Sturgeon’s Law Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
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At lunch I needed to go fill up the car with gas, so the low fuel light wouldn’t come on while Donna was on the way to or way back from her radiation treatment. Donna just hates that light. I do too because she reminds me that it is one of my few jobs to keep the car adequately supplied with the necessary provisions and that light is a shiny reminder of my failure. It is not like I am ever far away from a place to refuel, there is a station at every other corner in town, but I always seem to find a reason to avoid it. So I popped out and ran just down the street from work to a station and filled up ($30 worth at $3.02 a gallon.) I used the lane marked Express Pay for people who use credit cards only. Swiped the card and pumped the gas and then my least favorite thing in the whole world happened, that’s right, the LED display said “RECEIPT INSIDE.” %$#&
I was supposed to mail out a box to someone today. I didn’t go at lunch because of the other above mentioned errand, so I stopped at the Post Office on the way home from work. The line was out the door. I didn’t have time, so I’ll try again tomorrow.
We went out tonight to get a couple gift cards for a co-worker’s upcoming wedding. First stop was Lowes where Donna’s department had decided to get their group gift from. Snagged a card near the front of the store and got in line. There were only two check-outs open and both lines were pretty long, so we picked one and waited a bit. It was moving so slow that the word glacial wouldn’t cover it. Peeking down the line you could see the trouble, the cashier couldn’t scan anything on the first or second swipes and if it happened on the third try she was lucky. We put the card down and exited the store in a huff.
We got back in the car and drove across the street to Target to get a card from us personally. When we walked by the check-out area there were only two lines open and they were pretty long. So we picked some greeting cards that we needed and headed back to the cashiers. We were about to leave here too when they opened a 10 items or less line that we managed to get in at the number 2 spot.
We zipped back across the street to Lowes to see if the lines had died down. Unfortunately we thought they were open until 10 PM, but Monday through Thursday it is only 9:00 PM. That point was driven home by the click of the front doors as the red vested employee closed them while we were still 100 feet away.
The FRS lost to Cleveland and the Yankees beat Toronto, so what didn’t happen last night, did 24 hours later, the Red Sox are percentage points out of the division lead.
Not a lot went right for me today, but at least my spouse didn’t die. I’m so sorry Lillian, we will all miss Bob and I know all the grief that all of us who knew him are feeling put together can’t equal what you are going through now…
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 300
 …I give you the August 1st picture. Today (8/25) was another trip to the bookstore and I remembered the camera in the trunk this time. I picked up for paperback books to read, Donna snagged two and we bought a new book for the “Baby to be Named Later” out in Snohomish.
I had a good time rummaging through several boxes of books on the floor that were as yet unshelved. I even picked one I know I’ve read before, Rumpole’s Last Case, because we have been watching “A Touch of Frost” DVDs and that British show has left me with a hankering for Horace’s adventures down at the Ol’ Bailey.
 The other day I realized that I wasn’t using my camera anymore, it was just riding around in the cargo net in the trunk. The honeymoon was over. Then I had an idea (watch it, I know what you’re thinking), I would take one picture a day for every day in August. This way when I blogged in the evening describing my mundane day, there would be a mundane picture to help you really get a feel for how my life is being carried out. After all this thing is called “Life of Brian.”
Yesterday’s photo was supposed to be of the local used bookstore where we stopped on the way home and I selected 5 fiction paperbacks to read. I forgot to take the picture. You would have think I would have been reminded to do so when I plopped the books into the trunk, because the camera would have been plainly visible. But noooo.
