Cars

Just A Little Over Sensitive?

Got a response from my arbiter of taste. Seems he now thinks he was hasty. I think so too, but that does mean he isn’t right. There probably are folks who might find those images distasteful, but I’m sure they are very few and very far between.

Hey Brian, I came on strong. I apologize for that, and I really did mean what I said about best intentions. I realized later that I probably just took it the wrong way, I really came off pretty defensivly right off the bat. And, I did mean what I said about liking those cars too! I actually used to have a datsun Z with the barndoor headlights, had to sell it for school.. Hopefully some day I’ll get another. Anyway, my apologies. Take Care.

Getting Close

After this weekend’s trip and tonight’s little drive in the dark the Miata’s mileage stands at 119,825. At 120k you are supposed to change the timing belt, a $400-$500 job. Now the rubber belt in my car is the same rubber belt that are installed on cars sold in California, but in California you don’t have to change the belt but every 100,000 miles. This is because by California law any emissions part must be warranted for 100k. So, should I wait and do the belt when I hit 160 because I did change it at 60,000 miles like Mazda says I should or should I spent the money now and get it done like a good boy? For reference, the Miata is a non-interference engine (meaning if the belt does break, nothing bad happens.)

And what would happen if I moved to California?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

Corn Maze

After our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, mmm…cinnamon rolls, it was off for the drive to Robbinsville for our reconnaissance mission.

First stop was in Andrews, NC for a peek at our first possible fun thing to do, a corn maze. After spending about 15 minutes talking with the manager that runs the thing, Donna remains excited, while I am now convinced that it will be not be and might possibly be too much like work to find our way through. As an option for the folks in our group who may not be able to do the walking, the field covers 7 acres and the maze has a total of 3 miles of paths, there is an indoor flea market a mile or so down the street.

Next we drove the final 25 miles to Robbinsville to check for possible restaurants. We had heard from another Club member that there have been the addition of Mexican and Chinese places to dine. One in which we were interested in is apparently not open for lunch and the persons inside would not even come to the door to give a menu after a couple of knocks on the glass. We may still try them out when we are there.

After a quick tour of town we headed north for a dragon run. I decided to turn around about 5 miles from reaching the goal as I was number 6 in line of minivans, pickups and SUVs that I just knew would make the trip through the dragon agony. Besides there were plenty of e-ticket roads that we had already driven and would drive this weekend. Definitely need to hit the gap in the early AM before the normal folks get there.

Next up was a trip into the Joyce Kilmer Forrest for a look at possible non-car diversion #2. There was a short, rated easy hike in the woods with two distance options. After Donna and I walked 25 yards into the trail we knew that it would not be doable for more than 50% of our group. Way too steep, slippery, etc. Oh well, maybe it’ll rain and we will all stay inside and watch HBO on the telly that weekend.

Now hot and disappointed, with the cheap BBQ sandwich bought at the “Outback Trading Post” broiling in our bellies we headed the 90 miles back to Dahlonega. One good thing about the return trip was we detoured over to GA60 for 44 miles of new twisty pavement. The last 12 miles are almost as good as the gap. This road, nicknamed the Snake, is a favorite of Atlantians who own sport bikes or cars as it is only about an hour and a half away for them.

Purchased Today: $26.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1125.91
Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 204

Walmarts Are All The Same

The drive to Dahlonega, GA that normally takes 3 hours took us 5 this afternoon. To be fair this is the first time we have made the trip in the afternoon. The other half dozen times it has been an early morning drive, which is what it will be from now on, trust me.

First came the 15 minute delay while we waited on a sporadic line of school buses leaving from the Lula school complex. There were 13 buses total in various states of fullness. They had a State Trooper stopping crossing traffic at a tee intersection. A good thing probably, as that was quite a line of busses that would have had to come to a stop and wait for traffic to clear on semi-busy GA52 before making their rights or lefts.

Next happened only about 5 miles down the road when we came up to a just closing railroad crossing. We sat for about 5 minutes watching train cars full of wood chips move by. With no end in sight, the train much to our chagrin, started to slow and eventually stop. At this point all the other cars and trucks in line with us started to make u-turns. After waiting a few more minutes with no sign of movement we figured these were probably locals and they knew better, so we too did a u-turn and headed back to the last intersection. We pulled out a map and headed in a likely direction. As it turned out we ended up going south about 7-8 miles and then prompting headed back north to come out about 3 miles further down the road we were on. Moving was better than sitting.

After we checked in to our room in the Holiday Inn Express it was off for pizza at our favorite little Italian place on the square, Caruso’s.

When we finished dinner it was time for a little shopping as we needed toothpaste and I wanted a paperback crime fiction book to occupy the time normally spent doing this. We went to the Wal-mart on the edge of town and parked nearly as far out in the parking lot as we could, to get in a walk and avoid door dings. I found a book, we snagged the toothpaste and headed for the checkout. We ended up just placing our items down on the nearest flat spot and walking out though, as there were 4 or 5 cashiers with at least 10 people in each line.

Unbelievably there were 2 cars, 1 in front and 1 next to, parked near us when we got back out to the north forty. WTF? No door dings though.

