8-1/2 Months From Now
That is the next time I set foot in an actual movie theater and it will be to see this:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs
Before you ask, I don’t remember for sure when the last time was.
Month: April 2015
Warning!
Just like I did 10 years ago when Mazda was getting ready to introduce the 3rd generation Miata, I’ve been keeping my eyes on the Miata.net Forum staying up to date on the chatter about the 4th generation model. Actual information on the car has been dribbling out for months with the Japanese and European model stuff coming first. There have been leaks of a Japanese Accessories Catalog, a German spec sheet and price list and hints of Australian pricing.
Today we got a link to the Japanese Electronic Owners Manual! I can’t read kanji, so I wasn’t always sure what I was looking at for the last hour or so as I clicked on a bunch of things, but it sure was fun.
I did learn that you shouldn’t drive the Miata down stairs because you might scrape the bottom or don’t try and drive over parking lot dividers, you won’t make it:
Also, you don’t need to understand Japanese
to know what this Miata is saying,
“I hate winter. $#!*%”
The only real question I have is, “What the heck is this thing?”
Walking In The Rain
Because we had a fairly early flight out of Seattle on Saturday and it was supposed to be rainy we thought it might be less hassle if we returned the rental car on Friday night and spend a night in a hotel near the airport that had shuttle service.
To keep from having to schlep our 50 lb. suitcase from the rental car center to the airport and then to the hotel, we checked into a room at the Fairfield Inn before returning the car. This was a great idea, we dropped the car off and grabbed one of the always waiting shuttle buses to the airport. From the terminal we opted to just walk to the hotel instead of waiting for the hotel shuttle which you have to call for and then it will come get you.
The walk was about 1-3/4 miles, we had done the same walk a week before when we arrived, that time dragging the big ol’ suitcase, so this time it would be a lot easier. We felt like we were Seattle natives, walking in the cool light rain. About a quarter mile from the hotel I realized I still had the key fobs for the rental car in my pocket!
The Nissan Altima we had rented had the now ubiquitous push to start feature and because the Purple Whale has a fob, I guess I was used that weight in my left front pocket. The thing of it was, as we were pulling into rental car center I thought to myself, “Remember to give up the keys.” But somehow with the returning of the GPS and getting the receipt, that thought drifted away.
We turned back around to walk the mile and a half back to the terminal, hop on the rental car center shuttle buss to return the keys to the folks at the National counter. Back outside to board the shuttle back to the terminal. This time we called the hotel and waited patiently for their shuttle.
Separated At Birth?
I didn’t watch any of the Final Four basketball games last weekend, because if I had I think might
have noticed the similarity of Wisconsin junior forward Sam Dekker:
To Orphan Black’s crazy male clone Rudy:
Planting The Sandy Tree
This afternoon the Morrison family planted a tree in honor of their sister Sandy who passed away from ALS last November. Donna, her brother Steve and brother Scott (along with Scott’s wife and 3 kids, plus me) picked out an apple tree from a local nursery yesterday. Oldest brother Jim flew in this morning so all the surviving Morrison siblings were in attendance at the ceremony.
We picked out a hybrid tree grafted from 5 different apple trees to ensure self pollination. Washington State is famous for its apples, so we are hoping that in a couple more years the tree will start producing fruit.
Good Thing We’ve Been Here Before
Day trippin, yeah!
Donna’s older brother Steve, has been out this way in the past for business, but never really got to see much of the northwest’s beauty, so we took him on our favorite day trip. North to Mount Vernon (bypassing the tulip routes), then over Deception Pass to Whidbey Island, down the length of the island to the Clinton to Mukilteo ferry, before zipping back east to Granite Falls. This always includes stops at our two favorite obsolete military spots, Fort Ebby & Fort Casey.
The reason I have linked to Google Images of the two Forts above and don’t have any of my own, is right after I took the Deception Pass bridge photo, the camera battery died. Good thing we have been here before…
Bosworth Bungalow
Earlier you got a view from the back deck, so here is a view of the Bosworth Bungalow from the parking area. This 2-bedroom place is a tidy little hideaway that comes with everything you need except food & drink to have a nice relaxing vacation. It is a quiet little lake that you have to be coming here to be here. There is one road in, and one road out, that do not form a shortcut to anywhere.
At first we thought that it was real quiet because it is off season and worried about coming back some future summer, but we found out that it is a fishing lake and only electric trolling motors are allowed, no jet skis or ski boats, so it might be just as mellow here in July as it is in April.
We’ve been eating breakfast at the cabin everyday so far, but today we wanted something different, so we drove to Marysville, about 10 miles away1 to go to Carl’s Jr for a sausage & egg biscuit. Carl’s is the west coast version of Hardee’s, the decor and menu are extremely similar, and while the biscuit was better than we have gotten anywhere else, it was no Hardee’s…
1But it takes 30 minutes to drive there because you get there directly from here.