Life of Brian – a proud part of the 90%

Did it Again

Wednesday, November 20, 2024 Leave a Comment

Alternate Title: Sunset Surf Shack.

A month ago, I did this puzzle and when I finished it, it was missing two pieces. A couple weeks later when I vacuumed under the puzzle table I found those two missing pieces. So, after finishing the Monument Valley puzzle, I was working on at that time, I decided to do the puzzle again now that I had all the pieces.

When I finished it this second time there was one missing piece! Thing is, it is a totally different piece! I got out a high-powered bike headlight and searched the floor looking for this missing piece. No luck, I don’t know where it went. My guess it slipped into an alternate universe, quite possibly like the 2 original missing pieces. My only hope is in 2 weeks the piece will return magically like those two other ones.

But if it does, do I attempt to try and finish the puzzle again? Am I risking another missing piece, another totally different piece? Another alternate universe?

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Monday, November 18, 2024 Leave a Comment

One-Armed Bandit Edition of SORT
As of Monday, November 18, 2024 at 16:00 PM pacific time:

Sport	Off-Road	Touring
1955 MG TF	2011 Ford Ranger	2011 Ford Taurus

Due to the default width of my browser, when I browse through the car auctions, I see the listings in three columns. This layout reminds me of the classic three-window slot machines in Las Vegas. Today, I decided to select my cars based on the first row that had a car from each category. However, due to the dynamic nature of auctions, they were no longer aligned in the same row upon my last check. Nevertheless, I captured a screenshot of my ‘jackpot’ as evidence.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1953 Willys M38A1 Sold for $16,500 on 11/13/24
Off-Road: 1953 Dodge M37 Bid to $4,700 on 11/13/24
Touring: 2001 Stewart & Stevenson M1078 4×4 Sold for $30,800 on 11/13/24

It’s Sunday So…

Sunday, November 17, 2024 Leave a Comment

…its post office hunting day.

Instead of my usual go west into the heart of the big city I turned my eyes east to go a bit rural. And it was worth it. After the first 6 or so miles the roads turned very rural, all twisty, narrow and traffic free with plenty of elevation changes. Perfect Miata roads, almost. Today was a rainy day, so while I enjoyed driving them I didn’t push the car too much because I’m still getting used to the new cars handling and grip.

: Boring – They have a sense of humor about their name because the city’s motto is “The most exciting place to live!” and they have two sister cities: Dull, Scotland and Bland, Australia. (11/17/24)

: Sandy – The town is named for the Sandy River that flows nearby. Which is also the case of the road that I live on, Sandy Boulevard. (11/17/24)

: Eagle Creek – Going from Sandy to Eagle Creek was a blast. Narrow twisty 2-lane roads that at times reminded me of northwest South Carolina and at others it felt very Pacific Northwest. (11/17/24)

: Beavercreek – This was today’s lowest number zip code. Otherwise it is just another rural post office. (11/17/24)

: Oregon City – The signage tells me this was a early 2000s Post Office, but the building looks nothing like a Post Office of any era. Maybe the building was for an entirely different company that went bankrupt so Uncle Sam repurposed it. (11/17/24)

: Clackamas – On the USPS website it lists this as the Clackamas Post Office. But there are two town names and zip codes on it. I’m speculating here, but maybe the Happy Valley post office stopped getting enough business to warrant a separate building. (11/17/24)

: Clackamas DCU – This is the first Detached Carrier Unit I have run into in Oregon. They were a lot more prevalent in South Carolina. (11/17/24)

Chipped Tooth

Saturday, November 16, 2024 Leave a Comment

Sometime in August I chipped a tooth. I was biting into a piece of kielbasa when I noticed what I thought was the bone in the sausage I hit. It was a piece of bone, but it was accompanied by the bottom third of #7 the tooth just to the right of the two big front teeth. I was also overdue for my 6-month cleaning, but August and September were a very busy time in taking care of Donna, so it was hard enough to sneak away for an hour a week to go grocery shopping, let alone a dentist appointment. The broken tooth didn’t expose the nerve, so I just lived with it.

