–What a day.

–Found Sherry a battery charger for a leaf blower she inherited.

–Attempted to etch my Shigefusa petty. Knocked over the ferric chloride. Now there are permanent stains on workbench, garage floor, and other places. Knife turned to rust while I was cleaning up, but I managed to get most of it straightened out @ 220 grit. Much more sanding needed before it looks nice and I can reconsider an etch.

–Facebook and Instagram are slow to the point of death on Firefox, and only a little better on Chrome and Safari. There’s no word on the web about problems on those sites. Now what?

–Took a shower and shave.

–Shun Kramer knife came in. Nice. Clean EDC ultem spinner came in. Nice.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Tried etching a Konosuke BY. The hard steel at the edge turned black quickly, and I thought it would be a winner. But the cladding was a little splotchy, and–in stages–I ended up taking it back to its original state. I just don’t know how people do this cleanly.

–Went over to Sherry’s last night to service her new Xfinity wifi router. Turns out it worked fine for my Mac and her iPad, but not her desktop Mac. After noticing that all URLs I typed in were prefaced by “norton-safe-search,” I turned off that extension and everything was fine. Her computer has all sorts of anti-scam stuff on it, though it may not all be running. Anyway, good for now, and a couple pieces of Costco pumpkin pie.

–Konosuke BY “Mount Stupid” came in. Absolutely stunning knife, but useless: the finish is so good I dare not use it or try some of my uchigumori tricks on it.

–Gareth Bull Wolf Mouse folder came in. It’s small and the design is such that when tightened so that blade is centered, it’s pretty much impossible to open as a front flipper. It did come with an aftermarket thumb stud, which I will leave on.

–Tiffany Wong (Davis Dermatology) canceled my upcoming appointment; rescheduled for December 17. Crap.

–Dank and drizzly day.

–Took Grace to UC Davis Health in Folsom for our flu and COVID shots.

–Stopped at Home Depot to get some ABS tubing for ferric chloride etching. Tried it on the Kato petty. Initially looked fairly promising; later it looked splotchy. I removed all traces with the belt grinder. One problem: this technique works best on knives with stainless cladding. I don’t know if I have any more of those. It’s possible I could turn my Konosukes into Tetsujin Metal Flows, but I really think it would take mega polishing skills that are beyond me. All the Konos have these faint parallel lines from the factory that (I believe) would be super hard to polish out. Even worse: The newer Kono BY knives (among others) are too big at the heel to fit in the 2″ ABS pipe I bought for etching. Crap.

–Looking at getting a Leica D-Lux 8 100 Years. Thought they were newish; they’ve been out since 2024. You can’t win for losing, though: eBay used are $2,500 plus tax; Malaysian new are $2,500 plus tariffs. Crap.

–Worked on plants a while.

–Paul Newman sourdough meatball pizza for dinner. Okay, but once is enough.

–Got out sharpeing stones and played with a couple of Grace’s knives. Turns out the coticule is a fabulous stone, while the gorgeous Japanese natural is terrible–hard, no feedback, etc. Will toss, along with a bunch of synthetics.

–Bought/won all kinds of stuff: a Clean EDC ultem spinner, a quite rare Shun/Kramer chef’s knife, and a Gareth Bull Wolf Mouse. Crazy.

–Much dialog with an eBay seller of a custom Kramer. Long story short: Offered at $18,000, I bid$10,000 which was automatically rejected, then bid $14,000. That offer expired. I scolded the seller, who came back with “it was eBay’s fault; I never saw the offer.” He in turn offered $15,000, which I quickly declined. To be fair, these silly Kramer prices have held for years; just 2x-4x what I might be willing to pay.

–Went to Costco to pick up the new Philips hearing aids. All went fine and I totally understood everything the audiologist woman said. Back at home with Grace, though, it doesn’t seem to have made much of an improvement.

–Stopped at Grocery Outlet for Grace’s odds and ends, to drop off our votes, and to pick up a couple of cheap pizzas.

–Went outside around 5 PM with Groucho glasses and candy. Saw Sherry, Kenny, Ann Haas, the Stults, and a whole bunch of parents and kids (Stults buddies I believe).

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Played around with the Leica SL (601). Got it set up as well as it can be for me: can only program one thumb wheel, shutter speed for me. ISO needs a button push then a thumb wheel. Still, magnification is easy and works well, it seems have anti-shake, and it takes nice photos.

–Bought a Konosuke BY “Mount Stubborn” stamp on Reddit. Kind of scary: I thought they were rare, but within one minute of posting the WTB I had three sellers hounding me. The one I bought wasn’t the cheapest, but it is absolutely gorgeous and flawless. In other news, my offer on the eBay Kramer knife has had zero response. Asshole.

–Italpizza Cheesy Pizza for dinner. Delicious.

–Went to UPS to drop off the Kramer Carbon knife that I’m returning to Amazon.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cream.

–Roasted some Brazilian coffee beans.

–Sabatier came in from eBay (seller got it at Bernal Cutlery). Unbelievably fine, straight, blemish-free blade and a nice handle. What a treasure!

–Bob Kramer Carbon came in. Feels good in hand, but has a small bit of pitting. Will try to return.

–Went to see Urology PA Neasha McNear at UC Davis Health on River Park Dr. Pain in the ass getting there, but visit was fine. Next visit will be back with Christine Oeur in Elk Grove, who’s been on maternity leave.

–Got a Blaze Meat-Lover’s pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Second Braun 380 shaver came. I destroyed the first taking it apart to clear a blemish I thought was inside. It was outside. Today’s Braun came with a blemish that was definitely on the inside. I took it apart after seeing a video that suggested I could do it without marring anything. Like the first, I broke a tiny plastic tab at the start, so just went ahead and mauled it. Blemish was utterly unreachable anyway. The plastic on these things (as on Homedics toothbrushes) is either really crappy and/or degrades fast with age. I don’t see how a pro could reliably open one of these up for battery replacement without breaking something.

