–Went to Bel Air for stuff.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Worked on plants: trimmed and watered the big one out front, tossed the dead basils, took the chopstick support off one succulent because it seemed to want to lean. I’ll let it and see what happens.
–Two doves were in the fountain today, taking (minor) baths. Yes!
–Weather is nice. Went nowhere, did little.
–After several days of the basil plant looking really good, today it saggy and sad looking. I did some searching and decided to divide it up among several pots with a soil/sand mix and leave them outside. They still look pathetic. I have no idea what turned that from champion to near-dead in one night.
–Had the Walmart bettergoods cheese pizza for dinner, along with some of Jan Muehlbauer’s peppers I harvested. I liked it; Grace was less enthused. At least it’s an always-available alternative to the salty, greasy Red Baron/Motor City pizzas we’ve been relying on.
–Yes, another warm day.
–Went to Barnes & Noble looking for another NYT puzzle book. They had a dozen: Easy, Sunday, and Clever. Nope.
–Stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple of bettergoods (their store brand) pizzas, allegedly the same as Italpizza–made in Italy, wood-fired, etc. We’ll see. Stopped at Bel Air for barbecue stuff: Harris Ranch beef burgers (a necessity since there were zero turkey/chicken patties; delicious with nice smoked flavor), corn, Claire’s potato salad.
–Barbecue for dinner. As mentioned: delicious.
–Hot day: 90 at 6 PM.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Tended to plants a little. While I was watering a little succulent on the stand, the hose broke off a stem on the huge purple succulent from Kenny. Dang! It’s in water now, may come back.
–I finally got accepted into The Daily Fidget Marketplace on Facebook, a couple days after getting into TDF. Comeback almost complete.
–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe; Grace got some meat at KP Market; then to Safeway on Folsom for various stuff.
–Stopped at UPS to pick up the Homedics Power Dent Smart Sensor toothbrush. Disappointing: runs on standard (non-rechargeable) batteries, runs slowly, and has a great head that won’t fit on other Homedics toothbrushes.
–Finally got into The Daily Fidget and TDF Marketplace on Facebook.
–Grace had nothing to make for dinner (again). I went to Bel Air and bought a pre-made pizza crust, put some frozen tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni on it and baked it. Not so great.
–Took a 13.4 mile bike ride with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. Very tiring for some reason. Could be the heat; could be I’m slowing down a bit.
–Picked up another Dunhill belt at UPS. The reverse on this one (brown on the first, too limiting)–ink blue–is hard to distinguish from the black side. Also no roller. Good quality belts though. Got dessert at Bel Air (unbroken chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookies).
–Italpizza Cheesey Cheese pizza for dinner with fresh basil. Darn good.
–Went to see Dr. Nandyal in Roseville. I got an ECG and a referral to a stress test in Folsom. Gettin’ tired of this stuff.
–Stopped at a Mr. Pickles for lunch. Soggy, fatty bacon.
–Stopped at Green Acres in Citrus Heights. They had three new-to-me rosemary plants. They all tasted kind of bland. I bought a small Originalis, and will strive to make it thrive.
–Put air in car and bike tires.
–Put bike rack on Honda, put bike on rack. Ready to ride in El Dorado Hills tomorrow.
–Walked to the Town Center in Tevas to check out the first day of the new farmers(?) market. It was a bust: 10 vendors, no fresh fruit or veggies, prominently displayed t-shirts with slogans like “I am fucking amazing” on them. Hope it gets better. P.S. The Outback’s white fence was gone, front door was open, and there was a group of 3-4 people maybe going in to take a look. Hoping it turns into something not a drive-thru.
–Put my bike back together so I can ride it while waiting for another month for the Amazon (China) parts to arrive. I spent a long time looking for the parts, thinking I could get something a little different much sooner, but 90% of the stuff on eBay and Amazon seems to be the same brand–from China.
–Tended to my plants. The water meter, stuck deep, indicated they were all quite moist. Fair enough, but they sure don’t look like they’ve been over-watered.
–Mailed off Grace’s card+check to Kathy; only by chance discovered later that she wanted it sent to Jan. Went back to UPS, retrieved it, resent it out to Jan. Whew!
–Picked up Martin de Candre Vetiver shave cream at UPS; rare and expensive. Smells pretty good. Hoping I can use it long-term. Also picked up the second adapter needed to mount the Zeiss Prakticar lens on the Leica SL2-S. Somewhat to my surprise, given that one of the adapters has glass in it, IT WORKED! Learning only now (of course) that the lens is pretty fuzzy at f1.4. Oh well, quest achieved anyway.
–Went to Lowe’s and tasted two brands of rosemary; didn’t like either. Went to Home Depot and tasted two more (may have been the exact same brands); didn’t like either. Went to Smart & Final and tasted a fourth brand: didn’t care for it. Bought a basil plant. I’m really wondering what’s going on with me and rosemary. I guess I’ll try some of the smaller ones at Green Acres. I’m not optimistic.
–Italpizza Cheesy Cheese pizza for dinner. Delicious, as expected.
–Went to UPS for (a) Echelon slider (fine, but needs stronger magnets), (b) Kipon adapter (one more and I can mount the Prakticar on the SL2-S), (c) Scrat knitted coaster (cute!).
–Barbecued for dinner: turkey burgers, corn (good!) and red potatoes with rosemary butter. Not really fond of the new rosemary plant (Tuscan Blue); flavor just isn’t up to previous rosemary varieties, whatever they were.
–Revived the Sony AR7-V (mistakenly did the IV recently; V is much better) and compared it to SL2-S. After a LOT of fussing, I got the Sony pretty darn close to the Leica on a standard night shot, but the Leica still wins. Sort of like the Canon, Sony photos seem to have a hazy/washed-out look. It could be the much higher resolution, or a result of much more drastic noise reduction, I don’t know. That SL2-S is a monster: low noise, great viewfinder, simple controls.
