–Shirogorov/Martin Overkill in titanium came in. Sweet!

–Marie for dinner. Not bad.

–Took espresso machines and stereo stuff over to 1956 DVL. Tried again to fix the faucet. Failed.

–Talked to Geronimo movers; will move on the 9th.

–Took a load over to 1956 DVL. Took a second trip over to try and fix leaking faucet in my bathroom. Spent a LONG time without success. Totally chewed up one stem getting it out because the nut is a non-standard size; real plumbers use pliers or adjustable wrenches, whereas I tried to use a sized wrench, which rounded the nut and forced me to use channel-locks to remove it. Found exact matching stems at Home Depot, but then had issues with (pick one) the valve seat, the tightening nut, and/or turning the faucet all the way on or off before tightening. Incredibly frustrating. Will likely call Ross Broadley and have him replace all bathroom faucets with current cartridge technology.

–Went to Home Depot for Moen shower faucets. Discovered the cartridges are attached to Y-shaped copper tubing; would have to remove tiles to install them. Took it back. Crap.

–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert and Boboli pizza crusts. Had pizza for dinner.

–Went to the post office to pick up a Tilley hat. There wasn’t the slightest hint of why I had to pick it up–no postage due, for example. While I was in line, Grace called, having fallen into the pool for the third(?) time. Her phone still seems to work (her last dip killed an iPhone) , and the Seiko quartz I gave her still seems to work, though I had to dry out some condensation on the inside of the crystal.

–Took drill press and art press to 1956 DVL.

–Took some Grace bins over; emptied six of mine and brought them back. Took some heavy stuff over (vise, belt grinder, buffer). No problems parking. Found a new shower head (and an old one) in the garage. Installed it. It’ll be fine for a while. Found a drawer full of old paint cans in the garage. Will dispose of, gradually. Took the big ladder and checked out the sky-high smoke alarm in the living room. It’s wired in. Duh. Took one of our small garage door remotes over and instantly paired it with the opener. Should have much better range than the clunky remotes that came with the house, but not very useful until (if) I can program a button for the front gate.

–Took another load to 1956 DVL. Adjusted springballs on all appropriate door tops. Walked back to Tunnel Hill, drove the Mustang over to DVL, and parked both cars in the garage. Seems like it will work: fair amount of room in front and to right of Mustang (on right), maybe only two moves to get each car in. Good news.

–Made Boboli pizzas for dinner.

–Still no word on what buyers want after inspection, and no word from Bret Sullivan re trellis removal.

–Took a load over. I fixed stuff; Grace cut shelf liner. Washer and dryer arrived (unannounced) around 4:00, went in fine, and the washer top opens all the way! Yay!

–Grace noticed that the hot water faucet in her bathroom hums when on; seems to be a handle issue rather than a pipe issue. Will replace faucets (anyway); might not be easy because of the stopper connection underneath.

–Went to Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner. Good stuff.

–Took another load to 1956 DVL. Almost cleaned out upstairs. The pool keys, which were sitting on th kitchen counter for a while, have completely disappeared. I’m a little concerned I did something “official” with them and forgot all about it.

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

–Cleaned up (again) and then spent the day at 1956 DVL while appraiser and inspectors looked over 11474 THW. Lunch at Togo’s (no go), toilet seat at Home Depot.

–Made Boboli pepperoni pizzas for dinner.

–Smoke alarm started beeping. Went to Target and bought a boatload of batteries, replaced all that were suspect.

–Took a couple of trips with bins to 1956 DVL. Played a lot with knives. That’s about it.

–Took some bins over to 1956 DVL.

–Made pizza for dinner with Bel Air refrigerated dough. Okay, not great.

–Filled some more bins and took them over with Grace.

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit a couple of small checks, get a $100 bill for Rowena (forgot the thank-you note), buy some pizza dough and mozzarella.

–Continued moving in to 1956 DVL. Removed plants in big pots and drip lines that were feeding them; capped the half-inch supply line.

–Grace was having issues with the Samsung. Got her back on my (previous) iPhone SE. It works, but she can’t undelete voicemails (I can on mine). Will keep trying.

