Smoke’m If You Want, But No Drinking

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This morning’s sun was weak and orange in color. The smoke from the central and eastern Oregon fires has found its way over the Cascades to Portland. The smoke arrived early, but the fire smell didn’t make it here until early afternoon.

The main water line into the Quail Hollow community was leaking bad enough that they were way over budget. So since a month ago we have had three different days where the water was shut off for most of the day. Today was the third and hopefully the last.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 81.1%

 

Track, Daily, Crush

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Am I Seeing Double Edition
Nope. When searching for this week’s entries, two of the below cars were right near each other, which caused me to go see if there was a third match…

Track Daily Crush
Backdraft Racing RT4B 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser
These look like they were made for the track but are probably only seen at your local Cars & Coffee. An OG Miata, 1990, and I wonder if it will top the nearly $19,000 of last week’s 1995 car. Last week’s crush was warranted; I rented a convertible one. I’m assuming these are as bad.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for or were bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Track: Backdraft Racing RT3B Bid to USD $62,800 07/30/2026
Daily: 1995 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sold for USD $18,751 07/30/2026
Crush: 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser Bid to USD $13,500 07/30/2026

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 80.9%

 

Someone Has Sold Their Soul

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I’m thinking it is Chad Tracy, the interim manager.

Since the beginning of July the Red Sox have played 27 games and have lost only 4 of them. On July 1st their playoff chances were listed as about 12%; as of today that number is almost 83%.

Here is why I think the Devil might be involved here. First, somehow they didn’t come out of the All-Star break with a losing streak as usual. Then, a week ago, they traded a pitcher that should have been on the All-Star team, who was 11-1 so far, for a power-hitting infielder named Curtis Reed. On his second at-bat with the Red Sox, Mr. Reed was hit on the forearm and will be out for the next 4-6 weeks with a non-displaced fracture. Now, this weekend we had a three-game series with what most folks would agree is the best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Sox won all three, 9-4, 3-2 & 8-4.

Seeing as I’m not on Instagram anymore, I guess I’ll just try and post an image here…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 82.7%

 

Lazy Day

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Well, not really. I walked the three-mile round trip to Stomping Grounds for my latte, but other than that, I’ve been watching TV, working on a jigsaw, and feeding myself. Also, I posted my final image on Instagram.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 80.8%

 

(about every fourth)
Friday Night Is All Right
(for dancing)

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This is the third time I’ve been out dancing at the bar that is practically across the street. The Northwest Transit Band has a definite yacht rock vibe and is fun for those of us of a certain age that recognize the songs and that are perfectly suited for shaking around in a haphazard way. It seems like they play at Celebrities about once a month, which is just the right gap for a night on the town and a bit of what some people might call dancing.

This time it was back to just Tere and me; last month’s extra two didn’t join us. Apparently, she and I connected to the music, and the other two did not. Tere’s beau, Jason, asked if it was alright if he didn’t go (of course it was OK), and Donna didn’t go because once was enough for her.

Tere and I have adopted the stance of, “We’ll never see these people ever again,” so we just cut loose. This isn’t exactly correct, as I think I’m starting to recognize a few of the people, but I still don’t care (this comes with the wisdom of age.) The band will back on the 29th of August and we’ll be there.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 81.9%

 

Third Exhaust Pipe

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I already have a bike rack, a Bones 2-Bike Trunk Rack, but it is not recommended for use on vinyl wrap like on the GTI, so I bought a rack that goes into a trailer hitch, a Kuat Sherpa 2.0.

Today was my appointment at U-Haul to have a trailer hitch installed. I had an appointment for the first of the day, 9:00am, walked up to the counter, gave them the key, and I was told that it would be about 45 minutes. So I took my morning walk around the giant shopping center that was right next door. Even ducking into a couple of the stores and doing a bit of window shopping.

I was working my way back to U-Haul, and the phone rang; the car was ready. I looked at the time, and it was 9:45. When I did get to U-Haul, there was a line almost out the door. From the door until I made it to a register to pay for the install, that took the same 45 minutes it took them to install it.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 80.5%

 

Instagram

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Tomorrow I am going to delete the Instagram app on my phone. As well as taking off the widget here that links to my account. It has become too much junk. When I started using the platform back in February 2018, it was still photographs with a slight social media bent. Now there is an ad every third post, and the algorithm is intent on feeding me a steady stream of crap because I paused on some other post.

Tomorrow I have to find a sign that reads ‘EXIT’ and take a photo. This is because my vey first photo posted was a parking lot road marking that read ‘ENTER’.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 78.9%