–Turned on sprinklers, after fixing issues front back and side.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Lumitime clock came in. Flawless, quiet, not as bright as the one from shermtyv on eBay. Don’t know how he did it.

–Black Leica TL came in. Mint condition, still feeling it out. Not sure it will replace a CL.

–Second Leica D-Lux 7 007 came in. Ultra new. Made the mistake of comparing it (again) to the C-Lux. The C, with its vastly longer zoom and smaller sensor, blew the D out of the water. Oh well…

–Got an appointment (via Firoz referral) at Sacramento Spine and Physical Therapy. For May 1. Oh well…

–Dr. Firoz’s office called with a referral to Sacramento Spine & Physical Therapy.

–Played with cameras and abrasives. Tiny bit of progress, maybe.

–Went to UPS for Rolex crystal (had marks, I tried to polish out, ruined it), rubbing compound (promising), rubber-coated tweezers (nice).

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Daylight Saving started. Stupid.

–Played with cameras. Noticed the M-E is nice-looking. On the other hand, twilight shots between it and the M11 were pretty dramatic: an abutilon bulb on the M-E was a blob, while on the M11 it had decent definition. Do I really need to keep an M9? The bottom plate is retro cool and all, but the camera leaves much to be desired. AND the M10-R has a bottom plate. I’ll probably never decide.

–Played with cameras. Don’t know what I’ll keep. The M10 Black Paint is a beauty, but maybe more of an art object. The Safari is cool, but has a noticeable scratch that the finish won’t allow e to take out. The M11 is lick, but has that spring-loaded battery. First-world problems…

–Made pizza for dinner. Forgot to cut the dough in half. That was one thick pizza. Good though.

–Took the Beemer to Green Acres in Folsom and got an Owari Satsuma semi-dwarf tree. Hoping it produces fruit in less than five years.

–Cleaned up the plants a bit on the back patio.

–Put the meteorite in the electrolysis bucket for several hours. Didn’t seem to do a whole lot. Will continue.

–Leica M10-R came in. Some evidence it had been used as a store demo: it had an old battery and SD card in it. Further, the Leica Sync app showed > 400 shutter actuations. (Same app showed around 620 actuations on the Black Paint M10-R–a keeper for sure.)

–Back started out good, got bad as the day progressed. Neck hurts now too. Crap. Sent a message to Dr. Firoz asking for a referral.

–Picked up yet another Leica M9 at UPS. Very nice, with intact sticker on the bottom (I took it off) and just over 1,000 shutter activations. Each of the black M9s has tiny marks, but I’ll likely stay with today’s; serial number is much higher for one thing. Still don’t know about M9 vs. M10-R.

–I successfully set up an electrolysis rig and ran the Erie Spider skillet through it. Seemed to work fine (there wasn’t much rust on the skillet). Meteorite next.

–Lunch at Jersey Mike’s.

–Picked up Leica M10-R Black Paint at UPS. Marks on top and bottom, not bad but easy to see. Tried to polish some out on top, added some bad scratches (just did that with another camera, can’t remember which). Don’t know if it’s diamond abrasives in the vicinity getting rags or not–actually trying to polish the paint with .5 and 6 micron diamonds didn’t do much of anything. I think I really need to restrict my rag use to the yellow microfibers–or maybe the green shaving towel. Tried some Meguiar’s Swirl Remover, and it may have helped. Ordered another Meguiar’s polish that’s one step coarser, and a soft Dremel buff. There are lots of cameras that could use some polish, the problem being all the knobs and buttons that get in the way.

–Another relapse on my back. This is getting old.

–Picked up the Rolex 931250 at UPS. Not only is it the wrong year (looked like VB on eBay, actually VE), it’s super worn/over-polished, and the clasp doesn’t work well. I gave up, put a strap on the 1680 for now.

–Back pain considerably better on day 12.

–Took a shower and shave. This could be the 4th shave on the Gillette Spoiler blade, and it felt good.

–Day 11 of back pain. A new record (last one, two years ago, resolved in 8 or 9 days).

–Red baron pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–And dot’s about it.

–Went to Smart & Final for ($17) banana muffins; Bel Air for milk, cream cheese, pizza.

–Heard from Tom Elken, who wants to start riding again March 11. We’ll see.

–Well, back to the M11. I might be missing some settings, but test pics on the Safari just don’t look great.

