–A beautiful day in paradise.
–Took a 12-mile ride on the ARP. It was busy, and not all riders were in full control of their machines.
–Bought another Mac, for getting back on FB and IG.
Month: April 2026
–Spent 2.5 hours with Dr. Bafford. One crown, a couple cavities, one new cavity that showed up while he was smoothing a front filling. With 37 x-rays, I wonder how that was missed. $1.050, more to come in a couple weeks.
–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert.
–Rode my bike to UPS to pick up another Sheaffer pen. Outside was fine, but mechanism didn’t work, and, after inspection, could not be made to work. The innards had tool marks aplenty, and the lead-gripping collar was mangled. Fortunately, I had saved a mechanism from a previous pencil. Voila!
–Beautiful day, and the plants are going crazy.
—Got a haircut at Great Clips. Brittany looks pregnant, so she may be short-term there.
—Went to Bel Air for $5 Monday.
—Got kicked off Instagram and Facebook. Looking into it, but not sure I want to be there anyway. Moving everything to DuckDuckGo.
—DiGiorno pizza for dinner. Darn good.
–Another cool gray day.
–Got banned from photo mod site AFTER they modded a photo. Ugly. [edit] Looks like I’m back in now.
–Fed and watered plants in back.
–Cool, kind of gray day.
–Took Grace to the Dollar Store to look for gift wrap, then Smart & Final for food.
–Fresh-roasted coffee this morning was darn good; home-made pizza tonight was, as usual, kind of bland and tasteless. Needs more salt, perhaps.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Stopped at UPS for the One Drop Trillium spinner. Nice spinner in good shape.
–Went to Hooverville for jam and dessert pastry.
–Another Sheaffer pencil came in, along with a bunch of NOS erasers. Got a Pentel lead into it (the old ones keep breaking when I try to insert them) and put a new eraser on it. Unlike the other 2-3 new erasers I successfully placed, this one stuck firmly inside the top when I put the halves together then pulled them apart–those NOS erasers are really big, and take a lot of pressure to fit in. While trying to fish the eraser out, the top broke in half. Crap.
–Roasted a batch of (in theory) chaffy coffee beans in the Fresh Roast SR800. It took a long time, as I kept mis-using the controls, reversing fan and heat, setting it to “cool” unknowingly, etc. Beans look great, incredibly even, and minimal chaff. I even heard first crack. More fun to come.
–Rain gone, but it’s chilly.
–Went to UPS for (a) Tadafusa knife. Not impressive in person. Cleaned it up a bit with Scotchbrite belts, but that only served to show how poor the grind was. Will toss. (b) Fresh Roast coffee roaster, plus Razzo chaff catcher extension. All looks good. Hope there’s enough power in the garage to actually roast.
–Stopped at Bel Air for (relatively) cheap Marie. Had a chicken pot pie for dinner.
–Dark day, with brief periods of heavy rain.
–Dunhill belt came in. Pretty nice.
–Got my Flomax prescription sorted out. Oeur had put the double prescription in, but it wasn’t obvious on Amazon until I did some digging. I have a strong feeling that Flomax is responsible for my sneezing/runny nose in the morning and (double dose) for my really stuffy nose at night for the past few days. I’m seriously considering HOLeP surgery, though not sure of how I’ll pull it off.
–Blaze pizza for dinner. Too large (I think a large veggie is bigger than a large pepperoni), too expensive ($25), and she asked if hot red sauce was okay AFTER covering it with hot red sauce.
–Went to UPS for (a) Pose Ring Spinner, small but cool, and (b) FidgetBoy zirc timascus high heat spinner, fine but low heat would have been better.
–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert, dinner (Silva sausage), Cheetos for Grace.
–Spent a while cataloging all my new spinners and tools; I’m pretty much caught up.
–DXO started acting up again, so I switched to ACDSee. Turns out I’m using the same version that I was months ago, which I thought had no customizability. It seems to have a little now, e.g. switching Develop pane from left to right, remembering some things from one session to the next.
–Messaged Christine Oeur, Davis Urology, a couple days ago about running out of Tamsulosin (Flomax). She hasn’t responded. Will message Swensson tonight.
–Fixed (more or less) Grace’s WWII shower head, which wouldn’t move and was spraying the floor. It’s better, but needs to be replaced.
–Feeling restless, so I dug the Sony AR7 out again. Was painfully reminded of how much the viewfinder image jiggles when magnified; the Canon’s simply does not. Hard to believe Sony is so far behind Canon in this regard.
–Went to UPS to pick up the KAP damasteel bearing tool. Very nice and all, but it came with two monster damasteel rings, slightly different sizes. Way too big for a finger, way too small for a wrist. I asked the rep on Facebook what they were for, and she essentially said “for looking at.” Great. I might find something to do with them, but I sure can’t think of it now.
–Vacuumed the bedroom again, since yesterday the dust collector was so overfull it cut the power in half. I did pick up a lot more dirt, so it’s clean now.
–Went to UPS to pick up a bunch of vintage Sheaffer mechanical pencils. Spent a while at my desk putting three nice ones together and getting them to work, then in the garage polishing them. They’re beauties.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream and pizza sauce.
–Made pizza for dinner. Not my favorite: pepperoni was super greasy, crust didn’t rise and crisp, mozzarella had no taste. Will change the ingredients next time.
–Vacuumed my bedroom, perhaps for the second time since we moved in.
–Got a check back from CA tax. I (Turbotax) had calculated a $720 refund; the check was for $1,080. Can’t wait to see what the Feds say. Grrr…
–Great weather for a ride, so I pedaled to Mile 15 of the ARP; 12 miles in all. I was really feeling weak on the way back; hope it’s not my heart.
–Patio plants are still doing great; peppers are coming out on the plant we inherited from neighbor Jan.
–Sheaffer pencil finally came in from eBay. Except it was a piece of crap Penman pencil that was frozen solid. Messaged seller (with 95% positive feedback). He said he never had a pencil like that. Right. I put in an “wrong item” return claim at eBay.
–Switched over to DXO Photo Lab, triggered by some Creative Cloud shenanigans this morning. Lightroom is great, but there’s just too much crap you have to put up with.
–Super windy today.
–Got a notice from CA tax board that my calculated refund didn’t match theirs, so they are going to cancel the direct deposit and send a check. Spent a long time on various websites trying to set up estimated payments; only succeeded with State. Feds are a mess, so will try again tomorrow.
–Got bagels and joined Grace at Target for wrapping supplies.
–Biked to UPS to pick up Dramm nozzles. Strength seems low, though it could be a function of larger holes. Thumb switch is great.
–Windy and cool, all day.
–Called Mercy and reinstated my appointment in September with Dr. Aryana.
–Cleaned up the bird bath, used Kenny’s bigger tiles for more support, added a short straw piece to improve pump splooting.
–Picked up the Jim Nourse/Elvis potholders at UPS. They’re fine, but (true to their word) they cropped the images to face only, after I asked that they use what I sent intact.
–Had a Blaze pizza for dinner–14″ pepperoni with high-rise crust. I like 14″, but prefer the standard thinner crust.
–Biked to UPS to pick up another(!) two tubes of Weleda Light cream. Maybe they’ll just keep coming.
–Spent a while trying to make sense of all my medical issues. Failed. Echo cardiogram was rescheduled for a month from now, as the tech was out. Talked a couple times with some Mercy scheduler. Right now there’s an appointment with Dr. Aryana in September(!), though she’s going to try to get that “released” and find an earlier appointment with someone else. What a quagmire. And why is it all Mercy? [edit] Asked Google why Mercy, got a response saying they’re known for their cardiac services, especially Dr. Arash Aryana. Guess I’ll try to hold that September appointment.
–Sunny and cool today.
–Took Grace to the recycling center, then to Raley’s for some light shopping.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Yet another squally day, though much less intense than yesterday.
–Played with the Wicked Edge sharpener a bit. It’s fine, but I was reminded that the belt sander is better for most knives.
–Another day with major rain squalls, some really powerful–including thunder and lightning.
–Went to UPS for Drake’s buttons. They’re fine, not special.
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, jock itch cream, more chocolate chip cookies.
–Bought a really interesting (and rare; it’s the first I’ve seen) Pose spinner. It’s a tungsten-copper tri Cocoon ring spinner with a nice DSC ti slug. Put slug in (held with o-rings) and it’s a standard spinner; take slug out and you can put it on your finger as a ring spinner. Pretty cool.
–Bought some more BTC at Paypal because it offered instant access. Tried to buysome high-speed download time @ $25; Paypal’s minimum is $75. Tried to buy $75 twice; Paypal refused to let it go through. Really gotta wonder about these download sites. I’m downloading now for free, albeit slowly.
–Rain off and on today.
–Went nowhere, did little.
