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Score!

We did our weekly grocery shopping at Fred Meyer on Thursday as usual. When we went through the paper product aisle things weren’t entirely empty and we didn’t need anything, so we kept on going. Fast forward to yesterday (Saturday) and when we went to add some toilet paper to the main bathroom, we discovered that there were really only three rolls left. Hmmm. With what is in each bathroom and this, we probably have enough to get to our next shopping day, but with all the hubbub on the the news and on the net about empty shelves we figured maybe we should go get some.

I can sort of understand the run on hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipers, but what the heck, nowhere in anything I had read or heard about this virus was diarrhea ever mentioned as a symptom. Why were people hoarding toilet paper?

After dinner we headed over to Fred Meyer and sure enough there was nary a roll of toilet paper to be had. We did buy a couple of rolls of paper towels and 3 other little items that we missed on Thursday, so the trip wasn’t a total waste. Donna asked the cashier when they expected the next shipment of TP in and was told they get a truck every morning, but that it was for everything in the store and may not have this now much sought after item.

Because it is on the way home we ducked into the Rite Aid just down the street. Its paper product aisle was bare as well. We decide to also stop into the Holiday Market, a 1/3 scale supermarket with fewer items and fewer choices on the way home too. As we approached, the parking lot was fuller than normal and the two cars right in front of me pulled in there, so I said, “I guarantee they don’t have any either, so let’s just go home.”

So this morning we contemplated making a run to the Albertson’s and Sherm’s Thunderbird Market to look for toilet paper, but I felt it was a waste of time and really didn’t want to start playing Whack-A-Mole with local supermarkets hoping to get lucky and happen to be in a store when they came from out back to stock the paper products. Donna suggested trying Amazon. Ha, no toilet paper at all was available in Prime. There were a few of other options, but all from third party vendors with shipping fees of $5 to $15 and 7 to 10 day delivery times.

Mid morning today we did go back to Fred Meyer just to see if the morning truck brought some toilet paper. As we entered the store someone was coming out with cart that had a package of either three rolls of paper towels or 6 rolls of TP, couldn’t tell exactly as it is impolite to stare. When we got to the paper product aisle there they were, a few dozen packs of Kroger brand 12 packs. There was a sign that said Limit 2, so that is what we got. We are now set for the next three weeks or so and hopefully by then the great Covid-19 TP Rush will have subsided.

I’ve Got A Screw Loose

Because yesterday afternoon was sunny and lower 60’s, when we headed out to run some errands, we opted to do them in the Miata. About 2 blocks down the road a fairly loud rumbling started and the front end of the car was doing a small wobble. Donna went, “What’s that?” I answered, “Might have a flat.” A couple of seconds later I said, “I know what it is,” and did a quick u-turn to head back home.

This post should really have been titled “I’ve Got A Few Lug Nuts Loose.” For what has to be at least the sixth or seventh time in my career I have not fully tightened down the lug nuts on a wheel or two (or four) after rotating the tires or doing some brake maintenance. Including one time in the early 80’s that happened with Donna driving and having to stop at a place to have them diagnose the rumbling sound the car was making.

This is why I was getting the stink-eye from her as we returned to the Pacific Terrace driveway. Because just before turning around I had said, “I forgot to tighten the lug nuts.” On Wednesday afternoon I installed the new front license plate mount, which had caused me to remove the front wheels and I missed the final step.

About the second time this happened in Aiken, I devised a way to make sure not to forget this step by taking the torque wrench and placing it right at the entrance to the garage. There was no way for me to miss it and I sure as heck couldn’t drive the low clearance Miata over the wrench. To my credit, I did something similar here too, but because I was working close to the garage opening, the torque wrench was mixed in with all the other tools I was using, so it got put away with everything else. I think a new safeguard is required. Possibly I should buy a baseball cap from the Lansing Michigan minor league baseball team to wear when working on the car. Or, perhaps putting the torque wrench on the driver’s seat might work.

77,000 Shades of Green

When I parked the Miata in the garage this afternoon after we were finished running around, the CTBNL’s odometer read 77001.

For grins, I looked back at what I blogged about when the previous Miata hit 77,000 miles. The post was entitled 77,000 Lumens. The first part was about having an eye exam where my eyes are dilated and how afterwards, even dim lighting seems way to bright to look at. There was a thumbnail picture at the top that related to the second part of the post. It was of our freshly remodeled bathroom in Aiken and I talked how I was putting up the new towel racks, etc.