Dilemma: It’s super-hard to focus the Zeiss 85 in the bedroom at night using the Visoflex 2. Similarly with the Biotar. So: maybe one needs an M9 for its history/look, and a CL for lenses that won’t focus on a rangefinder without a Visoflex. Could the built-in EVF of the CL be that much better than a Visoflex on an M11? Maybe.

Later: Turns out the CL viewfinder DOES support nice focusing of Zeiss 85 and Biotar. Will use CL for non-M (i.e. non-rangefinder) lenses, and black M9 for M lenses only. There are a few. Don’t know what I’ll do when the Paul Smith CL comes back. It’s cool and all, but the one I have came new. We’ll see.

–Walked to UPS (!) to pick up the Cheburkov flipper. Nice blade, though it has foggy sections, and the flipper tab is way too small: it’s a pain to open. Crap.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.

–Back is bad today; took a Tramadol at 4.

–Back still hurts, a little worse than yesterday. Taking the combo Advil/Tylenol caplets, which don’t seem to have a huge effect.

–Leica M9 (black) came in. Nice enough, 688 shutter actuations, takes fine photos. No box, no accessories except a Leica charger that doesn’t work. Ordered another on eBay ($125 for the Leica name on a $10 charger).

–Noticed that NCIS Hawaii season 3 episode 3 “License to Thrill” was a dead takeoff on the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze film Point Break: older, super-likeable criminal takes a young police officer under his wing as he’s being investigated. At the end, the criminal jumps out of a plane and disappears forever, similar to Swayze paddling out into killer 30-foot waves.

–Back is better, somewhat. Looked up the previous episode from March 2022: it lasted 8-9 days. So, a few more days of this.

–Bought a Leica M10-P Safari from MPB Camera.

–Back bad all day, always on the verge of spasm.

–Still don’t know jack about photography. Took some bedroom shots to check focusing. The M9s were 1/60, f3, ISO 400. The M11 was 1/320, f 1.4, ISO 2000. What??? The M11, known for low-light capability, opened up the lens, did 10x ISO, then snapped at 1/10th speed. It’s like the M11 is saying “do whatever you have to to use a super fast shutter speed.”

–Back still bad.

–Birds and squirrels are getting more numerous at the feeders, and today a cute brown rat showed up to work on spilled bird seed.

–Back is better, but still not good.

–Did a showdown with the Leica C-Lux and D-Lux 7. C-Lux won: much longer zoom, excellent image quality.

–Back was somewhat bothersome yesterday, and sure enough it blew up overnight. Took a Tramadol this morning (which may not have played well with all my other meds), and napped much of the day.

–Got out the Leica, which I thought was wrecked, and was surprised to see it takes as nice a pic as the M9. Shutter count is > 26,000, but it looks and works fine. I do recall I had to re-calibrate the rangefinder–successfully, it seems.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Saved $35.

–Bought a black M9 on eBay which had its sensor serviced by Kolari. Looking forward to it.

–Went to the dermatology PA. She froze several, asked if I wanted to biopsy a couple. I said let’s wait and see. Made an appointment for three months. Really need to find another dermatology practice.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Disappointing (though not hugely surprising): watch is 1978 while bracelet is 1994; crown guards, while likely unpolished, are not as fat as I had hoped; runs poorly on the Timegrapher: amplitude 200, beat error 0.7ms, timing +23 s/d; caseback has considerable corrosion around the edge. Dial and hands are in good shape, though, and–while I really didn’t notice it–the dial may be blacker than many of this era. And the bezel insert is a gorgeous fade.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Misty day; started raining around 5.

–Made pizza for dinner. So-so.

–Played some more with Leica M9 and M11. Settling on M11: M9 colors are just too saturated; M11 has all the advantages of a newer model–view screen, megapixels, etc.

–Lunch at McDonald’s.

–Walked with Grace to UPS/Bel Air/Rite-Aid.

–Played a lot with M9 and M11. They are strange in precisely opposite ways: the M9 is dark and super-saturated, while the M11 seems over-exposed and under-saturated. I put a new-generation SD card in the M11 (as forums recommend), and it went haywire. Tossed that card. The old style seems to work fine in that camera. Leaning toward keeping the M9 at the moment, though it’s only 18 megapixels. I should probably just go with the SL2, but M’s have their charms.

