–Played with pool controller. ALMOST got it completely figured out. Schedules are still not 100% set, and of course I have no clue wrt Solar.

–Left hearing aid quit around 9 PM.

–James from Aztec came out and set up the pool controller. Put in a sales pitch for the Easy Touch controller, $1,399. Will probably do that. [edit] Just went through all the controller functions, and I think I understand it–including various pump speeds. May not need an Easy Touch. Will likely need someone to come out in March to get solar going, but I’d need that no metter which controller was active, probably.

–NTH watch, another Seamaster homage (like Borealis Estoril and MKII), came in. Nice. Don’t know which of the three will end up “permanent.” Probably the black-dialed Estoril I don’t have yet.

–Swept around pool. Controller not working, so put it on “schedule” pump.

–Took a shower. For shaving, tried one of the vintage Gillette Super Blue blades I bought for a potential “collector” Fat Boy. Incredibly, it worked as well as the Derby Extras I’ve been using. Maybe anything works if you only shave once a week.

–Swept pool after last night’s winds.

–Sent off requested Borealis Estoril watch band link to Brian Ravert.

–Watered the milkweed plants.

–Went for a 10-mile bike ride; cold and windy. Went out to Hazel and rode the three entrances to the Lake Natoma loop: one going out of the Aquatic Center parking lot that goes below/east of the river/lake and “ends” in Folsom; one on the far side of Hazel that goes down a steep incline to the upper/west side of the river, which turns out to be the American River Parkway/JSMBT with mile markers that Tom and I rode–and ends at Beal’s Point; and one that goes steeply down the near side of Hazel to the Nimbus complex/ARP. Will have to study maps to see how to do an actual loop, since Folsom and Beal’s Point are not that close together.

–Rolex 1803 in white gold from 1967 came in. Nice. Bracelet from 1971 extremely stiff (like it was just rebuilt), too short (ordered a link on eBay, may need more) and clasp is very hard to open (again, maybe because of rebuild).

–Played with pool, finally got sweeper running (perhaps only because solar was running).

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Took a walk on the Gold River nature trail. Saw lots of squirrels and stacked rocks.

–Played with the Suntouch controller a bit. Useless.

–Roasted caf and decaf beans.

–Brought some long acorns back for the squirrels. They went crazy, eating and burying them. Cool.

–Went to Hooverville Orchards in Apple Hill (Placerville) for pies, jams, and apples.

–Rode 12 miles with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills.

–Walked to Bel Air for dessert. Forgot mask. Drove to Bel Air for dessert.

–Got bagels and had breakfast at Noah’s Bagels.

–Tried to set up schedule on pool pump. Not quite there yet.

–Spent some time (re)doing login/password changes. I do believe Chrome was responsible for a lot of the hassles I encountered initially (using Firefox now).

–Put the Suntouch solar controller in Service mode and set up the pump to run at 1,500 RPMs. Will try tomorrow to schedule the pump to run for [calculated] hours every day.

–Got produce at the Sunrise farmers market.

–Played with the pool controller. Actually found a way to increase pump speed, which (for now) eliminated bubbles. Also tried to turn on robot sweeper; we’ll see tomorrow at 10:30.

–Changed BofA Visa payment bank from Bay Federal to Heritage.

–Had lunch at the Beach Hut Deli; went shopping at Bel Air.

–Updated social security email and password.

–Rode east on the ARP with Tom Elken, switching over to the Natoma lake loop. Hoping I can remember enough of it to do again on my own. Tom is golfing tomorrow with Steve Chaump, who retired well from 3COM on an acre in El Dorado Hills.

–Looks like I might be getting arthritis: first joint of left thumb has been “hitchy” and painful for the last few days.

–Picked up repaired Rolex Day-Date at Ivanov’s. Works!

–Spent ALL DAY with the Suntouch pool controller. Got exactly nowhere. Beginning to think it’s not wired correctly to the pump. It can turn the pump on and off, but doesn’t seem capable of running it at specific speeds. Will call Aztec. [edit] Further investigation showed that if you tell Suntouch it’s a VF pump (as opposed to VSF, which the pump label says), you get more items in the menu–like pump status (RPM, GPM, PSI). Pretty sure it was installed as a VF (though with max speed limited to 2,900 RPM, which I bumped to 3,450), then Travis changed it to the “correct” VSF. More to come.

