60,000 Sparklers


Happy New Year’s Eve! Every year we are invited over to a friends house for their New Year’s party. It includes lots of food, beverages and fireworks. This year because of the high winds the bonfire had to be squelched and it was so cold without it, we didn’t make it until midnight. Plus they weren’t so sure they could do the big finish anyway.

When we first got there I had them set up a ring all around the Miata of the 60,000 big sparklers we had bought on the way over. OK, maybe it really was only a dozen sparklers. The CTBNL actually went over the 60,000 mile mark last night on the way home, but I forgot to blog about it. I was reminded about it when we got in the car to go out tonight.

Last Minute Point Grabbing

Down to the final 2 days of the year 2017 we drove around yesterday trying to pick up as many points as we could reasonably get locally. Most of today’s photos were ones we looked for all year long hoping to find just the right one, but for one reason or another we dismissed what we saw, thinking that a better one would come along, and then realized we were running out of time to take the photo. We almost waited too long too on the water fountain as several of the local ones we had marked as “aces in the hole” were shut off because of the cold weather.

It’s not over yet either. We have procrastinated ourselves into a whole on the “Epic Sunset” photo, so Sunday night (AKA Six Hours to Deadline) we are going to go out and take a picture of whatever kind of sunset that happens and call it Epic and hope it counts. We also have a New Year’s Eve gather to go to that has a Fireworks Display” involved, so that will be another point. If we get both we will end up with a total of 242. Probably not a winner, but should land us in the money of one of the top 50 runners up.

Miata Wiper Blade Fun

Last Thursday it was raining on the way home from work and when I turned on the windshield wipers the passenger side blade made a really rude noise as it swiped an arc across the glass. At first it happened intermittently and then turned into every time it moved. Because it was still daylight I rode the rest of the way home only using the single swipe function a couple of times.

OK, it is time to buy some new blades. I looked online at Advanced Auto first because they are right down the street a mile and I can get there and back in a loop that consists of nothing but right turns. I picked out a pair of 18″ Rain-X Weatherbeater blades for $14 each. They are old school styled and look more at home on the Miata than the more modern beam or the stealth types.

For the heck of it I checked on Amazon for the same blades. They had them for nearly half that cost at $7.50 and I wouldn’t even have to go out to get them. Because the rain was going to quit, I wouldn’t need them for a couple days, I put them in my cart. I didn’t order them though because they would have arrived on Saturday and we were going to be in Hilton Head. I told myself I’d order them on Sunday so they would arrive on Tuesday.

Because we went away for the weekend in the Mini I didn’t think about Miata wiper blades until yesterday morning when it started to sprinkle on the drive to work. Doh! This is another reason Amazon is helpful, the wiper blades were still sitting in my cart and all it took was basically one click to buy them. If my only option to buy windshield wipers was going to a physical store to get them, I would have forgotten again, because by after work it had quit raining.

Mini Wiper Blade Fun

Back in October, the first time we drove the Mini in the rain, we found out that the wiper blades squeaked/squealed when they do their job. So I did a search on the North American Motoring Mini Forum and found that the most recommended replacement blades seemed to be the Bosch Icon, so I bought a pair from Amazon.

On a side note, is it really too hard to design it, so the wiper blades are the same length? Mazda didn’t have a problem with the Miata, it uses two 18″ blades. Our recently departed Hyundai Sonata had a 24″ drivers side and an 18″ passenger side blade. The Mini? An 18″ blade for the driver and a 19″ one for the passenger side. (I wonder if on the right-hand drive version of the Mini those are flipped?)

Two days later I got some really nice replacement blades that will not go on our 2013 Mini Cooper. This is because in the middle of 2012, Mini in their infinite wisdom, changed the standard hook ends on the arms to a straight connection and forgot to notify Amazon. So I boxed the Boschs back up to return them and headed to the local parts store. Of the 8-10 different kinds of wiper blades they had hanging there, none of them included an adapter for the Mini’s straight-ending arms.

When we got home, I went back to the forum and re-did my search for wiper arms. This time instead of stopping after the first couple of threads and posts, I dug deeper and discovered that there really isn’t an off the shelf aftermarket blade that’ll work on the 2013 and up cars. I ended up buying some stock blades from a forum sponsor ECS Tuning.

While perusing that site, I discovered that they actually sell a kit to change from the earlier style to these new-fangled aero blades. Is there a 2-ounce weight savings involved here? Am I crazy for considering going the opposite way and getting the older hook-ended arms next time I need wiper blades? OK, maybe I am crazy for wanting to go backwards (and I probably won’t), but for someone like me who drives longer than he should on crappy wipers, finally decides that enough is enough and buys news ones on a rainy day, it is a little unnerving to not be able to walk into the local chain auto parts store and get some replacements.

18,000 Sea Gulls


A picture of what looks like about eighteen thousand seagulls standing patiently in the stream of the lowering tide waters waiting for food to come to them. Taken on our very chilly Christmas morning walk on the beach.

While on the trip home from Hilton Head on Christmas day, in downtown Martin, SC, the Mini past thru the 18,000 mile plateau.

Merry Christmas From the Island

Ladybug in front of the Conference Center at the Hilton Head Beach & Tennis Resort


Please accept – with no obligation, implied or implicit – my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable tradition of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your preference.

In addition, please enjoy a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2018.

Shrimp Anyone?


Foggy morning walk along Folly Beach and it wasn’t until we were almost alongside this shrimp boat that it became visible maybe 100 yards off the shore.

When we went out to dinner tonight at the Skull Creek Dockside Restaurant, Donna had the stuffed shrimp and I had Frogmore Stew that included a half pound of shrimp. I wonder if they came from that boat we saw materialize from the fog.