–Balanced a couple of spinners, with balls and Rodico.

–Found a big blue pot in the garage cabinet and moved the blooming succulent that’s already outgrown its little pot into it. Hope it’s happier now. Watered everything.

–Cool this morning–sweatpants and slippers.

–Took a brief bike ride. (1) Windy and cool. (2) No creaks.

–Osprey backpack is almost odor free–still a little vinegar smell.

–Went to UPS for (a) Brad Sears shaving brush; (b) Fourth Love Nugget spinner (brass, best-balanced yet); (c) a couple of spinner buttons–zirc and Sakmar mokume. Chatted with Jamie Acker of LIC EDC (Love Nuggets, among others). Learned that he uses three finishes: satin (maroon Scotchbrite), mirror and machine (shows milling lines).

–Trump bombed Iran. Here we go.

–Still fabulous weather.

–Added anti-seize lube to seat rails in addition to seat post. We silent now.

–Took the backpack out of vinegar and ran it through a soak cycle in the washer. Not sure, but I think it still smells like aftershave.

–Reg Barber marbled tamper came in. Had several spots where tiny cuts/dings had taken off the coating. Tossed it.

–Had turkey burgers, corn, potatoes with chives butter for dinner. Super!

–Rode 12 miles west on the ARP. As usual, wiped me out.

–Played with spinners. Successfully balanced a bar using Rodico to hold in the too-small ball. Genius!

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up the Senkichi pick mattock from Japan at UPS. YES!! Also picked up a set of KAP superconductor blue-flamed buttons–prettiest ever made IMO.

–Vicolo goat cheese pizza for dinner. Good!

–Hot day; quiet day.

–Picked up 3mm plastic and ceramic balls at UPS. Put one ceramic ball in each of two NJT Nebu’s and really helped smooth them out.

–Rode 16 miles around Lake Natoma with Tom Elken. Wiped me out.

–Helped Kenny re-hang his gate, then brought him the stuff we’ve been keeping in our freezer since his died (he has a loaner fridge).

–Went to Bel Air for coffee, cream cheese, milk, dessert, Triscuits.

–Bought yet another Love Nugget spinner and a couple sets of buttons.

–My (one day) late estimated tax payment was acknowledged by Heritage and the IRS.

–Kenny’s refrigerator went out last night, so he called and we stored some of his frozen stuff in our freezers.

–Called NY Bagel Cafe for bagels; wasn’t sure they got the order. They didn’t. A couple of faces there I haven’t seen before, who sold me their last 10 sesame bagels. Grrr…..

–Picked up KAP Mokume Cell at UPS. Very nice.

–Have had an increasingly hard time putting portafilter into Maximatic. Today I almost couldn’t get it started. Took off the grouphead, portafilter goes on without the slightest effort. Either things change drastically when it’s hot, or this is a complete mystery.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Yet another nice day.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Soaked the smelly backpack in a strong vinegar solution. Will leave it for a week or so.

–Cleaned up my bathroom and replaced the toilet seat. Much better. Took a shower and shave.

–Used furniture crayons to try and hide the scratches on the bookcase from where Grace toppled the living room light. Looks better.

–Jimson Weed is not looking so good.

–Took the BMW to S*T Strawberries for strawberries, squash, cherries. All good, though Rainier cherries have little taste.

–Tried for a drop at Pose Blades. Sadly, I didn’t know I had to log in before purchase, so missed it.

–Chicken burgers, corn and squash with thyme for dinner. Will be switching back to turkey burgers (chicken is too dense); thyme doesn’t really work on squash; corn was great (4/$1 at Bel Air).

–Weather is still phenomenal.

–Friday the 13th, and I won a Drake’s spinner button! I think I won one a while ago, and tossed it. This one looks better.

–Picked up Apple Airpods Pro 2 at UPS. I fear I’m too old, too deaf to get much out of these.

–Also picked up some juniper berry essential oil. The pack is marinating in it now.

–Got milk and cream at Bel Air.

–Rode 11.5 miles on the ARP. Beautiful day, felt fine, then turned into a zombie for the afternoon. Gettin’ old. Brought back a couple of Jimson Weed cuttings. They were totally wilted when I got home, but cutting another 1/4″ off each stem brought them back. Blooms soon!

–Still incredibly nice weather, near the middle of June.

–Michael Hui at Rolliworks asked for a phone call, insisted I return the watch so they can fix the BPH issue, said he would refund–unclear how much. Got the watch out.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert and another Viccolo pizza.

–Picked up a brass Luv Nugget at UPS. Polished up nicely, but it took a while because of numerous small dings, mostly in the buttons.

–Rode in El Dorado Hills with Tom Elken. Spent a sleepless and bad-stomach night anticipating problems. Voila: bike fell off the rack on Hazel, just before the 50 on-ramp. No harm done, but grrrr….. Some web searching suggests my rack is about as good as they come, and I mainly need to adjust the front clamp closer to vertical than the horizontal I have been using. We’ll see.

–Rolex came back (second time) from Rolliworks. Long story short: It should be running at 19,800 BPH, and is instead running (slowly) at 18,000 BPH. Almost unbelievable. Asked Michael Hui for $1,000 refund so I can send it elsewhere.

–Grace and I made appointments at the DMV for license renewal. Mine comes after the renewal date of July 1. Guess I’ll have to drive carefully.

–Rolex 1680 was due this morning, then by end of day. It was in Oakland at 6:30 AM. I have my doubts. And even if it gets close, I noticed that Rolliworks specified “direct signature,” so they might not drop it off at UPS.

–Picked up the Apple Air Pods and a couple of spinners at UPS. The Baby Yeti in bronze is the smoothest bi (bar) I own.

–Watered plants.

