Month: January 2022 (Page 3 of 3)

–Kraken said all okay after I sent them a carefully posed photo last night. Then I tried to buy Algorand: nope. Turns out it IS the fault of Heritage, or its ACH. Can’t wait to be rid of that bank.

–Koenig knife came in. About the same action as the Shirogorov, but nicer blade.

–I actually managed to buy $5k worth of Polkadot at Kraken using Heritage. Then tried to buy $5k of Algorand and got errors. Messaged them, got a quick response asking for big proof: photo of me holding a handwritten note, with drivers license attached. Did that. So far their customer service is great.

–Brewed another espresso with the small group. Still sings. Really annoying.

–Got clementines at the Folsom farmers market.

–Got epoxy at Home Depot. Filled the hole in the solenoid block, brewed an espresso. Didn’t see any leaks, but the machine sang like a canary when the pump was shut off. Don’t know whether to sell it like that (small group, singing), or put the large group on, or take it to Great Infusions, etc.

–Started looking into Morgan Stanley accounts and fees. Turns out we’re paying Dick >$2,000/month to handle our IRAs. This will stop.

–Got the $131.66 DHL charge for shipping the 5512 dial back to Italy reimbursed by the eBay seller.

–I ordered (via Kirill Yuzh) an amazing-looking 1967 Rolex 5513 fromTropical Watch: meters first dial, long 5 insert, sharp-edged case (polished), hand lume slightly lighter than dial lume (thus proving they are not recent color-matched hands), 1967 rivet bracelet, II.67 dated caseback. They don’t get much better.

–Got a call from Niello BMW that my Mini-Cooper is on the way from the Bay Area. Yay!

–Spent > an hour in chat at Coinbase. I only got to chat (with three different people) because I told them my account had been hacked. Bottom line: I can cash out and close the account on Feb. 2nd. No explanation of anything, of course.

–Helson bracelet came in. It’s nice, but uses standard springpins to join the links. I managed to move a link, but it really needs a tool that will simultaneously compress both ends of the springpin. I have a request in at Helson to see what they say. [edit] I decided to keep one of the Watchcos (with date), sell the other and sell the Helson.

–Got the 5512 dial sent off to Italy via DHL at Carmichael Box Store: $131.66. Filling out paperwork (at home online) was a pain in the ass.

–Picked up a Papa Murphy’s pizza for dinner.

–Sent the Sea-Dweller off to Phil Ridley at FedEx.

–Rolex hand setting tools and gauge came in from OFrei. My four minute hands are all around .8mm and hour hands are around 1.25mm (80 and 125 on the gauge). Didn’t measure lengths or second hands. Was going to use the tools in swapping out the SWISS service dial on the 5512 for a tritinova dial, but decided it would be kind of a waste. I’ll just sell the 5512 as is for whatever I can get.

–Italian eBay seller agreed to take back the (second, mis-described) tritinova dial. He wants me to ship DHL, and says he will reimburse me. Another adventure begins.

–Another quiet day. UPS billed me $110 for customs duty on the 5512 dial; I paid. It just came in: dial and hands are luminova, not tritium. CRAP!

–Called Phil Ridley, who’s just getting over 6-7 days of COVID misery. Going to send him the Sea-Dweller so he can fix the sticky date wheel.

–Went to Sutter Walk-In Clinic Folsom for TDAP shot. Entered wrong address. Grace not available on phone. Got there 30 minutes late. Got the shot without even showing ID.

–Coinbase, for no apparent reason whatsoever, disabled my ability to buy again. REALLY annoying. Opened an account at Kraken, got verified quickly. Will need to wire money to them (I believe). Sold everything at Coinbase, but there’s a hold period before I can deposit it at Heritage (of course). Interesting that I can add an account at Coinbase, but I have to wire money into Kraken. I might be able to use a debit card to buy something at Kraken, but probably not $40k worth.

–Did big food shopping at Food Maxx.

–Took a shower.

–Got caf and decaf beans at Peet’s. Incredible amount of broken beans in the decaf (very dark roast).

–Polished the two Paradigm Diamondback razors. Not 100% clear which is 2020 (polished) and which is 2019 (less polished). And I’m still seeing fog on bright stainless that doesn’t make sense–hard to believe I left it in that state the last time I polished. Do I need to use different rouge? Clean the wheel before every use?

–Bought a tool for adjusting Shirogorov knives. Scarily, something called “Shop Pay” knew my name, address, phone number, and BofA credit card info. They also knew Rob Hagiwara’s address, so maybe this happened when I bought him a Christmas present. I deleted address and credit card, couldn’t delete the account. Scary stuff.