–Some rain came. All downspouts seem okay.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner. Good as always.

–Picked up powder-coated Cremina case at Perfect It. Cost $175. They did have to drill a small hole in one of the inside brackets, but finish is impeccable. Dropped off the Maximatic cover for them to do in black.

–Took lots of pictures, trying to figure out why some cameras seem to have given up the ghost. Part of it, I fear, is that I’m getting old and forgetful, and don’t always set things up optimally for the prevailing conditions (less light now than in April, for example). Ugh…

–Removed Lightroom CC and installed LR Classic (desktop). Turns out it STILL requires CC to be installed. So I ran one more showdown between LR and Affinity/ACDSee/RAW Power on a tough photo (tiny white lights in the dark). Scary how easily LR blows the others away with the simplest adjustments of exposure and highlights. Don’t like it, but nothing else comes close.

–Took the Beemer to Hooverville to get some jams and pastries. Nice ride.

–Bought Omeprazole on Amazon. WAY WAY WAY cheaper than anything on eBay.

–Had mild success lately getting rid of sour taste in lighter-roaster coffee (Black Sails The Moans, Queen Anne’s Revenge) by using hotter water and finer grind. It could be that in the old days a kettle without PID would get to 212; the PID in the Stagg kettle slows it down so much at high temp (so as not to overshoot) I’m usually at 208 when I start brewing.

–Took a shower and shave. Used a Wolfman WR2. Fabulous shave and further evidence of cognitive decline. I swore off all Wolfman razors thinking even their small gap ones were too harsh. Turns out, as legions of smart shavers know, harsh can be efficient, so you don’t have to keep going over and over the chin (say), causing bleeders.

–New neighbors (renters) moved in.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels (slim pickin’s), milk and lunch fruit (after forgetting about today’s farmers market). Grrr…

–Polished up the Maximatic and turned it on briefly. Machine is in fantastic shape. The only 54mm bottomless portafilter I could find has a big lip at the bottom (as noted at Home Barista), so likely won’t take baskets any bigger than a standard portafilter. So, 49mm it is.

–Red Baron Classic Crust pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Target.

–Tapped in detent balls on a couple of Shamwaris. May have helped a little.

–Went to Lowe’s and Home Depot looking for a lighted shaving mirror. Nope.

–For the 19th time, ran a competition between Lightroom, Affinity and ACDSee. On these night lights photos (at least) Lightroom reigns supreme.

–Picked up popcorn from Mark Solich at UPS (the long-awaited mystery package).

–Picked up Zeiss 85 lens at UPS. This one (unlike the first one) is tight as a drum.

–Walked around the neighborhood and took pics with the SL2. Processed them with ACDSee. It took forever and the results were less than pleasing. Downloaded Lightroom (for about the twelfth time) and re-processed the photos. Night and day: LR was quick, easy, and higher quality. I don’t know how they do it with that few controls, but it sure works. It just took some really challenging photos (bright colored lights in the dark) to show off the differences.

–Called Blue Shield and found out that Restasis is covered; the generic cyclosporin requires prior auth. Told Firoz this. He replied that Restasis is “not covered,” and the ophthalmologist will have more insight on what to use. Jerk.

–Replaced hearing batteries around 10 AM (5.5 days).

–Played with cameras. Spent hours looking into Leica ME issues. Thought it was a failed sensor, but eventually noted it was replaced in 2015 with a sensor that (allegedly) would not go bad. Much later, I checked out rangefinder calibration at infinity. Seems to be quite off, if the light I was focusing on was really at infinity. Will try to calibrate tomorrow, when it’s warmer outside. I always want something “new” of course, but the M9s on eBay are pretty sketchy.

–Had lunch at McDonald’s Gold River.

–Took the Cremina cover + Traffic Red powder to Perfect It. They sid (a) it will be $200 because it’s so hard to remove the original powder coat, and (b) they might not be able to do it because are prohibited (by me) from drilling a hole in it so as to hold/electrify it while powder is being applied. Will call tomorrow with diagnosis.

