Only Because I Washed It

The top cycled, but only because I washed it. Then I waxed the car too. After the clean-up I went out and bought some new windshield wipers. I remembered while windexing all the widows that the last time it rained I needed wipers, so I bought them before my usual reminder, a streaky windshield the next rain. Feeling real expansive, I also bought a can of semi-gloss black to respray the wiper arms and a roll of masking tape so I could use the same paint on the two rocker panels to touch them up.

At lunch we drove in the MSV out to a farm in the county to see our neighbor girl do a show jumping competition.

Mid-afternoon it was over to North Augusta where we had a nice turn out of Miatas for the Sno-Cap Anniversary, but we were outnumbered by Mustangs.

We had just an hour after returning from there before we went two streets over to “baby-sit” our friends kids. Time for bed as it is up at 6:30 for an early bike ride. Yawn. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I will have time to hunt up something broken for Photo Friday.

Purchased Today: $25.38
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1166.04
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

Dead Bugs & Fat Families

We went out after dark and drove one of our favorite 25 mile loops into the less populated sections of the county. Smashed about 1,000 bugs onto the front of the Miata. That is OK as tomorrow it will get a wash. Later in the day we are headed over to North Augusta to help the Sno-Cap Drive In celebrate their 39th anniversary, throughout the day various local Car Clubs hang out for an allotted time. We will be sharing the lot with the Mustang Club. There will be free drinks and food samples served by middle and high school cheerleaders, plus games, contests and trivia. Pleasant way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.

At the end of our drive was a stop at Krogers for the essentials for breakfast tomorrow. Eggs, bacon, bananas, apples and a cantaloupe. As we were walking in, we had the misfortune of following in a fat family of three, mom, teenaged daughter and a pre-teen. The “littlest” was 4′-6″ and 150 pounds. The teenager was maybe 5-8 and 175. Mom was a little shorter than the teen and weighed more, maybe 200 lbs. The two daughters were busy calling each other names. The mother was telling them to stop it and they just ignored her. They went left and we went right. Of course we ran into them again near the eggs. The teenaged daughter was standing there swinging the gallon of milk she had in her hand not paying attention to anything. We had to shift over to another aisle to get by. The two girls were still bickering and the mom was still shushing them. We made it to the cashier and guess who got in line right behind us? Right. After listening to them for about 30 seconds we left that line even thought we were next and went 3 lines over.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

It’s Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

This is almost a week late too. When we went into the Wal-Mart in Dahlonega last Saturday night we entered through the garden section and much to our horror they already had one aisle set up with Christmas stuff.

This easily trumps the Thanksgiving decorations we saw at a Michael’s craft store two weeks ago.

Shouldn’t I Be Grandfathered In

There is a stretch of US 1 & 78 that runs between Aiken and Augusta that they recently lowered the speed limit on from 55 MPH to 45. Myself, being a law abiding citizen, I slow down to 50 from 60 when I reach here. No one else does, they just keep barreling along. You can’t miss the signs, there are even “Reduced Speed Ahead” signs wih two orange flags popping out the top to warn you. Still no one slows down. What will they tell the cop? “Well, I used to drive 60 MPH through here before, shouldn’t I get grandfathered into being able to still go 60?”

Getting Close

After this weekend’s trip and tonight’s little drive in the dark the Miata’s mileage stands at 119,825. At 120k you are supposed to change the timing belt, a $400-$500 job. Now the rubber belt in my car is the same rubber belt that are installed on cars sold in California, but in California you don’t have to change the belt but every 100,000 miles. This is because by California law any emissions part must be warranted for 100k. So, should I wait and do the belt when I hit 160 because I did change it at 60,000 miles like Mazda says I should or should I spent the money now and get it done like a good boy? For reference, the Miata is a non-interference engine (meaning if the belt does break, nothing bad happens.)

And what would happen if I moved to California?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

Extra Tire

My wife and I went for a bike ride this evening (in the stinking hot, humid weather.) Our road bikes hang by their wheels upside down from hooks in the garage ceiling. To take them down I have to grab the handle bar with my left hand and the seat stay with my right, lift a little to clear the hook and then rotate the bike to the right side up position and land the wheels on the ground. Today as I rotated my bike down it suddenly stopped short about 2 feet of the ground. The back tire had landed on the extra Toyo tire that is sitting there waiting for Mr. FedEx to come get it, that was 2 weeks ago. I think the waiting period is over, I’m going to try and sell this tire as the folks at Onlinetires.com sure ain’t missing it.

There Is Such A Thing As A Free Dinner

Well, actually, pay me $25 to eat dinner. Donna would rather I didn’t share this with you and I don’t think it is my most shining moment either, but it happened, so here goes:

Friday night in Dahlonega, GA we went to our favorite place in town, Caruso’s. It is right on the square and has some of the best pizza we know. We got a new waiter, probably just back in school at the local college, that wasn’t the swiftest antelope in the heard. He checked in one to many times to see if our food was OK (which is as bad, if not worse than, not checking at all.) But then we had to call him over to ask for the check. Once he brought the check for $12.50 he never reappeared. We both had time to visit the restroom.

I went second and as I was heading back to the table, I saw our waiter leave the dining room. I thought, good, he’s got the check. Donna told me he had just walked on by totally ignoring her and the $20 bill in the tray. Tired of waiting we headed towards the entrance to the kitchen where we could see behind the curtain, the cash register and another waitress doing a check. When she came out, she asked us what we wanted. I replied, “To pay our bill.” She looked at it and said, “Oh that’s Ralph’s,” and ducked back into the kitchen. While we stood there waiting a different waitress appeared and asked what we wanted. Pointed back where she came from and repeated, “Pay our bill.” Waitress number one reappears and says, “He’ll be right with you.”

When Ralph finally appeared he handed me the tray back with my change and walked off. No sorry you had to wait, nothing. I walked back to our table to leave him a couple bucks tip anyway. When I got there I noticed that he had placed my $7.50 in change right over the top of the ticket and my original twenty. The little devil on my shoulder said, “Take it!” – so I did, it and the five.