Month: October 2009

98,000 Pieces of Coal

Loading CoalSaturday the MMC took a trip to Winnsboro to visit the South Carolina Railroad Museum. This weekend there was a visiting steam engine to give that old time feel (and smell) to your train ride. We combined the Club’s monthly breakfast with the train event, plus following the hour long train ride we drove to a nearby town for lunch making for almost a full day Miataness.

After lunch Donna and I went our separate ways from the group because we had an alternative agenda, that’s right, geocaching. Before leaving we made tentative dinner plans with another MMC couple to meet in Lexington at the Uno Chicago Grill at 5:30 to complete the Trifecta (all 3 meals out.)

Got all caught up chasing camo’d containers in the north central part of the state and ended up not being able to make it back to Lexington in time for pizza with Rudy & Patti. We were disappointed on two levels. With the dreary day and approaching of dusk we opted for the more direct way home from where we were and resigned ourselves to eat in Newberry at whatever place we could find. Luck was on our side though, willing to dine in a Hardee’s or a Subway, we stumbled on The Flying Pie on Main St and had a wonderful pizza about half way between the thin crust of West One in Hendersonville and the thick Chicago style pie in Lexington.

Saturday by the numbers:
299 – Miles driven on the day
98,000 – Total miles now on the Emperor
1 – Tank of gas used
5 – O’clock wake up call
14 – Hours from leaving home until returning
58° – High for the day, 20 below normal
9 – Cars in a line (7 Miatas, 1 Boxster and a Jeep)
11 – Mile train ride (5-1/2 under steam power)
100 – Pounds of coal burned by the train per mile traveled
8 – Caches found
3 – SC County Challenge caches and
2 – DeLorme Challenge pages finished

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 437

Alone in the Dark

I like computer work while in the dark. That’s why I love lighted keyboards. At home the only things that give off light are the monitor, a small light behind the monitor pointed at the wall giving a nice ambiance and the previously mentioned keyboard.

At work I have removed the florescence tubes from as many fixtures as my coworkers will let me get away with, the room my cube is in holds four people. And I also have added a couple thicknesses of plotter paper to the ones that still have bulbs to dim them a couple notches too. I have two small florescent fixtures under the cabinets to each side of me that provide a nice bit of task lighting. It’s as good as I’m going to get here.

My other three roommates were not there for various reasons today, so I had the place to myself. About mid morning I got up, walked to the front wall and turned off all the lights. There was one fixture up front over near the door that always stays on for emergencies, but it is out of my line of sight. Queued up some light New Age/Ambient music and aaaahh, almost like home.

Trouble was the quiet didn’t last for long, as about half the front office staff pass through up front on their way to places and nearly everyone of them when confronted with the darkness had a reaction. They either had to a) walk back to my cube and ask if I wanted it that way, b) walk back to see if I was sleeping, c) walk by while shouting out asking if I was there or d) walk through and turn on the lights.

By after lunch everyone was used to the new darkness and I was pretty much left alone and I got quite a bit of work done.

Including making a Boss’s Day Card from a template I found on the web, love the retro business look. Here is the cover and the inside just said, “Happy Boss’s Day.”

Boss's Day Card
* You know, now that I look at it, it has a slight homo-erotic feel. Or maybe that is just me.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 435

Backwards Time Travel Is Impossible

We finished watching Disc 1 of Season 1 of Taxi last night and while we thoroughly enjoyed the show way back when and we enjoyed re-watching these 8 episodes, we decided to take the rest of the discs out of the queue. Sometimes you just can’t go home again.

Now that I don’t has the FRS to listen to anymore (well, at least for the 6 months) I’ve been watching some Netflix Instant Watch movies, finishing three of five in the last week. DNF’d were Sex Drive and Numb.

Finished (along with the movie note I sent to friends):

Brick – Mix an LA high school unrequited love story with a heavy dose of “The Big Sleep.” Then add a plot so thick with characters that when the movie ends you may not know what happened. Interesting watch.

Deadgirl – This isn’t for many people & I’m not so sure I’d even recommend it to anyone. Even with a central theme that is about as sick and twisted as can be, I found this a movie worth watching.

The Last Word – Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, in spite of himself. Boy & girl break up. They don’t get back together. Quirky. Quiet. Dark. Contemplative. Oddly enjoyable.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 435

Squish

When I got into the car today after work I noticed that when I stepped on the floor mat it went squish. It was soaking wet.

Admittedly it has rained like crazy the last few days, but there was no way I could track in that much water. In the Miata world there are two main reasons why there would be a lot of water on the floor, not counting leaving the top down in the rain, a plugged drain in the door molding and a plugged A/C drain line.

The water was only on the driver’s side of the car which eliminates the A/C drain line because that soaks the passenger foot well. Must be the hollow in the door molding. I poked the long thin brush I have for cleaning Camelback hoses down there and it wasn’t plugged at all. A mystery.

I dried out the area as best I could and we’ll see if the water reappears.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 433

Thanks Again Holly/Jarden Consumer Solutions/Oster/Mr. Coffee

Electric Skillet Temperature Knob

Our new replacement 12″ Oster Electric Skillet was sitting on our doorstep this evening. I want all my regular readers (all three of you) to down load this picture and save it on your PC in case I need it in the future.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 432

I Want My HDTV

Our new TV is your basic LCD wide screen and it has four display modes 4:3, Zoom, Just and Full. 4:3 is for basic TV and leaves black bars on the sides, Zoom makes HD cable shows that have black bars all around the picture fill the screen, Full stretches the 4:3 picture horizontally to fill the screen and Just does something similar to Full except that the middle of the picture doesn’t get as distorted as the edges.

I hate the stretched look that everyone and or thing gets when a normal sized TV picture is stretched to fit the wide screen, so most of the time when I’m watching the tube I will keep it set to 4:3.

I want my HDTV. I think. I sit here watching House and wonder why I’m getting a pan and scan image without the pan, the left and right edges of peoples headed are chopped off.

House gets broadcast in HD, so I’m betting if I paid the cable company extra I could get the full image, but that ain’t happening. I wonder if I bought some of those new fangled rabbit ears I could pick up the Augusta FOX channel in HD?

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 431

The Biggest Thing To Hit Aiken Hits Johnston

After a couple of weeks languishing on the eastern bypass of Aiken and setting tongue’s a wagging all over town, the biggest thing, literally, to hit town has moved on. We know this because on our way back from Hendersonville this afternoon we were stopped by a huge commotion of cop cars and 18 wheeler trucks in the town of Johnston. The 1.2 1.89 million pound generator (according to an earlier referenced Aiken Standard article) and its entourage was parking for the night at the corner of SC 121 & SC 191.

Big Thing

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 430