–Visited 2056 Promontory Point with realtor Mark Solich. Nice inside, but small. Lots of water/electric controllers outside. Needs a new roof and dry rot repair. No go. Mark has other properties coming up.
–Took a shower.
Month: August 2022
–Talked to realtor Mark Solich to set up viewing Promontory house and Stanford Court condo. Turns out the condo seller wanted a rent-back contract, where she could live in the condo for 60-90 days, or until she found another place to live. I said let’s look at it anyway and we can maybe try for a more reasonable contract. Then the seller decided, for the second time in a month, to withdraw the house! Unbelievable.
–Took a swim.
–Made pesto. Had some for dinner; put some in the freezer. Yum!
–Took a swim.
–Went to Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, apples.
–Gave Grace her myriad presents.
–Got the drain cover off the upstairs shower.
–Took Grace to Home Depot for curtain rod, pool floats, plunger, etc.
–Took a swim–81 laps.
–Had Zoom Drain come out and fix the kitchen sink drain. He put in 50′ of snake, and found with his camera that the problem was little roots about a foot in. Hard to imagine where they came from, as nothing has grown there for years. I suppose it gets wet (pipe joint leak?) and that’s all it takes for things to grow, even if you can’t see them.
–Took the Rolex 5513 apart and cleaned the case. Blew out a tube gasket or two with the scuba tank; ordered replacements on eBay. It seemed to be running slow on the wrist, but ran fast in all positions on the Timegrapher. I guess I’ll start leaving it face down instead of face up overnight and see what happens.
–Called Broadley Plumbing, left a message. He called back around 7 PM, said they don’t do drain work, sent me to Zoom Drains. Great.
–Got takeout from Five Guys.
–Did not go to Noah’s for bagels.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Started to take a swim, then (at Grace’s insistence) cleaned the pool filter.
–Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.
–Had a little breakfast sandwich and coffee at the Microtel Wyndham, then headed home. Easy trip. The Mustang continues to please.
–Got a Papa Murphy’s take and bake pizza for dinner.
–Had breakfast at the Butter House, Seaside. Good.
–Drove to the Micrtel Wyndham in Morgan Hill. Their power was out (5:30). Two hours later it’s still out. Unbelievable. Called Dan Callahan, who picked us up and took us to Sicilia in Bocca. Good meal, good times.
Came back to the dark motel and found out that using the iPhone as a hotspot is really easy and pretty fast. Thank god for Apple.
–Drove the Mustang to La Selva Beach with Tom Elken. El Patio lunch on the bluff; waved to Michael Casserd; bathroom at the library. 110 Playa looks great, and has a security sign out front.
–Then to Carmel for dinner at Pangaea (after a long hunt for parking). Great food. Then we sat in the middle of Ocean Avenue and watched the parade of cars.
–Decided to stay another night near the coast rather than fight commute traffic coming back Friday. Got two rooms at the Microtel Wyndham in Morgan Hill and will meet up with Dan Callahan for fun.
–Packed.
–Rolex Open-All tool came in. Got the 5513 open, saw several watchmaker’s marks (1986, 1996, ?), timed it to +1 s/d. Done!
–Took a swim.
–Shopped with Grace at Bel Air.
–Took a swim.
–Not much happening. Watched Night of the Hunter; Sennheiser headphone battery died (again) halfway through. Finally managed to pry it out and order a replacement on eBay.
–Took a swim.
–Mitutoyo calipers came in, from La Puente California. eBay had already refunded me on this after I pointed out that seller no longer existed and tracking number went nowhere. FREE!
–Lee Elliott sent another incredible set of lies, further pushing out the CD redemption date to November. I emailed him, showing him a July 17 email where he said in no uncertain terms “I have a cashiers check for the full amount of the CD. Will deposit it and pay you back the full amount I owe you.” I think the guy has some serious mental issues.
–License plates came for the Mustang.
–Barbecued stuff above.
–Used the Foredom on the Russian Overkill detent ball and put the knife back together. Not much of a difference. Will probably buy another and sell this one later.
–Looked at the HOA sprinkler schedule: the guy who repaired the leaks changed it again. Garden is down from where it had been (one hour x three days as opposed to 1.5 hours x five days), so I’ll probably just leave it.
–The Lee Elliott thing is really getting me down. What an unbelievable asshole.
–Took a swim.
–Rode 14.2 miles with Tom Elken near his place.
–Took a swim.
–Shifter for the Mustang came in. Got everything apart and found that the holes in the new shaft didn’t match the holes on the existing shaft. Called and emailed the seller, but haven’t heard back yet.
–Kirill Yuzh wrote to say he would wire money for sale of the red Sub, but by the way he just got this untouched 1984 5513 in. It was indeed a beauty, so he put it in a FedEx box and will wire me the difference between the two watches. He also (at my request) sent a label so I could get him the 1680 and 1803 for consignment. Down to two Rolexes now: a 5512 overhauled by True Patina, original everything except bracelet, killer dial and insert, “previously polished” case; and the incoming 5513, original everything, untouched.
–Shirogorov/Martin Soft Russian Overkill came in. Nice knife, but it slams open with a sort of two-part sound. Seems the detent ball is really prominent. Not sure what to do about it. Trying to shave (or pound in) the ball would likely be disastrous. Dilemma.
–Took a swim.
–Started to install the White Madness shifter on the Mustang. Got the chrome piece off easily, but the bigger plastic assembly below didn’t immediately yield. All videos show people just pulling it off. Here’s hoping.
–Made a pizza for dinner. Baked at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Worked fine, but I’m not sure it was better than 450 for a few minutes longer.
–Bike saddle and Mustang shifter came in.
–Took a swim.
–Rode the Lake Natoma loop clockwise with Tom Elken.
–Updated my spreadsheet on the front (HOA-controlled) sprinkler system, after carefully noting the schedule. Updated the controller: deleted an 11 PM start time with no actions defined; added a 5-minute lawn watering to fill a hole in the schedule; changed garden-watering time from 30 minutes (3 TIMES A DAY) to 1 minute. Will readjust garden time after the two leaks we discovered are fixed.
–Brought up the townhouse; Grace went into a fit.
–Started trying to move everything (bill pay and such) back to Heritage. It’s not going to be easy.
–Took a swim. Re-scheduled the controller to stop at 4 PM instead of 5.
–Rode a bike to Discovery Village; saw that there is no way of getting in there without the gate code. Tried to find gate code on google; couldn’t. Was going to call a realtor specializing in Gold River, but Grace got cranky.
–Swam a half mile.
–“Helped” Grace link Stanford Credit Union to Vanguard, including a visit to Heritage at Bel Air for a notary.
–Will be looking at a townhouse in Discovery Village, which (as I had it originally in my spreadsheet) is indeed gated.
–Another cool, overcast, no-swim day.
–Got bagels at Noah’s.