Miata Washings

Disappearing Dumpster

No Dumpster

For the first time in 61 days the Emperor could park in his Throne Room. It was supposed to be gone last Friday, and then it was supposed to be yesterday, so quite frankly we were surprised to find it actually gone when we pulled into the driveway after work today. Even though pine pollen season isn’t exactly over, the Miata got a washing before being driven into the garage.

We have been driving the Miata for the last couple weeks, so the Sonata has been just parked under the awning gathering a layer of pine pollen. To keep both siblings happy, I was going to wash the Purple Whale too, but dinner was nearly ready, so Donna insisted that I put the wash bucket away and after eating we’d run the Sonata through Lu Lu’s, a local car wash. It felt like cheating and it cost $10, but man that was easy.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1215

Monday Musings

We have a BCS Bowl Pool at work. All 35 bowl games were used, starting with Arizona vs. Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl on December 15th and culminating with the Discovery BCS Championship Bowl in Miami pitting Alabama against Notre Dame. We include the point spread as published before the first game and don’t adjust it. And if the spread is an even number, a half point is added to the underdog to eliminate ties. We have 36 people playing and with just tonight’s game left my wife is in the catbird seat. If the Tide rolls she wins having picked 23 of 35 correctly. If the Fighting Irish win or lose by less than 10 points she will be tied for first and can do no worse than getting 2nd place money, if the tie breaker doesn’t go her way.

We have a MMC event this weekend, so in preparation the Emperor got a sponge bath this evening. By the time we get home from work these days it is too dark and too chilly to be getting out a bucket of sudsy water and a hose, so I opted for the soft towel and Meguiar’s Quik Detailer option. He is a small enough car and not too dirty that it didn’t take too long. I also put the top up and washed the windows. Tomorrow or the next day I may go ahead and give him a waxing in the garage as well being sure that I do wheel it outside in the daylight at some point to ensure I get all the dry wax buffed off.

We have a cache over in Augusta that we didn’t find when we first looked for it, so we put it on a watch list. This means that every time someone does or doesn’t find that cache we get an email letting us know what happened. Tonight we got a couple of emails telling us that some folks from Canada had found it. Somehow the mundane log of “Found with so & so. Thanks for the cache.” sounds so much more exciting in French, “Trouvé avec Pascal70 et lolo001. Merci pour la cache.”

The bank called this afternoon, the home equity loan is ready, so we meet one last time with the contractor tomorrow and then on Wednesday it is back to Lowe’s to talk with the cabinet guy to iron out the final details. Looks like this thing is gonna happen.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1189

Skaneateles

We went to watch polo this afternoon and took along the new guy at work. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 70’s and the game was awesome. It was the finals in an 8 Goal* Tournament and after 5 of the 6 chukkers the score was tied 7-7. The final ended up being Skaneateles 12, Hutchinson Farms 9. Vaughn grew up around horses, but had never seen polo, so he had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for a better game either, usually when we go to a polo match we are lucky to see 10 goals scored total.

*The goal total is not an indication of how many goals the team should score but a player handicapping/ranking system.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1177

The Autotrophs Began To Drool

Since we last spoke a week ago*:

The Miata has gotten a bath to wash last Saturday’s bugs off only to put some more back on yesterday when we took the MMC to Sardis.

I’ve got the new shocks for the Emperor in the garage which will probably get installed this week some time. Went with the non-adjustable Koni SRTs this time, because why spent twice as much for the adjustable Sport models.

The FRS have won 3 games and lost 4 which is pretty much on par for the way this season is going. Unfortunately the MFY won all seven (now nine in a row for them) putting the Red Sox (who are still in last in their division) 8 games out.

Mad Men is over for another year and we now have absolutely nothing to watch on TV except for The Big Bang Theory and we only have 4 episodes of that to watch before we are all caught up with all the Season 5 shows.

*Where the heck did it go? Seems like yesterday…

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, down once more, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1152

Close Encounter Of The Google Kind

It’s Friday, so, as usual, Donna and I rode the tandem to work. As we parked the bike in the rack Donna noticed something hanging from the back tire. On closer inspection it turned out to be a section of the tire about the size of 2 quarters side by side that had separated from the kevlar belts. It was still holding air so we opted to ride it home, but agreed not to bomb down the hills and take it easy on the corners in case of sudden air containment failure.

A little more than half way home we came to a halt at a stop sign we usually don’t have to stop at. Not because our tire blew out, but because there was a car coming from the left. It looked a little weird, there were some odd stripes and it had green doors, so I knew it was vinyl wrapped to advertise some business. I was so intent on trying to figure out what they were advertising for for that it took a while to register that there was something very weird about the car.

It had a 3′ stalk sticking out of the roof with a red disco ball on top – it was a Google Street View Car! I waved meekly as it passed. Because it was going the way we were going, we turned right and followed. The Google car got stopped at the light at the next block and I pulled up right behind it to wait. The light turned green and the car pulled off. I gave another wave as Donna and I turned left to continue on the way home.

I don’t know when they will update the Street View for that intersection and stretch of road, the current images are from December 2007, but when they do, we’ll be famous.

The Emperor got a bath this afternoon because tomorrow is the MMC Tech Day and heaven forbid I show up with a dirty car.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1135

This April Starts Like Last April Started And Last September Ended

Baseball is back and the FRS have lost the first three games of the season. The Boston press is already writing stories about the Red Sox 2012 season being doomed or don’t worry it is only 3 out of 162. Today the Sox had a 3 run lead going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Detroit scored three runs to tie it. The FRS scored two in the top of the 11th to take the lead, but Detroit promptly scored 3 in the bottom of the inning to win it. I was already leaning towards Gloom & Doom, but after today’s effort I’ve fallen completely over.

Both cars got a bath today, the Sonata to remove the Georgia red clay from the wheel wells and the Florida bugs off the front, while the Miata had the last of the pine pollen rinsed off.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1127

Keeping The Sibling Peace

This morning the three cars of the MMC went their separate ways and probably at separate times. Kurt & Karen were headed back via Helen, GA, John & Jackie were planning on lunch in Spartanburg and we were just headed home. We arrived there 6 hours later after a gas stop, 4 driver changes and lunch. Total mileage for the trip, eight hundred fifty four and seven tenths. Took three tankfuls of gas for around $90 total and averaged a touch over 33 MPG, which is pretty darn good for the kind of driving the mountain roads bring out in a sports car.

Ever since the Purple Whale got a dragon sticker after his trip through Deals Gap, the Emperor has been whining about getting his own. He already has a diamond shaped one on the inside of the trunk lid and he has been driven through the gap about 2 dozen times to the Whale’s once, but his jealous carping was just too much. So to keep the sniping between the two cars at a minimum, one gold dragon sticker now resides on the Emperor’s butt trunk lid where the little geocaching one once did. Of course I had to wash off all the road crud (and bear fur) before applying said sticker.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1089