Year: 2015

Fairies Are Female

A married couple in their early 60s are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant.

Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table. She said, ‘For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.’

The wife answered, ‘Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband.’ The fairy waved her magic wand and POOF! – two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment, ‘Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I’m sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.’

The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish! So the fairy waved her magic wand and POOF! – the husband became 92 years old.

Moral of the story: Men should remember that fairies are female…

Thanks Jackie.

Fire Over Aiken

The city of Aiken along with Atlantic Broadband and a couple other sponsors put on a fireworks display tonight for the 4th. They held it at the Western Carolina Fairgrounds which just so happens to be right across the street from the Valve Store(tm). The company was kind enough to open the normally closed on weekends gates and let the employees park away from the maddening crowds of the city’s hoi poloi.

The weather folks were all week calling for a big chance of rain for this evening. And they were right. It rained pretty good at our house at around 7:30 then quit, but a look at the Weather Channel’s future estimation showed a large cell of nasty thunder boomers arriving around 9:00, or about 15 minutes ahead of the planned firework display starting time.

We decided to drive up to work anyway. It is a short trip and the weather guessers have been wrong once or twice before. There were about 10 cars in the lot when we arrived and about a half dozen arrived after us. While were waiting for the show, Donna and I visited with a few folks and right on cue at 9:00 o’clock it started to sprinkle and few lightning flashes lit the clouds. But instead of getting increasing worse the rain stopped and held off for almost all of the 20 minute show. Towards the end it started to sprinkle again and on the drive home it did rain some more, but it never did get real nasty.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 0

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 15
Totals So Far: 59 points & 2000 miles

Notice Anything Different?


Right now it still smells a little like new plastic inside. As we left the top shop the fellow came outside and said to be sure and leave it up for week to let the top stretch & settle. I’ll try and make it a couple days, but by Monday at the latest it will be coming down for the morning drive to work.

The vinyl top makes a different sound when driving than the cloth did, but overall it seems slightly quieter. The previous cloth top, number two for the car, was always noisier than the original OEM top. I may have mentioned it here before, but top #2 was quieter at highway speeds when it was down and the windows up than it was when the top and windows were up.

The Emperor also got his second royal bath in 4 days once he got home. HRH had to spend last night outside under the stars with flying feathered creatures.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 0

Crown Me

The Emperor just got back from summer camp last Thursday, but he’s off again already on an overnighter. This time it is to get fitted up with some new head wear.

The next time you see a top count at the bottom of a post it will be a very, very small number. In the past 6 years, 7 months and 30 days the top has gone through 760 cycles or about once every 3-1/4 days. The rate really dropped off, from over 300 a year to around 125, after the 2011 purchase of the Sonata. Now when the weather is iffy, the Miata just stays home.

The new top is going to be black vinyl instead of the original (and 1st replacement) top’s tan cloth. The material change is because it is a hundred bucks cheaper for vinyl and the slight decrease in durability is more than offset by the decreased top usage. The color change is just for that reason, a change.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1521

Wash Day

The Emperor got a bath this morning. But it was a stinking hot day Brian, didn’t you work up a sweat? There was no need to work up a sweat, I was already sweaty from the morning bike ride and a little yard work that I did just before starting the project.

After washing the Miata I pulled it into the garage and washed the first 1/31 of each side of the green metal awning that the Purple Whale parks under, AKA The Aquarium.

I cheated for the Sonata, after lunch we ran it through Lulu’s.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1517

The Triumphant Return of the King

Actually came back on Thursday evening, but on Friday he rested because we rode the tandem to work and later went grocery shopping in the “big” car.

Took a drive today to a friends house. After the first couple of hard turns under acceleration and getting a loud clunk as the new springs settled onto their perches, it was smooth sailing. Car handles like new again. What we thought was the main rear seal doing all the leaking turned out to be mostly valve cover gasket with the rear seal being a minor contributor. Just recently the Emperor had started leaving a small spot towards the rear of the car to go with the big one up front. Turns out it wasn’t a muffler-fluid leak like I suspected, but the rear transmission seal was the culprit, which the fine folks at Panic Motorsports replaced for me.

Got a new clutch and associated components and I swear it feels better than new. It took me only a moment to get adjusted to its new release/engagement point, after the replacement it is an inch or so closer to the floor than than it was. Steve @ Panic sez it is a simple fix to move that point up or down in the travel patch of the pedal. I looked up on the Miata.net Forum and it looks dead simple. so I might just give it go to see if I can get it back to about the middle of the travel where it has reside for the last dozen years.

While they had the car on the lift they marveled at the bumps and bruises the car has accumulated in its 150,000 mile life so far. Steve actually wondered if I had hit any bowling balls. There was a bent rear sub frame brace that they replaced and they also had to re-weld the resonator (Mazda calls it a presilencer) back onto the exhaust pipe. I also somehow managed to get a large dent in the muffler in a nearly un-accessible spot. In my defense I’m usually very good at distances and spacial relationships, but for some reason I have a terrible blind-spot in judging the height of road debris compared to chassis clearance.

Started down. went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1515

Launch Edition

Launch Editions

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, this photo is worth a 1,000 Miatas.

Mazda has always been quick to throw a new color on a Miata, add a geegaw, slap a badge on a car and call it a Special Edition or a M Edition or an Anniversary Edition. Well this year with the launch of the 4th generation of the car, they’re getting on the bandwagon early and launching a special Launch Edition.

The first 1,000 people in the U.S. to get an example of the 4th gen car had to pre-order it. They will be getting the top of line Grand Touring with every possible option checked off in Soul Red with a tan leather interior, the only choice they had was stick or auto. Its this color combo is what will make it unique, that and a badge stuck on one fender panel.

The photo above was taken by Mazda and it shows, I think, all thousand of the LEs waiting to be loaded on the boat(s).

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1514