Month: March 2025

Can I Have “70s Movies” For 250 Alex?

When I went to catch up on last week’s late-night talk shows I was pleased to see that Friday’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was just a 4-Part interview with Gary Oldman. Stephan traveled to London, Gary’s hometown, to do the interview. I did not realize that Oldman was British, I thought he was just putting it on when doing Slow Horses. On that note, Oldman mentions that he had played so many Americans in movies that he lost his natural English accent and had to resurrect for it for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

I watched the interview a segment at a time on YouTube and it wasn’t until afterward I remembered that if you go to CBS.com you can watch the whole show in one long episode with limited commercials. At one point in the interview Stephan asks Gary what his favorite movie is and his reply was, Francis Ford Coppola’s, The Conversation with Gene Hackman. I thought, wow, I love that movie too. I’ve watched it at least 3 times, but I haven’t seen it in about 25 years. I wondered if it was streaming somewhere.

One of the good things about looking up a movie on IMDB is that they serve up ways to watch what you are looking up. Sure enough, it was available on Prime Video, not for free, even for Prime Members, but you could rent it for $4. Today, I watched this movie from the 70s and all it cost was 250 cents because I had a buck and a half of promotional credit in my account.

Wetlands, Not Wet Man

Bonus Monday Post
I had already done the indoor cycling this morning, so I figured I’d just rest on those laurels, until I noticed a sunny day outside while making my lunch. After eating, I checked what the weather called for and if AccuWeather was correct in their local forecast, the rain in the area wouldn’t materialize until around 3PM.

So around 1:30pm I changed the sweatpants for some grownup adult pants and drove over to City Hall because there is a small park there where I could get onto the trail over to the Salish Ponds. I wanted to start here because the last time I had done this trail walk I stared on the other end. And you know my guiding rule of life, always mix up your route, when possible, it makes it harder for any hitman your enemies may have hired to find you.

The sky was dappled with both blue sky and gray clouds when I set off, but as I walked the blue became harder to find. About a half mile in the sky was all gray and getting a little darker. I continued along. Until the breeze turned from cool to cold, when I remembered that discretion is the better part of valor. I turned around and headed back. Almost back and it started to sprinkle. I was maybe 20 yards away, I could see the car…right about here I could create big drama by telling you that the heavens opened up and I got soaked through in sight of my destination, but the rain held off until I was inside the Miata.

It rained all the way home. After changing back into those sweatpants, I went into the kitchen to make a warm beverage, I looked out the window and the sun was shining brightly.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Green Go Braugh Edition of SORT
As of Monday, March 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1966 Porsche 356 Replica 1987 Mercedes 240GD 1952 Mercedes 300 D
I did a similar thing last year on Monday the 18th and called it the Erin Go Green Edition. I think I can get a pass on the date, but the phrase “Erin go bragh” roughly translates as “Ireland till doomsday”, so Erin Go Green sort of means Ireland till Green, and if there is any place that doesn’t need to go green is Ireland, it has always been green. I’m hoping that this year’s title of Green Go Braugh can be translated into Green til Doomsday or “Green Forever.”

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 2005 Honda S2000 Sold for USD $36,250 on 3/12/25
Off-Road: 2023 Jeep Wrangler Bid to USD $70,500 on 3/13/25
Touring: 2018 Jaguar XJ Bid to USD $18,500 on 3/12/25

Quiet Sunday

Watched a couple of car videos on YouTube, watched an episode of The West Wing and then listened to corresponding podcast episode of The West Wing Weekly and then watched a Red Sox spring training game on MLBTV.

After lunch I headed over near the Troutdale Airport where there are some paved and unpaved trails and took a 3 mile saunter. Now, ripping a bunch of Noir Jazz off of YouTube for listening to in the car when I have to drive somewhere and it’s raining.

After dinner I’ll probably watch an episode or two of something called The Story of Film: An Odyssey. It is fifteen roughly one hour long episodes covering film from all over the world. The first couple on the origins of motion pictures was real interesting, but now it is starting to fracture and my interest is wanning, but it kills some time and it is still interesting in spots.

Three To Two

This morning I owned 3 cars and now it is down to 2. Which in reality makes me a one car family temporarily because their are no seatbelts in Bucky, they are In Transit to Next Facility according to USPS. I can drive it without the radio, but I think I’ll wait for the belts.

