Month: August 2024

–Paid State Farm $95.73 for (difference in) insurance on BMW 230i.

–Went to Home Depot for a hacksaw. Used it to saw off bolts that hindered drawer opening after I mounted the vise (finally).

–Put gas in the Honda and washed the windshield.

–Got 3 Red baron pizzas at Smart & Final. Had one for dinner: good.

–Took the Beemer to REI in Sacramento, bought 3 Pairs of cargo shorts, size 40 (up from 38). Ready to roll.

–Took Grace to Hallmark at Sunrise Mall to look for birthday stuff for Kathy. There are like 3-4 jewelry stores at that mall, and I can’t imagine how they pay rent when it looks like the mall is mostly deserted.

–Tried to paint in the RB logo on the new Reggie Barber tamper–with BMW Alpine White paint and then with Testors enamel. Total failure. Wiping off the over-paint just screws up the paint in the letters. I suppose I could try a thinner paint and a micro-brush so there’s no paint leaking out of the grooves; hard to do though.

–Finished tweaking the last of the Silca pumps. It took (finally) a 9mm dual-wire spring clip to fit the pump hose. We’re rollin’ now.

–Took the BMW to Nai’s Berry Farm. Closed. Open tomorrow. Really liking the Beemer. It gives me sort of a God feeling when driving. I vaguely recall the Mustang was like that, though it lacked the smoothness, pickup, tautness, etc. of the BMW. Siri works great in the car–no wires needed. I tell her where to go; she directs me, with aplomb.

–Took the Beemer to Michael’s to get Grace some glue for her photo assemblage. Picked up varnish at UPS on the way back. Turns out I didn’t need it: 99% isopropyl alcohol removed the water spots from the Capitola miniature paintings without damage. Not sure what happened when I tried it a couple days ago and it seemed to remove the original varnish. Less-pure alcohol? I don’t know.

–Watered the plants in back.

–Raley’s rising-crust pizza for dinner. Not good. Back to Red Baron.

–Played with Silca pumps.

–Took the BMW to Bel Air for potato salad. Sweet car.

–Barbecued turkey burgers and (from Sherry/Davis Ranch) corn and tomatoes.

–Took the BMW to REI Folsom to get some new sneakers. Car was good, Siri was good.

–Re-hung the parking duck.

–Sherry Stults went to Davis ranch and brought us back (per request) some corn, tomatoes and peanut brittle.

–Still hot!

–Dinner at Zinfandel. Pretty good.

–Breakfast at the Holiday Inn, cinnamon rolls and bagels at Top Donuts, then headed back (Phoebe’s doesn’t open until 11). BMW was good, especially after I redirected the AC air flow.

–Hot here, still not conducive to working in the garage.

–Switched over to iPhone for the BMW in order to get Siri. It’ll be hard to beat the car’s native GPS system, which (I learned today) knows about slowdowns and how long they’ll last–but we’ll check it out.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Took the 330i to BMW Monterey; traded it in for a 230i. Car salespeople are still jerks: I got a 15-minute high-pressure sales pitch on various kinds of insurance from the finance guy. Anyway, the car is fabulous, though it does have a fairly strong odor.

–Briefly checked out La Selva Beach with chips on the bluff.

–Checked in at the Holiday Inn Watsonville. Got room 319, same as last trip.

–Dinner at McDonald’s.

–Big diarrhea attacks this morning, a day early.

–Paid State Farm homeowner’s insurance $1,186, due in October. Hope this is for a full year.

–Took the BMW to Bel Air for cash, then Coloma Arco for gas.

–Tried to pack, sort of.

–Took a shower and shave.

–While fiddling in the bathroom, I noticed that the two Vern Scharf paintings (hot dog and donut over Capitola) were covered with water spots. (1) Be care when using the water flosser. (2) Tried getting them off with water, Mother’s Mag, white vinegar: nope. Tried alcohol, which seemed to work, but also removed some varnish. Ordered some varnish. May try to clear up all water spots, then re-varnish.

–Went birthday shopping at Oto’s market and Osaka Ya. Total nightmare, due to terribly blurred vision and circuitous routes.

–Haven’t heard a word from Nathan Reed. Looks like I might have pissed him off with my Perma-Plate complaint.

–Went to Bel Air for cheese, milk, cream, dessert, avocado.

–Took the BMW to Folsom Glenn car wash. $45 and a great job. Now that I’m not taking it anywhere soon…

–After verifying travel dates with Grace yesterday (Aug 28–31), she said today those weren’t right, as Kathy’s birthday is Sep 6. So I re-did everything for Sep 4–7. Airline and rental car were no problem. Best Western Eastgate could be a $700 problem. After I explained everything to central reservations, they submitted a change ticket to the the local hotel. Haven’t heard from them yet.

