–Rode the Johnny Cash Trail with Tom Elken. Mighty hilly.

–Bing redirect virus seems to have hit again. I deleted Chrome and reinstalled it. I then spent a LONG time deleting years-old passwords and updating the list. Wish there were a cleaner way of doing this. Would try Safari, but I don’t think the paywall bypass hack would work there.

–Took Grace for big shopping at Food Maxx. Half the customers were maskless.

–Played with InnerLight brakes. Probably a mistake. Ended up (a) using a rasp to enlarge the bolt holes in the front brake housing so I could more accurately center it, and (b) fraying the inner brake cable, necessitating the online purchase of a replacement. Crap.

–SamuraiStuart suji came in. It’s okay, but handle is weird (fat and tapered) and blade is nothing special. Will toss. Konosuke HD suji also came in, with Stefan handle. Handle is good; blade required lots of cleanup with Scotchbrite belts to be acceptable. I guess Kono HDs are in fact stainLESS.

–Lost day.

–Rode the canal on the InnerLight. Tough upwind, easy down.

–Made a pizza for dinner. Insanely thick/bready crust.

–Bought a tritinova dial on eBay from Italy last night. Will put it on the 5512 and see how it goes.

–Took a shower, took a shave. Martin de Candre Agrumes scent (lemon) is a little too artificial. Fougere was fine, but I suspect I’ll end up with something British like vetiver or lavender.

–Our friend Travis from Aztec Solar came out to fix a leak. Found a couple more. As before, he was puzzled by apparent inability of strong pump to move water to top of panels. Played a bit with the pump control. Don’t know if he really changed anything. He said “No charge, under warranty,” so I gave him $40, which he appreciated. [edit: Got a bill on the 28th from Aztec for $119. I’m sure Travis knew they would be sending a bill–he would have had to tell them “time on site” so they could calculate charges. Jerk.]

–Finally found “dehaze” in Lightroom. Yay!

–Mailed off Noah’s gifts and the Rolex 1680.

–Put gas in the Honda.

–Rode the Humbug Trail in Folsom with Tom Elken. Nice day, but lots of folks walking the trail.

–Changed hearing aid batteries at 6 PM.

–Went to Noah’s Bagels for…bagels; got milk and cream cheese at Raley’s.

–iPhone SE 2016 came in–0 cycles on the battery (phew!). Got it set up.

–Takamura Uchigomo 210 gyuto came in. Needed some cleaning, but now it’s nice.

–Mowed the law.

–Tried to test the Mares regulator sent to me from Germany by mistake. Because it’s European (I believe) the fittings don’t match. Don’t know what I’ll do with it–Pauli’s Tauchshop hasn’t responded.

–Took a shower. My birth-year razor (forgot what model it is) worked like a charm.

–Bought lots of stuff at Folsom and Sunrise farmers markets.

–Fair Oaks Chicken Festival moved from downtown to Fair Oaks Park. We learned this when we went at 11 AM; we also learned that it would start at 3 PM. Had lunch at Five Guys, came home.

–Replacement Weishi Timegrapher came in. Seems Fine.

–Cooler weather is here–for a while, anyway.

–Took Grace to Folsom for ultrasound and mammogram. Had “breakfast” at Peet’s; bought floss/Noxzema pads/shampoo at Target.

–Went to Orangevale farmers market for tomatoes, squash, peaches. Still no Salsa Chick.

–Went to the dermatologist. Was seen by a PA, not an MD. BUT it was the most thorough exam I’ve ever had, and she froze a sunspot and a couple of barnacles (seborrheic keratoses) free-for-nothin’.

–Barbecued some turkey burgers/corn/potato slices. (1) Turkey burgers were better on the indoor grill, where (I theorize) they get hotter and more charred, tasting less like thawed turkey. (2) Note to self: don’t use russets for barbecuing; they came out dry and mealy.

–Rode the canal with Tom Elken.

–Grace noticed a spouting leak in the solar panels; Aztec will be out the 24th. That’s like the third (at least) leak.

–Took a swim; took a shower.

–Mowed the lawn.

–Cleaned up a wee bit.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Left hearing aid battery died at 5 PM. Replaced both around 8 PM.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for Honeycrisp apples; the vendor selling them last week wasn’t there. Got some tiny Fujis and some Sunsprite pears from (possibly) the same vendor we frequented last season.

–And dot’s about it.

