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

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

–Went to UPS for (a) yet another pick mattock handle from Amazon with no head, and (b) LIC EDC Chonky in titanium. Seller had said no fingernail dings; in fact there were many. I spent a while on the buffer with it and cleaned it up okay. Not highly polished yet, but I’m working on it.

–Spent much time and frustration changing phones from Verizon to Visible. Mine is switched; Grace should be getting a new SIM in the mail tomorrow.

–Got peanut butter/chocolate-dipped cookies at Bel Air.

–Went to UPS for KAP bearing tool (simplest/nicest yet), also copper Paradigm razor (nice).

–Re-re-re-visited taxes. Discovered I had put Grace’s union pension 1099-R in the 2023 folder. That explained a lot, and dropped the Federal refund from $6k to $3k. Good to go now, I think.

–Made pizza for dinner.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Did taxes. $6k+ back from Feds, $950 from State (applied to estimated payments this year). Will re-check.

–Wind blew all day; downpour finally came at 4 PM. Seems we have another clogged downspout, Grace reports.

–Right upper back teeth are starting to ache. Probably time to get the 2nd and 3rd root canals that Creekside Endodontists wanted to do. Speaking of which: I called Delta Dental to ask about DD PPO vs. DD Premium. Turns out that (in theory) we can go to either one. Dentist is supposed to do the billing. PPO costs covered 100%; Premium costs covered at 50%. So when dentists say “We don’t take PPO,” what they’re really saying is “We won’t go to the trouble of billing when we only get 50% from Delta and have to fight for 50% from the patient.”

–Went to Smart & Final for dessert and tangerines.

–Picked up many things at UPS: 3M sanding pads, and tiny Vader superconductor spinner (utterly useless), a Damasteel Mothership spinner with “stump” buttons (nice), Koala microfiber cloths (they seem nice; we’ll see).

–Took my InnerLight wheels to Bob’s Bikes on Fair Oaks, as the front tire was dead flat. I suspected the valve had torn off the tube from all my Silca pump testing; true. They put on two new tubes while I waited. Great shop–they even remembered me and the InnerLight.

–Got the Rolex 1680 back off to Rolliworks via FedEx. Hoping they can make it nice, then I’ll put nice dial and movement in the recent 1680 case and have a 100% original 1680 in a nicely-polished case.

–Daylight Saving Time.

–Didn’t do much except change clocks and buy spinners.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Picked up at UPS: (1) Link 2.0 spinner, long time coming, pretty nice; (2) Senkichi pick mattock, handle only. Unbelievable. Tried to get the head from Amazon, but their impenetrable help system had me return the handle and they’ll send another pick. (a) They’ll probably ding me for the head, and (b) they’ll probably just send another handle. (3) Indy Thicc Yeti in bead-blasted brass (ho-hum) along with a gorgeous set of timascus buttons (nice). Won in a drop, thanks to the speedy Shop Pay.

–Checked out the plants in back. A couple seem to be getting nibbled by snails, and the Clementine was getting no water at all: I had two drippers going to the Bird of Paradise. I routed one over to the Clementine. I need to check if water is actually flowing: I upped the schedule to every other day, and the BoP is looking miserable.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty good.

–Took Grace shopping at the nearby Smart & Final.

–Went to UPS for (1) Tekna regulator (tilt needle seal gone, plastic collar broken, etc.); (2) Nossa coffee beans (from Shop Pay rewards); (3) NJT tungsten Nebu 2.0, oil slick (WAY too heavy, will sell).

–Took a shower and shave, after cleaning the shower.

–Had my tele-visit with Dr. Firoz. He was 30 minutes late, and I could see no discernible reason for the visit.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and bagel dogs; Koreana Plaza for chicken thighs.

–Stopped at UPS for a couple of spinners.

–Bagel dogs for dinner.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Very nice. Runs okay on the Timegrapher. The current 1680 (Rolliworks had it for 6 months) is now running terribly: amplitude and beat error are okay, but timing is all over the place. I have a vague recollection that this is what caused them issues and was so hard (expensive) to fix. Back it goes.

–Went to Sac Eye to pick up the Ray-Ban sunglasses. They seem okay; I haven’t put them under a microscope. I showed her the smudge on the Flexon lens, and she quickly agreed to get new lenses. It was hard to talk her out of UV and anti-glare coatings, but I did. She also said (I think) that the smudge was a scratch. Possible, but I’m skeptical: it’s quite wide, not like a grain of abrasive but more like a piece of sandpaper.

–Stopped at UPS for the KAP Mothership mokume (nice, but not compelling) and the bronze Pose XL (nice). Then to Bel Air for dessert.

–Spent much of the day over at Kenny’s, watching Mike the contractor replace a couple of trellis beams. He did good work, and so we asked him to look at our gates. He suggested cheap fixes for both, so we’re on in a couple of weeks.

