Month: April 2022

–Blood pressure still outrageous.

–Went for a 10-mile bike ride. Feeling my age (and lack of riding).

–Learned that the latest Apple iPhone update should make Smart 3D more reliable (and it seems so), while Android on the other hand is “working hard to address these issues…”

–Bought a second blood pressure gauge at Rite-Aid. Same super-high results.

–Tried to meld a 1980 Rolex clasp onto a later bracelet. Nope. The Bergeon riveting plate was a joke, and I ruined 3-4 drill bits trying to get holes to fit 1mm pins, since no one makes .9mm pins.

–Took 13 pistols to The Gun Range for consignment. Went very smoothly.

–Tried to get Treasury Direct auth paper signed at BofA on Folsom. Nope. Took it to Heritage on Sunrise. Got it signed, but no seal (he said it wasn’t necessary). We’ll see.

–Went to Costco to get HA appointment (they were out to lunch). Got danish and peanut butter pretzels. Got an appointment later on the phone.

–Heard from Lee Elliott again regarding paying back my loans. The new payback date is June 30 (pushed back from April 30). This has been going on for a year or so and is beyond ludicrous. I sometimes think he’s writing a story and I’m the plot.

–Had “breakfast” at Holiday Inn Express. Left at 9:05, uneventful trip, arrived at 12:10.

–Took my blood pressure three times: always around 160/90. Shirt sleeve or arguing with Grace? Who knows.

–With only one minor slowdown, it took 2 hours 40 minutes to get to PAMF–at 11:25 for an 11:30 appointment. Visit was good, but I only got 4 of 5 words on the Sloan (?) dementia test.

–Smart 3D lost the left HA battery. I rebooted, but had a terrible time hearing everyone, even at 9 with Speech Clarity. Don’t know what to do.

–Went to BofA to get Treasury Direct auth signed; branch is “temporarily” closed. Dropped off Grace’s packages at PO.

–Took a shower.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert.

–iPhone lost the left hearing aid yesterday, and the left battery died today. Wondering if rechargeable hearing aids would solve this issue: batteries get weaker every day, while recharging keeps them at a constant level. Hard to test without buying a new set of aids.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart and Final. She found Vernor’s!

–Shirogorov F95 Jungle Wear came in. Spent a LONG time trying to get it open, finally did, without damage. Very nice. Ruben’s Rone came in. Strange-looking knife, but beautifully machined and anodized, with incredible action. Hard to imagine how an identical-looking knife (ADV Butcher), same bearings and such, could be such a poor performer.

–Called Curtis Finton. His assistant assured us our returns have been accepted: federal on 4/4, state on 4/6. More to come on 2020 return. Much later: No one knows why the IRS wants $9k for 2020. Wait for a letter from them.

–Many knives came in: Shirogorov F95 Arctic Blue (3rd one). Perfecto. Anndre de Villiers Butcher: Okay shape and good centering, but weighs 2 pounds and does not fall shut. Sell. Cherbukov Hudson: Nice scales, and I finally broke the Loctite, but it has a tiny flipper knob, and is not “dead on” centered as promised. Sell.

–Papa Murphy’s for dinner (good); Pillsbury Cinnabon orange rolls for dessert (good).

–Still haven’t heard from Curtis Finton. Getting annoying.

–Rained most of the day. That’s supposed to be the end of it. Hope it’s enough to justify swimming.

–Planted the basil and oregano. Fertilized lime and clementine.

–Walked to Bel Air for mayonnaise, cream cheese, dessert (got Pillsbury orange rolls!).

–Made reservations at the Marina Holiday Inn Express. BofA credit card declined online and over the phone; had to switch. An hour later, they sent me the “suspicious activity” message. Assholes.

–Got a haircut from Samantha at SuperCuts in El Dorado Hills (she moved).

–Got the SCUBA tank refilled at Fisheye Scuba in Granite Bay.

–Finally got vstat.com working right (including All-In-One WP Migration). The latter is a mystery, since even after the website worked the plug-in still didn’t, so I deleted it. It then reappeared, already installed, so I ran it. Quite the mystery. Also got bf@vstat email working after some tips from Hostinger’s techs. All good now.

–Took a shower.

