–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines, apples, broccoli, onions, basil plant.

–Got a pizza for dinner at Papa Murphy’s.

–Broke the passenger side mirror on the Mustang while backing out. Can’t find it online. Biked to a Mustang shop on Folsom; he couldn’t find it in house or online either. Guess I’ll be paying a dealership mucho money.

–EMP EDC Nymble X version 2 came in. Nice blade, except the sharpener really messed up and changed the angle a lot at the tip on one side. I tried belts, then the Ruixin, then belts again. It looks a little better, but still kinda crappy and not sharp. I think I got lucky with one blade on the Ruixin; all others have come out sort of multi-beveled–and I can’t detect it until the knife is out of the sharpener.

–Went with Grace to a credit union where she could deposit her RMD through to Stanford FCU.

–Picked up the Specialized with new tires (Schwalbe Balloon) at Bob’s Cycles (quick work). Tires don’t look all that huge, but they’re 50mm (compared to original 38mm), which is as large as I’ve seen people install on these bikes. I put the original handlebars back on and it rides like a dream. It’s going to be a chore getting that bike on the wall, so I started lifting weights again.

–Ordered a nice Shamwari clone from China, due June 18.

–Drove to UPS to pick up Whink and the Shiro Solar System. Put a huge scratch on the Shiro handle trying to break the thread locker. Had to put it in the vise to free it, then tossed the scales and kept the rest as parts. Next time I disassemble a knife, I WILL TAPE IT UP FIRST.

–Sending the scales (blotch on one) of the latest Shamwari to a guy in Indiana for zirblasting–after seeing his work on facebook. Fingers crossed.

–Took the Specialized Turbo Vado to Bob’s Cycles (Sunrise and Fairoaks) to look into fatter tires. They had some in stock; should be ready Monday. Fingers crossed.

–Tried to rearrange the garage slightly to allow easier bike accessibility. We’ll see.

–Walked to UPS to pick up tiny painting and Shamwari. Both nice. Shamwari seems heavy: not titanium? Thick? Don’t know. Great blade and action, though.

–Rolex 1503 came in. Runs great, looks good. In an astounding miracle, I found a 13.5mm link (was looking for 13.4) on eBay. Unbelievable. Don’t hugely need it, but it would make the bracelet fully-linked.

–Rode the InnerLight to re-look at where Buffalo Creek dumps into the American River. Took me a LONG time to find it, and even longer to (re-) find the input pipes on the other side of the ARP. Mainly BECAUSE the input pipes are not on the other side of the ARP, but rather are visible only from the ROAD that parallels the ARP. Argh….

–Big day. Warm, too.

–Ally called and had me go through all details of my wire to Yuzh Inc. Just the like the first one. Another wire went straight through (can’t remember what it was for). Unbelievably annoying. I’ve pretty much run out of banks, and of course the same thing could happen again no matter what the bank. And, lest we forget, this has happened on most (maybe all) of my (much smaller) Zelle payments. Don’t know what to do.

–Took Grace to the McKinley park Garden Center Bonsai Show, which we last went to 20(?) years ago. Pretty cool.

–Worked on the InnerLight a bit, trying to get rid of a clicky noise. Lubed the chain: noise still there. Put back the original solid (non-folding) handlebars: noise gone. Crap. Will likely revert on the e-bike as well, making it really hard to store two bikes on the wall.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Started the process of buying a $7.660 Rolex 1503 14K from Kirill Yuzh. It could be too small in the bracelet (12 links) or the case (34mm), but it’s a nice-looking watch, unmolested since 1980.

–Walked to UPS to pick up my Erie Spider marble (cool) and stopped at Bel Air for cream.

–Gray day, slightly drizzly. Catalogued all my Shirogorov knives finally.

–Walked to Rite-Aid to pick up the coffee sieve at the Amazon locker.

–Downloaded and watched Red. Great movie.

–Took Grace shopping at Rite-Aid and Bel Air.

–Trying (again) to get vstat.com working so photos are available to all, journal is not. Failing.

–Took the Gareth Bull Colibri apart (again). Polished the show side of the blade with an ultra-fine 3M sanding pad. Turns out that almost perfectly replicates the finish put on by Mr. Bull. Problems: (a) there are little curvies at the plunge where it’s hard to control the pad; (b) the satin lines are not as straight or rectilinear as the originals; (c) the Shamwari logo is starting to fade a bit. All in all, though, a surprisingly good effort for a new abrasive, freehand, on a hollow-ground blade like that.

