First time, in what seems like months but only has been days, we got to leave the top down all day free from worry of precipitation. Also, the first time since daylight savings time ended that I needed my sunglasses for the drive home. Plus the sun is now so low in the sky that I needed a hat to shade my eyes. Some one called it obsessive, I called it Miata-O-Lantern…
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 298
Got my CD Mix of the Month discs today. Cool stuff. listening to the second for the second time now. Josh’s, as usual, was 90% unfamiliar territory, but excellent. Pepperspray from ifishery was 90% familiar, but nicely but together. Great month and once again I feel I’m not worthy of being in the little club.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 296
Only left the house to go to Zaxby’s for lunch and Kroger for grocery shopping. Spent most of the day reading Q is for Quarry, now excuse me while I go finish it….
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 294
Had our Miata Club’s Halloween Party tonight. The club has roughly 66 members and 8 people came. The total attendance was 10 because of the hosting couple’s presence. When the hosts first volunteered to hold the party they originally intended for it to be a costume party, but backed off because they were afraid it would hurt attendance. Ha, attendance, guess we should have required costumes. As it turned out 2 couples came dressed up anyway (Donna and I were not one of them.)
Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 294
Changed the oil and rotated my tires this evening after work. Mazda recommends an oil change at every 7500 miles, which is probably OK for someone who is going to trade in that car after 3 years. I hope to keep the car for a lot longer than that, so in the beginning I decided to double that frequency. I change the oil (and rotate the tires while I’m at it) every 3750 miles. That number is hard to figure in my addled mind, so I now use the valve train clatter as an indication of the need to change the oil. Miatas are known for HLA noise and mine seems to show up after 3,000 miles or so. After a few mornings in a row when it takes to the end of the block for the lifters to quiet, I go buy some oil.
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 288
Put the top up to wash the car and after it was dry, the top went right back down. While I was at it, I waxed the car too. And then I masked off the lower nose of the car and touched up the front lip spoiler with some semi-gloss black. For some reason twice this past week I pulled up a little too close to a curb and scratched it up.
This is the best time of the year for convertibles around here, mid 70’s in the days and upper 50’s overnight. Tonight was a beautiful evening for a drive. The skies were clear, the moon was full and it was just cool enough…. Came up behind another Miata at the start of the drive. Couldn’t tell what color it really was, but my guess is that was Crystal Blue, although it looked gray. Couldn’t have been the Titanium because the seats were tan, not brown/red. He was talking to someone in the passenger seat and only going about 5 MPH below the posted limit, so at the first opportunity I goosed it and went around. Gave a couple of polite toots on the air horns and left him way behind. We both had the same idea, an evening cruise, just had different approaches to it.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 286
Started the day with a stop at the North Carolina Arboretum. Donna wanted to go to see the gardens. Diane and Allen wanted to go back because the last time they visited in April nothing was in bloom. I wanted to go because it meant a top down drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The original plan was to all ride in D & A’s Integra, but Donna wasn’t feeling to well so she wanted to ride in the Miata. As a surprise bonus the Arboretum was hosting the 2002 Carolina Bonsai Expo. Very beautiful stuff. Amazing that in today’s fast paced society that this slow moving art form survives. Of course there are tons of web sites devoted to it. After that it was too early to go right to lunch so I devised a little loop that included a stop at Looking Glass Falls and Sliding Rock before ending up at the Pisgah Inn for lunch. The food is really good and the view is super making it well worth the 30 minute wait. After eating, we stayed on the Parkway and went over to the Folk Art Center. From there we went our serparate ways, Diane & Allen went into downtown Asheville and we headed back to the hotel. Later, after supper, a trip for ice cream was agreed upon. Allen looked in his Underground Asheville book and picked a place called Sweet Heaven because of the ice cream but it also has live music. When we got there “Inna Gadda Da Vida” as coming from a kid on a really nice Roland piano whose father was a baby when that song came out. Turns out this 14 year old keyboard prodigy, Nick Stubblefield, also plays for the Sunday brunch at the hoity-toity Grove Park Inn. A while later his 12 year old sister accompanied him by singing a few old jazz standards. She was as amazingly as good as he was.
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
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