–Last night they predicted big rain today. We got 2-3 drops and some wind.

–Took a shower and shave. The Gillette Spoiler blade continues to impress.

–Mailed Amelia’s birthday present.

–CIT Bank account is closed, money moved over to Heritage. Will likely re-move some to Ally for better interest rates.

–Played with cameras. Still having a hard time deciding between the SL2 and the M11. Bought a Visoflex viewfinder for the M11 that will pretty much turn it into an SL2. We’ll see.

–Picked up coffee from Black Sails.

–Played with cameras. Actually boxed up the M11 because the SL2 was so much easier to focus–thought the M11 had some rich colors. Then did a test in late afternoon, same lens wide open on both cameras (Summicron 35/f2). The SL2 used an ISO of 25,000, compared to 2,500 for the M11, and the difference in noise was striking. I’d heard the M11 sensor was good in low light, but a factor of 10 was really surprising. Back to M11.

–Motor City pizza for the Super Bowl.

–Picked up thick floss at UPS.

–Went to the dentist. Three cavities filled, crown needed, but I’ve already used up 2024’s max reimbursement. So he’ll check it in August when I’m getting (and paying $174 for) a cleaning, maybe do the crown in 2025. This is ridiculous.

–Stopped at UPS. Picked up Aquasonic flosser. Totally useless: The built-in tank on this hand-held unit holds enough water to floss for less than 10 seconds. I had to refill it twice to even approximate a thorough flossing. Dumped it, bordered a tank-based Waterpik. Nokton lens came. Beauty. Leica M11 came. Also a beauty. The standard shots I took of Froggy the Gremlin are incredibly dense and rich. The rangefinder seems easier to use (may be bigger/brighter), and live view focusing works, but it’s not magic. Will take some practice.

–My eyes are feeling almost moist for the first time in a long time, as though the Restasis were working. Hope so.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Spent > $200 for not a ton of groceries.

–Painted the Leica “soft touch” shutter button with Krylon black lacquer. Came out fine, but not as glossy as I had hoped.

–Another rainy day.

–While trying (and failing) to use a diamond-loaded strop to hone a Shamwari, I put a couple of large scratches on the blade rubbing it with a cloth that had picked up some diamonds. Tried half-heartedly to save the blade, but ruined it. This was the Shamwari that came with issues, was “repaired” by Bull, and re-anodized by Ted Rooney. Good riddance.

–Frozen dinners tonight.

–Went to the dentist for “cleaning.” One month after 2 crowns and a cavity, 2 more cavities (one of which may need a crown) and filling replacement. Grrr…

–Put gas in the Honda.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Rain and wind all day. Back gate blew open, breaking the tree branch with the bungee cord. I put three bungee cords around the tree trunk; it’s holding.

–Was reminded again that the M9 won’t focus with adapted lenses that don’t couple with the rangefinder–Biotar and Zeiss 85mm, for example. They would focus on the M11 using live view, but not in the viewfinder. Decided (for now, as usual) to go with the CL, which offers magnified viewfinder focus for any lens, native or adapted. Hoping the Paul Smith CL is as mint as was claimed in the eBay ad.

–Took a shower and shave. N of 1, but the Gillette Spoiler blade that came with a razor was pretty darn nice.

–Picked up leather strop at UPS. Quick test did nothing. Also got the third GE toaster oven. This one is in extremely nice shape AND IT WORKS! With a bell even when toast is done.

–Cleaned up paperwork, scuba stuff. Did some quick testing of small Leicas. The 007 D-Lux 7 seems fine compared with another D-Lux 7 and a C-Lux.

–Picked up the chromed Tekna regulators from Sherm’s. Nice work. Spent a LONG time this evening putting them together–lots of free-flow issues. Had to use parts from the eBay plastic Tekna that came in today–body was cracked, but innards were okay. Lost a circlip.

–Second set of Jubilee links for the Datejust came from Wholesale Outlet on eBay. Like the first, they didn’t fit. Might have to give up.

–Took the Beemer to Hooverville Orchards to get jam and pastries.

–Played with Shamwaris. Turns out you can get just about any Sham (washers or bearings) to have great action if you tighten the pivot properly.

–Got the Leica M9 out (giving up on the M11 for now: seems to be the worst of both worlds: no magic M9 sensor, no DSLR advantages (anti-shake, auto-focus)). Took another “in my room” photo and started working it in Capture One. Disturbingly choppy, especially for a not-that-large file. Dropped Capture One (again), brought back RAW Power and Affinity.

