Cool Glowing

Yahoo! (the expression, not the service) Sunny and 60 at 4:00PM. We had haircut appointments at 5 and a whole hour to get there. Put the top down and went the loooong way. Had to put some gas in first though, $10.50 at $1.069.

Cool-Glo gages were on the doorstep when we got home. Probably won’t get to install them until Saturday, but I did take them out of the box, hook all the wires up and use a little 12v battery from a garage door opener to check them out. Nice green or blue glow, gonna be cool (hey, maybe that is how they got named.)

After that I’m thinking of Power Neon Cables in blue. (have you noticed I like blue?) There aren’t any links on where to buy the stuff. Wonder if anybody else carries it?

Invisible Customers

On the way home from work my wife and I stopped into the Food Lion on the way home, we needed one item. Once we got what we needed, we headed for the checkout lines. There was one right at the end of the aisle that we were coming down so we went there even though the light wasn’t on. There was a cashier and another employee on the register side and a “customer” on the other. They were all deep in conversation. As we got up to them my wife asked, “Are you open?” Perhaps they didn’t hear so we waited a bit and she asked again. Still no response. We turned around in dismay and headed over to 2 other aisles that had there lights on. The first one had no cashier at all and the other one was busy. We looked back down towards the three people at the one we just left and there was still no motion to move or acknowledge us, it was as if we were invisible. Needless to say we put down the item at the empty cash register and left the store. Plenty of other places to stop.

We ended up at a Bi-Lo near the house and got an over friendly cashier. (Almost as bad.)

Naked Rear

Cold and yucky today. Had to keep the top up all day and even had to burn the headlights on the trip home. Shouldn’t complain, it is after all winter and the folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line are suffering with snow.

Trying to figure out what shall adorn the rear bumper next. It is just too clean back there. I have another of those 5″ diameter Barndoor Fan Club stickers I could put on. I like the idea of something text-like in white on the black rear skirt. In 1999 I had “Not Y2K Compliant” and in 2000 I had a Star Trek Voyager quote, “Survival is Insufficient” and last year was the BDFC sticker. Leaning towards the URL of either the Master’s Miata Club or the Barndoor Fan Club. Heck, maybe I’ll just put this Blog’s URL there. 🙂

Rednecks*

My wife and I went for a short bike ride this afternoon. Stopped at a light waiting to cross and a pick-up truck drove by from left to right on the road we were waiting to cross. As they passed one of the occupants shouted something that I couldn’t make out. My wife on the other hand heard them say, “Get off the f@$%ing road, roads are for cars!” We weren’t in front of him slowing his progress, we hadn’t cut in front of him by crossing the street on the red light, nothing, yet they/he took offense to a couple of adult cyclists on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Sabbath

Sunday is usually a rest day for the Miata, usually eat lunch with friends the 3 of us (Donna, Mom and Brian) pile into Donna’s Mom’s Civic for the trip. Today was not much different, but the Miata did get a late afternoon run to Target, Lowes and CVS for various things. Upper 50’s and the top was still down from Friday’s trip home from work, so it stayed that way. Gotta love the guy who invented the garage. It will be up tomorrow for the ride to work, supposed to be in the mid 30’s then.

Low Level Hum

Here is today’s: The old Sear’s chain drive garage door opener was jerking and spasming while opening and closing the door. It was almost 8 years old and considering it is the main way in and out of the house it gets used at least 4 or 5 times a day it was time for a new one. Replaced it with one of the Genie screw drive ones. Works faster and a lot quieter, but when it is not in use it generates a low level hum. Not loud, not annoying, just a sound that used to not be there when in the garage.

Why does my new $159 thing make a noise? Is it normal? Is it about to explode, showering the car below with shards of white hot metal bits?

My Kingdom For A Screw

The only time I ventured out today, was this morning, for a trip to Home Depot. Cloudy and cool, but not cool enough to put the top up. 🙂

The wrought iron railing on the front porch was loose. The screw on one side of the post was loose and the other was almost tight, but frozen in place. Under the semi-tight one I wedged a piece of metal under it. The loose one needed a new plastic anchor. The hole was just a little too big for the #10 screw in an anchor to keep it tight. Like most guys I have a place in garage with all kinds of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, etc. I have hundreds of screws, but the only #12 screw I had was about a 1/2 inch too long, so off to the store…..