–Didn’t do much of anything today. Grace is in an extremely foul mood.
Month: September 2024 (Page 1 of 3)
–Had a bad night after the flu vaccination. Couldn’t get to sleep, a couple of shivers, minor aches. Went back to bed after breakfast, got up at 1:00, more or less okay.
–Put the Cremina mostly together, waiting for a steam poppet.
–Pizza for dinner.
–Took Grace to Rite-Aid for vaccinations. Turns out she didn’t have an appointment. They recommended no more than two for me, so I got flu and COVID 2024-2025. Spent some time looking at my record on MyChart, gave up and messaged Firoz’ office asking what else I need.
–One of two rat Leitz R4s came in that I ordered on eBay for the red Leitz button. Got it apart by brute force (no youtube disassembly videos), marred the button in the process. It wasn’t very 3D anyway–more than paint, but not much.
–Took the Beemer to El Centro in Natomas to revisit Perry’s farm stand (now Cuevas) and the strawberry lady (still there). Got strawberries, tomatoes, squash, melon–great stuff.
–Scanned some more photos. Assembled the 1965 ACDS graduation photos into a Word doc and uploaded it to vstat.com so the classmates can download it.
–Scanned a bunch of photos.
–Walked to UPS to pick up Cerini Cremina steam assembly, then to Bel Air for anti-perspirant.
–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.
–Picked up Damasteel Shamwari at FedEx on Sunrise.
–Picked up Cremina rebuild kit at UPS. Seems slender–no steam poppet or boiler cap gasket, for example. Turns out those are only in the $62 “complete” rebuild kit. Oh well…
–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final. She forgot her list. RedBaron for dinner.
–Did one more showdown between the two SL2-Ss. The Reporter did fine this time. One thing: With the Rikenon lens (with which I am less and less impressed), the Reporter took a horrible double image. Duh! After telling the cameras that I was using a 55mm “other” lens (to turn on image stabilization), all was good. That doesn’t explain the Reporter’s deficiencies when using the coded Summicron, so–still a little mystery. P.S. I finally figured out (last night) how to align the plastic and rubber parts of the eyepiece so it would go on easily the first time. Can’t believe how many times I struggled with those before hitting on this. Oh well. And why did I have them off? The Reporter’s reeked of PJ’s cologne, pretty much obviating the Leica reskin. After swapping them, the Reporter smells…almost not at all. I’m soaking the bad one in alcohol. Probably won’t do anything.
–Played with the Cremina a bit. Buggered the screw trying to get the steam poppet out. Pried it out later with my package-opening knife. Hard to believe I have no spares for steam internals. I ordered a new assembly (stainless, finally) from Cerini. Will look again for spares. I need to find out what the threads are on the trashed screw to see if I can replace it.
–Played a little more with SL2-S and SL2-S Reporter. Sometimes the Reporter seems to have a little more saturation, but other times the standard seems to be a little sharper. May test again tonight. [edit] Tested. like last night (I BELIEVE) the Reporter really suffers in the dark the speed limit sign is foggy, hazy, low contrast. Using the “denoise” feature doesn’t correct it. Both cameras set up as identically as I could do. Very strange how the Reporter is as good when there’s some light, then degrades in the dark. More testing to follow. [edit 2] Tested again with a shot in back. Same results: the Reporter lacks saturation and contrast compared to the standard. I’ll really hate to give that up, given the eye relief and Leica reskin (and identical daytime photos), but there really does seem to be something lacking in the Reporter at night.
–Cleaned up/cut up all boxes so as to reclaim some space in the garage and bedroom.
–Played with the scanner some more. Still learning, but it’s pretty impressive.
–Dinner from Jack’s Urban Eats; Beach Hut Deli closed at 5.
–Dropped off the Rolex 16800 at FedEx.
–Dropped off Noah Cantelon’s birthday package at UPS.
–Picked up Hirame chucks at UPS.
–Picked up a dozen sesame bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.
–Leica SL2-S Reporter came back from being reskinned at Elica. 95% of the smell is gone now. There’s still some there: I swapped the rubber pieces around the viewfinders, which helped. I guess I might still need to add a positive odor to it, since I believe I’ve gone as far as I can in removing the cologne smell.
–Plustek scanner came in. Tried it out on some slides from my 1965 ACDS graduation. Seems to be good. The slides are showing their age (and size), but the scans are certainly good enough to evoke memories. Except Laurel’s eyes were closed.
–Got another free cutting from Kenny; put it in a pot.
–Got the propane tank filled at U-Haul. The guy didn’t seem to look for an inspection date/tag. I’ll have to check and see how obvious it is.
–Red Baron pizza for dinner.