My Family's Cars

 

Cars my family had, some I don't even remember 

1. August 1959, a Grey Rambler for $2050? 
2. September 1, 1964, Comet with 12,200 miles, black with red interior. End result?
3. 1968, a 1963 Chevy with 31,700 miles for $900 from Bill Weekmann's estate. Sold when?
4. October 13, 1971, Olds Cutlass, blue 4 door with 15,106 miles, sold for $500 in 1980.
5. June 24, 1976, 1091 Volkswagen Beetle with 48,000 miles for $1500, sold to Uncle Bill for $1000 in 1980.
6. June 20, 1979, 1977 Dodge Aspen (grey 4 door) with 17,712 miles for $4,111, Sold to Eddie late summer of 1987 for $500, 67k miles. 
7. July 15, 1980, a maroon 2 door 1975 Chevy Nova with 11,800 miles for $2,500. Sold to Pattie Black for $350 fall of 1987.
8. October 1987, 1984 Nissan with 20,000 miles for $6,500. Sold October 1992 with about 38k miles.
9. March 16, 1986, red 4 door 1986 Olds Calais, first new car was $13,600, Ran for 13 years, cost $1,308 per year to maintain. Donated to American Lung on October 1998
10. July 21, 1987, blue 4 door 1987 Olds Ciena for $15,900. Kept for 8 years and 5 months.
11.  August 3, 1993, white 4 door 1993 Chevy Luminus with 28,102 miles for $11,932. Got towed to repair shop multiple times. Traded in for Honda CRV.
12. August 24, 2005, white 4 door 2005 Honda CRV, in use till fall of 2025

2025 Book List

 Books

 

1. The Birdcage Libaby, Freya Berry, a little strange
2. Cold Breath, Quentin Bates, Iceland Lady Detective
3. The Rik Mayall, Rik Mayall, interestingly incoherent and flighty
4. The Beautiful Mystery, Louise Perry (LP) 
5. The Long Way Home LP
6. The Nature of the Beast LP
7. Mountains of the Pharaohs, Zahi Hawasi, quite interesting Egyptian pyramid history 
8. The African Queen, C.S. Forester, Hard to read cockney accent Charlie speaks with in the book at first, Rose is a stronger character in the book.
9. Fear Comes to Chalfont, Freeman Wills Croft,  1942 detective story
10. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Eva Jurczyk, book goes missing,  Liesl looks for it, maybe she finds it
11. Knife Skills for Beginners, Orlando Murrin, a how to book 
12. A great Reckoning, LP
13. Glass Houses, LP
14. Nothing Ventured, Jeffery Archer
15. Kingdom of the Blind, LP
16. Death of a Spy, M.C. Beaton and R. W. Green
17. Prose and Cons, Gyles Brandreth, downstairs book, still reading
18. The Only Gaihin in the Village, Ian Maloney, guy moves to Japan, very different from Scotland, who knew
19. A Better Man, LP
20. All the Devils are Here, LP
21. Antique Guide to Murder, C.L. Miller,  there is a second book and I liked this one enough to not read the second.
22. Travels with my Aunt, Graham Greene, read again, love this book and all the stories and all the travels
23. Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Julian Sacnton, Details the 1897 winter when the Belgica was stranded in the ice in the antarctic. Early exploit of Roald Amundsen.
24. Maigret and the Wine Merchant, Georges Simenon (GS), previously read, reread in July in Norway and on a Svalbard expedition.
25. Maigret's Friend, GS 
26. The 2 Penny Bar, GS
27. The Goodbye Coast, Joe Ide, Phillip Marlow new story
28. The Awkward Squad, Sophie Henaff, quirky group of misfit french police solving cold cases
29. We Solve Murders, Richard Osman
30. Let it Bleed, Ian Rankin
31. The Madness of Crowds, LP
32. The Lost Book of Bonn, Brianna Whocares, DNF
33. The Spy How Loved Me, Ian Flemming (IF), not like the movie at all
34. On Her Majesties Secret Service, IF 
35. Bryand and May London, Christopher Fowler, Interesting bits and bobs about London sights, people and events
36. Down the Garden Path, Beverley Nichols, read years ago, all about his first garden and house in the country 
37. You Only Live Twice, IF, the movie stayed close to the book partly
38. Slow Train to Switzerland, Diccon Bewes, details a trip undertaken by a group from the UK on an early Thomas Cook tour, author tries to recreate the trip. Tghere are trains, so I liked the book.
39. Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, Benjamin Stevenson, just OK
40. My Summer in a Garden, Charles Dudley Warner
41. Christmas at the Island Hotel, Jenny Colgar, thought it was a murder mystery, but it was not 
42. Man with the Golden Gun,IF, wow, the movie is so far different than the book, not even the gun is the same
43. Maigret at Picratt's, GS, watched Rowan Atkinson's Maigret and wanted to see how close to the book he was
44. Maigret's Dead Man, GS, Ditto
45. A World of Curiosities, LP
46. Who Saw Her Die, Patricia Moyes, still reading, started 12/20 

2025 Recap

 It was a busy year that started with lots of travels and then ended with lots of travails in the last quarter.

