–Played with regulators. Thought I had a severe setback when Mk5 kept blowing out; turns out the o-ring under the HP seat had fallen out at some point. All good now.
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–Went to FedEx on Clare’s St. to send Rolex 5512 back to LAWW for warranty work.
–VDH stuff finally came in. Pin spanner too big for HP seat cap, but the “bullet” worked nicely to install piston stem through o-ring. Mk5 reg seems really consistent now. Tried 4 different HP seats, found that the “+” seat gave best IP at 125. May add a shim; may leave it.
–Went shopping at Farm Fresh Produce and Safeway; got a breakfast sandwich and some pastries for dessert at Donut Basket.
–Sorted out Scubapro Mk5 o-rings (sort of) and built as far as I can. Waiting for a couple parts from Vintage Double Hose.
–Barbecued hamburgers, corn, squash, plus heirloom tomatoes. Good!
–Went to Steven Bregman, PA, for another stab at getting rid of the ganglion cyst. He injects lidocaine and then squeezes the crap out it. Not necessarily the best approach, in my opinion.
–Deep Six first stage came back; I think it’s a new regulator (as opposed to a repaired original).
–Roasted some wet process beans. I think those are all I’ll be buying going forward–no chaff to clog up the roaster.
–Got new speedometer on Inner Light. Setting it up is another matter.
–Discovered that hour hand was loose on Rolex 5512–the one that came back from LAWW with dust under the crystal. grrr…
–Took a walk to the bluff with Grace, got some bearclaws.
–I went to Ace for a scuba tool and Safeway for milk, cream and eggs.
–Second Scubapro Mk5 came in; it’s in really nice shape (IP around 110 though). Took it apart, cleaned it up. Waiting for some additional tools/o-rings before final assembly. Doing this one right.
–Mowed, pruned, etc.
–Scubapro Mk5 came in. Took it apart and cleaned it. Waiting for rebuild kit.
–Went to Phoebe’s Art Gallery in Capitola and bought some cool stuff.
–Got some bagels at The Bagelry.
–Roasted caf and decaf beans.
–Further, turns out that “modern” high pressure seats are not flat like every one I’ve seen; they have a sort of rounded concave cone in the middle. Even further, newer rebuild kits come with THREE of these seats, different sizes to allow adjusting IP higher or lower. Oh well, fifth time’s a charm…
–Had a good breakfast at Holiday Inn Express.
–Takeda petty came in from Arizona Custom Knives. Piece of crap–pitting right up to blade edge. Oh well…
–Took the Beemer to Sac to look at houses. Zero traffic; trip took 2 hours and 43 minutes.
–Dame Shirley house is single level, nice yard (no pool), needs interior updating. We’ll let it go to someone who’s been after it longer. [Also a security sign with “armed response” at beginning of Dame Shirley.]
–Dinner at Panera. Pretty good, though no more pastries for an extra $.99 (crappy cookies only).
–Went to Capitola Art/Wine Festival. Fun, but hot. Got a t-shirt, an etched-metal art piece, and got to see The Great Morgani.
–While I was playing with regulators, second stages showed weird popping behavior. Turns out new Deep Six first stage must have broken a seal and was way over pressure. Strange, since I just tossed a nice Scubapro Mk5 first stage that was also way over pressure. The tank tonight was only at 1,300 PSI. I don’t know what’s going on.
–Took the Beemer to Farm Fresh Produce (Moss Landing) for apples, oranges and such. Got gas at the Chevron station on US 1.
–Finally heard from Nate Newsom. Loan pre-approval seems to have gone through.
–Took the Beemer to Nepenthe; couldn’t find a place to park. Went back and had lunch at Rocky Point, on the other side of 1 than my memory said. Stopped at Carmel Cutlery, bought an OTF knife, put in a request for a Laconico super-grind.
–Went to Dr. Kim for phase 2 of the crown. One more visit, I think.
–Dinner at Round Table Pizza. Good!
–Another Konosuke Fujiyama came in, from Bernal Cutlery. A keeper, finally.
