Year: 2004

Cripes! Can’t You Make It Easy On Me?

Winning 6 to 1 in the 7th and cruising. No, that was not exciting enough, you give up 5 runs to let the Angels tie the game. And then you put me through a couple of innings of struggling relief pitching, before winning it in the bottom of the 10th. I don’t think I can take this for the next 2 weeks…

Please, Chris Berman and any other announcer, don’t ever give me that, “They are only X outs away from winning the series,” shit. Keep your mouth zipped, that phrase is historically the kiss of death for the Red Sox. (As it almost was tonight.)

Still Waiting

Called this morning only to be told that the spoiler would go on today as it was still too tacky to be mounted yesterday afternoon. Liza didn’t say, but I bet it was still too tacky because they didn’t paint it until Tuesday instead of Monday afternoon when I dropped it off.

Arrangements have been made to get Donna’s mom transported tomorrow so we can use the Civic to get to work. The nice neighbor across the street has volunteered to drive her. He is retired and it will be a nice change for him, he said it would get him out of some chores too. So now the plan stands to get off at noon, go get the car from the paint/body place and drive it to the tire place and drop it off so they can mount the tires. Drive home in the Civic and then return to get the Miata later in the afternoon.

Comet Incubation Period: 13 days

They All Do That

Donna’s mom took her Civic to the local Honda dealer to get the oil changed today. I asked her while she was there to have them listen to the brakes. For the last month or so they have been making a ticking sound whenever you come to a stop. It is speed dependent. It starts out fast and as you slow the ticking frequency slows, but the noise duration increases slightly. The brake power doesn’t seem to be affected, but the noise is disconcerting. They told her they all do that.

It didn’t do it when she first bought the car back in May. As a matter of fact, if I recall correctly, a couple of years ago we had this same noise on her previous Civic. It didn’t do it when she came from Washington to here. It started right after they did some brake work on the car. It always stopped fine, but it made a ticking sound. They told us the same thing, “They all do that.” Not as loud as on this car, but it was annoying. Maybe I should call Click & Clack…

Plastic Surgery

The Miata is staying overnight at the recovery room/body shop. The instructions say: The vehicle may not be driven in the first 12 hours to the gluing. (wash road at the earliest after 48 hours). And at first, I interpreted that to mean don’t drive it for 12 hours and don’t wash it for 48 hours, but I think they really mean, don’t drive it at all for 12 hours and don’t drive on rough roads for 48 hours. They were supposed to silicone on the spoiler this afternoon and I tried to call and find out the progress, but Liza was apparently too busy to call back, so I’m not sure if they did it or not. I’ll find out tomorrow morning and see if they did get it on. If they don’t glue it on until tomorrow, I might not be able to pick it before Friday as the silicone needs to set. Donna’s mom needs her car back for Friday to go to dialysis, but I guess at worse case I might have to duck out in the AM and drive her.

Comet Incubation Period: 12 days

One Down and Ten To Go

The Bosox won game one of their 5 game series this afternoon against the Angels. Just ten more wins and the thing that has eluded them since 1918 will be theirs, a World Series victory. It would be sweet if we had to beat the Yankees to get there, but with history solidly on their side, I hope Minnesota knocks the Yanks out first.

Of course 3 losses in the next 4 games and I could very well be saying, again, wait until next year.

1/2 The Velcro

I tried a variation of something I read on Miata to cure my annoying tick-ticking sound coming from the passenger area. I bought some tan velcro at the store this weekend and glued the fuzzy half onto the edge of the seats where the seatbelts hit them. It was easy to know where to put the velcro because the black seatbelts were leaving black marks on the tan seats. I may have to readjust the positioning downwards some though, the seatbelt hits right in the middle when in use, but it hits the very bottom of the velcro when you first buckle up causing it to lift the velcro off the seat. And get the edge of the belt sticky.

Comet Incubation Period: 11 days

Calm Before The Storm

The regular season is over and now the nail biting starts:

Game 1 BOS @ ANA Tue. Oct. 5 4:00 p.m. ESPN
Game 2 BOS @ ANA Wed. Oct. 6 10:00 p.m. ESPN
Game 3 ANA @ BOS Fri. Oct. 8 4:00 p.m. ESPN
Game 4* ANA @ BOS Sat. Oct. 9 TBD TBD
Game 5* BOS @ ANA Sun. Oct. 10 TBD TBD
* If Necessary

I was kind of hoping for Oakland because we pretty much owned them during the regular season, but maybe it is a good thing, because my expectations probably would have turned around and bit me on the butt with an Oakland 3 game sweep or something equally horrible. The Sox took the season series 5-4 from the Angels, but if you believe this article, “Clash has the makings of a classic” the series will be exciting. And at least if games 4 and 5 are needed they will be on the weekend, so for this series there is only one late night, Wednesday.