Author: wsf (Page 19 of 29)

–Picked up new glasses at Eye Center. Feather-light, still need adjusting.

–Went birthday shopping at Tomato Alley (small, lots of BBQ sauce and rub that I don’t need) and Osaka-Ya (got some fancy mochi). Gift shop next to Osaka-Ya is gone.

–Called Total Wireless yet again and got the usual hogwash: Grace’s phone isn’t activated, need to buy a new SIM card, etc. I’m done with them. Went with a pre-paid Verizon plan identical to Total Wireless for $40/month, which goes down the longer you stay with it. SIM comes tomorrow via UPS. AND since it’s an actual Verizon account, I can utilize the Verizon network extender if need be. Finally…(I hope).

–Phone reception is still really spotty.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good.

–Dr. Aminbakhsh canceled 1 PM appointment at 12:30. I didn’t re-schedule.

–Made some peach-jalapeno jam. Pain in the ass, didn’t yield much, not very tasty or hot. Crap.

–Spent hours trying to get Grace’s new iPhone running, including several calls to Total Wireless and a trip to Best Buy for a new SIM. Long story short: It’s locked. I eventually put her SIM in the rose gold SE I had bought and shelved (didn’t care for the color) and it was running immediately. Put in for a return on the gray one, and it was accepted immediately. Hope the new one works…

–Yet another cool no-swim day.

–Another slow, cool day. No swim.

–Made some turkey burger patties. Froze some and barbecued a couple, with tomato corn and squash.

–Another rotten day–pool didn’t make it to temperature.

–Went to the Gun Range in North Highlands to sell Nathan four more pistols (and learned he’s interested in two more, for a total of seven). Went smoothly.

–Ate at Jack’s Urban Eats, then did some shopping at Bel Air.

–Dug into the BMW paperwork and managed to (a) suspend insurance (will be reactivated with new car) and (b) submit a “release of liability” at DMV.

–Looked up 2021 Colt Python. Turns out they’re a lot like Rolex, and every other item where demand far exceeds supply. MSRP is $1,600, and I almost bought one from Eddy’s at $2,200. Fuck that shit.

–Went to Mike’s Bikes in Folsom where Tom Elken was getting his new Specialized Turbo Vado. Went for a ride, and I learned that I need to do a lot more riding to stay in “shape.”

–No swim.

–Finally looked through Vroom paperwork and sent them a photo of the bill of lading–that I should have sent two days ago.

–Went to Sportaman’s Warehouse, waited a bit (at least they have “take a number”), aced the Firearm Safety test and got my certificate. Looking at a 6″ polished stainless Python at Eddy’s in Mountain View, kind of like I did 50 years ago.

–Made a pizza. Okay, though seemed a little dry.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8:30 PM.

–Got bagels at Noah’s; sock-it-to-me cake at Safeway while looking for Grace’s Vernor’s Diet Ginger Ale (no luck).

–Took a swim and a shower.

–Slow day. Catalogued guns a little, took a swim.

–A guy came to pick up the Beemer. I have a sheet of paper with a scrawled signature on it. Hope he was legit.

–Barbecued burgers, corn and squash.

–Had brunch with Tom Elken and girlfriend Sandy at Friends with Benedicts in El Dorado Hills. She seems nice.

–Took a swim.

–Another bad night–reflux/nausea/chills. Dehydration again. Slept much of the day.

–Took a swim.

–Terrible night of diarrhea, from dehydration I suppose.

–Marie for dinner.

–Replaced a drip emitter at a tree near the side fence that looks like it’s distressed. We’ll see.

–Sold one of the Les Baer TRSs to Nathan for $2,000. Went to Turner’s first (too busy) then The Gun Range. Nothing like standing for an hour with a bad back.

–Called Grace to tell her I was heading back. Her phone didn’t ring. Sent her a text message. Later noticed a red warning under the message: “not delivered.” She refuses to entertain any thoughts of getting a working phone, of course.

