Category: Uncategorized (Page 13 of 29)

–Went to S*T Strawberries for strawberries, jam, honey.

–Removed the dead cooktop. It was not easy, but everything is 100% intact (like wiring) and ready for the new installation.

–Baked a Viccolo pizza for dinner. So-so.

–Slow day. Barbecued pork chops and corn for dinner.

–Watched the “Then Came Bronson” pilot. Better than I recall, and seriously nostalgic.

–Took the Beemer to Dr. An Yen for suture removal. Wound looks awfully red to me, but nurse and doctor said it’s good.

–Called CarMax about slow leak in Beemer tire. Tires aren’t covered by their warranty. Took the car to America’s Tire Co. They fixed it fast and free. Seems like a top-notch organization.

–Turns out the Honda tires were quite low. I pumped them up and reset the TPMS. All my fault of course–getting lazy. Gotta keep on ’em.

–TPMS light came on in the BMW. Checked the tires. Left rear was low; seems to have a slow leak.

–Watched “Wake of the Red Witch” via Film Foundation. Pretty absorbing.

–Went to both farmers markets for stuff.

–Grace spilled water on the cooktop and (apparently) shorted out one of the switches. Loud whump sounds, flashing lights, and the fan won’t go off. I broke some glass on the cooktop trying to get it up, but that was irrelevant. It’s dead, and I turned it off at the breaker panel. Looks like a replacement will be $2,200 + $200 installation + $35 haul away.

–Took Grace shopping at the Folsom Safeway.

–Took a 17.3 mile ride on the e-bike. Wanted to do a loop around Lake Natoma, but ended up in Folsom, so just turned around and came back.

–Walked to UPS to pick up McGizmo flashlight. Nice light.

–Spent much of the day working on the two Reaver flashlights. Turns out, after weeks of frustration, that the battery in one was non-rechargeable and (presumably) weak, so any thing I did with swapping drivers and such had no effect. Finally got both lights programmed–one with 5 levels, one with four–and toggled memory off. Finally. Will send one off to Ted Rooney in a bit for anodizing.

–Heard from Doris Fredericks in Morgan Hill. Dave died of breakthrough COVID in Canada after three weeks in intensive care in 2021. CRAP! I DO NOT understand how/why I let that friendship lapse. What a moron.

–Barbecued some Costco Polish for dinner, with Thao squash, Whole Foods potato salad, and Bel Air corn (finally it’s good).

–Bought Eargo 7 hearing aids on eBay for $1,400. Lotta funny business on eBay with Eargos. Same seller has these up for $1,700, $1,600 auction, etc. PLUS, eBay did not charge tax. Because it’s a medical device? Doubtful.

–Took Grace to the Folsom lab for blood tests, then to Mimi’s for brunch. Mimi’s seems to be up on the trend of serving gargantuan amounts of food for really high prices. Bummer.

–Another Shamwari came in. Nice scales and action, but the blade has more scratches than most. Wish I could figure out a way to hide those better. This one came with a set of spare titanium scales that I can JUST make fit on the one with the crapped-out carbon scales. Will send the scales (and other stuff) to Ted Rooney for blasting/re-anodizing.

Made pizza with tomato and fresh basil for dinner. Decent.

–Went for a 10-mile bike on the ARP.

–Took Grace to the Curtis Fest craft fair. Not too exciting, but okay.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market. Slim pickin’s. Got clementines, pink lady apples, Thao squash. Then to Bel Air for bagels.

–Used a discount code for our first pizza from Milan (Coloma at Sunrise). Salty, but not bad at all.

–Drove to Rocklin Donuts (Yelp says best in the U.S.), stood in line for an hour, no more cinnamon rolls. Came back and had lunch at Jasper’s Giant Burgers.

–I been gaining weight: 209+ today.

–Took the Beemer to Davis Ranch. Slim pickin’s, just got some peaches. Stopped at Bel Air for rolls and potato salad.

—Reconciled most of my charging cords.

–Picked up the ozone generator at UPS. Stuck it in the trunk of the Beemer for 80 minutes. Car smelled of ozone afterwards. Put a little leather scent in it. Could be okay now; need some time in it.

–Polished out some scratches on the flat of a Shamwari using the Foredom clone.

–Went to Dr. An Yen and had the squamous carcinoma in situ excised.

–Took Grace in the BMW to Ione; had lunch at Star Donuts. Got lost on the way back (Grace insisted on bringing maps and navigating), so we missed the cool hilly section. BMW drove like a dream.

–Watched John Wick 4. Preposterous, but ALL the critics loved it. Keanu Reeves remains the worst actor working,

–Polished the Beemer some more; put some mink oil on the front seats and steering wheel.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to Costco for water and muffins, then to Target for deodorant and Zone Perfect bars.

–Spent the last couple days trying to figure out how to disable the Auto Stop/Start feature on the Beemer. Discovered when looking at it (for the third time) that there’s button that does that very thing. Arghhh…

–Found the Shigefusa 270 Western suji. There were two boxes with that label, and I only looked at the empty one (apparently) several times. Dementia approaches…

–Went to Subway near Hazel and Gold Country for lunch. Hd a coupon, but staffer didn’t know how to use it and over-charged a bit.

–Then to S*T Strawberries for strawberries and strawberry jam.

–Went to Auto Zone for a synthetic clay pad and some rubbing compound. Worked on the hood. Looks much better. Still a couple of (what I believe are) etched water spots that will never come out.

–Spent a while switching phones and trying to get navigation going in the Beemer. No good. One huge problem: service is so bad here that a newly-switched-on phone won’t even see the network for a while. Seems like the Beemer itself could also be anissue, though all software is up to date. Beats me. May take it to CarMax.

–Went to UPS for a new old stock Canon tele lens (great condition, but crappy photos; will toss) and a Gareth Bull Warlock knife (pretty cool, actually).

–BMW continues to impress. But I noticed some water spots (I think) on the hood. Tried all my polishes on them; only the grittiest (Simichrome) had any effect. I believe I will have to get the car detailed.

–Barbecued ribeye steak for dinner, with Bel Air corn and potato salad. Really good!

–Took Grace to Dr. Hadi Firoz. He ran late, but seems good: He noted my low heart rate, diagnosed bradycardia, and did an ECG. Found second-degree AV block Mobitz 1, an apparently non-threatening condition possibly related to drugs I’m taking. His notes say “refer to cardiology.” We’ll see. Also prescribed FlowMax (muscle relaxant) for my urinary flow issues. We’ll see.

–Picked up the 2020 BMW 330i at CarMax. Killer car, smooth and quiet. Has a bad odor inside from former (female perfume I think) driver. Trying to kill it with leather scent, but it might take more.

–Chicken pot pie for dinner.

–Rode with Tom Elken. Explored Buffalo Creek from end to where it crosses Folsom Canal, then rode the canal a bit. Super windy.

–Took Grace to lunch at Burger King (Whopper Juniors are tiny now), then food shopping at Koreana Plaza.

–Dinner fromJack’s Urban Eats.

–Walked to UPS for packages, Unfortunately, the big heavy sharpening system was one of them.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the bronze Workman razor I was going to sell. Worked great.

–Started again trying to reconcile knives and such; got nowhere.

–Barbecued chicken burgers (tasteless), corn (mushy), squash and tomatoes (great).

–Got stuff at the Sunrise farmers market. Then got more stuff at Bel Air.

–Took some more photos. The Canon 5D II–with the zoom lens–is pretty impressive.

–Played with cameras.

–Started taking my blood pressure. First one this morning was ugly; a redo was better. This evening, great: 115/64.

–Played a little more with the N Digital. Got some really nice pictures–as I recall I used to with my first one, before I fried it trying to flip the mirror up using a Fry’s PC power supply and custom plug. THAT hurt, I vividly recall.

–Big day:

–Full-mokuti Reaver flashlight came in as well. It’s a beauty, and I’ve got even more learnin’ to do to program it.

–Bought a Rolex GMT from Kirill Yuzh at Lunar Oyster. Sent the “neat fonts” 5512 and the NOS 14060 back for consignment.

–Picked up the mosquito net and Canon 50mm lens at the UPS store. Lens seems fine; much better ergonomics when manual focusing. Don’t need mosquito net until (if) we decide to put up a patio table/umbrella and eat outside.

–Tracked the return of the Contax N Digital from China: it’s currently at Customs in LA.

–Spent a LONG time at CarMax Roseville selling the Mustang–partly because I had my phone on mute and didn’t hear when they called me in.

–Called off tomorrow’s ride with Tom Elken.

–Got a buzz cut at Great Clips. Senior cuts are $20 now. Crap…

–Scrub jay visited for the second time in two days. The red squirrels seem to be moving in.

–Went with Grace to the Sunrise farmers market. Bought lots of stuff.

–Gave the Mustang a sponge bath, so to speak, and painted a couple dings.

–Got reasonable offers on the Mustang fromCarMax and Kelly Blue Book. Finding a trusted used BMW 330i might be a bit harder.

–Hung some pictures in my bedroom and one in the living room.

–Picked up 3 pounds of Sir Kraken II from Black Sails.

–First barbecue of the season: pork chops, Claire’s potato salad and corn from Bel Air. A little off, but pretty good. More to come.

–Went to Chase with Grace to send wire to Christoph for Contax N Digital repair. They needed SWIFT number in addition to the IBAN number he gave me. In process.

–Went for a little shopping at Bel Air.

–Went to Crate & Barrel at Roseville Galleria to pick up Chemex filters. First use (in a while) not terribly promising.

–Went to UPS store to pick up Shamwari 3.5″ Pretty big, but nice.

–Went to UPS to pick up Canon lens (wrong one for the 5D), 1947 Gillette Tech razor (blades dated it to 1948), and 1947 blades (rustier than they had appeared). Great haul.

–USPS Informed Delivery showed that my CIT Bank check card was coming. It didn’t (the ad flyer that also showed was in the box). I will bet that the fucking asshole who’s been stealing knives got himself a check card. It won’t work, as CIT Bank sent me the PIN under separate cover, but that’s small consolation. This guy needs to be jailed, and of course that will never happen.

–Drove back from Carmel.

–Drove to Carmel; minimal traffic. Picked up the Sea Otter (atrocious knife; spinning pivots, troublesome standoffs, terrible action, will sell immediately), the bit holder (heavy and works well, but the magnet is so strong it’s a joke: it attracts screws from 2″ away, and it’s really hard to get a bit out once it’s in. May try to reduce magnetism; not sure how. Picked up a gorgeous entropic MBK Pinscher with great action. Turns out on closer inspection it has really bad lock rock. Will return.

–Gassed up at a Chevron near the Holiday Inn (super expensive of course) and drove home without incident.

–Entered an Oz knife pre-sale lottery; 150 slots gone in seconds. Fuck bots!

–Drove to PAMF for the last visit with Dr. Brad Duncan. Will miss him. Hope the new guy is as good.

–Then to Watsonville; checked in at the Holiday Inn. Nice room on the 3rd floor, overlooking the slough. Walked to McDonald’s for dinner.

–Went to UPS store (in a sprinkle) and picked up the Gillette contract (military) razor. Case does not look like military, but razor has “S” mark, meaning 1947.

–Sort of figured out how to program the driver on the Reaver flashlight. Now it just comes on bright, rather than cycling through a zillion different modes. However, it appears (even with a new battery) to dim by X percent every few seconds. Annoying, and likely unchangeable.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to UPS to pick up another Sham. Scratches all over. Will send the scales to Ted Rooney for zirblasting, polish the blade asbestos I can, maybe sell or swap better blade into the new scales.

–Went back to my old green Samsung 10 with the cracked screen. It’s the only phone I’ve ever owned that reliably sees my hearing aids.

–Took Grace to Rosie’s on Folsom (past Safeway) for brunch. Not bad.

–Then to the Rancho Cordova library where we each got a library card, and I checked out a book of Jack Reacher short stories.Then to UPS where I picked up the Canon 5D Mk II. I put the battery in the (new) charger, inserted the (new) memory card (thank god Grace has a working card reader), then took some shots. They came out fine. Camera is dead mint, with (as promised) plastic still on display screens. Sweet.

–Brief thunder/lightning/rain storm this afternoon. Way cool.

–Went to Home Depot for bird food; refilled the feeder. No birds yet.