–Meidai Japanese bike pump came in. High quality, but the chuck head (not replaceable) is awful. Hard to get on, won’t stay on. Will toss most of it, keep a few nice parts.

–Double-ring hose clamps came in from Walmart. (a) Too large. (b) Flimsy wire. Tossed. Finally found what I should have been looking for all along: not 10mm but 3/8″ clamps. Ordered some.

–Second Helios 81H came in. Glass, though clear, had many small hard-to-see cleaning marks on it. Compared it to the first one (ultra-clear AND no cleaning marks): first one won. Then compared first one to Biotar (which it had edged out a while back. Biotar won, not really close: the Helios had a sort of misty veiling flare that the Biotar lacked. Hoping I’m done (again) with Helios.

–Talked to Nathan Reed finally at Monterey BMW. Long story short: if my 330i is flawless, I’ll trade it plus $20,000 for a white 230i with 4 miles on it. And a convenience package, surround sound, parking assistance, AND PERMA-PLATE. Can’t believe a Beemer dealer is still doing this crap.

–Spent much of the day transplanting the Mandarin into the ground. I’m totally exhausted. I was shocked to see how small and sparse its roots were. Hard to predict what’s going to happen to it.

–Renewed memberships and made reservations at Alaska Air and Best Western Hotels. Turns out I have 14,000 miles at AA (didn’t use any this time), and the Silver Cloud Eastgate has become a Best Western. All those Silver Rewards…poof!

–Helped Kenny install a wheel on his back patio gate.

–Grace wants to go to Bellevue. Flights and hotel are available, but she’ll wait a week or two to tell me she wants to go the next day.

–Went to S*T Strawberries for some berries for Grace to play around with.

–Picked up Pentacon 29/2.8 lens at UPS. Glass seems clear enough, but the lens is totally useless: impossible to focus, acts like infinity is 10 feet away, ultra-soft and unsaturated photos. Tossed it.

–Picked up Diamond Calk WWII entrenching tool at UPS. Super nice, original paint and all. I’ll almost hate to use it–but I didn’t get it as a collector’s piece.

–Went to CarMax for an appraisal. Waited a while; they finally came out with a $25,000 offer. Will try to talk to Nathan Reed tomorrow at BMW of Monterey.

–Tried to organize stuff a little in the garage.

–Kenny brought me a melon and us a baked potato. I went to Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, jam, squash, pears.

–Water tank for the ECM Technika V came in from Whole Latte Love. Set it up, tried it out, perfect!

–Plomb 3/8″ ratchet handle came in. After some confusion and (temporarily) lost tiny conical springs, I got it cleaned up and working nicely.

–Talked to Moe from Niello BMW. Not impressed. The black 230i I was looking at turned out to be a service loaner. They have others coming in, but none that appealed to me. Will take the 330i to CarMax Sunday for an appraisal. Thinking about Monterey BMW, which has a white 230i in stock, albeit with an add-on package I don’t need. Was Nathan Reed the sales guy I worked with there? Got no paperwork, and this journal is mute.

Brought the Canon R5 out again now that I have the screw for the grip extension. Will test some more against the lower-resolution, lower-noise SL2-S. [edit] Did the test. The SL2-S is astonishing. The Canon has greater magnification, but the viewfinder in the SL2-S is super sharp and contrasty. The Leica photo had hugely less noise, and though they were close after Adobe Enhancement, the SL2-S still wins. Just an amazing performance for 24 megapixels.

–Wrote PJ James again, finally heard back: he’s made an intro with Moe at Niello. I’ll call tomorrow.

–Screw finally came from China for the Canon R5 extension grip. Unfortunately, though the camera with grip is very nice, the Leica SL2-S–with much lower resolution–takes pictures that are as good or better.

–Went to Bel Air for some bargains (Grace) and milk, cream, corn.

–Barbecued turkey burgers. The “Amaizing” corn from Bel Air was finally really really good.

–Took a 10.7 mile bike ride. Tiring.

–Found a bolt that would hold the Canon custom grip extender on. Shot some shots. Even the Pancolar came out good–at f8. I could end up saying goodbye to Leica forever.

–Played with pumps some more. Got really frustrated that several of them didn’t seem to “accumulate” air fast enough, or at all. Took ’em apart, put ’em back together, etc., THEN discovered it could be those tiny snap-on pump heads I favor. Turns out if the hose pulls the slightest bit, the head is at an angle and is (may be) letting most of the air out around the seal. Tested by putting locking heads on 2-3 pumps: they all held air perfectly, with the gauge needle staying where it ended up at the end of each stroke. So much for cornering the market on tiny snap-on pump heads.

