–Cool and cloudy most of the day.
–Walked to UPS to send off Noah’s birthday package.
–Played with sliders.
Month: September 2025
–Fairly cool day, and mostly cloudy.
–Went out to dinner at Blaze Pizza with Kenny–his treat. Good stuff.
–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market, then the Folsom Premium Outlets for birthday gifts for Noah.
–Left thumb cuticle area is still red, after several weeks. Don’t know what’s going on.
–Went to the Folsom REI to get a new bike helmet, as the padding on the old one would not stay in place. The new has adjustable sizing–very nice.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Went around the mulberry bush on doctors. Grace found one who seemed fine and was (on the web) accepting new patients. When I called to set things up, she was not accepting new patients. This disconnect between web and reality makes it essentially impossible to find a doctor.
–Went through most of my photo apps again, learned (again) that each has its issues. Signed up (again) for Lightroom, $10/month this time (last time they got me for $20/month, not sure how), installed Classic and Creative Cloud versions. Was disappointed in both for a bit, but after tweaking, went with the Classic version, since it allows me to customize the Develop panel. This editor is so good, smooth, customizable, etc. it just destroys any alternatives. E.G., the Details menu was collapsed (after many tests and customizations), so I opened it up, fiddled a little, closed the app then reopened–Details was available. This can’t be that hard to implement (automatically or with workspaces), but NOBODY does it except Lightroom. Hooked again.
–Another cloudy, not too-hot, poor air quality day.
–Took a walk to the Fair Oaks Bridge. Tired me more than it should have.
–Biked to UPS for Magnus Dimple Rainbow. Pretty, not the best slider action. Will tinker.
–Frozen dinners for…dinner.
–Played with spinners and magnets again; finally had some success.
–Went to UPS for licorice (still good), Heart slider (tossed quickly; gotta stop ordering this 3D printed crap), cough drops.
–Watered a few plants briefly.
–Went to Costco for muffins and Pellegrino. Got muffins, no Pellegrino. Got some Peet’s beans–$10/pound.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cheese, cream cheese.
–Stopped at UPS for Craftsman BBQ tool, magnets, Rapt Lite (second one I’ve tossed, falls apart at the slightest spin), lemon drops, Magnus slider (very light (resin), great action).
–Stopped at Gold River Dental. Cripe is retired, and the new guy (no reviews anywhere) takes our Delta Dental PPO plan. Made an appointment for October 3 at 9:30 AM. Hygienist Michelle (whose name I firmly recalled as Sandy) said hi.
–Argued with Grace about eye doctors. She is so negative, pessimistic, sarcastic, argumentative, etc. that it will likely be Christmas before she sees one.
–Red Baron pizza for dinner, with Thao tomato and garden basil.
–Trimmed the tree that overhangs the roof on the front patio. No more overhang.
–Went to UPS for Modusworks plates.
–Swam 38 laps at 86 degrees.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Spent a while going through a youtube collection of videos on Then Came Bronson, partly to help me decide what to keep and what to drop. I’ll be keeping 4 out of 26. Despite all the yammering from a couple of websites about tone poems, introspective, brooding, sensitive, etc., most of these just strike me as pretentious, poorly written and poorly directed. Bronson isn’t a hero or anti-hero; he just mopes around with his head down and mumbles stuff. The one good thing thing you could say about the show is that people are generally better off (happier, more self-aware) for Bronson having been there. What still puzzles me is my firm memory that I had carried “all” 13 episodes in my head for years. The only ones familiar to me now are the 4-5 that stuck with me from another binge 10-15 years ago; the other 20+ did not tickle a single neuron. It’s likely the single best idea ever for a TV show (along with Route 66), but it was squandered.
–My butt aches (as usual) from working on sprinklers yesterday.
–Grace seems (once again) to have given up thinking about doctors, since her searches didn’t come with something great. Depressing.
–Did some laundry.
–Watered plants.
–This journal was requiring login every two weeks, so I ditched the “persistent login” plugin and added some code to functions.php. We’ll see.
–Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Re-stocked up on Beulah’s Candyland cough drops and Claey’s lemon drops.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for Thao tomatoes (expensive, but noticeably better than others at the market), pears and tangerines.
