25 Years Ago – Winter 1996

This is a slightly shorter article from the Miata Magazine than usual, but it spoke to me because it reminded me of a member of my former Miata Club. Substitute Edgefield, South Carolina for San Antonio, Texas and Masters Miata for Bluebonnet and this could be Stacey. My own personal Miata is in its own modified “Winter Mode” here in Oregon. The summer tires have been replaced by the all-season tires off the Mini and the battery tender is hooked up to the car. I will try and take it for a short drive at least once a week, but I don’t have a hardtop so any drive will be with the top in the up and locked position.

Winter Mode

– by Art Nisenfeild – Bluebonnet Chapter

Every year about this time. (November) I put my hardtop on and am constantly fielding questions about what purpose it serves. Well, maybe this will help everyone out there to understand the rest of us.

This weekend, my oldest son assisted me in mounting my hardtop on my “baby,” a white 1991 which I have owned since it was new. Each year about this time I have performed this ritual, even though in our southern climate of San Antonio, Texas, the soft top offers more than enough protection during the “winter.” (“Winter” here ends about the first week in February and the top will come back off and resume perching over the Miata in its factory sling.)

He asked me nonchalantly why I insisted on putting the hardtop on, especially since the “winter” had not yet arrived. He had no idea that he had hit a hot button, and I had no real answer for him at the time. So, the question stayed with me the rest of the night. After much contemplation, I have this to offer to my son and those of you who might also wonder.

For one thing. I love the way the car looks with the hardtop. The obvious change from a top down roadster to a sleek GT coup in less than an instant is a premium rarely found on any car, especially one which is driven for pure pleasure.

The feel of the car changes with the hardtop, and the differences between the two modes add to the overall pleasure and appreciation of each. The change back, when the hardtop comes off, magnifies the pleasure one gets when that first springtime drive hits the senses. It all adds to the appreciation of what a wonderful car Mazda created.

In San Antonio, I do pass up several days of top down weather during winter. I could pop the hardtop off to take advantage, but I prefer not to do this. I occasionally get some heat from my fellow Bluebonnet Chapter members when they see me in the hardtop version. Most of these people track their personal best cold weather drives with the top down. One has a 24 degree F. record he likes to brag about. It doesn’t do him any good to try and convince me to leave the top off, because I know the feeling of driving a “different” car in the colder months, and he can only imagine the pleasure.

So, my Miata is in winter mode for now. The next 2-1/2 months will be spent waiting in great anticipation, for the time when the top comes off, and that first top down drive is underway. Taking the top off, only serves to increase the pleasure of an already great car.

Copyright 1996, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.
 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Christmas Edition of SORT
As of Monday, December 20, 2021 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2015 Alfa Romeo 4C 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser 2005 Mazda RX-8
1972 Datsun 240Z 1971 Land Rover 88 1969 Plymouth Satellite
Because it is Christmas week, I decided to pick a dream garage of red & green.
To get an even amount of each color I decided to go ahead and pick one of each
color for each of the categories. 🙂

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 2011 Audi R8 V10 Spyder Sold for $96,000 on 12/17/21
Off-Road: 2021 Ford Bronco Sold for $80,000 on 12/19/21
Touring: 2009 Porsche Cayenne Sold for $54,501 on 12/17/21

More Fun With Warby Parker

In the last chapter of “Brian Gets New Glasses”, we left our hero with the leading contender for his next set of glasses as the Dawson, but he was not totally sold on them. In this chapter he gets a second set of Warby Parker Home Try On frames with four new choices and another of the previous set’s front runner again.

Below is a galley of second set of glasses. Top row from left to right: The returning #1 Dawson, #2 Weathers and #3 Keene. Bottom row from left to right: #4 Wright, #5 James and the current #6 Wilder.

Well, now the waters have been muddied a bit.

I still kind of like the #1 Dawson, but after trying them all on one after another, the leader by a nose is the #2 Weathers. And now after looking at the pictures I took today, the #3 Keene aren’t a bad choice either, they are in the same color of my previous glasses that broke on Halloween, Beach Glass, and they have the same look as the #6 Wilder I’m currently wearing.

So, the only ones that have been really eliminated are the #4 Wright which seem too big, the #5 James because they are metal frames that are $50 more than the others (and I don’t like them that much) and the #6 Widler because they don’t sell them anymore.

Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted…

Santa, All I Want For Christmas Is A New TV

Downstairs in Family/Entertainment Room we have our old 50″ Samsung TV that came with us from Aiken. Since its arrival from the east coast it has started to develop some vertical lines on the far left side of the screen. We have been able to ignore them mostly, but they are now starting to get on both our nerves.

