–After a whole lot of confusion and dead ends, I found an online traffic school that was cheap and legit. Took the course; hopefully that ends this episode. Gotta stay clean for 18 months now.
–Magnus Egg Slicer came in. Pretty, but needs some work.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Sun is finally starting to peek out from the fog.
–Paid State Farm $746.87 for BMW.
–Bought $5,000 Bitcoin at Coinbase, following a $7,000 purchase a week ago.
–Went to UPS for Goldie tungsten (nice, but I really don’t see the huge appeal of tungsten) and Tea-Time buttons (really nice). Got a Vicolo pizza for dinner at Bel Air.
–Still dank and dreary.
–Went to UPS for Drake’s spinner buttons (nice); then Bel Air for cream cheese, lunch cheese, dessert.
–Lost one drop (Metro spinner), won a second (Ziii red Corian spinner). The Ziii may have been just a pre-order, as they still seemed to have them several minutes after drop time–though I thought their Facebook post said 7 only (and the photo on the site shows 7). Who knows…
–Yet another dismal day. Apparently there’s a stubborn fog cloud that’s been hanging over the Central Valley for a while.
–Went to the farmers market for mandarins and apples.
–Another dank day.
–Re-covered the Weber and watered plants in back. Discovered (via Grace) that the already-once-replaced sprinkler head in front is leaking again, below ground level. This is getting very annoying.
–Picked up the Kickstarter bit driver at UPS. It’s okay, a lot of sharp edges, but the big issue is the spinning top is held in place by six set screws. I had to take it apart of course. Putting it back together so that it’s balanced when spinning is a seemingly impossible task. I’m not even sure it was well-balanced when new. I might wait a bit to see if the maker puts out a video showing how to balance it; I might not.
–Also picked up a couple sets of Modusworks Retcore buttons–one SS and one aluminum. Better-looking than the brass ones they came with, and I can put those on other spinners as they are very nicely shaped and dished.
–Was going to revive the Leica Q2 Paul Smith–it’s so pretty. My first shot was major blurry. Looking things up, I re-re-re-discovered it has no image stabilization. In fact, few Leicas do. Unbelievably frustrating.
–Thanksgiving. Kind of a dark and dreary day. Cold too. Barbecued a turkey breast and finally got some smoke flavor. Took about 65 minutes at 350-400.
–Got a traffic ticket for the first time in decades. Went up on a “sidewalk” near Olson to catch a green light. Kind of Mickey Mouse, but legit I suppose. Hoping traffic school will make it disappear.
–Picked up gift-makings for the alley at Walmart (photos and bags) and the Post Office (stamps). Ordered cards from Amazon. Stopped at Bel Air for coffee.
–Indy Thicc Baby Yeti in mokume came in. Fabulous spinner in looks and action. Also snagged a hyper-rare Magnus spinner on eBay.
–After much effort, got the new iPhone working in the Beemer. The trick was to turn off the new one, turn on the old one, delete the old one, then sync up the new one. Siri is back!
–Went to Hooverville for jam for neighbors for Christmas, a little for us, and a couple small key lime pies.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Second iPhone SE3 came in. Less scratched than first, 94% battery health rather than 93%. Spent a while setting it up. Still have stuff to do–there are way too many options. In a quandary about swapping in the new genuine Apple battery. Improvement might be minimal, and there’s risk.
–Made a pizza with the usual plus Jan’s pepeprs and a farmers market tomato. Best one yet.
–Another do-nothing day.
–Bought a couple of Hermes wallets (heh heh) from Dubai.
–Cleaned up the back patio plants a bit.
–Found and bought a genuine Apple battery for the iPhone SE3. The new OS wouldn’t stop nagging about the non-Apple battery.
–Sunny day. Got mandarins and apples at the Sunrise farmers market.
–Not much else.
–Stomach issues again this morning–diarrhea, a little nausea.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Played with magnets some more. Got the Magnus Crinkle almost good.
–Dank day, though not a ton of rain.
–Won a Baby Yeti spinner in mokume this morning. Same maker where I won a timascus Yeti back in January when I was new to this hobby.
–Played with magnets a bit. Very frustrating, as I lack a great way of keeping 8-10 bins of them separated while I sort them out.
–Swept up outside a little, anticipating more rain.
–Went to Bel Air for milk and stuff Grace needs.
–Picked up a canarywood Reg Barber tamper handle. Seriously plain and uninteresting. Tossed it. Finally got my Modusworks buttons back from Jeremy Piper. Picked up my second Magnus Crinkle slider. Found out it would accept 6×4 magnets, so I put those in on the ends. Works pretty decent now, and the new one, though identical to the old one, has a nicer finish.
–The new after-market iPhone battery appears to be pretty robust, showing 94% at 6 PM after doing a few things on the phone today. I ordered a second identical iPhone on eBay, so I can put the battery in that with (hopefully) less internal damage.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Played with sliders. Tried hard to reconcile everything. Almost succeeded.
–Walked to UPS to pick up the Magnus Superdimple. Impressive design, not the best sliding action, but better after I re-did the magnets.
–Noticed the iPhone battery, which early on had seemed to drain really slowly, was draining fairly fast. Decided to swap in the after-market 19,800 mah (right) battery. Had some issues; a screw holder broke so I didn’t replace a small metal plate; but eventually I got it back together successfully. Apple didn’t like the fake battery (of course). It’s charging now. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go down 25% in a day.