–Tried for third time to get Libre Office going nicely on the Mac. Can’t be done. As it turns out, LO on Windows machines splits out all the executables so you can run them independently; not so the Mac. Grrrr……[edit] Turns out Reddit is alive with complaints about Microsoft sneakily trying to force everyone who bought Office to start renting it. And true to Reddit form, there’s a post detailing step by step how one can wipe out all traces of Microsoft from one’s Mac, then download (from Microsoft) the latest pre-rent version of Office 2021 (for which you have to have had a valid license) and install it such that Microsoft never bugs you again about upgrading, updating, etc. Yay!!

–Took a shower and shave.

–Pizza for dinner. Not great.

–Went to New York Bagel Cafe for….bagels.

–Went to Corti Brothers for jam. I checked out Hooverville Orchards’ website, and it really seems that they’re all baked goods now, and nothing but.

–Kind of a nothing day. Watched the 49ers lose; sharpened one of Grace’s Mac knives.

–I did manage to get (accidentally) get rid of the obnoxious Instagram notification icons that have been plaguing me for weeks. Google AI couldn’t do it, despite a 3 or 4-level deep dive into IG. IG forced me to change my password because I had logged in on another device.(?) It then locked me out for some reason, and forced me to get Whatsapp on my phone to get a code. Code never came, and and I bumbled into changing my password—-and the icons were gone! FB and IG are just crap, but they have marketplaces that no one else has.

–Stouffer’s lasagna for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up the (Chinese) Leica Q2 thumb grip.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, dessert, cheap Yoplait ($.49 each for 10+).

–Cheefarcut sharpener came in. Took some doing to set up (marred the clamp; may buy another), but it works quite nicely in terms of putting a nice sharp even edge on Kenny’s knife. The stone and strop that came with it are super high quality. But: after standing for an hour or two, I’m completely wiped out. Crap.

–The two Sabatier knives came in. Kinda crappy. Also a Griffin spin stick, $450, came in. Also kinda crappy.

–Two Konosuke BY gyutos came in today. One was pristine, the other had some patina. I spent a fair bit of time polishing both with uchigumori slurry. They look fabulous now.

–Went to Bel Air for some sales items. There was a big U-Haul truck parked in front of the former Rite-Aid store; I hope a business is moving in.

–A gray, cool, slightly drizzly day. Great reminder of what life on the coast would be much of the time.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Cleaned up my room a bit–put cameras away, cataloged fidgets, etc.

–Worked on the Watanabe gyuto. I maybe found a really nice procedure for polishing/emphasizing kasumi: moisten the coarse diamond hone, rub the uchigumori stone on it to create a slurry, use a small square of worn ultra-fine 3M sanding sponge to rub the slurry into the blade. Straight up and down motions work, but leave lines (not scratches, just lines). Circular rubbing up and down the blade seems to create a very nice finish. It only took 20 years to figure out…

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, dessert.

–Motor City pizza for dinner with the 49ers. Yummy!

–Had a showdown between Leica SL2-S with its huge 50mm lens and Sony A7R V with its small, light, cheap 55mm lens. Both are extremely sharp, Sony shows a little more noise, but for now the Sony controls are much nicer. Even with auto everything I can use the top dials to change shutter speed and ISO. Add in 2.5 times the resolution and half the weight and the Sony wins.

–Figured out (thanks to Reddit) how to get AI noise reduction working in Lightcraft. It’s a pretty astonishing program: ultra fast, most of the capabilities of Lightroom, easier to navigate. It does (in my hands, anyway) seem to produce a harsher high-contrast photo, and often one or two controls will have almost no effect. But they’re working on it.

–Did some knife polishing. Nothing astounding yet, but progress is being made.

–Played with cameras. Both the SL2-S and the A7R V are something of a mystery to me.

–Made a pizza. Not bad.

–Got a call from UC Davis Dermatology: Could I come in early? I did, 10 AM, got the treatment. Major burning/stinging for the first 5-10 minutes (of 16), alleviated by a small handheld fan. Now we wait and see.

–Got money to burn, so I’m buying another Konosuke BY without the Mount Stupid kokunin.

–Replacement switch came in for the Timemore grinder. I installed it–not that hard but not easy either–and it seems to work. Poorly designed switch I think.

–Bought a Konosuke BY from Saul Diaz via reddit r/TrueChefKnivesBST.

–Tried checking things out at UPS, and it’s a horrible mess. Partly my fault, as I apparently flipped a switch a while back that told them to send everything to the UPS store. I unflipped that today, but it’s still a mess. For example, I had two accounts: wsf7147 (apparently only via Firefox) and wsfarr (apparently only at Chrome). The Chrome account would not allow a straight login; they flip to a screen that forces login via social networking site (FB, IG, etc.), which doesn’t work. It seemed as though I successfully changed password, then deleted ALL Chrome cookies and tried again: same result. So for now, UPS is only accessible via Firefox.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Went to Creekside Endodontics for a consultation. Back lower left tooth is apparently eating itself from inside (resorption), possibly as a result of an impacted wisdom tooth pressing on it long ago. The nerve is alive and there’s nothing to be done except keep an eye on it. Eventually it may have to be extracted and replaced.

–Put up a “Buying” post at subreddit r/truechefknivesBST for a Konosuke BY with even cladding. Got a hit an hour later from a guy in NJ. He posted a video of a BY with quite even cladding, selling for $820. I’ll buy it, after seeing a confirmation video from him tomorrow. Pretty amazing.

