–Back is better.

–Played with knives, to no avail. (Can’t seem to improve stiff detent or off-center blade on Shiros).

–Walked to Bel Air for cheese, cream cheese; Rite-Aid for anti-fungal, toothpaste, deodorant, inhaler.

–Had breakfast at Country Waffles, dropped off taxes at Finton and Finton, joined Grace shopping at Food Maxx.

–Took a shower.

–Finished compiling tax documents for Curtis Finton.

–Got the pivot unscrewed yesterday on the Shiro F3 using the “apply pressure to blade while unscrewing” method. Messed the pivot screw. May have it sand-blasted, may buy another screw (ali express?).

–Back has hurt for the last two days, after I did some pre-painting cleanup yesterday. Hope it’s not for long.

–Moved stuff away from house prior to power-washing.

–Chatted with a redditor about swapping my Shiro 111 for his Arius w/ nice scale. Signed up for imgur account so I could send pics. He asked for video, so I politely dropped out. Guess I’ll have to learn how to take videos. Could be an excuse to get (much) better with phone, though I don’t see how I can get around the difficulty of typing in 1.5 square inches.

–Sold some stuff in Grace’s Stanford IRA at Vanguard, as it seems likely they will be sending out an RMD check soon.

–Shirogorov F3 Elmax gray came in. Great feel and centering; action is a tad stiff. Tried briefly to open it up with polyimide tape: no dice.

–Went to Roseville Cyclery (now Mike’s Bikes) to get a receipt for the Sirrus I took to Goodwill. Turns out the missing receipt was in the 2020 tax folder, as I deducted the bike last year. Crap.

–Drove to Bel Air for milk, cream, apples, sumos.

–Samsung phone lost the left hearing aid again. Replaced batteries, was in the process of switching back to iPhone when the S10e found the HA. Seriously frustrating.

–Played with knives.

–Walked to dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats, then got dessert and such at Bel Air.

–Played with knives.

–Grace is still in a super-scary snit.

–Trying to figure out Grace’s inherited IRA distribution. Called Kathy Purcell (Grace exploded) to get a Raymond James contact. Wrote him, he said they didn’t deal with the account. Later sent him a pic of a Raymond James document from the account with his name on it. HA!!

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert.

–Put the TV back together.

–Did an incredibly stupid thing at Kraken and sent all ethereum and bitcoin out into the crypto void. Metamask found the ethereum, but not the bitcoin. Spent hours trying to figure out how to get it back. Failed.

–Grace is being super-weird, claiming I unhooked the wireless TV extender and wired the TV back up. I didn’t. I’m pretty sure she did it in a snit when I failed to appreciate the genius of her experiment.

–Took Grace for a blood draw in Folsom.

–While cleaning debris off the roof, Grace discovered a 3-foot long piece of gutter mesh that had (apparently) blown off a second-story section of gutter. I called Cal Vintage to come and replace it.

–Bought my 9th Shirogorov (or so). This one has some nice inlays on the scales.

–Took a Shiro apart and replaced the ball bearings with some from Boca Bearings. Could not detect a difference. The blade will move toward center as you tighten the pivot (as with nearly all knives); the difference is that when centered and tight, the Shiro still opens and closes easily.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Robert Barker paintings came in. Nice.

–Took Grace for big shopping at Bel Air.

–Bought and paid $550 for a Southard Tolk on reddit, “A+ condition.” Through an incredible bit of luck searching for the URL for my spreadsheet, I found that the seller had bought the knife on reddit 3 months ago: $340, B+ condition, with modded bearings, snail trails on the scales and a scuff on the blade. I got a quick refund, as the seller had “forgotten about the snail trails,” and the rating, the mod, the scuff, etc. What a major asshole.

–It’s a whirlwind life…

–A gray day.

–Cleaned the Erie skillet; organized batteries and charging cables.

–Fiddled some more with Koenig Arius. Can’t get it perfect; will sell.

–Talked at some length with a Vanguard retirement guy. No surprise: we need more info on Misako’s IRA before they can figure out the RMD. Surprise (to me): Grace has to take the RMD on her standard IRA this year.

–Went to Staples and got a couple of chair mats. Useless: they’re really thin (for floor or low-pile rug) and so the chair wheels just sink in and make depressions.

