Month: February 2023

–Another drizzly day.

–Played a lot with EMP EDCs. Almost have them set up. Sort of.

–Drizzly, dismal day, though lots of squirrels showed up.

–Just missed a ShamWEri today. God some knives sell fast.

–J-stones for the Wicked Edge came in, so I tried sharpening a liner-lock Nymble. What a disaster. The right stone kept hitting the blade holder, fasteners loosened, I couldn’t find a good angle, etc. I finally took the blade off and polished it up on the Kalamazoo belt grinder, then tried again optimize the WE setup. One lesson learned: clamp the blade so the edge is as high as possible. I did have have one sort of success on the machine, so I’ll give it another shot.

–Marie for dinner: Grace lost an hour.

–Went to Burger King for lunch. All different staff. So much for “familiar folks and surroundings.”

–Bought (technically bid on for March 6) a $50,000 six-month T bill at Treasury Direct.

–Second Shamwari came in. Off-center blade with scratches. Fixed the scratches (maybe) with Sandflex, but broke a standoff screw trying to put the knife back together. Will likely toss.

–Made pizza for dinner. Yum!

–Rolex red Sub came back from LAWW. Nice!

–Played with phones all day. Finally got rid of the voicemail icon on the green Samsung–the only phone which (so far) picks up both hearing aids regularly. Works nicely in the Mustang too.

–Went to the post office to (a) hand them the mailing box for my second “stolen item” claim, and (b) mail the Shamwari to Miami.

–Won a Recon1 lottery for a $2k Shirogorov/Martin collaboration.

–Took the Mustang to Target for sundries, Jersey Mike’s for lunch, Trader Joe’s for bagels.

–Crotch rot keeps coming back. Very annoying.

–Used the Wicked Edge to sharpen a (crappy) liner-lock Nymble that just came in. Did a nice-looking job, but it still didn’t seem real anxious to cut paper. At least it seems I’m using the sharpener correctly.

–FlexSand pads (fine) came in. Didn’t seem to do much to a Konosuke carbon blade. Will have to get some medium pads.

–Decided to keep the Shamwari for now. Seller posted my defect photo in the Gareth Bull forum, got some positive and negative views. The knife is just too good to get rid of now; maybe after I land another one.

–Hinderer came in Really nice.

–EMP EDC Nymble W came in. Walked to UPS to pick it up. Then to Bel Air for milk and dessert.

–[edit] Just discovered that the big gap in the pivot pocket of the Shamwari is NOT normal: got a pic from a youtube video to compare it to. Gareth Bull really messed this up. I have serious doubts that (a) the guy who sold me the knife will take it back, and (b) even if Bull agrees to fix (replace) it, it will take months. CRAP!

–Shamwari 3.5″ blurple came in. Perfecto. Gonna take some practice front-flipping.

–Wicked Edge guide bar stop collars came (fast from McMaster-Carr). They work just fine. Just waiting for a couple high-grit stones now.

–Made corn meal crust pizzas for dinner.

–Went to post office to hand in (first) empty knife box. Got some paperwork that seems to have officially initiated the claim.

–Went to UPS and rented a mailbox for a year (they had two left). My mind is at ease now: no more knife thefts.

–A pair of doves showed up today to enjoy spilled bird food. I think (hope) they’re permanent. Finally.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played with the Wicked Edge all day, waiting for the mail. Saw (put?) some big scratches on blades, so may need to look into stops for the stone holders to prevent further mishaps.

–All mail came (at 4), plus something for Mrs. Cudd. Sure will be happy when Ken comes back.

–Went to Five Guys for lunch, Peet’s for decaf.

–Gave up (again) on the Samsung: I can’t get the hearing aids to work on a phone call. Back to the iPhone.

–Spyderco Para 2/REK blade came in. Very nice, but not really fidgety.

–Got a call from Recon1 re the Shiro Touch I sent in. They’ll order a pivot and send knife/pivot back for me to install (like I thought might happen two months ago). It will take a few weeks though. Fortunately I have another.

–Finally got the Galaxy S10 set up as I had before, after struggling to answer the call fromRecon1. Good to go, In car and out.

–Took Grace shopping at Trader Joe’s with Rick and Hatsumi’s gift card.

–Third Nymble came in, a day late. Someone at the PO had cut open the box, removed the knife and all accessories, then taped the box shut with the empty knife box inside. Second time in a week that the PO has stolen a knife. The one-day delay with this knife, plus the fact that it came in at 4 o’clock instead of 9:30 AM, strongly suggests there’s a temp carrier behind this. And there’s not one fucking thing I can do about it, except demand all future shipments be FedEx or UPS.

–Hung the kitchen patio door curtains I got yesterday. Fine job, but they’re not quite wide enough.

–Took a quick ride on the ARP with the InnerLight. Fun, but tiring.

–Took the Mustang to Mr. Pickle’s in Folsom for a BLT (good, but $12.29); Green Acres for a Bird of Paradise and pot; Home Depot for kitchen sliding door curtains; and Black Sails to pick up coffee.

–Android Auto worked well. It never speaks a street name, though.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Spent hours playing with/swapping parts on a couple of EMP EDC Nymbles. Ended up leaving things as they were: blade 1 in frame 2 was a laughably poor fit. One more Nymble coming.

–Frozen for dinner.

–Slow day today. Trying to get Android Auto working in the Mustang, one way or another.

–Shirogorov/Sinkevich dark Bio came in. Nice. Not shiny like the light Bio, however.

–Played with Oz Roosevelts all day. Discovered the stop pin on the first one I bought was longer than all the other stop and scale pins because of the aftermarket scale that came on it. I can’t put the original scale back on (correctly) until I get an otiginal (shorter) pin. Crap.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–EMP EDC Nymble knife package came in; it had been opened (crushed or cut, hard to say) and the knife was missing. Messaged seller on Blade Forums. He quickly put in a claim, expects resolution soon. He seems to be unaware (ignoring? naive? scamming?) that the knife, according to the PO, had the standard Priority Mail insurance of “up to $100” (knife cost me $365). He said he told the PO the price in his claim, but that doesn’t mean (to me) that they’ll reimburse him $365. We’ll see.

–Third Oz Roosevelt came in. Nice smooth titanium scales, perfect centering. I believe this is the one I’ll keep. Was thinking of putting one of the other blades on it, but it turns out the blades have the serial number, and the COA card for the other knife (in addition to having the serial on it) says “speed holes.” There went that idea.

–Took a couple of very nice pictures of an abutilon bloom. The Q2 is a great camera. I’m the limiting factor.

–Rowena the mail carrier came to deliver a package and chat. Nice.

–Had a nasty email exchange with Lee Elliott last night. He claimed again that a $400k CD was maturing–March 31 this time. I asked for proof and he went bananas. What a disgusting little shit.

–Had to call Ally and resubmit all wire info, for security purposes. Looks like Kirill won’t ship until he has proof of wire. That sucks.

–Went to Target for Zone Perfect, shampoo, milk and cream.

–Went to Costco for sparkling water, dessert, pretzels, gas. Their new gas station costs exactly the same as the nearby Arco–but it and the store were nearly empty.

–Dr. Stegman is retiring in March; no room for Grace. We may both be looking for local MDs.