–Ran the pool pump up to 3,400 to get rid of solar bubbles. It pretty much quit–because the water level, which I had just increased, was too low for that much pressure. I dropped it down to 3,200 and added a bunch of water. Bingo! Pressure is between 15 and 20 psi and there are zero solar bubbles. Dropped it to 3,000 and everything held. Will drop lower and try to find a speed that works. I have a vague recollection of doing this before and giving up when the bubbles returned after a while. Hope to do it better this time, and maybe run the pool at a slightly higher than desired rpm for a shorter time every day, watching to see when it hits temperature.

–Watched an episode of Dr. Blake with horrible subtitle sync. Watched S05E04 of Rick and Morty; stupefyingly bad.

–Lowered RPMs on pool and aux2 to 2,500. That cured the over-pressure issue; it’s down from 21 to 16 psi now.

–Put an ad in at calguns.net for one of my Les Baer Thunder Ranch Specials (why do I have two?); it sold immediately.

–Took a swim. Back does seem to be getting better.

–Cleaned up outside a bit.

–Went to Costco for an eye exam. Pretty thorough I thought. I have cataracts between stages 1 and 2 (out of 4). Should be years before they cause significant problems.

–Marie for dinner.

–Very smoky out today.

–Looked at Mini Coopers. Plenty available–in Reno.

–Cleaned bird bath. Top part was coated in a cement-like substance that didn’t come off even with a Foredom wire brush. No idea what that is.

–Took a swim.

–Tried to get Grace to switch iPhones. Didn’t work.

–Took a swim.

–Made appointments with PCP for back, dermatologist for skin, and Costco optical for glasses.

–Somewhat depressed: can’t stand or walk; giving up on coastal home; probably selling the Beemer before I wreck it, and can’t find anything to replace it that looks like fun.

–Up early at Holiday Inn Express Watsonville to get breakfast and make Grace’s 10:30 PAMF appointment. Breakfast was crap: pre-packaged tiny muffins, bagels–nothing hot like bacon or eggs. For $250, we deserved more.

–New case tube and tool came in for Rolex Datejust. Interestingly, the new cheapo tool worked much better than the expensive Horotec tool–which didn’t really work at all. Anyway, watch is good now.

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. Drove to Corralitos Market and stocked up on sausage. Went to La Selva Beach. Bought a sandwich at El Patio, shared it on the bluff. Saw some bottlenose dolphins in the water! Walked to Triangle Park, hung around for a while, then Willie showed up. Handshake, hug and selfie. Checked in at the Holiday Inn Express in Watsonville. Kelly’s Bookstore was closed, so we went for an early dinner at Appleby’s. Menu seemed smaller than before, but food was fine.

–Back pain still there, since early May it seems. Not optimistic about the outcome of this.

–Took the Beemer to the coast. Long slow trip, it being Saturday and all. Checked into the Marina Holiday Inn Express. Went to Pacific Grove. Sun was actually out, as were hordes of tourists–mostly on electric scooters and bikes. Had dinner at Rudolfo’s, most excellent. Drove around looking at houses. Kind of depressing. You can’t go home again.

–Mowed the lawn; put chlorine in the pool.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, squash.

–Latex gloves came in. Different from what I had for years, but very nice–vastly better than the black ones.

–Went to Dr. Cripe. Sandy did a thorough cleaning and took digital x-rays. Cripe (sort of) smoothed out the sharp edge of my front tooth, mentioned a cracked tooth, and said “see you in six months.” Works for me.

–Watched an episode of Dr. Blake.

–Masamoto carbon came in. Kanji was either deeply inked or very shallowly engraved, contrary to seller who said it’s years old. Also had some unremovable pitting, in addition to the ugly handle. Tossed it.

–Serious smoke out there today, hazy and smelly. As I continue looking into Pacific Grove, I note that a house that went up for $925,000 a couple weeks ago just sold for $1,200,000. Crap.

–Added water to the pool. Coincidentally or not, everything slowed down: skimmer, sweeper robot. Incredibly frustrating. Will clean filter tomorrow–again–though I’m not optimistic.

–Bought on eBay a crown tube for my Rolex Datejust and a tool to install it. Got the old one out with a broaching tool; it wasn’t ultra tight. The threads on the old one were really sparse and worn, so it took only a fourth of a turn or so to go from unscrewed to screwed in. Really curious to see why none of my tube wrenches came close to fitting.