Brother-In-Law Scott came down from Everett on the train and I picked him up in Vancouver, Washington. He asked if I preferred Vancouver or Portland to pick him up at, I didn’t have a preference, but I picked Vancouver. Basically because it is not much further than the Portland train station and Vancouver is a lot smaller of a town.

We had a late breakfast or early lunch in Vancouver at the only restaurant I knew in town, Victoria’s Cafe. The only reason I know of it is because I met up with Sally’s daughter Claire and her new beau and his kids about a month ago.

We drove back here, loaded the snow tires in the back of Mini Two, and off it went on its way to its new home in Granite Falls.

Souvenirs

We’re a big fan of postcards around here. I like to send them to people, sometimes unexpectedly, like when I used them to say Thank You for the Christmas cards I received last year. Unfortunately, the mailing of postcards has fallen by the wayside with the advent of cell phones and its companion “social media.”

Santa Fe Sally has been sending some to the last embassy she worked in Bern because they have a wall that is filled with postcards and she likes to add some to that. When she sends them it is not the old-fashioned way, put she puts a bunch in an envelope and mails that. We looked for some along the route of our last road trip. We looked in the places when we had a gas stops but never found any. Nothing in Paris, TX and you’d think we could have found one, what with the Eiffel Tower wearing a Cowboy Hat.

When I went grocery shopping this morning and I had to wander pretty much the whole store because they are remodeling and the aisles are half full and sometimes on different ends of the joint. Dang, I’d never noticed before that Fred Meyer carried souvenirs. Maybe because I never went down where they were. Or perhaps they didn’t before, but with the remodel they’ve added that stuff. Either way, forget gas stops for postcards, grocery stores seem the way to go.

Take a listen of my favorite song about souvenirs, Souvenirs, as sung by Suzy Boggus.

Tax Day

Normally I’ve filed the income tax as soon as all the W-2’s and or 1099’s showed up, usually in early February. The refunds have come back, and possibly spent, by the end of February. This year getting a couple of those forms took a lot longer. All my stuff was available by the end of January. For her the ASCO retirement 1099 was on time, but both the Social Security and Edward Jones’s 1099s were AWOL. And they were mainly because of Donna’s death. The easy way to get those forms from both the SSA and EJ would have been to go online and log into her account, but I couldn’t because both places shut her accounts down as soon as I informed them of Donna’s passing.

By mid-February I contacted Edward Jones and they said they’d mail it to me. When it didn’t show in a week I called and asked. The Office Manager said she remembers mailing it, but I never got it, so she said I’ll mail another that very day. I waited patiently by the mail box for the next 10 days with no letter arriving. I called the office again and got the assistant this time, so I asked if they had the right address for me, thinking maybe it was going to Klamath Falls. She said, “Nope, we have the Fairview address. Let me see if I can just send you a PDF of it through the Edward Jones messaging system.” Five minutes later I downloaded the form. When I looked at the mailing address it was correct, but it was a very important bit, the Unit 1.

Social Security followed with a variation on the multiple phone call theme. My first attempt resulted in a three hour wait time for a CSR, I managed by keeping one earbud in from the phone, so I would know when they came back, while I listened to music or enjoyed mindless car videos with the naked ear. I explained what I needed to her and she said that she would take care of it. Ha! Three weeks later, still no SSA 1099-SM. My next thought was maybe I should visit the local Portland to do this face to face. I found the local office number online and called to see about getting an appointment. The person I got said, “Oh, you don’t have to do that, I can get a copy mailed to you.” I expressed my trepidation at that plan, so she gave me her direct extension and said I don’t get it in a week call back. Three days later it arrived in my mailbox.

I have been doing the taxes using H&R Block’s Tax Cut program since at least 2005 and I have e-filed ever since it was available. After e-filing the federal, Tax Cut informed me that I would have to print and mail in my Oregon return because they would not except e-file if one person had died during the tax year. So, I had to print out all 8 pages of the Oregon form, the 5 pages of the Federal and all ten 1099s. Midway through, I ran out of paper. Oh well, I needed to go out and buy some 10×13 manilla envelopes to mail all this paper in any way.

After printing everything out I went online to the Oregon Department of Revenue to see what I needed to file on paper when I noticed a little video about E-file for free using Direct File Oregon, so I wondered if that would let me do it online. What the heck, let’s give it a try. It seemed to let me direct file, there wasn’t any alerts telling me no. I just checked and the Revenue Online site is saying “Processing.” Stay tuned.