–Replacement garbage disposal came in from Home Depot, missing some parts. Scrounged some bolts and spent the day trying to install. No go. Uninstalled it, took out the original sink ring, and will try again tomorrow with the replacement sink ring and a longer PVC drain pipe.
–Returned too-wide sink disposal to Home Depot. Bought disposal installation kit (PVC pipes) and plumber’s putty.
–Bought skin cleanser for Grace and hearing aid batteries at CVS. (Mixed up old and new batteries last night, so needed something prior to eBay batteries arriving.)
–Scubapro dive knives came in. Kinda crappy, pitting for example.
–Went to Target for deodorant and eye drops, McDonald’s for lunch.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 7 PM, after 11 days. Turns out the ones I ordered from eBay were size 10, not 13 as needed. I’m an idiot. Ordered some 13s.
–Kirill Yuzh noticed that crystal was mis-installed on ceramic Daytona I sent for consignment. CRAP! Asked him to return it. Good thing I didn’t put the warranty card in it.
–Heard from Randall Frey (Army, Afghanistan) that brass Tekna arrived in time for his dive trip to Philippines.
–Fixed EUFY wheel that was clogged with hair.
–Shopping at Farm Fresh Produce and Safeway.
–Went to Shoppers Corner for salami, cheese, apples, oranges.
–Took out the garbage.
–Rolex Daytona came in. Nice. All stickers, 0 beat error, no name on warranty.
–Went to Dr. Kim for root canal. Went fine. Two more visits: build up tooth, then crown.
–Rolex Daytona coming tomorrow, after many threats from me.
–Watchco Seamaster came in. Runs nice, so put it in best case to keep. As usual, tossed two movements because I couldn’t get the @#$% stems in properly.
–Rolex GMT 1675 crystal came in–a top hat with a large bevel, as was originally on the watch. I installed it, taking the opportunity to clean up a lot of gunk under the crystal retaining ring. Good job. Wondering whether to put same crystal (incoming) on 1680, which currently has original “no bevel” top hat, which MAY make the dial of the watch look slightly smaller. Tough choice.
–Had some Insight Ethiopia this morning. Good stuff, with berry aspects, but my tastes are changing towards darker roasts.
–Went to Chalk It Up, took pictures, got a t-shirt (undated).
–Went to new Temple Coffee on P Street (formerly Insight), found they stopped putting dates on roasted beans. Bye. Went to original Insight and got some dated beans and green beans.
–Grace dislikes inside of house we looked at, at 1900 Studebaker in Gold River.
–Drove to Sacramento. 5.5 hours. Miserable.
–A little shopping at Bel Air, then back to Holiday In Express.
–Took the Beemer to get gas, fruit, Pajaronian, fritters.
–Bought another Rolex Daytona ceramic.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 9 AM.
–Got paperwork off to Nate Newsom of Valley Funding for loan pre-approval.
–Rolex 5512 and 1680 came back from LAWW. 1680 is nice and runs well. 5512 does not run so well and had dust under the crystal (I cleaned it up). Guess I know which one I’m keeping.
–Left hearing aid battery went out around 9 PM.
–Got water (and replaced lost membership card) at Costco.
–Stopped at Safeway for BBQ fixin’s and dessert.
–Cleaned asbestos off Cremina boiler, then broke dipper tube. Crap.
–Had Oceanic and Scubapro regulators going nicely. Then tried to switch bodies on the Scubapro. Free-flowed again, no matter what, then I noticed some metal threads had moved in the nylon housing, then the Scubapro first stage sort of blew up (even the Oceanic was acting weird). Put the Conshelf first stage on, Oceanic was okay, decided to just ditch all Scubapro D series stuff. Way too complex and touchy.
–Took Cremina apart; Grace blew up when I foolishly mentioned asbestos on the boiler. Reveal only what is necessary…
–Went shopping at Nob Hill. Also got cough drops and Pajaronian.
–Scubapro 350 reg came in, as did Cremina.
–Went to Farm Fresh Produce; bought lots.
–Talked to Nate Newsom of Valley Funding re pre-qualifying for home loan. Looks good.
–Back from Sac. Long hot drive. Beat.
–Went to Sac to look at houses.
