Month: August 2026

–Took InnerLight and new brakes to Bob’s Bikes for installation. It’s too hot and I have too many mosquito bites (5-6 in the last two weeks on my lower legs) to do it myself.

–Put gas in the Honda at Fair Oaks Arco.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Jim Dalton Elephant Toe knife. It’s big and has very nice fit, but the finish is kind of sloppy compared to–say–Gareth Bull. I’ll consign it (and a hundred others) at Arizona Custom Knives. (b) Lautie spin stick. I thought the thing on top of it would spin, but no, you buy a spinner separately. Tossed–parts aren’t interchangeable with anything. (c) A second Yoshizaki spin stick. Dark finish (like the first, not my favorite), very nice spins. (d) Vintage Corday Toujours Moi Creme compact. Intaglio glass, very cool, creme seems fully intact and still smells great after almost 100 years.

–Went to see Dignity at Aryana’s office downtown. Blood pressure was low: 92/62 orso. And I’ve been feeling especially dizzy when standing all day. In other news, Destiny said the pacemaker is doing great, everything is excellent, see you at the end of December. Good news! P.S. I said it still seems like arrhythmia is there on occasion. She looked at a massive printout (from my pacemaker monitor, I presume) and said “It’s only about 3 episodes per hour, entirely fine.”

–Stopped at UPS for (a) second Kruk/Kuip t-shirt (bought two because I feared first was coming from Sri Lanka and wouldn’t be here until Christmas); (b) Umburry spinner in aluminum (nice, but way too light to be satisfying); (c) SF Giants Hello Kitty doll (was hoping it would be a bobblehead; it isn’t).

–Stopped at Beach Hut Deli for a BLT: yum!

–Went to UPS for (a) Brother printer cartridge, (b) Griffin spin stick (short but nice), (c) a couple of needle-nose vise grips from Amazon along with slip-on jaw pads (for gripping things like spin sticks without marring), (b) button succulent to replace the one that’s been dying for the last 10 years or so. There are like two tiny leaves left on that one, but I’m not hopeful.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, dessert, yogurt for Grace.

–Went to UPS for (a) Yoshizaki spin stick (great spin, though brass is blackened and cannot be polished), (b) Sleep Coin for Grace, (c) vintage Sheaffer erasers–good stuff.

–Played with Leica CL Paul Smith. Problem is (for macro photos of spinners and such) that I have zero macro lenses–only point-and-shoot cameras with macro capabilities.

–Played with cameras some. Once again the Leica D-Lux 4 Safari outdid everything I put it up against. It’s a mind-boggling camera.

–Pulled out some Shigefusas to check before selling, and noticed some fairly nasty rust spots on a couple that were NOT in boxes–kitaeji yanagiba and kurouchi petty. With great trepidation I took them out to the belt grinder and–a miracle–made them both close to perfect; they’re sharp too. Whew!

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) Kruk and Kuip t-shirt for Grace, (b) LIC EDC Mega Mini Mamae in ultem, along with some timascus cross-hatch buttons. Both came in the legendary LIC boxes (buttons usually don’t), so naturally I was thrilled.

–Stopped at Grocery Outlet for pizzas and ice cream.

–Worked on plants a little.

–Pizza and Jan’s peppers for dinner.

–Went to Hooverville Orchards for jam; they’re not selling it at the moment because of some state licensing issues or something. It wasn’t clear if they ever would be selling jam again. Got a $26 apple pie.

–Stopped at UPS for Billetspin spin stick (nice, but fixed end is not removable as I had requested) and RockinB spin stick (very nice, with lots of extensions and light press fit bearing, which I swapped out for a Fushi).

–Played with plants. Hacked off many branches from the overgrown jade-like plant Kenny gave me, as it had developed a serious lean.

–Was thinking of going to Hooverville Orchards, but didn’t feel like it.

–Messaged Dr. Deepa Nandyal regarding my angiogram results. A nurse wrote back that the radiology group is running 2-3 weeks behind. They hope to get my results before I meet with Dr. Nandyal September 1.

–Biked to UPS to pick up (a) chicken game t-shirt; (b) Umburry spin stick: it’s small but okay. I did manage to replace the bearing (a light press fit) with one of my (c) Fushi bearings, silent as ever; (d) Sheaffer erasers–the wrong type. Don’t know why I picked C, when a 20-second search of purchases on eBay revealed the last (proper) ones were A; (e) Nautilus spinner. It’s brass, heavy, cool and came with many dings and digs. A few minutes on the bench grinder cleared most of them up.

–Weather is cool enough that we can open patio doors after dinner.

–Biked to UPS to pick up ALUMAfx spinner. Very cool piece in the way it comes apart.

–Played with cameras a bit, trying to talk myself into the new M with electronic viewfinder. Turns out it’s pretty much an M11 with the viewfinder (same sensor) or a Q3 that allows lens changes. Not worth $7k–$8k.

–Italpizza for dinner, with added pepperoni (that didn’t add much).

–Season 4 of Reacher finally came out; I downloaded the first three episodes.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) LIC Roo Roo (nice, with box), (b) Loctite 222, (c) Billetspin spin stick (I marred it trying to disassemble; ordered a nicer one from them), and (d) Ziii Studio mokume buttons, which are so highly polished that they look like plain brass, with no pattern discernible.

–Kenny called this afternoon wanting help with a fingertip blood oxygen reader. He felt bad enough to visit his doctor today, and the doc was worried about his COPD. Prescribed Prednisone, Azithromycin and the meter. I set up the meter for him and got readings of 98-100 for me, low 70s for him. I had him breathe deeply several times and his readings climbed to the 80s, where his doctor wanted them. I have a terrible fear that this could be the end game for him. Speaking of which, my pulse today (shown on the oxygen meter) was always 90+; I firmly believe that AFib recurred shortly after I left the office when they zapped it with burst pacing. So: more ablation? Paddles? Crap.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels, Winding Way Arco for gas, UPS for (a) Ziii Studio fidget bearing tool (pretty nice), (b) Indy Thicc Chelsea in SS (also nice), and (c) my second One Drop Trillium, which spins surprisingly well given titanium weights.

–Used the Folex Carpet Spot Remover on the fancy bag that came with the Leica D-Lux 4. It worked a treat. The chemicals in it are unpronounceable, but they work like crazy.

–Got the drill press out and tried to improve the finish on the Edge spinner. Made it a little better.

–Got the Leica D-Lux 4 working well.

–Dinner from Jack’s Urban Eats. Decent, not great.

–Tried to polish up the Edge Industries spin stick. Nearly destroyed it, sort of salvaged it. For no obvious reason, it spins like crazy now.

–Puttered around with plants. Noted that the succulent in the white plastic pot was not happy. Tried to prune it a bit, then decided to take the pot bottom off. It was completely full of water. I guess the fit was so close it essentially didn’t evaporate. Hoping the plant will get better now that it isn’t waterlogged.

–Played around with my Sheaffer pencil collection. Re-cleaned them, “rolled” the tubes holding the erasers so they fit tighter, double-checked that the leads were secure (one wasn’t). Did my best to put them together so there were no gaps, and came pretty close. I should start a business…

–Went to UCD Radiology downtown for my angiogram. Was hoping they would find a little blockage in the LAD artery and stent it, and I’d be free for a while. No. “Stents are in the hospital,” said the guy prepping me when I asked. Worse: they wanted 60-65 BPM for the procedure, and I was at 80. When I looked at the monitor, then checked my pulse, it really seemed to be in AFib. I’m guessing it will continue to be until Aryana does some more ablation. This mega-sucks.

–Went with Grace to the UCD Health building where I’ll be getting an angiogram tomorrow, to check out the route.

–Stopped at Black Sails Coffee nearby; looks like he has his own shop now, with a huge roaster. He also had Sir Kraken II, my favorite coffee, which disappeared from his mail order site. He said Kraken Whiskey sent him a cease and desist order on the name, so he doesn’t advertise it now. Asshole lawyers. Anyway, bought 3 pounds. Grace noticed that it had a roast date of 7/3. Bummer if true.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up the Edge Industries spin stick. Nice fidget, but kind of dinged up. Bearings are also kind of noisy. One bearing just dropped out, but the other has resisted all kinds of hammering. It’s soaking in acetone now; don’t know if I can revive it or not. Sad, as these are apparently a tough get.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Hung the recent Mexican ceramic sun in back. Looks great.

–Went to UPS for Spyderco Volpe (disappointing) and yet another Sheaffer pencil. Got the pencil cheap so I could take the gold ring from it and add it to a pencil with a gap. Turns out the ring is more like a collar, and won’t remotely fit on any different Sheaffer model. Bizarrely, I spent a LONG time trying to get leads into this and another Sheaffer. It’s really maddening, as the tiny “grabber” collar withdraws as the lead-pushing piston retracts. I only succeeded with the collared pencil. I’m super curious how people re-leaded these pencils back when they were common. It sure eludes me.

–Installed Grace’s alternate hose station in back.

–Cleaned up tools and plant stuff in garage and bedroom; moved the table back to the bedroom.

–104+ today; plants are wilting in the heat.

–Went to Home Depot for hose, Perlite, dishwasher cleaner. Got clothes washer cleaner. Went up and down the potting soil aisle at least 8 times yesterday and today; didn’t see Perlite. Asked for help. Jackie came out and pointed to 6-7 bags with Perlite written on them in big white letters, at close to eye level. She gave me an extra one free for my trouble. Really starting to wonder about my faculties now.

–Stopped at UPS for the Case Hawkbill. Very tight, pretty cool. Glad I got stainless: it’s super hard to open with just the nail nick; you have to grab the blade.

–Stopped at Bel Air for oatmeal cookies, cream cereal, yogurt, pizza.

–Had pizza for dinner with the remains of the wilted basil plant. Pretty good.

–Played a little with the Leica TL2, having seen a super nice one in silver on eBay. Menus are opaque, no viewfinder for focusing, and a photo came out pretty grainy for 24 megapixels. Bullet dodged.

–Took Grace to Home Depot for various stuff. She’s been in a really grouchy mood for the last several days; I don’t know the cause.

–Watered plants.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, peaches, squash.

–New neighbors moved in across from us: Olivia and Stephanie (?), 30ish girls.

–Went to UPS for a Sheaffer pencil (can’t make it take in lead), Campagnolo pedal wrenches (nice) and LIC EDC SS Edamame (plain, but nice).

–Italpizza Cheesy pizza for dinner (my favorite of that brand), with added tomato and basil. Ate at 5 to accompany the time-shifted Svengoolie. Good stuff.

–Worked more on the InnerLight. The cranks were different distances from the frame, so I loosened the bottom bracket and moved it a bit until they were equidistant. At the same time I put the 15-tooth cog on and adjusted the chain accordingly. I also got the chainline absolutely perfect (it was quite far off). I’m not happy about the BB sticking out a bit, but some searching suggests it’s fairly common for cranks to be asymmetrical. Not for me though.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.