–Creekside Endodontics said they would charge me $960 for the consultation. I blew up, called to cancel, and was informed that Delta would cover part of a $2,100 bill and I would pay $960–for consultation AND same-day root canal. Okay. Thing is, I don’t think a root canal is the issue here, but we’ll see. Then I had to fill out a 127-page medical history + legal forms, on my phone. Gettin’ real tired of the way medicine is going.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) a Faith Evermore spinner (great design, too small), (b) an LIC EDC Smoothie spinner, (c) an Uchigumori stone I ordered from Bernal Cutlery. The stone has promise for polishing cladding, but there will be a learning curve. The Smoothie spun okay twice, then sort of quit. I used all of my bearing tools trying to get the bearing out (and crushed a plastic collar to death), then put it in the vise and used big Channellocks successfully. The first Fushi bearing I put in it sort of failed quickly, and the second seemed to work. Very hard to press in. The spinner also has some judder when spinning, and does not spin for a really long time. My theory is they drilled the hole too small, so the bearing gets deformed, tilted and/or crushed when inserted, thus affecting spin.

–Went to Staples to pick up some Post-It notes, but–though the sign was still there–Staples has been replaced by a kitchen/bath store and a bedroom/mattress store. Crap.

–Sold and sent a second knife (Kono Fujiyama 240) to Kevin Cao. I hope the knives make it to Sweden: Pirate Ship was way too cheap and easy for those transactions.

–Getting distinctly cooler over the past couple days.

–Got bagels and bagel dogs (for Grace) at the New York Bagel Cafe.

–Stopped at Bel Air to pick up a Monday special: five donuts/pastries for $5. Hard to beat.

–Put a new, much bigger battery in Grace’s solar ornament hanging outside my shower window.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Finally finished the transaction selling my Kato workhorse to Kevin Cao in Sweden for $1,400. Kind of a pain in the ass, EXCEPT for Pirate Ship. With easy-as-pie input, they shipped UPS Expedited, $1,000 insurance, for $43. No customs forms or anything. Unbelievable.

–Made a pizza for dinner using bread flour (super-manageable dough), mozzarella, boiled-down Cento tomatoes, and some of Jan’s peppers–one of which was really hot.

–Didn’t do much besides taking pictures of knives to sell.

–Doing a lot of work with lights and cameras trying to sell some knives to a guy on Facebook.

–Watered plants.

–Gold River real estate is going down the tubes. In 3Q26, TEN homes sold on Gold Country Blvd. Worse (much worse) 1973 Discovery Village–3 beds, 3 baths, 2100 square feet–sold for $490k. Our house–2/2/1600–sold for $551k four years ago, and is apparently worth just that today. Kee-rap!

–Went to Corey Bafford, dentist. He found what might be an abscess or something that would rot a tooth from the inside, so referred me Creekside Endodontics, where I’m pretty sure a $2,000 root canal awaits.

–Got the Konosukes cataloged (more or less) and sent Kevin Cao some pics of two Fujiyamas that I would sell.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Italpizza for dinner. I put pepperoni on it; probably shouldn’t have.

–Went to see Tiffany Wong, dermatology, in Folsom. She was serious and somber this time, as opposed to the first visit where she was bubbly and vivacious. Oh well. She did get me a referral to the office in Sacramento where they do the blue light therapy.

–Continued cataloging my Konosuke knives–all 13 of them. It’ll be a miracle if I get them all classified correctly.

–Moving all my kitchen knives from one closet to another, and updating the catalog. Lotsa nice stuff there.

–Imitation Italpizza for dinner. Not so hot.

–Picked up DMV placard application at UC Davis Health. Submitted online. Firefox failed 5 times. Chrome succeeded first time. Proof:

Thank you. We have received your information, and your application is in our queue. Your application ID is: DMV-VO:8182758

–Put the purple leaf succulent cuttings in soil in one of the Pot Stop pots and watered them.

–Grace is back in a mood.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market looking for another Ambrosia cantaloupe, but their season is done. Lots of other melons, but too risky for me.

–Went to Costco for new hearing aids. New tech there was stiff at first, but opened up after I charmed her with my wit and repartee. I’ll be getting the newest Philips model–9050–rechargeable with silicone ear molds. She tuned my present aids based on the hearing test, and it’s noticeably better.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and dessert.

–Biked to UPS to send off Matteo Diolaiti’s birthday present.

–Took Grace to Bel Air for lettuce, then to Grocery Outlet for pizzas.

–Paid property taxes of $7,055.38 out of the Heritage checking account.

–Destroyed a Fordite spin stick trying to turn it into a couple of beads.

–Went to Crate and Barrel at Roseville Galleria for some Chemex filters. Then to UPS to pick up some drugs from Amazon. This is the same Amazon that stated firmly that drugs could only be delivered to my house. Gotta make sure Amazon and UPS have only my home address. Then to Brainy Zoo in Fair Oaks for a birthday present for Matteo. Closed. Then to Bel Air for cereal and cream.

–Tried hard, but could never get Android Auto working in the BMW. The car seemed to recognize the phone, but would never connect. This could be hard to sort out.

–Went back to Brainy Zoo later and got the toy.

–Marie for dinner.

–Went to New York Bagel Cafe for bagels and brownies.

–Watered plants.

–Spent a long time looking for a shower head of specific design for Kenny, only to find he already has one (completely different).

–Rode 10.5 miles with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. While I was gone, Grace broke “my” cereal bowl. I believe that’s the third glass thing she’s broken in a few weeks.

–Giving up on a coastal getaway. Can’t fight cold/fog AND Grace.

–Dropped off bottles and cans at the recycling center.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips.

–Shopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, dessert, veggies.

–Took a shower and shave. The shave was awful; don’t know if it was the Wolfman WR1 and/or the dull razor blade. Will retire the Wolfman anyway.

–Slow day. Found out Lightroom subscription ended yesterday, and Adobe makes it close to impossible to re-start at $9.99 a month. Best they can do (without a phone call) is $11.99. Crap.

–Another fabulous pizza that came out soggy. No more of that.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Went to the DMV site to see where my application for a disabled placard was. Turns out it’s probably in the garbage. They have a whole new system now where I fill out the form online, take it to the MD for a signature, make a jpg out of it, then upload it, along with a photo of my license, to DMV. Un-be-fucking-lievable. Now I have to make another visit to Dr. Montemayor and start all over again.

