7500 Mile Service

Today was the 7500 mile check up on the Miata (done at 8010.) An oil change and a tire rotation basically. I had a couple of things I want them to address while we were in there too. The trunk was creaking when you opened and closed it, there were a couple of missing plastic fasteners on the splash guard on the right front wheel well and the driver’s side top latch was looser than the passenger’s side.

We have always been treated right personally by the folks there. We even got a loaner car to do some shopping when the service was taking longer than expected. I’m not so sure about the car. When we got back in the car to drive away there was this almost overpowering smell of solvent or cleaner. We opened the windows the first chance we got and that helped a lot. By the time we got home I kind of figured that it was lube for the trunk hinges. The car is in the garage with the trunk open now hoping the lube will be all dry and the smell gone by morning.

Past experience with tire changing at any place other than my driveway requires checking the lug nut torque. Sure enough, the lugs were replaced using an impact wrench with out any sort of torque limiter. I had to use a 2′ long breaker bar to loosen them up (and on a couple of them I feared for the longevity of the breaker bar.) Good thing I didn’t get a flat on the way home, I’d have never gotten the wheel off with the puny lug wrench in the trunk.

And because tomorrow is a Master’s Miata Club’s TSD Rally, I washed off the car to make it pretty.

8000 Miles

Turned over 8000 miles this morning on the way to work. I have the scheduled 7500 mile check up for this Friday. I’m not too worried about being over mileage, I changed the oil in the car a couple of hundred miles after I got it and then again close to the half-way point.

It’s All My Fault

or I’m a Jinx Part II

Back in October 2003 in Episode I I single handedly knocked the Red Sox out of a sure World Series berth. This year I started earlier in the season. I had the bright idea that I could relive the joys of my youth by listening to the radio broadcasts of the Red Sox games (but on the internet this time.) When I signed up the Bosox were 4 games ahead of the Yankees in the standings, now after just 2-1/2 weeks they are about to be just a 1/2 game ahead. Real disappointing as they usually wait until late June to fall from first to behind their arch-rivals, but now it looks a lot like it will happen in early May…

Pop Up Ads

On the newspaper?!? One day last week when I opened my newspaper there was a 3″ x 3″ low tack glossy sticky note announcing the newspaper’s new program about paying your bill online. I thought nothing of it until today when there was another on the front of the paper. This one was for a Tobacco Use Prevention Program touting giving up smoking for Mother’s day as a gift. OK that is a public service announcement, but I bet commercials are definitely next.

On a quasi-related note, I saw something tonight that Major League Baseball has agreed to place a diamond shaped ad for the movie “Spiderman II” on all the bases, plus in the on deck circles, on a certain weekend in June. Not that ads and sporting events have never gotten together before, but this just seems a bit much to me.

Don’t Need No Reality TV

Never caught the “Reality TV” bug. But I do get my own version of it via the internet – blogs. You get a glimpse into the personal lives of people all over the world. Back in the Blogger days I would always check a few of the recently updated ones from the front page, then they had this thing called Next Blog that would send you a random site. The latest thing I stumbled on uses Google technology and the fact that everybody has a digital camera and posts their pictures on the net. Random Personal Picture Finder

Miata Pickup

I swear I’ve mentioned this before, but can’t find the post…the Miata is as good as a pickup on a sunny day. Finally finished painting the bedroom this morning, so to finish off the room we decided we needed a new area rug. Off to Home Depot, then to Lowes, where we found something that fit what we were looking for: 8’x10′, mostly tan with a hint of maroon & cheap. Put the rolled up carpet into the passenger’s footwell, poked it out between the seats while resting on the windblocker. Good thing it is a short trip, that flapping plastic is kind of annoying.

Clocks

Don’t hate me, OK? I usually listen to Radio Paradise while sitting in front of the computer and just now they played “Clocks” by Coldplay. I love that song.