Month: June 2003

Close, But No Cigar

The Aiken 9 year-old All Stars lost tonight 7 to 5 and North Augusta took home the slightly bigger trophies. They played well, but the other team just made fewer errors. Our friend’s son started and pitched the first 4 innings. When he was pulled after the 4th, Aiken was ahead 5 to 4. Unfortunately North Augusta had the number of the 5th inning starter and jumped on him for 2 quick runs. NA scored scored one more on the 3rd Aiken pitcher and the damage was done. When Aiken came up in the top of the 6th for their final shot, they went down 1-2-3.

Off to the mountains in the morning. If you are on the Blue Ridge Parkway west of Asheville on Friday and see a blue Miata flash by; wave, its me.

I’m going to take the notebook and do some analog blogging this weekend. When I get back on Sunday I’ll post the entries from each day.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $804.88
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 127

Harry Belafonte

Whenever the three of us go anywhere, we of course have to drive Donna’s Moms’ Civic because the Miata holds just two. Mom has a 6 disc CD changer in the car and it is always stuffed full of music that is appropriate for the listening pleasure of a 70 year-old woman.

It has always been a rule between Donna and I that whoever is driving, gets the music choice. This works out well for me because I do 95% of all the driving. It is different in the Civic, maybe in deference to her age or because of the fact that it is Mom’s car, I usually listen to whatever is in the changer. Most of the stuff is tolerable and we are usually going under 30 miles so it won’t be for too long.

Unfortunately one of her favorites is a Harry Belafonte CD in which he thoroughly butchers several recognizable songs. And then in others, the production is way over the top for the song involved. His rendition of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore is a shining example of this. I just spent the last 30 minutes listening to this tripe and my head is swimming. Where is my copy of Guns ‘n’ Roses’s Appetite For Destruction? I need a little “Welcome To The Jungle.”

Trip Delayed Because Of 9 Year-Old

And we don’t have kids. A friend’s son is on the Aiken 9 Year-Old All Star baseball team and they won tonight to claw their way out of the loser’s bracket into a Championship Game tomorrow. They defeated the team that sent them to the loser’s bracket on Monday by a score of 7-6.

We watched them play Saturday and they won, we watched them Sunday and they won and we watched them tonight and the won. Monday and Tuesday we didn’t watch them and they went 1 and 1. Donna and I figured they had a better chance of winning if we went, so we are.

Instead of driving up part way on Friday and spending some time driving twisty roads on our way to the Pisgah Inn to meet my sister and her husband, we will just get up early Friday morning and drive up.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $804.88
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 127

Trailer Queen

This last Saturday as part of the Peach Festival Parade there were a couple of Plymouth Prowlers as an entry. One was being pulled on a trailer. I guess this guy figured that by not driving this one around it will be worth money someday. It probably hasn’t ever been driven except maybe on and off that trailer, he still had the original window sticker on the windshield.

Prowlers are fairly rare and if he finds just the right collector he may get a few bucks for it, but I think my retirement strategy of buying lottery tickets will pay off sooner than his expected windfall.

CafePress Mess

I guess I really am a glutton for punishment. I ordered several stickers from the CafePress store for this blog and some from the Miata Diaries store as well on the 14th of June. On the 17th their status was “In Production.” One week later they were still In Production, so I called their Customer Service number. After a not too long of a wait the CSR told me that they were having a slight problem with the sticker material not printing right so that everyone’s sticker orders were delayed. She informed me that my order was going out today.

The last time I called about a delayed “In Production” order, I received my original order and then several days later I got a second shirt via UPS second day. They never charged for the 2nd shirt and I never said anything. Maybe I’ll get 2 orders of stickers. If I do I’ll report it here and I’ll give the doubles away.

A Day In The Ho-Hum Life

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged my comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup…

About the only non-standard blip in my day was sitting inside a 2002 Mustang Cobra. A fellow brought in his brother-in-law’s car for the day. Thought it might be fun to park it next to our Director of Operation’s 2003 Cobra. At lunch a few of us went out and oohed and aahed. Boy Howdy I’m glad I didn’t have to drive that thing in the Peach Parade on Saturday, I’d have never made it. I’m not sure I could make it through a long red light with that thing pushed in. Yikes that clutch is a stiff. Not sure how the action is as I didn’t drive it, but a few seconds with the clutch pushed in was a definate quad workout.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $804.88
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 127

Shopping Spree

Mazda has changed the diameter of the stock oil filter (rambled on about that back on May 31) Today I decided to buy the new filter wrench to fit them from Finish Line Performance. While I was there I figured I might as well buy a couple of filters too. Total spent here was $$22.96.

I need to replace my cockpit cover. I’ve only had it about a year, but it seems to be deteriorating at a rapid rate. My SWAG is that once I Scotchguarded it started to eat away at the fabric and ever since it has been leaving a fine white powder behind when I take it off. Shopping at Moss Motors cost me $63.40. For that I got a new cockpit cover and the cleaning solution/new oil for K&N air filters. The K&N has been in there for a while and it is probably past due for cleaning.

Purchased Today: $86.38 ca-ching
Money spent since 03/03/03: $804.88
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 127