Busy Day

We got up about the same time as our usual workday. Started off by having a quick breakfast snack and then finished loading the trunk. We didn’t have room for the plastic trash bags or work gloves so they were piled on behind the seats. We had about a half dozen or more pictures to finish taking for the Drive By Photo Contest.

After the last shot was taken, we had just enough time to get to Best Bagels to meet the Bicycle Club for real breakfast and then pick-up trash for our Adopt-A-Highway duties.

Four blocks and four bags of trash later we zipped home to change and then make a bee-line to the SC Welcome Center to meet the Miata Club to lead them to a Mennonite restaurant, Miller’s Breadbasket, in Blackville, SC. Six cars followed Donna and I on mostly back roads to get to our destination. Another car was waiting on us there, as well as about 2 dozen Harleys. Fortunately they we about finishing up, so our wait wasn’t too long and the big table in the back was free for the 16 of us.

Donna and I continued east to Hilton Head and everyone else headed west to go back home. When we arrived we unpacked the car and headed right back out to find a place for dinner. The choices on the island are staggering, but we just went to a Wendys to get a salad as we will still somewhat full from our big lunch. We had just enough time after eating to get in a short beach walk before the sunset. We were in bed not too long after.

Purchased Today: $14.25 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1727.12
Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 232

That Sucka Is Full

The car is packed and nearly ready to go. Tomorrow we head to Hilton Head Island for 6 six days of fun at the beach. Would have been 8, but a slight miscalculation of our vacation time requires us to go back to work next Friday, oops. We have taken 2 week vacations and taken less. I think the addition to our travel baggage this time is the DVD player. It is a full size unit so it eats up pretty much all of the small well in the center of the trunk and it has to come as the condo only has a VCR and all our movies are on DVD.

Called my buddies at Rspeed this morning and ordered up 1 quart of Redline 75w90 synthetic oil for the differential and 2 quarts of Redline MTL synthetic for the transmission. I’ll swap out these fluids next weekend with a little help from a friend. That should complete the 120k mileage maintenance.

Purchased Today: $38.95
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1712.87
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 229

Oowww! Part II

Tonight we took a little evening drive get some ice cream and then refuel the car as well. While driving along on Powderhouse Road minding our own business, Donna suddenly goes, “Ooww!” She got bopped on the top of her head by something small and solid. Best we can figure out is a squirrel in one of trees we were passing under must have dropped his or her acorn. Now there is speculation as to whether it was on purpose or not, after all we did manage to run a squirrel over in North Carolina this past weekend….

Purchased Today: $14.75 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1674.92
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 229

Oowww!

While eating my breakfast cereal this morning I noticed some pain when chewing on the back left. There was also sensitivity to the cold milk.

At 8:30 when the dentist’s office opened for business I gave them a call to see if they could squeeze me in. No problem the receptionist said, come on down. When I got there, I was called right back to the drill and fill office and settled into the chair by Jane the dentist’s assistant. Seems Dr. Boykin is on vacation this week so it was easy to get in, because there were no patients around. Jane took an x-ray and while we waited for it to develop, she took some pictures with this fancy gizmo from Sony. She held my mouth open with one hand and guided the camera into position by watching the monitor. This left no hands free to click on the take picture button on the remote. She handed it to me and told me to click the button when she said so.

When the doctor gets back next week he’ll check it out and make some recommendations. The least of which Jane says will be a crown. Yikes, there goes several hundred dollars. To add insult to financial injury, Jane tells me, “Not to worry, cracked teeth like that are common in men my age and easily fixable.” *my age, sigh*

Curse the Curse

Growing up in Connecticut only 50 miles from NYC you would think that when it comes to baseball I would be a Yankees fan, but no, I hate the Yankees. My mom is from Maine and my dad is from Massachusetts so I came by my affliction honestly, my parents were Red Sox fans. Every year I think this is the year. And recently they have actually been playing great ball and been in first place…for a while, but true to tradition they fade at the end. Sometimes still making the playoffs, but always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the end. This year I’m afraid will be no different.

I don’t get HBO, but when we were in Robbinsville this weekend the hotel we were in did. I saw a promo for an up coming show that I just had to see, The Curse Of The Bambino. It premiered last night and I got a co-worker to tape it for me.

Just finished watching it. Very nicely done. At times painful when they show some of those infamous moments that seem to bring life to the curse, Bucky Fucking Dent’s homer, Bill Buckner’s misplay, etc. And at others moving, interviews with famous and not famous New Englanders explaining their love of the Sox. Made me homesick, but also made me think that they still have time to blow their current 2-1/2 game wild card lead and end up out of the playoffs this year. Or maybe this is the year….the curse is finally lifted.

Oh, You Cynical You

Drove the Miata home tonight and the timing belt transplant surgery seems a success. They had me worried for a minute there too. When I called at 3:30 to see if it was ready, I got a “Let me call you back.” When I didn’t get a call back in about 45 minutes, I called back again. This time I got a “I’ll check with the technician, hold on.” When the service advisor returned she said, it’ll be ready before the end of the day (their day or 6:00 PM.) We got there at 5:30 and the paperwork was just arriving at the cashier as we were.

This is the Master’s Miata Club sponsoring dealer so club members get 20% off on parts. I had not mentioned this when I dropped the car off for service for fear that they would jack up the list price of the parts on the invoice and then “give” me 20% off. I know, very cynical.

The cashier hands me the invoice it says $652.80, I slap my forehead and say, “I forgot to mention I’m in the Miata Club and I should get 20% off the parts.” No problem the invoice goes through the window into the parts area for recalculation. Now the invoice says $584.56, which is still higher than expected. Then I notice that the labor charge is $432, not the $360 is was quoted on the phone last week. A call is put into Kellie the service advisor. She arrives and I tell her that the price is higher than I was quoted. She says, “Let me check” and wanders off. Comes back a few minutes later and says that they must have charged me for an extra hour labor by mistake, the charge should be $360. Invoice is adjusted again and this time it comes to $514.58, which I pay.

Now the cynical side of me is wondering was the extra hour really a mistake. Or is it routinely added on to bills in that price range hoping that the customer won’t notice and just pay it?

Purchased Today: $514.58
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1663.17
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 229

The Return Of Procrastination Man

I will be on vacation next week and away from the PC so there will be no blogging, but more importantly it is the week I would normally be doing the Master’s Miata Club’s newsletter. That means that I need to do it this week, because I have to mail out the newsletter with the October meeting location before I go away. Because when I get back it will be too late. I should mail it out no later than Friday, which means I had better get busy, but instead I sit here blogging and reading other blogs. I’ll probably go ahead and update the Club’s web page with photos from this weekend’s event while I’m in full delay mode. No sense hurrying when I’ll have all day Thursday to do it. 🙂