Cars

Of All The Gin Joints…

…in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

The Master’s Miata Club was “hosting” a cruise in at the Sno Cap Drive-In in North Augusta tonight. We had about 8 of our cars and a smattering of other cars in attendance. About halfway through the evening, in pulled a blue Miata that wasn’t a club member. Hey, wait a minute, that car looks familiar. Sure enough, it was our old car. I went over and said hello to the new owner Shannon Vick and her son. She and he were in North Augusta and he suggested going to the Sno Cap for something to eat. They had no clue that we would be there. Boy that sure is a pretty car.

You must remember this;
A car is still a car,
A sigh is just a sigh ?
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

Mmm…Pain Pills

Had a minor outpatient procedure done at the hospital today. After driving myself there, Donna had to drive me home and as a special treat she put the top down for me. I love driving the Miata, but it sure was fun over in the right seat too. You get to see so much more and until they start making those George Jetson bubble roof cars you poor suckers in your SUVs will have to lead much shallower lives.

With apologies to Brian Damage:
[x] I’ve been banded
[ ] I’ve not been banded

I hope it doesn’t take three weeks to recover again, but I know that is wishful thinking because I am just a slow healer.

Lemonade

On the way home this afternoon when we got to the exit of the parking lot at work, Donna said, “Go left.” As we normally go right, that phrase meant, let’s take the long way home. This is a great stress reliever for both of us, I like the drive and Donna likes the ride.

I proceeded to wind my way home via some of our usual back roads. It was a warm afternoon, but it felt good to be out driving around. The dogwoods are blooming along with the azaleas and everything that is not flowering is turning green. Even though there were a few more cars on our route than usual they didn’t diminish our enjoyment. About 3 miles from home on a relatively lightly trafficed road we passed a little girl selling lemonade along the side of the road. We looked at her as she looked at us as we went by.

It is spring break for the local schools this week and both Donna and I envisioned this little girl telling her mom she was bored and her mom saying, “Why don’t you go sell lemonade out in front of the house,” in an effort to keep her entertained and get her out of mom’s hair.

We got about 200 yards down the road and Donna said, “Do you have anything smaller than that ten?” I pulled out my wallet and sure enough there was a single in there too. We turned around in a driveway a little further along and headed back. The lemonade was 50 cents a glass, so we bought two. We drank it right there at the side of the road and chatted with her a bit. It was from a mix and not too cold, but it did hit spot. When finished we turned around in her driveway and drove off with a wave and toot of the horn.

I think we kind of made her day, I know she made ours.

Hey Pull Over

None of these events are recent, but an ambulance sighting tonight made me think of this.

I’m not sure how many other places do this, but when we moved to Aiken, South Carolina it was the first time I’d ever seen it. People pull off the side of the road if a funeral procession of autos passes by. Even on the other side of a 4 lane divided highway. The first few times I encountered this phenomenon I just kept on driving. Boy, did I get some angry looks and an occasional ugly gesture. Sometimes I have stopped, but mostly because I’ve been trapped by cars half pulling over, usually I just keep on driving.

But for what ever reason, these same people are loathe to pull over for an ambulance. If they are traveling in the opposite direction from the ambulance they won’t even slide over in their lane any. If they are traveling in the same direction on a four lane road they might pull over out of the way if it isn’t too inconvenient. I have been passed and nearly rear ended by people who are wondering why I’m slowing down or pulling over.

Go figure.

I Forgot To Mention

One other “Mod” I did on Saturday was to stop the buzz when you leave the key in the ignition and open the door, etc. It was a simple enough procedure and everything you need to know can be found right here – 1999 Miata Key “Buzzer” Disconnect.

While I was swapping interior bits with Dave I asked if he would like me to disconnect his too. He said sure and I went ahead and did it, but I was thrown for a small loop when I located the wiring harness to disconnect it. The instructions on the page said locate the connector with two wires coming out, he didn’t have one with just two. I went back and looked at what I disconnected on my car and then matched up connectors to one on his car. If you look carefully at the bottom photo at the above link you can see the connector will hold 4 wires, but it only has two in it, that is the way mine is. Dave’s had 4 wires coming out of it. The only differences in our cars is that his is an automatic transmission, so we figured the other two wires must have something to do with that. When disconnected, his buzzer stopped and all other functions seemed to work as before. I wonder what those extra wires might be for?

It’s Where?

Yesterday afternoon Donna’s mom had a doctors appointment. She still can’t drive because of the recent surgery on her left arm, so she had Oliver from across the street take her. Mom being kind, offered to let Oliver drive her car so he could save his gas (which is slowly creeping up on $2 a gallon around here.) Mom was scheduled to get a shot because she was anemic at discharge from the hospital after the arm thing. They tested her blood and told her she didn’t need the shot after all, woohoo, good news.

When they got back in the car, it wouldn’t start, uh-oh. Mom didn’t have her purse with her Triple A card in it, so she called me. I couldn’t break away, so Donna headed over in the Miata to rescue them! I guess if worse came to worse she could make two trips. 🙂

By the time Donna made it to the doctor’s office Oliver had trouble shot it to a dead battery (I initially thought starter as it had been acting up lately.) Donna’s mom had some jumper cables, so Oliver directed Donna to pull up close to mom’s Civic. A little closer than Donna was comfortable with, but nobody hit anybody. Oliver then told Donna to open the hood, but Donna had never done this, so she was at a loss as to how to do it. With a little direction she finds the release and pops it open. Oliver lifts the hood and starts looking around, but he can’t find the battery. He asks Donna where the battery is, but she is so flustered, all she can think of is, “Maybe because our car is so small it doesn’t need a battery.” As soon as she is finished saying this, she remembers, “Its in the trunk.”

“Its in the trunk?” Oliver replies incredulously. So they close the hood and Donna turns the car around and backs up, under Oliver’s direction, once again closer than she felt comfortable with. When you open the trunk of the Miata the first thing you see is the CD changer on the left hand side. Oliver points to it and asks, “Is that the battery?” Now seriously doubting Oliver’s ability to accomplish this battery jumping task, Donna waves over a passerby. Before the man even makes it up to where everyone is, Oliver has found the battery under the carpet on the right side and has the cables hooked up. The man asks Donna what is up and when she replies, “We are jump starting the car,” looking at the way the cars are aligned, he must really wonder about the mechanical aptitude of this older couple and one woman. About the time he peeks in the Miata’s trunk, Oliver gets the now rejuvenated Civic to start, so our kindly stranger turns and walks away shaking his head. As he retreats, he is heard to mumble, “Its in the trunk?”

Folks, it is in the trunk to help the Miata attain a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution between front and rear.

I Crack Me Up

This last week’s challenge for PhotoFriday was Abstract. After much brainstorming I went out and took a closeup shot of one of the windshield washer nozzles of the Miata.

At the end I asked people to guess what they thought it was. Sure enough, the first person got it right. So I told him so.

The next commenter used humor, “No, he’s the little robot guy that makes your blinkers work. 🙂 ” So I replied in kind, “You are absolutely right. There are two on every car sold and when one falls off or fails prematurely, the remaining one mistakenly thinks he has to work twice as hard, which is why you sometimes see cars with their blinkers flashing twice as fast as normal. Poor thing, he really doesn’t have to double his effort, as everyone knows, your blinkers are wired in parallel, not series. He soon dies of overwork and fails completely, which is why you see a lot of cars not using blinkers at all. It is not inconsideration, merely both their little robot guys are broken.”Hee, hee, hee.