–Took Grace to Lowe’s for a hose, carpet cleaner, potting soil and sand. Then to Grocery Outlet for veggies, pizza, cream, dessert.
–Just saw a quickie Facebook reel where an MD described a rarely-mentioned side effect of general anesthesia in seniors: cognitive impairment. I had general anesthesia in December. I’ve been experiencing cognitive issues for a couple of months: most typically, I can’t come up with the names of people (mostly) and things. Makes me wonder.
–Watched a tree crew take down the big Coast Redwood behind the parking lot visible from our back patio. I got a walking stick and a large chunk of trunk (3′ diameter, 9″ thick). Kenny got Sterling to use Kenny’s dolly to move it to our patio. Mission accomplished!
–Took the Beemer to get gas at Fair Oaks Arco ($74), then to Green Acres in Folsom to pick up a five-gallon Tuscan Blue rosemary plant. Looks great and smells great at the moment; hope I can keep it going.
–Chicken pot pie for dinner.
–Roasted more of the Colombia beans that came with the Fresh Roast 800. Hope they’re as good as I recall.
–Went to UC Davis Folsom for my echo cardiogram. Results: patient’s rhythm is atrial fibrillation, with bradycardia. Treatment: zap heart tissue causing Afib, pacemaker for bradycardia.
–Freschetta pizza for dinner. Okay, not great.
–Paladin Moon Java brush came in. As I feared, it’ll go on the “for sale” shelf.
–Getting warmer…
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Found out the Amazon order for crank arms/chain ring is coming from Chine, an likely won’t arrive until June. Not sure they made that totally apparent in the listing.
–Holy Margherita pizza for dinner.
–Finished polishing the Wolfman. Tossed a wheel, will likely toss some Dialux bars. May switch to Meguiar’s Swirl Remover for final polish, and Ultra-Cut for penultimate. It’s astounding how good a piece can look until you shine a flashlight on it.
–Got the crank arm and pedals off the InnerLight. Now I need the new parts. Amazon is being unusually slow.
–Won a slider drop!
–Facebook is frustrating: the two major fidget forums I’ve tried to join (several times) are ignoring me; several friend requests are being ignored; and last night FB warned me NOT to make a friend request–too many in a short time looks like spam, they said. But of course they continue to show me dozens of “people you may know” every time I go there. Grrr…..
–Started BBQ season! Bel Air had corn, bought some turkey burger patties and Claire’s potato salad. Good stuff!
–Wolfman WR1 razor came in. Spent a while on the buffer getting rid of a scratch. Had to use a Bergeon wheel, and thus re-contoured the head a tiny bit (hard to see now). I also dozed off and allowed the wheel to fling the razor to the floor. Miraculously, I can only see a scuff on the bottom which will easily polish out. I’m afraid to look any closer, since it really acted like doom for the razor.
–Set up the newly-tiled bird bath. Seems to be fine. Still need to do something about the base for the top part so it’s stable and level.
–Went to UPS to pick up Armand de Kock front flipper. Pretty nice.
–Went to Grocery Outlet to get a couple of those $4 Italpizza Holy Margherita pizzas. Had one for dinner. Pretty good.
–Spent a long time trying to sort out e-mail issues. Finally dropped Thunderbird and went with Apple mail. The interface is not as nice, but it does seem to do a lot of stuff automatically that were really complex in Thunderbird.
–Hot.
–Fed the birds, fed the squirrels.
–Roasted some dry process Brazilian beans until they got oily. Pretty straightforward, though setup takes a while. One issue: a fair number of beans got caught in the chaff filter–just a function of how it works when the fan speed is above x. Could play with fan speed, but I was doing 8 ounces, so it can’t be too slow. Grace suggested a screen that would pass chaff but block beans. Maybe.
–Dropped off the old Mac at FedEx.
–The sun finally came out today.
–I myself didn’t do much; played around with photo editors and cameras a bit. Something is seriously amiss with ACDSee: no matter what I do, I cannot get it to open automatically when I double click a Canon raw file. I believe it will open for Leica files (say), so maybe the issue is with Canon, not entirely ACDSee. Anyway, I think I’ll go through the grueling experience of setting up DXO again, and turn up monitor brightness so I can see the menus. I wish there were a really good Lightroom clone.
–{edit] For the 458th time, I’m ditching ACDSee and DXO. Their results with a Canon night shot were horrific. I’m sure they could get better (many people use them), but after re-re-re-re-installing Lightroom, the results were stupefying. I resurrected the Leica SL2-S and compared it to Canon with the Summicron 50, and though initially it looked like Leica would clobber Canon, after some work in Lightroom they aren’t that far apart. More to come.
–A dreary day, but dry.
–Went to New York Bagels for…..bagels.
–Mailed Will Cantelon’s birthday/graduation present.
–Took Grace for minor shopping at Bel Air and at Grocery Outlet.
–Had a $4 Grocery Outlet Italpizza Wood-Fired Holy Margherita pizza for dinner: really good.
–Cool, drizzly day. Weird weather.
–Went to UPS to pick up (a) spinner bearing tool. Smaller than I anticipated, very strange setup, don’t like it at all. Will likely toss. (b) Biotar lens. Clean glass, smooth focusing. Not sure about how/if f ring and stop-down ring should work. Right now they work as one: I can’t turn one without turning the other. I might have thought it would be like some Helios lenses, where ring 1 sets f, ring 2 opens it up to make focusing easier, then shuts back down to the f you set. Will look into it.
–Went around the mulberry bush again with photo editors, since I didn’t deactivate anything before wiping the old Mac, so I could reactivate on the new. Using DXO at the moment (which didn’t have the deactivate problem) and it’s looking good. Very smooth with (I assume) the more powerful M5 chip, and–as I recall–a fair amount of customizability.
–Cool and windy today.