–Turkeys were massed in front of our house again at twilight. Grace and I tried to scare them off, but they are perfectly persistent: if they see any opening to our driveway, they just sort of ooze around you and head back. One would need a dog or a large posse to get rid of them–if that’s possible.

–Shirogorov Quantum v1 came in. Mind-bogglingly perfect, and I can even move the pivot!

–Made pizza for dinner. Had to grate some cheddar–not my favorite pizza cheese.

–Continued refining watch collection: what to keep, what to sell.

–Nike Pegasus’s came in. Nice shoes, but mighty large.

–Shirogorov tool set came in. Since I had found the missing bit from the first one I didn’t really need it. Played around with both a bit, messed one up and tossed it.

–Turkeys on the roof again tonight.

–Took Grace shopping at Koreana Plaza.

–Bought a $35,000 Daytona (2000, white dial, full set, unpolished) from Kirill Yuzh. Unbelievable.

–Re-re-bent the frame lock on the Koenig and got it perfect.

–Continued buying knives.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for mandarins and lettuce.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert and cheese.

–Dove into the cataloging of folding knives.

–At Grace’s request, re-hooked up the HDMI wireless extender, to see if it fails with distance/obstructions.

–Cal-Pro came today to do some repairs prior to painting. They also (for an extra $1,200) fixed the chimney cladding, thus bringing into complete HOA compliance.

–Shirogorov/Chris Reeve collaboration knife came in. ANOTHER ONE IS TOO SMALL. I have to stop buying these too-short knives.

–Dropped off the Sea-Dweller at FedEx for Phil Ridley.

–Sea-Dweller date is partially stuck. Got a picture.

–Got some frozen dinners at Bel Air. Still no cream or cream cheese.

–Went to Noah’s for bagels. Surprisingly, got them quickly.

–Took a shower.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert and lunch cheese.

–Watched the Super Bowl. Bad guys won.

–Went to Folsom farmers market for clementines and a giant cauliflower.

–Spent a long time trying to polish the blade of the 3-Leg Dog knife. Was about to give up when I tried the extra-fine Bergeon satin wheel. Worked pretty well–mostly because (I think) the steel is incredibly hard. Polish attempts just sort of muddied up the blade, whereas the wheel kind of smoothed everything out without really hazing the polished parts. I’ll still sell the knife: it has fabulous action, but the blade just isn’t finished to the same standards.

–Got a couple of subs from the new (to me) Baguette Up in the Jasper’s/Smart & Final center. Was shocked to find that the sandwiches were really superb: great bread, great fillings, etc. Truly a find.

–5513 and Sea-Dweller came back from Phil Ridley. Nice.

–Played with knives. Ruined and tossed the Shirogorov Quantum trying to get it open. On the other hand, the Shiro 111 was better centered (and still had all its ball bearings) after I worked on it.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert.

–Riaan Manser knife in. Very nice.

–Soup for dinner.

–Walked to Rite-Aid to get some Old Spice Classic Original deodorant to replace the horrible Fresh scent I bought by mistake.

–Knives came in: Shirogorov + tool from Russia (new model, thinner than before); Holt Morpheus (small but mind-bogglingly perfect in every respect); Shirogorov 111 (big but very nice blade and action). Tool works great on two Shiros, but I still can’t break loose the pivot on the blue one.

–New(est) Samsung S10e came in. Spent hours updating the OS, then tried Smart 3D. It couldn’t even find the left hearing aid (previous Androids allow setup and adjustment in Smart 3D, but later the left HA is dead on phone calls). Really strange, since iPhones work with left and right without the slightest issue–AND the hearing aids used to work fine on Android phones. So: the left HA is failing, and only iPhones are sensitive enough to work with it???

–Finally was able to buy a digital art NFT Thing from Thingdoms at Open Sea for around $1,600. Absurdly complex process involving wallets, converting unwrapped to wrapped Ethereum, funding, sending, receiving, etc. Whoever streamlines crypto purchases is going to be rich. Got an offer of $500 for my Thing a couple hours after I bought it. And there are legions of fake Thing collections at Open Sea. I wouldn’t have known, and would have bought a cheap fake, except I put in a query at a Things twitter stream and someone actually messaged me. What a minefield……

–Went to REI Folsom and got some new New Balance shoes.