–Camellia tree is blooming in garden. Nice.

–Mowed the lawn, adjusted the sprinklers–many of which were way off. The lawn doesn’t need replacing, just water. Will try to check more often.

–Took a shower.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 8 AM.

–Leica V-Lux 20 came in. Nice. But compared with the C (both 12mp), it doesn’t hold up. I’m guessing it’s the 2.0 lens on the C vs. the 3.3 on the V-Lux.

–Just discovered that you can get a gorgeous diamond-dial Datejust (the only gold is in the bezel) for around $5k, compared to $15k for a Day-Date. After buying a $3,500 Day-Date Dial. And there are thousands of diamond Datejusts on eBay. Oh well…

–Made ratatouille. Pretty good.

–Left hearing aid battery died around 8 PM.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for ratatouille ingredients plus grapes, apples, etc.

–Started some baguettes for tomorrow with ratatouille.

–Went to Green Acres for milkweed plants, bird seed, bird feeder hanger, pumpkin.

–Shigefusa 240 gyuto came in. Nice. I tried for a while to ream out the cool white handle to fit, but didn’t get anywhere. Super hard wood (or wood-grain plastic, I don’t know). Put original Shig handle back on. May send out to a pro to fit the white handle.

–Firefox started acting up tonight. Installed Chrome again and Chase login was fine. Back and forth, back and forth.

–Rode the ARP with Tom Elken. Cold out there. While testing the Turbo Vado, he discovered that the upshifter can be pulled with a finger (I had thought it could only be pushed by a thumb). Eureka! Made him a latte, which he seemed to enjoy.

–Made Grace a “mocha” after dinner. I couldn’t even taste espresso in the final product. Hope she likes it.

–Ivanov’s called: 7-10 days and $145.

–Took a shower.

–House of Scuba said 1mm wetsuit was back-ordered. I got a refund. Wetsuit Warehouse had two in stock. I bought one.

–Couldn’t log into Chase all day; Grace could. Turned out to be a Chrome issue. Switched to Firefox and all is good.

–Got 10 plain and 3 sesame bagels at Noah’s.

–Paid State Farm homeowner’s insurance.

–Went to Target for deodorant, shampoo, small vacuum.

–Made pesto for dinner.

–Went with Grace to Sunrise farmers market. Grapes, tomatoes, pepper.

–Finally heard fro Cris Anderson re knife refund. Said he would send it after selling a knife. Right.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 10 AM.

–Took the Rolex Day-Date apart for cleaning. Couldn’t get stem back in. Screw that holds stem turns freely both ways, doesn’t come out. Both day and date indicators went blank. Watch is seriously screwed, just from removing stem. Off to Ivanov’s.

–Rolex 1803 came in. Decent condition, running okay. Bracelet fit, fortunately, as there are no screw links.

–Rolex luminova T < 25 service dial (and hands) came in–looks great. Now all I need is a 5512.

–Saw some nice Rolex 18239s on buyee.com (Japan auction), but they were well over 1,500,000 JPY and max bid for non-Japan folks is 900,000. Also looked at Rakuten, but it’s gotten weird and requires disabling ad blocker to do anything. Crap.

–Messaged James Hyman (relumer) on instagram re 5513 dial and hands.

–Ordered a Leica handgrip from NYC.

–More FedEx hassles. Seems like NO emails are going through to fedex.com at present. Update: the problem was with the vstat.com server, not FedEx. I’m now reverting everything back to wsf@comcast.net. What a pain.

–Smoke and haze were the worst I’ve ever seen today.

–Tossed the buggy bird seed.

–Spent a lot of time with FedEx trying to sort out customs issues. Got nowhere. Will start again tomorrow.

–Went to Home Depot for CO monitors, door closer, furniture sliders. Installed the CO monitors, which used the 7-year-old mounting plates just fine.

–No ride tomorrow: going to be hot and smoky.

–Added chlorine to the pool, bird seed to the feeder.

–Started cataloging knives. Swapped some Kono khii handles around after removing them via oven heat. Pretty slick.

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

–Took a shower.

