Wed Nov 1 = For booking this morning, I spent way too much time studying notes from my 17 previous contacts with a lodge in Little River NC before phoning the lodge to hear a busy signal and then phoning the Exaulted Ruller. The phone call was over in about 15 seconds when he told me he thought he had told me they were not interested. I learned to just dial the number!
- I requested that My Amazon Echo Dot ask
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
to vacuum the whole house, the first time since returning from tour. While Roomba was vacuuming the office I was in the hall bathroom installing my new toilet seat. While Roomba was vacuuming the hall toilet I was in the office.
-After I
sunned
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
,
I had lunch, worked on my computer then took about a 33 minute nap to make up for sleep lost last night.
- This evening on the way to the gym I stopped by Dollar Tree for some hair scrunchies with which to bind the Trip Tabs I made yesterday. After the gym I went by Fry's Food for some of my favorite in-season apples (Honey Crisp) on sale and powdered milk, all at their 10% senior discount.
- Got to bed at 11:25 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 2 = Among other things today I organized my comedy set for tonight.
- Since I have moved my last-of 79 oz of water time for this week up from 5:30 to 4:30 I didn't drink any water at The Wayward Tap House, although I still left a tip.
- For my comedy set I did some new ideas about booking comedy shows. The audience listened politely and chuckled about three times.
- I did not make it to a gym today.
- Today a small package arrived in my mailbox from Injoy Hearing (injoyhearing.com) with a non-powered storage case and three sizes of power domes for me to experiment with for noisy environments.
- Got to bed at 11:04 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Nov 3 = In the middle of the night I heard a little pop. I was reading the definition of a word on my Kindle while reading Mark Twain letters while peeing. The little pop was the frames of my high-tech UV-light-stopping bifocals breaking, not from any abuse but, evidently, plastic fatigue from the constant stress from the lenses. You know the lenses of most sunglasses and prescription glasses with plastic frames pop in and are held in place by tention. That means stress on the frames. I have had a number of sunglass frames break at the top near the center. Now I know why.
- I spent most of the morning & some of the afternoon on my Phonak hearing aids, trying all sorts of things to get them to interface properly with the Phonak app on my Android phone, including uninstalling the app, reinstalling it, restarting the phone etc. etc. I finally called the company I bought the aids from, but they had no solution.
- Up until supper I made some initial booking phone calls and mailed a booking letter - yes in an envelope by US Mail!
- After supper I went to EōS Fitness for a heavy arms workout and five new fans. It took me 11:04 minutes to add the four pictures to my Fans webpage; 2:45 average per picture :)
- On the way home I stopped by the nearby Home Depot for glue for my glasses frames. The glue is the latest technology, is clear and bonds wood, stone, ceramics, foam, metal and glass. It is activated by dampness for non-porous surfaces. Apparently the only thing it does not work with is polyethylene or polypropylene plastics. It needs to be stored in a cool dry place with, interestingly enough, light to keep it from yellowing.
Do you know of an artist who could make a drawing of me? I would want the design to be usable with white ink on a dark T-shirt or black ink on a light T-shirt, with minimal coverage, something like the first pictures, leaning toward a line drawing.
My two head shots are FYI. More are at the bottom of my Press Kit web page at arizonalou.com.
- Got to bed at 10:57 for 9:92 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 4 = This morning's big booking project was emailing nine show contracts to venues in Alabama and Pennsylvania as well as making a few phone calls.
- This afternoon I took my van in to Discount Tire for a tire rotation. One of the lug nuts was frozen onto the stud. Kane the, tire guy, said it was probably cross-threaded during the previous tire rotation. The lug nut would not come off because the damaged stud started spinning. As a result Kane could not get the wheel off to complete the tire rotation. Discount Tire will cover the cost of the repairing the stud, but I'll have to spend about half a day at an Alignment & Brakes shop for the repair next week.
- Planet Fitness was great this evening for a heavy torso workout and these four new fans:
- I posted requests on FaceBook, Twitter and InstaGram for an artist to do a line drawing for my T-shirts (see yesterday's blog).
