–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…

–Sent the 5513 to Phil Ridley so he could (hopefully) install the minute hand properly.

–Missed out on a really nice red Submariner on eBay. Winning bid wasn’t much higher than my max, but (of course) one never knows how high other bidders’ snipes were.

–Mowed the lawn.

–Green Samsung S10e came in. Better in some lights than others. Like the black one, the SIM tray is not perfectly flush. Tried to sand down one of the trays, phone would no longer see the SIM. Ordered a replacement SIM tray.

–Rolex VC (1978) clasp came in. Took some doing, but I managed to swap it onto a 93150. Good thing I ordered two of the rivet pins…

–A neighbor named Bill George dropped by and chatted about grinder/buffer. Heard I was into watches, and later dropped off two fake Rolexes (quartz) from the ’80s. One is trashed and without bracelet, the other is not bad, with a two-tone bracelet. I’ll put batteries in and figure out what to do with them. Bill is moving to Arizona–so much for that budding friendship.

–Neighbor boy Ryan (12ish) dropped by to retrieve tennis ball that had gone over the fence. Seems like a nice kid, based on four seconds of conversation.

–Tried to get rid of some grayed-out files in iCloud storage; gave up. Moved to Microsoft OneDrive. Took a long time to get the Art folder uploaded, but I finally did and the app seems pretty bulletproof–syncing is automatic, for example, and files are easily accessible in Finder under OneDrive. 100 gigabytes for $2/month. Probably not enough space for all my movies; I think those are fine on the thumb drive. Syncing may not actually be all that necessary: it’s so easy to access/edit files like Contacts and Humor on OneDrive, there’s no need to keep copies on the Mac. Same with the Excel files for Shave, Watch, etc., which I never kept on the Mac anyway, but instead edited them on iCloud. It might be useful though if I add something to Books or Old Friends on the Mac to have it auto sync in the cloud. Although as I think about it, syncing may work only for files that already exist on Mac and cloud. Will test.

–Got bagels at Noah’s.

–Went to Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.

–Succeeded in getting insert and bezel off of a Squale 42mm GMT. Replaced the ceramic insert with an aluminum Batman insert. Works fine, but not exactly a knockout watch, especially given how many Squales I’ve destroyed chasing this dream.

–Went back to large group on Maximatic. Portafilter insertion is fussy with small group, but worse is that the small group somehow causes these really long slooshes from the exhaust valve.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, dessert, cheese.

–FU5 is starting to make a mess of my face. I really don’t understand it: there’s a huge lesion (for example) above my right eyebrow–a place that bike helmets and hats totally shield from the sun. Where are these things coming from?

–Went to Home Depot, then Lowe’s for a Christmas tree. Got a 7′ Asheville Pine at Lowe’s. Lunch at McDonald’s in the car.

–Replaced hearing batteries around 4 PM.

–Thanksgiving: HoneyBaked ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry jam, crescent rolls, fired Brussels sprouts. Really good.

–Took the Sea-Dweller apart to look into sticky date wheel. I didn’t do much, but managed to get it back together in decent shape. It passed several tests (changing the date while running on its own, as opposed to when I’m rapidly moving the hands). We’ll see.

–Spent a LOT of time looking into 1978 93150 bracelets for the 1680 which is so complete it came with a “big crown” SWIMPRUF tag!). Put an offer in at eBay on a VC (1978) clasp that lacks a “93150” stamp. Possible it’s from a 9315, but I found (and saved) several no-stamp VC clasps that were undoubtedly 93150s.

–Took Grace to the dentist on Sunrise–and missed a FedEx delivery. Apparently she doesn’t want to drive ever again.

–Went back to the white iPhone SE 2020. The battery on the Samsung S10e just seems to drain too quickly, even when the phone is inactive. I don’t know what’s going on–I tried to delete/disable all non-essential apps.

–Took a shower. Used the Black Mamba razor. Looking at blade position in the razor, it’s painfully obvious why all Wolfman razors are so aggressive. The Mamba has such a tiny gap and steep angle it looks like it wouldn’t even shave. It does fine.

