Year: 2005

Commercial

For the reopening of my CafePress store I commissioned a professionally done commercial for airing during the baseball all-star game on Fox July 12th. I had it made in Brazil to take advantage of the lower production costs, but that might have been a mistake. The problem is not the quality, that is fantastic, but I think they misunderstood the product I have for sale. See for yourself, Life of Brian Stuff Commercial (1.8Meg video) and let me know, use it or not.

Either way, please buy my stuff.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 195

Mr. Fletcher’s Ride – June

Mr. Fletcher's Ride - JuneLooking southwest at the corner of Mr. Fletcher’s Ride and an unnamed path about 1/2 mile in from our usual entry point into Hitchcock Woods. The last couple of months this image has been pretty static and I’m sure it will be that way for the next couple of months too.

Crass Commercialism

I have once again opened up a Cafe Press store to sell merchandise to the gullible. I have made up, just in time for summer, some Camp Mazdamiata T-shirts. There are 3 slightly different designs to choose from and if you want some slight customizations, that can possibly be arranged too. Plus held over are the world famous “Oh Yes Wyoming” t-shirts. Also available is a faux Euro oval sticker that reads “LOB” (Life Of Brian), a rectangular sticker with Sturgeon’s Law on it and a bumper sticker that proclaims “Interstates Suck”.

Please buy my stuff.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 195

Not Crestor, But Tricor

Six weeks ago my doctor put me on Crestor to lower my cholesterol (actually it was to raise my good cholesterol and drop my triglycerides) and a little over 3 weeks into it, I called the doctor and begged off because it was upsetting my stomach and making copius amounts of gas. We went back to taking Red Yeast Rice for about the last week and a half before blood was drawn last Friday. Today was my follow up appoinment and the numbers, like last time, shifted some up, some down. Now we will try Tricor and see what happens in 6 more weeks.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal <200 >40 <100 30-150
09/21/04 209 24 131 271
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
06/17/05 164 31 85 238

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 193

Almost Dry

Our pants got a little damp on the ride into work this morning, but leaving the cockpit cover off in the morning helped quite a bit. Not taking any chances we put it back on for the afternoon. Tomorrow’s planned repeat of this process will probably have the car totally dried out.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 193

Where Is The Bilge Pump On This Thing?

At our lunchtime walk around the parking lot the sky was looking kind of iffy. Donna asked if I thought that we should put the top up and I waved her off. As a precaution when I got back inside I checked the radar loop on Weather.com and it looked like the line of thundershowers was moving north and east away from us, so I forgot all about the rain. For about 10 minutes. That is when the bottom fell out. If you were to look in the Microsoft’s Encarta for the word deluge, a video of what happened this afternoon would appear there.

It rained hard, like a cow pissing on a flat rock in a flowing stream, for at least 20 minutes. After 5, I knew I was in trouble. When the storm passed I wandered out to the parking lot to inspect the damages. The cockpit cover was soaked and when I peeled it back the inside looked barely wet. I did a quick sigh and felt the driver’s seat bottom. Uh, oh, it went squish, squish. That’s when I noticed the puddle of water under the seat. 😯 There was about an inch of rainwater under there. I went into the trunk and got my hand towel I use for quick detailing and started to sop up the puddle. After about a dozen dips and then squeezing out the water onto the asphalt the remaining water was at least not in danger of slooshing around on the drive home. The passenger side didn’t have a puddle, everything was just soaked through. I used a bunch of paper towels and dried the rest of the surfaces off. The seat bottoms and the “carpet” was still very wet.

Once I got home I pulled the seats and popped off the sill plates so I could peel back the carpet and dry underneath. I ended up using 6 full size bath towels to get all I could get dry in the cockpit. The colored and shredded recycled 2 litter 7-Up bottles that Mazda uses for carpet in the car is no real problem, it should eventually dry with no issues. But underneath that on each side are a couple of pieces of fiber padding that acted like sponges and they will not be 100% dry when I button the car back up later tonight. I may just rip the soggy padding out and replace it with something else later…

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 193