Miatatude

I was going to break down and wash the car tonight because we are in for a no-rain stretch, but decided against it. It would have been a waste. The pine pollen has really started to kick in the last couple of days. When it is this bad, you can wash the car, dry it off, and by the time you have coiled the hose up out of the way to drive the car into the garage, there is already a small dusting of yellow powder back on the car.

I just cleaned off the pollen using my “Ernest Brush.” That is a California Duster, but was nicknamed that by my wife after a former MMC member who used to bring one out whenever we took a break during Club driving events.

Here is another chance to win a new 2006 MX-5 and this one won’t cost you anything. Road & Track have teamed up with Mazda to give away a car and a weekend at Laguna Seca raceway to watch the U.S. Sports Car Invitational May 5-7th.

One entry per customer: Enter Here

Can’t wait until then, here is link to a free 2006 MX-5, some assembly required…

The Kidney & Urology Foundation of America, Inc is raffling off a new MX-5. The drawing will be at the New York Auto Show on April 23rd. (Winners need not be present) Buy your tickets on line, a book of 6 tickets is $25.

I’ve bought 6 hoping to shorten my lead time to a new Miata by 4 years or so.

It was supposed to get into the middle 70s today. Tomorrow rain and the weekend cold, so Donna convinced me to take the afternoon off and enjoy the day.

We headed over to Sportsman BBQ and got a plate and a sandwich to go. And go we did. We went up to a small park next to Clark’s Hill Lake. We had a little picnic at one of the tables overlooking the lake and the dam. After eating we spread out a blanket and lounged in the sun to read some. A fairly short time after we got settled, another car showed up. A minivan with a young family. They proceeded to unload a huge amount of stuff, strollers, bikes, coolers, fishing poles, etc. Mom and young daughter were in constant communication, “Stay here.” “Alright,” as she wanders off. “Don’t go far. ” “I won’t,” as she keeps on walking. “Come over here.” “Mom?”

We packed our books and blanket in the trunk and went for a walk around exploring every nook and cranny of the small park. After about a half an hour we got back in the car and went for a nice drive in the country before coming home.

Really nice day for a convertible. But somehow I feel we are going to have to pay for it with a couple inches of snow in February…

Might be time to get one, after a little over two years and less than 32k miles, our current car has developed a major defect. A dash rattle. Just started showing up on cold days at between 2600 & 2800 RPM. God, I hate dash rattles. Most times they are my fault because I had the dash apart to do some mod or another. This time it was self generated because I really haven’t disassembled the interior too much.

I remember the Laguna used to have a couple of dash rattles, one only showed up when the outside temperature was above 85 degrees and then there was another that only made an appearance when it was below 40 degrees. Different sounds for each and in spite of several attempts to find the source they never were quieted down. At least I had relatively quiet springs and falls.

With any lightweight, tightly sprung car you are eventually going to develop these annoying buzzes, creaks or rattles, it is only a matter of time. I was hoping for another year of quiet though.

Wait a minute, I just stuck a new CD in the glove box the other day, could it be that simple? I doubt it.