–What a day. Spent 2.5 hours at Verizon trying to get Grace’s phone activated. Seems there was a pending order (probably my first of several) that has to be canceled before activation. Should be any day now…

–Took a shower. Things are better…and it RAINED last night.

–Took Grace to Sutter Roseville Medical Center for a blood draw; took my 1803 to Devon’s for them to send to Rolex.

–Made turkey burgers for dinner on the inside grill. Good stuff.

–Took Grace’s watch (which I messed up) to Ivanov’s.

–Took a swim.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Nice.

–Took a swim.

–Slow day. Took a swim, watched Dr. Blake.

–Went to Chalk It Up. Chalkers were a little sparse, but lots of viewers. Ate a hot dog.

–Heard from Kirill Yuzh. He presented decent evidence that the 18k rivet bracelet on the Rolex 1803 is at least partly fake. And apparently the buyer of the 5512 is questioning the authenticity of the rivet bracelet on THAT watch (I had forgotten there was a rivet bracelet on it). Whatta buncha crap…

–Pruned and fertilized plants in the side garden. Clementine is actually showing signs of growth, after a year or more.

–Pool STILL 83, too cool for swimming.

–Rolex 1803 came back (buyer in Italy questioned authenticity of bracelet, so Kirill Yuzh had to take it back). After looking at a fair number of similar bracelets, I believe this one is genuine.

–Naomi from Verizon called. After a hangup and a recall so she could reboot her computer, the line went dead (probably our fault) and she hasn’t called back hours later. I fear she may think we quit in disgust. Who knows?

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 7 PM.

–Spent hours trying to activate Grace’s iPhone. Seems I might have messed up by trying to activate several times with the wrong Total Wireless account number. Finally got an account number (which bore no resemblance to any number I’ve ever seen) and maybe her phone will be working tomorrow.

–Crap.

–Went to ST Strawberries for…..strawberries. Six baskets, $14.

–Took a swim.

–Rode around El Dorado Hills with Tom. Kinda wiped me out. Must ride more.

–Took a swim; took a shower.

–Went to Noah’s for bagels, Peet’s for decaf beans.

–Tried to go to (two different) McDonald’s for lunch; both were fenced off for remodeling. Ate at Burger King.

–Took a swim.

–Took a swim. Water was too warm at 87 (set for 86). Dialed it back to 85. Air is a little less smoky; sun is a little brighter.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, squash. Tasty.

–Swapped SIM from iPhone to Samsung Flip. Was able to install Resound app and it found hearing aids, but couldn’t pair with them. Put SIM back in iPhone, then got 14 messages saying I had been unregistered from Verizon. What?? I was able to re-register, but I wish I knew what was going on. This didn’t happen when I swapped SIM from SE 1st gen to SE 2020.

–Went to Verizon on Olson to cut through the transfer maze. Got a phone number for porting; I doubt that this is published anywhere on the web. Called it and got Dena, whom I could actually understand. She said Total Wireless had already started the transfer, and the delay was because Verizon didn’t want to go live before I had a SIM, which they thought was coming Monday. Dena expedited things and we’re all good now. iPhone SE 1st gen is kaput. It had battery issues last night, seemed charged this morning, but I cracked the glass when trying to close it back up seamlessly after playing with a connector. Don’t know if I’ll order another or not.

–Had dinner at Il Forno Classico. Very good. Stopped by Bel Air for corn, tortilla chips, dessert, etc.

–Again too cool to swim–just (84 at 3 PM).

–Played with phones a lot, to no avail.

–Picked up new glasses at Eye Center. Feather-light, still need adjusting.

–Went birthday shopping at Tomato Alley (small, lots of BBQ sauce and rub that I don’t need) and Osaka-Ya (got some fancy mochi). Gift shop next to Osaka-Ya is gone.

–Called Total Wireless yet again and got the usual hogwash: Grace’s phone isn’t activated, need to buy a new SIM card, etc. I’m done with them. Went with a pre-paid Verizon plan identical to Total Wireless for $40/month, which goes down the longer you stay with it. SIM comes tomorrow via UPS. AND since it’s an actual Verizon account, I can utilize the Verizon network extender if need be. Finally…(I hope).

–Phone reception is still really spotty.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good.

–Dr. Aminbakhsh canceled 1 PM appointment at 12:30. I didn’t re-schedule.

–Made some peach-jalapeno jam. Pain in the ass, didn’t yield much, not very tasty or hot. Crap.