–Went to UPS and picked up memory card, 1956 Chemex filters (a real trippy box), a Simpsons Centenary brush (beautiful), and a Reaver flashlight (nice, but will have to look into disassembly tools so I can polish and play with it).

–Went around and around on banks. Think I’ve got things going.

–Killed some weeds; cut up some boxes.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch, then Target and Home Depot for bird seed (zippo); then Bel Air for bagels, cream. Got some plain goat cheese and herbes de Provence to make my own delicious spread.

–Warriors won the first playoffs. Much sadness in Sac.

–Started recording blood pressure. Bad this morning (high pressure, low beat rate); vastly better this evening.

–Picked up toothbrushes and another Sham at UPS. This Sham has carbon scales with lots of voids and chips. I was going to fix with super glue. As usual, I got impatient and put a ton of super glue on at once. After much sanding, I gave up and soaked the scales in acetone. On the bright side, blade and action are perfect, so I just need some new scales.

–Went with Grace (mistake) to the Sutter lab in Folsom for a blood draw. Got results later: all good.

–Went to Costco. Got a new receiver wire for my left hearing aid (staff member couldn’t open it; I did). Still can’t hear Grace.

–Got takeout for dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats.

–Walked to UPS to pick up new Galaxy S10. Spent a long time updating it and getting rid of all the crap.

–Left hearing aid receiver wire seems to have gone bad (again). Will check at Costco tomorrow.

–3.3″ Shamwari brown micarta liner lock came in. Great blade and action.

–Shamwari came in that’s been at Gareth Bull’s shop for several months. Looks like he “repaired” it exactly as I would have: five minutes with a couple of needle files. (Early on he mentioned his milling machine. No way, Jose.) He did apologize, though, and didn’t charge me for return shipping.

–Back is feeling better.

–Basil plant appears to be flourishing indoors 24/7. Who knew?

–Learned last night (email) that the sun spot near my navel is a squamous carcinoma. Did not sleep much. Learned today that it’s in situ, meaning slow-growing, easily treatable. Could have used topical fluorouracil, but opted for another surgery, May 30.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Slow day. Cleaned up a little, moved some extension cords around.

–Went over to Sherry Stults’ house and installed App Cleaner; removed 50GB of (mostly) leftover junk from software installations. Mind-boggling.

–Cleaned up the garage considerably.

–Picked up Nymble X V2 at UPS store. Blade not centered.

–Picked up Mustang mirror at UPS store. Got the frame out successfully, then broke a connector. Spent a long time trying to fix it. Will find out tomorrow when epoxy hardens. [edit: Tried it tonight; epoxy was hard. The two warning alerts I was getting earlier (something blind spot and something else) did not reappear. Obviously need to test it while moving.]

–Dropped off 7205 bracelet at FedEx for Rolliworks to add link.

–Took Grace big shopping at Bel Air.

–Gareth Bull finally responded on facebook and will be returning my repaired knife shortly. I was ready (and looking forward to) going ballistic on him. At least he apologized for the delay, which improves my overall feelings about his knives.

–Picked up new Oral B toothbrush at UPS. Will save the old one, since it started to work again. New one seems a little more aggressive, but one has to push the button 3 times to get it to highest speed. It also pauses briefly every 30 seconds (brushing nag), which is disconcerting.

–Back is really bad. Worse after a long session of stretching.

–Marie for dinner.

–Called Ally Bank to confirm (yet again) a wire to Kirill Yuzh.

–Picked up the Hilberg Shamwari clone at the UPS store. Really amazing knife–perfectly centered, drop shut, satin blade, etc. It’s heavy (steel, not titanium I guess) but that’s the only minus–for about 1/15th the price of the real thing.

–Basil plant is looking good so far, perhaps because I bring it indoors every night.

–Grace’s foot still hurts after three days. Took her to Sutter Walk-In on Sunrise. They said to go to Sutter Urgent care in Roseville. After a LOT of waiting (and an x-ray) they said she has degenerative arthritis, and prescribed an NSAID.

–Dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines, apples, broccoli, onions, basil plant.

–Got a pizza for dinner at Papa Murphy’s.

