–Went to Bel Air for fruit, burger patties, corn, Grace’s juice, gallon jugs of Crystal Geyser. Used Tap to Pay, my phone said it worked (switched from Heritage to Ally last night after talking to an Ally help person), but it didn’t show up on the register, so I had to use a card. Grrr….

–Barbecue for dinner. Tasty, but both sets of old corn cob holders (Grace got for her birthday) were pretty useless. Grrr……

–Resurrected the Leica SL2. Fine camera when you’re not using one of the monster L lenses. Tried the 50 Summicron M f2 (with adapter), really liked it. tried the 28 aspherical with adapter (it was already 6 bit coded), not wild about it. We’ll see.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Took Grace to dinner at Jasper’s—which, it turns out, is closing to turn into a taqueria. Crap.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM–four days.

–Polished the new McGizmo waterproof flashlight–was a mess, looks great now.

–Motorola Razr came in. Good shape. Took some doing, but finally have it set up better than the Galaxy. Still working on getting apps to front screen May not work for all.

–Stopped at Bel Air for pizza and dessert.

–Dropped off the Cremina groupheads for chroming at Sherm’s.

–Put gas in the Beemer.

–Sac Heart called at 2:00 to cancel my 3:55 appointment and reschedule. Great.

–Went to Costco to pick up new hearing aids. They are loud, but will take some getting used to before I know if they really help comprehension.

–Eufy battery came. Machine makes chirping noises and lights up when plugged in, but does nothing (yet) when taken away from charging station. Oh well…

–Went with Grace to Smart & Final for lots of stuff.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Not much, really.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for tomatoes (they were out of dried apricots).

–Fried pork chops in Erie spider skillet. Not bad.

–Went with Grace to the dentist. One big cavity filled, one temp crown fitted. Lots more to come.

–Marie for dinner.

–Had Chromatic Coffee’s Opus for breakfast, after rave reviews for a dark roast at home-barista.com. Don’t like it.

–Took the Beemer to Placerville, first for jam and apple pie at Hooverville Orchards, then for lunch at Mel’s Diner. I stopped in at Old Town Grill, but there was a line and it seemed un-air-conditioned.

–Old Shamwari came in. Pretty rough shape. I cleaned it up a bit, then put the (heavily scratched) bolsters on a Bergeon satin wheel and made them wonderful. Posted in facebook with before/after photos and got a huge response.

–Super hot day.

–Picked up the Samsung flip phone at UPS. Nice but (as I of course knew) it doesn’t do anything different except flip. And it only sees the left hearing aid.

–Got bagels and cream cheese at Bel Air.

–Doug of Douglas Electric came over with Sal and replaced five smoke alarms. These are now hardwired (as they were), interconnected (ditto) and have 10-year lithium batteries.

Picked up Kob Knobs and Cremina at UPS. Cremina seems workable, though it looks like I’ll have to rechrome the grouphead. Took forever to get the lever pin out of the piston rod—I had to cut it with a hacksaw, then drive it out. Machine seems only to be missing the lever and portafilter.

–Went to Bel Air for pizza dough and pepperonies. Made pizza for dinner. Duh.

–Finished re-doing the back sprinklers. Totally wiped me out. Had to take a two-hour nap.

–Did much work on sprinklers in back patio. As usual, lines were already installed. Put a riser/emitters on the two bushes by the barbecue. With a lot of cutting and patching, put emitters on the three bushes in back. Then discovered another line and decided to redo everything and put emitters on that line. Grace took a look and noted that the line I used was actually a soaker line, with emitting holes every foot or two. Exhausted and pissed, I quit for the day. Tomorrow I’ll go back and redo what I first did, with emitters on a new line, then block off the soaker line. Only good thing was discovering a cut off line buried 3-4 inches deep, which I’m sure was responsible for the low emitter pressure I noticed at first. Blocked it.

