–Sun today, plus lots and lots of big wind.

–Didn’t do much of anything.

–I was going to open a case on eBay regarding the stolen(?) iPhone, but the asshole seller opened one first. I had put in a “Did not receive item” complaint, so I’m sure he countered with “Here’s PO proof of delivery.” This, after he opined in messages that the phone had been stolen en route. eBay sided with the seller. I tried to leave negative feedback, and it seemed to go through, but hasn’t shown up on the seller’s page. I wrote a scathing reply to eBay’s “Case Closed” decision, not expecting much because it went to “ebay@ebay.com.” Some time later I was looking through my options on this and found one that said “Appeal this decision.” So I did, in 1,000 carefully-crafted characters. I’m not sure if this was standard procedure on eBay’s part, or, as happened a while ago, they might have given me special treatment due to case details, longevity, etc. Anxiously awaiting the FINAL final decision.

–Another sunny day in California.

–Went over to Kenny’s to install the smoke alarm I got for him. All good. He’s still being a stinker about things: The smoke alarm cost around $46.50, or $49.88 after tax. He gave me $50 cash and implied I owed him $4 or so in additional goods.

–Spent some time polishing. Interestingly, (1) the white rouge still seems superior to blue and green for this stainless, and (2) the middle Airway buff (in hard, soft, softer) seems to leave the fewest scratches of any of my buffs–including the one I use with its own rouge for watch crystals. I’m still a novice, though, and it could have to do with ultra-cleanliness of buff, among other things. AND: the razor looks super nice until you put it under a specific kind of light.

–Picked up the vintage Stanley box cutter at UPS. Cool tool, and very sharp.

–Spent more time today trying to organize/reconcile my sliders and spinners. Almost there.

–Sunny day; rain might be gone for good.

–Paid a visit to Kenny.

–Went to Home depot for polyurethane (for tamper handles), watering can, smoke alarm to replace Kenny’s expired one.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the Charcoal Goods “Bee” brass razor. It seemed super mild, but gave a pretty close shave. Apparently it’s worth a lot o’ money on the forums.

–2 EDC tungsten Nest came in. Another small tungsten spinner I like. Buttons are really small and a little low, and I only have one other button set–from the “Sell” shelf–that fit.

–Ran some errands for Kenny. He’s really getting to be a pain. “Two avocados, one ripe and one not,” etc. He was really pissed that I forgot to have the pharmacist activate his Spiriva inhaler. I told him I could do it (after talking to the pharmacist at Bel Air), but he resisted nastily for a long time before giving in. I activated it in 5 minutes after watching a youtube video. I (of all people) understand the things have to be just so, but we’ve been running around like crazy for him for the past few days, and he doesn’t really seem to appreciate it.

–Finally picked up the 3/4″ buffing wheel adapters at UPS, and they work great. Problem is my heel hurts so much after all the running around I did today that I can’t stand at the buffer for more than a few minutes.

–Major rain (off and on) last night and today.

–Not much happening; mostly reconciling sliders and spinners.

–Sold off the ~$12k in bitcoin that I bought recently. Just not worth waiting months or years to make a profit.

–Went over to Kenny’s to meet his sister Nancy, who visited and brought lunch from In ‘N Out. She’s a super beautiful, smart and charming person.

–Went to UPS to pick up Drake’s buttons. Very nice. Stopped at Bel Air for lettuce (Kenny), cream, cream cheese, pizza dough.

–Made pizza for dinner. Not bad.

–Paid a visit to Kenny. The Direct TV tech was there with his new remote, showing him how to set things up. I took the old remote, cleaned it up, removed some corrosion from the batteries. I’m sure I can use it now to change his channels…

–Went to New York Bagels, who still aren’t answering the phone. I didn’t see any of the regulars there, so maybe they’re on vacation. Got 7 sesame and 5 plain bagels, and much banana bread for us, Kenny and his sister.

–Went to UPS for (a) Magnus slider with his new plate, the machining on which resembles that seen on Pyra and Modusworks sliders; (b) the Gupfix iPhone battery, after waiting a month; (c) the Martell gyuto from KKF BST. Knife is pretty cool, with a great handle. I cleaned it up with my signature technique of rubbing with a 3M sanding sponge covered with sharpening stone mud.

–Grayish day; rained once.

–Didn’t do much. Tried to clean up the Christmas stuff a little and hang the Mexican sun ceramic. Paid a visit to Kenny, who seems in good spirits.

–Set up the tripod that holds a phone for hands-free photos or videos. Shot a video of a spinner to upload on Facebook. Tripod worked great.

–Gray day, a little bit of drizzle.

–Took Kenny to the Davis ER on X Street last night. Heard it might be 11 hours, so we came home. I went to bed; Grace stayed up. Kenny called early this morning, telling Grace he got in in an hour, had lots of imaging, and spent the night in a bed. He got ambulance transport home. All is good, no breaks. Back to normal, though he may be looking for a part-time caregiver.

–CoCo from Hermes Replica finally gave in and allowed a refund. What a terrible experience.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Almost time to pop the champagne…

–Tried for bagels, but New York Bagels had a message saying “We can’t answer now…” Don’t know what’s happening.

–Kenny’s getting tiresome. Bought him some groceries at Bel Air. He’s decided he needs the CT ASAP, so we’re taking him downtown tonight to UC Davis Imaging. I dread what will happen if he has surgery. He (a) has lots of family in Davis, but seems fairly estranged from them, and (b) can afford a visiting nurse, but would probably rather use his neighbors. I may get a gold coin out of all this, but I don’t know if it’s worth it.

–Took Kenny to the nearby UC Davis Clinic. Seems like a good place: Very quick service, caring/knowledgeable people, etc. They took a second set of x-rays. He learned later later that the Carbon Health x-rays showed nothing. He trusts the Davis group more, though.