–Got the old Macbook cleaned up–software and hardware. Turns out water is a VASTLY better cleaner than 99% alcohol. Keypad marks on the screen that I thought were permanent just disappeared with a damp cloth; also the little white spots everywhere. The screen is flawless now. Who knew?
–LIC EDC on Facebook let me in; that and Brenda are the only ones. I’m concerned about Cantelons. Best to go slow I suppose, as Google AI says FB will even monitor messages for clues that a banned user is trying to get back in.
–Went with Grace to the Sunrise farmers market. Got some good (expensive) stuff.
–Picked up the Autopoint deco pencil at UPS. Very clever mechanism, easy to refill, but it will only take a piece of lead that’s half length.
–IG and FB still working, though hearing back from friends and forums is REALLY slow.
–Started going through all my photos to resize them for this screen (same as the previous scree; I just never made the effort before). It’s going to take a while.
–After huge preparation (new Macbook, Firefox Facebook Container, new phone number, NordVPN, etc., Facebook found me out instantly and re-banned me. I have no idea how they knew. On the other hand, while I was diddling around with Instagram, (FB told me to log into IG to appeal), it offered me a new account: williamfarrell69. I took it, and it seemed to work. A while later I went to view it again, and it gave a number captcha like I failed on FB a couple days ago. This time I “listened” to the numbers, got them right, but AGAIN got this bizarro message saying “You put in an appeal on May 1.” Immediately following, it said “Your appeal was successful, welcome back to IG, we’re sorry to have bothered you.” Hands folded and raised to God: I am permanently back on IG, and MIGHT be able to leverage it to open a new account on FB. I’ll wait a little, however.
–Went to UPS to pick up a Macbook return box and an original Trillium spinner box (the last one, I’m told).
–FWIW, I did a couple of internet speed tests. Sunshine came out at 95 Mbps, while Twilight came out at 500 Mbps. This bears repeating, though I do recall that Twilight is supposed to be using the newer generation of wifi software.
–Trimmed dead branches from the Japanese Maple.
–Went to UPS for the Macbook Pro., then Bel Air for milk and cream.
–A beautiful day in paradise.
–Took a 12-mile ride on the ARP. It was busy, and not all riders were in full control of their machines.
–Bought another Mac, for getting back on FB and IG.
–Spent 2.5 hours with Dr. Bafford. One crown, a couple cavities, one new cavity that showed up while he was smoothing a front filling. With 37 x-rays, I wonder how that was missed. $1.050, more to come in a couple weeks.
–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert.
–Rode my bike to UPS to pick up another Sheaffer pen. Outside was fine, but mechanism didn’t work, and, after inspection, could not be made to work. The innards had tool marks aplenty, and the lead-gripping collar was mangled. Fortunately, I had saved a mechanism from a previous pencil. Voila!
–Beautiful day, and the plants are going crazy.
—Got a haircut at Great Clips. Brittany looks pregnant, so she may be short-term there.
—Went to Bel Air for $5 Monday.
—Got kicked off Instagram and Facebook. Looking into it, but not sure I want to be there anyway. Moving everything to DuckDuckGo.
—DiGiorno pizza for dinner. Darn good.
–Another cool gray day.
–Got banned from photo mod site AFTER they modded a photo. Ugly. [edit] Looks like I’m back in now.
–Fed and watered plants in back.
–Cool, kind of gray day.
–Took Grace to the Dollar Store to look for gift wrap, then Smart & Final for food.
–Fresh-roasted coffee this morning was darn good; home-made pizza tonight was, as usual, kind of bland and tasteless. Needs more salt, perhaps.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Stopped at UPS for the One Drop Trillium spinner. Nice spinner in good shape.
–Went to Hooverville for jam and dessert pastry.
–Another Sheaffer pencil came in, along with a bunch of NOS erasers. Got a Pentel lead into it (the old ones keep breaking when I try to insert them) and put a new eraser on it. Unlike the other 2-3 new erasers I successfully placed, this one stuck firmly inside the top when I put the halves together then pulled them apart–those NOS erasers are really big, and take a lot of pressure to fit in. While trying to fish the eraser out, the top broke in half. Crap.
–Roasted a batch of (in theory) chaffy coffee beans in the Fresh Roast SR800. It took a long time, as I kept mis-using the controls, reversing fan and heat, setting it to “cool” unknowingly, etc. Beans look great, incredibly even, and minimal chaff. I even heard first crack. More fun to come.
–Rain gone, but it’s chilly.
–Went to UPS for (a) Tadafusa knife. Not impressive in person. Cleaned it up a bit with Scotchbrite belts, but that only served to show how poor the grind was. Will toss. (b) Fresh Roast coffee roaster, plus Razzo chaff catcher extension. All looks good. Hope there’s enough power in the garage to actually roast.
–Stopped at Bel Air for (relatively) cheap Marie. Had a chicken pot pie for dinner.
–Dark day, with brief periods of heavy rain.
–Dunhill belt came in. Pretty nice.
–Got my Flomax prescription sorted out. Oeur had put the double prescription in, but it wasn’t obvious on Amazon until I did some digging. I have a strong feeling that Flomax is responsible for my sneezing/runny nose in the morning and (double dose) for my really stuffy nose at night for the past few days. I’m seriously considering HOLeP surgery, though not sure of how I’ll pull it off.
–Blaze pizza for dinner. Too large (I think a large veggie is bigger than a large pepperoni), too expensive ($25), and she asked if hot red sauce was okay AFTER covering it with hot red sauce.
–Went to UPS for (a) Pose Ring Spinner, small but cool, and (b) FidgetBoy zirc timascus high heat spinner, fine but low heat would have been better.
–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert, dinner (Silva sausage), Cheetos for Grace.
–Spent a while cataloging all my new spinners and tools; I’m pretty much caught up.
–DXO started acting up again, so I switched to ACDSee. Turns out I’m using the same version that I was months ago, which I thought had no customizability. It seems to have a little now, e.g. switching Develop pane from left to right, remembering some things from one session to the next.
