Month: May 2024

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Memorial Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 27, 2024 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2008 Honda S2000 1971 Ford F-250 2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello
“Memorial Day remains one of America’s most cherished patriotic observances. The spirit of this day has not changed – it remains a day to honor those who died defending our freedom and democracy.”
– Doc Hastings

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 2019 McLaren 720S Sold for $211,000 on 5/22/24
Off-Road: 1968 Ford Bronco Sold for $65,000 on 5/22/24
Touring: 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sold for $42,250 on 5/22/24

Rumpole of the Bailey

During meals Donna I will fire up Discovery+ and watch something while eating. A few days ago we saw that Be My Guest With Ina Garten had a new episode, this one had a British actor Emily Mortimer on. Never heard of her, but her most famous bit, at least in America, is she was in Mary Poppins Returns. About 10 minutes in Ina starts ask her about her family and mentions her famous barrister and writer father John.

Cue the depths of Brian’s hazy memory – John Mortimer created and wrote a long lost favorite British TV show of mine about, surprise, a barrister called Rumpole of the Bailey. I enjoyed them back in the previous century on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. I rewatched them again in the early aughts on Netflix discs. Somewhere along the line I managed to rip the entire series into cutting edge AVI files. Well, I still have them saved in the depths of my PC’s hazy memory.

While doing a little Internet sleuthing for the image above I found an article about how Emily and her younger sister Rosie are updating Rumpole and it may feature a female in the lead. Good luck to them, I wouldn’t be able to watch that and not because of the female lead (if it happens), but the show is to beloved in my heart.

Anyway, can you guess what I have been watching for the last few nights?

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Brake Caliper Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 20, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2019 McLaren 720S 1968 Ford Bronco 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia
You can definitely get away with brightly body colored calipers on a sports car. You can’t see the caliper and that is how it should be on this vehicle. Although this car is sporty the calipers shouldn’t be highlighted like this.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata Bid to $15,000 on 5/17/24
Off-Road: 1949 Willys-Overland Jeep Sold for $27,000 on 5/16/24
Touring: 1966 Iso Rivolta IR 300 Sold for $111,000 on 5/15/24

Hope, Strikes, Return

Star Wars Edition of SORT
As of Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Rise Dawn War
Episode IV
A New Hope		 Episode V
The Empire Strikes Back		 Episode VI
The Return Of The Jedi
Donna and I saw a movie called Star Wars while we were in the Navy stationed on Guam. I’m sure it wasn’t on the opening weekend. It had to be at least a week after that because we got everything a week late. All the TV shows were shifted exactly 7 days because the video tapes came by boat to the island. I’m pretty sure we saw the movie twice in quick succession. The first time because of the buzz about the movie and the second time we partook in the devil’s weed so we could see it while buzzed. In 1980 Donna was out of the Navy, but I was still in and stationed in Meridian, MS so we probably saw The Empire Strikes Back opening weekend in the mall’s multiplex. When The Return of the Jedi opened I was sitting on the U.S.S. Iwo Jima anchored not far from the coast of Beirut, so we probably didn’t see it until I returned to port Norfolk, VA in July.

Azaleas?

We have this stunning orange flowered plant right next to our front steps up to the porch. I had no idea what they are, but they look really great as a pop of color. There is actually another plant exactly like it on the other side of the street near the wall that defines the complex’s entrance.

We were sitting on our front porch the other day taking in the nice spring weather when a car that was leaving the complex stopped right across the street. The passenger got out of the car and walked over towards us and asked, “What kind of plant is that?” I replied, “I have no idea, but you might ask our neighbor across the street. She is outside working in her really nice garden right now.”

As he headed over there the woman driving said, “We are out looking for nice flowering plants because we lost a bunch in the ice storm we had.” I told her we did lose a few plants too. “You could always take a picture and Google it.” Turns out the gardening neighbor didn’t know what it was either, so I said, “Let me look it up.” I snapped a photo and image searched it. “Google says it is an azalea, but it doesn’t look like one to me.” Off they drove.

I was basing my negative on the azaleas we had in our yard back in Aiken, my memories of visiting Augusta National and from TV watching the Masters. But later that day I googled, “masters azaleas” and it turns out I was wrong, that flowering bush is in fact an azalea, but it is a mountain azalea which is different from the domesticated ones in our South Carolina yard. Here is a picture that I found on the Golfweek website taken by Michael Madrid of the USA TODAY Network.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Just Another Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 13, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata 1949 Willys-Overland Jeep 1966 Iso Rivolta IR 300
This Miata has 7k miles in 34 years. I had 7k miles on my ’90 Miata in like two months of ownership. It has the word overland in its name, obviously that has a different meaning 75 years later. Dang, this sure is beautiful looking piece of rolling art. I have no idea about this car, but now I want one.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1955 Beck 550 Spyder Sold for $67,166 on 5/9/24
Off-Road: 1996 Land Rover Discovery Sold for $35,750 on 5/9/24
Touring: 2011 Mini Cooper Sold for $15,750 on 5/8/24

Rise, Dawn, War

Planet of the Apes Edition of SORT
As of Sunday, May 12, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Rise Dawn War
Rise of the
Planet of the Apes		 Dawn of the
Planet of the Apes		 War for the
Planet of the Apes
I read Pierre Boulle’s novel long before they made the first movie. I really liked the first movie, but was disappointed in the ending. I liked the book’s better, which they sort of tried to pay homage to in the 2001 version with Mark Walberg, but it still wasn’t right. I’ve seen these 3 movies before, but I’m rewatching them again because of the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie out this weekend. But I’ll be waiting to see that when it shows up on a streaming service.