–Went with Grace to Barnes & Noble to get the latest Jack Reacher and America’s Best Mysteries (now America’s Best Mystery and Suspense Stories, with a new series editor). Grace got a puzzle for Rick.

–Got a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner.

–Went to Folsom farmers market, got mandarins, broccoli, squash. Then Bel Air for apples, milk, cream, dessert.

–Discovered by accident that Kirill Yuzh had tried in March 2021 to sell a Rolex Sea-Dweller on Rolex Forums for $18,500. Luminova hands and insert pip, really worn case. I bought the same one from his website in September, with non-glow hands and pip and a recut case (all via LAWW) for $20,000. Answers once and for all the question of whether LAWW does laser welding to restore cases: they do. I asked Rolliworks to “crisp up” the crown guards on my 1680; wondering if they’ll weld or just polish a bit. I’m hoping to catch James Hyman, who will be replacing luminova with color-matched no-glow lume in the hands, and get him to touch up the small brown spot in the 9 o’clock hour marker lume. I’m also trying to restore the 5513 that RSC refurbished to its vintage state. These could end up being a couple of killer watches.

–Again played with phones. The new white iPhone SE (Coconut Battery App says it was built in October 2021, though this is extremely unlikely) is a really slick piece now, but I STILL revert to the Samsung.

–Rubberset brush came in. More pitting than I had hoped. Working on it.

–Pundits say Biden won’t run in ’24 (too old) and Kamala Harris has terrible approval ratings. Trump vs. Buttigieg here we go…

–Picked up HoneyBaked ham–along with several other folks.

–Played with watches/bezels a bit. Decided I’ll be selling the 5512 as is. Before long I’ll need to choose between 1680 with original dial and bezel, color-matched hands, crisped-up case and complete full set; 5513 with replacement gilt dial/matching hands/tritium service bezel, great case and almost-full set; and Sea-Dweller with stellar dial/bezel, probable color-matched hands and recut case (plus trippy “Original Helium Escape Valve” caseback).

–Ordered a white iPhone SE. Did some battery testing and, at first glance, it appears the Samsung battery goes down faster than the SE battery–correcting for SIM presence. Could be other factors involved, could be my imagination. I’m just so torn over Samsung (great build, good earpiece volume) vs. iPhone (smaller form factor, hearing aid-friendly).

–Started fluorouracil treatment.

–Feeling better, somewhat.

–Finally got the ceramic insert off the Squale bezel. The grip solvent really did loosen it up so it spun freely in the bezel, but I had to break it to get it out. Bonus: with the insert gone I could view the spring that retains the bezel, and even remove it intact, so the bezel itself could then be removed. Problem 1: There was a tiny piece of rubber inside the case after soaking in solvent, which looked suspiciously like part of a stem gasket that had melted. Problem 2: Neither of the 2 (TWO) replacement inserts I had bought came close to fitting in the bezel. The inserts were about 38mm, while the bezel was closer to 37.5mm. And the ceramic inserts don’t bend for fitting.

–Still feel like crap.

–Took a shower and shaved with the LA Shaving Soap Company BBS-1 razor. Harshest shave ever. Crap.

–Got bagels at Noah’s.

–Bottomless portafilter for the Maximatic came. I had a super-hard time putting (and adjusting) a spring in the groove that would keep the basket from falling out. Now it’s really hard to get the basket out. Shouldn’t matter, as I rarely need to take it out anyway. Had a fear the portafilter wasn’t going to go in with the basket in place, but finally sort of got the hang of it. All good now.

–Squale black 30 Atmos Ceramica came in. Movement is spot on, dial is glossy and gorgeous. Hour hand is really small, which was my complaint with the Mondia Batman. Watch case was so severely dinged up I put a groove in it trying to polish stuff out. Another one bites the dust. I put the movement/dial into my Squale Pepsi (version 1), and it looks nice. I have the ruined case soaking in grip solvent to test for removability of the insert. The black insert is nice, so I’d like to be able to get it out intact, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible. I suspect these things are snapped in, in addition to being glued.

–Did a load of laundry.

