Sonata Mileage

70,000 Beats Per Minute


One of Donna’s retirement gifts was a Gift Certificate to a local store called Birds & Butterflies. And one of things she bought with her GC was a hummingbird feeder. We have filled it a couple of times and had yet to see a hummingbird. About a week ago we were sitting on the porch when one flew up, took a sniff of the feeder, seemingly shook it head, turned around and flew off. I took the hint and changed out the sugar-water nectar (it had been awhile anyway.)

The very next day it was back and since then has become a frequent visitor. One time after it had been coming around a few days, it seemed to notice us on the porch. It flew up and over about half way between the feeder and the screen, then zipped up a foot or so, so it was eye level with us. It hovered it front of Donna for a second or two, then zipped horizontally to hover in front of me for a second or two, then it took off back into the trees.

Earlier this week the hummingbird did something that stunned us. It flew out from the trees, stopped to hover at right about the same spot it did when it was “eyeballing” us, swiveled it head 90° and sucked a small flying bug right out of mid air. Who knew? We both thought all they ate was flower nectar and pollen and such.

Forgive the crappy picture, but we were sitting on the back screened porch near dusk and the cell phone camera focus is slightly freaked out by the screen between us and the bird. Tonight for the first time we had two hummingbirds come to the feeder. Not at the same time though, hummingbirds are pretty territorial. As a matter of fact, we first noticed that there were two because we saw one chasing bird the other around.

Sometime early this week the Purple Whale passed the 70,000 mile mark.

69,000 Miles to Florida

Mini Minnie lives in Washington state, so she has come a long way, but not really that far. The Purple Whale on the other hand has traveled 69,000 since May of 2011.

68,000 Excuses Not To Blog


or I Fell Into An Orphan Black Hole.

I haven’t blogged in about 2 weeks and I’m going to do better in June and post every day. Promise. Or your money back.

I am going to place the blame of that post hole on actually buying (at the exorbitant cost of $1.99) that silly little Orphan Black game. Before I bought it I thought there were only six levels, AKA worlds, to complete because that was how many walk-thrus someone had posted on the internet. But the game itself actually has 10 worlds consisting of either 8 or 9 rooms to navigate successfully to advance on to the next.

And even though the game gives you plenty of decent hints if you ask, I still used the walk-thrus to help me finish up those first 6 levels. Worlds 7 through 10 were all on hints and trial and error and I was really happy to finally wrap up Room 9 of World 10 the other night.

But I was gifted with 4 extra rooms along with some sort of flying demon, that in room two I just can’t seem to get by using the hints and trial and error. I’m going to have to go ‘old school’ and print out the level map and start counting squares or something.

Somewhere during Donna’s errands on Tuesday the Sonata passed the 68,000 mile mark.

Visibility 66,000 Inches



Two weeks ago I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL because we were getting ready to take a weeks vacation and drive to Louisiana. After studying the future weather in Hammond all week with figures crossed, on Friday night we gave up hope and started to pack like we had 3 times the storage space of a Miata, because we did. The forecast said anywhere from 100% to a low of 60% chance of rain/thunderstorms for the entire four days we’d be there and for the drive both there and back. We’d take the Sonata.

We still were going to take the back roads as both Donna and I abhor the Interstates. We simply enter home as the start and add our the destination into Google maps while selecting the Avoid Highways option. We then made a couple of slight shifts in the route to accommodate our choice of an overnight stay and a small bit of nostalgia. 673 miles/12 hours 56 minutes There was of course a few more minor shifts (and one major) in the route on the fly as usually happens when we get going.

The minor shifts mostly involve wandering around looking for suitable lunch places. Because the route and timing may fluctuate it is nearly impossible research every little town and every little eatery on the internet beforehand, so we are usually end up relying on our Garmin GPS. And while I try to keep the maps updated (and I did just before the trip) its database of places to eat is not that comprehensive, so we’ll roll up on what is supposed to be a chosen lunch spot and it will be out of business, only serves dinner or there are no cars in the parking lot. So we try again. If that fails we will try and find a local and ask, “Where is a good place for lunch.” This works well, if you can find someone knowledgeable, but you might be surprised at how many people say, “I don’t know, I just work here. I live in another town.”

