Mini Mileage

30,000 Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces

Out running around this afternoon because we had a few things to take care of. We needed to find a new dentist (possibly another separate blog post.) We stopped at Goodwill to restock our shelves with jigsaw puzzles. We have done 3 so far this year and only had about 4 left in the queue. So we picked up another eight. Seven of them had green tags which meant they were half off the $4.29 regular price. The eighth one we gladly paid full price for because it still had the factory seals intact, so we are sure to have one puzzle with all its pieces.

Those eight puzzles don’t total to 30,000 pieces, but on our way to our last stop, Wendy’s for Jr Frostys, the Mini rolled past thirty thousand miles.

On last Saturday the Miata got driven twice. Firstly I went and just randomly drive around for 6 or so miles because the poor car hadn’t moved for a couple weeks. Then later that day it was time to head down to the local cannabis stock to stock up on our “sleep” medicine – Wyld Elderberry Gummies.

Times Miata Driven since 10/28/22: 5

 

29,000 Shuffled Items

Our go to grocery store here in Klamath Falls is a Fred Meyer, a Kroger brand store. Because of our previous relationship in Aiken with an actual Kroger, we fit right in. Didn’t even have to get a new loyalty card. Over the last couple of months they have been updating the store, they’ve refreshed the outside paint, added a Starbucks, totally revamped the Pharmacy, updated the interior signage, etc.

Of course the biggest thing was updating the shelving which involved moving all the items from one place and temporarily placing them in seemingly random spots around the store. Then this stuff was placed back somewhat near where they were, but not always. This constant shuffling made our weekly shopping grocery shopping trip an adventure to say the least.

On yesterday’s shopping trip it seems like they are getting pretty close to finishing up shuffling around the twenty-nine thousand grocery items in the place. Now have to finish up updating the the clothing, shoes, garden, electronics and hardware sections, but at least those won’t directly effect our weekly trips on Thursdays.

On the way home from Fred Meyers the new, to us, Mini shuffled past the 29,000 mile mark.

47,001 Reasons

I have a lot of reasons as to why I haven’t written anything real here, the Monday car posts don’t really count, in almost 2 weeks.

Fourteen of those reasons are I decided to rewatch, for possibly the 4th or 5th time, that 20-year old short-lived space western, Firefly.

A quartet of those reasons is I discovered The Brokenwood Mysteries. There are 8 seasons with a total of 36 episodes, but only 4 are available on Prime Video. Like a lot of mystery shows that tickle my fancy, this is one also has a quirky detective whose personality is mirrored in their car. Like Columbo with his old Peugeot 403 convertible and DCI Vera Stanhope with her Land-Rover Defender 90 Tdi. In this show, set in New Zealand, Senior Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd drives a 1971 Holden Kingswood. Come to think of it, all three of them come from the “almost leaving, but before going, turn around and ask another question” school of detectiving.

But, most of those reasons are because nothing exciting has happened to write about, until this morning. When I got in the Mini to run to the store the odometer read 47001.

46,000 Fruit Trees

Another 280 mile day consisting of The Dalles, OR to Monroe, WA and another day of more traffic than expected in a few spots. Don’t ask me about Sultan, WA…

We did manage to take a very pleasant and fun road from Yakima to Ellensburg. WA-821 runs right along the river through a canyon filled with 24 miles of sweeper turns and beautiful scenery.

If you have a hankering for Italian food you definitely can’t go wrong at the Ellensburg Pasta Company.

Just south of Yakima, while driving through thousands of apple and cherry trees the LadyBug ticked past its forty-six thousandth mile.

45,000 Inactive Covid Cells

Today, for the first time since our return from Santa Fe eleven days ago, or at least it sure seems like it, we got a nice day for a walk. So we took advantage of it and walked up to Sky Lakes Medical Center to get our second Covid booster shot and as a reward stopped in at Brevada Brewhouse to get a nice warm beverage and a cookie.

On a early morning Walmart run the Mini crossed the forty-five thousand mile mark.

44,000 More

Took a quick trip over the Cascades to Medford to do some shopping. There are a few things that we can get easier there than here because the town of Medford has around forty-four thousand more people in it than we have in Klamath Falls.

While we were there we also like to try and eat a meal at a restaurant option that we don’t have in our smaller town. Originally our thought was Firehouse Subs, but it was changed to a search for a Greek gyro. There was was chain called Pita Pit, but we thought we’d try a local spot called Hidden Door Cafe. It was a small place in an older shopping center and while the meat in the wrap was plentiful, to us, it was far from the best gyro we ever had. Actually we rated the gyro you can get at Arby’s, a roast beef sandwich chain, better than this one.

Somewhere along the way over the Lady Bug crossed the 44,000 mile mark.

430,000 Acres of Scorched Earth

The country’s biggest wildfire (so far) this year has burned nearly 430,000 acres of eastern Oregon. Fortunately for us it started about 40 miles north and east of us and because of the prevailing winds that generally blow in those same cardinal ordinates, we were never in any danger from the fire.

Our air has been smoke filled, mostly not from the Bootleg fire, but from others in northern California. Last summer I took a picture of the smoke filled skies in the direction of Mt. Shasta (25 miles south and west of us) and commented that the mountain was invisible because of the smoke. I thought that it was unusual, but apparently it is an every summer occurrence during our 5th season here in Oregon, Fire Season.

This morning on the way to our weekly shopping trip to Fred Meyer the Ladybug turned over 1/10 the number of those scorched acres…43,000 miles.