ALLGBMINI – Page 258 – M&I / GBMINI

Who’s that under the mouse?

Posted on May 22, 2007February 13, 2017 by Ian C.

While visiting Steve in Cape Cod this last weekend, he was showing all the Welcome Kit goodies that MINI USA now send out – including a very nice mouse mat with MINI pictures all over it. As soon as I looked at it, I said “Oh, there’s GPMINI!”:

Mouse mat with GPMINI and others

The GPMINI pic I recognized immediately was third row down, six from left – this is GPMINI (and me) leaving Sandia MINI on the way to Sandia Crest. I have this same photo, purchased from MTTSphotos (pictures no longer for sale, apparently).

It’s possible some other pictures include GPMINI too – for example the last on the right of the third row down is taken at Palo Dura Canyon – the photo was taken from on top of a truck, and shows GPMINI, and the spoiler of Georges GP.

In fact, I suspect all the pictures are from MINI Takes The States … and MANY THANKS to Steve, who donated his mouse mat to me 😀

Cursed by satellite radio

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Ian C.

Long ago, I tried Sirius satellite radio on my Kenwood HU – but it was hopeless on the roads I drive every day, cutting out almost any time I saw a tree somewhere nearby! Eventually I ripped it out and scrapped it.

But thinking of the drive from Florida on The Great Ice Cream Run, I wondered about trying satellite radio again – I saw a good deal on an “add-in” XM radio receiver so decided to try it out.
All last week, it worked well; it didn’t drop out every time a tree showed itself – just once or twice for less than a second during my drive to/from work … and it worked very well on Friday during torrential rain. So I signed up to XM radio …

What happens? Today, it’s been absolutely useless, cutting out for at least 75% of the time – doesn’t seem to be related at all to anything much blocking the sky view (although I don’t really know where the XM satellite is in the sky).
Totally infuriating!
I decided to go to the XM website and complain, maybe demand my money back, but what do I see, in small letters in one corner of the site:
5/21 Service Degradation
You may be experiencing temporary degraded performance with your XM reception at the present time. XM is aware of the issue and working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We anticipate full signal strength will be restored by early Tuesday morning.

So is this a special “welcome” for me? I’m definitely satellite cursed 😦

Or maybe, XM radio fails like this every few weeks; I don’t know – anyone with experience out there? Of XM or Sirius?

MINI of Peabody 2007 Spring Rally

Posted on May 20, 2007February 14, 2017 by Ian C.

With wet weather and a five car haul up from Cape Cod this morning, I was too late to see the start of the MINI of Peabody Spring Rally – when we arrived everyone had already left; but we headed off ourselves, after waiting for Lucky to catch up 🙂
This years drive took us through Beverly, Manchester, Essex and Ipswich; people were still enjoying the great lunch and chatting with MINI friends when we got back … and look who else came today!