Year: 2010

Something Different

After about 3 years of boring, no new business, no old business, this is what we did, this is what we are going to do meetings, last night’s was a breath of fresh air. It was so exciting that Robert’s Rules of Order and the Club’s Bylaws were quoted.

We have a new president who ran with the platform of doubling the club’s membership and if any Club could use a membership doubling, it is ours. We started his term with 15 cars (AKA memberships) and before he held his first meeting we lost one. A couple sold their Miata, saying they wanted a sports car?!? I think what he wanted is something with more horsepower or maybe more perceived prestige…

The first thing the new president wanted to do was change our monthly meeting setup. He picked a big issue to push through in his first hundred days. It was his phrase that I turned into the Club web site’s tag line, “We’re like the French Underground. We rotated meeting locations every month and members arrived willy-nilly and sometimes not even in their Miatas. His idea was to meet at same spot every month, someplace visible on a busy street, have the business meeting and then drive as a group to a local restaurant.

This is a great idea, but it really doesn’t fit into Donna and my time schedule. By the time we go through all those steps dinner will not be until 8:00 PM and we always eat some where between 5:30 and 6:30. We have a work around in place for this, seeing as the original meet up spot is at a Mexican restaurant we will eat there, stay for the meeting and then drive with the group to the second restaurant, but just not go inside and eat.

After a close vote, 4 yeahs, 2 nays & 1 abstention, on adopting this format, last night was the first go round and it went pretty well from our point of view, I don’t know what everyone else thought of it though.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 771

When Does 3=1?

When it comes to Samsung monitor warranties.

As I boxed up the dead monitor I found the little clear envelope that held the driver disc, a handy dust cloth, the quick set up guide and a warranty card. Right there in bold letters at the top of the warranty card it stated that this monitor had a 36 month warranty for parts and labor. Huh? An internet search had told me it had a one year warranty.

I went online and filled out a service request on the Samsung web site. I entered name, address, phone number, alt phone number, email address (twice) and a password (twice) before I got to the part where you enter the monitor part number and serial number. When I did that is indicated that the monitor had been manufactured in April of 2009. The date was useless for the one year warranty (which was already moot), but helped if there was a three year one as it meant I wouldn’t have to produce a receipt as proof of purchase as it was long gone. When I hit the next button a dialog box popped up that said that my process couldn’t be completed and I needed to call 1-800-SAMSUNG.

So I called the number. Voice mail hell, 2 choices, followed by 3 choices and then 5 more before I got a recording telling me the offices were closed and to call back during working hours. At least it was the old fashioned listen then hit a number kind of menu and not one those where you have to say the words where you have to shout into the phone to have any chance of the machine understanding you.

I waited the hour until they were open and called back. As you can guess by the title of this post, the CSR was very apologetic, but could do nothing for me, nor could she explain why the paper I had said 3 years instead of the official 1 year figure.

A more in depth search on Samsung LCD monitor repair one the web told me the problem could be a power supply board, a main board issue, a burnt out back light. etc. Not worth the time, money or effort on my part. Into the trash it goes.

Don’t worry I’m disposing it correctly because my fair city actually has curbside pickup of electronic equipment. All you have to do is give them a call the day before your regular pick up, tell them what you are chucking out and they come take it away.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 767

Walking Home From School

An elderly couple was celebrating their sixtieth anniversary. They had married as childhood sweethearts and had moved back to their old neighborhood after they retired. Holding hands, they walked back to their old school. It was not locked, so they entered, and found the old desk they’d shared, where Andy had carved I love you, Sally.

On their way back home, a bag of money fell out of an armored car, practically landing at their feet. Sally quickly picked it up and, not sure what to do with it took it home. There, she counted the money – fifty thousand dollars! Andy said, “We’ve got to give it back.” Sally said, “Finders keepers.” She put the money back in the bag and hid it in their attic.

The next day, two police officers were canvassing the neighborhood looking for the money, and knocked on their door.” Pardon me, did either of you find a bag that fell out of an armored car yesterday?” Sally said, “No.” Andy said, “She’s lying. She hid it up in the attic.” Sally said, “Don’t believe him, he’s getting senile!”

The officers turned to Andy and began to question him, “Tell us the story from the beginning.” Andy said, “Well, when Sally and I were walking home from school yesterday” ….The police officer turned to his partner and said, “We’re outta here!”

Episode 2

We watched season 4’s second episode of Mad Men tonight and maybe it is just me, but so far I’m not enjoying this season as much as previous ones. And it is partially the fault that nobody seems happy and our leading man is even more of a jerk that we thought. Even Roger Sterling’s zinging one-liners felt forced and fell flat this episode.

