Month: June 2026

–Took another quick ride through the neighborhood–out Gold Country, back ARP. The bike is great, but I’m not; feeling tired and sluggish.

–Took Grace to Grocery Outlet for some stuff. Got a couple of Italpizza Holy Margherita pizzas. Sadly, Grace talked me into getting some vaguely salami-like Calabrese. Tasted mild by itself, but kind of ruined the pizza.

–Took a shave and shower. The Gillette Red Dot worked great, and the blade–which must be on its fifth shave or so–was good.

–Still hot. I’ve been feeling the TINIEST bit dizzy all day. Nothing I can put my finger on. Took a six-mile ride around the neighborhood. Bike is dead smooth and silent.

–Cleaned up tools and bike parts in the garage.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) the Canon extension grip (nice) and (b) a second Bushnell bottom bracket.

–Spent the day in the garage putting the bike together. Very warm, very tiring. Had some issues with the chain (too long with the new front sprocket); two trips to Bob’s Bikes for another master link and a chain breaker solved them. Bike rides nice and chainline (at first glance) seems close. Will install Campagnolo pedals when special lube comes in. May install second bottom bracket, now that I have an idea of what I’m doing.

–Went to UPS to pick up the Bushnell BB and the Campagnolo pedals. BB seems fine. Took the pedals apart and noted dried grease. Cleaned in alcohol; waiting for some special grease to reassemble. Will use old pedals in the meantime. Could be running tomorrow–except it’s too hot to work long in the garage.

–Stopped at Bel Air for potato chips, cereal, milk.

–There were several emails, phone calls and texts from Dr. Nandyal’s office this morning. I talked to someone who wanted me to come in for an ECG. I balked. They insisted. I went in. ECG took four minutes. Then Dr. Nandyal came in. She (sort of) apologized for all the tests and delays, and said she would make an effort to get me to Dr. Aryanna quickly for a pacemaker. Finally. She apparently had heard of my fiasco yesterday with the Folsom PA who put me on another ZIO patch and wanted to do a brain MRI. Nandyal said I could remove the patch, as I had one not long ago. Moral: it pays to have symptoms.

–Went to see PA Katie Rose Christensen at UC Davis Health in Folsom. She asked lots of questions. She suggested the possibility of a brain MRI. I kind of balked at that. Then she suggested another two-week Zio monitor. I agreed, and they installed it there.  Katie seems to be of the opinion that my issues may be more related to low heart rate than to AFib. Too many cooks making broth here. I need to have Dr. Swenson step in and sort through all the test findings.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up a bike tool and some Trillium spinner parts, mainly the OG “cross” buttons. Nice buttons, with a clear soft rubber coating. Never seen anything like it.

–Stopped at Bel Air for stuff including dessert and another Italpizza clone, this one by Raley’s. Had it for dinner; it was pretty good.

–Feeling better today than yesterday. BP is still high, though: consistently 160+/80+. Grace forced me to call Swensson, and to my surprise (after a couple of handoffs)  they asked several questions about symptoms, then set up an urgent appointment with Swensson tomorrow.

–Watered plants, harvested some peppers.

–Feeling dizzy and woozy this morning.

–HOA dues payment finally went through via Ally.

–A disturbing number of recent orders have either (a) no tracking number or (b) tracking number but no delivery date.

–Took a shower and shave. Blood pressure was quite high after: 170/80 with four measurements. Crap.

–Messaged Dr. Nandyal about lab panel and angiogram. Got  a response from a nurse saying (a) go to any UC Davis lab for the blood draw and (b) the angiogram referral is in; wait a week or so and call this number for an appointment.

–Walked to Bel Air for corn. Stopped by the “farmers” market. Saw some possibly interesting cinnamon rolls, but no prices on them. One or two other prices suggested they’d be very expensive.

–Vacuumed the living room.

–Made barbecued turkey burgers, corn and antipasto salad for dinner. Yum!

–Went to the recycling place on San Juan, then Raley’s for some stuff.

–Stopped at UPS for hearing aid batteries and 1930’s Henckels bread knife (pretty cool). A lot of scratches on the knife; I’m working on it.

–Grace is in a terrible mood again; not sure why.

–Went to UPS to pick up Montblanc NOS pencil parts. Stopped at Bel Air for donuts (it’s National Donut Day).

–Assembled a pencil out of the parts (and a previous pencil). The NOS barrel had a huge deep scratch in it. Lots of work on the buffer couldn’t begin to get rid of it, so (of course) I used a Bergeon wheel (which also wasn’t doing much) and wrecked it. Shame on the eBay seller calling that NOS.

–To my surprise and delight, I heard from Modern Bike on my query regarding what size bottom bracket to get. After some back and forth, we decided on 108mm, and I ordered an Origin8 Torqlite. Hope it works. FWIW, he asked about spacing between the rear dropouts, saying it should never be > 120mm or so in a single speed. I measured 137mm. Memory fails, but I’m guessing I asked Kimo Tanaka to allow for really big tires.

–Italpizza-like pizza for dinner–roasted vegetable. Pretty good.

–Went to Bel Air for ice cream, cream cheese, milk.

–Stopped at UPS for spinner buttons and Origin8 crankset.

–Turns out I can’t install the crankset at present–with my current bottom bracket, I needed a set where the axle is pinned to the crank. The current set doesn’t even have an axle. Much despair, until I found that there are BBs with a built-in square taper axle. I’m looking into one now; it might require me to measure the chainline to get the right one though.

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels. Then to KP Market for chicken for Grace. Then to S-T Strawberries for strawberries for us, Sherry and Kenny. Then UPS for (a) watch batteries for Grace’s Seiko, (b) Origin8 cog, (c) adapter for Rikenon to Sony, (d) coffee beans (same Colombian as came with the roaster, really looking forward to them). BUT Kenny dropped by as I was roasting and I burned them. Next time.

–Gave Kenny and Sherry strawberries. Sherry gave me four hard-boiled eggs in return; Kenny was appreciative but later said he wasn’t a big strawberry eater–he’ll put them in a milkshake.

–Xfinity worked on something all day, killing TV and internet. I managed to use the iPhone as a hot spot and pay for a Clean EDC Slim Pillar in Tungsten that I won in a SUS.

–Went to see Dr. Nandyal again. She referred me for an angiogram, and said I might not need stent or bypass–they might be able to fix blockage electrically. She also said (seeming to surprise herself) that I might be in line for a pacemaker. Finally.

–Got a new lock and three keys for our mailbox, after I stupidly gave my key to UPS after getting the new box.Neighbor Sherry messaged the mailman Ken and we’re good.

–Learned that I have a septal infarct. Treated with stent or bypass. Great.

–Went to U-Haul on Pyrites for propane. Old tank had “expired,” so I bought a new one for $70. Great.

–Started the process of deleting all my Adsense websites (after copying them to disk). They’re just wasting space now, and constantly bombarding me with plugin updates and such. I’ll revive them after my youtube channel is thriving…

–Went to S*T strawberries for strawberries and jam. Stopped at Bel Air for corn and potato salad. Barbecued for dinner. Beef burgers on sourdough were good, corn was great, cheesy baked potato salad was not so hot.

–Did an acuity test between Leica and Sony with the Contax 50/1.4 (at 5.6). Sony is better, but it’s not a gargantuan difference.

–Watered plants.