Month: September 2025

Mileage Matters

Off-Road?

Day before yesterday was the one-year anniversary of owning the new Miata. Yesterday the car rolled past 19,000 miles on the odometer. This almost got close to the 22,000 miles I put on the first Miata thirty-five years ago. If I hadn’t taken the 10,500-mile Jumbo Road Trip the new car would have been under the total miles you can use on a low-mileage lease.

Only 500 of those twenty-two thousand miles back in 1989-90 were because of one road trip to New Orleans. The rest were mostly because I think I drove it every day on my lunch hour, for that whole hour. I just wandered the backroads nearby to the plant. One of the engineers noticed what I was doing every day and said to me once, “I know where you’re going.” “You are driving through downtown so you can see your reflection in the shop windows.” He was way off; I rarely went near downtown on the drives; mine were more therapeutic in nature. He meant it as a joke, so I applauded him for that.

Congratulations Mr. Bogardus, It’s A Girl

Buckie

Two months ago I went to the DMV to register the 2001 Miata, and I wanted to give it personalized plates. Because the car had the infamous clutch chatter issue that made 1st gear buck until it was fully warmed up, I wanted something to reflect that. Plus, Santa Fe Sally and her fascination with Buc-ees had already started calling it Bucky even before I realized it had that issue.

You are allowed 6 letters with an additional space or hyphen in there somewhere. Because the regular state plate has a large fir tree right in the middle, that is where I opted for my space. On the form you get 2 options, so I wrote in BUC KEY and then BUC KIE.

I mentioned to a few people that if I got KEY, I would consider that a male name, and if I received KIE, that would be female, so the car’s pronoun would going forward reflect that. Today I found out which one I got. Congratulations Mr. Bogardus, it’s a girl.

Somebody Talk Me Out Of This

Avery Gloss Dark Green

I am tempted to wrap Buckey in some Avery Gloss Dark Green vinyl. Somebody please talk me out of it. This is my half-arsed photoshop of what it might be like. This looks a little too chrome, so I’ve ordered a sample piece of vinyl in that color to get an IRL evaluation.

Done

After a couple days of only placing three or four pieces into the puzzle over the span of 30 minutes, I considered giving up. Just tearing it down, putting the pieces in the box, and donating it. But I stopped fretting over the minute changes in shades of green and sorted by shape to use the brute force method.

Let There Be Newer Light

I’ve wanted to update the two entry lights (front and side) for a while. Today was the day. I started my search last week. I went to Lowe’s first because it is the closest place to go look. I didn’t see anything they had on display, so I came home and went online. My first search term was “entry lighting,” and it resulted in over 27,000 choices, but it was all indoor lights.

The next search was “exterior wall lighting.” I now had a mere 6,200 to choose from. Now we’re talking. The majority were black, and I wanted something in silver. Keeping it at less than $100 each narrowed it to thirty-two choices. I ordered them, and 5 days later they arrived. The front one would have been fine, but I forgot to take into consideration that the porch door swung open past the light, and these stuck out too far. I returned those lights and resumed the search.

I then picked some nice cylinder lights, but you had to buy bulbs, and their description of what bulb it required was vague. I found a similar cylinder, but the bulbs it required were $30 apiece, so it meant 2 bulbs for 2 lights, which came to more than I wanted to spend.

Amazon to the rescue. Cheapish Chinese cylinders with built-in LEDs. Arrived yesterday and installed today. I still have to caulk them to the wall and paint the caulk, but I’m pleased with my effort.

I Wonder What Was Said

I caught a red light not far from home. A car pulled up behind me. A harried-looking mom, driving her child home from school, stopped behind me. The kid had over-the-ear headphones on, staring out the window. I see Mom look down and then back up. She turns to her child, and I see her lips move. The kid looks back at Mom and tilts her head. Mom pantomimes taking a headphone off. Her child lifts off one side.

Mom’s lips move again. Probably reiterates what she said the first time. The kid looks down, the kid looks up, and her lips move. Mom shakes her head up and down. Her child drops one side of the headphones back down. Mom looks harried again. The kid stares back out her window. The light turns green, I turn right, and they continue straight.

I wonder what was said.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned here that I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep the Starfleet Academy sticker on the back window. It actually doesn’t matter what was said; that little interaction, that right there, cinches that I’ll keep it.