–Hot and muggy today.

–Refilled bird feeder; watered plants.

–Roasted some Colombian beans. That roaster is so good I don’t understand how it has serious competition.

–Made pizza with my dough, Grace’s (watery) sauce, leftover bell peppers, Mozzarella cheese from Bel Air. Cooked at 550 for 8 minutes. It was good, though soggy. Hoping thicker sauce will be better and validate the cooking method.

–Went to Bel Air for milk and cookies.

–After several false starts, I found that Turbo Tax has a “what if” feature built in. I used it to see the tax bite for various levels of IRA withdrawals. Bottom line: $300k is about the max I could stomach. This would get me half the PG duplex or the entire HMB condo.

–Marie’s meat loaf for dinner–the only one I can enjoy at present.

–More to come, but a quick comparison of Canon Kiss–low-resolution, cheap zoom lens, auto-focus–blew away the Leica SL2-S on a shot of the button cactus. Canon was sharper and much more saturated. I also thought I had really nailed manual focus on the Summicron 50. We’ll see.

–Went to UPS to drop off the Samsung Z Flip 5 trade-in and pick up some nice Sacred Spin buttons.

–Really depressed about things in general and coastal weather in particular. Half Moon Bay shows partly cloudy with highs in the low 60s for the next 10 days. Same with Pacific Grove. Seems like if I bought a condo in HMB I’d cross 92 first chance I got and enjoy some sunshine.

–Was going to ask Tom Elken to come over for a ride tomorrow, but Grace had a fit about cleaning up. Wrote an email to Tom’s accountant (in Montana) to ask for help in devising an optimum strategy for buying a second home.

–Canon Kiss camera came in. Got it (sort of) set up, but don’t want to put on mosquito suit to go out and takes photos.

–Samsung Z Flip 8 came in. Way beyond the Razr in every way. Thinner, lighter, feels better in hand. Had a lot of trouble with hearing aids UNTIL I asked Google and it told me to turn them off on the previous phone. Perfect now. Also got the pacemaker monitor app working, after a phone call to Medtronic. Apparently you can’t have phone app and bedside monitor going at the same time, so I was instructed to return the bedside device when it comes in. All good now, just have to set up screen layouts, sounds and such.

–Bel Air Italpizza for dinner.

–Amazingly, found what could be an ideal condo in Half Moon Bay. More to come.

–Also amazingly, an Instagram ad hooked me with a quick clip of the best knife sharpening system I’ve ever seen. Bought it immediately. Can hardly wait.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Wot a day.

–Called Vector; they will send me a bedside monitor for the Medtronic pacemaker, since the Motorola Razr 2025 I’m now using won’t work with the My Heart app. Free, apparently.

–Got a call from Sandy McCarthy Elken’s daughter, a local Coldwell Banker realtor. She put me in touch with Lucie Campos, a Pacific Grove CB realtor who, in 23 years, has sold a billion dollars worth of properties. That’s a lot of homes, considering what prices were 23 years ago. I need to talk to an accountant soon.

–Got bagels at the New York Bagel Cafe. Got a breakfast bagel too.

–Went to the Verizon store to sort out the mess I made trying to set up my Verizon account with the 2025 Razr. Spent a half hour there at a set-up cost of $39.99, and all seems good. There are STILL issues with Verizon needing to verify me EVERY time I try to log in on the Mac. Seriously annoying, but hopefully I won’t need to log in often, and it’s easy to log in on the phone.

–Played with phones again, all day. Got the old Razr running on Tello after a call to their help desk. Turns out it works poorly with my hearing aids, AND, when I tried again to switch to the new Razr, I got locked out again. A little research showed Tello does this as policy, and it always requires a phone call to get back in. Sooooo…I moved to Verizon. Yes it’s $30/month, but I’m hopeful they’ll be a little more lenient on new phones. Also, Verizon will be on the new phone, and I’m hoping it will work better with the hearing aids. If not, I’ll try the incoming Samsung Z Flip 50000000, and if that don’t work, back to the iPhone. Gettin’ tired of this stuff.

–Grace’s super-nice mood of the past few days went back to surly today.

–Kenny took us to lunch at Carmelita’s in Fair Oaks. Pretty good stuff.

–Searched for and learned a lot about pacemaker monitoring. Long story short: if my Android phone do it, there are devices that will.

–Bought a new Samsung Flip, then decided to go back to my old Motorola Razr 2023, because of its ergonomics. Visible is being unbelievably resistant to making the change. Like EVERY time I try to log in, it says “Okay, let’s set you up with 2FA.” I go through the motions, and it usually freezes at some point so I have to start over again. Curse these guys.

–Went on a 10-mile bike ride with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. Stayed a while to chat about second houses. I get the feeling he’s too down on Pacific Grove weather to be interested in the duplex–plus he doesn’t walk easily, so PG’s high Walk Score is not a huge draw for him.

–Motorola Razr came in. Pretty easy to switch phones at Visible. Razr has a lot to like, e.g. it seems much better at automatically setting up and remembering auto logins to web sites. However, it does NOT work with my Medtronic monitoring app, so I may have to get another device, like a “bedside monitor.” It also sends but does not receive text messages from Grace, even after a ton of “fixes.” Maybe later, after iMessage has been completely de-registered…

–Pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS for (I thought) a couple packages. “Not in the system yet,” he said. Turns out they were in our home mailbox. I guess “USPS has delivered…” looks too much like “UPS has delivered…”. I’ll learn.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream cheese, bagels.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to Lowe’s for Whink (removes anodizing), Bona and mop sponge for Grace.

–Spent a LONG time polishing the LIC EDC Edamame from Drake Sexton. Whink worked great, but revealed several dings deep enough to be resistant to polishing. Finally got it decent, but not perfect.

