Miatatude

Today was the monthly MMC breakfast run and our destination was the same place as it has been for the last two March’s, the North Augusta Optimist Club Pancake Breakfast at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

The event organizer zipped off an email yesterday to remind everyone of the event and she listed the meeting location as “at the Circle K at exit 5.” That very same email said we would depart from there at 8 AM sharp.

When Donna and I arrived at Exit 5 we noticed that there was a Circle K [1] just past the Interstate on the northeast side, but it looked a little hard to get to and there were no Miatas visible. We were about 15 minutes early for the departure time, so we passed right by to grab a geocache that was just up the road. As we turned down the little road to get the cache we realized there was a Circle K [2] right at the corner. No Miatas there either.

We found the cache and after signing the log we looked into Circle K [2] again, it was now 5 minutes before the planned departure and there were still no Miatas there. Donna wondered out loud that our event planner must have meant Exit #1 as that is where we had met the last two years. We decided that if there were no Miatas at Circle K [1] we would just head on to the church via Exit #1.

Just about then we noticed a Circle K [3] on the northwest side of the Interstate and there were two Miatas there. We pulled in. As the six of us chatted while waiting for our event organizer to lead us to the the church we all wondered about the number of Circle K gas stations here. We weren’t too concerned as our leader was slightly late last year, so maybe she would be this year too. At 8:05, with our stomachs growling in hunger, we all decided to do what Donna and I were going to do before we stumbled on them, go to the church via I-20 Exit #1

As we passed by the previous year’s meeting spot, Circle K [4] there were no Miatas there either. When we arrived at the church, there was our event leader and one other Miata Club person waiting for us. They had met at Circle K [4] and by 10 after eight when no one else had shown, they drove to the church.

The event has been on the Club calendar since the January planning meeting and it has always listed the meeting place as the Circle K gas station off I-20 Exit #1 on Martintown Rd. Our group of six didn’t read the Club Calendar because of the email reminder. The person who did meet at the correct Circle K didn’t read the Calendar or the email either, she just went to where we had met before.

Anyway, all’s well that ended well. We did get together, have some conversation, some good eats and the cost went to a good cause.

The past two days the weather channel has told us that the temperature would be in the low seventies with little chance of rain, so we drove the Miata to work with visions of top down drives home. Yesterday it was sprinkling, so we kept the top up. Today we managed a few miles with it down, but had to put it up when we got our haircut because of threatening skies.

For the next two days they are calling for scattered and then isolated showers, 30% chance for each. So we we’ll drive the Sonata and you watch, the weather will be sunny and mild…

If you believe in that sort of thing, according to the prognosticating woodchuck Punxsutawney Phil, we are in for 6 more weeks of winter. Well I say, “Big whup.” If the weather in the next six weeks is anything like it has been for the last six, bring it on. For the second week in a row the Miata has been our car of choice for the commute to work. For the last four days we have had the top down on the ride home for all of them and today we even drove to work with it down.

How come one of those second tier cable channels (cough, cough, USA, cough, cough) don’t run a 24 hour marathon of the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day movie on this day every year?

I’m betting the Emperor has thought that things have returned to the BPW (before purple whale) times as he has made the commute to work now for three days running. Today we even chanced a trip to work with the top down. The windows were up, but no heater was required. We didn’t make it out of the parking lot on the way home though.

When we exited the building there was on large dark gray cloud hovering over us like one of those giant flying saucers from the movie Independence Day. It started to lightly sprinkle as we walked to the north forty where we park and Donna wanted the top up, but I convinced her that once we got moving we wouldn’t get wet. We folded up cockpit cover, hopped in and hit the exit. Within 50 yards the rain started to come down harder and I reluctantly raised the roof. Good thing too as about a 1/4 mile from the Valve Store(R) it really started to come down.

The rain is supposed to be over before the morning commute and tomorrow’s high is predicted at 68°, with an overnight low of 60 (5 degrees above our average high for this time of year) we might even get both legs of Friday’s commute with the top down.