Month: March 2021

–No ride with Tom today. He emailed last night to say he was having complications from a bladder/prostate exam in which a camera was inserted up his urethra. Yuck. He was still feeling woozy today.

–Took a shower. Tried my fifth Blackland Blackbird razor (polished brass). Too harsh. You’d think I might have figured that out several shaves ago, but I wanted so much to like the razor. Not in the cards.

–Squale/Blancpain came in finally, with all sorts of authenticator seals on it. Pulled the stem out to set it and it came all the way out: it’s broken. Will return it when eBay gets word that it’s been delivered–even though seller said “final sale, no returns.”

–Went for a blood draw at Sutter clinic. All good except HDL, 38 instead of 40+, as usual.

–Got bagels and breakfast (bagel sandwiches) at Noah’s.

–My drugs came in from CVS.

–Time to turn solar on: air was 76 degrees, pool 60 this morning.

–Took a 10-mile ride. Getting warm. Encountered some people on horses, and a lot of horse crap.

–A nice pair of ducks visited the pool this morning. Pretty incredible.

–Made turkey burgers etc. for dinner. Potato salad was bad, peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies from Upper Crust Bakery also.

–Made appointments for Dr. Duncan on 4/2 and lab work on 3/29.

–Went to two Targets (Olsen and Madison) for eye drops and a Weber burger press.

–Sent a couple of watch cases off to Tim Mackrain (Omega Addict) for him to build two “Watchco” Seamasters.

–The Spring warmup has started.

–Blocked another sprinkler in the garden.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert and strawberries.

–Thor 54mm tamper came in. Looks great.

–Took a shower. Phoenix Ascension copper razor worked well, though the comb might be a little sharp. Will sand it down a bit.

–New batteries in hearing aids at 8:30 AM.

–Played with photo editors some more. Turns out DxO, which I had revived and dismissed just last night, is a winner.

–Triad razor handle came in. Very nice, sharpest knurling ever.

–Nokton 50/1.1 came in. Not so sure about it; limited testing.

–I’ve felt lousy the last couple of days. Thought it might be the Cialis, but I don’t know.

–The eBay seller who screwed me on the bottom dial Gillette has an auction going (currently around $1,000) for an original signed Picasso oil. Yup.

–Played with lenses. Decided to send off the Summicron to Yye Camera for a CLA.

–The guy who sold me the Gillette bottom dial on eBay (Mahmoud) canceled the transaction and refunded my payment. Claims he’s having PayPal issues and that I will definitely get the razor. His account is a year old, and he has 30 transactions (all in the last 30 days, all as a buyer, many with identical feedback from the sellers). I do vaguely recall that there are sellers who do $.01 sales with the sole purpose of helping build a feedback record. So: (a) He wants to avoid eBay fees and do the deal privately, or (b) he’s already sold the razor to someone who offered more. Hard to predict right now—-except for sure I’m not getting that razor.

–Grace is getting snitty again, after a few days of sunny disposition. A combo of no sleep and self-hatred for doing online games all day rather than making a shopping list.

–Played with lenses a bit. Long story short, that Color Skopar is really nice. Focuses smoother than the Summicron, seems about as sharp, great colors.

–Made pizza for dinner, with baloney, fresh mozzarella, pineapple. Yum!

–Took (additional) tax papers over to Curtis Finton’s office.

–Took a shower. Started to shave with the new Asylum 17-4. Acted like it would work, but the soap I used as so slick, and the razor handle so smooth, I quickly switched over to the Mergress (also a little smooth) then finally to the Gillette red dot. Some of that was the fault of the hyper-slick soap (which has the consistency of a thick shampoo), but I noted early on that the 17-4 handle had really shallow engraving and no texture. What a disaster. In theory I could put a different handle on that head, but it just hain’t worth it.

–Polished brass Blackland Blackbird came in. Really pretty.

–Michael Casserd sent some pdf’s that were supposed to be the closing statement on 110 Playa, but (a) they weren’t, and (b) they were very weird looking. He said he’d mail us a paper copy. Meanwhile, I had called the title company (I found them by looking up the big deposit at Heritage CCU), and they emailed me a pdf of the statement. I’ll take it to Curtis Finton tomorrow, along with copies of maintenance expenses on the house. Whew!