–Sold some Apple and something else at Vanguard, bought $100k worth of a good-performing real estate fund.

–Walked to Bel Air to get dessert and cream cheese. There is no more light cream cheese to be had. Here we go again.

–Took a shower.

–Played with knives all day. Had some successes, some failures. Re-discovered an astonishing Olamic Wayfarer from 2016. Unbelievable blade and action, and it appears to be on washers, not bearings. I have another that I bought for a scale swap (didn’t work), so I may open it up and see how they get it that smooth with washers (if true).

–Bought another Shirogorov (three now).

–Roasted caf and decaf beans (over-roasted, actually).

–Walked with Grace to brunch at Mimosa House. Good stuff.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Got a haircut with Samantha at Super Cuts. $22.

–Discovered a couple of track lights above the cabinets where I’ll be storing/displaying knives and watches. Eureka!

–Played with phones/hearing aids. Too many variables: pair in bluetooth, accessibility app, and/or Smart 3D. Order matters. I should write it down, but it seems to change every time.

–Finally found a reference to “advanced” programming for the ECM PID and managed to change temp display from C to F. I’ve got the temp set close to max, and the coffee still seems not as hot as it could be. Quite possible the Livietta was way too high: ECM makes a really good latte. Hoping it’s not some issue in the E61 grouphead.

–Took Grace shopping at Food Maxx.

–Played with phones, played with knives.

–iPhone SE came in. I dropped it, twice. Ordered another. Might as well open a phone store.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 4 PM (they were working, but Smart 3D showed left battery was weak).

–Took a shower.

–Played with knives. Laconico with ghost jade scales had some corrosion on blade in pivot area. Cleaned it up with ScotchBrite belts, and after 14 attempts to perfect the action it started feeling quite rough. Might look for some new washers; might toss it.

–After EZ-Off-ing the Erie, I ran a couple of seasoning cycles. Noticed some pitting on the inside walls that I hadn’t seen before. (a) Maybe I never looked; (b) maybe it was covered by grunge that came off with electrolysis; (c) maybe hot cheese caused the pitting. The appearance will improve (I hope) as it gets more seasoned.

–Got Clementines and broccoli at the Folsom farmers market.

–After some major hassles last night, I got the new black Samsung S10e updated to Android 12 this morning at 2 AM, after reflux awakened me. The green S10e doesn’t yet seem to know about Android 12, possibly because the new black one was sold as a Verizon phone (completely unlocked!) and Verizon phones have some special privileges.

–Fixed (again) the fans under my laptop. Smooth and quiet now.

–Bought some Ethereum. Done for now: $10k each Ethereum and Bitcoin, $5k each Algorand and Polkadot. Rich soon.

–Shirogorov Brothers knife came in. Very nice.

–Took a 5.75 mile ride around the ‘hood on the InnerLight. Nice.

–Fercal bezel adjuster came. It might actually have helped compress a retaining ring and expand a bezel. My fingers are so raw it’s hard to tell.

–Garmin came in that lets you change the wakeup phrase. I’m sticking with the other one (Alexa-ready) for now: I like the voice a little better, and it seems somewhat snappier, with better comprehension. We’ll see.

–Walked to Dr. Cripe the dentist. All good. Stopped at Bel Air for dessert and cream.

–Brad Southard flipper came in. As I hoped (from the sales video), the action is really superb. By comparison, I hurt my fingertip flipping the Shirogorov on the way to the dentist. Took the Southard apart and cleaned it up a bit, noted two extra screws after reassembly. Took it apart again and found where they went.

–Battery charger came in. Will try it on the Erie spider skillet tomorrow.

–Took the pump off the Livietta, did not disassemble it, put it back on. Still sings. Also showed really long splooshes today. The problem has to be in that solenoid assembly. I give up.

–Went to FedEx to drop off 5513 for hand relume by Ridley.

–Second Garmin came in. STILL WRONG! I really need to slow down when ordering stuff. This one won’t let you customize a wake-up phrase or (hard to believe) save a home address. It does integrate with Alexa, which might be why it was so expensive. I bought a third which I know is correct. Right.

–Switched from iPhone back to green Galaxy (noticed scratches on front glass of black Galaxy). This after ordering a black iPhone. When will it stop?