–Took some bins over to 1956 DVL. I hung around waiting for the PG&E guy to show up. Grace took over the waiting at 3:30; PG&E guy came shortly thereafter. Gas is on, everything good.

–Mark Solich called. Trying to get me together with a guy working nearby for an estimate on tearing down our trellis.

–Escrow for 1956 DVL closed around Noon. We took some stuff over and put the toters out. Got SMUD transferred; PG&E tomorrow; Sac County Utilities will give us a compost toter in early November. I hung the bat. We met neighbor Kenny, former professional piano player. All looking good so far.

–Boboli pizza for dinner.

–Spent the day waiting to hear from Mark. Finally around 5:30 he sent a text: buyers are doing a full-price offer at $725,000. Absolutely mind-boggling. Escrow to close in 30 days. Unbelievable.

–Talked to PG&E again. Got a good guy this time (and one I could understand). After initially saying there was no gas meter at the house, he talked to his supervisor and found it. A tech will come out Tuesday between Noon and 4:00 to turn on the gas.

–Heard from Mark that the people who looked at the house will likely make an offer tomorrow. Mark has priced the house at (an optimistic) $725k.

–Had little Safeway pizza crusts + cheap Bel Air marinara sauce + mozzarella for dinner. Good stuff.

–Went to Chase and wired payment to American Title. Success.

–Went over for a final walkthrough at 1956 DV. All looks good: Attic is clean and lights work, flexible ducts were replaced, satellite dish removed, trellis taken down. Looks like the drip system will take more work than I had thought. Got SMUD to start electric on Monday. PG&E said (something like) it’s an all-electric house, and it would be a pain to get gas to it. But there’s gas to the dryer, the water heater (presumably) and the furnace (inspector said he couldn’t test it because gas was turned off). Told Mark, and he’ll look into it.

–Frozen Viccolo pizza for dinner–not as good as it used to be.

–Starrett square came in; nice. Also Sweet Maria’s Yirgacheffe beans.

–Got the old Insignia VHS player working through the Sony, so we don’t have to move my old analog TV to the new house for Grace to watch tapes. Had to take the top off the player to tease out a Wallace and Grommet tape that had gotten scrunched and stuck inside. All good now.

–Mark Solich came here at 2:00 to look over the house. We showed him what furniture would stay, what would go. Surprisingly, he didn’t make any noise about new oven, paint, ugly valences, etc. I had done up a spreadsheet showing how much money we had in the house (a little over $700k); he thought he could get that or more. But we gotta move fast, as real estate is declining every day.

–Got some Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.

–Talked with Mark Solich and State Farm; 1956 DV moves forward.

–Got another pepperoni pizza from Il Forno Classico and watched the restored One-Eyed Jacks. Pretty good.

–Puttered around all day.

–Hoped to watch the Film Foundation’s restoration of One-Eyed Jacks. Never got an email, couldn’t find the right site. Eventually (too late) I went to the old link I had saved and there it was. Crap! Will watch tomorrow, early, I suppose.

–Went to Smart and Final for fruit, muffins, milk. That was my last shot at herbes de Provence cheese; no dice. I have no idea where I got that stuff. Almost has to be Bel Air though.

–Took a shower.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for peaches and pears. Returned a whole bunch of jam jars to Kathy’s Kreations. She showed zero gratitude.

–1956 DV seller agreed to all requests, so: trellis gone, satellite dish gone, attic cleared.

–NOS Rubberset shaving brush (with tag) came in. Got it apart with the strap wrench, cleaned the bristles with alcohol and water, polished it up on the buffer. It could use a more serious sandpaper polish, but I might just leave it: it’s shiny and unused.

–Played with Leica SL2 and lenses. The Sigma 65mm appears to be every bit as good (sharp, contrasty) as the Leica 50, at half the size/weight and 1/6 the price. Mind-boggling.

–Fixed the spray/stream nozzle on kitchen faucet. Will replace o-rings tomorrow to stop a leak at the base.

–Went to 1956 DVL with Grace to finalize repair options with Mark. Measured garage; Mustang will fit. Turns out we have three sprinkler valves–two in front, one in back. Nothing obvious outside the house that the HOA might control.

