Blog Archive 2023 May
Mon May 1 = The Costco Wholesale in Pompano Beach FL was my target after breakfast. I officially joined COSTO, got gas and pretty much did the whole store, and found that I won't be buying much there except for gas, as they do not have fat-free foods. For gas, however, they are always the cheapest anywhere, a Costco is about 1.5 miles from my house in Phoenix, usually on my way home and has Top Tier gas, the best for your engine.
- Then the Pompano Beach Library was my target until they closed at 8pm.
- What an absolute mess. I was trying to simplify my life by getting the EZ-Pass transponder for toll roads in 18 eastern states. Anything but. After entering Florida last week, I used two $.50 toll roads as a test. This afternoon when I checked my account they had me down for three pages of tolls totaling over $90, supposedly read from my license plate rather than my transponder. Most of those were before I was even in Florida. Hopefully my time on the phone with Andrew, and the email he said to send, will get them straightened out. Andrew said there was no way he could fix the problem.
- After supper I drove down to the Pembroke Pines Cracker Barrel for the night.
- Got to bed at 10:36 for 9:13 of sleep with my bowels in an diarrhetic uproar - not a pleasant night.
Tue May 2 = Before breakfast I went directly into the Cracker Barrel to use their facility. You might say it was a 3-day direhitic situation which peaked during the night and the morning. Since the condition was not improving, I took two loperamide tablets.
- After breakfast I ran around the Cracker Barrel and then took off for Key Largo. I arrived about 10:15am. I met some of the nice people there: Don and Amy the bar tender. I hung out in my van, in the shade of some trees... with Internet... and with mosquitos!
- I got a little more acquainted with my new
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
. Using it while maintaining a website and the rest of life, for me, is like learning to walk all over again while in a parade with a marching band.
For the first time I used the Mac to download podcasts from the favorites on my website. In this case Clark Howard.
- Also on the Mac I downloaded the massive instructions for BBedit, the software I'll be using with the Mac with my website and read some of the manual.
- After some investigating, the only gym in the area that I found with showers was the Wellness Center at the Baptist Mariner's Hospital in Tavernier FL, toward Key West about 8 miles SW of Key Largo, so I drove down and joined for a week for $25. There I did a brief slow heavy arms workout had my third diarrhetic poo of the day, another loperamide tablet, did my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and took a shower.
- They graciously let me spend the night in the far corner of their visitors' parking lot where there would be shade in the morning and, hopefully fewer mosquitos than at the American Legion Post in Key Largo.
- Got to bed at 10:26 for 9:22 of sleep, needing to pee only 1.5 times
Wed May 3 = Since I spent the night in the Tavernier FL Baptist Mariner Hospital Wellness Center parking lot, first thing after breakfast this morning I went in for a brief slow heavy torso workout and then headed southwest toward Key West for tonight's show.
- The almost 100-miles took a lot longer than I had expected - about 2.5 hours on Highway 1.
- You might say that the show was a typical bar disaster. Few of the people there knew that there was going to be a show, the Wednesday Card Group played cards and visited at the front table during the show, only a couple people at the bar turned around to watch the show and a Wednesday night drinking group was in an adjacent room separated only by shades.
- I felt better, thinking of comments from some of the members, when I realize I DID make a difference with some people... and actually did a show at the southern-most American Legion post in the US. I even sold an
Album #2 to some people who weren't there for the show.
- After I got everything packed and loaded with the help of Chris, I decided to drive the 88 miles up to the far corner of the Tavernier FL Baptist Mariner Hospital Wellness Center parking lot for my second night there. Traffic was lighter than spending the night in Key West and driving up in the morning.
- Got to bed at 11:01 for 8:59 of sleep
Thu May 4 = After breakfast I went into the Tavernier FL Baptist Mariner Hospital Wellness Center for a brief light full-body workout. Then off to the east.
- By the time I drove up to Key Largo, did a little grocery shopping at the Key Largo Publix, ate lunch and got to the American Legion Post 333, they were open and had my two packages: the Mokin dock with four USB-A and other ports and my backup Hard drive from Phoenix.
- They had this easel out by the road announcing tonight's comedy:
- I spent the afternoon finding out that my new Mac cannot decypher the backup pbd files created by EaseUS on my Windows Dell, so I put my
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. It's tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card I have in it helps.
to work doing the job. To do my Documents folder took about 1.5 hours.