- This evening I made my grocery shopping list for tomorrow's excursion.
- Got to bed at 11:12 for 9:03 hours of sleep
Sun Nov 5 = CogniFit is a phone app that will supposedly monitor fitness and activity level through my hearing aids. I installed it today. I also looked into some of AARP's online programs but, at least for now, decided against them.
- I did it! At noon I was fast enough to get in: I'll be appearing at Stir Crazy on Wednesday! Y'all Come!
Wed Nov 8, 2023; 7:00pm;
Stir Crazy; E-206 Westgate Entertainment District; 6751 N Sunset Blvd;Glendale, AZ - open mic
(Please tell me when you arrive so I can count you as my guest... and get 7 minutes instead of 3). Tickets - In the hearing aid department I switched from the Medium open domes that came on the hearing aids to Small open domes which are easier to insert into the ears, are more comfortable and still stayed in OK during my inverted shrugs and gym exercises.
- Speaking of exercises, at Crunch Fitness I did a brief fast legs workout and got these two new fans.
- On the way home I did my semimonthly grocery shopping at Winco Foods. For years I have enjoyed interacting with Garrincha there in the produce department but never got him as a fan until tonight.
- Got to bed at 11:00 for 8:58 hours of sleep
Mon Nov 6 = This was a pretty technical day, mostly dealing with local comedy. It started with my
Phonaks
Phonak Audeo LRL-90 fancy waterproof hearing aids bought in October, 2023 from injoyhearing.com
.
I tried things like uninstalling and reinstalling the Phonak app on my phone, rebooting my computer, turning the Bluetooth off and back on, spending about an hour on the phone with Phonak customer support and also with my provider. The Phonak app still controls only one of the hearing aids. In spite of their buggy app I figured a work-around so can control at least the volum of both aids at the same time.
- This morning I got word that I will be appearing on Sunday (the 12th) at the
Tempe Improv. That makes three shows in three towns in the next seven days:
Wed Nov 8, 2023; 7:00pm;
Stir Crazy; E-206 Westgate Entertainment District; 6751 N Sunset Blvd;Glendale, AZ (Please tell me when you arrive so I can count you as my guest... and get double the time). Tickets
Sun Nov 12; 7:00pm;
Tempe Improv; 930 E University Dr; Tempe, AZ 85281
FREE Admission if you tell the box office, by 6:30, you're there to see Arizona Lou or show this ticket:
- Of course I needed to make tickets for The Tempe Improv using my Dymo 280 labelmaker, but have not used it since getting my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
It got technical to find, download, install and configure the Dymo software to my Mac.
- Then I wanted the files for the labels that were on 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
before it died in April. The files were on a back up drive, accessible only with a Windows computer through the EaseUS backup software. Fortunately I had my
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.
on the kitchen counter for something else, so I dug out the backup external hard drive, found and transfered files to a thumb drive and then my Mac.
- The Mac version of the DYMO software is pretty awkward because it is missing features like search/replace and the ability to boldface a selection.
- I did get 10 tickets made.
- Before bedtime I went to Anytime Fitness for a light arms workout.
- Got to bed at 11:22 for 8:53 hours of sleep
Tue Nov 7 = This morning I tried to figure why I hadn't received, after a month, the Arizona Lou T-shirt I had ordered through my website from Etsy. Tomorrow I'll have to phone them.
- This afternoon I took my van in to Network Alignment to have them repair a stud on one of my van wheels. Fortunately, Discount Tire covered the repair because they cross threaded the lug nut during my previous tire rotation. It didn't cost me anything except a couple of hours of my time.
- While waiting I got my blog finished for yesterday and got my monthly blog rollover completed; slow but perfect the first time! I also got a new fan there.
- On Tuesdays, I normally go up to Mountainside Fitness for my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
but EōS Fitness was just a little south of the alignment shop so, for the first time, I did it there, along with a poo and shower and these three more fans.