–Picked up the Caran d’Ache pencil at UPS. Nice, but not thrilling. Then to Bel Air where I got ciabatta rolls and jam, and used Google “tap to pay” on my phone. Worked like a charm.

–Walked to Bel Air for stuff, forgot my wallet. Walked home and drove back. Grrr…..

–Walked to Bel Air for potato salad and corn. Forgot wallet. Walked home, drove back and paid. Installed Google Pay. We’ll see.

–Barbecued burgers and corn for the second day in a row. Good corn this time.

–Washed sheets.

–Worked some more on the Cremina grouphead. Got it to where the piston has full motion, though there’s a slight hitch at the end. Now to get the grouphead chromed and the machine reassembled.

–Went to Costco to look at hearing aids. Pretty thorough discussion; buying a Philips with custom ear molds.

–Took a shower and shave.

–I cut and fitted tubing to take AC condenser water away from house.

–Made tomato compote. Perhaps because I used Early Girl rather than cherry tomatoes, it came out really soupy. But also super delicious, the very definition of umami.

–Fixed sprinklers in front and side after a trip to Home Depot.

–McDonald’s Hazel for lunch.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for tomatoes and squash.

–Then to Bel Air for bagels.

–Took Grace for a DEXA scan at Sutter Imaging in Carmichael.

–Started moving money from CIT Bank to Ally. (1) Tried to use Zelle at CIT Bank to send $800 to a guy for a knife. Got a blowup error message. Sent it via Ally without a problem. (2) CIT Bank has been requiring one-time passcodes (via text) for a while now. I asked them why–especially since I say each time “Yes, this is my private computer”–and they just responded with robo-speak about different devices, IP addresses, time of day, etc. Ally and CIT both have their issues, and CIT has higher interest rates, but their interface is not good.

–Rode to River Bend Park. It is huge, though not as picturesque as I had thought at first. Might scout out alternate locations for picnic with Tom and Sandy.

–Bought a frozen Motor City Detroit Deep Dish Pepperoni pizza for dinner. Once again, pretty good.

–Went to Sac Heart to return the belt case for the telemetry unit.

–Then to Jersey Mike’s for lunch.

–Returned the Bioflux telemetry unit to Sac Heart. Forgot to bring the stupid belt case. Back tomorrow.

–Watched “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.” Really really liked it. Sad to hear he’s gone.

–Rode the ARP with Tom Elken. Good ride.

–Simpson Eagle G3 Manchurian LE faux ebony came in. Removed a couple of small scratches, inadvertently putting a large groove in in it. Managed to mostly polish out the groove. Unfortunately (since it came from Sweden) the guy put it in the wrong Simpson box. Will swap, I guess.

–Went to Bel Air for potato salad, bagels.

–Watched the movie 65.

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for tomatoes, dried apricots, squash.

–Set up sprinklers in front and side areas to run 10 minutes on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Sac county says 3 times a week max).

–Got all drippers hooked up and working in the side yard. Yay!

–Downloaded and watched Tomb Raider (the one without Angelina Jolie)–apparently for the second time in not too long. The memory continues to go.

–Played with side sprinklers, got four drippers workng.

–Gave up (again) on the iPhone: couldn’t send or receive text messages yesterday, and battery has been draining quickly without obvious reasons. Back to Android.

–The front patio is now all sprinklered up. On to back and side.

–HD Lawn came early and replaced two sprinkler control valves for $370. Then I spent a couple of hours setting up (most of) the sprinklers in front. Looking good so far.

–Refund check for ~$3,700 came from American title. Apparently we overpaid property tax and didn’t cash the check they (say they) sent us eight months ago.

–Called Sprinkler Techs, got $450 estimate for both valves. Called HD Lawn (who did the last one for $185). Guy came out agreed to 2 x $185 for the other two. He’ll do it tomorrow. Sold.

–Sonax polish came in. Supposed to cut well and finish perfect. Tried it on a shaving brush. Finish could be good, but not too impressed with cut.