It is Christmastime, so we thought maybe we should give ourselves a present of a new TV that has a nice complete picture. There are only a couple of places in town where you can buy a TV, but that is not really helpful as they would be no way to transport it home, so I went online to see about getting something delivered. Found a sweet Samsung 50″ UHD on Best Buy for $379. The best part is free shipping with arrival early next week. I was going to bump up the size to 55″ for $20 more, but the free shipping changed to $190!

I stuck the TV in my cart and headed to checkout. I filled out the requested personal info, entered my charge card info and hit the buy button. I got a screen telling me they couldn’t process my card and I should try another one. Thinking I may have entered the number wrong, entered a “new” card. Really the same one, but I made sure I double checked that everything was correct. This time when I hit Buy, I got a confirmation saying my order was placed.

About then I heard a couple of notification beeps on the phone. I figured it was Best Buy because I had signed up for order/delivery texts. I was right, there was one from Best Buy, but there was also one from Chase, the Fraud Department. They had declined the charge. They wanted to know if it was me. I responded with Yes. Chase sent back another text saying that the transaction was not completed and I should ask the merchant to reprocess the transaction.

On the Best Buy website, it showed the order as in process, so I tried contacting Chase. Instead of waiting for a representative on the phone, I tried their chat bot. After 7 minutes, I got started chatting with Doris Brown (who I’m sure was actually Prisha Banerjee) who after asking a couple questions to ensure I was really Brian Bogardus (not Changying Zhao) before asking what my issue was. Then she said give me a few minutes to look into this. Couple minutes she returned to tell me that I needed to contact billing to get them to reprocess a transaction and gave me that 800 number.

I dialed the number and navigated through the menu and then I was informed that billing was closed. Fast forward to this morning. I went to Best Buy’s website and my order was still showing in process. I went to the Chase website and the charge showed as pending.

So, is Santa bringing us a TV for Christmas, who knows. This morning I called Chase again. This time it only took a few minutes before I got a Customer Service Representative, and after a couple of questions was told that the transaction was actually approved and everything is fine. We’ll see.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

All-Wheel Drive Edition of SORT
As of Monday, December 13, 2021 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2011 Audi R8 V10 Spyder 2021 Ford Bronco 2009 Porsche Cayenne
We are getting our first appreciable snowfall of the season today, so I should get some cars appropriate for the winter. All of these vehicles have all-wheel or 4-wheel drive.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 1957 Ford Thunderbird Bid to $25,000 on 12/9/21
Off-Road: 1957 GMC 150 4×4 Sold for $24,057 on 12/9/21
Touring: 1954 Chevy 150 Wagon Sold for $22,250 on 12/9/21

Konquer Kovid in Klamath Kounty Kontest

A couple weeks ago while NFL football on a Sunday I saw a local commercial for something called Conquer Covid in Klamath. I know after places around the country and the world are offering prizes as inducement to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but didn’t realize they were doing it here too. So I signed both Donna and I up to be in the contest.

I have no idea when the contest started and there are weekly drawings for the “smaller” prizes and a Grand Prize of a new Dodge Ram or Durango at the end. We both were vaccinated back in March, so who knows how many weekly drawings we have missed out on. Unless of course the weekly drawing is for just those entered during that week, and in that case, we didn’t win a prize.

I guess there is always a chance on the grand prize or one of the 3 runner up prizes, a hot tub, a Disneyland family vacation and $3k. Of course who knows when the contest ends because, like the start date, there is no mention of it in the rules. If they are waiting until every one in the county gets a shot, they are never going to have to give away the “big” prizes, right now the county is at 55% for one dose and 49% fully vaccinated.

My favorite aspect of this contest is a little link at the bottom of the main page:

I’m not vaccinated and want to enter.

 

Everything Always Looks Better On The Website

Last Thursday’s post I showed pictures of the 5 frames from Warby Parker that I chose to try on at home. They showed up on Tuesday and now here are what they looked like on my face. Below are the Warby Parker images of the frames and when you hover over them you can see what they looked like on my face. I don’t know if it the lighting with me sitting in the desk chair with natural window light from the upper left or what, but almost all of the frames looked nothing like what they looked like on the web.

Dawson
Azure Crystal/Oak Barrel		 Durand
Striped Pacific		 Percey
Tidal Blue
Whalen
Lapis Crystal		 Yardley
Blue Marbled Tortoise		 Wilder
Squall Blue Fade

The last photo, Wilder in Squall Blue Fade, is a picture of what I’m wearing right now and they are nearly 6 years old. I’m using them because the ones I’ve been wearing for the last four years, a set of Lyle in Beach Glass, broke on Halloween evening.

Right now the leading contender for my next set of glasses is the first one, the Dawson, which has a different color on the front of the frame compared to the earpieces, but I’m now totally sold on them. As soon as this set of frames make it back to Warby I’ll get a second set sent out to me to try four more different frames and the Dawson again.