–Went through my watch bracelets. I’d forgotten what I had. (a) Omegas that look about as good as 1450s, albeit with straight end pieces; (b) a really nice Gay Freres Kon Tiki; (c) a 2001 Rolex from a Daytona, really scratched up–I need to send that out for polish, as it ‘s beyond my skills; (d) an Omega 1035 near-NOS–came with a couple of straight endlinks, and I only have one proper 630 endlink. I bought one on eBay, couldn’t find another, tossed it (or lost it), bought a second one on eBay from the same guy, haven’t seen another since in many months of looking.

–Sold my 165mm Shig kitaeji santoku at KKF in 5 minutes.

–Finally getting the Samsung S10e dialed in (heh heh). Beautifully-finished hardware, and I’m zeroing in on a nice setup.

–Epiphany: I used to think Rolex bezel pearls had thin (older) or thick (newer) metal surrounds. After looking at hundreds, and a bezel I bought thinking it was older, and my after-market bezel pearls, I now realize older ones have NO metal surround. It looks sort of like a surround because it’s clear plastic that sits above the bezel surface and shows the silvery metal beneath. Eureka!

–J-knife came in. Cherry branch handle is absurdly large–my fault I guess, for having exaggerated my hand size. Knife is okay, but not thrilling.

–Took a quick bike ride to the Folsom light rail parking lot. Found the mother of all long-acorn trees. Loaded up.

–Played with phones.

–Niello called. For the second time, I couldn’t answer on the Samsung. It answers Grace’s calls fine, but not “outside” calls. Can’t find a reasonable app that will call me so I can experiment with this. Called Niello back to find out about the Mini Cooper. “It’s being built this month, and we’ll have more info next month.” Great.

–Played with phones. Turns out: to use earphones on the Samsung, you have to plug them in while the call is connected, not before. It does work if you turn your hearing aids off (mechanically) before making a call, but that’s a little drastic. Doesn’t even work if you plug in earphones, start a call, then hit “speaker.” Call will come out of the speaker until you unplug/replug the earphones. Grrr….. I may look for a quick way to disable/enable HAs in software.

–Google Pixel 4a came in. It feels bigger than the Samsung, the back feels (and is) plastic, and it seems to me to come with a lot of factory apps installed. I didn’t even bother setting it up all the way to see if it (for example) would work over earphones without the gyrations mentioned above. Bummer. I fear the Samsung 10e is the last phone (a) of reasonable size (b) that’s all glass and metal (c) that doesn’t have five large camera lenses on the back (d) and that works with hearing aids.

–Fiddled with watch bracelets.

–Continued playing with the Samsung. It’s pretty much perfect now. It apparently doesn’t allow me to set in advance how calls are routed, but does seem to “remember” the last choice and use it. Should be okay, if I can figure out how to bring up the audio screen and switch to speaker (say) when the hearing aids aren’t sufficiently clear.

–Took a shower. Tried the last feasible head on the Wolfman titanium handle. Nope. Felt like a lawn mower and caused a bleeder. Maybe I should try to trade one of my heads for a super-mild head. I don’t know.

–Bergeon medium satin wheel came in.

–Apple iPhone 13 Mini came in. Off-putting in every way. Obtrusive cameras, sharp edges (I’m spoiled by the Samsung), no wall outlet charger, etc. Big disappointment.

–Mondia Batman came in. Very nice, better-finished than Squale perhaps (and perhaps made by Squale).

–Got a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner–pretty darn good.

–Played with the Galaxy S10e a bit. Still couldn’t get it to stream a phone call I initiated to the hearing aids. Not sure what the issue is, though I’m suspecting the hearing aids themselves are limited.

–Tried to organize watches/cameras a bit for eventual sale. Did a showdown between the Sony AR7 and the Leica Q2. The Leica won. The lens on that camera is astonishing. A preview I saw of the Smart 3D app (while I was reinstalling the HAs) showed, in addition to All-Around and Restaurant, settings for Music, Outdoors, and maybe more. I’m sure I had Outdoors (at least) on a previous set of HAs. We’ll see what happens with the Pixel 4a. I really don’t want to delve into (and spend another $3k on) the arcane world of hearing aids.