–Cleaned up the three gas valves on the Weber Silver Genesis barbecue, circa 2005. They work much better now. Still might like to put stiffer springs in there.

–Went to Bel Air for ice cream, corn, coffee.

–Barbecued chicken burgers with corn and rosemary red potatoes. Yum! Buttons were sticky on the Weber; a couple of youtube videos showed how to remove and clean them. Will do.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Rode the canal for 14.45 miles. Wiped me out, for no obvious reason.

–Checked FedEx tracking on the Rolliworks 1680. It said the watch had been delivered–to Hayward. After some bad words, I went to FedEx on Sun Center. Turns out Rolliworks sent me the wrong tracking number. Watch should be here Monday. Grrr…..

–Went to Hooverville Orchards to get Kenny some Three-Berry jam, plus jam for us and a cherry pie and a big loaf of sourdough.

–Picked up another copper Luv Nugget spinner at UPS. It had a couple of dings like it had touched a belt grinder for a second. I got them out. It’s also really highly polished, where the first one has more of a satin finish with some strange lines in it. Plus the buttons on the first one were only half-polished on the edges. Very strange. Neither is perfectly balanced, so I’ll try to pick one. May be moot, as I just bought a brass one as well. Also picked up a Damned Designs Triad from the guy with the long name in Hong Kong or Singapore. Had a small but deep ding in it that he assured me he’d run past an expert who said it could be taken out. Nope. You can’t take a deep ding out of etched mokume: it just becomes smooth and looks weird where you sanded. Tossed it.

–Backpack still smells. I’m pretty much at my wit’s end. Tired to grind up some juniper berries to leave in it for a while; couldn’t.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Bought a fidget spinner or two.

–Picked up the Wiha needle nose pliers at UPS. Small, but beautiful. Also picked up the NOS Tekna regulator. Can’t test it, as the tank is out for several days being hydro’d. Looks good, needle seat looks great, but the main(?) diaphragm is toast. It should pull the needle back when inhalation stops, but it has lost all its elasticity and just sits there. Fortunately I have spares. Noticed something I haven’t noticed before: inhaling hard on the (not hooked up) regulator allows a little air in. It can be stopped completely with a thumb over the input opening. Tried this on 4-5 regs; some were tight, some not. Is this free-flowing? Is tank pressure going in the same as lung vacuum? I’m just not smart enough to figure out where the “leak” could be. Will definitely do more testing when the air tank comes back.

–Watered/spruced up the plants a bit.

–Picked up the Rolex gold link at UPS. First Rolex link I’ve ever seen that uses a pin and tube collar, rather than a screw. Unbelievable. Further, the screw link I got (and apparently all others in 15.5mm gold) has a blind hole: screw head shows on one side, other side is solid. All screw links I’ve seen have holes on both sides: big for the screw head, little for the screw end. Even further, someone is selling the “rare” pin link on eBay for $1,300. Keeee-rap.

–Also picked up an Indy Thicc Chonky in tungsten. What a monster–almost 12 ounces, and actually feels like exercise when spinning.

–Went to Bel Air for Vicolo pizza, cookies, Cuties.

–Rode 15 miles to the Richey bridge with Tom Elken.

–Picked up pills (Tamsulosin) and Febreze deodorizer at UPS. After several applications, the Febreze isn’t wowing me.

–Red Baron three-cheese pizza for dinner. Not bad.

–Got bagels ar New York Bagel Cafe.

–Shopped with Grace at Target. Typically, she found nothing and got frustrated.

–Picked up Merkur Bling razor at UPS. Nice, but I’m a little surprised at (what appears to be) the crudeness of the holes drilled and the largeness of the jewels, which don’t really fill the holes. Also picked up the LIC EDC Love Nugget spinner in copper. Nice, but the body seems sort of machine finished, in a way that totally prevents a mirror polish. The buttons allow mirrors on the rims, but the body remains matte. Came with a cool box though.

–Grace broke the living room floor lamp while vacuuming, irretrievably, it seems.

–Bagel dogs and Cheetos for dinner.

–Cooler today.

–While Grace did laundry, I did some “honey do” stuff: putting rubber feet on trivets, rubber bumpers on swinging cabinet doors, etc.

–Got tired of Google Search Console telling me about all the issues on my four websites, so I re-re-re-re-submitted the sitemaps, then told Google (in effect) “Everything has been fixed; please validate the fixes.” Should be interesting.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Second super-hot day in a row.

–Scanned a few of the slides that Grace found in a projector in her closet–ACDS class of 1966 in this case. They came out really nice–it never ceases to astound me how long these slides can maintain their breathtaking quality.

–Watered the plants and saw (a) peppers on Jan’s pepper plant and (b) tiny Satsumas on my tangerine plant.

–Paid State farm BMW 6-month insurance: $746.87.

–Took Grace shopping at the Folsom Safeway, where they have (among other things) frozen chicken patties and sock-it-to-me pudding rings.

–Barbecue for dinner. All good: Safeway corn, chicken patties, sliced red potatoes with rosemary butter. Yow!

–Took a 12.3 mile bike ride on the ARP. Great weather, but lots of folks on the trail. I noticed that Da Brim looks completely different than when I fastened it to the helmet–Grace’s Brim sits much higher. What a dork I am.

–Took the nearly-empty SCUBA tank to Fisheye SCUBA in Granite Bay. Since it’s over five years old, it needs a hydro. $52 and two to three weeks.

–Picked up the NTO Ternion spinner at UPS. Though fairly small and light, it’s a pretty addictive spinner, and dead silent.

–Big day at UPS: (a) Nils Kohring spinner buttons–gorgeous. (b) Pose Blades Cocoon in stainless, NEW from eBay. (c) Yet another bronze Yeti. (d) A couple of NJT buttons. The crystallized titanium is possibly my most beautifull button. (e) A Westclox Moonbeam alarm clock, that, in keeping with recent luck, is virtually NOS. Unmarked, silent, accurate alarm. Yow!

–Spent some time with Grace over at Kenny’s, wishing him well as he headed off to his brother-in-law’s funeral.

–Picked up my Osprey Pulsar pack from Ark Cleaners. Smells about the same as it did when I dropped it off. Crap!

–Another day I forgot to do a journal entry.

–Played around with websites a lot.

–Spent a long time trying to tidy up my four websites so as to address the concerns raised in the Google Search Console. I think I mostly succeeded, though it (apparently) required three additional plugins: canonical URLs, permalinks, and redirection. A lot of it may have been unnecessary, being the result of changes and screw-ups done long ago that linger in Google’s memory. Hope to know in a month or three.

–Picked up the new Da Brim at UPS. Tried to install it, seemed impossible. Grace took a quick look at it and realized that ALL of the tightening of Da Brim to helmet happens via the strap on the side, and not the ones in front and back that I’ve so strenuously tried for years to force through holes in the helmet. What a doofus.

–Grace made breakfast muffins, so Red Baron for dinner.

–Bought a couple more spinners.

–Went through the slides from Grace’s closet, pulled out a bunch that I’ll scan and digitize.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Got lots of coupon stuff.

–Polished some spinner buttons with my new polishing rods. The rods work well. I have much to learn wrt buffing wheels and rouge.

–A couple of nice spinner buttons came in–steel and ti, simple, but nicely dished and polished.

–Pose Fat Cocoon came in. I think I prefer the standard, but Had to get this. Also a Modusworks brass tri–for $138. Heavy, tiny bit off balance, but good spinner.

–Turkey burgers etc. for dinner.

–Put gas in the Honda; bought cream cheese and coffee (beans) at Bel Air.

–Went for a 10.77 mile bike ride. At some point, Da Brim blew off my helmet and I didn’t even realize it until later. Looked for it on the way back, didn’t see it. I don’t know how that came off without me being aware–abrupt change of brightness, wind resistance, etc. Ordered a new one.

–Gave up on the Osprey, took it to Ark Cleaners. She said they could get the smell out.

–Got coffee (Punk Bunny) and cream cheese at Bel Air.

–Made a couple more polishing rods from copper: 4mm and 4-40, added to the 3mm I diid a few days ago. They’re not beautiful, but they work quite well.

–Fixed one of Grace’s treasured ball-point pens from her lab at Stanford. The refill was not 100% correct and was binding in the barrel. Belt grinder took care of that.

–Rolex 16618 came in. Total beauty.

–Picked up dinner from Jack’s Urban Eats.

–Rode with Tom Elken in El Dorado Hills, including a short stretch of the original Lincoln Highway–the first road to cross the U.S. Completely wiped me out, mostly because of struggles getting (and keeping) the bike on the rack.

–Chelsea superconductor spinner came in. Nice.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final. For the first time, we actually got discounts for having joined their program. Can’t believe we waited this long: I’ve been part of Raley’s/Bel Air program for many years.

–Went to refill the bird bath, water got cloudy. Turns out the grout was dissolving. I scraped it all off and put it back out with water in it. On reading the grout directions, it says “Wait 24 hours before using.” Reading a little further, it says “For shower floors, wait 7 days.” Oh. Don’t know what I’ll do now. I’d probably have to buy more silicone and break up more tiles–too much much trouble cleaning these off–and the animals would be without water for a week. Crap.

–After many soakings in various liquids, the Osprey pack is starting to smell neutral. I’m giving it one more long soak in “cleaning vinegar,” then (if still smelly) off to a cleaner. Grace suggested this; I should have thought of it long ago.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to a metal shop on Pyrites, got a 3/8″ copper rod. They thought it was steel at first, then charged me for brass. A metal shop. I broke a drill bit in the rod on my first attempt, but managed to thread another successfully on the second.

–Soaked the Osprey backpack in a stronger vinegar solution. It’s drying now, and this seventh attempt may have done the trick (ozone generator in the Beemer trunk didn’t do much).

–Picked up a nice Simpsons vintage Chubby 2, which I can actually imagine has a rose tint to it.

–Picked up Dr. Bronner’s Hemp Rose and Hemp Citrus scents (adding to the Peppermint that came in a couple days ago). His scents are interesting, more subtle on the hands than in the bottle.

–Got the Specialized down from the wall and pumped up the tires for a possible ride tomorrow. I’ve tried three of my rebuilt Silca pumps recently, and–surprisingly to me–only one works well. Risky business, rebuilding these things.

–The near-NOS Olympia Maximatic/Coffex continues to make no-fuss good espresso. Another wedding gift abandoned, I imagine.

–Osprey pack is better after a couple dips in Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap, but not odorless yet.

–Finished up the bird bath and set it up out front. Birds seem to like it.

–Spent a while organizing/cataloging stuff. Made some progress.

–Watered the plants in back. They’re mostly growing like crazy, for reasons that aren’t clear to me.

–Took a shower and shave. For the 3rd or 4th time felt a pinprick pain near my left ear in roughly the same spot that presaged parotid cancer on the right years ago. I do not need another bout of that.

–Soaked the new Osprey pack in a bucket of water with a little Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap added. Apparently not enough peppermint; still seems to smell of aftershave.

–Grouted Kenny’s broken up tiles into the new bird bath base.

–Got the new Olympia Maximatic running. Turns out it’s another near-NOS machine. I didn’t have to do anything except add water and turn it on. Made a fine latte.

