Group Shot

To commemorate this fine occasion we all gathered on the porch last night to take a group picture. I had a tripod in the trunk (for those HDR Post Office pics), I was going to be the photographer. With the help of my assistant Donna, before snapping the real thing, I experimented with some exposures and seating arrangements. Here is a composite. And while the real thing came out OK, I’ll never be a portrait photographer.

The other 4 cabinmates were more the late sleeper types so Donna and I packed our car and hit the road at around 6:30 this morning. The only disadvantage to this move was that we spent the first couple hours driving with the top up because of the cool temps. The big advantage and what made it all worthwhile was the fact that we had the roads all to ourselves. No Sequoyas to slow us down on the Snake, no nobody. We didn’t even come across another vehicle in our direction for any of the twisty stuff at all. We barely saw any cars going in the opposite direction either.

We got home at noonish and after lunch I washed the Miata even though it hasn’t been very long since the last one. We are long through with spring here in the flatlands, but in the Georgia mountains it is in full swing with both the pine and hardwood trees throwing off pollen, combine that with the 1/2 mile of gravel road to access the cabin and the Emperor really need a bath.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 144

I Thought I Had A Corrupt Database For a Second There

When I went to blog on Friday night I tried several times to upload the image you see in Friday’s post. It would never finish uploading, always timed out. So I wrote the words out and guess what? I couldn’t save the post. I used the repair tool in Cpanel but that made no difference. I backed up the database with a plugin and I exported it using WordPress’s built in feature. I considered upgrading to 2.5.1. I tried again this evening and couldn’t get it to work again. I tried adding a comment to a post. That worked. I triedto post by adding a chunk at a time. That worked for one chunk, any more that 10 words and it wouldn’t save. I gave up. Wait ’til I get home and then I’ll try and post stuff.

In spite of the rain, which was mostly light, we enjoyed spending a couple three hours shopping and eating in downtown Blue Ridge before heading back to the cabin for the rest of the day. Later in the day the skies cleared and the sun came out, but by then we were to settled to go back out. There was a game room with a foosball table, an arcade game console with several vintage games and a pool table. I was reminded that I sucked at pool when I was younger and that 30 years away from playing hadn’t improved my game any. Fortunately most everyone else was as sorry at it too.

My guaranteed to please everyone movie was not a total success, one person didn’t even watch and another got up and went to bed at about the halfway point. And truth be told I would have rather seen the original version. And probably the other three people were just being polite by staying to the end.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 141

My Mountain Dream

We’re here. The trip up was very nice, we stopped for pizza in Dhalonaga at our favorite Italian place before hitting the real mountain roads. Woohoo. But wouldn’t you know it, when we hit the best part of GA60, AKA The Snake, we would got stuck behind an aptly named Sequoya, big, ponderous and slow going. Minor inconvenience.

The only other minor inconvenience is the 1/2 mile of unpaved road to the cabin. At a couple of points it is seriously slanted up and water is making nice little wash outs to try and steer around. I only scraped the undercarriage once, but I wouldn’t want to drive down it a night. Plus tomorrow should be interesting as we are supposed to get some good rain in the afternoon.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 139

Light Out

On the way home from work I noticed that the left fog light was burnt out. This is the third bulb that I’ve had to change. I can’t remember which ones in which order, but I could swear it wasn’t too long ago I changed this same bulb.

There is a 70% chance of rain in Blue Ridge, GA for Saturday, but we are prepared. Stopped at the local Movie Gallery and picked up my guaranteed great movie for everyone. Of the movies recommended the other day all I could find was one, but I’m sure it will be crowd pleaser. Because we were renting from the gallery section (AKA older movies) if we rented 3 @ $1.99 we would get two free. For our rainy day viewing pleasure we have:
Thomas Crown Affair
My Cousin Vinny
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
The Italian Job
Fargo

Started down, went up. back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 137

3/4 The Same

I swapped the inserts on the vanity faucet and now three fourths of the bathroom faucets work the same — in is on and out is off.

The instructions for installing these units actually specify that they work the way they did yesterday, so Mr. Contractor had installed them right. What about the shower/tub faucets? Were they installed right? Who knows, I didn’t save those instructions, but I’m betting they were installed just the way the Price Pfister wanted them. So why would they turn the opposite way from sinks? I guess we’ll never know.

Started down, went up, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 134

76,000 Nitpicks

The contractor is done. Well, all except for he’ll be back next week sometime to install the bottom molding around on the outside of the new walls of the small bathroom. He left behind a few little things that need to be taken care of, might be easier for me to go ahead and take care of them, but I might just leave them for his return. There is one part of the bathroom wall that didn’t get totally smoothed out, probably missed it because it is hidden by the usually open door. The light fixture above the mirror was wobbly and I asked him to tighten it down, but it didn’t get done ( I fixed it tonight.) There is a crack in the grout in the corner seam of the stand up shower, that he touched up today with just some success.

The one that is most noticeable was not within his control. We bought Price Pfister porcelain cross handled faucets for both showers and one for the bathroom sink in the big bathroom for two reasons, 1) we like the look and 2) they would match our already existing faucet in the small bathroom. The existing one works in a manner such that you turn both knobs counter-clockwise for on and clockwise for off. We were thrown for a loop when we started to use the new shower in the small bathroom. This set works by turning the cold counter-clockwise for on and the hot clockwise for on. Now in the newly completed big bathroom at least the shower/unit controls are identical to the ones in the shower of the other bathroom, but incredibly the vanity faucets are just the opposite of the shower units, you turn the cold clockwise for on and the hot counter-clockwise. So now we have to learn how to operate 4 separate faucets in three different manners. I hope I don’t scold something important.

Today on the way home from work the Emperor reached the 122,310km (76,000 mile) plateau.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 132

New Truck

One day Jim Bob was walking down Main Street when he saw his buddy Bubba driving a brand new pickup. Bubba pulled up to him with a wide grin.

“Bubba, where’d you git that truck?!?”

“Tammie Joe gived it to me,” Bubba replied.

“She gived it to ya? I know’d she wuz kinda sweet on ya’ll but a new truck?”

“Well, Jim Bob let me tell you wut’ happened. We wuz drivin’ out on County Road 6, in the middle of nowheres. Tammie Joe pulled off the road, put the truck in 4X4 wheel drive, and headed into the woods. She parked the truck, got out, threw off all her clothes and said, ‘Bubba, ya’ll take whatever you want.'”

“So I took the truck!”

“Bubba, yore a smart man! Them clothes woulda never fit you!”