–Went to the Discovery Village barbecue. There were 20+ people there, all old, out of ~180 DV residents. Pretty good food.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatores and squash.

–Re-replaced the battery in the smoke alarm by Grace’s bathroom. (a) It was too soon after the last battery. (b) I saw an unconnected black wire. Will bring in an electrician to sort it out.

–Took Grace shopping at Food Maxx.

–Anodized flashlight (Ted Rooney) came in. Beauty.

–Got Zone Perfect bars/bear claws at Target.

–Picked up Westclox Moonbeam. Impeccable case and movement, but alarm was 10-15 minutes off, so I took it apart and ruined it. Turns out the one I’ve been using for years is 10 minutes too. Picked up Rolex bracelet links, added them to the Day-Date. Perfect. Asher Spiro came in. Nice.

–Went to See Sarah Diane Whalen for followup. She said “all looks good,” then proceeded to freeze at least 5 AKs.

–Picked up bear claws at Panera, sprinkler stuff at Lowe’s.

–Went to Dr. Bellinger’s office to get a heart telemetry system taped to my chest. Turns out I have to wear it 24/7. Great.

–Finally managed to get Apple Carplay working reliably in the Beemer. Turns out you have to access/activate it via the Media menu, not Navigation. It is called CarPLAY after all…

–Took the Honda to Gold River Automotive for an oil change and AC recharge (been blowing warm the last couple days) Seems good now.

–Leica M-E came in. Nice condition. Charger went haywire when I plugged it in, but it seems that’s not uncommon. Might charge fine once it runs down a bit. Ordered a new (fake) battery, given that genuine (?) ones are $149. Took a few pics; not real impressed. I don’t seem to have learned that: it’s really hard to nail focus on a rangefinder, especially for close subjects. I’m thinking (and have read) that a lot of people use these cameras for street photography, with zone focus, fixed focus, etc.

–Took a shower and shave. The bronze Wolfman was great; the Simpsons “Extra Super” not so much (didn’t pick up much soap). I imagine I’ll get better with it.

–Went to Lowe’s Folsom for shrub spray heads; they had zero (online said they had 21).

–Went Smart and Final for apples, oranges, dessert.

–Put on the mosquito suit and played with front sprinklers. Miserable, but mostly figured them out. Will need to have the sprinkler guy come back and replace the other two valves: the one in front works only intermittently.

–Cooked a frozen deep-dish pizza for dinner; darn good.

–Started looking into sprinklers a little bit.

–Lunch at Subway. I finally got the actual coupon sale price, but they still had to fake it at the register. Not sure what’s going on with their inability to do coupons.

–Broken Westclox Moonbeam came in. Salvaged dial and hands as planned.

–Rolex Day-Date 18238 came in. Thought it would be fully-linked at 22, but it actually needs 24 for that. Also turns out Kirill Yuzh made a killing on that, as he only paid Tropical Watch $15,500 (listed price was $16,850) and then “traded” it to me for the red Sub I sent back, which is at LAWW for the second time.

–Took the Beemer to Jasper’s for lunch (all okay there). Then picked up sharpener at UPS (will toss). Then to Peet’s for decaf and Safeway for yogurt and dessert.

–Bought a Rolex Day-Date from Tropical Watch. No payment needed; Kirill Yuzh just “traded” it for the red Sub that I returned a while back.

–Rode the canal 14 miles. Left too late: it was in the mid-90s; wiped me out.

–Yet another lost day. Getting scary.

–Took Grace to Five Guys for lunch. Tried Jasper’s, but it looked like the woman wasn’t there, and there was a line. We didn’t want to over-burden the guy.

–Took a shower and shave. Tried the Blackland Jet razor (this was at least the third time I’ve said “Well, I’m more experienced and proficient now, so I can use a Blackland without harming myself.” Bzzzzttt! Three strikes and you’re out. What an absurdly harsh razor.

