Month: September 2004

Ooooh, That Was Fun

Not enough to make me really want one, but I can certainly see how one could be seduced by that siren’s song.

Russ came in to my cube right after lunch and said, “Want to take it for a drive?” We headed out into the lot and after he clicked the unlock button on the key, he handed it to me. First thing that is totally weird, is the key is on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. After the car is running, to lower the top, you undo the center latch and hold down a button until the light goes out. It doesn’t take too long, but it is longer than flopping the Miata’s top. To be fair, when the process is complete, you are done, as the top becomes it’s own boot in combo with the power half-tannau cover. The clutch engages higher than I’m used to but I didn’t stall it. It is not as smooth engaging as the Miata and is a bit stiffer to boot. I just took it for a spin around the long block, all of maybe 5 miles. When you step on the gas the gets up and goes compared to the Miata. Lots of torque and when you get the revs above 5K the sound is just so sweet. Not so much the exhaust tone you get with the Miata, but with the engine right behind your seat, there is this wonderful mechanical whir all the way to redline at 6500.

It was a short drive without any real curves, but I bet it would be fun to take it through some. The shifter is longer than the Miata, but not ungainly and it felt nice and tight with a good spacing. You can’t really put your elbow on the door like in the Miata and I got the feeling you weren’t supposed to in this car, you are supposed to be driving, not cruising. The interior seemed a little fussy. Not unpleasant, but there were a lot of little buttons. Having driven a Z3, a Z4 and now a Boxster, I think the Miata has the nicest looking interior. The exterior of this car takes some getting used to, I don’t find it very attractive, but it does say Porsche. Of the BMWs and the Porsche and Miata, I think the Miata exterior looks better as well. Of course if I was a couple steps further up the corporate ladder and my salary was about 60% higher it would be hard not to go for one of the German sportscars. If I could have the Boxster sound in a Z4….

Comet Gestation Counter: 55 days

Two Utes

My Cousin Vinny was on the tube yesterday. This is one of those movies that whenever I stumble in on it on TV I have to watch the rest of it. I can’t help it. Yesterday I didn’t. I couldn’t. I have the DVD sitting on my coffee table and it just wouldn’t have felt right. I borrowed the DVD from a co-worker a couple of weeks ago because I love this movie and wanted to see it in wide-screen and with the cuss words intact. For whatever reason I haven’t found the time to watch it. What I should have done was get up and put it the DVD in and watch it right then. I wasn’t really doing anything right then anyway.

Wasted Another

Today was a perfect companion to yesterday weather-wise and the only time the Miata left the garage was when I backed it out into the driveway to wash it. The car wash soap I have don’t seem to work really well, it gets off the dirt OK, but anything else it seems to leave behind. After I dried the car off I used some Meguiars Quik-Detailer on the nose to get off a lot of dead insect residue. I also used it to clean some sort of road goo off the side sills. When I dried everything off I added a coat of wax to the nose, the side sills and the hood. Probably should have done whole car, but my light was fading fast.

Truth be told, yesterday the Miata did venture out. We went grocery shopping for the week in it around 9:00 PM. It might go out tonight around the same time as Donna has requested an ice cream run. I will have to try and dodge any bugs that come our way, so the car will stay clean though.

Comet Gestation Counter: 54 days

Dinner and a Movie II

Maybe the Red Sox, after last night’s heroic come from behind victory in NY, went out and caught dinner and a movie staying up into the wee hours of the morning. They certainly played like they didn’t get enough sleep, losing to the Yankees this afternoon 14-4 (and the game wasn’t as close as the score indicates.)

Not knowing they were on FOX this afternoon, I totally didn’t see the game. I guess I got lucky and was saved the agony of watching the massacre. But then if I had watched, could my good vibes have helped them change the outcome of the game?

FedEx

Well it is on its way. Almost. It hasn’t actually been picked up yet, but I have a tracking number. You can bet there is a shortcut on my desktop for this link. Expected delivery date: Friday, September 24th.

On what will be placed into the dictionary next to the entry: Fall Day, Perfect, the Miata sat unused in the garage all day. I went rollerblading in the morning while Donna went for a walk. Later we all piled into the MSV to take Donna’s aunt to Augusta Regional Airport (Fly Here Fly Home) for her flight back to NJ. What was supposed to be a short wait turned longer by the remant of Ivan pouring down rain and thunder onto EWR. Because the flight departure was delayed a couple of hours we piled back in to the Civic and went in search of lunch. We ended up at Waffle House where we dined in high fat splendor. After returning home one adult shy, we set about decompressing on the couch. Tried watching “Welcome to Mooseport”, but we couldn’t get by Ray Romano. Popped out the DVD at about the 10 minute mark. Now I remember why we stopped watching Everybody Loves Raymond, we don’t. We do love Monk and watched the last 2 episodes of Season 1. Now we wait until they release Season 2….

Comet Gestation Counter: 53 days

Labor Pains

After 52 days of incubation I had my first labor pain today. Steven from New State Corporation called to say my front lip spoiler had arrived and they would ship it out to me today, or Monday at the latest. If I get lucky it may be here by the end of next week. Stoked. Now to see how much it will cost to get it painted.

Called and set up a date to get the 15K service next Thursday, but forgot to ask how much they want for that. The 7,500 check was $72.13, does that mean, twice the mileage, twice the price. They are basically the same except in the 15K they clean the air filter and they inspect the freon in the AC.

Comet Gestation Counter: 52 days

I Hope This Works Out

Tomorrow I’m going to call and set up the 15K service and mention about the clutch shudder and the TSB that covers it. It has done shuddered the last two mornings, not as bad as Tuesday, but more annoying than recent weeks. It used to be just mornings, but now it has been showing up in the afternoon too on the way home from work, so it is getting worse. From anecdotal reporting I’ve seen on Miata.net this latest bulletin which entails swapping just the clutch disc seems to do the trick.

Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted.

Comet Gestation Counter: 51 days