Grocery shopped this morning. Washed the car this afternoon. Bike rode over cross town to watch the balloon glow at dusk.
Didn’t post last night, not because the wireless connection was crap in my room like last week, it was fine because we were home, but because it was such a full day and we got home too late to blog about it.
In the morning Donna and I went on a drive to photograph a half dozen Post Offices. In one I had to use the Emperor’s Mini Me because it was inside a building with no outside indication it was a PO and another that will have to be re shot on another trip that way because there were too many people in lawn chairs in front waiting for a parade.
True to the Postmaster’s letter the Post Office in Hilda was inside a car garage store. There was little section just inside the front door on the left that was set aside for that official function. If you look towards the bottom of the photo right next to a fuel filter is the Matchbox Garnet Red Miata. The other side was the cashier for the garage. Coincidently when we pulled up there was a white 1st Gen Miata just outside one of the garage doors with it’s hood up being worked on.
When we entered the town limits of Ehrhardt, SC the town sign said “Home of the Schuetzenfest.” I wondered to my self what that might be and when they held it. The answer to the second question was answered when we got to the intersection of US601 & SC64. There were people everywhere. The road was not blocked yet, but you could tell that people were staking out spots to watch a parade. The Schuetzenfest was today. How lucky could we be? Well, not so lucky, the Post Office was nowhere near the south end of town where the Google map thought it should be. We parked the car on a parallel street to the parade route and did a walk through. Found the PO and it was 100 feet from the center of all the action. This photo would have to wait for another day. The answer to the second question had to wait until we got home and checked Wikipedia. Leave it to South Carolina to misspell it and homogenize it to look like another “festival” with blow-up kids entertainment thingies, crafts for sale and deep fried dough.
When we got home we had some lunch and I went outside to wash the car for a couple of Miata events for that afternoon & evening. First up was the annual Sno-Cap Drive-In Anniversary hang out in the parking lot. Donna stayed home from this one as it was hot as the dickens and there is little place to hide from it over there, plus it is just a bunch of cars with a bunch of car guys standing around talking about cars. On the way over I found out how it looks to have a waterfall cascade over the windshield header. It looked a little hazy ahead and I didn’t didn’t see any oncoming cars with wipers on, so it couldn’t be rain. Wrong oh. It was a pop up thundershower and it happened so fast I had no time to prepare. Most times if you hit a shower and it is not too heavy the best defense is to roll up the windows and keep moving. This was no one of those times. Traveling at 60 MPH in a deluge just results in there being enough water and force behind it to make it come rolling over the windshield. After about a minute or so it was safe to pull over so I could get the top up, of course I had the boot on which just caused more of a delay in getting every thing closed up. The interior and myself were soaked. Almost turned around and went home, but seeing as I was halfway to the Cap I went anyway. About 2 miles later the storm was gone and the skies were blue so I dropped the top again hoping the sun would help dry everything out. Five miles later when I got to the Drive-In the only way to tell I had gotten drenched was the puddle of water surrounding the shift boot and the damp side of my clothing that I was sitting on. The whole hour and a half I was at the Sno-Cap it didn’t rain a drop, but wouldn’t you know it, a couple miles into the drive home it started to rain again and it kept it up for the rest of the trip. This time I was ready, I put the top up before I even left the Cap’s parking lot.
I had just enough time when I got home to dry off the recently washed car and listen to 4 innings of the FRS whoop up on the Chicago White Sox before heading back out the door for the MMC‘s Bug Splat Rally which I run. We had a good turn out (for our little club) with 9 cars at the restaurant. Eight of which went on the run. The bugs were not so cooperative though, there were a lot of clean Miata noses at the Dairy Queen finish. There were a few large splats, but the biggest bug trophy went to a car that came back with a large mosquito plastered near their turn signal. The highlight for us was the medium M&M Blizzard we split.
This morning we went out and did a 13 mile ride on the tandem, the first 50 feet my butt protested the return of the bicycles seat so soon after Friday’s ride, but I showed it who was the boss by continuing on. In truth that was partly the reason we did go for a ride today, because all we have been doing is short and very infrequent rides the limiting factor in our enjoyment is uncomfortable sitting. Most people who start bike riding as an adult think that the reason their hiney hurts is they need a wider, cushier tractor seat, but what they really need is miles. I don’t know what really happens, but it is like forming callouses on your hands from doing manual labor. If you are sitting correctly on a modern lightly padded skinny seat after a while of riding your sit bones won’t bother you even on very long rides.
After riding we did our weekly grocery shopping and were home and in the house for good by 10:30 AM.
I was pleasantly surprised by Stranger Than Fiction that we watched this afternoon, it would have been perfect if not for the happy ending, I would have given it a 10 out of ten, had it stopped right after the bus accident part.
