Impeding Oil Change

The Miata is way due for an oil change. As a matter of fact we are about 2 weeks shy of a year since the oil has been drained out of it. Back then it was done not in my driveway into a collection pan, but along Hwy 140 south of town, in the parking area of a fuel refilling station and on the flat bed of a tow truck.

That length of time shouldn’t be too much of an issue as the car has probably been a total of 1,500 miles since then. And I have tried to go for a drive once a week bringing the car up to operating temperature for a good 15-20 minutes.

Right now I’m shooting for this Saturday or Sunday because the weather is going to be at least in the upper sixties and sunny. The last few days it has been cold and snowy. Not too cold for the snow to accumulate any, it just melted on contact with the ground, but not the kind of weather to lay under a car and change the oil.

11.5 miles of around town running.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 22

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Snowy Day in May Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 9, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
Original-Owner
2002 Honda S2000		 2004 Land Rover Discovery II G4 Challenge 2012 Maserati GranTurismo MC
The slightly larger and more expensive alternative to a 10AE Miata, i.e. blue exterior and interior. This has some serious off-road chops and the orange compliments the two blues perfectly. I have always loved the look of these. Do they ride smooth? The name says Turismo, so here’s hoping.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1973 Porsche 914 Sold for $32,914 on 5/6/22
Off-Road: 2019 Ford Ranger XLT Sold for $46,250 on 5/4/22
Touring: 1957 Chevrolet Suburban Bid to $135,000 on 5/6/22

If Your Dish Doesn’t Cut It, You Will Be

One of the streaming services we subscribe to is Discovery+. We use it like humans use their brains, i.e. only 10% of it1, the only thing we watch is the stuff on the Food Network & HGTV. We also use it to watch the current episodes of our favorites using the streaming service to avoid commercials.

For the last year or so we have been watching an episode of Chopped when we sit down and eat. Chopped premiered in 2009 and continues to this day. According to Wikipedia they have filmed 674 (635 + 39 specials) and just last week we finished almost every one of them.

I say almost everyone because we have skipped pretty much all of the special or regular episodes that involved Alton Brown or Bobby Flay because we don’t particularly like either personality. Other shows we mostly avoided were the ones that Martha Stewart was involved in for the same reason, but we did put up with several, because she had wormed her way into becoming a judge for a half dozen seasons or so.

Not having anymore Chopped to watch, we have now switched to watching Guy’s Grocery Games. Wikipedia has not locked in its episode total yet and lists 256 or 270 as the total number of episodes, but they stopped really counting in 2019 and the show is still in production. Needless to say we probably have a years worth of dining entertainment lined up.

That’s Kind of Backwards: Addendum

The optical drive I had came from an HP desktop and just looking at it it seemed like it would slide right into the spot in the Dell’s case. But I never really tried it, I just assumed. So naturally it didn’t fit. Like I mentioned previously, I can’t remember the last time I used an optical drive, so the only thing I lost was a bit of time and $3.99. Both of which are not a problem.

So right now I have a few different options: 1) Buy an official Dell external drive for $40, 2) buy an external case for the HP drive for around half that or 3) buy a random complete drive off Amazon for around the same price as that chancy case. Right now I’m going to take option four, i.e. don’t anything until I actually need an optical and worry about it then.

The Miata was used the last three days for short around town trips. On Tuesday it was sort of spring-like so I took it, top down, on the 2 mile ice cream run to soothe Donna’s sore mouth after a root canal. On Wednesday I took it to my 6-month follow up with the GP, because it was an early morning appointment the trip there was with the top up, but the way home it was down. Today was a rainy midday appointment with my dentist to get my new crowns, so top up the whole way. All three trips are reflected below.

11.6 miles.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 21

 

That’s Kind of Backwards

Last month when we got home from Santa Fe the desktop PC was dead, so we bought a new Dell and that was delivered 2 days later by our friendly FedEx man. I was kind of surprised that a signature wasn’t required, maybe it was under a certain price point because I really didn’t spend that much on it.

When it arrived I did the usual hard drive dance of removing the old ones, plugging in the old main drive to copy stuff that I wanted, removing it and then adding the old second drive that holds all our documents to the new machine.

Because we were in a hurry to get it, I picked one that was in stock, so it wasn’t customized in any way. While swapping around hard drives I noticed that there was a spot for an optical drive. It even had what looked like a precut punch out hole in the front if you wanted to add a drive. Although I can’t remember the last time I actually used an optical drive, there is still a stack of writeable DVDs in a desk draw somewhere around here. I did have the drive that was in the non functional desktop, so I thought why don’t I put it in the new Dell.

I went online and found the right part number for the optical drive cover and found out it was a mere $3.99 and that included the FedEx shipping. While searching I found a couple of Dell community forum posts that lamented the Dell didn’t actually sell optical drives for this model desktop. Which is funny because not only is there the cut out on the front panel there is an obvious spot to slide a drive in the case and the cabling to plug it in right there.

I ordered the optical drive face plate and three days later there was the FedEx guy on my porch again. But if I wanted him to hand me the small box containing my order I had to sign for it! Seems kind of backwards doesn’t it? I didn’t have to sign for the $800 dollar computer, but I did have to sign for the $4 bit of plastic…

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Blue Monday Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 2, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1973 Porsche 914 2019 Ford Ranger XLT 1957 Chevrolet Suburban
If my parents had made a lot of money this car would have been my high school graduation present. If I had made a lot of money this would have been my retirement present to myself. If my godparents had made a lot of money they would have bought this new as a gift for my parents.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1933 Ford Highboy Roadster Sold for $31,000 on 4/29/22
Off-Road: 1974 International Harvester Scout II Bid to $29,000 on 4/28/22
Touring: 1963 Jaguar MK II Sold for $31,750 on 4/28/22

GCN

While we don’t cycle as much as we used to, we still like to watch the professionals do it. Every July since in the early 90’s we have watched the Tour de France on whatever network has shown it. Probably for the last decade or so we have subscribed to NBC Sports Gold, the most recent home of the Tour de France 3-week grand tour.

Along with the Tour de France NBC Sports Gold showed several other races as well, from a couple of spring classic one day events, to a couple of week long races like the Tour Down Under in Australia and Paris-Nice in France. We have also been able to watch the Vuelta a España, one of the three other 3-week grand tours.

The only 3-week grand tours we have never seen is the Giro d’Italia, well, that changes this year. Turns out that Global Cycling Network, something that started in 2013 as a YouTube channel, now carries the Italian grand tour. We have signed up for the month of May for GCN+ for a mere $9 just so we can see this grand tour. They also carry tons of other races from Europe, so maybe we just might sign up for a whole ($45) so we can get all sorts of commercial free cycling content.

18.5 mile trip to the Running Y for a 3 mile walk.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 18