Going To The Gap

Our little Miata Club is going to the Gap this weekend and according to the Tail of the Dragon we won’t be alone, there are a couple of biker groups and about 60 Honda S2000s coming. Plus we know the Windy City Miata Club will be there as well.

After work I finished most of the preparation for the trip. New plug wires. Fresh oil & filter. Rotated the tires. Bottle of Techron. Tomorrow, if I have time, I’ll wash the car.

While I was at it I took off the Alley Gator Teeth. (That is my picture at the bottom of the page.) Saw a picture of my car from a couple of years ago with out the teeth and thought I might go with just the gums showing for a while….

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233

Bellsouth

Got home yesterday from work and the “line” was blinking meaning I was disconnected from the net. Happens. I rebooted and it was still blinking. Checked the phone and there was no dial tone. I walked across the street to use a neighbor’s phone to call it in. (I know I am the last man in America without a cell phone.) the woman informs me that the service techs only work from 8 AM until 6 PM (it is 6:30.) I guess the phone isn’t considered essential anymore (cell phones?) My mother-in-law lets in the tech today and he spends an hour and a half solving the problem and as he leaves he says, “The charges will be on your next bill.” Does he tell her what he did? Nope. Does he leave a copy of the work order? Nope. I tried to call the help line again this evening and got tired of waiting. I never signed anything agreeing to any work being performed, neither did she. I may just refuse to pay anything.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Finished up the Stone Guard install. Will take a daytime picture tomorrow to complete the picture series, then I’ll caption the photos and upload them. I have to judge the Barndoor Fan Club photo contest and announce the winners. Busy, busy, busy.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233

A Drive In The Dark

Put it up for last Friday’s rainy day and it has been up all week (and in the garage) until tonite. We put it down for a drive in the dark and a quick stop at the store for some breakfast essentials as the fridge is pretty bare before the weekly shopping excursion on Sunday. The Taurus was a nice car for the big trip but once again it is good to be back in a Miata. From last Friday at around 5:00 PM until today at around 5:00 PM we put 2231 miles on the rent-a-car and 120 more on the Civic. Today was another long one too, Lexington, VA back to Aiken, SC, approximately 400 miles. Now all I have to do is find the time to type in my trip notes for the past week, type in the last 8 days worth of rants, and get the photos of the Stone Guards up.

Where in the heck is Fiona Ritchie?

Back from vacation and went to listen to my favorite Celtic tunes on The Thistle & Shamrock on Georgia Public Radio and it wasn’t there. Every Saturday for the past couple of years I’ve been listening in at 8:00 PM for music from the Emerald Isle and its neighbors. The folks at GPR have replaced the show with something called “Green Island Radio Show.” It’s still celtic music, but it is hosted by some guy. I’m really going to miss Fiona’s lovely voice….Hey, wait a minute this really should be a rave. I just remembered that I could always listen to the same show again on Sundays at 6:00 PM over on the South Carolina Educational Radio Network and they are still going to be broadcasting T & S! Now I get 2 shows of Celtic music. Just going to have to make an effort to catch the Sunday show. Before if I missed the Saturday show I knew I could catch it Sunday, but now the pressure will be on.

Let’s Bomb Detroit

Picking a Rant subject about politics & current events is easy, just watch the news or read the paper. I usually do neither, so my rants usually come from other aspects of my pitiful life. Today while traveling in the car I finished my last trashy mystery novel and with nothing else to read I glanced at the Roanoke Times we had. There was this story about 4 terrorists who were living in Detroit, MI. Holy Crap! Something needs to be done about this. Michigan is harboring terrorists. Does George Bush & company know of this? He wants to invade Iraq for similar reasons, maybe we should practice first on someplace a little closer, let’s bomb Detroit. I’m sure Illinois, Indiana or Ohio would give us permission to fly over them on the way….

The Taurus Diaries

Lexington Park, MD to Lexington, VA. Today was a beautiful back-road jaunt through the middle of Virginia. Made a stop in Richmond to visit a cousin of Donna’s. We had a couple of hours to kill before we could get together so we visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Nice place to visit and it was in very good shape considering the drought that central Virginia is in the middle of. After lunch with cousin Suzy & her daughter we finished the day’s journey by heading west on US 60, a very straight road with lots of ups and downs until you hit the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then it winds it way to the top where it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway and then winds itself right back down into the Lexington area. The Taurus didn’t do to bad on the twisty roads, a set of higher performance tires and I’m sure we could have given some of today’s “sports” cars a good run.

That night I went to my second high school football game ever. The last one was almost 29 years ago while in my senior year of New Britain High School. Some friends and I snuck into the Thanksgiving Day game with our big cross-town rivals, Pulaski High. Tonight I “snuck” into the game between cross-county rivals, Rockbridge County High School and Parry McCluer High School. Stuart is the RCHS Marching Band Drum Major and tonight was his first football game in that capacity. Mom Sally is the president of the Band Booster Club, so she asked us to come along and help out. We followed the tractor pulling the trailer of band equipment down the road into the field to keep stuff from falling off. We just waved at the guy guarding the gate as we walked on by. Later that night I thanked Sally for helping fulfill a life-long dream of being able to get backstage somewhere by just saying, “I’m with the band.”