Year: 2015

Fenway Faithful Lose Faith

Run Over SocksMonday the FRS gave up 4 runs in the top of the first inning, AKA before they even got going, to what the Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione called the light hitting Chicago White Sox. They wound up losing 10 to 8. Last night they gave up 5 runs in the top of the first to those same light hitters on their way to losing 9 to 4. Tonight was an improvement, Chicago only scored 2 runs in the first. The Sox went down in order and the White Sox scored two more runs in the top of the second.

That’s when I turned off the game.1

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 28

Right now it is 8 to 1 Chicago winning in the 7th inning. Ended up 9 to 2

Lucky Thirteen

The Red Sox snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a see-saw battle with the Chicago White losing 10 to 8. They are now 13 games under .500, while the MFY are 13 games over meaning they are 13 games out of 1st place in the division, solidly in last place.

To make matters worse, NESN is highlighting the 40th anniversary of the fabulous 1975 team that went all the way to the World Series only to lose in 7 games to the Cincinnati Reds. At this point in the season, 100 games, those Red Sox were 20 games above .500 at 60 wins and 40 loses.

I think the announcers would like to not have to mention these 40-year old game capsules, especially Jerry Remy who played for the Sox for 7 years between 1977 and 1984.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 24

Willard Scott Where Are You?

I’ve said it here a few times, that if Donna’s sister didn’t live in Florida we would probably never visit the state1, but here we are in Stuart anyway, 5 months after Sandy’s memorial service. We’re here to help Sandy’s dear Mother-In-Law Dottie celebrate her 100th birthday.

After breakfast with a friend tomorrow morning were are turning the Sonata north and heading back home, even if it is cooler here in south Florida than it is in Aiken.

1. Except for scoring a Motoring Challenge point or two.

56,000 Raindrops Per Minute

Destination Brunswick, Georgia and the rain threatened all the way until Statesboro, where we stopped for dinner, before it actually materialized. From there until we made it too the Hampton Inn it rained at a rate of about 56K drops/hour.

Somewhere about 10 miles before it started raining the Purple Whale rode through its fifty six thousandth mile.

Got Any Questions

Every month the Director of Operations has a Communications Meeting with each of the two “classes” of employees, Hourly & Salary, to field questions, concerns or suggestions. Each month there is some sort of randomized drawing to select 8 or 10 employees to act as representatives, who then solicit and/or receive questions for asking. This representative affords a slight sense of anonymity to the questioner, in cases of calling out perceived bone-headed decisions by the management team or whining about fellow employees.

This month is my turn as representative. I have gathered a few questions and with the meeting coming up tomorrow I sent out an email to my group this afternoon to remind them if they had anything, please get it to me.

From: Brian
To: Fab Eng Grp
Subj: Only 24 Hours Left to…

…get your questions to me for the Salaried Communications Meeting tomorrow. Got a question that only the Big Kahuna can answer, get it to me.

For total anonymity, snip out the letters to form the words from the ads in today’s paper, then glue them to a pristine piece of copy paper (using latex gloves of course) and place it in my mailbox up front. Or you could always just send me an email from a co-workers desk when they aren’t in their cubicle and have left without locking their screen. An easier option would be to print it in notepad, fold in half and drop it on my desk when no one is looking.

Best option would be to walk up to me and tell me what it is. Don’t worry your personal information is safe with me, unlike all those poor cheating souls who used AshleyMadison.com.

Lesson Learned

After yesterday’s breakfast with the MMC it was already getting hot, so for the drive home I decided to put our Cool Breeze Scoop in place. The name itself is sort of a misnomer on days like this as the air it scoops and directs into the cabin of the Miata is less than cool, but it does increase air circulation. But when you turn on the air conditioner the incoming air helps move the A/C’d around which does make it slightly cooler inside the cockpit.

When I got home and parked the car in the garage I pulled off the scoop to stow it back in the trunk. That is when I noticed that when I installed the scoop I scraped the heck out of my brand new back vinyl windshield header. I had created several 3 to 4 inch long ragged edge tears in the vinyl. Nice. 🙁 Guess we’ll be giving up the scoop.

So this morning after our breakfast run via bicycle I spent about an hour in the garage removing the damaged vinyl and replacing it. Things always go easier the second time and this was no exception, I bet it took twice as long last Sunday putting just this horizontal piece in place.

When I googled Cool Breeze Scoop this evening to get an image for this post1 I did land on the site of the makers of the product and learned that I may still be able to use the scoop. I bought this thing in 2007 and the original mounting instructions were to insert one end of the mounting rod into the channel of the gasket that seals the windshield header to the front of the convertible top and slide it to the left while pushing down. This eases the rod in place and then you slide it back and forth a bit to seat it and line it up with the velcro tabs (this sliding is what damaged the vinyl.)

The instructions on the site now say lube up the middle 8-10 inches of the channel with Armor-All or similar and spread the channel at the ends of the rod with fingers and then push straight down. I think if I whittle a 1/16″ or so of material off the scoop where it won’t hit the header when inserted…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 23

1. I ended up using my own image from the post in 2007 when I first bought the scoop.