–Read up on Fellow/other electric kettles. Turns out Fellow has a fairly bad reputation in this area. Along with their buggy grinder, I can’t say I’m impressed. Looking into a Hario kettle.
–On the other hand, the nice folks at Timemore are selling me a new complete hopper with lid for $41 shipped, to replace the one I (accidentally) tossed along with some 3D printed ones. Good folks.
–Got bagels at New York Bagels. Got some Peet’s Holiday Blend beans at Peet’s, where there is a new Jersey Mike’s. Will try soon.
–Finally got Siri sorted out on the new iPhone. Scared me a bit with the new voices, no “Um hmm,” etc., but all seems good now.
–Went to UPS for (a) LIC EDC Goldie in titanium. Nice, but like one or two other spinners, seems kind of too smooth and boring. Can’t really explain. (b) Zerofeud timascus buttons. Nice, a little scratched (I knew that), will try and re-anodize when the DC power supply comes in. (c) Magnus Sweep in brass with thicker (.5mm) zirc muffin tin plates. Working on it–might just put the plates in my existing ti Sweep.
–Took a shower and shave. Used the BBS-1 razor that’s been sitting on a shelf for years because it was too harsh. Was eminded of it by someone selling one on a forum for $2,000. Still too harsh.
–Unexpectedly (for me) dark and damp day. Football, mostly.
–Pretty quiet day. Played with cameras a little. Picked up the Jim Dunbar pocket knife at UPS. Killer!
–Brought out (again) the huge Leica 50mm L mount lens. Turns out it kicks ass–auto-focuses better at night than I can manually focus. Razor sharp, zero fringing around the globe lights, and–for reasons I completely do not understand–makes DNGs at temperature 2,750, which is perfect. All my other lenses are around 3,400, forcing me to correct. Might be worth the weight.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Transferred (via online check) $40,000 from Heritage to Ally.
–Home-made pizza for dinner.
–Compared Rikenon to Summicron at f2.0 on a darkish abutilon photo. The Summicron absolutely clobbered the Rikenon off-center. I suspect the same thing will hold true later with a night picture. And we’ve seen how the Rikenon distorts the shape of the globe lights at f1.2. Really wanted to like the Rikenon. Crap. I guess if you want to use large enough glass to get to f1.2, you give up a lot.
–Paid State Farm Honda insurance $377.45.
–Went to Michael’s Crafts for 3/16″ eyelets. They fit great, but I haven’t pounded one in yet. We’ll see.
–Stopped at UPS for new $226 Apple iPhone SE 2022. Working fine, charging now.
–Went to Michael’s Crafts for eyelets for my belt. Got 1/4″. Would require enlarging belt hole. Will go back tomorrow for 3/16″, which could be too small to cover the hole. Grrr…
–Stopped at UPS for: (a) NOS Rikenon 55/1.2. Compared it with my pristine other Rikenon 55/1.2. A little edge for the new one I think. Both have issues at f1.2 (of course) with distorting globe light shapes, flaring, haze, etc. Still an impressive lens: the DV speed limit sign might be the sharpest pic I have of it. (b) SS Mega Mini Mame spinner (nice, but traded buttons as I did with the brass), Slim Pillar spinner (nice, but I really don’t see the hype around it (specifically, the astronomical prices), brass Mini Mame spinner (very nice, absurdly expensive because of rarity I think). (c) Magnus Chocbar slider (nice design, but serious flyaway issues). Tried to swap end magnets, but realized my strongest 6x2s are about the same as the original 6x2s in the slider. Into the “for sale” pile. Seems I have two boxes of 6×2 strongs; one says N45 and the other N55. Turns out they’re both around 3,200 Gauss, so I combined them. Guess I bought the N55s thinking (hoping) they’d be stronger.
–Took the Beemer to Walgreen’s to pick up the prints for Kenny’s Christmas cards. Had lunch at a nearby McDonald’s. Too much food, way too salty. Back to Jersey Mike’s I guess.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Quite a warm day. Should have gone for a bike ride.
–Updated the date on Kenny’s Christmas card from 2023 so I can get them printed up and he can get them out to friends. He gave us a huge jar of honey and yet another wonderful pre-baked potato.
–Walked to UPS to pick up Atorvastatin and an Indy Thicc Squatch. Nice spinner, perfectly balanced.
–Took a shower and shave, finally using Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus Magic Soap. Better.
–Walked to Bel Air for mozzarella, pepperoni, cookies. Made pizza. Darn good!
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins, apples, pears, jam. Stopped at the Winding Way Arco for $3.95 gas for the BMW.
–Went at Target across the street for Coke, eye drops, Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus shampoo.
–Walked to UPS for yet another Modusworks Retcore spinner. Came a little unbalanced. I followed Dung Ho’s advice (Facebook): loosen screws a little on one side; press frame toward the light side; tighten screws. It worked perfectly. So much for Kapton tape and tungsten putty.
–Did some more 50mm lens comparisons. Tricky business: Helios e.g. is shockingly sharp wide open in the middle of the field, but gets really fuzzy as you head out toward the periphery. The Contax 50/1.4 wasn’t quite as good as its reputation would suggest. The Rikenon 55/1.2 was quite outstanding. The Pancolar was the weakest of the group, and the Summicron (like the Contax) seemed a little weaker than I would have hoped.
–Walked to UPS to pick up an MBK front flipper. Nice knife.
