Day 1 – Mountain Home, ID

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First leg of this mini road trip. It was all I-84 heading east until I got to Idaho. My last trip through Idaho, I spotted a gas station called Stinkers that has a skunk mascot, and I wondered if it was like a Buc-ees and had stickers of its mascot. I didn’t stop then, but this time I did. They had t-shirts, mugs, etc, but no stickers.

When I got back in the car, I plugged in this evening’s hotel, and it showed 2-1/4 hours still. That didn’t seem right, but I noticed I still had “Avoid Highways” on. Ahh, took that off and it said 1-1/4 hours. But the shorter route took me through Boise. I got nothing but time, so I put “Avoid Highways” back on. It was a nice zig-zaggy route through farm fields and small towns.

I have dragged along my new bike so as to check out any cycling stuff in Cottonwood. So on arrival at the hotel, I figured I’d take a small ride to shake off sitting in the car for 8 hours. I needed to mail a postcard to my neighbor with the second line of our third collaborative effort in limerick writing. It is only a little over 2 miles away, perfect. When I checked in, the weather looked fine, but when I went back out to ride, there were ugly thunderstorm clouds overhead nearby.

They looked as close as the numerous ones I dodged on my back road route. I decided to ride anyway. Less than a half mile in, the wind picked up and random drops were hitting me. I continued. On the way there those winds were in my face, so I figured at least they would push me home, and that is what they did. The sprinkling did change in intensity to real rain until I was back in the hotel room. Pheeew.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 93.9%

 

Baseball, Bicycling & Car Washing

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The Red Sox won today after losing five in a row. During that 5-game losing streak, their chance of making the Wild Card round of the playoffs went from 84.2% to 94.3%. Go figure…

I personalized my new bicycle. Went to REI to get a frame pack because it is brown/tan so it matches the bike’s color theme. Put my front and back lights on as to hope it makes drivers see me. I added a set of pedals I purchased off Amazon that are flat on one side and the other has SPD click-ins. I think tomorrow will be my inaugural ride, maybe mid-morning when most commuting folks are at work and the traffic volume slows.

The GTI got a bath. It has been a minute and it had accumulated a nice level of dust and such from being driven and parked 50 feet from a busy road.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 94.3%

 

Doing The Bike Shuffle

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I’ve been considering a new bicycle ever since Santa Fe Sally bought a new one back last November. My old road bike has been gathering dust in the outside shed since moving here. It is missing pedals and a seat, which I had moved to the indoor exercycle. The only bike I’ve using is the Trek Marlin 5 that was purchased when we moved to Klamath Falls.

Today I headed over to Gresham Bicycle Center to see what I could see. I asked what they had in a gravel bike with drop bars for around $1500, plus or minus a couple hundred. They didn’t have a big selection, but there was one hanging all by itself that looked nice and hit my price criteria (by a buck), so I asked to take a spin. She pulled the bike down for me, It wasn’t set up perfectly; the seat was too low, but I wasn’t going far. I circled the block and even ducked into a parking garage to climb up a “hill.” Very nice and a definite contender. On my way out I said, if you don’t see me before the end of the week, I found something else some place else.

My next stop was a place I’ve driven by several dozen times on my way to either the Mazda or VW dealer getting service, bike works by p:ear. As it turns out, it doesn’t sell new bikes, just used ones. But I did find out that they take donations of bikes and fix them up for resale, with a sliding scale to help those less fortunate get mobile. Ahh, here is where the old unused road Bianchi can go.

I returned home and swapped out the celeste green pedals and seat off the exercise bike with the extra black stuff that I had in the shed. I then got to use my new bike rack for real by putting the road bike on it and headed back to Bike Works. They wanted to know if I wanted a donation receipt, and I declined because I’ve never gotten anywhere close to qualifying for anything larger than the standard deduction.

I headed back to Gresham to go buy the bike I test rode. When we were working out the details, I asked if they would take my Trek as a trade-in. They said sure, but they obviously wanted to see it first. Back home I went. Loaded up the Trek on that new rack, and drove back to Gresham. The The only thing wrong with the Trek was it had some loose things because it hadn’t been serviced in forever. In the end, they gave me $150 off the new bike even though its “blue book” value was $80 and cemented me as a future repeat customer.

Behold the Fairdale Weekender Nomad in matte army green:

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 93.0%

 

Reverting To Form

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For the past 6 weeks the Red Sox have been red hot, going 35 and 5. But that seems to be coming to an end; they have lost the last 4 games in a row. Before the losing streak, they were nipping at the heels of the Yankees, and now they are 3 games behind them. Baseball Reference has their final record at worst 84-78, which would probably still get them that last playoff spot, but I think they are optimistic.

It is not all doom and gloom, as they still have a 4-game lead for the second Wild Card spot. But if this four-game stretch is a harbinger of their return to the form of May/June, they’ll be looking up at the playoff teams and polishing their golf clubs.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 90.5%

 

Track, Daily, Crush

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Track Daily Crush
2018 Ferrari 488 2000 Honda Prelude 1983 Chrysler LeBaron
This is the Challenge Race Car version of the car. Used to own a 1st gen Prelude back in the day. Third Chrysler in a row, you’d think I have a type.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for or were bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Track: Backdraft Racing RT4B Sold for USD $109,000 08/06/2026
Daily: 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sold for USD $6,600 08/06/2026
Crush: 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser Sold for USD $7,000 08/04/2026

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 87.5%

 

New Jigsaw Puzzle Supplier Maybe

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Having sort of run out of my usual suppliers of jigsaw puzzles, I thought for the heck of it, why don’t I try Walmart? They had all four tiers of one section against the back wall just full of puzzles. I spent about a half hour looking at every 1000-piece puzzle they had. Didn’t really find too much I liked. I did end up with a couple of Pink Sky puzzles. Never heard of them; they are only sold at Walmart, so that explains that. But after starting the Nashville one, it seems like a nice-quality puzzle. And like most puzzles nowadays, it had a poster inside so you didn’t have to rely on the box art, but this one is full-size. It’s like they just took a copy of what they make the puzzle out of, without the cardboard backing, and folded it up and put it in the box.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 84.2%

 

Mahalo

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I normally stay away from the community’s monthly potluck dinners, but for whatever reason I opted in for today’s luau-themed one. Maybe just so I could wear the one Hawaiian shirt I kept from my “collection” of them that I used for “Hawaiian Shirt Friday” in my ASCO days.

I spent an extra $14 at Fred Meyer on Friday for the dish I was going to do. One can of Spam, one container of chopped pineapple, and some skewers. I managed to make 10 skewers of 4 squares of Spam, 4 chunks of pineapple, and 4 squares of a sweet onion layer. I cooked them on my little gas grill after lunch and then stuck them in the oven at 170° until it was time to go up to the community center.

At first I was worried that there might be too few, then I worried the opposite way: what if nobody took one? I had one at the cookout even though I had eaten the equivalent of one with the number of pieces that tore while being skewered. As it turned out, there was only one left sitting there when I bailed after an hour.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 79.2%