–Took a 13.6 mile bike ride.

–Put a dome crystal on the Rolex 1680 (again).

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Had brunch at Friends with Benedicts in El Dorado Hills with Tom Elken. Good food, good time. Bought a banana cream pie at Safeway for dessert.

–Casio AMW320 watch came in. Replaced bezel insert and crystal, not without some trouble. Bezel was really tough to remove. Bezel friction ring was held in place by what looked like two screws. They turned, but did not unscrew. Now I have to find an instruction manual.

–Leica TL2 came in. Pretty darn slick.

–Meeting Tom Elken for breakfast tomorrow at Friends with Benedicts in El Dorado Hills.

–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 9 AM.

–Went to post office to mail Noah’s presents and track down the watch dial from Vietnam that’s been bouncing around West Sac. Turns out the machine (?) read the ZIP code wrong.

–Pool is still 79, as it has been for the past 5-6 days.

–Went to Devon’s Jewelers in Roseville Galleria and put my name in for a Rolex 36mm Oyster Perpetual in turquoise.

–Bought an unmolested 1968 Rolex Day-Date. Hope I can wear gold…

–Bought Super Duper and did a total backup of the Mac onto a thumb drive.

–Picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes.

–Got tomatoes, grapes, jam, apples at Sunrise farmers market.

–I seem to have gotten Mojave installed as the ONLY OS on my Mac (on the HD Data disk). So far, everything works, including Lightroom.

–AQI says 29, but it’s still pretty hazy out there.

–Took Grace shopping for Noah’s birthday to Folsom Premium Outlets.

–Tried 17 different ways of reverting Catalina down to Mojave on the Mac. Total failure so far.

–Rode 13ish miles.

–Spent a while cleaning up Mac and thumb drives, and reviving the Samsung PC–preparatory to reverting the Mac back to Mojave so I can install Lightroom.

–Went shopping at Carmichael Safeway.

–Added (new) bird seed to feeders.

–Got interested in the new 36mm Rolex Oyster Perpetual in turquoise. There’s maybe two available on the net, both > $1,000 over MSRP of $5,600. And a new Ceramic Daytona was seen listed at $29,500. Here comes $30………….  Unbelievable.

–No ride today; AQI, though forecast at 70, was 140. This pattern seems standard. These AQI forecasters need some help.

–Fried some burgers for dinner.

–Went to Sprouts for Hansen’s Diet Ginger Ale and such; Bel Air for apples/oranges/potatoes.

–Made smoked salmon and red potatoes for dinner. Grace ate about half of her small piece of salmon.

–Rode the bike to Black Sails to pick up some coffee.

–All bets off on photo-editing software. Buried deep in a Leica forum thread was reference to RAW Power, an app store photo editor written by one guy. It seems to use a lot of stuff that’s built into Macs. For $40, it recognizes everything (more specifically, does automatic lens correction) and has a great (simple) interface. Who knows what other undiscovered gems lie out there.

–Made dinner:Pasta Queen lasagne and caprese salad.

–Got tomatoes, grapes, pears, peppers at Sunrise farmers market.

–Another no-swim day–pool was at 79.

–Spent a long time last night and today trying various photo apps on Leica C-Lux RWL files. What a mess. Trialed some, bought some, but only one works halfway well: ACDSee. And even that one crops the photo when going from View to Develop mode. Controls are quick and smooth, though. Had to give up on standalone Lightroom–it was starting to act weird on Mac Catalina, and cannot be newly (re)installed. Subscription Lightroom doesn’t do C-Lux either, so dodged a bullet with ACDSee.

–Oops, ACDSee developed some issues too. Now using DxO (purchased), which is expensive but seems worth it. For example, it automatically loads modules for cameras that aren’t built in–iPhone 8 and Leica C-Lux jpeg in my case. Still doesn’t do C-Lux RWL, so I need to decide if I want to go to Lumix for the C-Lux features.

Omega 2503.33 came in (3 days, from Japan). Nice.

–Overcast, cool, smoky.

–No swim: high of 80 and no sun kept pool at 80.

–Cleaned up patio after yesterday’s winds.

–Swam .5 miles in 82 degree pool. Chilly for several laps, then okay.

–Mailed out Shigefusa 180 that I sold.