–Stopped at UPS. Meteorite came in. Hefty, rusty. Started flattening the two cut sides. Looks doable. May soak in Evap-O-Rust and coat with wax or something. Oz Roosevelt Silver Surfer came in. Really nice (deep maching as promised). Second Lumitime clock came in. Works fine, but neon bulbs seem dimmer, even when not behind two windows. Not sure what I’ll do with it.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels, cream cheese, cheese, pizza doughball.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Cleaned the fountain; spruced up my plants. Propagating the abutilon turned out to be a dismal failure.

–Went to Gold River McDonald’s for lunch. They reinstalled the drink machine, for reasons unknown. Had a McCrispy Deluxe chicken snadwich. Okay, not great. Good fries though.

–Zeiss 85mm f2.8 lens came in. Unusable at first, then I read up on it and changed the camera from Auto to Manual and used the thumb button to zoom; very nice then.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, chip-smoking foil pan.

–Barbecued a turkey breast with hickory chips. Came out good, though only mildly smokey.

–Had a tele-visit with Dr. Firoz. Went fine. He prescribed Restasis for my eyes and stretching exercises for my back.

–Hearing aid batteries died and were replaced around 6 PM (5+ days).

–Oz Rosie and pen came in. Rosie blade was a mess. I took the nicks out of it with the belt grinder, then swapped blades with another Rosie because the scales on this one are so nice. The pen also has scratches. I’ll likely send it to Ted Rooney. None of this was disclosed by the seller.

–Dr. Firoz’ office called. He’s a little sick and wants to do tomorrow’s appointment by telemedicine. Okay.

–Met Tom and Sandy Elken for brunch at Mimosa House in Folsom. Good time.

–Lumitime clock came in. Cool enough, but not working well. Bought a nicer-looking one on eBay.

–Ray and Sherry’s helper Frank came over to clean out gutters. He had trouble (as did I) getting water to drain through a downspout, so I lent him my new snake. Apparently it worked. $50.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the new Mergress razor on its mildest setting. Really great shave, which surprised me.

–Picked up Cymbalta (duloxetine) at UPS. Took one, not much happened until after an espresso: big diarrhea.

–Made some no-knead bread. Beautiful loaf, minimal taste, maybe under-baked.

–Chad Nell knife came in. Typical mirror: fog and scuffs. Tried to polish, didn’t do much.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM (5+ days).

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Had another Red Baron Classic Crust pizza for dinner; good stuff.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch, then Koreana Plaza for Fruit and cheese.

–Got an online prescription for Cymbalta. Sounds like magical stuff: good for depression/anxiety AND lower back pain.

–Re-positioned the hummingbird feeder.

–Noticed yet another gutter/downspout (short one) on the back patio. Cleaned it out, but noticed the drain (which goes underground) was backing up. Went to Home Depot and got a 25′ snake, used it, drain clear!

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels.

–Cleaned out the gutter over the front porch. Lots of mud, though maybe not as thibk as the side gutter I cleaned a couple weeks ago.

–Replaced hearing batteries around 1:30 PM (5.5 days).

–Got a Blaze meat-eater pizza. (1) They burned it. (2) It wasn’t as good as the mozarella/basil one we had a week ago.

–Watched Chaplin’s “Modern Times.” Not bad, but Paulette Goddard stole the show. What a presence!

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up Gareth Bull Colibri at UPS. Super nice knife. I of course had to “perfect” it. After many rounds of disassembly/assembly, I noticed a screw was going into the pivot collar crooked (it didn’t come that way, but that does explain some big issues I had geetting it together earlier. Finally got it together, seems less good than before. I’ll reverse the pivot to how it came, Loctite it and hope for the best.

–Took Grace to the PO for a postage-due package, then to Koreana Plaza for meat.

–Tried to re-watch City of Ember. My eyes are horribly dry. Hoping it’s fixable.

–Went to UPS to pick up the Oz Roosevelt. Fine knife, but it turns out you can’t polish stonewash.

–Went to Smart & Final for fruit, milk, cream, etc.

–Went to UPS to get desk pad (nice) and Sony hearing aids.