- Here's how my
- LiFePO4
- my van's 100 Amp-hour Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
house
battery
and inverter looked powering my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
the Anker 7-port adapter for the
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. It's tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card I have in it helps.
and the 4TB Western Digital backup drive I received from Phoenix:
- There were about 70 people for the comedy portion of tonight's entertainment at Post 333. I received lots of encouraging remarks after my show. The band played for about 1.5 hours until 7:15, then I did about 45 minutes of comedy and then the musicians played and sang until about 10:30
- After I got everything packed up and stowed in my van, to the musical notes in the background, I worked on my computers. I got Firefox installed on the
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
and got my blog updated.
- For the night I parked on the west side of the post.
- Got to bed at 12:17 for 8:54 of sleep before my 9:11 alarm
Fri May 5 = Today's project was getting to the
American Legion Post 43 up in
Homestead, FL.
They treated me well. They had been a little reluctant to have the show in the hall rather than the bar. The hall turned out to be a good call. They rearranged the tables and chairs for comedy and set up a TV for my video portion. They even used orange traffic cones to reserve a parking spot for me for the night where I would have light on my van and be in view of their video monitoring system.
- The audience of 20 laughed during the entire 63 minute show.
- Here are 9 as my new fans, giving 550 fans so far on my Fan Webpage:
| Bruice Kelly, Wayne Schorr (Post Commander), Anne Reid, Cyndi Mcgorty, Ralph Janiszewski, Stan, Wayne Wilson & Michael Schmidt; American Legion Post 43, Homestead, FL; 5/5/23 |
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| Mark Ben-Asher; American Legion Post 43, Homestead, FL; 5/5/23 |
 |
- Since it was my treat night Bruice Kelly gave me a variety box of sugar cookies. I gave most of them away, but ate too many, myself.
- Got to bed at 10:51 for 9:09 of sleep before my 8am alarm.
Sat May 6 = I got a lot accomplished at the Naranja Branch Library before leaving Homestead, FL today. I got the posted items checked off on my check register for last month and got XAMPP downloaded, installed and working on the
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
- After the library closed I drove up to Cutler Bay, and the Planet Fitness there, for a brief light fast legs workout and a new fan:
| Chris Parre; Planet Fitness, Cutler Bay FL;5/6/23 |
 |
- Then I drove up to the Cracker Barrel in Pembroke Pines FL for the night.
- Got to bed at 11:01 for 8:48 of sleep
Sun May 7 = I hung out at the Southwest Regional Public Library in Davie, FL today working on my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
files and then spent the night at the Melbourne FL Cracker Barrel, about 1.5 hours north of the library.
- Got to bed at 10:54 for 9:06 of sleep
Mon May 8 = Before going into the library I made some booking phone calls and had lunch.
- My
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
is giving me fits. I researched and did not find a Mac FTP program that does what CoreFTP does on my Windows machine. CorFTP has two-windows, one for my computer and another for my website (the Internet) with the ability to drag, drop or replace files based on which was the latest to be updated.
- The closest I found may be Transmit that is a subscription :(
- I downloaded it but didn't get it to connect to my website.
- I tested it and confirmed that my USB-powered 16" monitor does not work with the mac :(
- For the last few days I have had severe pain in a small area of the inside of my left calf muscle. It started all of a sudden when I was running across a parking lot into a store. After that I limped a little due to the pain when walking. Running or jogging was out of the question.
- Tonight I visited an LA fitness. The hot tub, with its massaging was good for my left calf muscle. The Elliptical did not aggravate my sore left calf. I finished off with brief light arms and torso workouts.
- Then I drove for my third and last night at the Melbourne FL Cracker Barrel in the past two weeks.
- Tonight was a long night because I decided to let my
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. It's tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card I have in it helps.
,
using the EaseUS software, grind away recovering more files from my 4 TB Western Digital backup drive from Phoenix. After several false starts I got it going. It was done by morning. There are still more files that needs to be recovered.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 9:03 of sleep
Tue May 9 = I spent the afternoon at the Titusville Public Library. It is on the way to Kennedy Space Center, if I had decided to go, which I did not.
- Never was able to get onto the library wifi with my Alcatel, even with all the technical help of their Information Desk.
- Updating my website with my Alcatel was a piece of cake in the evening from the Titusville Walmart parking lot after doing a little grocery shopping there.