–Picked up a titanium Yeti at UPS. Fine, a little boring.

–Stopped at Bel Air for turkey burger patties, corn and milk. Barbecue for dinner—good stuff.

–Had it out with Kirill Yuzh after returning the Rolex 16618. No more Lunar Oyster, no more Tropical Watch. Bought what appears to be a super nice tritium 16618 on eBay. We’ll see, after the authenticator sees.

–Couple of nice spinners came in–Vader zircuti and Horizon Mega tri superconductor.

–Olympia Coffex came in. Best-boxed item I’ve ever received. Seems perfectly intact and in great shae. Haven’t turned it on yet.

–Broke some more of Kenny’s green tiles and glued them into a new terracotta base. Will grout tomorrow and replace the broken birdbath–which birds have been loving lately.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Biked to UPS to pick up WCu Chelsea spinner. Nice, but too heavy.

–Rolex 16618 (Gold Submariner) came in from Tropical Watch. Beautiful dial, case okay, ran okay. Crown logo on bracelet clasp had been polished down to almost nothing–worst I’ve seen. Told Kirill Yuzh to return. He will, but says no more deals–Tropical Watch won’t sell me any more watches. This would be kind of humorous if it weren’t so enraging. These guys both exemplify all that’s rotten with salespeople.

–Went to New York Bagels. They fixed their oven last night and so had a dozen sesame bagels ready for me.

–Stopped at S*T Strawberries for a triple.

–Stopped at UPS for an abundance of flippers. Good stuff.

–No ride today–too cool.

–Picked up a seatpost clamp at UPS. Very nice, though requires a tool to use–there’s no fat part on the end of the bolt that you can turn with your fingers to get the right tension before closing the clamp. Also got the Oral B “double” toothbrush. It’s a fine piece of work, and both halves of the bristles move, but it’s really too big for my mouth. Will continue to use it with standard brush heads, as it seems a little more aggressive than my current one.

–Started falling asleep in the living room around 4; took a 1.5 hour nap.

–Sold some more Bitcoin and sent it to the bank. I think I’m finally ahead on this game.

–Paid State Farm $386.82 for Honda.

–Marie chicken pot pie for dinner.

–Cool and a little rain today–weirdest April-May ever.

–Went to Home Depot to pick up another birdbath bottom: a squirrel jumped off the frogs, knocking them against the birdbath and breaking it.

–Stopped at Bel Air for coffee and lunch cheese.

–Tried washing the new (old) Osprey pack, which reeks of aftershave or something, in Woolite, then vinegar.  Better, but still needs work.

–Walked to Bel Air for cream cheese and corn.

–Barbecued the corn along with turkey burgers. Good.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Bought many spinners today.

–Picked up the bright blue Osprey pack at UPS. It has the spray-on logo and a distinct smell of aftershave or some such. Set it out to sit in the sun for a while–it is impressively colorful.

–Resurrected the Leica M11 for the 6th time. The main picture I took, f5.6 or f8, it auto-set the ISO at 5000! Very strange metering system on the camera.

–Replaced a gushing emitter in the back garden.

–Fixed my four websites that were ailing from my attempt to prevent WordPress updates.

–Took the Beemer to Hooverville Orchards for jam and pastry. Then to S*T Strawberries for strawberries and (yes, it’s back!) strawberry jam.

–Grip strength meter came in. Was looking a reading > 33, got 100, thought I was Superman. Then read the directions and set it for kilograms instead of pounds: 42. Good stuff, but not Superman.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Thread checker came in. Three sizes so far: 3mm x .5, 4mm x .7, 4-40.

–Put gas in the BMW.

–Went to Target to pick up the Zagitor anti-histamine eye drops Grace ordered. They are miraculous.

–Went to the Sutter lab in Folsom for a major blood draw. Finally got results: with a couple tiny exceptions, everything (including A1C) is in the normal range. Whew!

–Took a 10.4 mile bike ride. For some reason (wind?) I flew out and crawled back. I checked the tires before going; they needed a fair bit of air. The new Nitto seatpost performed flawlessly.

–Hot and super windy; my allergies are terrible.

–Watered plants, which are looking good.

–Went to UPS for (a) Vader zircuti; easily the best zircuti I’ve seen. I recall this was one of the first spinners I put on a want list early on. (b) Pose Cocoon, medium, ti skelly MF.

–Stopped at Bel Air for pork chops, corn, and antipasto salad. Barbecue was good.

–Got the drill press out and fabricated a spinner button polishing tool from a 3/8″ aluminum rod and a 3mm x 14mm grub screw. Worked great. Now I need to find out what sizes all my other button screws are and order some more grub screws.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to Home Depot looking for a brass rod to turn into several spinner button polishing tools. Zip. Bought an aluminum rod, will try it.

–Took Grace shopping at Costco for various stuff.

–Stopped at UPS for Modusworks Spinamathing in brass, and Pose Cocoon in superconductor with an NJT SC button. Both nice.

–Went to UPS to pick up spinner buttons with abalone inlays (too heavy: tungsten); o-rings for Omega bracelet (got the right size the second time around); vintage NOS Braun/Oral B toothbrush, made in Germany. Hefty. Didn’t last long on a quick charge, so I try to follow directions and leave it charging for 16 hours.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert, corn, potato salad. Barbecued turkey burgers. Good as usual.

–Hot day. Didn’t do a lot.

–Got bagels.

–Tried another LIC EDC drop. Nope.

–Warm day. Went for a ride on the ARP, found it blocked for maintenance about 2 miles west.

–Hoping to stop bike creaks, I took the bike seat off the post, put anti-seize on most parts, put it back together (non-trivial). We’ll see.

–Dr. Firoz says there are orders in for fasting lab work, then we’ll meet to discuss. Getting really tired of medical obligations.

–Moved plants around on back patio for better aesthetics. Hope they grow.

–Rode the canal. It wiped me out.

–Took Grace shopping at REI in Folsom for Will Cantelon’s birthday.

–Two spinners came in: NJT Handpower NeBu 2 in basketweave zircuti and superconductor. Ludicrously expensive, but extremely pretty.

–Got a haircut at Great Clips.

–Another really dank day. Did nothing.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Cool, dank day.

–Spent a while polishing the Modusworks mokume bar. It’s shiny, but as with a couple other polished mokume spinners, there’s a LOT less contrast bewteen the different metals. I see why makers etch these.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) Nexium, (b) LIC EDC crystal ti Chonky (very nice, but finish is sort of dull, not highly polishable, and doesn’t really grab me). Stopped at Bel Air for coffee beans.

–Did a fairly major trimming of front patio plants to free up the abutilon. It’s really going bananas.

–Cool, windy day. Didn’t do much except polish spinners.

–Lubed the bike chain.

–Took Grace to Target to get a birthday present for Cindy.

–Biked to UPS to pick up (a) A couple of stainless steel Modusworks Ergo fidgets, bi and tri. Super nice. (b) A Modusworks Ergo bi titanium in oil slick finish. Has some marks, but also nice. Came with “standard” buttons and Ray Gun buttons, also in oil slick. (c) A vintage NOS Interplak toothbrush. It rotates rather than the oscillates, which I like.  It expressly comes apart (“Open Here”), maybe for battery replacement, which I also like. Mostly, it has no timer. Brush has short bristles and feels harsh, so will look for something a little softer.

–One of our many alarms went off this morning. We couldn’t pin down the source, so I got out my big ladder and climbed to the ceiling. Nope. Turned out to  be the CO alarm next to the thermostat. Got a new one at Home Depot and installed it.

–Stopped at Bel Air for Grace’s “fill-in” shopping.

–Took a shower and shave. I look and feel much better. Cautiously optimistic about sunspot on forehead; too soon to tell about cheek and nose.

–Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Picked up stuff at UPS: (1) Copper superconductor fidget from eBay from China, long time shipping. Super nice piece, especially fro $115. (2)Two Modusworks from Dan Ketcham: OG copper Spinamathing with superconductor buttons (big and impressive, but not well balanced), and mokume Ergo (nice, not exciting). (3) KAP Rose XL in mokume. Super nice, but looks like it’s had six previous owners, four of whom abused it. Takes a nice polish, and I’m on the fence about grinding out the dings and dents.

–Kenny Whitcombe’s brother died in a bike accident in Davis. Wearing a helmet, hit a vehicle hard enough to put him in a coma, so they pulled the plug.

–Bruce Franz’s wife Tucky died. She was three weeks younger than me.

–Walked to Bel Air for turkey burgers, potato salad and corn. All good, the corn surprisingly so.

–Bought a boatload of spinners.

–Started noticing issues with new posts not showing up on my websites. May have to go with a more modern/standardized theme than Hemingway. What a pain.

–Went to UPS to pick up Gareth Bull Hatchling knife. Beautiful scales, some scratches on blade. I took it apart and fixed (a) centering, and (b) slam shut –> nudge shut.

–Rode the canal. Learned (a) that riding upwind is really draining, and (b) I still have claustrophobia. Tried riding straight through outbound; had to stop and turn on light. Stopped to let my eyes adjust inbound; still had to use the light. It’s not as bad as it was before cataract surgery, but it’s there.

–Stopped at Bel Air for protein bars, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, garlic and shallots.

–Made pizza for dinner. Made sauce with a can of San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, shallot, salt/pepper. Pretty good.

–Bel Air had fresh corn. Barbecue season has begun.

–Took a photo of Kenny’s upstairs bed and gave it to him so he can try and sell it. Also had Walgreen’s print up my three DV photos for framing.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up Fellow steaming pitcher (okay, not perfect) and Modusworks SS Machinamathing–from eBay, claimed to be NOS and was. A bargain.

–Took the BMW to Sacramento Eye to get my lens prescription. Took the prescription to Eyecare Optometry on Sunrise to talk about potential changes. They were pretty non-helpful. Couldn’t tell what brand my current lenses are, couldn’t/didn’t look up anything about VSP. A reddit thread said Hoya lenses are the best, but then it turns out Sac Eye carries Hoya, so I might already have the best. If so, I can’t say much about their scratch resistance (or their quality control on the first set).

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit my state tax check ($167 resulting from a complex and mysterious foul-up in estimated taxes, or refund, or…). Also picked up milk, cookies and pizza for dinner.

–Biked to UPS to pick up Rotablade tri. Fine spinner.

–Took a 6.5 mile bike ride on ARP. Cool and windy.

–Nugget Margherita pizza for dinner.

–Seems Monterey BMW sold (or got rid of) my 330i trade-in.

–Though IRS sent me a refund different from what TurboTax calculated, they apparently haven’t yet “processed” my return. Crap.

–Went to New York Bagel for a dozen sesame. Got navigation working on the Z Flip 5.

–Rode the ARP west for 10.46 total miles. Nice day.

–Noticed my Indy Thicc copper Chelsea spinner has all kinds of nicks and dings in it. Looks like it was the first “real” spinner I got (1/1/25, maybe a fake date), with no record of seller or price. Might have to buy another one just to get “perfect.”

–Warm: 86 today.

–Went to Philz Coffee on R in Sacramento to get a pound of Jacob’s Wunderbar. Could not get Android Auto to do anything except turn on the radio, so used the built-in BMW navigation. Might be all I’ll ever need…

–Stopped at UPS for (a) NJT Vertical Cut Superconductor spinner; most beautiful I’ve ever seen; and (b) Thys Meades mammoth-scale knife that Had sent back to South Africa for him to add a clip. Also beautiful.

