Miatatude

Of All The Gin Joints…

…in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

The Master’s Miata Club was “hosting” a cruise in at the Sno Cap Drive-In in North Augusta tonight. We had about 8 of our cars and a smattering of other cars in attendance. About halfway through the evening, in pulled a blue Miata that wasn’t a club member. Hey, wait a minute, that car looks familiar. Sure enough, it was our old car. I went over and said hello to the new owner Shannon Vick and her son. She and he were in North Augusta and he suggested going to the Sno Cap for something to eat. They had no clue that we would be there. Boy that sure is a pretty car.

You must remember this;
A car is still a car,
A sigh is just a sigh ?
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

Exciting Day At Work Today

I got my new electric pencil sharpener. This puppy’s got a cord, no more wimpy, battery operated, hold it just so, slow poke. This thing wil make dust of a full size pencil in just under 2 minutes. I know, I timed it.

I’ve Got Gmail!

Thanks to Rick at Obsession I have now arrived fashionably late to the current web status party. So email me if you want at brian.the.red@gmail.com. Go ahead, spammers too, I need to see if this thing works for me. I have been an Outlook Express user for years and have grown quite used to it, so I don’t know if I can make the transition to web-based email. Right now I know I can’t because there is no way to import my long list of names in my OE address book into Gmail’s contact list.

I Am A Carrier

I think the poor fellow had a predisposition for the affliction though. Back in January I let him take a spin behind the wheel of the new Miata and within a few months he had to have one. He didn’t tell me what year he wants me to guess when I see it next trip down. I did get the fact that it was red, that is no big help in narrowing it down as there has been a red offered every year. I refrained from asking a few key questions that would help me narrow it down. The only other hint, if you could call it that, was that it has 36,000 miles on it. He said it proudly, so I’m guessing clean first generation. Knowing Jerry wouldn’t spend a lot, I’m betting on a 92 or 93, which with those miles would be a sweet car. He mentioned it came with a hard top that he has no need nor desire for. That puppy is probably worth a grand and if he can sell it, that will lower his purchase cost considerably.

What Are The Odds Of That?

When the Master’s Miata Club‘s pool party that has been on the schedule for June 26th for like forever, got postponed a few weeks ago, I felt there needed to be an event that weekend, so I tossed out a Big Mo Drive-In trip. I received an email last night from a member of the Low Country Miata Club telling me that they had planned an overnight event to come up here to go to the drive-in the same night. We are now in the process of trying to work on maybe doing something together before the movie.

We don’t know what will be showing the weekend we are going because they never know until the Monday before what movies they’ll get. Shrek2 and Mean Girls were shown there the last 2 weekends. This coming weekend is Garfield and The Day After Tomorrow. Of the movies listed on their coming soon page only Troy and Harry Potter are out or will be out by the weekend we are going. Of course with my luck the movie I would least like to see will be playing then, it opens the weekend before, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

We Get Surveys

Received a survey in the mail from Mazda today asking about my satisfaction with my recent warranty service. I guess this was my 7500 mile service, but it was reported to them as warranty work because they replaced a top latch I complained about being loose and there is a TSB out on them.

1) This is where I will tell them about the service tech not abiding by the torque specifications for the lug nuts when he rotated my tires. Negative

2) This is where I will tell them about how it took 2 1/2 hours to complete a job they told me would take an hour. Negative

3) I will also tell them about one individual who made sure I got a loaner car for the extra time so Donna and I could do the shopping we had planned to do after the car was serviced. Positive

4) I will also tell them about the overpowering smell that was present in the interior of the car, which I assumed was the lubrication applied to the trunk hinges to eliminate the creaking I complained about. Negative

5) I will probably leave out the part that while the trunk is easier to open and close, only 80% of the creaking is gone, because I haven’t given them the shot at fixing it again. Neutral

Let me go sharpen my No.2 pencil…

High Topped Sneakers

I think it is just me, but the new Miata with 16″ wheels and OEM height looks like it is wearing high topped sneakers. I’d really like to lower the car an inch or so, but the easy and perfectly acceptable way it was accomplished on the earlier version car, Koni adjustable shocks, is not available for this car. Lowering springs or adjustable coilovers are the only way to lower this generation Miata and shocks will change the ride characteristics and the coilovers are expensive…

I’ve been eyeballing different 15″ wheels thinking that might change the appearance to something better. This method has its shortcomings as well because only certain wheels will fit over the larger brakes. The only way this fly is when I’ve worn out the stock tires and can sell the new wheels by pointing out that the new 15″tire wheels will only be a little more expensive than just the 16″ tires.