–Went to Bel Air for potato salad, bagels.
–Watched the movie 65.
Month: July 2023
–Went to the Folsom farmers market for tomatoes, dried apricots, squash.
–Set up sprinklers in front and side areas to run 10 minutes on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Sac county says 3 times a week max).
–Got all drippers hooked up and working in the side yard. Yay!
–Downloaded and watched Tomb Raider (the one without Angelina Jolie)–apparently for the second time in not too long. The memory continues to go.
–Played with side sprinklers, got four drippers workng.
–Gave up (again) on the iPhone: couldn’t send or receive text messages yesterday, and battery has been draining quickly without obvious reasons. Back to Android.
–The front patio is now all sprinklered up. On to back and side.
–HD Lawn came early and replaced two sprinkler control valves for $370. Then I spent a couple of hours setting up (most of) the sprinklers in front. Looking good so far.
–Refund check for ~$3,700 came from American title. Apparently we overpaid property tax and didn’t cash the check they (say they) sent us eight months ago.
–Called Sprinkler Techs, got $450 estimate for both valves. Called HD Lawn (who did the last one for $185). Guy came out agreed to 2 x $185 for the other two. He’ll do it tomorrow. Sold.
–Sonax polish came in. Supposed to cut well and finish perfect. Tried it on a shaving brush. Finish could be good, but not too impressed with cut.
–Went to the Discovery Village barbecue. There were 20+ people there, all old, out of ~180 DV residents. Pretty good food.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatores and squash.
–Re-replaced the battery in the smoke alarm by Grace’s bathroom. (a) It was too soon after the last battery. (b) I saw an unconnected black wire. Will bring in an electrician to sort it out.
–Took Grace shopping at Food Maxx.
–Anodized flashlight (Ted Rooney) came in. Beauty.
–Got Zone Perfect bars/bear claws at Target.
–Picked up Westclox Moonbeam. Impeccable case and movement, but alarm was 10-15 minutes off, so I took it apart and ruined it. Turns out the one I’ve been using for years is 10 minutes too. Picked up Rolex bracelet links, added them to the Day-Date. Perfect. Asher Spiro came in. Nice.
–Went to See Sarah Diane Whalen for followup. She said “all looks good,” then proceeded to freeze at least 5 AKs.
–Picked up bear claws at Panera, sprinkler stuff at Lowe’s.
–Went to Dr. Bellinger’s office to get a heart telemetry system taped to my chest. Turns out I have to wear it 24/7. Great.
–Finally managed to get Apple Carplay working reliably in the Beemer. Turns out you have to access/activate it via the Media menu, not Navigation. It is called CarPLAY after all…
–Took the Honda to Gold River Automotive for an oil change and AC recharge (been blowing warm the last couple days) Seems good now.
–Leica M-E came in. Nice condition. Charger went haywire when I plugged it in, but it seems that’s not uncommon. Might charge fine once it runs down a bit. Ordered a new (fake) battery, given that genuine (?) ones are $149. Took a few pics; not real impressed. I don’t seem to have learned that: it’s really hard to nail focus on a rangefinder, especially for close subjects. I’m thinking (and have read) that a lot of people use these cameras for street photography, with zone focus, fixed focus, etc.
–Took a shower and shave. The bronze Wolfman was great; the Simpsons “Extra Super” not so much (didn’t pick up much soap). I imagine I’ll get better with it.
–Went to Lowe’s Folsom for shrub spray heads; they had zero (online said they had 21).
–Went Smart and Final for apples, oranges, dessert.
–Put on the mosquito suit and played with front sprinklers. Miserable, but mostly figured them out. Will need to have the sprinkler guy come back and replace the other two valves: the one in front works only intermittently.
–Cooked a frozen deep-dish pizza for dinner; darn good.
–Started looking into sprinklers a little bit.
–Lunch at Subway. I finally got the actual coupon sale price, but they still had to fake it at the register. Not sure what’s going on with their inability to do coupons.
–Broken Westclox Moonbeam came in. Salvaged dial and hands as planned.
–Rolex Day-Date 18238 came in. Thought it would be fully-linked at 22, but it actually needs 24 for that. Also turns out Kirill Yuzh made a killing on that, as he only paid Tropical Watch $15,500 (listed price was $16,850) and then “traded” it to me for the red Sub I sent back, which is at LAWW for the second time.
–Took the Beemer to Jasper’s for lunch (all okay there). Then picked up sharpener at UPS (will toss). Then to Peet’s for decaf and Safeway for yogurt and dessert.
–Bought a Rolex Day-Date from Tropical Watch. No payment needed; Kirill Yuzh just “traded” it for the red Sub that I returned a while back.
–Rode the canal 14 miles. Left too late: it was in the mid-90s; wiped me out.
–Yet another lost day. Getting scary.
–Took Grace to Five Guys for lunch. Tried Jasper’s, but it looked like the woman wasn’t there, and there was a line. We didn’t want to over-burden the guy.
–Took a shower and shave. Tried the Blackland Jet razor (this was at least the third time I’ve said “Well, I’m more experienced and proficient now, so I can use a Blackland without harming myself.” Bzzzzttt! Three strikes and you’re out. What an absurdly harsh razor.
–Did another odometer run. Calibration seems to be getting worse.
–Made some pesto. Not nearly as good as previous batches. Oh well…
–Rode the InnerLight 14 miles on the ARP; wiped me out. Checked this journal and found that I have in fact pedaled that bike up Heartbreak Hill three years ago. Should I try to replicate that through intense training, or give up and go to bed?
–Tried to reconcile my cameras a bit. I have cameras that need lens caps, and lens caps that don’t fit anything. Great.
–Got propane at U-Haul.
–Watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
–Went to see Dr. Bellinger. He didn’t say much, but set up appointments for telemonitoring EKG and echo X-ray. Some day it would be nice to get past all this doctor stuff.
–Got turkey burgers, corn, ice cream at Bel Air.
–Accomplished nothing, as usual lately. Not looking forward to cardiologist visit tomorrow.
–Another slow day at home.
–Yet another hot day. Didn’t do much of anything.
–Another hot day. Made pizza for dinner, opened presents.
–Hot day, slow day.