- With a little time before bedtime, in a PDF instruction manual, I found, edited and added this hover picture to the image of the Garmin G-1000 audio panel
here on my Technology web page :)
- Got to bed at 10:54 for 8:56 hours of sleep
Wed Nov 8 = Today's trip was this afternoon and evening. First stop was Discount Tire to have them rotate and balance the right tires since they could now get the right front wheel off after I had stud they broke repaired. I didn't notice until I got home, the wheel was missing a lug nut. Something else to deal with.
- Next stop was the Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) Art Department. I figured that was a good place to begin a local search for someone who could do a line drawing of me for my T-shirts. I found an art class in session on the west side of the campus and gave the instructor a sheet with what I had in mind. Then way to the east side of the campus to the Art Department offices where I found a couple others who might be able to help.
- LA Fitness in Glendale was on the way to tonight's comedy. There I did a heavy legs workout, got a new fan, and at the Westgate Entertainment Center got four new fans:
- At the comedy club, since I had four guests (my regulars) there, I got 7 minutes. For my set I did my Boxes and 100 routines. I did Boxes mainly for the Avalanche callback - which I forgot so filled the time with Anemometer :( which the audience liked. Here are the entertainers:
- Got to bed at 11:16 for 9:03 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 9 = I spent most of the morning catching up on things like (- did not get done):
Putting the picture and list of last night's comedians up on my website
Updating the information on my Past Shows spreadsheet
Processing four new fans
Making three Booking phone calls
Organizing the information from yesterday's visit to the PVCC Art Department
Recording my complicated tire rotation
-Final review from last month's
FIRC
Flight Instructor Refresher Course I have to take every two years to renew my CFI license
-Sending out Mail Chimp emails for Sunday's show
-Contacting posts that have outstanding contracts
-Contacting Printify about a glitch in ordering my T-shirts online
- I
sunned
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- I didn't make it to a gym today, but I did make it to The
Wayward Tap House for tonight's open mic. I did my Airline Bathroom routine.
- Got to bed at 11:43 for 9:02 hours of sleep
Fri Nov 10 = First thing this morning after breakfast I made one booking phone call then sent out 470 emails (460 were delivered at 11am MST) about my appearances next week. Within 2 hours 23 of the emails had been opened.
- I lost ground: Most of the afternoon I spent working on my hearing aids. They lost all connections (Bluetooth) with my phone so now I cannot even use the aids for phone calls or for listening to podcasts, both of which I could do yesterday :(
- Todays trip started about 4:30. It was rushed but I got everything in:
Union76 for .8 gal of gas to get me to Costco for a fill up
Discount Tire to find the lug nuts they had did not match my van's
Ken Garf Kia to buy a Kia lug nut
Discount tire for them to install the lug nut
Costco to fill up w gas
Mountainside Fitness for a quick heavy arms workout
Rick Bronson's House of Comedy to see Mike Smalls
Out to my van to get two of my T-shirts which Mike bought :)
Back home to add Mike Smalls as my latest fan :)
- Got to bed at 11:22 for 9:03 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 11 = Before breakfast I messed with my hearing aids and tried about a dozen different angles, trying to get them to connect to my Pixel 7 via Bluetooth. Nothing worked :(
- I tackeled
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
after I got this Blog updated. FCP's unintuitiveness continues to amaze, stump and baffle me.
- My trip started going west to Bashas for some Honeycrysp apples and raspberries on sale and, not on sale, a new fan:
- I knew I'd do it sooner or later and tonight was the night. After my heavy torso workout at Anytime Fitness and getting Keith as a new fan
I rushed out to my van with my gym bag but not the stuff from my pockets which I had locked up in one of their little locker cubes, which included both the fob for my van and the Anytime Fitness fob. So I could not get back in to get the fobs. The weather was cool but fortunately no cold. Everyone inside was wearing ear pods so did not hear my wrapping on the window or chose to ignore it. After about 15 minutes someone came to the gym and let me in with their fob. Then I was able to go home.
