63,000 Train Cars

Choo-ChooWe were back in northeast South Carolina hunting Post Offices. Knocked off 16 more, bring our total captured to 184 out of the total of 460. I was stopped by a freight train twice over the weekend, once on Saturday with Donna’s cousin Susie and her daughter Katlin in a Jaguar XJ8 and on Sunday with Donna in the Miata.

The visit wasn’t all fun and games though, we were there to offer what moral support we could to Donna’s cousin Laurie because her husband Ted was in the hospital. Ted’s lifelong health issues had final caught up with him. Diabetes and a bad heart caused an early retirement. The diabetes led to weakened kidney’s which finally gave up after a his last heart attack necessitating dialysis. When we visited in March they were still struggling with getting the home dialysis to work right and Ted reminded us of how Donna’s mom had gotten towards the end. When we stopped in last week the both of us were shocked at how far he had deteriorated. He fell out of bed on Tuesday and was hospitalized in Florence at the McLeod Medical Center. Ted passed away early this morning.

While traveling west, somewhere east of North, South Carolina the Emperor moved past the 63,000 mile mark.

For dinner we both had a bowl of Won-ton Soup and an Egg Roll, while we split an order of Jade Chicken (don’t know if this is a regular Chinese restaurant dish or just got it’s name because we were eating a place called Jade of China.)

Meal Cost: $13.90
Tip: $2.10
Spent This Meal: $16.00
Year to Date: $1509.70
Meals out, 85 of a possible 585.

 

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 278

Fête Nationale

QuinbyIt has been a long day, so I have too much to write and not enough time to write about it, not even what we ate for both meals we ate out today and I know how much you all look forward to that. I will tell you that in honor of Bastille Day there was French cuisine consumed at both meals eaten out today – that’s right, we had fries.

Lunch
Meal Cost: $8.64
Tip: None
Spent This Meal: $8.64

Dinner
Meal Cost: $19.96
Tip: $4.04
Spent This Meal: $24.00
Year to Date: $1493.70
Meals out, 84 of a possible 582.

 

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 275

Ruby Red Where Are You?

I received 4 tan cloth samples from Cabrioworld today. I’m guessing that they are the colors called Light Neutral, Tan, Dark Beige & Driftwood. It would have been nice if the samples were in fact labeled that way, but they have a series of SF numbers along with the words Hirsch Auto and a 10 digit number I assume is Mr. Hirsh’s phone number on the back. Looking at my monitor I’m guessing the number equate to colors thusly; Light Neutral SF-24, Tan SF-6, Dark Beige SF-30 & Driftwood SF-22. Whatever it is called, SF-24 is nearly a dead ringer for the 2003 + up cloth top.

I asked for a sample of Ruby Red and they didn’t include it, much to the delight of my wife who dismissed the color as possibly being to close in color to the car. She has listened to me say plenty of times, “If you cannot match adjoining colors exactly you should have a large enough of a difference so that is doesn’t look like you tried to match and failed.” And has learned that lesson well. I told her that I had never done anything to the car that would make it look silly and was not about to start now (conveniently forgetting about the plastic Rabbit Teeth that I had in the mouth of the previous Miata for a short while.)

I am disappointed by RR’s omission and would still like to see what that color looks like, so I plan on re-asking for a sample of it. And to make it interesting I’m going to ask that they send me a sample of Burgundy and Dark Brown too.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 272

Genie In A Tackle Box

Bubba & Skeeter were fishing one day when Bubba pulled out a cigar. Finding he had no matches, he asked Skeeter for a light.

“Shure, I got a lighter,” he replied. Then reaching into his tackle box, he pulled out a Bic lighter 10 inches long.

“Jiminy Cricket!” exclaimed Bubba, taking the huge Bic lighter in his hands. “Where did you git dat monster??”

“Well,” replied Skeeter, “I got it from my Genie.”

“You gots a genie in dat tackle box?” Bubba asked.

“Yep, I shure got one. It’s right here in my tackle box,” says Skeeter.

“Could I see him?”

So Skeeter opens his tackle box and sure enough, out pops the genie.

Addressing the genie, Bubba says, “Hey dere! I’m a good friend of your Master, will you grant me one wish?”

“Yes, I will,” says the genie.

So Bubba asks the genie for a million bucks. The genie disappears back into the tackle box leaving Bubba sitting there, waiting for his million bucks. Shortly, the sky darkens and is soon filled with the sound of a million ducks … flying overhead.

Over the roar of the million ducks Bubba yells at Skeeter.

