Year: 2002

The Taurus Diaries

Rutherford, NJ to New Britain, CT. Easy drive of about 150 miles and one we used to do often when we lived in New Jersey. New Britain is home for my family and we used to try and get back there every couple of months. Surprise, it rained the whole trip. Hertz is going to have to replace the windshield wipers on the car if this keeps up. My brother Paul played chef and grilled up some delicious ribs for dinner. Mom whipped up a big ol’ bowl of pasta salad and Donna “tossed” together a Caesars salad to go with the corn on the cob. Sister Diane, her husband Allen and I did our part by staying out of the way and then eating it all up with smiles on our faces. Fitting Labor Day Feast for the traditional last-day-of-summer.

Helicopter Traffic Reports

In NYC’s competitive news market you just have to have a helicopter to cover breaking news (or just in case a low speed chase breaks out.) And while you have one you can use it for traffic reports in the morning and evening. WB11 the New York affiliate of the Warner Brothers fledgling TV network was giving a helicopter traffic report from a hanger somewhere. The reporter was reading while just sitting on the ground. Maybe they can’t afford to own a chopper, but the budget does allow for renting the cockpit out. Maybe I’m being harsh. It was raining that morning so they probably couldn’t fly because of the weather. They still had a traffic report, so it begs the question, why have the helicopter in the first place…oh yeah, low speed chases.

Holiday Inn II

We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Rock Hill, SC. We got 2 adjoining rooms, one for Donna & I and one for Donna’s mom. While Mom was sitting reading she noticed a parade of ants on the nightstand. We checked on the bed and fortunately there weren’t any. Donna & her mom killed a bunch of them, so when she called the front desk to complain and they offered to move us, we just said no. In the morning the ants were back in full force. It was either a search party looking for their missing companions or a funeral procession. After breakfast Donna’s mom stopped to remind them of their ant problem in room 104. (When we checked out they were nice enough not to charge us for the room even though we didn’t bitch and moan about their crappy motel.)

The Taurus Diaries

From Rock Hill, SC to Lexington, VA. Rained awful for the first 1/3 of the trip and then tapered off to nothing by the time we arrived in Lexington. We are staying with friends. Actually we are staying at the home of a childhood friend of Donna’s, but only the women’s mother, Adele, is at the house today. Sally is off moving in the daughter at the Maine Maritime Academy where Claire is entering her junior year. The son, Stuart, is off with his dad at the Virginia Tech/LSU football game. When we pass through here next Friday we will see everyone but Claire. Good thing the Lewis house had room for us, as we couldn’t get a room at any of the local motels. Not only is it move-in day for MMA in Castine, ME it is move-in day at Washington & Lee in Lexington. Plus there is a horse event at the Virginia Horse Center north of town.

And There It Will Sit

Top up all day. Parked the Miata in the garage when we got home and there it will sit until at least next Saturday. Loaded up the MSV for the drive to the Columbia, SC airport where we will pick up a Ford Taurus for the weeklong trip up to Connecticut and points in between. Ate at California Dreaming before heading north on I-77 for stop #1, Rock Hill, SC.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233

Expandable Plastic Tabs

Both Stone Guards are in. Not bad, nobody is going to notice them though. During the day the barndoors are down. At night the lights are on only when you drive and you don’t notice the mesh from further away than 5 feet. They are for me, I know they are there and I think they add just a bit more whimsy to the front of the car.

The rubber flaps were impossible to trim while in the car, so I had to take them out to cut them. I had to use some tin snips as the rubber is about 1/8 thick. I cut a nice little curve in each one to clear the shape of the mesh. Trouble was they were held in by some expandable plastic tabs and you couldn’t get to the bottom of them to compress the tabs, so had to snip them out figuring it shouldn’t be to hard to find them. (I hope I’m not wrong, Advance Auto didn’t have the right size.) You’ll just have to wait until next week on pictures as we are off on a weeks vacation starting right after work tomorrow.

Started down, went up, went down, went back up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 231