–Tried to replace the battery in the iPhone SE 2020. Broke the cable connecting the display. Crap. Spent a long time looking at Red iPhones on eBay; ended up getting an SE 2022. The 13 Mini is smaller with better specs, but it lacks the front button and has an ugly lens set on the back. Besides, the SE was $206 (compared to $600) and the seller was honest about how the battery capacity would have degraded to 83%-86% over the years. I’ll try it, and replace the battery (carefully) if it seems to need it.
–Had a bad night. (and today) with reflux, due to Ozempic. No more of that.
–Miracle: John Roth of UC Davis Health called; he’s the one who called me while I was coming back from Santa Cruz. He apologized profusely for the delay, then set us up in the Davis MyChart, and got us each a 20-minute appointment with Dr. Swensson on December 23rd. Yay!!
–Picked up the blue Osprey backpack at UPS. Nice.
–Windy, rainy day.
–Went to the nearby dentist to have have two permanent crowns installed. Pretty impeccable work. One crown replaced a Cripe crown that was done not that long ago; Barrow said a cavity had developed behind it. Okay. I also had him smooth out a rough edge on the front tooth filling he did last time. Feels fine now, but he should have smoothed it out on day one. A mixed bag there.
–Made great progress in getting a PCP. Turns out the guy who called me while I was driving back from the coast was irrelevant. I needed to call the med group in Folsom and provide written evidence (i.e., Dr. Swensson’s reply to Tom’s message saying she’d be delighted to take us on). With that, we answered some questions (SSN, insurance ID) and we’re in. They (apparently) are working to find us an appointment and will call us by Friday. I have my doubts about that and will call them back sooner. We both have logins at the UC Davis My Health website.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Stopped at UPS to pick up (a) drugs, (b) toothbrush heads (genuine Oral B, frighteningly better than the past two things I’ve tried which seemed to have no effect), and (c) the Pancolar lens from Ukraine. Lens is in good shape. Did a comparison at f2 of Pancolar, Contax, Rikenon and Summicron. Results were mixed, but in general the Summicron kicked butt. I was a little disappointed in the Planar 50/f1.4. The Rikenon wasn’t great, but it is a 1.2 lens. The Pancolar had its good and bad spots.
–Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Still no call from Dr. Swensson’s office. I emailed Tom, and he asked the guy again to call me.
–Worked on the plants a bit: tossed a couple of dead ones, added soil, watered, etc.
–Picked up stuff at UPS: (a) Compoform slider (nice), (b) Pancolar lens (nice, but it has flares at night); (c) anti-popcorn bean feeder for the Timemore; really looks like it will work; (d) LIC EDC Love Nugget in crystal ti–byooteeful.
–Red Baron personal pizza for dinner.
–Weight: 213.6.
–Finally got the Sony AR7-IV working after years in the closet. Its internal button battery had died, so it kept asking for time/date when I hit Menu. Turns out if I just hit the shutter button instead, the camera works, menu and all. I suppose I should still send it back to Sony for a new internal battery.
–Trying to get more familiar with the AR7-V, though it is noisier than the Leica SL2-S, because it feels good in hand and has much higher resolution and better anti-shake.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, pizza, breakfast Danish, oatmeal cookies.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, squash, mandarins. Mandarins, though heavily green-tinged, are great.
–Did some test comparisons with Canon, Sony and Leica. Canon and Leica both clobbered Sony on noise, even before dark. And Leica, as I’ve probably discovered 15 times, beats the Canon. It’s too bad, as Canon has nearly twice the resolution, but noise really degrades resolution. So I’ll have to give up on the Praktica lens. There’s a Pancolar coming, but it’s not as sexy.
–Sat at home all day waiting for a call from UC Davis Health. Nope.
–Waited all day for a callback from UC Davis. No dice.
–Put the Salvatore back together and pulled a shot. Everything works perfectly. I don’t think I’ll keep it though–too big, too crude in the sheet metal, and I’m finally admitting that the E61 grouphead cannot improve on the Olympia machines. Yes, it will pull a huge shot, but that’s not what I (or Grace) am doing these days.
–After breakfast at the Holiday Inn, drove back to Gold River. Got a call from Dr. Swensson’s assistant in the car, told him I would be home by 1, have not heard anything since.
–Put the Salvatore together. After seeing the somewhat crude fitting issues, I’m deciding I won’t have it long. Don’t know how I’ll get rid of it.
–Had a car tailing me as I came into the DV gate (turned out to be a guy delivering a package to Grace). Made me nervous, so I hurried the entrance to the garage, only to hear a horrifying crunch as I swiped the side. It left a really ugly brown stripe 1′-2′ long. After some cursing, I went after it with a damp rag and it cleaned up COMPLETELY! Let’s hear it for clear coat! Today, while damp-ragging the car, I discovered a scratch on the mirror that would not polish out. I got the bottle of Alpine White paint from my last Beemer, only to discover it had pretty much dried up. Ordered another on eBay. Whew!
–Drove the BMW again to Santa Cruz to pick up the Salvatore. Except for replacing the power-on light with an on-off switch, it seems Sebastian did good work. Added an over-pressure safety valve and an expansion valve that routes overflow back to the water reservoir. Good stuff.
–Had a sandwich and coffee at Java Junction, across the street from Great Infusions. Okay, not great.
–Stopped at La Selva Beach for photos and a bathroom trip to the library. That library is the most quiet, peaceful place on earth.
–Walked to Raley’s for a Cobb salad, Cheetos and a diet Pepsi.
–Feeling really dicey all day. Don’t know if I can continue Ozempic.
