–Went to Ortega Nursery in Watsonville. Mind-boggling array of plants, more than half succulents. Most I’ve ever seen in one place. Bought a couple.
–Paid State Farm bills for auto (Civic) and home insurance.
Author: wsf (Page 27 of 29)
–Took Grace to endodontist Dr. Le on 41st. Good news: no root canal needed.
–Lunch at Burger King; shopping at New Leaf (again, not impressed).
–Played with SCUBA stuff. Finally (re)got the Scubapro balanced/adjustable breathing nice by installing the lightest of 4 diaphragms. Ditto with brass-bodied Tekna. Discovered the Scubapro first stage wouldn’t take a “standard” HP hose connection, so swapped parts around a bit and built a nice one.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 8 PM.
–Filled in hole from front sprinkler repair. Finished weeding/flagging sprinklers in back.
–Mowed lawns.
–Decided to fix broken sprinkler line myself after messaging Michael Casserd to get a recommendation and hearing nothing back. Got a coupler at Ace (and a pizza at Showtime nearby). Installed it with great feat of strength; all good.
–Took Boris T. Beemer to Lunardi’s in Los Gatos for apples and such. Had so-so lunch at Los Gatos Cafe.
–3rd Konosuke Fujiyama came in. Nice! Might keep it…
–Killed iPhone SE while replacing battery. Second one I’ve killed. Wow.
–Tried to find and flag some sprinkler heads in front. Used the short hoe to uncover a sprinkler that gophers had buried. Chopped a large hole in the sprinkler line in the process. CRAP!
–Looked at sprinklers. Sort of. Need to do much more cleanup of vegetation so we can actually see them.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 6 PM.
–iPhone SE lost 20% of charge in roughly 24 hours (8:30 AM 6/9 to 10:00 AM 6/10).
–Played with regulators a lot. Found out Tekna/Ocean Edge IS adjustable, after you pull the knob off. Guessing there’s a built-in real-time adjuster on non-octopus models (if they exist). Reg is really flimsy: two screws hold the exhaust piece on, and the plastic threads had broken off one, so it was useless. Might have to buy the eBay Ocean Edge–the design does breathe easy.
–Compression ferrules came in. Buttoned everything up tight, still leaks like crazy. Crap. Back to o-rings I suppose.
–A warm day: 80+.
–Based on an Omega Forums post, I discovered that the screw in one of the pushers on my moonwatch had no slot (World Time serviced the watch). I replaced it with a slotted screw. Both screws were unslotted in the OF post. Doesn’t make any sense: it’s really tricky getting the screw in and out with a hemostat.
–Gouty toe flared up again. I may need to hydrate…
–Worked on Coffexes. Found evidence of leak at base of sight glass on the one I’ve been using. Ugly. Swapping out parts to build one nice machine.
–Warm day; showed 80 on our thermometer.
–Cleared ivy next to shed. Exhausted.
–Took a shower.
–Worked on Coffex all day. I hate Serto fittings.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 6 PM.
–Brian from Nolf Electric came out to estimate on generator/transfer switch. Learned much. (1) Transfer switch (panel interlock) might be $500 installed. (2) It will serve whole house. (3) 4kw-5kw generator should suffice, and gas generators can be easily converted to run on propane.
–17th iPhone came in. Battery is 100%. Eureka!
–Got a 1″ haircut at Supercuts.
–Got an appointment for a hearing test at Costco for July 9 (!).
–Gloomy day.
–Much yard work; hurts.
–Lost right hearing aid doing yard work. Good excuse to upgrade.
–Went through the breaker panels again to tie up some loose ends. ID’d everything except shop, which I don’t really care about. Ready to tell electrician which circuits should be tied to generator.
–Rolex 1625 Turn-O-Graph came in. Buggered up the caseback opening it as it was tightened by a behemoth. Why do they do that? Replaced green leather strap with Oyster bracelet and it looks pretty good.
–Hearing aid batteries went out around 9 PM.
–Took Grace to the dentist in Aptos. Root canal/crown coming. Apparently lost my Benchmade/Boguszewski auto while sitting in the waiting room.
–Went shopping at Target and Food Maxx.
–Reconsidering iPhone 6S (older, larger, rounded case) vs. SE (newer, smaller, square-cut case). 6S feels nice now (after using SE for a while), but SE is said to have better battery. Arghhh…
–Japanese pruners came in. Nice, but not mind-boggling.
–Nozzle popped off the end of the Flo-Jet tube. Crap. Took the Rocket apart to dry it; not much moisture there. Put it back together solid, then wiped it clean.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM.
–Sun is in and out; low 60s.
–Read a book.
–Bought some bear claws at El Patio.
–Heard from Tom Elken that he has a place for the U.S. Open. So, no incentive to spruce up 110 Playa.
–Put together an Omega Seamaster ‘electric blue,” which was running much better than when it first arrived (0 beat error, -1s/d), so I can get rid of the one from efauser.
–Looked into, and gave up on, Rolex Hulk (green dial and bezel, but “super” case; and Kermit 50th anniversary (green bezel only, black dial, nothing to indicate it’s an anniversary watch.
–Took Grace to PAMF Santa Cruz for ultrasound and blood draw.
–Mowed lawns.
–Kato tamahagane letter opener came in from JNS. What a piece of crap. Separations, splits, sharpened by a 10-year-old. Will toss. Expensive lesson.
–Watched an episode of Wiseguy with Kevin Spacey. Dated, but the man can act.
–Shabang potato chips came in (found on reddit, apparently their major market is prisons). Good stuff: vinegar and barbecue.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 6 PM.
–Went to REI to look at Sahara hiking shorts. Size 38 fit, they had one, bought it. Bought two more online.
–Roasted some decaf.
–Checked tires on both cars (got warning last night in Civic regarding pressure). All slightly low, no obvious problems. Filled.
–Took a short bike ride. Chilly.
–Susan’s wedding. Miserable.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM.
–Took a shower.
–Furnace went out during the night. Came back on AFTER I set up appointment with Steve from Bellows Plumbing/Heating. He spent a while looking at it, ended up cleaning flame sensor. Gave a price for replacing flame sensor, but did not recommend it as it seemed to be fine. $149 service charge. Happy.
–Noticed a NEW pit on Shig western suji, in same area as others near kanji. Got rid of it, but this is scary stuff.
–Re-roasted some Barefoot Redcab to make it easier to grind. Not a good idea.
–Shig 270 western sujihiki came in, poorly wrapped and pitted. Cleaned it up, offered to trade for 210 western gyuto + $500 with eitan at KKF. He got rude.
–A little rain came.
–Also tried to swap blades in the two Benchmade Boguszewski spike autos. Nope. Hole must have been drilled at an angle in longer blade.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around Noon.
–iPhone SE came in; all good. Ordered new battery anyway (Coconut battery app says 124 cycles, which is weird; same app shows 17 charge cycles for Mac).
–Second Benchmade/Boguszewski auto came in. Better-centered blade, but blade is .5″ shorter than the first one. Very strange.
–Grace went shopping at Safeway.
–Played with watches/bracelets; tried to clear off paperwork from desk.
–Lunch on the bluff.
–Did much yard work.
–2 of 3 packages expected from USPS arrived–at 8 PM. (Troy Lee gloves and Klean Kanteens)
–Sent out Seamaster blue bezel.
–Got a rug mat for Grace at Home Depot.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8 PM.
–Made muffins.
–Jay Welty finished the fence: $1,400. Seems to be good work.
–Got a book at the library and bear claws at El Patio.
–Jay Welty and crew came to dig up ivy and replace fence between our place and Pat Cross’s.
–Took a walk to the beach.
–Went shopping at Capitola mall; lunch at Five Guys.
–Grace’s watch bracelet came loose for the second time in a couple days. Replaced it with a 20mm strap. Don’t really know what the problem was.
–Started to go to Capitola Mall for wrapping stuff; traffic too heavy.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 1 PM.
–Made a bunch of strawberry jelly. Good stuff, but maybe less water and pectin next time.
–Got some salmon at the boat Beticia in Moss Landing. Got some strawberries and such at Farm Fresh Produce nearby.
–Went to Home Depot for weed trimmer and poles to mount mosquito net on front door. Went to CVS for epsom salts.
–Tried to mount mosquito net. Need longer poles (at least).
–Turns out I wanted potassium bicarbonate, not magnesium sulfate (epsom salts). Bought some at eBay.
–Went to Steven Kim DDS to get a couple of “holes” filled in right upper canine. Seems fine.
–Read up on water for coffee. Will likely just add potassium carbonate (epsom salts) to bottled water. No scale, no corrosion, tastes good. (I hope.)
–Downloaded some vintage Magnum from dailymotion.com. Turns out that they (appear to) foil the copyright robots by (a) freezing the video for the first ~15 seconds before letting it run normally, and (b) left/right reversing the video. Unbelievable.
–Renewed vstat.com hosting package at namecheap. Updated from Professional plan ($77/year) to Stellar Plus plan ($52/year). Only difference is no access to cloudflare under Stellar Plus—whatever that is.
–Went shopping at Rancho del Mar Safeway.
–Went to Pure Water store, discovered their water is ultra filtered, with TDS of 4.
–Went shopping at Bagelry and Safeway.
