–Set pool pump at 2900, aux2 at 2500. Still got air bubbles all day–though the air temp never got over 80.
–Watched “Free Guy.” Fabulous movie. A little thick at the beginning for us non-gaming oldsters, but it sorted itself out fairly quickly.
Month: May 2022
–Fixed a leak in one of the solar tubes. Couldn’t use the gouging tool to cut a furrow (too weak and/or no practice), so I just cut the line and put a stopper in each end.
–Pool sweep was going crazy (as usual lately), so I got in the pool with pliers and opened up the bypass valve on the line going to the sweeper. Now there’s tons of water coming out of the bypass, and the pool sweep moves very slowly. FINALLY!
–Went for another test drive at GT Auto Lounge. Shimmy was better, but still present. Reading up on Mustang alignment/balance, it seems to be a thorny issue. And Grace is being so silent about all this I just decided to give it up. Guess I’ll wait for a dealer to offer a rice rocket without markup.
–Had to add water to the pool twice; super windy today. Also dropped the RPMs down on main and aux2 pumps.
–Fixed some sprinklers out front that Grace had noticed were on the fritz.
–Went to get some ice cream at Bel Air; noticed (as I was taking it to the checkout counter) that I didn’t have my wallet. Crap.
–Downloaded and watch Copshop. Violent, but good.
–Returned the (too thin) chair mats to Staples.
–Went to GT Lounge. Aidan not in. Old geezer was, so I sat in the GT500, worked the clutch (a little stiff), shifted gears (a little ambiguous), listened to the engine (seems smooth and quiet).
–Went to the Orangevale farmers market. They’ve moved it from parking lot to grass. Not much there (no tomatoes or salsa); I got a squash and some Nai strawberries.
–Barbecued pork chops (with jalapeno/mint marinade), corn, squash. Pretty darn good.
–Went to Staples to get some thicker chair mats. Turns out the two I got are identical to the two I bought a while ago. What an idiot.
–Shirogorov F95R T (blue anodizing) came in. Beauty. Despite Loctite, the new tool took it apart easily. Cleaned it up and reassembled. Very smooth action. Starting to think there might be something to the notion of these “breaking in.” Or else the newer ones are crap…
–Took a swim.
–Went to GT Auto Lounge to look at (what I thought was) a Shelby 350; turned out it was a a 500, with supercharger. Too much car for me. An anomaly: eBay has 0 2007 350s, but many 500s, most with very low mileage. I had thought the Lounge’s 500 was amazing with 10k miles at 15 years old, but there were several eBay 500s with less then 2k miles. So, people bought them, decided they couldn’t handle them, then put them in their garage for 15 years? I don’t get it.
–Took a swim.
–Got bagels at Noah’s.
–Got a Tuscan pizza at Papa Murphy’s. Edible, but salty and not great.
–Played with the two recent Shitogorov knives–the ones with captive pivots that both seemed to come loose after a couple dozen flips. Could not see the slightest reason for that behavior. All I can guess is that I didn’t fully tighten them before using, and/or they were on a high spot on the pivot which suddenly snapped into place–making them loose. Far-fetched with two different knives. I’ll play with one a while and see if it replicates. Tried to swap blades so I could get the fancy knife better-centered and keep it. One worked, the other didn’t (wouldn’t lock), and besides, they were different steels. Duh.
–Recent Mustangs are looking interesting, but I can’t decide: I’ve pretty much ruled out convertibles (too vulnerable; didn’t use one when I had it), which leaves manual trans as something “special”–and I just don’t know if I can handle constant (and forever) shifting–in traffic, trying to parallel park, etc.
–Went to GT Auto Lounge to look at a 1965 Mustang. Car is a no-go: in addition to questionable 100% originality, I noticed while sitting in it that it felt sort of old and dated, not something I could rely on to take to Monterey for a weekend. They also had 60’s Corvette, Camaro and Chevelle. All three were show cars, not drivers, and the latter two were huge; I had forgotten. And, as Leo Kottke put it, my horizons seem to have gotten shorter. Salesman Aidan drove around a new arrival, a Mustang Shelby GT350 from 2007. Sitting in it, it seemed like the most “fitting” of all the cars I’ve been in. Styling is kind of “Fast & Furious,” but it has possibilities.
–Pool controller said water was 84 around 4 PM, so I took a swim. Not bad, especially at the shallow end.
–Really windy, pool is a mess.
–USPS again put a package of. mine in someone else’s box. This is really getting annoying. [Edit] Neighbor delivered the missing mail package (Massdrop Laconico in purple, like I had some years ago and messed up). Neighbor is in Huntington Village, which turns out to be not condos as I had thought but huge homes on huge lots. His house number is the same as ours, which explains a lot, especially if the mail carrier can’t read. Grrr…..
–Smallest cactus is blooming again, after skipping a year (it never bloomed in La Selva Beach). Mighty impressive.
–Mowed the lawn, trimmed trees/bushes a little.
–Frozen food for dinner.
–Heard from Kirill Yuzh that the guy he sold my Menta 14060 to claims it’s been relumed. Uh….no.
–Spent over an hour on hold with Treasury Direct. Learned that AFTER my account is unblocked (if it is), it will be 8-10 weeks before I can use it to buy bonds. Crap.
–Getting really frustrated looking at cars. Nobody has inventory, everyone adds a market adjustment, vintage cars are over-priced (except Maserati, which I really can’t risk), etc. Crap.
–Went to El Dorado Hills to ride with Tom.
–Had lunch at Five Guys, got coffee at Peet’s, got gas ($62) at the local Arco.
–Looking and looking and looking for a fun car. Availability is slim; prices (new or used) are obscene.
–Heard from Dr. Duncan this morning. He prescribed amlodipine besylate (Norvasc) 5 mg, a calcium-channel blocker, to supplement the Lisinopril. Hope this works.
