Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
There were 5 people for the MMC breakfast and after eating Donna and I drove over to the Club’s Tech Day just to see if we could pop the non-working radio out of the dash. Donna was hoping to have someone magically heal it by laying on of hands, didn’t happen. Turns out, between two of us, Rudy and I, we could only get the right half of the head unit loose from its mounting. The left side would not budge. Of course we only had the bent into U shaped coat hanger pieces to work with, yeah, that’s it, we didn’t have the proper tools. I did manage to get an additional blood blister on my left hand when I pinched the web between the thumb and forefinger cutting the coat hanger.
After scouring the interwebs for hours looking for solutions to my radio issue I settled on buying a new aftermarket radio. Because we like to be able to walk away from the Miata in a shopping center parking lot with top down and not have to worry any, I was looking for the least flashy looking head unit. I found it, a Jensen MP1524. It’s a veritable wallflower, but it has an inner beauty that includes all the modern bells and whistles. The downside is that the unit isn’t even shipping from the manufacturer yet. Crutchfield lists it as not being available until 6/15, so now we wait.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1224
Today was the MMC breakfast for January. Unlike last weekend’s top down all day weather for the trip to the Microcar Museum, this morning’s temperatures were about half of what they were then, so tops were up at all times. Fittingly this weekend we only had half the cars of last weekend. Still there were five cars for the drive to the Swamp Fox in Aiken from the starting point in North Augusta. And when we got to the restaurant there was one car waiting for us.
We had told the folks at the restaurant that there would be around twelve of us and it turned out we were right on the money. Ten made the drive and one was waiting. The twelfth man was a friend of a member who worked at the Aiken Train Museum and came to tell us a little about it and offer up a tour of the place afterwards.
We could walk to the museum as it was only about 4 blocks away, but with the seasonally appropriate weather and being a car club and all, we would probably drive. As breakfast progressed and we heard some history, almost everyone thought a trip to a transportation museum for the second Saturday in a row didn’t sound like too bad an idea.
At some point our guest received a phone call and when he hung up he had some “good news” for us, there was a kids birthday party at the museum and we could help out by doing a little instructional skit for the kids. Four of us would be the train engine wheels and make chugging noises and one lucky person would be the smoke stack and get to make woo-woo sounds. One other would get to pretend to be stuck on the tracks and another would get to rescue them.
Our guest had to get to the museum in a slight hurry, so off he went, telling us to meet him there. As we all settled up our bills, most of us decided that visiting the train museum would be a better idea on a day that didn’t involve a kids birthday party, I think a couple cars did go, but the majority scattered in other directions.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1191
Today the MMC took a last pilgrimage to a museum full of cars that make the Miata look normal sized, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum before it closes its doors forever in February. We had a recent record turn out of 10 Miatas and a bonus RX-8. We also had near perfect weather.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1190
Last night was our Fantasy Football League draft. I made a suggestion to last years Commissioner about how it would be more fun if we could play everyone in our division twice. Because we all work in the same department it would be better for smack talk pre and post Sundays, so he made me Commissioner for this year.
Anyway, allow me to introduce the 2012 Purple Whales: Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer are my QBs, with LeSean McCoy, Ahmad Bradshaw, Willis McGahee, James Starks and Robert Turbin as Running Backs. Wide Outs are going to be Andre Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Malcom Floyd, Nate Burleson and Randy Moss. I also drafted Brandon Pettigrew & Jared Cook for Tight End with Kicker Rob Bironas and the San Francisco 49ers Defense/Special Teams.
Tonight was the Annual MMC Bug Splat Rally. For the second year in a row the squashed insects were few and far between. The Biggest Bug Trophy was awarded to a small flattened bug in the middle of a pop up headlight. Closest to the Target was awarded to a small smudge of a bug 1/2″ away from the green Avery dot. Three cars were tied for Cleanest Car, but I gave it to the newest members because one couple had won the last three years in a row and the third couple got the Most Bugs award because they showed up with cat paw prints on their hood.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1170
This morning was the monthly MMC Breakfast event. Because we weren’t meeting for the drive to breakfast until 7:30 Donna and I decided on a pre-breakfast at our more typical 6:00AM time at DD. We split a bagel and had our usual morning beverages, Donna’s hot chocolate and my coffee.
We made the meet & greet, and in not too short an order our line of 5 cars made the brief drive to Harlem and our breakfast spot, the Red Oak Manor Bed & Breakfast’s Acorn Restaurant. The first order of business for our host was to fill the coffee cups of the majority of the eleven members present. And the coffee kept coming for the whole hour or so we ate, chatted and even had a brief meeting. I bet we consumed over a hundred and twenty seven thousand milligrams of caffeine with all that dark amber fluid guzzled.
The Emperor passed the 127,000 mark on the way over to Augusta.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1162
Last time we bought living room furniture we got a 3 piece matching set, couch, love seat and arm chair. Because it is just the two of us, the only piece that has seen appreciable use is the couch, so now we need a new one. The other two items are basically brand new, so we would like to keep them and just buy a couch. Because it has been quite a while, a matching piece is entirely out of the question. The object we seek will be something that will compliment what is staying. Not easy, the current furniture is a burgundy cloth with rolled arms accented with nail heads sitting on ball feet. Not too much out there in that style and to make it nearly impossible we have decided to get a couch with built in recliners. The second store we tried tonight had a possibility, but we still want to look at at least a couple more places.
We had dinner out with the Masters Miata Club tonight at the Boll Weevil in downtown Augusta. The food is always good and tonight was no exception. They are know for their desserts and usually Donna and I decline, but for some reason tonight we didn’t. Boy are we sorry. Here is a photo of some of there desserts, our Perfect Chocolate cake (which we “spoiled” with two scoops of vanilla ice cream) was larger than those shown, it was actually hanging off both sides of the plate!
On the way back from Augusta we filled up the Emperor’s gas tank. Regular was under 3 bucks, and because HRH takes Premium it was going to cost us $3.17 a gallon, but with our shopper’s discount it too was under three at $2.97. I had reset the trip odometer in Clayton when we filled up last Saturday morning, I didn’t reset it when we topped off on Sunday, so the mileage since that first fill up read 454.3. I took the last two gas receipts, totaled up the two tankfuls and got 15.065 gallons. That means the MPG for the past five days, which consisted of 60% windy mountain roads, 25% 2-lane back roads and 15% 4-lane divided highways was a respectful 30.16.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1072