–Cleaned up a little outside for the pre-paint inspection.

–Tekna shell came in from Tony Campagna. Built a regulator. Had to use metal internals because the diaphragms in the two plastic ones were shot. Ordered a couple (Oceanic) diaphragms from Coral Sea in Oregon.

–Took a swim. Too breezy.

–Cleaned up the Egyptian pharaonic coin. There was still lots of rust after removing some with Evaporust; it took a wire wheel on the Foredom to really get rid of the stuff. Polished with Mother’s Mag. It immediately took a patina, but seems free of surface problems at the moment. We’ll see.

–Made pizza for dinner with leftover slow-cooked cherry tomatoes. Yum! Made brownies for dessert.

–Fooled around with the pool for a bit. Didn’t get far.

–Rolex Sea-Dweller 1665 1980 came in. Original dial/bezel/bracelet, case recut and (probably) color-matched hands and (probably) complete overhaul by LAWW, running great (amplitude > 310, .1ms beat error). Beautiful watch.

–Tied back some bamboo plants, tidied up rocks displaced when I was optimizing drip lines, added a dripper to a grass plant I missed first time around, fertilized the “crops.”

–Took a swim.

–Rode the canal with Tom Elken; had a nice visit afterward.

–Went to the Orangevale farmers market for tomatoes, squash, donut peaches, salsa–except the Salsa Chick wasn’t there (again).

–Took a shower; shaved with Wolfman. Definitely has more blade feel than (say) the Gibbs, but no nicks and a very close shave.

–Grace discovered a couple of green inchworms eating her herbs. Crap.

–Picked up Day-Date bracelet from Rolliworks at FedEx center on Sunrise. Works fine.

–Played with Samsung flip phone. Learned (probably for the third time) that although there are Samsung Android phones that will run the Resound app, this Samsung Android phone will not. And I already knew that the speaker volume was not much (if any) better than that on the iPhone. Crap.

–Leica Q2 finally came in. Beauty.

–Mowed the lawn. Added drippers to the two “grass” plants in the garden (I had blocked the drippers after chopping down the plants when it looked like they wouldn’t come back. They’re coming back).

–Made BLTs for dinner with some Thao tomatoes and Acme bread. Pretty good.

–Went to Noah’s bagels. Got 9 sesame, 4 plain. The place was a zoo again.

–DeVon’s Jewelers called: the 5512 was back fro Rolex. I picked it up. Has a nice luminova dial and hands. Case is a little thinner than I recalled. I tried to put the new (old) caseback from eBay on it: no go. Fiddled with it for a while, now neither caseback will screw on. I’ll ask Phillip Ridley if he can repair it, but I fear it will require laser welding, and I don’t think he does that. Crap crap crap.

–Took a swim. Watched the skimmer flush a couple of times when I stuck my hand in. Moved the flapper valve under the basket from nearly closed to wide open. I’m sure that’ll fix it, given my day so far…

–I compared C-Lux (more pixels, more zoom) to D-Lux 109 (faster lens, working manual focus, Lightroom-ready). Wanted to like the 109, but the sharpness/quality of C-Lux photos at max zoom is astonishing; there’s no better camera for catching squirrels at their cutest.

–[edit] Camera stuff moot: I bought a Leica Q2 from Hong Kong. Yes, I have problems…

–Pool was pumping air this morning. Took several restarts to get it going. Cause was skimmer opening getting completely blocked yesterday, causing several “flushes” and (presumably) sucking in a ton of air. Too many pool floats…

–Took the Beemer out and found (by accident again) the ST strawberry stand on Jackson Highway. Got a 3-pack of strawberries, onion, blackberries, 4-5 smallish tomatoes–for $13. Unbelievable. And the strawberries are the first really good ones we’ve had this season. Will be back.

–Took a swim. Took a shower, then shaved with the newly-acquired Gibbs adjustable razor. Wow! No blade feel, great shave.

–Yet another day’s delay for FedEx delivering the Leica 109. Really pissin’ me off.

–Added water (twice) and chlorine to the pool.

