Sport, Off-Road, Touring

The Reds and the Black Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 22, 2024 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1974 Porsche 911 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser 1993 Mazda RX-7
Just phoning this one in, maybe next week I’ll have more to say about the cars I pick.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: Modified 1955 Volkswagen Beetle Sold for $22,500 on 1/21/24
Off-Road: 1963 Volkswagen Dune Buggy Bid to $8,800 on 1/21/24
Touring: 1961 Volkswagen Type 2 Panel Van Bid to $29,000 on 1/20/24

Winter Wonderland

Last Friday during the day it was doing the usual northwest winter weather thing, i.e. cool and misting. That cool was the last time it was above freezing for 5 days. Saturday the rain shifted to snow and it kept falling until late Sunday afternoon leaving behind an inch or so on the ground. On Monday I made a quick run to the grocery store to get some essentials because now there was freezing rain headed our way.

The freezing rain came down Monday night through Thursday morning leaving everything coated in a sheath of ice. The city came to a standstill. Trees came down knocking out power to thousands. We were very lucky in that ours never really went out. But believe me there were at least ten times from Wednesday evening until Friday morning that it flickered or blipped off momentarily making us hold our breath. Our cable stayed on the whole time except for one brief outage on Friday evening.

The weather folks say it got it 35 degrees on Thursday, but you couldn’t tell it if you poked your head outside. It really wasn’t until Friday that the temps peeked above freezing and moist rain fell. Friday afternoon I went outside and found some ice melt stuff in the shed that the previous owner left behind. When I looked at Portland’s usual winter weather before we moved I opted to leave behind the melt stuff I had in Klamath Falls along with the snow shovels. I poked around inside the shed and did find an 8 x 24 piece of floor tile that became my impromptu shove that I used to clean the driveway until it broke in half.

Because we are the first house as you come into the subdivision off the main drag and it is all slightly uphill after us, our driveway was kind of ice locked and I figured I could get out if needed but getting back in was probably not going to happen, so we skipped the usual Friday grocery shopping trip. Fortunately once it got above freezing on Friday it has stayed that way since. Then the rain that fell that night and on Saturday was now helping get rid of all that ice. Probably by Monday morning there will be very little evidence left of any of the snow and ice.

2002 All Over Again?

I started blogging in January of 2002 and if I remember right the first few posts I wrote back then were about the cold weather in Aiken, so here is a throw back to those early days:

Last weekend we had some uncharacteristic weather for Portland, snow. Maybe an inch with two inch drifts, we really didn’t need to go anywhere, so we didn’t. The Mini would not have had a problem in it. I kept the snow tires we bought for Klamath Falls living and mounted them on the car back in December. But, the chance of finding another driver out there with something other than all-seasons and snow driving experience were pretty slim, so we stayed at home. Along with that snow came bitter cold and then a couple days later on Tuesday we got freezing rain which continued all the way through Thursday morning.

Yesterday the high, for the first time in nearly a week, made it a couple degrees above freezing. Today, Friday, we made it to around 35 and actually got some melting. Tomorrow, hopefully it will actually get to the predicted 41° and maybe we can get out and do some grocery shopping.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Air-Cooled Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 15, 2024 at 11:00 AM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
Modified 1955 Volkswagen Beetle 1963 Volkswagen Dune Buggy 1961 Volkswagen Type 2 Panel Van
Been awhile since I did an all air-cooled VW SORT. And as usual when I do, I have to stretch the category definitions a bit because there are hundreds of other options to choose from that nail the category.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2005 Honda S2000 Sold for $22,250 on 1/9/24
Off-Road: 1996 Toyota Mega Cruiser Sold for $167,500 on 1/10/24
Touring: 2007 Aston Martin Vantage Sold for $45,500 on 1/9/24

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

College Football Playoff National Championship Game Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 8, 2024 at 1:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2005 Honda S2000 1996 Toyota Mega Cruiser 2007 Aston Martin Vantage
The long winded title of this SORT has really nothing to do with any of the vehicles and and the NCAA and their playoffs. It has to do with my love of the S2000 and V8 Vantage, plus the ludicrousness of the right hand drive Toyota.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1965 Porsche 356C Sold for $100,000 on 1/3/24
Off-Road: 1984 Bombardier Iltis Sold for $16,750 on 1/3/24
Touring: 1989 Mercedes-Benz 560SL Sold for $60,000 on 1/4/24

The Secret

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

I just finished reading the latest Jack Reacher book, #26, called “Better Off Dead.” And I think it might be my last Jack Reacher book. This is the second book Lee Child has co-written in conjunction with his brother Andrew.

Friday, December 30, 2022

So, this time I mean it, No Plan B was the last Reacher book (#27) I’m going to buy. I’ve got digital copies of the first two dozen books and I’ll probably go back and read each one as they get adapted for the Amazon Prime TV series.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Hello, my name is Brian and I’m a Reacheraholic.

After watching the first three episodes of season 2 of Amazon’s Reacher a month ago I started jonesing for more Reacher. I though maybe I’d go back and read some of the early novels and I have already read through the whole series several times, so I didn’t really want to do that again. I have already watched Amazon’s season one twice, so not again because it is too soon.

So what’s an addict to do? That’s right, in spite of my protestations listed above I bought a physical copy of Jack Reacher novel #28, The Secret.

Either the writing in this book is getting better or I have just gotten used to the new brother team of authors, but this book was not bad. The plot seemed recycled and mashed up from a couple of earlier books, The Enemy (#8) with its high level Army folks in on the bad side and Night School (#21) for its inter-agency cooperation team. Plus in both of those books they are set in the past when Reacher was still in the Army.

Anyway, I’m now anxiously awaiting late 2024 when Reacher #29 will hit the bookstores…

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

New Years Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 1, 2024 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1965 Porsche 356C 1984 Bombardier Iltis 1989 Mercedes-Benz 560SL
Here’s to another new year full of cars I’d like to own, but never will.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1991 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sold for $12,000 on 12/26/23
Off-Road: 1972 Volkswagen Baja Beetle Sold for $18,000 on 12/26/23
Touring: 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Sold for $80,000 on 12/26/23