–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.

–Cloudy day with a bit o’ drizzle.

–Played with magnets. Also cleaned my desk for the first time in a long time.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Red Baron cheese pizza with Thao tomato and a little fresh basil for dinner. Yum!

–Cool and cloudy most of the day.

–Walked to UPS to send off Noah’s birthday package.

–Played with sliders.

–Fairly cool day, and mostly cloudy.

–Went out to dinner at Blaze Pizza with Kenny–his treat. Good stuff.

–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market, then the Folsom Premium Outlets for birthday gifts for Noah.

–Left thumb cuticle area is still red, after several weeks. Don’t know what’s going on.

–Went to the Folsom REI to get a new bike helmet, as the padding on the old one would not stay in place. The new has adjustable sizing–very nice.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Went around the mulberry bush on doctors. Grace found one who seemed fine and was (on the web) accepting new patients. When I called to set things up, she was not accepting new patients. This disconnect between web and reality makes it essentially impossible to find a doctor.

–Went through most of my photo apps again, learned (again) that each has its issues. Signed up (again) for Lightroom, $10/month this time (last time they got me for $20/month, not sure how), installed Classic and Creative Cloud versions. Was disappointed in both for a bit, but after tweaking, went with the Classic version, since it allows me to customize the Develop panel. This editor is so good, smooth, customizable, etc. it just destroys any alternatives. E.G., the Details menu was collapsed (after many tests and customizations), so I opened it up, fiddled a little, closed the app then reopened–Details was available. This can’t be that hard to implement (automatically or with workspaces), but NOBODY does it except Lightroom. Hooked again.

–Another cloudy, not too-hot, poor air quality day.

–Took a walk to the Fair Oaks Bridge. Tired me more than it should have.

–Biked to UPS for Magnus Dimple Rainbow. Pretty, not the best slider action. Will tinker.

–Frozen dinners for…dinner.

–Played with spinners and magnets again; finally had some success.

–Went to UPS for licorice (still good), Heart slider (tossed quickly; gotta stop ordering this 3D printed crap), cough drops.

–Watered a few plants briefly.

–Went to Costco for muffins and Pellegrino. Got muffins, no Pellegrino. Got some Peet’s beans–$10/pound.

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

–Stopped at UPS for Craftsman BBQ tool, magnets, Rapt Lite (second one I’ve tossed, falls apart at the slightest spin), lemon drops, Magnus slider (very light (resin), great action).

–Stopped at Gold River Dental. Cripe is retired, and the new guy (no reviews anywhere) takes our Delta Dental PPO plan. Made an appointment for October 3 at 9:30 AM. Hygienist Michelle (whose name I firmly recalled as Sandy) said hi.

–Argued with Grace about eye doctors. She is so negative, pessimistic, sarcastic, argumentative, etc. that it will likely be Christmas before she sees one.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner, with Thao tomato and garden basil.

–Trimmed the tree that overhangs the roof on the front patio. No more overhang.

–Went to UPS for Modusworks plates.

–Swam 38 laps at 86 degrees.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Spent a while going through a youtube collection of videos on Then Came Bronson, partly to help me decide what to keep and what to drop. I’ll be keeping 4 out of 26. Despite all the yammering from a couple of websites about tone poems, introspective, brooding, sensitive, etc., most of these just strike me as pretentious, poorly written and poorly directed. Bronson isn’t a hero or anti-hero; he just mopes around with his head down and mumbles stuff. The one good thing thing you could say about the show is that people are generally better off (happier, more self-aware) for Bronson having been there. What still puzzles me is my firm memory that I had carried “all” 13 episodes in my head for years. The only ones familiar to me now are the 4-5 that stuck with me from  another binge 10-15 years ago; the other 20+ did not tickle a single neuron. It’s likely the single best idea ever for a TV show (along with Route 66), but it was squandered.

–My butt aches (as usual) from working on sprinklers yesterday.

–Grace seems (once again) to have given up thinking about doctors, since her searches didn’t come with something great. Depressing.

–Did some laundry.

–Watered plants.

–This journal was requiring login every two weeks, so I ditched the “persistent login” plugin and added some code to functions.php. We’ll see.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Re-stocked up on Beulah’s Candyland cough drops and Claey’s lemon drops.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for Thao tomatoes (expensive, but noticeably better than others at the market), pears and tangerines.

–Exhausted myself (as usual lately) doing a little sprinkler repair in the side yard. All sprinklers are great now–until I actually test the ones in front and back…

–Noticed (for the first time, sadly) that there’s a difference between Edamame spinners from LIC EDC (original, longer, thinner) and Edamame Goldilocks (Goldie) spinners. I only have one Edamame, in zirc–the green resin one hardly counts–and a couple of Goldies (copper and bronze). I need more Edamames.

–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and banana bread. Took Grace along for shopping at Target.

