–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.

–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.