–Slow day, not much happening. Did find a machine called the Tremblr which seems sort of compelling.

–GOT THE HEARING AIDS CONNECTED TO THE SAMSUNG S10e AND SMART 3D!! As usual, reddit gave the only hint: turn off nearby bluetooth devices before pairing. Whenever I had tried before, I always had the iPhone nearby with bluetooth and Smart 3D running. Duh. Turned off the iPhone, went into bluetooth FIRST on the Samsung (which is the opposite of what internet wisdom says), quickly paired the hearing aids, and when I started Smart 3D it picked them up instantly. Unbelievable. Now I have an iPhone 13 Mini and a Google Pixel 4a coming that I don’t need. Can’t have too many phones I guess.

–Got a haircut from my favorite (Samantha) at Supercuts, Greenback at Hazel.

–Maximatic with the thick gasket that I sanded down gave a tiny hint it was leaking, so I went back to the thin one. That will work. Questions are (a) how long before it compresses too much to be useful, and (b) will it require a dose even lower than the 14g I used today. We’ll see.

–Tried to get Kirill Yuzh to drop $300 from the price of a 16610; no go. He did sell the GMT however and wired the money today. I found what MIGHT be a nice 14060 at a random jeweler in Miami. “Fully serviced,” it says. We’ll see.

–Ground off Wolbrook logo from ugly oversize “vintage” dive watch beads of rice bracelet. Tried it on Helson Sharkmaster, but spring pins/lug holes wouldn’t line up. Put a Squale BOR on the Helson instead; looks great.

–$200 Batman bezel insert came in. Definitely different from the $20 insert I have (which has a couple of tiny nicks in it), and certainly not worth $180 more. Not sure what I’ll put either insert on. The most appropriate would be a (discontinued) Squale Giramondo GMT: right size, Mercedes hands. There’s only available–at chrono24 for $1,000+. Maybe.

–Played with the two portafilter gaskets again. The thick one (OE) really is too thick, and the thin one (Cerini) really is too thin. I put the thick one on the belt grinder for a while, and now it’s perfect: portafilter locks in just past six o’clock. I’m praying that my uneven grind job will be compensated for by the pliability of the gasket.

–Took a shower. Tried the Wolfman again: titanium handle, WR2 satin head, custom 1.20mm gap. Got a couple of non-self-healing chin nicks. Guess I could try ONCE more with a .80mm WR1 head. I don’t want to lose the titanium handle, but the nicks are getting old.

–Black-dial Omega Constellation came in. Not perfect, but darn nice. And the accessories: box, original receipt from 1964 ($600 Hong Kong dollars), warranty in envelope, AND the COSC certificate!

–Portafilter + gasket came in from Cerini. Very strange: the new portafilter (theoretically identical to the one I mangled) works with both gaskets. It moves .5″ with the thick gasket from Orphan Espresso, and 4″ with the thin gasket from Cerini. The thin gasket seems to be the same as the gasket that came in the 54mm grouphead–from Cerini. It may be “correct,” but that’s the one that started leaking unless I really whanged it over. I’m going with the thicker OE gasket for now. That the portafilter goes in at all with this gasket suggests that the previous portafilter (also from Cerini) had different lugs, which I had file down to get things working. I think the OE gasket will be fine, especially as it wears in. Further: a 15g dose of espresso was hitting the dispersion screen seriously with the thin Cerini gasket. Hopefully this won’t happen with the OE gasket since the portafilter isn’t going in nearly as far.

–Polished the Squale Batman case to a fare-thee-well then put it back together. Noticed (a) the date number 2 was only halfway in, and (b) the watch wasn’t running. Tried all sorts of things, but it’s dead. Tossed it, kept the bezel.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Bought an iPhone 13 Mini, after hours of trying (and failing) to get Android to work with Resound. It works with the Phone Clip, but that’s less than ideal (cannot control wind noise, for example). Was ready to pay $1,029 on eBay, then did a quick google search and found one for $729 at Apple. I’m pretty sure most of the stuff I buy on eBay is just not sold elsewhere (older watches, phones, cameras, etc.), but it sure doesn’t hurt to check.