–Rolex Mk 3 bezel insert came in. Couldn’t mount it, or two others, in the bezel. Turns out at least two of the bezels (don’t remember if I measured all three) are seriously out of round: at least 1 mm bigger in the 12–6 axis than in the 3–9 axis. Just bizarre. There’s an $1,100 tool for expanding/shrinking bezels; don’t know if I’d want to risk trying it on a thin aluminum bezel insert.

–Got 13 sesame bagels for $8 at Noah’s.

–Decided not to ride tomorrow with Tom (again). It has already (4 o’clock) turned “red” outside, due I guess to more smoke in the air. Really miserable.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Sold Shigefusa 180 gyuto at KKF for $675.

–Swam .5 miles.

–Gettin’ hot, didn’t do much.

–Took a swim; took a shower.

–Went to a couple of strawberry stands south, near/on Jackson. Got lots of strawberries ($8 and $7 for 3 baskets), plus squash and big yummy cherry tomatoes.

–Barbecued burgers, corn, squash. Yowza!

–Took a bike ride to Hagan Park. Nice day.

–Called 42nd Street Camera and finally got them to (manually) send an email with return label. Jerks…

–Took a swim.

–Tuned the sprinklers (turned them way down). Hope all this work results in a nicer lawn with no dry spots.

–Took a swim.

–Finished changing out sprinkler nozzles on the lawn. Will tune tomorrow. Discovered that using the old filter strainer with the new nozzle completely shuts the nozzle. This caused me no end of grief when last I worked on sprinklers, leading me to think a bunch of new nozzles were defective.

–Barbecued turkey burgers and an oto squash from Koreana. Not bad.

–Bergeon bezel tool came in. Nice.

–Called 42nd Street Photo, and they said they’d send an email with return label. (!)

–Saw algae in pool; decided not to swim. Took a shower. Gotta chlorinate every other day, so put it on google calendar.

–Roasted caf and decaf beans.

–Took a swim.

–Went to Sunrise farmers market for grapes, pears, tomatoes, melon, etc.

–The Leica C-Lux, in addition to not writing readable RAW files, seems to have issues with jpegs. Plus you can’t put it it in macro mode if it’s set to any RAW output. The C (for example) puts out readable RAW and jpeg files, and you can switch to macro any time. This really sucks, since 20 MP is very nice for zooming and cropping. Further, the tiny C-Lux 3 has to be put in Program mode for macro shots. Thought about reviving the C-Lux 2, but apparently I tossed it along with the Casio Exilim. When will I learn?

–Took a 12-mile bike ride. Bike is sweet.

–Heard from ON1 regarding C-LUX RWL files. Their solution (delete ON1 settings) didn’t work, so sent them a photo for their research. They do seem responsive.

–Took a swim.

–1680 crystal came in. Installed it, and it really improves the watch.

–Celebrated Grace’s 70th birthday with presents and Edible Arrangements stuff from Jan (?).

–Spent much of the day trying to find a photo editor that recognize RWL files from the C-Lux–which produces really sharp photos even at max zoom. Capture One works, but is really sluggish. A couple of others didn’t work. Finally bought ON1 RAW, which claims to handle C-LUX. It doesn’t, though one can set up a preset with a Leica lens correction that seems to work okay. Sent a query to customer support to see if they’ll fully incorporate the camera.

–Took a swim; took a shower.

–Bike stem spacer came in. Way too narrow, though it could be an issue of bizarre steering tube on the Turbo. I just clamped the stem on as high as it would go, and left it open below. Should be fine.

–Put gas in the Honda, got apples and yogurt at Bel Air, got some take-out at Jack’s Urban Eats. Decent food, but a long wait outside.

–Installed new hearing aid batteries around 8 AM.

–Heard beeping while in garage, eventually noticed that the freezer was “in alarm” at 34 degrees. Pushed buttons, unplugged/replugged, and it seems okay (16 degrees after 40 minutes or so. Close one.

–Another do-nothing day.

–Left hearing battery went out around 6 PM.

–Back is still bad.

–Got pork chops, corn, heirloom tomatoes and a portabella mushroom; barbecued them. Dee-lish.

