Car Stuff with a Broken Foot

I had mentioned last year I was thinking of doing another car post with all the things I'd recently done. I can't even remember a lot of what I'd done, but with the vintage of cars I own, there's always something!!! Here's a rundown of a few that have been done since the start of this year.

To start off, I'd mentioned that we had red flag days during the fire season, and my wife had driven the Falcon down to the bottom of the hill during that. They'd done a lift of the red flags, then after a couple of days it was back on. Eventually, we got the expected heavy rain season that always seems to follow a nice burn, resulting in mud slides in the scorched earth areas. Of course, we didn't have any fires in our neighborhood, and the rain wasn't as bad as some areas. Anyway, we haven't had a red flag day since, so that's something.

Since my foot was broken, and it wasn't bothering anyone there, I'd left the Falcon down there. After the rains, I drove by and saw that the back of the Falcon had acted as a catch basin for the various muck and debris that had been washed down by the rain!!! Guess it's time to move it back.

I had my wife drop me off one day when we were coming back, and did the classic pop the hood and remove the air cleaner, and shoot some quick start down the carb to fire it up. Got in, and hit the key. It fired as expected, and I let off the crank... but I could hear the starter was still engaged. It often won't stay running on the first fire anyway, and that's what happened, giving me a chance to see what was going on with the key. Messed with it, and it would go back farther than normal to the off position, and it didn't feel right. Gave it a little more quick start, and managed to get it running, even though I had to pull back on the key to keep it from keeping cranking, and drove it back and parked it. Afterwards, I messed with the key some more, and things definitely weren't right.

Oh yea, the back end that had caught all the crud was kind of a mess...

Started feeling around behind the dashboard, and the back of the ignition switch came apart on me!!! I've seen this before...

I knew it had happened before, but I couldn't remember when. Turns out it was about 17 years ago!!! I had no idea that it had been that long!!! I thought I'd looked into the price for a new one back then and had made mention of the price, and maybe I did but I can't find the mention now. Anyway, it was only about $20 from Rock Auto, delivered. A couple of weeks ago, I went down with my full dang foot boot on, and swapped it out. It's kind of a pain working up under the dashboard, and doubly so with my foot in the boot!!! Took a while, and it wasn't super easy, but it wasn't that hard to do. It's all good now!!! Oh yea, by the time I was able to move it back, the weather had turned to our typical beautiful Rose Parade weather, and all the dirt and silt that had washed down had turned into a fine dust, and was getting blown everywhere!!! All the cars down there were a mess. We've had a couple of rainy days since, and it's rinsed a good amount off.

On to the other thing that's been going on!!! One of the things I was going to mention in the never brought to realization car post of yore, I put a new engine in the Matrix!!! Ever since we've had it, it had an oil leak. The consensus was that the usual place it will leak is the timing chain tensioner, which I'd replaced, and then went back and replaced the seal and added some RTV when it still was leaking, all to no avail. I just lived with it. One day when the younger and I were out in it, it was making the low oil valvetrain warning noise, and I checked the oil, which was low as expected. I planned on driving it home and adding a quart, and there we headed. On the way, it got louder and louder, and I was planning on exiting and finding a store to buy a quart to add. Turned out as I decided to do so, we are on a long stretch with no exits, and the power starts dropping. I pulled to the side preparing to call a tow truck. A freeway service truck appears, and gave us a tow off the freeway, then I called and got it towed to our house. The engine was toast, I considered just junking it, then looked into the JDM take out engines. If you don't know, in Japan they have strict emissions standards, and at around 40,000 to 50,000 miles vehicles are usually retired. The engines and transmissions are shipped over, and it turns out for about $1,000 you can pick one up. I've now got a connection at a local shop, and he installed it for $800. Couldn't have bought a similar replacement for that!!!

Anyway, at some point last year the registration was due, and I managed to space out and forget to send it!!! They were kind enough to send a reminder with a past due charge, which I immediately sent in. A few weeks later, they send back a reply, “Oh yea, you need a smog check, too!!!” Thanks. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem, we've had 2 previous checks with no issue, on an engine with a lot more miles.