–Made appointments at Rite-Aid for flu and COVID shots.

–Got the new Samsung S10e running. Turns out NO android phone works directly through hearing aids–you always need an intermediate device, like a Phone Clip (Resound) or AirComp (Phonak). I hooked up the Phone Clip. It paired, and after some fiddling I got it to work. Seems louder than the iPhone (both through hearing aids), but we’ll see. Also seems loud enough just with speaker, but that’s an N of one.

–Chopped up some branches for greenwaste and firewood.

–Sent Lee Elliott another $1,000. What a train wreck…

–Went to the Folsom farmers market for corn, squash. No mandarins yet (“they’re turning color now”).

–Barbecued some Bel Air pork chops. They were a little dry, and corn was a little chewy. Okay, so it’s the official end of barbecue season.

–Got pool shock at Leslie’s, apples/oranges/cheese/decaf beans at Raley’s, quarter-pounder at McDonald’s, sesame bagels at Noah’s.

–Squale blue/red GMT came in. Red is nice, but hands and dial markers (to my shock) are again gilt (gold). I put in an offer for a Mondia GMT in Italy. Looks to me like Squale might even make it.

–Wolbrook new “old style” dive watch came. I was wowed in the photos, but it totally left me cold in person. Too big, unbalanced, I don’t know. Seems like that’s the second time that’s happened recently.

–38mm “Batman” bezel insert came in. Has a nice “wet” look, but colors aren’t spectacular. Haven’t tried hard yet to fit it in (mangled) Squale bezel.

–The absurdly overpriced Rolex 14060 I bought on eBay from Japan ($19,000+) was rejected by the authenticators because they didn’t receive the “pamphlets” shown in the listing (the listing showed a Rolex warranty–was that also missing?). Seller tried to talk me back into it, but I declined. Whew! Gorgeous watch, but $5,000 too much.

–Stouffer’s for dinner. Good stuff. The new Marie, I guess.

–Mowed the lawn; swept up outside; trimmed some dead branches.

–The Squale blue/red GMT I bought on eBay yesterday shows as “out of stock” on my watch list, but doesn’t appear under “completed” or “sold” listings. Strange.

–Roasted some Brazilian coffee from Sweet Maria’s. Went from dark to burnt really fast.

–Bought a Wolfman titanium handle (plus razor and stand) and a vintage black-dialed Omega.

–Soaking a Squale watch in golf club grip solvent to see if I can easily remove the bezel insert. Tried to remove the bezel with the Bergeon tool and the new “gripper” tool: no dice. Those things are absurdly tight. Best bet MIGHT be the four-blade tool used very carefully to avoid bending the insert. Problem: that tool scratches things. Solution: polyimide tape. Maybe. [Edit: nope. Ended up destroying another case and bezel. There was a hint the grip solvent was working, but to change an insert would likely require drilling it in order to have something to grab on to to pull it off. The fit seems tight, even if the glue has been softened.]

–Rain stopped. Pool is actually too low now, after Grace’s panic draining.

–Made pesto pasta for dinner. Yummy of course.

–Squale Dark Knight stopped running. Took the movement out of the case then returned it. Best I can figure, what happened was I hadn’t perfectly replaced the stem before, so all it likely needed was stem jiggling. Anyway, seems to be fine now.

–Took a shower. Finding the Tabac a tad flowery, but not bad. The Gibbs razor continues to excel.

–Swapped the Squale watches back to original. Turns out all 40mm Squales have matte dials, whereas the 42mm watches have glossy dials; glossy is far better. I’ll keep the Batman and Dark Knight, sell everything else.

–Went to Panera for lunch, then Food Maxx for apples and oranges (no tangerines).

–Squale GMT Tropic came in. Great bezel, but dial was underwhelming–so I swapped it with the Dusky dial. Much better. Don’t know what I’m going to do now with the Dusky.

–Got some rain. Rain cricket says .5″, but I doubt it.

–Got a call from the Gun Range. The Python I ordered from Sportsman’s Warehouse a few months ago came in. Went there and filled out the paperwork. Back in ten days to pick it up.

–Mr. Poopy Butthole “action” figure (from Rick & Morty) came in. Pretty cool.

–Made baguettes. Not bad, but not the best. Super-easy recipe, though.

–Got bagels at Noah’s–and got the senior discount.

–Compared (again) Leica C-Lux and Lumix to Leica C. The C is fierce competitor for its size, but the bigger ones with monster zoom still edge it out.

–Played with watches a bit. Actually succeeded in swapping hands on a Squale Batman.

–Went to Black Sails Coffee “warehouse” and got talked into a medium roast coffee (he called it “medium-dark”). He may have lost some business…

–The new portafilter gasket for the Maximatic came in from Orphan Espresso. It is much thicker than the old (original?) one, and prevented the portafilter from locking in. After a LOT of filing and grinding, it works better. Perhaps independent of that (and maybe the actual cause of previous spritzes), the machine really seemed to struggle with my usual 20+ gram dose. I believe I need to (and will) drop down to 18g or so and see how it goes. A coarser grind might also help, although the shots are coming out in what seems like a reasonable amount of time.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8:30 PM.

–Ate lunch at Beach-Hut Deli, met Grace at Bel Air for big shopping.

–Successfully removed/replaced bezel on Squale Batman. Bezel still came loose at an angle (had to pry it the rest of the way with a screwdriver), and insert likely would have broken if it had been ceramic instead of aluminum. I cut a bit off the decagonal spring, which made it much easier to press back on, and I did not replace the click spring–I would have needed at least four hands. Works fine now, though bi-directional.

–Squale Dusky came in. Not mind-boggling, but nice.

–Took a low(ish)-light photo of a Beretta with the Lumix and noticed that ON1 put a slight vignette on it. Tried again with the Leica C-Lux, 109, and Q2: all the same. Absolutely mind-boggling–the software won’t open any Leica file perfectly. Downloaded Capture One (again) and found it (a) opens everything perfectly, and (b) has a nice and easily-customizable interface. Choppy sliders were the problem, and they are better with hardware acceleration turned off. Go figure. Anyway, I bought it for $300. I guess you get what you pay for.

–Made pesto, then made pasta with pesto for dinner. Good stuff.

–Went back and forth with a dealer on a nice Rolex 5513. He only takes wires, I only use PayPal. No go.

–Cleaned up outside; harvested (and ended) Holy Mole and basil plants.

–My slowness of learning continues to astound me. Turns out the Squale Batman came in aluminum AND ceramic bezel inserts, and was 42mm (I can’t really handle anything over 40).

–Squale Batman came. Case has some dings, hour hand has a spot on it, dial has a major dent near the date window. Watch was said to have been serviced, and runs at 0 s/d and 0 beat error, so wondering if the dent was related to service. Hard to imagine though. It’s 42mm (for some reason I was expecting 40), so wondering if I should buy s new 42mm GMT and try to swap stuff around. Bezel insert would be the killer, of course.

–Had lunch at Five Guys, then to Safeway for apples, oranges and dessert.

–Took a shower.

–Rode the Innerlight in a winding path to the entrance of the Folsom South Canal at Sunrise.

–Grrr…played with photo editors some more, found that ON1 and Affinity both showed vignetting on (I believe an older) RW2 file. ACDSee was fine with it, and (as I already knew) has much smoother sliders than ON1. I upgraded to ACDSee 7 for Mac. Still can’t save jpeg’s at 100% by default, and it seems to lack a ton of stuff ON1 has, but smoothness and “opens anything” count for a lot to me.

–Looked online for a Panasonic Lumix TZ200 (same as Leica C-Lux, except it’s RW2 raw files can be opened by most photo editors). They’re $850 (and sold out most places), but Mike’s Camera in Sac had one for $650. I went and bought it, only to discover it had no battery. I’ll take it back Monday when they’ll have another in from a different store. Meanwhile, I put the C-Lux battery in and indeed all my editors would open RW2 files. I’m pretty much settled on ON1.

