Year: 2004

British Invasion

The Beatles arrived today, one day ahead of schedule, so far, only Ringo is out of his box:

Finally, A Nice Day

It made it to the middle sixties today. wOOt! It had clouded up by quitting time, but it was still warm enough for a trip home with the top down – no coat required. On the way home I stopped in to Autozone and picked up 4 quarts of Penzoil 10-30. Rotated the tires and changed the oil at 18,813 miles. Grandpa Mazda recommends changing the oil every 7500 miles, but I like to do it halfway between as well. This way the Emperor gets some nice clean blood every three thousand seven hundred fifty miles. I lifted the car up and put it on 4 jack stands, this way after removing the front right tire I can get to the drain plug easy enough. While the oil drains I go ahead and get 3 of the 4 tires rotated. Before putting the right front back on I swap oil filters. Takes about an hour and a half from start to finish.

I think my friends at Rader, they changed the oil last, used the impact wrench on the drain plug, as it was a bear to get off. Because the car was full hot I expected a little resistance in removing the plug, but my usual ice cube trick didn’t seem to help much. Even after melting 2 cubes on the head of the drain plug it still wouldn’t come loose. I had to resort to gently tapping on the end of the wrench with a hammer to get it off. I wonder what the torque spec for the oil drain plug is?

The answer is 22-30 foot pounds

Twelve Days of Miata

We are all familiar with the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, well, apparently Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon has discovered that there is hidden Catholic meaning in the song. i.e. The “five golden rings” represents the first five books of the Bible, the “six geese a-laying” is the six days of creation, etc.I thought the 12 days song was really about the Miata, but all I could come up with was 2 seats, 4 cylinders, 5 speeds and 7 thousand RPMs. So amateur symbologists, can you help me decode the hidden Miata messages in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas”?

When I posted the above on the Miata Forum I didn’t get exactly what I was hoping for, but I did get one cute one. Thanks Cinemaniac, it isn’t literally correct, but…
On the 12th day of Mazda, my Miata gave to me:
Twelve turns a-twisting
Eleven pipes exhausting
Ten Lanes a Leaping
Nine Ladies Oogling
Eight Mods a Modding
Seven Drifts a Skidding
Six speed transmisson
FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE PISTON RINGS…
Fo-our alloy wheels
Three Drive Belts
Two air horns
And the finger from an S-U-V!

Mr. Fletcher’s Ride – December

Mr. Fletcher's Ride - DecemberVentured into the woods yesterday for a hike and the second monthly photograph looking southwest at the corner of Mr. Fletcher’s Ride and an unnamed path about 1/2 mile in from our usual entry point. A lot less leaves on the trees than just a month ago. It was also a cloudy day compared to last months sunny one, so the leaves on the ground look a different color than in November’s shot.

I’ve Outsmarted Myself

Last night I ordered my Christmas present, the Beatles “action” figures. The only shipping option was FedEx ground, because I couldn’t be sure of the delivery day and time I didn’t want it to go to my house because who knows if anyone would be there to meet the driver. Instead I chose to have them shipped to work where someone is always there to sign for a package. Today I got a confirmation email with my FedEx tracking number and an estimated delivery date of December 23rd. Cool, just in time for Christmas. Let’s see, the 23rd is next Thursday…uh-oh.

The plant is going to be closed next Thursday and Friday for the holiday. No one will be there to take delivery. Everyone will be at home, just like me.