–Spent a while trying to get the Sony hearing aids working with iPhone and/or Galaxy. They sort of worked, but had poor volume, were minimally adjustable even with the app, and didn’t handle the phone well at all. Another several hundred bucks down the tubes.

–Took a short bike ride. InnerLight seems perfect.

–Discovered the jump in the PG&E bill was due mostly to the weather. I had thought we used gas for the water heater only, but it turns out the furnace is gas too. I knew that, just forgot.

–Picked up 49.5mm tamper base at UPS. Works great. Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and such.

–Bedroom was 71 degrees. Checked vents; all open. Closed bathroom vent (hard to believe it was open), thinking it can’t get much colder in there. I could be proven wrong.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch, then to Gren Acres in Folsom for Perlite, peat moss and rooting hormone so I can try to propagate the abutilon.

–We got a 10-minute rain today. Noticed that the downspout on Sherry’s side of the house was overflowing. Talked to Sherry, and she will have the guy who cleaned her gutters clean ours. I could do it (again), but I’m getting old.

–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market and to Macy’s, where she bought me sweatpants with lots of pockets.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips: $20 + $5 (lowest “suggested” tip).

–Took a 6.8 mile ride around the ‘hood. Wiped out. Time to get back in the saddle.

–Got a PG&E bill for $124—3 to 4 times normal. Going to look into replacing the gas water heater with electric.

–Took the InnerLight back to Bob’s Cycles for them to add brakes. They had a set of Shimano hydraulics for $109 each. They’ll also install the seatpost and fix the fork play I noticed (they got a little defensive about it).

–Got a Tekna regulator from eBay. Took it apart, de-rusted it (Evap-O-Rust and sanding pads), put it back together. Looks like it might work.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Picked up the InnerLight from Bob’s Cycles–all seemed good. Put the handlebars on then tried for the brakes. Nope. Those things are such a kluge, with spacers and all, then my back gave out. I’ll take it back to Bob’s tomorrow and have them put a set of hydraulic brakes on it.

–Went nowhere, did nothing. Grace is still in a really foul mood.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Left a message at Perfect It. No response. Went there, picked up the InnerLight frame. Took it and parts to Bob’s Bikes for assembly ($50).

–Marie for dinner.

–Played with knives and Creminas. Got things mostly sorted out.

–Went to Chocolate Fish for coffee. Had lunch at a nearby Subway.

–Blaze Pizza for dinner: excellent.

–NOS Cremina started acting weird; didn’t seem like the pressurestat was working right. Took it to the workbench, brought out the other two, played around with boiler caps. Noticed big differences in how close the caps came to the cover nuts, mostly because of how far the different nuts would go down (one bottomed out before the cover was real tight). I swapped covers around, bent one to make it fit better, got all three boiler caps sealing fine. NOS machine seems to work now, but I have no good theory as to why or what happened. I should probably move the pressurestat screw back and forth a bit to make sure it isn’t sticking.

–Spent the afternoon going up and down ladders to clear a ton of mud from the gutter on the side of the house near the twins. (The gutter was gushing out water during the recent rain, suggesting the downspout was plugged.) It was, now it isn’t. Meanwhile, I am utterly spent. Clearest evidence yet of how old I am.

–After a ton of searching, and re-re-reconsidering developing software I’ve shelved in the past, I came across Adobe DNG Converter. It takes up 2 gigs, but turns any RAW file (including Contax, which was the point) into a DNG that any developing app can work with (RAW Power at the moment). Wish I’d known about the converter a while back when I was struggling with all the Leica proprietary formats.

Went to McDonald’s Gold River for lunch. Not too great, though they did (re?)install a drink machine. I don’t get it.

–Pulled shots with the two rebuilt Creminas and adjusted their pressurestats upward.

–Met Jill Medici outside the DV gates and gave her the 1Up bike rack. I think it will be too much for her to handle, but it was free…

–Went to Barnes and Noble and got “America’s Best Mysteries 2023”–unreadable. The change in quality of that anthology year to year is bizarre and frustrating. Also got the latest Jack Reacher–seems standard.

–Took down masking paper left over by fence painters.