–Mysteries at eBay. A scenario that fits the observations (though unlikely): Joe Blow hacks my account, buys a $4,000 Squale from excessxpress and refuses to pay–So excessxpress blocks my account. When I try to make an offer on a different excessxpress Squale, I hit the block. And tonight, looking again at eBay Squale Batmen, I see a $3,000 excessxpress watch with an eBay message at the top saying “You bought this item.” Uh, no. I did buy a used Batman a day or two ago from a completely different (private) seller. So: my hacked account bought and reneged on a Batman, so (1) excessxpress blocked me and (2) eBay thinks I bought a Batman from excessxpress. Or something like that.

–Went to the post office to pick up the Bergeon bezel tool. Sellers had put insufficient postage on the package, so I paid it and recouped it from them. Tool is fine, but it still won’t touch a Squale bezel. I spent a while working on a Blu-Ray with the four-bladed tool and finally got it off–with a broken aluminum bezel insert. Terrible, terrible design. I did pull the (Mercedes) hands off for potential use on another Squale.

–Got the brakes adjusted on the InnerLight. Silent, but without a huge amount of “pedal.” And, as someone said on a bike forum, these rotors don’t seem to stop nearly as fast as (say) Avid rotors. Hoping for improvement with pad sanding, rotor break-in, etc.

–Squale Dark Knight came in. Nice, but it needs sun to really shine. Strangely enough, there’s only one other reference to this on the web: A guy in Singapore sold the “one and only” one of these in July 2019, close to the date on mine. Mysteries abound.

–Took Grace shopping to Safeway on Folsom.

–Mowed the lawn.

–Camera lug protectors came in, three weeks late.

–Played some more with photo editors (for maybe the fifth time). They either (a) don’t open RWL files (Leica C-Lux), (b) don’t have a very customizable interface, or (c) run slow and choppy. RAW Power is the only viable Lightroom alternative. It opens everything and is highly customizable–it’s just a little wonky in separating out RAW processing from standard processing.

–Took a shower and shave. Gave up on Lisa’s lavender and the vintage shave sticks: Bigelow rules.

–Rode 18 miles on the ARP with Tom Elken. Exhilarating but tiring.

–Updated the razor database a bit.

–Air quality has been really bad lately–high 120s. Supposed to get better (along with cooler) tomorrow.

–The new disc rotors came in for the InnerLight. Spent hours trying to get them working. Turns out these two-piece rotors have rivets that interfere with protrusions on the brake pads; I found that out after a whole lot of useless tinkering trying to adjust the height of the caliper. I ground down the protrusion, and it works, but (a) the rivets have some nasty scuffs on them and (b) one brake pad has a protrusion ground down. Could get new one-piece discs, new pads, etc. Crap.

–Tried to remove bezel fromSquale Batman. Destroyed bezel and case. Looking for a better bezel remover. (The three-jaw Bergeon just popped loose when pressure was applied. The four-jawed screw-type started to pull off the bezel, but wouldn’t finish and marred the case.)

–Squale GMT Ceramica Pepsi came in. Fine, but nothing special.

–Went to Sunrise farmers market for Crazy Gringo meat pies, peaches, jam.

–Polder gram scale came in. Seems cheaply built, but it should be fine for coffee beans.

–Paid State Farm homeowners policy bill of $1,736. Seems like a lot.

–Devon’s Jewelers called. Service estimate for the Rolex 1803 is $1,300; they would sell me a new bracelet for $11,000. The estimate said “The current bracelet is not appropriate for this model Rolex.” To me, that sounds like they’re saying the bracelet is legit. Yes!

–Changed thermostats from cool to heat.

–Put a new brake cable on the InnerLight. Turns out it was the wrong cable (Road instead of Mountain), but I don’t know if that explains all the problems I had. Ordered a Mountain cable set from Amazon. The front disk, which appears to be pretty flat on the truing stand, looks like a warped LP on the bike. I don’t understand, and may order new discs too.

–Walked to Bel Air after dinner for dessert and sundries.

–Went to Shingle Springs (Cameron Park) for the farmers market and the Crazy Gringo. Ordered some meat pies for Friday pickup, bought some tomatoes, salsa, jam.