- I got to be late at the Titusville Cracker Barrel, recovering all the USERS files (except LOUIS) from the backup hard drive from Phoenix to my 5TB drive, but got it completed before turning in..
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 8:36 of sleep
Wed May 10 = Before and after breakfast I phoned the major Orlando TV Stations. They all requested information by email, not my strong point.
- I did make some booking phone calls after breakfast but didn't log them into
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- At the Titusville Library I accomplished several things and failed at others.
- The failures involved getting on the Internet through their library wifi with my
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. It's tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card I have in it helps.
. I think their wifi does not like the little computer. The other failure was getting the TRANSFER FTP server to log onto my website.
- The success was copying back-up files from my 5TB hard drive to my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
, getting FILEZILLA downloaded and deciding on a workable system for using my computers so I can, hopefully, keep track of the files online, on the Alcatel and on the Mac.
- Going back to my van, I decided that my left calf was feeling better enough to start exercising it a little. A jog out to my van should do the trick. All it took was two jogging steps to put me back to limping due to the pain. It is in only one spot, but is intense.
- After supper I drove about 20 miles to an LA Fitness in eastern Orlando where I did my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
massaged my left calf in their hot tub, took a shower, upped my pulse rate on a LifeFitness elliptical machine, did a brief slow heavy legs workout and got these six new fans:
| a friend, Carlos Rodriguez, Eddie Alvarez, Jacob Flis; LA Fitness, eastern Orlando FL; 5/10/23 |
 |
| Natalie Binkowski Jorge Mauricio; LA Fitness, eastern Orlando; 5/10/23 |
 |
- Then I drove about 20 minutes up to the Altamonte Springs FL Cracker Barrel for the night; found an out-of the way parking spot with good morning shade from some trees, exactely the right slope, not bad freeway noise, but no Internet for my computer and...
- Got to bed at 11:46 for 9:05 of sleep
Thu May 11 = I have settled into a routine for my non-comedy days
- Fix and eat breakfast
- Make some phone calls (mostly for bookings)
- Drive to a public library (either nearby or in the direction of my next-day drive)
- Eat lunch in the library parking lot
- Go into the librardy and work on more bookings, my website with
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. It's tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card I have in it helps.
and my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
until the library closes
- Go out to my van for supper in the library parking lot
- Do some grocery shopping nearby
- Drive to a gym for a workout to keep my body functioning
- Drive to a spot nearby (or in the direction of my next day's drive) with free overnight parking. Here in Florida that is usually a Cracker Barrel, thank you!
-Today it was the Alamonte Springs Library. No time for a gym, I drove up the the Eagles Lodge in Lake Como for the night. My first time in Eagles. There was a huge crowd there because of a big pot (around $35,000) for their Ace Of Spades drawing. My comedy crowd tomorrow night will be smaller, considering I am not giving away thoussands of dollars. I even got a new fan there:
| Kevin Coyle; Eagles Aerie 4355; Lake Como, FL; 5/11/23 |
 |
- They gave me a perfect spot to park for the night with morning shade and power.
- Got to bed at 10:27 for 9:20 of sleep
Fri May 12 = The little Crescent City FL Library was my workplace until about 4pm, time to head to the Lake Como Eagles Aerie 4355 and set up for the 6pm show. At the library I unsubscribed to the free trial of Transmit. Before 3pm I also sent emails to the three major Orlando TV stations about my comedy shows in the area. The library's Internet did not support FTP, so I couldn't update my website.
- Phill, the Aerie administrator decided to have the show in the bar rather than the hall.
- It was an interesting show. No one laughed, although 3 or 4 people did a little chuckling.
- After I got everything loaded up from the show I went inside with my computers and uploaded my updated blog with my Alcatel. With my Mac I got onto my website with Filezilla, but didn't get it to download files or to keep its configuration.
- Later, in the parking lot, Phill and I evaluated the show. We had different points of view. I thought that it was a typical bar show. He thought that I alienated the audience before the show started, by telling them to turn around so they could watch the show, not talk etc. He had a point. I will be modifying my opening or eliminating it and having someone else take care of that stuff as part of my introduction.
- I spent another night with morning shade and electricity, thanks Aerie.
- Got to bed at 11:48 for nine hours of sleep
Sat May 13 = Before heading out this morning, I wrote two thank you notes and mailed them at the Crescent City Post office as I went though town. It was kind of a long drive: about 4.5 hours without my stops for a nap and to fix lunch.