–I put a hard rubber washer under the head of the useless Asylum 17-4 razor (based on a forum tip), and it seemed to allow loosening of the handle enough (while holding it securely) to position the blade so it would shave. We’ll see tomorrow.

–Had a scary moment when all Leica photos today were over-exposed. Discovered that in fooling around with the front button last night I set the EV to +1.7. Oops. Nice pics once properly adjusted. Turns out live view is pretty useless, though. Even with magnification the image is too fuzzy/washed out to focus with. And so far I’ve had decent results with the rangefinder.

–Made pizza for dinner. Best yet. 30 minutes at 450 is the only way to cook ’em.

–Hamilton military watch(es) came in. Very small, but pretty cool and running very nicely.

–Got bagels at Noah’s; got milk, flour, peanuts, olive oil, chocolate chips at Bel Air. Saw Imelda there, shopping with her mother. She pretended not to (or didn’t) recognize me.

–Sent an email to eBay customer service asking why I’m getting seller email at wsfarr@gmail.com. The quick response didn’t have an answer, and bumped it over to IT. [edit: It dawns on me that Xfinity (as distinct from Comcast) also sends email to wsfarr. I suppose it’s possible that something is crossing over. I tried to update Xfinity info today, but their account interface is notoriously limited in what it actually lets you do.]

–Still haven’t heard from Michael Casserd on closing papers for the 110 Playa sale.

–Daylight savings time started; I changed all the clocks.

–Couple of doves were hanging out most of the day in the garden and the pool rocks. Several flickers were pecking at the lawn. Squirrel with what seemed to be a bum leg came early for peanuts; didn’t see it again.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for asian pears, oranges, broccoli, radishes, and a couple of plants (dill seeds and a Holy Mole hot pepper).

–Took some photos with the Leica and the two Voigtlanders. I still like the Color Skopar, though managed to get pretty wild bokeh from both. Don’t know why I bought the Nokton: it’s the same 35mm as the Skopar, and not preternaturally fast. If you want to take low-light pics (probably not the smartest way to shoot a viewfinder camera), get serious. Turns out if you take the camera off Auto and set a specific shutter speed, it shows you the left/right arrows and center dot for optimizing aperture, just like 25-year-old Contax film cameras I had. Pretty amazing.

–Sped up the main pool pump and Aux2. Seemed to (a) create more turbulence and (b) send all the fuchsia blossoms to the skimmer, thus clearing the pool.

–Took the BMW to Niello for a service. All fine. They checked the driver’s side mirror, couldn’t find any issues. Parked the car on the left, in the “single” spot–so Grace can have a chance to drive the Honda without having to worry about getting in and out. Hope I can get the Beemer in and out by myself unscathed.

–The Leica M 240 came in finally; works nice. The Nitecore charger charged it right up, so that expense was justified. Took some great photos of the camellia with (a) the Summicron 50/2 dual range that I cut down so it wouldn’t hit anything in the camera; (b) the Voigtlander Color Skopar 35/2.5; and (c) the Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.4. Right now I like the Voigts better than the Summicron. Tabbed focus rings move nicely and snap into focus, and the colors look great. It’s going to be a bit of a pain to either manually code them every time I put them on the camera or permanently code them with a 6-bit kit. OTOH, the Summicron also has to be manually coded. We’ll see.

–Put Grace’s file drawer together, no problem.

–Curtis Finton called. Asked about the “extra payment” I made in September 2020. Finally realized that it was probably related to the sale of 110 Playa Blvd., around May 2020. Whether related or not, it was a fortuitous catch: I hadn’t sent him Word One regarding the Playa sale. Unbelievable. So I copied all the maintenance expenses I could find (new electrical panel, etc.), and searched for (but couldn’t find) a single document in the file drawer or email archive that said “you got x dollars for this house on y date.” Called and left a message with Michael Casserd. As I said, unbelievable.

