Month: February 2022

–Bought and paid $550 for a Southard Tolk on reddit, “A+ condition.” Through an incredible bit of luck searching for the URL for my spreadsheet, I found that the seller had bought the knife on reddit 3 months ago: $340, B+ condition, with modded bearings, snail trails on the scales and a scuff on the blade. I got a quick refund, as the seller had “forgotten about the snail trails,” and the rating, the mod, the scuff, etc. What a major asshole.

–It’s a whirlwind life…

–A gray day.

–Cleaned the Erie skillet; organized batteries and charging cables.

–Fiddled some more with Koenig Arius. Can’t get it perfect; will sell.

–Talked at some length with a Vanguard retirement guy. No surprise: we need more info on Misako’s IRA before they can figure out the RMD. Surprise (to me): Grace has to take the RMD on her standard IRA this year.

–Went to Staples and got a couple of chair mats. Useless: they’re really thin (for floor or low-pile rug) and so the chair wheels just sink in and make depressions.

–Turkeys were massed in front of our house again at twilight. Grace and I tried to scare them off, but they are perfectly persistent: if they see any opening to our driveway, they just sort of ooze around you and head back. One would need a dog or a large posse to get rid of them–if that’s possible.

–Shirogorov Quantum v1 came in. Mind-bogglingly perfect, and I can even move the pivot!

–Made pizza for dinner. Had to grate some cheddar–not my favorite pizza cheese.

–Continued refining watch collection: what to keep, what to sell.

–Nike Pegasus’s came in. Nice shoes, but mighty large.

–Shirogorov tool set came in. Since I had found the missing bit from the first one I didn’t really need it. Played around with both a bit, messed one up and tossed it.

–Turkeys on the roof again tonight.

–Took Grace shopping at Koreana Plaza.

–Bought a $35,000 Daytona (2000, white dial, full set, unpolished) from Kirill Yuzh. Unbelievable.

–Re-re-bent the frame lock on the Koenig and got it perfect.

–Continued buying knives.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for mandarins and lettuce.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert and cheese.

–Dove into the cataloging of folding knives.

–At Grace’s request, re-hooked up the HDMI wireless extender, to see if it fails with distance/obstructions.

–Cal-Pro came today to do some repairs prior to painting. They also (for an extra $1,200) fixed the chimney cladding, thus bringing into complete HOA compliance.

–Shirogorov/Chris Reeve collaboration knife came in. ANOTHER ONE IS TOO SMALL. I have to stop buying these too-short knives.

–Dropped off the Sea-Dweller at FedEx for Phil Ridley.

–Sea-Dweller date is partially stuck. Got a picture.

–Got some frozen dinners at Bel Air. Still no cream or cream cheese.

–Went to Noah’s for bagels. Surprisingly, got them quickly.

–Took a shower.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert and lunch cheese.

–Watched the Super Bowl. Bad guys won.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for clementines and a giant cauliflower.

–Spent a long time trying to polish the blade of the 3-Leg Dog knife. Was about to give up when I tried the extra-fine Bergeon satin wheel. Worked pretty well–mostly because (I think) the steel is incredibly hard. Polish attempts just sort of muddied up the blade, whereas the wheel kind of smoothed everything out without really hazing the polished parts. I’ll still sell the knife: it has fabulous action, but the blade just isn’t finished to the same standards.

–Got a couple of subs from the new (to me) Baguette Up in the Jasper’s/Smart & Final center. Was shocked to find that the sandwiches were really superb: great bread, great fillings, etc. Truly a find.

–5513 and Sea-Dweller came back from Phil Ridley. Nice.

–Played with knives. Ruined and tossed the Shirogorov Quantum trying to get it open. On the other hand, the Shiro 111 was better centered (and still had all its ball bearings) after I worked on it.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert.

–Riaan Manser knife in. Very nice.

–Soup for dinner.

–Walked to Rite-Aid to get some Old Spice Classic Original deodorant to replace the horrible Fresh scent I bought by mistake.

–Knives came in: Shirogorov + tool from Russia (new model, thinner than before); Holt Morpheus (small but mind-bogglingly perfect in every respect); Shirogorov 111 (big but very nice blade and action). Tool works great on two Shiros, but I still can’t break loose the pivot on the blue one.

–New(est) Samsung S10e came in. Spent hours updating the OS, then tried Smart 3D. It couldn’t even find the left hearing aid (previous Androids allow setup and adjustment in Smart 3D, but later the left HA is dead on phone calls). Really strange, since iPhones work with left and right without the slightest issue–AND the hearing aids used to work fine on Android phones. So: the left HA is failing, and only iPhones are sensitive enough to work with it???

–Finally was able to buy a digital art NFT Thing from Thingdoms at Open Sea for around $1,600. Absurdly complex process involving wallets, converting unwrapped to wrapped Ethereum, funding, sending, receiving, etc. Whoever streamlines crypto purchases is going to be rich. Got an offer of $500 for my Thing a couple hours after I bought it. And there are legions of fake Thing collections at Open Sea. I wouldn’t have known, and would have bought a cheap fake, except I put in a query at a Things twitter stream and someone actually messaged me. What a minefield……

–Went to REI Folsom and got some new New Balance shoes.

–Sold some Apple and something else at Vanguard, bought $100k worth of a good-performing real estate fund.

–Walked to Bel Air to get dessert and cream cheese. There is no more light cream cheese to be had. Here we go again.

–Took a shower.

–Played with knives all day. Had some successes, some failures. Re-discovered an astonishing Olamic Wayfarer from 2016. Unbelievable blade and action, and it appears to be on washers, not bearings. I have another that I bought for a scale swap (didn’t work), so I may open it up and see how they get it that smooth with washers (if true).

–Bought another Shirogorov (three now).

–Roasted caf and decaf beans (over-roasted, actually).

–Walked with Grace to brunch at Mimosa House. Good stuff.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Got a haircut with Samantha at Super Cuts. $22.

–Discovered a couple of track lights above the cabinets where I’ll be storing/displaying knives and watches. Eureka!

–Played with phones/hearing aids. Too many variables: pair in bluetooth, accessibility app, and/or Smart 3D. Order matters. I should write it down, but it seems to change every time.

–Finally found a reference to “advanced” programming for the ECM PID and managed to change temp display from C to F. I’ve got the temp set close to max, and the coffee still seems not as hot as it could be. Quite possible the Livietta was way too high: ECM makes a really good latte. Hoping it’s not some issue in the E61 grouphead.

–Took Grace shopping at Food Maxx.

–Played with phones, played with knives.

–iPhone SE came in. I dropped it, twice. Ordered another. Might as well open a phone store.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 4 PM (they were working, but Smart 3D showed left battery was weak).

–Took a shower.