–Played around with app cleaners–everybody wants me to subscribe. Tried Daisy Disk, deleted some critical stuff, so had to reload Chrome/Edge. What a mess.

–Fences got painted today.

–Got a Blaze garlic/sausage pizza to eat while watching the Niners. Good stuff.

–Slow day, fair amount of rain.

–Made a pan pizza. Okay, but next time hold the Costco polish.

–Got the second Cremina working–no leaks. Will make espresso/steam milk with each, clean them up and tighten the grouphead bolts, then take a trip to Santa Cruz.

–Blew leaves and such out of the garage.

–Went to Koreana Plaza for fruit and cheese. Had lunch at Jersey Mike’s. Stopped at Pep Boys for Evapo-Rust and black spray paint. Turns out I already had Evapo-Rust; just didn’t find it in my search yesterday.

–Cleaned (sort of) and painted the rusted mesh grill on the bottom of a Cremina. Also touched up the frame paint. Not great, but not bad.

–WSJ has (once again) defeated all bypass paywall apps. Had a surprisingly long run, but I think this one will be bulletproof for a while.

–Pretty much finished putting two Creminas together. Both have OE piston seals and so are likely to leak; one more than the other as resistance to pumping is minimal. Bent the near-perfect case and got it to fit on the NOS one. Need to go to Michael’s (or such) and get some paint and Evaporust for the frame on one of them.

–Went to Pacific Skin Institute for a six-month checkup. Sarah Diane Whalen had left (and they are not allowed to tell me where she went); Olga Something saw me. She froze a few things on my head and face, and sayonara. I had to ask her if I could remove my shirt so she could check my trunk. Kind of the opposite of vigilant. Looking for a new derm…

–Started putting two Creminas back together. Moving right along, hoping the Orphan Espresso piston seals don’t leak.

–Went to Bel Air for chocolate cake ingredients. Made chocolate cake.

–Watched Expendables 4. Travesty.

–Went to Sherm’s to pick up chromed Cremina parts. Very nice: I believe they polished everything further before chroming.

–Stopped at UPS. Got Grundig clock radio (way cool), Cremina steam wand tips, Trevor Burger knife (ehhh…), Skiff ceramic bearings (immediately lost a couple; good thing I don’t need them now).

–Played with knives a bit. Also tried to time the Sea Dweller. I need a new timing machine: the big dome on the Rolex won’t let the watch sit right.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to the post office to pick up a package for Grace and drop off the knife I’m returning to Recon1.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Went to Costco hearing center for adjustment. She said she just put them back to original, but they are MUCH MUCH louder. Also updated them so graphic equalizer works with aids (instead of just with TV adapter), and added a “listen in noise” program.

–Broke the Xeoleo grinder while cleaning it (on button has no effect). Ordered a nice Fellow Ode to replace it.

–Slow day. Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner, then watched the latest Mission Impossible movie (Dead Reckoning Part One). Not a real thriller.

–Fence guy came and fixed the picket on the back patio. He also re-did the piece supporting the rear gate, but the gate still won’t close. Will replace.

–Went to UPS to pick up InnerLight decals from Etsy (nice), weaker hand gripper (perfect: 1 is exercise, 2 is difficult, and I can’t (yet) close 3 all the way), and black Oral B (nice).

–Replaced hearing aid batteries at 6 PM (Ray-O-Vac, 5 days + 2 hours).

–Paid first installment of Sac county property tax by e-check.

–Picked up Andre Thorburn knife at UPS. Very nice.

–Called CalPro. A new fence guy came over and said they would implement all the repairs.

–Tried the iPhone to see if it works better with the hearing aids. It doesn’t seem to.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the vintage Gibbs razor. Thought I had it set pretty mild, but it felt fairly aggressive and caused a couple nicks. Back to the closet.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch.

–Took some pics of abutilon blooms.

–Went to UPS and picked up bit driver and steam wand.

–Tried one-hole steam tip. Slightly better perhaps, but not like I remember (memory is imperfect, of course; it just seems like Creminas were monster steamers).