–Spent hours trying to get Grace’s new iPhone running, including several calls to Total Wireless and a trip to Best Buy for a new SIM. Long story short: It’s locked. I eventually put her SIM in the rose gold SE I had bought and shelved (didn’t care for the color) and it was running immediately. Put in for a return on the gray one, and it was accepted immediately. Hope the new one works…

–Yet another cool no-swim day.

–Another slow, cool day. No swim.

–Made some turkey burger patties. Froze some and barbecued a couple, with tomato corn and squash.

–Another rotten day–pool didn’t make it to temperature.

–Went to the Gun Range in North Highlands to sell Nathan four more pistols (and learned he’s interested in two more, for a total of seven). Went smoothly.

–Ate at Jack’s Urban Eats, then did some shopping at Bel Air.

–Dug into the BMW paperwork and managed to (a) suspend insurance (will be reactivated with new car) and (b) submit a “release of liability” at DMV.

–Looked up 2021 Colt Python. Turns out they’re a lot like Rolex, and every other item where demand far exceeds supply. MSRP is $1,600, and I almost bought one from Eddy’s at $2,200. Fuck that shit.

–Went to Mike’s Bikes in Folsom where Tom Elken was getting his new Specialized Turbo Vado. Went for a ride, and I learned that I need to do a lot more riding to stay in “shape.”

–No swim.

–Finally looked through Vroom paperwork and sent them a photo of the bill of lading–that I should have sent two days ago.

–Went to Sportaman’s Warehouse, waited a bit (at least they have “take a number”), aced the Firearm Safety test and got my certificate. Looking at a 6″ polished stainless Python at Eddy’s in Mountain View, kind of like I did 50 years ago.

–Made a pizza. Okay, though seemed a little dry.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8:30 PM.

–Got bagels at Noah’s; sock-it-to-me cake at Safeway while looking for Grace’s Vernor’s Diet Ginger Ale (no luck).

–Took a swim and a shower.

–Slow day. Catalogued guns a little, took a swim.

–A guy came to pick up the Beemer. I have a sheet of paper with a scrawled signature on it. Hope he was legit.

–Barbecued burgers, corn and squash.

–Had brunch with Tom Elken and girlfriend Sandy at Friends with Benedicts in El Dorado Hills. She seems nice.

–Took a swim.

–Another bad night–reflux/nausea/chills. Dehydration again. Slept much of the day.

–Took a swim.

–Terrible night of diarrhea, from dehydration I suppose.

–Marie for dinner.

–Replaced a drip emitter at a tree near the side fence that looks like it’s distressed. We’ll see.

–Sold one of the Les Baer TRSs to Nathan for $2,000. Went to Turner’s first (too busy) then The Gun Range. Nothing like standing for an hour with a bad back.

–Called Grace to tell her I was heading back. Her phone didn’t ring. Sent her a text message. Later noticed a red warning under the message: “not delivered.” She refuses to entertain any thoughts of getting a working phone, of course.

–Ran the pool pump up to 3,400 to get rid of solar bubbles. It pretty much quit–because the water level, which I had just increased, was too low for that much pressure. I dropped it down to 3,200 and added a bunch of water. Bingo! Pressure is between 15 and 20 psi and there are zero solar bubbles. Dropped it to 3,000 and everything held. Will drop lower and try to find a speed that works. I have a vague recollection of doing this before and giving up when the bubbles returned after a while. Hope to do it better this time, and maybe run the pool at a slightly higher than desired rpm for a shorter time every day, watching to see when it hits temperature.

–Watched an episode of Dr. Blake with horrible subtitle sync. Watched S05E04 of Rick and Morty; stupefyingly bad.

–Lowered RPMs on pool and aux2 to 2,500. That cured the over-pressure issue; it’s down from 21 to 16 psi now.

–Put an ad in at calguns.net for one of my Les Baer Thunder Ranch Specials (why do I have two?); it sold immediately.

–Took a swim. Back does seem to be getting better.

–Cleaned up outside a bit.

–Went to Costco for an eye exam. Pretty thorough I thought. I have cataracts between stages 1 and 2 (out of 4). Should be years before they cause significant problems.

–Marie for dinner.

–Very smoky out today.

–Looked at Mini Coopers. Plenty available–in Reno.

–Cleaned bird bath. Top part was coated in a cement-like substance that didn’t come off even with a Foredom wire brush. No idea what that is.

–Took a swim.

–Tried to get Grace to switch iPhones. Didn’t work.

–Took a swim.

–Made appointments with PCP for back, dermatologist for skin, and Costco optical for glasses.