Good

• New Year's eve in London making pasta, UK, December 27 - January 3
• New to us Jaguar F-Pace, January 
• TCM Film "20th Century" at the 92nd Street Y with Mary and Andrea 
• Sophie's Bistro backroom cassoulet with G&D, February 15
• Planet Alignment with G&D 
• MET with D&M, March 29 
• Spring and Fall flower picking at Holland Ridge Farms 
• Took the Trees New York class in May and passed the test. License came in July
• Cousins at The Mohlenhoff Institute, May 25 
• Prague to Vienna Trek Bike Trip, June 5 - 13
• Munich Family visit, June 13 - 19
• Travis 4th of July Parade, Santa grilled reindeer sausages 
• Warm weather bike rides 
• Dinners from Keyport Fishery
• A few Conference House Park Pavilion visits 
• 2025 Summer of Zinnias was better than 2024 Summer of Dahlias 
• Oslo and Svalbard Expedition cruise, July15 - 30
• August Family visit, August 13, 17 to 26, both girls and the youngest one.
• August Cousins BBQ in Bogota, NJ
• Sophie's Bistro front room brunch with G&D, September 7
• Brits on the Beach at Ocean Grove with D&M, September 20
• Deutscher Club of Clark Club Oktoberfest with G&D, October 4 
• Deutscher Club of Clark Christkindlmarkt with G&D, November 22
• Volunteered (16 times) at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC), now renamed to Plant Ecology Center and Nursery (PECAN)  
• Maintained the Lavender Trail at High Rock Park as a Super Steward Path Keeper, 12 visits. Performed Trail clearance, invasive plant removals and trash cleanup. Also helped build 2 puncheons on the white trail 

• Super Steward NYC Parks
• Natural Areas Conservancy Path Keeper 

• Helped prune trees along the New Springville Greenway (6/26) and closed trails at Wolfs Pond Park (9/6) with the NYCMTB bike club
• December Cousins gathering to mourn my sister's passing. Nice supportive gathering for a not very nice occasion.
• December Christmas Family visit. Munich and San Francisco contingents.

Not So Good

• Volvo XC90 broke down on the way to buy a replacement car
• Parade of Ships for Fleet Week was weak, 5/21
• People getting older requiring more care
• Chaos, chaos and more chaos from the current administration
• My sister's death, very not so good.

Projects and Fixes

• Finished basement sill insulation South East corner, January
• Replaced ball valve for outside water faucet, February
• Side shelf on a shelf for Go Bags storage, February
• Purple desk Lamp
• 2" trailer hitch on Subaru for bike rack, March
• side straps added to L.L. Bean pack for attaching poles or long handled tools
• Papier-mâché, Veber Grill for Santa in the 4th Of July Parade 
• Dryer door hinge replacement, September
• Reset Fridge, had red error indicator, but no error code, October 
• Fabricated brackets for BGE rotisserie, November
• Water Bottle Rocket Launch Platform, November
• External Washer Filter added for microplastics containment, November 
• Reset washer, error code E04, new filter on discharge output was causing too much resistance and no water was getting pumped out, December 
• Trapeze, December

 Songs Learned

1. All Right Now, Free, January
2. Roxanne, Police, January
3. Black Coffee, Julie London version, February
4. California Dreaming, The Mamas and the Papas, March
5. Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (bass), Traffic
6. Psycho Killer (bass), Talking Heads 
7. Take Me To The River (bass), Talking heads
8. Wild Horses, Rolling Stones
9. Can't Put Your Arms Around a Melody, Johnny Thunders 
10. The Man Who Sold the World (Nirvana version), Bowie, April
11. Changes (bass), Bowie
12. Sunny, Bobby Hebb, July
13. Black Magic Woman (bass), Santana
14. Peg, Steely Dan, September
15. Angie, Rolling Stones
16. Papa Don't Take no Mess, James Brown, November
17. Bad Company, Bad Company, November