–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Left a message at Perfect It. No response. Went there, picked up the InnerLight frame. Took it and parts to Bob’s Bikes for assembly ($50).
–Marie for dinner.
Month: October 2023
–Played with knives and Creminas. Got things mostly sorted out.
–Went to Chocolate Fish for coffee. Had lunch at a nearby Subway.
–Blaze Pizza for dinner: excellent.
–NOS Cremina started acting weird; didn’t seem like the pressurestat was working right. Took it to the workbench, brought out the other two, played around with boiler caps. Noticed big differences in how close the caps came to the cover nuts, mostly because of how far the different nuts would go down (one bottomed out before the cover was real tight). I swapped covers around, bent one to make it fit better, got all three boiler caps sealing fine. NOS machine seems to work now, but I have no good theory as to why or what happened. I should probably move the pressurestat screw back and forth a bit to make sure it isn’t sticking.
–Spent the afternoon going up and down ladders to clear a ton of mud from the gutter on the side of the house near the twins. (The gutter was gushing out water during the recent rain, suggesting the downspout was plugged.) It was, now it isn’t. Meanwhile, I am utterly spent. Clearest evidence yet of how old I am.
–After a ton of searching, and re-re-reconsidering developing software I’ve shelved in the past, I came across Adobe DNG Converter. It takes up 2 gigs, but turns any RAW file (including Contax, which was the point) into a DNG that any developing app can work with (RAW Power at the moment). Wish I’d known about the converter a while back when I was struggling with all the Leica proprietary formats.
Went to McDonald’s Gold River for lunch. Not too great, though they did (re?)install a drink machine. I don’t get it.
–Pulled shots with the two rebuilt Creminas and adjusted their pressurestats upward.
–Met Jill Medici outside the DV gates and gave her the 1Up bike rack. I think it will be too much for her to handle, but it was free…
–Went to Barnes and Noble and got “America’s Best Mysteries 2023”–unreadable. The change in quality of that anthology year to year is bizarre and frustrating. Also got the latest Jack Reacher–seems standard.
–Took down masking paper left over by fence painters.
–Played around with app cleaners–everybody wants me to subscribe. Tried Daisy Disk, deleted some critical stuff, so had to reload Chrome/Edge. What a mess.
–Fences got painted today.
–Got a Blaze garlic/sausage pizza to eat while watching the Niners. Good stuff.
–Slow day, fair amount of rain.
–Made a pan pizza. Okay, but next time hold the Costco polish.
–Got the second Cremina working–no leaks. Will make espresso/steam milk with each, clean them up and tighten the grouphead bolts, then take a trip to Santa Cruz.
–Blew leaves and such out of the garage.
–Went to Koreana Plaza for fruit and cheese. Had lunch at Jersey Mike’s. Stopped at Pep Boys for Evapo-Rust and black spray paint. Turns out I already had Evapo-Rust; just didn’t find it in my search yesterday.
–Cleaned (sort of) and painted the rusted mesh grill on the bottom of a Cremina. Also touched up the frame paint. Not great, but not bad.
–WSJ has (once again) defeated all bypass paywall apps. Had a surprisingly long run, but I think this one will be bulletproof for a while.
–Pretty much finished putting two Creminas together. Both have OE piston seals and so are likely to leak; one more than the other as resistance to pumping is minimal. Bent the near-perfect case and got it to fit on the NOS one. Need to go to Michael’s (or such) and get some paint and Evaporust for the frame on one of them.
–Went to Pacific Skin Institute for a six-month checkup. Sarah Diane Whalen had left (and they are not allowed to tell me where she went); Olga Something saw me. She froze a few things on my head and face, and sayonara. I had to ask her if I could remove my shirt so she could check my trunk. Kind of the opposite of vigilant. Looking for a new derm…
–Started putting two Creminas back together. Moving right along, hoping the Orphan Espresso piston seals don’t leak.
–Went to Bel Air for chocolate cake ingredients. Made chocolate cake.
–Watched Expendables 4. Travesty.
–Went to Sherm’s to pick up chromed Cremina parts. Very nice: I believe they polished everything further before chroming.
–Stopped at UPS. Got Grundig clock radio (way cool), Cremina steam wand tips, Trevor Burger knife (ehhh…), Skiff ceramic bearings (immediately lost a couple; good thing I don’t need them now).
–Played with knives a bit. Also tried to time the Sea Dweller. I need a new timing machine: the big dome on the Rolex won’t let the watch sit right.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Went to the post office to pick up a package for Grace and drop off the knife I’m returning to Recon1.
–Pizza for dinner.
–Went to Costco hearing center for adjustment. She said she just put them back to original, but they are MUCH MUCH louder. Also updated them so graphic equalizer works with aids (instead of just with TV adapter), and added a “listen in noise” program.
–Broke the Xeoleo grinder while cleaning it (on button has no effect). Ordered a nice Fellow Ode to replace it.
–Slow day. Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner, then watched the latest Mission Impossible movie (Dead Reckoning Part One). Not a real thriller.
–Fence guy came and fixed the picket on the back patio. He also re-did the piece supporting the rear gate, but the gate still won’t close. Will replace.
–Went to UPS to pick up InnerLight decals from Etsy (nice), weaker hand gripper (perfect: 1 is exercise, 2 is difficult, and I can’t (yet) close 3 all the way), and black Oral B (nice).
–Replaced hearing aid batteries at 6 PM (Ray-O-Vac, 5 days + 2 hours).
–Paid first installment of Sac county property tax by e-check.
–Picked up Andre Thorburn knife at UPS. Very nice.
–Called CalPro. A new fence guy came over and said they would implement all the repairs.
–Tried the iPhone to see if it works better with the hearing aids. It doesn’t seem to.
–Took a shower and shave. Used the vintage Gibbs razor. Thought I had it set pretty mild, but it felt fairly aggressive and caused a couple nicks. Back to the closet.
–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch.
–Took some pics of abutilon blooms.
–Went to UPS and picked up bit driver and steam wand.
–Tried one-hole steam tip. Slightly better perhaps, but not like I remember (memory is imperfect, of course; it just seems like Creminas were monster steamers).
–Came close to buying a 1964 Rolex Explorer, near perfect, with all papers (including the hyper-rare timing certificate) for $17,350 at Tropical Watch. Waited too long. I might well have been disappointed with the gap between Jacek’s photos and reality, but lord what a package.
–Fence guy came and finished front gate.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries at 4 PM (Ray-O-Vac, 5 days + 3 hours).
–Went to Boa Vista Orchards in Placerville. Total zoo. Went to Hooverville–completely empty. Bought jam and pastries.
–Fixed a too-tight detent in a Shamwari by using my little vise to squeeze the ball in .1mm. Worked great.
–Still no fence repair follow-up visit, promised for yesterday.
–Went to see Dr. Esther Fine, ENT in Roseville. She was referred by the guy who diagnosed/treated my oral thrush. She was quite surprised I got thrush (Grace doesn’t think it was thrush; what could it have been?). Anyway, all good on parotid cancer, no more follow-ups needed. FWIW she was amazed at how severe the surgery was. “Better that than dead,” I said.
–Blaze pizza for dinner. Not as good as the last one.
–Fence guys were due here today to finish up. 4 o’clock, no signs…
–Repaired THREE sprinkler gushers caused by the fence repair guys tromping on things.
–Took a shower and shave.