Miatatude

Breakfast at Betsy’s

Breakfast at Betsy'y

Donna and I arrived at Greg’s Gas Plus about 15 minutes early, so we would be there before anyone else. We were, but not for too long as Hal and Trudy Scott joined us. We chatted for awhile about the usual stuff while we waited for other Miatas to arrive, but mostly marveled at the shear amount of traffic that stopped at Greg’s and 90% of it was pick up trucks. The mix was 50/50 with lawn care trailers headed south to the lawns of the cities and boat trailers headed north to Clarks Hill Lake.

At one point the lot was so full that a truck hauling a boat stopped directly in front of us. The passenger disembarked and headed into the store for ice, a rest room break or maybe just a cup of coffee. The driver came out and called to us, “You guys don’t need to go anywhere in the next 5 minutes do you?” So I asked, “What time is it?” He dug into his pocket, pulled out his phone, unlocked it, pulled up an app and said, “Seven thirty-seven.” “Actually, we probably should be gone already,” I said, “But you don’t have to move, we’re small and can get around you.” He got back in his truck and by the time I finished a quick Drivers Meeting1 and the four of us got in our cars, he was fully out of our way, so we drove off with a wave.

We arrived at Betsy’s about 10-15 minutes later than advertised and there were three Miatas already parked outside. Inside we found John & Pat Clark, Rita & Larry Garner and Tom Varallo at a table with enough empty seats for the 4 of us plus a walk-in2. The nine of us ordered our food and in typical Miata Club fashion one plate was slightly late, one plate needed to be returned for fixing and a couple of dishes weren’t piping hot.

Counting today’s group we had a total of 14 people for Breakfast at Betsy’s if you count the 5 members who ate there last week too after I published the detail’s of this month’s breakfast on the front page of the web site without the date in the post.

All and all, Betsy’s is a splendid spot for breakfast in Aiken on a Saturday morning3, the food is good and the prices are not that expensive.

1 I handed Trudy a map she didn’t need and told them, “Follow me.”
2 No one did.
3 The only day they are open for breakfast.

Here Is Proof

High School Drafting Transcript

Over the weekend I decided to clean out the 2-tier file basket that is on a table in the computer room. I’ve been dumping stuff on the top level for quite some time, mostly the monthly, semi-annual and annual statements from State Farm with updates on all of our policies we have with them. The pile had grown taller than the basket and the top forms were sliding out onto the table. Every single one of the Sonata’s 6 month bills were in there, which was 8 documents of 6 pages each. The Miata’s stuff of similar size went a little further back than 2011, plus the homeowners policies and life insurance policies, it was a mess. I keep the most recent of each and shredded the rest.

In the other tier of this basket was a treasure drove of stuff that I had forgotten I even had. Including the copy of my high school transcript proving my post from the other day. I blurred out everything but the Drafting grades as there is some stuff I’m not too proud of there. The grades reading from left to right are the 4 semesters and the fifth is the average grade for the whole year. Where I’m from high school was only three years, so they tacked on my final year of Jr. High in the upper left (no drafting there.)

Another great find was in a business sized envelope were the cardboard templates for the Pigs In Space sweatshirt I made back in the 80’s. I may have to recreate this. I’m going to need a different medium though, the original was made of felt pieces layered on top of each other then sewn on and we don’t have a sewing machine anymore.

I also found a Calvin & Hobbes Time Machine sticker that I didn’t know I had. There used to be one on the rear bumper of the Emperor, but it went away when the back of the car had to be repainted after the Great Dented Trunk Lid Incident of 2006. I must have had two made … took the newly resurfaced sticker out to the garage and applied it on the Emperor’s rear.

Plus my Junior College transcript was there too, so tomorrow’s treat will be a glimpse at further proof my drafting prowess.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1479

Monochromatic Miatas

We still don’t have all the details on the US version of the new Miata. We’ve got most of it, but there isn’t a configurator online to start building your ideal car yet. What we do know is that the color palette is pretty monochromatic. There are seven “colors”, including a white, a pearl white, a white-ish gray, a dark gray and a black. There is a blue, but it is really a medium gray with blue undertones, leaving the only real color something called Soul Red. And it is a metallic paint, so on cloudy days or in the shade it will darken right up.

