Year: 2025

Hello, My Name Is Brian And I’m A Reacheraholic.

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It has been fourteen months since I last wrote here of Jack Reacher, but it is time now because I’ve got two and a half different Reacher things to talk about.

1) After swearing I wouldn’t buy any more Reacher novels for most of the 2020s, in 2023 I did enjoy #28, The Secret and was looking forward to #29 in 2024. Well, I finally did buy that book in November and really struggled with it. There was a team of bad guys trying to do something and half of them didn’t trust the other half and somehow Reacher got involved on one of the sides and in the end everyone was dead except Reacher. I didn’t help that I could never get a clear idea of who was who and what the end game of the bad guys was. I’d tell here again that I won’t buy the next Reacher novel in fall of 2025, but we all no better don’t we.

2) Season 3 of the Amazon TV show premiered a couple of weeks ago. It is based on Book #7, Persuader, where Reacher goes undercover to help the FBI rescue a missing undercover informant inside the home of the owner of a shady rug import company. I’ve gotten used to the fact that they do change several things from each book and so far, I’m 4 episodes in the 8 planned, they are doing a okay keeping it close to the book. The one downside is the woman FBI agent has a terrible Boston accent. It’s a little like the actors in the Jesse Stone movies from a decade ago, those that try for it never get it right. Because of *my* shoddy memory I don’t remember how this ends, but I’ll bet, if this is like the other 2 Amazon productions, there is going to be a lot more shooting than in the book.

1/2) A bought a copy of Lee Child’s book of short stories called, Safe Enough. There are 20 stories that don’t have anything to do with Jack Reacher, but so far most could have been Reacher stories or segments from a Reacher book. I have a few left to finish, who knows maybe one of them will inspire book #30.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

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Just Another Monday Edition of SORT
As of Monday, March 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2005 Cadillac XLR 1968 Ford Bronco 2000 Mercedes CLK430
Like yesterday’s post on a deja vu feeling, I had one today too. While scrolling through the auctions on Bring-a-Trailer, I could swear these we the same vehicles from last week, even the very odd-ball looking ones were familiar.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Bid to USD $72,000 on 2/27/25
Off-Road: 1973 Mohs SafariKar Sold for USD $72,500 on 2/26/25
Touring: 1996 Renault Twingo Sold for USD $8,569 on 2/26/25

I Could Swear I’ve Been Here Before

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Went out and took several somewhat local post office photos today. I had been out in this neck of the woods gathering post offices back in November and snagged a bunch, there were still several to get. The first 3 were west of the Willamette River and the last four were east of it and on the way back home.

The first post office in Lake Oswego was easy. The second post office was a little more challenging, Google Maps couldn’t direct me to my final destination. It is on the campus of what was once Marylhurst University and I could see the roads I needed to get there, but it was kinda hard driving and following the blue dot along on the phone at the same time. Luckily it was early Sunday morning and I was the only car driving around.

The 3rd of the day in West Linn (top photo) was the weird one. As I was driving to it, the closer I got, the more familiar the roads seemed. I was having the strangest sense of Déjà vu. When I got to the Post Office, it was in a shopping center and I swore I’d been here before. I remember it because it was a very rainy day and the parking lot was mirrorlike with water. But there was a lingering feeling that maybe I hadn’t been here before, so I took a couple pictures while I was there anyway.

The last four Post Offices were easy finds in smallish rural towns and when I got home, I looked through all the post office photos looking for that West Linn image. It wasn’t there, the one I thought was it, was actually Keizer outside of Salem. I looked to see if I posted West Linn on Instagram or maybe a random post on the blog here. Nope.

Mystery #1 was solved when I started to mark off the captured Post Offices in the master spreadsheet. The address I had for the West Linn Post Office was listed as 5665 Hood St. Wait a minute the post office I found today was at 22220 Salamo Rd. I typed the 5665 Hood address into Google Maps and it dumped me into a shopping center area. When I looked at the street view, I recognized it. The memory was of me driving around looking for the post office in the parking lot was solid.

Back in November I must have realized that the Post Office used to be there and looked up on the phone to get the new address. The reason the route to the West Linn Post Office seemed so familiar is that because back in November I must have driven to the new location. Mystery #2 remains unsolved, why the heck didn’t I take any pictures of the post office back then?

A Good Walk Spoiled

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Turns out my favorite coffee shop is a mile and a half away. Because today was a nice day I decided to walk there and get a 16oz Salted Caramel Latte and walk back.

There are two ways to get to Stomping Grounds coffee shop and each is roughly the same length because it is on one side of a rectangle and home is on the opposite side. Probably will not do that again, it was not a lot of fun, all four sides of the rectangle are busy roads.

Donna and I used to walk to our favorite coffee shop in Klamath Falls, Brevada, and it too was a mile and a half away. The difference was that we had three different routes between our home and coffee. Two of the routes were very quiet, one was mostly on a multi use trail and the other involved quiet residential streets and a short trail. Only one was via a busy road and it was no where near Portland Metro busy.

My What A Big Cactus You Have

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One of the last stops in Arizona in 1989 was the Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson. By this time in the trip I think we had both decided to move south to Aiken, but we didn’t really say it out loud until we returned home to Madison, NJ.

Recap of today’s events, film at eleven.

  1. I got up
  2. Rode the indoor bike and then showered
  3. Ate breakfast, the usual
  4. Light grocery shopping at Fred Meyer
  5. Walked across the street to Lowes
  6. To pick up the spray can of Flex Seal I ordered online last night
  7. Drove home and put away groceries
  8. Sprayed Flex Seal along the edge of the awning
  9. Walked up the the Community Center
  10. Spent an hour with my peeps drinking coffee
  11. Lunch of an Ensure
  12. Took a short drive with the top down
  13. Took a 2-hour nap
  14. Chatted with Sally on the
  15. Dinner of a sandwich and half an apple
  16. Put together my new computer chair, it has lights!
  17. Started this…

Another Sunny Day

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I went out yesterday and took some photos of the new tire/wheel setup and totally forgot to put the top down. Remedied that today. This morning while I waited on the people who were coming to clean out the gutters I finally finished the 1000 piece puzzle of the Grand Tetons National Park that has been languishing on the table since before Christmas.

New Tires On Old Wheels On New Miata

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Well, I gone an done it. I mounted new tires on some 25-year-old Miata wheels to put on the new 2024 Miata. And I for one think it looks fantastic. Before I could take the above picture, the car needed to be washed, so I pulled out the Griot’s Garage Foaming Sprayer and gave it a bath. After drying off the car I took a drive for lunch and headed out to a local spot to take some photos.