–Broke the passenger side mirror on the Mustang while backing out. Can’t find it online. Biked to a Mustang shop on Folsom; he couldn’t find it in house or online either. Guess I’ll be paying a dealership mucho money.

–EMP EDC Nymble X version 2 came in. Nice blade, except the sharpener really messed up and changed the angle a lot at the tip on one side. I tried belts, then the Ruixin, then belts again. It looks a little better, but still kinda crappy and not sharp. I think I got lucky with one blade on the Ruixin; all others have come out sort of multi-beveled–and I can’t detect it until the knife is out of the sharpener.

–Went with Grace to a credit union where she could deposit her RMD through to Stanford FCU.

–Picked up the Specialized with new tires (Schwalbe Balloon) at Bob’s Cycles (quick work). Tires don’t look all that huge, but they’re 50mm (compared to original 38mm), which is as large as I’ve seen people install on these bikes. I put the original handlebars back on and it rides like a dream. It’s going to be a chore getting that bike on the wall, so I started lifting weights again.

–Ordered a nice Shamwari clone from China, due June 18.

–Drove to UPS to pick up Whink and the Shiro Solar System. Put a huge scratch on the Shiro handle trying to break the thread locker. Had to put it in the vise to free it, then tossed the scales and kept the rest as parts. Next time I disassemble a knife, I WILL TAPE IT UP FIRST.

–Sending the scales (blotch on one) of the latest Shamwari to a guy in Indiana for zirblasting–after seeing his work on facebook. Fingers crossed.

–Took the Specialized Turbo Vado to Bob’s Cycles (Sunrise and Fairoaks) to look into fatter tires. They had some in stock; should be ready Monday. Fingers crossed.

–Tried to rearrange the garage slightly to allow easier bike accessibility. We’ll see.

–Walked to UPS to pick up tiny painting and Shamwari. Both nice. Shamwari seems heavy: not titanium? Thick? Don’t know. Great blade and action, though.

–Rolex 1503 came in. Runs great, looks good. In an astounding miracle, I found a 13.5mm link (was looking for 13.4) on eBay. Unbelievable. Don’t hugely need it, but it would make the bracelet fully-linked.

–Rode the InnerLight to re-look at where Buffalo Creek dumps into the American River. Took me a LONG time to find it, and even longer to (re-) find the input pipes on the other side of the ARP. Mainly BECAUSE the input pipes are not on the other side of the ARP, but rather are visible only from the ROAD that parallels the ARP. Argh….

–Big day. Warm, too.

–Ally called and had me go through all details of my wire to Yuzh Inc. Just the like the first one. Another wire went straight through (can’t remember what it was for). Unbelievably annoying. I’ve pretty much run out of banks, and of course the same thing could happen again no matter what the bank. And, lest we forget, this has happened on most (maybe all) of my (much smaller) Zelle payments. Don’t know what to do.

–Took Grace to the McKinley park Garden Center Bonsai Show, which we last went to 20(?) years ago. Pretty cool.

–Worked on the InnerLight a bit, trying to get rid of a clicky noise. Lubed the chain: noise still there. Put back the original solid (non-folding) handlebars: noise gone. Crap. Will likely revert on the e-bike as well, making it really hard to store two bikes on the wall.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Started the process of buying a $7.660 Rolex 1503 14K from Kirill Yuzh. It could be too small in the bracelet (12 links) or the case (34mm), but it’s a nice-looking watch, unmolested since 1980.

–Walked to UPS to pick up my Erie Spider marble (cool) and stopped at Bel Air for cream.

–Gray day, slightly drizzly. Catalogued all my Shirogorov knives finally.

–Walked to Rite-Aid to pick up the coffee sieve at the Amazon locker.

–Downloaded and watched Red. Great movie.

–Took Grace shopping at Rite-Aid and Bel Air.

–Trying (again) to get vstat.com working so photos are available to all, journal is not. Failing.

–Took the Gareth Bull Colibri apart (again). Polished the show side of the blade with an ultra-fine 3M sanding pad. Turns out that almost perfectly replicates the finish put on by Mr. Bull. Problems: (a) there are little curvies at the plunge where it’s hard to control the pad; (b) the satin lines are not as straight or rectilinear as the originals; (c) the Shamwari logo is starting to fade a bit. All in all, though, a surprisingly good effort for a new abrasive, freehand, on a hollow-ground blade like that.

