Month: August 2003

Troll or Concerned Citizen?

Got an interesting email last night and I am not sure what to make of it. The subject line was “taste..” Go and look at this page I have on the Barndoor Fan Club site called Barndoors Down Through History and now read the email reproduced in it’s entirety below. What do you think?

I can understand your “taste” in headlights but perhaps you should consider some “taste” where you place superimposed images of a car. I am not trying to be rude, honestly, in fact I am not even sure how I stumbled across your sight or why I am wasting my time on this email. I will say though, I realize you “love barndoors” and “mourn their loss,” and will “continue to cherish their retro beauty”. Just realize that some people might mourn the loss of great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and J.F.K. or those lost in the vietnam war, and would also like to cherish the beauty of thier memory and would prefer not to have images of such horrible events made worse by placing in a lame superimposed image of a cheap imported convertable. Really, there are other historical events that you could use instead.. consider perhaps, a miata driving down a dusty street with two huge buildings falling behind it- hilarious!, or maybe one behind Ghandi while he is fasting to stop the brittish empire- he he… actually no, perfect, have a miata speeding away from Princess Diana’s crash scene ;). See what I mean, there are soooo many other great historical events to defile! But I reeeealy love the one where the Berlin wall was going up.. that-cold-war-was soooo silly! and the suferage parade, ha, that one’l keep me giggling all night!

don’t get me wrong, miatas did have very nice headlights. Just consider some taste.

If that whole section was done with best intentions, than so was this email. Please realize though, that your best intentions may be offensive to some.

Can You Hear Me Now?

This evening as my wife and took our walk around the neighborhood at dark, we were marveling at the fireflies. I don’t know if it has been the really wet weather that has kept them scarce or what, but tonight they were everywhere. A few minutes into the walk we were passed by a 20-something fellow on a mountain bike with no lights or reflectors. We exchanged hellos and off he went. As Donna and I started discussing his unsafe riding habits once he was about 20 yards away he pegged the stupid-o-meter. He suddenly swerved across to the other lane as he reached into his pocket to answer his cell phone. At least he was travelling down a quiet street with little chance of getting flattened by an automobile.

Only Because I Washed It

The top cycled, but only because I washed it. Then I waxed the car too. After the clean-up I went out and bought some new windshield wipers. I remembered while windexing all the widows that the last time it rained I needed wipers, so I bought them before my usual reminder, a streaky windshield the next rain. Feeling real expansive, I also bought a can of semi-gloss black to respray the wiper arms and a roll of masking tape so I could use the same paint on the two rocker panels to touch them up.

At lunch we drove in the MSV out to a farm in the county to see our neighbor girl do a show jumping competition.

Mid-afternoon it was over to North Augusta where we had a nice turn out of Miatas for the Sno-Cap Anniversary, but we were outnumbered by Mustangs.

We had just an hour after returning from there before we went two streets over to “baby-sit” our friends kids. Time for bed as it is up at 6:30 for an early bike ride. Yawn. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I will have time to hunt up something broken for Photo Friday.

Purchased Today: $25.38
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1166.04
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

Dead Bugs & Fat Families

We went out after dark and drove one of our favorite 25 mile loops into the less populated sections of the county. Smashed about 1,000 bugs onto the front of the Miata. That is OK as tomorrow it will get a wash. Later in the day we are headed over to North Augusta to help the Sno-Cap Drive In celebrate their 39th anniversary, throughout the day various local Car Clubs hang out for an allotted time. We will be sharing the lot with the Mustang Club. There will be free drinks and food samples served by middle and high school cheerleaders, plus games, contests and trivia. Pleasant way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.

At the end of our drive was a stop at Krogers for the essentials for breakfast tomorrow. Eggs, bacon, bananas, apples and a cantaloupe. As we were walking in, we had the misfortune of following in a fat family of three, mom, teenaged daughter and a pre-teen. The “littlest” was 4′-6″ and 150 pounds. The teenager was maybe 5-8 and 175. Mom was a little shorter than the teen and weighed more, maybe 200 lbs. The two daughters were busy calling each other names. The mother was telling them to stop it and they just ignored her. They went left and we went right. Of course we ran into them again near the eggs. The teenaged daughter was standing there swinging the gallon of milk she had in her hand not paying attention to anything. We had to shift over to another aisle to get by. The two girls were still bickering and the mom was still shushing them. We made it to the cashier and guess who got in line right behind us? Right. After listening to them for about 30 seconds we left that line even thought we were next and went 3 lines over.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

It’s Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

This is almost a week late too. When we went into the Wal-Mart in Dahlonega last Saturday night we entered through the garden section and much to our horror they already had one aisle set up with Christmas stuff.

This easily trumps the Thanksgiving decorations we saw at a Michael’s craft store two weeks ago.

Shouldn’t I Be Grandfathered In

There is a stretch of US 1 & 78 that runs between Aiken and Augusta that they recently lowered the speed limit on from 55 MPH to 45. Myself, being a law abiding citizen, I slow down to 50 from 60 when I reach here. No one else does, they just keep barreling along. You can’t miss the signs, there are even “Reduced Speed Ahead” signs wih two orange flags popping out the top to warn you. Still no one slows down. What will they tell the cop? “Well, I used to drive 60 MPH through here before, shouldn’t I get grandfathered into being able to still go 60?”

Getting Close

After this weekend’s trip and tonight’s little drive in the dark the Miata’s mileage stands at 119,825. At 120k you are supposed to change the timing belt, a $400-$500 job. Now the rubber belt in my car is the same rubber belt that are installed on cars sold in California, but in California you don’t have to change the belt but every 100,000 miles. This is because by California law any emissions part must be warranted for 100k. So, should I wait and do the belt when I hit 160 because I did change it at 60,000 miles like Mazda says I should or should I spent the money now and get it done like a good boy? For reference, the Miata is a non-interference engine (meaning if the belt does break, nothing bad happens.)

And what would happen if I moved to California?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211