–Exhausted myself (as usual lately) doing a little sprinkler repair in the side yard. All sprinklers are great now–until I actually test the ones in front and back…
–Noticed (for the first time, sadly) that there’s a difference between Edamame spinners from LIC EDC (original, longer, thinner) and Edamame Goldilocks (Goldie) spinners. I only have one Edamame, in zirc–the green resin one hardly counts–and a couple of Goldies (copper and bronze). I need more Edamames.
–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and banana bread. Took Grace along for shopping at Target.
–Trimmed, cleaned up, watered back patio plants.
–DXO started acting up again (fuzzy while sliding, snaps into focus when stop). Tried the newest version of Raw Therapee; still choppy. Went back (for the 14th time) to RAW Power. It might lack a couple of bells and whistles, but it sure is fast and customizable.
–Vlad and helper from Regal Roofing came over around 9 AM to clear gutters and downspouts. Spent several hours here, did a great job (swept leaves off roof too), and charged $200. Not bad. Let it rain…
–Got up this morning, felt bad, went back to bed. Got up again around Noon. Still don’t feel great.
–Went to UPS for Craftsman BBQ tongs (cool), lacquerware spoon (dull finish; tossed), Reg Barber tamper handle (on the fence; may or may not keep).
–Stopped at Bel Air for dinner. Tried a Panera flatbread pizza. Not so hot.
–Made an appointment and took Grace to CVS near Lowe’s for COVID (us) and flu (her) vaccines.
–Lunch at Panera.
–Magnus Sunburst slider came in. Not quite as compelling in person as in photos. Also not the greatest performer.
–Took a swim.
–Messed with sprinklers a bit in the side yard. More to come. I hate sprinklers.
–Got a haircut at Great Clips (zero customers the whole time I was there) and picked up a Speedo nose clip at UPS. For the second time in a week, I narrowly avoided a driver merging into my lane from the left. Idiots.
–Took a swim. Nose clip worked.
–No swim today: waiting for a nose clip from Amazon, and I doubt (given the air temp) that water temp got over 80.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Took a shower and shave; clipped my toenails. The Gillette Psycho did not want to work well, though my beard was approaching 1/2″. Switched to the Fat Bay.
–Red Baron cheese pizza with added Hillshire sausage and tomato for dinner.
–Ordering some vintage Craftsman BBQ tools from eBay. Turns out that if I ever looked at those tools 20 years ago, I’ve completely forgotten. Most say “Not Guaranteed Forever” and “Considered a Kitchen Utensil” on the handles. And the way the scraper is put together–blade bolted onto handle–was a total surprise to me. Is it observation or memory? Beats me.
–Going back to the Samsung Z Flip 5 for a bit. iPhone battery life seems to be getting worse. Considered upgrading to Z Flip 7, but there were no real compelling reasons to spend close to a thousand bucks on one.
— I almost never hear what Grace says the first time any more. Could be she’s talking more softly, more likely my hearing is getting really bad.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, tangerines. Then to S*T strawberries for strawberries and jam.
–Watered plants.
–Played with sliders. Very frustrating: all the magnets I have, and nothing I try seems to improve performance. Could be that the ones I’m working with (Gators, Crinkles) are just too heavy to be great sliders.
–Took a swim: 30 lengths.
–Waited all morning for a Pyra slider drop that didn’t happen. At least they posted (at 12:10) that it wasn’t going to happen.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Took a swim, 26 lengths. The pool was back up to 83. My nose clip kept failing, and I hit my head against the lip of the pool, but other than that…
–Took the BMW to Hooverville for jams and produce.
–Played with sliders. I really need to figure out an easy way to measure and store those nasty button magnets.
–Red baron for dinner.
–Cleared one gutter/downspout in the side yard. Noticed the other downspout seemed clogged. Decided I’m too old for this stuff and will let a pro do it.
–Went to UPS for fins (pool was 79 today), Vern Scharf painting, FidgetThings S.O.B. 2 Slim slider (tried to like it, and MAY have been able to mod it, but ended up putting it in the “sell” section of the closet).
–Rode 14+ miles west on the ARP with Tom Elken. Cool weather.