–Took a short bike ride (tiring), then rode to UPS to pick up some bearing tool parts from Monoskate. It’s a bizarre collection of parts. Some of the metal parts look appropriate, but they don’t fit anything, and there are no bearing pushers. Pretty much useless.

–Went with Grace to the Folsom farmers market for melon, tomatoes, garlic.

–Stopped at UPS for something, then picked up three packages from our mailbox. Got nice fidget buttons, an LIC EDC Edamame, some spin stick beads, and the Galfer brake rotors for the InnerLight.

–Installed the rotors. They make a slight swooshing sound, but seem perfect; also a little thicker than the others so the lever feel is great. InnerLight has reached its final form.

–Went with Grace to Costco for toilet paper, Kleenex, muffins, San Pellegrino.

–Stopped at Smart & Final for groceries.

–Went over to Kenny’s to watch an electrician fix his rear patio light.

–Super hot today, and kind of stuffy.

–Went to UPS to pick up spin stick, then Grocery Outlet for Italpizza. No Italpizza, so got a couple of clones.

–Watched the penultimate episode of the latest Reacher. This season is far below the level of the previous three.

–Found a “master list” of pirate streaming sites on reddit. Hoping one of them works for the Australia 49ers game today. Pretty soon there will be nothing on network TV except “news” and scumbag lawyer ads.

–Went to Dr. Aryana’s office for an appointment made months ago, which I suspected had been canceled since he did the surgery. It had been canceled, with no word from them.

–Played with spinner bearing tools for a bit.

–Got a Blaze Margherita pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Went to see PA Tiffany Wong, Dermatology, UC Davis Health on Turn Pike in Folsom. She was great: knowledgeable, thorough, chipper. She nuked a few, will have me back in a month to look at a gnarly one, then again in six months as normal. What a relief!

–Stopped at UPS for (a) fidget bearing tool (okay, but I really need to sort these out in terms of collars and such for 188 AND 106 bearings; (b) three abrasive wheels from China (total crap, hard as rocks, tossed); (c) 106 bearings (installed in the Rotobow—dead silent and smooth; (d) four 3M Scotchbrite belts from Curry. These are very nice. I used a couple on Kenny’s Wusthof and the new Devin Thomas, and they worked great. Finally!

–Stouffer’s stuffed peppers for dinner.

–Went over to Kenny’s with Grace to try and figure out his low-voltage outdoor light that isn’t working. Didn’t get very far: our meter showed that maybe .9V was getting to the bulb, while Kenny’s cheaper meter would flash briefly at the lowest level (6 volts, maybe) and that was it. So, either we haven’t exposed enough shiny uncorroded wire yet, or there’s something amiss farther back in the system.

–Took a shower and shave. N of 1, but the Martin de Candre Rose soap I used today gave a really close, smooth and comfortable shave, in contrast to the super-rare and expensive Vetiver I’ve been using for a while.

–Spent a LONG time sorting through camera boxes trying to find the (mislabeled) Leica SL2-S I was fiddling with a couple days ago to see if changing the Viewfinder Sensitivity from High to Low made any difference in how quickly it blacks out when moved way from the eye. I couldn’t discern a difference, and it’s still WAY worse than the exact same model with a Reporter skin. Beats me.

–Went to Chalk It Up 2026. Parking was pretty straightforward. Weather was coolest ever. Event wasn’t so great: Numerous empty squares, much less “fine art.”

–Stopped at Osaka-Ya for peanut butter mochi. They’re charging 4% now for non-cash payments. Things continue to deteriorate.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for a melon.

–Biked to UPS to pick up the Case Razor knife. Centered, not tight, very pretty after a bunch of polishing.

–Made a Boboli pizza for dinner, with Honey-Baked Ham and tomato. That ham doesn’t really work on pizza. Not sure what it does work on.

–Went to UPS to pick up Lil Roo Roo spinner. Stopped at Bel Air for corn.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, plum tomatoes; had with Grace’s potato salad. Tasty!

–Finally got cameras sorted out. SL2-S Reporter in business now…….for a while anyway.

–Got bagels, banana bread, bagel dogs at New York Bagels. Picked up Brother drum assembly at UPS. Installed it and printing is perfect.

–Learned at UPS that they starting to implement overage fees. I’m fuzzy on details, but opted for middle tier. Payment won’t be required until renewal in February 2027, but I don’t know when they start applying charges. I’ll be dropping them at renewal; may go to the Olsen store, may just get packages at home. Is it greed? Yes, as all of these tiers and charges are 100% optional for individual UPS franchisees.

–Played with Leicas a bit, updating firmware. May go back to SL2-S, black or Reporter.

–Went to see Dr. Nandyal in Roseville. Nothingburger.

–Had lunch at Jersey Mike’s in Folsom. Good as usual.

–Went to see Dr. Montemayor in Folsom. She put in a referral to Dermatology; they will call me. She filled out the DMV placard form. She was a little reluctant, but I swayed her with my sob stories.

–Rode 8+ miles on the ARP. Drank lots of water. Seemed less tired at the end than yesterday. Blood pressure was better, but still had a little dizziness when standing on occasion. More water!

–Went to UPS to pick up Indy Thicc Wee Yeti. It’s far too wee. Stopped at Bel Air milk, cream, dessert, dinner pizza.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Took the InnerLight for a 6-mile ride. Tiring, but the new cranks were okay once I got the seat up high enough. Unfortunately, started feeling pretty dizzy when standing. Blood pressure was quite low at 92/63 or so. Will tell the docs and see what they say.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for a melon and some tomatoes.

–Helped Kenny check a light bulb on his back patio. None of the three bulbs we tried would light up, so it appeaars to be a deeper problem.

–Went to the new restaurant Bocce in East Sacramento to pick up the Devin Thomas knife from the restaurant owner, Joe Pruner. Knife was better in some ways than anticipated, worse in others, with a “cut” (don’t know how else to describe it) that didn’t come out after some work with Scotchbrite belts, and may be there for good. Also, previous sharpening (by a blacksmith I’m told) was fairly crude, left a lot of scratches near the edge, and was of uneven width on one side. I tried to correct it–not too hard–but it’s still there. Could be the sharpening, could be the blade geometry; I’ve had at least one Devin knife with a bad grind. I may send it off to a sharpening/refinishing pro, if I can find one.

–Spent a little time trying to get the screech out of the front brake on the bike; failed. There’s really nothing more I can do. Will see if it rides out, maybe look into new disc rotors.

–Picked up another Toujours Moi compact at UPS. Nice looking, still plenty of creme perfume left, smelling exactly like the first two I bought.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert.

–Watered plants and added water to fountain–wherein a rufous towhee took a bath!

–Took Grace to Smart & Final and KP Market. Then to UPS for (a) M3 spinner (very nice) and vintage Rotobow spinner. Rotobow was cosmetically challenged, so when polish didn’t work I hit it with a fine 3M sponge. It’s pretty now, and a very compelling fidget.

–Picked up the InnerLight at Mike’s bikes. A short spin around the block left me unsatisfied: front brake makes scratching noises, rear brake shows a fair amount of pressure expansion (hard squeeze gets lever close to handlebar), and stopping power is weak. Really hoping I can sand discs and pads, adjust bite point, break them in, etc. to make them better than what they replaced.

–Missed out on a password drop at Indy Thicc while futzing around trying to log into Shop–unnecessarily. Then noticed a FCFS for a zirmascus bit driver from Griffin Fidgets. Though I was only the 5th or so responder, I was the first to comment “In,” so I got it.

–Bought a Devin Thomas gyuto at Kitchen knife Forums in need of refurbishment (and thus somewhat cheap). After I paid and told the guy my address, he said that he’s only 13 miles away and is just opening a new restaurant called Bocce on Folsom. So I’ll go there tomorrow and pick up the knife.

–Quiet day. Went to Jasper’s Giant Burgers for a couple of blue cheese burgers to have for Grace’s birthday while watching a pre-season 49ers game.

–InnerLight was supposed to be ready with new brakes at Bob’s Bikes today. It isn’t.

–My number came up at Wolfman razors, so I ordered about the most expensive razor he makes: high-polish titanium.

–Picked up a couple more spin sticks at UPS.

–Dr. Swensson canceled out of my upcoming appointment (out of office, they said) and instead I will see Gertrudes Montemayor, MD. Starting to wonder about Swensson: apart from canceling two appointments, she referred me to cardiologist Deepa Nandyal in Roseville. Dr. Nandyal, I now find, has terrible reviews from when she was at Kaiser: 2.3 out of 5 stars. I must admit she seemed like a cipher to me until I had symptoms, whence she got me a visit with Dr. Aryana tootsweet. What a mess.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up a boatload of stuff, including liver of sulfur. Finally got it all entered into my spreadsheet.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Spent a lot of time looking atcoastal real estate. Figured a way to maybe buy something for a million: $400k down from my cash stash, $4k/month mortgage payments from my IRA. This would be the same draw-down as I’m doing now ($50k/year), and so should not have disastrous tax consequences. And there’s no 10% early withdrawal penalty since I’m over 59-1/2. PROBLEM IS: leaving a house empty 90% of the time invites crime, whereas HOA dues on a safe condo are $1–$1.5k a month. And of course the million dollar floor is mostly fixer-uppers, a mile from the beach, Seascape, etc. CRAP!!

–Took a shower and shave. I was hoping that small scab at the bottom of my pacemaker scar would come of, but it didn’t. I don’t think it’s threatening, but it is annoying.

–Paid $1,467.39 State Farm homeowner’s policy. That’s up from $1,000 in 2023.

–Made cherry tomato compote (confit), fulfilling another rite of summer. Pretty good, though a little too many red pepper flakes.

–Went with Grace to Folsom farmers market–for the first time in a long time. Went for a melon (got a big one, but when cut it still fit easily in one container), also got tomatoes, squash, almonds, and a whole bunch of jam from a nice jam lady–who will give us a bottle of jam when we return 10 empty bottles.

–Went to UPS for (a) standoffs for spin sticks, (b) LIC Gravy buttons (astonishingly personalized packaging, as usual), (c) Altar spin stick in mokume (fine, but mokume is so highly polished on the spin piece (I added to polish to remove a blemish) that it just looks like brass. I’m going to have to learn to etch mokume.

–Stopped at Bel Air for turkey patties, corn, cookies.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn; ate with tomato and Claire’s potato salad, both sprinkled with finely chopped rosemary–to little effect.

–Got bagels at New York Bagels. Plus banana bread and bagel dogs.

–Went to UPS for (a) second Toujours Moi compact. Nice compact, but the creme was minimal and degraded, so didn’t smell for long; (b) second Edge Industries spin stick. It’s a little shorter/lighter than the first, but in impeccable condition.

–Brought out the Dunlap Elephant Toe again–can’t keep my hands off it. Took it to the garage; set up the knife holder on the workbench; refinished the large blade with a Fine 3M pad; then sharpened. To my astonishment, the refinish looks decent and the edge is sharp. Fifteen years ago, when I was doing this daily, I would have totally ruined it. Re-beginners luck, perhaps, though I’ve noticed similar results in the recent past.

–Took InnerLight and new brakes to Bob’s Bikes for installation. It’s too hot and I have too many mosquito bites (5-6 in the last two weeks on my lower legs) to do it myself.

–Put gas in the Honda at Fair Oaks Arco.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Jim Dalton Elephant Toe knife. It’s big and has very nice fit, but the finish is kind of sloppy compared to–say–Gareth Bull. I’ll consign it (and a hundred others) at Arizona Custom Knives. (b) Lautie spin stick. I thought the thing on top of it would spin, but no, you buy a spinner separately. Tossed–parts aren’t interchangeable with anything. (c) A second Yoshizaki spin stick. Dark finish (like the first, not my favorite), very nice spins. (d) Vintage Corday Toujours Moi Creme compact. Intaglio glass, very cool, creme seems fully intact and still smells great after almost 100 years.

–Went to see Destiny at Aryana’s office downtown. Blood pressure was low: 92/62 orso. And I’ve been feeling especially dizzy when standing all day. In other news, Destiny said the pacemaker is doing great, everything is excellent, see you at the end of December. Good news! P.S. I said it still seems like arrhythmia is there on occasion. She looked at a massive printout (from my pacemaker monitor, I presume) and said “It’s only about 3 episodes per hour, entirely fine.”

–Stopped at UPS for (a) second Kruk/Kuip t-shirt (bought two because I feared first was coming from Sri Lanka and wouldn’t be here until Christmas); (b) Umburry spinner in aluminum (nice, but way too light to be satisfying); (c) SF Giants Hello Kitty doll (was hoping it would be a bobblehead; it isn’t).

–Stopped at Beach Hut Deli for a BLT: yum!

–Went to UPS for (a) Brother printer cartridge, (b) Griffin spin stick (short but nice), (c) a couple of needle-nose vise grips from Amazon along with slip-on jaw pads (for gripping things like spin sticks without marring), (b) button succulent to replace the one that’s been dying for the last 10 years or so. There are like two tiny leaves left on that one, but I’m not hopeful.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, dessert, yogurt for Grace.

–Went to UPS for (a) Yoshizaki spin stick (great spin, though brass is blackened and cannot be polished), (b) Sleep Coin for Grace, (c) vintage Sheaffer erasers–good stuff.

–Played with Leica CL Paul Smith. Problem is (for macro photos of spinners and such) that I have zero macro lenses–only point-and-shoot cameras with macro capabilities.

–Played with cameras some. Once again the Leica D-Lux 4 Safari outdid everything I put it up against. It’s a mind-boggling camera.

–Pulled out some Shigefusas to check before selling, and noticed some fairly nasty rust spots on a couple that were NOT in boxes–kitaeji yanagiba and kurouchi petty. With great trepidation I took them out to the belt grinder and–a miracle–made them both close to perfect; they’re sharp too. Whew!

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) Kruk and Kuip t-shirt for Grace, (b) LIC EDC Mega Mini Mamae in ultem, along with some timascus cross-hatch buttons. Both came in the legendary LIC boxes (buttons usually don’t), so naturally I was thrilled.

–Stopped at Grocery Outlet for pizzas and ice cream.

–Worked on plants a little.

–Pizza and Jan’s peppers for dinner.

–Went to Hooverville Orchards for jam; they’re not selling it at the moment because of some state licensing issues or something. It wasn’t clear if they ever would be selling jam again. Got a $26 apple pie.

–Stopped at UPS for Billetspin spin stick (nice, but fixed end is not removable as I had requested) and RockinB spin stick (very nice, with lots of extensions and light press fit bearing, which I swapped out for a Fushi).

–Played with plants. Hacked off many branches from the overgrown jade-like plant Kenny gave me, as it had developed a serious lean.

–Was thinking of going to Hooverville Orchards, but didn’t feel like it.

–Messaged Dr. Deepa Nandyal regarding my angiogram results. A nurse wrote back that the radiology group is running 2-3 weeks behind. They hope to get my results before I meet with Dr. Nandyal September 1.

–Biked to UPS to pick up (a) chicken game t-shirt; (b) Umburry spin stick: it’s small but okay. I did manage to replace the bearing (a light press fit) with one of my (c) Fushi bearings, silent as ever; (d) Sheaffer erasers–the wrong type. Don’t know why I picked C, when a 20-second search of purchases on eBay revealed the last (proper) ones were A; (e) Nautilus spinner. It’s brass, heavy, cool and came with many dings and digs. A few minutes on the bench grinder cleared most of them up.

–Weather is cool enough that we can open patio doors after dinner.

–Biked to UPS to pick up ALUMAfx spinner. Very cool piece in the way it comes apart.

–Played with cameras a bit, trying to talk myself into the new M with electronic viewfinder. Turns out it’s pretty much an M11 with the viewfinder (same sensor) or a Q3 that allows lens changes. Not worth $7k–$8k.

–Italpizza for dinner, with added pepperoni (that didn’t add much).

–Season 4 of Reacher finally came out; I downloaded the first three episodes.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) LIC Roo Roo (nice, with box), (b) Loctite 222, (c) Billetspin spin stick (I marred it trying to disassemble; ordered a nicer one from them), and (d) Ziii Studio mokume buttons, which are so highly polished that they look like plain brass, with no pattern discernible.

–Kenny called this afternoon wanting help with a fingertip blood oxygen reader. He felt bad enough to visit his doctor today, and the doc was worried about his COPD. Prescribed Prednisone, Azithromycin and the meter. I set up the meter for him and got readings of 98-100 for me, low 70s for him. I had him breathe deeply several times and his readings climbed to the 80s, where his doctor wanted them. I have a terrible fear that this could be the end game for him. Speaking of which, my pulse today (shown on the oxygen meter) was always 90+; I firmly believe that AFib recurred shortly after I left the office when they zapped it with burst pacing. So: more ablation? Paddles? Crap.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels, Winding Way Arco for gas, UPS for (a) Ziii Studio fidget bearing tool (pretty nice), (b) Indy Thicc Chelsea in SS (also nice), and (c) my second One Drop Trillium, which spins surprisingly well given titanium weights.

–Used the Folex Carpet Spot Remover on the fancy bag that came with the Leica D-Lux 4. It worked a treat. The chemicals in it are unpronounceable, but they work like crazy.

–Got the drill press out and tried to improve the finish on the Edge spinner. Made it a little better.

–Got the Leica D-Lux 4 working well.

