Year: 2015

Danger Will Robinson

After a crappy start to the year on riding our bike to work, today marked the 4th Friday in a row we have accomplished it. Because of our timing and the route we take it is normally a placid and enjoyable trip, but today we encountered not one, not two, but three inconsiderate or inattentive drivers that had our hearts racing a bit.

1) Less than 10 minutes into the ride to work some guy in a Suburban was in such a hurry that he couldn’t wait behind us for the last 50 yards to a stop sign that he passed us, taking up the entire left lane on a slightly curvy section to beat us to said sign. Of course we arrived at the sign at the same time with us in the right and correct lane and him taking up three quarters of the left and wrong lane. As we paused together, I looked over to my left, with my helmet mounted headlight and illuminated the bozo as he was looking back at me. We both had frowny faces on, I could see his, but mine was probably masked by the high powered LED light shining in his eyes. This can be a tricky and semi-busy intersection, but fortunately it was not at 5:40 AM or who knows what would have happened.

The second two occurred on the way home and within an 1/8 of mile of each other:

2) Passing through one of the neighborhoods some guy in a pickup truck made sure it was clear to one side of him and started backing out of his driveway very briskly without looking our way. I reached for the brakes about the time Donna shouted very loudly, “HEY!” He hit the brakes, stopped and said loudly, “What did you say?” I let off the brakes and Donna repeated, “Hey,” as we cruised on by. I don’t know if he ever looked in our direction or he did and didn’t see us, but before the loud shout he looked very much like he would back right into our path.

3) About the time we calmed back down from the pickup incident and were motoring along down a slight hill when an aging, paint peeling Toyota Camry misjudged our closing rate or didn’t see us at all and decided to make the left turn in front of us. Because I could see that they were angling to cut across the intersection and we were already a couple feet into our lane avoiding the rough patches along the right edge, to avoid smacking into the right front quarter panel at 15 MPH, I steered almost into the other lane so it wasn’t as close as it could have been.

Considering how uneventful our commute to work usually is and has been, I guess the law of averages caught up with us today. Thing of it was we thought for sure that we would even see less than the typical dozen or so cars today because we figured everyone would have already left town to get an early start on the Memorial Day weekend.

They Still Love Me

2015 Red Sox NationLast year I didn’t join the Red Sox Nation because I opted to just do the MLB.tv package instead. That turned out to be me spending a lot a money for six months of frustrating TV viewing as the FRS won 71 games, but lost 91.

This year I was going to have none of that, I was going back to just listening to the radio, so I re-joined the Nation. As you can see they were OK about me missing last year and welcomed me back with open arms. They even cut me some slack in the Member Since column and instead of listing me as a 2015 rookie, they let me keep my date joined as 2004.

Well, I did kind of miss the TV, but wasn’t going to do anything about it until Donna said she missed taking an evening nap on the couch while I watched the game. So right now I’m watching the Red Sox play the Texas Rangers on the TV in the living room and peeking away on the laptop. So far this year the Sox have a better record than they did last year, but not by much as they are struggling to stay near the .500 mark. Considering the FRS were mediocre during most of my fandom history, it is amazing how expectations have shifted after 3 World Series wins in the past decade.

Really? Its Been There All Along?

I’ve had this set of cheap JVC earbuds for sometime now, at least 3 years and maybe as long as six. They are used with the laptop to listen to Red Sox games, YouTube videos, and an occasional movie on an airplane.

Early on I knew I needed an easy way to differentiate between left & right buds. They of course have the letter L or R on the appropriate side, but the small silver letter was hard to see on the white body. Each bud is shaped mirror image of the other so that they fit in their own separate ear better, but that is not easy to discern quickly either.

Then I found a tip on the net to tie a small knot in the cord just below the left ear piece. Genius!

Tonight I started a video before having the buds in, so I reached for them, felt the knot and stuffed the left bud in. As I was seating it in the ear I felt a tiny little nub on the back. I felt the same spot on the right one and it was smooth. So I took the left bud back out and looked at it, sure enough there was a 1/64″ diameter x 1/64″ high bit sticking out that was molded onto the back of the bud.

How come I never noticed that before?

Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1485

Breakfast at Betsy’s

Breakfast at Betsy'y

Donna and I arrived at Greg’s Gas Plus about 15 minutes early, so we would be there before anyone else. We were, but not for too long as Hal and Trudy Scott joined us. We chatted for awhile about the usual stuff while we waited for other Miatas to arrive, but mostly marveled at the shear amount of traffic that stopped at Greg’s and 90% of it was pick up trucks. The mix was 50/50 with lawn care trailers headed south to the lawns of the cities and boat trailers headed north to Clarks Hill Lake.

