“Small” Car

Somehow the other day I got in a discussion about the Dodge Caliber with my current cubicalmate and summer hire. He told me it was a small car. I told him he was nuts, I had seen one in a motel parking lot on Donna and my last road trip. It was parked right next to a last generation Mustang and the Caliber seemed to dwarf the ‘Stang. From my vantage point, a second story balcony, it looked taller, wider and longer. I countered with, “The Neon, the car the Caliber is replacing was a small car.” Adam countered with, “The Caliber is smaller than the Neon.” The gauntlet was thrown down. Off to the internet for some research.

The following are from Automotive.com:
2005 Dodge Neon
– Overall length (inches): 174.4, overall width (inches): 67.4, overall height (inches): 56, wheelbase (inches): 105, cargo volume (cu. ft.): 13.1 trunk, curb weight (lbs) 2,582.
2007 Dodge Caliber
– Overall length (inches): 173.8, overall width (inches): 68.8, overall height (inches): 60.4, wheelbase (inches): 103.7, cargo volume (cu. ft.): 18.5 w/seats up, curb weight (lbs) 2,996
2004 Ford Mustang
– Overall length (inches): 183.2, overall width (inches): 73.1, overall height (inches): 53.2, wheelbase (inches): 101.3, curb weight (lbs) 3,254

Boy do I feel like a fool, somewhat. The Caliber’s length and wheelbase is shorter than the Neon, but it is 1-1/2″ wider and nearly 4″ taller with 5 more cubic feet of storage (35 if you fold the back seats down.) The only thing bigger about the Caliber over the Mustang is height. Must have been parallax error or maybe too many refreshment from the mini-bar.

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Ripple Effect

Every year ASCO has one of Augusta hospitals bring over their mobile mammogram unit. It isn’t free, but the company provides a $200 wellness benefit to offset most or all the cost of the test. Donna always goes to her doctor, but you can see where it might be popular for the hourly employees, they can get that little bit of diagnostics taken care of on company time, they don’t have to take vacation or an attendance point. Each year they get an average of 35 women to sign up.

This year, with Donna’s diagnosis, her openness to talk about her disease and vocal urging to people to get a mammogram, they have 74 sign-ups.

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Should Have Picked Murals

Should Have Picked MuralsAs I mentioned Thursday, I did start a photo contest over on Miata.net called Capitol Idea. I got it all setup and ready to go late Friday evening. I posted the announcement even though I didn’t even have my usual example entry up. I didn’t have one.

This morning Donna and I drove up the Columbia to snap some photos of the Miata with the SC State Capitol in the background. First we tried to shoot from the east side so that the sun was behind us. There was no clear vantage point. The couple of pictures I tried were awful with just a glimpse of the dome behind trees. The east side views are nearly non existent period. The west side views were slightly more accessible, but the sun was such that the extreme back lighting made good exposure impossible. The best views and lighting were with the north side views. Of course there was road construction going on such to prevent any stopping for picture taking.

I ended up with nothing for a contest entry. While driving around we passed one of my favorite photo spots, the parking area that has the hay rolls mural and the tunnel mural. We found a new place with some railroad themed murals, a night club with a nice parking lot out front. The sun didn’t really cooperate here either, but I did get the one attached, that isn’t too bad.

After the “Capitol” disappointment I logged on to Miata.net and cancelled the contest. I hadn’t received any entries anyway. Still in the mood to run one of these things, I renamed the contest “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest 2 and relaunched it over on Miata.net.

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Brian Buys .06 Gallons Of Gas

We wanted to do our weekly grocery shopping late tonight to avoid the heat, so we left the house at 10PM mainly because that is when the Trading Spaces Donna was watching ended. We shop at Kroger because it is convenient and they sell gas too. Because we have a customer loyalty card I get to save an extra dime off the per gallon cost of their gas. This is usually a good deal as most times their price per gallon is a nickel or so less than the surrounding stations to begin with.

I dropped Donna in front of the store, so she could start shopping while I went and filled up the tank. When I got around the side of the store where the gas is it looked kind of dark. The overhead lights of the gas station were off, but the pump lights were on bright, so I went over. As I pulled in there was an attendant in the booth, so I stopped and opened the gas cap. I scanned my loyalty card and then inserted my debit card. When it told me to lift the nozzle and select a grade, I did just that. I started pumping and it was coming out really slow and then stopped at 17 cents. Hmmm. maybe they are out of premium. I walked over to the window and asked the attendant if they were out of gas or something, when she told me they were closed and that must have been all that was left in the hose.

I went back to the pump replaced the nozzle and closed my gas cap. The little LCD window on the pump asked if I wanted a receipt and I replied yes, to which it told me to see the cashier. Back to the window I go. The attendant said that she couldn’t get me a receipt because she had already closed the register. When I asked her, “If you are closed, how come the pumps would let me even attempt to pump some gas?” Her response was typical minimum wage earner, “I don’t know.”

Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 268

Bicyling, Bills and Bagels

Another little 10 mile tandem trip, we did the monthly pay some bills thing. Because the power company and the water works are downtown we decided to eat some breakfast there too. Lucky for us our favorite breakfast place is downtown too. Mmmmm, Raspberry Sour Cream Muffin. Donna snagged a bagel for today and we picked up an extra pair of Yankee Doughnuts for Sunday’s breakfast.

Uh-Oh!

I’m getting bored.

Time to change the look of the blog maybe? Probably not, as I do like the look and the scheme goes well with the car color…that’s it, I just need a change of the header image. Wait, I know, I need to run another photo contest.

Last year I did one called “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest and got 44 entries. I think I want to call it a “Capitol Idea” Photo Contest. A picture of a Miata with a capitol in the background. I can’t seem to find it, but the inspiration for for this is a photo I’ve seen a couple of times on the Miata.net Forums (and I can’t seem to find right now) of a 10AE in a parking garage at night with a lit up dome in the background. Found it! Now I realize that limits the backgrounds to 51 (states & DC), so maybe I’ll let them use any sort of domed building, county courthouses, churches, etc. Heck, how about any business with capitol or capital in the name.

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Because There Is Nothing On TV

I used to think it was the lack of entertaining shows on TV that kept me from watching, but I now realize that it has to be me. Because we have added the digital package to our regular cable, so we can watch le Tour, I now have at my disposal probably twice the usual 60 channels. Including 16 Starz/Encore movie channels (none of whom were showing “The Incredibles”), 10 different channels devoted to religion, a dozen flavors of music video channels (a couple of which are religious themed, even one called, no lie, JCTV), a half dozen flavors of ESPN, BBC America, etc., but there was nothing to watch. The closest thing to holding my interest was an Everybody Loves Raymond repeat on TBS. So here I am listening to RadioParadise and surfing the web looking for entertainment.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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