–Stopped at Bel Air for lunch cheese and cookies.

–Spent all day inside working on websites. FINALLY may have gotten them all cleaned up and optimized so they won’t show any more Google Search Console errors. Meaningful errors anyway—the Console finds stuff that can’t really be changed, and has no impact on anything.

–Went to the Sunrise framers market for tangerines.  Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cookies.

–Played around some more with flame-coloring spinner buttons on the Pose. Had a scary moment when (perhaps from overlong heating) the button turned colorless, then golden. It might even have glowed red hot briefly. Anyway, after another polishing routine and heating, it came out out a real nice green.

–Another warm day.

–Biked to UPS to pick up (a) Torqbar copper/tungsten spinner, pretty cool, and (b) Pose DSC titanium spinner, with GRAIL pouch and dog tag. Yow! There were scratches on the Pose buttons, so I sanded them out and put it on the buffer: the beautiful blue/red timascus faded completely. Not a total surprise, but still… So I searched a bit on the web, cleaned the buttons thoroughly, then hit them with my MAPP torch for 30-40 seconds. Boom! Gorgeous blue and red coloring restored, better than when I got it. It does seem to be fading a bit now, so next time I will polish it to a super-high shine, clean it to death, then flame it again. A whole new chapter for Mr. Fixit.

–My face is starting to heal from the fluorouracil, except for the three spots I’m continuing to use it on–forehead, cheek, nose. It suggests that I might have been able to permanently get rid of more damage in general if I had applied the stuff for a month or more–but that would have been insanely painful.

–Played with websites a bit. Added Plan Retirement to Google Analytics.

–Rode the canal on the InnerLight. Revelation/Epiphany: The 300 foot tunnel under 50 Did not give me an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia, as it has in the past. I used the bike light, but I had on my very dark new sunglasses. It was quite miraculous. Pretty sure it was the lack of cataracts–like the first day after surgery I was noticing my eyelid in the far periphery. Cataracts are bad news, and they really sneak up on you.

–Stopped at UPS to pick up (a) 19mm eyeglass nose pieces; longer than the last ones, but not nearly 19mm; and (b) a KAP Rose in superconductor. Very nice.

–Warm day. Spent much of it cleaning up websites after seeing results from Google Search Console. What a mess! Canonical URLs, sitemaps, RSS feeds, etc. Soon I will be impeccable. With zero traffic.

–Watered plants, most of which are looking good.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) Chemex filters; (b) Pose stainless spinner (nice); (c) Modusworks copper tri back from Ted Rooney spa. Zirconium honing erased all machine lines (it took so long for him to get to it he likely forgot I wanted them preserved if possible; otoh I’m not sure they were preservable). Spinner looks very nice and spins like a dream. (d) NJT Nebu 2.0 zircuti, traded on Facebook for my mokume model. Looks great, spins fine, but somehow isn’t inspiring; (e) NJT Nebu 2.0 in superconductor; also nice but not thrilling. Seems a little small, especially compared to the 2-pound Nebu I got in tungsten. We’ll see.

–Sawed off all the dead branches from the Japanese maple in our side yard.

–Took a 6.5 mile bike ride; came THAT close to getting up Heartbreak Hill.

–Found that the key on my dresser fit the clubhouse lock; found that the pool is quite cool.

–11 AM stitch removal appointment moved to 2 PM. In and out quick, scar is still really red and hurts a little.

–Two KAP zircuti spinners came in. Both beautiful, but both too small and light for fidgeting.

–Newman’s Own Margherita pizza for dinner. Not bad.

–Warm day.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Tried to refinish/balance the copper Modusworks tri. Finish is okay, balance still not good.

–Took a shower and (electric) shave.

–Face looks really bad. Hurts, too. It took aspirin and vaseline to get me through the night.

–Went to add Plan Retirement to the Google Search Console–couldn’t hurt, and might have some useful statistics. Had some issues, so I got annoyed and took Litespeed off all my sites. If WordPress starts nagging again, I’ll find a way to turn off the nags.

–Picked up a FidgetBoy PezzBoy copper spinner at UPS. Not too impressive. Also picked up some UQH Dark Moon bearings. Also not impressive. Not sure why I bought them. THEN: I stumbled onto a Facebook listing, 40 minutes old, for a Pose DSC Ti tri spinner, my number 1 WTB. It was $925, and there had been a couple of posts before I got to it. I messaged the guy, who was slow in responding, then again, then a third time offering $1k PP F&F. He went for it. This thing is like new (he says), comes with a dog tag describing it (I’ve never heard of Pose dog tags), and a Pose pouch that says GRAIL!!! Unbelievable. That, along with my timascus Yeti, will be the crowns in my collection.

–Woke up at 4 AM with itchy chin; couldn’t really get back to sleep. No more FU-5 on this round.

–Did a bagel run in the BMW, then Bel Air for milk and cream.

–Went to UPS for (a) Indy Thicc Yeti in SS, very nice, and (b) Modusworks Spinamathing which had a lot of dings, so of course I put it on the buffer. Now it has no defined edges, AND it’s out of balance (may have come that way). The recommended fixer on Facebook said there was nothing he could do with it. Will see if Ted Rooney has any ideas; may end up trying something myself. May end up tossing it.

–Watered the plants, which needed watering.

–Day 10 of FU-5. Face really crusty. Will quit soon.

–Installed Quic Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) on all Adsense sites. It’s connected to Litespeed cache, and the nagging wouldn’t stop. I really don’t think it’s possible to speed up my tiny sites any more, but the nags got to me.

