Month: November 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

–Fiddled with watch bracelets.

–Continued playing with the Samsung. It’s pretty much perfect now. It apparently doesn’t allow me to set in advance how calls are routed, but does seem to “remember” the last choice and use it. Should be okay, if I can figure out how to bring up the audio screen and switch to speaker (say) when the hearing aids aren’t sufficiently clear.

–Took a shower. Tried the last feasible head on the Wolfman titanium handle. Nope. Felt like a lawn mower and caused a bleeder. Maybe I should try to trade one of my heads for a super-mild head. I don’t know.

–Bergeon medium satin wheel came in.

–Apple iPhone 13 Mini came in. Off-putting in every way. Obtrusive cameras, sharp edges (I’m spoiled by the Samsung), no wall outlet charger, etc. Big disappointment.

–Mondia Batman came in. Very nice, better-finished than Squale perhaps (and perhaps made by Squale).

–Got a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner–pretty darn good.

–Played with the Galaxy S10e a bit. Still couldn’t get it to stream a phone call I initiated to the hearing aids. Not sure what the issue is, though I’m suspecting the hearing aids themselves are limited.

–Tried to organize watches/cameras a bit for eventual sale. Did a showdown between the Sony AR7 and the Leica Q2. The Leica won. The lens on that camera is astonishing. A preview I saw of the Smart 3D app (while I was reinstalling the HAs) showed, in addition to All-Around and Restaurant, settings for Music, Outdoors, and maybe more. I’m sure I had Outdoors (at least) on a previous set of HAs. We’ll see what happens with the Pixel 4a. I really don’t want to delve into (and spend another $3k on) the arcane world of hearing aids.

–Slow day, not much happening. Did find a machine called the Tremblr which seems sort of compelling.

–GOT THE HEARING AIDS CONNECTED TO THE SAMSUNG S10e AND SMART 3D!! As usual, reddit gave the only hint: turn off nearby bluetooth devices before pairing. Whenever I had tried before, I always had the iPhone nearby with bluetooth and Smart 3D running. Duh. Turned off the iPhone, went into bluetooth FIRST on the Samsung (which is the opposite of what internet wisdom says), quickly paired the hearing aids, and when I started Smart 3D it picked them up instantly. Unbelievable. Now I have an iPhone 13 Mini and a Google Pixel 4a coming that I don’t need. Can’t have too many phones I guess.

–Got a haircut from my favorite (Samantha) at Supercuts, Greenback at Hazel.

–Maximatic with the thick gasket that I sanded down gave a tiny hint it was leaking, so I went back to the thin one. That will work. Questions are (a) how long before it compresses too much to be useful, and (b) will it require a dose even lower than the 14g I used today. We’ll see.

–Tried to get Kirill Yuzh to drop $300 from the price of a 16610; no go. He did sell the GMT however and wired the money today. I found what MIGHT be a nice 14060 at a random jeweler in Miami. “Fully serviced,” it says. We’ll see.

–Ground off Wolbrook logo from ugly oversize “vintage” dive watch beads of rice bracelet. Tried it on Helson Sharkmaster, but spring pins/lug holes wouldn’t line up. Put a Squale BOR on the Helson instead; looks great.

–$200 Batman bezel insert came in. Definitely different from the $20 insert I have (which has a couple of tiny nicks in it), and certainly not worth $180 more. Not sure what I’ll put either insert on. The most appropriate would be a (discontinued) Squale Giramondo GMT: right size, Mercedes hands. There’s only available–at chrono24 for $1,000+. Maybe.

–Played with the two portafilter gaskets again. The thick one (OE) really is too thick, and the thin one (Cerini) really is too thin. I put the thick one on the belt grinder for a while, and now it’s perfect: portafilter locks in just past six o’clock. I’m praying that my uneven grind job will be compensated for by the pliability of the gasket.

–Took a shower. Tried the Wolfman again: titanium handle, WR2 satin head, custom 1.20mm gap. Got a couple of non-self-healing chin nicks. Guess I could try ONCE more with a .80mm WR1 head. I don’t want to lose the titanium handle, but the nicks are getting old.

–Black-dial Omega Constellation came in. Not perfect, but darn nice. And the accessories: box, original receipt from 1964 ($600 Hong Kong dollars), warranty in envelope, AND the COSC certificate!

–Portafilter + gasket came in from Cerini. Very strange: the new portafilter (theoretically identical to the one I mangled) works with both gaskets. It moves .5″ with the thick gasket from Orphan Espresso, and 4″ with the thin gasket from Cerini. The thin gasket seems to be the same as the gasket that came in the 54mm grouphead–from Cerini. It may be “correct,” but that’s the one that started leaking unless I really whanged it over. I’m going with the thicker OE gasket for now. That the portafilter goes in at all with this gasket suggests that the previous portafilter (also from Cerini) had different lugs, which I had file down to get things working. I think the OE gasket will be fine, especially as it wears in. Further: a 15g dose of espresso was hitting the dispersion screen seriously with the thin Cerini gasket. Hopefully this won’t happen with the OE gasket since the portafilter isn’t going in nearly as far.

–Polished the Squale Batman case to a fare-thee-well then put it back together. Noticed (a) the date number 2 was only halfway in, and (b) the watch wasn’t running. Tried all sorts of things, but it’s dead. Tossed it, kept the bezel.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Bought an iPhone 13 Mini, after hours of trying (and failing) to get Android to work with Resound. It works with the Phone Clip, but that’s less than ideal (cannot control wind noise, for example). Was ready to pay $1,029 on eBay, then did a quick google search and found one for $729 at Apple. I’m pretty sure most of the stuff I buy on eBay is just not sold elsewhere (older watches, phones, cameras, etc.), but it sure doesn’t hurt to check.

–Made appointments at Rite-Aid for flu and COVID shots.