September 2005 – M&I / GBMINI

10K (s)miles

Posted on September 28, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

On the way to work this morning, I reached 10,000 miles …

GBMINI#3 reaches 10,000 miles

Not quite 7 months (a little quicker than GBMINI#2), and nothing to complain about.
The cold start issue seems normal for many MINIs but was resolved by switching to a different gasoline; the spurious SES light did not happen much, and was recently cured (hopefully) by an engine software update.

And for those anti to the automatic transmission, I can only tell you that my MINI enjoyment is at least as high with GBMINI#3 as with the previous manual transmission MINIs …

Pins for Keith

Posted on September 26, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Hopefully you remember Keith, a MINI owner and Sales Associate at MINI Peabody that suffered major spine trauma in a diving accident back in the summer.
His family set up a Care For Keith web site, with regular news and fund-raising – from there I recently ordered a Tshirt, which arrived this weekend, along with some “I Care For Keith” pins that I had made up by Pin-City (another MINI owner):

Minolta DSC

Care For Keith

I will absorb the $3+ cost of each pin; hopefully people will be prepared to buy a pin and donate at least $5 to the Care For Keith trust – I hope too that MINI Peabody will carry some stock and collect money for Keith.

I was very happy to read tonight that there is some improvement in Keiths condition … (9/15), he and his mom discovered that he could curl his toes on his left foot on his own … (9/22), Keith regained some small movement in three of his left fingers (pinkie, ring & middle fingers) and slight movement in his left thumb …

We are all still thinking of you Keith – good luck with your recovery.

See the duck on Long Island

Posted on September 25, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

In honour of Ed, I headed down to Long Island this weekend to join some Long Island MINI owners and tour Long Island; I met Chris at the New London ferry (he had driven down from New Hampshire), and we crossed to Long Island the easy way …

Minolta DSC

Then early yesterday morning I met up to 20 other MINIs at a mall near New York City, where the rally started (and ended!):

Minolta DSC

We headed off to drive a total of about 180 miles! For me there was too much driving and not enough stopping – we passed lots of beautiful scenery and towns, but stopped only rarely …

Minolta DSC

But one important place we did stop was the Big Duck!

The Big Duck

GBMINI#3 at The Big Duck

Minolta DSC

The Big Duck

Group picture at The Big Duck

Lunch was at a golf “country club” which had trouble coping with an “invasion” of 30+ MINI people – food was excellent but slow. On the other hand, the weather was fabulous!

Minolta DSC

Background – why the Big Duck:
Ed (MaxaMINI) developed his duck theme from a tour round Long Island organized by RobFriedman; see see this post on MINI2, where Ed writes:
Sorry ladies and gents it be no Giant Duck. Cheez it’s plain to see they are merely mini people. Come on get real. Giant duck! Have you ever in your life seen a duck this big? Of course not. That’s quite impossible and you know it. Look how small those cars are. Could real size people operate them? Of course not. Mini people and Mini cars. Get it.

Month: September 2005