–Walked to UPS for iFixit kit with new iPhone battery. May swap today, may not.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Weight: 211.6.
–Another gloomy day, with some tiny sprinkles.
–Did week two of Ozempic. Hoping the vague nausea and constant acid indigestion go away soon.
–Made reservations at the Holiday Inn Watsonville for Tuesday and filled the BMW gas tank.
–Stopped at UPS for an FTO Asylum spinner in polished copper. Too small, smooth and “not there” to be a keeper.
–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, dessert, Tums, Pepto Bismol.
–Dindu much today; pretty gloomy. Reconciled spinners/sliders a bit, took a couple of pictures, made a Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Heard from Tom Elken that we’ll be getting calls from Dr. Swensson’s office to set up our registration. Yay!
–Brass Mega Mini Mame came in. Nice, though larger and heavier than I anticipated.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Finally got some beautiful (focused) pics with the Prakticar 50/1.4 lens on the Canon, so I’ll switch to the Canon for now. There is a Pancolar lens with the same specs in M42 mount, but it goes for $2k+ on eBay. I have a Pancolar coming, but it’s 1.8. Not sure what it is about the Prakticar, but I really enjoy using it.
–Grace is in a really rotten mood. I can’t say anything without her arguing about it.
–Walked to UPS to drop off some spinner buttons. Stopped at Bel Air for sausage (to go with Kenny’s baked potato) and brownies.
–Played some more with the Retcore spinners. Found that wrapping the bearing in one layer of Kapton tape seemed to really help balance on the tungsten one. The way the thing is built, you can tighten the bearing cover with the bearing slightly off center, which could lead to unbalance. With the tape, the bearing is a tight fit inside the holder, so maybe…..
–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Went to Top Donuts for pastries and a bagel. Headed out in a little light rain. Windshield wipers, though complex, are ultra smooth. Stopped at LSB to take a few photos of empty business buildings. Stopped at UPS for a Retcore spinner (seller had installed tungsten balls; I spent a LONG time trying to balance it. Got it decent…for now.
–Took the Beemer to Santa Cruz. A couple of minor slow-downs, a little over three hours. Sebastian Little at Great Infusions looked at the Salvatore Famosa. He later called. Controller is dead. It used to be a volumetric machine. If I had looked more closely at the front panel buttons, or looked up the machine, I might have known that. He suggested turning it into s straight espresso machine and just covering up the front dosing panel with art or logo or something. Sounds good to me. Don’t know how I’m going to get rid of the machine later though.
–Egg salad sandwich from El Patio on the beach, in the car. It was 64 in Santa Cruz, and I predicted 59 in LSB. On the nose. Overcast and foggy, a reminder of why we moved out.
–Got 3rd floor as always at the Holiday Inn Express in Watsonville. The clerk and I recognized each other.
–Heckuva day. Put gas in both cars and added air to tires.
–Bought a brass Mega Mini Mame spinner and sold a Modusworks ti bar Thinamathing. Just heard from the buyer, who says the buttons in my video look a little too thick to be genuine/original. Great. [edit] Looked through my MW buttons (on and off spinners), found three ti sets that are thinner than what I sent out. Keeeee-rap.
–Picked up 3D printed Pancolar adapter at UPS. Didn’t come close to fitting the lens (it did go on the camera). Worked on it with a Dremel for a while, got it on. Took some pics, tried hard to nail focus. All were slightly blurry. Tossed it.
–Mokume buttons came in. They’re so highly polished you can barely tell they’re mokume.
–Tried to order dinner from Jack’s, but its various websites wouldn’t show us menus (perhaps an aftereffect of the big AWS outage). Used Doordash to see menus, but then Jack’s online ordering didn’t work. Ate a Marie pot pie.
–Took a shower and shave. Discovered some bizarre pimple-like thing on the corner of my mouth. Great. [edit] Eventually squeezed it–much blood, no pus. Gone.
–Weight: 212.4.
–Warm, quiet day. Mailed off Vinh’s birthday present.
–Started (compounded) Ozempic. Feeling slightly queasy, and not very hungry. I guess that’s the idea.
–Trimmed off dead leaves from my succulents, moved them to where they’ll get a lot more sun.
–Red Baron Brick Oven crust was chewy; looking forward to comparing it with Classic.
–[edit] Classic is better (crisper, less chewy), and Dr. Lisa Swensson agreed to take me and Grace as patients!!
–Went to Bel Air for apples, tangerines.
–Stopped at UPS for Love Nugget spinner, button extender for Retcore.
–Strange Days: Jonas Nix posted in his Facebook group that there were still Retcore spinners available in his third drop. These are the kinds of things that sell out in 30 seconds. He even waived the rule that current owners can’t get a second one–so I did. Very weird.
–Slow day. Watered plants, played with fidgets.
–Went to UPS to pick up Modusworks Rapt SGS slider in bronze. Polished out some dings. Not impressed with performance, even after putting in weaker middle magnets (too many fly-aways). Also got my Ozempic. Weird: I had to give them my home address, as they wouldn’t deliver to a PO box. Then, because it was refrigerated, UPS demanded I pick it up at an access spot—-my UPS store. Had to sneak it into the fridge; hope it’s good.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, cream cheese, and pizzas–one of which we had tonight. Red Baron brick oven crust = chewy.
–Grace went nuts pretty much all day. Set up an account at CVS so she could get her drugs. Got an appointment 1/2/26 with an Iranian woman doctor in Roseville.
