Month: March 2026

–Spent the morning trying to finish taxes. Failed. Tried again after lunch; failed again. Between the IRS and the crypto brokers, it’s pretty much impossible to craft a return that (a) is accurate and (b) would withstand an audit. IRS says it isn’t looking at crypto cost basis until next year, but it would be foolish to submit with out good records. And Turbo Tax isn’t helping. I hate this stuff.

–Went to UPS for (a) Weleda cream, (b) Ascender Skyline razor (don’t know why, but it tore up my face on today’s shave), (c) Declaration Grooming brush (nice), (d) Giants Crazy Crab t-shirt.

–Stopped at Bel Air for cream cheese, dessert, milk, cereal.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Pretty much finished taxes. Gave up trying to figure out crypto on my own; saw a reddit thread where Koinly was praised and got it. It logged in to Binance and Coinbase, downloaded all the relevant transactions, and produced the required tax forms. YES!!

–Watered and fertilized plants.

–Played with bike saddles a little.

–Went to UPS for (a) Hiromoto parer (nice); (b) Weleda Light cream (seller sent Standard; will send two tubes of Light no charge).

–Started taxes. Was immediately reminded of my double RMD withdrawal. Searched records (after finding dates in this journal), then searched Google AI for how to enter. No problems.

–Ritchey 1-bolt seatposts finally came in around 4. Got one to work right away. Then went into the bedroom with the Specialized and Selle saddles to (a) put the bolt on the other side of the Specialized, (b) install the Selle. Many hours later, both are done, with bolts on the wrong side (the only way they’ll go in). HUGE problems (a) figuring out how the bracket goes together, and, once solved, (b) getting the second one to hold together while I installed the seatpost. I do think it has a design flaw with the rubber piece that flops out at the tiniest provocation. I ended up holding it with some kapton tape. What a nightmare. Then my back went out…

–Beulah’s Candyland, long-time source of bulk menthol-eucalyptus cough drops, is now All Bulk Foods. $105 for 9 pounds of drops, shipped. No one else seems to carry these. Crap.

–Cool and windy today.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) tight clearance bit driver (nice tool, but still close when working on seatpost); (b) Specialized Arc Expert saddle (seems absolutely identical to the one I was using on the Innerlight); (c) Selle Anatomica H saddle (big, beautiful, but acts like it’s going to be a nut grinder, no matter how positioned).

–Reverted to Canon R5 camera–I, not II. Don’t know why I bought II. Same sensor, better video (so?), possibly worse high ISO noise.

–Watered and fertilized plants.

–Went to Nugget Market in El Dorado Hills for pizza to have with the (pirated) Giants opener. Pizza wasn’t very good, and Yankees are up 5-0 early in the game.

–Back to Lightroom. Took a couple of abutilon shots that were tricky: dark but with super-bright highlights. Photomator couldn’t tone them down, nor could DXO or Affinity. Lightroom handled the highlights with ease. Kind of a mystery to me why folks can’t match LR’s powerful simplicity.

–Bird of Paradise is definitely unhappy: leaves are open in the cool morning, curled shut by afternoon. Dousing with water doesn’t help. I moved it into a large pot and will watch carefully.

–Went to UPS for (a) Modusworks spinner. Unbalanced as are they all, fixed with some tungsten putty. (b) Monoskate Scylla Valley spinner. Beautiful as are they all, but small, light and unexciting. (c) Caran d’Ache pencil. Nice. Might prefer one in gold. Argh…

–Cooler.

–Went to New York Bagels for……bagels. And frosted brownies.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) brake lube and brake cleaner (were going to be for BBQ valve cleanup but I already did it; (b) cheap Dunhill belt (would have said fake, but packaging was impressive); I measured once (not twice), cut it and ruined it (6 inches too short as I measured from the wrong place); (c) Xcelite ratcheting hex driver (nice).

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cereal, cream, mint, gnocchi.

–Bought a Modusworks polished zirc bar spinner for $850 and a KAP damasteel bearing removal tool for $1,400 on Facebook. There goes the tax refund…

–Took a quick ride to ARP to check odometer calibration. Check.

–Watered plants (no fertilizer).

–Balanced a couple of Retcores with tungsten putty–a bar (normal) and a tri (a first for me; tri’s don’t seem to ever be out of balance).

–Took a shower and shave. The new Declaration Grooming soap has a nice smell. The new (to me) brush is way too large and holds too much water. May send it out to be re-knotted.

–Went for a nominal 14.4 mile ride on the canal. Calibrated the odometer and noted it was .075 miles “ahead” in 3 miles. After a whole lot of searching on the web, finally found out how to lower the tire circumference by 2.5% on the bike computer. WRT dementia: I spent the whole ride (and others) believing I’d have to set the circumference higher due to the inflated odometer readings. To be clear: I ride 1 mile, odometer says 1.1 miles, it thinks tires are big. Specifically, tires spin 317 times in 1 mile, odometer says 1.1 miles. By reducing tire size in the odo, it now thinks 317 revolutions is exactly 1 mile. To be absurd and make the point, if I said the tire size was 100mm, the odo would say those same 317 revolutions would take us 50 feet. WRT old age: the ride totally wiped me out. A lot of it was the fact that it heated up early today (91 on the odo around 10:30 AM), but a lot of it is on me of course.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels, dinner (pizza) and dessert.

–Blazing sun notwithstanding, I re-did the cleaning of the Weber Genesis Silver B LP (liquid propane) SWE (stopwatch engineering) grill–and added a lube step I didn’t do the first time and saw in a video. We rollin’ now…

–Took Grace to Smart & Final.

–Made dinner: Kenny’s baked potato (with chives from the garden) and a couple of Aidell sausages.

–Took another 11-mile ride to Hagan Park. Something about the “new” saddle–168mm wide Power Comp–and/or its position made it quite a comfortable ride.

–Fertilized and watered most plants.

–Bolted the belt sander and buffer to the new thick board. Now we rollin’…

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Hot hot hot; 88 was 6 degrees over previous record.

–Picked up blue Olight flashlight at UPS. Not the same striking blue as seen on TV.

–Got some staples at Bel Air—milk, cereal, coffee cake, etc.

–Ordered a couple of “close quarters” bit drivers for bike saddle fitting. Probably won’t need them as I found a one-bolt seatpost and ordered two, for quick switching comparisons.

–In an amazing and embarrassing discovery, I was looking in the cabinet below the vise to see what bike seats I had in stock. There were 2-3 of the standaard Specialized saddles, AND one of those $300 3D-printed Power Mirror deals. Absolutely unbelievable that I bought that 1-2 years ago, then completely forgot about it while seriously considering it as my next purchase.

–Rode 11.1 miles to Hagan Park again. Warm day, lots of folks on the trail, got several compliments on the InnerLight. The Mirror saddle was good, not mind-boggling, so I spent a fair amount of time today fiddling with height, fore/aft and angle. Angle is big: I almost instantly cured one of my complaints wherein I’m constantly struggling to stay far enough back on the saddle for comfort. It might turn into something good, I don’t know.

–Declaration Grooming shaving brush came in. It’s nice. I’m soaking it in rose soap and WATER, not alcohol, hoping to keep it a while.

–Kenny’s outside garage keypad failed. After some futile attempts to revive it, he drove me to Home Depot and I picked up a replacement. It came with no instructions, just a QR code that led to some incorrect instructions. I spent a while on the web and finally found something absurdly complicated that worked.

–Fed the birds; watered and fed the plants. The Jimson Weed is really looking healthy.

–Stopped at UPS for a Magnus Sidewinder (nice) and a Pelikan pencil (nice). Managed to fit a (long) Pentel eraser into the Pelikan, and I have many Pentel erasers, so no need to pay the (no doubt) inflated price for the tiny Pelikan ones.

–Planted the amaryllis in back, after digging out ~30 2″-3″ rocks. Then severely pruned the abutilon in front, which really needed it. We rollin’ now…

–Marie meatloaf for dinner.

–Pulled yellow leaves off the abutilon; took some pics with the Contax N Digital.

–Ripped off the Zio patch and dropped it off at UPS.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Picked up the new bike tires at Bob’s. Took an 11.1 mile ride to Hagan Park. The tires are fabulous, way better than the replaced ones.

–Wittkop saddle came in. Had a tough time installing it, as with all saddles. It has minimal front-back adjustment, as I knew from reviews. In a ride around the block it seemed okay, but not mind-boggling. We’ll see tomorrow.

–Made brownies for dessert. They smell great.

–Took the InnerLight wheels to Bob’s bikes to get narrower tires fitted. Will pick up tomorrow.