At one point the lot was so full that a truck hauling a boat stopped directly in front of us. The passenger disembarked and headed into the store for ice, a rest room break or maybe just a cup of coffee. The driver came out and called to us, “You guys don’t need to go anywhere in the next 5 minutes do you?” So I asked, “What time is it?” He dug into his pocket, pulled out his phone, unlocked it, pulled up an app and said, “Seven thirty-seven.” “Actually, we probably should be gone already,” I said, “But you don’t have to move, we’re small and can get around you.” He got back in his truck and by the time I finished a quick Drivers Meeting1 and the four of us got in our cars, he was fully out of our way, so we drove off with a wave.

We arrived at Betsy’s about 10-15 minutes later than advertised and there were three Miatas already parked outside. Inside we found John & Pat Clark, Rita & Larry Garner and Tom Varallo at a table with enough empty seats for the 4 of us plus a walk-in2. The nine of us ordered our food and in typical Miata Club fashion one plate was slightly late, one plate needed to be returned for fixing and a couple of dishes weren’t piping hot.

Counting today’s group we had a total of 14 people for Breakfast at Betsy’s if you count the 5 members who ate there last week too after I published the detail’s of this month’s breakfast on the front page of the web site without the date in the post.

All and all, Betsy’s is a splendid spot for breakfast in Aiken on a Saturday morning3, the food is good and the prices are not that expensive.

1 I handed Trudy a map she didn’t need and told them, “Follow me.”
2 No one did.
3 The only day they are open for breakfast.

55,000 Gazinta 150,000 How Many Times?

French Toast

Last night Donna and I took a drive to confirm my wholly online Google Map planned route for this morning’s MMC Breakfast At Betsy’s event we were leading. Half way to I-20 I noticed the Sonata’s ODO read 55008. We were only about 4 miles from the our driveway so the Purple Whale must have passed the 55,000 mark on our way home from work on Monday. Didn’t notice.

Good thing we pre-ran the course too, because Mr Google was thrown off by construction of Giant Tire Parkway and its interruption of Vaucluse Road. The map had me turning right after a half mile when it was really a left after more like a whole mile.

At the start point of the drive this morning we were joined by exactly one other Miata. Had this been any other Club event besides breakfast we would have called the thing off, but because we had to eat anyway and the restaurant was back in our own Fair City(R) we lead one other couple on a convoluted route through Edgefield & Aiken Counties to Betsy’s. I had the trip counter up because I needed it for keeping track of the miles between turns as called out by my navigator along the way, but once we were just one familiar turn from our destination I flipped it back the odometer. It read 149999. A few feet before pulling into a parking spot the Emperor hit 150,000 miles.

There were three other Miatas already there.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1482

Stuck In The Past

That 70's Show

That 70’s Show

Kind of seems like it don’t it?

A discussion on height came up with a co-worker the other day and when the conversation turned to high heels, I mentioned that at one time I had a pair of high-heeled sneakers. Well, not actual high heels, really, but more like platform sneakers. Photographic proof was required.

This sent me looking through some old photo albums1 to find this one picture Donna and I remember from a trip to the northeast way before we were married. We found the right album and even found the right page, but the picture we both remember with the two of us in it at a snow covered rest stop somewhere along the NY State Thruway wasn’t there. We must have pulled it out to show some one along the way and it never made it back in or it ended up in a different book. So I scanned the above image of me that sort of showed my high-rise kicks.

Then I did get a little marooned in the past and decided to scan a couple more photos, one of Donna from that time frame and one of the two of us. Man, we were cute as all get out 40 years ago.

1) Back when people used a thing called a camera to expose chemically treat plastic film to a scene they saw, which was then taken to a drug store where it was turned into a 4 inch by 6 inch glossy piece of paper and displayed on the pages of something resembling a notebook.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1481

Nothing But Net!

Smart Ass

I went to Delgado College for 7 semesters, 3 spring, 2 falls and 2 summers. I took at least one drafting class each semester and took two in 3 of them, for a total of 10. Aced every one of them. In those seven semesters I took a total of 28 classes and got A’s in all but one, that one I probably would have gotten an A, but I had a side drafting job one semester and couldn’t do that and take 5 full classes at the same time. I know, what a slacker.

To say I was a bit more mature at 28 than I was at 17 in high school is an understatement. Go back and look at yesterday’s high school transcript and squint a bit, I bet you can made out the two F’s and several D’s in there. I started out pretty decent in 10th grade, but that was my peak, it was all downhill from there. I still managed to be in the top 40 of my high school class.

The top 40% that is, I was graduated 238th of 624. Thirteen years later I graduated college Manga Cum Laude, 1 of only 3, out of a class of 670.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1480