–Went to UPS for (1) Hiroshi Nagai books (great artist), (2) MonoSkate spinner bearing tool (nice tool), (3) TwoEDC copper Soft Triangle spinner: really nice.

–Visible phone service seems top-notch so far. I was able last night (after some issues) to get my iPhone working as a hotspot (fast) and got a nicely transcribed voice mail from Kenny this morning.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Showers off and on all day; and hail!

–Starting a 15-day trial with Visible by Verizon cell network. Cheaper than Verizon, unlimited data and hotspot. We’ll see.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines and oranges.

–Won another spinner drop with Shop Pay.

–Picked up a fountain pump at UPS; works just like the current one. Picked up the Edamame copper spinner buttons as well. Nice, but the spinner itself is not very engaging: really heavy wobble when changing planes.

–Went to brunch at Mimosa House in Folsom with Tom and Sandy Elken.

–Finally got Kirill Yuzh to buy the Rolex 1680 from Tropical Watch for me.

–Internet was on-again off-again all night. A couple of calls to Comcast/Xfinity were comical.

–Tried to clean my new glasses. Made (or revealed) a big bad smudge on the left lens, in addition to a tiny bright spot (chip?). Noticed a purple tint to the lenses. Could be anti-glare coating or (as receipt says) UV coating. Did I scratch the lens? Possible, but I doubt it. On the other hand, NOTHING would remove it: dish soap, alcohol, lens cleaner, camera sensor cleaner, etc. I guess I’ll try for replacement uncoated lenses, but I’m not optimistic.

–Went to Sac Eye in Folsom to pick up my new glasses (sunglasses are delayed). Pretty spiffy. Not as good at close-up as they are at distance; understandable I suppose.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, cream cheese, dessert.

–Took a shave and shower.

–Took Kenny in the BMW to pick up a couple of Pizza Guys pizzas. Tasty.

–Tried last night and today to get Kirill Yuzh to buy me a Rolex 1680 at the Tropical Watch site. After some email glitches he went silent. I don’t know what’s going on. Don’t know if I want the watch enough to pay tax on it.

–Clone Pose mokume fidget spinner came in. By every metric I can use, it’s identical to the genuine Pose. It even seems to spin a bit better–more balanced, maybe. Hard to believe it’s a clone, but without a COA it’ll never be worth much. COA’s seem hyper-critical, since few makers add branding to their spinners–and even if they do for this one, they don’t for that one. Strange business.

–My ankles seem swollen again, and I’ve gained weight, and I get winded really easily. Wondering about congestive heart failure.

–Cleaned up Cremina, Maximatic and ECM, took photos, and asked Great Infusions if they’d consign.

–Rode my bike to UPS to send off a Modusworks fidget spinner to Ted Rooney for refinishing. I am woefully out of shape–no surprise. Hope I can work back into something a little fitter.

–Went to UPS to pick up three Modusworks fidget spinners and one set of Modusworks tungsten buttons. Pretty spiffy. Also a Focusworks “The Thing” spinner, not so spiffy.

–Stopped at Bel Air for cookies.

–Boboli pizza for dinner.

–Another quiet day for Mr. Bill. Watched another episode of Reacher, season 3. Good stuff. Watched another episode of Tracker. Don’t know if it’s the comparison with Reacher, but I find Tracker almost unwatchable now.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines for Kenny and me.

–Kenny palmed off more plants on us; someone had left them on his giveaway table anonymously.

–Played a lot with WordPress sites. Tried a million different cookie consent plugins (again). Going back to Lightweight Cookie Notice.

–Picked up the Pose spinner with extra superconductor buttons at UPS. Nice.

–Got dessert and apples at Bel Air.

–Got a free plant (cutting) from Kenny; planted it.

–Walked to UPS to pick up (a) KAP tri fidget, blue ano–really beautiful and great spinner; and (b) Bull Carbo-Quartz knife, with gorgeous red scales. Knife was “cheap” ($1,800) because blade was off-center; I took it apart and put it back together in a way that should straighten the blade, and it worked: knife is flawless!

–Worked on WordPress Adsense sites. Realizing that premium themes are a total waste for me; WP by itself is extremely modifiable. Dizziness and Nausea will never make to Adsense (too medical), but Plan Retirement might have a chance. I’m playing it safe with no photos, no quotes. We’ll see.

–Slow day. Picked up Tipper fidget spinner at UPS. Got milk and cookies at Bel Air. Played with website privacy/cookies/etc.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Got caught in a minor bit of rain.

–Binance.us finally was allowed to link to banks (after 2-3 years), so I got back on and hooked up with Ally. Yay! As has happened in the past (I believe), I get an error message from Plaid when I try to add Heritage. Now to move everything from Coinbase, carefully, cheaply.

