Third repair attempt!

Posted on by Ian C.

I’ve never really had significant issues with MINIs I’ve owned, at least not since the early days of SES lights and “bad gas” behavior … but my 2016 Clubman seems determined to be annoying with it’s repeated electric parking brake failure (here, here) and it’s back again today! The behavior is to report failure of the parking brake – even though the brake is actually applied and the car can’t move.

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Since the car believes there’s a problem, it now won’t release the brake so no more driving. Luckily, a tedious sequence of turning off and on, applying / releasing / re-applying / re-releasing the parking brake, gets it sorted … for a while at least.

So back to Orlando MINI again this afternoon; they’re only half an hour away, friendly, and ready with a loaner vehicle each time – but it’s honestly getting rather “not fun” to keep doing this. I’m starting to get an understanding of those MINI owners that are so infuriated with repeated failures (and many of those no doubt are much more frustrating than my car).

One bright spot this afternoon though, is that the latest loaner is electric blue, reminiscent of Ed / Maxamini and a time to re-introduce my duck to the new car (although I have to admit, this new electric blue is quite a long way from the original color!):

 

Hopefully, this latest repair attempt will be successful!

 

Selling Sunshine at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation

Posted on by Ian C.

We visited the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation this evening for a short talk and exhibit about “Selling Sunshine“, the promotion of Florida and especially of citrus crops – mostly in the past since the business is disappearing these days (after all, we live where once were citrus groves!)

Some very interesting “posters” mostly magazine adverts from many years ago; it’s clear that claims made then would not be acceptable today!

A small display of advertising “trinkets” from days past, too:

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Fall Owl Fest 2017

Posted on by Ian C.

Today Margaret and I returned to the Avian Reconditioning Center for their annual Fall Festival; once again lots of great close-up views of Owls, Eagles, and other raptors.

The purpose of the ARC is to rehabilitate injured and orphaned birds, and release them back to the wild – those birds have minimal human contact and we don’t get to see them.

The birds we see are too injured to be safely returned to the wild – some have lost an eye, or broken a wing beyond repair; one eagle we saw today had had lime disease and could no longer catch prey in the wild.

Even with all these impressive photos of eagles and other birds, my personal favorite still is the great horned owl 🙂