–I picked up Grace’s drugs and stopped at UPS for (a) a KAP ultem spinner (nice, but too light) and (b) some crystal ti buttons–nicest I’ve seen.
–Talked to Sebastian at Great Infusions, and he agreed to wire up the Famosa if I brought it in. Will do.
–[edit] Nightmare in the bedroom tonight. (1) DHL now wants $26 tariff payment for delivering the 3D printed lens adapter from China. (2) Sac County property tax site still won’t send me a “change password” link, so I have to log in using my Google account. (3) Got a bill from DMV for BMW registration with a $200 penalty, because it was due in August (I checked the license plate). Very hard to believe they sent me a bill in June (say) and I missed it or forgot to pay. Possible that Monterey BMW neglected to properly register the vehicle.
–Getting chilly: I set up the small heater in the bedroom last night.
–Took Grace to Sutter Urgent Care in Roseville, in search of a PCP. To my surprise, they extended her prescriptions by 90 days, and will do so again if needed. They also gave her the names of a few docs who might be taking patients. I don’t have details, but after a little research she seemed to think they were all just out of med school, and not worth pursuing. Seems to me beggars can’t be choosers, but that’s not my business…
–The new Modusworks Retcore spinner came in. Pretty off-balance, and after hours of effort it’s better, but not great. An interesting but flawed design, I think.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Went to the new Gold River dentist, Corey Bafford, for two crowns and a filling. The work seemed to take longer, compared to other similar work, and was more painful. The first time I ate something afterwards, one of the temporary crowns broke, so I had to go back. Don’t know what to do going forward.
–Stopped at UPS and picked up Kenny’s honey jars. Order complete.
–Rain finally came this evening. Light, but wet.
–Got Kenny his pond light.
–Watched the 49ers lose.
–Made pizza for dinner (my dough).
–Took a shower and shave in preparation for the dentist tomorrow.
–Put in an order at Goby Meds for three months of (compounded) Ozempic, for $349. Hoping to get the belly fat down and my wind back.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Finally cashed in some of my bonus points: $9. Stopped at UPS for Kenny’s fountain light.
–Walked to UPS to pick up 1 terabyte SD thumb drive. Stopped on the way to pick up a zillion acorns. Got winded really fast when bending over. Hoping it’s due to fat hitting diaphragm–which could be reasonable since breathing while biking hasn’t changed in 20 years. Time for Ozempic.
–Thumb drive is super, with a plug on each end: one for the PC, one for Mac. No adapters needed to move files from Mac to PC. It came formatted in ex-FAT, copies files fast, runs jpg’s and videos fast. So now all potentially risky files are gone from iCloud, and thus cannot accidentally open when running XnView or VLC. Whew!
–Great Infusions responded to yesterday’s email, saying the Giemme controller on the Salvatore was discontinued and there are no modern “cross-overs.” Great.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Put Kenny’s large indoor(?) gift plant into a pot outside for now. Not really my kind of plant.
–Grace is scaring me again: did nothing all day, so I bought pizza for dinner, just like last night.
–Went to UPS for desk mat (finally a nice one), Kenny’s bottle caps, and damasteel spinner buttons from NJT.
–Two emails to Salvatore with no response, so I started working on the Famosa. Soon discovered that someone had CUT OPEN the controller box, presumably to repair something inside, then zip-tied it closed. What a joke! The date on the controller box suggests it’s 22 years old. I doubt I’ll be able to find that exact one, but it’s likely someone makes one that would work in this machine. If Salvatore won’t help, I’ll have to find out if the tech at Great Infusions is still there; I’m sure he could get it running.
–Left hearing aid battery failed at 11 AM. Replaced both at 1 PM.
–Installed 5-foot outlet strip in front of fireplace. Much better.
–Sent e-mail to Salvatore last night asking about refurbishing the Famosa. No reply.
–Finally called UC Davis Health and asked point-blank if any docs were taking new patients. Answer: one, in midtown Sac, with no openings in 2025 and no calendar yet for 2026. So much for UC Davis.
–Went to UPS to pick up Salvatore Famosa. It doesn’t have a huge footprint, but it’s extremely heavy. Pretty good shape cosmetically. I didn’t try turning it on; instead wrote to Savatore and asked if he would restore it.
–Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Nail bed of left thumb is as bad as ever. Wish I knew what this was.
–Took a walk to the Fair Oaks bridge. Tiring.
–Went to Bel Air for apples, tangerines, cheese, dessert.
–Stopped at UPS for plastic boxes and a couple of Magnus sliders.
–Spent a while tuning up the sliders. With these light resin ones, just putting the o-rings under the middle magnets seems to do the trick (they’re all 6×2 3,000g).
–The guy who sold me a Compoform slider on Facebook, which went missing via FedEx, just reimbursed me the full price–$450. Something’s a little fishy, as he never got specific about how much it was insured for, what the status of his claim with FedEx is, etc. Guess I can’t complain though.
–Nice day; didn’t do much.
–Tom Elken agreed to send my “Be our PCP” request to Dr. Lisa Swensson.
–Played with VLC subtitle size. The amount of control VLC gives you over everything is absolutely astonishing.
–Compared Leica to Canon on an abutilon shot. Huge differences to my eye, even though I’ve done this several times before and didn’t see much. Perhaps previous comparisons were all night shots–or maybe it was cataracts. For the leaves, the Leica came out much greener than the Canon–something Leica is known for. Hopefully that’s easily fixed in a preset, because: the Canon photo was MUCH noisier than the Leica’s. The SL2-S is known to have a great high-ISO sensor, but this was an afternoon shot, not terribly dark. Leica wins, I guess.