After Donna passed away I starting making appointments, eye exam (it had been 3 years), a primary care doctor visit (a couple months overdue) and a dentist appointment. October 8th was the dental visit. I got my teeth cleaned and besides the broken tooth I also had a couple of cavities that needed filling, so a follow appointment was penciled in for the 15th.

Cavities were filled and the dentist thought he could recreate the bottom 1/3 of the tooth with the same composite material that he used for the fillings. It looked great, I had a full tooth again. It lasted 3 weeks and came out while eating some popcorn. I didn’t even hit a kernel, just came off. They set up another appointment for November 12th. I thought for sure I was going to get a crown, but he thought it would be worth it to try one more time with the composite recreation of the bottom of #7.

This time the fix lasted less than a day, it came off while I ate my breakfast of Chex cereal with banana slices. I called the dentist office and got an appointment for today the 20th. I was just pulling into the dentist office parking lot when my phone rang, the dentist was not feeling well, so he wasn’t coming in.

We’ll try again next Wednesday the 20th.

800 Mile Thoughts

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 Leave a Comment

After 6 weeks of ownership, 800 local miles driven and 8 modifications added I am almost totally happy with the car. There are a three more modifications I have scheduled to do next week and I won’t say I’ll be totally finished changing or adding things then, but I’d like to think I will be.

I have noticed three things that I kinda wish were different, but do not diminish the love of the car in any meaningful way:

1. The car has heated seats which are nice, but I wish they operated like in the Mini. Right now, if you turn on the heat at one of the three settings it stays at that level after turning the car off, so the next time you get in the heated seats come back on at whatever level they were. In the Mini after shutting off the car and 15 minutes elapse the heated seats will turn off.

2. The power windows have a one touch feature for down, but not for up, you have to hold the switch to raise the windows. And when you unlatch the roof to drop the top, the windows go down a third of the way so the top will clear the window, but they don’t automatically go back up. MX5Things makes a module that you can add to get the auto up, but I’m not sure it is worth the $120 to me.

3. There is a back-up camera, but the guidelines are static. On every other car I’ve been in with a backup camera the guidelines bend with turning the steering wheel to give you an idea if you will clear the side obstacles or not.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Monday, November 11, 2024 Leave a Comment

Veterans Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, November 11, 2024 at 11:11 AM pacific time:

Sport	Off-Road	Touring
1953 Willys M38A1	1953 Dodge M37	2001 Stewart & Stevenson M1078 4×4

Okay, all of these items would typically fall under the off-road category. However, in honor of Veterans Day, I’ve selected items that include the word ‘military’ in their descriptions. Next week, we’ll resume our regular schedule of car-related fun.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Spider Sold for $47,000 on 11/7/24
Off-Road: 1988 Suzuki Samurai Sold for $8,200 on 11/7/24
Touring: 1973 Citroen SM 3.0L 5-Speed Sold for $50,000 on 11/6/24

Another Post Office Picture Drive(s)

Sunday, November 10, 2024 Leave a Comment

After today I am 1/4 of the way through getting pictures of every Post Office in the state of Oregon. Of the 22 post offices labeled Portland I only have 5 left. Trouble is, of those five there are 3 that I tried to get already, but for some reason couldn’t find them. I’ll try to find those at least one more time. The first picture in the top row was taken yesterday when I took a drive to way southeast Portland to CravenSpeed to buy their Clear Acrylic Wind Deflector. The other five were taken this morning.

: Tigard – While visiting CravenSpeed, purveyors of fine automotive accessories in Tigard I made a stop at the Post Office there to add it to this gallery. (1108/24)

: Piedmont Branch – This is right across the street from a food truck village. Good thing I wasn’t hungry because they were all closed on an early Sunday morning. (11/10/24)

: Holladay Park – This Portland Post Office is on the east side of the Willamette River near the Moda Center where the NBA Trailblazers play. (11/10/24)

: Sellwood Branch – I drove in the opposite direction and did a U-turn so I could pull right up front. (11/10/24)

: Milwaukie Branch – Milwaukie is still a city, but the United States Postal Service calls it Portland. (11/10/24)

: Oak Grove Branch – I was going to walk out to the street so I could get a shot that included the nice brick monument that had the name om it, but you couldn’t see the car and not much of the post office itself. (11/10/24)