Year: 2024

So Long And Thanks For The Fish

Today I was cleaning up the My Documents folder of a lot of random not worth really saving things when I came across a document should have been in the Masters Miata Club archive folder. Which needs some cleaning up as well.

In my tenure in the Club I served in many capacities, President, VP, Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and some totally made up ones.

Jane Smith
34 Main Street
Anytown, USA

Jane,

Last spring you purchased a Miata from Andy Jones Mazda in North Augusta. When you bought your car, Phileas Fogg, the General Manager, paid for a years membership in our club in your name.

Where, oh, where, did we go wrong? Every month we mailed you a newsletter chock full of interesting things to do in a Miata. We regaled you with the stories of what happened at these interesting things.

Were we too pushy? You thought, it’s just a car, what is this, a cult? Not pushy enough? You read an article in Psychology Today about the people who join car clubs being social misfits?

Whatever the reason, it has been 12 months and you haven’t responded, we can take a hint, this is the last time you’ll hear from us.

Respectfully,
Brian W. Bogardus
Club Exit Counselor

P.S. If you pass another Miata and they give a friendly wave or beep or flash their lights, don’t respond back, you’ll only encourage us.

The names have been changed (well, except mine) to protect the innocent.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Cyber Monday Edition of SORT
As of Monday, December 2, 2024 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1985 Beck
550 Spyder		 1968 International Harvester Scout 800 1927 Ford
Model T Touring
I went as far away from cyber as I could…

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 2023 Porsche 718 Spyder Sold for $137,500 on 11/30/24
Off-Road: 1998 Suzuki Jimny Turbo Sold for $10,750 on 11/29/24
Touring: 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Sold for $41,250 on 11/27/24

Just Another Sunday

And just another trip to capture images of Post Offices. Today’s objective was to take pictures the four downtown post offices that I missed on on earlier attempt, plus one that was practically on the way home.

This time I got up at the crack of dawn, thankfully at this time of year its 7:30, to hopefully minimize my interactions with traffic. It was a good idea because there was hardly any traffic around the downtown area and I saw more transit busses than automobiles. The lack of traffic was also helpful because in the middle photo of the top row below I had to park in the travel lane to take that picture.

So now, of the two dozen Post Offices that are in the city limits of Portland, I have only one more to get. And quite possibly if I wanted to I could have grabbed that today too, but it is so far west of town as to be almost in the town of Beaverton. Besides it is practically next door to the Mini dealer where I will be going to soon enough to get something fixed on that car, I’ll get that one then.

Mod Regret

In the 2 months of ownership I have added or changed 11 things to make the car my own. Of those 11, nine are just what I wanted, there are 2 I am slightly disappointed in.

The first is the Shark Fin delete. It was something a fellow on the Miata Forum was selling on eBay, a small 3-D printed plug that fills the hole on the trunk lid once the satellite radio antenna was removed. He did have some that were professionally painted in stock Miata paint colors, but my car’s Aero Gray wasn’t one of them. I ordered one in white and then bought a spray can of touch-up paint in 52C PaintScratch along with a can of clearcoat to finish it off.

After a little sanding and painting I went to but it place, but it wouldn’t fit in the underside of the trunk lid’s cavity. The “plug” portion wouldn’t line up because the round base was off center in the trunk lid’s round hole. I had to sand about 3/32 of an inch off the front half to get it to fit. When I did get it in and lined up, my Aero Gray touch up did not match the trunk lid’s Aero Gray. I was going to put the shark fin back on, but by then I had decided to vinyl wrap the car so I left it in.

The second item is the Rear Running Light Strip that I bought from CravenSpeed here in Portland. It is a strip red LEDs that are stuck to the underside of the trunk lid that spans between the two tail lights and lights up when ever the lights are on or you hit brakes. A few cars have something like this from the factory, most notably, the Porsche 911. It isn’t as nicely integrated as the 911’s, but it is cool looking. Trouble is, the 2024 Miatas have gone full CAN bus, so that every time I start the car the left info gage in the cluster shows a big old “Rear Brake Light Warning” note that has to be dismissed by by hitting the Info button on the steering wheel. It is a minor hassle to have to do this every time right now, but I’m not sure about how long it will be minor hassle.

What I’m Thankful For Today

My drivers license photo, my new Real ID drivers license photo.

When Donna and I first got our Oregon drivers license back in early 2020 There was something off about the camera that they couldn’t adjust out with any settings so, our pictures were totally washed out. I resemble what I imagine a real vampire would look like just before requiring a feeding, totally devoid of any color.

A couple of weeks ago I made an appointment at the DMV to get a new license. The primary reason for the new one was I wanted to get a Read ID version of a license so I wouldn’t have to use my passport to get on an airplane. The second reason was to update my address to the Fairview one. Not really a reason, but more of a accidental benefit was getting a better photo. It came today, you be the judge:

Vampire

Human

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Winter Plans Edition of SORT
As of Monday, November 25, 2024 at 5:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2023 Porsche 718 Spyder 1998 Suzuki Jimny Turbo 1957 Pontiac Star Chief
The Spyder will be stored until next summer’s driving season. The Jimny is for running around to parts places to get stuff I need to complete the Star Chief project finished.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1955 MG TF Bid to $19,205 on 11/20/24
Off-Road: 2011 Ford Ranger Sold for $18,750 on 11/20/24
Touring: 2011 Ford Taurus Sold for $14,750 on 11/20/24

The Man Of 11% Of A Thousand Post Offices

And also, the man of 29% of the 385 Oregon Post Offices.

Yesterday evening the weather forecast called for rain overnight, turning to just cloudy during the day today. So, I mapped out about 8 post offices to go get photos of in the morning only to wake up this morning to find it raining and now it was going to continue raining for the whole day.

I briefly considered calling the drive off, but I now know from living here for over a year, that even if the forecast calls for rain, that rain, more than likely, will be just off and on not a steady downpour. I jumped in the Miata and headed south.

It did rain pretty steady for the first 25 minutes on my trip down I-205, but it did become sporadic once I started driving on B roads going through the Post Office towns. My second planned Post Office was in West Linn, but when I got to where it was supposed to be, it wasn’t there, it was a paved parking lot for what looked like a new supermarket. Guess it moved to somewhere else. The address I had was from 5 years ago when I first compiled the list. I really should check these on USPS.com before I go out looking.

The convoluted post title was because a few miles from home on I-84 heading west the New Blue Miata hit the 1,000 mile mark.