Month: March 2023

–Took the Mustang to lunch at Rim’s Deli, next to Noah’s Bagels. Old school, most excellent. Also got 13 sesame bagels at Noah’s for a bit over $13.

–Stopped at Home Depot; their basil has arrived. Bought one (my third) and put it in the pot. Someday…

–Yet another drizzly day.

–Got some subs at Jersey Mike’s for dinner (all sales proceeds today go to local charities). Not great, but a good cause.

–Rainy day.

–Went over taxes again. Seems legit. Grace’s RMD gave us $36k more income this year, and we hadn’t allowed for that in setting up estimated payments, so we owe almost $10k. State is puzzling: we made no (or trivial) estimated payments (why?) and owe close to $5k. We made $80k selling Tunnel Hill, but there’s apparently a new exclusion allowance so that doesn’t come into play. And all the deduction hoo-ha (Goodwill, car registration, property taxes, etc.) is irrelevant: it never comes close to the standard deduction of $28k, and never will unless we start paying mortgage interest again.

–Drove to UPS store to pick up 1972 NOS Osprey Santa Cruz day pack (way cool) and drop off Grace’s package to Jan.

–Started in on taxes. Pretty thick stuff. Turns out we grossed $229,000 in 2022. Holy freaking crap!

–Re-potted new basil plant. Looks okay so far.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Went to Smart and Final for milk, muffins and another basil plant. Stuck the basil plant (out of its pot) in a glass of water to try and loosen up the tangled roots. Not working very well so far. I thought it would be roots on the outside and dirt in the middle, but it acts ore like roots everywhere holding on tightly to some dirt. We fix ’em.

–Took the Mustang to my old neighborhood–Swallows Nest, Perry’s, Discovery Park, etc.–to check things out. Sutter Health parking lot was seriously empty; lots of trash in the canal under the bridge into Discovery Park–which was flooded of course–; the bike path into DP along the Garden Highway is fully lined with homeless tents.

–Got gas at the Fair Oaks Arco station. Regular was “cheap” at $4.25; the mid-grade I got was $4.55. The world continues to fall apart. And: the Mustang is averaging around 17-18 mpg when it isn’t on the road to Monterey. I hit it a little on the way home, and it didn’t seem to leap into tire-shredding action. I’ve never floored it (or maybe any car I’ve driven); will do that before long just to see if 460 horsepower actually means anything.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Urban EDC. Nice knife.

–Took Grace to Crumbl Cookies ($5 for one large-ish cookie; outrageous) where she got her sister a gift certificate. Then took her to Target for various stuff, most of which she didn’t find.

–Canned soup for dinner.

–Walked to UPS store to pick up the Strider. Beautiful knife, but (1) huge, and (2) flawed in exactly the same ways as my other one: detent lash when closed, and you can have ONE of the following: good action with off-center blade and blade play when open, or a tight centered blade that you have to pry open. No more Striders.

–Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Went to Peet’s for decaf, Safeway for pizza crust, bagels, etc.

–Made pizza or dinner. Not so hot.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch. Then Target for deodorant, candy, etc.

–Shirogorov Touch came back after three months. They replaced the pivot SCREW (to be fair, that’s what I wrote on the form) and didn’t touch the mangled pivot tube (collar, as they call it). Recon1 is looking into a fix.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to McDonald’s for lunch.

–Uhhh…

–Went around and around with Eric Sedie, the guy who sold me the Nymble X which got stolen. He’s escalating the claim, talking to PO people on the phone. Without full insurance, PO will not fully reimburse, I think.

–Fertilized basil and rosemary. Basil is looking kind of dim.

–Went to Home Depot. Got a pot and some soil.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final. Got a nice-looking rootbound basil plant. Potted the basil and re-potted the rosemary from its original smaller pot into a large one (discarded the not-too-healthy-looking other herbs that had come in the same pot–sage, thyme, something).

–Went to Green Acres (after learning Matsuda’s, now contractor-only, is owned by Green Acres) for basil, rosemary, soil, pots. The basil and rosemary were tiny ugly things in 3″ pots and I couldn’t find < 50 pound bags of soil. I did buy a pot. Went to try to drill a hole in the bottom of the pot holding the barrel cactus, when Grace discovered there was already a hole, blocked by a rubber plug. Yay!

–Went to UPS and picked up Shamwari slim 3.3″. Very nice. At Kayla’s (UPS sales associate, extremely helpful) suggestion, I will change my address to 310 only (no box number), and use the name Seward. One more knife coming (from Canada) to the box number. Hopes and payers are needed.

