Top up all day. Parked the Miata in the garage when we got home and there it will sit until at least next Saturday. Loaded up the MSV for the drive to the Columbia, SC airport where we will pick up a Ford Taurus for the weeklong trip up to Connecticut and points in between. Ate at California Dreaming before heading north on I-77 for stop #1, Rock Hill, SC.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233
Both Stone Guards are in. Not bad, nobody is going to notice them though. During the day the barndoors are down. At night the lights are on only when you drive and you don’t notice the mesh from further away than 5 feet. They are for me, I know they are there and I think they add just a bit more whimsy to the front of the car.
The rubber flaps were impossible to trim while in the car, so I had to take them out to cut them. I had to use some tin snips as the rubber is about 1/8 thick. I cut a nice little curve in each one to clear the shape of the mesh. Trouble was they were held in by some expandable plastic tabs and you couldn’t get to the bottom of them to compress the tabs, so had to snip them out figuring it shouldn’t be to hard to find them. (I hope I’m not wrong, Advance Auto didn’t have the right size.) You’ll just have to wait until next week on pictures as we are off on a weeks vacation starting right after work tomorrow.
Started down, went up, went down, went back up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 231
Box from J.C. Whitney showed up today. Of course they charged my charge card for the return shipping. I called customer service and after a 5 minute wait, the nice lady was apologetic and said they would reimburse my card. Wasn’t until I hung up and looked at the invoice that it dawned on my that it looks liked they charged my card for the item again too. I’ll just call tomorrow and see what has happened. Maybe I’ll just start with my credit card company….
Got one of the stone guards on. Looks kinda cool in a weird way. They are slightly convex so I think I hear it scraping these little rubber rain flaps as the barndoors go up and down. Not the end of the world, but probably not good for the pop-up motors or the stone guards in the long run. Will finish the project tomorrow night by mounting the other one and then seeing about trimming or removing the rubber piece.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 227
Up at work and down for the ride to the haircut and home. Only it started to rain, so I put it up as we were coming to a red light. The rest of the cycles came when we went out to try and take a picture for the Club newsletter, Donna and I are the Members of the Month for September. See the photo here: MOTM.
Started up, went down, went up, down, up, down, up, down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 225
First and weirdest was Donna drove to get some fresh bagels for breakfast and actually requested I put the top down for her. Donna doesn’t drive that much, she says that’s the only reason she keeps me around, and when she does she will drive her mom’s Civic first (the Civic was sitting right there.) Second, if she has to drive the Miata, she always wants the top up. Then we went grocery shopping in the Miata. Usually Donna and her mom go shopping in the Honda, but today Mom didn’t want to go, so we went. Donna asked, “Did we want to take the Civic?” I replied, “Only if you are driving.” I think she was worried about running out of room in the trunk (I guess she forgot the 11 years we used to go shopping when we only had a Miata to do it with.) $100 worth in 9 plastic grocery bags, a big bottle of laundry detergent, the boot and the cockpit cover fit in with enough room left for her to toss her purse in there too.
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 217
Put the top up so I could wash the car in preparation for this afternoon’s Sno-Cap 38th Anniversary Cruise In. Meeting the Miata Club again today. The Sno-Cap has been an institution in North Augusta for, like well duh, 38 years. Each year they hold a party with a DJ, high school cheerleaders, games, contests and door prize give-aways. They invite all the local car clubs to come between certain hours and hang out. Free soft drinks if you wear your Club T-shirt. This year, like last, we were going to share the lot with the Corvette Club. They must have forgot or something as there were only 3 Vettes in attendance. We had 12 Miatas. Coincidentally that is the exact number of covered spots the Sno-Cap has. We filled them right up.
Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 216
Down for the trip to work, but up for the trip back home. It went back down for tonight’s Master’s Miata Club Full Moon Rally. We had 10 Miatas and a convertible RX-7 that belongs to a member’s sister and brother-in-law. Nice little ride thru the back woods of Aiken County before ending up at Brusters for ice cream.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 213