This afternoon Donna was feeling a bit worn out, so I volunteered to drive her to her radiation treatment and then take her home. While she was inside getting zapped I took my camera and walked to the edge of the property and took a couple of close-up snaps of the Cancer Care Institute sign with the building in the background. Tonight I put the camera in the cradle and hit the download button. Selected the directory, as always I checked the remove from device box and hit go. Everything looked normal until the EasyShare Gallery software loaded and today’s pictures were not where they were supposed to be. Searched the hard drive to see if they went somewhere else, nope. I picked the camera up out of the dock and the LCD screen said, “Memory Card Needs Formatting. Proceed or Cancel.” I hit cancel thinking maybe I can salvage the pictures tomorrow at work.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 301
Continue reading At Least I Thought It Was Great Idea
 Tonight was the August edition of the MMC Monthly Meeting. We met at a NASCAR themed restaurant, Kinsey’s Auto Grille, in downtown Augusta that would like to be known as a BBQ joint. They have been in business since May and are still somewhat behind the learning curve when it comes to running a restaurant. The food was terrific when it got to the table…
We told them that we would have 12 to 20 and we split the difference with 16 people in attendance. They only had two waitresses to run the whole restaurant and it wasn’t enough because there were about 2 dozen other folks there to go along with us. The was a big buffet set up in the back and we had to plead with our server to tell us about it. French fries arrived cold. Orders arrived backwards from when they were placed and one got lost entirely. We might give them a try in a few months and see if they have gotten better.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 304
 Ever since I found some cheap Hawaiian shirts on sale for $15 at Goody’s last year, I bought three, I’ve been wearing them on Fridays during the summer. This year when ever some one says something about the shirt, I ask if they got the memo. “What memo?”, they ask. That Friday is “Hawaiian Shirt Day,” I reply.
It is starting to work, more and more Hawaiian shirts are showing up on Fridays. I think the high was 5 two weeks ago. Today, two out of three of the Fabrication Engineers had their Luau Wear on. To make the plain shirted engineer feel like he was part of the fun, I let him take the picture. From left to right: Greg, yours truly and Chris.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 305
 1 — Four is the only number in the English language for which the number of letters in its name is equal to the number itself. 2 — People have four canines, four incisor and four wisdom teeth. 3 — Four is considered an unlucky number in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures because it sounds like the word “death.“
4 — In tarot, card No. 4 is “the Emperor.”
The cockpit of the Miata is a warm place to be. A known issue is the fresh air venting. It draws air from the cowl area and by the time it gets from there to the interior of the car it is considerably warmer than the outside air. I’ve tried nearly all the suggestions on Miata.net, but the air is still warm. Some one on the forum did something about it and created this neat little air scoop thing that mounts on the windshield header when the top is down. Maybe next spring we will invest in one of the Cool Breeze Scoops, $41 with shipping.
For now I have invested $25 in solving the other source of unwanted interior heat, the transmission tunnel. The exhaust pipe and premuffler run right along underneath the tunnel on the driver’s side and after an hour or so of driving you can toast Pop Tarts between the tunnel and the driver’s seat cushion. This morning I pulled the seats and console out of the Emperor out. I folded back the carpet, so I could line the transmission tunnel and for good measure most of the floor pan with Reflectix using shiny foil duct tape. It took a couple hours to cut and tape around the seat mounting points, E-brake, a couple of wiring harnesses and the rubber shift boot.
Speaking of shift boots, mine was cracked/ripped and this also lets in heat big time. Not only was the large inside boot in need of replacing, but the smaller boot that seals the transmission turret to the shifter was blown as well. This is another reason the Cool Breeze Scoop will wait, it’ll cost $46 to buy replacements for both these rubber pieces.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 307
 This morning we braved the sticky weather to go for a 2 mile walk in the woods, instead of our usual 10 mile Sunday morning bike ride. Afterwards we continued the alternative Sunday by getting a bagel at the Atlanta Bread Company instead of a muffing at the New Moon Cafe. I took a couple photos on our walk, including one that matched this post’s title, but in retrospect, even though she pointed out the image to me, Donna felt I shouldn’t put it here.
So tonight, when we went out to do a little shopping and get some gas, I brought the camera along to find a my suitable picture. This one was taken outside of CVS and after a little digital manipulation…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 310
 My Jack Sparrow doll action figure has gone from being alone, to sharing the spotlight with Davy Jones, to battling ol’ Davy for monitor top supremacy, to standing solo again. Some where along the way he has lost his trusty cutlass, so now his only job is to hold up a selection of pithy quotes from the two Pirates of the Carribean movies.
