–Got produce at the Sunrise farmers market, cream cheese and apple streusel at Bel Air.
–Gillette Fat Boy razor was “delivered” today, but it wasn’t in the mailbox. I hope the neighbor who got it by mistake and kept it is happy.
Month: October 2020
–Pool pump and sweeper are finally working perfectly according to schedule!
–Carved a pumpkin.
–Played with pool controller. ALMOST got it completely figured out. Schedules are still not 100% set, and of course I have no clue wrt Solar.
–Left hearing aid quit around 9 PM.
–James from Aztec came out and set up the pool controller. Put in a sales pitch for the Easy Touch controller, $1,399. Will probably do that. [edit] Just went through all the controller functions, and I think I understand it–including various pump speeds. May not need an Easy Touch. Will likely need someone to come out in March to get solar going, but I’d need that no metter which controller was active, probably.
–NTH watch, another Seamaster homage (like Borealis Estoril and MKII), came in. Nice. Don’t know which of the three will end up “permanent.” Probably the black-dialed Estoril I don’t have yet.
–Swept around pool. Controller not working, so put it on “schedule” pump.
–Took a shower. For shaving, tried one of the vintage Gillette Super Blue blades I bought for a potential “collector” Fat Boy. Incredibly, it worked as well as the Derby Extras I’ve been using. Maybe anything works if you only shave once a week.
–Swept pool after last night’s winds.
–Sent off requested Borealis Estoril watch band link to Brian Ravert.
–Watered the milkweed plants.
–Went for a 10-mile bike ride; cold and windy. Went out to Hazel and rode the three entrances to the Lake Natoma loop: one going out of the Aquatic Center parking lot that goes below/east of the river/lake and “ends” in Folsom; one on the far side of Hazel that goes down a steep incline to the upper/west side of the river, which turns out to be the American River Parkway/JSMBT with mile markers that Tom and I rode–and ends at Beal’s Point; and one that goes steeply down the near side of Hazel to the Nimbus complex/ARP. Will have to study maps to see how to do an actual loop, since Folsom and Beal’s Point are not that close together.
–Rolex 1803 in white gold from 1967 came in. Nice. Bracelet from 1971 extremely stiff (like it was just rebuilt), too short (ordered a link on eBay, may need more) and clasp is very hard to open (again, maybe because of rebuild).
–Played with pool, finally got sweeper running (perhaps only because solar was running).
–Made pizza for dinner.
–Took a walk on the Gold River nature trail. Saw lots of squirrels and stacked rocks.
–Played with the Suntouch controller a bit. Useless.
–Roasted caf and decaf beans.
–Brought some long acorns back for the squirrels. They went crazy, eating and burying them. Cool.
–Went to Hooverville Orchards in Apple Hill (Placerville) for pies, jams, and apples.
–Rode 12 miles with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills.
–Walked to Bel Air for dessert. Forgot mask. Drove to Bel Air for dessert.
–Got bagels and had breakfast at Noah’s Bagels.
–Tried to set up schedule on pool pump. Not quite there yet.
–Spent some time (re)doing login/password changes. I do believe Chrome was responsible for a lot of the hassles I encountered initially (using Firefox now).
–Put the Suntouch solar controller in Service mode and set up the pump to run at 1,500 RPMs. Will try tomorrow to schedule the pump to run for [calculated] hours every day.
–Got produce at the Sunrise farmers market.
–Played with the pool controller. Actually found a way to increase pump speed, which (for now) eliminated bubbles. Also tried to turn on robot sweeper; we’ll see tomorrow at 10:30.
–Changed BofA Visa payment bank from Bay Federal to Heritage.
–Had lunch at the Beach Hut Deli; went shopping at Bel Air.
–Updated social security email and password.
–Rode east on the ARP with Tom Elken, switching over to the Natoma lake loop. Hoping I can remember enough of it to do again on my own. Tom is golfing tomorrow with Steve Chaump, who retired well from 3COM on an acre in El Dorado Hills.