- In Port Charlotte, I stopped by the American Legion Post 110 on the way to the city library and never made it to the library. The post was great - especially considering that they were in the pavilion out back because their post building is unusable, as it is still being repaired after Hurricane Ian got through with it. They just got the roof repaired so can start working on the inside.
- Jeannie, who helped to arrange the show became my latest fan:
| Jeanne Nadeau; American Legion Post 110; Port Charlotte FL; 5/13/23 |
 |
- The crowd of 66 and I had a lot of fun. They were super supportive. It got a little windy and rainy before the show, but that subsided and I was able to get good recordings.
- After the show I hung out at one of their tables and caught up on yesterday's blog etc.
- They let me spend the night under their motorcycle parking canopy where I will have shade in the morning.
- Got to bed at 1:07am for 9 hours of sleep until 10:07am
Sun May 14 = I spent the morning and a lot of the afternoon, still under the post's motorcycle canopy, organizing things like the audio recordings from my last 11 shows, updating my "appearances" list and figuring out how and downloading the four videos from last night's show to my new
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
- Also I prepared to do laundry. That meant gathering the laundry and putting on my kiteboarding shorts and a tank top so I could wash everything else.
- The Port Charlotte Laundromat I found was high tech. You paid whatever you wanted for one of their laundry cards. The card's magnetic strip kept track of your balance.
- All their washing machines were front loading, which get your clothes cleaner and wears them out less. I washed all my personal comedy shirts and my comedy hooded sweatshirt... in cold water of course. After I started my load, I noticed they had smaller machines that would have saved me about $2.
- After the laundry I drove up to a Planet Fitness in Venice FL for a poo, shower, brief slow heavy arms workout and four new fans:
| Tanner Martens, Kenny Martens, Jordan Wyszynski; Planet Fitness Venice FL 5/15/23 |
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| Vestin Paul; Planet Fitness Venice FL 5/15/23 |
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- I spent the night in the great Venice Cracker Barrel with perfect morning shade.
- Got to bed at 11:20 for 8:58 of sleep
Mon May 15 = After breakfast in the perfect shade I drove around and parked in front of the Cracker Barrel: close enough to get their Internet, but not close enough to take their prime parking places. While I was busy inside my van in office mode organizing and making a couple of booking phone calls, several people walked by and commented to their companions about "America's Favorite Old Man." The magnetic signs on my van must be attracting some attention. Of course with my privacy windows they did not notice me inside, keeping reasonably cool with the van's moon roof open and rear hatch ajar.
- Heading north toward my next show, Sat May 20, 2023; 7:00pm;
VFW Post 2811 in
Gainesville, I stopped by a Trax credit union in Riverview FL to deposit some T-Shirt cash and then on to the Brandon FL Regional Library until it closed at 9pm
- At the library I got my checkbook to balance the 1st time, updated this blog and did my monthly credit card payoffs. That took a lot longer than usual because: a) I did it on my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
and b) because, trying to save some time, I was careless putting in the passwords and had to change some of them.
- After the library, because of the late hour, I didn't make it to a gym but I did make it up to a Brandon Cracker Barrel for the night. My parking spot beside the barrel had perfect morning shade, thanks to some trees, and internet, thanks to Cracker Barrel.
- Got to bed at 10:32 for 8:49 of sleep
Tue May 16 = I got up "early" (7:27) this morning, getting up only oncee to pee during the night :) Since it was a little early to make booking phone calls, I worked on my blogs for yesterday and today before leaving my night spot.
- Today at the gym and the libraryI got these six new fans, bringing my total so far up to 659.
| Jacob; Esporta Fitness, Riverview FL 5/16/23 |
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| Friends*; New Tampa Regional Library; Tampa, FL 5/16/23 |
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| Nitin Yealuru; New Tampa Regional Library; Tampa, FL 5/16/23 |
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- Got to bed at 12:07 for 8:59 of sleep in the parking lot of the Zephyrhills FL Cracker Barrel
Wed May 17 = Drastic changing of plans today. I intended to drive about an hour and a half to the EPass Customer Service Center up in Orlando and see if I could get my account straightened out. Driving on I-75, still in Tampa, I received a booking phone call. The upshot was that the Orange City Moose Lodge decided to go ahead with the show as planned on Sunday and needed a poster. I replanned my day to go to a library, still on the way to Orlando, and make the poster. It turns out the library was the Tampa Regional Library where I was yesterday.