–Had trouble buying Bitcoin this morning, maybe because it would have left < $2k in BofA. Transferred a bunch from savings to checking and succeeded with Bitcoin this afternoon.

–Played a little with the “exhaust” tube on the Pasquini. Still squeals.

–Made pizza for dinner, with mozzarella “pearls,” cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper. Darn good.

–Got Clementines and broccoli at the Folsom farmers market.

–Crypto prices seem to be rebounding a bit. A guy on reddit showed a very cool chart: how long it takes Bitcoin price to come back after a correction. Maybe a dozen data points since 2018, with early rebounds taking ~12 months, more recent ones ~2-3 months, with a definite downward trend. Promising.

–Went to BofA in Carmichael to get ATM card working. Works.

–Stock market is tanking and–unfortunately–crypto is going down at the same rate. Was hoping they were a little less correlated. Bought $5k of Bitcoin at Kraken. Didn’t seem like seven days since last purchase, but I’ll have to check history.

–Finally got bagels at Noah’s. Expensive.

–Took a shower.

–Some progress in online finance: Tried again in Edge to set up a link between BofA and Heritage. Failed again. Went to Safari and succeeded immediately. Don’t know what it is about Edge–ad blocker perhaps–but it has given me problems. So I now have Edge and Safari in the dock–Safari for Kraken, BofA, Heritage, Vanguard; Edge for everything else. Took a little setting up, but it works fine.

–Played with watches, got some more thoughts (and crystals) sorted out.

–Cranked up the Veepeak/Bimmercode app on the iPhone (it wouldn’t connect with the Samsung, possibly because I didn’t have the Veepeak pushed in far enough) and (a) turned off Auto Start-Stop and (b) defaulted to starting in Sport mode. Quick scare when I first tried to start it– it demanded that the key be placed near the steering wheel–but it was fine after that.

–Ordered yet another iPhone SE 2020 (black) from Apple. I love the Samsung, but the Apple is smaller; I figured out how to open it without the passcode; it worked with Bimmercode; it handles calls better in terms of automated hearing aid/earpiece/headset transitions; etc.

–Things continue to fall apart:

–On the brighter side, the Rolex bezel remover came in; blades are nicked up, but I’m working on them. The On-Board Diagnostic tool came in; I bought the Bimmercode app on my Samsung and will probably brick the Electronic Control Unit tomorrow. Ha Ha! Just kidding!

–Went to Noah’s for bagels. Skeleton crew and no sesame bagels.

–and that’s about it…

–Tested the Mini: putting it in Sport mode after starting does disable the auto-stop function.

–Still can’t buy crypto at Kraken (seven-day $10k rule, though it seems like today would be okay). [edit] Tried again at 8:30 PM and was able to buy $5,000 Ethereum via BofA. Still can’t set up transfers at BofA for Heritage: they seem to be looking for ATM card info instead of checking/savings account info. Guess I’ll try it in person.

–Bought and installed Bimmercode on the Samsung; ordered an OBD (on-board diagnostic) connector from Amazon. Should allow me to do many things to the Mini, like starting in Sport mode.

–Took the Mini to the Folsom farmers market for clementines and broccoli, then to Black Sails for coffee–he hadn’t put it out yet. Went back a couple of hours later and got it.

–Took a shower.

–Got a call from Vanguard and sorted out my login problem. It was not–as I suspected–a case of all new accounts having a seven-day hold. It seemed to be the the ad blocker in Edge. I white-listed V in the blocker and all seems good. It looks like I could get access to Grace’s accounts, but I’d need her phone for the 2FA.

–Tried to buy some bitcoin at Kraken, was told no: $10k max in a rolling seven-day period (I was able to buy $5k Algorand yesterday via Heritage). This is getting surrealistic.

–Picked up the Mini Cooper S at Niello. They initially wanted to add a $5,000 “market adjustment” and a $995 tracking device. I put the kibosh on those pretty quick. Car is small, nimble, not terribly powerful, and may have a front-end wobble of some sort. All in all it seems sort of anti-climactic: nice new car, nowhere to go.

