Year: 2022

That Was Fun

So I watched the first episode of Reacher on Thursday. On Friday I watched five in two shifts and on Saturday I finished the last two. Now, I’m almost sorry Amazon didn’t do to Reacher what they did for the sixth season of The Expanse because I have no will power.

For The Expanse‘s first 5 seasons the episodes were dropped all at once, but for the 6th, they released one episode each week, kind of like old school TV. So, because of that lack of will power, I have churned through all 6-1/2 hours of Reacher and now I will have to wait another year or so for more, that is, if they do decide to make more.

Anyway, I enjoyed the series and if you like that sort of tough guy takes on the world with lots of fighting, shooting, blowing things up sort of thing, you should watch it. If you have read the books, the plot of the first book is almost all there and for the most part follows right along with the novel. Almost all of the changes, except for maybe a couple of head scratchers for me anyway, are there for TV purposes, like too expensive to film or nearly impossible to recreate.

Because this was more or less an origin story for our hero, they did give us some flashbacks, that came from a short story called Second Son, to sort of explain Reacher to folks who may not be book readers. And because this is 2022 and the book was written in 1997, some of the supporting characters get some different beats to make it feel up to date. They also introduce a reoccurring character from several other Reacher books, but is not in the Killing Floor that this based is on. But that is fine and probably was done as a carrot for the actor, so she knows that there is more work coming her way.

As with the Tom Cruise movies, and I was unaware of this because of my steadfast refusal to watch them, the author Lee Child has a cameo in the show in the very last episode:

I Suppose It Is the Fourth of February Already Somewhere

Earlier this evening I sat down in front of the PC, and because it is the day before the Reacher series premiers on Amazon, I might find a newer or different trailer out that I hadn’t seen yet. Well, there wasn’t any trailer, but the entire show was there waiting to be watched.

So I watched the first of the eight episodes. Watched it all the way through, even the credits. The lead actor fits the bill and I believe he is Reacher incarnate. From now on whenever I’m reading a Jack Reacher book I will picture Alan Ritchson in my head, just like I visualize Sam Heughan in any of the Outlander books.

This story is based on a book set in Georgia and the scenery looked the part, from the countryside to the small town square. I checked IMDB and the only filming locations mentioned are in Ontario, Canada. I guess it is a good thing they filmed it in the summer.

Also on the IMDB page there were several user reviews already there and they were dated February 4th even though it was early evening here. It wasn’t even past midnight on the east coast.

But then I remembered the credits I watched. I had noticed at the end of them the voice actors were listed for all the different countries that will be seeing this show. I realized, at least from the languages I recognized, many were in Europe and it was actually February 4th there.

Lost Mail?

Up until now I can count on one finger the number of pieces of mail of ours, that have gotten lost. But that number has tripled in the last month.

It is tax time and all the necessary paperwork has been rolling in, all except for Brian’s 2021 Economic Impact Statement letter. We got Donna’s in the mail a couple week’s ago, but mine hasn’t shown up. Not that we really needed it, we both got the amount. So I just doubled the figure on hers when I entered the info into the tax software and we didn’t qualify for the Recovery Rebate credit (whatever that is.)

We are now both getting Social Security, so I made a test tax return for 2022 that includes that money in addition to our small pensions and the IRA withdrawals. Oregon doesn’t tax Social Security, but the US government does and if we didn’t take withholding from it we would have had a pretty hefty tax bill next year. We both filled out a W-4V and mailed them to our local (Medford) Social Security Administration office.

We used separate envelopes and a week or so later I received something back acknowledging that I had asked for withholding. Donna did not and sure enough, there wasn’t any money taken out of her most recent deposit. Yesterday we mailed a second W-4V out, hopefully this one won’t get misplaced somewhere.

7.5 miles of errand running.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 6

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Winter Blues Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 31, 2022 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2001 BMW
M3 Coupe		 1988 Mercedes-Benz
240GD		 1955 Ford
Courier Sedan Delivery
An over 20-year old BMW from Japan with 145 thousand miles, what could go wrong? An ex-Danish military vehicle that was refurbished in Poland, what could go wrong? A car as old as me with a speedometer & coolant gauge that are inoperable, what could go wrong?

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series Sold for $425,000 on 1/31/22
Off-Road: 2018 Mercedes-Benz AMG G63 Sold for $205,000 on 1/26/22
Touring: 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 S AMG Wagon Sold for $70,500 on 1/28/22

Kicker Rebate

It’s tax time and as usual I’m using the H&R Block software to led me through the job. I have all the info I need to file the Federal return, but I can’t yet because the software won’t let me. I have to wait on a program update that manages the Social Security section. Hey, it might be the same if I was using anybody’s else software too, because everybody is probably waiting on a US government thing.

Once all your basic money information is entered in. there is small window in the upper left that shows you what your rebate will be or what you will owe. As you continue filling out the sections the software it updates those figures to reflect any changes. This year we are going to get a couple hundred back from Uncle Sam.

Last year we owed the state a few bucks and as I filled out the state return for 2021 it looked like we were going to get like a few bucks back instead. That was until I got to the “Other Oregon Credits” section. There was something called a Kicker Rebate. On the next page I had to enter how much our state income tax liability was in 2020 and on the next page the calculated rebate made the the Oregon refund jump nearly $900!

Apparently this is an Oregon thing that when there is a revenue surplus above a certain amount they give that back to both citizens and corporations as a percentage of the tax they paid. We will gladly take it back.

Not Freaky Fast Today

We wanted to get some Jimmy Johns subs for lunch so I placed our standard order in the app and selected “as soon as possible” for a pick up time. It is a mere 10 minute drive to the store from home, with changing into real clothes and driving over it is typically waiting for me when I get there.

Today they didn’t live up to their motto of “Freaky Fast” at all. When I entered the store they were over a dozen people standing around awaiting sandwiches. There were only 3 employees working, where they usually have five, and one of them was taking orders of the walk-ins. I probably had a 15 minute wait compared to the normal, open the door, grab order and leave.

17.1 miles on a nice little loop.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 5