The Miata *IS* As Good As A Pickup Truck
Need a love seat moved, no problem.
Miatatude
Good Day
It was definitely a good day to be a Red Sox fan. The players got their World Series rings today in a 45 minute ceremony prior to the home opener. Bil Buckner, that’s right Bill Buckner, threw out the first pitch. The FRS won the game 5-0 behind the pitching of the 13 Trillion Yen Man. The only thing that didn’t go right is my official 2008 Red Sox Nation membership card didn’t arrive in the mail.
But Blue Miata and Tia were waiting patiently in the mailbox for me today. The red ones are at work and I think these smurf blue versions will stay home. There are also gold versions out there too, but I think I’m going to pass on acquiring them. I think is time to buy some Lost “action” figures instead.
Hard to tell from this photo, but a lot was done on the bathroom project today. The floor was repaired, a real shower liner of vinyl was put in place, and most of the new moved wall was put up. The contractor picked up the tile today. We will meet with him after work tomorrow to discuss how we want it put in.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 100
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 100
A Miata Is Not Always As Good As A Pickup Truck On A Sunny Day
In spite of my repeated protestations to the positive, every once in a while you do need a pickup truck.
Tonight we went to the Home Depot in Evans to buy the vanity that was supposedly online order only. While we were there we bought the top too, went with a Beige because the Blue Pearl was more black than blue and they had a Beige one right there in stock for $199 instead of ordering the Blue Pearl for $465. To the cart we tossed in the matching mirror, two wood framed medicine cabinets and a couple of new exhaust fan / light combos. Try as I might, no matter how I arranged them, I just couldn’t get all that stuff in the trunk.
Rudy and his S10 to the rescue. He and Patti were nice enough to make the round trip from and back to Evans to haul our bathroom bounty. All it cost me was an ice cream cone for each of them. Thanks guys.
If you ever find yourself in Evans at dinner time both Donna and I highly recommend the Pork Anticuchos at Patagonia Grill.
If you have been waiting patiently for my witty captions to the BMW Ultimate Drive on Tuesday, your wait is over – 2008 BMW Ultimate Drive Gallery.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 94
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 94
I Guess I Should Have Opted For The Road Hazard Warranty
The car has been handling a little quirky recently and I figured it was time for an alignment. The car tracks straight when you let go of the wheel, but seems to need constant attention to keep it in the center of the lane. Almost felt like I needed new shocks, but that shouldn’t be an issue because I just had new one put on back in August.
It couldn’t be a low tire as I keep a pretty close watch on the pressure, checking it every Saturday along with the oil level. Wait a minute, the last couple of Saturdays I haven’t done it for one reason or another. Maybe I should go check. I just did. Right rear 27-1/2 psi. Right front 27-1/2 psi. Left front 27 psi. Left rear 15psi. Ruh-roh, Reorge! Dis-mounted the tire and found what looks like a small nail about 2 inches in from the sidewall. Should be able to get this one plugged, depending on how long it is. The last time I found a nail in the tread area it was so long that it tore into the sidewall. Judging by the diameter of this nail it won’t be that long.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 72
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 72
Old Skool Navigation System
On the first weekend in March every year the Aiken branch of the American Association of University Women put on a Books & Things Fair. They never keep an accurate record of the number of books on sale, but estimates range around 50,000. Everything is donated, so 99% are used, but the variety is staggering. The sale runs on Friday and Saturday from 9 AM until around 5PM. Donna and I go every year on Saturday and putter around until we each get an armload of books and usually end up spending any where from $10 to $15.
This year is the first time it coincided with our Friday off so we decided to go and see if we might have a better selection to choose from. We arrived at ten o’clock and the joint was hopping. Good thing we walked over because parking was at a premium. The real early birds were already in a checkout line that stretched to the back wall of the old Club Fitness building. These folks had boxes and wheeled luggage brimming with books. Obviously the serious collectors or eBay resellers were waiting outside the building waiting to get in like Black Friday shoppers outside Best Buy hoping to get one of ten $200 laptops available. We both made a couple of rounds looking and when were ready to leave ourselves the line had shortened considerably. After checking out and spending a whopping ten bucks, we took a few more minutes to poke through the dozens of boxes of free-for-the-taking books by the door.
Donna’s big find was a stack of Golden Books a half a foot high at a quarter a piece for later mailing to nephew James. My prize purchase was two dollars spent on a jumbo book of South Carolina County Maps. I think it is around 20 years old and I’m sure there are a lot of changes around the large towns, but in the more rural parts of the state (of which there are many) it is still seems pretty accurate. As a matter of fact we already got our money back in finding a shorter route than the state map showed from Summerton to Davis Station and then Davis Station to Greeleyville.That was on Saturday, Sunday we used it to find a direct route from Turbeville to New Zion.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 63
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 63
Happy Anniversary
Tonight was the 15th Anniversary Dinner for the Master’s Miata Club. As usual we all got dressed up nice and went to a “fancy” restaurant. While the attendance total was right around the usual level, but percentage-wise it was probably the highest it has ever been because of the shrinkage of the membership rolls.
This year we dined at 6th & Watkins. Nice place, great food and a fun event. Some of the discussion at our table centered around the so-called Club’s Anniversary Dinner jinx in which the restaurant that has hosted our dinner has fallen on bad times not too long after we dine there. We have “killed” at least two places, one went bankrupt and changed hands and one had a big fire. We then tried to name all the places we have held an anniversary dinner and came to the conclusion that we don’t have the memory capacity we did when the club was first formed.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 53
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 53
Blast From The Past
Way back in the past, 2005, I closed up shop on the Barndoor Fan Club. I thought I had found a suitable replacement web master, I even sold him the domain name, but he never did anything with it. At one time I resurrected it in a subdomain of the mr-miata.com site, but that went away when my grasp of that domain did. Someone asked me about it the other day, so I thought, what the heck, I’ll tack up the files to this place as a museum to my earlier derangement.
Just don’t click on any of the email addresses, they don’t go anywhere, the Store is no longer open and it doesn’t look like it is part of the Miata Ring anymore.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 17
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 17