–Called support at Vanguard (got the number from google, not Vanguard). The good: I got a tech on the phone pretty quickly. The bad: she wasn’t terribly knowledgeable, and apparently it’s fairly common for new accounts to be on hold for 7 days–except for Grace’s. Super annoying how I’m not being allowed to move/access my money.

–Takada santoku came in. Nice polish, but feels kind of sterile factory rather than hand-made. Will sell or something.

–Not a word–phone or email–from John Escudero at Vanguard. I emailed him yesterday after our call, and left him a voice message today. Very disappointing. [edit] John called around 3 PM, introduced us to a tech who walked us through the elaborate procedure of setting up the transfers, which should be final in a week or so. Meanwhile, I had to use Safari to log in, perhaps because I had the anti-paywall extension on (not clear), and now I have a hold on my account. The delays in my attempts to organize/optimize my finances are really getting obnoxious.

–Went to Costco with Grace for water, polish sausage, pasta, peanut butter pretzels, toilet paper. Then to Bel Air for apples, milk, cream cheese, cream cheese.

–Spent a while trying to figure out how to order pickup pizza at Il Forno Classico. Gave up and ate Marie (so to speak).

–Got a call from Niello BMW: the Mini Cooper is here. Will pick it up on Thursday.

–Kraken said all okay after I sent them a carefully posed photo last night. Then I tried to buy Algorand: nope. Turns out it IS the fault of Heritage, or its ACH. Can’t wait to be rid of that bank.

–Koenig knife came in. About the same action as the Shirogorov, but nicer blade.

–I actually managed to buy $5k worth of Polkadot at Kraken using Heritage. Then tried to buy $5k of Algorand and got errors. Messaged them, got a quick response asking for big proof: photo of me holding a handwritten note, with drivers license attached. Did that. So far their customer service is great.

–Brewed another espresso with the small group. Still sings. Really annoying.

–Got clementines at the Folsom farmers market.

–Got epoxy at Home Depot. Filled the hole in the solenoid block, brewed an espresso. Didn’t see any leaks, but the machine sang like a canary when the pump was shut off. Don’t know whether to sell it like that (small group, singing), or put the large group on, or take it to Great Infusions, etc.

–Started looking into Morgan Stanley accounts and fees. Turns out we’re paying Dick >$2,000/month to handle our IRAs. This will stop.

–Got the $131.66 DHL charge for shipping the 5512 dial back to Italy reimbursed by the eBay seller.

–I ordered (via Kirill Yuzh) an amazing-looking 1967 Rolex 5513 fromTropical Watch: meters first dial, long 5 insert, sharp-edged case (polished), hand lume slightly lighter than dial lume (thus proving they are not recent color-matched hands), 1967 rivet bracelet, II.67 dated caseback. They don’t get much better.

–Got a call from Niello BMW that my Mini-Cooper is on the way from the Bay Area. Yay!

–Spent > an hour in chat at Coinbase. I only got to chat (with three different people) because I told them my account had been hacked. Bottom line: I can cash out and close the account on Feb. 2nd. No explanation of anything, of course.

–Helson bracelet came in. It’s nice, but uses standard springpins to join the links. I managed to move a link, but it really needs a tool that will simultaneously compress both ends of the springpin. I have a request in at Helson to see what they say. [edit] I decided to keep one of the Watchcos (with date), sell the other and sell the Helson.

–Got the 5512 dial sent off to Italy via DHL at Carmichael Box Store: $131.66. Filling out paperwork (at home online) was a pain in the ass.

–Picked up a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner.

–Sent the Sea-Dweller off to Phil Ridley at FedEx.

–Rolex hand setting tools and gauge came in from OFrei. My four minute hands are all around .8mm and hour hands are around 1.25mm (80 and 125 on the gauge). Didn’t measure lengths or second hands. Was going to use the tools in swapping out the SWISS service dial on the 5512 for a tritinova dial, but decided it would be kind of a waste. I’ll just sell the 5512 as is for whatever I can get.

–Italian eBay seller agreed to take back the (second, mis-described) tritinova dial. He wants me to ship DHL, and says he will reimburse me. Another adventure begins.

–Another quiet day. UPS billed me $110 for customs duty on the 5512 dial; I paid. It just came in: dial and hands are luminova, not tritium. CRAP!

–Called Phil Ridley, who’s just getting over 6-7 days of COVID misery. Going to send him the Sea-Dweller so he can fix the sticky date wheel.

