Month: February 2026

–Went to see Christine Oeur at UC Davis Health in Elk Grove for a prostate consult. Long and short: she’s doubling the Tamsulosin dose and will see me again in April. I guess the questionnaire I filled out re how serious are the symptoms suggested I’m not quite ready for surgery yet. I suppose that’s okay, depending on how the new dose works.

–Got a new (old) Homedics toothbrush today with a fancier handle, then proceeded to destroy it. I’m 99.9% certain it had already come apart due to a broken tab (apparently a common thing for these), and I broke a hair-like wire trying to put it back together. The battery was soldered in anyway, so taking it apart would have achieved nothing. Ordered yet another one on eBay (4? 5?). Turns out the newer ones have a two-minute timer, which is okay, since I’ve never spent two minutes brushing my teeth.

–Quite warm today–wore shorts for the first time in months.

–Tended to the back patio plants. Most are looking pretty good.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Another do-nothing day.

–Went to UPS for N55 magnets; they didn’t improve the Magnus SC slider.

–Got milk and dessert at Bel Air.

–Downloaded some old Scrubs episodes. These came with subtitles, unlike the couple of avi’s I had from years ago.

–Dark day, though no rain to speak of. Tree trimmers were all around, including our Chinese Pistache tree–but only the branches that were over common property

–Went to UPS (twice) for (a) pump bottles–these MAY work for Weleda, which is really thick stuff; (b) yet another Homedics toothbrush–I have two good batteries now, and really looking forward to the smart charger I ordered. Spent a lot of time playing with three units/two batteries/12 brush heads, trying to put together the best example. Also, turns out standard AA batteries fit and work, but weakly: they are 1.2 volts compared to the original batteries which are 2.4 volts, albeit with much lower mAh.

–Got a call from UC Davis Health to schedule echocardiogram–in April. Also they gave me a number to call re Zio patch: turns out no one had done anything about getting me one. They are now. Great.

–Spent the day downloading/reconciling videos.

–Took a shower and shave.

–The Hario kettle leaked again, so I checked it out again. It seems the steam sensor tube is hollow (duh), so a “careless ” dump of water into the kettle will send some into the tube and thus down to the bottom. So, just pour carefully; problem solved.

–Potted the dieffenbachia; looks good for now.

–Trimmed back the bizarre double plant on the front patio.

–Picked up Weleda at UPS.

–Took Grace to Bel Air for lots of stuff.

–Did some re-potting and such in the garden.

–Took Grace to Smart & Final.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Amazon pump bottles–way too large; (b) FidgetBoy mokume spinner–very nice; (c) Magnus superconductor slider–nice-looking, but magnets in the corners are not strong enough, as usual on his heavy sliders; (d) Torqbar magnum tungsten–it’s in good shape and all, but very large and heavy, and has sort of a knock when spinning, though balance seems fine. May keep, may not.

–Tried to get Weleda lotion into various pump bottles, including one Grace gave me. Long story short, it seems that only the “awkward angle” pumps that came with a heavy cream will work. I’ll play around a little more, but will likely end up just dispensing it from its original container.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–No rain today; still cold and windy though.

–Called NY Bagels and–amazingly–a woman answered who took my order for a dozen sesame. When I picked them up, the old bald guy who’s been missing for a while was there. He said he had been working afternoons.

–Second Homedics toothbrush came in. Seems to charge and work fine, though I don’t know how long the battery will last. I tried my kluge battery in it and no dice. OTOH, when I putthe “new” battery in the non-working toothbrush it worked fine. So my home-built battery is the problem. I suppose I could have Batteries Plus build one, as they offered, but I don’t know. Would it fit? Do the two half-batteries have to be soldered together? Does it need a button on one end?

–Batteries came in for the Homedics toothbrush. Good news: they fit. Bad news: after soldering some “lumps” onto the ends for better contact, they seemed to be charging (the light came on). Toothbrush was still dead as a doornail, Could be risky, but I’m really anxious to see if the batteries in the incoming toothbrush (known to work well) will work in this first one.

–Played around with Oz knives a bit. Picked three to keep, eight to sell.

–Lots and lots of rain today. Cold, too.

–Took Grace to a UC Davis lab for a blood draw, then to the recycling center, then to Raley’s.

–After some more issues and fixes, I THINK I have my Thunderbird/Comcast/Yahoo email completely sorted out.

–Big rain last night and today, off and on. Finally.