–Trimmed, cleaned up, watered back patio plants.

–DXO started acting up again (fuzzy while sliding, snaps into focus when stop). Tried the newest version of Raw Therapee; still choppy. Went back (for the 14th time) to RAW Power. It might lack a couple of bells and whistles, but it sure is fast and customizable.

–Vlad and helper from Regal Roofing came over around 9 AM to clear gutters and downspouts. Spent several hours here, did a great job (swept leaves off roof too), and charged $200. Not bad. Let it rain…

–Got up this morning, felt bad, went back to bed. Got up again around Noon. Still don’t feel great.

–Went to UPS for Craftsman BBQ tongs (cool), lacquerware spoon (dull finish; tossed), Reg Barber tamper handle (on the fence; may or may not keep).

–Stopped at Bel Air for dinner. Tried a Panera flatbread pizza. Not so hot.

–Made an appointment and took Grace to CVS near Lowe’s for COVID (us) and flu (her) vaccines.

–Lunch at Panera.

–Magnus Sunburst slider came in. Not quite as compelling in person as in photos. Also not the greatest performer.

–Took a swim.

–Messed with sprinklers a bit in the side yard. More to come. I hate sprinklers.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips (zero customers the whole time I was there) and picked up a Speedo nose clip at UPS. For the second time in a week, I narrowly avoided a driver merging into my lane from the left. Idiots.

–Took a swim. Nose clip worked.

–No swim today: waiting for a nose clip from Amazon, and I doubt (given the air temp) that water temp got over 80.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Took a shower and shave; clipped my toenails. The Gillette Psycho did not want to work well, though my beard was approaching 1/2″. Switched to the Fat Bay.

–Red Baron cheese pizza with added Hillshire sausage and tomato for dinner.

–Ordering some vintage Craftsman BBQ tools from eBay. Turns out that if I ever looked at those tools 20 years ago, I’ve completely forgotten. Most say “Not Guaranteed Forever” and “Considered a Kitchen Utensil” on the handles. And the way the scraper is put together–blade bolted onto handle–was a total surprise to me. Is it observation or memory? Beats me.

–Going back to the Samsung Z Flip 5 for a bit. iPhone battery life seems to be getting worse. Considered upgrading to Z Flip 7, but there were no real compelling reasons to spend close to a thousand bucks on one.

— I almost never hear what Grace says the first time any more. Could be she’s talking more softly, more likely my hearing is getting really bad.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, pears, tangerines. Then to S*T strawberries for strawberries and jam.

–Watered plants.

–Played with sliders. Very frustrating: all the magnets I have, and nothing I try seems to improve performance. Could be that the ones I’m working with (Gators, Crinkles) are just too heavy to be great sliders.

–Took a swim: 30 lengths.

–Waited all morning for a Pyra slider drop that didn’t happen. At least they posted (at 12:10) that it wasn’t going to happen.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Took a swim, 26 lengths. The pool was back up to 83. My nose clip kept failing, and I hit my head against the lip of the pool, but other than that…

–Took the BMW to Hooverville for jams and produce.

–Played with sliders. I really need to figure out an easy way to measure and store those nasty button magnets.

–Red baron for dinner.

–Cleared one gutter/downspout in the side yard. Noticed the other downspout seemed clogged. Decided I’m too old for this stuff and will let a pro do it.

–Went to UPS for fins (pool was 79 today), Vern Scharf painting, FidgetThings S.O.B. 2 Slim slider (tried to like it, and MAY have been able to mod it, but ended up putting it in the “sell” section of the closet).

–Rode 14+ miles west on the ARP with Tom Elken. Cool weather.

–Picked up magnets and a KAP Horizon Ultem spinner at UPS. Plus a Gillette Psycho razor.

–Tried long and hard to get a Magnus Crinkle to slide nice. I improved it, but one piece still goes flying on backflips too often. Don’t know what I can do about that–the corners are about as strong as they come.

–Too cool to swim. The season may be over almost before it started, for me anyway.

–Juli got off fine.

–Went to UPS for a Magnus X slider (horrible sharp edges) and many magnets.

–Marie for dinner.

–Took a swim. Had to skim leaves first, and the water seemed 5 degrees cooler than a couple of days ago. Did 20 laps.

–Had bagels for breakfast.

–Juli came by and we went for a walk to the ARP (from Gold Country Blvd.).

–Tried for lunch at Brookfields, but it was jammed, so we went to Mimosa House, which was not at all crowded.

–I made a pizza for dinner.

–I decided to finally take a swim. Pool isn’t hyper-clean, but there’s no chlorine odor and it was a very comfortable 85 degrees. I’ll be back.

–Took some more Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny and added them to the pot. Looks much better. Don’t know if anything will take hold.

–Grace’s sister Juli came in around 4:30, Calling us from her motel: the Hawthorn Suites on Tributary Point. She seems fine, has lost weight. She has her insurance settlement + $460,000 from selling the property, and is considering all sorts of options for what’s next–along with her (apparent) new boyfriend Steven.

–Dinner at Jack’s Urban Eats. Good stuff.

–Got some Burro Tail cuttings from Kenny, so I put them in a plastic pot, drilled some holes in it, then hung it in the back patio. Looks okay, but (a) I haven’t had a lot of luck with these, and (b) it’s already sparse–too few cuttings in the pot.

–The last Magnus slider arrived. It’s nice, but I had to pay Magnus $14 for shipping, and DHL $62 for customs duty and such. What a joke.

–Put the pet feeder outside. HHH ate from it, and I snapped a few cool pics of him with the built-in camera. Very cool.

–Re-re-re-re-re-installed DXO. Was getting excited by the ability to customize palettes. Then saw what I believe I’ve seen before, recently: when making any adjustment, the image fuzzes up, then goes to normal when I stop moving the slider. Very strange, and not acceptable. Kee-rap!

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels.

–Picked up yet another Pyra slider at UPS.

–Watered plants.

–Went to Firoz’ office to see Jasleen Agroia. Totally useless visit. Scheduled.a physical six months hence. Hope to have a new doc by then.

–Picked up sliders at UPS: black Pyra (great plates), Modusworks Rapt (SS, great condition), Magnus Arc Mini Frag (both SS and zirc muffin tin plates. Yay!

–Florida is going to end mandates for all childhood vaccines. Absolutely unbelievable.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up hearing aid batteries and a Prits slider from Ukraine that was so bad I tossed it immediately.

–Played with sliders, trying to get more workable magnet combos, but ended up as usual putting everything back the way it was. Ordered a bunch of different magnets, and need to order still more.

–Fixed the locking mechanism on the side yard sliding glass door.

–Watched Nobody 2. What a waste of time. No setup, no motivation, just a ton of bloody violence. Unfortunate.

–Made a DEElicious pizza for dinner, with Thao Ranch tomato and our own basil.

–Got and saved 20 or so pics of Chalk It Up 2025 from Reddit.

–Blood pressure seems to be subsiding a bit, finally.

–Re-potted the three herbs (rosemary, chives, thyme) from one big pot to three smaller ones.

–Went to UPS and picked up (a) NJT Vader in distressed(?) copper; so ugly and unfixable I tossed it; (b) Sony dream machine with projector and nature sounds. Not quite as pristine as it appeared in the eBay listing, and poorly packed. Haven’t tried the projector yet (not dark), and rain seems the only reasonable nature sound, though the volume is such that I’ll never hear it without hearing aids. Will likely toss.

–Took a shower and shave. Tried the 1947 military razor again, tossed it. Got a theme going here…

–Tried several photo editors over the last few days after dumping $20/month Lightroom. As usual, ended up with Raw Power. It lacks some of the bells and whistles of others, but it’s fast, smooth, and infinitely customizable.

–Big day. Kenny brought me another melon. I went to the Sunrise farmers market for pears and tangerines, and bought some tangerines for Ken the mailman. Then to Bel Air for barbecue and dairy stuff. Then to UPS, where I saw Ken and gave him his tangerines.

–Put the Jimson Weed cutting, which has been sitting in water for months with a few roots, into a pot with soil. We can watch it die now. Watered all plants.

–Barbecued pork chops, corn, Claire’s potato salad. Yummy!

–Waited all morning for the “standard” Pyra spinner drop. Didn’t happen. Queried one of the principals. He said “Will do a drop around 7 CST.” I started refreshing the screen every second at 6:55, and at 7:04 I WON ONE!!

–Chicken pot pie for dinner. Grace is still not real keen on cooking or shopping.

–Re-potted several succulents. Seems to have gone okay. Really worried about doing the multi-stemmed one.

–Went to UPS for (a) Magnus Shell (swapped in some dimple plates for the original skeleton plates and made it smoother), (b) my second Aura Sand slider (these are fabulous), (c) pills fro Amazon, (d) my second 3D-printed add-on for the Timemore grinder;  I can’t figure out how to mount it..

–My blood pressure seems to remain high: 140’s over 80’s. Crap.

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn, got gas at the nearby Chevron, drove home. Roughly 3 hours and 5 minutes with no delays.

–Took Grace to dinner at Carmelita’s nearby. Not bad, but not great.

–Drove the BMW to the coast. Had an egg salad on wheat at the bluff in La Selva Beach, checked in at the Holiday Inn in Watsonville, went to the Pot Stop and bought a bunch of pots, drove to Capitola only to find that Phoebe’s had closed early (3:30 instead of 5:00, sorry for the inconvenience), went to McDonald’s for an early dinner, went back to the hotel and zonked out.

–Went to UPS for some Modusworks slider parts, a Pyra slider I traded for (fabulous), and a KAP zirc spinner.

–Dr. Firoz’ office called and made an appointment for me to see him in person next week (at 6:30 PM). Don’t know what’s going on (lab work was great, Losartan prescription was doubled from 25mg to 50mg); don’t look forward to it.

–Got some mats down from the attic to wrap pots in at the Pot Stop tomorrow.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Made compote with 3 pounds of farmers market tomatoes. Came out good, though very soupy and not as much as I vaguely recall–two meals at best.

–Got pretty much caught up cataloging spinners and sliders, as well as magnets.

–Watched The Amateur with Rami Malek. Decent movie, every cliche in the book, and would have been vastly better with someone other than Malek.

–Took Grace to Sunrise farmers market. Got lots of stuff: tomatoes, squash, pears, sourdough bread, etc.

–Went to UPS for magnets, Arc and Iron slider (weird: teflon plates really seem to negate strong magnets), Rancho Cordova t-shirt, Sony clock radio (crap; tossed), Sony hearing aids.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, green beans, eye drops.

–Messaged Dr. Firoz regarding high blood pressure readings. He said to double my Losartan dose (25mg –> 50mg), though he didn’t talk about changing the prescription. It was just renewed, so I have > 1.5 months left at 50mg/day.

–Paid State Farm homeowner’s policy $1,411.50.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.

–Sent off Drake spinner buttons to Belle Nguyen that I’m trading for her Pyra.

–Lotsa squirrel activity late in the day. It’s a scorcher out there.

–Hot hot hot. Satan’s Butthole is the season.

–Finally yelled at Grace about sitting around doing puzzles all day, told her I was going to Smart & Final for peanuts and muffins. She came with, did regular shopping, made a very nice dinner. Beats me…

–Started watching The Accountant 2; will finish tomorrow. Not bad.

–Crocodile socks and Gold River t-shirt came in for Grace’s birthday.

–Got Kenny his Eneloops for his phones.

–Walked to the Fair Oaks bridge. Too hot, no turtle.

–Downloaded and watched Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Okay, but way too long.

–Grace is worrying me: just sits in her chair all day doing puzzles. No shopping, no cooking…

–Rode in Folsom with Tom Elken; saw yet another remnant of the Lincoln Highway. Yakima bike rack seemed to be acting up again, and on checking it, it kind of fell apart. Sooooo, I studied it hard (there’s nothing on the web) and put it back together again. It will work MUCH better now and will cause no more problems. I just hadn’t given it serious enough scrutiny in the past; now I know exactly how to use it.

–Picked up magnet tool at UPS; seems to work okay. Also got Kenny’s Eneloops, but his garage door was closed all day after I got home so I’ll install them tomorrow.

–Had Stouffer’s stuffed peppers for dinner; Grace had Marie’s Salisbury steak.

–Went to Bel Air for coffee, cookies, cheese.

–Stopped at UPS for garbage bags and UQH slider. Slider is very nice. N52s in the corners, but–because it’s light, maybe–N35s in the middle. Easy to work.

–Loaded up the e-bike for a ride tomorrow with Tom Elken.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Didn’t do much. Played with Modusworks Rapts for a while, ended up putting them back as they started. Ruined my right index finger working with magnets.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up big coticule (very nice) and Magnus Crinkle in ti and zirc. Spent a while with various magnets (the Crinkle came with a hodge-podge of them) and ended up just putting in 8 6×3 N42s (same with the copper Crinkle). Zirc Crinkle works better than copper one, perhaps because of zirc plates (rather than SS), perhaps because it’s a little lighter–but neither is a keeper I fear.

–Got steak, corn and potato salad at Bel Air; barbecued them. Yummy.

–Watered back patio plants.

–Helped Kenny rotate the back wheels on his mobility scooter. Exhausting–I’ve really gone downhill lately in terms of stamina.

–Picked up magnets at UPS.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert, milk, tangerines, Vicolo pizzas.

–Walked to UPS to pick up a Modusworks spinner and some magnets. Tried to take some nicks off the spinner and ruined it. Crap. Note to self: I can’t fix chamfers.

–Went for a 12-mile bike ride. Beautiful day.

–Picked stuff up at UPS: (a) outdoor pet feeder, (b) Gauss meter, (c) KAP Bar Cell spinner (sweet), (d) Magnus Skelly Verkk spinner (kind of stiff, will take some work).

–Watched Whitstable Pearl, S03E03. Pretty depressing.

–Thought my hair growth had really slowed down. Turns out my last haircut was 5 weeks ago, not 13. Still…

–Went to Pacific Skin for a six-month checkup. She froze 3-4, said all else was good.

–Made pizza for dinner: Huge crust, tons of mozzarella, mushrooms and meatballs. Pretty good. Watched Whitstable Pearl S03E02; not bad.

–Took Grace to Bel Air for various stuff.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up (a) Kuko Frag slider, ho-hum, and (b) Aura Sands slider–the best one I own by a long shot. With all the hype on Magnus and Modusworks, these Chinese guys just utterly nailed it.

–Tires on the Honda seem fine. Wish I knew why one was 5 pounds low a few days ago.

–Hot day; fed squirrels.

–Finally (mostly) finished cataloging fidgets.

–Made focaccia bread.

–Watered plants, then spent much of the day trying to clean up my bedroom and make sense of all my sliders.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up anodized Magnus Duck, Edamame resin spinner, NJT mokume buttons at UPS.

–Barbecued pork chops, corn for dinner. Yum!

–Hot today; summer is finally upon us.

–Watched another Whitstable Pearl episode. The on/off Mike/Pearl romance is really annoying and driving me crazy. From the look of things, this thread will remain a part of the series until the end.

–Picked up the OG crystal ti LIC EDC Edamame spinner at UPS. Nice. Stopped at Bel Air for milk, ice cream, apples.

–The Mega Mini Mame I bought from Kendall Ellis was APPARENTLY destroyed in transit by UPS; he has refunded me. There is no way the UPS claim of “contents not recoverable; discarded” could be true. Super, super frustrating.

–Replaced the 6×2 N45 magnets in a Magnus Duck with N42s from Amazon. It did seem to improve the handling.

–Took Grace to Mai’s Berry Farm and The Farmer’s Wife for produce. Got lots.

–Picked up the blue Osprey pack at UPS.

–Made pizza/bread dough, cut it in half, made a cheddar/cotija/tomato/pepperoni pizza. Pretty good, though salty due to the cheese I think.

–Watched Whitstable Pearl, S02E02. Dead Takeoff on Rear Window.

–No bike ride today. Tom is getting checked at UC Davis Med Center for atrial fibrillation.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.

–Picked up slider magnets and a Pyra at UPS. Magnets came with a nifty thin metallic magnetic plate, which works much better than a slider tin for changing button magnets. Pyra has some scratches; will send it off for re-blasting.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels and oatmeal cookies.

–Went to UPS a couple times. Got (a) 2EDC Side Pocket bearings (fabulous), (b) Tevas, (c) a whole bunch of Magnus sliders–one from eBay, others direct. None is a real knockout, but might improve with weaker magnets.

–Bought a crystal titanium OG spinner on the Facebook forum. COA, but no box. Asked Jamie Acker if he’d make me another box: he said no, he’s stopped “reissuing.” Crap. I do have a spare box, however.

–Put the rack on the car and mounted the bike. Then learned that Tom has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, so no ride.

–Day two with Timemore grinder: much better.

–Rode 14.5 miles on ARP, canal, Gold Country. Completely wiped me out. Thought I was drinking enough (on ride, at lunch at Beach Hut Deli, with dinner, but urine is still dark. I suppose I should get waterlogged before the next ride.

–Went to Bel Air for tangerines, cream cheese, dessert, coffee, etc. Used one of two new self-checkout stands–kind of surprising, given that other stores are closing them down. The Rite Aid is closing at the Town Center. Scary: that place has lost several restaurants and now a big drugstore since the pandemic. If Bel Air closes, I’m outta here…

–Walked to UPS to pick up Swoop slider. The copper finish was rough on the outside and full of green scale on the inside. Cleaned it up a Bergeon satin wheel and a soak in a hot citric acid solution.

–Watered some plants.

–Used the Timemore grinder for the first time. Coffee was okay, not great. Grinder is quiet, but it Does need (as many have said) a hopper extension. Will get one.

–Went to UPS to pick up Timemore grinder (promising: it’s eerily silent), neodymium magnets (put 8 in the Magnus blue golf ball and they seem to work fine), Osprey teal backpack (super small, may get some use out of it).

–Won TWO Magnus fidgets in the 5 PM drop. Not sure why. They are less popular models, but I still thought people were just jumping on those.

–Went to UPS to mail off the Magnus slider to Kevin Hann for anodizing. Picked up the eBay Torqbar clone (okay, but heavy (tungsten, duh) and the beautiful zircuti button is miniscule); and the Kuko slider from Plants (nice slider, especially for the money).

–Soaked Jan’s plants and herbs.

–Polished a set of Magnus plates several times after they developed large fingernail-evident scratches. They scratched right up again. Don’t know what’s going on–there’s nothing there that could scratch like that (he said).

–Made some “1-hour bread.” It was pretty darned good.

–Played with sliders. Figured out how to tell weaker from stronger magnets of the same size: see how strongly they attract my stainless steel forceps. Magnet swap in the two Ultems didn’t work. Back to original: one works fine, the other not much at all. I might be able to tune the bad one with different magnets, but I don’t know if it’s worth it.

–Barbecued pork chops, corn and fresh bread for dinner. Tasty.

–Helped Kenny with his new Buick a little.