- In theLibrary parking lot, I had my van's right sliding door open while eating lunch. This squirrel came along. He was not afraid. He even got so close it looked like he was going to jump from the curb into my van, so I made a sudden move to thwart that idea... after I snapped this picture:
- Yesterday evening I couldn't find my four-color Bic pen. I figured it would show up somewhere. It did this afternoon in the library on the table where I evidently left it yesterday evening.
- At the library I got a lot accomplished. I phoned some venues for shows I have scheduled for the next couple of weeks and two were not on the venues' calendars. I also made eight posters for my eight shows in June and got them emailed as part of the publicity kits, all before the library closed at 9pm.
This is one of those weeks that makes you appreciate the rest of them:
- three fan emails got lost in space after I sent them to myself
- my left inside calf pain is not getting better
- I am experiencing diarrhea
- I headed toward Lakeland FL for the night at the Cracker Barrel there.
- Got to bed at 11:57 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu May 18 = On the drive to Orlando I received a phone call from the Gainesville VFW that the members were not intereted in a comedy show. I thanked them for the heads-up and wished them well. I thought, but did not say, that it would have been nice to know sooner than two days before the show was scheduled.
- I went to the EPass Customer Service Center. Both my phone and my Garmin GPS showed the office to be in the middle of a freeway. When I arrived, there it was: under the elevated freeway with cars buzzing overhead. That arrangement provided shaded parking and, I am sure, saving of energy.
- Yanny there was very helpful. I was impressed with their high-tech efficiency. Now we'll see if it plays out that way with my account. They sent me pictures of a black pickup with Florida licence plate FLY NOW for which I was charged the tolls.
- The LA Fitness in Winter Park FL was my next stop. Unfortunately, for my left calf, they had no hot tub. They did have something I had never seen before: an infrared sauna. There was no normal sauna heater, but infrared panels on the walls. The idea was to heat your body instead of the air. As a result insulation was not required and it had a glass wall and glass door.
- I did my normal Wednesday routine, a day late: elliptical, heavy slow legs workout,
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower - no hot tub. I also got two new fans:
| Wize Coleone; LA Fitness, Winter Park FL; 5/18/23 |
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| Friend*; LA Fitness, Winter Park FL; 5/18/23 |
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- Then on to the Maitland Public Library, north of Orlando I got a lot done and found that they wanted everyone out of the library BEFORE their 9pm closing. That and unlike the last few libraries I visited, they had hard wooden chairs.
- With RVParkkie on my phone I found my overnight spott: the Cracker Barrel in Altamonte FL with good morning shade and a slight upslope for a nearly perfect night.
- Got to bed at 11:07 for 8:55 of sleep
Fri May 19 = I spent most of the day in the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Altamonte FL. It got a little warm in spite of having the hatch cracked and the moon roof opened. Fortunately there were no mosquitoes to invade my space.
- Around lunchtime, after walking around using my phone as a Wi-Fi detector, I moved my van to a new parking space for good shade and decent Wi-Fi.
- I phoned United Healthcare's Nurse Line about the pain in my left calf. After 10 minutes we were disconnected so I phoned back and started all over again with a different nurse. It was interesting. Each nurse took a slightly different approch, but they both said, "Don't massage the calf" because their databbase is concerned about
DVT
- I spent the rest of the morning and half the afternoon trying to figure out how to get XAMPP to work as the local host server on my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
I wasn't successful but did find the computer's Terminal (command line) Mode and figured out how to use it to open manager-osx (XAMPP's manager) but NOT how to open XAMPP.
- After Cracker Barrel I went to Esporta Fitness for an Elliptical, a brief slow heavy arms workout, poo and two new fans:
| Bryce williams & Evan Penn; Esporta Fitness; Altamonte Springs FL; 5/19/23 |
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- Since I was unable to upload the website files I had prepared at the Altamonte Cracker Barrel earlier in the day due to their poor wifi in my van, after Esporta Fitness, I drove up to an Anytime Fitness to upload the files. Next door I ran across three new fans:
| Isabel Perez, Caleb Auerbach, Evan Auerbach; Zippos Pizza; Casselberry FL; 5/19/23 |
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- Then on to the Cracker Barrel in Sanford FL for the night.
