Groundhogs as Weathermen

Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today, predicting that there will be an early spring. Overall, the Stormfax Almanac says, Punxsutawney Phil has only been right 39% of the time going back to his first recorded prediction in 1887.

Georgia’s General Beauregard Lee also did not see his shadow either, predicting that an early spring is in store for us. According to a recent analysis done by 538 for this sort of thing, General Beauregard Beau is accurate about how the winter/spring split will play out about 70% of the time.

Oregon’s Fairview Fred did see his shadow, meaning that there will be six more weeks of winter! I just made up the Fairview Fred thing, but if he was real he would have seen his shadow because we had an usual for here sunny day in February. Come back on March 19th and Fairview Fred will either be a 100% or 0% accurate.

25 Years Ago – Issue I 1999

With my love of blue cars I really wanted one of these back in 1999. But I had just paid off the 1995 Laguna Blue and had it modified to my taste, so the only way I would get one then was to to win the one there were giving away as a door prize at the Miata Club of America’s national meet in Dallas, TX. Donna and I attended that weekend Miata extravaganza and we came away with a door prize of leather seat covers for our car, but no blue 10AE Miata.

Party of the Decade

It’s the next Miata special: the first on the M2 body; and a guaranteed collector frenzy. Lev Goldfarb moves the clock ahead to Ten A.M.

A decade at the top is a long streak for anyone, but for an automobile it is almost an eternity. The Miata has been the best car of its type—and often the only car of its type—ever since it was introduced in 1989, so this year marks a very important anniversary. Now that Miata Mania is turning ten years old, Mazda wants to celebrate with a new special edition conceived purely for Miata Maniacs.

Surprising? Well, yes and no. Remember, five years ago Mazda celebrated the MX5’s fifth birthday with international events (including the Miata Homecoming at Irvine), the introduction of the M-Edition and R-Package, the California Edition in Britain, and a host of Miata-based show cars. They did not, however, release a five-year-anniversary model per se. That makes this new package the first Miata ever dolled up to celebrate a specific event. (Purists might argue that England’s 24-unit run of MxX5 Le Mans Commemorative Editions also fits this definition, but I disagree. As a private venture between Mazda’s UK importer and BBR Turbosystems, the Le Mans Edition seems more appropriately considered a tuner car, not a factory special.)

The “10th Anniversary Model”—or “Ten A.M.” to the wags—is a different kind of special edition; it’s like nothing that Mazda has sent to America before. First, it’s an international model; aside from the spec and legal changes required by various countries, each of the 7500 copies in the world will look and feel the same. Whether you’re in Japan (500 units), the United States and Canada (3150), Europe (3700), or Oceania and Asia (the rest), your 10th Anniversary Model Miata will feature unique Innocent Blue Mica paint, a sequential badge on the fender carrying the car’s build number, 15-inch polished Mazda alloys, and a color-keyed blue-gray roof and top boot.

In the interior, carbon-look inserts and chrome gauge surrounds set off the dash, while suede-like blue trim covers the seat inserts, steering wheel grips, and shift boot. The Ten A.M. also features deep-pile blue carpets, power door locks, and a top-end Bose AM-FM receiver/CD player. Even the ignition key is a unique commemorative special. Each car built will also come with a numerical owner’s certificate signed by Mazda Corporation president James E. Miller.

So far, so good; what would a Miata special edition be without lots of trinkets and eye candy? The Ten A.M., however, is going to turn out being more than that, at least for Americans and Europeans. Its other standard feature is Mazda’s close ratio six-speed manual, which up until now has been unavailable outside Japan. Better still, by using this upmarket special edition as a wedge to get the new gearbox certified in other markets, it will also make it possible to offer the six-speed in cheaper Miatas down the line. (Whether Mazda will choose to do that, of course, remains an open question….)

Developed by Japanese gearbox specialist Aisin, the new Type YL6OMD six-speed fits in the same space as the current 5-speed (Type M15MD) and is
just three-and-a-quarter pounds heavier. (Dropping one into any Miata, new or old—would be child’s play.) Though the gearbox is based on an Aisin design, both companies went on to develop its shift action and meshing rate to match or beat those of the MX5’s existing five-speed.

As soon as the Ten A.M. was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show, Miata fans in the know noticed how similar its color treatment was to Tom Matano’s personal M1 “Gray-Haired Miata.” Though the color schemes weren’t an exact match, they were certainly close enough in concept to make people wonder. Was the much-anticipated, highly secret tenth-anniversary model staring us in the face all along? This seems to be the case cosmetically. Mechanically, on the other hand, we always expected a six-speed; we just never really thought we’d get it.

The Miata 10th Anniversary Model hadn’t been priced as this issue went to press, but start saving your nickels and dimes. It’s unlikely to be cheap.

Copyright 1999, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.

 

Come on Jack

Oh boy, some more Reacher talk coming your way. I am going to try and refrain from my usual long winded recap of my Reacher problem, but if you are interested, hit this link and read about it in reverse order.

I watched the last episode of season two a week and a half ago and it left a sour taste in my mouth. Last year’s Season 1 show, like any book to film transfer, changed some things, but it still felt like a very true representation of the book and character. Season 2, in my opinion, strayed a bit too far from the Jack Reacher ethos. The setting was changed from LA to New York, but this wasn’t an issue because Atlantic City worked for the Las Vegas location in the book.

