Month: November 2023

–Picked up popcorn from Mark Solich at UPS (the long-awaited mystery package).

–Picked up Zeiss 85 lens at UPS. This one (unlike the first one) is tight as a drum.

–Walked around the neighborhood and took pics with the SL2. Processed them with ACDSee. It took forever and the results were less than pleasing. Downloaded Lightroom (for about the twelfth time) and re-processed the photos. Night and day: LR was quick, easy, and higher quality. I don’t know how they do it with that few controls, but it sure works. It just took some really challenging photos (bright colored lights in the dark) to show off the differences.

–Called Blue Shield and found out that Restasis is covered; the generic cyclosporin requires prior auth. Told Firoz this. He replied that Restasis is “not covered,” and the ophthalmologist will have more insight on what to use. Jerk.

–Replaced hearing batteries around 10 AM (5.5 days).

–Played with cameras. Spent hours looking into Leica ME issues. Thought it was a failed sensor, but eventually noted it was replaced in 2015 with a sensor that (allegedly) would not go bad. Much later, I checked out rangefinder calibration at infinity. Seems to be quite off, if the light I was focusing on was really at infinity. Will try to calibrate tomorrow, when it’s warmer outside. I always want something “new” of course, but the M9s on eBay are pretty sketchy.

–Had lunch at McDonald’s Gold River.

–Took the Cremina cover + Traffic Red powder to Perfect It. They sid (a) it will be $200 because it’s so hard to remove the original powder coat, and (b) they might not be able to do it because are prohibited (by me) from drilling a hole in it so as to hold/electrify it while powder is being applied. Will call tomorrow with diagnosis.

–Stopped at UPS. Meteorite came in. Hefty, rusty. Started flattening the two cut sides. Looks doable. May soak in Evap-O-Rust and coat with wax or something. Oz Roosevelt Silver Surfer came in. Really nice (deep maching as promised). Second Lumitime clock came in. Works fine, but neon bulbs seem dimmer, even when not behind two windows. Not sure what I’ll do with it.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels, cream cheese, cheese, pizza doughball.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Cleaned the fountain; spruced up my plants. Propagating the abutilon turned out to be a dismal failure.

–Went to Gold River McDonald’s for lunch. They reinstalled the drink machine, for reasons unknown. Had a McCrispy Deluxe chicken snadwich. Okay, not great. Good fries though.

–Zeiss 85mm f2.8 lens came in. Unusable at first, then I read up on it and changed the camera from Auto to Manual and used the thumb button to zoom; very nice then.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, chip-smoking foil pan.

–Barbecued a turkey breast with hickory chips. Came out good, though only mildly smokey.

–Had a tele-visit with Dr. Firoz. Went fine. He prescribed Restasis for my eyes and stretching exercises for my back.

–Hearing aid batteries died and were replaced around 6 PM (5+ days).

–Oz Rosie and pen came in. Rosie blade was a mess. I took the nicks out of it with the belt grinder, then swapped blades with another Rosie because the scales on this one are so nice. The pen also has scratches. I’ll likely send it to Ted Rooney. None of this was disclosed by the seller.

–Dr. Firoz’ office called. He’s a little sick and wants to do tomorrow’s appointment by telemedicine. Okay.

–Met Tom and Sandy Elken for brunch at Mimosa House in Folsom. Good time.

–Lumitime clock came in. Cool enough, but not working well. Bought a nicer-looking one on eBay.

–Ray and Sherry’s helper Frank came over to clean out gutters. He had trouble (as did I) getting water to drain through a downspout, so I lent him my new snake. Apparently it worked. $50.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the new Mergress razor on its mildest setting. Really great shave, which surprised me.

–Picked up Cymbalta (duloxetine) at UPS. Took one, not much happened until after an espresso: big diarrhea.

–Made some no-knead bread. Beautiful loaf, minimal taste, maybe under-baked.