–Scavenged a bolt that would hold extension grip on Canon R5. Thinking it might become the ONE camera. Did a shootout (heh heh) between it and the SL2-S. Leica won. Considerably less noise, slightly better colors and saturation. Quite the camera.

–Sealed the crack in the ECM water tank with epoxy and Gorilla tape. Seemed to work. New one coming, so I’ll have an extra.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Decided (as per yesterday’s journal entry) to box up the Leica Q and call it quits (for now) on fixed-lens cameras. Brought out the M11 for the 13th time, and may keep it out as a high-megapixel complement to the SL2-S. It does have (on the LCD) constant exposure preview, and the thumbwheel adjusts it via ISO. The LCD should also work for focusing at night–I imagine I’ve done it before, in addition to using the Visoflex. It’s not exactly an M, with magnified LCD focus and lift-up ISO dial for example, but I checked and all M10s also have that ISO dial, and I’m not going back to M9. [edit] Okay, okay. It’s always something. Took a couple night shots with the M11, full of hope, then realized in Lightroom that the M11 lacks image stabilization. ISO was 8000 in both pics (though I underexposed the second one), shutter speeds were 1/15, then 1/5. Pictures were awful. M11 is just not a night camera. I WISH I COULD REMEMBER THIS.

–Played with Silca pumps. Had some issues with check valves (Silca calls them inner valves). Don’t know all the symptoms, but one (which I experienced) is that pump handle will rise up after a down stroke if you let it. As I suspected. So I checked Silca’s website, founf the inner valve, bought 8 of them. I know this will solve the rising pump handle issue, and I’m hoping it will solve the issue where the gauge goes back to zero after every down stroke. That’s not so clear, though. Don’t skimp on the teflon tape…

–Took a shower and shave.

–Heard back from PJ, whose friend Andrew will hook me up with salesman Moe. Here we go…

–Played with Q cameras all day. Q2 Hodinkee gets a downgrade for numbers on dials being impossible to read in the sun. I’ll likely go with a Q or Q-P. Thing is, I really like NEW, so might end up making the Q I bought at LSB (?) permanent. Big test tonight in the dark, after last night’s fiasco where the Q-P pic in Lightroom turned into a complete soft blurry smudge. The Q2 pic had 10 times the detail. If Q doesn’t work out, I may try a different Q2–a Reporter, say. Or drop the whole Q thing and get on with SL2-S. That’s a thought, actually: I went through 6-8 M’s before realizing I didn’t care much for them. Q’s have fixed lenses, are not pocketable, etc.–why bother?

–Speaking of Q2 Reporter, I wish I would hear from PJ about a contact at Niello BMW.

–Surprise! Whole Latte Love sent me an invoice for an ECM water tank! Amazing!

–Finally got all 6 Silca tire pumps together. Even the last 3 “slapdash” ones are very smooth.

–Picked up the “like new” Leica Q-P at UPS. It wasn’t, of course, but it was in pretty good condition. Took some daytime photos and noted the lack of contrast and saturation in my 3 Q’s (Q, Q-P 1, Q-P 2) compared to my Q2 Hodinkee. Took some night shots, and, though different light levels may have affected the results, I was aghast at how bad the Q-P looked compared to the Q2. I might finally be seeing some resolution and dynamic range issues. I just highly doubt I can talk myself into the Q-P, lovely though it is.

–Spent some time looking for a replacement tank for the ECM. Couldn’t find one (that would ship to U.S.).

–Got some bird seed and Gorilla tape at Home Depot; Triscuits at Bel Air.

–Put the ECM back together. Not easy, not horrible. Two small leftover screws.

–Went to see Michelle Hoyt, OD, at Sacramento Eyes in Folsom. She said I need cataract surgery, and maybe stents to reduce intra-ocular pressure. Got an appointment for a consult in late October. Maybe I’ll be seeing in 2024…

–Lunch (free) at Jersey Make’s.

–Got a market report for the BMW 330i from Patrick James. Seems it’s worth ~ $26,000. That’s a $12,000 bath in one year.

–Hot hot hot.

–Went to Luxury Auto Haus and sold Patrick james my recently-acquired Leica Q2 Reporter for what I paid: $4,400. He said he would get me a contact at Niello BMW who might help in pursuing a 230i.

–Moved and started up the ECM espresso machine. Grace heard a drip. Took it all apart with some difficulty, discovered I needn’t have: there’s a 4″-5″ crack radiating out from the little hole in the bottom of the water tank. CRAP! Nobody on the planet seems to carry those tanks any more, so I’ll glue/tape it and wrestle it back together.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe, where the owner engaged me in brief conversation. I’m in! Then to Target for shopping for Grace.

–Went to Home Depot for dual-emitter caps. Put one on a riser in back and ran a short line to the Bird of Paradise. Works good.

–Heard from Leica that they will replace the cologne-smelling Kevlar fabric on my SL2-S Reporter with the same stuff, so wrapped it up and dropped it off at UPS. Looking forward to what will be virtually a new camera with great eye sensor relief.

–Called and emailed Patrick James re Q2 Reporter sale. He finally called back late and we’ll meet tomorrow.

–Strongly considered a “like new” Leica Q-P at MPB. Took a couple shots in back comparing Q2 Hodinkee with rat Q-P. Q2 wins.

–Left a review on Yelp of HD Lawn Care.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Tried to balance the fan over the dining room table. Made it better at low speed only.

–Picked up ECM portafilter from UPS. It’s bottomless. Don’t know if I ordered bottomless or not–they were out of double spout. Bought a cheaper single spout at Clive Coffee; will remove the spout.

–Discovered yesterday that one reason I’m having so much trouble with the two Creminas is that (a) their portafilter baskets really don’t like more than 17 grams; I’ve been using 18.5; (b) My 49mm tamper is > 49mm, and won’t really go down far enough into the basket to tamp well. Combined, these issues mean I’m really forcing an untamped portafilter onto the grouphead. No wonder it complains. I had a much better time scraping out some of the (over)dose and using my Thor tamper, which seems to be a better size. Grrr….

–Heath fromHD Lawn finally texted me and said our warranty had expired. I texted him back that it had NOT expired, but my text failed to go through–he has blocked my number. What a dirtbag. Yelp, Nextdoor, etc. here we come.

–Finally dawned on me that the BMW 230i, small and powerful though it is, is a two-door, and I’ve had trouble getting into those. Guess I’ll have to screw up my courage and try a test drive.

–Re-tried a few photo editors again, for fringing and to see if I can drop Lightroom. Lightroom still wins.

–Warm and muggy.

–Got a message at Fred Miranda forums from Patrick James (sold me the SL2-S Reporter). He noticed I bought a nice Q2 Reporter there, and wants to buy it. Coincidentally, I’m looking at a BMW 230 at Elk Grove Niello. Perhaps Patrick can help buy it/sell BMW 330i while avoiding some of the dealer BS/markups. We’ll see.

–HD Lawn Care guy’s dad came over at 9 AM to replace the two leaking control valves. Talked to his son on the phone, son decided to charge us $350. This was ONE YEAR after the son replaced these same two valves for $370. Pretty sketchy in my opinion.

–Tried to swap in the new portafilter gasket on the Maximatic, discovered it’s 54mm, not the correct 49mm. Emailed Great Infusions. Meanwhile, the reinstalled Orphan Espresso silicone gasket seems to work. On the other hand, it appears I gave away at least one of my extra-large portafilter baskets, as the standard 18.3g dose caused all sorts of over-spilling problems. Grrrr….

–Went through a “sell the BMW” exercise at Carvana. They offered $24,300. This is going to be ugly.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–NOS red Tekna regulator came in. An unused beauty, but of course the tilt needle seat had turned to goo and all but disappeared. Tried some other innards in it, but it never did breathe great. Into the bin; will play with it some more later.

–Barbecue for dinner: corn, Corralitos Cheesy Bavarian sausage, Bel Air potato salad (red bliss potato–not great), Thao tomato.

–Stopped at Corralitos Meat for Cheesy Bavarian and Gizdich apple pie, then drove home. The GPS put me on 5/99/Grantline. Kind of grueling. The BMW drove beautifully, but still smells and has started making more noises. Finding a replacement will be really hard: smaller cars are really small (like Coopers); similar-size cars are hard to justify. Why spend $10k-$20k to trade a fast smooth beauty for one that’s the same size, slower, less sexy, etc.?

–Picked up the Leica SL2 extension grip from Patrick James at Luxury Auto Haus. Quite manly. Grrrrr…

–Leica won’t adjust eye sensor relief under warranty for my new SL2-S, as it was bought from an unauthorized dealer (All Good Friend in Hong Kong). Not sure what to do. After testing, turns out the original SL2 has the worst relief (the slightest head movement blacks out the EVF); my SL2-S is better; and the SL2-S Reporter is far better (but has wear on the cover and smells). I could send mine in and pay for adjustment, but it’s not at all clear that it would come back like the Reporter (which Patrick James claims is untouched) and everything I’ve sent to Leica costs > $600. Dilemma.