–Went to Target to pick up Tylenol and a Lidocain pad prescription for Kenny. Stopped at UPS for lots of stuff. Stopped at Bel Air for milk for me and Kenny, mushrooms and tomatoes for a pizza. Turns out the Chinese knockoff of the Clean EDC Pillar spinner (a) is identical, (b) is better finished, and (c) spins more smoothly–at 1/3 the price. Grrr…

–Made a steak pan pizza for dinner. Delicious, though again the crust was unexpectedly soggy, given a 550 degree oven.

— Downloaded Whatsapp to deal with the Hermes replica folks (at their insistence). Had a supremely bad interaction with CoCo where he tried hard to get me to buy something from their catalog, given that the two wallets I ordered were out of stock. Don’t know if I’ll ever get a refund; my fault I guess for thinking I could get a $2,000 wallet for $150.

–Got a call from Kenny this morning asking for help after he fell on his hip in the garden. We went over and did a few things–stopped a beeping smoke detector, made a bed on the first floor, etc. He called 30 minutes later saying he’d like a ride to an urgent care facility. I drove him to a Davis center that had an x-ray machine but no technician. Thence to a nearby Carbon Health center which had both. After a goodly wait (hour?), he got in. Physical exam seemed to indicate no problems. They did the x-ray and will call him with results. All seems good at the moment. [edit] He called us back to bring his wheelchair down from the 2nd floor. Also replaced his smoke detector after putting new battery in. Still beeped every 30 seconds. It’s 22 years old; will buy him a new one.

–Fairly sunny day.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples. It was kind of a ghost town wrt vendors and customers.

–Moved the plant stand against the spigot wall in back. Looks pretty good, gets good sun now.

–Had a terrible diarrhea/crap attack last night. It may have been the culmination of some issue (like constipation), as I’ve felt better today than recently.

–Pretty clear day.

–Moved the Weber back from the garage to the patio. Tightened the screws and set up the plant stand in back. It’s not the most heavily-built stand, with a single large plant able to bend the shelf wires. Oh well…

–Went to UPS for many things: (a) a Modusworks Retcore core. Installed it, but can’t imagine why I bought it. It does have a metal (not Ultem bearing retainer though. (b) Magnus plates. (c) Flanges for the buffer. (d) 100mg Losartan. (e) An ultem slider from Magnus.

–Christmas!

–A major weather day. Brief but huge torrential rain storms, sometimes mixed with hail, interspersed with blue skies.

–Moved the Weber into the garage in anticipation of cooking steaks there. Decided not to, mostly because of the weather. Cooked them on the stove in the new Erie pan, which is a really nice pan. The Roquefort butter hardly tasted, but the rosemary butter on Kenny’s baked potato was wonderful.

–My stomach is still feeling bloated/gassy, despite a couple doses of high-strength Phazyme. Hope it’s not something serious.

–Watered Kenny’s plant.

–Saw one five-minute burst of rain all day.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels and Gas-X. Got Phazyme (4x the active ingredient of simethicone). Only allowed one capsule every 24 hours, and it doesn’t seem to have done anything.

–Wrapped Grace’s Christmas presents.

–No rain today.

–Took Grace to our doctor appointments at UC Davis Health. I liked Dr. Swensson a lot. Grace (predictably) did not, one reason being the Swensson wouldn’t renew her Tramadol prescription. Duh.

–I had a bacon/egg/cheese breakfast sandwich at Beach Deli while Grace was at Bel Air. Yum!

–Went to UPS to pick up LIC Ultem buttons, Grace’s Rick & Morty t-shirt, and airway buffs. Turns out the grinder has a 3/4″ arbor, while the buffs have 5/8″ holes. There are 1,471 ways to adapt things, and I’m leaning toward the simplest: drill out the holes in the buffs. Could be dangerous. [edit] On second thought, I doubt either drill will accept a 3/4″ bit.

–Finally won a Metro slider. Won 5 actually, in a button-pushing frenzy. Got refunded for 4.

–Took a shower and shave. That bronze Wolfman is a VERY nice razor, for me anyway.

–Lots of clouds, but no rain again today. It’s coming, they say. Okay.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Made a pizza. For some reason, the dough was extremely easy to spread in the skillet, and the skillet is the perfect size. N of 1, but the skillet acts better than the Spider pan, in terms of not sticking and easy cleanup.

–No rain today between 8 and bedtime; I thought they had predicted tons.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples.

–Grace and I brought Kenny his Christmas card/jam and chatted a bit.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Erie skillet (very nice) and Felco 80th anniversary pruners (very nice).

–Went to Bel Air for coffee (Starbucks!), milk and cream.

–The third or fourth hopper extension on the Timemore seems to work: takes a lot of beans, doesn’t seem to popcorn. Wish it were screwed on, rather than using magnets. But it is the only one so far that keeps the original hopper intact.

–Played around with Retcore spinners. COMPLETELY lost one of the tiny screws. By far the most mysterious disappearance I’ve experienced so far. There just aren’t that many places it could go.

–Started to order the annual Walgreen’s photo ornament, but realized it would arrive too late. Picked a couple of photos and printed them. Will glue them together and put a ribbon on.

–Went to Corti Brothers for New York steak and Roquefort. Butcher vacuum-wrapped the steaks so they’d keep better. Then to Walgreen’s for photos. Then across the street to Coffee and Donuts for dessert. Then to UPS for Indy Thicc Skelp (disappointing “Python” buttons), NJT damasteel Vader (fine), and Timemore hopper extension (we’ll see tomorrow).

–Was really tired, so took a little nap.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) antimacassars, (b) Clean EDC XL brass spinner (nice), (c) Retcore balls, (d) the second lemon squeezer. I’ve been trying for an hour to trace what happened with the missing squeezer and (now) the extra squeezer, and I can’t. It seems that one got mis-delivered to a Gold River home (from the FedEx photo). Beyond that, the details are almost impossible to re-create.

–Sunny day, quiet day.

–Took a shower and shave–with the new Ascender razor. Very nice.

–The sun came out! Unbelievable how it instantaneously warmed things up a lot.

