Rye Patch


Rye Patch

We had big plans to go geocaching this morning, but they fell through when we opted to sleep in and just stick around the house. We did go out later with a friend and grabbed 2 caches that were real close by, one in Hopeland Gardens (where the photo was taken) and one in the Aiken County Museum.

Right now Donna is in the other room on the laptop making big plans to go caching tomorrow morning. We’ll see how that goes, it is supposed to be 22° at sunrise.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

Still More Car Shopping

I’ve expanded the search for the new car. The list from last month is still in play:

I’ve hunted down every other two-door car I could find in our price range except for a Mustang and then tossed in the Sonata’s younger brother, the Elantra, just for giggles. Here is the spec chart for these cars:

Again, all numbers reflect the difference between the Emperor and the new car (except interior volume.)

Let’s take each one at a time and discuss their relative merits and demerits. They are priced typically using the base model with mats and an Ip-odd adapter.
New Miatas Known quantity. Not real enamored with the look and fairly expensive compared the rest of the list.
Mini Fun to drive, cute as a button and fits in the garage. Quirky interior.
Genesis Sporty, with love it or hate it styling.
Sonata Best looking car of the group. But four doors and will probably be a dime a dozen by the time we get around to getting one.
Accord Positively sinister looking in black, but it is huge and will be hard to find priced in the lower 20’s.
Civic I’ve always liked the looks of the Civic Coupes, but haven’t had any looking being comfortable driving one.
Mazda RX-8 Sporty look and the chops to back it up, so it would an engaging drive. Most expensive on the list, lousy gas mileage and no blue.
Altima Has a little Infinity G37 Coupe look, but not nearly enough, so it comes off sort of dowdy.
New Beetle They aren’t making anymore of this model and if the spyshots I’ve seen accurately reflect the new New Beetle, ick, it looks like a squashed bug
Elantra I like the looks of this car, but it has four doors. This is the stuffed model to get it equipped like the Sonata, but it ends up being just 3 grand less than the larger car.
tC It’s got 2 doors. It is unexciting looking. Hope it is hoot to drive…
Focus This is the last year for this model and the 2012 model looks awesome compared to this car, but it won’t come in a coupe. Who knows, by the time we actually buy a car, if the new one is out, it may warrant a look.
Forte As with all the Korean cars, you get a lot for your money. We saw one in person this past weekend and I liked it, Donna not so much. Points off for trying to be different with the spelling of the word coupe.
CR-Z I seriously considered the CRX back in ’89 before I knew of the Miata’s existence and we were Honda drivers for a dozen years before Mazda won us over. Trouble is, this is a hybrid with all its faults (battery replacement costs) and hardly any of the benefits (gas mileage.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

I’ll Take Bad 60’s Hairstyles For A 1,000 Alex


What are Muttonchops?

A fellow named Lawrence Harvey Luckham who worked in a Bell Labs Data Center in the 60’s posted some photos he took at work one day on his website. He even had the nerve to post the above picture of himself…

In the 60’s I was somewhere between the ages of 5 and 15 and I don’t have any photos of myself in that time frame. I do have one that would fit the Double Jeopardy category of Bad 70’s Hairstyles, my 1973 high school yearbook photo:

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

I Think I’m In Love

While cleaning up my office for the move to the new digs in the back of the plant I came across my litter of Taco Bell chihuahuas (all two of them.) In trying to keep with management’s policy of not making our new cubicles into Shrine’s to Ourselves and maintaining a businesslike atmosphere I opted to bring the dogs home.

Not knowing what else to do with them Donna and I have decided to make them into geocaching Travel Bugs. The first dog to be returned to the wild is called I Think I’m In Love after the phrase it says when you squeeze it’s stomach. I’m guessing it was a special promotional item for Valentine’s Day in 1998, 1999 or 2000. After a dozen years or so the voice box still works.

Look for it in a cache near you. Or go your own on eBay.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

MNFMTMWHS

Yesterday evening while searching for something to watch on TV rather than a bowl game that I had picked the wrong team in, I stumbled on Superbad on FX. If you’ve seen the movie, it was the Home Ec scene and there was Emma Stone. Hey, I don’t remember her in this movie. I instantly thought, Wichita! I watched the movie for a bit, but restlessly, so when the next commercial showed up I surfed up one channel to Comedy. They were showing Little Miss Sunshine with Abigail Breslin. Little Rock! It took everything I had not to fire up Netflix and start watching Zombieland.

Today’s movie in a red envelope for dinner entertainment was appropriately enough Easy A starring Emma Stone. She narrates the movie sort of like Jesse Eisenberg did in Zombieland. The credits are made of 3D letters superimposed into the scenes like they were in Zombieland. The first hour of Easy A was better than the last half hour, just like Zombieland. All and all, it would have been preferable to have watched Zombieland than Easy A, but Donna couldn’t sit through the gory parts of MNFMTMWHS.

In a somewhat related and circular reference, Abigail Breslin’s character’s name in Little Miss Sunshine was Olive and Emma Stone’s character’s name in Easy A is Olive.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 924

1/1/11

We went out early to do some geocaching today. We always go early to avoid you muggles out there, but today, I guess it being a holiday and all, there was little traffic or people about late into the morning. We had a real good day too. Found a new personal best for a single day at 15. We missed a FTF by about an hour and we only had one DNF. We had DNF’d it before, but we got cocky because we had already found 4 so far that we had previously not found and the cache owner was one that had been giving us fits with their tricky hides and we had found four of hers so far today. Knocked us right back down a peg.

We ended up in Augusta visiting Borders to spend the $40 gift card that came as a Christmas gift from my sister and brother-in-law. We spent about an hour wandering the racks and stack contemplating our purchases. Seven items, total spent, 4¢.

The top was down from yesterday and we managed to keep it down the whole time we were out and about. It was a little cool in the morning, warming up during the day and we got home about 4 o’clock just before the rains came.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 922