Month: September 2025

Pay The Ferryman

Solo Ferry Ride

Back a couple weeks ago on my way home from the Dahlia Festival, I decided to go via one of the small ferries that cross the Willamette River. The “trouble” was I didn’t realize that they only took cash, and all I had in my wallet was three bucks. The fare is $5 and because they don’t collect until we are already moving, there was nothing to do but take the free ride. I offered the three dollars, but that would have screwed up the till, so they turned me down. I’ve felt a little bad about it ever since.

Today I made it right, and I’ll be able to sleep the full night through. It is time to replace my Merrell trail running shoes (I don’t run trails; I just use them as driving shoes), so I drove down to Woodburn, where their outlet store is one of about 50 of them in the shopping center. They didn’t have what I wanted, so I ended up ordering them online when I got home, but the trip wasn’t a total failure because I got that ferry monkey off my back.

Starring Jack & Amy?

While trolling on Prime for a movie to watch, I came across this one, “Words and Pictures,” with Amy Poehler and Jack Black. The premise sounded interesting, and with those two it could be anything from low-brow comedy to dramedy.

I went to IMDb and found that the movie really stars Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen. I watched the trailer, and neither Amy nor Jack appeared anywhere in it, but this version looked good too. I got an hour into it, and Mr. Owen’s character just got too tiresome, so I hit the exit door. Maybe it would have been better with Poehler & Black…

Anyway, why the wrong names? My theory is that there is a department in the Amazon Prime Video HQ that is in charge of these little drop-down synopses, and a couple of wiseasses have a competition to see how long one of their intentional miss edits stays live on the site.

Lazy Saturday

Lights On

Started the day with the usual breakfast at home, then a 3-mile walk. And pretty much since then I’ve been indoors. I didn’t know that Kimmel and Colbert were back doing shows starting this last Tuesday, so I wasted the rest of the morning watching 6 monologues. I also watched Colbert’s first guest, John Oliver, because these two are hilarious together.

Made some lunch and went back to YouTube to watch a couple car videos. I started a new jigsaw puzzle and watched the Oregon Ducks trounce the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Oregon scored 69 points in the first three quarters, then coasted. Final score: 69-3.

Went for the trifecta and had dinner at home too. Now I’m watching the Red Sox get beat by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Face Back On

My eBay headlight arrived last night. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the 10,000-mile one. It was a used headlight with a decent amount of aging, so I opted to do both headlights with the restoration kit. Felt bad when I sanded that almost perfect 10k-mile light, but I wanted them to look sort of the same.

Step 1: Go watch the instruction video again.
Step 2: Follow the instructions.

It probably took about two hours total, and one hour was at the end, spent waiting for the finish coat to dry. Now that it is done, the two headlights don’t look exactly alike. The eBay one has a little bit of yellow oxidation that can’t be removed by the kit. It is impossible to tell in this photo because one headlight is in the shade and the other in the sun. Probably one in ten will notice the difference in the real world.

Creepy AF

BottleDrop Redemption Center

When I got in the car this morning to run some errands, this is what Google Maps unbidden offered up for directions. Now, I have been to this redemption center numerous times since moving here in 2023, and maybe I asked Maps to tell me where the closest one was back then, but it is 3 turns away. I haven’t needed directions to it for 2 years. Before I got in the car on the driver’s side, I had opened the passenger door and placed something on that seat.

Green Bag to take to the BottleDrop

How did Maps know I placed a bag full of cans on the seat? That is just creepy as fuck.

So, Option #3 It Is

Inside Dale

I figured 8 hours on mostly empty backroads beats 3 hours on I-84, so Option #3 was chosen for the trip home. I went to the Dale post office first. I spent a few minutes chatting with the proprietor. He told me that he serves between 20 and 25 folks. The building he is in was erected in 1929 to replace the original one across the street that was there since 1892.

From there, I continued south to US-26, where I could capture 3 more bonus post offices, and it would take me pretty much straight home. I thought it might take 8 hours to get back, but it turned out to be an hour less, and that included a couple of snack breaks and a lunch with a fill-up in Madras. With discretion being the better part of valor, I opted to fill the tank even though the Miata said I could go 120 miles and Google Maps was telling me it was a mere 108 miles to home. 🙂

Damn, Dale

Instead of just sitting around doing nothing on Labor Day, I planned to labor hard behind the wheel of a Miata. I’m in the same hotel in the same town I was in just 2 weeks ago, Pendleton, Oregon. Unlike last time, when I had mapped out 8 post offices and almost missed one, this drive east I mapped out 8 post offices and did miss one. Damn, Dale.

Again, Google’s fault: the post office has an address of 48388 US-395, and when I got there, not only wasn’t there a post office, there wasn’t anything there. I had buzzed right through a wide spot in the road with 4 or 5 buildings several miles back, but I didn’t see anything that might have been a government building. Turns out, using street view of Dale in the hotel, there certainly is a post office there.

So instead of a quick 3-hour trip on I-84 back home, it will now turn into a 6-hour drive. So I can go 60 miles south back to Dale, which has a Ukiah address, and come back up to I-84, or option 2, come back only 40 miles and angle over to I-84 in Arlington using OR-74. I’m leaning towards this one, as I remember OR-74 as being a genuine blast of a Miata road. Option 3 is a long shot. I get to the Dale post office and keep going south for 120 miles, taking me all the way down to US-26, and take that back home. The positive to this is I get 3 more post offices along that way, but the negative is it’ll take probably 8 hours to get home. Option 4 is probably the best one; just go home. I’ll be out here in the east for many other post offices, and I can get it then.