My main problem with the adaptation came from the what I felt was a lot more bang bang shoot ’em up that I don’t remember from the book. Like they decided to increase the gun play to cater to American’s love of guns. Also, the Jack Reacher I know is an expert shot from my memory, usually a couple trigger pulls handles it. This series seemed to have a lot of gun battles where I’d swear both sides were firing enough times that the bangs were so many that it was way more than any gun could hold. And WTF, a car chase scene, this Jason Bourne stuff, not Reacher.

The big kicker for me was the final recuse of the last two reaming members of their old Army unit, the Special Investigators of the 110th, by Reacher & Neagley. They called in some reinforcements, where in the book these two do the job just fine on their own. Also this created a huge gun fight in a dark building with a fusillade bullets and it is a wonder how the good guy didn’t take each other out.

I’m not the only one who didn’t particularly like season two, go read some IMDB reviews and there are a lot of 3/10 ratings which probably come from the book readers like me. The few 10/10 ratings in there are probably from the non-book readers.

I probably won’t rewatch this season like I did for the first, I’ll will probably reread the book though, just to cleanse my palate. The show wasn’t all bad and the one thing I have to give props to the producers for was one little throw off line. Reacher is famous for checking into hotels under an assumed name, usually a New York Yankee second-string shortstop. He does that here, and when our big bad guy, probably a native New Yorker hears that name he recognizes it. Neagley, Reacher’s female compatriot, checks in using the name Sarah Conner of Terminator fame, but our evil bad guy doesn’t know that one, he says, “Never heard of her.” The actor playing to bad guy was Robert Patrick who played the T-1000 in the second Terminator movie.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

More of the Same Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 29, 2024 at 2:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1973 Porsche
914		 1977 Toyota
Land Cruiser		 2015 Land Rover
Range Rover
Another Porsche? But this is a different model. Another Toyota? But this is a different pick up. Okay, I admit, this is nothing like last week’s entry.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1974 Porsche 911 Sold for $62,500 on 1/24/24
Off-Road: 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser Sold for $20,500 on 1/25/24
Touring: 1993 Mazda RX-7 Sold for $46,000 on 1/24/24

So That’s What That Switch Is For

When we first moved into our home here in Fairview three months ago I went around testing each light switch to see what they controlled. There was one on a side wall of the main bedroom’s closet that was placed pretty high up. The closet light switch was at the right height and right by the door into there, so this second switch was a mystery.

I had the phone number of the previous owner, so I called him up to ask if he knew what that switch was for. He replied, “I have no idea what it does.” I told him, “I was going to get an electrician in for something else and when I did I’d get him to figure it out.” The previous owner’s response was, “Call and tell me, then we’ll both know.” I have never gotten around to the electrician thing. I had a hunch it was for the water heater because in that closet was a bump out that was perfect sized for one and close by to it was a whole house water shut off.

During our winter storm last week when we were close to losing power I got down a heavy blanket we had on the top shelf of the main closet in case we had to huddle under something to stay warm. The very next day when Donna went to shower she shouted, I have no hot water. I tried a different faucet or two and there wasn’t any hot water there either. With all the flickering and near misses at a power failure my first thought was a tripped breaker. The one labeled water heater was fine, but I cycled it anyway. My next thought was to see if there was a separate breaker on the water heater itself. As I was unscrewing the fasteners on that bump out I looked up and that mystery switch was in the down position! Aha!

I must have turned the switch to the down position when I dragged down that blanket, flipped it up and 20 minutes later we had hot water.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

The Reds and the Black Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 22, 2024 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1974 Porsche 911 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser 1993 Mazda RX-7
Just phoning this one in, maybe next week I’ll have more to say about the cars I pick.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: Modified 1955 Volkswagen Beetle Sold for $22,500 on 1/21/24
Off-Road: 1963 Volkswagen Dune Buggy Bid to $8,800 on 1/21/24
Touring: 1961 Volkswagen Type 2 Panel Van Bid to $29,000 on 1/20/24

Winter Wonderland

Last Friday during the day it was doing the usual northwest winter weather thing, i.e. cool and misting. That cool was the last time it was above freeing for 5 days. Saturday the rain shifted to snow and it kept falling until late Sunday afternoon leaving behind an inch or so on the ground. On Monday I made a quick run to the grocery store to get some essentials because now there was freezing rain headed our way.

The freezing rain came down Monday night through Thursday morning leaving everything coated in a sheath of ice. The city came to a standstill. Trees came down knocking out power to thousands. We were very lucky in that ours never really went out. But believe me there were at least ten times from Wednesday evening until Friday morning that it flickered or blipped off momentarily making us hold our breath. Our cable stayed on the whole time except for one brief outage on Friday evening.

The weather folks say it got it 35 degrees on Thursday, but you couldn’t tell it if you poked your head outside. It really wasn’t until Friday that the temps peeked above freezing and moist rain fell. Friday afternoon I went outside and found some ice melt stuff in the shed that the previous owner left behind. When I looked at Portland’s usual winter weather before we moved I opted to leave behind the melt stuff I had in Klamath Falls along with the snow shovels. I poked around inside the shed and did find an 8 x 24 piece of floor tile that became my impromptu shove that I used to clean the driveway until it broke in half.

Because we are the first house as you come into the subdivision off the main drag and it is all slightly uphill after us, our driveway was kind of ice locked and I figured I could get out if needed but getting back in was probably not going to happen, so we skipped the usual Friday grocery shopping trip. Fortunately once it got above freezing on Friday it has stayed that way since. Then the rain that fell that night and on Saturday was now helping get rid of all that ice. Probably by Monday morning there will be very little evidence left of any of the snow and ice.