–Heard from the redditor who sold me the (stolen) $1,250 mini FSD: insurance claim accepted! We haven’t discussed yet how he’ll get me the money.

–Took Grace big shopping at Food Maxx.

–Picked up the Gareth Bull Colibri at UPS. Spent a couple of hours working on it, to little avail. (a) It’s on washers, (b) I strongly suspect something isn’t square: pivot, holes in liners, hole in blade, etc. Knife is stiff opening and closing, and I put a scratch on the show side of the blade when it hit the liner. TAPE THE BLADE. TAPE THE BLADE. TAPE THE BLADE.

–Doves sort of acted like they were nesting in the rafters in front, but disappeared. When I looked in from outside the front gate, it sort of seemed like there might be (have been) a nest in the tree close to the house. We’ll see–maybe.

–Took a short bike ride, trying to trace Buffalo Creek. Enjoyable.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Dove couple looked like they were thinking og nesting in the tree near the downspout, then I chased them off by going carefully into my bedroom.

–Went to Bel Air for coupon stuff–ground turkey, Crystal Geyser gallon jugs for $.77, etc.

–Drove to UPS to pick up Barker painting and Wakui petty. Both nice, though the petty is blue steel and thus too beautiful to use.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good.

–Took the Mustang to lunch at Rim’s Deli, next to Noah’s Bagels. Old school, most excellent. Also got 13 sesame bagels at Noah’s for a bit over $13.

–Stopped at Home Depot; their basil has arrived. Bought one (my third) and put it in the pot. Someday…

–Yet another drizzly day.

–Got some subs at Jersey Mike’s for dinner (all sales proceeds today go to local charities). Not great, but a good cause.

–Rainy day.

–Went over taxes again. Seems legit. Grace’s RMD gave us $36k more income this year, and we hadn’t allowed for that in setting up estimated payments, so we owe almost $10k. State is puzzling: we made no (or trivial) estimated payments (why?) and owe close to $5k. We made $80k selling Tunnel Hill, but there’s apparently a new exclusion allowance so that doesn’t come into play. And all the deduction hoo-ha (Goodwill, car registration, property taxes, etc.) is irrelevant: it never comes close to the standard deduction of $28k, and never will unless we start paying mortgage interest again.

–Drove to UPS store to pick up 1972 NOS Osprey Santa Cruz day pack (way cool) and drop off Grace’s package to Jan.

–Started in on taxes. Pretty thick stuff. Turns out we grossed $229,000 in 2022. Holy freaking crap!

–Re-potted new basil plant. Looks okay so far.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Went to Smart and Final for milk, muffins and another basil plant. Stuck the basil plant (out of its pot) in a glass of water to try and loosen up the tangled roots. Not working very well so far. I thought it would be roots on the outside and dirt in the middle, but it acts ore like roots everywhere holding on tightly to some dirt. We fix ’em.

–Took the Mustang to my old neighborhood–Swallows Nest, Perry’s, Discovery Park, etc.–to check things out. Sutter Health parking lot was seriously empty; lots of trash in the canal under the bridge into Discovery Park–which was flooded of course–; the bike path into DP along the Garden Highway is fully lined with homeless tents.

–Got gas at the Fair Oaks Arco station. Regular was “cheap” at $4.25; the mid-grade I got was $4.55. The world continues to fall apart. And: the Mustang is averaging around 17-18 mpg when it isn’t on the road to Monterey. I hit it a little on the way home, and it didn’t seem to leap into tire-shredding action. I’ve never floored it (or maybe any car I’ve driven); will do that before long just to see if 460 horsepower actually means anything.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Urban EDC. Nice knife.

–Took Grace to Crumbl Cookies ($5 for one large-ish cookie; outrageous) where she got her sister a gift certificate. Then took her to Target for various stuff, most of which she didn’t find.

–Canned soup for dinner.

–Walked to UPS store to pick up the Strider. Beautiful knife, but (1) huge, and (2) flawed in exactly the same ways as my other one: detent lash when closed, and you can have ONE of the following: good action with off-center blade and blade play when open, or a tight centered blade that you have to pry open. No more Striders.

–Stopped at Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Went to Peet’s for decaf, Safeway for pizza crust, bagels, etc.

–Made pizza or dinner. Not so hot.

–Went to Jersey Mike’s for lunch. Then Target for deodorant, candy, etc.