–Watered and fertilized back patio plants. Removed the lemon grass and pulled all the moth-eaten leaves off the pepper. Looks good now. Camellia looks good, too, They ALL look good.

–Rode 12.4 miles today, half on the canal. Totally wiped me out for some reason. Decided to get some thinner tires and maybe a new saddle.

–Lunch at Beach Hut Deli.

–Went to Bel Air for some staples.

–Marie for dinner.

–Took another bike ride: 10.00 miles. Better than yesterday, but it was a different route, and cooler.

–Picked up the Hank’s belt at UPS. Total joke: weighs about a pound, stiff as a board. Tossed it and ordered a nice Dunhill reversible. Kaweco pencil also came in. Not thrilled with (a) no eraser, (b) looseness of top part, (c) lead-advance mechanism. Ordered a nice Pelikan; may move the Kaweco to the bedroom.

–Another beautiful day.

–Pumped up the tires on the InnerLight and took a 6.8 mile ride. I may have mentioned that 78 seems like a bad age for me, health- and energy-wise. The ride was pretty much misery. At this point I don’t know if a lot of practice will really improve things; I could just be too old and fat. Gotta try though, I guess.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Weleda light lotion: it is indeed light, and seems to be working in a standard (Amazon) pump bottle; it does NOT, however, smell as good as the original thick stuff, contrary to Google AI. (b) LIC EDC Mesa spinner in bronze. Nice spinner, but WAY more dinged-up than was mentioned by seller. I did manage to get it near-perfect, but it took a lot of buffing.

–Getting warmer.

–DST is here, for the next NINE MONTHS. This is ridiculous.

–I noticed that the “good” Homedics toothbrush had a break near the top that allowed it to bend back easily. No idea how it happened. I put some epoxy on it and it seems to have been (invisibly) fixed. I also managed to swap in one of the unbroken base windings–not easy, much fiddling required, but now it’s perfect.

–Watered and fertilized plants.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, dessert, and some stuff for Grace.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Windy and warm today.

–Didn’t do much, didn’t go anywhere.

–Got the Homedics batteries sorted, and I now understand (more or less) how to use the charger.

–Vintage Braun 3D toothbrush came in. It’s beautifully designed and a pleasure to hold, but like all the Oral B’s I’ve seen, there’s no easy way to get at the battery.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Watered plants.

–Went to Hooverville Orchards for jam, bread, dessert.

–Played with batteries all day. Finally stopped fooling around with all the Discharge, Test, Refresh, etc. and just (a) drained them in the toothbrushes (one died a lot quicker than the other two), and (b) put them on Charge. Still some anomalies: batteries are labeled as 2.4 volts (two 1.2V stacked) and 300 mAh; on the charger they’re showing > 4 volts and 800 mAh (and rising). So I still don’t know if the charger is treating them as NiCd or Li-Ion.

–Kenny took us to the Honey Store, where he got honey and we got expensive honey gifts for Grace’s sisters. Then to Caballo Blanco for lunch. Very good stuff.

–Anton van der Westhuizen Angel’s Finger knife came in. Beautiful and nice action, but (a) loose IKBS bearings, which are a huge pain in the ass to deal with, and (b) like so many others, the blade can be tight and off-center, or centered and loose. I spent a while trying to get it tight and centered, but it’s not going to happen. Wish I knew what the difference is between this and (say) my dozen Shamwaris.

–Ultra-smart battery charger came in. I played with it a bit and tried to figure it out, but it might be too smart for me. I ended up just putting my three Homedics batteries on a “refresh/charge” cycle, which could take hours. It might be interesting to put the batteries in the dumb charger afterwards to see what it says.

–Went for bagels at New York Bagels. They continue to change: no banana bread or brownies now. Then to KP Market for some chicken thighs for Grace.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips. With Brittany!

–Went to UPS for Weleda (it wasn’t there; I suspect this will be another MIA) and Homedics toothbrush. As usual, the brush didn’t run after some charging. When I tried to open it up (breaking many plastic tabs, as is also usual on these clear/blue cases) and banged it on the desk, it started running. Too late: battery was visibly corroded and I couldn’t close it with all the broken pieces.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, frozen dinners. My frozen dinner (Marie orange chicken bowl) was almost inedible.

–Picked up airless bottles at UPS (messy to fill, but they seem to work) and pizza/cookies at Bel Air.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Applied the Zio patch.

–Finally cleaned up the bathroom. Much better now.