Bucky Update

I’ve addressed those maintenance issues I mentioned last week. I greased the turn signal & wiper stalks, and they are quieter now. The turn signal one may need a bit more grease, as it isn’t as silent as the wiper one, but that’s for another day. The driver’s door power mirror not working was because the wire connection from mirror to door was not hooked up.

I took Bucky down to the folks at PDX Wraps to pick out the color that I wanted the stripe to be. We hashed out the color and location, so now when I’m done at the DMV next Thursday, I can just drop it off and Uber home. Reverse that on Friday afternoon and drive it home.

While we were on the driver’s side of the car, he noticed what looked like a light scratch. Upon closer inspection it appears to be a line of excess paint drips. The Carfax showed no accidents, but I am beginning to think, with this excess paint and unconnected mirror wires, that it was in a fender bender of some sort and it was fixed off the books. Not a big deal, but still every time I turn around there is another surprise with this car.

Excess Paint?


 
Speaking of surprises, when I went to restart the car at PDX Wraps, it was hard to start. It was a hot day, so that could be the issue, but it wasn’t that hot. So now what? It could be the 25-year-old fuel pump, regulator, or fuel injectors, or a couple, three of them. This car has really become a money pit, and I’m starting to reconsider the plan to keep Bucky and sell the new Miata plan.

Masters Miata Club 2004 Pool Party

Because I’m being lazy (see today’s Instagram post) here is the Club’s newsletter report and photos from the titular event:

Pool Party

Saturday, July 10th

We held our annual pool party at the Creer’s this afternoon, where we have done it every year for the last 5 or so. Because the Jim & Judy are pulling up stakes and moving to the Sunshine State soon, next year we will have to drive to Spring Hill, FL to have it at their house.

There were plenty of grilled brats and dogs to be eaten, along with the usual assortment of side summer type salads. Then there were a couple of delicious homemade desserts to finish off the meal.

We called it a pool party, but a majority of those who came didn’t go in the pool. Only Donna and I and the hostess floated and bobbed around a bit. It was a heck of a lot cooler in the water, than sitting around it, even if you were in the shade. Jim didn’t even get in the water. Too bad too, as usually he and I make fools of ourselves by having a big-splash contest off the diving board.

Jim did make a fool of himself in a slightly different manner. He climbed a couple of ladders up a couple of levels of his house to get to the top of the roof so he could take a group picture…

Post Office Mop Up

I had originally planned to to get today’s 4 post offices as part of an overnight trip back to Klamath Falls, but when I got up this morning I almost didn’t go anywhere. Just couldn’t get motivated to to go all that way, spend a night in a hotel and drive back the next day. Instead, today I just drove a loop that was the equivalent driving to Klamath Falls, but I’m already home for the night.

While I captured four post offices, I actually got to mark off five. The post office in the community of Brothers, which was on the list for capture today, has closed. I have now taken photos of 238 Oregon post offices out of the 390 in the state. Green marks are the ones I taken photos of, hover over the image and the yellow marks are one that I still need.

Don’t ask me why the Google maps for brian.the.red account shows as a flat map and the mr.miata account shows as if it a portion of a globe…

56 Years Ago

Apollo 11 reached the moon and the following day man first stepped on the lunar surface. Like every kid born in the fifties and grew up in the sixties, I wanted to be an astronaut. Turns out doing that involved a lot of smarts and a lot of hard work and as it turned out I didn’t have either of those qualities. Apollo 11 happened on my and my siblings annual visit to our grandmother’s house and at the age of 14 I was allowed to stay up past bedtime to watch those blurry black and white images from nearly a quarter million miles away.

So yesterday when those memories resurfaced I decided to watch some space media to sort of honor those days fifty-six years ago. I didn’t search out documentaries, which I probably should have, but instead I watched some fluff on Apple TV+, first, the movie starring Scarlett Johansen and Channing Tatum, Fly Me To The Moon. Followed by the first 2 episodes of For All Mankind. I don’t know how long I’ll stick around for this one, I’m barely hanging on and there are 38 more episodes to go, plus 10 more for the 5th season yet to be released.

Maybe I’ll try some documentaries…

That’s Over

COVID Clear

Last Wednesday when I tested positive for Covid for the 4th week in a row and feeling better I started to wonder if the text kits I was getting at Fred Meyer were bad our something. So, for this Wednesday I bought a different brand kit at Fred Meyer’s. What do you know? I was clear.

Now after questioning the first series accuracy, I also decided I didn’t trust this one either. In an overabundance of caution, a belt and suspenders kind of thing, I bought a kit at Walgreen’s yesterday evening. I used it this morning and I guess I am no longer contagious. Yippee!

Bucky’s Back Baby

Bucky’s Back Baby


 
He has been over at the Mazda dealer having his clutch made all new. He was gone for 3 weeks and a week and a half of that was waiting on the machine shop to resurface the flywheel. Besides the clutch work they fixed a couple issues that FTW tuning missed when they had the car refurbishing all the fluids and rubber belts. First up was they missed the clutch fluid, they also missed a small rodent’s nest underneath the plastic cover where the windshield wipers hide. They didn’t change spark plugs, I didn’t think of it to ask, and had I done that they may have found that the wiring harness that plugs into the coil packs had broken tabs that might have allowed them back out due to vibration. I had them change out the two short spark plug wires that bridge from the 2 coil packs that sit on one plug to go to the other plugs. Lastly, I had them re-chase the threads in one of the passenger seat’s mounting rail that was stripped out. I only found this out when I pulled the seats to get under the carpet to really clean the interior.

I have a couple of maintenance items that I need to address. The turn signal and wiper stalks are creaky sounding in use, so I’ve ordered so dielectric grease to make them smooth and quiet again. The other I haven’t dug into yet, but the driver’s side rearview mirror doesn’t move with the switch. Might be something spontaneously unplugged itself or the mirror internals are broke. Something for me to look at this weekend when the weather gets back into the 80s.

I’ve one more modification I want to put on the car, side stripes in a color that closely approximates the bronze wheels. I have an appointment with the DMV on the 7th of August and PDX Wraps is practically next door, so maybe when I’m done trying to get the car titled and registered I can drop it off for some stripes.

Post Office Updates

After yesterday’s 15 post office flurry, I’ve photographed 234 out of the 391 in the the state. Which means I’m at 60%. Today I added those fifteen new photos to their respective galleries.

I tried to break up the nearly 400 post offices into 8 groups of around 50 each. Using the spreadsheet I went back and added up how many of the photos taken were in each of the eight groups. In order, Group 1 has 28 of 48, Group 2 has 30 of 49, etc. Group 6 has the highest at 38 of 50 for 76% and Group 8 has the lowest at 22 of 46 for 48%.

When you go to the Oregon Post Offices galleries page it shows right there how many photos are in the gallery and none of them are right. All fall short of how many photos should be in the gallery, With me adding yesterday’s photos the groups miss the total by 3, 5, 2, 7, 9, 2, 2, & 3 for a total of 33. All of those that need to be added so the galleries reflect what’s been done so far.

Tomorrow.