–Went to UPS for portafilter gaskets (Maximatic is good now); two Magnus Duck V2 sliders, neither of which is very cool (looking at a cool one on Facebook); stuff from NJT: two Vader spinners, two sets of buttons (nice, but somehow unexciting).

–Went to Bel Air for milk, cream, corn, pork chops.

–Watered Jan’s plants and our herbs, both of which were surprisingly dry after a recent watering.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Celebrated Kenny’s new Buick Ensomething–looks nice.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Walked to UPS to pick up Fushi spinner bearings. They work as advertised: smooth, quiet, long-spinning. At $1 each with quick delivery, they’re likely going to replace the Unquiet Hands Jupiter bearings from Taiwan I’ve been using.

–Built a “tool” for working on sliders. Put some polyimide (Kapton) tape on one of my powerful bar magnets, then put the Pyra slider on that and disassembled it. Worked fine. The Pyra isn’t much of a test, though, given its construction, so more excitement awaits.

–Walked to UPS to pick up shop scissors and brass Magnus Gator.

–Stopped at Bel Air for pizza doughball, mozzarella.

–Made pizza for dinner. Left the doughball in the warm garage for several hours, and that seemed to make the difference: it was much easier to roll out. Cooked at 450 for 12 minutes. Came out good, but soggy crust–perhaps due to overly-wet mozzarella.

–A little warmer today.

–Picked up a Magnus “No Ring” slider at UPS. Attractive, good action.

–Cleaned off my desk a bit.

–Watered herbs and Jan’s plants, which were quite surprisingly dry, given how much I watered them Sunday.

–Another mild day.

–Bought another couple of Magnus sliders from his website.

–Walked to the Fair Oaks bridge. No turtle.

–Barbecued turkey burgers and corn, with Bel Air potato salad. Corn was good.

–Rode the ARP for 15.5 miles with Tom Eken.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Cupronickel Love Nugget spinner came in. Heavy, shiny, with dead-silent bearing, but (a) it looks like nickel, with no copper color, and (b) spinning it doesn’t fill me with joy.

–Made pizza with a Raley’s dough ball, Rao sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni. It took a LONG LONG time to stretch out the dough, but the pizza was pretty darn good. Will try the dough once more, letting it sit at room temperature for like eight hours.

–Took Grace to the DMV in Jackson to renew both of our licenses.

–Went to UPS to pick up five sliders. Thank God all were actually in the box, given the recent theft.

–Marie Callender for dinner.

–Walked to UPS to pick up diamond spray (tried on strop, realized for the 8th time that handheld strops are useless, tossed strop), 49mm portafilter gasket (prior o-ring type is way too fat, this one is way too thin; will use it while ordering a couple of flat types from Orphan Espresso), and Revlon nail kit (very cool; shockingly, the cuticle cutter works incredibly well–no more knife wounds for me).

–Watered plants.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Picked up a Magnus Sweep at UPS. Okay, not amazing.

–Started gathering papers for upcoming DMV visit.

–Made a pizza with Bel Air dough, pepperoni, Thao tomato, mozzarella. Looked weird (huge cheese bubbles), tasted pretty good.

–Walked again to the Fair Oaks bridge, this time following a slightly longer and more circuitous route that I saw a couple do a few days ago. Took me (surprise!) by Buffalo Creek, which was nice. Still wiped me out, though.

–Went to UPS to retrieve the box and letter saying they had witnessed me opening it. Meanwhile, Jason Tierney at facebook said he thought he could wrangle me a replacement slider, as opposed to refunding my payment. That’ll be nice. I’m on pins and needles though about Monday, when a boatload of sliders are due to come in, all USPS, a couple of them pretty rare. Fuck this asshole thief at the Post Office.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, Amaize corn (really good this time, phew!), rosemary potatoes.

–Nice morning, so I walked to the Fair Oaks bridge again. Got a picture of the local turtle, who apparently was fed a boatload of fries. Right heel, which I bruised in flip-flops, didn’t bother me in Hokas–until later when I went back to flip-flops.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Went to UPS  and picked an empty box (FidgetBoy Swoop). There were other untouched packages, so I guess it’s not 100% certain it was stolen, but I still feel violated.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Quite a mild day. Should’ve ridden; didn’t.

–Went to New York Bagels for bagels. Didn’t see my older friend there; haven’t seen him for weeks.

–Picked up a Magnus Duck at UPS. Nice slider.

–“Won” an LIC EDC cupronickel Love Nugget. I had just apprised Kory Sean that the scratch on the Magnus slider he was selling was a machining mark, not a flaw. The Nugg win notification never mentioned the SUS or “winning;” it was just a chat from Kory saying “Go here, use this password, and buy one Love Nugget.” Probably was the SUS, on second thought, else how would he know I wanted a Nugget?