–Looks like I might be getting arthritis: first joint of left thumb has been “hitchy” and painful for the last few days.
–Picked up repaired Rolex Day-Date at Ivanov’s. Works!
–Spent ALL DAY with the Suntouch pool controller. Got exactly nowhere. Beginning to think it’s not wired correctly to the pump. It can turn the pump on and off, but doesn’t seem capable of running it at specific speeds. Will call Aztec. [edit] Further investigation showed that if you tell Suntouch it’s a VF pump (as opposed to VSF, which the pump label says), you get more items in the menu–like pump status (RPM, GPM, PSI). Pretty sure it was installed as a VF (though with max speed limited to 2,900 RPM, which I bumped to 3,450), then Travis changed it to the “correct” VSF. More to come.
–Camellia tree is blooming in garden. Nice.
–Mowed the lawn, adjusted the sprinklers–many of which were way off. The lawn doesn’t need replacing, just water. Will try to check more often.
–Took a shower.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8 AM.
–Leica V-Lux 20 came in. Nice. But compared with the C (both 12mp), it doesn’t hold up. I’m guessing it’s the 2.0 lens on the C vs. the 3.3 on the V-Lux.
–Just discovered that you can get a gorgeous diamond-dial Datejust (the only gold is in the bezel) for around $5k, compared to $15k for a Day-Date. After buying a $3,500 Day-Date Dial. And there are thousands of diamond Datejusts on eBay. Oh well…
–Made ratatouille. Pretty good.
–Left hearing aid battery died around 8 PM.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for ratatouille ingredients plus grapes, apples, etc.
–Started some baguettes for tomorrow with ratatouille.
–Went to Green Acres for milkweed plants, bird seed, bird feeder hanger, pumpkin.
–Shigefusa 240 gyuto came in. Nice. I tried for a while to ream out the cool white handle to fit, but didn’t get anywhere. Super hard wood (or wood-grain plastic, I don’t know). Put original Shig handle back on. May send out to a pro to fit the white handle.
–Firefox started acting up tonight. Installed Chrome again and Chase login was fine. Back and forth, back and forth.
–Rode the ARP with Tom Elken. Cold out there. While testing the Turbo Vado, he discovered that the upshifter can be pulled with a finger (I had thought it could only be pushed by a thumb). Eureka! Made him a latte, which he seemed to enjoy.
–Made Grace a “mocha” after dinner. I couldn’t even taste espresso in the final product. Hope she likes it.
–Ivanov’s called: 7-10 days and $145.
–Took a shower.
–House of Scuba said 1mm wetsuit was back-ordered. I got a refund. Wetsuit Warehouse had two in stock. I bought one.
–Couldn’t log into Chase all day; Grace could. Turned out to be a Chrome issue. Switched to Firefox and all is good.
–Got 10 plain and 3 sesame bagels at Noah’s.
–Paid State Farm homeowner’s insurance.
–Went to Target for deodorant, shampoo, small vacuum.
–Made pesto for dinner.
–Went with Grace to Sunrise farmers market. Grapes, tomatoes, pepper.
–Finally heard fro Cris Anderson re knife refund. Said he would send it after selling a knife. Right.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 10 AM.
–Took the Rolex Day-Date apart for cleaning. Couldn’t get stem back in. Screw that holds stem turns freely both ways, doesn’t come out. Both day and date indicators went blank. Watch is seriously screwed, just from removing stem. Off to Ivanov’s.
–Rolex 1803 came in. Decent condition, running okay. Bracelet fit, fortunately, as there are no screw links.
–Rolex luminova T < 25 service dial (and hands) came in–looks great. Now all I need is a 5512.
–Saw some nice Rolex 18239s on buyee.com (Japan auction), but they were well over 1,500,000 JPY and max bid for non-Japan folks is 900,000. Also looked at Rakuten, but it’s gotten weird and requires disabling ad blocker to do anything. Crap.
–Messaged James Hyman (relumer) on instagram re 5513 dial and hands.
–Ordered a Leica handgrip from NYC.