- Got to bed at 11:27 for 9:03 of sleep
Sat May 20 = I spent the afternoon at the little Debary Public Library with good shade trees for my van until they closed. This is the first time I took a pillow into a library. My bottom is not well suited to their hard wooden chairs.
- At the library, I got closer to having XAMPP start automatically when my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
starts up. Going to the computer's Terminal (command line) Mode, and entering "SUDO /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp start" asked me for my password and then started up. Now to figure how to have the password entered automatically
- I went to the Orange City Planet Fitness for a brief slow heavy torso workout and got a new fan. I'm proud of the photographic result. Both a Black and a White are well exposed, which is really tricky:
| Andre Collier; Planet Fitness, Orange City FL; 5/20/23 |
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- What a wild goose chase tonight. Just to make sure my van's running water system is not contributing to my diarrhea, I went on a mission to dissinfict the water with Iodine 2%, using 5 drops per liter. I already had the iodine but needed a graduated eye dropper. Wamart did not have one or any product that used one.
- I drove up to the Deland Moose Lodge where I'll be doing a show tomorrow afternoon. They let me park in their south field for the night by a tree that offered pretty good shade.
- Got to bed at 11:52 for 8:58 of sleep before my 8:50am alarm
Sun May 21 = The Deland Moose Lodge hosted the District 8 meeting at noon. Tim let me make a 2-minute announcement for my 4pm comedy show to the 70 people there. Of course everyone had other plans so no one stayed for the show.
- After my announcement I had lunch in my van and then completed the involved water project for my van. First was to make some phone calls to locate a 1 ml eye dropper, then drive to a CVS Pharmacy for the eyedropper and make a test disinfection of my 2L water bottle.
- Next was the Orange City Walmart where I poured out all but about a gallon of the old water in the van's jerry can, disinfected it and the water pump with a generous dose of iodine (5cc), dumped out that water and went into the Walmart and bought five gallons from their bulk water dispenser.
- I got back to the Moose Lodge in time to set up for the show. In the meantime just about everyone had left the lodge. I had an audience of about seven including the bartender. Patsy laughed a lot and the others laughed some. After 54 minutes, I thanked the single remaining audience member and hung up the mic. I believe it was the lodge's first try at stand up comedy.
- No merch was sold, but I did get a $2 donation for Alzheimer's, a $1 tip and this fan who came in after I had packed things up after the show.
| Michael Phelps; Deland Moose Lodge, Orange City FL; 5/21/23 |
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- What a difference! At my previous show the Port Charlotte American Legion bought five T-Shirts and donated $125 for Alzheimers research. I have to remember to remember the good shows.
- So far as the videoes of the show were concerned, as a test, I ran the four camcorders on battery. All the cameras breezed through the hour of recording except camera 2 did a low-battery shut down after 35 minutes. Back in my van I replaced the battery with a spare I had brought with me and recharged all four cameras.
- I spent the night in left field - the grass area to the south of the lodge.
- Got to bed at 10:13 for 9:47 of sleep and two pees until my 8am alarm
Mon May 22 = Today I hung mostly around the SE Branch St. Johns County Library, where I got a call from the Morrisville PA Elks Lodge about possibly doing a show for them in July. Donna will bring it up at tonight's meeting and get back to me tomorrow.
- At 8pm after the library closed I had some company while fixing and eating supper. The resident ducks were enjoying the lake there and the puddle since it had rained quite a bit.
- My left butt cheek has become a little sore. Guess I have been spending too long sitting at a time, like in my van and in libraries. I can see how immobilized people in wheelchairs can have problems. Fortunately all I need to do is remember to get up and move around more often.
- A gym visit took care of a brief heavy torso workout
- I drove to the Palm Coast FL Cracker Barrel for the night.
- Got to bed at 10:59 for nine hours of sleep
Tue May 23 = I spent a little time after breakfast in the Cracker Barrel shade and on the McDonalds Wi-Fi. A Planet Fitness was just across the freeway to the west so I went there for a brief light fast full-body workout and two new friends:
| Demi Gxd & Deni, Semuel Gold; Planet Fitness; Palm Coast FL; 5/22/23 |
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- Then, already afternoon, I drove further west to the Flager City Public Library where I stayed until they closed at 7pm
- At the library I sent two more test emails for Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show. They came back undeliverable
- I spent over two hours on the phone with Apple Support. Kane, in KY, tried to be helpful but was not familiar with start-up commands or FTP. He learned from me and I learned from him, like how to zoom the window in text and how to move FileZilla from Download to the desktop. Just drag it.