–Somewhat depressed: can’t stand or walk; giving up on coastal home; probably selling the Beemer before I wreck it, and can’t find anything to replace it that looks like fun.

–Up early at Holiday Inn Express Watsonville to get breakfast and make Grace’s 10:30 PAMF appointment. Breakfast was crap: pre-packaged tiny muffins, bagels–nothing hot like bacon or eggs. For $250, we deserved more.

–New case tube and tool came in for Rolex Datejust. Interestingly, the new cheapo tool worked much better than the expensive Horotec tool–which didn’t really work at all. Anyway, watch is good now.

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. Drove to Corralitos Market and stocked up on sausage. Went to La Selva Beach. Bought a sandwich at El Patio, shared it on the bluff. Saw some bottlenose dolphins in the water! Walked to Triangle Park, hung around for a while, then Willie showed up. Handshake, hug and selfie. Checked in at the Holiday Inn Express in Watsonville. Kelly’s Bookstore was closed, so we went for an early dinner at Appleby’s. Menu seemed smaller than before, but food was fine.

–Back pain still there, since early May it seems. Not optimistic about the outcome of this.

–Took the Beemer to the coast. Long slow trip, it being Saturday and all. Checked into the Marina Holiday Inn Express. Went to Pacific Grove. Sun was actually out, as were hordes of tourists–mostly on electric scooters and bikes. Had dinner at Rudolfo’s, most excellent. Drove around looking at houses. Kind of depressing. You can’t go home again.

–Mowed the lawn; put chlorine in the pool.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, squash.

–Latex gloves came in. Different from what I had for years, but very nice–vastly better than the black ones.

–Went to Dr. Cripe. Sandy did a thorough cleaning and took digital x-rays. Cripe (sort of) smoothed out the sharp edge of my front tooth, mentioned a cracked tooth, and said “see you in six months.” Works for me.

–Watched an episode of Dr. Blake.

–Masamoto carbon came in. Kanji was either deeply inked or very shallowly engraved, contrary to seller who said it’s years old. Also had some unremovable pitting, in addition to the ugly handle. Tossed it.

–Serious smoke out there today, hazy and smelly. As I continue looking into Pacific Grove, I note that a house that went up for $925,000 a couple weeks ago just sold for $1,200,000. Crap.

–Added water to the pool. Coincidentally or not, everything slowed down: skimmer, sweeper robot. Incredibly frustrating. Will clean filter tomorrow–again–though I’m not optimistic.

–Bought on eBay a crown tube for my Rolex Datejust and a tool to install it. Got the old one out with a broaching tool; it wasn’t ultra tight. The threads on the old one were really sparse and worn, so it took only a fourth of a turn or so to go from unscrewed to screwed in. Really curious to see why none of my tube wrenches came close to fitting.

–Cleaned up a little outside for the pre-paint inspection.

–Tekna shell came in from Tony Campagna. Built a regulator. Had to use metal internals because the diaphragms in the two plastic ones were shot. Ordered a couple (Oceanic) diaphragms from Coral Sea in Oregon.

–Took a swim. Too breezy.

–Cleaned up the Egyptian pharaonic coin. There was still lots of rust after removing some with Evaporust; it took a wire wheel on the Foredom to really get rid of the stuff. Polished with Mother’s Mag. It immediately took a patina, but seems free of surface problems at the moment. We’ll see.

–Made pizza for dinner with leftover slow-cooked cherry tomatoes. Yum! Made brownies for dessert.

–Fooled around with the pool for a bit. Didn’t get far.

–Rolex Sea-Dweller 1665 1980 came in. Original dial/bezel/bracelet, case recut and (probably) color-matched hands and (probably) complete overhaul by LAWW, running great (amplitude > 310, .1ms beat error). Beautiful watch.

–Tied back some bamboo plants, tidied up rocks displaced when I was optimizing drip lines, added a dripper to a grass plant I missed first time around, fertilized the “crops.”

–Took a swim.

–Rode the canal with Tom Elken; had a nice visit afterward.

–Went to the Orangevale farmers market for tomatoes, squash, donut peaches, salsa–except the Salsa Chick wasn’t there (again).

–Took a shower; shaved with Wolfman. Definitely has more blade feel than (say) the Gibbs, but no nicks and a very close shave.

–Grace discovered a couple of green inchworms eating her herbs. Crap.

–Picked up Day-Date bracelet from Rolliworks at FedEx center on Sunrise. Works fine.

–Played with Samsung flip phone. Learned (probably for the third time) that although there are Samsung Android phones that will run the Resound app, this Samsung Android phone will not. And I already knew that the speaker volume was not much (if any) better than that on the iPhone. Crap.

–Leica Q2 finally came in. Beauty.

–Mowed the lawn. Added drippers to the two “grass” plants in the garden (I had blocked the drippers after chopping down the plants when it looked like they wouldn’t come back. They’re coming back).

–Made BLTs for dinner with some Thao tomatoes and Acme bread. Pretty good.

–Went to Noah’s bagels. Got 9 sesame, 4 plain. The place was a zoo again.

–DeVon’s Jewelers called: the 5512 was back fro Rolex. I picked it up. Has a nice luminova dial and hands. Case is a little thinner than I recalled. I tried to put the new (old) caseback from eBay on it: no go. Fiddled with it for a while, now neither caseback will screw on. I’ll ask Phillip Ridley if he can repair it, but I fear it will require laser welding, and I don’t think he does that. Crap crap crap.

–Took a swim. Watched the skimmer flush a couple of times when I stuck my hand in. Moved the flapper valve under the basket from nearly closed to wide open. I’m sure that’ll fix it, given my day so far…

–I compared C-Lux (more pixels, more zoom) to D-Lux 109 (faster lens, working manual focus, Lightroom-ready). Wanted to like the 109, but the sharpness/quality of C-Lux photos at max zoom is astonishing; there’s no better camera for catching squirrels at their cutest.

–[edit] Camera stuff moot: I bought a Leica Q2 from Hong Kong. Yes, I have problems…

–Pool was pumping air this morning. Took several restarts to get it going. Cause was skimmer opening getting completely blocked yesterday, causing several “flushes” and (presumably) sucking in a ton of air. Too many pool floats…

–Took the Beemer out and found (by accident again) the ST strawberry stand on Jackson Highway. Got a 3-pack of strawberries, onion, blackberries, 4-5 smallish tomatoes–for $13. Unbelievable. And the strawberries are the first really good ones we’ve had this season. Will be back.

–Took a swim. Took a shower, then shaved with the newly-acquired Gibbs adjustable razor. Wow! No blade feel, great shave.

–Yet another day’s delay for FedEx delivering the Leica 109. Really pissin’ me off.

–Added water (twice) and chlorine to the pool.

–Barbecued some Corralitos sausages, corn, squash. Yummy!

–Went to Folsom REI to replace broken nose clip. Though web said they had some, they didn’t. Went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought one (Tyr, plastic). Will order the metal Cottonmouth.

–Ptolemy coin came in. Great detail, but has some possibly unremovable dark spots. Soaking in baking soda and sodium carbonate.

–Nose clips broke. Tried the mask: it leaked (or something). Tried goggles without nose clips: nope. May get some at REI Folsom tomorrow.

–Did some minimal housecleaning in anticipation of Tom Elken being over tomorrow after a ride.

–Took a swim.

–Cooler today.

–Daytona arrived at Phillip Ridley’s place.

–Slow day, not as hot as predicted. Pool was at temperature (85) by 10:30. I really need to re-program it. Maybe run it from 10 to 2, swim before sun hits it, add chlorine after swimming. Something like that.

–Went to Bel Air for apples, oranges, cream cheese, corn, and a bunch of stuff for Grace.

–Sent off Rolex Daytona to Phillip Ridley (son of legendary Bob Ridley) so he could replace black dial with white one I got on eBay. Tricky business: the black dial looks pretty nice, and I’ve been bored with white ones in the past. White seems traditional, though. And I could always swap back.

–Seems we used 1,480 gallons of water overnight–both sprinkler systems were running. The Gold River system runs (a) long and (b) often. Don’t know whether to dial it down or not. Green is nice, but that’s absurd overuse of water.

–Made breakfast for dinner: Wylie Dufresne’s scrambled egg sandwich. Yuck! (Salty, tasteless.)

–Day-Date bracelet arrived at Rolliworks.

–Went to Michaels for touch-up paint, then to Taylor’s Market for cheese, Acme bread, jam, dessert (key lime pie). Then to Osaka-Ya for peanut butter mochi. Filled the Honda with (relatively) cheap gas in Sac. Still cost $40 for less than 10 gallons.

–Took a swim.

–Took the Beemer to El Dorado Hills town center so Grace could get some local toffee for Juli’s birthday. Looked for a place to eat lunch, later learned that Moto Osteria (where we ate with Tom Elken) and Ruffhaus (where I had hot dogs a couple of times) had both closed within months of our visits.

–Started to watch Mystery Men; it seemed a little too silly. Watched Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Not bad, but another one of those claustrophobic “can’t trust anyone” films.

–Did a load of laundry.

–Golden State Water tech came out. Showed us that the little wheel on the meter wasn’t turning (no leaks) and said that the vast bulk of water use in Gold River is for lawns, and that there are folks on corners and cul-de-sacs that use > 100 CCF per billing period. Once again, we’re normal.

–Took a shower.

–Back still hurtin’.

–Started to watch a “Bad Boys Forever” download. Realized I had seen it before. Searched the journal: 12/22/2020. Six months ago. Scary…

–Had lunch at Five Guys (Jasper’s was closed), then shopped at Smart & Final.

–Got a letter from Lee Elliott: he was kicked out of his rented place, somehow lost his internet connection (went to Whole Foods to send email), and needed a $700 loan. I tried to do it via Zelle (as requested), but Heritage CCU isn’t in their network, so I ended up sending it via PayPal.

–Took a swim.

–Another slow day.

–New hearing aid batteries around 5 PM.

–Slow day. Took a swim; that’s about it.

–Back is worse, now left side hurts.

–Got many gifts from Grace.

–Black iPhone SE came in. All set up.

–Donned scuba tank and weight belt, tried to check the main drain. Had trouble staying under; a brief inspection said (1) it isn’t pulling in water, (2) I can’t see how the screen comes off. Will inspect further, perhaps without fins, so I can stay down easier.

–$30k Daytona came in. Really nice, plus the “purchaser’s name” on the warranty card is blank!!

–Went to Bel Air for pork chops, potato salad, corn ($.65/ear). Barbecued for dinner. Pretty good.

–18k link for Day-Date bracelet came in–hidden in the works of an old alarm clock. Wise-guy seller.

–Rode the ARP to Hagan Park. Way too many cyclists on the trail for a Monday. Back to the canal.

–Took a swim.

–Bought a Rolex Daytona 116520 “NOS” with black dial from Lunar Oyster for $30k. Yikes…

–Took a swim.

–Power outage and (separate) Comcast outage this morning. I wish there were a reasonable alternative to Comcast–that didn’t require a dish on the roof.

–The $30k NOS Daytona at Capetown Diamond was (as predicted) already sold. Looking at a $26k NOS black dial on Amazon, via a SRI Lanka dealer. Unlikely at best.

–Took a swim, took a shower. The shave with the 1969 Gillette “black beauty” was perfect. Looking at the blade angle/exposure, compared to some of my other razors, I would have predicted it wouldn’t cut anything off. The shaving forumites (I guess like forumites everywhere) waste reams of text trying to quantify everything. Whereas (a) the blade matters as much as the razor, and (b) it takes 2-3 strokes to know if a given razor is mild or aggressive.

–Another slow day. Back is a little better. Went for a swim.

–Inquired after a $30,000 “NOS” Daytona at Capetown Diamond in Georgia. Heard nothing. Looking these up on the web, I see them at mid-$30k to $40k–so I imagine that price at CD is just to start a conversation, and that they don’t actually have the watch (it says “special order”).

–Mowed the law; re-fixed a couple of sprinklers.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 3 PM.

–Back is still not good.

–Took a swim. Nice water, but the crawl still hurts my back.

–Rode in Folsom with Tom Elken. Started feeling bad (woozy). Drank water. Got home, felt bad. Went to McDonald’s for lunch. Drank lots of water all day. Felt worse. Took a quick “nap.” Drank more, still felt bad. Took some Pepto-Bismol, starting to feel a little bit better. Still not pissing much. I must be hugely dehydrated.

–Chinese copy of Rolex Daytona came in unexpectedly. Piece of crap. Winding is seriously ratchety, Timegrapher performance is haphazard. Tossed.

–Went to Noah’s for bagels and Raley’s for (squirrel) peanuts.

–Made pizza for dinner. Best ever: thick crust (maybe this was the heavier of the split dough pieces), cheese melted into dough (put it on first, then sauce), ultra-crispy (baked at 450 for 23 minutes, then turned on the high broiler for a few (untimed) minutes to crisp the top. A little over-broiled, but that’s easily fixed with a timer.

–Watched Rick and Morty, season 5 episode 1, that I downloaded, as Comcast pulled Cartoon Network from our lineup a while back.