–Went to Target to pick up a Moana Pig for us to give to Susan Nourse. Stopped to have a breakfast sandwich at New York Bagels.

–Boxed up all remaining Christmas presents and dropped them off at UPS. Picked up my packages, and discovered (in a bit) that the iPhone consisted of two padded envelopes taped up and put inside a Tyvek envelope. I wrote the eBay seller, and he said the phone must have been stolen, and he would contact the PO for insurance. Seems unlikely to me, but I can’t argue if I’m made whole.

–Boxed up some presents for Bellevue and Susi/Daniel.

–Went to Barnes & Noble so Grace could look for something for Hatsumi.

–Went to Sprouts so Grace could look for chocolate to send people.

–Dropped boxes off at UPS, picked up iPhone 16.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, frozen dinners.

–Ate Marie’s country fried chicken. Not bad.

–Spent a while setting up new iPhone. It has eSIM, so that took some doing, in addition to the new interface (no button on the bottom). Much to learn.

–Parked the Honda outside and blew the leaves out of the garage, also blew the dust off the buffer station.

–Worked some more on the Wolfman razor head. Tried Bergeon satin wheels on it to get the tiny dings out, but no luck. Rubbed it for a while on a Fine 3M sanding pad, and that seemed to do the trick. Put it back on the buffer with a satin wheel and it looks pretty darn clean. Lessons: (1) The numerous tiny patterned dings were likely the result of too much pressure/insufficient buff cleaning/etc. while buffing earlier. (2) Wiping off rouge with a used rag adds its own scratches. Will have to figure out a way to remove excess rouge without harming the mirror finish.

–Missed another Metro slider drop. Those $400 sliders will be selling on Facebook soon for $750–$800.

–I thought I had my eBay issues all sorted out, but today I got another email saying they had changed my password because of suspicious activity. So I went through the whole thing again. Really annoying. Wondering if it’s the assholes whose “Magnus” sliders I got taken down at eBay.

–Motor City pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Won another SUS at Facebook/LIC EDC. Kind of amazing.

–Took a Tramadol yesterday and slept hardly at all. May have been the Coke in conjunction, I don’t know.

–Went to USPS to mail off Rob’s gift to Canada.

–Took Grace to Bel so she could buy some ribbon.

–Ordered a $792 iPhone 16 in Ultramarine from the Roseville Galleria Apple store, to be delivered Monday.

–Picked up expensive buff/rouge at UPS. Tried it on the latest Wolfman razor. Not so great. For allits cost, the buff vibrates like crazy. Ordered some guaranteed-to-be-soft buffs from Renegade.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace to Historic Folsom for Christmas shopping.

–Went to UPS for the Ascender razor. Beauty. Also got a $15 check for the lemon squeezer from eBay that was delivered, according to USPS, but which wasn’t in the UPS store.

–Frozen dinner for dinner. Grace doesn’t want a Bel Air pizza.

–Still foggy.

–Watered Kenny’s plant. It’s not looking very good.

–Went to UPS for (a) Retcore copper balls. Turns out one is .3 grams heavier than the other, so there’s no way to balance the spinner. Tossed ’em. (b) Hario kettle. Lots of stickers on it, one of which required acetone to remove. Seems okay now. Will try tomorrow. (c) Magnus resin slider. Beautiful covers, but it has perforated plates and tiny soft balls instead of o-rings. I spent a LONG time trying to find a magnet combo that would work; couldn’t (couldn’t even swap plates with my other resins, as they have solid plates with o-rings, and wouldn’t go together. Will sell.

–On a lark, tried to put the genuine iPhone battery into an iPhone I had discarded–not sure why. Everything went okay, but on bootup I discovered the camera was super wonky–either all black, or horribly distorted. Could not see a problem with cables or anything. Tossed again. Looking into a NEW (not Red) model 16, with a much higher MaH battery (hopefully at 100%). Gettin’ tired of my phones losing 1-2% percent an hour of battery.

–Got a nice haircut from Brittany at Great Clips.

–Took a shower and shave. Tried the new (to me) Wolfman with 1.55mm gap. Got several cuts. I have found my limit.

–Yes, still foggy.

–Went to New York Bagels for a dozen sesame. They had to pull them from the display. There were a couple racks of just-baked plain bagels, one of which was likely my order, without the sesame seeds. Price (with banana bread) was $21, like it always is, except for the last visit, where it was $31. Grrr……

–Biggest police presence I ever saw at Olson and 50 overpass: a dozen cars with lights flashing, a motorcycle, a couple of emergency vehicles. I saw one car with front-end damage, but not enough to need that show of force.

–Picked up LIC SS Mini Mame at UPS. Nice. Also got the iPhone battery from Apple. Installed it without damaging anything, charged it up. Shows 100% battery health. We’ll see how it holds up.

–The (new) original I bought for the Timemore reminds me of how badly-designed that aspect of the grinder is. Can’t put a load of beans in at once, popcorns like crazy–just useless. Guess I’ll go back to the after-market 3D printed hopper.

–Tried to buy a little thing on eBay and they gave me the warning (for the 5th time in the last couple weeks) about “someone has accessed your account” and wouldn’t let me do anything until I contacted them. I called, read back a number they texted me, and all was good. I have to think this was related to me shutting down the “Magnus” listings from saralanning and chrisweb. Fuck ’em.

–Still foggy.

–Reconciled/rationalized/sorted out my spinner buttons. Replaced the numbered post-its with blue painter’s tape, which sticks much better. All accounted for except one silver Pyra. I know I had one with crappy plates, but it’s hard to believe I tossed the whole thing, given that plates can be replaced. It might show up buried in the closet some day.

–Made a pizza for dinner–in the Erie skillet this time instead of a flat pan. 550 degrees for 12 minutes; came out good.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples. COLD!

–Took Grace to Smart & Final.

–Tended to plants. Moved Kenny’s dieffenbachia (dumb cane) indoors.