Once more, this was right after I'd broken my 5th metatarsal and was fairly incapacitated. My wife takes her over to get the check done. She calls me up, and it's failed. It has a code that the O2 sensor heater isn't heating up as it should, and the replacement is something like $220 with installation. I could do it for the cost of the parts for considerably less, if it wasn't for that broken metatarsal!!! Go ahead, have 'em take care of it. Oh, and there's a molded tube from the valve cover to the intake that has a big crack on the end, that needs replaced, too. Picked that up from the dealer, and surrogate son and the younger put that in, along with swapping the battery in Scruffy, under my supervision. Reset the computer, and drove it for a couple weeks to get a good data set, and checked the codes. Still has the same O2 sensor code. My wife takes it back, and they say, “Oh yea, you've got the check engine light on the dash that's burned out, it's not going to pass without that.” I figured it'd be like every dashboard I've ever dealt with, with twist out light holders. Surprise, they're not!!! The dash has the circuit board with LED lights everywhere on it for all the indicators and dash lights. I considered taking it to a shop to get the LED replaced, then remembered I had several extra LED dashboard lights I'd bought for Scruffy. Took one apart, destroying all the LEDs in the process, and then a second one, and replaced the one for the check engine. Oh, and if I didn't think the seller was shady before, the LED for the check engine light wasn't burned out or not working, it was missing!!!

Reset the codes again, drove it for a week, and the O2 code was still there. Took it back, this time I was able to come along. Still has the code for the O2 sensor, and the check engine light is burning bright (the original was probably red or amber, I've replaced it with a white one, and it's pretty bright!!!) and they tell us so. Yeah, you replaced the O2 sensor and that's done nothing for the code, time to dig deeper. The technician pops the hood, and says, “sounds like you've got a big vacuum leak.” I was in the passenger seat with the car running, and I could hear it from there. I get out and am observing from the side. He messes with the recently replaced molded hose to the valve cover, then sprays some carb cleaner on that end. It smooths out, and the fluid immediately gets sucked away from the edge of the valve cover. He declares that it's leaking vacuum from the valve cover gasket. Sounds strange to me, but I did see it with my own eyes, and it does have a large hose running to the intake right above there, so I guess it's plausible. “We'll replace that valve cover gasket for $220...” No, you will not. Another $20 to Rock Auto, and I've got a new valve cover gasket in hand. A week ago today I put it on. The old one looked like it was in excellent shape. Took quite a while cleaning out a lot of the varnish on the inside and grime from the outside of the valve cover, and it looks really good!!! I had been thinking of putting the plastic engine cover back on, I had picked up some knobs so it wouldn't require any tools to remove on the old one, and repaired some of the stripped out holes, but never got to that point, and since it looks nice now, I may never do that.

Got it all put back together, and it still sounds like there's a big vacuum leak. I start spraying around on my own, and once again, it smooths out towards the end of the valve cover. Hmmm...

I Look a little closer, and directly under there it has the fuel injector. Give it a direct spray, and it smooths right out!!! IT WAS NEVER THE VALVE COVER GASKET AT ALL!!! Pulled the first injector out, and the seal is gone!!!

I checked the local Auto Zone to see if they've got the fuel injector seals. They have an $8 kit with 4 seals, or a $15 kit with 3 different seals. I head over (it was a beautiful day, I dropped the top on Zonker and had a nice cruise) and showed the guy the $8 one. He heads back and comes out with it. It's a set of O-rings for the tops of the injectors. OK, guess that's why there's a $15 kit, let's see that. It was the one. Brought it home and put it on, and fired it up. Got out, and it's spewing gas from the fuel rail at the other end. Guess I'll need those O-rings after all. I head back, and he'd never put them away so they were easy to get. Got 'em home, and put them on. But, they didn't seem to be a good fit on the injectors, they seemed too large. Put it back together, and it's still spewing fuel. I took it apart again. One of the O-rings had split, and one was pushed out of the bore. I had an extra from the first seal kit, and I put it on, put it together again, and had the same problem. Rage quit.

I went the nuclear option, got on Rock Auto again and ordered 4 new injectors. Selected the 2-day delivery to have them here on Friday so I could hopefully get them on before work on Saturday. They didn't arrive. Being in customer service, I now fully understand the phrase, “Boned by UPS'. They were supposed to then deliver on Saturday, and to no one's surprise they didn't. The tracking didn't show movement on Monday, either, but they finally showed up just before I was off work. That's how I spent my first hour of daylight savings' time, putting them in. Seems to work fine, we'll see if it does the job!!!

A Tale of Two Pricey Meals

Last week I had another follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took another X-ray, and said it's progressing, but... with such a wide break, it could take up to 12 weeks, maybe more... so I've got another appointment in a month. I had to take off work an hour early to do so, and because of that, my break times got moved up. My lunch break is usually the entirely too early for me 10:45, but since I was leaving out early, it was moved to 9:45!!! Didn't really bother me, it actually spaced out my breaks more evenly. However, when we were waiting for the doctor, my stomach was speaking up!!!

We had been busy on actual Valentine's Day. I had offered to take my wife out to a late night diner in our area, be she declined. I was quite hungry after the appointment, so I suggested that, since it was just the two of us we could have our Valentine's dinner!!! Not far from there is a really nice steak house, and at first we headed over there, thinking that at the late afternoon time on a Thursday it might not be too busy. We got into the parking lot, and it was very full. There were a couple of spots quite far away, but we decided against going there. Nearby on the map, there's a place I'd seen and heard of before, Pie 'N Burger.

It has a much smaller parking lot, but they'd saved us a spot!!! Inside, it wasn't too busy. It's not too big, and there were a few open tables, but the counter isn't that tall which is often an issue for my wife, so we sat there. First thing, my wife orders a chocolate malt. Not a lot of places where you can get an actual malt anymore!!!

Burger is right in the name, and that's what I'd been thinking. They have several sandwiches on the menu, and then I saw they also have chicken pot pie. Oh, that sounds good!!! Whenever we go to a new place, I'll ask the waitress or waiter if they have a recommendation. She said the burger is really good, but one of her favorites is the chicken pot pie. I'm torn. Then my wife says, “Why don't I get the burger, you get the chicken pot pie, and we'll split both???” Genius. That's why I married her. Also, very Valentine-ey!!!

My wife told me to re create the quesadilla and burrito attacking pictures, and there you go!!! Both the chicken pot pie and the burger and onion rings were delicious!!! Oh, and since it's called Pie 'N Burger, chicken pot pie is also totally a pie, anyway!!! Oh, and the chicken pot pie came with a salad, and I got bleu cheese dressing. It was very chunky, awesome!!!

Of course, a place with pie as the first word in their name, gotta get a slice of pie!!! After everything we'd had we were nearing the limit, but the pies were one of the first things I'd looked at. They had a peach pie on the list that sounded pretty good, but then I saw they have a butterscotch meringue pie, I've never heard of such a thing, and butterscotch is one of my favorite, not often seen flavors, so that's what we got, once again to split. We even had enough left to take some home for the younger to try.

All of that totaled almost $70, plus a generous gratuity for great service.

Last night I had tickets from my work to a Kings game. We've been to several, and it's one of the younger's favorite sports. It was a lot of walking for a guy with a spiral fracture to the 5th metatarsal!!! Of course, I'd gotten the tickets well before that had happened. I was a little achey in my shin and where the break is after getting to our seats.

Every time we're at a stadium, we always get something to eat, and this was no exception. I thought we'd gotten some awesome nachos there before, and so when the menu had Super Nachos listed, that's what I was going to get. The younger got a tray of tendies and waffle cut seasoned fries, we both got sodas, and a pretzel to split. The nachos were underwhelming, it was a good sized bag of Tostito's and a cup of cheese and jalapenos, they were OK but not what I'd been thinking. I went through about half of them, and the boy had gone through the chicken and had some fries, and we swapped for the rest. The fries were a bit on the spicy side, but they had ranch, and it was great together. The pretzel had a split, making it look like a mouth!!!