–42nd Street camera is bad, bad news. Leica ordered on the 15th with USPS shipping is now due on the 26th via UPS. Looking for a way to leave lots of negative feedback.

–Took a swim and shower, after taking a painkiller.

–Went to Home Depot for weed/feed and a spreader.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Got some gout in right second toe, due no doubt to dehydration.

–Swam .5 miles.

–Aztec guy came by at 8:00, repaired leak.

–Took a swim.

–Revived the “great white” Rolex 1680. Swapped the LAWW new hands with the hands from the 5513, successfully, to my great surprise. Don’t know why I was going to abandon it. It did have a newer bezel with luminova pearl, but I put the period-correct bezel on it that I bought recently on eBay. The case is really nice–a little wear, a little polish, but thick crown guards. It also has a same-year (1984) rivet bracelet. And it runs great.

–Went to Bel Air for pork chops, corn, apple strudel. Put some farmers market rub on the chops, ate with a farmers market heirloom tomato–what a feast!

–Repotted a couple of cacti.

–Took a swim in the newly-arrived rash guard sun shirt.

–Bought tomatoes, pears, peppers, onions, artichokes at Sunrise Mall farmers market.

–Read “Heart of Darkness.” Apocalypse Now is almost a scene-for-scene, word-for-word takeoff. The horror, the horror…

–Hot, lazy day.

–1971 Rolex rhodium Datejust was running super-bad. Banged it around some, and it now seems to be running fine. Had thought the rhodium dial was newer, but noticed it said “O T SWISS T O” at the bottom. There’s some controversy about this–could be a “sigma” dial, could just be short for “Or” which is French for gold. For sure, markers, hands and (maybe) bezel are white gold, and these dials only existed in the early 70s. This does not explain why the tritium markers and hands glow like crazy under UV, and fade slowly, as the watch is nearly 50 years old. A mystery…

–Took a swim.

–Sent defective Leica V-Lux 40 back to Russia.

–Got some burger patties and corn at Bel Air for barbecue. Harris Ranch patties were terrible.

–Got scuba tanks filled at Dolphin.

–Took a swim.

–Took a ride. Bike remains sweet.

–Leica V-Lux 40 came in. Could be a nice camera, but has a noticeable dent on the front and (I later noticed) a scratch through the paint on the side. Told seller I want to return it, he’s resisting mightily.

–Took a swim and a shower.

–Got a stiff neck.

–Took a swim.

–Went for a 9-mile ride around the neighborhood.

–Found out that one should release the clutch on the Turbo before trying to get the rear wheel off. It loosens the chain a bit. Also verified there’s no mechanism to lock the derailleur down, as there is in SRAM products (and maybe some Shimanos, just not mine, though the locking pin is there).

–Decided to keep the Leica C-Lux 3. Yes it comes on in snapshot mode, but it takes good pics in that mode (bigger than the 2, perhaps better metered), and program mode is there if needed.

–Made a pizza for dinner with tomatoes and basil. Kinda mushy.

–Took a bike ride, used Turbo on return, averaged > 14 MPH!

–Went to Sunrise Mall farmers market, got lots of tomatoes (and stuff).

–Got some corn at Bel Air, made some good turkey burgers.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Leica C-Lux 3 came in. Dead mint, but turns out it was (allegedly) designed for a camera-naive segment: it ALWAYS comes on in Snapshot mode, and must be switched to Program mode manually. Unbelievable. Its metering also seems slightly inferior to the C-Lux 2, which is the one I’ll keep.

–Barbecued some chicken and corn. Turned out pretty good.

–Took Sirrus to Mike’s Bike’s Folsom for consignment. They don’t consign. I could have gotten trade-in value the day I bought the Turbo Vado, but now I can only get store credit. This was not well explained at the time. Dropped the Sirrus off at Goodwill.

–Took a swim; took a shower. The Gillette Fat Boy (plus Proraso) with Derby blade continues to shave closer than a Mach 3 and without nicks. I don’t get it: double-edged blades used to cut me to ribbons, and never seemed to shave close.

–Rode the Turbo on JSMBT. No creaks or rattles; 14-15 mph out, 12-13 back. Onboard computer and Mission Control app worked nicely, with slight disagreement on mileage. The nose of the seat rose up, so I degreased the split seatpost and re-tightened. Should not be a problem going forward.

–Took a swim.

–Rode the New Specialized Turbo Vado SL EQ  with Tom in El Dorado Hills. No problem staying up with him. Put the Ritchey adjustable stem on and realized I couldn’t use the Specialized Turbo Connect Display, so took it off and re-mounted the original stem with TCD. There exists a TCD mount for the Ritchey stem, but it’s such a pain to adjust–requires re-aligning the stem every time. Might look for a stem that can be adjusted without loosening the whole thing.

–Took a swim.

–Mowed the lawn.

–Went to Mike’s Bikes in Folsom and bought a Specialized Turbo Vado SL EQ (super-light equipped). Oozes quality compared to the Sirrus X 5.0–cable sheathing and routing, for example. And it gets up and goes. No more hill limitations, or struggling to keep up with Tom.

–Made a pizza with Bel Air refrigerated dough. Quite good.

–Made some strawberry jam. Used Instant Clear Jel, but cooked briefly. Tried to cut sugar, but still too sweet. Also thick, maybe too thick. Will keep adjusting recipe.

–Left hearing aid went out around 8 PM.

–Went to a couple of farm stands and the Sunrise Mall farmers market. Jackpot! Also got some pork chops and potato salad at Bel Air to barbecue. Good stuff.

–Was going to raise the temp on the Cremina, but it seemed to be cycling between .75 and 1 bar, so I left it alone. Somehow can’t get excited about the machine, so will likely sell.

Ordered a Leica from Tamarkind in Chicago and a large gift basket from Corralitos Meats.

–Saw four rats under the (absent) bird feeder behind the pool. Yow!

–Travis from Aztec Solar came out for air bubbles and leak. They’ll have to schedule two guys to come back and fix leak. Air bubble problem seemed to be a consequence of too-low pump speed. He mentioned something about (1) wrong pump model number entered into the solar controller, and (2) some confusion over RPM and GPM (gallons per minute). Key to diagnosis was him demonstrating that vacuum relief valve wasn’t the issue, by uncapping it to show water spurting out–except water didn’t spurt out, showing that pressure was too low. After applying (an unclear) fix, water spurted out.

–Took a swim. Pleasant.

–Shopped at Bel Air for corn, ice cream, apples, oranges, etc.

–Rope-tailed squirrel came by again for peanuts, as did (what looks like) someone’s pet rat at the bird feeder (now empty).

–Went on a 10-mile bike ride with Tom Elken to Hovnanian-land.  Former empty lots are now all built out.

–Took a swim; took a shower.

–Played with regulators. A little surprised at how weak the Scubapro first stages were. Also disappointed with Conshelf second stage. Will rebuild Conshelf first and hope that incoming NOS Scubapro second is as good as the current one. Oh, brass-bodied Tekna is also awesome.

–Noticed algae in pool. Crap. Shocked it.

–Roasted caf and decaf beans.

–Shopped with Grace. Got a couple bagels at Panera, some stuff at Sprouts, and much great produce at the Sunrise Mall farmers market. Will return.

–Saw a really nice-looking rat on the poolside bird feeder. Looked more like a pet than a wild rat.

–Went to Callen Pool Supply to take back cyanuric acid I didn’t need and to pick up another strainer basket and a replacement catch bag for the robo-sweeper.

–Marie for dinner.

–Added chlorine to pool

–Got the Cremina working. Leaked at over-pressure safety valve (as always), so I went back to the old valve/washer with new poppet and tightened the crap out of it. Another leak at the steam wand fitting (big issue on the older machines where steam comes directly out of the frame). O-rings to the rescue. First espresso was tepid, perhaps due to “false pressure.” Ordered a boiler cap with vacuum release valve from Cerini. Even with all the issues, it steams better than the Rocket.

–Shopped with Grace at Bel Air. Got some steak, corn (best ever), heirloom tomato, potato and antipasto salads and barbecued. Yum!

–Conshelf reg came in. Nice. Tried it in pool, seems good.

–Played with Sirrus in attempt to stop creaks. No dice. Returned it to dead stock, called Roseville Cyclery to schedule 90-day tuneup.

–Left hearing aid went out at around 8 PM.