–Messaged Christine Oeur, Davis Urology, a couple days ago about running out of Tamsulosin (Flomax). She hasn’t responded. Will message Swensson tonight.
–Fixed (more or less) Grace’s WWII shower head, which wouldn’t move and was spraying the floor. It’s better, but needs to be replaced.
–Feeling restless, so I dug the Sony AR7 out again. Was painfully reminded of how much the viewfinder image jiggles when magnified; the Canon’s simply does not. Hard to believe Sony is so far behind Canon in this regard.
–Went to UPS to pick up the KAP damasteel bearing tool. Very nice and all, but it came with two monster damasteel rings, slightly different sizes. Way too big for a finger, way too small for a wrist. I asked the rep on Facebook what they were for, and she essentially said “for looking at.” Great. I might find something to do with them, but I sure can’t think of it now.
–Vacuumed the bedroom again, since yesterday the dust collector was so overfull it cut the power in half. I did pick up a lot more dirt, so it’s clean now.
–Went to UPS to pick up a bunch of vintage Sheaffer mechanical pencils. Spent a while at my desk putting three nice ones together and getting them to work, then in the garage polishing them. They’re beauties.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream and pizza sauce.
–Made pizza for dinner. Not my favorite: pepperoni was super greasy, crust didn’t rise and crisp, mozzarella had no taste. Will change the ingredients next time.
–Vacuumed my bedroom, perhaps for the second time since we moved in.
–Got a check back from CA tax. I (Turbotax) had calculated a $720 refund; the check was for $1,080. Can’t wait to see what the Feds say. Grrr…
–Great weather for a ride, so I pedaled to Mile 15 of the ARP; 12 miles in all. I was really feeling weak on the way back; hope it’s not my heart.
–Patio plants are still doing great; peppers are coming out on the plant we inherited from neighbor Jan.
–Sheaffer pencil finally came in from eBay. Except it was a piece of crap Penman pencil that was frozen solid. Messaged seller (with 95% positive feedback). He said he never had a pencil like that. Right. I put in an “wrong item” return claim at eBay.
–Switched over to DXO Photo Lab, triggered by some Creative Cloud shenanigans this morning. Lightroom is great, but there’s just too much crap you have to put up with.
–Super windy today.
–Got a notice from CA tax board that my calculated refund didn’t match theirs, so they are going to cancel the direct deposit and send a check. Spent a long time on various websites trying to set up estimated payments; only succeeded with State. Feds are a mess, so will try again tomorrow.
–Got bagels and joined Grace at Target for wrapping supplies.
–Biked to UPS to pick up Dramm nozzles. Strength seems low, though it could be a function of larger holes. Thumb switch is great.
–Windy and cool, all day.
–Called Mercy and reinstated my appointment in September with Dr. Aryana.
–Cleaned up the bird bath, used Kenny’s bigger tiles for more support, added a short straw piece to improve pump splooting.
–Picked up the Jim Nourse/Elvis potholders at UPS. They’re fine, but (true to their word) they cropped the images to face only, after I asked that they use what I sent intact.
–Had a Blaze pizza for dinner–14″ pepperoni with high-rise crust. I like 14″, but prefer the standard thinner crust.
–Biked to UPS to pick up another(!) two tubes of Weleda Light cream. Maybe they’ll just keep coming.
–Spent a while trying to make sense of all my medical issues. Failed. Echo cardiogram was rescheduled for a month from now, as the tech was out. Talked a couple times with some Mercy scheduler. Right now there’s an appointment with Dr. Aryana in September(!), though she’s going to try to get that “released” and find an earlier appointment with someone else. What a quagmire. And why is it all Mercy? [edit] Asked Google why Mercy, got a response saying they’re known for their cardiac services, especially Dr. Arash Aryana. Guess I’ll try to hold that September appointment.
–Sunny and cool today.
–Took Grace to the recycling center, then to Raley’s for some light shopping.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Yet another squally day, though much less intense than yesterday.
–Played with the Wicked Edge sharpener a bit. It’s fine, but I was reminded that the belt sander is better for most knives.
–Another day with major rain squalls, some really powerful–including thunder and lightning.
–Went to UPS for Drake’s buttons. They’re fine, not special.
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, jock itch cream, more chocolate chip cookies.
–Bought a really interesting (and rare; it’s the first I’ve seen) Pose spinner. It’s a tungsten-copper tri Cocoon ring spinner with a nice DSC ti slug. Put slug in (held with o-rings) and it’s a standard spinner; take slug out and you can put it on your finger as a ring spinner. Pretty cool.
–Bought some more BTC at Paypal because it offered instant access. Tried to buysome high-speed download time @ $25; Paypal’s minimum is $75. Tried to buy $75 twice; Paypal refused to let it go through. Really gotta wonder about these download sites. I’m downloading now for free, albeit slowly.
–Rain off and on today.
–Went nowhere, did little.
–After hours of futile research on adapting a chain tensioner to a bike without a derailleur dropout, I just went ahead and adjusted the chain myself, using the eccentric bottom bracket like in the old days. Worked great. Then went for a ride to Hagan Park. 11 miles previously; 10.9 today after odometer calibration. Selle Anatomica H feels surprisingly good.
–Weather: a big (dry) thunder and lightning storm went through starting around 9:30 PM. I haven’t experienced something like that in a long, long time. Very cool.
–Took the Beemer to Barnes & Noble for a book for Margot Nourse.
–Stopped at Home Depot for some Husky nozzles. They’re fine, though hard to engage.
–Picked up stuff at UPS: pencil leads (kept breaking when I tried to install them); leather strops for Wicked Edge sharpener; unusable Surly Singleator chain tensioner (needs a derailleur dropout for mounting that my bike doesn’t have).