It was Japanese Heritage night, and I just happened to take this selfie where we were both squinting pretty hard. I swear, it was not intentional!!!

The Kings were up against the Golden Knights, and it came out to be a great game for the home team!!! Kings scored first, in the first period. The Knights scored twice in the second period. Right at the start of the third, the Kings evened it up. There was a fight between a couple of the guys, and they both ended up in the penalty box at the same time, I'd never seen that happen before!!! Lots of action, and very physical with a lot of checks into the boards.

The Kings scored three more times in the third period. I feel like the Golden Knights were demoralized towards the end, but they never gave up. Oh, and since they switch ends every period, every single goal was on our end of the rink!!!

And here's a much better selfie!!!

There's the mascot, Bailey, taking a victory skate!!! He's always an entertaining character, in one part they had the camera on him, and he had a huge bag of popcorn and was throwing handfuls, and finally grabbed it by the bottom and helicoptered it!!!

On the way out, there were the ubiquitous hot dog carts with bacon wrapped dogs and grilled onions. I had been thinking of getting one before, and as soon as I smelled it, it was a done deal!!! It was glorious, but I really overdid it.

The stuff I got inside came to over $70, including a not as generous gratuity (it's nice that they deliver it right to your seat!!!), and the dog was another $10, so they both came out almost the same!!! Good times!!!

'Mon Shots

Always playing Pokemon GO, and part of it is taking pictures. Sometimes they're pretty good. One of the places we end up going a lot is the entrance to the Southwest Museum on the next street over. The entrance goes straight back into the hillside, and used to feature some very cool dioramas on the way in, then it has an old style elevator with the accordion door, and the shaft going straight through the rock, up to the museum on the top. Anyway, there's a gym there, and for most of the time I've been playing, it's almost always dominated by my team, so we go there often to put a 'Mon in the gym.

It's got great architecture, so it makes a great backdrop for getting your buddy out for a picture. This is right after I got my shiny Qwilfish to best buddy, right before I evolved it to Overquil.

While we were on our Catalina vacation last year, I had my 4 star Absol as my buddy. I had enough mega energy to mega evolve it, and making it your buddy after mega evolving gives you more mega energy, so that's been the impetus for several of my buddies. Anyway, we'd gone on a route while we were waiting to board, and there's the ghost ship Queen Mary in the background. Actually the same place that the first picture of the vacation post was from!!!

Also on that trip, if you don't have the AR function turned on, they've started having more detailed backgrounds that mimic the area. While we were there, this was one of the land and sea backgrounds, complete with animated waves.

Another vacation, another 4-star mega evolvable buddy!!! This time it was a Gengar, at the Cabazon Dinosaurs!!!

And yet another vacation picture, this time in Ventura, with my shiny Feebas, right after I'd gotten it to best buddy!!! As was the case with the Quilfish, this is another 'Mon you need to adventure with before you can evolve it. I evolved it into Milotec shortly after this. In both cases, I could have evolved them earlier, but I always get 'em to best buddy, so you get to see where the badge ends up before the evolving.

I think this was from our '22 Catalina vacation, when they were having Fashion Week. The younger caught the shiny costumed Absol, and made him his buddy. He has a naming convention for his buddies where he names them after food items, and this is named Cherry Jam. I love the look of this picture where he's on the pier. On a later Fashion Week, I finally caught a shiny costumed Absol of my own. Named him Marley, on account of Jammin', get it???