–Ordered pickup pizza from Il Forno (with difficulty; had to get past Slice and Doordash). Best pizza ever, period.

–Went to The Gun Range to pick up a couple more checks. Went to Bel Air to deposit the checks and pick up dessert.

–Packed a bin with some of my knives.

–Rolex 1803 came back from Kirill Yuzh.

–Went to the post office to see why tracking didn’t work for Matteo’s present. They said something about how the package was picked up by a third party (Parcel Post?) and would be trackable soon. Um hmm…

–Went to Bel Air for cream and cream cheese.

–Biked over to 1956 DV for home and pest inspections. Mostly good. There’s more irrigation than I thought, more plants to trim, a satellite dish, and dry rot in the front patio cover. Will likely just remove the patio cover, as there’s a nice tree over the patio that gives lots of shade.

–Went to Jasper’s where I had an egg BLT and Grace had a chocolate milkshake. Grace’s stomach has been really bad ever since, so I doubt she’ll be back.

–Went shopping at Sunrise Mall Hallmark for birthday cards, then Sprouts for veggies and such.

–Took a shower.

–Went to both farmers markets (Sunrise, Folsom) for apples, pears, jam, broccoli, tomatoes.

–State Farm home insurance cost went from $1,738 to $1,950. Crap.

–Used the Zoccam app to send $11,000 earnest money deposit to First American Title.

–Shirogorov/Sinkevich Touch came in. Nice, not astounding.

–Separated LPs into keep and toss piles.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips.

–Made a latte with the Cremina. Tasty, but the espresso was not hot. Might need to increase the temp to compensate for the teflon heat break. Was going to take it to Great Infusions for consignment in conjunction with Grace’s trip to PAMF. Grace says she cancelled that appointment–and told me. She didn’t tell me.

–Rode the ARP with Tom Elken.

–Got the Cremina back together and working. The nut holding the top cover doesn’t go down far enough to allow the boiler cap to tighten, but other than that it’s perfect–I didn’t even need to adjust the pressurestat.

–Walked to Bel Air for Bagels.

–Axe head came, looks good; Cremina shower screen and gaskets came, so I got on it. All good until I hit the switch and tripped the circuit breaker on the garage wall. Ohm meter suggests the heating element has a short, so I’m roasting it in the oven for several hours. Here’s hoping.

–Rode the canal. Mistake. Home thermometer said 72, bike thermometer said 93.

–Got a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner–another $8 special. Killer…

–Heard from Mark Solich that out $552k offer for 1956 Discovery Village Lane was accepted. In other real estate news, 2056 Promontory Point (1) came up at $595k, (2) sold in three weeks, (3) came back on the market a few days later at $595k, (4) had a price increase to $625k a few days later. My thought: first buyer tried to negotiate price cut for new roof, so deal fell through. Seller relisted it briefly at original price, then had a brainstorm and added the price of a roof so he could negotiate back down to $595k. This is a very greedy seller, I’m thinking–and we haven’t even talked about the dry rot yet.

–Stuff came in the mail: flashlight holder for bike (works fine); steam stem and touchup paint for the Cremina. Tried to disassemble the old steam stem now that I have a new one: the brass screw has work hardened (I guess) and sort of melded with the gasket. I mangled it with a Foredom stone (drills wouldn’t touch it), then tossed it. A really serious age/heat-related failure that might have ended the project if Cerini hadn’t carried new steam stems.

–Feeling super depressed today. This was doubled when I noticed a dark 5-6mm spot on my dick. Google says it’s very likely a penile melanosis–totally harmless. Nonetheless…

–No word yet on our offer for 1956 Discovery Village.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert.

–Talked to Mark Solich a couple times. We’ll be offering $552,000 for the Discovery Village house. He seemed confident that that bid work work. Such is dual agency…

–Cremina came in–priority shipped. Missing a drip tray (I have three) and a shower screen (just found one on eBay for $50: miracle). Came with portafilter but no basket: I have one. Super hard to take apart and filthy inside, but nothing broken yet. Couldn’t get screw off steam valve stem to replace gasket, so bought a new stem/gaskets from Cerini.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels (Baguette Bagels were moldy).

–Played with cameras/lenses. Re-subscribed to Lightroom. This time I noticed that they had desktop (Classic) as well as Creative Cloud. I got that. Much more familiar. I may still have CC (their website is quite confusing), but I see no reason to use it.

–Still feeling crappy.

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

–Big shopping at Bel Air.

–Started feeling really crappy around 4. Three diarrhea attacks, despite Pepto and Immodium.

–Pool was reluctant to start this morning: low water level.

–Played around with the knife sharpener (still learning) and refinished the wood carafe-holders on the Chemex.

–Went with Grace to look at 1956 Discovery Village Lane with Mark Solich. Seems real nice to me–soaring ceilings w/ skylights, private kitchen, normal showers, den for both of us, etc. Looks like getting in/out of the garage could be interesting, but otherwise good. Solich was clever in his pricing: house is easily worth $575k or more; he priced it at $539k and will have the owner consider offers. He “estimates” it will sell between $539k and $595k. So, there went my dreams of getting this great place for a “generous” offer of $545k.

–Tried to sharpen the Devin Thomas AEB-L petty with the (just in) shorter screws for the sharpener, allowing lower angles, and the 5k and 10k Chosera stones. Still much to learn.

–Walked to Bel Air for bagels. They had cinnamon and blueberry. They also had 3-packs of donuts. Finally bought a bag of 4 “baguette” bagels.

–Nice single-level house in Discovery Village appeared on Redfin for $539,000. Seems way underpriced. Will meet Mark Solich there Saturday. He says owner will begin looking at offers on September 23.

–Put gas in the Mustang.

–Bronze Wolfman razor came in. Killer.

–Felt terrible all night; slept much of the day. Might be easier to just go ahead and get the flu…

–Walked to Rite-Aid for flu and COVID booster shots.

–Made pizza for dinner–darn good.

–Went to Target for Zone Perfect and stuff for Grace.

–Took a swim.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, apples, pears, tamales.

–Took a swim. Water fine; air chilly.

–Played with knives a bit.

–Played with cameras a bit. Decided to keep only the Leica C (not the C-Lux or Panasonic version thereof). Affinity Photo won’t handle C RAW files (or C-Lux, for that matter), so I’ll re-up my Lightroom subscription.

–Took a swim.

–Bad day: several diarrhea attacks, generally felt lousy. Drank a lot, but it didn’t seem to help. Went to McDonald’s for lunch.

–Paradigm Ti 2 razor came in. Seems nice.

–Still warm.

–Took a swim.

–Mega-hot day.

–While setting up voicemail on the Samsung S10e I lent Grace after she dropped her iPhone in the pool, I noticed she has also dropped the Samsung: broken glass in one corner (not loose). She’s tough on stuff. Should I order another green one for me? No: Siri rules.

–Not much happening. Hot day; took a swim.

–Went to Chalk It Up 2022. Parked in a garage for $10. Did a tour, got pics, got a t-shirt. Easy.

–Took a shower.

–Used the belt grinder to take off 1.5″ from the Devin Thomas gyuto; re-profiled the blade. It’s not as sleek a blade now, but it looks fine–and the cladding is much more even too. Well done. Now I can sell it.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, apples, jam, cantaloupe, squash.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good, but I’m going to now look into softer crusts.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart and Final.

–Played a lot with the Devin Thomas clad Magnacut. Discovered a low spot in the grind near the tip. Turned it into a bird’s beak trying to fix it. You can’t fix those things. This is not the first bad grind I’ve seen from DT.

–Herman Dragonfly came in. A beauty. Spent a long time with it and my previous one trying to optimize things. Turns out the previous one is Gen 2, while the new one is Gen 3–and there are some very subtle differences between them. Got it mostly sorted out. Lost some tiny (1mm) ceramic bearings, so ordered replacements.

–Took a swim.

–Visited 2056 Promontory Point with realtor Mark Solich. Nice inside, but small. Lots of water/electric controllers outside. Needs a new roof and dry rot repair. No go. Mark has other properties coming up.