–Chad Nell knife came in. Typical mirror: fog and scuffs. Tried to polish, didn’t do much.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM (5+ days).

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Had another Red Baron Classic Crust pizza for dinner; good stuff.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch, then Koreana Plaza for Fruit and cheese.

–Got an online prescription for Cymbalta. Sounds like magical stuff: good for depression/anxiety AND lower back pain.

–Re-positioned the hummingbird feeder.

–Noticed yet another gutter/downspout (short one) on the back patio. Cleaned it out, but noticed the drain (which goes underground) was backing up. Went to Home Depot and got a 25′ snake, used it, drain clear!

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels.

–Cleaned out the gutter over the front porch. Lots of mud, though maybe not as thibk as the side gutter I cleaned a couple weeks ago.

–Replaced hearing batteries around 1:30 PM (5.5 days).

–Got a Blaze meat-eater pizza. (1) They burned it. (2) It wasn’t as good as the mozarella/basil one we had a week ago.

–Watched Chaplin’s “Modern Times.” Not bad, but Paulette Goddard stole the show. What a presence!

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up Gareth Bull Colibri at UPS. Super nice knife. I of course had to “perfect” it. After many rounds of disassembly/assembly, I noticed a screw was going into the pivot collar crooked (it didn’t come that way, but that does explain some big issues I had geetting it together earlier. Finally got it together, seems less good than before. I’ll reverse the pivot to how it came, Loctite it and hope for the best.

–Took Grace to the PO for a postage-due package, then to Koreana Plaza for meat.

–Tried to re-watch City of Ember. My eyes are horribly dry. Hoping it’s fixable.

–Went to UPS to pick up the Oz Roosevelt. Fine knife, but it turns out you can’t polish stonewash.

–Went to Smart & Final for fruit, milk, cream, etc.

–Went to UPS to get desk pad (nice) and Sony hearing aids.

–Spent a while trying to get the Sony hearing aids working with iPhone and/or Galaxy. They sort of worked, but had poor volume, were minimally adjustable even with the app, and didn’t handle the phone well at all. Another several hundred bucks down the tubes.

–Took a short bike ride. InnerLight seems perfect.

–Discovered the jump in the PG&E bill was due mostly to the weather. I had thought we used gas for the water heater only, but it turns out the furnace is gas too. I knew that, just forgot.

–Picked up 49.5mm tamper base at UPS. Works great. Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and such.

–Bedroom was 71 degrees. Checked vents; all open. Closed bathroom vent (hard to believe it was open), thinking it can’t get much colder in there. I could be proven wrong.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch, then to Gren Acres in Folsom for Perlite, peat moss and rooting hormone so I can try to propagate the abutilon.

–We got a 10-minute rain today. Noticed that the downspout on Sherry’s side of the house was overflowing. Talked to Sherry, and she will have the guy who cleaned her gutters clean ours. I could do it (again), but I’m getting old.

–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market and to Macy’s, where she bought me sweatpants with lots of pockets.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips: $20 + $5 (lowest “suggested” tip).

–Took a 6.8 mile ride around the ‘hood. Wiped out. Time to get back in the saddle.

–Got a PG&E bill for $124—3 to 4 times normal. Going to look into replacing the gas water heater with electric.

–Took the InnerLight back to Bob’s Cycles for them to add brakes. They had a set of Shimano hydraulics for $109 each. They’ll also install the seatpost and fix the fork play I noticed (they got a little defensive about it).

–Got a Tekna regulator from eBay. Took it apart, de-rusted it (Evap-O-Rust and sanding pads), put it back together. Looks like it might work.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Picked up the InnerLight from Bob’s Cycles–all seemed good. Put the handlebars on then tried for the brakes. Nope. Those things are such a kluge, with spacers and all, then my back gave out. I’ll take it back to Bob’s tomorrow and have them put a set of hydraulic brakes on it.

–Went nowhere, did nothing. Grace is still in a really foul mood.