Up for the way to work and down for the way home. Put it back up once we pulled into the garage because it had rained in the afternoon and the top was still quite wet. At least the rain was thoughtful enough to stop long enough for us to take a little roundabout way home before starting up again.
Started down, went up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 354
…that’s a sex machine to all the chicks? Kinda like the first time I heard a muzak version of The Beatles song “Strawberry Fields Forever” in the produce section of my local supermarket, I was stunned into silence tonight while watching my local forecast on the Weather Channel. Not actually Muzaked, not actually Isaac Hayes singing, but there is was, “Shaft.”
No ticking this AM, but I still need to change the oil this weekend. Warmed up to the upper 50s for after work, so the top went down, well at least I thought it was a nice day. After the workout at the gym I made my trip home and for the second time in 2 weeks what should pull up behind me at the first red light, but a new dark gray BMW Z4. This time his top was up. The next three miles went exactly as before, we made our right at the yield sign onto US1 and blasted up to speed, mine 55 and his 65 so that he passed me once again. I just watched him go by, I tried a wave the first time it happened and was ignored, so this time I look at the car and not him. The car actually looks good with the top up too. Now I catch him at our left turn and end up following him up the hill for a mile or so until he turns left and I continue on straight. When I first saw the magazine picture I was horrified, that was one butt ugly car. My feelings were reinforced by quite a few of the car magazine writers as well. But now that I have seen one in person, I almost like it. And if my salary were to jump by 75% next review period I might look at buying one (of course that depends on whether it comes in a nice looking blue.)
Started down, went up, went back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 354
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. My wife and I will celebrate it in our usual fashion, in bed by 10:00 PM and we’ll try and sleep through the fireworks. This is the first place we have lived, and we’ve lived a lot of places, that celebrates the New Year by firing off bottle rockets and noisy-whizzing-spinning things. Every year we exchange gifts with our friends with the 2 kids we baby-sit for. For like the past 4 or 5 years the boys have given me an X-Files calendar. This year I got a page-a-day calendar entitled “The 365 Stupidest Thing Ever Said.” Another year further removed from the death of the series and merchandise for the show is no longer a viable commodity. In another 5 years the re-runs will fade from cable. In ten years, the last stop before oblivion is Nick-At-Late-Night for one run through of all the episodes.
It’s Sunday what did you expect. I went outside early to get the 2 morning newspapers and in the beautiful 60 something degree weather went for a couple miles on rollerblades. Sitting on the stairs in the garage removing my wheeled shoes I couldn’t help but notice that the car was pretty dusty. So I took the California Duster to the dash and then the outside of the car too. Less dusty and it will have to do until a couple more weeks. No drive today, so the Miata will “reward” me with some lifter tapping tomorrow when I start it up for the ride to work. It is time to change the oil and I’ll try and remember to get a filter when I’m over at Rader using the postage meter to mail the Master’s Miata Club’s newsletter on Friday. Which reminds me, I better get busy writing that sucker.
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 352
Yesterday we were in the mall as my wife and her mother were hunting Christmas bargains. I was killing time waiting for them to finish by digging around on the bargain tables in the bookstore, nothing better than buying a hardcover book for less than the price of a paperback. I had some lawyer book, not a Grisham, already picked out when I spotted a Robert B. Paker book. Flipped open the cover and noted it was a Sunny Randall novel, so I took it instead. Wasn’t until I got home and started reading the book that I realized I had already read it. I hate when I do that and I do it a lot. Fortunately my short-term memory is shot from all the dope I smoked as a teenager and while I know I’ve read it, I can’t for the life of me remember how it all shakes out.
Put the Short Shifter Kit in today and it went surprisingly well. The upper boot was not torn so that was a relief, but I’m still running on the old turret oil….maybe at the Club’s Tech Day in February. Lowered the height by about a 1/2″ looks good and if it affected shifting effort I don’t notice and for that matter the shifter throw doesn’t seem any shorter either. Worth the $120? Not really.
While I was in the mood I decided to fix the flashing 3rd tail light. It is a wire that keeps breaking right at the trunk hinge joint. I added a 4 inch piece of wire to the repair which I hope will alleviate the bending at one spot that has doomed this connection from the get go. I also took this opportunity to move the relay back to the end of the trunk next to the light itself. I added the flasher unit when the wire first broke, instead of splicing it back together I just stuck the flasher in between the break. This in retrospect was a bad move, because that made the flasher hang right near a short tunnel to the interior and consequently the click-clicking could be heard when the brake was being applied. Now it is silent once again in the cockpit at stoplights.
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 352