The major one happened because we were using the map of Alabama that we used 2 years ago for the Motoring Challenge Loop and it had a nice highlighted route on it. On that trip our last stop over was in Evergreen at a Sleep Inn & Suites, somehow we got that in our heads that that was where were going, except we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express this time. As we got closer and closer to Evergreen the GPS was kept telling us to veer north. Finally Donna pulled out the reservation email and noticed that the HIE was up the road northwest 35 miles. If you leave the GPS in the Avoid Highways mode and select Shortest Distance under navigation, the route turns very zig-zaggy and adventuresome just to save possibly a few feet.

Visibility along the Gulf Coast last Friday was a little more than a mile in spots (or 66,000 inches) and along there somewhere the Purple Whale passed the 66,000 mile mark.

65,000 Oil Changes

Changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL this evening. I like to do this bit of routine maintenance every 5,000 miles because the nice round number makes it easy to remember. It takes about an hour and a half from start to finish and acts, like washing and waxing, as a bonding agent between a man and his car.

The first step in the procedure is to back the Purple Whale out from under the awning so I can use that for my wrenching under. As I rolled back I noticed the odometer reading was 650004. The last time we drove the Sonata was to work on Tuesday, so the 65k milestone was crossed about halfway home on that day.

64,000 Calories

Broken Forks

The community that my sister Diane and her husband live in hold a pot luck Thanksgiving meal. As we have done previously, this year we drove up again to partake in the consuming of mass quantities of the favorite holiday dishes of strangers. Everyone brings a side dish or dessert and their own place settings. This year Diane decided to just buy some Thanksgiving paper plates and “Premium” plastic dinnerware instead having to keep track of her real stuff. Five people, two trips through the buffet line, a visit to the dessert room and eight broken forks.

Just south of Clinton, SC the Purple Whale passed the 64,000 mile mark.

62,000 Micro-inch Pounds of Torque

Red Valve Cover II

After the last time I put the valve cover on it ended up leaking, so I thought I’d just get a new gasket and start over. Relying on my vast mechanical experience, I also thought maybe because last time I just tightened the eleven bolts holding it down by feel I may have under or over tightened them. The cure to hopefully not create another leaker maybe would be to maybe actually read the manual and torque the bolts to the proper value.

The specifications I have, thanks to a friendly Miata.net Forum member, 68.6 to 96.3 in/lbs, but the torque wrench to use, not so much. When I started looking for an in/lb torque wrench I was surprised at how much they wanted for them and I really didn’t want to spend that kind of money on something I might not use very much. I thought maybe I might be able borrow one. I could have bought one off Amazon for $22, but how good could it be for that price?

I had a line on one from a co-worker, but he couldn’t find his or forgot or something or other, so that was a bust. Today we were at a birthday part at a friend’s house and I asked a fellow MMC member who as there too if he had an in/lb torque wrench and if so could I borrow it. He did, so I told him I’d call later to see about getting it. When I called, he told me his was a beam type wrench, but it was for a lot higher range than I needed because the gradient marks were 50 in/lbs apart. That meant I would have to find the spot a little more than halfway between mark number one and mark number two. And even if I did, how accurate would that rating be with it so close to the bottom of the scale?

Figuring I had wasted enough time and effort chasing the whole borrowing thing, it was time to bite the bullet and just buy one., So I did some internet shopping of the local places and there was only one auto parts store that one in stock, but they wanted $120 for it. So I checked the local BBHIW stores and Home Depot had one for $70. I am now the proud owner of a Husky 20-200 in/lb click style torque wrench.

If you compare the above photo of the red valve cover with the one from earlier this month, you’ll notice that while I had the cover off this time I did some more painting on it – the lettering is now black.

Yesterday on the way home from work the Purple Whale slipped past the 62,000 miles.