–Went to UPS to pick up the first knife I’ve bought from a maker’s website in a LONG time: an Oz Roosevelt XL.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cream.

–Kenny gave us another cheesecake, $5 Monday at Bel Air.

–Took a shower and shave. Sprayed some athlete’s foot/jock itch medication on my balls afterwards, and they burned like fire for a few minutes. I have to assume I’m sort of chronically infected, maybe due to sweatpants’ lack of breathability and/or harboring of germs. Hoping that if I spray every day for a while I can knock this out.

–Breezy, grayish day, but no rain yet.

–Took Grace to Smart & Final.

–Missed my second LIC spinner drop in a couple weeks. Turns out that the website password is posted not by the owner, Jamie Ackerman, but by an admin named Kory Sean. And: apparently I had blocked him some time ago, most likely for foul language. Worse, I won a nice slider several days ago, and apparently Kory was the one to contact winners and get payment, etc. What a piece o’ crap! Kory and I had exchanged messages previously, and (in addition to not recalling the block) I thought I had unblocked all of my previous blocks, at least in part so as not to miss possibly desirable sales posts. [edit] On reflection it seems I may have blocked Kory as one of the obnoxious “showoff” guys who do nothing but post artsy photos of their utterly unobtanium $5,000 fidgets. And in messaging Jamie Ackerman about this, I fear I may have soured a nice relationship. Anything else I can do for you?

–Sherry dropped off a couple of Valentine’s cookies.

–Kenny dropped off a baked potato.

–I brought Sherry some chocolate-covered fruit, and later gave some to Kenny along with some of the lemon curd Grace made with lemons Kenny gave us.

–Homedics toothbrush wouldn’t charge, so I got the battery out and took it to Batteries Plus. Seems it is two 1/2 AA batteries joined in series, and they didn’t have a replacement. Found a n open box toothbrush, same model, on eBay and the seller graciously tested it and found it charged instantly, so I bought it. The “joined” battery no longer exists, so I’m going to try getting a couple of halves and soldering them in series. Risky, because the length and width of the original battery are very specific (no slop), But I haven’t soldered in a while, so here’s my chance.

–Wanted to watch a Harry Potter movie, and found that the SyFy channel now requires a subscription. USA and E! also do, and Cartoon Network did a while back. I will be dropping Comcast as soon as I can find a suitable replacement–the greed of those guys is mind-boggling. prices steadily rise, channels steadily disappear.

–Went to Safeway on Folsom for Noxzema cleansing pads, milk, cabbage. ALL cosmetics, pain relief, vitamins, lotions, shampoo, etc. were behind locked glass doors.

–Stopped at UPS for Homedics toothbrush. Charging now. Not 100% sure the battery is good after what might be many years.

–Tried to set up my digital key fobs in the BMW. Turns out they are not digital. Must have been a previous BMW where the locks would go crazy when I went into the garage with a key in my pocket. Hopefully I at least got the car to recognize me so I won’t have to enter a PIN every time I get in.

–Put gas in the Beemer, then took it to Roseville BMW for the required oil change. Sat there from1:15 to 3:45. Don’t know what the issue was.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up an Indy Thicc tungsten-copper Chelsea. This was relatively cheap, as seller showed dings. Seller didn’t show all the dings, though, and some were more like holes. Spent some time on the buffer with (mostly) Bergeon satin wheels, and made it pretty much perfect. It was a tad off balance, which I fixed with tungsten putty. Yay!

–Gray, windy day. No real rain during the day, maybe .25″ last night. As usual, the TV weather guys over-predicted.

–Went to Bel Air for Eliquis prescription, cookies, milk, bananas, pizza stuff.

–Stopped at UPS for Clean EDC XL Slim Pillar in SS.

–Downloaded and started reading the most recent Reacher book, Exit Strategy.

–Mind-boggling: saw a reddit post saying an Oz Roosevelt XL was available at the site. Went there AND BOUGHT IT. One of like three knives (out of dozens) that I’ve gotten direct from the maker.

–Pizza for dinner, home-made.

–Kind of a gray day; started to drizzle around 4 PM.

–Went to see Dr. Deepa Nandyal, UC Davis Cardiology in Roseville. She prescribed Eliquis, a blood thinner with few side effects to help prevent stroke after AFib. There will also be an echo cardiogram and (maybe) a stress test.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cream.

–Tried to buy Hermes Copernic wallet in blue from Macau site. No dice–they don’t seem to ship to U.S. Finally got to a U.S. site that would ship, but they had it in brown. Crap!