–After hours of futile research on adapting a chain tensioner to a bike without a derailleur dropout, I just went ahead and adjusted the chain myself, using the eccentric bottom bracket like in the old days. Worked great. Then went for a ride to Hagan Park. 11 miles previously; 10.9 today after odometer calibration. Selle Anatomica H feels surprisingly good.
–Weather: a big (dry) thunder and lightning storm went through starting around 9:30 PM. I haven’t experienced something like that in a long, long time. Very cool.
–Took the Beemer to Barnes & Noble for a book for Margot Nourse.
–Stopped at Home Depot for some Husky nozzles. They’re fine, though hard to engage.
–Picked up stuff at UPS: pencil leads (kept breaking when I tried to install them); leather strops for Wicked Edge sharpener; unusable Surly Singleator chain tensioner (needs a derailleur dropout for mounting that my bike doesn’t have).
–Stopped by Corey Bafford’s office to discuss charges. All seems technically legit (after they modified some stuff); $1,500 out of pocket for me.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Chinese hose nozzles from Amazon came. Total pieces of unfixable crap, which looked like they had been returned by another buyer.
–Stopped at Bafford’s office to discuss proposed work/payment. Bafford’s biller was there, but not Cripe’s. Will return tomorrow. Very confusing stuff.
–Went to Home Depot for bird seed and hose nozzles. The nozzles are high quality, but it turns out I don’t like finger trigger control: it’s too coarse, and it won’t hold a setting. Back to searching for quality thumb-control nozzles.
–What a day. Learned from UC davis via Zio patch that I have paroxysmal afib. It needs to be treated, and can be via cardiac ablation. Then I learned that a Mercy cardiologist will be setting up an urgent appointment for a pacemaker. This too from the Zio, due to my slow heart rate. Here we go…
–Picked up a vintage Sheaffer mechanical pencil at UPS. Nice.
–Went to Bob’s Bikes to get a chain tool that the web said they had. They didn’t. Bought a spray can each of degreaser and lube: $48. Went to REI in Sacramento and got the tool plus a pair of gloves. Took the chain off and instantly lost one half of the master link. Grace and I searched the garage for a long time, but it never showed. Went back to Bob’s and got one for $6. With chain back on, the rear brake handle went back to the handlebar. After much fussing and fiddling (but no screws turned or anything), it came back to normal, pretty much. The half-link disappearance is the most puzzling yet. I thought for a bit that it had been running for a while with just the half link only, but the chain won’t close without a full link.
–Got a Blaze pizza for dinner. Pretty good.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Went for an 8.5 mile ride, canal and ARP. Selle seat wasn’t bad, but wasn’t luxurious either. Still needs adjusting. Something on the bike makes a bit of a noise with hard pedaling. I’ll probably never chase it down. Maybe I’ll just replace bottom bracket and cranks.
–Kenny brought over some ham and quiche left over from his sister’s Easter bash. We had some for dinner.
–Grace kept saying a bird I’d ID’d as a grosbeak wasn’t. After a lot of lookup, I found it was a rufous-sided towhee. Point: Grace.
–Went to UPS for Brooks Proofide. The container was about half the size of my old one. I mixed the two together thoroughly and put them in a new screw-top container.
–Stopped at Bel Air for pizza, milk, cream, cereal.
–Watered/fertilized plants. They are looking grand.
–Motor City pizza for dinner.
–Went to dentist Corey Bafford. Sadly, he found that I need three crowns and three fillings. Problem: Delta won’t pay for two of the crowns, one done by Sunrise Dental in 2023, the other by Bafford himself six months ago. It could be that these things are falling apart because my dental hygiene is so bad, but it seems more likely to me that it was just sub-standard work. I’m thinking of going back to Watsonville for dentistry.
–Tried to set up auto-pay for estimated taxes. EFTPS is phasing out for individuals, so no go. IRS has a direct pay, but it looks like a pain. Guess I’ll wait until the tax return is processed, then take it from there.
–Went to UPS to pick up titanium seatpost clamp and spinner buttons. Both nice.
–Spent the morning entering acres of info into a crypto spreadsheet. Turned out to be a waste of time. The Koinly docs were vastly better, and enabled me to get the taxes out. Huge refund coming; I’m not entirely sure why.
–Went to UPS to pick up a Modusworks zirc oil slick bar spinner (nice). Then to Bel Air for pizza. Tried a new kind–A legend in Brooklyn since 1962–okay, but it won’t replace Red Baron.