Miatatude

You Lost?

Last evening, top down, we were stopped at a light in downtown. It had just turned red and we were the first in line in the left lane. As we came to a stop Donna and I noticed two cop cars blow through the red light. No siren or lights, just rolled on through. I mumbled, “Stupid cops.” Donna said, “They are Greenwood County Sheriff?s cars, must be lost.” Greenwood county is about 50 miles north of us. With the recent train derailment in the next town over, it has not been unusual to see out-of-town law enforcement cars around.

It was then that I noticed the lead cop car pull a u-turn behind me. To Donna I said kiddingly, “They’re after me, must have heard me call ’em stupid.” The trailing car stopped about 150 feet back and sure enough, the first car pulled up right next to us. Uh-oh.

“Hey good peoples,” the deputy goes, “Can you tell us where the Aiken County Sheriff?s Office is?”

We have lived here nearly 16 years and have no idea where the Sheriff?s office is. I guess that is a good thing, but we did know where the town Department of Public Safety is, so we sent him there.

As the light turned green, off he went quickly followed by the trail car. As I made my left I noticed about 6 or so more sheriff?s cars pulling similar u-turns and chasing the “leader.” Couldn’t they have called somebody on the radio? Gotten directions before they left?

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 6

That Wasn’t So Bad

We had the yearly planning meeting for the Master’s Miata Club tonight and now, looking back, it wasn’t too bad. We managed to hammer out an event or two or three for each of the next 11 months. Now I have to make some sense of my scribbled notes and turn them into a web page….

It was sprinkling on the drive over so the top went up for the drive, for the trip back from North Augusta it was back down, but I propped it up so it could dry overnight in the garage.

Started down, went up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 5

Top Transistions

I’m brining it back the top transition count for the year 2005. I had been thinking about late last year and thought I might go ahead and do it. I figured I’d wait until the first of the year and start on New Year’s Day. Well New Year’s Day has come and gone and I forgot to put the count on the page. I have been so busy trying to combine blogs that that little detail slipped my mind. Fortunately we have had a rash of spring-like weather recently so there hasn’t been a rash of movement. It was easy to backtrack to January 1st When it started down, I put it up for the early morning drive to the hiking location, after hiking it went down for the trip home and there it has been ever since.

Started down, went up, and went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 2

Yikes!

Walking back through the garage I noticed a wavy spot on the right rear fender. When did that show up? Looks like someone sat on the fender or heaven forbid, I used too much pressure when I was wiping off the wax the other day. It is a very shallow and gradual dent. Anybody know the web address of a do-it-yourself ding doctor tutorial? Or maybe I should try one of those cheesy dent pulling things you see advertised on TV, with the hot glue and the “high tech” dent pulling suction cup…

Help!

Trekked to Augusta this evening. First order of business was to run the Master’s Miata Club‘s newsletter through the postage meter at Rader. Sorry we didn’t stop and say hello Scott, but we were hungry and the ribs at Tony Roma’s were beckoning. Besides I’m sure you were busy selling cars as Kwanzaa gifts. 😉

Second order of business was to shop. I am owed $50, thirty-five from a misspent Target gift card plus fifteen bucks for the vig. I am searching high and low looking for the movie Help! with the Beatles. Target – nope. Circuit City – nope. Boder’s – nope. Best Buy – nope. I tried my level best locally, so off to the net I go…

It was in the upper 60’s when we left work and even though the sky had clouded up, it was still warm enough for top down motoring. As the night crept on the cold crept in, it was in the upper 20’s by the time we started for home. The top stayed down, but the windows went up and the heater came on a touch,

Twelve Days of Miata

We are all familiar with the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, well, apparently Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon has discovered that there is hidden Catholic meaning in the song. i.e. The “five golden rings” represents the first five books of the Bible, the “six geese a-laying” is the six days of creation, etc.I thought the 12 days song was really about the Miata, but all I could come up with was 2 seats, 4 cylinders, 5 speeds and 7 thousand RPMs. So amateur symbologists, can you help me decode the hidden Miata messages in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas”?

When I posted the above on the Miata Forum I didn’t get exactly what I was hoping for, but I did get one cute one. Thanks Cinemaniac, it isn’t literally correct, but…
On the 12th day of Mazda, my Miata gave to me:
Twelve turns a-twisting
Eleven pipes exhausting
Ten Lanes a Leaping
Nine Ladies Oogling
Eight Mods a Modding
Seven Drifts a Skidding
Six speed transmisson
FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE PISTON RINGS…
Fo-our alloy wheels
Three Drive Belts
Two air horns
And the finger from an S-U-V!

Hmmmm, Now What?

I have a Sony 10 disc CD changer mounted in the trunk. I placed it off to the left and far enough over that I still had access to the little cubby that is all the way over on that side. It is mounted horizontally with the opening facing into the trunk. I needed to face that way so I could access the disc magazine. It turns out that there is a major disadvantage to this arrangement. The newer Miatas have a relatively flat trunk area and because it is a sports car, turns are usually taken with elan. This combination results in anything that is placed in the trunk sliding around. When everything slides to the right it is stopped by the inside fender well, but when that stuff slides left it gets stopped by the CD changer. It is mounted very sturdily, but the plastic disc magazine door is taking a beating.

It is like most changer doors in that it is a convoluted two-piece sliding thing. A few weeks ago I got tired of popping the small door back onto its tracks, so I got some household cement and glued it in place in the big door. This was great until this past weekend when I went to put my MP3 Christmas CD in. Those doors are in two pieces for a reason and that reason is so that they open wide enough to allow you to get the magazine out. Oops! I had to stretch the big plastic cover out of its tracks to get a big enough opening to change out a disc. Today I must have got a direct hit with a sliding lunch box because the little door came uncemented from the large one and was floating around the trunk. The small door is stuck in the trunk cubby for now.

I can move the changer to vertical so the stuff bounces off the side instead of the face, but then I lose the vertical space above the changer, which in the current full trunk scheme is reserved for the small cooler. This is undesirable option. IIRC mounting it facing the other way left no room to swap magazines. This option requires investigation. I probably shouldn’t just leave the door off because trunk projectiles may damage some important internal mechanism. Another option might be to rig up some sort of hinged or quick releasable partition. Is ditching the changer an going with satellite radio in the future?