–Rode Cummings Park in Folsom with Tom Elken, just under 12 miles. Tons of people on the trails. And it seemed to wipe me out for the rest of the day.

–Took Grace to KP Market for cheap meat.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Google turned down planretirement.com for Adsense: low-value content. There are other revenue sources besides Adsense, but then there’s the hassle of trying to get sites to rank high on Google search. There’s Youtube, but I’m not exactly videogenic.

–Picked up sanding pads at UPS.

–11:30 eye appointment canceled: gas leak or something. Re-scheduled to 1:30. Took a while, but great news: intra-ocular pressures are 10 and 12, where 16+ is worrisome. Come back in a year.

–Picked up two new Magnus sliders at UPS. Both slide nicely, and the teal-ish color of the golf ball finish on one is gorgeous.

–Going riding with Tom tomorrow: got tired of putting it off. Pulled the car way forward in the garage, and was able to mount the rack and put the bike on it. Inflated the tires, charging now—easy tomorrow.

–Puttered around a bit with plants and sliders.

–Took Grace to Home Depot so she could get filters for the monster shop vac.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Yet another hot day.

–Watered many plants, not all.

–Took Grace to the Sunrise farmers market and got stuff. A lot of really expensive stuff there.

–Went to Bel Air for corn and dessert. Amaize corn has come in.

–Barbecued frozen turkey burgers (fresh are better), Amaize corn (regular Bel Air corn is better), patapan squash with rosemary butter (potatoes are better). All in all, pretty unsatisfying.

–Hot again.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) Magnus Sweep Ultem slider (not bad, but doesn’t swing easily); (b) superconductor buttons (laughably small); (c) Motta pitcher for frothing milk (thought at first it was much bigger than my current Motta, but they’re the same).

–Polished some slider plates. Aside from leaving some gunk on them, it did nothing. I guess the best way to smooth sliders is to slide them. I did notice that screws in all five used sliders were a tad loose. Tightening them didn’t affect action, but it felt reassuring.

–Chrome (Google) shut down my Paywall avoider and Cookie finder. I switched to Firefox, as much out of spite as anything: it doesn’t support the Paywall app. I was reminded that archive.ph is still good for reading WSJ articles.

–I noticed that my Coinbase account went up > $5,000 last night, so I sent $5k to Heritage. I don’t know what’s going on, as I dropped out of various reddit crypto groups a while back.

–Too hot this morning to take a walk/ride. Also messed up my heel a little as well as put a fair-sized cut on my right second toe walking yesterday.

–Picked up sanding sponges at UPS. Polished the Magnus Golf Club slider and it seemed to really improve it. BUT: after a few minutes of sliding, the plates showed all kinds of scuffs. I guess this is normal. I’m thinking sellers who mention “scratched, but smooth” don’t really know how quickly marks appear. If I ever sell one of these, I’ll polish it then immediately box it up.

–Made pizza for dinner. Mozzarella, many Thao tomatoes, our own basil. Yum!

–Walked to the Fair Oaks Foot Bridge, in my Tevas. Gotta start doing stuff to improve my weight and wind.

–Picked up a Skelly Verkk slider at UPS. Not a drill-through as I had mistakenly thought. Also too fat and hard to slide. Brought out the Modusworks Rapt again: too small, too hard to grip. Hoping I can trade it for something better.

–Tried to remove the foam from the smelly Osprey pack. Ruined it. The foam is segmented, sewn in, pretty much impossible to slip out cleanly.

–Submitted planretirement.com for Adsense review.

–Nice day; didn’t ride.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips.

–Took Grace to Smart & Final. She forgot her list. I bought a basil plant and replanted it. Looks okay.

–Played with Rolexes. Found a knob on the gold Sub that changes beat error. Got it down to .1ms. It consistently runs +25s/d, so I may take it to Ivanov, as I can’t see anything that allow me to adjust it—e.g., no screws in the balance wheel. The 1680 DOES have screws in the balance wheel, but I doubt I’ll risk it. [edit] Oops–just saw a pic of the 3135 movement in the gold Sub: it does have screws on the balance wheel–on the inside.

–Went back–for a while anyway–to the Leica SL2-S. It’s lower-noise than the Canon; is much simpler to set up/use than the Canon; has that (unusual for an SL) great viewfinder eye relief; has been reskinned by Leica and so has zero odor; and I set up a button to do quick lens definition so IBIS will always be working. I still need to test if Leica IBIS makes high-magnification focusing less jittery, as the Canon’s seems to.

–Picked up many things at UPS: Iosso polish (gritty as advertised); copper Magnus slider (beautiful, heavy, plates need more polishing); Skelly Hex Magnus slider (pretty); lemon drops; Magnus golf ball slider (best feel/grip yet); iPod MP3 player; useless Modusworks “heat sink” bead.

–Barbecued chicken burgers, corn from Sloughhouse via Ray and Sherry, chivey squash and tomato from Thao Ranch. Yum!

