–Moved the bird feeder to make it more visible from living room.
–Pool was still 81 at 4 PM today. Looks like no swimming until May. Really curious as to what I’ll find comfortable now.
Month: April 2021
–Finally fixed the patio door blinds, with much interference from Grace.
–Tried to go swimming at 4 PM with pool at 81. Walked in, chickened out. May try to dive in tomorrow; pool will likely be much warmer.
–Put new batteries in hearing aids around 9 AM.
–Rode the InnerLight (with Selle Rolls) on the Canal. Seat is good; bike is good. Found what was left of a turkey that had been eaten by a cougar or coyote or something; collected some nice feathers.
–Made Jimmy Dean hot sausage, hash browns, Acme toast and eggs for dinner. Yum!
–Saw some bubbles in the pool this afternoon; bumped up the speed of the booster pump again.
–Found I already had an iSesamo tool, so opened up the iPod, making just the tiniest nick in the glass. Pulled the battery out (which gained nothing charging overnight); eagerly awaiting new battery. The “Pop” EQ on that player is (as I vaguely recall from previous ones) is the best mp3 music I’ll ever hear.
–Played with seats/seatposts a little, and discovered a standards disaster. The InnerLight tube is 30mm but was shimmed down to 27, while most of my seatposts are 27.2. Finally got the Selle Regal on the Specialized with the Thomson Masterpiece post, and the Selle Rolls on the Innerlight with the drastically cut-down Thomson Elite post. Took a short Canal ride on the InnerLight (with the OEM Specialized saddle). There was a tense moment coming back up the rise from trail to Gold Country, but I did NOT have to get off. Good exercise.
Rolex 5512 came in a little early. Great on the timegrapher, some dots on the dial, case seems good. Caseback says IV 67. The 11-link 93150 bracelet dating from 1983 was a tad tight, so swapped in a later 93150 in better shape and stole a link from the one on the new watch. 12 links are good; I used to think 11 would work. Looking for an age-appropriate rivet bracelet.
–Left hearing aid battery went out around 5 PM.
–Went to Noah’s for bagels and Peet’s for caf and decaf beans.
–iPod came in. Sat on the charger in the utility room for 5 hours with no effect (“very low battery, do not disconnect”). Plugged it into the laptop and it sprang to life, syncing with iTunes and loading up my playlist (which I had just put up on iTunes. Right now the battery symbol appears to signify fully charged, though it’s flashing a circle/slash sign and saying “do not disconnect.” Might work after all; it sure is new.
–Watched a mother/child squirrel pair on the fence and the patio for quite a while. The kid was nursing off and on. Very sweet.
–Dropped the booster pump from 2000 RPMs to 1800. Saw some air coming in late in the afternoon, so raised it to 1900.
–Made turkey burgers for dinner.
–Played with pool controls. (1) Main pump needs 2900 RPM to eliminate solar bubbles. (2) Booster pump needs ~2000 RPM for same. That is: 2900 + 2000 = no bubbles; 2800 + 2000 = bubbles; 2900 + 1500 = bubbles. Will try to tune the booster pump later. (3) Low water level leads to air bubbles in skimmer, which show up in main pump porthole (and pool inlet). So: sufficient water + sufficient RPMs = no bubbles. Again, it’s super-annoying that none of several techs provided this solution.
–Went to Bel Air for apples, milk, cream, dessert, etc.
–Went with Grace to East Sac. Picked up Squale at Ivanov’s. What an ugly little watch. Had lunch at Chipotle. Not so great. Went shopping at Corti Bothers. Got Acme bread, pork chops, potato salad, Greek salad, jams, cheese, lunch meat, etc. Had the pork chops and salads tonight. Good stuff.
–Thomson Masterpiece seatpost came in. Installed it with the Selle Regal saddle; piece of cake. Don’t see why I needed the bigger clamp I ordered, but it shouldn’t be horribly hard to install it, especially with the ball-end hex driver.
