Month: August 2023

–Went around and around and around with eBay on the Sea Dweller–three different customer service reps. Unbelievable difference in competency. Last one said to ask seller for invoice. I did. He said “Will do.”

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around Noon—five days. These are Kirkland batteries. Hoping a brand name lasts longer.

–Won the 1665 Sea Dweller on eBay for a stupid low price of $14,101. When I went to pay, I got an error message saying “Seller does not ship to California” (seller was supposed to ship to the authenticator anyway). Messaged seller (who’s sold many watches, all through the authenticator he said) and he professed ignorance, said he would call eBay. I called eBay hours later. They replicated my problems, said they hadn’t heard from seller, suggested I ask him to call them OR send me an invoice. Still waiting.

–Heard from Pacific Skin Institute. Sarah Diane Whalen is leaving them (for parts unknown), so my October appointment will be with a nurse named Olga Karaputa. Great.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Made pizza with Grace’s birthday pizza dough from Williams Sonoma ($18). Box contained flour and (lots of) salt, but not the promised yeast. Made dough, made pizza, it was fine, though salty.

–Went to Bel Air for cookies. Tried Tap to Pay with (new) Ally account. Got the checkmark, but the terminal did not react, much as it was with Heritage with a live checker yesterday. Went BACK to Heritage account, will try again some day.

–Went to Bel Air for fruit, burger patties, corn, Grace’s juice, gallon jugs of Crystal Geyser. Used Tap to Pay, my phone said it worked (switched from Heritage to Ally last night after talking to an Ally help person), but it didn’t show up on the register, so I had to use a card. Grrr….

–Barbecue for dinner. Tasty, but both sets of old corn cob holders (Grace got for her birthday) were pretty useless. Grrr……

–Resurrected the Leica SL2. Fine camera when you’re not using one of the monster L lenses. Tried the 50 Summicron M f2 (with adapter), really liked it. tried the 28 aspherical with adapter (it was already 6 bit coded), not wild about it. We’ll see.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Took Grace to dinner at Jasper’s—which, it turns out, is closing to turn into a taqueria. Crap.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM–four days.

–Polished the new McGizmo waterproof flashlight–was a mess, looks great now.

–Motorola Razr came in. Good shape. Took some doing, but finally have it set up better than the Galaxy. Still working on getting apps to front screen May not work for all.

–Stopped at Bel Air for pizza and dessert.

–Dropped off the Cremina groupheads for chroming at Sherm’s.

–Put gas in the Beemer.

–Sac Heart called at 2:00 to cancel my 3:55 appointment and reschedule. Great.

–Went to Costco to pick up new hearing aids. They are loud, but will take some getting used to before I know if they really help comprehension.

–Eufy battery came. Machine makes chirping noises and lights up when plugged in, but does nothing (yet) when taken away from charging station. Oh well…

–Went with Grace to Smart & Final for lots of stuff.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Not much, really.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for tomatoes (they were out of dried apricots).

–Fried pork chops in Erie spider skillet. Not bad.

–Went with Grace to the dentist. One big cavity filled, one temp crown fitted. Lots more to come.

–Marie for dinner.

–Had Chromatic Coffee’s Opus for breakfast, after rave reviews for a dark roast at home-barista.com. Don’t like it.

–Took the Beemer to Placerville, first for jam and apple pie at Hooverville Orchards, then for lunch at Mel’s Diner. I stopped in at Old Town Grill, but there was a line and it seemed un-air-conditioned.

–Old Shamwari came in. Pretty rough shape. I cleaned it up a bit, then put the (heavily scratched) bolsters on a Bergeon satin wheel and made them wonderful. Posted in facebook with before/after photos and got a huge response.

–Super hot day.

–Picked up the Samsung flip phone at UPS. Nice but (as I of course knew) it doesn’t do anything different except flip. And it only sees the left hearing aid.

–Got bagels and cream cheese at Bel Air.

–Doug of Douglas Electric came over with Sal and replaced five smoke alarms. These are now hardwired (as they were), interconnected (ditto) and have 10-year lithium batteries.

Picked up Kob Knobs and Cremina at UPS. Cremina seems workable, though it looks like I’ll have to rechrome the grouphead. Took forever to get the lever pin out of the piston rod—I had to cut it with a hacksaw, then drive it out. Machine seems only to be missing the lever and portafilter.

–Went to Bel Air for pizza dough and pepperonies. Made pizza for dinner. Duh.

–Finished re-doing the back sprinklers. Totally wiped me out. Had to take a two-hour nap.

–Did much work on sprinklers in back patio. As usual, lines were already installed. Put a riser/emitters on the two bushes by the barbecue. With a lot of cutting and patching, put emitters on the three bushes in back. Then discovered another line and decided to redo everything and put emitters on that line. Grace took a look and noted that the line I used was actually a soaker line, with emitting holes every foot or two. Exhausted and pissed, I quit for the day. Tomorrow I’ll go back and redo what I first did, with emitters on a new line, then block off the soaker line. Only good thing was discovering a cut off line buried 3-4 inches deep, which I’m sure was responsible for the low emitter pressure I noticed at first. Blocked it.

–Picked up the Caran d’Ache pencil at UPS. Nice, but not thrilling. Then to Bel Air where I got ciabatta rolls and jam, and used Google “tap to pay” on my phone. Worked like a charm.

–Walked to Bel Air for stuff, forgot my wallet. Walked home and drove back. Grrr…..

–Walked to Bel Air for potato salad and corn. Forgot wallet. Walked home, drove back and paid. Installed Google Pay. We’ll see.

–Barbecued burgers and corn for the second day in a row. Good corn this time.

–Washed sheets.

–Worked some more on the Cremina grouphead. Got it to where the piston has full motion, though there’s a slight hitch at the end. Now to get the grouphead chromed and the machine reassembled.

–Went to Costco to look at hearing aids. Pretty thorough discussion; buying a Philips with custom ear molds.

–Took a shower and shave.

–I cut and fitted tubing to take AC condenser water away from house.

–Made tomato compote. Perhaps because I used Early Girl rather than cherry tomatoes, it came out really soupy. But also super delicious, the very definition of umami.

–Fixed sprinklers in front and side after a trip to Home Depot.

–McDonald’s Hazel for lunch.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for tomatoes and squash.

–Then to Bel Air for bagels.

–Took Grace for a DEXA scan at Sutter Imaging in Carmichael.

–Started moving money from CIT Bank to Ally. (1) Tried to use Zelle at CIT Bank to send $800 to a guy for a knife. Got a blowup error message. Sent it via Ally without a problem. (2) CIT Bank has been requiring one-time passcodes (via text) for a while now. I asked them why–especially since I say each time “Yes, this is my private computer”–and they just responded with robo-speak about different devices, IP addresses, time of day, etc. Ally and CIT both have their issues, and CIT has higher interest rates, but their interface is not good.

–Rode to River Bend Park. It is huge, though not as picturesque as I had thought at first. Might scout out alternate locations for picnic with Tom and Sandy.

–Bought a frozen Motor City Detroit Deep Dish Pepperoni pizza for dinner. Once again, pretty good.

–Went to Sac Heart to return the belt case for the telemetry unit.

–Then to Jersey Mike’s for lunch.

–Returned the Bioflux telemetry unit to Sac Heart. Forgot to bring the stupid belt case. Back tomorrow.

–Watched “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.” Really really liked it. Sad to hear he’s gone.

–Rode the ARP with Tom Elken. Good ride.

–Simpson Eagle G3 Manchurian LE faux ebony came in. Removed a couple of small scratches, inadvertently putting a large groove in in it. Managed to mostly polish out the groove. Unfortunately (since it came from Sweden) the guy put it in the wrong Simpson box. Will swap, I guess.