–Came close to buying a 1964 Rolex Explorer, near perfect, with all papers (including the hyper-rare timing certificate) for $17,350 at Tropical Watch. Waited too long. I might well have been disappointed with the gap between Jacek’s photos and reality, but lord what a package.

–Fence guy came and finished front gate.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries at 4 PM (Ray-O-Vac, 5 days + 3 hours).

–Went to Boa Vista Orchards in Placerville. Total zoo. Went to Hooverville–completely empty. Bought jam and pastries.

–Fixed a too-tight detent in a Shamwari by using my little vise to squeeze the ball in .1mm. Worked great.

–Still no fence repair follow-up visit, promised for yesterday.

–Went to see Dr. Esther Fine, ENT in Roseville. She was referred by the guy who diagnosed/treated my oral thrush. She was quite surprised I got thrush (Grace doesn’t think it was thrush; what could it have been?). Anyway, all good on parotid cancer, no more follow-ups needed. FWIW she was amazed at how severe the surgery was. “Better that than dead,” I said.

–Blaze pizza for dinner. Not as good as the last one.

–Fence guys were due here today to finish up. 4 o’clock, no signs…

–Repaired THREE sprinkler gushers caused by the fence repair guys tromping on things.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Hearing aid batteries failed at 1 PM (5 days, 4 hours (Ray-O-Vac)). New batteries (Ray-O-Vac) in around 1:15 PM.

–Watched an episode of Captain Midnight and decoded the message at the end.

–Fence repair guys finally started. Found more damage (of course) and wrote “more rot but customer did not want to repair” on the invoice to cover themselves; I worry the HOA will not accept this as a full repair.

–Motor City pizza for dinner. Good as usual.

–Went to Staples to get a new printer toner.

–Picked up the near-NOS Cremina at UPS. It didn’t disappoint. Unmarked, many accessories (FOUR filter baskets), all gaskets supple. Turned it on, it idles between .6 and .9 bars, no leaks. One issue: at first the sight glass didn’t work. After a couple of heating cycles, it worked. And a miracle: I took off the OPV fitting as a start to remove/unclog the sight glass. I decided not to pursue it, as it would have required major disassembly. I put the OPV back on, AND IT DIDN’T LEAK! I’ve had so much trouble with these, and the Orphan Espresso copper crush washers that turn into confetti—truly a miracle. Descaling now, on Barb Garrott’s advice. Espresso coming up!

–Took the InnerLight frame to Bob’s Bikes so they could remove fork and bottom bracket: $30. Then to Perfect It for neon green powder coating: $250, two weeks.

–Went to Jasper’s for milk shakes and deep-fried Oreo cookies. Decadent, but tasty.

–Went to Perfect-It powder coating. They will mask, neon green seems to be the right color, $250, two weeks. Started taking the bike apart, will let Bob’s Bikes do bottom bracket and fork.

–Picked up Van Deventer knife at UPS. Another IKBS bearing knife from South Africa. It’s okay, still can’t match a Shamwari for fiddling with.

–Dropped off Noah package and Rooney package at UPS; picked up cheap taps and a POS Chinese-made Paradigm razor.

–Put new hearing aid batteries (Ray-O-Vac) in at 9 AM.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels, milk, dessert.

–Left hearing aid battery died at 9:30 PM: four days and six hours.

–Went to Home Depot to get replacement handles/locks for the three sliding glass doors. Installed, with some difficulty. All good.

–Went to Ken’s Bikes in Davis to get a new tire pump and Kimo Tanaka’s contact info so I can ask him for a new set of decals if I repaint my bike.

–Spent a while with neighbor Kenny (who went by “Jason” as a professional singer/piano player) trying to set up his upstairs TV. Sort of succeeded, but not fully. He had a card table outside his house with “free clippings” from his succulents. I got some and planted them. They’ll die shortly.

–Switching from Edge to Chrome. Microsoft signed me up for a “cash back” program without my knowledge, and it persisted after two attempts to opt out. Screw ’em.

–Rode the InnerLight 14+ miles to River Bend Park again.

–Picked up the Sea Dweller superdome at UPS. Installed it. It’s quite “super” (high), but unlike the $300 True Dome, (1) it came with zero scratches, (2) it didn’t crack when installed, and (3) it does allow the retaining work to work. Fingers crossed.