–Got the seller to accept return of the Leica M10-R. Boxed it and mailed it out.

–Left hearing aid battery died around 8 PM (5+ days).

–Leica M10-R came in. Scuffs on base plate, occasional hairline elsewhere. The Leica Sync app said 26 shutter actuations; who knows? Wrote to seller, asked for refund. They’ll refuse. Could open a case, could just buy another base plate ($300), try to transfer the label from this one, and sell the camera, along with 17 others. I have problems. The focus magnification in live view is okay, but I vastly prefer doing it through the viewfinder–not possible on a Leica rangefinder. Don’t know whether to go back to the SL2, or sell that and go back to the Sony, or just give up on high-megapixel cameras and go with CL and D-Lux 7.

–Tried to reconcile finances. Seems that a CD at CIT Bank I thought would mature in 5/24 (12 months from purchase) is actually a 6-month CD, which must have matured in November 2023. I got no notice, though, so I don’t really know what’s going on. Will call them tomorrow.

–Crap.

–Went to Dr. Taylor, ophthalmologist. Big scare the last time much reduced today. Both retinas seem more or less normal. Will need to keep taking Latanoprost forever, though, to keep the pressure down. Same with erythromycin ointment for blepharitis, though only occasional use needed, not nightly. Got some Cequa (cyclosporine) samples and (hopefully) a prescription. We’ll see. (heh heh)

–Verizon restricted Grace’s phone for some reason, likely related to my debit card expiration. Only three levels of chat needed to restore.

–Cleaned the sink at the espresso station. It gleams now.

–Slow day. Looked at a lot of toaster ovens on eBay.

–Dropped off the old Macbook trade-in at FedEx.

–Right hearing battery died around 5 PM (6 days). Replaced batteries around 6 PM.

–Leitz 35mm/f2 lens came in. A tiny bit stiff in focusing, so I started to take it apart, then realized all videos I had seen (3-4) dealt only with the optics and shutter blades, not the helicoid. So, I put it back together. Takes a fine picture, but I’m not big on focus tabs, as you know.

–Sun came out today.

–Janesville arbor press came in. Heavy, smooth; it did take some setting up. Pressed down the detent ball on my newest (really stiff) Shamwari, and it worked. It took like 4-5 stages with decreasing feeler gauges, and lots of pressure, but it did work. As I think about it, using a hammer and punch might be better: the ball might rather be shocked down than eased.

–Yet another crappy drizzly day.

–Lunch at Burger King, shopping at KP and Target, Red Baron for dinner.

–Removed my presence from the old Mac and got it boxed for return.

–Played with the new Mac. Pretty impressive. Capture One works pretty well on it, so I bought it ($300–yikes!). Much more customizable than any other editor I’ve used.

–Pan pizza for dinner. Not bad, but not my best.

–Picked up the new Mac M3 at UPS. System transfer took 30 minutes, and the new machine is a 100% clone of the old machine. Downloaded and played with ON1 photo editor, which was horribly slow on old machine. Works great on new one. Bought it.

–Yet another dreary day, with .01″ of rain.

–Bought another Reg Barber yellow tamper. Can’t believe I tossed the one I had. Oh well…

–Rain off and on all day.

–Took apart Leica 50mm f2 lens to ake it a little smoother-focusing. Can’t get it back together of course, and haven’t yet found a video for this lens. Oh well…

–Cleaned up Christmas stuff a little.

–Got the Honda washed (finally) at Folsom Car Wash. Good job. Might be the first time it’s been washed in Sacramento.

–Tried out the “new” toaster oven with a bagel. Worked okay, burnt a little on the inside part.

–Took Grace shopping at the new Grocery Outlet in the commercial center within Sunrise and Coloma. Nice new store, beautifully stocked, but they didn’t have much to tempt us. Probably won’t go back.

–Lunch at Jasper’s. Youngish Hispanic-looking couple running it, no sign of former staff.

–Haircut at Great Clips. Brittany again (after a couple with others, not nearly as good). Will have to mark the next one on the calendar, as she only works Mon-Tue-Wed.

–Picked up GE toaster oven. Kind of cheaply made (to my surprise), but it might work for bagels.