–Saw a couple of homes with Darla. Mother Lode, not so nice. Hesperian, very nice–sold today. Time to get on a stick and sell 110 Playa and get (pre-qualified for) a loan.
–Dinner with Tom Elken at Moto Osteria in downtown El Dorado. Very nice.
–Scheduled to meet with David Chapman for lunch tomorrow around Noon. Then Darla Haubner, realtor, at a house in Gold River. Likely dinner with Tom Elken.
–Read The Invention of Morel, possible inspiration for Last Year at Marienbad. Pretty amazing.
–Made reservations at Holiday Inn Express El Doarado Hills for Sac trip 8/21.
–Mowed lawn, pruned some. Beat.
–Replace hearing aid batteries around 6 PM.
–Rained last night, dreary today.
–Played with Scubapro D300. Working yesterday, free-flowing today.
–Finished making strawberry jam with (undetectable) serrano peppers.
–Everything ordered, arrived. a) Watch waterproof tester. b) Scubapro D300 tool. c) Rolex 1675. Cleaned up fantastic, after a scare with the stem. d) Hair dryer.
–Started some strawberry jam.
–Went to REI in Marina to pick up bike wheel truing stand. Pointer that came with it was useless (for disc rotors anyway), but had a brainstorm and put pointer from previous stand on it. Bingo!
–Scubapro D300 regulator came in. Really nice breather. Can’t wait to get the tool (from Thailand) so I can rebuild it.
–Seascape again. 201 pounds, 8 laps, .3 miles on inclined treadmill.
–Went shopping at Farm Fresh Produce and Safeway. Got some great corn at FFP, some awful “blackened” burger patties at Safeway.
–Went to Seascape Sports Club for first day of one-week trial. 2/5 swimming lanes open when I arrived, 4/5 when I left. Swam 6 laps or so, then 10 minutes on the inclined (15 degree) treadmill. Decent facility. I’m wiped out. Hopefully I will improve.
–Roasted some decaf beans.
–Ordered atorvastatin and lisinopril refills from CVS/Caremark.
–eBay seller of bird feeder I ordered a while back asked for feedback. I noticed (and told her) that tracking shows it isn’t even in transit yet. Crap.
–Went to Seascape Sports Club. Got a tour, despite Nordic Naturals tennis tournament. Seems reasonable, so will start a one-week trial tomorrow.
–Climbed up and down Breve a few times. Tough. Useful?
–Made cinnamon rolls.
–Tried to talk to Grace about moving. Nope.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 2 PM–roughly 11 days of use.
–Took Boris T. Beemer to Felton to shop at Wild Roots. Nice produce, crowded aisles. Got some stuff to barbecue.
–Scubapro D400 came in. Seems hard-breathing (and noisy) to me. Broke the pin spanner trying to open it. Real tool coming; couldn’t wait.
–Made baguettes! Not quite as crusty as the first batch, but technique is improving.
–Thunderbird (or someone) still deleting trash. Oldest email in trash today is from 7/29. This is absurd. Checked all settings on Thunderbird and cPanel—should save trash forever. P.S. Just installed Apple Mail. Looks okay; we’ll see if it deletes trash quickly.
–Konosuke western HD2 came in. Blade had been thinned or something, beyond redemption. Tossed.
–Took a walk on the beach; beautiful day.
–Swapped nice-running movement into Steinhart Ocean One Maxi LE. Still can’t wear it because of faux-old lume.
–Got bagels at The Bagelry.
–Returned non-working gold Rolex.
–Shigefusa 210 kitaeji gyuto came. Beauty!
–Rolex Day-Date came in. Nice watch, but (a) gold just doesn’t seem to work for me, (b) day and date can be changed with the stem, but don’t change when time is manually advanced past 12. Will return.
–Did a little yard work. Learned that strawberries under lemon tree are mock strawberries (no taste), not wild strawberries. Bummer.
–Picked up scuba tanks at Aqua Safari.
–Took a shower.
–Shopping at Farm Fresh Produce and Nob Hill.
–Barbecued turkey burgers and corn, plus heirloom tomatoes (yum).
–Sold the Kato 240 for $1,000. Good riddance!
–Took a walk to the beach.