Taking a cue from our German friends, (cough, cough…BMW…cough, cough) Mazda is going to start charging extra for metallic, mica & pearlecent paints. In the UK the Soul Red is a thousand dollars extra. The only color on the chart that is free is the Arctic White, the rest are an extra $800. I have seen on the Miata.net Forum that the Soul Red will be extra in the US, but not sure if the other paints will be more too.

Once these 7 colors were basically confirmed as the ones the new car would come in a thread appeared on the forum on the lack of real sports car colors. This thread has peaked at 32 pages compromising of 778 posts. The agreed upon solution to fix this – vinyl wrap your new car. So don’t forget to add about 10% to the cost of your nearly thirty thousand dollar new car to get it in the color you want. Your options are now wide open, take your pick from this chart of over 60 colors, including several hues in the now trendy matte finish. If you are buying a car for wrapping, here is a hint, buy a black one. This way when you open the doors or hood or get a peek inside a panel gap, the original red or white original color doesn’t pop out.

Me, I’d more than likely go for the Gloss Intense Blue (CB-169) or the Gloss Metallic Bright Blue (CB-162).

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1474

Miata Profile Icon

NB Miata Profile Picture

For the longest time I have been using a Mad Men style profile picture for my user login on Win7, both at home and at work, but after viewing those line art ND Miata images from the electronic owners manual I posted the other day, I thought maybe Mr. Miata should have a Miata as his profile picture.

I couldn’t use one of those as I don’t have a 4th gen car, but I did have a plain line art image of a NA (1st gen) that I made when the MMC was thinking of redoing the club logo. I re-colored it to resemble the previously owned Laguna Blue car and used it for a day. Didn’t feel right, so I made up one of the NB2 (face-lifted 2nd gen) an colored it in like the Emperor.

Here are large white versions of each generation for you to color and use as your own: – NA – NB2 – if you don’t have a paint type program, special requests accepted.

Brief Respite

We pretty much brought back the northwest weather pattern with us last weekend as ever since it has been mostly cloudy and rainy. Fortunately the temperatures in the 50s remained back in Washington state.

Last night for the first time since we’ve returned, we backed the Emperor out of the garage and went for 45 minutes of a pleasant dusk to dark drive. Good thing too, as today was a total wash, figuratively and literally. Sigh. At least the rest of the week looks decent and maybe, just maybe we might get to ride the tandem to work for the first time in 2015.

Warning!

Just like I did 10 years ago when Mazda was getting ready to introduce the 3rd generation Miata, I’ve been keeping my eyes on the Miata.net Forum staying up to date on the chatter about the 4th generation model. Actual information on the car has been dribbling out for months with the Japanese and European model stuff coming first. There have been leaks of a Japanese Accessories Catalog, a German spec sheet and price list and hints of Australian pricing.

Today we got a link to the Japanese Electronic Owners Manual! I can’t read kanji, so I wasn’t always sure what I was looking at for the last hour or so as I clicked on a bunch of things, but it sure was fun.

I did learn that you shouldn’t drive the Miata down stairs because you might scrape the bottom or don’t try and drive over parking lot dividers, you won’t make it:

 

 


Also, you don’t need to understand Japanese
to know what this Miata is saying,
“I hate winter. $#!*%”

 

 

The only real question I have is, “What the heck is this thing?”

wtf

Prize Patrol Visits

Trunk Lid

When we commute to the Valve Store(TM) in the Miata I get to check the mail when we get home. When we drive the Sonata I just pull into the driveway and Donna gets out and walks back to the mailbox. The driver’s side mirror on the Purple Whale is the same height as the mailbox and I almost tried to force the two of them into sharing the same space at the same time when I checked the mail for the first time in the Sonata. The Miata on the other hand glides easily below the mailbox level.

Spring seems to be here, so the Emperor was our chariot of choice for today’s trip to and from work. When I pulled open the mailbox lid there was a big padded envelope in there. As I pulled it out, I remarked, “What’d I buy?” Donna answered back with mock seriousness, “You better tell me.” Probably thinking I bought another BlipShift T-shirt with a Miata on it. But then the light bulb went off over our heads, it was the prize package from Moss Motors. Inside was a T-shirt, a sticker and my $50 gift certificate. The shirt is in the wash (a small phobia of mine) and the sticker has already found a home on the trunk lid. The fifty bucks? Maybe I should buy my wife something nice, like a T-shirt with a Miata on it?