–Barbecued some Corralitos sausages, corn, squash. Yummy!

–Went to Folsom REI to replace broken nose clip. Though web said they had some, they didn’t. Went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought one (Tyr, plastic). Will order the metal Cottonmouth.

–Ptolemy coin came in. Great detail, but has some possibly unremovable dark spots. Soaking in baking soda and sodium carbonate.

–Nose clips broke. Tried the mask: it leaked (or something). Tried goggles without nose clips: nope. May get some at REI Folsom tomorrow.

–Did some minimal housecleaning in anticipation of Tom Elken being over tomorrow after a ride.

–Took a swim.

–Cooler today.

–Daytona arrived at Phillip Ridley’s place.

–Slow day, not as hot as predicted. Pool was at temperature (85) by 10:30. I really need to re-program it. Maybe run it from 10 to 2, swim before sun hits it, add chlorine after swimming. Something like that.

–Went to Bel Air for apples, oranges, cream cheese, corn, and a bunch of stuff for Grace.

–Sent off Rolex Daytona to Phillip Ridley (son of legendary Bob Ridley) so he could replace black dial with white one I got on eBay. Tricky business: the black dial looks pretty nice, and I’ve been bored with white ones in the past. White seems traditional, though. And I could always swap back.

–Seems we used 1,480 gallons of water overnight–both sprinkler systems were running. The Gold River system runs (a) long and (b) often. Don’t know whether to dial it down or not. Green is nice, but that’s absurd overuse of water.

–Made breakfast for dinner: Wylie Dufresne’s scrambled egg sandwich. Yuck! (Salty, tasteless.)

–Day-Date bracelet arrived at Rolliworks.

–Went to Michaels for touch-up paint, then to Taylor’s Market for cheese, Acme bread, jam, dessert (key lime pie). Then to Osaka-Ya for peanut butter mochi. Filled the Honda with (relatively) cheap gas in Sac. Still cost $40 for less than 10 gallons.

–Took a swim.

–Took the Beemer to El Dorado Hills town center so Grace could get some local toffee for Juli’s birthday. Looked for a place to eat lunch, later learned that Moto Osteria (where we ate with Tom Elken) and Ruffhaus (where I had hot dogs a couple of times) had both closed within months of our visits.

–Started to watch Mystery Men; it seemed a little too silly. Watched Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Not bad, but another one of those claustrophobic “can’t trust anyone” films.

–Did a load of laundry.

–Golden State Water tech came out. Showed us that the little wheel on the meter wasn’t turning (no leaks) and said that the vast bulk of water use in Gold River is for lawns, and that there are folks on corners and cul-de-sacs that use > 100 CCF per billing period. Once again, we’re normal.

–Took a shower.

–Back still hurtin’.

–Started to watch a “Bad Boys Forever” download. Realized I had seen it before. Searched the journal: 12/22/2020. Six months ago. Scary…

–Had lunch at Five Guys (Jasper’s was closed), then shopped at Smart & Final.

–Got a letter from Lee Elliott: he was kicked out of his rented place, somehow lost his internet connection (went to Whole Foods to send email), and needed a $700 loan. I tried to do it via Zelle (as requested), but Heritage CCU isn’t in their network, so I ended up sending it via PayPal.

–Took a swim.

–Another slow day.

–New hearing aid batteries around 5 PM.

–Slow day. Took a swim; that’s about it.

–Back is worse, now left side hurts.

–Got many gifts from Grace.

–Black iPhone SE came in. All set up.

–Donned scuba tank and weight belt, tried to check the main drain. Had trouble staying under; a brief inspection said (1) it isn’t pulling in water, (2) I can’t see how the screen comes off. Will inspect further, perhaps without fins, so I can stay down easier.

–$30k Daytona came in. Really nice, plus the “purchaser’s name” on the warranty card is blank!!

–Went to Bel Air for pork chops, potato salad, corn ($.65/ear). Barbecued for dinner. Pretty good.

–18k link for Day-Date bracelet came in–hidden in the works of an old alarm clock. Wise-guy seller.

–Rode the ARP to Hagan Park. Way too many cyclists on the trail for a Monday. Back to the canal.