–Went to UPS and picked Swarovski crystals I don’t remember ordering and two shaving brushes: Paladin and Rudy Vey. Neither grabbed me, so into the closet they go.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Covered the bird of paradise and Kenny’s succulents with perlite in an attempt to keep the squirrels from digging up the soil.

–Helped Frank the gutter guy unclog Sherry’s downspout. Tough work, but it’s clean now.

–Red Baron pepperoni pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up Zeiss Biotar 58 f2 lens. Seems to be pretty sharp–much better than the “new” Helios 44-2, which I’ll trash. I was reminded that I cannot use this lens on the M9, as it won’t couple with the rangefinder. It will work with an M that has live view, which I’m considering.

–Scary stuff: Was searching yesterday for M10 Leicas at the Leica Miami Store, as recommended at reddit. I somehow got redirected to a site called leicaous.com (Leica Online US), where all Leicas were available cheap. I thought I bought one with the Heritage credit card, but nothing came through. Turns out leicaous is a copycat site that somehow intercepted my search and tried to sell me stuff. Turns out NOBODY has Leica 10-Rs for sale in black paint or even black charcoal. The cheapest silver one (new) is around $6,200 from Hong Kong, and the cheapest used black paint ones are $9,000 (leicaous had them for $6,100). Scary stuff–just hoping they didn’t steal my CC number to sell it.

–Took Grace shopping at Koreana Plaza.

–Played with knives, with some success.

–Took the Beemer to pick up coffee at Black Sails. Sweet car. Trying to deodorize it now with activated charcoal.

–Bought a Leica M10-R from the Miami Leica store (based on a recommendation on reddit). Free shipping, no tax–eBay is fast becoming a last, not a first, resort.

–One more dreary day.

–Made another sheet pan pizza, with Jack cheese this time. Not great.

–Big recycling toter got swapped in today.

–Revived Affinity Photo. Removed most fluff from most menus. Develop is the only persona I need now, with a keyset command for Export. It is blazingly fast (not necessarily because of my customization), MUCH faster than Lightroom, which was turning on my computer fan and being extremely sluggish with big Leica SL2 photos. Don’t know why it took so long for me to do this.

–Started cleaning up Christmas stuff.

–Took a look at Sherry’s downspout that’s leaking on our fence. Got the snake to where it goes underground (I think), but no further. She’ll have her gutter guy come out to take a look at it.

–Slow day. Made a sheet pan pizza from a recipe in the Cooks Illustrated book. Not bad, not great.

–Another dismal, dank, cold day, with not enough rain to make it worthwhile.

–Played with knives, had amazing success getting many Shams to open easily, close hydraulically. Opening seemed mostly a function of lockbar pressure (I don’t have my spiffy new arbor press yet to play with detent ball height); while closing was related to pivot tightness.

–Played with knives, mostly. Discovered the little arbor press I got (220 pounds) was not enough for detent balls. Ordered a 1 ton press (with ram stop) from Amazon. That will work.

–Took Grace to Dr. Firoz–no news. Took us both to the dentist. Grace had a cleaning, I had a filling and crown (started). Pretty uncomfortable.

–Proxxon arbor press came in. Nicely made (especially for the price). Tried it on a hard-to-open Shamwari detent ball, and it worked! I could feel the ball moving in (which was scary, actually). Highlights the need for a very smooth rack and pinion mechanism, so you can feel the knife, not the machine.

–Bad news in the neighborhood: homeless guys sitting in front of Bel Air and Rite-Aid, and further mailbox tampering in Miners Village. Crap.

–Picked up Swarovski crystals at UPS: too small I think.

–Tried to sort out all my cameras. Did okay. Just missing the box for the D-Lux 7. Can’t imagine it came without one (it came with a manual), but I sure don’t see it.

–Went to Target with Grace for sundries. I had breakfast (and bought a dozen bagels) at the nearby Bagel Cafe (formerly New York Bagels, I’m pretty sure). Still run by Asians, likely the future source of bagels.

–Played with cameras again. Resurrected the Leica C-Lux, which I had forgotten I had. Heckuva camera: 20 megapixels and huge zoom range. Seems to take a decent picture. I guess I had gone with the D-Lux 7 because of its low-light lens (f1.7)–not something one really needs much on a point-and-shoot zoom camera. Also: After looking at (and getting dangerously close to buying) a Canon 1 DS or DX, I looked anew at the 5D Mark II I have. Turns out it has 20 megapixels, not the 6 or so I had thought.  Also read up on the 50mm 1.4 lens on that camera: seems to be a dog. Put an offer at eBay on a Tamron 45mm that got high marks at reddit for its auto focus and shapness. Hoping that will turn the 5D into a really nice vintage digital camera.

