Year: 2002

Whistle While You Work

Busy Miata day today.

First on the agenda was to remove the remove the “old” Sony CD changer from the trunk. Ever since installing the Blaupunkt MP41 San Jose MP3 player in the dash at Christmas the Sony has not even been on. Trunk space being at a premium to begin with in a Miata, a CD changer eats up a big chunk of it, it is nice to reclaim that room. All I have to do is fill in the carpet where I cut out a couple holes to mount the changer.

Second up was prettying the Blaupunkt install. When I first got it, I was so excited about installing it that I just used the kit that you get from Crutchfield. Functional, but it just didn’t look right, made the unit stick out of the dash about 1-1/2″ and was dropped down about 03/4″ from the top of the opening. Also I had a tendency to hit the face with my knuckles when shifting into 3rd gear. Took out the center console (removed 5 screws, remove the shift knob & unhook two wiring harnesses.) Took out the center radio surround (pop out the eyeball vents and remove 3 screws.) Then I could pull out the radio and the Crutchfield mounting plate. I then pulled off the trim piece from the head unit. measured carefully to see if this would work. Yup. Pulled the bracket off the stock radio and screwed the Blaupunkt into it and put it back in the dash. One down side was I now had a 03/16″ gap on either side of the unit (the trim piece hid that.) No hill for a stepper. Got an old stock blank off plate I had laying around cut 2 slivers of it and epoxied them to the console, not bad. The other down side to this was now I had a DIN and a half opening in the dash. I think Mazda makes some stock blank off plates in that dimension, just won’t be able to get one until at least next week. I would have ridden around with the hole there, I’m a guy, but my wife felt I should hide it some how. Used some of that old redneck multi-purpose construction material – cardboard. Sprayed it flat black and it doesn’t look too bad.

Third was finishing the dash lighting. It used to have green back lighting and all that is left of that is the light shining on the ODOs spots in the indiglo blue gages. Decided to make that light blue to match. Pulled the dash apart and popped out the bulbs, I then removed the green plastic condoms and exposed the bare bulbs. When I started to apply the blue glass paint I had bought this afternoon, it didn’t stick too well, but I kept at it. Two coats consisting of two applications of paint later, it was time to put them back in and try it out. They lit up sort of blue, but still looked greenish. SHIT. Pulled the dash apart again. Fortunately, because the paint didn’t stick too well in the first place it was relatively easy to remove. Put the bare bulbs in and now I have white light illuminating the ODO which is better than the green stock or aqua painted.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 6

Glass Paint?

I have installed a set of those all-the-rage-among-the-kids indiglo gage faces on the Miata. Got them to sort of go with the blue face of the new in-dash MP3 Player. The dash used to have green backlighting and all that is left of it is the light shining on the ODOs. Decided to make it blue to match. Pulled the dash apart and popped out the bulbs. Removed the green plastic condoms and exposed the bare bulbs. Started to apply the blue glass paint I had bought this afternoon. Didn’t stick too well, but I kept at it. Two coats later it was time to put them back in and try it out. They lit up sort of blue. SH$T. Pulled the dash apart again. Fortunately because the paint didn’t stick too well it was relatively easy to remove. Put the bare bulbs in and now I have white light illuminating the ODO which is better than the green stock or aqua painted.

Olympics

Professional players are now allowed in the Olympics, corporate sponsorship is rampant, and about every third or fourth Olympics are on US soil because we are the biggest TV market for them and that is where the money is. The only thing I like about them anymore is the skin-tight lycra the women wear for some sports and the skimpy costumes the ice skaters wear. And I may not have that pleasure much longer, in this week’s issue of People magazine there is an article about them asking the ice dancers to tone down the sexuality of their routines.

Jaunt Through The Wilds

The sun reappeared this morning. Lunch out was at Mi Rancho, guess what kind of food it was. 🙂 Top down to and fro. I broke my rule for the new top too. I said that I would never leave it down in the parking lot unless I had the boot on. Didn’t have it with me so I rationalized that it is still winter and the angle of the sunlight would cause less damage than raising the top and then putting it right back down for the ride home. After 3 days of top up and A/C on, it was nice to ride in the fresh air. We turned our 6 mile commute home into a 30 mile jaunt through the wilds of Aiken County and the exciting towns of Couchton and Montmorenci.

It was also nice to hear wind noise as opposed to the ticking sound that is emanating from the heater blower motor. Because of the rain we have been riding around with the A/C to keep the windows from fogging. Going to have a look at it tomorrow, hope it is easy to get to and it is just that missing screw from the center console bumping the fan and not a bad bearing or something.

Started up, now down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 6

New Miata Down Payment

Raining in the morning. I don’t know if the Weather Channel got the stop time right, but it had stopped by my 4:00 quitting time. Still too cold for dropping the top, either for the ride home or the trip to Augusta. Tonight was the Master’s Miata Club monthly business meeting at the Shangi-Hi Suprise chinese buffet. I was much better in that I only ate 4 plate fulls unlike last month’s 5. Next month we will meet at a BBQ buffet, I feel a five plater coming on…

While we were there, I put 4 dollars down on my 2002 Special Edition Miata in Titanium Grey with Saddle Brown interior…bought some Lotto tickets. 🙂

Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 5

Music from The Sopranos

Bought the first volume and loved it, nice mix of pop, standards and rap. The theme song alone was worth the price of admission. So when the second volume came out, I bought it. This one is a 2 CD set. After listening to it a couple times I have come to the conclusion with a little better weeding out of selections, it would have made a fine one CD release. It was really stupid of them to add a couple minutes of dialog from the show too. There are about a half dozen different Mafia mouth ones run together. What they should have done was give us one selected Tony – Dr. Malfi session. Plus I will never forgive them for mucking up Henry Mancini’s “Theme from Peter Gunn” with Sting doing Every Breathe You Take…

More Chicken Stuff (pun intended)

A couple of days ago I ranted on chicken tenderloins and in it I mentioned we eat more chicken. I meant in as the royal we, meaning all of us, but I also meant me and my household. We buy some frozen foods from a company called Schwan’s. Donna’s brother drives a truck for them in the Seattle area. When Donna’s mom moved in with us she decided to start ordering stuff from them. We order some of the frozen vegetables and in the summer we get some of those little ice cream cups. We have tried of few of the other things as well. The chicken breasts are a big time saver, the are always so moist and tender. Never really paid attention to the box before, but for some reason today it caught my eye. Right there on the side of the box was (italics are theirs) – Unbreaded, Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Filets with Rib Meat Containing up to 12% of a solution.

What does that mean? Nowhere on any of the 6 sides of the box does it say what the solution is that they have stuffed in there. It is item number 502 in case you want to see if they tell you want the solution is on their web site.