–Face is really starting to hurt and itch now–Day 9, just like the FU-5 application 3-4 years ago at Tunnel Hill. Will try for maybe two more days; don’t think I could actually do 14. I maybe should do a couple of spot applications on left cheek and forehead, now that I think of it.

–After some limescale.net/org fiascos last night, all websites seem good now, with optimized Litespeed and such. Time to do some linking within sites to make them look cared for.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Took the BMW to Nugget Market in El Dorado Hills. Unbelievably, there were at least four Margherita pizzas there; I bought three and put two in the freezer. Hope they freeze well.

–Another day of wind and a little rain.

–Face hurts and is starting to itch.

–Spent some time cataloging fidgets.

–Spent some time rebuilding/perfecting websites.

–Marie for dinner.

–Got into a huge mess with limescale.net and .org. One kept edirecting to the other, regardless of WordPress/database configurations. Still not resolved. Will change the .org nameservers back to Namecheap and drop (not renew) the domain. Hoping that will solve it. [edit] Solved, though it took a minute.

–Another bustery, rainy day.

–Face is looking grim, starting to hurt.

–Picked up tiny little Gareth Bull Jellybean knife ($3,000) at UPS. WAY too small for me. Crap.

–Picked up KAP Horizon mokume bar and SS Rotablade at UPS. Horizon is nice; Rotablade (like Jellybean) is kind of small.

–Did a swap on Facebook Fidget Marketplace: my mokume Nebu for a zircuti Nebu. Hope it looks as good in person as in photos.

–Lots of mischief going on with ad blockers, cookie consent plugins and Litespeed cache in WordPress. Finally found what might be a good solution via Google AI search. Hope it sticks.

–Picked up a couple of Red Baron pizzas at Bel Air. Had one for dinner.

–Rainy, blustery day.

–Went around and around and around with consent banner plugins. After 43 failures, I MAY have discovered that Litespeed cache OR Ghostery ad blocker was interfering with the plugins. With both disabled, Plan Retirement now works perfectly. I ran into some issues with Dizziness and Nausea that took a LOT of work to resolve–database issues mostly–but it seems to be working now. I learned that I can’t delete databases in the Nixihost cPanel, so I opened a ticket. Curious to see if they’ll just delete, or raise my permissions. [edit] After further work on Dizziness, it really does look like Litespeed was the culprit. I can go back and forth now between admin and site and everything I changed shows up instantly, instead of requiring a cache purge to work. If I’m right on this, Litespeed is a plague. [edit 2] Okay, the ad blocker Ghostery also interferes with cookie consent–but only for Dizziness at the moment. What a bunch of crap. [edit 3] Both sites work now after a reboot. Maybe good, maybe it’ll act up later. Frustrating.

–Set up Plan Retirement this morning. Worked the first time I navigated to it! And Nixihost is blazing fast, even when all plugins are added and active. Tried many different cookie banner plugins (again) and finally found one (Pressidium) that seems to be compact, easy to set up, etc. We movin’ now…

–Discovered (via reddit) an app called Commander One, which replaces (and appears to totally blow away) Finder and Filezilla/Cyberduck. Local files on the left, anything you want in the right panel (iCloud, FTP, etc.). Wish I’d found it a while ago–Filezille drives me crazy with its timeouts, and Cyberduck’s interface is kind of impenetrable. Finder is fine, and may still be the only thing that lets me find a word in any file I own. [edit] Okay, spoke too soon. Went to copy the Plan Retirement WP Content folder from wsf.ac to local WP folder. Took a few minutes to start moving files, then estimated an hour and a quarter to complete the copying. Oh well…

–Went to Smart & Final for Cara Cara oranges, Honeycrisp apples, cream cheese, Triscuits, Pellegrino and Coke.

–Red Baron personal pizza for dinner.

–Limescale.org finally went through at 11:15 AM. By 8 PM, nothing else had come in. [edit] Sent a ticket to iWebFusion around 9 PM saying “Help, only one of my domains transferred.” They replied 15 minutes later saying, “Well, it looks like they all transferred, so there’s nothing more we can do.” I panicked, thinking all my domains were in limbo. Five minutes later, notices started coming in saying “ABC domain transfer is complete.” Within 10 minutes, all had transferred. Unbelievably suspicious timing.

–Won another spinner with fast fingers and Shop Pay.

–Watched the last episode of Reacher, Season 3. Pretty good.

–Forgot to mention that yesterday, while updating my password at the Franchise Tax Board (at their request), I noticed they claim I have a “balance” of $167. I figured out this was balance due, and paid it. They gave no hint and I have no idea what the issue is. Turbotax? Estimated payments? Crap.

–Did pretty much nothing today. There was a tiny bit of rain.

–Website hosting still hasn’t migrated. When they say “by the 28th” they really mean “no sooner than…”

–After 5 applications of FU-5, still no reaction. [edit] When I looked back at the last application (November 2021), it seemed to be nine days before things looked really rough. That’s not exactly the way I recall it, where after a week I would look horrible. We’ll see.

–Spent some time optimizing this Journal. Got rid of “Edit,” “Comment,” etc. under the post title; cleaned up the sidebar (Search and Archives only); set each “page” to show 100 posts rather than 10; and made it private: anyone navigating to it other than me is shown a login screen.

–Cool and breezy day.

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

–Watched Robot Monster. Not bad, a little surprising.

–Hot day today.

–Went to Bel Air for plain bagels.

–Stopped at UPS for yet another spinner bearing tool.

–Stopped at Home Depot to get some of Kenny’s paint matched for the fences/gates.

–Finished touch-up painting on fences/gates. Looks good.

–Went for a haircut at Great Clips, but 30-minute wait was too long.

