Miatatude

Finally broke down and put the top up. We made a late evening store run and even with the windblocker it would have been too cold to enjoy the trip. Besides tomorrow morning will be in the 20’s….

With the breakfast trip Friday and yesterday’s lunch run, that makes 3 short trips in three days, probably less that 10 miles total.

We spent most this weekend indoors watching DVD movies. M*A*S*H, This is Spinal Tap, American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption, My Fellow Americans and Blue Streak. Lots of comedy there, even in the couple of dramas on that list. The first 3 are from my growing collection and the others are from friends at work, two others and I have started our own little DVD swap club. 6 down and 11 to go. I have my full quota of 4 from Netflix sitting on the coffee table, along with 1 from work and 6 left of the recent arrivals from Columbia House.

Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 362

They predicted partly sunny and mid-50s for today. Ha! Missed the mark. The clouds stayed thick and the sun never showed up, so it was lucky to make it into the middle 40s. The top stayed up all day as it was pretty typical mid-winter day here. I can’t complain too loudly as today’s weather in my old hometown, New Britain, CT, was snow/winter mix with a high of 32.

Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 358

Happy Gregorian New Year Ya’ll. Treated today like a Sunday, I thought for sure the Miata wouldn’t move, but this evening my wife informed me that we were out of plastic snack bags, so it was off to Kroger.

Getting used to the short shifter. It does seem to make shifting a bit notchier, but I think that is a good thing, seems better suited to the sports car character of the car. Mind you the Miata shifter was so short and smooth to begin with that a step down still keeps it at the fantastic level.

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 355

Up for the way to work and down for the way home. Put it back up once we pulled into the garage because it had rained in the afternoon and the top was still quite wet. At least the rain was thoughtful enough to stop long enough for us to take a little roundabout way home before starting up again.

Started down, went up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 354

No ticking this AM, but I still need to change the oil this weekend. Warmed up to the upper 50s for after work, so the top went down, well at least I thought it was a nice day. After the workout at the gym I made my trip home and for the second time in 2 weeks what should pull up behind me at the first red light, but a new dark gray BMW Z4. This time his top was up. The next three miles went exactly as before, we made our right at the yield sign onto US1 and blasted up to speed, mine 55 and his 65 so that he passed me once again. I just watched him go by, I tried a wave the first time it happened and was ignored, so this time I look at the car and not him. The car actually looks good with the top up too. Now I catch him at our left turn and end up following him up the hill for a mile or so until he turns left and I continue on straight. When I first saw the magazine picture I was horrified, that was one butt ugly car. My feelings were reinforced by quite a few of the car magazine writers as well. But now that I have seen one in person, I almost like it. And if my salary were to jump by 75% next review period I might look at buying one (of course that depends on whether it comes in a nice looking blue.)

Started down, went up, went back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 354

It’s Sunday what did you expect. I went outside early to get the 2 morning newspapers and in the beautiful 60 something degree weather went for a couple miles on rollerblades. Sitting on the stairs in the garage removing my wheeled shoes I couldn’t help but notice that the car was pretty dusty. So I took the California Duster to the dash and then the outside of the car too. Less dusty and it will have to do until a couple more weeks. No drive today, so the Miata will “reward” me with some lifter tapping tomorrow when I start it up for the ride to work. It is time to change the oil and I’ll try and remember to get a filter when I’m over at Rader using the postage meter to mail the Master’s Miata Club’s newsletter on Friday. Which reminds me, I better get busy writing that sucker.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 352

Put the Short Shifter Kit in today and it went surprisingly well. The upper boot was not torn so that was a relief, but I’m still running on the old turret oil….maybe at the Club’s Tech Day in February. Lowered the height by about a 1/2″ looks good and if it affected shifting effort I don’t notice and for that matter the shifter throw doesn’t seem any shorter either. Worth the $120? Not really.

While I was in the mood I decided to fix the flashing 3rd tail light. It is a wire that keeps breaking right at the trunk hinge joint. I added a 4 inch piece of wire to the repair which I hope will alleviate the bending at one spot that has doomed this connection from the get go. I also took this opportunity to move the relay back to the end of the trunk next to the light itself. I added the flasher unit when the wire first broke, instead of splicing it back together I just stuck the flasher in between the break. This in retrospect was a bad move, because that made the flasher hang right near a short tunnel to the interior and consequently the click-clicking could be heard when the brake was being applied. Now it is silent once again in the cockpit at stoplights.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 352