–Went to UPS for Elforyn buttons (nice) and Oddiev bearing tool (nice).

–Mokume Edamame came in. Nice, but not $2,250 nice. Also the LIC EDC tri Mame. Nice.

–Washed my sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels, Sensodyne, a couple frozen dinners.

–Back to dank and dreary.

–LIC Turboglow spinner buttons came. Nice. Also Timemore hopper. I put it on, played with start/stop button a bit. It seems good; we’ll see.

–Got a smog check for the Honda at Beta Smog, just off Coloma. Now the DMV will send registration tags.

–Kenny drove me to the Costco in Folsom. He got his Ferrero-Rocher candy to give out for Christmas; I got Pellegrino and toilet paper.

–Picked up the Magnus Bel Air slider at UPS; pretty nice, all there, good shape. Also the Hidehisa pruners. Huge, heavy, slippery. Tossed ’em. Looking at some nice Felco pruners. Also a Wolfman WR2 razor with a big (1.55mm) gap. Looked like high polish (except for the head), but claimed to be basic. I worked on the head a bit. Helped a little (maybe), then ordered a loose wheel and blue compound at eBay.

–Motor City pizza for dinner.

–After a whole lot of confusion and dead ends, I found an online traffic school that was cheap and legit. Took the course; hopefully that ends this episode. Gotta stay clean for 18 months now.

–Magnus Egg Slicer came in. Pretty, but needs some work.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Sun is finally starting to peek out from the fog.

–Paid State Farm $746.87 for BMW.

–Bought $5,000 Bitcoin at Coinbase, following a $7,000 purchase a week ago.

–Went to UPS for Goldie tungsten (nice, but I really don’t see the huge appeal of tungsten) and Tea-Time buttons (really nice). Got a Vicolo pizza for dinner at Bel Air.

–Still dank and dreary.

–Went to UPS for Drake’s spinner buttons (nice); then Bel Air for cream cheese, lunch cheese, dessert.

–Lost one drop (Metro spinner), won a second (Ziii red Corian spinner). The Ziii may have been just a pre-order, as they still seemed to have them several minutes after drop time–though I thought their Facebook post said 7 only (and the photo on the site shows 7). Who knows…

–Yet another dismal day. Apparently there’s a stubborn fog cloud that’s been hanging over the Central Valley for a while.

–Went to the farmers market for mandarins and apples.

–Another dank day.

–Re-covered the Weber and watered plants in back. Discovered (via Grace) that the already-once-replaced sprinkler head in front is leaking again, below ground level. This is getting very annoying.

–Picked up the Kickstarter bit driver at UPS. It’s okay, a lot of sharp edges, but the big issue is the spinning top is held in place by six set screws. I had to take it apart of course. Putting it back together so that it’s balanced when spinning is a seemingly impossible task. I’m not even sure it was well-balanced when new. I might wait a bit to see if the maker puts out a video showing how to balance it; I might not.

–Also picked up a couple sets of Modusworks Retcore buttons–one SS and one aluminum. Better-looking than the brass ones they came with, and I can put those on other spinners as they are very nicely shaped and dished.

–Was going to revive the Leica Q2 Paul Smith–it’s so pretty. My first shot was major blurry. Looking things up, I re-re-re-discovered it has no image stabilization. In fact, few Leicas do. Unbelievably frustrating.

–Thanksgiving. Kind of a dark and dreary day. Cold too. Barbecued a turkey breast and finally got some smoke flavor. Took about 65 minutes at 350-400.

–Got a traffic ticket for the first time in decades. Went up on a “sidewalk” near Olson to catch a green light. Kind of Mickey Mouse, but legit I suppose. Hoping traffic school will make it disappear.

–Picked up gift-makings for the alley at Walmart (photos and bags) and the Post Office (stamps). Ordered cards from Amazon. Stopped at Bel Air for coffee.

–Indy Thicc Baby Yeti in mokume came in. Fabulous spinner in looks and action. Also snagged a hyper-rare Magnus spinner on eBay.

–After much effort, got the new iPhone working in the Beemer. The trick was to turn off the new one, turn on the old one, delete the old one, then sync up the new one. Siri is back!

–Went to Hooverville for jam for neighbors for Christmas, a little for us, and a couple small key lime pies.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Second iPhone SE3 came in. Less scratched than first, 94% battery health rather than 93%. Spent a while setting it up. Still have stuff to do–there are way too many options. In a quandary about swapping in the new genuine Apple battery. Improvement might be minimal, and there’s risk.

–Made a pizza with the usual plus Jan’s pepeprs and a farmers market tomato. Best one yet.

–Another do-nothing day.

–Bought a couple of Hermes wallets (heh heh) from Dubai.

–Cleaned up the back patio plants a bit.

–Found and bought a genuine Apple battery for the iPhone SE3. The new OS wouldn’t stop nagging about the non-Apple battery.

–Sunny day. Got mandarins and apples at the Sunrise farmers market.

–Not much else.

–Stomach issues again this morning–diarrhea, a little nausea.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Played with magnets some more. Got the Magnus Crinkle almost good.

–Dank day, though not a ton of rain.

–Won a Baby Yeti spinner in mokume this morning. Same maker where I won a timascus Yeti back in January when I was new to this hobby.

–Played with magnets a bit. Very frustrating, as I lack a great way of keeping 8-10 bins of them separated while I sort them out.

–Swept up outside a little, anticipating more rain.

–Went to Bel Air for milk and stuff Grace needs.

–Picked up a canarywood Reg Barber tamper handle. Seriously plain and uninteresting. Tossed it. Finally got my Modusworks buttons back from Jeremy Piper. Picked up my second Magnus Crinkle slider. Found out it would accept 6×4 magnets, so I put those in on the ends. Works pretty decent now, and the new one, though identical to the old one, has a nicer finish.