–Atorvastatin came in via Amazon. Also GAZ copper spinner (too heavy) and Unquiet Hands bearings (very nice).

–Took a shower and shave. Turns out the new Wolfman WR1 razor, with .48mm gap, is way too mild.

–The appointments keep multiplying: the recent biopsy is a basal, and Mohs surgery has been scheduled; Firoz’ office called to set up a follow-up (I think that’s what she said) televisit. Though evidence goes both ways, I fear it’s because I blew the clock question on my annual Medicare Wellness exam recently. Crap…

–Walked to UPS to pick up Tamsulosin and another spinner. This one is a crystallized ti tri, beautiful but too light for me I fear.

–Had the last Roncadin pizza for dinner, thank goodness.

–Walked to UPS to pick up a couple of fidget spinners. One (Tipper) kind of blah; the other (mokume Dark Vader) very nice, and a compelling spinner to boot.

— Someone at Badger and Blade has been looking for a Charcoal Goods brass handle called “Stinger” (version 1) for a few days. I knew I had a handle with a bee on it, but didn’t think it was that exact one. Dug it out, and it’s that exact one. A commenter on the B&B WTB said “Well, you’d better be ready to spend a lot of money.” Guess that means I can sell it and retire now.

–Cleaned up the bird bath fountain yesterday and got the pump working (spurting periodically) and today it saw many visits from birds and squirrels. Don’t know if they’re drawn by clean water or spurting.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final in Carmichael. Later she went into an enormous snit.

–Transplanted rosemary, thyme and dill into a large pot. Cleaned up the bird fountain.

–Watched to SNL 50th Anniversary show. Pretty lame.

–Got tangerines for me and Kenny from Sweet Tree Farms in Fresno at the Sunrise farmers market.

–Helped Kenny briefly, rotating the front wheels on his electric trike.

–Made pizza for dinner. Pretty good: used fresh mozzarella rather than thawed shredded “pizza blend” cheese.

–Went to Sacramento Eye for a checkup after cataract surgery. All good, great pressure in both eyes. No more Latanaprost. Put in an order for Flexon glasses and lenses for the Ray-Ban sunglasses.

–Lunch at McDonald’s–$15, and the soft drink machine has been disabled.

–Chicken pot pie + Kenny’s potato for dinner.

–Another windy, rainy day.

–Picked up Japanese pick mattox at UPS. Kind of large, but I think it’ll work.

–Also picked up Big Poe spinner, allegedly in titanium. Feels like aluminum, and doesn’t spin so good.

–Got dessert at Bel Air.

–Won a couple sets of spinner buttons at a Not Just Toy drop.

–Made pizza for dinner. Good one. Need to give more serious thought to cheese and sauce.

–Went to Pacific Skincare to see Olga Karaputa for a skin check. Many lesions frozen on face and head, biopsy taken of something on neck. Got a prescription for fluorouracil.

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit the $1,480 check from Great Infusions from the sale of a Cremina. Picked up at UPS (a) a 608 spinner bearing that is .2mm too large and doesn’t fit the spinner; (b) some zircuti buttons from NJT that are beautiful; and (c) a Wolfman razor from Damn Fine Shave that is really nice.

–Stopped for gas in the BMW at Fair Oaks Arco, where the cheapest was $4.59. I swear it was $3.95 a few days ago at a no-name station on Sunrise a little farther north. Oh well…

–Video Medicare Wellness visit went okay, except I blacked out when describing a clock at 10:35: hour hand halfway between 10 and 11, minute hand, uh, not sure what the number is, halfway, 30 or 35 (they wanted to hear “minute hand at 7”). What a freaking joke.

–Picked up the Tri tungsten spinner from Hungary at UPS. Total joke: very high quality, but it must weigh 2 pounds. And it cost $575. Oh well…

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk and cream.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Picked up the Modusworks Thinamathing at UPS. It’s nice, and seems to spin freely, but doesn’t seem to spin for long.

–Stopped at Bel Air to get some Fish Oil for Grace.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Played more with the Astra theme at Dizziness and Nausea.

–Super Bowl Sunday. Chips and nacho cheese, Eagles clobbered the Chiefs, Red Baron pizza for dinner.

–Bought Astra WordPress theme. It’s nice, but way more than I’ll ever need and it’s another one of those naggers. Even after spending $280 for a theme you get nagged for add-ons, and when I opened a support ticket for a refund, they nagged for $4.08/month to get VIP service. Absolutely unbelievable. I finally (sort of) figured out how to get stuff out of the header and into the footer of Hemingway, so–given the small chance of ever getting one of my domains approved for Adsense–that should be sufficient. [edit] Took another look at Astra; managed to get the Pro plugin installed, which added a lot of functionality. Got the footer looking like I want now, so I guess I’ll stay with Astra and try to build an impeccable Dizziness site. Google still won’t accept it for Adsense (too medical), but the exercise won’t hurt.