- Got to bed at 12:08am for 9:03 hours of sleep, sleeping late
Sun Nov 12 = It is so easy to work on a project when it is already started and part of it is already done. I had previously measured and mixed the powdered ingredients for a batch of my protein frosties, including the 22 oz of crushed ice. Also I had the six blinder buddies chilling in the freezer. All I had to do today was dump everything into my high powered Ninja Blender and turn it on. Cleaning it up after my six protein frosties were in the freezer took longer than making the frosties.
- WATER: Constantly trying to get a better night's sleep, this week my goal was, every day, to drink the last of 70 ounces of by 5:00pm.
- Before noon I got a little sun as I removed the sun screens from five of my south and west windows, to absorb more solar heat during the day and not need to use the furnace for about another month.
- After reading an AARP article, I realized that my Louisms web page had nothing from Henry Winkler ("The Fonz") so I hunted around and added, You have greatness inside you, and your job is to figure out what that is, dig it out, and give it to the world - Henry Winkler - I went to the 99¢ Only Store for bananas, then on to east Mesa to visit with
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife (who had a masive stroke in 2022) who live in east Mesa, Arizona
- Heading back west, I got to the LA Fitness in Tempe in time to for a quick light legs workout and to
The Tempe Improv in time to set up everything.
- Tonight's comedy was a disaster... from a technical point of view, but it was great from a comedic point of view. I was going to add my HDR Panasonic as a fifth camcorder to the mix. That didn't work because I had left its battery at home on the charger. It got worse. I didn't realize that I had not inserted the micro SD cards into my four regular camcorders until I was turning them on before my set. I found the micro SD cards where I had stashed them in my camera bag and proceeded to insert them, upside down into the cameras. Hey, it was dark! I dropped and lost one of the 64GB micro SD cards and another wasn't working even if I had inserted it correctly. No video, but I did get good audio with my body mic.
- After the show I met lots of nice people and sold the YxS shirt I use as a stage prop. No problem, I have two more left at home.
- Got to bed at 11:40pm for 9 hours of sleep, with only 1.5 pees :)
Mon Nov 13 = Before breakfast I tried about a dozen different angles and the hearing aids would not connect through either the phone's Bluetooth or through the Phonak App. I was ready to return them. This evening, just for kicks and giggles, before putting the aids in their charging case, I checked my phone and both aids were connected to it and functioning in their limited way. What a relief!
- A little later I held my breath, hoping that it would work properly. For the first time since I bought my washing machine about 25 years ago, I used its liquid bleach despenser, which is supposed to dilute the bleach and add it slowly to the wash load. I was using the hotest hot water ( F137° F) that my water heater could come up with to wash a bunch of dingy sox that I had washed, back on June 24th with a towel I had dyed brown.
- Thanks to GIMP (Graphic Image Manipulation Program), I was able to turn a picture of a guy wearing a T-shirt into an example for my headshot here.
- The last day that El Charro Hipster was open, on August 23rd, 2023, Josh Boyle interviewed a bunch of comedians and then produced this 31-minute video. For an introduction some of the local comedians go to 13:00 minutes.
Here you have, Memories From the Comics
- An alphabetical list of 30 local comedians with, their names correctly spelled, appears at 30:56.
- Got to bed at 11:44 for 8:56 hours of sleep
Tue Nov 14 = Since my camcorder c3 does not like its PNY micro SD card, from Office Depot I ordered a replacement card for me to pick up at a nearby Office Max; and from Walmart I ordered 5 micro SD cards to be delivered on Monday. I plan to be using the one from Office Max to record Friday's and Saturday's shows. We'll see if I can get my act together better than Sunday and do my first 5-camera shoot.
- I
sunned
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- I wasted a lot of time this afternoon reserching AC air filters before I went out to the garage and found that I had three on hand, although two are not particularly high performance.
- Then, when I checked the filter in the hallway, I concluded that it did not need to be changed anyway.
- The good news is that I learned more about air filters, the new MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) Rating system and added it here on my Definitions Web page:
-
- After supper I went to Mountainside Fitness for a light torso workout, Poster Trim, shower and these two new fans:
Sania (first pictture above) is new to the US from Afghanistan. Welcome, Sania!
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Nov 15 = This morning I revised my housewatch/mailpickup instructions to be ready for my April 2024 tour, worked on some Bookings, and the bigest project, organized a contest for an outline drawing for my T-shirts and added it to yesterday's blog.
- This afternoon I went to LA Fitness for a heavy legs workout and new fan, Tim DePriest, who who runs the Power Station nutrition bar there. He has been my friend for years and I couldn't believe he was not yet on it.
- Next stop was Fry's Food for some Romaine lettuce, apples on sale and a new fan:
- Last stop was the 99¢ Only Store for six loaves of 100% whole wheat bread
- This evening it took me 30 minutes to do my monthly credit card payoffs.
- Got to bed at 11:40 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 16 = The main thing I did today was to publish the Competition for Line Drawing on FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram. I also revised my fans email list.
- By the time I got that done it was time to leave for tonight's comedy at
Wayward Tap House. On the way I stopped by Walmart for a Bic pen to replace the one that fell out of my pocket when I was doing inverted shrugs and a pack of dry erase markers to use at the glossy bottom of my 2x3' posters.
- I did the hearing revised aid routine I last did two months ago in preparation for the Sant Toy Run:
- Got to bed at TIMEforHOURS hours of sleep
Fri Nov 17 = After breakfast I made one booking phone call and booked: Fri Jun 28 2024; 7:00pm;
VFW Post 2819; 6850 Martins Mill Rd;
Philadelphia, PA 19111 -
- I ate my garden after lunch today (35 days after plantinng it on Oct 13th) - roots and all after I rinsed the dirt off. There wasn't enough parsley to taste but the basil and chives tasted like basil and chives. For scale, the containers are 2.25" across.
-
- Good thing I left early. Considering the an accident on the way, construction and that I stopped by Ace Hardware for 12' of sunshield material (foilized bubble stuff), I made it on time for the Santa Toy Run - The audience of 85 enjoyed my 20 minutes of comedy. They laughed a lot but the five-camera shoot likely will not make it to my Youtube Channel because I somehow missed getting good audio with my body mic.
- Got to bed at 11:20 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Nov 18 = I had big hopes this morning sending out bulk emails through MailChimp, asking for submissions to my Line Drawing Image contest, to my Arizona audiences and then to my non-Arizona audiences.
- I sent out emails to an "audience" of about 400 locals, and MailChimp won't let me delete that audience until seven days after sending today's email, so I cannot switch and send emails to my non-Arizona list :(
- This evening The Egyptian Motor Hotel was a pretty neat place.
The Big Drip show was appropriately named, because evidently it had rained earlier in the day and offered a couple of puddles to navigate around and some soft seat cushions, after sitting upon for a while, guaranteed to make you look like you had an accident.
- Dustin Hadlock ran a good show. The comedians were first, and most I had not seen before. There was a little confusion with the time I had for my set. Dustin booked me for 7 minutes. Before the show tonight I was told 5 minutes. They actually gave me about 8 minutes, so I unexpectedly got to do more than I had planned, more fun, including joking about their microphone stand that was like me: kinda droopy and falling appart. Thanks for the extra time!
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 9 hours of sleep, minus a couple minutes when my Sangean automatically woke me up for the 8am news :(
Sun Nov 19 = This morning I got the 5 videos from last night uploaded but lost the high quality audio from my body mic. I learned that it is OK to put an MP3 audio file in the trash while it is still processing by QuickTime, but not to empty the trash or eject the external USB drive that contains the file. I felt like experimenting but should have made a duplicate first.
- I worked for a while starting a new library for a multicam clip with the videos using
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
It went a little smoother but still took too much time and is still very awkward. I did not have time to doing the actual editing.
- It is complete now. Made my bed in its final form by replacing the king-sized flat sheet with a queen-sized fitted sheet.
- At Planet Fitness I did a fast light full body workout and got Vinayak for a new fan.
- It was a big job pulling all the information together but I filled out the 2-page form for my FAA Basic Medical. This will give me most of the privileges of the FAA's pilot's medical without the trouble and expense.
