Miata Photos

Busy Tunnel

On my morning cannabis run last month, because I was unsupervised, I decided to stop and take a Miata picture for Instagramming. There is this cute little one lane tunnel under some railroad tracks a short detour off the way home that I thought might be nice. In all the times I have passed by on the road perpendicular to the tunnel I have never seen anyone use it.

HA! I pulled in and stopped and hopped out to take a photo. When I moved a little closer to take a photo from a different angle I could see someone trying to come through from the direction I entered, so I just hopped in the car and moved forward to let them by.

I did a K-turn and headed into the tunnel to take one from the other direction. Sure enough, the same thing happened again. I got one photo and had to move the car for a whole different vehicle coming in opposite direction.

When I previewed the photos it really wasn’t that scenic, so I just went home.

Happy 32st Miataversary

Hard to believe it was thirty-two years ago when I drove home in a shiny new Mariner Blue Mazda Miata.

Decided to get the current Miata out of the garage this evening for a short drive. When we last drove it, sometime last week, it barely started, so I vowed to get behind the wheel for a drive at least once a week to keep the battery alive. Well, it just about started again this evening…

When we got back home and parked I hooked the CTBNL to an IV of battery tender.

Here We Go Again

Like our trip all over the state of South Carolina to capture an image of every Post Office in the state, we’ve decided to do the same thing in our new home state of Oregon.

The one for Oregon will differ in a few ways. 1) We are thinking that we aren’t going to chase every single one in the bigger towns, like for instance, Portland’s 2 dozen. 2) Every single one of them may not have the same automobile in the photos, the Miata might just be a Mini Cooper or maybe even a Jeep Wrangler. And 3) I’ve taken a state map and highlighted all the places there are Post Offices where we’ll put a pin in each spot we take a picture.

By my count there are 364 actual Post Offices in Oregon or around 90 fewer than in South Carolina, but that doesn’t make it any easier than the 454 in South Carolina because Oregon has 98,466 square miles, or roughly 3 times the area to SC’s 32,020. In South Carolina we could reach any corner of the state on a weekend jaunt. The furthest Post Office from Aiken was a mere 216 miles away from home, the furthest away here, Imnaha, is 300 miles more than that.

Also adding to the challenge here in Oregon is that dirty 6 letter word, Winter. Back in South Carolina we could drive practically year round, here there are going to be about 4 months where the weather will keep us home. On the flip side of that is in SC we were still working, so most of our trip were confined to weekends, but now we are retired, so if we wanted to we could take a month and just get a big bunch of the Post Offices. And if this COVID thing clears up we just might do several couple week trips next spring and summer.

Either way, we figure it is going to take us at least the next 4 years to finish the project. And because we actually started with some local P.O.’s last June it will take us 5 years total which is the same amount of time it took to finish South Carolina. You can keep abreast of our progress by checking in here on the blog and all the photos will be in the Oregon Post Office gallery.

Stress Tested

I am reminded of the George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Which most often remembered as “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” I think that both those who do not learn history, and those who do, are doomed to repeat it. And I know history, mostly because I write it here and can look it back up, so I know that I am repeating it.

From June of 2002, Stress Test.

Last week I had another stress test. This one was in two parts, Tuesday was the resting version, inject some nuclear stuff in, wait an hour, take pictures. Thursday was the actual stress part. I packed my sneakers and a pair of shorts to run in and when I got there I was thrown a curve ball. Because of COVID they didn’t want me (or anyone else for that matter) to be exhaling forcefully in a little room with other people, so they medically stressed me. I got an IV shot of Lexiscan which made my heart think I was exercising. Very weird feeling…laying flat on my back feeling flush and having to breathe heavy. Then I had to wait 45 minutes before laying down for more 3D pictures of my heart.

The follow up with the Cardiologist is next month.

Sunny Day

I know that Wednesday was just one of 300 advertised sunny days here in Klamath Falls, but because the mercury went higher than 50 in January, it was definitely time for a top down Miata drive. We dropped off a box to be mailed to Washington state, we bought a lottery ticket and then did a small loop south of town hoping to catch the F15s flying.

I think the Mini wheels don’t look too bad on the Miata. Speaking of the Mini, the weather was still nice enough after returning from the Miata drive to give the Mini an actual hand wash in the driveway. If you have ever had a flat vertical back on a vehicle, you know how dirty they can get. After the last snowstorm we had the combination of the crushed cinders used on the roads for traction and melted snow made for a very ugly combination on the back of the Mini.

New Wheels for the Miata?

They are only temporary though. The Mini’s new winter tires arrived fashionably late, Saturday instead of Thursday, so I spend that afternoon mounting them on the car. Instead of storing them for the winter I had the idea to mount the all-seasons on the Miata so we could take the car out for a spin at least once a week or so, even if the top is up1, to keep it fresh and and not ruin those ultra-high performance summer tires which really shouldn’t be driven in temps much below 40 degrees.

I had done the research ahead of time and they would go on the car, the offfset was only 10mm different and the Mini wheels had a larger center bore diameter, but would the taller tires work on the slightly lowered car? After I installed them they seemed to fit OK. They didn’t hit the brake calipers and turning the steering wheel lock to lock didn’t induce any rubbing that I could tell. But a test drive was needed because the springs still needed to settle from the being jacked up.

I took a quick spin around the neighborhood and all seemed fine under cruise conditions. It wasn’t until I took a quick turn into a parking lot that I heard a scraping sound. Turns out at near full lock, in both directions, the tires do hit the plastics fender well liners. The problem wasn’t with differences in the offset the rim width difference, but with the taller Mini tire. They are 195/60 as compared to the 195/50 of the Miata, so the Mini tires are a whole 1-1/2″ taller or 3/4 inches a side. I have opted to leave them on because any “winter driving” we do in the Miata will be of a cruise around town variety anyway.

The Garage Is Mine!

Yesterday the Mini was shuffled off to the shop to get the tires rotated and oil & coolant changed. To get the Mini to Emmetts on the south side of town Donna drove it and followed me in the Miata to drop it off. When we came back home Donna kiddingly said, “Park in the middle.” So I aimed to do just that. About three quarters of the way in, I realized that the Miata is a lot longer than the Mini and I better turn the wheel quick or I’d hit the wall of the bath/laundry room on the left side of the garage. So now it just looks the Miata has taken over just because it could.