–The new after-market iPhone battery appears to be pretty robust, showing 94% at 6 PM after doing a few things on the phone today. I ordered a second identical iPhone on eBay, so I can put the battery in that with (hopefully) less internal damage.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Played with sliders. Tried hard to reconcile everything. Almost succeeded.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Magnus Superdimple. Impressive design, not the best sliding action, but better after I re-did the magnets.

–Noticed the iPhone battery, which early on had seemed to drain really slowly, was draining fairly fast. Decided to swap in the after-market 19,800 mah (right) battery. Had some issues; a screw holder broke so I didn’t replace a small metal plate; but eventually I got it back together successfully. Apple didn’t like the fake battery (of course). It’s charging now. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go down 25% in a day.

–Read up on Fellow/other electric kettles. Turns out Fellow has a fairly bad reputation in this area. Along with their buggy grinder, I can’t say I’m impressed. Looking into a Hario kettle.

–On the other hand, the nice folks at Timemore are selling me a new complete hopper with lid for $41 shipped, to replace the one I (accidentally) tossed along with some 3D printed ones. Good folks.

–Got bagels at New York Bagels. Got some Peet’s Holiday Blend beans at Peet’s, where there is a new Jersey Mike’s. Will try soon.

–Finally got Siri sorted out on the new iPhone. Scared me a bit with the new voices, no “Um hmm,” etc., but all seems good now.

–Went to UPS for (a) LIC EDC Goldie in titanium. Nice, but like one or two other spinners, seems kind of too smooth and boring. Can’t really explain. (b) Zerofeud timascus buttons. Nice, a little scratched (I knew that), will try and re-anodize when the DC power supply comes in. (c) Magnus Sweep in brass with thicker (.5mm) zirc muffin tin plates. Working on it–might just put the plates in my existing ti Sweep.

–Took a shower and shave. Used the BBS-1 razor that’s been sitting on a shelf for years because it was too harsh. Was eminded of it by someone selling one on a forum for $2,000. Still too harsh.

–Unexpectedly (for me) dark and damp day. Football, mostly.

–Pretty quiet day. Played with cameras a little. Picked up the Jim Dunbar pocket knife at UPS. Killer!

–Brought out (again) the huge Leica 50mm L mount lens. Turns out it kicks ass–auto-focuses better at night than I can manually focus. Razor sharp, zero fringing around the globe lights, and–for reasons I completely do not understand–makes DNGs at temperature 2,750, which is perfect. All my other lenses are around 3,400, forcing me to correct. Might be worth the weight.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Transferred (via online check) $40,000 from Heritage to Ally.

–Home-made pizza for dinner.

–Compared Rikenon to Summicron at f2.0 on a darkish abutilon photo. The Summicron absolutely clobbered the Rikenon off-center. I suspect the same thing will hold true later with a night picture. And we’ve seen how the Rikenon distorts the shape of the globe lights at f1.2. Really wanted to like the Rikenon. Crap. I guess if you want to use large enough glass to get to f1.2, you give up a lot.

–Paid State Farm Honda insurance $377.45.

–Went to Michael’s Crafts for 3/16″ eyelets. They fit great, but I haven’t pounded one in yet. We’ll see.

–Stopped at UPS for new $226 Apple iPhone SE 2022. Working fine, charging now.

–Went to Michael’s Crafts for eyelets for my belt. Got 1/4″. Would require enlarging belt hole. Will go back tomorrow for 3/16″, which could be too small to cover the hole. Grrr…

–Stopped at UPS for: (a) NOS Rikenon 55/1.2. Compared it with my pristine other Rikenon 55/1.2. A little edge for the new one I think. Both have issues at f1.2 (of course) with distorting globe light shapes,  flaring, haze, etc. Still an impressive lens: the DV speed limit sign might be the sharpest pic I have of it. (b) SS Mega Mini Mame spinner (nice, but traded buttons as I did with the brass), Slim Pillar spinner (nice, but I really don’t see the hype around it (specifically, the astronomical prices), brass Mini Mame spinner (very nice, absurdly expensive because of rarity I think). (c) Magnus Chocbar slider (nice design, but serious flyaway issues). Tried to swap end magnets, but realized my strongest 6x2s are about the same as the original 6x2s in the slider. Into the “for sale” pile. Seems I have two boxes of 6×2 strongs; one says N45 and the other N55. Turns out they’re both around 3,200 Gauss, so I combined them. Guess I bought the N55s thinking (hoping) they’d be stronger.

–Took the Beemer to Walgreen’s to pick up the prints for Kenny’s Christmas cards. Had lunch at a nearby McDonald’s. Too much food, way too salty. Back to Jersey Mike’s I guess.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Quite a warm day. Should have gone for a bike ride.

–Updated the date on Kenny’s Christmas card from 2023 so I can get them printed up and he can get them out to friends. He gave us a huge jar of honey and yet another wonderful pre-baked potato.

–Walked to UPS to pick up Atorvastatin and an Indy Thicc Squatch. Nice spinner, perfectly balanced.

–Took a shower and shave, finally using Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus Magic Soap. Better.

–Walked to Bel Air for mozzarella, pepperoni, cookies. Made pizza. Darn good!

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins, apples, pears, jam. Stopped at the Winding Way Arco for $3.95 gas for the BMW.

–Went at Target across the street for Coke, eye drops, Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus shampoo.

–Walked to UPS for yet another Modusworks Retcore spinner. Came a little unbalanced. I followed Dung Ho’s advice (Facebook): loosen screws a little on one side; press frame toward the light side; tighten screws. It worked perfectly. So much for Kapton tape and tungsten putty.

–Did some more 50mm lens comparisons. Tricky business: Helios e.g. is shockingly sharp wide open in the middle of the field, but gets really fuzzy as you head out toward the periphery. The Contax 50/1.4 wasn’t quite as good as its reputation would suggest. The Rikenon 55/1.2 was quite outstanding. The Pancolar was the weakest of the group, and the Summicron (like the Contax) seemed a little weaker than I would have hoped.

–Walked to UPS to pick up an MBK front flipper. Nice knife.