Today’s quote was especially on point as this morning I got a request to scan and OCR a old wedding program for a maid of honor co-worker. She wanted to use that particular format and change the words to match the ones needed for her friends upcoming betrothal. “Oh,” she asks, “Can you change the holding hands to a glass slipper while you are at it?” No problem at all. My summer intern doesn’t call me the Arts & Crafts Engineer for nothing.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 312
 We went to CVS again tonight. Different store from Sunday and different mission, but none the less, the highlight of my evening. Well…besides the Tater Tots and crab cakes for supper. And now that I think of it, the Law & Order rerun on TNT wasn’t bad either. OK, maybe the 15 DIBS I just finished were the high point for tonight. 
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 314
 Well, it worked, I’m going to blog about it. Augment the buzz if you will.
Watching the evening news Monday night I caught a bit of a story about NBC’s new show for fall, Studio 60 from West Wing producer Adam Sorkin. Part of building some pre-release hype they have decided to make DVDs of the pilot episode and you can rent them on Netflix. The interweb was all excited a week ago because somehow the pilot in 5 parts had mysteriously appeared on YouTube. It seems that just in time for the Netflix release, they were pulled for copyright infringement. Aaaah, marketing.
Anyway, on to the show. Typical Sorkin stuff; smart, witty and overlapping dialog. But for some reason it just didn’t connect, and maybe this is just me, but it seems like I’ve seen this all before. And maybe I have. Take one part West Wing and one part Sportsnight, stir gently…
It’ll be on Monday’s at 10:00 PM starting in September and as much as I would like to watch, I probably won’t. If anything, maybe I’ll rent the DVD’s next fall, ALA my current watching of “Lost.”
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 315
 The 2 rubber shifter boots for the Emperor came on a big brown truck today. I was going to wait until Saturday, but I just couldn’t stand it. It only took 45 minutes to do the swap. Now we’ll see how well it knocks down the heat near the center console.
Tomorrow is Friday and it is summer helper Adam’s last day. As is usual we (me, the boss and the boss’s boss) will take him out to lunch, we’ll probably head over to the local Applebee’s. Any excuse to eat on the boss’s boss’s American Express card. I hope come Monday I’ll be able to stand the quiet.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 318
A friend of mine has a huge dog that eats a lot and last night we went to the store to buy his weekly jumbo bag of dog food. We were in line to check out and a woman behind him asked if he had a dog.
He told her that no, he was starting The Purina Diet again although he probably shouldn’t — he said he had ended up in the hospital last time, but that he’d lost 50 pounds before he awakened in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of his orifices and IVs in both arms.
He told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. He said that the food is nutritionally complete so he was going to try it again.
Horrified, she asked why he ended up in the hospital — had the Purina made him sick? He told her no; he’d been sitting in the middle of the street licking his balls and a car hit him.
Continue reading The Purina Diet
 So, the four of us went to lunch at Applebee’s today. Adam, the guest of “honor,” ordered the Honey BBQ Chicken Sandwich with fries, Bob ordered the Zesty Ranch Chicken Sandwich with fries, Les ordered the 100% Angus Bacon Cheeseburger with fries and I ordered the Margarita Shrimp Kabobs over rice with broccoli.
When my wife asked me what we had for lunch I said, “They all had burgers & fries and I got shrimp & broccoli.” She replied, “So who’s the gay one of that bunch.” Ouch.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 321
 It rained. A lot. It rained hard from early morning ’til midday, cancelling our plans for walking or rollerblading.
It didn’t cancel plans for the MMC’s Pool Party. Mainly because the food was already bought and side dishes were already made and lucky for us the people who have the pool also have a house where we could eat said food. The rain finally quit, but the unseasonal cool temperatures kept all but 3 out of the pool. Most stayed on the porch playing Scrabble or just yakking away.
This evening’s wedding of a co-worker was indoors so it didn’t matter whether it was still raining, but it wasn’t. After overeating grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and desserts at lunch, the thought of another food extravaganza quite literally turned our stomachs, so we skipped the reception and went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. As luck would have it we saw a couple people we knew in the restaurant and when they asked about our natty attire, we replied, “We always dress up on Saturday night and go out to Chick-Fil-A for dinner.”