“Jumpin’ Jiminy Crickets! I axed for a million bucks, not a million ducks!”

Skeeter answers, “Yup, I forgot to tell you dat genie is hard of hearing. Do you really think I axed for a 10-inch Bic?”

Spenser’s Crime Buster Tips

#31: If you have a name and no address, try looking in the phone book.

For some reason the first three of these I found, they were in the same book, were called Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules, but this one was called a Tip. I have decided to read all 35 (so far) Spenser books to chronicle all the tips/rules and collect them on a separate page here. I have now re-read two of the four books I own and tonight when we visited the used book store I picked up three more. They probably have another half dozen on the shelf still for later.

Today was a two-fer, breakfast and dinner out. Donna told me point blank this morning that we were going out for breakfast and because it was a weekday that meant Hardee’s. Biscuit & Gravy for her, Sausage & Egg Biscuit for him, O.J. and Hash Rounds to split.
Meal Cost: $5.71
Tip: None
Spent This Meal: $5.71

Dinner was out because it was the monthly Miata Club meeting, for July it was in Aiken at Olive Oils. Crab Bruschetta for appetizer, Seafood Ravioli for her, Hot & Sweet Sausages for him. We went whole hog and got desert, Chocolate Ice Cream for her and Key Lime Pie for him.
Meal Cost: $43.00
Tip: $6.45
Spent This Meal: $49.45
Year to Date: $1461.06
Meals out 82 of a possible 576.

 

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 270

Shrimp Wiggle

Sea LionThree months ago I wrote about a dish that Donna’s aunt used to serve to her kids when they were growing up – Egg Wiggle. An internet search came up empty on a recipe or any mention, so I thought that it was something Aunt Mary had made up. I was wrong, but only because there was no mention of seafood.

Tonight while I was re-reading Robert Parker’s “Cold Service” I was shocked to come across this passage:

Cecile and Susan talked about their respective practices, and I shared occasional thoughts on sex and baseball, which, by and large, were all I had for thoughts. As usual, Hawk said little, though he seemed to enjoy listening. I had been reading a book on the human genome. We talked about that for a while. Cecile served us a variation of a dish my father called “shrimp wiggle”: shrimp and peas in a cream sauce. Cecile served hers in pastry shells. My father didn’t know what a pastry shell was, and with good reason.

So I searched the interweb for Shrimp Wiggle and got lots of hits. Even got one return that was a list of other Wiggle recipes from Cooks.com that feature salmon, tuna, shrimp and chicken. Now maybe with four kids in the house at once Donna’s aunt & uncle couldn’t afford meat to put in there or maybe there was meat in there and the kids just didn’t remember it because of the overall weirdness of peas & hard boiled egg pieces in a cream sauce. Either way, mystery solved.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 268

All-Star Break

Horse's HeadThe top on the Miata is starting to wear out. There are several small spots on the inside where the cloth liner is gone exposing the rubber inner layer. And there are a few places on the outside, at places the top is folded, that are the same way. So far this year the top has made 266 transitions. In 2006 it made 525 and in 2005 there were 399 changes in state. I did not keep data for all of 2004, nor did I count any of the first month of ownership in December 2003. Using a complicated formula consisting of averages from prior years I estimate that for those 13 months it made 410 transitions, making a total lifetime of 1600 changes or 800 cycles.

I probably have a couple more months before an actual holes develops, but I’d rather not get that far, so I’ve started to research new tops. An OEM Mazda cloth top lists at a buck under a $900. An after market top starts around $630. Both these are cloth with defroster glass back window like the current top, but I could always “downgrade” to a vinyl top, they start around $450. The trouble with after market tops is matching the parchment color of the 2003+ Miatas. Most of the tans out there are darker and more compatible with the earlier year cars. So I’m contemplating going with a black vinyl top. But for now I’ve got samples on the way of the two canvas tans available from the place I bought my last top from. One is a stock color and the other is custom adding $50 to the cost.

They also have a custom color called dark ruby that is a wild card in the color selection. Donna hates the idea without even seeing it, but I’ve got a sample of that coming too. We will have to see, the Garnet Red has mica in it so it changes its color, from a sparkly red to maroon, depending on the light. This makes it awfully hard for that dark red canvas to look good at all times, but I can hope. If I really like it, I may try and persuade her.

Forgot to blog about eating out last night. Went to Maria’s for carnitas, we both had water to drink so we got out for cheap.

Meal Cost: $9.58
Tip: $1.42
Spent Today: $11.00
Year to Date: $1405.90
Meals out 80 of a possible 573.

 

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 266