–Barbed output adapters for Flojet arrived. Didn’t come close to fitting. Turns out with the smaller Flojets you just stick a 1/4″ ID tube into the outlet port. No fittings needed. I might have known this if my memory lasted more than a day or two.
–Slow day. Roasted some Sweet Maria’s Ethiopian decaf. Okay, but not real different from most decaf.
–Took a shower.
–Went to PAMF Urgent Care Watsonville for gout on left second-to-big toe. Same doc saw me as for sudden hearing loss (Vaal Rothman). He thought it was simply an inflammation, as there was more pain pushing on swelling than manipulating the joint. He prescribed an antibiotic (Keflex), for which I stupidly paid $31 at CVS (didn’t show them my insurance cards). I still think it’s gout.
–Benchmade Boguszewski spike auto came in (snuck past the censors at eBay). Nice knife, though blade is way off center when closed.
–Went to the downtown Watsonville farmers market, got some hummus. Preponderance of vendors were selling prepared food. Also no prices showing. Probably higher for gringos…
–Got a tuna steak at Yamashita and grilled it over mesquite. Deelish.
–Went to Carmel Cutlery to return the two Laconicos I accidentally walked off with. Ended up buying a Kizer and a Case.
–Had lunch at Panera in Seaside. Expensive ($16.39) and very good.
–Took the BMW to Carmel to (a) get refund on Speedmaster 50th Anniversary at Hesselbein Jewelry; (b) visit Carmel Cutlery (bought a Bob Jones, walked off accidentally with 2 Laconicos); (c) look for wedding gifts for Susan/Izzy. Bought a coolmusic box at The Music Box; (d) Spend my REI dividend. Got some biking gloves, mosquito net, Tevas.
–Went to Home depot for various water filters. Replaced “whole house” filter. Ordered exterior fridge filter from eBay, will do same for internal fridge filter.
–Rivet bracelet came in from LA Watch Works. Was going to put it on 1972 5512, but noticed the date (1977) so put it on 1977 1680. Duh.
–Selle San Marco Rolls seat came in. Put it on InnerLight for now. Nice seat, nice bike.
–Moved record cabinet from den to living room.
–Jumped rope a little (very little).
–Took a shower.
–Went to harbor Freight for a free moving blanket for transporting bike frame in back seat of BMW. Might be a little small.
–Moved assisted pull-up/dip machine from den to my bathroom. Hard work.
–Built 2 Tekna needles, which actually worked!
–Watched the last episode of Raines.
–Mowed lawns, sprayed weed killer.
–Roasted some caf beans.
–Went for 8-mile bike ride around San Andreas: Oceanview, Peaceful Valley. Exhausted.
–Finally got the Coffex tube to seal (o-rings) and it’s working with the new pump. Nice.
–Played around with Teknas, and though I can’t be sure, it appears that just sitting for a while caused a couple of the diaphragms to seal. Nice. Testing this with 5 leaky diaphragms in a dated bag; will check them periodically.
–To PAMF for Grace’s Dr. Stegman appointment.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 9 AM.
–Took a longish walk on the beach, found 2 sand dollars and a heavy something, looks like brain coral.
–Hat stretcher came in.
–Two packages that USPS was supposed to deliver are “available for pickup.” Again. This is getting old.
–Watched another episode of Raines.
–Paid some use taxes to the State of California.
–Made some cinnamon rolls.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 10 AM.
–Saved DVDs came in (2007 TV show). Total out 5 episodes (out of 13): first, last, and 3 others. Both say “Consider Saved” on the cover–these are likely copies sent out to Emmy voters.
–Went to post office to get package “awaiting delivery.” USPS is off the rails here.
–Tap came for Rolex. Drilled and tapped case for new case tube. Didn’t seem necessary: drill hardly touched the old threads, tap went in easily. New case tube did thread tight, though, so all seems well.
–Got bird seed with lots of sunflower seeds.
–Power out from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. We need a generator.
–Mowed, pruned, etc. Wiped out…….
–Watched another episode of Raines. Good stuff.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 10 AM.
–To Los Gatos for appointment with Dr. Liao. Froze several lesions on face, one on arm, two large freckles on hand (freebie).
–Got air in big SCUBA tank that came this morning.
–Shopping at Farm Fresh Produce and Nob Hill.
–NCAA finals (yawn).
–Spent the day removing DRM protection from 7 episodes of Raines bought at iTunes. What a minefield! Had to do it on Windows PC since Mac’s newest operating system (Mojave) has iTunes built in and foils all attempts at altering the .m4v DRM-protected files.
–Lunch at McDonald’s, then haircut at Supercuts.
–Final Four day.
–Took a walk to the beach, got some bear claws.
–Dr. Liao canceled (sick) while I was on my way in the car.
–Cleared ivy from behind old shed.
