Month: February 2002

That Hosting Company

Down again. Didn’t come back up until nearly 11:00 PM this morning. I surmised from comments at yesterday’s Miata Club gathering that the website was unreachable yesterday…I forget all about checking it until this morning. Then the only reason I notice is I want to link a picture in a Miata.net post. I’ve got a tool called Karen’s Net Monitor that will check if your site is up at predetermined intervals, but I keep forgetting to run it. Go get it, it’s free. If you use That Hosting Company it is an essential.

The Last Wheel Rant

Washed the car this morning. There staring me in the face when I washed the wheels were the dozens of scratches Andrew the Chucklehead at Firestone presented me with earlier this week. I had been telling people that they were not noticeable from 5 feet away. Well, after washing, I was wrong, they are noticeable from that distance.

Probably only by me though. I hear you out there, “They are just the things that you put tires on already! Deal with it.” So I am going to get over this, right now. No more on the wheels. Promise.

MMM…Time

We had our first little MMM…Time with the Miata Club. 10 Miatas and one RX-7. We met at the Sno-Cap Drive In in North Augusta. We popped the hoods and chatted outside. We chatted inside nearly filling all the booths. We pretty much over ran the joint. Before we over stayed our welcome, Stacey Timmerman lead us on a 20-25 mile drive around north of the Interstate. Fun time.

Started down, went up, went down, now up.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 31

Here Is One Reason

They scratched my rims all to hell, but it is now my problem to fix. I have to take it to someplace to have them repaired. I have to bring in the bill to get reimbursed. They are happy because as far as they are concerned they have apologized and offered to fix problem. They know that it is more than likely that I will not go to the trouble to get it fixed. So they solved their problem, not mine and feel OK about it.

The last thing the manager Carl said to me is, “Next time you come in we’ll take a little something off that bill too.” I didn’t say it, because I’m not that way, but I thought to myself, there won’t be a next time.

Note To Self

Note to self: Never make a snap decision on the tire you buy.

If you need a set of tires because one is irreparable, put on the tiny spare and go home, check Miata net. Back in December when I needed tires in a hurry and the guy told me what tires he had, they sounded like a tire I had read favorable reviews about on MN, but they were not. Turns out 910 is a lot farther away performance-wise from 930 than the numbers let on. The tires I bought were 3 performance levels down from the ones I thought they were and 4 levels down from where I was. The Pole Positions I now have are at the top of the street tire line and one step *up* from where I was when this whole mess started. I think that next time I will know, I ended up wasting the $270 I spent on the 910’s. I got my money back on them and they took it off the price of the S-03’s but I still ended up paying as much additional for them as they would have cost outright from the Tire Rack. If I don’t get out and look at the scratches those chuckleheads put on my rims installing the tires and just drive, I’ll be fine.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 28

Woohoo!

Started out even warmer than yesterday and it is supposed to be a couple of nice days, so I put the top down and the boot on. Really starting to feel like spring (I know it is early, but the pine pollen was back today.) The new Bridgestone S-03 Pole Positions are more like it. They may be even better than the RE-71s I replaced. I just don’t know as I am not a tire expert, but I do know the Miata once again handles above my fear limit. I can hardly wait to wear these things down halfway, woohoo!

The first person to try and send me money via PayPal for the 2″ stickers was using a credit card. PayPal wants money for me to accept credit cards. (2.9% + 30 cents) That amounts to 36 cents on $2 and 45 cents on $5, I declined the payment because I’m cheap. But now that I think about, I was never in this for the money, just the fun. Maybe I was too quick to decline? Yeah, I think I’ll change it so I can get the Credit Card money…

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 26

(Almost) The Last of the Firestone Store

The last, because I’m not going back there even if they are the last tire store on the planet. When manager Carl told me $280 on the phone the other day, he meant that is what they were giving me for my old tires, not the total bill. Cost for the tires, $360. Live and learn. They found me 4 matching valve caps and when they asked if I wanted them to put them on, I declined, who knows what would have gone wrong with that simple procedure. As far as the scratched rims, I got the same response I got in December, take then to Master Fabricators in Augusta, they can get the scratches out and then bring them the bill and they will pay for it. There are so many reasons this sucks I don’t have time to write about it now, hence the almost in the title. I’ll save it for another rant….