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 324
 In spite of my best efforts to do nothing at all today but lay about the house, my lovely wife coerced me into a 2-part, approximately 12 mile jaunt on the tandem this morning.
The first part consisted of some random travels around our side of town with the final destination being the city building to pay the water bill. While we were cutting through Citizen’s Park on a newly created roadway connecting the 2 existing ball field complexes to the newly opened 3rd, I started expounding on just how useless the several speed humps they placed on the road were. They are about 3 feet wide and maybe an inch and a half high. They would hardly register in our low slung, tightly sprung Miata, let alone the typical SUV or minivan that would be traveling this road. Of course they were marked with bright yellow signs proclaiming “Speed Hump” just in case someone did notice a slight tremor in their Starbucks coffee cup they would be assured it was an actual road hazard and not the offspring of someone they might see in the pick up line at the Montessori school. Donna asked where my camera was, so that a picture of this extra layer of asphalt could become this blog’s POTD. I said it was at home, so that is where we went next.
After slipping the camera into a jersey pocket it was back on the front of the bike for part two. It was getting late enough in the day that I thought it better just to head downtown to take care of our real business instead of going back to take pictures of a road. We more or less headed directly to City Hall. But a couple of early church services must have just let out because traffic was as bad as it gets in our little town. We did a couple of rights on red so as not to have to wait on lights surrounded by nicely dressed old folks in big cars. We finally ducked in through an alley and arrived at the Municipal Building and the front of the place was thankfully deserted. I propped the bike against the curb and took a few shots. Fortunately most of the church goers had cleared the roads, so we had a pleasant little trip home.
I didn’t avoid the bike ride, but the lawn remains unmowed and the car is still filthy inside and out.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 324
 Today was the first day back to school for the kiddies here in Aiken County. I hate this time of year. Not just because of the psychological damage done by having to go Back-To-School clothes shopping with my mom as a wee lad either. It is mostly because of the increased traffic on the roads to and from work. Blurry eyed moms delivering their kids to school in the morning frighten me (with good reason) and the harried parents picking them up after school are no picnic either.
Went out late this evening to do a little shopping, Donna needed some new slippers, I needed some bananas for breakfast and we both needed a chocolate shake from Brusters.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 326
 The image you see here is from the opening credits of the movie “The Descent” which finished last weekend 8th on the box office money list taking in $4.62 million. It didn’t get any help from me because I have a copy of the DVD in the laptop right now. I may or may not finish watching it, I just shut it off about halfway thru after one of the women spelunkers fell down a hole and suffered a compound leg fracture. Last night Donna and I watched a slightly muddy copy of “The Break-Up” with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. I don’t think this movie is still in theaters, but you can’t rent it yet. These movies were borrowed from someone at work who bought them at a local flea market.
Matter of fact a co-worker (Hi, Mark!) said his son bought “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” the Saturday after the movie was released in theaters. Bloody pirates.
Jack Sparrow: The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can’t. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you’ll have to square with that some day. And me, for example, I can let you drown, but I can’t bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesies, savvy? So, can you sail under the command of a pirate, or can you not?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 329
 Donna is getting 33 radiations treatments for the breast cancer, so every weekday she works 5–1/2 hours then drives herself to the Cancer Center, gets zapped, drives back to work where I hop in the car and drive her home. I go back to work and finish out my 8 hour day. This is her coming back to pick me up this afternoon, today, Wednesday and it is “Hump Day” in more ways than one. Not only are we half way through the work week, but today was Donna’s 17th radiation treatment putting her at halfway through.
