–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.

–Put the Mustang in Sport+ mode and drove around White Rock/ Grant Line. Killer car.

–Barbecued turkey burgers and corn for dinner. Yum!

–Put camellia oil on my knives.

–Did a third seasoning cycle with flaxseed oil on the spider skillet.

–Spent a while getting the universal garage door opener in the Mustang to work. Several “official” sources were useless. Finally found ONE post at a Mustang forum that described the (ridiculous) procedure.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Took Grace in the Mustang to Old Sac in search of a William Glen kitchen store. Turns out the article highlighting it was a year old, and (as Siri knew) the store was gone. We still managed to get some Christmas gifts at an art collective.

–Took a swim.

–Took the Mustang to Osaka-Ya. Car and navigation (via Apple CarPlay and Siri) were magnificent.

–Took a swim.

–Played with the Mustang a bit. Turns out my thinking re Mustang + Siri was muddled. Bottom line: I can use the car’s speakers to hear Siri, and Siri could play music on the phone through the speakers, but that’s about it. If I ask her to navigate she’ll do it, and I MIGHT hear her voice directions, but of course she can’t take over the screen in the car. So then I tried out the car’s navigation system. The interface is really bad. Crap.

–Took a swim.

–Went to Carmax Roseville and bought the 2017 Mustang. $46,000. Super-nice car. Hope there are no surprises lurking.

–Made pasta with tomato compote for dinner. Yum.

–Got up early. Went to Noah’s for bagels. Then to SiteOne for a manual anti-siphon valve. They only had 1″ (I think our pipe is 3/4″), but it was simple (one rubber washer instead of several) and too large is better than too small. It worked fine, and required very little tightening to stop the flow.

–Took a swim.

–Finally fixed the sprinklers for good: when I replaced the anti-siphon valve I neglected to connect the white common wire to the four solenoid common wires. Duh. All god now. Except:

–Grace heard water running into the pool, so I turned the spigot off, hard, and broke it. Turned off the water main and looked at it; it’s completely indecipherable to me, with at least three rubber gaskets where one would do. Discovered fairly quickly on the web that it’s not a pool-specific thing, but rather another irrigation anti-siphon valve–manually-controlled in this case, not solenoid. Pretty sure SiteOne will have what I need to repair it, early tomorrow after a trip to Noah’s. Meanwhile, the house water is off.

–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market. Bought much.

–Spent the day making (1) tomato sauce from San Marzano-like tomatoes and (2) tomato compote. Made pizza with the sauce. Added sugar to both sauce and compote. Not my best work.

–Took a swim.

–Rode with Tom Elken to canal tunnel to test headlight. Worked okay. Tested new seat also. Worked okay.

–Took a shower.

–Walked to UPS to drop off a package for brother Tom with some old Farrell photos and letters in it.

–Took a swim.

–Took a swim.

–Had dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats, then to Bel Air for all the stuff Grace/I couldn’t find at Food Maxx and Smart & Final.

–Got lunch at Togo’s. Pretty nice. Then to Smart & Final for lunch fruit and sundries.

–Watched Tomb Raider 2018. Not great.

–Okay, so my epiphany regarding Shirogorov 3 Bears blade polish was premature. Turns out I only have one 3 Bears blade (the blue Quantum 2) that really reflects; the other three or four are pretty standard.

–Loft light/fan has been coming on randomly for two days. Coincidentally, I played with it yesterday to brighten it. I believe: our light and a neighbor’s use the same remote code, so theirs started going on/off when I was playing yesterday. When they turn theirs off, mine goes on, and we’re in this loop. Tomorrow I’ll turn off power and change the code in the light-mounted sensor (and remote, of course). Betcha that works.

–Played a lot with knives and made a huge discovery: Shirogorov 3 Bears knives differ from 1 Bear knives only in how the blade is polished. It’s subtle, as all their blades seem to be finely media-blasted, but I had two knife pairs to compare, and it’s definitely noticeable: the 3 Bears blades are a little smoother, a little brighter. For example, you can count chandelier bulbs in a 3 Bears reflection, but they’re more like big yellow smudges on the 1 Bear blades. I need to publish this.

–Took a deep breath and swapped the Shiro White Storm scales to a knife with better cosmetics. All good.

–Tom Elken found “cheap” lodgings in Seaside for Monterey Car Week, so off we go.

–Went to S*T Strawberries for strawberries, blackberries, tomatoes.

–Finally sent in a “change of direct deposit” to Northern Trust, Sutter’s benefit manager. Not sure why I didn’t do it until now.

–Went to SiteOne landscaping supply on Folsom and got an Irritrol valve assembly. Installed it (got soaked in the process) and the leak appears to have been cured.

–Decided to order a white 2017 Mustang GT with leather and navigation from Carmax.

–Patched the green float and Megaduck; both were deflated later.

–No swim; pool was acting up. Added water and chlorine, scraped the sides.

–Rode the Humbug Trail in Folsom with Tom Elken.

–Took a shower.

–Got bagels at Noah’s, decaf beans at Peet’s.

–Grace noticed an emitter emitting around 8 AM (after an apparent OK watering at 5). I noticed valve #1 was leaking (again), watched a video, then tightened the solenoid (which was loose). We’ll see.

–Took a quick swim (water was cool on the deep end).

–Barbecued pork chops, corn and tomatoes. Good stuff.

–Rode the canal on the InnerLight, with a flashlight taped to my helmet. Flashlight helped in the tunnel, but the fierce breeze going out seems to have dehydrated me.

–Rode the InnerLight to the river, took a quick video. It does seem higher, and is moving fairly fast.

–Going crazy thinking about cars. The thing is, they’re like pets: once you decide on one and get it, it’s really hard to get rid of it.

–Rode the canal with Tom Elken.

–Opened many wonderful presents.

–Went to S*T Strawberries for strawberries and tomatoes.

–Shirogorov Hati Club knife in. Nice. A bear (heh heh) to take apart; squeezing the blade closed worked again. Can’t believe the convolutions I went through with tape and such when this method seems trivial and foolproof. The small screw was really tight and showed a tiny hint of deformation afterwards, so I swapped it out with a screw from another knife.

–Days later, The $100k I moved from BofA to Chase (cost $3.00) finally showed up.

–Took a swim.

–Grace’s new office chair came in; I put it together.

–Took a shower.

–Slow, dull day.

–Going crazy thinking about cars. BMW = not a ton of fun. Mustang: 2017+, V8 = $45k+. Looked at Honda Fit again. Nice lines, manual trans, zippy, cheap, but 3,500 RPM at 70, so pretty buzzy. Crap.

–Bought the Shiro 3 Bears F95 from Facebook guy on reddit. He had given no indication that he has 31 flair on reddit. Oh well.

–“Barbecued” some turkey burgers and corn indoors, along with some (good) Bel Air potato salad.

–Finally dropped out of Facebook Shirogorov group, after going around and around with a guy regarding a 3 Bears F95.

–Watched “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Pretty amazing.

–Laconico Beagle with speed holes came in. Great grind, kind of small. Don’t know what I’ll do with it.

Downloaded and watched Sicario (again). Good, intense.

–Got strawberries and tomatoes at S*T Strawberries; both amazing and cheap.

–Finally figured out how to access the Hostinger bf@vstat email account (which, unlike the new NameHero account, has all my archived emails) within Thunderbird, then figured out how to save the Archive folder as a readable .eml file. Saved that on iCloud, and we are good to go!

–Swimming pool needed water morning and afternoon. Also needed chlorine in the afternoon. No swim today.

–Initiated domain transfers from Hostinger to NameHero.

–Swam 101 laps: 0.7 miles. Took a shower.

–Changed hearing aid batteries around Noon.

–Set up WP in separate Journal directory and used All In One WP Migration tool (after paying $69 for “unlimited” version) to successfully set it up. Looks okay.

–Went to The Gun Range to pick up a couple checks.

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit checks and get dessert.