–Shirogorov Touch came back after three months. They replaced the pivot SCREW (to be fair, that’s what I wrote on the form) and didn’t touch the mangled pivot tube (collar, as they call it). Recon1 is looking into a fix.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to McDonald’s for lunch.

–Uhhh…

–Went around and around with Eric Sedie, the guy who sold me the Nymble X which got stolen. He’s escalating the claim, talking to PO people on the phone. Without full insurance, PO will not fully reimburse, I think.

–Fertilized basil and rosemary. Basil is looking kind of dim.

–Went to Home Depot. Got a pot and some soil.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final. Got a nice-looking rootbound basil plant. Potted the basil and re-potted the rosemary from its original smaller pot into a large one (discarded the not-too-healthy-looking other herbs that had come in the same pot–sage, thyme, something).

–Went to Green Acres (after learning Matsuda’s, now contractor-only, is owned by Green Acres) for basil, rosemary, soil, pots. The basil and rosemary were tiny ugly things in 3″ pots and I couldn’t find < 50 pound bags of soil. I did buy a pot. Went to try to drill a hole in the bottom of the pot holding the barrel cactus, when Grace discovered there was already a hole, blocked by a rubber plug. Yay!

–Went to UPS and picked up Shamwari slim 3.3″. Very nice. At Kayla’s (UPS sales associate, extremely helpful) suggestion, I will change my address to 310 only (no box number), and use the name Seward. One more knife coming (from Canada) to the box number. Hopes and payers are needed.

–Played around with a Shamwari and an old steel, and re-discovered the phenomenon of rolling a wire edge from one side of the blade to the other–so it feels screamingly sharp in one direction, dull in the other. Really strong effect, given (a) I was steeling very gently, (b) it’s an expensive knife and should have been honed better, and (c) I couldn’t really see the wire, even with my higher-power Opti-Visor. The belt grinder took care of the wire edge, of course. Makes me think that the vast majority of knives out there have these tiny burs.

–Simichrome came in. Seems like that and/or the Renegade high-grit polish can minimize hairlines on a blade. Could just be my wishful thinking/not looking so hard after polishing, however.

–Another empty box–at UPS–another knife stolen, this one the mini-FSD at $1,250. This shit stain at the PO knows my name, home address and UPS box address. Seller had insurance, so I may get made whole, but what to do in the future? I suppose UPS all the way, or FedEx, but that won’t work for eBay. I may try to shift my UPS box to a different name/number.

–Super windy today; not much rain.

–Picked up the “heavy grit” polish at UPS. Learned (once again) not to do anything with the Foredom–it’s just too aggressive with those little wheels. The polish might have taken some hairlines out; it’s hard to say. Used it manually on the two real Shamwaris. Also tried Loctite again with the Permatex accelerant. We’ll see. I’m a little concerned about the smaller Sham (on washers), as it seemed tighter than before even with the pivot fairly loose. Grrrr…..

–Picked up my new Oz Roosevelt in blurple at UPS. Total winner. I’m hardly tempted to break the Loctite, as the action is superb.

–Post Office/UPS seem to have lost the package with the Turtle Wax rubbing compound in it. PO delivered to UPS before they opened Saturday; package is nowhere in sight.

–Another gloomy day.

–Went to Papa Murphy’s on Olson to pick up a pizza for dinner. Mark Solich paid…….

–Grace actually wanted to go to the farmers market, so we did, and bought lots of stuff.

–Strider came in. Terribly designed knife: action is determined almost entirely by the scale screw nearest the pivot, as there are no standoffs. Got some nice action, but then noticed lock rock/detent lash when closed. Maybe toss, maybe sell.

–Saw some sun today. White-crowned sparrows enjoyed taking baths.

–Yet another drizzly, cold day.

–SPK Lamia came in. Hefty, runs on washers, super-stiff detent. I bent the lockbar some, and it’s getting better.

–Walked to UPS for packages.

–Spyderco Drunken came in. Good but not compelling. Another ShamWEri came in. Nice.

–Met Art Kraatz at Jasper’s for lunch. I gave him a restored Cremina, he gave me $1,900 cash.

–Went to Bel Air to deposit cash and get fruit and dessert.

–Walked to UPS for three packages.

–Discovered hairline scratch on zircuti Shamwari–not on the show side where I’d expect to see scratches caused by blade hitting frame before I’ve sufficiently tightened the pivot. A lot of hard rubbing with Mother’s mag failed to blend it. Will try Flitz and rubbing compound next.

–Not much going on. Played with ceiling fans and the remote for a bit, to no avail.

