–Mowed the lawn; put chlorine in the pool.
–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, squash.
Month: July 2021
–Latex gloves came in. Different from what I had for years, but very nice–vastly better than the black ones.
–Went to Dr. Cripe. Sandy did a thorough cleaning and took digital x-rays. Cripe (sort of) smoothed out the sharp edge of my front tooth, mentioned a cracked tooth, and said “see you in six months.” Works for me.
–Watched an episode of Dr. Blake.
–Masamoto carbon came in. Kanji was either deeply inked or very shallowly engraved, contrary to seller who said it’s years old. Also had some unremovable pitting, in addition to the ugly handle. Tossed it.
–Serious smoke out there today, hazy and smelly. As I continue looking into Pacific Grove, I note that a house that went up for $925,000 a couple weeks ago just sold for $1,200,000. Crap.
–Added water to the pool. Coincidentally or not, everything slowed down: skimmer, sweeper robot. Incredibly frustrating. Will clean filter tomorrow–again–though I’m not optimistic.
–Bought on eBay a crown tube for my Rolex Datejust and a tool to install it. Got the old one out with a broaching tool; it wasn’t ultra tight. The threads on the old one were really sparse and worn, so it took only a fourth of a turn or so to go from unscrewed to screwed in. Really curious to see why none of my tube wrenches came close to fitting.
–Cleaned up a little outside for the pre-paint inspection.
–Tekna shell came in from Tony Campagna. Built a regulator. Had to use metal internals because the diaphragms in the two plastic ones were shot. Ordered a couple (Oceanic) diaphragms from Coral Sea in Oregon.
–Took a swim. Too breezy.
–Cleaned up the Egyptian pharaonic coin. There was still lots of rust after removing some with Evaporust; it took a wire wheel on the Foredom to really get rid of the stuff. Polished with Mother’s Mag. It immediately took a patina, but seems free of surface problems at the moment. We’ll see.
–Made pizza for dinner with leftover slow-cooked cherry tomatoes. Yum! Made brownies for dessert.
–Fooled around with the pool for a bit. Didn’t get far.
–Rolex Sea-Dweller 1665 1980 came in. Original dial/bezel/bracelet, case recut and (probably) color-matched hands and (probably) complete overhaul by LAWW, running great (amplitude > 310, .1ms beat error). Beautiful watch.
–Tied back some bamboo plants, tidied up rocks displaced when I was optimizing drip lines, added a dripper to a grass plant I missed first time around, fertilized the “crops.”
–Took a swim.
–Rode the canal with Tom Elken; had a nice visit afterward.
–Went to the Orangevale farmers market for tomatoes, squash, donut peaches, salsa–except the Salsa Chick wasn’t there (again).
–Took a shower; shaved with Wolfman. Definitely has more blade feel than (say) the Gibbs, but no nicks and a very close shave.
–Grace discovered a couple of green inchworms eating her herbs. Crap.
–Picked up Day-Date bracelet from Rolliworks at FedEx center on Sunrise. Works fine.
–Played with Samsung flip phone. Learned (probably for the third time) that although there are Samsung Android phones that will run the Resound app, this Samsung Android phone will not. And I already knew that the speaker volume was not much (if any) better than that on the iPhone. Crap.
–Leica Q2 finally came in. Beauty.
–Mowed the lawn. Added drippers to the two “grass” plants in the garden (I had blocked the drippers after chopping down the plants when it looked like they wouldn’t come back. They’re coming back).
–Made BLTs for dinner with some Thao tomatoes and Acme bread. Pretty good.
–Went to Noah’s bagels. Got 9 sesame, 4 plain. The place was a zoo again.
–DeVon’s Jewelers called: the 5512 was back fro Rolex. I picked it up. Has a nice luminova dial and hands. Case is a little thinner than I recalled. I tried to put the new (old) caseback from eBay on it: no go. Fiddled with it for a while, now neither caseback will screw on. I’ll ask Phillip Ridley if he can repair it, but I fear it will require laser welding, and I don’t think he does that. Crap crap crap.
–Took a swim. Watched the skimmer flush a couple of times when I stuck my hand in. Moved the flapper valve under the basket from nearly closed to wide open. I’m sure that’ll fix it, given my day so far…
–I compared C-Lux (more pixels, more zoom) to D-Lux 109 (faster lens, working manual focus, Lightroom-ready). Wanted to like the 109, but the sharpness/quality of C-Lux photos at max zoom is astonishing; there’s no better camera for catching squirrels at their cutest.