I think this was from the same vacation, my Palkia on the steps going up in our normal hotel, the Hotel Atwater. I'd made mention when we were there in '23 there were only 2 routes, and I'd submitted mine, Old Ben's Beach Walk. The one that wasn't straight back into the canyon at the back of Avalon was from the central plaza to the Casino, and the reception was always flaky right when you get close to the Casino. The route I submitted goes from a park as you're coming from the wharf (that has a statue of Old Ben, a sea lion that would greet tourist and was a local fixture in the early days) along Crescent street, to one of the places that are over the water on the way towards the Casino, but not to where the reception goes out. It has a Leaping Tuna statue as a stop, and the end point of the route. The text I put for the route is “Show Ben some respect! (and some of that tasty tasty tuna!) and months after the trip, it was approved. On our most recent visit, one of the nights I hadn't done a route yet for the day, and it was getting close to midnight. I asked the guys if they wanted to go with me to do it (bonus, it's only a short distance from our lodging to the park) and they both declined. I went on my own, finished it before midnight (which was my goal), and waited a few minutes until it was after, and did it in reverse!!!

And also from last year's vacation, another AR picture. Here's another thing it does, changes the lighting as the sun is setting, which is what I was getting the picture of. Then the Whismur attacks!!!

Buffalo Milkin' It

Welcome to what could be the final post about last years' Catalina vacation. I was actually just a few days ago looking at rental properties there again, possibly for this year's vacation. I looked at several that include a golf cart, but so far I'm leaning towards trying to get the same place again!!! I had been thinking of making a couple of posts, one with the other travelers fashion, and one with some of the animal life we saw, but there really wasn't a lot of the latter (at least, that was still living!!!)

I've made mention of all these, first up is my wife's coat of many colors. Nice design. After I took the picture, I realized she had layered it with a hoodie that I got her a year or two ago over there as well, also at Yoshi's.

Next up is surrogate son's Stinky's Fish Tacos shirt. Had to take a picture of the front, where it has the Catalina Island branding.

And, the back side, where it has all the LOLs!!!

And the jacket I got for the younger. I like the colors (even though it doesn't really show great in the picture, it's actually a dark green on the sleeves and top), and on this one the branding on the front features the iconic buffalo outline.

And on to the animals, limited as they are. If this was our crow friend from years previous, he's not as friendly as he was the first time!!! Leo's Drugstore is on the corner down from the place we've stayed most times until recently, and they almost always get some of our money!!! The reason I took the shot with the whole name in it is since my mom's car was out of service, another friend of ours named Leo gave us a ride to the landing.

Took the guys on the semi submarine, and got to see a lot of fish as usual.

And the classic seagull on a post!!!

13 Random for '25

I've got a couple of other things I could post, but I'm going to go a bit random instead. It's been a while.

I've had a couple of trips to the orthopedic surgeon since my 5th metatarsal fracture, the second one just yesterday. I took pictures of my X-rays both times. The break is similar to the first web located one I'd used for that post... only worse. They'd put me in the room with the X-ray displayed before I saw the doctor, and I was thinking for sure I'd be in for surgery from the look and the giant gap in the bone. The doctor came in, looks at it and tells me, “In about 95% of these breaks, I don't recommend surgery...” then he paused, and I was almost certain he was going to say I'd hit the lottery with mine, but he's willing to let it ride as is. He gave me a legit boot, and I kept from using it for the 3 weeks or so in between.

The second trip, to me, the X-rays looked exactly the same, but the doctor said it's growing bone back, see how it's got white there now??? Umm, it's bone, it's always been white!!! He gave me the go ahead to start using it some to walk on, and I've been using a cane. It feels like it's making it ache a little, but it isn't bad. I've heard you're supposed to use it a bit as it heals anyway.

This was kind of funny, in Pokemon GO, when you do a raid it displays various achievement cards I guess you'd call them. A week or so after I broke my foot, I got the card for the longest distance walked the previous day!!!

Since my wife was still recovering from her back surgery in early December, for the first time since I've been working there, I didn't take her to the company Christmas party. I took the younger son instead. It was at the Aquarium of the Pacific again, and I saw on the itinerary that there was going to be a sea otter show, so we showed up for that.