–Went to Sutter Walk-In Clinic Folsom for TDAP shot. Entered wrong address. Grace not available on phone. Got there 30 minutes late. Got the shot without even showing ID.

–Coinbase, for no apparent reason whatsoever, disabled my ability to buy again. REALLY annoying. Opened an account at Kraken, got verified quickly. Will need to wire money to them (I believe). Sold everything at Coinbase, but there’s a hold period before I can deposit it at Heritage (of course). Interesting that I can add an account at Coinbase, but I have to wire money into Kraken. I might be able to use a debit card to buy something at Kraken, but probably not $40k worth.

–Did big food shopping at Food Maxx.

–Took a shower.

–Got caf and decaf beans at Peet’s. Incredible amount of broken beans in the decaf (very dark roast).

–Polished the two Paradigm Diamondback razors. Not 100% clear which is 2020 (polished) and which is 2019 (less polished). And I’m still seeing fog on bright stainless that doesn’t make sense–hard to believe I left it in that state the last time I polished. Do I need to use different rouge? Clean the wheel before every use?

–Bought a tool for adjusting Shirogorov knives. Scarily, something called “Shop Pay” knew my name, address, phone number, and BofA credit card info. They also knew Rob Hagiwara’s address, so maybe this happened when I bought him a Christmas present. I deleted address and credit card, couldn’t delete the account. Scary stuff.

–Bread basket came in early: eBay fulfilled by Amazon. Steinhart Ocean 39 Explorer also came in early. ((% sure I had one of these in La Selva Beach and tossed it (gilt dial and hands). I like this one now, but who knows? Peter Carey knife came in from Monterey Bay Knives. Nice enough, but like Laconico knives from MBK, it’s quite hard to start the flipping action.

–Did two loads of laundry: underwear and such, then sheets. Changed the sheets on my bed for the first time in…a long time.

–Went to Home Depot/Lowe’s for washing soda. Turns out I had some from last electrolysis. Tried it on the Erie skillet. Nothing. Don’t know if the skillet has to be rusty for it to work; there were no bubbles or anything indicating a reaction was occurring. Gave up and sprayed some more EZ-Off on it.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 4 PM.

–Not much going on today. Drizzly, cold.

–Ordered a Random Fabrications Mini Thicc fidget spinner, $197.06.

–Blue Datejust dial came in. I swapped it in successfully; it looks great.

–New neighbors’ dog started barking. Crap.

–Thought I had ordered a second cheap bezel from wholesaleoutlet1990. PayPal only shows the first. There’s an unknown package floating around the postal system, but I think it might just be a bogus interim number that somebody used. Crap.

–Successfully baked some bread using the new book. Didn’t follow it completely, and had to fake it here and there because the dough was so wet, but it turned out fat and gorgeous. I ordered a proofing basket to (possibly) help with the last step of getting the dough neatly into the dutch oven.

–Took a shower.

–Tried to build a fire last night. Couldn’t (kindling not small enough, wrapping paper not flammable enough). Gave up on the fireplace–cleaned it out today and closed it up.

–Played with watches some more. Decided (maybe) to sell the two Watchcos and keep the Helson Sharkmaster. Also (maybe) will go with the two 42mm Squale Batmen and the 40mm Mondia Batman.

–Grace has been in a bad for mood for a couple of days now.

–Opened presents.

–Watched two vintage Christmas specials: Bert and Ernie, and Disney. Nope.

–Got Grace’s Christmas presents wrapped.

–Set up Christmas music and video stuff–even got the cassette deck going so we can listen to “St. Olaf Christmas.”

–Rolex 16610 came in. Very nice: sharp crown guards, clean. I removed the bezel because it was a little hard-turning. Not really dirty. I managed to reinstall it with the click spring, so another skill mastered. Still kind of hard-turning, but that’s okay.

–Finished cleaning the Erie spider skillet with EZ-Off. Looks better, but may have some pitting on the bottom. Was it always there? Beats me. I think I will zap it with electrolysis and then start building up again with Crisco.

–Went around and around with Squale watches. Ended up (for now) with the two 42mm Batmen [edit] and the 40mm blue/red GMT.

–Took a shower.