–Picked up the old Bull Cheka Shamwari at UPS. It’s a mess, as I knew: scratches on scales and blade, broken blade tip, but worst of all (undisclosed) is significant lock rock. While scrutinizing it, I noticed the detent ball was pretty messed up. So I knocked it out, measured it (1.58mm or 1/16″), and ordered some ceramic balls from Skiff. Fingers crossed.

–Played with photo editors in an effort to drop Lightroom. Bought ACDSee and Affinity. Affinity looking good at the moment–extremely smooth. For reasons I can’t fathom, it only does haze removal on jpg’s (which show up as single layer called “background image,” not RAW’s, which just come up as “xxxxx.rwl.” I tried for a while to add a background image, but failed.

–Hearing aid batteries failed and were replaced with Kirkland batteries around 3 PM—almost six days.

–Picked up Gareth Bull Miura at UPS. Useless: no clip (can’t carry, and super-hard to flip without something to hold on to); smooth-opening means off-center and blade play, while centered is virtually impossible to open (too tight); lots of marks on blade, mostly from loose blade hitting liner.

–Picked up Sea Dweller gasket set at UPS. Replaced only a couple of gaskets. Turns out the $300 True Dome crystal, which was super tight to get on, had cracked (too small inner diameter). Further, it apparently was so oversized (outer diameter) that it stretched the retaining ring when I assembled it. Reverting to the old crystal was not possible: the retaining ring was now oversized and would not hold the crystal tightly in place. I spent a while with the Fercal resizing tool trying to reduce the size of the retaining ring–to no avail. I finally ordered another superdome crystal from Hong Kong, hoping it has the right inner diameter to be tight without cracking, and the right outer diameter to hold the crystal on tightly. What a mess.

–Went to Smart and Final for muffins, fruit. Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Homeless person spotted a week ago in Discovery Village (stealing a package) is still around.

–Re-potted several cacti. Probably killed them.

–Took a shower and shave. The NOS Ever-Ready Streamline razor worked fine with a single-edge (shaving) razor from Rite Aid. Really looking forward to the Gem blades I ordered.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for cherry tomatoes. Put together another compote, which is cooking as we speak.

–Watched Netflix movie Heart of Stone. Much better than expected.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries with Ray-O-Vacs around 9 AM.

–Quarterly tax auto-pay went through.

–Took Grace to Sutter Urgent Care (Firoz’ office) in Folsom for a blood test. Went to Whole Foods and got stuff.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up clock radio (pretty nice), Truedome Sea Dweller crystal (looks a LOT like the crystal that came on the watch, which I suspect is a service crystal), and Ever-Ready Streamline razor (cool, looks NOS).

–Left hearing aid battery (Ray-O-Vac) died around 9 PM (five full days).

–Rode the InnerLight on ARP west to River Park–14.5 miles. Kinda tired.

–Played around with my journal on WordPress, trying to make it private. No luck yet. Did successfully use phpmyadmin in control panel to dig out of a couple holes. [Edit] Finally got it to where vstat.com IS my journal and anyone but me who navigates there will be confronted with a login screen. If I really wanted to do something with vstat I could register wsf-journal.net or some such and move the WordPress site there. Given the power of imgur.com to host pics and videos (for selling) though, it’s not clear what I’d do with vstat. Maybe virtual statistics——–there’s a thought!

–Rode with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills.

–Took Grace shopping at Food Maxx.

–Put new Ray-O-Vac batteries in the hearing aids at 9 AM.

–Took a shower and shave. Used an old Gillette head on a Cooncat Bob handle. Head was quite aggressive. Surprisingly, that may be what I want: extra care resulted in zero nicks, and it was an incredibly close shave–my cheeks are totally smooth, which almost never happens. The second pass felt like there was no blade in the razor, because the first pass was so close. Complicated, though: I’ve tried four times to tolerate a Blackland razor, but I just can’t: it feels like a dull blade is at right angles to my face. Much to learn…

–Went to harbor Freight, mostly for a switchable magnet to use in blade polishing. Got it. Didn’t work. It holds the blade, but I found I could exert much more pressure (with control) just using my hand. Oh well…

–Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner (finished off the gift card from Mark Solich). Good.

–Right hearing aid battery died around 8 PM (almost five days).

–Rolex 1665 Sea Dweller came in. Took it apart, cleaned it up, put it back together–with great skill and good tools. Runs fast, but nicest one I’ve ever seen.

–After lots of trouble setting up the Razr phone, went back to the Galaxy since the Razr doesn’t seem to pick up the hearing aids as quickly. Plus the Galaxy just has an all-around better operating system implementation, seems to me. Wish it came in magenta.

–Sent the proper forms via email to Cal Pro for fence repair.

–Stopped at Bel Air for bagels, milk, cream. Tap to Pay failed (with Razr this time).

Went to Jasper’s again for dinner. Woman said she is 56, man is 60, they are unrelated, and man wants to retire after 36 years there. She’s not sure if she’ll stay on or not, she said. (I’m guessing she knows and is just being cagey.)

–Saw Dr. Bellinger re heart: all good.

–Cleaned up papers etc. on desk.

–Put new hearing aid batteries in at 9 AM.

–Went to Costco for hearing aid check. Lots of gobbledygook, got some domes to try. Learned that one removes domes/molds the same as one removed receivers in the Resounds: depress a tiny button and the wire+receiver pulls right out. This is good, because the alternative I was facing was trying to yank out the wire from the speaker itself–way too risky. So now I have two complete sets of receivers: one with molds and one that accepts Philips domes (not available on the web) and also Starkey/Oticon domes (easily available). The domes she put in are too large (they hurt), so I ordered some smaller ones. Unfortunately, aids are tuned differently for mold/dome, so I might get sub-optimal results just switching by myself without tuning. She was shocked at my four-day battery life, suggested I might want to send the aids back to Philips. We’ll see.

–Went for a bike ride with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. Nice day, nice ride.

–Left hearing aid battery went out at 9 PM–four days +.

–Went to Chalk It Up. Pretty good, great weather, good food truck hamburger for lunch. Grace’s arthritis is acting up, so she didn’t go.

–Stopped at Smart and Final for fruit and muffins.

–Rained last night. Gave me a chance to wipe off the Weber.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Got a refund from eBay on the first Galaxy Flip.

–Switched back to the iPhone to see if (1) the Philips hearing aid app had any more bells and whistles. It doesn’t. I have a theory (will test) that the app adds absolutely nothing: I can use phone settings to answer all calls on hearing aids; there are no wind noise or “venue” choices in the app; etc. It MIGHT be required for the TV box, but I doubt it; (2) Apple Wallet works better than Google Pay.

–Barbecued beef burgers and such. Tasty.

–Went around and around and around with eBay on the Sea Dweller–three different customer service reps. Unbelievable difference in competency. Last one said to ask seller for invoice. I did. He said “Will do.”

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around Noon—five days. These are Kirkland batteries. Hoping a brand name lasts longer.

–Won the 1665 Sea Dweller on eBay for a stupid low price of $14,101. When I went to pay, I got an error message saying “Seller does not ship to California” (seller was supposed to ship to the authenticator anyway). Messaged seller (who’s sold many watches, all through the authenticator he said) and he professed ignorance, said he would call eBay. I called eBay hours later. They replicated my problems, said they hadn’t heard from seller, suggested I ask him to call them OR send me an invoice. Still waiting.

–Heard from Pacific Skin Institute. Sarah Diane Whalen is leaving them (for parts unknown), so my October appointment will be with a nurse named Olga Karaputa. Great.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Made pizza with Grace’s birthday pizza dough from Williams Sonoma ($18). Box contained flour and (lots of) salt, but not the promised yeast. Made dough, made pizza, it was fine, though salty.

–Went to Bel Air for cookies. Tried Tap to Pay with (new) Ally account. Got the checkmark, but the terminal did not react, much as it was with Heritage with a live checker yesterday. Went BACK to Heritage account, will try again some day.