–Pizza for dinner: Grace’s instant pot meal didn’t firm up.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels. Cinnamon, blueberry, sourdough cheese garlic, everything, cheese—not a plain bagel in sight.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Another dank day.

–Played with cameras some more. Finally discovered that the red cast on Leica D-Lux 7 pics came from the “cloudy” white balance setting. I set it on AWB-C (cool) and it seems good. So D-Lux 7 is back in, X Vario is out.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for tangerines. Not many vendors there–cold and wet.

–Motor City pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Kirill Yuzh wired $7,000 to CIT Bank for the Rolex yellow gold 1503, which I don’t even remember.

–Went to Harbor Freight to get a butane torch, then to Home Depot to get some butane.

–Cut up a whole bunch of boxes.

–Took Grace to Dr. Taylor, ophthalmologist in Folsom. Apparently her eyes aren’t as bad as she thought. Got a referral to a retinal doc, and MAY need cataraact surgery.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Went to Dr. Cecille Taylor, ophthalmologist, in Folsom. Turns out I have really bad glaucoma in my right eye. And cataracts of course. And blepharitis (inflammation of eyelids; cause of dry eyes, so Restasis is useless). She prescribed some drops for glaucoma and will follow up in a month. Also prescribed erythromycin ointment for blepharitis. Crap.

–A quiet Christmas. Gifts were exchanged, ham/mashed potatoes/broccoli were eaten.

–Put up the little Christmas tree and some minimal decorations.

–Still have to wrap Grace’s (few) presents. Just not in the mood this year.

–Bought yet another Cremina. This one was not cheap ($2,000), but seems genuinely never used.

–Played a lot with cameras. Brought the X Vario out again and retired the D-Lux 7 after taking some pics of birds and squirrels through the patio door. Though the X Vario is bigger and heavier and (maybe) a little slower, its image quality is way better.

–Discovered (maybe) one reason Helios and Zeiss uncoded lenses look crappy on the SL2. It’s complicated, but has to do with Auto ISO reverting to weird default values depending on the shooting mode. In a nutshell, low ISO (100, say) –> slow shutter –> motion blur.

–Downloaded RAW Therapee and played with it a bit. Could be interesting.

–Still deciding which Watchco to keep. Non-date is running well, but hands aren’t perfectly aligned. Date is running even better, but I can’t seem to change the date by popping the crown in and out, as I thought I used to. Grrr…

–Took some pics with the Helios lens. Even though the SL2 showed perfect focus, the abutilon blooms came out fuzzy. Same thing happened with the CL. Don’t know the cause. I was at some distance, but still: monster sensor, huge magnified image in the viewfinder. Will try some more on the M9 when the adapter comes, but I don’t know. The lens is a 44-2, which is supposed to be the best of that model, and the glass is pristine. I can see the rangefinder not being calibrated to it, but with the SL2 it’s real-time super-magnified focus. It should be magnificent. [Edit] Compared the Helios with the Summicron 50 on the SL2. Night and day. Helios is crap; will toss.]

–Played with regulators. Found some Tekna parts (no tiny springs, though). I have five that work nicely.

–Picked up stain remover (for Grace) and fourth Paladin Halloween brush (for me) at UPS.

–Initiated transfer of $212,734.03 from CIT Bank savings to Ally Bank savings.

–Went with Grace to the dentist for prophylaxis; dentist had no record of appointments. Okay…

–Went to Ivanov’s Watch Repair to pick up Watchco Omega I dropped off a couple days ago, thinking it was toast. Turns out they did a couple simple things (oil pivot, for example) for $60 and now it runs really strong. Saved myself a lot of time and grief not sending it back to OmegaAddict Tim McKrain.

–Tekna brass regulators came in. Like my recent Olympia espresso machines, they are near NOS, and include a box and lots of papers. On the tank, they both work perfectly. Took one apart, and the needle valve seat looked new. I’m certainly on a run with new old stuff. Will likely take them to Sherm’s for chrome plating, as there is noticeable pitting in the original chrome.