–Picked up magnets and a KAP Horizon Ultem spinner at UPS. Plus a Gillette Psycho razor.
–Tried long and hard to get a Magnus Crinkle to slide nice. I improved it, but one piece still goes flying on backflips too often. Don’t know what I can do about that–the corners are about as strong as they come.
–Too cool to swim. The season may be over almost before it started, for me anyway.
–Juli got off fine.
–Went to UPS for a Magnus X slider (horrible sharp edges) and many magnets.
–Marie for dinner.
–Took a swim. Had to skim leaves first, and the water seemed 5 degrees cooler than a couple of days ago. Did 20 laps.
–Had bagels for breakfast.
–Juli came by and we went for a walk to the ARP (from Gold Country Blvd.).
–Tried for lunch at Brookfields, but it was jammed, so we went to Mimosa House, which was not at all crowded.
–I made a pizza for dinner.
–I decided to finally take a swim. Pool isn’t hyper-clean, but there’s no chlorine odor and it was a very comfortable 85 degrees. I’ll be back.
–Took some more Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny and added them to the pot. Looks much better. Don’t know if anything will take hold.
–Grace’s sister Juli came in around 4:30, Calling us from her motel: the Hawthorn Suites on Tributary Point. She seems fine, has lost weight. She has her insurance settlement + $460,000 from selling the property, and is considering all sorts of options for what’s next–along with her (apparent) new boyfriend Steven.
–Dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats. Good stuff.
–Got some Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny, so I put them in a plastic pot, drilled some holes in it, then hung it in the back patio. Looks okay, but (a) I haven’t had a lot of luck with these, and (b) it’s already sparse–too few cuttings in the pot.
–The last Magnus slider arrived. It’s nice, but I had to pay Magnus $14 for shipping, and DHL $62 for customs duty and such. What a joke.
–Put the pet feeder outside. HHH ate from it, and I snapped a few cool pics of him with the built-in camera. Very cool.
–Re-re-re-re-re-installed DXO. Was getting excited by the ability to customize palettes. Then saw what I believe I’ve seen before, recently: when making any adjustment, the image fuzzes up, then goes to normal when I stop moving the slider. Very strange, and not acceptable. Kee-rap!
–Went to New York Bagels for bagels.
–Picked up yet another Pyra slider at UPS.
–Watered plants.
–Went to Firoz’ office to see Jasleen Agroia. Totally useless visit. Scheduled.a physical six months hence. Hope to have a new doc by then.
–Picked up sliders at UPS: black Pyra (great plates), Modusworks Rapt (SS, great condition), Magnus Arc Mini Frag (both SS and zirc muffin tin plates. Yay!
–Florida is going to end mandates for all childhood vaccines. Absolutely unbelievable.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Went to UPS to pick up hearing aid batteries and a Prits slider from Ukraine that was so bad I tossed it immediately.
–Played with sliders, trying to get more workable magnet combos, but ended up as usual putting everything back the way it was. Ordered a bunch of different magnets, and need to order still more.
–Fixed the locking mechanism on the side yard sliding glass door.
–Watched Nobody 2. What a waste of time. No setup, no motivation, just a ton of bloody violence. Unfortunate.
–Made a DEElicious pizza for dinner, with Thao Ranch tomato and our own basil.
–Got and saved 20 or so pics of Chalk It Up 2025 from Reddit.
–Blood pressure seems to be subsiding a bit, finally.
–Re-potted the three herbs (rosemary, chives, thyme) from one big pot to three smaller ones.
–Went to UPS and picked up (a) NJT Vader in distressed(?) copper; so ugly and unfixable I tossed it; (b) Sony dream machine with projector and nature sounds. Not quite as pristine as it appeared in the eBay listing, and poorly packed. Haven’t tried the projector yet (not dark), and rain seems the only reasonable nature sound, though the volume is such that I’ll never hear it without hearing aids. Will likely toss.
–Took a shower and shave. Tried the 1947 military razor again, tossed it. Got a theme going here…
–Tried several photo editors over the last few days after dumping $20/month Lightroom. As usual, ended up with Raw Power. It lacks some of the bells and whistles of others, but it’s fast, smooth, and infinitely customizable.