So far she is tolerating the treatments pretty well. She has been complaining of still feeling nauseous and the radiation guy has told her repeatedly that it can’t be the radiation because she isn’t getting any that goes anywhere near her stomach or esophagus. He and the oncology doc are thinking it might be gall bladder. Today when she went in she questioned the radiology techs that if no radiation is going anywhere near her esophagus why was the skin in the upper center of her chest turning reddish brown and why was she getting a mild sore throat. One of the techs took out a marker and drew a green box on her chest to show where the radiation was hitting. Well that box surrounds the area where your esophagus is. Now tomorrow when she goes in for her treatment she’ll ask to see the doctor and play show and tell.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 332
 Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Dylan is playing in Lake Olmstead Stadium right now. Yep, the real Bob Dylan is playing tonight in a Class “A” Minor League Baseball Stadium in Augusta, GA. But he hasn’t fallen far enough for me, maybe I’d pay an Andrew Jackson, but they want 48.50 for a ticket. I never was much of a Dylan fan, the only CD of his I own is “Blood on the Tracks.” I’d probably be more interested in hearing one of his opening acts, Junior Brown. I love his Surf Medley…
Washed the Miata this evening in preparation for Saturday’s Bug Splat Rally. Didn’t get done until it was too dark to take a photo of the shiny car, but I did manage to take a picture in the McDonald’s parking lot where we went for one of those fabulous $1 sundaes.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 334
 A co-worker shared his September issue of Automobile magazine with me today. The cover story was titled “The 25 Most Beautiful Cars Ever.” When you talk style and design everyone has an opinion and I can agree with most of their assessments, but they needed to drop one of the ones they picked or have made it twenty-six because they forgot to include the 2001–2005 Mazda Miata.
I even have no quibble with them listing the current Pontiac Solstice as a future collectible that you can buy now. It is not a bad looking car, but it will be a collectible because the total number of Solstices produced won’t be very many. If they make them for more than five years I’ll be surprised.
The biggest bewilderment was smack in the middle of the article, between the 1990–96 Nissan 300ZX and the 1954–57 Mercedes Benz 300SL Gull wing was a 4 page fold out on the new Chrysler Sebring. WTF? This car is one ugly thing. Matter of fact its looks could be improved by adding one or more of the article’s big styling dont’s, fake wood grain siding, a vinyl top or some opera windows.
On the way home from work today the Emperor surpassed the 45,000 mile mark. Hey, isn’t that some sort of service milestone?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 336
 We didn’t have any bills to pay today, so instead we went shopping by bike. You know we planned this because Donna put a backpack on instead just relying on stuffing things in my jersey pockets.
After a few miles of meandering around our first stop was the New Moon Cafe for a couple of bagels for Sunday’s breakfast. From there we headed over to the Aiken County Farmer’s Market. Corn, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and some local cheese went into the backpack with the bagels. Oh yeah, four homemade peanut butter cookies came home with us too.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 336
 We had a great turn out for last night’s MMC Bug Splat Rally. Nine cars and eighteen people. When we all gathered at the Mexican restaurant for the pre-drive meal we exceeded the number we had called in for, so he nice folks there just added another table.
When Donna and I arrived at the eatery we parked in the back row. The one car that was already there backed out of his spot and came over and parked next to me. The four of us went inside to make sure our table was ready. As the rest of the folks showed up, they, in typical Club fashion, parked one after another in the back row creating a long line of Miatas. Unbeknownst to me about halfway down they left one spot open because there was some glass in it.
After eating and before the drive I always go out with my Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and clean off the noses of the cars, so I could tell the new from the old bug splats. Some folks even go so far as to not wash off their cars just to have a little fun with me. Last year’s “winner” pointed out the mark that was still left on the nose of his car that no amount of bug remover or cleaning could completely erase. I started with my car, hey it was right there after I got the Detailer and towel out of the trunk. As I worked my way down the line of cars I came to a green ’99 with a lip spoiler, hmmmm, I don’t recognize this car. By now most everyone was done inside and was out standing around chatting. I finished the green car and moved on to the next and then the next. It was about then that two fellows walked out of the restaurant and wandered over to our group, seems that they had just come out to get some Mexican food. Seeing the line of Miatas with one open spot in the line was too tempting to pass up, so they parked right in the middle. In spite of our best efforts, they wouldn’t join us on the rally, some sort of work conflict, but we did give them an old newsletter as a Club come-on. Plus they did get a cleaner nose out of it.
