More work on Timeline, other website pages.
Resolved city claim that we didn’t pay taxes end of 2019. Finally TBOGC sent a proof of payment PDF.
UTMH – team mtg. Ball Associates and invoicing.
Mailed another 11 Still Stepping books. Continue reading
Category Archives: AmericanDelusions
4/30/2020 – 7/1/2020
I have not felt motivated to write much during this period. The pandemic and its associated tribulations interfere.
We’ve been quite busy with socializing mainly virtually but with warm weather outdoors chiefly people’s backyards. We’ve moved our drinks with Ted and Anne to our backyards on a weekly schedule. Dave Drake has come by for food a number of times. He is working his way through a myriad of curry dishes. Zoom meetings weekly with Esther Hanig, Ellen Feldman, Dave Drake, the Orton siblings, the Leiden crew.
With less regularity Andrea and company have Zoomed and appeared here physically. Though we have seen Noah and Nyla twice now in the backyard once including Noah’s girlfriend Kiara Guyton. Andrea actually talked with us for almost two hours in a singe stretch. Probably my longest conversation with her in decades. Nyla wrote a great high school essay, “Aunt Jemima Ain’t Chure Mammy”
3/4/2020 – work, AD, tennis
Wednesday
Worked on UTMH stuff for Leon Greene, met with documentation team, talked with Seth. No Somml telecon.
Spent several hours watching documentary The Century of the Self: the engineering of consent– documentary written by Adam Curtis BBC 2002. History of public relations in the 20th century – Freud, Bernard, et al. Very good summary. 4 hrs long. Took extensive notes. This will contribute to an emerging new model of what’s going on that starts with the rise of the individual in the wake of capitalism.
Tennis at Total Tennis.
5/18/2019 – HAL BoT meeting, Caroline Wilder, tennis, art exhibit Ghent, dinner
Saturday
Edsel outside of Bob’s Diner
Breakfast at Bob’s Diner. Karen went off to Center for Photography in Woodstock to do portfolio reviews. 
HAL Board of Trustee meeting. Only Gary Sheffer and Steve Dunn were missing. Talked about the upcoming Funders Party, the Gala, Long Range Planning, and Fundraising Committee. Pretty uneventful. 75 minutes.
Gallery sitting at DOG.
Caroline Wilder stopped by. We talked about how she can manage her small business in a manner congenial to her personality and business needs…..She wants to keep her dress business small and personal. Doesn’t need Quickbooks that she isn’t comfortable with anyways. I suggested a simple paper journal for the 200-300 transactions a year. When she pulled out a MacBook Air I remembered that she is a digital native, so extended my suggestion to Google Sheets or Apple Numbers. “Whatever technique is comfortable.” She can get her other financial information from her checking account, credit cards, Venmo and other digital finance tools. She left sayin g that she felt relieved about how to keep track of her finances and her business. I told her she had to come back in couple of months to show me how she is doing.
Pauline Decarmo came over at 3pm to finish out the gallery duty. I played tennis with Ted from 3:30 to 5pm. Starting to feel as though we are getting back into the swing of outdoor summer tennis.
Dave Drake came by for dinner. He had been back and forth to Chicago during the week unloading Lauren Schaeffer’s shit. We drove out to the Art School of Columbia County in Hollowville section of Ghent. Nick Tipple and Erika Born had work on display.
Janus, Roman God of Past & Future by Nicolas Tipple
5/17/2019 – work, work, dinner out
Friday
UTMH – met with Pauline Decarmo about collaterals printing. Notes to new sales people. Re-wrote the Tinkering with Capitalism essay. Mostly re-arranging text and eliminating extraneous material.
Telecon with Troy Web. 25 minutes wasted on project management tasks they should know how to do and be doing them. Then rambling discussions, frequently amongst themselves about various trifles. We have to get rid of them. They are expensive but not contributing.
Met with Michael Queralt with David and Seth. 3 hour discussion. He is very experienced technologist and entrepreneur. Next steps may be interesting. He is knowledgeable of the healthcare marketplace. Nice guy to boot.
Spoke with Tony Kieraldo about renewing the utmhealthcare.com website.
Sent note to Linda McNutt and Mike from Kach Inc. about the repairs to the front lattice and gate.
Wrote note to Sam and Dan Sapoznick about blockchain technology mentioned by Queralt.
Walked up to Swoon for dinner. Big crowd at bar when we walked in. Gave up on sitting at the bar and sat at a table for dinner. Two Dewars and two dinners $85. Ole Breuning and Crystal Heinz came in. Ole and I spoke of UTMH matters. I told him that we had been stuck for twenty minutes on the name of a guy sitting at the bar . Finally recalled, Victor Amendola. Ole said, “It was a senior moment.” I corrected him, “It was a senior intermission.”
Karen noticed these fire connections with upside down medallions.
5/15/2109 – sun, work, tennis
Wednesday
Sun early morning and mostly bright during the day – temperatures in low 60s. Almost spring like.
UTMH – meet with Michael Cole and Melissa Scherrif at Columbia County Mental Health to discuss the app project. Seth too. Then, in the afternoon Seth and I met with SOMML – contract finally signed. Also complained to each other about David’s behavior. Seth as frustrated as me. Talk again with Tony Kiieraldo about tomorrow’s telecon with David about the social media campaign.
Also did more work on the Tinkering with Capitalism essay.
Went over to Susan Rubin’s house at Crosswinds to assemble and put up a spice rack. Easy task. She shoed me around her two-bedroom townhouse. Really very well laid out, comfortable, with an amazing array of closets and fittings. She is very obviously very involved with yarn type projects. One large closet entirely devoted to yarn storage. She sent this picture.
Health
Finally got call back with results from colonoscopy. Everything normal. Turns out cut off age is 75. So another procedure in 2024. Also received call back from Dr. Subudhi about prostate MRI. Something there; need to do biopsy to establish whether it is cancer and what type. Need to research this a bit. Won’t do it until after return from Europe. He is a dreadful communicator.
Tennis
Played doubles at CGCC. Lots of fun. Joe’s grand son Dalton played. Very agile and quick with pretty terrific strokes. Kevin, Joe, Ted, Dalton, Paul, Ray, Tony and me. 4 sets. Played until dark. Down pour as we were leaving.
5/14/2019 – more rain and cold, work, carrot mushroom loaf
Tuesday
Another day of gray, cold, rainy weather.
Woke to find that Seth had revised his piece last night. Gave up on really reviewing this. Sent it to Pauline Decarmo for her to revise her layouts. Scheduled discussion with her for 4pm. Need to be much clearer about what we need.
Met with David and Tony Kieraldo for morning UTMH team telecon. Seth was sick. David muttered and gesticulated throughout the telecon. I put the phone on mute to prevent others from hearing this. Then, after the telecon, he announced that he didn’t want to listen to Tony’s very brief presentation about a new social media campaign. “Just send me the number of C level people who are on Twitter. Twitter is all crap” Very insulting behavior.
5/13/2019 – rain, gray, cold, work, nonfiction book group
Monday
Nasty weather continued. Finished reading Susan Orlean’s The Library Book for tonight’s book group meeting. More writing in the essay Tinkering with Capitalism – homeostasis. Physical therapy with Anna Marie Zietsman. Lots of muscle and ligament stretching right hip. Met with Seth around UTMH matters. Received draft of marketing pieces from Pauline Decarmo. Was appalled to discover how bad the writing was. Sent note to Seth with angry comments.
Library nonfiction reading group was small. But discussion of Orlean’s book was buoyant.
5/12/2019 – rain, cold, DOG, drinks at Swoon
Sunday
Cold, rainy, rain. Breakfast at Rivertown Lodge with Dave and Daniel Drake. Food so-so. Conversation buoyant.
DOG had some visitors despite weather.
Worked on new keynote capitalism essay. Biggest new claim concerns the ubiquity of regulators in every system except the economy. 
Then a bunch written on the What Matters essay.
Drinks at Swoon with Dave. Talked about Karen’s book project. Maybe pre-sell 500 copies.
Watched more Unforgotten and The Closer. 
4/16/2019 – cold, work, web project
Tuesday
Still feel pretty crappy. UTMH team meeting was short – 30 minutes. No Ole, Wexelman or Gayle.
Reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker piece, “Under Water – can engineers save Louisiana’s disappearing coast?” (4/1/19).
These two maps jump out as a starting point.
Wrote up a description of the HAL Fundraising Committee for next Saturday’s board mtg.
Spent rest of the morning and most of the afternoon updating transferred posts. Categories and tags.
Reviewed Karen’s book presentation for tomorrow. Only needs better sense of Parker’s condition, capabilities….
Made chicken salad for dinner. 
Watched MidSomers Murders followed by a Veep.