Month: August 2002

Moms In A Hurry

Waited all day before even using the Miata for an early evening trip to Bruster’s and then a stop at Publix for a couple items. The Moon and the planet Venus staged a beautiful display along with the fading twilight in the western sky to go along with the pleasant temperatures to make a really nice night for a top down cruise. Tomorrow the brats start back to school, so the morning commute will be crowded with Moms in a hurry, oh joy.

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 205

Craig Biggio’s Batting Helmet

I owe Manny Rameriz an apology. Watched most of the Braves/Astros game on TV this afternoon and Craig Biggio’s batting helmet was so encrusted with crap that it looked like the turret on the Monitor that they dragged up from the ocean floor the other day. Sorry Manny.

Also a bonus rant for Brave’s pitcher Kevin Millwood’s sweat stained, salt encrusted hat.

Saturday Afternoon Baseball

What the heck happened to Saturday afternoon baseball? Had a couple hours to kill this afternoon and went in search of a game on the tube. Nothing. There were plenty of teams playing this afternoon. Fox just wasn’t in the mood?

I hope there is a strike. Maybe then I can lose the baseball habit entirely. I’ve already stopped watching Pro Football – sick and tired of the grandstanding after each play. Jeez, so what, you tackled him, that is your job after all. Pro Hoops fell by the wayside for nearly the same sort of thing – in your face slam dunks….

Plastered With Little Bugs

Backed the car out of the garage and put the top up. It was wash day. The car still has dirt on it from the gravel road to the B&B in NC that we stayed at for the Miatas at the Gap at the end of July. The topper was last night’s drive, we came home with a nose plastered with little bugs. Windexed all the windows inside and out. Vacuumed it out and everything. Pulled it back into the garage and there it sits. Did the odometer spin backwards for a bit and then forwards the same amount, thereby canceling any mileage? Or do they just count forward motion?

Finally decided to replace the floor mats. They look black in dim light but during the day they look gray. Also every time I pull them out to vacuum under them they leave behind about 20 of the little rubber nubs that fall off the back. They have held up well considering they are nearly 7 years old and have been stepped on several times each day in that time frame. I’m going with the $39 ones from Serious Auto. They don’t have a logo which is just the way I wanted them. The price is at least $20 cheaper than any other mat out there, what kind of quality will I get? Don’t worry I’ll let you know.

Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 204

Where’s My Email?

The last couple of days my in basket has been extremely light. One reason is I haven’t been getting any mail in the Masters Miata account. Way back in April Yahoo cut off POP3 access to your email. You had to log on and use the web based mail program (so they could subject you to several ads just to read one email message.) A couple of clever folks figured out a way around this (you just knew somebody would.) YahooPops worked fine up until a little while ago, then Yahoo changed their layout. This made the program hang and when it didn’t hang, the mail just wouldn’t come in via Outlook Express. Turns out I just needed to get the updated version of YahooPops and change a setting. Mail again.

Another reason is BellSouth got their spam buster, Mail Guard, online and running. When they announced it a month or so back, my first instinct was to turn it off, I wanted to choose what I saw not some software filter. Forgot all about it until I thought today that maybe that is why my mail has been light. Sure enough it has been running for the last 5 days and had snared 64 messages in it’s filter. I waded through looking at the subjects and you know, they were all junk! I guess I’ll leave it on and if it works 100% for the next 2 or 3 weeks I ‘ll just leave it and forget it.

Manny Rameriz’s Batting Helmet

Geez, I’m sure it is superstition not wash it or whatever, but that thing is gross. It probably started as a little pine tar transferring off a batting glove, but it is now officially out of hand. I think the players have been spitting tobacco juice on it, that is the only way it could have gotten so bad in just the 6 weeks you’ve been off the DL – Yeck!! By the way, those Shirley Temple curls poking out from under it aren’t helping either.

Ice Cream on a Summer Night

We headed out for a little shopping expedition this evening and it was still hot and ugly humid out. On the way back we stopped at an ice cream place to get a scoop each. Most folks were eating their ice cream on the benches surrounding the stand, but quite a few were inside their air conditioned cars. I don’t know about you, but part of the reason you eat ice cream on a summer night is get cooled off, just doesn’t seem like the same enjoyment can be had from eating it inside the air conditioning.