Wonderful Wednesday

Yesterday while passing through the shop at work, someone said to me, “How’s it going?” I said in a semi-sarcastic tone, “Terrific!” His response was, “Cool, its Tuesday, double T’s!” Usually I say, “Fantastic”, so I don’t know where terrific came from, in that moment it just did.

This fellow’s response got me thinking. When a coworker or acquaintance asks you how are you doing, they probably really don’t want to know, it is just a different form of Good Morning, etc. So instead of my normal go to of fantastic, from now on I’ll answer alliteratively, sort of. Depending on what the first letter of the day of the week is my response will begin with the same letter as.

Monday = Magnificent
Tuesday = Terrific
Wednesday = Wonderful
Thursday = Tremendous
Friday = Fantastic

Motoring Saturday

Destination - Famous Statue
Destination – Famous Statue: We may or may not make a trip to the northeast later this year where we may or may not try and get an actual photo of the actual Statue of Liberty, so this may or may not be our actual entry for the Destination.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 149

Motoring Challenge Points 10, Approx Miles Driven 105
Totals So Far: 52 points & 910 miles

No Soliciting Allowed

No Soliciting Allowed

We went for our usual bike ride for breakfast this morning, but we made it unusual in that we just got our muffins to go from Ridgecrest. We wanted to get home and enjoy them in front of the TV. Yesterday afternoon we had watched the first 6 episodes of season 4 of House of Cards and like cheap wine that show is best consumed quickly without much time between glasses so as to not actually taste it.

While cutting through a subdivision on the way home, Donna called out, “Stop! Come back here. Look at this.” I had ridden right by a Slow Children Playing sign. Good thing someone in this duo keeps their eyes open for needed Motoring Challenge destinations.

So after episodes 6-10 we broke for lunch out and on the way back stopped to take the above photograph. This is only worth 1 point, but really, when you think about, nowadays it should be worth a bit more. This type of sign is not really as prevalent as it was 40-50 years ago, they are just not needed because kids don’t get to play unsupervised any more. They are either driven by their parents to some form of organized sporting event or they are inside playing video games. I love the sign below it. No Soliciting Allowed. Do Not Solicit Residents. Solicitation or distribution of printed materials is STRICTLY PROHIBITED on these premises. Strictly prohibited by what? This sign?

Back home we wasted another 2-1/2 hours watching the last 3 episodes of House of Cards. The show is stylistically shot and the acting is top notch, but the situations and the actions of our main characters make the CBS TV show Madam Secretary where Téa Leoni plays the US Secretary of State seem like a documentary.

I never tire of the title sequence though, the time-lapse of DC and the theme music, I miss it already..

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 149

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 5
Totals So Far: 42 points & 805 miles

60,000 Corn Chips With Salsa

Tonight was the MMC’s monthly meeting and Donna and I attended. We usually have a bunch of excuses as to why we won’t go to one of these functions, but chief among them is we don’t feel like driving 25 miles one-way to eat in a restaurant when we have like sixty thousand of them within 53 miles of our house. Well this month we couldn’t use that excuse as the meeting was at a Mexican place right here in Aiken.

Amazingly enough, most of the attendees at the meeting were from right here in Aiken or close by. Just like us, there are some of the Augusta folks who don’t want to drive all the way over here just to get Mexican food. But probably a lot more would have attended if it wasn’t for a wide band of thunderstorms passing through smack dab around meeting time.

For the first time in a long while we drove the OTM to the meeting. Two reasons actually, 1) the aforementioned thunder storms and b) we needed gas in the Sonata and it is always less crowded at the pumps at 6:00 PM than at our usual quitting time of 4:00 PM. As I got ready to kill the engine to fill up, I glanced down at the ODO of the Purple Whale, it read 60000.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 148

Whirlybird

Moving (or Parked) Targets - Helicopter

We had our Helicopter Challenge Point all picked out. There is an Army H1 Huey chopper that is perched high over the Barnwell County Veteran’s Memorial Park on an 18′ pole that was nearly perfect. My only reservation was that it reminded me of an Entomology display, the kind with insects stuck on pins in a glass case.

Today as we were passing by the Aiken Hospital on the way to get Donna’s allergy shot, she suddenly grabbed my arm. I didn’t hear what she said as I was concentrating on the whole driving thing, but when she has grabbed me like that in the past it usually means that I am about to run something over or something is trying to run us over, so my heart skipped a beat. I pulled my foot of the gas and asked, “What?” “Helicopter,” said she.

This counts as zero miles towards our Motoring Challenge total as we were on our regular Monday route home.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 147

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 41 points & 800 miles

Bagel Run

Destination - Cemetery

We drove to Lexington to get bagels for breakfast. We have come to the conclusion that we just can’t live with the store bought or Dunkin Donuts version of a bagel, so we have been pretty regularly (once a month) driving to Bruegger’s Bagels to get something that more resembles the real NY/NJ bagel.

On the way back we stopped and got a couple of Motoring Challenge points, the Cemetery above and a Sign with Bullet Hole(s). Even though the total trip was a hundred and twenty miles I only counted half that towards the miles driven, because that was only half the reason for the trip.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 146

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 60
Totals So Far: 38 points & 800 miles

Feel the Bernies

Feel the Bernies!

Not only am I discussing politics on my blog, but now I’ve gone and donated to an actual politician. I just donated $20 to a Kickstarter fund to create a Bernie Sanders “Action” Figure. If funded they are going to donate one of my dollars to his campaign.

It will be fully funded1 on March 30th and they are supposed to ship in July, just in time for the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. Sure hope by then he is not just a footnote in the 2016 election.

For all you Hilary supporters you can get an Action Figure of her right now because these are the same folks who created one for her campaign back in 2008 and they are still available on their site – FCTRY.

Those of you who live in one of only a handful of states that the personal use of marijuana is perfectly legal2 you might want to consider the Burners for Bernie set of homemade ceramic pipes. A portion of the proceeds from this item also go the support the candidate.

1. It has far exceeded the goal already.
2. Which Mr. Sanders says he’ll change when elected.