I was struck by the synchronicity of how nearly 12 years earlier the 77,000 mile marker for the Emperor happened around the time I was doing something similar as I was doing now and both bathrooms were shades of green. Very different shades, but green none the less.

Weekly Wrap

First up is a picture from last Sunday and if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen part of this before:

Monday we walked downtown and did some geocaching on the way. We DNF’d the first two. Number one is in a small park we walk right by every time we do walk downtown. Number two was a caboose at the county museum and not finding it was expected, we never seem to get these. We found the third and then promptly DNF’d number four. We did find the next four we hunted for, but three of them were virtual, so there wasn’t an actual container to look for.

Tuesday we walked downtown and had pizza for dinner at Rodeos Pizza and Saladeria. A medium The Boss pie, six slices consumed on site, two taken home for my lunch the following day. This is the first time we have eaten here for dinner and have decided that the lunch cook does it more to our liking. This one had a touch too much sauce and came out of the oven a minute or two early making the crust not as crisp.

Wednesday I prepped the master bath for painting by removing the shower curtain rod, towel racks and patched the holes with spackling. Then I masked off everything. It was also our biannual visit to the dentist for teeth cleaning.

Thursday was painting the master bath.

Friday was pulling down the tape in the bathroom and putting it up in the master bedroom.

Saturday was supposed to bring wet winter weather so we had planned not to even leave the house. The weather never materialized, but we still didn’t leave the house. I painted the bedroom, which took most of the day, and Donna spent just as much time in the family room downstairs sorting the jumbo cache of Morrison memories. She is trying to go through all this and separate the stuff that belongs to each of her three brothers, so as to pass it along to them.

Today I put up the old shower curtain rod, new towel racks and TP holder in the master bath. Put the master bedroom back the way it belongs, but we probably won’t sleep in it for a couple more days so as to let the paint smell totally dissipate.

2019 Motoring Challenge Results

Alliteration: I only wish Wayne sold Wasabi instead of fireworks…(2/26/19)

In spite of missing out on 3 months of prime Aiken photo taking weather at the end of last year, we still managed to finish as one of the 50 runners up in the 2019 Motoring Challenge. Our final score of 152, or a little more than half the total of the Miata Division winner’s, put us in 34th place.

The photo above is probably both Donna and my favorite photo from last year. The fellow running the contest thought it was pretty cool too as he included it on the 2019 Winners Page (keep scrolling, it is way towards the bottom.)

Our second favorite photo from last years is below. One of the objectives was a picture with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. This one is on a page on the Moss Motors site as well, 2019 Motoring Challenge Wieners! (this time we are just the 5th one down.)

Wienermobile: With fingers crossed, hoping the Wienermobile App was going to be right, we braved driving into the outskirts of the Atlanta megalopolis to go to a Walmart parking lot in Lithonia. We were all smiles as soon as we pulled into the lot and could see it in all its glory. (2/17/19)

Our runner-up Gift Certificate showed up in today’s mail. Within an hour it was spent. It took care of most of the cost of a front license plate relocation kit for the Miata. Or more accurately, a front license plate mounting kit. Because South Carolina didn’t require a front plate I never had a front plate mount, but because Oregon requires both front and back plates I need one now.

Dinner Out At Micky D’s

Late this afternoon, Donna asked, “Do you know what I want for dinner?”

A couple hours earlier we had the typical what’s for dinner conversation. We ran down what protein was available in the freezer, named the usual suspects as far as meals went and ended up not coming to any conclusions as nothing mentioned jumped right out at either of us.

My reply, of course, “No. What would you like for dinner?”

She was watching Chopped on Food Network, so I braced for anything.

Her answer, “A Filet-O-Fish from McDonald’s.”

She had just seen an Arby’s commercial advertising their fish sandwiches as two for six bucks. But they are served on a sesame seeded bun, which she can’t have, so McDonald’s seed free bun came to mind. This is not a totally out of left field suggestion, about once every 5 or 6 months she’ll just have a hankering for a fried fish patty, slathered in tartar sauce on a steamed bun. She always orders it without cheese, for two reasons; one, the pasteurized processed American cheese is horrible and two, it usually guarantees a fresh sandwich, not one that has been sitting under a heat lamp for who knows how long. I ordered my usual Big Mac.

As we sat at our booth waiting for them to bring our meal to us, I asked her had she seen my Instagram post for the day. “Not yet,” she said. I pulled out my phone and opened it to my picture of the day, posted around six hours earlier: