Choosy Brians Choose Jif Peter Pan

I was aware of the Jif peanut butter recall for possible salmonella contamination, but didn’t really pay attention to it. We’ve had a jar of Jif in the cupboard, but it was half used up and neither of us has gotten sick. If it was bad, we surely would have had a problem by now.

When the local paper published the the product codes yesterday Donna asked if ours was in range listed. I shrugged (once again we have had no issues.) So she went and looked at the jar. Sure enough ours was smack dab in the middle of the recalled numbers. So, better safe than sorry, into the trash it went. On today’s grocery shopping trip we picked up a jar of Peter Pan.

The Miata has been driven 3 times since the last update. It was driven a whole 4.9 miles to go fill up the tank with premium unleaded on Monday. This was the 130th fill-up for me with this car and it took 9.347 gallons at $4.49 per1 returning a 26.08 MPG. For reference the very first time I filled up the CTBNL was on September 2nd 2016 and at that time it received 9.856 gallons at $1.699 per2 for a MPG of 25.9.

The Miata was driven to my doctor’s appointment this morning for a round trip of three whole miles. The only real drive of consequence it took was a 25.7 mile evening cruise yesterday. Because it was dusk and the temps were in the upper 70’s the bugs were out in full force we managed to collect quite a few on the nose and windshield, so this afternoon it got a bath in the driveway.

33.6 miles on 3 trips.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 28

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Ben Franklin Invents Bifocals Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 23, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2006 Porsche Boxster S 1974 Ford Bronco Ranger 1949 Buick Super Sedanet
More a fan of the Cayman, but a Boxster is pretty good looking as long as the top is down. Won’t be doing any rock crawling, but it does have 4-wheel drive and plenty of ground clearance. With today’s gas prices that 572cu/in motor is not real practical, but I’d just park it in the driveway & look at it.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1969 Datsun 2000 Roadster Bid to $8,000 on 5/17/22
Off-Road: 1984 Mercedes-Benz 230GE Sold for $62,000 on 5/22/22
Touring: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible Sold for $87,000 on 5/17/22

Interesting BAT Find

Out of all of the car auctions that were active on Monday the one that interested me the most was a 1970 Volkswagen Karman Ghia. I have a sweet spot for Karman Ghias anyway, but this one had been converted to an EV.

Definitely a Cars & Coffee car or short commute to work vehicle or just for around town errands as the range is a mere 90 miles. It didn’t sell at $45k because what ever the reserve was it was higher than that. But, considering that a nice gas engine Ghia would go for $35-40k on its own and the average EV price in the US is $60k, fifty to fifty-five thousand wouldn’t have been out of line. Not that I’d pay that, but it would be cool to own it…

10.7 miles to somewhere and back.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 25

 

Perplexing BAT Find

As with every Monday when I wander over to Bring A Trailer to pick out the three vehicles that strike my fancy, there are always somewhere between six and seven hundred auctions running. This means that there are plenty that could make the list but don’t.

This week there was a very low mileage 2003 Miata that sold for $13,100. That might sound like a lot of money for a 19-year old car, but with the way car prices are right now and I had to replace my current 19-year old Miata I probably wouldn’t have a problem with that sum.

I would have a problem with this particular example though, the color. Both Donna and I thought it was the ugliest color we had ever seen on a Miata. And we know from experience, we had one as loaner back in October 2003 when our ’95 was in for a timing chain replacement. I was pretty merciless in my condemnation of Splash Green – New Miata In The Garage.

So what was especially weird for me was the comment section of the auction, the first several posts from when it was listed are all in praise of the color! Some even considered it one of the best colors the car ever came in, yikes! All I can think of was that everyone was being polite, or maybe people are now so used to seeing nearly all the vehicles on the road in a monochromatic palette that runs from white to black.

Splash Green was not very popular back in 2003. While we were looking at new cars back then, we found ourselves at a Mazda dealer in Charleston, SC and as proof I offer this little story – One Last Splash Green Story. We did end up buying a 2003 Miata later that year, but it was the real best color ever on a Miata, Garnet Red.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Convertible Edition of SORT
The middle of May must be the start of convertible season on BAT
because of the 708 auctions today, 178 were for drop tops.
As of Monday, May 16, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1969 Datsun 2000 Roadster 1984 Mercedes-Benz 230GE 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible
Last week on BAT we had another Javanese 2-seat sports car with 2000 in its name, but it was from Honda. Shipping is going to a lot more expensive than the typical BAT shipping because this is located in Ireland. If a classic Cadillac drop top is more your thing, you can choose one from the 40’s, 50’s or 60’s right now on BAT.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: Original-Owner 2002 Honda S2000 Sold for $28,000 on 5/11/22
Off-Road: 2004 Land Rover Discovery II G4 Challenge Sold for $12,250 on 5/15/22
Touring: 2012 Maserati GranTurismo MC Bid to $48,500 on 5/11/22

Et Tu Lands End with the Supply Chain Issues?

I am a freak when it comes to arm length, not full on simian, but my arms are longer than the standard adult long sleeve shirt is made. Admittedly there is a mental component involved as well, I just can’t stand the feeling or look of the long sleeve being above the wrist level.3 After trying to get long sleeve shirts that fit from several online place that sell Big & Tall sizes, I found the my holy grail in the Lands End tall large size.

Because I wear long sleeves even in the summer I end up buying two or three new shirts every other year or so. So when the latest Lands End catalog arrived in the mail with a 40% off offer and I was down to just 2 decent shirts left in the dresser draw, I decided to restock. The two I have are white and a medium blue, so I picked out three darker shirts, a black, a navy blue and a charcoal. When I got to the cart there was a $9 shipping charge and I hate paying shipping (damn you Amazon Prime.) I could get free shipping if the order was over $100 and my total was a few dollars shy, so I went to the sale area to see what was available to put me over the hundred dollar mark.

I found a large tall blue & white striped tee in their “upscale” supima cotton for cheap that would work. Back to the cart and noticed that three of the 4 shirts were on back order. Not just a week or two either, 2 shirts were two months out and the third was 3 months out. The only shirt that was going to be here in the next few days was that throw in from the sale page…

19.8 miles to Home Depot and back the long way.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 24

 

As Threatened

I did change the oil in the Miata today. When I pulled out the dipstick, before I started it up to back it out into the driveway, the oil level read full and it looked pretty clean, but I went ahead and drained it anyway to make room for the new.

That drained oil was put in the car last June at 79,300-ish miles on the odometer. The time before that, I did it the driveway here in June of 2020 with 77,500-ish miles on the odometer. The time before that was in Aiken when the 75,000 mile service was done in July of 2019.

Because it looks like the CTBNL is going to be on a yearly oil change schedule, this time I bought a synthetic blend instead of the usual straight dino oil. I’m going to start with the blend before I put full synthetic in it as a test. Because the last time I tried full synthetic in the previous Miata it started to leave spots on the garage floor. This is because synthetic is thinner and will find places to sneak out easier than the old school oil. Admittedly the previous car had a lot more miles on it than the almost 81k this car has.

1.8 miles of around the block.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 23