–Took a shower.

–Talked to realtor Mark Solich to set up viewing Promontory house and Stanford Court condo. Turns out the condo seller wanted a rent-back contract, where she could live in the condo for 60-90 days, or until she found another place to live. I said let’s look at it anyway and we can maybe try for a more reasonable contract. Then the seller decided, for the second time in a month, to withdraw the house! Unbelievable.

–Took a swim.

–Made pesto. Had some for dinner; put some in the freezer. Yum!

–Took a swim.

–Went to Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, apples.

–Gave Grace her myriad presents.

–Got the drain cover off the upstairs shower.

–Took Grace to Home Depot for curtain rod, pool floats, plunger, etc.

–Took a swim–81 laps.

–Had Zoom Drain come out and fix the kitchen sink drain. He put in 50′ of snake, and found with his camera that the problem was little roots about a foot in. Hard to imagine where they came from, as nothing has grown there for years. I suppose it gets wet (pipe joint leak?) and that’s all it takes for things to grow, even if you can’t see them.

–Took the Rolex 5513 apart and cleaned the case. Blew out a tube gasket or two with the scuba tank; ordered replacements on eBay. It seemed to be running slow on the wrist, but ran fast in all positions on the Timegrapher. I guess I’ll start leaving it face down instead of face up overnight and see what happens.

–Called Broadley Plumbing, left a message. He called back around 7 PM, said they don’t do drain work, sent me to Zoom Drains. Great.

–Got takeout from Five Guys.

–Did not go to Noah’s for bagels.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Started to take a swim, then (at Grace’s insistence) cleaned the pool filter.

–Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.

–Had a little breakfast sandwich and coffee at the Microtel Wyndham, then headed home. Easy trip. The Mustang continues to please.

–Got a Papa Murphy’s take and bake pizza for dinner.

–Had breakfast at the Butter House, Seaside. Good.

–Drove to the Micrtel Wyndham in Morgan Hill. Their power was out (5:30). Two hours later it’s still out. Unbelievable. Called Dan Callahan, who picked us up and took us to Sicilia in Bocca. Good meal, good times.

Came back to the dark motel and found out that using the iPhone as a hotspot is really easy and pretty fast. Thank god for Apple.

–Drove the Mustang to La Selva Beach with Tom Elken. El Patio lunch on the bluff; waved to Michael Casserd; bathroom at the library. 110 Playa looks great, and has a security sign out front.

–Then to Carmel for dinner at Pangaea (after a long hunt for parking). Great food. Then we sat in the middle of Ocean Avenue and watched the parade of cars.

–Decided to stay another night near the coast rather than fight commute traffic coming back Friday. Got two rooms at the Microtel Wyndham in Morgan Hill and will meet up with Dan Callahan for fun.

–Packed.

–Rolex Open-All tool came in. Got the 5513 open, saw several watchmaker’s marks (1986, 1996, ?), timed it to +1 s/d. Done!

–Took a swim.

–Shopped with Grace at Bel Air.

–Took a swim.

–Not much happening. Watched Night of the Hunter; Sennheiser headphone battery died (again) halfway through. Finally managed to pry it out and order a replacement on eBay.

–Took a swim.

–Mitutoyo calipers came in, from La Puente California. eBay had already refunded me on this after I pointed out that seller no longer existed and tracking number went nowhere. FREE!

–Lee Elliott sent another incredible set of lies, further pushing out the CD redemption date to November. I emailed him, showing him a July 17 email where he said in no uncertain terms “I have a cashiers check for the full amount of the CD. Will deposit it and pay you back the full amount I owe you.” I think the guy has some serious mental issues.

–License plates came for the Mustang.

–Barbecued stuff above.

–Used the Foredom on the Russian Overkill detent ball and put the knife back together. Not much of a difference. Will probably buy another and sell this one later.

–Looked at the HOA sprinkler schedule: the guy who repaired the leaks changed it again. Garden is down from where it had been (one hour x three days as opposed to 1.5 hours x five days), so I’ll probably just leave it.