–Walked to UPS to pick up another spinner. This one looks okay, but spins badly. After a lot of effort, I got it apart to learn that it uses the old-style 608 bearing, and a crappy one at that. Looked into 608 to R188 adapters, but that ship sailed a while ago, so I just bought (what I hope is) a nicer 608 bearing on eBay. We’ll see.

–Took Grace to Green Acres Folsom for plants, then Brainy Zoo for Amelia gifts.

–Played with OceanWP and Astra WordPress themes. Impressive, but 100 times more functionality than I’ll ever need, and expensive ($280). Might keep looking at cheaper ones. I mainly just want easy placement of menus and links in header and footer. We’ll see.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Got turned down by Adsense again. Finally dawning on me that I’m unlikely to ever get a site approved: original content, lots of traffic, etc. etc. The irony is that I finally got icsb-2006 up and running at Spaceship. Lotta good it’ll do me. My best bet, if I were a completely different person, would be to get the transmission/limescale sites going with a couple of youtube videos. Right. More likely, I suppose I should try and do something with Plan Retirement. Still the traffic issue will plague me. I don’t need to spend $5k to have some know-nothing SEO shop wave their magic wand and say their magic buzzwords to get visitors. I don’t know…

–It gets worse: after doing some reading, I learned that most Adsense requests are turned down, and that the the bar is set extremely high for certain areas like health (Dizziness and Nausea) and finance (Plan Retirement). These are known as YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) areas, and unless you’re a physician or Vanguard employee, your blog just won’t make it. FML, as they say.

–Sun came out; nice day.

–But not for me: played with hosts and websites all day. Found what I thought was a total winner i hosting: Porkbun. As it turns out, they have their own quirks: forcing all prefixes (FTP, DB, etc.) to some bizarre thing like llldxcdffftymn. They also haven’t responded after 6 hours to a query asking them to use a simpler name for DB prefixes. Soooo, looks like I’m moving everything back to iWebFusion for now. They’re cheap, fast, no quirks–it’s just that dang whois privacy thing that grates on me. Oh, and further: I finally got FTP set up at Porkbun and Spaceship. The directory they point to is empty; putting a file in it doesn’t show up in the hosts’ file manager; trying to move up or down a level in FTP goes nowhere. I have no idea what those cPanel-generated FTP sites are. If I can’t access public_html etc., what’s the point?

–Finally got some real rain today.

–Went to Costco for dessert (muffins), toilet paper, pizza.

–Registered the icsb-2006.org domain at Spaceship; it’s in the process of transferring.

–Messed up my WordPress journal trying to clean it up (changing database wpnq prefixes to wp). It looked good, but blew up when I tried to add a new post. So I used the WP installer at elidol.com to create a new blog, then moved the old posts into it. All seems good.

–Gave up trying to get Plesk to work at Hustly, so closed the account and got a refund. Will use iWebFusion (for a while, anyway) for the WordPress moneymakers (Dizziness and Nausea, Plan Retirement, Limescale, maybe Drywall (though it screams for a youtube implementation)) and Spaceship for registering/installing the link juice sites (icsb-2006.org, maybe waterseer.com, etc.) so the links come from a different IP. Might like to move away from iWebFusion at some point, as they are the only hosting provider I’ve seen that DOES NOT provide a free whois privacy service–resulting in many phone calls, emails and texts from wannabe site designers.

–Spent all day trying to get Journal and Dizziness working at Hustly. Unbelievably frustrating. Gave up and went back to elidol.com. Don’t know what I’ll do about Hustly.

–Picked up a couple nice fidget spinners at UPS, then milk and cream and pizza at Bel Air (Grace burned her dinner to a crisp).

–Gray day, but dry.

–Vacuumed my bedroom.

–Looked into web stuff. Seems I could move my sites from iWebFusion to Hustly (say) now, and later (after the IRTP block has lifted) change registrars from iWebFusion to Hustly. Don’t know if it’s worth it–as opposed to waiting two months then moving everything to Hustly (including registration).

–Another drizzly day–way less rain than was predicted.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Graffeo coffee from San Francisco came in. Dark like Peet’s. Not bad, but not a long-term brew.

–Negotiating with a guy from Georgia (USSR) on purchase of icsb-2006.org. Asshole wants way more than is reasonable.

–Drizzly day.

–Picked up Zeiss/Contax 50/1.4 at UPS. Nice example of the lens, but (N of 1) not too different ffrom 50/1.7 or Summicron 50/2.

–Renewed UPS box.

–Made pizza for dinner on pan, not in Erie skillet. Store-bought sauce, mozzarella, wilted basil leaves. Pretty good.

