Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s Off To HHI We Go

Time to go pack the trunk with our custom fitted luggage for the weekend get away to Hilton Head Island. It is a semi-working trip as Saturday morning I will taking condo interior photos so the web site can get updated some. Hope to snap a couple new Post Office pictures for that gallery on the trip too.

Picked up the framed new caricature tonight. I’m going to hang it on the same wall as the old one. They are going in a vertical arrangement and I can’t figure out which one I should put on top. Should it be the new one as the top would be considered a position of dominance, or should the new one go in the lower position as that is more eye-level? Stay tuned….

I really should be out with the California Duster and/or Quik Detailer erasing the pine pollen dust off the car in prep for the trip, but instead I sit here typing away.

What Would Jesus Do?

A friend at work has acquired a DVD of a movie that is still in theaters. He has gotten another fellow to make copies of it using a piece of pirated DVD copying software. Knowing that I had said I wouldn’t see this one in the theaters, but instead would probably rent it when it came out, they asked if I would like a copy of my own for viewing now. I said, “I’ll let you know.”

The movie, “The Passion of the Christ.”

I Forgot To Mention

One other “Mod” I did on Saturday was to stop the buzz when you leave the key in the ignition and open the door, etc. It was a simple enough procedure and everything you need to know can be found right here – 1999 Miata Key “Buzzer” Disconnect.

While I was swapping interior bits with Dave I asked if he would like me to disconnect his too. He said sure and I went ahead and did it, but I was thrown for a small loop when I located the wiring harness to disconnect it. The instructions on the page said locate the connector with two wires coming out, he didn’t have one with just two. I went back and looked at what I disconnected on my car and then matched up connectors to one on his car. If you look carefully at the bottom photo at the above link you can see the connector will hold 4 wires, but it only has two in it, that is the way mine is. Dave’s had 4 wires coming out of it. The only differences in our cars is that his is an automatic transmission, so we figured the other two wires must have something to do with that. When disconnected, his buzzer stopped and all other functions seemed to work as before. I wonder what those extra wires might be for?

It’s Where?

Yesterday afternoon Donna’s mom had a doctors appointment. She still can’t drive because of the recent surgery on her left arm, so she had Oliver from across the street take her. Mom being kind, offered to let Oliver drive her car so he could save his gas (which is slowly creeping up on $2 a gallon around here.) Mom was scheduled to get a shot because she was anemic at discharge from the hospital after the arm thing. They tested her blood and told her she didn’t need the shot after all, woohoo, good news.

When they got back in the car, it wouldn’t start, uh-oh. Mom didn’t have her purse with her Triple A card in it, so she called me. I couldn’t break away, so Donna headed over in the Miata to rescue them! I guess if worse came to worse she could make two trips. 🙂

By the time Donna made it to the doctor’s office Oliver had trouble shot it to a dead battery (I initially thought starter as it had been acting up lately.) Donna’s mom had some jumper cables, so Oliver directed Donna to pull up close to mom’s Civic. A little closer than Donna was comfortable with, but nobody hit anybody. Oliver then told Donna to open the hood, but Donna had never done this, so she was at a loss as to how to do it. With a little direction she finds the release and pops it open. Oliver lifts the hood and starts looking around, but he can’t find the battery. He asks Donna where the battery is, but she is so flustered, all she can think of is, “Maybe because our car is so small it doesn’t need a battery.” As soon as she is finished saying this, she remembers, “Its in the trunk.”

“Its in the trunk?” Oliver replies incredulously. So they close the hood and Donna turns the car around and backs up, under Oliver’s direction, once again closer than she felt comfortable with. When you open the trunk of the Miata the first thing you see is the CD changer on the left hand side. Oliver points to it and asks, “Is that the battery?” Now seriously doubting Oliver’s ability to accomplish this battery jumping task, Donna waves over a passerby. Before the man even makes it up to where everyone is, Oliver has found the battery under the carpet on the right side and has the cables hooked up. The man asks Donna what is up and when she replies, “We are jump starting the car,” looking at the way the cars are aligned, he must really wonder about the mechanical aptitude of this older couple and one woman. About the time he peeks in the Miata’s trunk, Oliver gets the now rejuvenated Civic to start, so our kindly stranger turns and walks away shaking his head. As he retreats, he is heard to mumble, “Its in the trunk?”

Folks, it is in the trunk to help the Miata attain a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution between front and rear.

Mats Make It

They are here. Arrived on the doorstep around 2:00 PM according to my mother-in-law. I slipped them in the car as soon as I got home. Niiice. As a bonus, Donna likes them too. I am now officially done personalizing The Emperor.

The only thing that gets done now will be to add some of theses cool looking black body trim pieces found on the Miata Coupe that go around the bottom of the body – here, here and here – probably never happen though, the coupe is for the Japanese market only, so I doubt my local Mazda dealer will be carrying these items.

Sad Songs Say So Much

Amazing what music evokes certain emotions in people. How a certain song reminds you of something from the past because it was playing in the background at the event. Why do some folks like a song and others dislike it?

Got my SAD CD Mix from Andrea yesterday. I popped it in the CD player in the car. At first I didn’t think it sounded sad at all, it was a nice mix of songs, but I didn’t get the emotion. I think this is the fault in the manner in which I listen to music. Most of the time the voice is treated like an instrument in my head, I don’t hear the words, I hear the tone. The songs on my mix to her sounded sad to me, I know a few of them are about being sad, but possibly not all have anything to do with sad. Because I have done a bit of driving today, I am about halfway through the 3rd listen. I’m starting to catch some of the lyrics and there are some sad tunes there. Nicely done Andrea.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Thanks to Dave Harp I now have exorcised the brushed aluminum interior tidbits and replaced them with black. Dave’s 2001 red base model has an all black interior and it really benefited from the silver vent rings, radio surround, shifter surround and interior door handles. Really nice when that happens, two people made happy at no cost (but a little sweat equity.)

While the dash was apart swapping aluminum for black, I pulled out the passenger airbag switch and popped in a nifty little pocket that goes there in the Japanese Miata. Not sure if anything will ever go in there, but it looks better than the switch. The switch is tucked up under and behind the glove box for now. I’ll have to secure it somehow, maybe tomorrow.

The new muffler is on with only one slight injury to me and none to the car.boo-booThe title of this post has to do with the sound of the new muffler. After all the subjects of Miata.netland had been effervescing over it, it just didn’t live up to my expectations of what it should have sounded like. Right now it doesn’t sound much louder than stock. At idle and cruise it is just as quiet with only a slightly louder tone under acceleration, I guess I expected it to be about two notches up instead of just barely different. So I hate to be the one to point this out, but the Emperor’s new clothes are nothing. (Get it, clothes, muffler?)

The first two Miatas never acquired names like so many of the Miatas out there. It was always “Our Car” or just plain “The Miata.” Occasionally it was “His Car” when it needed something done. The wisdom was you never forced a name on the car, it would always name itself. Well, that never happened. I think somehow that today this new car just got it’s name. Since the beginning with it we have treated it differently because of the color combo and it’s quieter, smoother ride, treated it a little like royalty. Henceforth the new Miata will be known as The Emperor, long may he reign.