–Played around with a Shamwari and an old steel, and re-discovered the phenomenon of rolling a wire edge from one side of the blade to the other–so it feels screamingly sharp in one direction, dull in the other. Really strong effect, given (a) I was steeling very gently, (b) it’s an expensive knife and should have been honed better, and (c) I couldn’t really see the wire, even with my higher-power Opti-Visor. The belt grinder took care of the wire edge, of course. Makes me think that the vast majority of knives out there have these tiny burs.

–Simichrome came in. Seems like that and/or the Renegade high-grit polish can minimize hairlines on a blade. Could just be my wishful thinking/not looking so hard after polishing, however.

–Another empty box–at UPS–another knife stolen, this one the mini-FSD at $1,250. This shit stain at the PO knows my name, home address and UPS box address. Seller had insurance, so I may get made whole, but what to do in the future? I suppose UPS all the way, or FedEx, but that won’t work for eBay. I may try to shift my UPS box to a different name/number.

–Super windy today; not much rain.

–Picked up the “heavy grit” polish at UPS. Learned (once again) not to do anything with the Foredom–it’s just too aggressive with those little wheels. The polish might have taken some hairlines out; it’s hard to say. Used it manually on the two real Shamwaris. Also tried Loctite again with the Permatex accelerant. We’ll see. I’m a little concerned about the smaller Sham (on washers), as it seemed tighter than before even with the pivot fairly loose. Grrrr…..

–Picked up my new Oz Roosevelt in blurple at UPS. Total winner. I’m hardly tempted to break the Loctite, as the action is superb.

–Post Office/UPS seem to have lost the package with the Turtle Wax rubbing compound in it. PO delivered to UPS before they opened Saturday; package is nowhere in sight.

–Another gloomy day.

–Went to Papa Murphy’s on Olson to pick up a pizza for dinner. Mark Solich paid…….

–Grace actually wanted to go to the farmers market, so we did, and bought lots of stuff.

–Strider came in. Terribly designed knife: action is determined almost entirely by the scale screw nearest the pivot, as there are no standoffs. Got some nice action, but then noticed lock rock/detent lash when closed. Maybe toss, maybe sell.

–Saw some sun today. White-crowned sparrows enjoyed taking baths.

–Yet another drizzly, cold day.

–SPK Lamia came in. Hefty, runs on washers, super-stiff detent. I bent the lockbar some, and it’s getting better.

–Walked to UPS for packages.

–Spyderco Drunken came in. Good but not compelling. Another ShamWEri came in. Nice.

–Met Art Kraatz at Jasper’s for lunch. I gave him a restored Cremina, he gave me $1,900 cash.

–Went to Bel Air to deposit cash and get fruit and dessert.

–Walked to UPS for three packages.

–Discovered hairline scratch on zircuti Shamwari–not on the show side where I’d expect to see scratches caused by blade hitting frame before I’ve sufficiently tightened the pivot. A lot of hard rubbing with Mother’s mag failed to blend it. Will try Flitz and rubbing compound next.

–Not much going on. Played with ceiling fans and the remote for a bit, to no avail.

–Big day. Bought yet another Shamwari on reddit (Spiro on washers) and an SPK Lamia on Blade Forums (also on washers). Realized I’ve been writing my address as 310-278 for a day or three. Corrected it where I could to 310-287. Pretty scary.

–Discovered last night after flipping the new Shamwari many times that the unfixed pivot rotates, thus loosening the blade and allowing it to move closer to the show-side scale. I’m convinced this is the cause of show-side blade scratches seen on a couple of Shamwaris: blade drops shut and rubs against the scale/liner. The fact that Shirogorov JUST started using fixed pivots, and Bull hasn’t yet, is another tribute to knifemakers’ laziness–along with stonewashed/tumbled everything. Really disappointing. Anyway, I loctited the pivots on the new Sham and the Sham clone. Hopefully I didn’t glue the blades to the pivots.

–Shamwari clone came in. Nice knife, with action as good as original.

–Paid property tax supplemental assessment (based on new sale) of $2,922.

–Played with Wicked Edge some more, trying to be careful. Still messed up another blade, and blade even slipped in clamp–not the best design IMO. Tossed it. Looking at WorkSharp. Seems small, simple, infinitely adjustable, with good aftermarket accessories.

–Grace walked to Rite-Aid to look at cards!!!

–Took Grace to Five Guys, where they forgot the mushrooms and onions on her burger, then to Safeway. Bought some decaf at Peet’s.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Yet another windy, drizzly day.

–Made pizza for dinner. Not my best.