–The pool started up at 8 AM. I really thought I had nailed down the schedules. I played with it some more, so we’ll see tomorrow. Of note: there were air bubbles after I slowed things down initially (Grace was in a panic regarding the robot run amok). I bumped the main back up to 3000 RPM, and booster to something (don’t recall) and bubbles went away. Hoping things start at 10 tomorrow, so I can relax about scheduling and start tuning the pumps for air bubbles.
–Found a new trail to ride: The Folsom South Canal. It’s actually an aqueduct, diverting water from the American River and taking it 26 miles south to farmers and such. The wide bike path runs the whole distance, and was empty today except for me. Nice.
–Got our (temporary) Real IDs at the Folsom DMV.
–Spent some frustrating time trying to fit various bike saddles on various seatposts. The clamps are horribly designed. Ordered a new Thomson seatpost and some ball-end hex screwdrivers to try and set things up with the carbon-rail Selle Regale.
–Rode 17.5 miles with Tom Elken. I was hoping he’d show me how to get through Folsom to catch the north part of the Lake Natoma loop, but we initially came out at Mel’s diner, so had to backtrack to get to Folsom. After that, instead of turning right toward Mike’s Bikes, turn left and go over the bridge, then cross the street and head right toward Negro Bar. Sort of.
–Pool Time guys came at 3:30. I noted what they did with valves (one on the roof!), but (1) he said nothing is needed on the controller except a schedule change (really hard to believe), then (2) he increased the speed of the booster pump (Aux2) after I mentioned I had it set low, then (3) he went into this thing about Aux4, which he said was the solar pump. He upped its speed from 0 to 2600 (maybe on the pump itself), then went into this totally confused explanation of how Aux4 is the same as the main pump.
(a) There is no Aux4 on this system (Aux1–Aux3, Feature1–Feature4). (b) How can you set one pump to run at different speeds at the same time? The guy might know pumps, but he’s clueless wrt controllers. And the pump blew air into the pool the full time it was on today (over an hour).
This really sucks.
–Made a crusty pan pizza for dinner. Good stuff.
–Left hearing aid died. Took it to Costco and they replaced the wire that leads from body to earpiece. Works fine now.
–Motorola Razr came in. Wrong model of course: had a slot for a memory card (maybe), but not a SIM. CDMA phones (e.g., Verizon) don’t use SIMs. Okay, so why does my iPhone, running on Verizon, use a SIM? I really need to find out the differences among CDMA, GSM, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, EVO, etc. etc. It’s still not likely I’ll get a Razr (or any vintage flip phone) working, plus the Razr, while unblemished, really felt and sounded like a piece of crap. One loses sight of how good the iPhone is.
–Hung the fruit crate labels in the dining room.
–Got tomatoes, cara cara oranges, strawberries, giant Brussels sprouts ay Sunrise farmers market.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries at 4:30 PM.
–Mowed the lawn; tried to prop up the wilted-looking basil plant.
–Went to Devon’s to pick up the refurbished Rolex Datejust. Rolex replaced the entire case (and nothing else), then inscribed the caseback with 16000/EX123 (old serial)/K567 (new serial). So it has a new serial, with evidence of the original 1971 serial.
–Aztec canceled on the solar startup. Called Pool-Time; they’ll be out on the 20th.
–Walked to Bel Air for a couple of prepared salads to have with grilled turkey burgers. Good stuff.
–Noticed the skimmer has a high-speed spin going–and the level appears to be only an inch or so above the shelf. Kind of annoying that the skimmer works best when the pool level is close to being too low.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, dessert, oranges, apples. Got a basil plant as well, and planted it. looks really droopy. Hope it picks up.
–Went for a 9-mile ride in Folsom with Tom Elken. Then lunch at Karen’s Bakery & Cafe (I brought cinnamon rolls back for dessert). Then Tom bought a Specialized Turbo Vado just like mine (except yucky gray) at Mike’s Bikes.
–Took a shower. Put a blade in the Barbaros and the gap looked large, so reboxed that razor and went with the Gillette double ring. Though the gap looked like it was too small to shave, the blade feel was substantial and the shave was close. Decided to toss the Personnas in the white paper that came with Blackland razors (I believe) and go back to “real” Personnas, Derbys, and Wilkinsons. Plus there are some others (Feather, notably) which I’ll try.