–Cleaned up my shower a bit with Scrubby Bubbles. Better.

–Took Grace to Safeway to get a fruit party tray.

–Went to the July 4th party at the DV clubhouse. Not bad.

–Went to Costco for muffins, Pellegrino, coffee beans.

–Stopped at Bel Air for grapes for the July 4th DV party tomorrow, since Nugget market doesn’t provide fruit trays on weekends.
–Nose is a wreck; really hoping I blasted the AK or whatever it is.

–Went for a 12-mile ride on the ARP. Busy, but not catastrophic. Wiped me out, as is becoming usual.

–Watered plants.

–Bought many sliders.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe. Took Grace to KP Market, where she didn’t find much.

–Barbecued turkey burgers, corn, rosemary potatoes. Yum!

–Went with Grace on a two-mile walk to the Fair Oaks Footbridge. It was warm, and the walk wiped me out. Training specificity.

–White Arc’teryx pack came in. Nice, but it too has a sweet odor. How do people store these things???

–Stopped at Bel Air for corn, Cuties, cookies.

–Finally got the Magnus slider back together correctly–not easy. Works a lot better now, though it highlights how weak my hands are compared to most young whippersnappers.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner. Good.

–Didn’t do much today. Went to dinner at Il Forno Classico. Quite disappointing. Tasteless baby spring greens salad, dry and tasteless spaghetti with meatballs. Also could hardly hear a word Grace spoke.

–Hot, quiet day.

–Picked up gray Rodico at UPS. Used it on a Yeti Sakmar mokume. Took a LOT of doing, as there is so little clearance low down, so had to put the Rodico fairly high. Seems to improve it, and it’s not visually distracting.

–Started playing with the ModusWorks Rapt slider I got as part of a spinner deal a while back. Oops—another addiction. Hoping to end up with 4-5 sliders, not 150.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Watered plants.

–Went to UPS for (a) Pose buttons (nice); (b) Tekna regulators (thought I hadn’t seen them before, but they were just photographed at a weird angle on eBay, standard Ocean Edge regs); (c) Unquiet Hands Jupiter bearings. Tested them; they were all pretty good eventually.

–Then to Bel Air for milk, cream, cream cheese, cookies, deodorant.

–Played more with regs. Brought out the Magnehelic. It corroborated most of my ratings, though the 7’s were off the scale bad (2.0+). Best was a nylon body with metal internals. Put the internals into a brass case and it wouldn’t stop free-flowing, so back to original. Pretty sensitive apparatus.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played with regulators. Lost a lot of air on one thinking it had defects, when in fact it just lacked an o-ring. Crap. But there are eight working Teknas now. The criticality of every design aspect of those regs is astounding: I spent a long time trying to get one to work that lacked a groove in the needle for a circlip to hold the rubber-footed thing in place. Switched to a grooved needle and boom! it worked.

–Made pizza for dinner. Over-cooked it, but pretty tasty.

–Rolex 1680 came in at FedEx. Swapped cases. Works fine–only took a year.

–SCUBA tank came in from hydro. Played with my Tekna regulators. Amazingly, I have eight that all work, with subjective breathability ratings from 7 to 9+. Pretty impressive, considering some of the needle seats are ones I made.

–Rode 12 miles on the ARP. Felt fine during, kind of crappy afterwards. Probably not drinking/eating enough. Bike is free of creaks!

–Went to Bel Air for coffee, yogurt (1,000 choices), cream cheese, apples.

–Picked up the M3 tungsten spinner that’s been six months coming. It’s fine, not exciting.

–Got bagels. Though freshly baked, they only had 11 sesame, so I got 1 plain. Again, unfamiliar faces. Don’t know what’s going on there.

–Stopped next door to pick up a Papa Murphy’s pizza. Closed. They called to apologize, I went back and picked up a pizza (on which I had already left a tip). Eventual pizza was extremely salty and not very flavorful. Done.

–Picked up air duster at UPS. It’s not a SCUBA tank, but it puts out really good air. Cleaned and dried a bunch of spinner bearings.

–Lazy day.

–Trimmed the bushes and rearranged the succulents in back. Tried several different schemes; ended up looking pretty good.

–Tried to balance a Modusworks Spinamathing using the new flat-tipped carbide bit in the drill press. Kind of a disaster. The drill and the vise holding the spinner are just way too loose and wobbly.

–Went to Home Depot for an Odo-Ban canister for the pack; some cedar pieces for the pack; epoxy. Stopped at Bel Air for cookies, cheese, milk.

–Went to UPS to pick up drill bits, three NJT spinners (nice) and a Pose spinner. The Pose was kind of dinged and scratched up. I successfully restored it. I wish there were forums where I could share this process (and learn some new things), but alas, people are glued to their phones watching 30-second art restoration videos.