Even though we had a good amount of people come out, too bad the bugs didn’t cooperate. The Biggest Bug trophy was won by Dave & Bobbie Winkler for a moth with a 3/4″ wingspan. John & Carol Haff were almost the winners, but when we pulled the remnants of a decent sized dragon fly out of the mouth of their car it was too badly dessicated to have been recent. But they did take home a prize for Closest To The Dot with what is a Bug Splat first by having a spot right dead center of their green one inch diameter Avery dot. The Nicholls won for the most bugs, although most of them may have been on there from the beginning because their nose was the dirtiest to begin with. Rudy & Patti had the cleanest nose to begin with and finished the same way, the front of their car marred only by a long narrow string of insect “blood.” Everyone who participated was awarded a prize of their choosing from a selection Mazda/Miata goodies supplied by Mazda.
We then literally took over the Sweet Cow Creamery in downtown Aiken for dessert and post drive storytelling.
 We tossed around ideas on where to do our walk this morning. First though was our old standby, Hitchcock Woods, but we couldn’t get excited about that. It was already too humid to enjoy the confines of narrow wooded trails. Next up we considered a semi-short drive to North Augusta to do a couple laps on their nice walking trail. With it’s elevation changes and wooded section it is so much nicer than Aiken’s boring Indy 500 inspired oval. Nah, why drive. We ended up just starting from our front door and within a 1/2 mile were on dirt roads in Aiken’s horse district. We weren’t the only ones out and about this morning, we saw a couple joggers and at least a half dozen dog walkers. Plenty of horses in their pens, but none being ridden around.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 337
 I haven’t turned my camera to the sky in a while, but this morning it looked pretty interesting. I just haven’t been out and about when it is at it’s most entertaining, dawn and dusk. Too early or too late, but now that we are creeping up on fall…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 340
 Today was our monthly haircut day. Well, right now I’m the only one actually getting it cut, Donna is just watching (and taking pictures.) Her hair *is* starting to come back in, you can see a nice shading on her head, it is maybe a 1/4″ long right now. This makes it about half the length of my hair after today’s cut.
A quick web search reveals that human scalp hair grows on average of a 1/2″ per month, so that means to return to her pre-chemo length of around four inches it will take until February of next year. That may seem like a long time, but with the way the hair is “growing” on the top of my head it will never be 4″ long again…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 342
 I had been sharing my cubicle/workspace with college kid/summer help, Adam, since May, but he is gone now and the silence has been deafening. Now it is echoing.
A few days before Adam left ASCO’s employ, the Department Manager and the IT guy showed up and asked, “Your last day is Friday the 11th, right?” Adam assumed that they were coming to say nice working with you, you’ve been a big help, come back next time, etc. His bubble was popped when the IT guy said, “That PC should work.” The manager said, “I’ll get Maintenance to move the desk on Saturday.”
Seems the new departmental Industrial Engineer was starting on Monday and they needed some stuff so the FNG wouldn’t come in to an empty cubicle. Turns out the new IE doesn’t start until this Monday, so the PC got moved last Friday and Maintenance didn’t come to get the desk until today. For good measure those guys also grabbed the side table and the trash can. They left behind only a chair and lots of dust.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 344
 If I had a really, really long telephoto lens and it wasn’t daytime, you could possibly see the ex-ninth planet in this photo.
For last weekend’s Bug Splat rally everyone places a green Avery dot on their car in hopes of winning the fabulous “Closest to the Dot” prize. I played along and put one on the front bumper on the driver’s side about headlight level, but splatted no insect anywhere near it. Raise your hand if you are still driving around with a green dot on your car. Just me then?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 345
 You will be strapped to a table and your cancer cells will meet their doom from blasts of my special death ray.
Because Donna’s skin was getting very red and sunburned looking, with even a couple of small blisters forming, her doctor decided to give her a slight break from the total breast irradiation. So, since Wednesday, they have been doing some of the seven scheduled “direct on the spot where the tumor used to be” treatments. For these treatments, instead of just the regular output they add some extensions with metal plates that act as lens to focus the beam on just one spot.