–Tried for appointments today. Got one tomorrow in Roseville for Cardiology. Gave up after holding forever trying to get a Urology appointment anywhere. It’s possible that various UCD urologists are consolidating this very day downtown.

–Feeling crappy on and off. Better after a shower.

–THE CAMELLIA BLOOMED!!

–Did some polishing. Tried to be rigorous, but–as usual–ended up polishing scratches left from previous low grits. Will continue.

–Watched Seattle win the Super Bowl.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Feeling okay. Helped Kenny fix his wheelchair after he broke a bolt on it. I happened to have the exact same bolt in my box o’ nuts and bolts.

–Picked up some Dialux rouge at UPS. Set up my polishing station with eight wheels and eight grades of rouge. Will try it out soon on a $450 Indy Thicc Chelsea with dings that sells for $700-$800 without dings. Hoping…

–Stopped at Bel Air for Milk, cream cheese, bananas, chips and cheese sauce for the Super Bowl tomorrow.

–Feeling better. Went to New York Bagels for 4 sesame, 8 plain bagels. Caucasian clerk wasn’t there, nor old bald guy nor young attractive woman. Wish I knew what was going on, and could start doing phone orders again.

–Fixed a spray bottle spout for Grace.

–Finally finished cataloging fidgets. Need to start selling some now.

–Grace and I went to see Dr. Swensson this morning. I thought Grace would have a big visit, but all she talked about was potassium–and opiates of course. My blood pressure follow-up was fine, now that I’m at 100mm Losartan.

–Stopped at Friends with Benedicts in Folsom for brunch. Pretty good.

–Got another baked potato from Kenny; re-programmed his old garage door remote which seemed to have lost its programming when I did the new one. Both working now.

–Still eating Raisin Bran for dinner.

–Feeling better today, for the first time. Took a decent crap this morning. Watched a guy replace the two batteries in Kenny’s mobility scooter. Turns out the guy (40ish?) is an avid racquetball player–I thought the sport was dead.

–Oatmeal with bananas for lunch, Raisin Bran for dinner.

–Blood pressure is finally down to the 120s/60s. Could be the first 100mg Losartan I took today (as opposed to two 50s); could be because I wore a short-sleeve shirt: no fabric in the way. Anyhow, one less thing to worry about.

–Still feeling pretty blah. Also, started recording blood pressure today and it does not look good. Wish I could get past this.

–Went to UPS for Kenny’s garage remote and to sign up for another year. Stopped at Bel Air to deposit the Great Infusions Maximatic check.

–Did some spinner polishing, to no great avail.

–Still feeling pretty crappy. Went to Smart & Final for some stuff for Kenny, then UPS for some spinner hardware, then Bel Air for coffee beans.

–Accidentally came across a post on Facebook showing how the FY (Fu Ye) bearing tool works. I had tossed it, not able to figure it out. Retrieved it and got it to work. Pretty nifty–only two pieces, no washers, collars, etc.–kind of embarrassing that I couldn’t figure it out.

–Feeling better. Doughnut for breakfast. Tried to sharpen a chisel on the new machine; gave up. Sharpened by hand in a few minutes, got a great edge. Tossed the new machine.

–Watered plants. Most are looking okay.

–Took a shower and shave. Felt good.

–Feeling slightly better. Went to Bel Air with Grace for Raisin Bran (really hit the spot), Aussie Bites (ditto), oranges, bananas, chicken pot pies. Felt a little better while being active, though that faded fairly quickly.

–Kenny has been dropping by daily. He’s in good shape now, driving here and scootering there.

–Feeling crappy still–my abdomen really hurts, though there’s not the slightest sign of infection. A do-nothing day.

–Visited Dr. Swensson, with Grace. She was patient and thorough. I’m still feeling crappy.

–Lied to Dr. Swensson about amoxycillin, which I took once and then stopped, based only on avoiding pills that don’t seem necessary. I had bad vomiting that night, but ascribed it to the acetaminophen/ibuprofen combo I had also taken. Because she was so insistent, I took one before bed, and 20 minutes later threw up everything I had eaten that day. Then a tiny little bell went off in my head regarding a horrible night I had some years ago, and the word “amoxycillin” came to mind. I’m now sure I’m seriously allergic to it, and that’s what caused both vomiting episodes (not the painkiller combo). Hopefully I can avoid it in the future, without exposing myself as being untruthful to Grace and Dr. Swensson.