–Started the Fluorouracil regimen–twice a day.

–Moved all Bitcoin from Binance.us back to Coinbase. The Binance interface is terrible, and their choice of networks for transfers is extremely limited. Now all I have to do is wait for the price to skyrocket, then sell. Yup.

–Initiated a move of all domains from iWebFusion registrar to Namecheap two days ago. Just got emails today saying “move will happen by 3/28 unless you object.” That’s five days. A change from Porkbun to Namecheap took 30 minutes. Something weird about iWebFusion, despite their claims that it’s all in ICANN’s hands–it clearly isn’t.

–Went to Dr. An Yen in Sacramento for another Mohs procedure. He got it all on the first try. It hurts now.

–Then to Mimosa House in Gold River. Pretty good brunch.

–Put some Spackle in the holes left by fence gate fixing yesterday. Tried some of Kenny’s paint: Not a great match. Will get a different shade tomorrow at Home Depot.

–Marie for dinner.

–Kenny’s handyman Mike called around Noon and came out an hour later to work on our two back gates. He finished around 6 PM, charged $340 (I gave him my Italian switchblade as well). Mammoth amount of work on the side gate because of rot; installing striker on patio gate also was not trivial due to spacing issues. The guy is insanely conscientious about having everything square, level and plumb. All good now, and likely for a long time. I am totally wiped out just from standing around. I will caulk and paint tomorrow.

–Took a Tramadol, shower and shave.

–Spent the day on web hosting. Moved the Journal to Namecheap on wsf.ac. Took some doing, but all my fault. Not sure how fast Namecheap will be, but there’s so much baggage associated with every other hosting service I can find, so…

–Of note: Went back to Filezilla (Cyberduck is limited in some ways) and learned it can see iCloud files, but not some directories: those starting with _ and some others at random. Super annoying.

–Took Grace’s shopping list to Smart & Final and bought stuff, as she’s not feeling good.

–Stopped at UPS for the brass Modusworks Machinamathing. Spent a while with it on the buffer. Main cool thing: the serial number is engraved in Roman numerals.

–Spent a while reconciling spinners. Moved the Union tool chest from the garage to my bedroom. Starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

–Spent much of the day organizing spinners. Did good.

–Biked to UPS for (a) KAP superconductor buttons (beautiful) and (b) Modusworks Ergo tri (magnificent).

–Learned yesterday that Bert Cooper likely died in 2022: saw a Toastmasters remembrance, with a note to send cards to Heidi Tomlinson (his girlfriend was Heidi). I had many chances to re-connect, but didn’t, because I’m a jerk.

–Had breakfast at the Holiday Inn (pretty good), got gas at the nearby Chevron, then drove home. The mpg showing on the dashboard kept rising—to 46.9 near Sacramento! Mind-boggling. The drive(s) really tired me out. Might have to do with dehydration from constantly having cool air blowing on me.

–Had corned beef/cabbage, potato and carrots donated by Kenny for dinner. Yum!

–Spent a while trying to reconcile fidget spinners.

–Took the BMW to the coast. Dropped off two Creminas and an ECM at Great Infusions. Had an egg salad sandwich (same maker from 5 years ago) on the bluff at La Selva Beach. Checked in at the Holiday Inn in Watsonville. Drove to Carmel to visit Carmel Cutlery: they’re closed one day a week—Tuesday. Walked to McDonald’s for a not-too-satisfying dinner. Really conflicted about coming back here some day. When the weather’s nice it’s incredible. But great weather is rare, and there’s minimal access to health care or shopping, no neighbors, no biking, etc.

–Got Grace’s phone working with Visible Cellular. For some reason we didn’t need the transfer PIN that Verizon gave us a couple days ago. It was nerve-wracking though, and took almost an hour. All good now with phones I think.

–Went to UPS for (a) GAZ Big Minus Short, another really ho-hum offering from this company; (b) a Modusworks tri copper something in really rough shape–cuts, scratches, divots, etc., very frustrating. Got another one coming soon which should be nicer. Annoying, since much of the damage is such that it can’t be repaired without seriously altering the lines of the spinner. (c) LIC EDC polished zirc Edamame, a real treat; (d) polished titanium LIC EDC Chonky–my second. First one was a hot mess; I tried to take out the cuts and dings and polish it up a bit. This one looked nice but had a long deep scratch. Since the seller claimed it was 10/10, I have to assume I scratched it with the scalpel while cutting open the bubble wrap. Spent a fair while making the scratch disappear and polishing it up.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream, cream cheese, anti-perspirant, bagels, dessert.

–Packed two Creminas and an ECM into the trunk of the BMW.

–Got taxes filed. Tried Free Tax USA to verify Turbotax; it said I need to enter crypto (I thought Turbotax said I didn’t need to enter stuff, even after I told them I did crypto). Anyway, back to Turbotax, where I had to upgrade to Premier for another $35 so it could read Coinbase and Robinhood .csv files without me having to hand-enter data. I had to fiddle with both files, as they had incomplete info. I can’t imagine how the IRS is going to deal with all this crypto stuff–83 exchanges, people moving stuff, buying, selling, swapping, converting, etc. Transaction files from any one exchange will be absurdly misleading. I suppose, truth be told, it’s on the individual taxpayer to keep good records. So I’m doomed: when I last tried to reconcile everything a few weeks ago, it didn’t work. It’ll be worse going forward. Maybe, if I stay with Bitcoin, and don’t sell until 2026, I can fake it.

–California Pizza Kitchen Margherita pizza for dinner; not bad.

–Went to both farmers markets for tangerines (yup) and Balsamic for Grace (nope).

–Walked to UPS to return the 14th Senkichi pick Mattock handle.