- Today my Pixel 4a phone started rocking when I put it face up on a flat surface. That is not supposed to happen. The back has developed a slight bulge. The Internet said it is a swollen battery, to stop using the phone and not to charge it. Of course that is not an option for me since it is my business.
- So I am charging it less and not putting it in my pocket unless I am out and about.
- For the night I went back to last night's Palm Coast FL Cracker Barrel.
- Got to bed at 11:21 for 8:52 of sleep
Wed May 24 = Before leaving my night spot I researched the Pixel 7a and the new Pixel Fold as possible replacements for my bulging Pixel 4a.
- Today was mostly a car day. I got my tires rotated, oil changed and got gas. I ran it a little closer than I like but I wanted to make it up to a SUNCO in St Augustine on my way to the
VFW Post 2391 in
St Augustine. My tank supposedly holds 20 gallons and it took 19.441.
- We had a good show tonight for an audience of 47, 20 of which stayed to the end of the 53-minute show. The post was very supportive.
- Got to bed at 11:07 for 9:01 of sleep in the post's back yard, to the east, for good morning shade under one of their trees.
Thu May 25 = After breakfast I sondered over to the post's Tiki Bar pavilion and spent some time updating my website with their wifi and soft chair. Thanks, guys!
- Going to the St. Johns Town Center Apple Store was a waste of two hours. No one there knew anything about executing commands from a text file or about FTP.
- After supper in my van I drove to Jacksonville's Southeast Regional Library and hung out until they closed at 9pm. With their hard wooden chairs, the stadium seat "cushion" I bought a couple days ago was a Godsend.
- For the night I drove to a south Jackson FL Walmart store, one of the few in Florida which allows overnight parking. It was good to be back at Walmart
- Got to bed at 10:26 for 9:26 of sleep
Fri May 26 = After breakfast and a little Walmart shopping, I drove to the South Mandarin Library, straigntened some things out on my Smart Stuff web page, tried lots of ideas for my website on the
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
with no success and got my first homeless fan:
| John Michael; South Mandarin Library; Mandarin FL; 5/26/23 |
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- Next was the LA Fitness in Orange Park for a 34 minute slow heavy full-body workout and another fan:
| Friend; LA Fitness Palm Park FL; 5/26/23 |
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- Got to bed at 10:33 for 9:14 of sleep at the Orange Park Cracker Barrel
Sat May 27 = After breakfast I found a library that was open until 5pm about half way to Palatka.
- After four weeks of frustrations, I had a major breakthrough that should fix most of the problems I have been having with my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
I found how to work with my website. All it took was the right sequence to grant Filezilla the needed permission to access the computer's Applications folder:
- Open applications folder
- Click on the htdocs folder
- Right click, get info
- In pop-up window locate the 'sharing & permission' section
- Click the 'locked' padlock symbol
- Enter admin password
- Change 'Everyone' permissions to read & write
- In the get info window still, select the 'cog' icon' drop down option at the very bottom and select 'Apply to enclosed items' this will adjust the permission across all sub-folders as well. (No cog found, but still could access subfolders)
- Re-lock the padlock symbol
- Close the 'Get Info' window.
- Hoyt and the Moose Lodge in Patlaka was very supportive. They laughed a lot and enjoyed my jokes. Most of them stayed for the entire show and many for these fan pictures:
| Hoyt and some audience; Moose Lodge 184; Patlaka FL; 5/27/23 |
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| Two guests; Moose Lodge 184; Patlaka FL; 5/27/23< |
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- Since the show didn't start until 8:00 and I hung around after recharging my cameras and computer and working on "business" I got to bed late, but in their back field with morning shade.
- Got to bed at 12:45am for 8:59 of sleep before my 9:44am alarm
Sun May 28 = In the middle of the night I thought of some good comebacks for people who say things like, "Are you funny?" or, "You'd better be funny." I can hardly wait to use them.
- I decided, since it was a perfectly sunny day with light winds and the Patlaka Municipal Airport was just past the trees, I would bore a hole in the sky. That didn't work out because the local flying school was closed.