–Took a swim.

–Bought a Rolex Daytona 116520 “NOS” with black dial from Lunar Oyster for $30k. Yikes…

–Took a swim.

–Power outage and (separate) Comcast outage this morning. I wish there were a reasonable alternative to Comcast–that didn’t require a dish on the roof.

–The $30k NOS Daytona at Capetown Diamond was (as predicted) already sold. Looking at a $26k NOS black dial on Amazon, via a SRI Lanka dealer. Unlikely at best.

–Took a swim, took a shower. The shave with the 1969 Gillette “black beauty” was perfect. Looking at the blade angle/exposure, compared to some of my other razors, I would have predicted it wouldn’t cut anything off. The shaving forumites (I guess like forumites everywhere) waste reams of text trying to quantify everything. Whereas (a) the blade matters as much as the razor, and (b) it takes 2-3 strokes to know if a given razor is mild or aggressive.

–Another slow day. Back is a little better. Went for a swim.

–Inquired after a $30,000 “NOS” Daytona at Capetown Diamond in Georgia. Heard nothing. Looking these up on the web, I see them at mid-$30k to $40k–so I imagine that price at CD is just to start a conversation, and that they don’t actually have the watch (it says “special order”).

–Mowed the law; re-fixed a couple of sprinklers.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 3 PM.

–Back is still not good.

–Took a swim. Nice water, but the crawl still hurts my back.

–Rode in Folsom with Tom Elken. Started feeling bad (woozy). Drank water. Got home, felt bad. Went to McDonald’s for lunch. Drank lots of water all day. Felt worse. Took a quick “nap.” Drank more, still felt bad. Took some Pepto-Bismol, starting to feel a little bit better. Still not pissing much. I must be hugely dehydrated.

–Chinese copy of Rolex Daytona came in unexpectedly. Piece of crap. Winding is seriously ratchety, Timegrapher performance is haphazard. Tossed.

–Went to Noah’s for bagels and Raley’s for (squirrel) peanuts.

–Made pizza for dinner. Best ever: thick crust (maybe this was the heavier of the split dough pieces), cheese melted into dough (put it on first, then sauce), ultra-crispy (baked at 450 for 23 minutes, then turned on the high broiler for a few (untimed) minutes to crisp the top. A little over-broiled, but that’s easily fixed with a timer.

–Watched Rick and Morty, season 5 episode 1, that I downloaded, as Comcast pulled Cartoon Network from our lineup a while back.

–Went to Bel Air for some fairly big shopping with Grace.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, squash, tomato. Gio’s Going Ghost rub, mixed 1:3 with Gio’s Sweet Heat, was not hot at all. I guess we try 1:1 next time.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for cherries, tomatoes, onions, strawberries, jam, Gio’s Ghost rub (limited edition), radishes, squash.

–Ultimate iPod came in–the last hard drive model. Incredible ergonomics, it just reeks of quality. Fortunately, the battery took a full charge and it synced up almost automatically in iTunes.

–Back is much better, perhaps due to hydro-therapy.

–Took a swim; very nice.

–My back is really bad. Sciatica I believe, though knowing that does nothing.

–Took a swim with air temp ~100. Very nice, and even seemed to help my back for a bit.

–Back is killing me; woke up 6 times last night.

–Took a brief swim; mostly kicked on my back as doing the crawl hurt too much.

–Re-wrecked my back while bending over. At least it’s not liver cancer.

–Rolex gold rivet bracelet for the 1803 came in. Seller (and my own research) said it should fit an 8″ wrist. Nope. At max length it’s snug on my 7.25″ wrist. Thought about selling the watch, but (a) the bracelet is hyper-tight (seller claims Rolex rebuilt it; someone certainly did) and should loosen a little over time; and (b) I’ll ask LAWW if they might be able to source and install a link.

–Sharpening stone came in. It’s nice, but not as colorful as presented, and too fine for knives.

–Caseback for 30gb iPod came in. Very nice. Hope the new higher-capacity battery will (a) fit and (b) hold a good charge.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 1 PM.

–Another slow day.

–Took a swim. Perfect at 88 degrees.