I went along with Donna for her radiation treatment again today and I watched them do the setup. I only took the one photo of the radiation machine, I’d have liked to taken one or two with Donna laying there all ready to go, but because of the nudity the MPAA would slap me with an R-Rating.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 347
 Washed the car this morning in preparation for today’s MMC gathering for the Sno-Cap Drive In’s 42nd Anniversary. We had a pretty decent showing of cars, six, but all of us were late arrivals, so we were beat to the shady spots under the awning by the Corvettes and the VWs.
I was a few minutes late because I stopped for an impromptu photo shoot at the empty Andy Jones car dealer lot. Andy Jones open a Mazda dealership in Aiken a year or so after I bought my first Miata. A couple years later they moved 15 miles west to this shop in North Augusta. Now they have packed up and moved 20 miles further west to Augusta, GA.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 348
 We did a little jean shopping this morning followed by a lunch ribs at Tony Roma’s. This afternoon was spent changing the oil and rotating the tires.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 350
 Entry submission into the “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest 2 ended yesterday at noon. Nice little turn out of 58, compared to last year’s 44. The first pictured submitted was mine, it was there when I put up the page to begin with. The last one arrived with just 16 minutes to spare. So this evening was spent getting all the pages and scripts ready so people can vote for their favorite Favorite picture. You don’t have to have entered the contest to vote, so click on that link on Thursday and pick the one you like best. Right now I’m leaning towards voting for the last picture submitted which I think is the nicest, but I might just vote for the first one. 
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 352
 Tuesday, August 29th and the local supermarket has an aisle full of Halloween candy. It is more than 2 months away for criminy sakes.
What’s even scarier is that I got a message from my credit card company this afternoon asking me to call them about some questionable charges. They questioned 4 charges, two under ten dollars and a couple of over $300. They read me the names of the companies and I didn’t recognize them, either as anyone I have done business with or had ever heard of. They were all online charges and I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing they caught them using something along the lines of SPAM filtering. Anyway, that account is closed and a new one with card is being sent to me.
I have made several travel purchases in the last 10 days or so, but almost all were from reputable big companies. The timing was curious though, all the transactions were midday today which is just a bout 4 hours after I received my monthly email notification that my web host had hit that very same charge card. I wonder just how secure my CC data is with these folks? I would just pack up and leave, but they are the ones who registered the domain name mr-miata.net, so I’d lose that and y’all would be cast adrift in the rough seas of the internet until you found me again. If someday soon you come here and don’t find this blog, try lifeofbrian.com or mrmiata.com or some other variation on those themes…
I would do it in a heartbeat if WordPress was as easy export my posts from as Movable Type was.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 353
 Like most people who work at places that have their own employee parking lot, the folks at ASCO fall into two categories, the ones who park anywhere as long as it is as close to the entrance door as possible and the ones who park further out so they always get the same spot.
Donna and I are of the second group, we park way out, so we always know where the car is, we minimize door dings, we get in a nice walk just getting from car to door and back, plus we have our own “assigned” parking spot because no one else wants it. Two rows up from us is where the two 2nd shift maintenance guys park and they are in the same group too. One fellow drives a newer Dodge Dakota or occasionally he drives his nicely restored 66 Ford Mustang. The other guy drives this ratted out pickup. As you can see the surface underneath where he always parks looks a lot like the shoreline of Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez. I’m hoping this guy takes better care of ASCO’s machinery than he does of his own daily driver…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 358
 In our small town I have seen about a half-dozen H2 Hummers, there is probably a lot more that I don’t see. Of the ones I’ve seen, two have been bright yellow and apparently that color is reserved for advertising because serve that purpose. There is this one for Moe’s and the other one sits outside of Gold’s Gym emblazoned with that logo.
Both Donna and I are on the Moe’s email Newsletter list, so every year on our birthday we get an email entitling us to a free meal. It must be used on the day or up to 2 days after. Donna’s birthday was yesterday, so guess where we are having lunch tomorrow? “Welcome to Moe’s!”
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 362
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