- Got to bed at 11:43 for 9:02 hours of sleep
Mon Nov 20 = This morning's project was organizing all the FAA Basic Medical information for my doctor visit tomorrow.
- On my Kindle I am to the place reading about Mark Twain in Hawaii and his luck in reporting the arrival of the starving survivors of the clipper ship, Hornet. Burning of the Clipper Ship Hornet at Sea thrust Mark Twain into the national limelight.
- Also I revised, again, my Competition for Line Drawing (above) after phoning
Anne
My daughter, Roby her husband and their two daughters Katie and Brooke who live in Flagstaff, AZ
and worked up competition entry kits to take up as a Thanksgiving activity.
- I made my shopping list and did my semi-monthly grocery shopping right on schedule. It was handy having my van refrigerator at 22° F so I could keep my frozen stuff frozen and then go to Walmart for a pack of Sharpies, a new fan and then to Crunch Fitness for a heavy legs workout and two new fans.
- Tonight, with the start of a new page, I reformatted my sleep study record from three narrow columns to two wide columns. With the three columns all the information was available about the night, times, covers, room temperatures etc. but not easy to find. From now on it will be in data columns like a spreadsheet and easy to peruse with a glance.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 9 hours of sleep
Tue Nov 21 = This morning I got everything organized for today's trip then
sunned
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- First stop on this afternoon's trip was Mountainside Fitness with no time for a workout after my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
and shower.
- Second stop was to establish and get acquainted with my new doctor, Ritu Sadhu (famele) at Honor Health's Cave Creek Rd Office which is only about 1.5 miles from home.
- Third was the nearby Costco to top my tank off for the round trip to visit
Anne
My daughter, Roby her husband and their two daughters Katie and Brooke who live in Flagstaff, AZ
.
- Fourth was Anytime Fitness for a heavy arms workout and for my 1,000th fan plus two more:
- Got to bed at 11:51 for 8:58 hours of sleep
Wed Nov 22 = This morning I got ready for my Thanksgiving trip and left in the afternoon for Flagstaff, about a two-hour drive without any stops. Of course I made a stop: at the Anthem Walmart Supercenter to return a package of dry erase markers (when I originally got home with them I discovered an unopened pack of five).
- Since there wasn't time for me to stop by the Snap Fitness in Camp Verde on my way, Anne helped me do a slow heavy torso workout with Roby's gym in their garage.
- It was neat to see the whole family and catch up on our doings, as we decided to visit instead of watch a movie.
- Got to bed at 10:03 for 9:58 hours of sleep at
Anne's
My daughter, Roby her husband and their two daughters Ren and Brooke who live in Flagstaff, AZ
.
in a comparatively cool bedroom. Outside low was forecast to be 22° F.
Thu Nov 23 = This morning Robby, Brooke and I went on a mile hike on some of the Campbell Mesa Loop trails.
- I had a chance to spend some personal time with each of my granddaughters. Ren (Katie) showed me some of her projects and Brooke showed me about her computer drawing software. She uses it to make her award-winning images.
- I managed to get a nap in, which at my age, seems to be a necessity most days.
-
Rose Anne
My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
arrived around noon with Bella, her new puppy. The animals were fun to watch. Bella and Bromley (Anne's Labradoodle) had a great time romping together. And of course Chai Anne's new kitten did not want to be left out of the fracas and joined in when she could. Chai took up residence in Bella's dogie bed, having decided that it should be hers.
- Crystal and her three kids, Amber, Ethen (14) and Lucas (4) came over for dinner. What a splendid family.
- I told everyone about my $100 Line Drawing Competition and Anne, Brooke and Ethen gave me some neat line drawings. Amber plans to email one later. I tried my hand at two - definitely not my talent, but at least I tried.
- After dark I drove back down to Phoenix, taking a nap on the way and munching on sunflower seeds to stay allert.
- Got to bed at 11:34 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Nov 24 = Updating my Android phone to Version 14 took about 40 minutes today. I got worried that something was wwrong.