–Got coffee at Peet’s, groceries from Safeway that I missed yesterday. No Pillsbury rolls at Safeway or Raley’s. Got some First Street rolls at Smart and Final.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 6 o’clock.

–Woke up cold this morning. Thermostat was set for 76, temp was 71. This happened a year ago: our heating system just isn’t sufficient to keep my bedroom as warm as I’d like when it gets fairly cold outside. I might try (again, or harder) to set the lead-in temperature higher.

–Rolex 14060 crystal came in. Played around with stuff last night and realized that the Rolex bezel resizing tool really wouldn’t do anything for me. There are different size bezels for different models, and (so far) the bezel always goes on and off the watch okay. It’s fitting the insert into the bezel that still mystifies me: when they go in, they go in fairly easily; when they don’t, they really don’t–I’ve broken a couple trying to force them. I THINK I’m trying to mate correct insert and bezel, but who actually knows?

–Really slow day. Tried to reset the pool controller. We’ll see.

–Tried again to reconcile all Rolex watches/parts. I believe I have it down: Menta 14060 is ready after case refurbishment; 5513 has a nice (maybe original, maybe service) bezel/insert waiting for when Phil Ridley returns it; made an offer on eBay for a nice service bezel for when the 1680 comes back from Rolliworks.

–Finished charging the new Honda battery. Turns out I had hooked up the charger backwards yesterday. Wow……..

–Went late to the Folsom farmers market (12:30). Google said open until 1:00; famers said 12:00. Stopped at Bel Air for some Sumo oranges and bear claws.

–Made a pizza for dinner.

–Cleaned up the cacti a little; re-potted the barrel cactus.

–Cut the (already-pruned) branches off the tree in the lawn; they’ll be firewood.

–Everest strap came in for the (sold) Daytona. Really not impressed: Couple of small pieces of not-very-supple leather. Tossed it.

–Ordered a Rolex 16610 from Tropical Watch via Lunar Oyster.

–Another slow day. Dropped off the Nourse’s package at UPS for USPS.

–Had a terrible time last night trying to verify my identity at Coinbase (after I thought I already had). Finally uploaded driver’s license photos (webcam didn’t do it well enough to allow verification) and all seems to be good now.

–Got a smaller rain shower head at Home Depot. Looking forward to using it.

–Presents arrived from Susi and (I’m guessing) Tom and Kati.

–Finalized my crypto portfolio (bitcoin, ethereum, solano) with $10k of algorand. I’ll be rich soon.

–Still no word from NAPA Auto Parts on the battery. Really pisses me off.

–Slow day, though sunny.

–Got bagels (4 sesame, 9 plain) at Noah’s.

–SIM tray for Samsung came in. Finally a match to the Prism Black color (my fault for not reading listings carefully enough).

–14060 bezel/insert from Italy came in. Insert has luminova pip, to my dismay. And after a lot of confusing playing around, it looks like all of my 14060 inserts (real and fake) only snap into the fake bezel from wholesaleoutlet990 on eBay. I ordered another (too expensive) bezel from them. I also ordered the Rolex bezel expansion/shrinking tool from Star Time Supply. Though: even if it allows me to snap in an insert, the bezel will then be too loose on the watch.

–Set up my account on Coinbase, preparatory to buying $10k each of bitcoin, ethereum, algo and ada.

–Google tells me I have patulous (open) eustachian tube, likely due to the radiation therapy. There are treatments, but it doesn’t sound promising.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Got clementines, cauliflower, jam at the Folsom farmers mrket.

–My right ear has been driving me crazy for a couple of weeks. The crinkly noise made when blowing my nose (“equalizing pressure”) is constant, not brief, and never goes away. Hearing is affected too–right ear makes my voice sound weird, and my head sound hollow on that side. I fear something is loose or broken that can’t be fixed.

–Took the Yuzh black Daytona to FedEx for consignment.

–Later took the champagne two-tone Daytona to FedEx for consignmentat Craft and tailored (or something like that). They offered $19,500, so I’m taking a $5,000 loss, but maybe it will teach me something. Unlikely.

–Speaking of which, I been playing around with them. Really extreme differences in fitting inserts: some just pop out and in, others (measuring the same) won’t go in on a bet. I would have thought that aluminum is soft enough that any right-size insert could be persuaded to fit, but that one I mangled (at least) just ain’t going in.

