It's been nearly half a year since I sold the Mini Cooper. Several people have asked if I miss having a sports car. Honestly the answer is no. Oh, sure it was a blast on the twisty road to Port Alberni. I enjoyed zinging up to Parksville, it was the main reason I started taking the back way to Pacific Shores rather than the highway; it was twisty-er. I just loved taking the Mini through freeway cloverleafs, pulling Gs around the loop, all four tires squealing as I drifted around sometimes at twice the posted speed. Heck I even enjoyed just motoring around town doing errands. Punching the throttle to get into traffic. Whipping around parking lots. It was a blast.

What I've discovered though is the pickup truck is just like a sports car. No seriously. How you ask? Well for starters it has a 5 speed stick shift just like the Mini had. Sure the gears don't click into place quite as precisely as they did on the Mini's BMW gearbox but it still has a clutch and 5 gears. Speaking of BMW, the Mazda's engine is a 3 litter V6 just like the BMW Z4. Not many cars are as sporty as a Z4. OK the sound is a little different but it's got the same kind of engine. Where, does the power go after the 5 speed gearbox? To the rear wheels. the Mazda is a rear wheel drive just like a Corvette or Ferrari California. Seriously, if you think 'cool' and 'performance' you got to think of a Corvette, or a Ferrari California, and now you'll also think of a 1995 Mazda B3000.  

Inside the cab the pickup is a two seater just like the Lotus Europa S, you can open the rear window just like the Porsche 912, and it has a split screen windshield just like a Bugatti SC Atlantic. (OK technically the Mazda's windshield is not so much a 'split screen'. Technically it's more what you'd call 'cracked'. OK, the crack goes horizontally across the glass right at eye level, but the glass is in two parts and hey, that's what counts, right?). I was loading up some used pallets in the back today when I realized that this thing just screams sports car. It just oozes performance (or possibly oil) as I toss lumber or scrap in the back. Remember Triumph cars and motorcycles were known for leaks too. There are vinyl decals on the sides just like a Camaro. The colour is a sandy beige, just like the desert, and the Sirocco came from the desert. Above all don't forget the B3000 was made by Mazda, the same company that makes the RX-8.

So really I don't miss the Mini at all. I can have just as much fun and look just as cool and smart in my pickup truck. Really, I can, believe me, 

really……… 

So speaking of the pickup truck, this week we finished the great appliance swap. I mentioned before that Barbara's stove was failing. She had talked to Dave, who she rents from and he brought a replacement, which really didn't work any better than her old one. Well, this is where we got involved. I called Dave and we worked a deal. We replaced our stove (and refrigerator but that's another story). Last weekend we loaded our old stove into the pickup and hauled it over to Barbara's. She now has our old fully working stove in her kitchen, and we got $200 from Dave. It worked out very well for all concerned.

Maybe I'll use the $200 for a hood scoop and a wing for the truck.

Have a good week.

Doug & Marsha

This week we've been under a heavy cloud cover. From the look of things though it was a beautiful day for skiing on the mainland.