–Did another odometer run. Calibration seems to be getting worse.

–Made some pesto. Not nearly as good as previous batches. Oh well…

–Rode the InnerLight 14 miles on the ARP; wiped me out. Checked this journal and found that I have in fact pedaled that bike up Heartbreak Hill three years ago. Should I try to replicate that through intense training, or give up and go to bed?

–Tried to reconcile my cameras a bit. I have cameras that need lens caps, and lens caps that don’t fit anything. Great.

–Got propane at U-Haul.

–Watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

–Went to see Dr. Bellinger. He didn’t say much, but set up appointments for telemonitoring EKG and echo X-ray. Some day it would be nice to get past all this doctor stuff.

–Got turkey burgers, corn, ice cream at Bel Air.

–Accomplished nothing, as usual lately. Not looking forward to cardiologist visit tomorrow.

–Another slow day at home.

–Yet another hot day. Didn’t do much of anything.

–Another hot day. Made pizza for dinner, opened presents.

–Hot day, slow day.

–Roseville ENT called re the consult. Set up an appointment in October.

–Medicines are helping; throat is much better.

–Went to Master’s Wholesale to cancel cooktop. Marc Guzman came out and said it was delivered today. He left a message for Bell’s Appliance (installer) and said he (Marc) would call this afternoon. He hasn’t.

–Throat still bad. Went to Sutter Folsom Urgent Care, saw Dr. Jackson. He diagnosed oral thrush, prescribed a couple of meds, and wants to have Roseville ENT do a consult to rule out a cancer recurrence.

–Picked up some bagels, cream cheese and bear claws at Bel Air.

–Still feel crappy. Throat is a tiny bit better. I guess it’s going to be another long cold or similar.

–Still feeling bad; throat is marginally better. Spent much of the day in bed.

–Barbecued Costco sausage, corn for dinner.

–Woke up at 6 AM with terrible diarrhea and a really sore throat (right side only). Took a long nap after bagel/coffee.

–Barbecued turkey burgers and corn for dinner. Good again.

–Went shopping at Bel Air, in part to test out out bar codes/coupons.

–Did laundry.

–Took Grace to the Roseville Sutter Imaging site. She got a couple done, but will have to go back because she accidentally took a calcium pill.

–Had lunch at Rim’s Deli. Good, not amazing.

–Drove Grace in the Beemer to Rancho Murieta, mostly to experience again the insane hilly section of Scott Road. Great fun. Lunch at Backyard BBQ (good), food shopping at the nearby Bel Air. Stouffer’s for dinner.

–Rode the ARP for 14+ miles with Tom Elken. Incredible weather.

–Picked up the McGizmo flashlight (nice, really different beam–a huge uniform circle) and the Captain Midnight 1957 jet decoder and manual (turns out they changed their codes all the time, so this decoder doesn’t work on a 1955 TV show; waiting now for the right one to come up on eBay).

–Tried to drive the BMW to Buffalo Creek headwaters, but it appears that that whole area is private Aerojet property.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, squash and tomatoes for diner. Yum!

–Rode the InnerLight on the canal for 13.6 miles. Felt crappy the rest of the day.

–Got sandwiches from Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.

–Went to both farmers markets, got tomatoes, oranges, almonds, squash, cherries.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty darn good.

–Went to UPS to pick up flashlight lenses and nicotinamide.

–Went to Bel Air for corn and turkey burger patties (finally).

–Barbecued corn and turkey burgers: pretty darn good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Went to both farmers markets for stuff.

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

–Took Grace shopping at the Folsom Safeway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Went for a 10-mile bike on the ARP.

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

–Took a shower and shave.

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

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

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

–I been gaining weight: 209+ today.

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

—Reconciled most of my charging cords.

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Took a shower and shave.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Chicken pot pie for dinner.

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

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

–Dinner fromJack’s Urban Eats.

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

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

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

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