–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).

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

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

–Played with cameras.

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

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

–Big day:

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

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

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

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

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

–Called off tomorrow’s ride with Tom Elken.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Went for a little shopping at Bel Air.

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

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

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

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

–Drove back from Carmel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Took a shower and shave.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Killed some weeds; cut up some boxes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

–Back is feeling better.

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

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

–Took a shower and shave.

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

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

–Cleaned up the garage considerably.

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

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

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

–Took Grace big shopping at Bel Air.

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

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

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

–Marie for dinner.

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

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

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

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

–Dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats.