Post Hole Ahead

Donna and I are off to Washington DC from Wednesday afternoon until Friday evening where we have some meetings with a representative of the State Department.

Sounds important, doesn’t it? Its not, it is a vacation of sorts. What it really is, is a lifelong friend of Donna’s has up and joined the U.S. State Department. Next month she is off to Kosovo for a 2-year assignment, so we thought we would fly up for a couple days and visit before she heads off into the uncharted wilds of eastern Europe.

Sally will be working during the day, so our plans are to do some sightseeing Wed afternoon, Thurs & Fri morning. In the evening on Wed & Thurs we will have dinner together. After eating we will probably hang out in some of the trendier spots of Georgetown hob-nobbing with the deal makers. Riiight…more than likely we will head back to the hotel to hang out in the room.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Arlington which is right across the Potomac from downtown DC. It is about a block from the Metro station at Rosslyn, so getting in and out of the city should be pretty easy. The room is on the 16th floor facing the city, so in case a terrorist decides to detonate a suitcase nuke in front of the Capitol building we should have a great view – for about a 1/10 of a second.

We were hoping for a mild heat wave, record highs for this time of year in our nation’s capital are middle 70’s, but instead we are getting 10 degrees below normal with a chance of flurries. We are packing turtlenecks instead of shorts…and the sightseeing will consist of poking around inside our nation’s attic (the Smithsonian) or maybe heading over to the White House to see if we can get to see President Bartlett.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44

Monday Morning Mailbag

Ever vilgilant Postini stopped 78 pieces of spam on Friday, 66 on Staurday and 55 on Sunday. It also allowed 6 to sneak through. What I really liked about 4 of the 6 that made it through were the sender’s names:
Fulgenzio Merrill

Standoffish S. Porous

Zimri Ponder

Spartacus Alicea

Trouble is that their email addresses didn’t have the same sort of flair (in the same order as above):
Kajetan@jennison.com
abetter@aspecialmemoryflorist.com
Josef@jaegervineyards.com
Jamaal@futuramic.com

The subjects were the usual dreck (in the same order as above):
DUH Pharmmaaccy – Homer Simpon’s Drug Store?
Darlin how good to see you! 🙂 – The Secrets of Human Sexuality Ebook. This one snuck by the spam gaurd by including a dozen or so homilies, including my favorite: How can one better magnify the Almighty than by sniggering with him at his little jokes, particularly the poorer ones.
CHP Mediccations – Ponch & Jon’s Drug Store?
GWA Pharmaaccy – Greek Wakeboard & Kite Surf Association’s Drug Store?

Youze Ain’t Looking Hard Enough

There was 31 pounds of air in the right rear tire this morning, down a pound. After work I dropped Donna at home and headed over to the tire store. They took the car in back and I waited, marveling at the 20″ & 22″ DUBS they had in the showroom (I wondered how much one weighed, but didn’t try and lift one for fear of herniating myself.) After 20 minutes the fellow came from back and said, “Which tire?” I confirmed that I told him right and he said that they had the tire submerged and they couldn’t find any leak. I told him that I thought that I found something and had marked the tire. We walked out into the shop and they pulled the tire again and I found my mark and showed them what I saw. They pried around in the hole while drizzling it with soapy water, but couldn’t make a bubble. I went back inside and waited. Twenty minutes later he came back out and said they couldn’t find any leaks. The tech had removed the tire from the wheel and felt all around on the inside and could still find nothing. They sent me on my way, no charge, saying if it keeps leaking, bring it back.

I’ll put 30psi in tonight and keep checking it…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44

Here We Go Again

It was just a month ago that I had to have a hole patched in one the tires on the car. Last night on the way out I noticed that the right rear tire looked pretty low. Sure enough it held only 21 pounds of air compared to 29 for the other three. On the way to the dinner I stopped at the corner station and put 29psi in it. This morning it was down to 28. Just walked by it and it might be my imagination, but it looks lower than that now.

I just took the tire off and at first look I didn’t see anything. A second closer look I found a small slit that when pried slightly apart revealed something shiny. None of the local tire places are open on Sundays, so I put 31psi in the tire and I’ll check it again in the morning. I’ll probably just drive it to work and get it fixed after work.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44

Ammended Total Dinner

I had to amend the top transition total from yesterday’s post. After we got back from the store and the photo shoot I put the top back up as it was still a little damp. It stayed up all day today because we didn’t even go out in the Miata until nearly dark.

We went out because it was the Master’s Miata Club’s Twelfth Anniversary Dinner. Every year we get together and go to a local restaurant and eat. What’s different than the usual monthly gathering at a local restaurant and eating you ask. Well, we don’t discuss Club business in a formal matter and where we are is usually a notch up on the restaurant pecking order, i.e. the food is better and we usually dress a little nicer.

From our original newsletter:

On January 30, 1993, at 3:00 in the afternoon, a small group of people met at the Gibbs Memorial Library in Evans, Georgia. There were twelve people present, all from different walks of life: different ages, different lifestyles and different tastes. The one thing they had in common was a love for their Miata.

So, we do the anniversary dinner towards the end of January or February, because that is the time of year the Club was formed and it is usually cold enough around here that doing a top down driving event would be iffy.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44