–Big day. Bought yet another Shamwari on reddit (Spiro on washers) and an SPK Lamia on Blade Forums (also on washers). Realized I’ve been writing my address as 310-278 for a day or three. Corrected it where I could to 310-287. Pretty scary.

–Discovered last night after flipping the new Shamwari many times that the unfixed pivot rotates, thus loosening the blade and allowing it to move closer to the show-side scale. I’m convinced this is the cause of show-side blade scratches seen on a couple of Shamwaris: blade drops shut and rubs against the scale/liner. The fact that Shirogorov JUST started using fixed pivots, and Bull hasn’t yet, is another tribute to knifemakers’ laziness–along with stonewashed/tumbled everything. Really disappointing. Anyway, I loctited the pivots on the new Sham and the Sham clone. Hopefully I didn’t glue the blades to the pivots.

–Shamwari clone came in. Nice knife, with action as good as original.

–Paid property tax supplemental assessment (based on new sale) of $2,922.

–Played with Wicked Edge some more, trying to be careful. Still messed up another blade, and blade even slipped in clamp–not the best design IMO. Tossed it. Looking at WorkSharp. Seems small, simple, infinitely adjustable, with good aftermarket accessories.

–Grace walked to Rite-Aid to look at cards!!!

–Took Grace to Five Guys, where they forgot the mushrooms and onions on her burger, then to Safeway. Bought some decaf at Peet’s.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Yet another windy, drizzly day.

–Made pizza for dinner. Not my best.

–Another drizzly day.

–Played a lot with EMP EDCs. Almost have them set up. Sort of.

–Drizzly, dismal day, though lots of squirrels showed up.

–Just missed a ShamWEri today. God some knives sell fast.

–J-stones for the Wicked Edge came in, so I tried sharpening a liner-lock Nymble. What a disaster. The right stone kept hitting the blade holder, fasteners loosened, I couldn’t find a good angle, etc. I finally took the blade off and polished it up on the Kalamazoo belt grinder, then tried again optimize the WE setup. One lesson learned: clamp the blade so the edge is as high as possible. I did have have one sort of success on the machine, so I’ll give it another shot.

–Marie for dinner: Grace lost an hour.

–Went to Burger King for lunch. All different staff. So much for “familiar folks and surroundings.”

–Bought (technically bid on for March 6) a $50,000 six-month T bill at Treasury Direct.

–Second Shamwari came in. Off-center blade with scratches. Fixed the scratches (maybe) with Sandflex, but broke a standoff screw trying to put the knife back together. Will likely toss.

–Made pizza for dinner. Yum!

–Rolex red Sub came back from LAWW. Nice!

–Played with phones all day. Finally got rid of the voicemail icon on the green Samsung–the only phone which (so far) picks up both hearing aids regularly. Works nicely in the Mustang too.

–Went to the post office to (a) hand them the mailing box for my second “stolen item” claim, and (b) mail the Shamwari to Miami.

–Won a Recon1 lottery for a $2k Shirogorov/Martin collaboration.

–Took the Mustang to Target for sundries, Jersey Mike’s for lunch, Trader Joe’s for bagels.

–Crotch rot keeps coming back. Very annoying.

–Used the Wicked Edge to sharpen a (crappy) liner-lock Nymble that just came in. Did a nice-looking job, but it still didn’t seem real anxious to cut paper. At least it seems I’m using the sharpener correctly.

–FlexSand pads (fine) came in. Didn’t seem to do much to a Konosuke carbon blade. Will have to get some medium pads.

–Decided to keep the Shamwari for now. Seller posted my defect photo in the Gareth Bull forum, got some positive and negative views. The knife is just too good to get rid of now; maybe after I land another one.

–Hinderer came in Really nice.

–EMP EDC Nymble W came in. Walked to UPS to pick it up. Then to Bel Air for milk and dessert.

–[edit] Just discovered that the big gap in the pivot pocket of the Shamwari is NOT normal: got a pic from a youtube video to compare it to. Gareth Bull really messed this up. I have serious doubts that (a) the guy who sold me the knife will take it back, and (b) even if Bull agrees to fix (replace) it, it will take months. CRAP!

–Shamwari 3.5″ blurple came in. Perfecto. Gonna take some practice front-flipping.

–Wicked Edge guide bar stop collars came (fast from McMaster-Carr). They work just fine. Just waiting for a couple high-grit stones now.

–Made corn meal crust pizzas for dinner.

–Went to post office to hand in (first) empty knife box. Got some paperwork that seems to have officially initiated the claim.

–Went to UPS and rented a mailbox for a year (they had two left). My mind is at ease now: no more knife thefts.

–A pair of doves showed up today to enjoy spilled bird food. I think (hope) they’re permanent. Finally.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played with the Wicked Edge all day, waiting for the mail. Saw (put?) some big scratches on blades, so may need to look into stops for the stone holders to prevent further mishaps.

–All mail came (at 4), plus something for Mrs. Cudd. Sure will be happy when Ken comes back.

–Went to Five Guys for lunch, Peet’s for decaf.

–Gave up (again) on the Samsung: I can’t get the hearing aids to work on a phone call. Back to the iPhone.

–Spyderco Para 2/REK blade came in. Very nice, but not really fidgety.

–Got a call from Recon1 re the Shiro Touch I sent in. They’ll order a pivot and send knife/pivot back for me to install (like I thought might happen two months ago). It will take a few weeks though. Fortunately I have another.

–Finally got the Galaxy S10 set up as I had before, after struggling to answer the call fromRecon1. Good to go, In car and out.

–Took Grace shopping at Trader Joe’s with Rick and Hatsumi’s gift card.

–Third Nymble came in, a day late. Someone at the PO had cut open the box, removed the knife and all accessories, then taped the box shut with the empty knife box inside. Second time in a week that the PO has stolen a knife. The one-day delay with this knife, plus the fact that it came in at 4 o’clock instead of 9:30 AM, strongly suggests there’s a temp carrier behind this. And there’s not one fucking thing I can do about it, except demand all future shipments be FedEx or UPS.

–Hung the kitchen patio door curtains I got yesterday. Fine job, but they’re not quite wide enough.

–Took a quick ride on the ARP with the InnerLight. Fun, but tiring.

–Took the Mustang to Mr. Pickle’s in Folsom for a BLT (good, but $12.29); Green Acres for a Bird of Paradise and pot; Home Depot for kitchen sliding door curtains; and Black Sails to pick up coffee.

–Android Auto worked well. It never speaks a street name, though.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Spent hours playing with/swapping parts on a couple of EMP EDC Nymbles. Ended up leaving things as they were: blade 1 in frame 2 was a laughably poor fit. One more Nymble coming.

–Frozen for dinner.

–Slow day today. Trying to get Android Auto working in the Mustang, one way or another.

–Shirogorov/Sinkevich dark Bio came in. Nice. Not shiny like the light Bio, however.

–Played with Oz Roosevelts all day. Discovered the stop pin on the first one I bought was longer than all the other stop and scale pins because of the aftermarket scale that came on it. I can’t put the original scale back on (correctly) until I get an otiginal (shorter) pin. Crap.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–EMP EDC Nymble knife package came in; it had been opened (crushed or cut, hard to say) and the knife was missing. Messaged seller on Blade Forums. He quickly put in a claim, expects resolution soon. He seems to be unaware (ignoring? naive? scamming?) that the knife, according to the PO, had the standard Priority Mail insurance of “up to $100” (knife cost me $365). He said he told the PO the price in his claim, but that doesn’t mean (to me) that they’ll reimburse him $365. We’ll see.

–Third Oz Roosevelt came in. Nice smooth titanium scales, perfect centering. I believe this is the one I’ll keep. Was thinking of putting one of the other blades on it, but it turns out the blades have the serial number, and the COA card for the other knife (in addition to having the serial on it) says “speed holes.” There went that idea.

–Took a couple of very nice pictures of an abutilon bloom. The Q2 is a great camera. I’m the limiting factor.

–Rowena the mail carrier came to deliver a package and chat. Nice.

–Had a nasty email exchange with Lee Elliott last night. He claimed again that a $400k CD was maturing–March 31 this time. I asked for proof and he went bananas. What a disgusting little shit.

–Had to call Ally and resubmit all wire info, for security purposes. Looks like Kirill won’t ship until he has proof of wire. That sucks.

–Went to Target for Zone Perfect, shampoo, milk and cream.

–Went to Costco for sparkling water, dessert, pretzels, gas. Their new gas station costs exactly the same as the nearby Arco–but it and the store were nearly empty.

–Dr. Stegman is retiring in March; no room for Grace. We may both be looking for local MDs.

–Hung the quilt over my bed, and a couple of parking aids in the garage.

–Southard Tolk came in. Nice knife, and you can actually see the grind (it’s not stonewashed).

