speeds and characteristic of the airplane I will be flying Sunday, the Garmin G1000 and practiced, with the poster on my wall of the G-100, the entire flight from cockpit prechecks to taxiing back to the ramp after the flight.
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 6:56 of sleep; then back to bed for 1:57 of sleep until 9:17 for a total of 8:53 of fragmented sleep.
Wed Mar 29 = Fragmented sleep last night: Not only did I get to bed late but at 6:15 this morning I got up to pee, noticed the power was out (turns out in the whole county and more), made a booking phone call to North Carolina (got no answers :(), went back to bed until the radio in the kitchen that I forgot to turn off started playing the 8:00 news, and then went back to bed.
- 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
has quit working on battery, so for the phone call information I had to bring the
in from my van and use the inverter.
- Today I scored 129 on
The Booking Game
a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
by working hard and booking two more shows.
- This evening's trip started with a gym and ended with comedy.
- At LA Fitness I had a good brief slow heavy legs workout and got this new fan
Cody Nabors; Moon Valley LA Fitness, Phoenix; 3/29/23
- Winco was my next stop because I ran out of FF cheese slices
-
El Charro Hipster down on Grand Ave was my comedy - my first time there since the last of November. I did my European tour bit with some revised techniques.
- Back here at home, my NBC Chanel 10 TV reception has become kinda of iffy so before bed I moved the flat amplified TV antenna higher in the window, which appears to have solved the problem.
- Got to bed at 12:20am for 7:40 of sleep
Thu Mar 30 = Today, being exactly six months before my van registration expires and the earliest day I can renew, I renewed it online for two years. I hope to receive the new registration before I leave on tour because I can't find my old registration.
- After nine days, none of the 11 venues to which I sent Contract/Publicity Kits have replied to my email. Maybe email is not working or maybe everyone is overloaded or irresponsible.
- I organized the followups with a spreadsheet printout. I find it usually works better when I work assembly line style on these kinds of projects. First was to phone the contact person for all 11 venues. I got mostly voice mails. Next step will to send text messages, then phone the alternate contacts then phone the posts.
- If I can't get an answer from them soon, I'll be on the road and it will be too late for me to ship out physical publicity kits.
- I finished up making the remaining five files (last in alphabetical order) on my website by adding the HTML viewport meta tag.
- This evening I went through all my April and May shows to make sure all the dates, locations and times matched on my: 1) Calendar chart, 2) Website and (3 Google Calendar. I had to correct a few.
- Got to bed at 11:36 for 8:11 of sleep
Fri Mar 31 = Since I've been sneezing some, I turned on the AC fan with its high-performance filter to reduce pollen in the house.
- Spending time that I may not have to spare, but learning stuff about the web, I found a lot of good well organized and interesting information about the viewport meta tag and everything else on the Resources for Developers by Developers website.
- Just go to: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ References HTML: HyperText Markup Language Guides Viewport meta tag - Here's Googles map of my March travels:
- Got to bed at 11:14 for 8:33 of sleep