–Cleaned up some trees in back.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–New hearing aid batteries around 8:30 AM.

–Migrating vstat.com from Namecheap ($5/month) to Hostinger ($2/month). Kinda scary.

–Left hearing aid went out around 8 PM.

–Bought a Cheburkov knife on eBay.

–Got decaf beans at Peet’s; ordered caf beans from Black Sails; got fruit and sundries from Smart & Final.

–Was going to get a haircut, learned Samantha has gone to El Dorado Hills. Later I guess.

–Took Grace for big shopping at Bel Air.

–Played with knives: big success. Used the heat gun and much cleverness to swap scales between Arctic Storm and Mars Valley. As a bonus, both knives are now well-centered. Even better, I swapped out the small scale screws (which had some damage) with the inside screws that hold the clip in place. Voila! Not even sure which one I want to sell now.

–FWIW, the iPhone has detected my hearing aids quickly and perfectly for a week or so. I dare not try going back to the Android. And, housing has completely cratered in Pacific Grove. 1 bed, 1 bath, under TWO MILLION yields four homes, none of them desirable. Holy crap…

–Got some gun bluing at Sportsman’s Warehouse. Forgot you can’t blue polished screws.

–Had a brief (15-20 minutes) power outage today.

–Got bagels at Noah’s.

–Downloaded and watched “Love and Monsters.” Fantastic movie. The scene with Mav1s and the sky jellies is one of the best 4-5 minutes in filmdom.

–Played with knives. Learned that the Shiro Quantum 2’s (One Bear and Three Bears) are identical, down to th washers behind the bearings. It’s a mystery, all right. Meanwhile, marred a little screw on the F95 Zero for no good reason. Crap.

–Played with watches: Started to swap hands on the Rolex Day-Dates. Decided not to. Couldn’t get either stem back in. Off to Ridley. Crap.

–Two Shirogorovs came in: Quantum Gen 2 and F95 Arctic Blue. Learned some things: (1) There’s zero difference between “one bear” and “three bear” knives. I really need to find out why the COA cards differ. (2) Numbers engraved inside the knives bear no relation to serial numbers on the COA and box. They’re more like part/batch numbers. (3) The two Arctic Blues are identical wrt box label and COA, but have different blades/back spacers.

–Watched the Disney movie “Jungle Cruise.” Not bad at all.

–Went to Tom Elken’s wedding. Quite religious (Episcopal). Not a soul there I knew. Came home right after the ceremony.

–Grace agreed to go to the wedding.

–Searched the web and learned that all our lizards (out because of the drought maybe) are Western Fence lizards.

–Grace said she’s not going to the wedding. Said she told me this yesterday at Party City. She didn’t.

–Andre de Villiers Butcher flipper came in. Smaller than I had thought (my fault), severe lock stick, not well centered, lots of light scratches, doesn’t remotely fall shut. A piece o’ crap.

–Paladin shaving brush in “red” came in. Kind of orange-ish actually. Now I have three (two green and a red) that I don’t care for. Crap.

–Tried several times to connect both hearing aids to the Android, with the thought of leaving them on at night so they would stay connected. Failed. Fired up the iPhone and got them connected. What a disaster these things are.

–Took Grace to Party City to buy bubble machine for Tom’s wedding. Talked her out of it.

–Pool pump filter basket was almost completely plugged with plant buds; pressure was near zero. I cleaned it out; great improvement.

–Pen refill came in. Supposed to be 4mm, was 2mm. Tossed. Erasers came in. Shaved one down to fit metal holder, it went too far into handle. Stuffed one into the holder, seems okay. Won’t take a lot of pressure, but it’s okay. Pencil leads came in (had already gotten some at University Art).

–Reg Barber tamper handle came in. Nice. Spent some time removing polyurethane from my cocobolo handle, then polished it. Nice.

–Cleaned up out back a little. Took a look at the dry rot in one of the patio cover beams. Turns out it was in two of the patio cover beams, and more extensive than I want to tackle with epoxy. Will call Cal-Pro.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market with Grace; got stuff.

–More dog poop on sidewalk in front of house–second time in a week.

–Went to University Art. No luck on pen refill, but got a fine frame for Barker’s “Boatride Sunset.”

–Took a shower.

–Played with pen.