–Played with regulators. Ended up tossing the two Scubapros: they wouldn’t hold IP, and dropped 15 PSI when breathing. The Conshelf holds IP and drops < 5 PSI.
–Played with regulators. Getting tiresome.
–Bought 1991 Rolex Day-Date, unpolished.
–Went shopping at Nob Hill: milk, cream, cream cheese, corn, hamburger. Got dessert at Top Donuts.
–Grace’s watch came in (eBay via Amazon Prime). Looks okay, a little heavy.
–Replaced (initial) hearing aid batteries around 6 PM. They lasted 10 days.
–Books and Brews at LSB. Okay, but cool/foggy weather.
–Made a pizza for dinner.
–Got a buzz cut at Supercuts on 41st.
–Roasted caf and decaf beans.
–Called Soquel Creek Water. They advised to change auto-pay date from 1st to 5th. Did that.
–Watch for Grace came in–way too small (25mm). Ordered a 36/37mm watch; hope it isn’t clownishly large.
–Mowed. Tough.
–Played with hearing aids a lot to try and hear NPR on the radio. Some success.
–Grace still in bad shape.
–Rolex Daytona came in–killer!
–Went to Frank’s Pharmacy to pick up some pain pills for Grace.
–Takeda came in from Arizona Custom Knives (in Florida). What a joke–weighed a ton, spine was 1/8″ thick. My fault, of course: it was labeled a mioroshi, it was 187mm long and weighed 167g. The Kono 210 I just ordered, by contrast, weighs 143g. Oh well…
–Played around with Omega watches. Decided to go with moonwalk 105.012-65, 76 ST, and 2014 Costco. Nice setup…
–Took Grace to Watsonville PAMF Urgent Care Center for shoulder pain. Doc said muscular, no big deal, gave her a painkiller prescription.
–Bought a Daytona, A Garmin and an orange Omega watch strap on eBay. Whew!
–Moonwalk day!
–Re-potted the two orchids from Michael Casserd.
–Went to Costco Salinas to pick up new Resound hearing aids. Nice fitting process. Not noticing huge gains in Grace comprehension.
–Gave Boris T. Beemer a sponge bath.
–Konosuke ginsan came in. Not too exciting.
–Packed another box of watches to send to LunarOyster on consignment.
–Grace went shopping by herself.
–E61 grouphead thermometer came in. Rocket does indeed seem to be running cool. Will continue to test.
–Went shopping at Farm Fresh Produce.
–Barbecued Costco Polish, corn, tomatoes, peppers.
–Took Grace to dentist to have temp crown fixed. Turns out they had new crown in, so installed it. Stopped at Aptos nursery and bought a couple of pots to re-pot the orchids. Learned we need to get special orchid potting mix.
–Sold Omega 1450/808 bracelet (quickly) for $1,500.
–Played with watches.
–Took a walk to the beach–jammed.
–Neighbor Pat came over to give us some tomatoes and lettuce. Went to Shopper’s Corner for stuff, made a cobb salad (forgot the lettuce). It was okay, not great.
–Cut some flowers for the dining room table.
–Went shopping at Food Maxx and Target; ate lunch at McDonald’s.
–Discovered weird cladding on Konosuke Fujiyama 240. Tired to deal with it; hopeless; pulled the really nice old handle off that I had put on a few days ago and trashed the blade. Put a nice 210 Fuji up on the rack.
–Weeded a little.
–Made a corn/tomato salad and barbecued a couple pork chops on mesquite. Yummy.
–Went to Fairhaven Orchards in Hollister to get some dried apricots. Hot there, but apricots were good and cheap.
–Xeoleo ghost tooth grinder came in. After some initial hassles (mostly my fault) it seems to be good.
–Went to Costco Santa Cruz for a hearing test. Decided on another pair of Resound hearing aids (as opposed to Rexton/Kirkland), though they’re considerably more expensive ($2,700 vs. $1,600). Will pick them up in 10 days at Costco Salinas.
–Grace happened upon Heinrich Reichert’s obituary. CRAP!!!
–Sent 4 watches off to Lunar Oyster for consignment (all Rolex). Sent the Daytona with the valid warranty card; will keep the one with the fake card. Don’t want to spend the next 5 years fearing a lawsuit.
–Bought some apples, oranges, summer sausage and milk at Safeway
–Went to Corralitos for sausage, got some New York steaks and a t-shirt too. Barbecued with potatoes/squash from nearby mini-farmers market.
–Rocket espresso machine seems to be experiencing thermosiphon stall–grouphead was only warm when it reached temperature
–Mowed and blowed.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 4 PM.
–New iPhone came in (black bezel). According to Coconut battery app, battery had seen 969 cycles (and was at 80% of peak performance). Is it possible people are tearing out the innards of used iPhones and putting them in new cases, with new shrink-wrapped boxes and accessories? Really hard to believe, but the battery app seems to have been fairly reliable. Put “new” battery in from previous iPhone, all good (19 cycles, 100% peak performance).
–Pavoni safety valve poppet came in. Spring is weaker than original, still leaks (steams) like crazy. I don’t know what’s going on.
–Washed bed sheets.
–Watched LSB 4th of July parade by ourselves–neighbors Pat and Pam declined invitation to watch together.
–Barbecued turkey burgers.
–Went shopping at Farm Fresh Produce, Nob Hill.
–Dusted off the Weber gas grill and did pork chops, corn, tomatoes, squash. Yummy.
–Nice day, 70+.
–Checked out the Super-Soaker; limited range.
–Took Boris T. Beemer to Pacific Grove for a birthday dinner at Passionfish. Got there early (5) and avoided crowds/noise. Fish was not so good (ahi); dessert was unbelievable (bread pudding with banana ice cream).
–Also went to to the PG farmers market. Small but cool.
–Found pitting on Shig 270 Western suji. Cleaned it up (very nicely, I must say) and put some Boeshield on it.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 7 PM.
–Put stock handle back on Shigefusa kitaeji usuba in preparation for selling.
–Knife handle finally came in. Dark red on one side, blond on the other (not shown so much in pictures). Tossed.
–Stopped Pavoni hissing leak. Tightened pressure gauge and fittings, as well as OPV. Not sure what started the leak.
–Took Grace to dentist for crown molding.
–Had lunch at Zameen restaurant. Lamb burger for me, really good.
–Replaced hearing aid battery around 10 AM.
–Took a walk on the beach. Windy.
–Western Tsourkan came in. Had forge marks (or something) on blade that couldn’t be sanded out. Will toss.
–Put Kato 240 up for sale at KKF. Disaster. My fault. Knife had obviously been refinished (from across blade to parallel) and sharpened (point at heel was rounded)—likely by me. Can’t believe what an idiot I am. Won’t happen again.
–Nice gold Submariner came up on eBay for $17,250/offer. I offered $17,000. “Oops,” they said, “there was a mistake in pricing. It’s actually $18,900.” Shitheads. This has happened before. I believe dealers put the /offer in just to gauge interest. If someone bites, they’ll immediately raise the price significantly.
–Robert Erickson knife came in. As usual, too thick/heavy. No more kitchen knives from bladeforums.
–SOMETHING caused Rocket drip tray to overflow—acted like FloJet was leaking or open or something. Took machine apart again to dry out. This is getting old.
–Cleared weeds behind the garden shed. Thought I found a blackberry bush. Not likely.
–Put my favorite old long thin wa handle on the Fujiyama. Nice.
–Sharpened Grace’s knives.
–Took Boris T. Beemer to Moss Landing. Got dried apricots, tomatoes, a potato, and—a great piece of halibut from the fishing boat Betticia.
–Farm Frash (sic) Produce, Nob Hill, Pure Water, CVS.
–Replaced hearing aid batteries around 6 PM.
–Roasted caf and decaf.
–Received notice from California Tax Board that I owed $849 use tax for a purchase from September 2018. Paid it. Very weird “purchase”: showed 3 DHL listings for around $5,000, $2,500 and $2,500 on same day from Portugal. Why were the amounts split up? I could investigate, but it would probably just serve to document my horrible memory.
–Not much going on. Watched Thor–Ragnarok; pretty decent.
–Aldo’s bearclaws from El Patio for dessert.