–Took a shower and shave.

–Walked to Bel Air for fruit and sesame bagels.

–Made banana bread for dessert.

–Played with Leica Q2. Got it mostly figured out. Great lens.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good stuff.

–Took the Mustang to the post office and picked up mailbox keys. Seems that’s standard procedure, though they didn’t mention it on my first visit.

–Stopped at Bel Air for (plain, sliced) bagels and chocolate chip cookies.

–Leica Q2 (my second) came in. Blew the SL2 with Lumix 24mm lens out of the water. It has its issues: no grip, the dreaded Leica focus knob, etc., but it’s fairly compact, has auto magnification, and takes great photos.

–Walked to Bel Air for fruit and Easy-Off.

–Still Queasy.

–Oleinikov “Solar System” came in. Perfection, as expected. Oz Roosevelt came in. Played with a LOT. Ended up going back to the original scale, as the custom one seemed to exacerbate the off-center issue. Works okay, but has an amazing in-hand feel. I just want to hold it all the time.

–Went to dinner at Jersey Mike’s, per Sterling’s recommendation. Good sandwiches I must say.

–Finally connected BofA to Heritage and paid off credit card.

–Still queasy.

–Still queasy.

–Returned the “andyfrankart” SFK to eBay seller. He claimed to be shocked, but (a) his isting did not show pics of the face that had “EDC” on it; (b) he apparently never questioned WHY it had EDC engraved on it when he (allegedly) traded a couple of knives for it.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Still queasy.

–Made bread. Good, but small.

–Still feeling queasy all the time, briefly relieved by eating.

–Stopped at Bel Air for cookies, cheese and bananas.

–Home all day, waiting for UPS.

–Feeling woozy all day, scarily assuaged by eating. Just read that 33% of those > 65 have Type 2 diabetes. Great.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Verified that my California Middle Class Tax Relief card is down to $0 balance. I thought it started with $600 or $800; hard to believe it went to zero so fast.

–Epoxied the 19″ x 15″ piece of glass to the outside of the kitchen sliding door. Seemed to go well.

–Successfully set up the required minimum distribution (RMD) at Vanguard, for Jan. 20.

–Marie for dinner.

–Went to University Art to get glass for the doggy door opening.

–NOS Braun shaver came in: beauty.

–Played with knives. Just cannot get Aquatic scales to work on other (nice action) Shiro F3s.

–Fed some squirrels.

–Made blueberry muffins for dessert.

–Had really bad diarrhea last night; felt woozy all day. Wish I knew what was going on.

–Two Braun Flex shavers came in. One was a tosser, but the blue-green one (a fabulous color I’ve never seen before) is near-perfect. It charged right up and gave me a great shave.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels and cream cheese.

–Second Shirogorov Aquatic came in. Swapped everything eight times, then discovered a bad sharpening grind on the new blade. These knives were REALLY rushed out, or something: loose screws, poor sharpening, etc. Ended up keeping the newer one as it came.

–Put away the Christmas stuff.

–Walked to Mimosa House for brunch, then Bel Air for groceries.

–Re-programmed external garage keypad to work; reset front gate lock to work with house key. More to come.

–Many old shavers came in. Not much remains. Got one working, with new cutter and foil. Amazing battery life for something that old (especially considering that most of them don’t even take a charge), but the shave is kind of crude. Norelco rules, at the moment.

–Made pizza for dinner. Another thick crust, though I overcooked it a little.

–Ally finally answered my query from a few days ago. Said that the $20k should have shown up by now. They’re looking into it and will get back to me. I think my case is rock solid, but it’s still scary.

–Put the vintage axe head on my new handle. Started with a pocketknife; ended with the belt grinder. Much dust. Took the cars out and blew everything away.

–Sent the Braun 5567 back to Florida for re-repair.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played with knives a lot.

–Heritage shows that Ally “cashed” the $20,000 check I sent in with my application; Ally shows I still have $0 balance in checking and savings accounts. I submitted a help request.

–Koukin knife came in. Too small, not attractive. Ruined the pivot getting it out with a triangle bit from the iFixit tool set. $2,200 down the tubes.

–Finally attached the trickle charger leads to the Mustang battery correctly (strongly) and got it fully charged. Played some more with Android Auto/Ottocast on the Galaxy phone, but gave up: it often took 15-20 seconds for the system just to partially echo one of my commands. Hopeless. Siri rules…

–Went shopping with Grace at Bel Air.

–Soup for dinner.