Month: August 2005

I Wanted So Much To Like This Knob

Several years back the MMC visited a local manufacturer that was making aluminum bits for the Miata. I bought their shift knob, hand brake lever handle and a cigarette lighter that was engraved to read “EJECT.” Their shift knob was shaped sort of like a toy top or tornado and had a nice rubber grip in the middle.

MGW Gripper Knob

I liked the rubber grip as it stayed cool in summer and warm in winter. Plus the combo of black and silver was a nice touch in the black interior. I just couldn’t get used to the flat top, so I bought the much beloved in the Miata.net community Voodoo shift knob.

Voodoo

I’d like to say I’ve never looked back, but I have. After a summer of cooking my palm on the solid ball of aluminum I wanted to incorporate the rubber piece from the MGW knob into the Voodoo. So I machined a horizontal groove into the voodoo that was the same size as the MGW gripper knob and melded to the two together. It came out just as I envisioned it, but I didn’t like the feel. Never got used to it and ordered a new Voodoo knob to replace the one I ruined. While I was at it I ordered the matching ebrake handle too. So now the only remaining item from the first trio of items is the EJECT lighter.

Last week while cleaning out a drawer at work and found the MGW gripper knob sans the grip. MGW is out of the Miata parts business, but still makes stuff for other cars, so I emailed them and asked if I could get a rubber gripper still. $5 and a replacement is yours they replied. While I waited for the postman, I decided to paint the aluminum Garnet Red. Three coats of red and two of clear and it looked pretty good. Yesterday a box came in the mail with not one, but two gripper rings. They had changed the mold so that there was now a key in the rubber to match a groove that must have gone in later knobs to prevent the ring from turning, so I had to dremel that out before I could put it on. Only taking out one little chip mounting the gripper I installed the knob in the car. I knew right away I had created another failed mod. I left it on for the day, but tonight it came back out and the Voodoo went back on. Still didn’t like the flat top and the red looked out of place in the interior because there was no other red to balance it out. It’ll make a nice looking paperweight…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 285

Calvin Hates Fall Too!

I’m beginning to think that Bill Watterson was modeling Calvin after me. I hate Sundays, Calvin hates Sundays too. I hate fall, Calvin hates fall too. I was going to post an image of the cartoon here, but the quality was already iffy and shrinking it to fit made it illegible, so you just have to look at a pop-up.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 284

Upgradation

Last Friday this web site went off line for several hours. I checked someone else who who uses the same host and his site was up when mine was down. Well, We Are The Cips met the same fate as Mr-Miata a day later. Tom decided to open a help ticket (something I couldn’t do, as that feature was down at the same time as I was) and here is a synopsis of of it went:

Monday 8/15 at 11:59am – I open the ticket with the following:
What happened this weekend? According to Intersteer, my site was down from Saturday 8/13 2:09pm to Sunday 8/14 10:09am. I also received an email from another customer that their site was down as well. Also what is going on with the forums? I went there first looking for information and they are not up. Thanks.

Monday 8/15 at 12:51pm – Their reply and they closed the ticket.
Hi,
The site wearethecips.com is loading normal now without any problem and our NOC Engineers are monitoring the log files for your site downtime and update you once we received information for them.
Thanks,
Support Team.

There were a few more entries back and forth that I will not bore you with but the gist of each one was they would close the ticket with no explanation of the down time and I would reopen in. Below is my last entry and their reply.

Sunday 8/21 at 3:10am (I couldn’t sleep)
Why do you keep closing this ticket. No one has answered my question. What was the reason for the down time last Saturday (8/13/2005).
Thanks.
Tom

Sunday 8/21 at 4:27am (Cut and pasted right from the ticket)
Hi,
We had some upgradation done on the server due to which there was a downtime and everything is back to normal. You will definitely be intimated if there is any hereafter.
Kind Regards,

I echo Tom’s sentiment in his last email to me, “Let’s
hope there is no more upgradation in the near future.”

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 281

Glad I Listened

At our lunchtime walk around the company parking lot, my wife suggested putting the top up. I thought for a minute, trying to rationalize a no answer, because after all it was only a 40% chance, but decided to take off the cockpit cover and raise the roof.

Even under the opaque cockpit cover, the interior bits I had to touch to put the top up would blister skin if held too long. They would be literally red hot at 4:00 PM if the top went up and it didn’t rain.

I’m glad I listened, the thunder started by 1:30 and the skies opened at 2 o’clock. And while the intensity had waned, it was still raining at quitting time. If I hadn’t put up the top I would have had to bail out the interior.

And I didn’t have to worry about the interior temperature, to keep the windows from fogging I turned on the AC and actually had to turn the knob halfway to hot, so as not to get it too cold in the car. The bank sign on the way home said 76 or about 25 degrees cooler than it did last Friday at the same time.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 278

27,000 Tiny Little Bugs

Just at the start of last night’s Master’s Miata Club Bug Splat Rally the odometer slid past 27,000 miles. There weren’t a lot of large bugs out, but this morning I had what’s left of 27,000 “ghost bugs” on the nose of the formerly clean Miata.

27,000 Ghost Bugs

A little Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and they wiped right off. Ooh, that reminds me, I did the nose, but didn’t clean the windshield, BRB…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 277

Dumb Donald Was So Dumb

Everyone else in unison: “HOW DUMB IS HE?!?!?”
Dumb Donald is SO dumb, that when he went on his honeymoon, he forgot his blank…

Earlier this week I marveled at the sheer lunacy that is MXC. Well here is an American show that has the same sort of absurdity, just without the stunts, Match Game Seventy Whatever. It could almost be Japanese. GSN is running episodes of this program and it is so weird, the clothing, the celebrities, even the double entendres that were probably risque then are unintentionally humorous now.

Good thing I can only watch these shows when I stumble on them, if I had a Tivo, I’d never make it to the computer…

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 277

Wash Day

Washed the car this morning even though the intent is to get it dirty tonight with bugs. Afterwards I washed the windows in the car too. While the car finished drying I made a quick trip to the local auto store and picked up a can of Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax. Old school paste wax in a can that went on easy and came off the same.

While the whole car washing thing was going on I was doing the clothes washing too. My job is to load the washer, then swap from washer to dryer and load the washer again. Donna does the folding, mostly. I’ll help with that too if I’m not busy with other things like this morning.