–Watched “The Lost City” for the second time. Pretty good movie, though it sort of peters out toward the end.
–Put in new hearing aid batteries at 9 AM.
–FedEx seems to have lost a Compoform slider. They said it was delivered yesterday, but UPS has no record of it. Since UPS “bulk” signed for it, blame/accountability will be interesting.
–Grace is getting scary: Firoz finally refused to update her prescription(s), and it’s not at all clear what she”s going to do about it.
–A fair amount of rain today, off and on.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Stopped at UPS for plastic boxes (too big; they work but take up too much space in drawer) and a Magnus resin spinner from Plants Wake You Up. Kinda ugly, didn’t slide well. Scavenged parts and tossed it.
–Made pizza for dinner. Not bad, but not my best.
–Went to New York Bagels for bagels.
–Walked to dentist Corey Bafford in Dr. Paul Cripe’s (retired) office. Michelle did x-rays and cleaning; Dr. Bafford took a look and said “two crowns, a cavity in the front tooth, and a referral to Creekside Endodontists for a tooth with internal resorption.” This won’t be cheap, but it seems fairly straightforward (i.e., he’s not making up things that don’t exist).
–Watered plants. Took a photo and learned (maybe) that the big plant from an unknown donor via Kenny is an Arrowhead plant.
–Cloudy day with a bit o’ drizzle.
–Played with magnets. Also cleaned my desk for the first time in a long time.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Red Baron cheese pizza with Thao tomato and a little fresh basil for dinner. Yum!
–Cool and cloudy most of the day.
–Walked to UPS to send off Noah’s birthday package.
–Played with sliders.
–Fairly cool day, and mostly cloudy.
–Went out to dinner at Blaze Pizza with Kenny–his treat. Good stuff.
–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market, then the Folsom Premium Outlets for birthday gifts for Noah.
–Left thumb cuticle area is still red, after several weeks. Don’t know what’s going on.
–Went to the Folsom REI to get a new bike helmet, as the padding on the old one would not stay in place. The new has adjustable sizing–very nice.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Went around the mulberry bush on doctors. Grace found one who seemed fine and was (on the web) accepting new patients. When I called to set things up, she was not accepting new patients. This disconnect between web and reality makes it essentially impossible to find a doctor.
–Went through most of my photo apps again, learned (again) that each has its issues. Signed up (again) for Lightroom, $10/month this time (last time they got me for $20/month, not sure how), installed Classic and Creative Cloud versions. Was disappointed in both for a bit, but after tweaking, went with the Classic version, since it allows me to customize the Develop panel. This editor is so good, smooth, customizable, etc. it just destroys any alternatives. E.G., the Details menu was collapsed (after many tests and customizations), so I opened it up, fiddled a little, closed the app then reopened–Details was available. This can’t be that hard to implement (automatically or with workspaces), but NOBODY does it except Lightroom. Hooked again.
–Another cloudy, not too-hot, poor air quality day.
–Took a walk to the Fair Oaks Bridge. Tired me more than it should have.
–Biked to UPS for Magnus Dimple Rainbow. Pretty, not the best slider action. Will tinker.
–Frozen dinners for…dinner.
–Played with spinners and magnets again; finally had some success.
–Went to UPS for licorice (still good), Heart slider (tossed quickly; gotta stop ordering this 3D printed crap), cough drops.
–Watered a few plants briefly.
–Went to Costco for muffins and Pellegrino. Got muffins, no Pellegrino. Got some Peet’s beans–$10/pound.
–Went to Bel Air for milk, cheese, cream cheese.
–Stopped at UPS for Craftsman BBQ tool, magnets, Rapt Lite (second one I’ve tossed, falls apart at the slightest spin), lemon drops, Magnus slider (very light (resin), great action).
–Stopped at Gold River Dental. Cripe is retired, and the new guy (no reviews anywhere) takes our Delta Dental PPO plan. Made an appointment for October 3 at 9:30 AM. Hygienist Michelle (whose name I firmly recalled as Sandy) said hi.
–Argued with Grace about eye doctors. She is so negative, pessimistic, sarcastic, argumentative, etc. that it will likely be Christmas before she sees one.
–Red Baron pizza for dinner, with Thao tomato and garden basil.
–Trimmed the tree that overhangs the roof on the front patio. No more overhang.
–Went to UPS for Modusworks plates.
–Swam 38 laps at 86 degrees.
–Took a shower and shave.
–Spent a while going through a youtube collection of videos on Then Came Bronson, partly to help me decide what to keep and what to drop. I’ll be keeping 4 out of 26. Despite all the yammering from a couple of websites about tone poems, introspective, brooding, sensitive, etc., most of these just strike me as pretentious, poorly written and poorly directed. Bronson isn’t a hero or anti-hero; he just mopes around with his head down and mumbles stuff. The one good thing thing you could say about the show is that people are generally better off (happier, more self-aware) for Bronson having been there. What still puzzles me is my firm memory that I had carried “all” 13 episodes in my head for years. The only ones familiar to me now are the 4-5 that stuck with me from another binge 10-15 years ago; the other 20+ did not tickle a single neuron. It’s likely the single best idea ever for a TV show (along with Route 66), but it was squandered.
–My butt aches (as usual) from working on sprinklers yesterday.
–Grace seems (once again) to have given up thinking about doctors, since her searches didn’t come with something great. Depressing.
–Did some laundry.
