–Moved the bird feeder to make it more visible from living room.
–Pool was still 81 at 4 PM today. Looks like no swimming until May. Really curious as to what I’ll find comfortable now.
Month: April 2021 (Page 1 of 4)
–Finally fixed the patio door blinds, with much interference from Grace.
–Tried to go swimming at 4 PM with pool at 81. Walked in, chickened out. May try to dive in tomorrow; pool will likely be much warmer.
–Put new batteries in hearing aids around 9 AM.
–Rode the InnerLight (with Selle Rolls) on the Canal. Seat is good; bike is good. Found what was left of a turkey that had been eaten by a cougar or coyote or something; collected some nice feathers.
–Made Jimmy Dean hot sausage, hash browns, Acme toast and eggs for dinner. Yum!
–Saw some bubbles in the pool this afternoon; bumped up the speed of the booster pump again.
–Found I already had an iSesamo tool, so opened up the iPod, making just the tiniest nick in the glass. Pulled the battery out (which gained nothing charging overnight); eagerly awaiting new battery. The “Pop” EQ on that player is (as I vaguely recall from previous ones) is the best mp3 music I’ll ever hear.
–Played with seats/seatposts a little, and discovered a standards disaster. The InnerLight tube is 30mm but was shimmed down to 27, while most of my seatposts are 27.2. Finally got the Selle Regal on the Specialized with the Thomson Masterpiece post, and the Selle Rolls on the Innerlight with the drastically cut-down Thomson Elite post. Took a short Canal ride on the InnerLight (with the OEM Specialized saddle). There was a tense moment coming back up the rise from trail to Gold Country, but I did NOT have to get off. Good exercise.
Rolex 5512 came in a little early. Great on the timegrapher, some dots on the dial, case seems good. Caseback says IV 67. The 11-link 93150 bracelet dating from 1983 was a tad tight, so swapped in a later 93150 in better shape and stole a link from the one on the new watch. 12 links are good; I used to think 11 would work. Looking for an age-appropriate rivet bracelet.
–Left hearing aid battery went out around 5 PM.
–Went to Noah’s for bagels and Peet’s for caf and decaf beans.
–iPod came in. Sat on the charger in the utility room for 5 hours with no effect (“very low battery, do not disconnect”). Plugged it into the laptop and it sprang to life, syncing with iTunes and loading up my playlist (which I had just put up on iTunes. Right now the battery symbol appears to signify fully charged, though it’s flashing a circle/slash sign and saying “do not disconnect.” Might work after all; it sure is new.
–Watched a mother/child squirrel pair on the fence and the patio for quite a while. The kid was nursing off and on. Very sweet.
–Dropped the booster pump from 2000 RPMs to 1800. Saw some air coming in late in the afternoon, so raised it to 1900.
–Made turkey burgers for dinner.
–Played with pool controls. (1) Main pump needs 2900 RPM to eliminate solar bubbles. (2) Booster pump needs ~2000 RPM for same. That is: 2900 + 2000 = no bubbles; 2800 + 2000 = bubbles; 2900 + 1500 = bubbles. Will try to tune the booster pump later. (3) Low water level leads to air bubbles in skimmer, which show up in main pump porthole (and pool inlet). So: sufficient water + sufficient RPMs = no bubbles. Again, it’s super-annoying that none of several techs provided this solution.
–Went to Bel Air for apples, milk, cream, dessert, etc.
–Went with Grace to East Sac. Picked up Squale at Ivanov’s. What an ugly little watch. Had lunch at Chipotle. Not so great. Went shopping at Corti Bothers. Got Acme bread, pork chops, potato salad, Greek salad, jams, cheese, lunch meat, etc. Had the pork chops and salads tonight. Good stuff.
–Thomson Masterpiece seatpost came in. Installed it with the Selle Regal saddle; piece of cake. Don’t see why I needed the bigger clamp I ordered, but it shouldn’t be horribly hard to install it, especially with the ball-end hex driver.
–The pool started up at 8 AM. I really thought I had nailed down the schedules. I played with it some more, so we’ll see tomorrow. Of note: there were air bubbles after I slowed things down initially (Grace was in a panic regarding the robot run amok). I bumped the main back up to 3000 RPM, and booster to something (don’t recall) and bubbles went away. Hoping things start at 10 tomorrow, so I can relax about scheduling and start tuning the pumps for air bubbles.
–Found a new trail to ride: The Folsom South Canal. It’s actually an aqueduct, diverting water from the American River and taking it 26 miles south to farmers and such. The wide bike path runs the whole distance, and was empty today except for me. Nice.
–Got our (temporary) Real IDs at the Folsom DMV.
–Spent some frustrating time trying to fit various bike saddles on various seatposts. The clamps are horribly designed. Ordered a new Thomson seatpost and some ball-end hex screwdrivers to try and set things up with the carbon-rail Selle Regale.