Month: May 2005

Traffic Circle

To alleviate the close your eyes and gun it strategy of crossing between the Aiken Mall and Publix, our thoughtful city planners placed a small traffic circle at the 4-way intersection. We are rarely there because I hate the traffic on that end of town, but tonight we needed something from a particular store so there we were. We also needed a few small items from Publix so the traffic circle would get run.

On the way in I only got to do 1/4 of the circle because we were just turning right. I threatened a 450 degree turn, but thought better of it when I got the look. After some shopping I did get to finish the circle on the way out. To make up for the ho-hum entrance I wound it up to about 5000 rpm for the 270 degree exit thereby cramming all the groceries into the right side of the trunk. The lateral G portion of the ride was fine, but I got another look when I accelerated from 5k to near redline upon straightening out. I then had to just coast the last 50 yards to the traffic light at the main road.

I’m sure if there was anyone else around they would have smiled at my idiocy of rushing through the circle to have to wait 3 minutes for the light to change, but who cares I had fun. And in spite of the second look, so did my passenger.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 137

I Still Get Letters & Some Times I Get Lucky

At a rate of about 70 a day here at work, but I don’t see them, just part of the subject line in my daily digest from Postini. Mostly I just delete that email, but today, one near the top caught my eye: WOW, got laid 3 times this week from francisca.wiley_ky@excite.com. Not that I thought, hey, I should get in on that, but just the two word combo of “got laid.”

A little over a week ago an anonymous reader left a well thought out and insightful critique of my blogging style on my Dahlonega to Home post. He also suggested that perhaps I should “make a notation every time I got laid.” Being the smart ass I am, I commented back that I already do that on my other blog, briangetslaid.blogspot.com. Of course I had just made up the name on the spot, but being the smart ass I am, I spent the next 15 minutes actually making up a blogspot blog by that name. I think I’ll go add that email to it…

That’s Better

I got an email from MLB.com’s customer service department yesterday evening. “We apologize for the delay in responding. Unfortunately some of the email recently sent to us was temporarily diverted to an unused mailbox. While we realize our reply is untimely, and you may have already been assisted, we wanted to at least reply to your inquiry.” They went on to say if my issue wasn’t resolved yet to please reply to that email.

Even though I had spoken to a rep on the phone, I decided to reply and re-express my disappointment in the WEEI radio broadcasts. I also asked if they had a better idea when the issue would be resolved than 7 to 10 days.

Within 15 minutes I got a reply back, “I would expect to see a difference by the next broadcast.”

What do you know, tonight it is fixed. Now it is more natural, when the announcers stop talking, no annoying silences, just the natural stadium background noises. If not mistaken, I think the announcers just referred to some sort of microphone interference that their sound man fixed today….

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 137

Boy Am I Stupid Part II

Brian’s Easy Oven Cleaning Method #4:

  1. Spray Easy-Off Oven Cleaner on a cold oven
  2. Forget all about it
  3. 10 days later go rollerblading
  4. Have wife preheat oven for dinner totally unaware
  5. Have wife notice strange smell and open oven door
  6. Have house fill with acrid smoke
  7. Have angry wife greet you upon your return
  8. Sheepishly apologize
  9. Run through house opening windows and turning on ceiling fans
  10. Use large amounts of elbow grease to remove now baked on oven cleaner

Boy Am I Stupid

I thought I had a possible slow leak near the end of February. I took it to the LTS (Local Tire Store) and they couldn’t find any leak. They had the tire off and submerged but found nothing. They took the tire back off when I told them I thought I found something and marked the tire.

I went to rotate the tires in the middle of April and when the LTS put the tire back on earlier they must have stripped a lugnut because I could get it off. When I returned to the LTS with my tale of woe they replaced the lug.

When we were chasing the Tour de Georgia we both noticed a faint chirping noise that is coming from that wheel area. It sounds like a brake squealer, but it doesn’t seem to be brake related. It happens when braking or when not. It is not constant, but random and frequent. Seems to occur going over bumps and or rough road, but it is also present when turning corners. This past Thursday I returned to the LTS and mentioned the noise. They pulled the wheel and looked around, but couldn’t find anything wrong. One of the counter guys took it for a ride and couldn’t hear anything, so they gave me back the keys. I got halfway home and the noise returned. 🙁

Friday while washing the car I noticed that the brake pads on the offending side were facing a different direction than the other side. AH HA! So Saturday morning I went back to the LTS and got a counter guy to come out so I could show him that somebody had put the brake pads back on wrong. We looked at one side, then the other. We went back to the “bad” side and he said, “They are on right.” I felt about as tall as a valve stem.

The brake pads are shaped like fat C’s, they have wide middles and tabs on the ends. Well on the passenger side the tabs face to the right. On the driver’s side they face to the left. But that is correct, the calipers are on the back sides of both wheels, so the pads may be facing in opposite directions, but they are both facing the front of the car. Duh! The LTS guy was polite and told me to bring it back another day and they would re look at it.

This afternoon I decided to take a look myself. Put the car up on jack stands and removed both rear tires. The first thing I noticed on my noisy wheel was that the W springs that move the pads off the rotor when the brakes are released were not there. Eureka! But when I checked the other side they were not there either. So maybe that isn’t it. The caliper slider pins were both pretty dry so I greased them good, but a short test drive revealed that wasn’t the problem. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 137