–Picked up the powder-coated Maximatic cover at Perfect-It.

–Eye doctor sick; appointment re-scheduled for 12/26.

–Went to Ivanov’s Watch Repair to drop off Watchco Seamaster. Stopped at Corti Brothers on the way back for some Holiday Ravioli–gift for Grace.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played with cameras. Long story short: going with Leica CL for daily photography with different lenses; M9 for CMOS photography and vintage nostalgia; probably D-Lux 7 for quick high-zoom pics. As good as the X Vario feels (and made in Germany), I just think he D-Lux 7 outguns it.

–Put two abutilon cuttings in a pot in the garage with a grow light. One seems to be triving; the other dying. Strange…

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for Satsumas and broccoli.

–Sprayed the Erie Spider skillet with Easy-Off and left it in a garbage bag outside.

–Played with the two OysterQuartz watches for a while. Bracelets are kind of a mess. I have one small collar that seems to go nowhere. Really can’t decide if it’s worth sending one or both to Rolex. It would be expensive, and they might lack replacement parts like dials, bracelet links, etc. Found a really nice-looking one on eBay from Japan (of course), only to note it’s missing two lume dots. I suppose I could build a nice franken (undetectable), but then I’d be > $15k into OysterQuartz.

–Played with the two new cameras: X Vario and M9. M9 seems nice, could possibly replace the SL2. The eBay listing said < 1,700 shutter activations; I checked and found < 1,000. Not so clear on the X Vario. more testing needed.

–Second Rolex OysterQuartz came in. Chamfers not nearly as impressive as in seller’s photos. Scratches on dial. Then it stopped running. Case has less pitting than the first one. Will probably send both to Rolex and see what they recommend.

–Leica M9 came in. Much heavier than, and much better than, the M-E (which must have a lot of plastic in it). Almost seems as though I can focus it.

–Leica X Vario came in. Very nice camera, exudes quality build. I immediately took to it (somewhat to my surprise), and expect to enjoy the heck out of it.

–Packed and mailed (via UPS) all outgoing Christmas presents. Whew!

–Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace to Folsom Premium Outlets, Brainy Zoo Toys in particular, where, miraculously, she finished our Christmas shopping.

–Went to the post office to mail some of Grace’s presents (had to go there because of Rob in Canada).

–Not one, but TWO battery chargers came in today (and not the OysterQuartz I was hoping for, which, I learned later, just got authenticated today).

–Grace went into full panic mode again. She ordered some local chocolate and had a lot of trouble communicating with the maker. At one point, after getting a voicemail, she dragged me out of the house yelling “She said she left it on the air conditioner at the kitchen!” Grace took this to mean the clubhouse kitchen here, which is totally preposterous. Eventually I drove us to a little industrial campus on Pyrites Way, where we found a box of chocolates sitting on a window air conditioner outside one of the businesses. Scary stuff, as when, while on the phone with a Stanford Benefits rep, she screamed “WHERE’S MY PHONE??!!” Also scary is how many decades it has taken me to actually note and categorize this behavior: she’s always had issues on the phone. Don’t know what it means, if it’s at all related to alcoholism, just don’t know.

–Rolex GMT came in. Very nice.

–Correct portafilter gasket came in from Orphan Espresso. Finally got to try out the Maximatic: also very nice. Huge amount of crema. Steaming was okay; I need (a) more practice and/or (b) a steam wand where I can replace tips.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels (got three plain; still no sesame), cream cheese and bear claws.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Played with knives. Discovered (again) that when detent ball is too low, (a) knife can be flipped open and (b) there can be serious lock rock.

–Noticed a squirrel on the back patio (maybe a new one) eating berries from the Chinese Pistache tree.

–Polished the meteorite a bit with 80 grit paper. Might be pretty close to flat.

–Sent off Rolex 5512 and Day-Date to Kirill Yuzh for consignment.

–Blaze pizza for dinner.

–Had lunch at McDonald’s–pretty good.

–Played with cameras.

–OysterQuartz crystal came in. Replaced chipped one with much trouble. Later, bought another OysterQuartz: the Mark I model, without “Officially Certified…” on the dial. That model MIGHT have wider chamfers, though it’s hard to believe Rolex would change how they made the cases. Turns out the OysterQuartz is really low production: 25,000 in 25 years.