On the way in, they routed us around the side into the back, where they've got the shark pools. This ray was huge!!! The water magnification makes it hard to judge, but I'd say 10 feet across!!! They also had some fish swimming around in the same tank that had a horn protruding from their heads. I asked the girl who was giving the talk about the various displays about them: “The fish with the horns in here, baby narwhals, right???” She said they were. Can't tell if serious or trolling.

There have been fires raging around here, in no small part because of our stupid local and state government. Of course, that means lots of red flag days, which prior to this they've had 3 other times this season. On the day we were coming back from our anniversary trip, those rat bastards called one, ticketed and towed Scruffy and the Falcon before we were able to get home. Cost over $800 for all that, and of course it wasn't even windy in our area. For this one... the first night they were going to be calling it, it actually did get a good wind whipped up. I was sure it was going to break at least one of our trees, but it didn't. Of course, I was in no condition to drive. Our neighbor was going to help moving the cars to where they don't have the parking restrictions, but instead drove one to the next street over, where they have the same restrictions. Then the battery in Scruffy was dead. Long story short, my wife drove the Falcon for the first time in ages, and my younger son, who is as of yet still unlicensed, drove two others.

Anyway, this is a picture of the first morning. I start at 6 AM, and it's usually dark out when I do, and by 7 AM it's light. Didn't even realize until they mentioned on the radio, it was still dark out. I stepped out at around 8 and took this picture. I've had a little cough ever since, and a low level wheeze. It was just the first night of it that we had any wind, but that hasn't stopped them from having a near constant red flag alert. They dropped it for a couple of days, but it's back on. Knee jerk, I think, at this point.

Towards the end of last year, the ceiling fan in the bedroom stopped turning on. First, checked the remote battery, and that didn't work. Next, I pulled the wall switch to see if it was getting juice, and it was (I'd not long before added a timer switch for the bathroom fan, and the wiring backs up to the bedroom). Finally, I dropped the ceiling trim ring, and hard wired past the remote receiver. That did the trick. Tried bypassing to the fan motor while I was at it, and it was fine as well. Found a replacement remote and receiver, and had it mailed, and installed it, and it's all good now. Oh, and now I've got a timer function!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to our friends' house where they were hosting a get together pot luck. I brought pulled pork and buns and slaw, and it was a big hit. Some other friends that have moved to Arizona were there, and they brought their sphinx cats!!! My wife came (the day after she got out of the hospital, after which she didn't leave the house for quite a while) and was reclined on the couch most of the time. The sphinxes are very cuddly!!!

Look at that, without all the fur, you can actually see the brain wrinkles right through their skulls!!! Also pictured is another recent shirt my wife got me, it says, “It's not easy being my wife's arm candy, but here I am nailing it!!!”

A couple more Catalina vacation notes. Since my wife doesn't get around too well on her own, we always take her wheel chair. It's about the only place we take it all the time!!! Since we were taking surrogate son, fitting it in our car would be near impossible, so we borrowed my mom's car. Brought it to our home, and after climbing the hill, it blew off it's upper radiator hose!!! Now, for some back story, near the beginning of last year, she'd had an incident where she said it was smoking. I don't know if it was the leaky transmission pan, oil pan, or a cooling system issue, but she took it to what I've long considered to be a shady mechanic, Gretchen's Automotive, near her house. They came out with a huge laundry list of things that needed to be done totaling thousands of dollars, “Or, I'll buy it off you for $2,000, I've got a son who needs a car...” and she was going to do it!!! It doesn't have many miles on it, and she recently had the transmission rebuilt. I was pissed!!! One of the things they'd said was it needs new radiator hoses, and before she was able to back out of it (the theft of her car, that is), they'd replaced them and supposedly flushed and refilled the system, and they charged her nearly $300 for just that!!! I told her she'd never authorized the repair, since she'd used her charge card call them up and dispute the charge. She wouldn't. Anyway, there you go, you to Gretchen's Automotive in Long Beach, and they'll screw you and do a crap job of tightening your radiator hose clamp!!! Gretchen's Automotive, where elder financial abuse is the name of the game!!!

This was in the window of the place across from where we were staying in Avalon. A ghost tours place. Creepy.