–Got bagels at Noah’s.
–I thought PayPal had lifted the ban, based on what looked like a clean login, but found out there was zero progress from last night while buying a bike saddle on eBay–I had to use my BofA credit card. PayPal account is still “limited,” photo ID is “completed,” credit card verification is “submitted.” This is extremely annoying, as I lost a chance to call them today thinking all was well. Further, I’m fearful that the eBay Squale refund won’t go through because of this problem.
–Painted the solar downspout that was replaced.
–Played with the Gibbs razor for a while. From what I can see it’s a piece of crap. With no blade, the cap gap seems relatively even, but when I tighten down on a blade, it warps and the blade gap is a mess. I flattened some surfaces (that already looked fine) to no effect. I thought my first shave with that razor was great, but the second was awful–after I had carefully taken it apart, figured everything out, and put it back together. Don’t know whether to pursue the brand or not. It gets some rave reviews, but there’s the occasional report of a rough shave. Curiosity will probably win out.
–eBay “limited” my account (shut it down, essentially) due to suspicious activity. I had to send them a photo ID and a credit card statement. Really annoying.
–Branches falling off redwood tree over pool may mean squirrel nesting.
–Took a ride around the neighborhood. Butt (continued to) hurt, so I put the Selle Rolls on the Turbo Vado. Saddles were in the same location on both bikes, but the Selle was about level (before and after switching from InnerLight to Turbo), while the Specialized saddle on the Turbo was tilted way up. We’ll see.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8:30 AM.
–Did some pool chemistry; found out (amazingly) that only the alkalinity needs adjusting. Hard to believe.
–Took notes on pool controller settings. Looks like it could be dead simple to turn solar on. Also got a hint that the solar water was 110 degrees this afternoon. Possible I guess.
–Went to Goodwill. They still wouldn’t take the Christmas tree. Dumped it behind a building on Sunrise.
–Left hearing aid battery went out around 8 PM.
–Mowed the lawn.
–Took a shower. Tore my face up with the Gibbs razor and anAstra blade. Will probably sell the former and dump the latter.
–Filled out the loan application, then made the mistake of talking to Grace. She’s still upset at having moved out of La Selva Beach, and won’t talk about further moves. I canceled the application.
–Talked with Tom Elken a bit; he’s going to order a bike just like mine.
–Went to Sutter Walk-In Care in Rancho Cordova and got the first of two Shingrix shots.
–Was playing with and trying to figure out the Gibbs razor, and discovered that it was much more complex than I had thought, and actually did have a spring in it. I put a new spring in it (may revert later), thoroughly cleaned it up, and punched out an Astra blade for it. Smooth shave coming up.
–Talked to Nate Newsome about a $300k home mortgage loan. He’ll be sending an application.
–Cleared off my desk.
–Got milk and cream at Bel Air.
–Took Grace to both farmers markets; got stuff.
–Grace discovered (via water drops on window) that a squirrel had bitten through a dripline in the garden, causing a geyser. I tried Flex Tape, which leaked, then a sleeve, which held.
–Took the Beemer to PAMF to see Dr. Duncan. Had a nice lunch at Douce France. Duncan was late, all is okay.
–GPS took me through the Berkeley Maze on the way down, then through backroads in the Delta on the way back–totally miserable. New rule: pick your route and stick to it.
–Ivanov’s called with a $40 estimate for the stem on the Squale. They also had an idea of using a longer stem tube to hold the movement in place while opening/closing the back. Might work.
–eBay slammed me on my attempt to return the Squale–seller doesn’t take returns, watch was authenticated. End of story. After I yelled a bit, they told me to get a repair estimate and they would pay. I went to Ivanov’s and they will give an estimate. The watch is a horrible piece of crap, with a tiny movement and a split caseback that can’t be removed without breaking the stem. Live and learn.
–Left hearing aid went out around 7 PM.