–Dinner from Jack’s Urban Eats. Decent, not great.

–Tried to polish up the Edge Industries spin stick. Nearly destroyed it, sort of salvaged it. For no obvious reason, it spins like crazy now.

–Puttered around with plants. Noted that the succulent in the white plastic pot was not happy. Tried to prune it a bit, then decided to take the pot bottom off. It was completely full of water. I guess the fit was so close it essentially didn’t evaporate. Hoping the plant will get better now that it isn’t waterlogged.

–Played around with my Sheaffer pencil collection. Re-cleaned them, “rolled” the tubes holding the erasers so they fit tighter, double-checked that the leads were secure (one wasn’t). Did my best to put them together so there were no gaps, and came pretty close. I should start a business…

–Went to UCD Radiology downtown for my angiogram. Was hoping they would find a little blockage in the LAD artery and stent it, and I’d be free for a while. No. “Stents are in the hospital,” said the guy prepping me when I asked. Worse: they wanted 60-65 BPM for the procedure, and I was at 80. When I looked at the monitor, then checked my pulse, it really seemed to be in AFib. I’m guessing it will continue to be until Aryana does some more ablation. This mega-sucks.

–Went with Grace to the UCD Health building where I’ll be getting an angiogram tomorrow, to check out the route.

–Stopped at Black Sails Coffee nearby; looks like he has his own shop now, with a huge roaster. He also had Sir Kraken II, my favorite coffee, which disappeared from his mail order site. He said Kraken Whiskey sent him a cease and desist order on the name, so he doesn’t advertise it now. Asshole lawyers. Anyway, bought 3 pounds. Grace noticed that it had a roast date of 7/3. Bummer if true.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up the Edge Industries spin stick. Nice fidget, but kind of dinged up. Bearings are also kind of noisy. One bearing just dropped out, but the other has resisted all kinds of hammering. It’s soaking in acetone now; don’t know if I can revive it or not. Sad, as these are apparently a tough get.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Hung the recent Mexican ceramic sun in back. Looks great.

–Went to UPS for Spyderco Volpe (disappointing) and yet another Sheaffer pencil. Got the pencil cheap so I could take the gold ring from it and add it to a pencil with a gap. Turns out the ring is more like a collar, and won’t remotely fit on any different Sheaffer model. Bizarrely, I spent a LONG time trying to get leads into this and another Sheaffer. It’s really maddening, as the tiny “grabber” collar withdraws as the lead-pushing piston retracts. I only succeeded with the collared pencil. I’m super curious how people re-leaded these pencils back when they were common. It sure eludes me.

–Installed Grace’s alternate hose station in back.

–Cleaned up tools and plant stuff in garage and bedroom; moved the table back to the bedroom.

–104+ today; plants are wilting in the heat.

–Went to Home Depot for hose, Perlite, dishwasher cleaner. Got clothes washer cleaner. Went up and down the potting soil aisle at least 8 times yesterday and today; didn’t see Perlite. Asked for help. Jackie came out and pointed to 6-7 bags with Perlite written on them in big white letters, at close to eye level. She gave me an extra one free for my trouble. Really starting to wonder about my faculties now.

–Stopped at UPS for the Case Hawkbill. Very tight, pretty cool. Glad I got stainless: it’s super hard to open with just the nail nick; you have to grab the blade.

–Stopped at Bel Air for oatmeal cookies, cream cereal, yogurt, pizza.

–Had pizza for dinner with the remains of the wilted basil plant. Pretty good.

–Played a little with the Leica TL2, having seen a super nice one in silver on eBay. Menus are opaque, no viewfinder for focusing, and a photo came out pretty grainy for 24 megapixels. Bullet dodged.

–Took Grace to Home Depot for various stuff. She’s been in a really grouchy mood for the last several days; I don’t know the cause.

–Watered plants.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, peaches, squash.

–New neighbors moved in across from us: Olivia and Stephanie (?), 30ish girls.

–Went to UPS for a Sheaffer pencil (can’t make it take in lead), Campagnolo pedal wrenches (nice) and LIC EDC SS Edamame (plain, but nice).

–Italpizza Cheesy pizza for dinner (my favorite of that brand), with added tomato and basil. Ate at 5 to accompany the time-shifted Svengoolie. Good stuff.

–Worked more on the InnerLight. The cranks were different distances from the frame, so I loosened the bottom bracket and moved it a bit until they were equidistant. At the same time I put the 15-tooth cog on and adjusted the chain accordingly. I also got the chainline absolutely perfect (it was quite far off). I’m not happy about the BB sticking out a bit, but some searching suggests it’s fairly common for cranks to be asymmetrical. Not for me though.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Had a decent breakfast at Holiday Inn, then drove back. No gas fillup needed. A surprisingly easy drive.

–Went to UPS to pick up bike parts, ferric chloride, and a Modusworks spinner. Stopped at Bel Air for milk and a pizza.

–Took the Beemer to the coast, via 17. Stopped at La Selva Beach. They were out of egg salad, so I bought a pre-made egg salad sandwich. It was good. Another glorious day at the bluff, sunny, upper 60’s.

–Tried to check in at the Holiday Inn, but the room (last one on top floor) wasn’t ready. Went to Pot Stop, after repeating the Keystone Kops comedy from a year ago where it looked like Siri was leading me to a dead end. Did I learn anything? Hard to say these days. Got a fabulous sun/art piece there, plus a few big shallow pots.

–Back to Holiday Inn, after picking up a $12.50 Rio Grande Club at Eric’s DeliCafe. I was totally, utterly wiped out–in spite of the egg salad sandwich/can of Coke at LSB. Took a little nap. Woke up and ate the Club, then felt much better. Had a couple cups of Costa “bean to cup” coffee from downstairs, as they no longer have Keurigs in the room. Not bad.

–Went to UPS to pick up lemon drops, Eliquis and 15-tooth rear cog.

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit State Farm dividend checks.