–Slow day. Warming up, but not painfully. Took a swim–a little cool, but okay.

–Too cool again to swim.

–Rode the canal. Discovered (as I should have known) that the other side is a maintenance road, all fenced and locked up tight. Except at Sunrise, where there’s a low gate that almost invites walkers. So I went in 50 yards and took a picture. Yow!

–Bought a 1978ish Rolex 18k gold rivet bracelet for the Day-Date. 12 links (plenty), refinished by Rolex, just stunning AND I’ve never seen another AND, since the watch is 1977, we can call it original. An expensive watch in total, but it doesn’t get any better.

–iPhone SE v1 came in. Took forever to get the Resound app working. It does have wi-fi calling, but I never get 3 bars, only 2 or 1. Crap. Will test some more, but I don’t know. [edit] Played around a little, set it up like the SE v2, and got 3 bars!

–No swim today, pool 82. Took a shower. Tried the Blackland titanium razor for the eighth time–with a super iridium blade. No go. Put the blade in the 1947 Aristocrat Junior to finish the shave: night and day; could barely feel the blade in the AJ.

–Pool filter was leaking at the seam. Tightened it. Leak stopped–for now.

–Squale Blancpain homage came in. Not enthralled. Came with 22mm blah blue strap, so I can’t (immediately) put a metal bracelet on it. Gotta stop falling for cool pics.

–Rode the Sunrise Corridor Bikeway and ARP with Tom Elken. New Specialized saddle was okay, but I’ll likely go back to the Regal.

–Super windy and I neglected to turn the temp up, so pool was 85 (as set) and no swim.

–Rolex 1803 (head only) came in. Fattest case ever, runs well. Now for a $6,000 bracelet.

–Made orange rolls for dessert.

–Went to Noah’s for breakfast and bagels.

–Snap-On screwdriver (to replace currently lost one, which will show up soon) came in, at about two feet long. Will get a shorter one.

–Skimmer weir came in. Grace installed. Works perfectly. Took a short swim, but it was too windy. I was cold, and with the pump off, leaf debris was accumulating in the pool.

–Mowed the lawn; fixed a sprinkler where the grass was brown.

–Had Corralitos Smoked Cheesy Bavarian sausage for dinner. Yum!

–Went to the Sunrise farmer market for cherries, broccoli, squash and such. Went to Bel Air for pork chops, cream, corn, deodorant, etc. Lit up the barbecue for dinner. Good stuff.

–Turns out my iPhone SE (if that’s what it is) is the SECOND version of that model. The first version is identical on the outside to the 5/5S. It has an upgraded processor, camera, etc., but most importantly will accept the latest OS and will allow wi-fi calling. I ordered one. Unbelievable how long it takes me sometimes to find the latest/best of certain electronics.

–Replaced the bad receptacle next to my chair. Took some doing, as (a) 12 gauge wire is really stiff, and (b) I’m not as strong as I once was. Potential arcing disaster averted, though.

–Specialized saddle came in. I installed it with some difficulty (see (b) above). Seemed fine on a quick ride around the block. It’s much softer than the Selle Regal, so I’m hoping it doesn’t sink down quickly to a rigid shell.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 9 PM.

–Pool sweep bags came in. Turns out that when installed, the tail whip works just like it should. I cannot explain. Skimmer basket also came in; fits fine.

–Paid $160 estimated state taxes.

–Got my second shingles shot. The pricing structure changed. Instead of two for $225, it’s now $173 each. Unbelievable.

–Played with phones. Seems I have an SE, not an 8 like I thought. Turns out with “wi-fi calling” enabled, I now get 3-4 bars in the house. Also turns out that the wi-fi is not available on the 5S, so there ends that romance. (I called GRCA to ask about the CC&R violation on the 5S, and their voices were breaking up.)

–Took a swim. Nice.

–Satisfactorily polished the Datejust case. Clean and spiffy now.

–Took a swim. Okay, but a tiny bit too warm to be refreshing. Got a solid data point on the solar: turning down the target temp 1 degree lower than the current temp causes the solar valve to close immediately. Also, bubbles cease and (some) pump speed goes down, as shown by the lower pressure on the gauge. Lots more tuning to do.