–Took the BMW on a run to Hooverville Orchards. Jams are $10 now. Got some anyway.

–Finally found a satisfactory cookie consent/policy plugin for my WordPress sites. I must have tried 10 of them.

–Cleaned up the Erie Spider cast iron skillet.

–Won yet another fidget lottery–the third in a few weeks, after years of failure in knife lotteries. The Ns are lower with spinners, but still…

–Took the BMW to Roseville BMW for first service. Smooth, quick.

–A couple of spinners came in. Nothing exciting.

–Watered the Bird of Paradise again, as it was looking a little droopy.

–Pizza Guys pepperoni pizza for dinner. Good, but kind of a hassle.

–Called Vanguard and a rep talked me through sending $56k+ from Ally to Vanguard as a rollover. I sure hope everything was correct–the right account, labeled as indirect rollover, etc.

–Picked up the Sea-Dweller at Ivanov’s. Seems to be working okay, though amplitude is low at ~214. Won’t really know until I wind it after it has run down.

–Got an appointment at 11 AM tomorrow at Niello BMW in Roseville for the initial oil service. It’s an “express” service and should take less than an hour.

–Called Vanguard about the double RMD withdrawal. They said if I return one of them within 60 days, it will be viewed as an “indirect rollover,” and will have no financial consequences. I’ll call again tomorrow to set it up.

–Got a dozen sesame bagels at New York Bagel.

–Played with the Zeiss 50mm/f1.4 lens. I did manage to clean and reinstall the aperture blades, but then kept fussing and ruined everything. Found a much newer one on eBay and bought it (biggest serial I’ve seen until now started with 9; this one starts with 15).

–Bought $1,850 worth of spinners: Unquiet Hands Atrium Superconductor and a Random Fabrications something.

–Silver squirrel came by for peanuts.

–Learned last night that I took my RMD from Vanguard twice: once by check, again by transfer to Ally when I didn’t think the first one had  gone through. Crap. Not at all clear that Vanguard will be able to undo one, as taxes have been withheld.

–Red Baron for dinner, with added mushrooms and bell peppers.

–Bizarre and disappointing: I compared the Zeiss/Contax 50/1.4 to the 1.7 on night shots. The 1.7 is fine, as I knew, but the 1.4, while admirably sharp and all, really distorts the shapes of the globe lights. N of 2, so it’s not a fluke, and it distorted at least two of the lights, while the globes taken with the 1.7 were perfect. Crap.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines.

–Picked up the Rotablade fidget spinner at UPS. What a mess. Somebody used an ounce of Loctite on it, so I needed two pliers to get it open. Had lots of trouble swapping bearings, and actually bent the body in the process. Tossed.

–Made pepperoni/mushroom pizza for dinner.

–Took the Sea Dweller to Ivanov’s Watch Repair to see if they could get it to start up reliably.

–Stopped at Corti Brothers for pizza, Basque Cake, Humboldt Fog cheese, lingonberry jam.

–Polished copper LIC EDC Edamame spinner came in. Pretty nice. Also a knife from Monterey Bay Knives–huge, crude, useless: it has a tab for front flipping, but I can’t flip it. Oh well…

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Contax/Zeiss 50mm f1.4 lens. It did not disappoint. Came with everything, including the coveted “PASSED” sticker. Takes a good picture too.

–Played with dizzinessandnausea.com. Found a site with free photos, so redid all of them.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to FedEx on Sun Center to pick up the Rolex 1680. Today was the last day before they shipped it back to Rolliworks, apparently. Would have been nice if someone had mentioned the shipment to me. Watch runs well, though fast. Of all my Subs, I’d still prefer to keep the Sea-Dweller, but it continues to not start ticking until I open it up and jiggle the balance wheel. Off to Ivanov’s, I guess. Certainly not Rolliworks.

–Played around a lot with different cookie consent plugins at dizzinessandnausea.com. Settled for the moment on Complianz, which I had resisted because of the name. Seems pretty straightforward. Still haven’t heard back from Google on my re-submission of Dizziness for Adsense approval.

–Spent a while fixing up dizzinessnadnausea.com so Google might accept it. The hoops you have to jump through to comply with world-wide regulations on privacy, tracking, cookies etc. are many.

–Walked to UPS to pick up some fidget spinners. Got some nice ones.

–Google Adsense turned down dizzinessandnausea.com without really saying why. Some research suggested it needed a “cookies consent” banner, which I added after trying 2-3 different plugins. I also updated the Privacy Policy page. Not clear if that will be good enough or not.

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

–Took Grace shopping to the Smart & Final at Sunrise and Madison. Much better location, much cleaner/brighter store.

–Discovered that ChatGPT (free version) does a really nice job of “writing” articles for Dizziness and Nausea. So I replaced them all. (Previously they were Google AI (Gemini) with a little Perplexity thrown in.)