–Stopped by Corey Bafford’s office to discuss charges. All seems technically legit (after they modified some stuff); $1,500 out of pocket for me.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Chinese hose nozzles from Amazon came. Total pieces of unfixable crap, which looked like they had been returned by another buyer.
–Stopped at Bafford’s office to discuss proposed work/payment. Bafford’s biller was there, but not Cripe’s. Will return tomorrow. Very confusing stuff.
–Went to Home Depot for bird seed and hose nozzles. The nozzles are high quality, but it turns out I don’t like finger trigger control: it’s too coarse, and it won’t hold a setting. Back to searching for quality thumb-control nozzles.
–What a day. Learned from UC davis via Zio patch that I have paroxysmal afib. It needs to be treated, and can be via cardiac ablation. Then I learned that a Mercy cardiologist will be setting up an urgent appointment for a pacemaker. This too from the Zio, due to my slow heart rate. Here we go…
–Picked up a vintage Sheaffer mechanical pencil at UPS. Nice.
–Went to Bob’s Bikes to get a chain tool that the web said they had. They didn’t. Bought a spray can each of degreaser and lube: $48. Went to REI in Sacramento and got the tool plus a pair of gloves. Took the chain off and instantly lost one half of the master link. Grace and I searched the garage for a long time, but it never showed. Went back to Bob’s and got one for $6. With chain back on, the rear brake handle went back to the handlebar. After much fussing and fiddling (but no screws turned or anything), it came back to normal, pretty much. The half-link disappearance is the most puzzling yet. I thought for a bit that it had been running for a while with just the half link only, but the chain won’t close without a full link.
–Got a Blaze pizza for dinner. Pretty good.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Went for an 8.5 mile ride, canal and ARP. Selle seat wasn’t bad, but wasn’t luxurious either. Still needs adjusting. Something on the bike makes a bit of a noise with hard pedaling. I’ll probably never chase it down. Maybe I’ll just replace bottom bracket and cranks.
–Kenny brought over some ham and quiche left over from his sister’s Easter bash. We had some for dinner.
–Grace kept saying a bird I’d ID’d as a grosbeak wasn’t. After a lot of lookup, I found it was a rufous-sided towhee. Point: Grace.
–Went to UPS for Brooks Proofide. The container was about half the size of my old one. I mixed the two together thoroughly and put them in a new screw-top container.
–Stopped at Bel Air for pizza, milk, cream, cereal.
–Watered/fertilized plants. They are looking grand.
–Motor City pizza for dinner.
–Went to dentist Corey Bafford. Sadly, he found that I need three crowns and three fillings. Problem: Delta won’t pay for two of the crowns, one done by Sunrise Dental in 2023, the other by Bafford himself six months ago. It could be that these things are falling apart because my dental hygiene is so bad, but it seems more likely to me that it was just sub-standard work. I’m thinking of going back to Watsonville for dentistry.
–Tried to set up auto-pay for estimated taxes. EFTPS is phasing out for individuals, so no go. IRS has a direct pay, but it looks like a pain. Guess I’ll wait until the tax return is processed, then take it from there.
–Went to UPS to pick up titanium seatpost clamp and spinner buttons. Both nice.
–Spent the morning entering acres of info into a crypto spreadsheet. Turned out to be a waste of time. The Koinly docs were vastly better, and enabled me to get the taxes out. Huge refund coming; I’m not entirely sure why.
–Went to UPS to pick up a Modusworks zirc oil slick bar spinner (nice). Then to Bel Air for pizza. Tried a new kind–A legend in Brooklyn since 1962–okay, but it won’t replace Red Baron.
–Spent the morning trying to finish taxes. Failed. Tried again after lunch; failed again. Between the IRS and the crypto brokers, it’s pretty much impossible to craft a return that (a) is accurate and (b) would withstand an audit. IRS says it isn’t looking at crypto cost basis until next year, but it would be foolish to submit with out good records. And Turbo Tax isn’t helping. I hate this stuff.
–Went to UPS for (a) Weleda cream, (b) Ascender Skyline razor (don’t know why, but it tore up my face on today’s shave), (c) Declaration Grooming brush (nice), (d) Giants Crazy Crab t-shirt.
–Stopped at Bel Air for cream cheese, dessert, milk, cereal.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Pretty much finished taxes. Gave up trying to figure out crypto on my own; saw a reddit thread where Koinly was praised and got it. It logged in to Binance and Coinbase, downloaded all the relevant transactions, and produced the required tax forms. YES!!
–Watered and fertilized plants.
–Played with bike saddles a little.
–Went to UPS for (a) Hiromoto parer (nice); (b) Weleda Light cream (seller sent Standard; will send two tubes of Light no charge).
–Started taxes. Was immediately reminded of my double RMD withdrawal. Searched records (after finding dates in this journal), then searched Google AI for how to enter. No problems.
–Ritchey 1-bolt seatposts finally came in around 4. Got one to work right away. Then went into the bedroom with the Specialized and Selle saddles to (a) put the bolt on the other side of the Specialized, (b) install the Selle. Many hours later, both are done, with bolts on the wrong side (the only way they’ll go in). HUGE problems (a) figuring out how the bracket goes together, and, once solved, (b) getting the second one to hold together while I installed the seatpost. I do think it has a design flaw with the rubber piece that flops out at the tiniest provocation. I ended up holding it with some kapton tape. What a nightmare. Then my back went out…
–Beulah’s Candyland, long-time source of bulk menthol-eucalyptus cough drops, is now All Bulk Foods. $105 for 9 pounds of drops, shipped. No one else seems to carry these. Crap.
–Cool and windy today.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Stopped at UPS for (a) tight clearance bit driver (nice tool, but still close when working on seatpost); (b) Specialized Arc Expert saddle (seems absolutely identical to the one I was using on the Innerlight); (c) Selle Anatomica H saddle (big, beautiful, but acts like it’s going to be a nut grinder, no matter how positioned).
