Month: May 2008

Saved A Couple Bucks This Morning, But Spent Them Later

Rode the “Bus” into work today. Not mass transit, but our own alternative fuel vehicle, the tandem. I call it the Bus because compared to a single bike the tandem rides and drives like one compared to a single bike. We didn’t really do it to save the gas money, but because we have been threatening to get back to biking to work for the longest time and today was the day. We have vowed to ride to work every other Friday, you know, the one we actually work. We are also going to try and take a ride on the Friday we are off work, weather permitting.

Speaking of weather permitting, we don’t let anything below a 50% chance frighten us off, so today’s weather calling for a 20% chance of afternoon thunder showers was a non-issue. Until about an hour before quitting time. The skies outside darkened and fearing a repeat of Tuesday’s hail I checked the weather radar. At first glance it looked like we were in trouble as there was a long line of orange and red south of Aiken and Augusta, but when put in motion that line wasn’t really moving north. Still, the plain green was spreading our way, so it looked like it would be a wet ride home.

We had a couple of offers from co-workers with pick ups for a lift home, but declined them because if it was raining, we and the bike would probably get just as wet loading the bike up and on the drive. By the time we left it had been raining for a while and had slowed to a sprinkle, so the roads were wet. Turns out that is where most of our wetness came from because as we got closer to home the rain stopped and the roads had dried. Just as we made it home it did start to rain again, but too late to soak us.

The Emperor didn’t go to work, but it did get out this evening. We went out to eat with friends and then did a little more shopping for the final accessories for the green bathroom, a set of towels, a toothbrush holder and a shower curtain, leaving just needing one more thing, a liquid soap dispenser.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 174

Ballast

Last weekend at the races when there was break in the action some of us were sitting around at Camp POS When this fellow walked up and asked if I would do him a favor. I said sure and followed him over to a concrete pad.

There sat his race car. I said, “Nice color.” He started to tell me about how there were only so many made in that color and what years it was available not realizing he was talking to a Miata Geek, I stopped him by saying that I had a 95 in the same color, Laguna Blue, before my current car and still miss that hue.

He was doing an alignment and needed someone to sit in the driver’s seat to simulate having himself in the car, so it would be set up correctly. I said, “Oh, you need some dead weight. I’m just the guy you need.” The car had a full roll cage and a racing seat and even with the steering wheel off it took some major contortionist moves to get in. Getting back out was even a little worse.

Donna and Carol had followed us over to stand around and make fun of me. Carol, of course, had her camera, so she snapped a couple of quick photos of me sitting in the car while I was making vroom-vroom sounds.

After he was done and thanked me for the time I made my way back to Camp POS. John was done with his latest adventure, so I asked if he wanted me to turn in my POS Racing hat because I had helped that other Miata out. He said, “Don’t worry about it, he’s in a different class.”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 173

Pretty In Pink

We are in the middle of a British Movie Binge — Casino Royale (well sorta British), Once begat The Commitments, The Last Detective (Disc 2 of Season 3), Death at a Funeral (didn’t finish), Starter for Ten, Keeping Mum (on the coffee table) and Rumpole of the Bailey: The Lost Episode (next in the queue.)

Starter For Ten, was pretty darn good. It reminded me of those 80’s John Hughes movies, Pretty in Pink, 16 Candles, et al. In plot it was probably most similar to Some Kind of Wonderful. The 80’s soundtrack (The Cure – Psychedelic Furs – Echo & The Bunnymen) probably helped the comparison along as well.

This is interesting – The Netflix Player by Roku. I’m trying to justify the purchase, but I’m having trouble. Of the Netflix library there are only 10% available for viewing using this box. Admittedly that is 10,000 titles, but they are mostly older flicks and TV shows. Not that I can’t find a bunch of stuff to re-watch, but I already have 100 movies in the regular rental queue to watch, there is bunch stuff on HULU that I want to see and the FRS are on the radio nearly every night, so my free time is limited. I haven’t really explored Joost or Miro or even Find Internet TV. The $100 would be better spent on a PC to TV converter so that other internet media could also be watched on the tube besides just Netflix.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 172

P.S. Which Sports Car Are You?

Hail To The Emperor

There was a 40% chance of afternoon thunder showers. We took the umbrella to work, but left it in the trunk. My job was to keep track of the radar and if it looked like thunder rolling our way I was to go out, take off the cockpit cover, raise the top and bring the umbrella back in.

I failed miserably at my job. When it was time to go home at 4:00 PM I got up from my desk and walked down to the other end pf the plant to get Donna. As I passed by some windows it looked very dark. Uh-oh! As we left the plant someone was walking in with an umbrella saying that it had just started raining. He was right and they were big fat drops too. As we walked quickly to the car the rain intensity picked up rapidly. We started running (this is the only time I regret parking in the north forty), it was coming down at a pretty good clip by the time we reached the car. I popped the trunk tossed in everything I was carrying and started to take off the cockpit cover. Tossed the roof up and Donna tried valiantly to click it down while I wadded up the soaking wet cockpit cover and tossed it too into the trunk. I started the car and raised the windows as the rain poured down. The interior was pretty dry, but we were pretty wet.