–Grace is in a mega mega snit–wouldn’t cook for the second day in a row. Very bad. Another Red Baron for dinner.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines.

–Added air to tires in both cars.

–Got Dizziness and Nausea looking good on laptop and phone by adding a menu to the header. Almost ready to roll.

–Grace got into a major snit tonight over my (mild) reluctance to go shopping at Smart & Final. Not sure what’s going on with her.

–Picked up Contax 50mm f1.4 lens at UPS. Turning the aperture ring had no effect on the aperture. Started to take it apart, ruined it–not that it was in great shape before.

–Crypto holdings are back up. Total money now (without Vanguard) is $523,000, about what it was months ago. And there’s $50,000 coming in soon from the Vanguard RMD. Lots of tempting Rolexes are popping up at Tropical and Lunar Oyster; I’ve resisted so far, waiting to see what the 1680 looks like that’s been at Rolliworks for six months.

–Buying many fidget spinners.

–Spent some time with Dizziness and Nausea last night. Finally looking good, MIGHT be able to keep the Hemingway theme–more phone testing needed. I’ll keep adding articles from Google and Perplexity AI, then submit it to Google Ads and see what they say.

–Spent a lot of time trying to find a workable theme for my WordPress sites. No luck. The “free” ones bombard you with upgrade prompts–almost always a subscription, not an ownership–and the paid ones don’t let you try before buying. The vaguely promising ones mostly use blocks, and I’m just too old to spend months learning that framework. Although: one authoritative site I saw might make it all moot: it said don’t even submit to Google Ads until you have a 6-month-old site with dozens and dozens of original posts. The thought that I could copy 3-4 Google AI answers and start my empire, well…the Adsense landscape has changed in the last 25 years. Duh. Don’t know if I have the patience…

–I WON SOMETHING! Got a DM on Facebook that said somewhat cryptically “Hello winner!” Sounded like a scam, but as I pursued it, it turns out I won a super nice damascus titanium spinner from Indy Thicc. Only $600! Anyway, that’s certainly the first time I’ve ever won anything from the many online lotteries I’ve entered.

–Went to UPS to pick up spinner bearings and spinner.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, ciabatta and a lime.

–Work on dizzinessandnausea.com for a while. Found a good SEO plugin without the constant “Upgrade!” nagging, and a separate one to do what the first one doesn’t handle so well at all: meta descriptions. Don’t know what more there is to do. [edit] Oops—turns out the Twenty-Ten theme looks horrible on a phone; the fonts are so small as to be unreadable. Tried the Hemingway theme again and it’s much better–though the sidebar, with “Recent Posts,” doesn’t show up at all. I can try putting TOC in the header–but ads will never show. Crap.

–Picked up Focusworks spinner at UPS. Felt light at first, but spins like crazy.

–Got some tiny reading glasses at Rite-Aid. Same power as the ones Grace lent me (2.50), and stowable in a really small flat case so I can always have them with me without needing to wear them constantly.

–Got a slice of carrot cake and some candles at Bel Air. Took them to Kenny and sang to him for his 81st birthday.

–Offered 400 Euro for the domain icsb-2006.org. Owner countered with 1,500 Euro. Canceled.

–Went back to Twenty-Ten theme for dizzinessandnausea.com. Hemingway is nice, but has some glitches that just don’t appear in an official WordPress theme. Will probably switch out the other sites as well.

–Marie’s chicken pot pie for dinner.

–Got bagels at New York Bagels.

–Took Grace shopping at Koreana Plaza; got myself some Satsumas and Honeycrisps.

–Got all four websites sorted out. It took a “disable comments” plugin to finish them. Back in the day I would have edited WP code to do that, but that was long ago and far away.

–The frog lights are back in business. Leaving them out on the back patio in direct sun for six hours allows them to glow on the front patio for six hours. Cool!

–Didn’t do much today. Played with Hemingway WordPress theme. Nice, but has this big black box in the header with the site title that I can’t figure out how to move or minimize. I can delete it, but then there’s no title…

–Lots of wind today. LA is still burning.

–Walked to UPS to pick up second Addictive spinner. It’s seriously unbalanced (one arm heavier), so trying to return for replacement.

–Made pepperoni/mozzarella pizza for dinner. Good!

–Been getting a barrage of email, texts and phone calls (and site comments) offering to set up my websites. Looks like iWebFusion can get away with low rates because it sells lists.

–Went to see Michelle Hoyt at Sac Eye for followup. She said left eye looks good, has great pressure (10, whatever that means), and that I can stop taking Latanaprost. Further followup (with “premium” refraction) on Valentine’s Day.

–Grace washed my new Amazon microfiber sheets and I put them on the bed. They feel good but are nearly transparent, and will probably last a year.

–Rolliworks finally finished work on the 1680, six months later. Almost $1,900.

