Took The Air Right Out Of The Sails

Augusta's Christmas Tree on the CommonsOn our way home from dinner out with friends tonight we detoured through the “valley” to see some Christmas lights. At one point going through a neighborhood Donna said, “It sounds like you picked something up in a tire.” I slowed a bit, but after a few seconds the sound went away, so I shrugged it off. About 10 minutes later as we were accelerating away from a traffic light, the back end of the car squirmed. When I shifted into second, it did it again and we could tell we had a flat. I limped ahead another 100′ or so into a small lighted parking lot.

It took a couple minutes to clean out and disassemble the trunk to get down to the spare. Jacked up the car and swapped out the flat tire for the bitty compact spare. Fortunately the regular tire and wheel fit back into the trunk, but only because there wasn’t any air in the tire and then still it was a tight squeeze. Because of the time, our only chance to get it fixed was if the tire center at Wally World was still open. It was on the way home, but although Walmart is open 24 hours, the tire center part must close their doors at 8:00 PM because it is dark when we get there.

The only good thing about this puncture is at least it is in the center of the tread area, so I can get the LTS to put a plug in the tire tomorrow. The tires are getting worn, but there is enough tread still left to possibly get me through until early spring. Just for the record I checked to see how many miles I have on these tires and it turns out I’ve got 30K on them. I wonder if the T1R is supposed to wear better than it’s predecessor the T1S? Because I was usually only able to get 25K or so on the older model Toyos…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496

Back In The Saddle Again

Sunrise Over Ford Conger FieldThis morning when we passed the steeplechase field and I pointed out the sky, Donna said, “Stop and take a picture if you want.” So unlike two weeks ago when she made this same offer, this time I did stop.

For the first time in 3 months I have used “bicycling” as the category for a post. I think we may have taken a 2 mile ride a couple months ago to test the new rear wheel after bending it on some railroad tracks. But tonight was a full fledged 7-1/2 mile ride. We headed over to the Gatewood subdivision to check out the Christmas lights because, as with Halloween, the residents there seem to go all out. I don’t mean this in any way to be rubbing it in to my more northern readers, but I was wearing cycling shorts and a short sleeve jersey for this adventure — it was 73° at 8:00PM.

This is highly unusual for us. We aren’t normally getting snow or anything, but this time of year the average high is around sixty and the low should be in the middle thirties. The Emperor’s top has been down and I’ve had the boot cover on it since Sunday. We’ve had a nice run of low 80° days this week, but a return to normalcy is on tap for the weekend, by Sunday it will be a high of 56 and a low of 28.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496

19 Minutes

When I took POTC:At World’s End out of the sleeve I noticed the running time, 2 hours & 49 minutes. Yikes, that’s nearly three hours, may have to split watching it into two nights. Well I needn’t have worried about the running time, at 19 minutes in, I hit the eject button.

What started with a surprisingly good romp of a movie, then in the second turned into something trying too hard, by the third had turned into a pompous Mad Magazine satire of itself. It took George Lucas 22 years to screw up the Star Wars franchise, it took Gore Verbinski three short years to sink the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Forget the endless line of dirty people heading to the gallows, when 4 would have done to let us know that Lord Cutler Beckett was bad and needed his comeuppance. I could almost overlook the fact that they make Ms. Swann undress to make sure see wasn’t hiding any weapons (of which she had as many as there are clowns in a circus car) when Barbossa walks in with a long bulky coat and fluffy hat that could hide 9-pounder cannons. Why does Barbossa tell Captain Sao Feng he needs a ship, how did he get to Singapore? There are nine pieces of eight? But most incredibly, Jack’s a Pirate Lord? He’s lost his ship what seems like a half dozen times and got eaten by a giant squid!

I think tomorrow I’ll watch POTC:The Curse of the Black Pearl to cleanse my palette.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496

Somehow I Don’t Think This Is What They Had In Mind

Wanting a drink for the afternoon that had a little flavor, I opted for something out of the vending machine instead of from the faucet today.

Lipton Diet Green Tea with Citrus
CONTAINS: Water, Citric Acid, Green Tea, Natural Flavors, Sodium Hexametaphosphate (To Protect Flavor), Phosphoric Acid, Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Benzoate (To Preserve Freshness), Ascorbic Acid (To Protect Flavor), Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium, Calcium Disodium EDTA (To Protect Flavor), Caramel Color, Yellow 5, Blue 1.

Somehow I don’t think this is what they had in mind when health professionals recommended consuming Green Tea. I’m betting it was more like “tea + water = drink.” I could only stomach 2/3 of the 20oz bottle before giving it to someone who claims to like the stuff.

It has happened sooner than I thought. Five episodes. It is funny in moments and interesting occasionally, but pretty repetitious. Person gets sick. Doctor treats person, person gets sicker. Doctors find obscure and rare disease, treat person. Ack, person gets sicker. Doctors run lots of big dollar tests. Treat for a different ailment. Person gets sicker still, requiring surgery. Doctors stumble on simple solution. Person gets better. We will probably finish the other three episodes of House on the DVD before sending it back.

Now we need another TV show to watch.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496

Crashing Back To Reality

Watched Deja Vu on Sunday. I was right with them, even the whole time travel thing, up until Denzel gets shipped back 4-1/2 days. Fifteen, twenty minutes earlier they made a big deal of sending a piece of paper back. They said they had to keep the mass low and still the power requirements were so high that they blacked out the whole city of New Orleans doing it just as the paper was materializing. Everyone held their breath to see if the 3 x 5 scrap of paper successfully made the trip. How they manage to send back a 200lb man after struggling with the paper I just couldn’t believe.

I am usually happy to suspend my belief in reality for a good movie, but it seems lately that there is always a point in the movie that brings me crashing back. I’m betting there is a term for it in Roger Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary, but the best I can come up now is “jumping the shark.”

When we watched National Treasure I was happily enjoying the trip when they bust into the vault under Independence Hall or wherever it was that has been sealed for 200 years and they flick a cigarette lighter to the torches lining the walls and they light right up and burn brightly for the rest of adventure. Come on. Our founding fathers must have purchased them from the same place as the Pharaohs of Egypt because every time an explorer find a mummy’s tomb, the torches in there light right up after millenniums.

It happened in The Astronaut Farmer too. I don’t remember exactly what did it, but it was sometime late in the movie. I mean I even bought the fact that launching a rocket through the roof of a barn wouldn’t incinerate the barn. But I was jarred into reality somewhere and ended up shaking my head in disbelief.

I don’t think it will happen in the 3rd Jason Bourne movie, but it is possible. I hope it doesn’t happen in the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but it is probable.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496

Fruity Spam

I haven’t written about spam in a long while. Not because I’ve stopped getting it (there is as much chance of that happening as there was of me winning the Miata raffle the other day), but because it has become routine. There hasn’t been anything new since I started getting spam in kanji.

For a while there 2 months ago the Postini report I get for my work address was telling me it was stopping over 200 pieces a day, but now it has fallen to an all time low of around just 25 a day. A few more seem to making it through the filter though, I get 4 or 5 a day when it used to be 4 or 5 a week. How they are getting past is a mystery as they are easily recognizable as spam. I got one this morning that I can see how it made it by, but for the life of me can not figure on its purpose:

From: Assistant [temp5@utlya.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 7:38 PM
To: Bogardus, Brian [ASCO/AK]
Subject: Information, as instructed.

Recipe: Overnight Fruit Salad

Ingredients

1 small head cabbage, shredded (about 5 cups)
1 15oz can pineapple chunks, well drained
2 11oz cans mandarin orange sections, drained
2 cups seedless green grapes
1/3 cups light raisins
1 1/2 cups cubed Edam cheese
1 8oz carton lemon yogurt
1 cup dairy sour cream

Instructions :

1. Place cabbage on bottom of large salad bowl.
2. Top with pineapple chunks, mandarin orange sections, grapes and raisins. Sprinkle cheese atop.
3. Combine yogurt and sour cream; spread over salad, sealing to edge of bowl.
4. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours. If desired, garnish with lemon and lime twist, curly endive, and a grape.

National Association of Cabbage Producers raising awareness?
Del Monte trying to boost sales of canned fruit?
Terrorists delivering a toxin in seedless green grapes?

Record Heat

Help Me, I'm Melting!I don’t know about where you live, but here in Aiken, SC our temperatures are way above normal. Today it was close to 80º and all the snowmen in town have melted.

We walked to the Atlanta Bread Company for breakfast and when we got back it was almost 70º so I took this opportunity to lube up the Emperor’s power window tracks. The passenger side was noticeably slower than the driver’s side, so I read up about fixing it on my favorite reference site, Miata.net. After I lubed up the passenger side, it made the driver’s side seam slow, so I had to go ahead and take the panel off that door too. Man that black snot they use as an adhesive to hold the plastic barriers in the doors is a real pain to work around, there is still some under a couple fingernails even after a half dozen hand washings.

While I was out there I did a quick detailer clean up to get all the dust off the car. That is all it is, it hasn’t rained in so long the only thing the Emperor ever gets covered in anymore is road dust. I was going to try out my new buffer, but I’m still chicken. I did use it, the included foam application pad and some Crest toothpaste to clean off the film that had started to haze up the headlights. Worked like a charm and it wasn’t too hard to use, so next time I wax the car I’ll probably use it to remove the wax.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 496