GTI Washings

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!


Typical Sunday Routine: bike, eat, wash clothes, baseball, drive, and add a car wash…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 46.7%

 

Potpourri

  1. Today would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Missed it by 19.
  2. Yesterday I tried a different place to walk, Powell Butte. It’s a couple more miles further away than my usual haunts.
  3. Today while walking in one of those usual haunts, a decent-sized black cloud appeared about a 1/2 mile away toward the road. Later I could see flames, but then it seemed, wherever it was, there were people putting it out. I started to hear sirens about the time the smoke stopped.
  4. Yesterday evening I finished one jigsaw puzzle, tore it apart, and started another fresh puzzle right then.
  5. Today I watched the Boston Red Sox lose their 34th game against just 25 wins.
  6. Day before yesterday I binge-watched season 2 of The Four Seasons. I don’t recall the first season being that great, but, this one felt comfortable enough. If they do a 3rd I’d like to say I won’t watch it, but I know me better.
  7. Last week I stopped watching LOST at season three, episode twelve. I’ll probably start again. Once I finish the stuff in my Netflix queue.
Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 26.8%

 

Honky Tonky

I almost didn’t blog tonight, almost.

I didn’t yesterday because, about the time I would have, I was nearly 100 miles away at a bar in Lebanon, Oregon. Four of us from the community piled in one car at about 6pm and made a beeline to Sam’s Place to listen to the folks above. The drummer and his wife used to live in Quail Hollow, but moved south of the city to help the wife’s mom on her farm. We only stuck around for the first 1-1/2 hour set so we could make it home by midnight and not turn into mice looking up at a large orange cultivated winter squash. Unlike my last foray into a bar to hear a band with my neighbor, there was no dancing. Nobody was dancing except for the birthday boy and his wife, who slow-danced one song…

Today was a typical Sunday: bike for breakfast, wash clothes, watch Red Sox, lunch, jigsaw puzzle, random YouTube vids, dinner, and now doing this.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 21.5%

 

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Today was jam-packed.

Started with my go-to weekend bicycle ride. I changed it up a little in the beginning to try a different bike path heading east. It really didn’t improve anything, and it actually was a downgrade because it is less traveled and as well-kept as the Ch’ak Ch’ak trail. It was a bit chillier of a ride because of yesterday’s rain, and it was still overcast. So instead of my usual dining outside at Stomping Grounds, I sat inside for my latte and muffin.

Sunday is laundry day, when I wash the sheets and towels as one load and then a second one for the clothes that have accumulated since Wednesday. While doing the washing I was watching the Red Sox lose to the Braves 8-0. This afternoon I washed both cars and changed their driveway order. The Miata is up front now because it is supposed to be a mostly sunny week with highs in the 70s. After the car washings I watched the last two episodes of season two of LOST.

My new toy/impulse buy showed up via FedEx, the widescreen FlightWall. After setting it up on the side table and getting it dialed in, I just let it run. I was going to wait until tomorrow to mount it in its permanent spot when I got the flat extension cord from Amazon but couldn’t help myself.

Along in there, I had time to break down the completed jigsaw puzzle and start a new one. plus watch several episodes of The Charismatic Voice. She really breaks down the singing and, to a certain extent, the sound as to how they are so good. I knew these songs were good, but she helped me understand why they are.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 38.5%

 

At The Carwash

I’ve been driving the GTI all week, and there have been several trips in the rain. The car has gathered plenty of dirt in all the places that normally collect it, and as with any squared-off hatchback, the dirtiest place is that hatchback. Also the brake pads produce a lot of black dust on the wheels

Afterwards, the Miata got a bath as well. Unlike the GTI, it has been sitting under the carport all week. But in more ways than one, it was actually dirtier than the Golf. First, it is springtime, so there is a bit of pollen coating the car, although nowhere near what it would have been back east with its pine pollen, and second, because I am near a busy road filled with cars and trucks that create an awful lot of dust and soot that make their over the wood fence and under the carport.

At The Car Wash

Washed Car Wash Suff

This afternoon I washed the GTI in preparation for its visit the PDX Wraps tomorrow to repair the torn vinyl from when I boneheadedly backed into a post in my own driveway. I drop it off there and then Uber to Tonkin Mazda to pick up Buckie who has sitting there with its new clutch slave & master cylinders for the last 3-1/2 weeks.

Three out of the four times I stared the GTI today I put my right foot on the brake pedal and turned the key making the car do abosulutely nothing. I have been so used to starting the Tucson for the past 4 weeks that I totally forgot I had push in that weird left pedal to get the car to start…

Busy day, got my Salted Caramel Latte, picked up my 85% junk/15% worth it mail, got my haircut and grocery shopped a few items to tide me over until Friday’s normal shop. Now it is time to plop on the couch and watch some Olympic ice hackey.

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

First thing I did this morning was to return the GTI hatchback to stock configuration. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the hatch pop kit – return it or just trash it. Next up was to move both cars to the street and get the leaf blower to clear all the pine straw and fallen leaves off the driveway.

I backed the Miata back onto the clean drvieway and removed the dedicated summer tires and put the all-seasons that I ran on the now gone 2024 Miata. Once that was done, I washed the dust and such off before it returned to the street. Next up for a good washing was the GTI. It was a lot dirter because it had been on the road for around 4,000 miles.

Move the VW back to the street and I got the keys for the Miata and took a 20 mile drive before ending up at the new Chick-Fil-A that is in the Lowes parking lot just a mile and a half away from home. I just drove straight in with my food, so when I parked the GTI afterwards I pulled it straight in too.