–Had my second (left eye) cataract surgery. Seemed to go well, and things are so much clearer and brighter it’s astonishing.

–Made the minimum offer of $250 for the icsb-2006.org domain. Guessing they want much more.

–Folsom Eye Surgery called and set the arrival time tomorrow at 7:15. Crap.

–Made pan pizza for dinner: mozzarella, fresh basil. Couldn’t taste the mozzarella, way too much (cooked) basil.

–Addictive tri-spinner came in ($26). Not bad, less wobble than the Thicc Chelsea bar, but not really compelling. I’m 99.9% sure now that wobble is purely a function of play in the bearing, and cannot be reduced. Physics (which I don’t get yet) says that double wobbles more than tri, which wobbles more than four, etc. Why doubles (bars) are so popular is a mystery to me.

–Contax/Zeiss 50mm/1.7 lens came in. Flawless condition, great ergonomics. I’ll still lust after the 1.4 of ciourse; hoping I can talk myself out of it.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Played some more with websites. Starting to figure out/remember how to set up WordPress. It’s a pretty nice vehicle.

–Replaced the bearings in the Indy Thicc Chelsea. Din’t change much. But the more I play with it, the more I like it. Not the wobble, but the feel and the challenge of getting it to spin smoothly.

–Got the four websites working okay: Dizziness, Drywall, Limescale, Plan Retirement. Tried to install the Kadence theme on Dizziness, and what a disaster. To remove it I had to restore a backup of the database. Don’t know how I’m going to monetize these sites; WordPress design seems absurdly complex now.

–Got the Wilkins knife; very nice. Got the Thicc Chelsea spinner; looks nice in copper, but has horrible wobble, the worst I’ve experienced. Hoping new bearings will work, when I get the bearing tool.

–Finally de-decorated; there wasn’t much to take down.

–Got a bunch of old Adsense sites up and running: dizzinessandnausea.com, planretirement.com, limescale.com, howtopatchdrywall.com. Surprisingly, a solid #2 in terms of domain name value (after planretirement) is limescale.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Over an inch of rain today, said the Rain Cricket.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Yet another gray drizzly day.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Another drizzly day.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Did a minimal Christmas. Little tree up; played tapes and CDs. Jimmy Dean and Pillsbury rolls for breakfast; ham and grits for dinner.

–Lots of rain today.

–Did absolutely minimal decorating: put up the tiny tree. Thought it would blink, but it doesn’t.

–Missing 12/21/2024 through 1/4/2025 due to me somehow wiping out the database at Namecheap AND iwebfusion as I was restoring some of my 2011 WordPress Adsense sites.

–Dark, rainy day.

–After more practice with the Canon R5 Mk II, it turns out to be a really nice camera. Handles well (with the ebony extension from China); dials are set up as I like them; seems to take lower-noise night shots with some vintage lenses than the SL2-S. All Leicas (except a C of some sort) are going back in the closet.

–Canon R5 Mk II came in. Couldn’t get it to work to save my life. Finally PM’d seller, who reminded me of “Disable shutter if no lens mounted.” All good now–though I don’t see much improvement in viewfinder quality, and it may shake as much as the Sony. Crap.

–Had lunch with Tom Elken at Jersey Mike’s in Folsom.

–Managed to hand out all CHristmas gifts to Tom and DV alley neighbors.

–With Namecheap raising prices (and a little slow), I searched a lot and opened an account at iWebFusion for < $5/month. Trying to migrate now, with issues of WordPress database login. Will figure it out.

–Played with cameras. Putting th battery extension grip on the Sony turns it into a gigantic monster. It’s been retired. Tried to get shutter count for R5 as practice for incoming R5 Mark II. Had to buy a $9 app that said “<= 1,000 actuations.” In small print on the bottom it said “This camera reports in 1,000 increments.” So much for testing the new one.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final and Bel Air. There were many cartons of eggs at Bel Air yesterday; zero today.

–Looking to migrate away from Namecheap as they’re going to raise their rates to $75/year, compared to $35 for others.

–Post Office has no record of Canon R5 II being shipped two days ago. “Label created; waiting for item.” Kee-rap.

–Went to Bel Air for various things; got a fraction of them.

–Stock market is plunging, and (for no obvious reason) taking crypto with it.

–The only good news: my abutilon cuttings, which have been sitting in water for a month or so, are going nuts: new leaves, blooms growing, etc. I don’t get it, but it’s fun to see.

–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and bagel dogs.

–Did a tiny bit of Christmas shopping for Grace at Daiso.

–Finally was allowed to re-open the wsf@comcast.net account at Binance.us. Have to wait 48 hours to add or subtract funds. Added Coinbase and Binance to my iPhone.

–Cleaned ear wax out of hearing aids. Better.

