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. 🙂

Clark for President

Just found out who I’m voting for in the next Presidential election…retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark. That is if he gets the Democratic nomination. And here is why: read the first line in the 7th from the last paragraph of this article. (the article is long gone, but it mentioned he owned a Miata)

The Miata is spending the night at a sleep-over. It is parked behind Rader Mazda in Augusta, awaiting a timing belt/water pump transplant surgery. Tune in tomorrow to see the money spent figure increase by 50%.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1148.59
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 228

Word Scambler Thing

Sitll oeinptarg on the psot-gap ehpuoira.

Ntohnig btroehed me at all tdaoy. Eevn wehn my bsos ddeeicd taht I sulohd go aeahd and snped the day rintceearg a carht for an oictapl cpaotmraor ienstad of sennpidg $100 and buy a new one. Deosn’t he rebmeemr waht my hluory rtae is? The one I mkae wlil look etlaxcy lkie the pchrasued one, but wlil lsat nworhee naer as lnog. Mnie wlil be pretnid on a lewor qliauty flim on our ikenjt ptletor as oposped to the myalr wtih watreoporf ink and pttoirecve flim of the psorislfanoely preducod one.

Wrod Sbmelcrar Tnhig

Trip Down

Made it back home about 2:30 this afternoon. We were going to go home 19/74 to Asheville then I-26, but when I got to the 28 south sign I couldn’t resist. Several more doses of twisty road awaited. Made it all the way to the outskirts of Franklin before I had to slow for some one in front of me. Between Franklin and Highlands there was no one in front of me until, wouldn’t you know it, right where the sign warning truckers of the steep grades and 20 MPH curves ahead. Old couple in a small car with Florida tags. I got right behind them and pushed for a bit until Donna told me to back off I was scaring her. 1/2 mile later when I could see around the next couple esses I dropped into first and blasted by, all the while Donna screamed at me (I hadn’t asked permission.) The yelling was worth it though, as I would have gone crazy behind them at 20 MPH for the next 9 miles.

We decided to follow the route up in reverse to come home. Good plan, but the SC187 south sign was missing because of construction and we were 8 miles past it before we realized. We backtracked rather than drive through Anderson. The sign was missing coming from that direction too, but luckily I recognized the intersection.

We got to McCormick about 12:30 and the only place to eat is that Hardees we waited for the Breitingers at. Donna said no! Let’s go to Hickory Knob State Park, they have a lodge and restaurant. It turned out to be a trip in itself, the entrance to the park was 10 miles west of town and the lodge must have been another 5 miles into the park. When we entered the huge dining room it was almost empty and we should have taken it as a sign. The only thing they offered was a buffet for $7.95, no menu. The salad bar was fair and the soup was OK. Fatty fried chicken, green beans cooked with fatback, something they called dressing, rice and gravy were your dining “pleasure.”. Pretty much the worst food we have had in recent memory, but at least they had soup spoons.

Purchased Today: $13.00 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1161.59
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 224

The Dragon

We retired early yesterday because we wanted to get up early today and beat the weekend traffic to the gap. Worked too. We left the hotel a little after 7, so we got to the official start of the dragon at about 7:25. All the motorcyclists were still in their tents at the Crossroads of Time when we flew past. Didn’t really keep track, but I figure we made 7 of the 11 miles unimpeded before we had to slow when we caught up to a couple of pickups. While we were at the gravel lot on the other end the only vehicle that went by was truck loaded with house trusses. We knew he would take a while so we waited about 15 minutes before starting out. We sailed up the hill and took another break at the dam overlook. While we were there a Suburban went by, so we waited another 20 minutes or so. When we did leave, we made it all the way back to the NC state line before we caught the Suburban or about 10 miles at speed. The CoT was open when we got back and some of the cyclists were stirring. We went inside and looked at the T-shirts and stickers and such and as we shopped John noticed out the window a semi with a wide load escort go by headed into the gap. We all breathed sigh of relief that we were already through. Here are some photos of trucks in the gap on the Tail of the Dragon site.

From there we headed to the corn maze in Andrews. I have to admit it was more fun than I thought. It was real study in human nature. The guys all huddled around our maps trying to keep track of where we were and we ended up just following Karen, she used “women’s intuition” and led us right out.

We were scheduled to meet the Battles at a restaurant in Telico Plains at 1:00 PM. Because there aren’t many ways to get there we thought for sure it would take too long for us to get there from where we were and we would miss them. Made good time and arrived at Cardin’s about 1:15. As we pulled into the lot, John and Barbara came in from the other direction. The setting is magnificent and the food is good, but service is lacking and what there is, is slow. Donna had to eat her soup with a teaspoon, our waitress came back after rechecking and said she couldn’t find any soup spoons. My and John Haff’s sweet potato fries were cold (at least they took the price of them off the check.) Next year we’ll have to find an alternative lunch location.

After lunch we all drove together back to Robbinsville along the Cherohala Skyway. We did the 10 mile side trip to ogle the Bald River Falls and because of that we missed the 5:00 PM closing of a pottery shop that Karen had requested a visit to on the other side of the pass. To make up for it, we visited a pottery place in Robbinsville, probably not as nice, but it was the best we could come up with.

By now it was after 5:00 PM and after covering more than 200 mountain miles since 7:00 PM, I was toast. Kurt and John hadn’t enough, so they headed off to run through the dragon one more time.

Purchased Today: $12.00 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1148.59
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 222