–Tried to replace the battery in the iPhone SE 2020. Broke the cable connecting the display. Crap. Spent a long time looking at Red iPhones on eBay; ended up getting an SE 2022. The 13 Mini is smaller with better specs, but it lacks the front button and has an ugly lens set on the back. Besides, the SE was $206 (compared to $600) and the seller was honest about how the battery capacity would have degraded to 83%-86% over the years. I’ll try it, and replace the battery (carefully) if it seems to need it.

–Had a bad night. (and today) with reflux, due to Ozempic. No more of that.

–Miracle: John Roth of UC Davis Health called; he’s the one who called me while I was coming back from Santa Cruz. He apologized profusely for the delay, then set us up in the Davis MyChart, and got us each a 20-minute appointment with Dr. Swensson on December 23rd. Yay!!

–Picked up the blue Osprey backpack at UPS. Nice.

–Windy, rainy day.

–Went to the nearby dentist to have have two permanent crowns installed. Pretty impeccable work. One crown replaced a Cripe crown that was done not that long ago; Barrow said a cavity had developed behind it. Okay. I also had him smooth out a rough edge on the front tooth filling he did last time. Feels fine now, but he should have smoothed it out on day one. A mixed bag there.

–Made great progress in getting a PCP. Turns out the guy who called me while I was driving back from the coast was irrelevant. I needed to call the med group in Folsom and provide written evidence (i.e., Dr. Swensson’s reply to Tom’s message saying she’d be delighted to take us on). With that, we answered some questions (SSN, insurance ID) and we’re in. They (apparently) are working to find us an appointment and will call us by Friday. I have my doubts about that and will call them back sooner. We both have logins at the UC Davis My Health website.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up (a) drugs, (b) toothbrush heads (genuine Oral B, frighteningly better than the past two things I’ve tried which seemed to have no effect), and (c) the Pancolar lens from Ukraine. Lens is in good shape. Did a comparison at f2 of Pancolar, Contax, Rikenon and Summicron. Results were mixed, but in general the Summicron kicked butt. I was a little disappointed in the Planar 50/f1.4. The Rikenon wasn’t great, but it is a 1.2 lens. The Pancolar had its good and bad spots.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Still no call from Dr. Swensson’s office. I emailed Tom, and he asked the guy again to call me.

–Worked on the plants a bit: tossed a couple of dead ones, added soil, watered, etc.

–Picked up stuff at UPS: (a) Compoform slider (nice), (b) Pancolar lens (nice, but it has flares at night); (c) anti-popcorn bean feeder for the Timemore; really looks like it will work; (d) LIC EDC Love Nugget in crystal ti–byooteeful.

–Red Baron personal pizza for dinner.

–Weight: 213.6.

–Finally got the Sony AR7-IV working after years in the closet. Its internal button battery had died, so it kept asking for time/date when I hit Menu. Turns out if I just hit the shutter button instead, the camera works, menu and all. I suppose I should still send it back to Sony for a new internal battery.

–Trying to get more familiar with the AR7-V, though it is noisier than the Leica SL2-S, because it feels good in hand and has much higher resolution and better anti-shake.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, pizza, breakfast Danish, oatmeal cookies.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, squash, mandarins. Mandarins, though heavily green-tinged, are great.

–Did some test comparisons with Canon, Sony and Leica. Canon and Leica both clobbered Sony on noise, even before dark. And Leica, as I’ve probably discovered 15 times, beats the Canon. It’s too bad, as Canon has nearly twice the resolution, but noise really degrades resolution. So I’ll have to give up on the Praktica lens. There’s a Pancolar coming, but it’s not as sexy.

–Sat at home all day waiting for a call from UC Davis Health. Nope.

–Waited all day for a callback from UC Davis. No dice.

–Put the Salvatore back together and pulled a shot. Everything works perfectly. I don’t think I’ll keep it though–too big, too crude in the sheet metal, and I’m finally admitting that the E61 grouphead cannot improve on the Olympia machines. Yes, it will pull a huge shot, but that’s not what I (or Grace) am doing these days.

–After breakfast at the Holiday Inn, drove back to Gold River. Got a call from Dr. Swensson’s assistant in the car, told him I would be home by 1, have not heard anything since.

–Put the Salvatore together. After seeing the somewhat crude fitting issues, I’m deciding I won’t have it long. Don’t know how I’ll get rid of it.

–Had a car tailing me as I came into the DV gate (turned out to be a guy delivering a package to Grace). Made me nervous, so I hurried the entrance to the garage, only to hear a horrifying crunch as I swiped the side. It left a really ugly brown stripe 1′-2′ long. After some cursing, I went after it with a damp rag and it cleaned up COMPLETELY! Let’s hear it for clear coat! Today, while damp-ragging the car, I discovered a scratch on the mirror that would not polish out. I got the bottle of Alpine White paint from my last Beemer, only to discover it had pretty much dried up. Ordered another on eBay. Whew!

–Drove the BMW again to Santa Cruz to pick up the Salvatore. Except for replacing the power-on light with an on-off switch, it seems Sebastian did good work. Added an over-pressure safety valve and an expansion valve that routes overflow back to the water reservoir. Good stuff.

–Had a sandwich and coffee at Java Junction, across the street from Great Infusions. Okay, not great.

–Stopped at La Selva Beach for photos and a bathroom trip to the library. That library is the most quiet, peaceful place on earth.

–Walked to Raley’s for a Cobb salad, Cheetos and a diet Pepsi.

–Feeling really dicey all day. Don’t know if I can continue Ozempic.

–Walked to UPS for iFixit kit with new iPhone battery. May swap today, may not.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Weight: 211.6.

–Another gloomy day, with some tiny sprinkles.

–Did week two of Ozempic. Hoping the vague nausea and constant acid indigestion go away soon.

–Made reservations at the Holiday Inn Watsonville for Tuesday and filled the BMW gas tank.

