Miatatude

It’s Funny Now

Today was the Miata Club’s Photo Scavenger Hunt. We only had 4 cars show up to play, the absolute minimum needed. Those who played had fun and listening to their stories over lunch was worth putting it on for us.

When we gave the teams their instruction sheets, Donna and I headed off to do the prize shopping. As is our usual practice we parked far out in the shopping center lot. This has two benefits, first we get a nice walk in and second there is less chance of door dings. Because it was cloudy with a chance of sprinkles we put on the cockpit cover. Boy did that turn out to be a good idea. We went into we went into 5 separate stores hunting just the right prizes. We wanted to get something nice, but not too expensive. Store number 6 was the winner, Michael’s had picture frames on half price sale. We snagged 8 nice wood picture frames for $30. Four 4×6 for second place and four 5×7 for first. When we got back to the car parked near the edge of the lot, we noticed that the sprinkler was on and was spraying all over the car. The cockpit cover had done its job as the interior of the car was dry, until I uncovered it in an attempt to put the top up. Donna didn’t want to get wet, so she refused to help. I managed to get the cover off without spilling too much of the pooled water into the interior. I timed it right and raised the top real fast. Unfortunately the spray was coming in the lowered passenger side window. It made two sweeps into my face as I fumbled to raise the power windows. It made two more passes before I got my key out of my pocket and turned the ignition to ON and could actually get the window up. I got the roll of paper towels out of the trunk and wiped up as good as I could. I spent the rest of the morning with wet jeans.

It is funny now that I look back on it and if anyone was watching I bet they got a good laugh. And now that I have had a while to look at the problem, I probably could have avoided getting wet at all by getting Donna to come up from behind the sprinkler head (it was only sweeping 180 degrees) and just hold it in one spot away from the car.

Purchased Today: $14.00 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2611.67
Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 272

Still Leaking

Last night I looked in on the hot water heater that for reasons unknown had started to drip at drain outlet and just as mysteriously as it started, it stopped. Tonight, hoping that that same magic might have worked on my leaking differential, I didn’t pull into the garage, but got out and checked the floor. Still leaking. Maybe I’ll get some regular oil and start adding it a bit at a time until the leak stops.

Yeah, I know, don’t be so cheap, drain the $10 a quart synthetic and fill it back up with dino, already.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2597.67
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 267

Vinny’s Part Deaux

The Miata Club met at Vinny’s tonight. After last weeks visit to the place and seeing what room was promised and sampling the food I didn’t have high hopes. Well boy was I disappointed. They gave us a big long table in the corner instead of the room with the pool table. The pizza was excellent instead of just so-so. Please we had a large (for us) crowd in attendance. Too bad we didn’t have any real business to attend to…

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2597.67
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 267

Simple Green

The garage smells of Simple Green. Tonight after work I put the car up on jackstands and squirted the stuff everywhere on the differential and transmission (and the bottom of the engine for good measure.) After about 10 minutes I sprayed it all off using a garden hose. During those 10 minutes I took the time to sweep out the dust, acorns, leaves and dead roaches from the garage. The bottom of the car is clean and now I will check it on the weekend and see where my leak(s) is coming from. I say it like that because I noticed that there were some oily drops on the floor near the middle of the car to go along with the ones at the rear.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2597.67
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 261

Indian Summer?

If it is in the upper 80s and it is November, is it too late to refer to it as Indian Summer? Beautiful day. We spent a big chunk of it blasting hither and yon on Lake Thurman with friends from the Miata Club. To and from the lake were spent enjoying the beautiful day.

When I got home I peeked under the car to see if I could see where the leak is coming from. It doesn’t look like it is at either the fill or drain plug. Must be coming from the front seal. If that is the case, I may have to go back to plain ol’ oil. Tomorrow after work I’ll put the car on jack stands and clean it all off, then check again in a couple of days.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2597.67
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 261

One Little Thing After Another

Bad Gas part 2. Maybe it wasn’t bad gas before that was causing the engine knock. It was back today under hard acceleration. The gas level was low so I filled it with high test again. Maybe the knock only appears when I get to the bottom of the tank?

Didn’t pull all the way into the garage when we got home from work today as I needed the aforementioned gas and we needed gas for the lawn mower. As I walked through the garage into the house I noticed a couple of oily looking spots on the floor. They were towards where the rear of the car sits. I just switched to synthetic and from what I’ve read on Miata.net sometimes this leaking is because synthetic has smaller molecules that sneak by where the bigger dino oil molecules can’t. May have to switch back.

Not car related but annoying none the less, the water heater now has a small drip coming from the place where you hook up a hose to drain it. About a 1/4 cup in the last 24 hours…

Purchased Today: $14.00 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2597.67
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 261

Vinny’s

Someone suggested that the Miata Club meet at this new place that opened up in North Augusta, Vinny’s Pizzeria. The meeting is next Thursday at 7:00 PM, so as a recon mission, Donna, myself and her mother went over tonight around 7:00 PM to eat. The place is cobbled together out of who knows what it used to be. Very small and if we get a big turnout we might overwhelm the place. As it is the owner mentioned we could have the back room all to ourselves. Well the back room had 3 tables in it. Plus the pool table and an air hockey table. Going to be tough to hold a meeting while somebody is playing air hockey. I’ll let you know.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2583.67
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 261