–Reverted to Canon R5 camera–I, not II. Don’t know why I bought II. Same sensor, better video (so?), possibly worse high ISO noise.
–Watered and fertilized plants.
–Went to Nugget Market in El Dorado Hills for pizza to have with the (pirated) Giants opener. Pizza wasn’t very good, and Yankees are up 5-0 early in the game.
–Back to Lightroom. Took a couple of abutilon shots that were tricky: dark but with super-bright highlights. Photomator couldn’t tone them down, nor could DXO or Affinity. Lightroom handled the highlights with ease. Kind of a mystery to me why folks can’t match LR’s powerful simplicity.
–Bird of Paradise is definitely unhappy: leaves are open in the cool morning, curled shut by afternoon. Dousing with water doesn’t help. I moved it into a large pot and will watch carefully.
–Went to UPS for (a) Modusworks spinner. Unbalanced as are they all, fixed with some tungsten putty. (b) Monoskate Scylla Valley spinner. Beautiful as are they all, but small, light and unexciting. (c) Caran d’Ache pencil. Nice. Might prefer one in gold. Argh…
–Cooler.
–Went to New York Bagels for……bagels. And frosted brownies.
–Stopped at UPS for (a) brake lube and brake cleaner (were going to be for BBQ valve cleanup but I already did it; (b) cheap Dunhill belt (would have said fake, but packaging was impressive); I measured once (not twice), cut it and ruined it (6 inches too short as I measured from the wrong place); (c) Xcelite ratcheting hex driver (nice).
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cereal, cream, mint, gnocchi.
–Bought a Modusworks polished zirc bar spinner for $850 and a KAP damasteel bearing removal tool for $1,400 on Facebook. There goes the tax refund…
–Took a quick ride to ARP to check odometer calibration. Check.
–Watered plants (no fertilizer).
–Balanced a couple of Retcores with tungsten putty–a bar (normal) and a tri (a first for me; tri’s don’t seem to ever be out of balance).
–Took a shower and shave. The new Declaration Grooming soap has a nice smell. The new (to me) brush is way too large and holds too much water. May send it out to be re-knotted.
–Went for a nominal 14.4 mile ride on the canal. Calibrated the odometer and noted it was .075 miles “ahead” in 3 miles. After a whole lot of searching on the web, finally found out how to lower the tire circumference by 2.5% on the bike computer. WRT dementia: I spent the whole ride (and others) believing I’d have to set the circumference higher due to the inflated odometer readings. To be clear: I ride 1 mile, odometer says 1.1 miles, it thinks tires are big. Specifically, tires spin 317 times in 1 mile, odometer says 1.1 miles. By reducing tire size in the odo, it now thinks 317 revolutions is exactly 1 mile. To be absurd and make the point, if I said the tire size was 100mm, the odo would say those same 317 revolutions would take us 50 feet. WRT old age: the ride totally wiped me out. A lot of it was the fact that it heated up early today (91 on the odo around 10:30 AM), but a lot of it is on me of course.
–Went to Bel Air for bagels, dinner (pizza) and dessert.
–Blazing sun notwithstanding, I re-did the cleaning of the Weber Genesis Silver B LP (liquid propane) SWE (stopwatch engineering) grill–and added a lube step I didn’t do the first time and saw in a video. We rollin’ now…
–Took Grace to Smart & Final.
–Made dinner: Kenny’s baked potato (with chives from the garden) and a couple of Aidell sausages.
–Took another 11-mile ride to Hagan Park. Something about the “new” saddle–168mm wide Power Comp–and/or its position made it quite a comfortable ride.
–Fertilized and watered most plants.
–Bolted the belt sander and buffer to the new thick board. Now we rollin’…
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Hot hot hot; 88 was 6 degrees over previous record.
–Picked up blue Olight flashlight at UPS. Not the same striking blue as seen on TV.
–Got some staples at Bel Air—milk, cereal, coffee cake, etc.
–Ordered a couple of “close quarters” bit drivers for bike saddle fitting. Probably won’t need them as I found a one-bolt seatpost and ordered two, for quick switching comparisons.
–In an amazing and embarrassing discovery, I was looking in the cabinet below the vise to see what bike seats I had in stock. There were 2-3 of the standaard Specialized saddles, AND one of those $300 3D-printed Power Mirror deals. Absolutely unbelievable that I bought that 1-2 years ago, then completely forgot about it while seriously considering it as my next purchase.
–Rode 11.1 miles to Hagan Park again. Warm day, lots of folks on the trail, got several compliments on the InnerLight. The Mirror saddle was good, not mind-boggling, so I spent a fair amount of time today fiddling with height, fore/aft and angle. Angle is big: I almost instantly cured one of my complaints wherein I’m constantly struggling to stay far enough back on the saddle for comfort. It might turn into something good, I don’t know.
–Declaration Grooming shaving brush came in. It’s nice. I’m soaking it in rose soap and WATER, not alcohol, hoping to keep it a while.
–Kenny’s outside garage keypad failed. After some futile attempts to revive it, he drove me to Home Depot and I picked up a replacement. It came with no instructions, just a QR code that led to some incorrect instructions. I spent a while on the web and finally found something absurdly complicated that worked.
–Fed the birds; watered and fed the plants. The Jimson Weed is really looking healthy.
–Stopped at UPS for a Magnus Sidewinder (nice) and a Pelikan pencil (nice). Managed to fit a (long) Pentel eraser into the Pelikan, and I have many Pentel erasers, so no need to pay the (no doubt) inflated price for the tiny Pelikan ones.
–Planted the amaryllis in back, after digging out ~30 2″-3″ rocks. Then severely pruned the abutilon in front, which really needed it. We rollin’ now…
–Marie meatloaf for dinner.
–Pulled yellow leaves off the abutilon; took some pics with the Contax N Digital.