About a mile from the plant the skies really opened up, even with the wipers on high I had to slow down because of visibility. Then it sounded like somebody was shooting at us. Pow! Bam! Rat-A-Tat-Tat! Call 911 we’re under fire. It was hailing. Pea-sized up to grape-sized frozen water was pelting us. With absolutely no place to hide I just kept driving. I’m afraid to go out in the garage to look at the car and see if there are any little dents, but not as afraid as I was during the storm that the hail would get big enough to start tearing through the canvas roof and start hitting me on my noggin. After a couple more miles, and a couple more cloud bursts, the skies cleared, the rain stopped and we donned our sunglasses for the rest of the trip.

Started down, went up under duress, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 172

Did Someone Call A Cab?

Lots of interesting cars were racing this weekend. From a little Legends racer to a fresh off the showroom floor 2008 BMW M3 Coupe. A ton of Mustangs, but I bet the biggest percentage were BMWs and there was a father daughter team that took the prize for innovative paint jobs — a Checker Cab and a “Police Car.”

In am effort to broaden our Netflix TV DVD repertoire I spotted something called Flight of the Conchords. It arrived the other day and we finally got around to watching it tonight. The experience didn’t start to well. First was the 2 minutes of HBO advertisement that I was forced to watch, no fast forward, no next chapter, no main menu. Just like the Interpol Warning, etc you are stuck watching promotions for HBO shows. Then when we were through with that nonsense when I hit the button to go to the episode list the DVD locked up. The only way out was to turn off the player and start over. This time I started the disc and switched the TV over to watch a segment of Cash Cab skipping the HBO self promo. But then the DVD player locked again when trying to select an episode. Crap. Tried the disc out on the laptop and it played fine, but after all that, we watched only about 10 minutes of the first episode. Didn’t like it.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 170

There Is No Place Like Home

Even when the gurgle monster strikes. We were doing some clothes washing when a strange sound emanated from under the house. The really bad news came when a toilet flush bubbled back up the bathtub drain. Eight thirty on a Sunday morning I started dialing plumbers.

First one I called must have a new phone system because when the answerer kicked in it said, “The person you have dialed has not set up their mailbox. Good bye.” Plumber #2’s andwer kicked in fine and I left a message. After thirty minutes they hadn’t called back (and never did), I picked another one to call. My third option was #3 on the list because they are pricey compared to others we’ve dealt with, but a real live person answered the phone. He even called the city for me to get them to come out to see if it might be their problem and not mine while I decided whether I wanted to wait for the city to find out something before committing to having one of his plumbers come out (there is a $125 call out fee for Sundays.)

When he rang back I told him to send away as we had checked with neighbors and they weren’t having issues. Besides we just had the bathrooms remodeled and who know s what might have gotten disturbed after being woken up from a 50 year slumber in that process. The plumber and the city fellows showed about almost at the exact same time 45 minutes later. The three of them spent the next 45 minutes looking for for my clean out. We had no clue, never needing it in the 19 years we’ve been here. Our 80+ year old neighbor from across the street came out and offered up his advise to where to find it. Then the next door neighbor showed up to complicate matters by reminding that these houses were once on septic systems until sometime in the sixties, so the clean out might be in the back. Finally the city guys found it using a metal detector. It was about two feet away from the water meter.

Looking down the hole we could see a trickle of water flowing towards the street. Uh-oh. Just to be sure they stuck a pressurized hose down there to confirm it was my problem and it was. The plumber went to work. He dug up a place near the house looking for another clean out. He crawled under the house trying to chase pipes. He sat in his truck and wrote out my “options.” Number one was snake, starting out from the street, and hopefully reach any clog $$$. Option two was continue digging around near the house hoping to stumble on a closer clean out to use the snake in $$$$. Or option three, redo my entire under house drainage system $$$$$$.

We chose option one and got lucky, he found and cleared the clog with very little snake left on the reel.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 168

Car 54 Where Are You?

Spent today at Roebling Road Raceway watching NASA racing. Our friend John Haff races a Miata in TTF class (TT stands for Time Trial and the F stand for the sub class determined by weight and HP.) He usually does really great in class, but today his car, nicknamed POS by his race team CFO (wife Carol), lived up to it’s reputation by refusing to shift gears reliably. Made for a somewhat frustrating day for John, but for the rest of us, the weather made for a great day spectating at the track. I took over 200 hundred pictures, but a third of them were of empty track as I attempted to catch speeding automobiles and another third had just part of the car in it for the same reason. Of the remaining third, most were blurry in an unartistic manner or mis-exposed or with crummy composition, so I’ve probably got about a dozen keepers. But not one shining star.

On the way back home we filled up the Emperor with gas in Sylvania, GA paying the bare minimum under four bucks a gallon.

Oh, and Egypt, GA does have a little sign marking the city limits that is noticeable when traveling north, but the road didn’t have a wide enough shoulder to pull over on without endangering our lives when attempting a photo or endangering the Emperor with sliding into the swamp-like ditch lining the side of the road.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 166