- I hung around, walked out and visited with some pilots refueling their planes. One of them had a Cirrus with an Avidyne glass cockpit; not Garmin. Later I learned that the main brands are:
The major players in glass cockpit displays for aerospace market include Aspen Avionics, Inc. (U.S.), Avidyne Corporation (U.S.), Dynon Avionics (U.S.), Elbit Systems Ltd. (Israel), Esterline Technologies Corporation (U.S.), Garmin Ltd. (Switzerland), Honeywell Aerospace, Inc
- Back in the terminal, the guy behind the desk told me about Platlaka's big Memorial Day fling, the Blue Crab Festival downtown by the river.
- I did the festival and, of course, checked if I could do five minutes of comedy. Chris there said, "NO." At least I tried.
- I did get a new fan:
| Tobby Williams; Blue Crab Festival; Palatka FL; 5/28/23 |
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- My "office" this afternoon was the pilot's lounge at the Patlaka Airport; quiet, excellent Wi-Fi a nearby bathroom and a soft chair.
- Toward evening I did some Walmart shopping and drove back to the
Moose Lodge 710
for the night.
- Got to bed at 10:51 for 9:09 of sleep
Mon May 29 = MEMORIAL DAY
- It was just too good to be true. I drove to the airport and found a spot with perfect shade all morning to work in my van with a bathroom nearby, all at Palatka Sky Diving. No one was around, but it was an ideal setup... until the manager showed up. She said someone was to have closed the gate and I couldn't stay.
- So I drove back to the Moose Lodge's back yard where, among other things, I changed some of my desktop icons to make them easier to find, parked in the shade of some trees.
- About 4pm I headed to Jacksonville for the comedy open mic, downtown, at
Rain Dog. I had gotten several possible start times from 8pm to 10pm and wanted to get there in plenty of time. I arrived about 6:30 the bartender said the show started about 10:30.
- The show actually started about 11:30. It was the first time I had heard of or been in a "Hot Potato" show. After each comedian finished their set, they would pick a random name on the list and introduce him as the next comedian.
- After the show was over I drove to a north Jackson Cracker Barrel for a short night. There was almost no traffic so the drive only took a few minutes - good decision.
- Got to bed at 2:20am for 6:52 of sleep :(
Tue May 30 = Last night's stay was in a good place, with the Cracker Barrel, a Walmart Super Center, Best Buy (where I recycled 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
), Dollar Tree (where I bought a birthday card for my son), and an Office Max where I made 256 tour posters. When my XPS died I lost the text information for the back of the posters so had to redo it.
-
My first visit to a Buc-ee's was in Florence SC and it knocked my sox off. HUGE place with 96 gas pumps, but the prices seemed a little high.
- My Savannah Ga friend, Tom Parris, was not available for a visit when I weby by so we caught up with a phone call. He was on a movie set, playing the partt of a sheriff.
- I decided to spend the evening at the Dillon Municipal Airport SC updating my website. I learned to check the satelite view next time. When I got to the airport saw only runway lights; no buildings or airplanes.
- I then went on about 20 miles to the Lumberton Regional Airport with a terminal that included a pilots lounge, soft chair and Internet.
- I decided to spend the night parked in the airport parking lot instead of driving up to a Cracker Barrel; a good quiet place to catch up on the sleep I lost Monday night.
- Got to bed at 11:24 for 11:02 of mostly sleep
Wed May 31 = Gary E Lewis, the airport manager welcomed me when I went in to the terminal after breakfast. We had a good visit, he gave me an LBT
Lumberton Regional Airport cap and invited me to stay as long as I liked.
- Toward evening I had supper and drove to the Lumberton Planet Fitness for my longest session in a gym so far this trip. It took me about two hours to do an elliptical run, a light fast full-body workout, a heavy slow legs workout, a poo, a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
take a shower and get these eight new fans, bringing my total at the end of May to 684:
| Mar Walker; Planet Fitness; Lumberton NC; 5/31/23 |
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| Jason Hammond, Hayden Walters, Jacob Buffkin & Landon Brown; Planet Fitness; Lumberton NC; 5/31/23 |
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| Casson Jones; Planet Fitness; Lumberton NC; 5/31/23 |
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| Luis Aquino; Planet Fitness; Lumberton NC; 5/31/23 |
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| Luke Byrd; Planet Fitness; Lumberton NC; 5/31/23 |
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- Although it was running a little late, I drove up to the Lumberton Walmart Supercenter for the night and perfect morning shade.
- Got to bed at 11:56 for 9:0 of sleep