–Watered plants.
–This journal was requiring login every two weeks, so I ditched the “persistent login” plugin and added some code to functions.php. We’ll see.
–Vicolo pizza for dinner.
–Re-stocked up on Beulah’s Candyland cough drops and Claey’s lemon drops.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for Thao tomatoes (expensive, but noticeably better than others at the market), pears and tangerines.
–Exhausted myself (as usual lately) doing a little sprinkler repair in the side yard. All sprinklers are great now–until I actually test the ones in front and back…
–Noticed (for the first time, sadly) that there’s a difference between Edamame spinners from LIC EDC (original, longer, thinner) and Edamame Goldilocks (Goldie) spinners. I only have one Edamame, in zirc–the green resin one hardly counts–and a couple of Goldies (copper and bronze). I need more Edamames.
–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and banana bread. Took Grace along for shopping at Target.
–Trimmed, cleaned up, watered back patio plants.
–DXO started acting up again (fuzzy while sliding, snaps into focus when stop). Tried the newest version of Raw Therapee; still choppy. Went back (for the 14th time) to RAW Power. It might lack a couple of bells and whistles, but it sure is fast and customizable.
–Vlad and helper from Regal Roofing came over around 9 AM to clear gutters and downspouts. Spent several hours here, did a great job (swept leaves off roof too), and charged $200. Not bad. Let it rain…
–Got up this morning, felt bad, went back to bed. Got up again around Noon. Still don’t feel great.
–Went to UPS for Craftsman BBQ tongs (cool), lacquerware spoon (dull finish; tossed), Reg Barber tamper handle (on the fence; may or may not keep).
–Stopped at Bel Air for dinner. Tried a Panera flatbread pizza. Not so hot.
–Made an appointment and took Grace to CVS near Lowe’s for COVID (us) and flu (her) vaccines.
–Lunch at Panera.
–Magnus Sunburst slider came in. Not quite as compelling in person as in photos. Also not the greatest performer.
–Took a swim.
–Messed with sprinklers a bit in the side yard. More to come. I hate sprinklers.
–Got a haircut at Great Clips (zero customers the whole time I was there) and picked up a Speedo nose clip at UPS. For the second time in a week, I narrowly avoided a driver merging into my lane from the left. Idiots.
–Took a swim. Nose clip worked.
–No swim today: waiting for a nose clip from Amazon, and I doubt (given the air temp) that water temp got over 80.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Took a shower and shave; clipped my toenails. The Gillette Psycho did not want to work well, though my beard was approaching 1/2″. Switched to the Fat Bay.
–Red Baron cheese pizza with added Hillshire sausage and tomato for dinner.
–Ordering some vintage Craftsman BBQ tools from eBay. Turns out that if I ever looked at those tools 20 years ago, I’ve completely forgotten. Most say “Not Guaranteed Forever” and “Considered a Kitchen Utensil” on the handles. And the way the scraper is put together–blade bolted onto handle–was a total surprise to me. Is it observation or memory? Beats me.
–Going back to the Samsung Z Flip 5 for a bit. iPhone battery life seems to be getting worse. Considered upgrading to Z Flip 7, but there were no real compelling reasons to spend close to a thousand bucks on one.
— I almost never hear what Grace says the first time any more. Could be she’s talking more softly, more likely my hearing is getting really bad.
–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, tangerines. Then to S*T strawberries for strawberries and jam.
–Watered plants.
–Played with sliders. Very frustrating: all the magnets I have, and nothing I try seems to improve performance. Could be that the ones I’m working with (Gators, Crinkles) are just too heavy to be great sliders.
–Took a swim: 30 lengths.
–Waited all morning for a Pyra slider drop that didn’t happen. At least they posted (at 12:10) that it wasn’t going to happen.
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.
–Took a swim, 26 lengths. The pool was back up to 83. My nose clip kept failing, and I hit my head against the lip of the pool, but other than that…
–Took the BMW to Hooverville for jams and produce.
–Played with sliders. I really need to figure out an easy way to measure and store those nasty button magnets.
–Red baron for dinner.
–Cleared one gutter/downspout in the side yard. Noticed the other downspout seemed clogged. Decided I’m too old for this stuff and will let a pro do it.
–Went to UPS for fins (pool was 79 today), Vern Scharf painting, FidgetThings S.O.B. 2 Slim slider (tried to like it, and MAY have been able to mod it, but ended up putting it in the “sell” section of the closet).
–Rode 14+ miles west on the ARP with Tom Elken. Cool weather.
–Picked up magnets and a KAP Horizon Ultem spinner at UPS. Plus a Gillette Psycho razor.
–Tried long and hard to get a Magnus Crinkle to slide nice. I improved it, but one piece still goes flying on backflips too often. Don’t know what I can do about that–the corners are about as strong as they come.
–Too cool to swim. The season may be over almost before it started, for me anyway.
–Juli got off fine.
–Went to UPS for a Magnus X slider (horrible sharp edges) and many magnets.
–Marie for dinner.
–Took a swim. Had to skim leaves first, and the water seemed 5 degrees cooler than a couple of days ago. Did 20 laps.
–Had bagels for breakfast.
–Juli came by and we went for a walk to the ARP (from Gold Country Blvd.).
–Tried for lunch at Brookfields, but it was jammed, so we went to Mimosa House, which was not at all crowded.
–I made a pizza for dinner.
–I decided to finally take a swim. Pool isn’t hyper-clean, but there’s no chlorine odor and it was a very comfortable 85 degrees. I’ll be back.