–Speedmaster Mk II watch case came in. Put it together, stopped running, fiddled with crown/stem, seems to be okay now. What is it with me and stems???
–Grace made muffins.
–Went to Great Infusions to get new tube/fittings for Coffex. Got a tube, nothing else. Ordered fittings from eBay; we’ll see.
–Noticed that Krakowskis REALLY had the ivy trimmed back before putting in their new brick wall.
–Worked on Coffex. Add-on diaphragm didn’t do much to reduce noise, and leaked.
–Finally got iPod Classic going. Bought an app to load music, it sucked. Turns out syncing is easy at iTunes if you click the iPod ICON on top, not the NAME on the left. Bad interface, but it worked. Sweet machine.
–Mowed all lawns.
–Got SCUBA tank filled, got Crystal Geyser water, got bear claws.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around Noon.
–Resurrected the Cremina while the Coffex is being updated.
–Put some Flex Tape on the gutter leak.
–Sold the 270 Shigefusa/Munemasa yanagiba.
–Spent a while cleaning the gutter over the garbage bins preparatory to stopping a leak.
–Selling knives, selling knives.
–Community Tree Service came around 8 AM and trimmed the redwood for $750. Seems like good work.
–Sold a Konosuke Fujiyama blue 2 to Elliot Golan at KKF. He has friends who might be nterested in other of my knives; will get him some pics and pricing.
–Dr. Stegman canceled on Grace, so no trip to the Bay Area.
–Tried to use blu-ray player to watch the Raines pilot I put on CD in March of 2007. No dice. Copied the .avi file to Mac hard drive; VLC plays it fine. Will watch on TV via HDMI cable. Only 7 episodes of the show were made, and (except for one copy of the pilot on eBay) they are totally unavailable. Bummer.
–Rain——-maybe the end of it for a while…
–Community Tree Service came by to give estimate: $1,650 for full trim, $750 for lower branches. Went with $750.
–Finally got access to CKTG purchase history. Turns out I bought a Yoshimitsu tamahagane, no handle, for $499 in 2014. Seriously puzzling. Why did I put $650 in the spreadsheet? I vaguely remember getting it, cleaning it up, putting it away. How did it turn into a Mizuno, with (what looks like) factory handle and saya?
–Went recycling/shopping at Deluxe Foods. Recycling closed.
–Walked over to Krakowski’s to check construction. Brick wall getting replaced, and Adriana gave tiny hint that we might want to get our redwood trimmed so it doesn’t drop stuff in their yard.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 11 AM.
–Made brownies in convection microwave. Not huge fun.
–All regulators serviced and working well.
–Took a shower. Got serious for the first time in a long time about lathering up a brush. Promising.
–iPhone rose gold came in; got it working. New Resound app doesn’t add much.
–Konosuke Fujiyama FM 210 came in. Beauty!
–Played with regulators. Swapped Scubapro turrets so now NOS reg has many LP ports. Rebuilt first stage to IP 140.
–Big bike ride.
–Watch hands came for 165.014; put it all together. Works!
–Waited all day for USPS to re-deliver watch hands from yesterday; they didn’t.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8 PM.
–iPhone 6s Plus came in. Absurdly large.
–Grace went for a drive.
–Spent the day waiting for bread dough to rise. Worth it!
–Got some liquid rubber spray for shed roof, a broom for patio, a bolt for disassembling regulator first stages.
–Finally got the Apex grinder together.
–Saw some dinosaurs on Estrella.
–Put new discs on Fatboy. Had same old problem with rear axle until I cleaned up male and female threads, then it just took finger pressure.
–Another mohs surgery by Dr. Dacey, on right ear.
–Watched “LA Confidential” via HDMI connection. Good movie.
–Submitted claim form online to WageWorks (Sutter) for reimbursement of Medicare premiums for 12/1/2017–11/30/2018 for Grace and me: $2,250 each.
–iPhone 6s came in. Turned out to be 6s Plus–bigger. Form facter not so good, battery life amazing. Moot, as Total Wireless doesn’t do HD voice. Looking at other providers.
–Played around with OE Apex grinder. Forge-welded axle to bearing. Crap.
–Bergeon bezel tool came in from Casker, finally. Still a pain to use.
–Went to World Time to pick up overhauled Rolex 5512. Sweet!
–Two Tekna regs came in. Both have very slow leaks at diaphragm. One bad needle (gooey), one good. Both cases broke where silicone exhaust diaphragm fastens. High pressure hose works for pressure gauge.
–After a lot of back-and-forth on the phone, got signed up at Caremark (as bf@bstat.com, Froggy11) so I can maybe initiate mail-order drugs.
–Apex spring came in. I blew the disassembly, so may have to tear it down extensively before I can put it back together again. RTFM