–The Lee Elliott thing is really getting me down. What an unbelievable asshole.

–Took a swim.

–Rode 14.2 miles with Tom Elken near his place.

–Took a swim.

–Shifter for the Mustang came in. Got everything apart and found that the holes in the new shaft didn’t match the holes on the existing shaft. Called and emailed the seller, but haven’t heard back yet.

–Kirill Yuzh wrote to say he would wire money for sale of the red Sub, but by the way he just got this untouched 1984 5513 in. It was indeed a beauty, so he put it in a FedEx box and will wire me the difference between the two watches. He also (at my request) sent a label so I could get him the 1680 and 1803 for consignment. Down to two Rolexes now: a 5512 overhauled by True Patina, original everything except bracelet, killer dial and insert, “previously polished” case; and the incoming 5513, original everything, untouched.

–Shirogorov/Martin Soft Russian Overkill came in. Nice knife, but it slams open with a sort of two-part sound. Seems the detent ball is really prominent. Not sure what to do about it. Trying to shave (or pound in) the ball would likely be disastrous. Dilemma.

–Took a swim.

–Started to install the White Madness shifter on the Mustang. Got the chrome piece off easily, but the bigger plastic assembly below didn’t immediately yield. All videos show people just pulling it off. Here’s hoping.

–Made a pizza for dinner. Baked at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Worked fine, but I’m not sure it was better than 450 for a few minutes longer.

–Bike saddle and Mustang shifter came in.

–Took a swim.

–Rode the Lake Natoma loop clockwise with Tom Elken.

–Updated my spreadsheet on the front (HOA-controlled) sprinkler system, after carefully noting the schedule. Updated the controller: deleted an 11 PM start time with no actions defined; added a 5-minute lawn watering to fill a hole in the schedule; changed garden-watering time from 30 minutes (3 TIMES A DAY) to 1 minute. Will readjust garden time after the two leaks we discovered are fixed.

–Brought up the townhouse; Grace went into a fit.

–Started trying to move everything (bill pay and such) back to Heritage. It’s not going to be easy.

–Took a swim. Re-scheduled the controller to stop at 4 PM instead of 5.

–Rode a bike to Discovery Village; saw that there is no way of getting in there without the gate code. Tried to find gate code on google; couldn’t. Was going to call a realtor specializing in Gold River, but Grace got cranky.

–Swam a half mile.

–“Helped” Grace link Stanford Credit Union to Vanguard, including a visit to Heritage at Bel Air for a notary.

–Will be looking at a townhouse in Discovery Village, which (as I had it originally in my spreadsheet) is indeed gated.

–Another cool, overcast, no-swim day.

–Got bagels at Noah’s.

–Took Grace to S*T Strawberries for strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, blackberries.

–No swim: pool is only 83 on this cloudy day.

–My back, which has been hurting for a month or two, stopped hurting today. Totally unpredictable.

–Took a swim.

–Tom Elken and I drove our cars (Mustang, BMW M235i) to Ione. Had donuts at tar Donuts. A little nerve-wracking following him on hills and curves, but the Mustang is a really really super car.

–Made a pizza. Best yet: thawed dough ball, home-made sauce, fresh grated mozzarella, 12 minutes on the stone at 450. I believe I’ve been seriously overcooking pizzas in the past–22 minutes in the cast iron skillet, maybe close to that on the stone. This one was close to perfect.

–Went to The Gun Range to pick up checks for consigned guns.

–Trying to get tough with Lee Elliott over the money he owes me. I really don’t know what his problem is.

–Shirogorov-style pivot bolts came in. Beautifully machined, but they only work in the F3. They fit in a couple other models, but there’s blade play (pivot shaft too small).

–JB Weld high-temp silicone came in. Fixed Grace’s (from her mom) leaking pan, I hope.

–Went to take a swim, but spent most of the time scraping off algae. Added a bunch of chlorine.

–Rode with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills. Beautiful place–thanks to a whole lot of watering.

–Scheduled a visit to the Stanford Court condo for sale, then the woman (who bought it in October for $520k and just listed it for $550k) decided to withdraw it from the market. Crap.

–Took a swim.