–Ripped off the Zio patch and dropped it off at UPS.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Picked up the new bike tires at Bob’s. Took an 11.1 mile ride to Hagan Park. The tires are fabulous, way better than the replaced ones.
–Wittkop saddle came in. Had a tough time installing it, as with all saddles. It has minimal front-back adjustment, as I knew from reviews. In a ride around the block it seemed okay, but not mind-boggling. We’ll see tomorrow.
–Made brownies for dessert. They smell great.
–Took the InnerLight wheels to Bob’s bikes to get narrower tires fitted. Will pick up tomorrow.
–Watered and fertilized back patio plants. Removed the lemon grass and pulled all the moth-eaten leaves off the pepper. Looks good now. Camellia looks good, too, They ALL look good.
–Rode 12.4 miles today, half on the canal. Totally wiped me out for some reason. Decided to get some thinner tires and maybe a new saddle.
–Lunch at Beach Hut Deli.
–Went to Bel Air for some staples.
–Marie for dinner.
–Took another bike ride: 10.00 miles. Better than yesterday, but it was a different route, and cooler.
–Picked up the Hank’s belt at UPS. Total joke: weighs about a pound, stiff as a board. Tossed it and ordered a nice Dunhill reversible. Kaweco pencil also came in. Not thrilled with (a) no eraser, (b) looseness of top part, (c) lead-advance mechanism. Ordered a nice Pelikan; may move the Kaweco to the bedroom.
–Another beautiful day.
–Pumped up the tires on the InnerLight and took a 6.8 mile ride. I may have mentioned that 78 seems like a bad age for me, health- and energy-wise. The ride was pretty much misery. At this point I don’t know if a lot of practice will really improve things; I could just be too old and fat. Gotta try though, I guess.
–Stopped at UPS for (a) Weleda light lotion: it is indeed light, and seems to be working in a standard (Amazon) pump bottle; it does NOT, however, smell as good as the original thick stuff, contrary to Google AI. (b) LIC EDC Mesa spinner in bronze. Nice spinner, but WAY more dinged-up than was mentioned by seller. I did manage to get it near-perfect, but it took a lot of buffing.
–Getting warmer.
–DST is here, for the next NINE MONTHS. This is ridiculous.
–I noticed that the “good” Homedics toothbrush had a break near the top that allowed it to bend back easily. No idea how it happened. I put some epoxy on it and it seems to have been (invisibly) fixed. I also managed to swap in one of the unbroken base windings–not easy, much fiddling required, but now it’s perfect.
–Watered and fertilized plants.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, dessert, and some stuff for Grace.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Windy and warm today.
–Didn’t do much, didn’t go anywhere.
–Got the Homedics batteries sorted, and I now understand (more or less) how to use the charger.
–Vintage Braun 3D toothbrush came in. It’s beautifully designed and a pleasure to hold, but like all the Oral B’s I’ve seen, there’s no easy way to get at the battery.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Watered plants.
–Went to Hooverville Orchards for jam, bread, dessert.
–Played with batteries all day. Finally stopped fooling around with all the Discharge, Test, Refresh, etc. and just (a) drained them in the toothbrushes (one died a lot quicker than the other two), and (b) put them on Charge. Still some anomalies: batteries are labeled as 2.4 volts (two 1.2V stacked) and 300 mAh; on the charger they’re showing > 4 volts and 800 mAh (and rising). So I still don’t know if the charger is treating them as NiCd or Li-Ion.
–Kenny took us to the Honey Store, where he got honey and we got expensive honey gifts for Grace’s sisters. Then to Caballo Blanco for lunch. Very good stuff.
–Anton van der Westhuizen Angel’s Finger knife came in. Beautiful and nice action, but (a) loose IKBS bearings, which are a huge pain in the ass to deal with, and (b) like so many others, the blade can be tight and off-center, or centered and loose. I spent a while trying to get it tight and centered, but it’s not going to happen. Wish I knew what the difference is between this and (say) my dozen Shamwaris.
–Ultra-smart battery charger came in. I played with it a bit and tried to figure it out, but it might be too smart for me. I ended up just putting my three Homedics batteries on a “refresh/charge” cycle, which could take hours. It might be interesting to put the batteries in the dumb charger afterwards to see what it says.
–Went for bagels at New York Bagels. They continue to change: no banana bread or brownies now. Then to KP Market for some chicken thighs for Grace.
–Got a haircut at Great Clips. With Brittany!
–Went to UPS for Weleda (it wasn’t there; I suspect this will be another MIA) and Homedics toothbrush. As usual, the brush didn’t run after some charging. When I tried to open it up (breaking many plastic tabs, as is also usual on these clear/blue cases) and banged it on the desk, it started running. Too late: battery was visibly corroded and I couldn’t close it with all the broken pieces.
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, frozen dinners. My frozen dinner (Marie orange chicken bowl) was almost inedible.
–Picked up airless bottles at UPS (messy to fill, but they seem to work) and pizza/cookies at Bel Air.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Applied the Zio patch.
–Finally cleaned up the bathroom. Much better now.
–Went to see Christine Oeur at UC Davis Health in Elk Grove for a prostate consult. Long and short: she’s doubling the Tamsulosin dose and will see me again in April. I guess the questionnaire I filled out re how serious are the symptoms suggested I’m not quite ready for surgery yet. I suppose that’s okay, depending on how the new dose works.
–Got a new (old) Homedics toothbrush today with a fancier handle, then proceeded to destroy it. I’m 99.9% certain it had already come apart due to a broken tab (apparently a common thing for these), and I broke a hair-like wire trying to put it back together. The battery was soldered in anyway, so taking it apart would have achieved nothing. Ordered yet another one on eBay (4? 5?). Turns out the newer ones have a two-minute timer, which is okay, since I’ve never spent two minutes brushing my teeth.
–Quite warm today–wore shorts for the first time in months.
–Tended to the back patio plants. Most are looking pretty good.
–Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Another do-nothing day.
