Not only did I wash the Emperor yesterday, but later in the evening we went out for some ice cream and on the way there ran the Purple Whale thru LuLu’s.
No real post here tonight because I used up all my words writing the Rally Wrap Up of last week’s Bug Splat with the Masters Miata Club.
The Emperor got a bath this morning. But it was a stinking hot day Brian, didn’t you work up a sweat? There was no need to work up a sweat, I was already sweaty from the morning bike ride and a little yard work that I did just before starting the project.
After washing the Miata I pulled it into the garage and washed the first 1/31 of each side of the green metal awning that the Purple Whale parks under, AKA The Aquarium.
I cheated for the Sonata, after lunch we ran it through Lulu’s.
The dead bird was cleaned out of the Emperor’s mouth a few miles after he crash landed there on Sunday, but it took until today to clean the dead bugs off the nose. The Sonata got a bath tonight too, but unlike the hand wash the Miata got, the Purple Whale got a Molly Wash from Lulu’s.
Brian & Donna got a laundry basket full of clean clothes and even some of the English Ivy near the A/C unit got a shower of Agent Orange tonight.
It is Pine Pollen Season(tm) here in my Fair City and the poor Emperor was literally freckled with yellow dots. Dots form because it rained yesterday on the evenly dusted surfaces of the car and that makes the water bead up. I used the California Duster(r) this morning in the garage this morning, the lose pollen came off, but the dots remained. Along with both our finger prints on the doors and trunk.2 At the end of the day there was another fine layer of pollen all over the car. Seeing as tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day and we’ll take the Sonata to work, with the Miata staying in the garage, when we got home tonight, I decided to wash it.
Because I wash the cars under the metal carport the Sonata normally lives under, to wash the Miata, the Sonata has to be backed to the end of the driveway. Even thought I can count the pine trees in our neighborhood on one hand3 the blueish hued Purple Whale was nearly green from its thick coating of pollen too making it hard to see where the end of the driveway is.
So after washing the Emperor, I went ahead and washed the Purple Whale even though I know it is kind of a waste of time.4 Sure it needed it, but right now as I sit inside typing this, the car is slowing being re-covered with a dusting of yellow pollen. Plus with tomorrow’s rain by the end of the work day the Sonata will be covered in yellow freckles just like I removed from the Miata.
You enter the restroom and a coworker is washing their hands. They have obviously finished their business. You enter your favorite stall to do yours. When you sit down you realize that this was the stall your coworker has just finish using. Is it OK to call over the door, “Thanks for warming the seat for me.” What about if it is winter?
The Emperor got a bath last night in preparation for tomorrow’s Ridge Peach Festival Parade. The Purple Whale got his bath the day before. I’ll be taking my weekly bath tonight.
Yesterday was supposed to be a rainy day with thunderstorms. So much so that they postponed the final leg of Aiken’s Triple Crown, the polo game, from Saturday until today, Sunday. In the morning it rained a bit, but by mid afternoon the predicted thunder had not materialized.
After it seemed all the rain had passed I decided to wash the Purple Whale to clean off the road grime and dead bugs from our trip to Florida a couple weeks ago. After washing and drying the car I carried the floor mats inside and vacuumed them off, it took less than 5 minutes, but by the time I opened the first door to put them in the car a fine dusting of pine pollen had already accumulated on the surface of the car. It’s that time of year.
Around dark last night we went out and did our weekly grocery shopping. While we were in the store a brief shower must have come through. Nice.
I went out this morning to get the Sunday paper, if you live in a pine infested area you know what I saw, the car looked like it had the measles, there were nice round circles of yellow all over. Sigh.
This afternoon I gave the Whale a brushing off with the California Duster. I got rid of most of the spots and it is not perfect, but I feel a little better. At least until we get in the car to drive home from work tomorrow.
A little bit of Spring weather today sent Donna and I out into the world with the Miata to have a top down adventure. It was time to go take a few more Moss Motoring Challenge photos and some make up geocaching. We needed a Duck Crossing sign and knew right where to find one because we had stumbled on it while on an unsuccessful geocaching trip about a month ago. When we had gone to sign the log of our first find back then, we realized that neither of us had a pen, doh!
We started in Aiken with a photo of a horse track and then we drove to Augusta to get the Duck Crossing sign photo. I took our laminated Motoring Challenge poster and stuck it right below the crossing sign between the sign and the post while we snapped a couple shots. We then took a walk near Lake Olmstead and the Augusta Greenjacket’s stadium to take care of our cache signings. It wasn’t until we were getting back in the car that I realized that I had left the challenge poster hanging on the Duck Crossing sign. Almost forgot it.
Next we headed for a cupcake bakery. I remembered where one was on Washington Road and Donna remembered where another one was further out on the same road. The first one didn’t actually say cupcake in its name, so we continued out further on Washington Road into Evans where the above photo comes from, a place called “Small Cakes, a Cupcakery.” I made myself right at home at the table right outside to un-opened bakery with my poster propped up at the window.
Seeing as we were this far out on Washington Road we decided to keep on going north and then cross over the Strom Thurmond Dam back into South Carolina. Donna thought it might be cool to take a picture in front of the dam to use as one of our next Sneak Peek photos. Turns out there was a small playground right there, something we needed for the Challenge, so we took a photo of that with the dam in the background. When I opened the trunk to get the camera and the laminated Challenge poster I realized that I had the camera, but no poster. This time, unlike at Lake OLmstead, I did leave it behind.
I was all for just forgetting about it as we did have the back-up smaller version still and I could always make another one, but Donna thought that we should go back to Evans and get it. She reasoned that it was nearing lunch and there were plenty of places to chose from for eating back that way and then we could get a cupcake for desert.
The Emperor passed through the 136,000 mile mark as we crossed the dam back into Georgia. The sign was still there at the bakery, right on the table, where the girl who sold us the cupcake had put it when she opened the store. Originally we were going to share a cupcake, but they looked so good and had such a variety that we opted to get one each. They were moist and dense and the frosting was so superb that I’m betting they packed in about 136,000 calories each.
When we got home it was still too nice a day to stay inside, so I went out and washed both cars. The Emperor will be fine as he will be staying in the garage for the week, but the Purple Whale’s cleanliness will not last, tomorrow it is supposed to rain and with the warm weather, the pines surrounding the Valve Store’s(r) parking lot will be emitting yellow pollen dust soon.