–Heard from the redditor who sold me the (stolen) $1,250 mini FSD: insurance claim accepted! We haven’t discussed yet how he’ll get me the money.

–Took Grace big shopping at Food Maxx.

–Picked up the Gareth Bull Colibri at UPS. Spent a couple of hours working on it, to little avail. (a) It’s on washers, (b) I strongly suspect something isn’t square: pivot, holes in liners, hole in blade, etc. Knife is stiff opening and closing, and I put a scratch on the show side of the blade when it hit the liner. TAPE THE BLADE. TAPE THE BLADE. TAPE THE BLADE.

–Doves sort of acted like they were nesting in the rafters in front, but disappeared. When I looked in from outside the front gate, it sort of seemed like there might be (have been) a nest in the tree close to the house. We’ll see–maybe.

–Took a short bike ride, trying to trace Buffalo Creek. Enjoyable.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Dove couple looked like they were thinking og nesting in the tree near the downspout, then I chased them off by going carefully into my bedroom.

–Went to Bel Air for coupon stuff–ground turkey, Crystal Geyser gallon jugs for $.77, etc.

–Drove to UPS to pick up Barker painting and Wakui petty. Both nice, though the petty is blue steel and thus too beautiful to use.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good.

–Took the Mustang to lunch at Rim’s Deli, next to Noah’s Bagels. Old school, most excellent. Also got 13 sesame bagels at Noah’s for a bit over $13.

–Stopped at Home Depot; their basil has arrived. Bought one (my third) and put it in the pot. Someday…

–Yet another drizzly day.

–Got some subs at Jersey Mike’s for dinner (all sales proceeds today go to local charities). Not great, but a good cause.

–Rainy day.

–Went over taxes again. Seems legit. Grace’s RMD gave us $36k more income this year, and we hadn’t allowed for that in setting up estimated payments, so we owe almost $10k. State is puzzling: we made no (or trivial) estimated payments (why?) and owe close to $5k. We made $80k selling Tunnel Hill, but there’s apparently a new exclusion allowance so that doesn’t come into play. And all the deduction hoo-ha (Goodwill, car registration, property taxes, etc.) is irrelevant: it never comes close to the standard deduction of $28k, and never will unless we start paying mortgage interest again.

–Drove to UPS store to pick up 1972 NOS Osprey Santa Cruz day pack (way cool) and drop off Grace’s package to Jan.

–Started in on taxes. Pretty thick stuff. Turns out we grossed $229,000 in 2022. Holy freaking crap!

–Re-potted new basil plant. Looks okay so far.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Went to Smart and Final for milk, muffins and another basil plant. Stuck the basil plant (out of its pot) in a glass of water to try and loosen up the tangled roots. Not working very well so far. I thought it would be roots on the outside and dirt in the middle, but it acts ore like roots everywhere holding on tightly to some dirt. We fix ’em.

–Took the Mustang to my old neighborhood–Swallows Nest, Perry’s, Discovery Park, etc.–to check things out. Sutter Health parking lot was seriously empty; lots of trash in the canal under the bridge into Discovery Park–which was flooded of course–; the bike path into DP along the Garden Highway is fully lined with homeless tents.

–Got gas at the Fair Oaks Arco station. Regular was “cheap” at $4.25; the mid-grade I got was $4.55. The world continues to fall apart. And: the Mustang is averaging around 17-18 mpg when it isn’t on the road to Monterey. I hit it a little on the way home, and it didn’t seem to leap into tire-shredding action. I’ve never floored it (or maybe any car I’ve driven); will do that before long just to see if 460 horsepower actually means anything.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Urban EDC. Nice knife.

–Took Grace to Crumbl Cookies ($5 for one large-ish cookie; outrageous) where she got her sister a gift certificate. Then took her to Target for various stuff, most of which she didn’t find.

–Canned soup for dinner.

–Walked to UPS store to pick up the Strider. Beautiful knife, but (1) huge, and (2) flawed in exactly the same ways as my other one: detent lash when closed, and you can have ONE of the following: good action with off-center blade and blade play when open, or a tight centered blade that you have to pry open. No more Striders.

–Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Went to Peet’s for decaf, Safeway for pizza crust, bagels, etc.

–Made pizza or dinner. Not so hot.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch. Then Target for deodorant, candy, etc.

–Shirogorov Touch came back after three months. They replaced the pivot SCREW (to be fair, that’s what I wrote on the form) and didn’t touch the mangled pivot tube (collar, as they call it). Recon1 is looking into a fix.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to McDonald’s for lunch.

–Uhhh…

–Went around and around with Eric Sedie, the guy who sold me the Nymble X which got stolen. He’s escalating the claim, talking to PO people on the phone. Without full insurance, PO will not fully reimburse, I think.

–Fertilized basil and rosemary. Basil is looking kind of dim.

–Went to Home Depot. Got a pot and some soil.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final. Got a nice-looking rootbound basil plant. Potted the basil and re-potted the rosemary from its original smaller pot into a large one (discarded the not-too-healthy-looking other herbs that had come in the same pot–sage, thyme, something).

–Went to Green Acres (after learning Matsuda’s, now contractor-only, is owned by Green Acres) for basil, rosemary, soil, pots. The basil and rosemary were tiny ugly things in 3″ pots and I couldn’t find < 50 pound bags of soil. I did buy a pot. Went to try to drill a hole in the bottom of the pot holding the barrel cactus, when Grace discovered there was already a hole, blocked by a rubber plug. Yay!

–Went to UPS and picked up Shamwari slim 3.3″. Very nice. At Kayla’s (UPS sales associate, extremely helpful) suggestion, I will change my address to 310 only (no box number), and use the name Seward. One more knife coming (from Canada) to the box number. Hopes and payers are needed.

–Played around with a Shamwari and an old steel, and re-discovered the phenomenon of rolling a wire edge from one side of the blade to the other–so it feels screamingly sharp in one direction, dull in the other. Really strong effect, given (a) I was steeling very gently, (b) it’s an expensive knife and should have been honed better, and (c) I couldn’t really see the wire, even with my higher-power Opti-Visor. The belt grinder took care of the wire edge, of course. Makes me think that the vast majority of knives out there have these tiny burs.

–Simichrome came in. Seems like that and/or the Renegade high-grit polish can minimize hairlines on a blade. Could just be my wishful thinking/not looking so hard after polishing, however.

–Another empty box–at UPS–another knife stolen, this one the mini-FSD at $1,250. This shit stain at the PO knows my name, home address and UPS box address. Seller had insurance, so I may get made whole, but what to do in the future? I suppose UPS all the way, or FedEx, but that won’t work for eBay. I may try to shift my UPS box to a different name/number.

–Super windy today; not much rain.

–Picked up the “heavy grit” polish at UPS. Learned (once again) not to do anything with the Foredom–it’s just too aggressive with those little wheels. The polish might have taken some hairlines out; it’s hard to say. Used it manually on the two real Shamwaris. Also tried Loctite again with the Permatex accelerant. We’ll see. I’m a little concerned about the smaller Sham (on washers), as it seemed tighter than before even with the pivot fairly loose. Grrrr…..

–Picked up my new Oz Roosevelt in blurple at UPS. Total winner. I’m hardly tempted to break the Loctite, as the action is superb.

–Post Office/UPS seem to have lost the package with the Turtle Wax rubbing compound in it. PO delivered to UPS before they opened Saturday; package is nowhere in sight.

–Another gloomy day.

–Went to Papa Murphy’s on Olson to pick up a pizza for dinner. Mark Solich paid…….

–Grace actually wanted to go to the farmers market, so we did, and bought lots of stuff.

–Strider came in. Terribly designed knife: action is determined almost entirely by the scale screw nearest the pivot, as there are no standoffs. Got some nice action, but then noticed lock rock/detent lash when closed. Maybe toss, maybe sell.

–Saw some sun today. White-crowned sparrows enjoyed taking baths.

–Yet another drizzly, cold day.

–SPK Lamia came in. Hefty, runs on washers, super-stiff detent. I bent the lockbar some, and it’s getting better.

–Walked to UPS for packages.

–Spyderco Drunken came in. Good but not compelling. Another ShamWEri came in. Nice.