–Stopped at Bel Air for more soup, cream cheese, cheese, dessert.

–Rolex Daytona 116503 two-tone came in. Not usually a fan of two-tone, but the dial is awesome. Hope it’s a keeper.

–Dropped a couple of USPS packages off for Grace at UPS.

–Second Squale Batman came in. Not bad.

–Rolex 14060 from Jacek came in. Pretty nice. Runs well, so I don’t need to swap movements with the POS Menta 14060. Will send the Menta case to Rolliworks for refurbishing. Ordered a complete 14060 bezel/insert on eBay from Italy (expensive, but it obviates all the problems I’ve had putting inserts into bezels). Will rebuild the Menta watch with case, new (fake) crystal, new bezel, and likely swap in the Jacek movement where the dial has a bit better patina, then sell the other watch.

–Super-fine Scotch-Brite belt came in, allowing me to put the final (re)finish on the Daytona caseback so I can send it off to Kirill Yuzh.

–Watchco Seamasters came in from Tim Mackrain. Super nice. Will keep non-date and sell date.

–Big showerhead came in. Had to use the new (duplicate) arm to mount it, as the old one wouldn’t hold the weight.

–Had a can of Progresso chicken-sausage gumbo for dinner. Good stuff.

–Third (or fourth?) portafilter gasket came in. I sanded it down .2-.3mm and it seems pretty close to perfect: handle comes almost to 6 o’clock. It could probably stand another .1-.2mm shaved off (especially when the machine is hot), but I’m taking this one slow.

–Went to Target for wrapping paper/ribbon, eye drops, shampoo, bottled water (not Crystal Geyser–I think I’ve been over-paranoid about using only Crystal Geyser).

–Polished up the caseback on the black Daytona. What a nightmare. Ended up with a combo (bastard) sandpaper/satin wheel finish. Praying that Kirill Yuzh won’t catch it.

–Phil Ridley wrote: in addition to selling me the super-dome crystal, he wants to sell a set of genuine tritium hands. I fear the price…

–Took Grace shopping at Brainy Zoo Toys in Folsom, then Green Acres Nursery. Lunch at Burger King. Grace is in a tizzy because of Christmas.

–Went to put a (fake) ceramic bezel on my black Daytona. Following a video, I tried to hammer in a razor blade between case and bezel. Not only did it fail to penetrate, but somehow the blade put a significant scratch on the case. Sweating bullets, I managed to polish it out satisfactorily. Will sell the Daytona now. Too much money to tie up in a watch I’m not thrilled by.

–My face hurts and itches like crazy.

–Got Clementines, broccoli, giant radishes at the Folsom framers market.

–14060 came in from Menta Watch. Chip in the crystal, unpolishable dent in the case, broken pip. On the plus side, nice dial and it’s running exceedingly well. Removed bezel, then insert for cleaning; could not get insert back into bezel. Bent the bezel and broke the insert trying. Tried a couple of other inserts, no luck. This has happened before, and it’s incredibly frustrating. There doesn’t seem to be a tool for it, and people’s “tips” are useless: press against the edge of a table, use soft pliers, etc. I really don’t see how practice could improve this–it just seems like the insert is the wrong size when I try to put it back in. So: I ordered an aftermarket crystal, bezel and insert on eBay; may order a genuine insert and let someone else try to install it (who?), then sell the watch. Meanwhile, bought another 14060 from Tropical Watch via Kirill Yuzh.

–Got a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner, and some apple strudel for dessert, since Grace is pulling her hair out looking for Christmas gifts.

–Bread book I ordered yesterday on eBay came today. eBay fulfilled by Amazon is pretty amazing. It would be nice if you knew in advance which items would ship this way.

–Spent some time (re)organizing watch stuff. As usual, I discovered things I had forgotten I had. Time to start selling.

–Tim McKrain (Omega Addict) called. He actually finished building out the two Watchco Seamasters I sent him, and will ship soon. He said the delay was due to cancer. The cost was $700 per watch–which includes the movements. Really looking forward to these.

–Bought a Rolex 14060 from Menta Watch last night; it shipped today. Tritium dial, described as (and looked) unpolished. Kind of redundant, but it’s only money…