Month: March 2025

–Rainy, blustery day.

–Went around and around and around with consent banner plugins. After 43 failures, I MAY have discovered that Litespeed cache OR Ghostery ad blocker was interfering with the plugins. With both disabled, Plan Retirement now works perfectly. I ran into some issues with Dizziness and Nausea that took a LOT of work to resolve–database issues mostly–but it seems to be working now. I learned that I can’t delete databases in the Nixihost cPanel, so I opened a ticket. Curious to see if they’ll just delete, or raise my permissions. [edit] After further work on Dizziness, it really does look like Litespeed was the culprit. I can go back and forth now between admin and site and everything I changed shows up instantly, instead of requiring a cache purge to work. If I’m right on this, Litespeed is a plague. [edit 2] Okay, the ad blocker Ghostery also interferes with cookie consent–but only for Dizziness at the moment. What a bunch of crap. [edit 3] Both sites work now after a reboot. Maybe good, maybe it’ll act up later. Frustrating.

–Set up Plan Retirement this morning. Worked the first time I navigated to it! And Nixihost is blazing fast, even when all plugins are added and active. Tried many different cookie banner plugins (again) and finally found one (Pressidium) that seems to be compact, easy to set up, etc. We movin’ now…

–Discovered (via reddit) an app called Commander One, which replaces (and appears to totally blow away) Finder and Filezilla/Cyberduck. Local files on the left, anything you want in the right panel (iCloud, FTP, etc.). Wish I’d found it a while ago–Filezille drives me crazy with its timeouts, and Cyberduck’s interface is kind of impenetrable. Finder is fine, and may still be the only thing that lets me find a word in any file I own. [edit] Okay, spoke too soon. Went to copy the Plan Retirement WP Content folder from wsf.ac to local WP folder. Took a few minutes to start moving files, then estimated an hour and a quarter to complete the copying. Oh well…

–Went to Smart & Final for Cara Cara oranges, Honeycrisp apples, cream cheese, Triscuits, Pellegrino and Coke.

–Red Baron personal pizza for dinner.

–Limescale.org finally went through at 11:15 AM. By 8 PM, nothing else had come in. [edit] Sent a ticket to iWebFusion around 9 PM saying “Help, only one of my domains transferred.” They replied 15 minutes later saying, “Well, it looks like they all transferred, so there’s nothing more we can do.” I panicked, thinking all my domains were in limbo. Five minutes later, notices started coming in saying “ABC domain transfer is complete.” Within 10 minutes, all had transferred. Unbelievably suspicious timing.

–Won another spinner with fast fingers and Shop Pay.

–Watched the last episode of Reacher, Season 3. Pretty good.

–Forgot to mention that yesterday, while updating my password at the Franchise Tax Board (at their request), I noticed they claim I have a “balance” of $167. I figured out this was balance due, and paid it. They gave no hint and I have no idea what the issue is. Turbotax? Estimated payments? Crap.

–Did pretty much nothing today. There was a tiny bit of rain.

–Website hosting still hasn’t migrated. When they say “by the 28th” they really mean “no sooner than…”

–After 5 applications of FU-5, still no reaction. [edit] When I looked back at the last application (November 2021), it seemed to be nine days before things looked really rough. That’s not exactly the way I recall it, where after a week I would look horrible. We’ll see.

–Spent some time optimizing this Journal. Got rid of “Edit,” “Comment,” etc. under the post title; cleaned up the sidebar (Search and Archives only); set each “page” to show 100 posts rather than 10; and made it private: anyone navigating to it other than me is shown a login screen.

–Cool and breezy day.

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

–Watched Robot Monster. Not bad, a little surprising.

–Hot day today.

–Went to Bel Air for plain bagels.

–Stopped at UPS for yet another spinner bearing tool.

–Stopped at Home Depot to get some of Kenny’s paint matched for the fences/gates.

–Finished touch-up painting on fences/gates. Looks good.

–Went for a haircut at Great Clips, but 30-minute wait was too long.

–Started the Fluorouracil regimen–twice a day.

–Moved all Bitcoin from Binance.us back to Coinbase. The Binance interface is terrible, and their choice of networks for transfers is extremely limited. Now all I have to do is wait for the price to skyrocket, then sell. Yup.

–Initiated a move of all domains from iWebFusion registrar to Namecheap two days ago. Just got emails today saying “move will happen by 3/28 unless you object.” That’s five days. A change from Porkbun to Namecheap took 30 minutes. Something weird about iWebFusion, despite their claims that it’s all in ICANN’s hands–it clearly isn’t.

–Went to Dr. An Yen in Sacramento for another Mohs procedure. He got it all on the first try. It hurts now.

–Then to Mimosa House in Gold River. Pretty good brunch.

–Put some Spackle in the holes left by fence gate fixing yesterday. Tried some of Kenny’s paint: Not a great match. Will get a different shade tomorrow at Home Depot.

–Marie for dinner.

–Kenny’s handyman Mike called around Noon and came out an hour later to work on our two back gates. He finished around 6 PM, charged $340 (I gave him my Italian switchblade as well). Mammoth amount of work on the side gate because of rot; installing striker on patio gate also was not trivial due to spacing issues. The guy is insanely conscientious about having everything square, level and plumb. All good now, and likely for a long time. I am totally wiped out just from standing around. I will caulk and paint tomorrow.

–Took a Tramadol, shower and shave.

–Spent the day on web hosting. Moved the Journal to Namecheap on wsf.ac. Took some doing, but all my fault. Not sure how fast Namecheap will be, but there’s so much baggage associated with every other hosting service I can find, so…

–Of note: Went back to Filezilla (Cyberduck is limited in some ways) and learned it can see iCloud files, but not some directories: those starting with _ and some others at random. Super annoying.

–Took Grace’s shopping list to Smart & Final and bought stuff, as she’s not feeling good.

–Stopped at UPS for the brass Modusworks Machinamathing. Spent a while with it on the buffer. Main cool thing: the serial number is engraved in Roman numerals.

–Spent a while reconciling spinners. Moved the Union tool chest from the garage to my bedroom. Starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

–Spent much of the day organizing spinners. Did good.

–Biked to UPS for (a) KAP superconductor buttons (beautiful) and (b) Modusworks Ergo tri (magnificent).

–Learned yesterday that Bert Cooper likely died in 2022: saw a Toastmasters remembrance, with a note to send cards to Heidi Tomlinson (his girlfriend was Heidi). I had many chances to re-connect, but didn’t, because I’m a jerk.

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn (pretty good), got gas at the nearby Chevron, then drove home. The mpg showing on the dashboard kept rising—to 46.9 near Sacramento! Mind-boggling. The drive(s) really tired me out. Might have to do with dehydration from constantly having cool air blowing on me.

–Had corned beef/cabbage, potato and carrots donated by Kenny for dinner. Yum!

–Spent a while trying to reconcile fidget spinners.

–Took the BMW to the coast. Dropped off two Creminas and an ECM at Great Infusions. Had an egg salad sandwich (same maker from 5 years ago) on the bluff at La Selva Beach. Checked in at the Holiday Inn in Watsonville. Drove to Carmel to visit Carmel Cutlery: they’re closed one day a week—Tuesday. Walked to McDonald’s for a not-too-satisfying dinner. Really conflicted about coming back here some day. When the weather’s nice it’s incredible. But great weather is rare, and there’s minimal access to health care or shopping, no neighbors, no biking, etc.

–Got Grace’s phone working with Visible Cellular. For some reason we didn’t need the transfer PIN that Verizon gave us a couple days ago. It was nerve-wracking though, and took almost an hour. All good now with phones I think.