–Went to UPS for N55 magnets; they didn’t improve the Magnus SC slider.
–Got milk and dessert at Bel Air.
–Downloaded some old Scrubs episodes. These came with subtitles, unlike the couple of avi’s I had from years ago.
–Dark day, though no rain to speak of. Tree trimmers were all around, including our Chinese Pistache tree–but only the branches that were over common property
–Went to UPS (twice) for (a) pump bottles–these MAY work for Weleda, which is really thick stuff; (b) yet another Homedics toothbrush–I have two good batteries now, and really looking forward to the smart charger I ordered. Spent a lot of time playing with three units/two batteries/12 brush heads, trying to put together the best example. Also, turns out standard AA batteries fit and work, but weakly: they are 1.2 volts compared to the original batteries which are 2.4 volts, albeit with much lower mAh.
–Got a call from UC Davis Health to schedule echocardiogram–in April. Also they gave me a number to call re Zio patch: turns out no one had done anything about getting me one. They are now. Great.
–Spent the day downloading/reconciling videos.
–Took a shower and shave.
–The Hario kettle leaked again, so I checked it out again. It seems the steam sensor tube is hollow (duh), so a “careless ” dump of water into the kettle will send some into the tube and thus down to the bottom. So, just pour carefully; problem solved.
–Potted the dieffenbachia; looks good for now.
–Trimmed back the bizarre double plant on the front patio.
–Picked up Weleda at UPS.
–Took Grace to Bel Air for lots of stuff.
–Did some re-potting and such in the garden.
–Took Grace to Smart & Final.
–Stopped at UPS for (a) Amazon pump bottles–way too large; (b) FidgetBoy mokume spinner–very nice; (c) Magnus superconductor slider–nice-looking, but magnets in the corners are not strong enough, as usual on his heavy sliders; (d) Torqbar magnum tungsten–it’s in good shape and all, but very large and heavy, and has sort of a knock when spinning, though balance seems fine. May keep, may not.
–Tried to get Weleda lotion into various pump bottles, including one Grace gave me. Long story short, it seems that only the “awkward angle” pumps that came with a heavy cream will work. I’ll play around a little more, but will likely end up just dispensing it from its original container.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–No rain today; still cold and windy though.
–Called NY Bagels and–amazingly–a woman answered who took my order for a dozen sesame. When I picked them up, the old bald guy who’s been missing for a while was there. He said he had been working afternoons.
–Second Homedics toothbrush came in. Seems to charge and work fine, though I don’t know how long the battery will last. I tried my kluge battery in it and no dice. OTOH, when I putthe “new” battery in the non-working toothbrush it worked fine. So my home-built battery is the problem. I suppose I could have Batteries Plus build one, as they offered, but I don’t know. Would it fit? Do the two half-batteries have to be soldered together? Does it need a button on one end?
–Batteries came in for the Homedics toothbrush. Good news: they fit. Bad news: after soldering some “lumps” onto the ends for better contact, they seemed to be charging (the light came on). Toothbrush was still dead as a doornail, Could be risky, but I’m really anxious to see if the batteries in the incoming toothbrush (known to work well) will work in this first one.
–Played around with Oz knives a bit. Picked three to keep, eight to sell.
–Lots and lots of rain today. Cold, too.
–Took Grace to a UC Davis lab for a blood draw, then to the recycling center, then to Raley’s.
–After some more issues and fixes, I THINK I have my Thunderbird/Comcast/Yahoo email completely sorted out.
–Big rain last night and today, off and on. Finally.
–Went to UPS to pick up the first knife I’ve bought from a maker’s website in a LONG time: an Oz Roosevelt XL.
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cream.
–Kenny gave us another cheesecake, $5 Monday at Bel Air.
–Took a shower and shave. Sprayed some athlete’s foot/jock itch medication on my balls afterwards, and they burned like fire for a few minutes. I have to assume I’m sort of chronically infected, maybe due to sweatpants’ lack of breathability and/or harboring of germs. Hoping that if I spray every day for a while I can knock this out.
–Breezy, grayish day, but no rain yet.
–Took Grace to Smart & Final.
–Missed my second LIC spinner drop in a couple weeks. Turns out that the website password is posted not by the owner, Jamie Ackerman, but by an admin named Kory Sean. And: apparently I had blocked him some time ago, most likely for foul language. Worse, I won a nice slider several days ago, and apparently Kory was the one to contact winners and get payment, etc. What a piece o’ crap! Kory and I had exchanged messages previously, and (in addition to not recalling the block) I thought I had unblocked all of my previous blocks, at least in part so as not to miss possibly desirable sales posts. [edit] On reflection it seems I may have blocked Kory as one of the obnoxious “showoff” guys who do nothing but post artsy photos of their utterly unobtanium $5,000 fidgets. And in messaging Jamie Ackerman about this, I fear I may have soured a nice relationship. Anything else I can do for you?
–Sherry dropped off a couple of Valentine’s cookies.
–Kenny dropped off a baked potato.
–I brought Sherry some chocolate-covered fruit, and later gave some to Kenny along with some of the lemon curd Grace made with lemons Kenny gave us.
–Homedics toothbrush wouldn’t charge, so I got the battery out and took it to Batteries Plus. Seems it is two 1/2 AA batteries joined in series, and they didn’t have a replacement. Found a n open box toothbrush, same model, on eBay and the seller graciously tested it and found it charged instantly, so I bought it. The “joined” battery no longer exists, so I’m going to try getting a couple of halves and soldering them in series. Risky, because the length and width of the original battery are very specific (no slop), But I haven’t soldered in a while, so here’s my chance.
–Wanted to watch a Harry Potter movie, and found that the SyFy channel now requires a subscription. USA and E! also do, and Cartoon Network did a while back. I will be dropping Comcast as soon as I can find a suitable replacement–the greed of those guys is mind-boggling. prices steadily rise, channels steadily disappear.