–[edit] Camera stuff moot: I bought a Leica Q2 from Hong Kong. Yes, I have problems…
–Pool was pumping air this morning. Took several restarts to get it going. Cause was skimmer opening getting completely blocked yesterday, causing several “flushes” and (presumably) sucking in a ton of air. Too many pool floats…
–Took the Beemer out and found (by accident again) the ST strawberry stand on Jackson Highway. Got a 3-pack of strawberries, onion, blackberries, 4-5 smallish tomatoes–for $13. Unbelievable. And the strawberries are the first really good ones we’ve had this season. Will be back.
–Took a swim. Took a shower, then shaved with the newly-acquired Gibbs adjustable razor. Wow! No blade feel, great shave.
–Yet another day’s delay for FedEx delivering the Leica 109. Really pissin’ me off.
–Added water (twice) and chlorine to the pool.
–Barbecued some Corralitos sausages, corn, squash. Yummy!
–Went to Folsom REI to replace broken nose clip. Though web said they had some, they didn’t. Went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought one (Tyr, plastic). Will order the metal Cottonmouth.
–Ptolemy coin came in. Great detail, but has some possibly unremovable dark spots. Soaking in baking soda and sodium carbonate.
–Nose clips broke. Tried the mask: it leaked (or something). Tried goggles without nose clips: nope. May get some at REI Folsom tomorrow.
–Did some minimal housecleaning in anticipation of Tom Elken being over tomorrow after a ride.
–Took a swim.
–Cooler today.
–Daytona arrived at Phillip Ridley’s place.
–Slow day, not as hot as predicted. Pool was at temperature (85) by 10:30. I really need to re-program it. Maybe run it from 10 to 2, swim before sun hits it, add chlorine after swimming. Something like that.
–Went to Bel Air for apples, oranges, cream cheese, corn, and a bunch of stuff for Grace.
–Sent off Rolex Daytona to Phillip Ridley (son of legendary Bob Ridley) so he could replace black dial with white one I got on eBay. Tricky business: the black dial looks pretty nice, and I’ve been bored with white ones in the past. White seems traditional, though. And I could always swap back.
–Seems we used 1,480 gallons of water overnight–both sprinkler systems were running. The Gold River system runs (a) long and (b) often. Don’t know whether to dial it down or not. Green is nice, but that’s absurd overuse of water.
–Made breakfast for dinner: Wylie Dufresne’s scrambled egg sandwich. Yuck! (Salty, tasteless.)
–Day-Date bracelet arrived at Rolliworks.
–Went to Michaels for touch-up paint, then to Taylor’s Market for cheese, Acme bread, jam, dessert (key lime pie). Then to Osaka-Ya for peanut butter mochi. Filled the Honda with (relatively) cheap gas in Sac. Still cost $40 for less than 10 gallons.
–Took a swim.
–Took the Beemer to El Dorado Hills town center so Grace could get some local toffee for Juli’s birthday. Looked for a place to eat lunch, later learned that Moto Osteria (where we ate with Tom Elken) and Ruffhaus (where I had hot dogs a couple of times) had both closed within months of our visits.
–Started to watch Mystery Men; it seemed a little too silly. Watched Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Not bad, but another one of those claustrophobic “can’t trust anyone” films.
–Did a load of laundry.
–Golden State Water tech came out. Showed us that the little wheel on the meter wasn’t turning (no leaks) and said that the vast bulk of water use in Gold River is for lawns, and that there are folks on corners and cul-de-sacs that use > 100 CCF per billing period. Once again, we’re normal.
–Took a shower.
–Back still hurtin’.
–Started to watch a “Bad Boys Forever” download. Realized I had seen it before. Searched the journal: 12/22/2020. Six months ago. Scary…
–Had lunch at Five Guys (Jasper’s was closed), then shopped at Smart & Final.
–Got a letter from Lee Elliott: he was kicked out of his rented place, somehow lost his internet connection (went to Whole Foods to send email), and needed a $700 loan. I tried to do it via Zelle (as requested), but Heritage CCU isn’t in their network, so I ended up sending it via PayPal.
–Took a swim.
–Another slow day.
–New hearing aid batteries around 5 PM.
–Slow day. Took a swim; that’s about it.
–Back is worse, now left side hurts.
–Got many gifts from Grace.