–Bose around-the-ear headphones came in. Could be exciting.

–Played with watches a bit. Don’t know what I’m going to do with all those old Speedmasters.

–Leica 240 did NOT come today; FedEx is stuck (again) in Elko, NV for some reason. Pisses me off.

–Mergress “bling” came in. Jewels in handle are actually pretty cool.

–Got some sandwiches for dinner at the Beach Hut Deli, and a Marie banana cream pie for dessert.

–Roasted caf beans.

–Took a shower. Tried (briefly) to shave with one of the blades that came with the Gillette double ring, which I had honed up a little. Nope. Shaved with a Wilkinson “Light Brigade” blade that was on its second or third use, having put it in the brass Charcoal Goods Everyday razor. Hadn’t cared much for the blade before (in a Blackbird and a Wolfman I think); today I got a fabulous shave and couldn’t even feel the blade. Wow! Torn over what to do with two CG razors, brass and stainless. Hate to give one up. We’ll see.

–Got a refund from Amazon on the Leica 262 with battery issues. Whew!

–Saw a couple of flickers on the lawn; got a fuzzy picture of one.

–Made another pan pizza, this time with bread flour. Came out really thick and…bready. Cooked at 550 for 15 minutes, solidifying the notion that 450 for 30 minutes is best.

–Went to both the Sunrise and Folsom farmers markets; got lots of stuff.

–Finished reading the latest Jack Reacher (The Sentinel) online. Not a real thriller, with lots of bongers–e.g., Reacher tries to open a gate by entering on a keypad the birthdays (MMDD) of Lenin, Hitler, Trotsky, and Stalin. I doubt there are two historians in the world who know those dates.

–Went on a quick bike ride (chilly); got a good picture of some tom turkeys in full display for some hens.

–Color Skopar lens came in. It’s tiny, all right. Also has a tab, not a ring for focusing, like the Nokton.

–Went up into attic to replace insulation. No can do–need a better staple gun, ladder, etc. Went to Cal Vintage Roofing to get recommendation on someone to hire. They gave me ABC Insulation. Called them; they will have an estimator call me back.

–Verified that the Rolex 5513 is running slow. Opened it and found a watchmaker’s inscription inside. Hard to believe (a) I didn’t notice that before, and (b) that the watch had ever been opened, given that Ivanov almost gave up on it. It’s possible the inscription (RTX…) was from Rolex Service Center in Texas; hard to say. Anyway, turns out the 1520 movement is one of maybe two that allows “standard” regulation, so I played with it until it read 0 s/d. Amplitude was 275, which seemed a little low to me, but the movement gleamed, so I’m not terribly worried.

–Made muffins for dessert.

–Pool sweep finally seems to be running okay, though it does appear to have a little tilt to it. Should be able to fine-tune speed with the bypass valve.

–Climbed up on the roof and swept off tree debris, with Grace outside watching the whole time. This (plus the bike ride for the Honda) seems to have exhausted me. Gettin’ old.

–Took pics of camellia and squirrel with the C-Lux. They came out pretty darn good.

–Spent a fair while going around and around with Health Equity (formerly Wage Works) re Sutter health care reimbursement. Turns out they don’t allow online applications now, so I had to print up the forms and mail them in.

–SEAL Team was almost unwatchable; it has become almost pure soap opera.

–Installed new toner cartridge on printer.

–Took some pictures of the red bushes by the pool with Leica C and C-Lux. That little C really holds its own.

–Got bagels at Noah’s.

–Made pizza for dinner. Darn good.

–Roasted some caf beans.

–Played with cameras. Leica C still rules the compacts. Will keep the Exilim ZS35 because of the awesome form factor and feel–even though it only has one metering mode (multi).

–Looked up Big Box Super Store, the Amazon dealer who sold me the Leica M 262. (1) They have two more in stock (I thought their original response to my return query was like “Well, we can’t replace it.”). (2) When I looked for warranty info, Amazon said “Contact seller for warranty info.” So I guess it is a gray market item, given that the other thing BBSS said regarding return was “Have you tried to initiate the warranty yet?”

–Marie for dinner.