Why Is There Always A Cop Around When You Don’t Need Them

Went out this evening to snap some photos of the car after being inspired by this web page. Found a deserted parking lot on the north side of town and parked my car in it at an angle. I was hoping to catch the sun going down in the background and then get some other pictures after sunset in the magic twilight. Right after I snapped photo number one, who should pull in, but an Aiken Public Safety Officer. Of course I was nervous even though I was doing nothing really wrong. He was just checking to see if I was all right and wished me good luck with the pictures once I explained what I was doing.

Ghost Bugs

I don’t know what else to call them. Drove over to Augusta this evening to buy some more wheels for my inline skates and before we left I cleaned off the dead insect residue from our last trip. About 1/2 way there I ran through a cloud of invisible bugs, you can’t see them in your headlights, but when they impact the windshield they leave behind a little puff of dust no bigger than a couple of millimeters in diameter.

When we came back out of the store I got out my bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels and cleaned the windshield again. It lasted about 20 minutes before another swarm of bugs peppered the windshield again. I used the washer jets and the wipers to clean up this time, only to get another dusting within 5 minutes.

Squirt, squirt, wipe, wipe and this time we made it home without another encounter with the mysterious ghost bugs.

Have A Seat

I did the K& N air filter cleaning and re-oiling this afternoon. I bought a bottle of cleaner and a small vial of oil instead of the cleaning kit as I didn’t think I’d need that much oil for my approximately 5″ x 10″ sized filter. Wrong, I got about a third of the filter soaked in oil. Off we went to the auto parts store to buy some more oil. They didn’t sell the stuff separately, so I ended up buying a cleaning kit anyway. I now have an awful lot of the cleaner solution, so come on over and get your K & N filter unsullied, free of charge. (Also snagged a new bottle of Meguiar’s Quik-Detailer while we were there.)

On the same trip we also stopped into Target to buy a set of smaller folding chairs. They had ones that are half the size of our current ones on sale for $4. We wanted some that would fit in the trunk and still leave room for some luggage. The ones we have now have arms and a high back so that a pair of them practically fill the trunk. Although needed for one reason they were not needed for another, our little 3 person household has 8 folding chairs stored in the back of the garage.

Purchased Today: $15.88
Money spent since 03/03/03: $859.63
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 137

Swiming In A Sea Of Estrogen

Or “Where The Boys Aren’t.” Having spent the last couple of weeks following boys little league baseball I now know where all their sisters are, doing gymnastics.

A cousin of Donna’s from NJ (Exit 14) has a daughter competing in the YMCA National Gymnastics Championships being held in Savannah, GA. So we drove the 3 hours down to see her compete.

Kristen is 11 and is on the Madison Rosettes Novice squad or the level 6 division. Age doesn’t matter, just skill, in determining what level you compete at, the girls ranged from 8 to 14. Also going on in the same arena were the levels 7 & 8, (Developmental and Championship.)

A veritable sea of glittery hair and even more glittery lycra. I watched as long as I could and then I pulled a play I learned from my sister, I had brought a book, so I climbed to the top row of the arena and read.

0.08 Gallons Of Gas

After tonight’s Master’s Miata Club meeting it was such a pretty night that Donna wanted to go the long way home. Well, she didn’t have to twist my arm very hard, but first we needed some gas. The first place I pulled into must have run out of gas because the numbers were moving real slow and they stopped dead on $0.12, netting me a total of 0.08 gallons of mid grade. Drove about a mile down the road to the next station where I finished filling up.

I wonder how much it is going to cost that store and my bank to transact a twelve cents purchase?

Purchased Today: $13.87
Money spent since 03/03/03: $843.75
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 137

You’ve Got To Move Fast…

…in this fast paced world. Finally got my CafePress stickers I ordered June 14th. I bought two for the Rant and two for the Miata Diaries. They look pretty good, but in the 2-1/2 weeks that have passed between ordering and receiving I’ve moved the blogs. Both URLs printed on the stickers are wrong.

High & Dry

After Wild Bill the Tropical Storm passed our are in the night, we woke up to a forecast that called for no rain. The skies looked threatening, but bolstered by the forecast I left the top down and used our new cockpit cover.

About 10 o’clock my wife called and said that it was raining and maybe I should go put the top up. About that time I heard the sound of a really hard rain hitting the roof above my head. It only lasted about a minute. After it quit I thought I’d go look under the cover and see how wet it might be. Walked out to the car in the still sprinkling morning and when I peeked inside it was 99% dry. Cool the new cover worked like a charm

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $830.88
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 137