–Went to UPS for (a) GAZ Big Minus Short, another really ho-hum offering from this company; (b) a Modusworks tri copper something in really rough shape–cuts, scratches, divots, etc., very frustrating. Got another one coming soon which should be nicer. Annoying, since much of the damage is such that it can’t be repaired without seriously altering the lines of the spinner. (c) LIC EDC polished zirc Edamame, a real treat; (d) polished titanium LIC EDC Chonky–my second. First one was a hot mess; I tried to take out the cuts and dings and polish it up a bit. This one looked nice but had a long deep scratch. Since the seller claimed it was 10/10, I have to assume I scratched it with the scalpel while cutting open the bubble wrap. Spent a fair while making the scratch disappear and polishing it up.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, cream cheese, anti-perspirant, bagels, dessert.

–Packed two Creminas and an ECM into the trunk of the BMW.

–Got taxes filed. Tried Free Tax USA to verify Turbotax; it said I need to enter crypto (I thought Turbotax said I didn’t need to enter stuff, even after I told them I did crypto). Anyway, back to Turbotax, where I had to upgrade to Premier for another $35 so it could read Coinbase and Robinhood .csv files without me having to hand-enter data. I had to fiddle with both files, as they had incomplete info. I can’t imagine how the IRS is going to deal with all this crypto stuff–83 exchanges, people moving stuff, buying, selling, swapping, converting, etc. Transaction files from any one exchange will be absurdly misleading. I suppose, truth be told, it’s on the individual taxpayer to keep good records. So I’m doomed: when I last tried to reconcile everything a few weeks ago, it didn’t work. It’ll be worse going forward. Maybe, if I stay with Bitcoin, and don’t sell until 2026, I can fake it.

–California Pizza Kitchen Margherita pizza for dinner; not bad.

–Went to both farmers markets for tangerines (yup) and Balsamic for Grace (nope).

–Walked to UPS to return the 14th Senkichi pick Mattock handle.

–Went to UPS for (a) yet another pick mattock handle from Amazon with no head, and (b) LIC EDC Chonky in titanium. Seller had said no fingernail dings; in fact there were many. I spent a while on the buffer with it and cleaned it up okay. Not highly polished yet, but I’m working on it.

–Spent much time and frustration changing phones from Verizon to Visible. Mine is switched; Grace should be getting a new SIM in the mail tomorrow.

–Got peanut butter/chocolate-dipped cookies at Bel Air.

–Went to UPS for KAP bearing tool (simplest/nicest yet), also copper Paradigm razor (nice).

–Re-re-re-visited taxes. Discovered I had put Grace’s union pension 1099-R in the 2023 folder. That explained a lot, and dropped the Federal refund from $6k to $3k. Good to go now, I think.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Did taxes. $6k+ back from Feds, $950 from State (applied to estimated payments this year). Will re-check.

–Wind blew all day; downpour finally came at 4 PM. Seems we have another clogged downspout, Grace reports.

–Right upper back teeth are starting to ache. Probably time to get the 2nd and 3rd root canals that Creekside Endodontists wanted to do. Speaking of which: I called Delta Dental to ask about DD PPO vs. DD Premium. Turns out that (in theory) we can go to either one. Dentist is supposed to do the billing. PPO costs covered 100%; Premium costs covered at 50%. So when dentists say “We don’t take PPO,” what they’re really saying is “We won’t go to the trouble of billing when we only get 50% from Delta and have to fight for 50% from the patient.”

–Went to Smart & Final for dessert and tangerines.

–Picked up many things at UPS: 3M sanding pads, and tiny Vader superconductor spinner (utterly useless), a Damasteel Mothership spinner with “stump” buttons (nice), Koala microfiber cloths (they seem nice; we’ll see).

–Took my InnerLight wheels to Bob’s Bikes on Fair Oaks, as the front tire was dead flat. I suspected the valve had torn off the tube from all my Silca pump testing; true. They put on two new tubes while I waited. Great shop–they even remembered me and the InnerLight.

–Got the Rolex 1680 back off to Rolliworks via FedEx. Hoping they can make it nice, then I’ll put nice dial and movement in the recent 1680 case and have a 100% original 1680 in a nicely-polished case.

–Daylight Saving Time.

–Didn’t do much except change clocks and buy spinners.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up at UPS: (1) Link 2.0 spinner, long time coming, pretty nice; (2) Senkichi pick mattock, handle only. Unbelievable. Tried to get the head from Amazon, but their impenetrable help system had me return the handle and they’ll send another pick. (a) They’ll probably ding me for the head, and (b) they’ll probably just send another handle. (3) Indy Thicc Yeti in bead-blasted brass (ho-hum) along with a gorgeous set of timascus buttons (nice). Won in a drop, thanks to the speedy Shop Pay.

–Checked out the plants in back. A couple seem to be getting nibbled by snails, and the Clementine was getting no water at all: I had two drippers going to the Bird of Paradise. I routed one over to the Clementine. I need to check if water is actually flowing: I upped the schedule to every other day, and the BoP is looking miserable.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Took Grace shopping at the nearby Smart & Final.

–Went to UPS for (1) Tekna regulator (tilt needle seal gone, plastic collar broken, etc.); (2) Nossa coffee beans (from Shop Pay rewards); (3) NJT tungsten Nebu 2.0, oil slick (WAY too heavy, will sell).

–Took a shower and shave, after cleaning the shower.

–Had my tele-visit with Dr. Firoz. He was 30 minutes late, and I could see no discernible reason for the visit.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and bagel dogs; Koreana Plaza for chicken thighs.

–Stopped at UPS for a couple of spinners.

–Bagel dogs for dinner.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Very nice. Runs okay on the Timegrapher. The current 1680 (Rolliworks had it for 6 months) is now running terribly: amplitude and beat error are okay, but timing is all over the place. I have a vague recollection that this is what caused them issues and was so hard (expensive) to fix. Back it goes.

–Went to Sac Eye to pick up the Ray-Ban sunglasses. They seem okay; I haven’t put them under a microscope. I showed her the smudge on the Flexon lens, and she quickly agreed to get new lenses. It was hard to talk her out of UV and anti-glare coatings, but I did. She also said (I think) that the smudge was a scratch. Possible, but I’m skeptical: it’s quite wide, not like a grain of abrasive but more like a piece of sandpaper.

–Stopped at UPS for the KAP Mothership mokume (nice, but not compelling) and the bronze Pose XL (nice). Then to Bel Air for dessert.

–Spent much of the day over at Kenny’s, watching Mike the contractor replace a couple of trellis beams. He did good work, and so we asked him to look at our gates. He suggested cheap fixes for both, so we’re on in a couple of weeks.

–Went to UPS for (1) Hiroshi Nagai books (great artist), (2) MonoSkate spinner bearing tool (nice tool), (3) TwoEDC copper Soft Triangle spinner: really nice.

–Visible phone service seems top-notch so far. I was able last night (after some issues) to get my iPhone working as a hotspot (fast) and got a nicely transcribed voice mail from Kenny this morning.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Showers off and on all day; and hail!

–Starting a 15-day trial with Visible by Verizon cell network. Cheaper than Verizon, unlimited data and hotspot. We’ll see.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines and oranges.

–Won another spinner drop with Shop Pay.

–Picked up a fountain pump at UPS; works just like the current one. Picked up the Edamame copper spinner buttons as well. Nice, but the spinner itself is not very engaging: really heavy wobble when changing planes.

–Went to brunch at Mimosa House in Folsom with Tom and Sandy Elken.

–Finally got Kirill Yuzh to buy the Rolex 1680 from Tropical Watch for me.

–Internet was on-again off-again all night. A couple of calls to Comcast/Xfinity were comical.

–Tried to clean my new glasses. Made (or revealed) a big bad smudge on the left lens, in addition to a tiny bright spot (chip?). Noticed a purple tint to the lenses. Could be anti-glare coating or (as receipt says) UV coating. Did I scratch the lens? Possible, but I doubt it. On the other hand, NOTHING would remove it: dish soap, alcohol, lens cleaner, camera sensor cleaner, etc. I guess I’ll try for replacement uncoated lenses, but I’m not optimistic.