There was a chain drug store right across the street that had everything Wal-Mart had except the long lines, where we found a book and the toothpaste no problem.

Purchased Today: $16.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1099.41
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 200

Fire!

Actually this is only a half-hearted rant. I had a brainstorm on Wednesday while at work for what I wanted to shoot for Theme Thursday, of course my camera was at home. I brought it today, but didn’t get a chance to use it. I was going to take the picture at lunch as to not disturb the actual work process, unfortunately about 11:45 the fire alarm went off. I had just got my lunch plate, so I picked it up and headed for the door knowing I’d get an impromptu picnic on the front lawn during the drill. Bad news is it wasn’t a drill. One of the machines in the back of the plant ( a wheelabrator thing that deburrs our parts) had actually caught fire. We had four fire trucks, including the ladder truck drive around the back of the plant, along with 20, count ’em 20, police cars. I think that is the entire contingent of city cops (to be fair all our cops are trained as fireman and vice versa.)

I my haste to grab my lunch, I neglected to grab my new camera. The fire was quickly contained but not before smoke filled most of the plant. No one would be allowed back in until the smoke was cleared. The rest of first shift was canceled and if you had your keys, purses, etc. you could go home, if not have a seat in the shade of the pines and wait. I’m not sure when they let people back in, but by the time I went back at 4:30 to get my stuff, 2nd shift was at work (all except the one department where the machine was) and the place looked clear, but still stunk of smoke.

Tomorrow is a half day at work and Donna and I are off to the Gap for a little fun in the Miata. I will try and get my photo in the morning, but may not post it until Sunday when we get back. Don’t worry, you won’t miss a moment of my exciting life as I plan on analog blogging for transcription on Sunday night.

Can I Get A Stamp Please?

Today was mail the Master’s Miata Club newsletter day. Our sponsor pays for postage, so we headed over to Rader Mazda to run our 38 envelopes through their meter. Upon arrival the office manager told me their meter was down, smoked by lightning the other day. Parts were on order and it should be fixed by next week.

Plan B was to go to a post office, buy the stamps and then get the Club to reimburse us. Donna suggested we go up Washington Road to Evans where we used to have the P.O. Box. I said, “Let’s compromise and go to the Martinez one that is half as far away.” “Make it so,” she replied. We have driven by the entrance to this post office a bunch of times, but had never actually used it. I pulled in and park at a left hand building even though Donna said I should go to the hand one because there was a postal van out front. I countered that it was just delivering mail there as there wasn’t any sign out front say the post office was there. As we walked to the front door, I commented that it didn’t look like a post office. That is because it wasn’t, it was someplace called UniWay. Glad we didn’t go in and ask for stamps.

We got back in the car and continued down the street until we came to the real P.O. As we walked inside we knew we were in for a long wait as about a dozen people were in line with boxes and such. Not having to actually mail these things just yet, we u-turned out of there and headed 4 miles up the road to the Evans Post Office.

You can see the Evans P.O. from the road before you have to turn into their lot. As we got ready to make the turn I did some fast visual scanning and made a command decision, I u-turned the car and got going away from the masses that populated the parking lot. And the 68 cars waiting at the exit of the parking lot to return to the road I was already on.

After lunch as we headed home, I thought of another Post Office to try, the one where the Club’s current box is, North Augusta. As we approached this one, we both could see that we would pass right on by, as it’s lot was so full that people were causing a traffic jam on the side street to get in.

There are 2 Post Offices in Aiken and I flipped a coin and chose the southside one as it caused a more scenic route home. Even though it meant resigning myself to having a slightly longer wait.

We finally caught a break, as we left the valley to head towards Aiken I spied a tiny Post Office in the tiny town of Bath. Pulled right in as there were only two other cars in the lot. As we entered the building those 2 folks were checking their P.O. Boxes, we stepped right up to the counter.

Trying to cure traffic congestion by adding more capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt.

There is an intersection on my way to work where a street with a 35-MPH limit turns onto a street with a limit of 30 and to make it “easier” for people to negotiate them they have rounded them off more. I can now take these turns and not have to slow down. This is OK in a Miata, but when bigger cars do it they still can’t keep it on the road. They either cut more off the turn and run over the persons lawn or they get their left side tires off the left side of the road. Traffic engineers will analyze this intersection and probably round the turn off more. This will encourage more speed and the cycle will repeat. What they need to do is sharpen up the radius and either put a curb on both sides of the road or better yet, a ditch.

They also need to narrow some of these streets down. The bigger road encourages bigger speeds. There is a section of road that I sometimes travel that goes from 2 lanes to four and the speed limit stays the same 35-MPH. Yet as soon as traffic hits the four lanes the speeds jump about 10 MPH over the 40-45 they were already traveling.

Wider lanes also mean less attention needs to be paid attention to lane discipline. Another bit of road I frequently travel passes through the horse/historical district of town and because of that it still has the same narrow lane width it had in the 40’s. When driving on this stretch people travel slower than they do when the road widens because they have to pay attention to whether they are on their side of the white line.

Then again if I had my way, they would only allow Miatas on the roads and all the lanes would be narrow and windy.