–Learned that Willie the LSB mail carrier is retiring. We’ll be going to his party on August 1.

–Played with the razor database a bit.

–Grilled some hamburgers, corn and squash. Good stuff.

–Slow day. Diddled in the den for a bit, looked at gold watches on eBay, made an offer for an 1803 without bracelet.

–Took a swim. Pool was allegedly 88. Used EMF baseball cap to shade eyes while on my back; much better.

–Tidied up the watch bracelet database. Still can’t believe I tossed a 630 end link for the 1035 bracelet, but it didn’t show up today.

–Probably due for a second shingles shot, but there’s nothing on google calendar OR this journal about either one. Very strange.

–Selle San Marco Regal came in. Wrong (fabric) cover. My fault, as usual.

–Found the iPod I thought I might have tossed. So now I have two identical 30gb black ones, and tossed the 256gb silver one (case showed evidence of being pried open, and after opening it myself I couldn’t get it to close properly). None of these (I believe) are 5.5 models, as they lack the “Search” function. Hoping the “new” 80gb I ordered from China (a) is actually new, and (b) is the enhanced version.

–Got the Gillette 1947 Aristocrat in. Cleaned up great with Easy-Off, but was missing an end cap and had some alignment issues. I had thought it was uber-rare, but went to eBay and found 3-4 others with the white fabric inside the case. Oh well…

–Went to the Orangevale farmers market for salsa, radishes, cherries, squash, coffee beans (new vendor, to me anyway).

–Made pizza for dinner, also nice.

–Played with watches for a bit. Put together an Eterna Kon-Tiki with a nice Gay Freres bracelet and mint medallion on the caseback. Tossed a Kon-Tiki that should have been identical, but was actually a mm or two smaller, so nothing was interchangeable. Plus, when the case clamps were tightened, the date wheel would hang up and not to the next number. Very weird.

–Grilled up some Corralitos hot smoked sausages to go with leftover potato salad and over-ripe peaches. Good stuff.

–Went biking with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. Good ride.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 4 PM.

–Had breakfast/got bagels at Noah’s. Shopped for stuff at Raley’s.

–Comcast went out completely around 3 PM. Didn’t come back until 2:30 AM (they said). Wish there was a viable lternative.

–Had turkey burgers, corn, potato salad for dinner. Yum!

–Shortened the brake cables on the InnerLight. Don’t know what possessed me to have them that long.

–Took a ride on the canal. Speedometer went wacko–the sensor is about a millimeter from the magnet, so I don’t know what’s up. Asshole racer boy passed me on the right in the tunnel. So: (1) Don’t ride on weekends; (2) Find a way to avoid the tunnel.

–Mom bird has been bringing baby birds to feed them peanuts.

–Cleaned the pool filter for the third time in a month, because Grace “hears things.”

–Back is bad.

–Another cool no-swim day.

–Gay Freres Kon Tiki bracelet came in. Full size, bright but (on close inspection) over-polished. Now I have two: 1971 and 1968.

–iPhone 5S came in. I thought it would be exactly the same size as Grace’s (and my former) 5, but it appears to be a little longer. Hard to get specs on these; all they mention is screen size. Battery is amazingly good for 7-8 years old: Coconut says around 95% of capacity. Took a fair amount of finagling to get it to run Resound Smart 3D, but it did eventually. Don’t know if it will find the hearing aids tomorrow morning. [edit] 5 and 5S are identical in size.

–Went to the Orangevale farmers market (3 PM–8 PM Thursdays). Found some good stuff: radishes, salsa, Rainier cherries.

–Found algae on the pool walls yesterday; added more chlorine today. Still too cool for swimming.

–Battery died on the Honda after I left the trunk open all night. I put the battery tender on it and it charged back up.

–Got a buzz cut at Great Clips (waited a while), then walked over to Five Guys for lunch. Good as usual.

–Put chlorine in the pool. Likely too chilly today to get it up to 84-85. Still blowing occasional bubbles with both pumps at 3000 RPM.

–Rolex 5512 caseback came in. Expensive, but necessary.

–Took a shower.