We gave one of the youngers' friends a plush for her birthday, Alan from Smiling Friends. As we'd hoped, she likes it a lot, and sent a picture with the message, “He will sit next to my Perry!”

Sidney is always messing with the trash can in the bathroom. Usually it's just knocking it over, or messing around with the liner. A few weeks ago, though, he pulled the liner our, and jumped into it!!! He was just laying in there, purring!!!

We got dinner from Panda Express a few weeks ago, and this was my fortune. They gave me the title of a Killers song for my fortune. I feel like I was RickRolled by a cookie!!!

The Literary Stack

A little over a year ago, I decided that I would no longer be on my phone in the bathroom, and went back to the old ways of taking a book with me instead!!!

The result, unsurprisingly, is that I've read a lot more books!!! Books I'd been given, books I'd picked up because they sounded interesting, books by favorite authors I hadn't gotten to, and in one case, a book that came with the house!!!

That book was “Storm”, published back in the 40's, and was the origin of the naming of storms. I've heard of, but never heard, the song, “They Call the Wind Maria”. It was from the high school my mom had attended, but she has no recollection of reading it.

Speaking of my mom, she loaned me one of the books from the Dean Koontz “Jane Hawk” series, the fourth in the series, “The Forbidden Door”. It was a good book, very readable, and Koontz does a good job of making it so you don't need to have read the previous books to be able to get on board.

That was a hardcover, and once I was started, I wanted to read the rest. I picked up the rest of the series in paperback, and burned through them. Then I gave them to my mom, who also likewise burned through them!!!

Speaking of burning through books, I found this in one of those little free libraries that was in my mom's neighborhood.

I'd heard of “Fahrenheit 451” since I was in school, but had never read it. It's a bit dated (a lot of the future-set Sci-Fi books are), but the idea holds up!!! It had several afterwords including some interviews with Bradbury, and he mentioned in part of it that the mechanical hound was an updating of Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles. I have a desire to read more Ray Bradbury now.

Another dated Sci-Fi book I picked up from a free library, this time in my neighborhood, was called “Tiger Tiger”. I enjoyed them both.

I think it was at the beginning of the year I picked up Stephen King's “The Outsider”, “Fairy Tale”, and “Holly”. “The Outsider” continues the story of Holly from Bill Hodges (from the Mr. Mercedes series) detective agency and was pretty good.

“Fairy Tale” was a great story, classic King fantasy sci-fi, and I enjoyed it the most of the three.

“Holly” further continues the story of Holly, but... the Wuhan Flu and Donald Trump have destroyed the once great Stephen King. It was practically unreadable. TDS is a powerful thing.

After I'd finished the Jane Hawk series, I had a hankering to read some John Irving again. I've heard him described as the dirty old man of literature, and I find that to be an apt description.

I remember as a teen having several of my friends over when “The World According to Garp” was airing on one of the cable channels. It had Robin Williams, it has to be funny, right??? Sure enough, it had some funny, but I think that we were more traumatized than amused.

The book was much better. Who knows, maybe I just happen to have aged into it!!!

I was reading “The World According to Garp” when we were on our Catalina vacation, and while we were there, we happened on yet another little free library. As always, I had to have a look through to see if there was anything of interest.

I saw the title of this one, “Down at Flathead”, and was intrigued. Of course, the flathead Ford V-8 was an early hot rod staple, a compact V-8 engine offering much improved performance over many of the smaller and bulkier engines of the day, and were often swapped into small, lightweight cars.

I pulled it out, and the cover artwork also got my attention, and the synopsis cemented it. The author lives in Avalon, and this copy happens to have been signed. I'm only about ¼ of the way through, but so far I'm liking it quite a lot!!! They've re-stolen the Lunar Rover from Apollo 17, then stole one of the Catalina Express jet catamarans, and are currently on a large orbiting spacecraft.

A lot of the books are stacked up on the end of the kitchen table, hence the Literary Stack!!! I've got to clear out the bookshelf, and probably distribute several of the books back to the little libraries!!!