–Took some more Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny and added them to the pot. Looks much better. Don’t know if anything will take hold.
–Grace’s sister Juli came in around 4:30, Calling us from her motel: the Hawthorn Suites on Tributary Point. She seems fine, has lost weight. She has her insurance settlement + $460,000 from selling the property, and is considering all sorts of options for what’s next–along with her (apparent) new boyfriend Steven.
–Dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats. Good stuff.
–Got some Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny, so I put them in a plastic pot, drilled some holes in it, then hung it in the back patio. Looks okay, but (a) I haven’t had a lot of luck with these, and (b) it’s already sparse–too few cuttings in the pot.
–The last Magnus slider arrived. It’s nice, but I had to pay Magnus $14 for shipping, and DHL $62 for customs duty and such. What a joke.
–Put the pet feeder outside. HHH ate from it, and I snapped a few cool pics of him with the built-in camera. Very cool.
–Re-re-re-re-re-installed DXO. Was getting excited by the ability to customize palettes. Then saw what I believe I’ve seen before, recently: when making any adjustment, the image fuzzes up, then goes to normal when I stop moving the slider. Very strange, and not acceptable. Kee-rap!
–Went to New York Bagels for bagels.
–Picked up yet another Pyra slider at UPS.
–Watered plants.
–Went to Firoz’ office to see Jasleen Agroia. Totally useless visit. Scheduled.a physical six months hence. Hope to have a new doc by then.
–Picked up sliders at UPS: black Pyra (great plates), Modusworks Rapt (SS, great condition), Magnus Arc Mini Frag (both SS and zirc muffin tin plates. Yay!
–Florida is going to end mandates for all childhood vaccines. Absolutely unbelievable.
–Red Baron for dinner.
–Went to UPS to pick up hearing aid batteries and a Prits slider from Ukraine that was so bad I tossed it immediately.
–Played with sliders, trying to get more workable magnet combos, but ended up as usual putting everything back the way it was. Ordered a bunch of different magnets, and need to order still more.
–Fixed the locking mechanism on the side yard sliding glass door.
–Watched Nobody 2. What a waste of time. No setup, no motivation, just a ton of bloody violence. Unfortunate.
–Made a DEElicious pizza for dinner, with Thao Ranch tomato and our own basil.
–Got and saved 20 or so pics of Chalk It Up 2025 from Reddit.
–Blood pressure seems to be subsiding a bit, finally.
–Re-potted the three herbs (rosemary, chives, thyme) from one big pot to three smaller ones.
–Went to UPS and picked up (a) NJT Vader in distressed(?) copper; so ugly and unfixable I tossed it; (b) Sony dream machine with projector and nature sounds. Not quite as pristine as it appeared in the eBay listing, and poorly packed. Haven’t tried the projector yet (not dark), and rain seems the only reasonable nature sound, though the volume is such that I’ll never hear it without hearing aids. Will likely toss.
–Took a shower and shave. Tried the 1947 military razor again, tossed it. Got a theme going here…
–Tried several photo editors over the last few days after dumping $20/month Lightroom. As usual, ended up with Raw Power. It lacks some of the bells and whistles of others, but it’s fast, smooth, and infinitely customizable.
–Big day. Kenny brought me another melon. I went to the Sunrise farmers market for pears and tangerines, and bought some tangerines for Ken the mailman. Then to Bel Air for barbecue and dairy stuff. Then to UPS, where I saw Ken and gave him his tangerines.
–Put the Jimson Weed cutting, which has been sitting in water for months with a few roots, into a pot with soil. We can watch it die now. Watered all plants.
–Barbecued pork chops, corn, Claire’s potato salad. Yummy!
–Waited all morning for the “standard” Pyra spinner drop. Didn’t happen. Queried one of the principals. He said “Will do a drop around 7 CST.” I started refreshing the screen every second at 6:55, and at 7:04 I WON ONE!!
–Chicken pot pie for dinner. Grace is still not real keen on cooking or shopping.
–Re-potted several succulents. Seems to have gone okay. Really worried about doing the multi-stemmed one.
–Went to UPS for (a) Magnus Shell (swapped in some dimple plates for the original skeleton plates and made it smoother), (b) my second Aura Sand slider (these are fabulous), (c) pills fro Amazon, (d) my second 3D-printed add-on for the Timemore grinder; I can’t figure out how to mount it..
–My blood pressure seems to remain high: 140’s over 80’s. Crap.
–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn, got gas at the nearby Chevron, drove home. Roughly 3 hours and 5 minutes with no delays.
–Took Grace to dinner at Carmelita’s nearby. Not bad, but not great.
–Drove the BMW to the coast. Had an egg salad on wheat at the bluff in La Selva Beach, checked in at the Holiday Inn in Watsonville, went to the Pot Stop and bought a bunch of pots, drove to Capitola only to find that Phoebe’s had closed early (3:30 instead of 5:00, sorry for the inconvenience), went to McDonald’s for an early dinner, went back to the hotel and zonked out.
–Went to UPS for some Modusworks slider parts, a Pyra slider I traded for (fabulous), and a KAP zirc spinner.
–Dr. Firoz’ office called and made an appointment for me to see him in person next week (at 6:30 PM). Don’t know what’s going on (lab work was great, Losartan prescription was doubled from 25mg to 50mg); don’t look forward to it.
–Got some mats down from the attic to wrap pots in at the Pot Stop tomorrow.
–Took a shower and shave.
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