Rants

$345 Squirrel

The chimney sweep had to do some masonry work to extract the carcass of the squirrel that had somehow managed to lodge himself into a crack in some bricks. We think he squeezed past the chimney screening, fell down the flue and when he couldn’t climb back up he tried to escape via a loose brick and failed. So instead of the $150 he added another 50 for brick work and another 50 for the tighter fitting (and hopefully squirrel-proof) chimney cap. Add that the 95 smackers on last Friday for the pest control visit. We get one expensive squirrel. Should have had the thing stuffed, rotting looking skull and all.

Still some flys appearing on the living room window and dead on the floor in front of it. Donna asked me to put a black plastic bag over the fireplace opening for a couple days, hopefully whatever flies aren’t dead by now will be when we take the plastic off in a couple weeks.

I Smell Dead Things II

The smell is gone, but everyday this week when we get home from work there have been any where from 3 to 6 big ol’ flies buzzing around on the living room window. So I know there is something dead somewhere. I call the pest control folks back and ask for a return trip. The fellow shows up and goes over to the fireplace and notices a faint smell and a couple more flies. He says you need to call a chimney sweep as we don’t clean out dead things from chimneys. I called and left a message. Later in the evening the sweep returns our call and surprisingly he says he can come out tomorrow (Saturday.) It will be $129-159 depending on the size of the animal he has to extract. Come on over, I tell him.

Miata Magazine

When Mazda introduced the car there was already a national Club in the works. The crown jewel benefit of belonging to the national Club has always been a glossy full-color magazine published quarterly and now bi-monthly. When I bought my first Miata in November 1989 I received Issue #2 free as an enticement to join the Club. The magazine was chock full of stories and letters dealing with how-tos and best of all ads for all kinds of geegaws to make your Miata faster, prettier or just different. I ordered Issue #1 and the collection started.

It has been a tumultuous last couple of years with the magazine changing hands and the first Club folding because the “President” and founder were cooking the books. They almost took the Magazine with them, but the Miata community got behind the publisher and saved the day. And now with Mazda behind it, we have a new Club and it’s members get the magazine.

My membership expired in March, and I don’t plan on renewing it. I’ve gotten the last 2 magazines anyway, but I don’t enjoy it or need it anymore. The informative letters have been replaced by the internet, the ads with cool products have been replaced by bookmarks to websites and the stories are no longer a mix of fiction and product reviews, but seem to be just quasi-ads to upgrade to high performance turbos or $2000 big brake kits. I’m sure there is a market and clamor for this stuff, but it is not me.

I guess in the 13 years I’ve owned a Miata, I have changed and the magazine has changed, so it is not for me anymore. I just hate to see the Magazine collection stop.

Small Town Living

Possibly the only real negative thing about living in a small town is the inability to get a slightly off-beat item on short notice. The stores are like 3/4 scale models of the ones elsewhere, so they don’t stock a real wide variety of merchandise. I had a idea (I know what you are thinking, keep it to yourself please) about a prize for a little contest I’m running for the Miata Club. Well, you get it in this town. Fortunately I have a couple weeks, allowing me to order it over the net and get it on time. If I needed by this Friday like I first thought I would have been shit out of luck.

J.C. Whitney II

My package from J.C. Whitney arrived today. I opened the box and dug down into the sea of foam peanuts and pulled out a small box with a window tinting strip. Huh!?! Must be a free gift or something, so I start digging again. I find nothing else. This sucks, I check the packing slip and it lists what I ordered, 7″ Round Chrome Headlight Protectors. I call “Customer Service” and after the usual 5 minute wait on hold the rep tells me to just fill out the RMA conveniently located right on the back of my invoice and send the part back. I guess this happens a lot. Now I’ve got probably another month before I get a 2nd try at getting what I ordered. The only marginally good thing out of all this is that they are really going to earn that $9.95 shipping & handling charge. They have to ship me my parts twice plus they are going to reimburse me to mail the incorrect part back.

I Smell Dead Things

Thursday evening while hooking up the new DVD player I thought I smelt a dead animal smell. Again on Friday when I passed thru the living room on the way out the front door to get the paper I caught another whiff. When I got to work I called the pest control folks and asked them to come out and check under the house for carcasses. We have had trouble with possums before and I thought maybe we had a dead one under there. The fellow came out and looked all under the house but could not find anything. He did say he could see where a possum or something was under there. He spotted some fleas so along with the smell killer he sprayed under the house for fleas. Friday I swear the smell was still there faintly. Saturday as well, but Donna nor her mom, who spend more time in the living room than I, have said anything, so I ain’t saying anything until they do.

USPS Package Tracking

A couple of days ago I whined about J.C. Whitney charging $9.95 to ship a 1.25 pound package to me. They also gave me a tracking number. If you have ever followed a UPS package on line they let you know every step of the way where your shipment is, by contrast the USPS thing leaves a lot to be desired. They tell you that the status is updated every evening, but don’t say when in the evening and my status didn’t change from the 13th until the 15th. Not only that the last entry says my package arrived in Aiken at 12:00AM on the 15th, but I didn’t get it today. I guess I’ll have to wait until Monday. Contrast that to the UPS delivery (click on the detail button) of my new DVD player, which I got Thursday morning thank you very much.