Almost, we still have to drive over there and capture it, but I have directions to the long lost Hilda Post Office.
After not being able to find the one in Paxville three weeks ago, my more intelligent half suggested that I go ahead and write to the Postmaster of the missing POs and ask where they are. I didn’t figure it would work but what did I have to lose, but a couple 41¢ stamps. Two weeks ago I addressed a short note requesting directions to the Post Offices in Paxville and Hilda. I addressed the envelopes simply Postmaster, name of town and zip code. Inside the envelope was that short note and a SASE. Two days ago I received a reply from Hilda. There was a crude but effective map added to the bottom of my note along with these instructions: “The Hilda Post Office is located inside a car garage store.”
I remember the building and it has no outward sign that it is in fact a Post Office. We may ride over there tomorrow during the morning when they should be open and see what we can see.
Rode the tandem to work today, now 2 Fridays in a row, and about halfway there the headlight started to fade fast. Fortunately it was light enough to see, but unfortunately it was worthless in letting oncoming traffic know we were there. We have had the Night Hawk Dual w/SLA for a half dozen years or so and I afraid the batteries are shot because they no longer stay bright for even the 30 minute commute. They sell replacement batteries for $50 each, but that sounds steep when you can get new, brighter and lighter technology for around twice that. Of course $50 is pretty cost effective if we can get another 6 years out of that investment…
Technically we still have over a month and here in Aiken we have more like two months before the summer like weather is gone, but today was the last week day before school starts. Come Monday morning the commute to work be 20x more aggravating as harried moms or dads drive their progeny to the hallowed halls of learning.
To celebrate the last work day of light traffic roads we rode the tandem to work today.
We’ll still ride the bike to work occasionally because we only have to share the school road with cars for about 30 yards (although it is uphill and seems like 50.) But we will now be alternating our car drive to work. On the weeks we go in early we will drive the more rural route because we are earlier than the school traffic, but the other week we will alter the route to include the four lane US 1 avoiding that traffic nightmare.
Fortunately for us a thunder storm blew through town this afternoon and cooled our temperatures way down into the lower 90’s so we could go out this evening. Because…
…tonight was ASCO Valve Mini Bat Giveaway night and everyone in the company who wanted to go got two free tickets to the game. Getting in was free, but we spent $22 on concessions. The home team Foxhounds were winning over the visiting Charlotte County (FL) Redfish 5-3 when we left in the top of the 9th.
We went for a short bike ride this morning and ended up for breakfast at the same old place. Brought some bagels home for Sunday’s morning meal too.
No, not the 30 foot long diesel powered belching black smoke kind, but the tandem bicycle. The morning wasn’t half bad, but the fog had us riding through a cloud on a couple of occasions. The ride home was very warm, but not unbearable. We made a stop downtown for lunch at the Stoplight Deli. On our Friday afternoons off we like to hit the Deli first thing to beat the crowds, but today because of the time required to change into cycling attire and pedal there instead of drive, we hit it at peak lunch crowd. The line was at least 8 deep at the counter, but the food was fairly quick in arriving and, as always, tasty enough to make us forget the wait.
The four shocks did only take four days to get here from California. I thought I was so smart to have them delivered to work, but the joke was on me as they showed up on the day I didn’t have a car. So when we got home I jumped in the Miata and drove right back where we came from to pick up my two boxes that weighed 30lbs and were too heavy and to large to fit in our panniers.
Donna and I went for a bike ride this morning with the intention of ending up at the New Moon for muffins and/or bagels. We missed timed our arrival so that we had twenty minutes to wait before we opened. Donna almost convinced the guy putting tables on the sidewalk to let us buy our two items to go and leave. Almost. We settled down to wait. People started to arrive. And more people. Then some more. Pretty soon there were over a dozen people waiting by the door for 9:00AM. I felt like I was waiting to buy the latest Harry Pooter Book.
I checked the time on my cyclecomputer and we still had 10 minutes to go. Impatient with the crowd, the annoying gnats circling me and the time left, I told Donna to forget it. We wanted to get home to see today’s mountain stage of the Tour, so we mounted back up on the tandem and started on our way. At the end of the first block towards home I noticed that the time was now just a couple minutes shy of nine. The siren’s call of a Cranberry Pecan Muffin was too great. We circled a couple more blocks and went back. I went inside to get our stuff while Donna waited outside. I was 6 or 7 in line. I crept forward at a glacial pace (probably seemed longer for Donna standing outside in a gnat cloud) and finally got to order. An Everything Bagel for her, the aforementioned Cranberry Pecan Muffin for me and to fortify ourselves for the 3 mile ride home I bought a cookie to share.
Speaking of cookies, we made a double batch of Donna’s Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies this afternoon and I lost count after eating six…