–Stopped at UPS for an FTO Asylum spinner in polished copper. Too small, smooth and “not there” to be a keeper.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, dessert, Tums, Pepto Bismol.

–Dindu much today; pretty gloomy. Reconciled spinners/sliders a bit, took a couple of pictures, made a Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Heard from Tom Elken that we’ll be getting calls from Dr. Swensson’s office to set up our registration. Yay!

–Brass Mega Mini Mame came in. Nice, though larger and heavier than I anticipated.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Finally got some beautiful (focused) pics with the Prakticar 50/1.4 lens on the Canon, so I’ll switch to the Canon for now. There is a Pancolar lens with the same specs in M42 mount, but it goes for $2k+ on eBay. I have a Pancolar coming, but it’s 1.8. Not sure what it is about the Prakticar, but I really enjoy using it.

–Grace is in a really rotten mood. I can’t say anything without her arguing about it.

–Walked to UPS to drop off some spinner buttons. Stopped at Bel Air for sausage (to go with Kenny’s baked potato) and brownies.

–Played some more with the Retcore spinners. Found that wrapping the bearing in one layer of Kapton tape seemed to really help balance on the tungsten one. The way the thing is built, you can tighten the bearing cover with the bearing slightly off center, which could lead to unbalance. With the tape, the bearing is a tight fit inside the holder, so maybe…..

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Went to Top Donuts for pastries and a bagel. Headed out in a little light rain. Windshield wipers, though complex, are ultra smooth. Stopped at LSB to take a few photos of empty business buildings. Stopped at UPS for a Retcore spinner (seller had installed tungsten balls; I spent a LONG time trying to balance it. Got it decent…for now.

–Took the Beemer to Santa Cruz. A couple of minor slow-downs, a little over three hours. Sebastian Little at Great Infusions looked at the Salvatore Famosa. He later called. Controller is dead. It used to be a volumetric machine. If I had looked more closely at the front panel buttons, or looked up the machine, I might have known that. He suggested turning it into s straight espresso machine and just covering up the front dosing panel with art or logo or something. Sounds good to me. Don’t know how I’m going to get rid of the machine later though.

–Egg salad sandwich from El Patio on the beach, in the car. It was 64 in Santa Cruz, and I predicted 59 in LSB. On the nose. Overcast and foggy, a reminder of why we moved out.

–Got 3rd floor as always at the Holiday Inn Express in Watsonville. The clerk and I recognized each other.

–Heckuva day. Put gas in both cars and added air to tires.

–Bought a brass Mega Mini Mame spinner and sold a Modusworks ti bar Thinamathing. Just heard from the buyer, who says the buttons in my video look a little too thick to be genuine/original. Great. [edit] Looked through my MW buttons (on and off spinners), found three ti sets that are thinner than what I sent out. Keeeee-rap.

–Picked up 3D printed Pancolar adapter at UPS. Didn’t come close to fitting the lens (it did go on the camera). Worked on it with a Dremel for a while, got it on. Took some pics, tried hard to nail focus. All were slightly blurry. Tossed it.

–Mokume buttons came in. They’re so highly polished you can barely tell they’re mokume.

–Tried to order dinner from Jack’s, but its various websites wouldn’t show us menus (perhaps an aftereffect of the big AWS outage). Used Doordash to see menus, but then Jack’s online ordering didn’t work. Ate a Marie pot pie.

–Took a shower and shave. Discovered some bizarre pimple-like thing on the corner of my mouth. Great. [edit] Eventually squeezed it–much blood, no pus. Gone.

–Weight: 212.4.

–Warm, quiet day. Mailed off Vinh’s birthday present.

–Started (compounded) Ozempic. Feeling slightly queasy, and not very hungry. I guess that’s the idea.

–Trimmed off dead leaves from my succulents, moved them to where they’ll get a lot more sun.

–Red Baron Brick Oven crust was chewy; looking forward to comparing it with Classic.

–[edit] Classic is better (crisper, less chewy), and Dr. Lisa Swensson agreed to take me and Grace as patients!!

–Went to Bel Air for apples, tangerines.

–Stopped at UPS for Love Nugget spinner, button extender for Retcore.

–Strange Days: Jonas Nix posted in his Facebook group that there were still Retcore spinners available in his third drop. These are the kinds of things that sell out in 30 seconds. He even waived the rule that current owners can’t get a second one–so I did. Very weird.

–Slow day. Watered plants, played with fidgets.

–Went to UPS to pick up Modusworks Rapt SGS slider in bronze. Polished out some dings. Not impressed with performance, even after putting in weaker middle magnets (too many fly-aways). Also got my Ozempic. Weird: I had to give them my home address, as they wouldn’t deliver to a PO box. Then, because it was refrigerated, UPS demanded I pick it up at an access spot—-my UPS store. Had to sneak it into the fridge; hope it’s good.

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, cream cheese, and pizzas–one of which we had tonight. Red Baron brick oven crust = chewy.

–Grace went nuts pretty much all day. Set up an account at CVS so she could get her drugs. Got an appointment 1/2/26 with an Iranian woman doctor in Roseville.

–I picked up Grace’s drugs and stopped at UPS for (a) a KAP ultem spinner (nice, but too light) and (b) some crystal ti buttons–nicest I’ve seen.

–Talked to Sebastian at Great Infusions, and he agreed to wire up the Famosa if I brought it in. Will do.

–[edit] Nightmare in the bedroom tonight. (1) DHL now wants $26 tariff payment for delivering the 3D printed lens adapter from China. (2) Sac County property tax site still won’t send me a “change password” link, so I have to log in using my Google account. (3) Got a bill from DMV for BMW registration with a $200 penalty, because it was due in August (I checked the license plate). Very hard to believe they sent me a bill in June (say) and I missed it or forgot to pay. Possible that Monterey BMW neglected to properly register the vehicle.

–Getting chilly: I set up the small heater in the bedroom last night.