–Barbecued some turkeyburgers, corn, romas from Raley’s. Yum!
–Pool solar still seems to be working. Pool temp: 10:30 AM = 71, 12:30 PM = 73.
–In the middle of changing all my passwords, I noticed that I haven’t requested my Sutter healthcare reimbursement yet (done in March like clockwork for the past 3-4 years). I’ll get on it, though it’s confusing as all get-out. Can’t believe it isn’t on the google calendar.
–Refund came in from Cody Hendrix for the Olamic Swish I returned–on April 28.
–New mail carrier put my Charcoal Goods Stinger razor in the wrong mailbox. These temps are really bad.
–Started looking into Maserati Quattroportes. Discovered that those made before 2008 or so have the worst transmissions ever made. Great.
–Went up on the roof to sweep tree debris. (1) It was harrowing. (2) I discovered a solar line that had come loose. Called Aztec to get a solar startup (and fix the line): earliest is June 10. I’ll fix the line and start it myself. Grrr…
–Made pizza for dinner. San Marzano crushed tomatoes (actually like a thick sauce) cooked on the stone. Delicious, but awfully crispy.
–Rolex 5512 came back from Kirill Yuzh. It’s the one that was spruced up by True Patina in January of 2022. Looks nice, runs great.
–Talked to Curtis Finton for a bit regarding the misapplied deposit. He’s going to continue trying to get hold of the IRS. Lesson learned: don’t make speculations to Grace. Even better: don’t talk to Grace at all, especially about finances.
–Around and around again with taxes. At least Curtis called and offered to come here or have me go to his office to sort through things. I still don’t know what happened, but IRS site shows all balances $0, so I think I’ll leave it at that until they send me another dunning notice. [Edit: I found the 2020 estimated payments sheet I copy from the IRS site and send to Curtis in the 2021 folder. It shows two estimated payments in Sep 2020: the standard $1,520 and $8,910. The latter payment is missing from the current IRS estimated payment history. So: it actually was a misapplied payment that they credited to me, then made me pay back. Problem: the bogus refund this led to was credited toward 2021 estimated payments. When the IRS gets around to balancing the books, they’ll see there was no refund in 2020 and hit me for….something. Maybe around $3k–plus interest, penalties, fees, etc. We’ll see what Curtis says.]
–Two 1803s came back from Phil Ridley. One had a large dust speck on the dial. I opened it up and blew it off. Had a little trouble getting the stem back in (argghhh) but all is good now.
–Rode with Tom Elken to canal trail, stopped at GT Auto Lounge on the way back. 2001 Mustang Bullitt I’ve been eyeing there sold yesterday. Figures…
–Lee Elliott hit me up for another $525. No words…
–Got sesame bagels at Noah’s, early.
–Riding with Tom tomorrow, to the GT Auto Lounge in Rancho Cordova on Mercantile Drive, which is the street I use to take a shortcut to the canal trail. Looking at a $30,000 2001 Mustang Bullitt. Yeah, yeah, I know.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Made pork chops and corn on the indoor grill. Pretty good.
–Set up a spreadsheet for taxes. Zero doubt about what happened. I need to pay the IRS $900+. Problem: Since a purported refund in 2020 vanished, so did the estimated payments from the refund. So we’re going to have to file an amended return for 2021 (and pay $3k taxes), and likely file an amended return for 2020. What a frigging disaster. Curtis of course is taking days to respond to anything.
–Put roller bearings in the LVKS Shiro; made it even harder to close (as expected)> Might try putting them in an F95 that closes too fast, to see if I can turn it into a “hydraulic” action. Rollers are a pain in the ass to work with, too.
–Tried and filed to open the 1976 Rolex 1680; it probably hasn’t been opened since it was sold.
–Played around with taxes.
–Midgards Messer Little Viking came in. Really superb knife in every way, except it doesn’t have a flipper knob (it was built for Europe, where two-handed opening is required). I’ve seen guys “wrist” it open on youtube, but the detent is too stiff for me to do that on this one.
–Took a ~16-mile ride to Folsom and back. Saw a ton of rowing sculls at (what I learned was) Nimbus Flat, preparing for a competition.
–Got a notice from the IRS that we owe them $9,100 because they “misapplied payments.” I can’t imagine this will stand, but it’s driving my blood pressure up.
–Bought some more Shiro roller bearings (different source; guy has Russian name so may be a source of other Shiro goodies).
–Found a couple of local vintage car dealers (one in Rancho Cordova). Minimal inventory though. Found the one in Fairfield that I drove by a lot (now also in Benicia and Pleasanton); better inventory, lots of GTOs for some reason.
–Starting to (try to) make some knife deals at KKF and Facebook. We’ll see.
–Continued trying to move money out of BofA into Chase. Turns out BofA charges for ALL transfers, even the slow ones. Further turns out Chase will let you send up to $5,000 to anybody (not limited to just yourself from one account to another) for free. BofA really bites.
–Took the Specialized on a 12+ mile ride to Hagan Park. Nice.
–Bought some Shiro roller bearings. Not that they’ll be better, just different.
–Continued setting up sale of Mini to Vroom.
–Looked at lots of cars on Hemmings. Can’t find anything that fits all my criteria. Some combination of (a) too similar to Honda, (2) no AC, (3) no good for long(ish) highway jaunts (unreliable, no overdrive, noisy), (4) money pit, (5) too nice (flawless newer or restored car that I would be afraid to drive/park anywhere), etc. Unbelievably frustrating.
–Took Grace shopping at Target.
–Made pizza for dinner. Disaster. Wouldn’t come off the paddle onto the stone in the oven, so we had to kind of splooge it off with spatulas onto a flat baking pan. Edges came out okay, but interior crust was really soggy.