–Grace finally got Chase to wire $10k to sister Jan.

–Rainy morning.

–Woke up with right eye really foggy; drops had no effect. Lasted for hours, then went away. Crap.

–Had Walgreen’s print the Denny and Kenny photo (25 cents). Got a frame there when I picked up the print and framed it. Looks nice.

–Went to UPS to mail off Juli’s package.

–Played with cameras, especially the new Sony A7R V. Kind of disappointing.The viewfinder doesn’t seem as spectacularly different from the Leica SL2-S or the Canon R5 as I was hoping, given its specs. Further, the Canon has better ergonomicsand (often) a very pleasing look in photos. So I bought the Mark II model from a guy on Fred Miranda. Now I truly have two of everything.

–Went to Folsom Eye for follow-up visit with Michelle Hoyt. I told her about reflux (no response) and urination problems (“That’s rare,” she said). Right eye is still dilated, but TV closed captions are really clear.

–Sony AR7 V came in. I don’t see a huge difference between its viewfinder and AR7 IV’s but it’s early yet.

–Went to Folsom for right eye cataract surgery. Waited 2+ hours in the waiting room, another 40 minutes on the gurney. Major deal: anesthesiologist and everything. Surgery was quick. Eye is so dilated I can’t tell how successful it was.

–Canned soup for dinner.

–Picked up photo prints (Sullivan, Bunker, Wasdell) at Walgreen’s.

–Got “2 for $20” pizzas at Pizza Guys on Vehicle Drive, one for us and one for Kenny. Really good pizza

–Walked to UPS to pick up helicoid grease.

–Brought the Sony out to play with. Surprisingly easy to set up focus magnification on the–wait for it–AF ON button. Good: you can select how long it stays magnified (like forever). Less good: shutter won’t take it out of magnify mode; you have to hit the AF ON button again.

–Took some decent abutilon pics with the Contax N Digital.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Tamahagane knife. Stopped at Bel Air for cream, milk, cheese, cream cheese.

–Bought a Sony A7R V from 6th Avenue Electronics (no tax). 60 megapixels, and a viewfinder with twice the resolution of my A7R IV. It’ll take a while to set up, but it should be the last camera I’ll ever need. Pretty much every lens ever made has an adapter available for Sony.

–Well well well: Charged up the Contax N Digital and took some abutilon pics. DXO would not open the native RAW files. Installed Adobe DNG converter and converted them. DXO would not open the DNG files. Tried Apple Photos app. It too would not open the RAW files, but it easily imported the converted DNG files and edited them in a trice. The editor even has a feature which is new or which I just didn’t notice: for Light and Color, it has a master slider that moves all the sub-sliders (Exposure, Brilliance, Shadows, etc.) in a smart way to give a pleasing range of results. So much for DXO.

–Later that same day, the Photos app was having some issues, and was reminding me of why I went to alternatives. Sooo…I went back to Lightroom. Seems I have access to Lightroom Classic and Lightroom [Creative Cloud], which may be why I vaguely remember spending $240 for a yearly license instead of $120. Anyway, I only need Classic, so removed LR CC and will be more careful when renewing next September. From what I’ve read, I can’t remove JUST the CC app (which is a separate app)–Adobe is obnoxious that way. Anyhow, I re-did some Christmas night pics that I had done in DXO, and the results were pretty astounding (as was the process). LR is smooth, simple, and just makes things easy. Wish they still sold it.

–Marie’s chicken pot pies for dinner.

–Played with cameras some more. Tried a couple M9s, was not happy with their metering.

–Dropped a couple of packages off at UPS.

–Went to the village Christmas party.

–[edit] DXO doesn’t support the .RWL files from the Leica C-Lux. Well, crap.

–Played with cameras a lot, trying to justify getting a new M11 Glossy. In the end, the SL2-S blew everything out of the water, as usual. The combo of (1) best viewfinder and (2) best low-light sensor cannot be beaten, even though it’s 24 MP vs. 60 in the M11.

–Picked up cough drops at UPS and dropped off the Meades front flipper, on its way to Louisiana then South Africa, where maker Thys Meades graciously agreed to add a clip.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Finished making the “tile rock” for Kenny (like the fountain with broken tile pieces and grout). Looks like crap.

–Went to UPS to mail a couple more packages and pick up a Yubikey (set it up at Coinbase) and leather repair tape (tried it on my chair; looks surprisingly good (i.e., invisible)).

–Pepperoni pizza from Costco for dinner. Not nearly as good as Costco brand cheese pizza last night.

–Heard a loud hissing outside around 5. On investigation, it appeared to be a sprinkler leak between our house and Ray/Sherry’s. Turned their water off at the main spigot. They got home while I was leaving a note, and said it was just the sprinkler (not a leak), so I turned their water back on. I’m dubious: we haven’t heard that noise in two years.