- I never got around to
FCP
Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
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.
off the kitchen counter which meant reordering the Tour Media files and adding a picture of my first field show (Wasilla, AK). These are the files I use as part of some of my comedy shows. It turns out that my 90 second kiteboarding video cannot be played by my
Mac
the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
so I downloaded HandBrake to convert the WMV file to a MP4 formatted file. I hit a brick wall when HandBreak said the destination drive was out of space - reglardless if there was 2.5 GB of free space.
- My CPAP supplies arrived today after 56 days (eight weeks) and several phone calls and online messages to my doctor and the supplier. I think the system is broken because people may not care enough to do their job.
- To the art departments of three colleges and universites, this evening, I sent out emails announcing my $100 line drawing competition. We'll see if there is any results.
- Got to bed at 12:16 for 9 hours of sleep. For the first time this season I added a second baby comforter to my feet. It didn't quite do the trick, because when I got up to pee at 2:15 in the morning I still had cold feet, so for the first time this season, I used my 1800 Watt SuperSolano 3300 Tralite blow dryer ($115 from Walmart - naturally I got it at Goodwill) to preheat the feet area of my bed. It pretty well did the trick :)
Sat Nov 25 = This morning's big projecct spilled over into the afternoon with a break to
sun
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
and for lunch.
- It was to produce my third video with
FCP
Final Cut Pro X the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
This time I learned how to move forward and also backward on the timeline while doing the multicam editing - not a trivial task with FCP. The result here is not perfect, but is pretty good. Also I learned how to export a single frame, as I did for the thumbnail of this video, which I uploaded this evening to YouTube:
- In the process I learned how to navigate the timeline and how to modify cut points for camera changes.
- This evening I added a link to my Smart Stuff web page to colonoscopy information and a picture of my insides.
- This evening I took a test run with my AC furnace to make sure it was working properly and, since it is gas, not producing carbon monoxide. Everything was OK.
- Got to bed at 10:35 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Nov 26 = WATER: Constantly trying to get a better night's sleep, this week my goal was, every day, to drink the last of 60 ounces of by 5:00pm.
- Winter must be on its way, yes, even here in Phoenix. For the first time this season I fired up my super-accurate digital Cosori cup warmer:
- No I wasn't fast enough to sign up for the Stir Crazy show on Wednesday :(
- After lunch I mixed up 30 oz of the garlic/mustard concoction I use on somem of my sandwiches. It included 12 oz of brown spicy mustard, 12 oz of minsed garlic from a jar and 6 oz of dry granulated garlic. Neutritions stuff!
- You won't believe how I decided which gym to go to for my light fast legs workout. I checked my fan list and it had been 11 days since I got a fan at LA Fitness, so that's where I went for the workout and, surprise, surprise, Oscar as a new fan.
- This evening when I got too drowsy trying to create a new MailChimp Competition for Line Drawing campaign, I did something, probably for the first time ever: I cleaned my LGB tracks with alcohol; of course after I vacuumed them. They never get very dirty because I have no pet hairs and I have a good AC filtration system.
- I really needed to get the Competition for Line Drawing emails out with MailChimp, which I finally did, but got me to bed late. Five hundred-thirteen out of the 539 email addresses I uploaded were valid.
- Got to bed at 11:40 for 8:54 hours of sleep
Mon Nov 27 = Updating my Fan Email Spreadsheet was a tedious operation, but I got 16 duplicates and 8 incorrectly formatted email addresses taken care of. Since I had gathered most of the non-Phoenix area emails several years ago, about 120 were out of date. Fixing that was a BIG job that took most of the rest of the day. I had to find and tag all them in my Fan Email Spreadsheet. I broke the project sessions up with...
- Lunch
- My buddy,
Roomba
The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
,
vacuuming the whole house after lunch.
- While Roomba was recharging itself, Going to the Cave Creek Rd EōS Fitness for a light arms workout and five new fans:
- Archiving my check register for 2022
- Making 20 more copies of the $100 Drawing Competition Rules for Thursday's show at The Wayward Tap House
- Projecting my budget through January, 2024
- Learning how to search/replace all in a LibreOffice spreadsheet or word document, but only within a highlighted area - very powerful!
