Month: August 2007

Miss Me?

Scotia, SC 29939I missed you?

At somewhat the last minute we decided to head south to take some Post Office pictures. Found a HI Express in a town called Yemassee and made a reservation. It wasn’t until we got there that I wondered if they had Internet access in the rooms. If it didn’t I’d be fine with that, I brought a book. Well, it turns out that there was wireless access, but because we were at the end of the hall it was weak as a kitten. After I gave up, Donna got the Weather Channel to load, but it appeared as if we were on a 14.4 modem (and then wouldn’t stay connected.) So we gave up.

Posting this on Sunday, but dating it Saturday for historical top transision data.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 335

End of Summer

End of SummerTechnically we still have over a month and here in Aiken we have more like two months before the summer like weather is gone, but today was the last week day before school starts. Come Monday morning the commute to work be 20x more aggravating as harried moms or dads drive their progeny to the hallowed halls of learning.

To celebrate the last work day of light traffic roads we rode the tandem to work today.

We’ll still ride the bike to work occasionally because we only have to share the school road with cars for about 30 yards (although it is uphill and seems like 50.) But we will now be alternating our car drive to work. On the weeks we go in early we will drive the more rural route because we are earlier than the school traffic, but the other week we will alter the route to include the four lane US 1 avoiding that traffic nightmare.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 333

You Can Dance If You Want To, But I Don’t Have To Watch

Because the FRS have the evening off I had nothing better to do than watch a little tube. We started to watch Fever Pitch and made it a whole 34 minutes before shutting it off. Part of the problem was the whole language problem you see, it was not the Drew Barymore / Jimmy Fallon American version, but the original British movie. Maybe if they had American English sub-titles…

From there I started to watch a Law & Order episode that was about 5 minutes in. I had seen it before, but as usual didn’t remember the ending, so I watched it through. Beautiful thing of it is, that in another year or so if I stumble on that episode again, I’ll have forgotten it again, so the ending will be a surprise. Again.

Right after that, TNT segued right into another L & O episode. This one I hadn’t seen, so I watched it for the first time. It started out with a thinly disguised re-hashing of that poor Cubs fan in 2004 who tried to catch a foul ball and was then subsequently blamed for them not making the playoffs. It later turned into a whole corrupt police officer and DNA clearing a wrongly accused murder, yada, yada, yada. Beautiful thing of it is that in another year or so if I stumble on that episode again, I’ll have forgotten it, so the ending will be a surprise. Again.

Two hours of TV was enough, even when it is “good” TV, so I handed the remote to Donna and picked up a book. She started channel checking while I read with one eye and watched the flashing images with my other. She paused on something I didn’t recognize, (The TV listings say it was Supernatural, but I can’t confirm or deny that because I am not familiar with the show.) and I looked up for a second and said that I thought that a couple of the people in it looked familiar. She tired of whatever it was and clicked to the next channel. Two people were salsa dancing? It was Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance? I made a smart aleck crack like, “There’s something I *don’t* want to be familiar with.” She laughed and changed the channel. Wouldn’t you know it but the next channel was PBS and they were showing Live From Lincoln Center : “Mozart Dances” The Mark Morris Dance Group performs… We both looked at each other and thought the same sarcastic thought, only I voiced it, “Now there is something I *want* to be familiar with.”

Next up, was the Weather Channel. There was a meteorologist in a parking lot in San Antonio standing in a dry parking lot waving his hands vaguely stage left telling us how much water used to be there. Riveting. That’s when I left the room.

With apologies to Men Without Hats: We Can’t Dance If We Want To

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 333

The Koala & The Little Lizard

A koala is sitting up a gum tree smoking a joint when a little lizard walks past and looks up and says “Hey Koala! What are you doing?”

The koala says: “Smoking a joint, come up and have some.”

So the little lizard climbs up and sits next to the koala and they have a few tokes.

After a while the little lizard says his mouth is ‘dry’ and is going to get a drink from the river. The little lizard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls into the river.

A crocodile sees this, swims over to the little lizard, helps him to the side and asks the little lizard, “What’s the matter with you?”

The little lizard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting smoking a joint with the koala in the tree, got too stoned and then fell into the river while taking a drink.

The crocodile says he has to check this out and walks into the rain forest, finds the tree where the koala is sitting finishing a joint, and he looks up and says, “Hey Koala!”

So the koala looks down at him and says: “Shiiiiiiiiiiit dude……how much water did you drink???”

Oak Alley

Oak Alley Plantation, an antebellum Mississippi River mansion in Vacherie, LA. From an old slide of mine I scanned. The slide was so dusty that the only way to make a presentable image was to run PSP’s dark scratch removal tool which made the image look painted, so I just enhanced that thought with a Paint Engine filter.

Oak Alley

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 331

Lucky Winner

A crusty old man walks into the local First Baptist Church and says to the Secretary,” I would like to join this damn church.”

The astonished woman replies, “I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?”

“Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!”

“I’m very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this Church.”

The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor’s study to inform him of her situation. The pastor agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that foul language.

They both return to her office and the pastor asks the old geezer, “Sir, what seems to be the problem here?”

“There is no damn problem,” the man says. “I just won $200 million bucks in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money.?

“I see,” said the pastor, “and is this bitch giving you a hard time?”

Not Actually A Mod, But More Like Service

Dutch HyroglephicsHad some new shock absorbers installed today. At 63k miles they were not entirely shot, they were definitely worn, judging by the improved feel on the drive home. They were yellow Koni Sport adjustable shocks, so they were not an equal swap, but more of an improvement.

When the shock replacement was being planned I considered purchasing some lowering springs to get rid of the fist sized gap between the tire and fender lip. After copious reading in the Miata Forum Suspension and Handling section I decided that because this is the “family” car and it is already a close call clearing dead possums in the road that I would choose function over style and keep the stock springs and their “high” ride height.

When I picked up the car after the install it actually looked like the ride height had increased. When I got home I measured it and sure enough the gap was now a 1/2″ more than it was before. Because that dimension is determined by the spring not the shock I was curious. So I asked over on the forum and got a reassuring response that that is normal and the car will settle back down to where it was in short order.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 330