–Took Grace to Sutter Urgent Care in Roseville, in search of a PCP. To my surprise, they extended her prescriptions by 90 days, and will do so again if needed. They also gave her the names of a few docs who might be taking patients. I don’t have details, but after a little research she seemed to think they were all just out of med school, and not worth pursuing. Seems to me beggars can’t be choosers, but that’s not my business…

–The new Modusworks Retcore spinner came in. Pretty off-balance, and after hours of effort it’s better, but not great. An interesting but flawed design, I think.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to the new Gold River dentist, Corey Bafford, for two crowns and a filling. The work seemed to take longer, compared to other similar work, and was more painful. The first time I ate something afterwards, one of the temporary crowns broke, so I had to go back. Don’t know what to do going forward.

–Stopped at UPS and picked up Kenny’s honey jars. Order complete.

–Rain finally came this evening. Light, but wet.

–Got Kenny his pond light.

–Watched the 49ers lose.

–Made pizza for dinner (my dough).

–Took a shower and shave in preparation for the dentist tomorrow.

–Put in an order at Goby Meds for three months of (compounded) Ozempic, for $349. Hoping to get the belly fat down and my wind back.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Finally cashed in some of my bonus points: $9. Stopped at UPS for Kenny’s fountain light.

–Walked to UPS to pick up 1 terabyte SD thumb drive. Stopped on the way to pick up a zillion acorns. Got winded really fast when bending over. Hoping it’s due to fat hitting diaphragm–which could be reasonable since breathing while biking hasn’t changed in 20 years. Time for Ozempic.

–Thumb drive is super, with a plug on each end: one for the PC, one for Mac. No adapters needed to move files from Mac to PC. It came formatted in ex-FAT, copies files fast, runs jpg’s and videos fast. So now all potentially risky files are gone from iCloud, and thus cannot accidentally open when running XnView or VLC. Whew!

–Great Infusions responded to yesterday’s email, saying the Giemme controller on the Salvatore was discontinued and there are no modern “cross-overs.” Great.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Put Kenny’s large indoor(?) gift plant into a pot outside for now. Not really my kind of plant.

–Grace is scaring me again: did nothing all day, so I bought pizza for dinner, just like last night.

–Went to UPS for desk mat (finally a nice one), Kenny’s bottle caps, and damasteel spinner buttons from NJT.

–Two emails to Salvatore with no response, so I started working on the Famosa. Soon discovered that someone had CUT OPEN the controller box, presumably to repair something inside, then zip-tied it closed. What a joke! The date on the controller box suggests it’s 22 years old. I doubt I’ll be able to find that exact one, but it’s likely someone makes one that would work in this machine. If Salvatore won’t help, I’ll have to find out if the tech at Great Infusions is still there; I’m sure he could get it running.

–Left hearing aid battery failed at 11 AM. Replaced both at 1 PM.

–Installed 5-foot outlet strip in front of fireplace. Much better.

–Sent e-mail to Salvatore last night asking about refurbishing the Famosa. No reply.

–Finally called UC Davis Health and asked point-blank if any docs were taking new patients. Answer: one, in midtown Sac, with no openings in 2025 and no calendar yet for 2026. So much for UC Davis.

–Went to UPS to pick up Salvatore Famosa. It doesn’t have a huge footprint, but it’s extremely heavy. Pretty good shape cosmetically. I didn’t try turning it on; instead wrote to Savatore and asked if he would restore it.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Nail bed of left thumb is as bad as ever. Wish I knew what this was.

–Took a walk to the Fair Oaks bridge. Tiring.

–Went to Bel Air for apples, tangerines, cheese, dessert.

–Stopped at UPS for plastic boxes and a couple of Magnus sliders.

–Spent a while tuning up the sliders. With these light resin ones, just putting the o-rings under the middle magnets seems to do the trick (they’re all 6×2 3,000g).

–The guy who sold me a Compoform slider on Facebook, which went missing via FedEx, just reimbursed me the full price–$450. Something’s a little fishy, as he never got specific about how much it was insured for, what the status of his claim with FedEx is, etc. Guess I can’t complain though.

–Nice day; didn’t do much.

–Tom Elken agreed to send my “Be our PCP” request to Dr. Lisa Swensson.

–Played with VLC subtitle size. The amount of control VLC gives you over everything is absolutely astonishing.

–Compared Leica to Canon on an abutilon shot. Huge differences to my eye, even though I’ve done this several times before and didn’t see much. Perhaps previous comparisons were all night shots–or maybe it was cataracts. For the leaves, the Leica came out much greener than the Canon–something Leica is known for. Hopefully that’s easily fixed in a preset, because: the Canon photo was MUCH noisier than the Leica’s. The SL2-S is known to have a great high-ISO sensor, but this was an afternoon shot, not terribly dark. Leica wins, I guess.

–Watched “The Lost City” for the second time. Pretty good movie, though it sort of peters out toward the end.

–Put in new hearing aid batteries at 9 AM.

–FedEx seems to have lost a Compoform slider. They said it was delivered yesterday, but UPS has no record of it. Since UPS “bulk” signed for it, blame/accountability will be interesting.

–Grace is getting scary: Firoz finally refused to update her prescription(s), and it’s not at all clear what she”s going to do about it.

–A fair amount of rain today, off and on.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Stopped at UPS for plastic boxes (too big; they work but take up too much space in drawer) and a Magnus resin spinner from Plants Wake You Up. Kinda ugly, didn’t slide well. Scavenged parts and tossed it.

–Made pizza for dinner. Not bad, but not my best.

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels.

–Walked to dentist Corey Bafford in Dr. Paul Cripe’s (retired) office. Michelle  did x-rays and cleaning; Dr. Bafford took a look and said “two crowns, a cavity in the front tooth, and a referral to Creekside Endodontists for a tooth with internal resorption.” This won’t be cheap, but it seems fairly straightforward (i.e., he’s not making up things that don’t exist).

–Watered plants. Took a photo and learned (maybe) that the big plant from an unknown donor via Kenny is an Arrowhead plant.