- Got to bed at 10:48 for 9:02 hours of sleep before my Alexa-programmed alarm at 8:50am - finally!
Tue Nov 28 = HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME! This morning got off to a good start becaause I got to bed early and got up early...(that means before 8am) in time to pee, shave, brush my hair, put on deoderant and ride my
really fast for two minutes with a pulse rate a little over 160 bpm, all before the 8am news on KFNN.
- I didn't realize that I was spending a lot of time working on a disaster when I copied about 19 files that I use for some of my comedy shows from my
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 a thumb drive then 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
where I reorganized the files, then back to the thumb drive and back onto the Alcatel. Now the Alcatel, a Windows 10 PC will not open any of the images or play any of the videos... and I erased all the old files
-
was my target this morning. The phone conversation I had with Jen, their Director of Development was pretty cool. Since today is Giving Tuesday I donated enough money to cover a pop-up tent with logos and for a couple of foldable wagons to haul stuff to their events. I'll be attending their staff meeting Thursday to discuss the project.
- First inkling that bad news was on the way was from the USPS Informed Delivery that a letter was on the way from Allianz, the company with which I have my longterm disability insurance. Every few years they send me a rate increase notice. When the letter DID arrive, I opened it with trepidation. Lurking inside were HIPAA and Privacy Notices. Whew!
- Late afternoon I went to Mountainside Fitness for my
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
shower, a light fast torso workout and one new fan:
- On the way home I got an RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) vaccine from Beth at my nearby Osco Drugstore, inside the Albertson's.
- This evening I created a new poster and made 40 microposter versions of it.
- Got to bed at 10:10 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Nov 29 = Another full day for the 82-year-old. I
sunned
I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
at noon, ate lunch and then drove to Copper Blues (CB Live) in Desert Ridge to see what was going on because they advertised that they are hiring. There was only one person there in the whole place. I hope they get some good people to work there.
- Next stop was Mountainside fitness for a heavy legs workout and four new fans:
- I went through some tall grass in adapting the concept of the buttons at the top of my web pages for a TICKETS button for my show information. The trick was to get it to appear on the same line. What a real sense of satisification after all the research and figuring.
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.
would open the media files copied from my MacBook, I downloaded and installed VLC Media Player. Did no good.
- This evening when I got too drowsy to function with my computer projects even with a second nap, I turned to my van and its house battery's braker disconnect button which had broken out of its socket a few weeks ago when my folding table came loose from it's tether and crashed down. I glued the button back in with some contact cement after sawing the button off some to make it shorter so it will be less likely to brake off in the future.
- Got to bed at 11:04 for 9:16 hours of sleep
Thu Nov 30 = This was a full, eventful day. I left home at 9:15 this morning and got home about 9:30 this evening.
- First trick after breakfast was to pack a lunch and supper and put them in my little van refrigerator.
- Second was to organize my stuff for the trip.
- Third was to take a bath in preparation for SMIL (Southwest Medical Imaging)
to work out some details with Jen and Nicole for the pop-up tend and collapsable wagons I am buying for them
Cholla Library for almost an hour to update this blog for yesterday
SMIL (Southwest Medical Imaging) near I-17 and the 101 freeway for bone density screening. Evidently I lost another inch. They measured me at 5'7" :(
Optunm Senior center and gym where I got this new fan:
West Northern Avenue Esporta Fitness for a heavy arms workout and two more fans, adding 53 during the month of November, bringing my total to 1,015 so far:
Wayward Tap House for this evening's comedy show
- I did an all new set about being old (82) on my birthday Tuesday, Thanksgiving, worrying worrying when I was a kid vs now, my T-shirts and $100 line drawing contest. Although I did not get too many laughs, I DID successfully plan a new set, draw related icons, memorize them and include everything. In my books that is progress.
- Got to bed at 11:20 for 9:03 hours of sleep
-