The only character that even cracked a smile all episode was Sally Draper, the daughter of a pair of dysfunctional parents, who is happy to be receiving attention from the creepiest kid on television, Glen, who had just broken into her house when the family was away and trashed every room except her’s.

Right now it is like watching a show with zero sympathetic characters. I hope we don’t stay that way for very long, there is so very little I enjoy on TV and right now I’m not enjoying this one.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 763

Thanks

Slept in a bit this morning and did a short bike ride, 10 miles total, ending up at Atlanta Bread Company for breakfast. A bagel each and a large OJ set me back $5 and some change. I swapped my last dollar for quarters so we could buy the Sunday Aiken paper, and because it was early with the sun behind some clouds, we ate our meal outdoors.

When we got home the weather wasn’t too bad (it was humid as all get out though) and we were already sweaty, I suggested we go out and grab the six caches we didn’t get yesterday. Donna was up for it, so we changed real quick and jumped in the car.

We had quite an assortment of styles of caches on the list too. If you look in the geocaching dictionary under bushwhacking, our first cache would be listed as a prime example. It is about 350 feet from the road and the only humans who have been in this patch of woods since the earth’s crust cooled are the 63 people who have found this cache and the 1 person who placed it there. Luckily it is just a bunch of dense underbrush and pine trees and not much in the way of thorny bushes. Finding the black painted mayonnaise jar was not too hard, but because I didn’t set a way point at the parking spot, the trip out was a little longer, and we came out of the woods about 50 yards away from the Emperor. The second was a short little 2 stage multi behind a hotel just a little further down the road. Number three was a mystery cache, you needed to solve a small crossword puzzle to come up the coordinates. I solved the puzzle last weekend and this weekend Donna found the cache. The fourth one on our loop was 5 feet into the trees at a short pullout on a busy high speed two lane road. The fifth was the very definition of one of my favorite geocaching phrases, “A 35mm film canister well integrated into the environment.” The sixth and last cache of the day was an ammo can next to a tree about 200′ off a back road which required traversing a long stretch of scrub grass, crossing a picket line of briars before entering a bit of woods.

The best story came from cache #5, called “Ice Ice, Baby” and here is how I logged it on geocaching.com:

Considering the name of the cache, as we approached in the geomobile I figured it was going to be something magnetic stuck to the ice machine outside. When I stopped in front of the establishment the GPSr said there was 165′ more to go. So much for that idea. I went inside to buy a cold drink and my wife went in search of the cache.

I walked inside and the proprietor was on the phone reading bible verses to someone (it was Sunday morning after all.) She said hello and I went to the drink coolers and pulled out Diet Sprite. As I headed towards the counter she started to wrap up her conversation, I stopped her from hanging up. I had opened my wallet up and noticed that it was empty, I forgot that I had spent the last 6 dollars earlier in the day at Atlanta Bread Company for our breakfast. She looked at me questionably when I told her not to hang up and I explained that I didn’t have any money and showed her the empty wallet. I started back towards the cooler with the drink, and she stopped me. She said, “Keep it. It’s hot outside, I can’t deny you a cold drink. It’s only a dollar, it’s not going to kill me and if it does, so be it.” I thanked her and left the store figuring my wife must have found the cache by then.

She was sitting on a retaining wall with a look that I recognized as defeat. I told her my story, we drank our cold Diet Sprite with gratitude and when we were finished, started the search anew. A couple minutes later she made the find.

Next Sunday at around the same time we plan on stopping back at that store and buying another cold Diet Sprite and paying two dollars for it.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 762

Back In The Saddle Again

We went out geocaching this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks. I had a map with about a dozen caches picked out, but we only managed 4. No we didn’t DNF the other 8, but merely never got to them. There were two new ones along the Boyd Pond Bike Trail south of town. We had done the four caches around the pond last September and we swore we would come back and walk the trail again soon, but never did. Now was our opportunity. Went the more direct route to the cache and opted for the “scenic”, windy way out and ended up walking 4.2 miles total. and quite a 4.2 miles it was.

Turned on the computer this morning and the relatively recent Samsung SyncMaster 2233SW Monitor flashed its display for a second and then went black. Rebooted and it did the same thing while loading the bios, so it wasn’t Windows 7. The updated Bios from the other day? Doubtful. Had to be either video card or monitor. I let the PC boot up and I could make the display come on for a second by turning the monitor off and then back on. Trying to work like that would be very time consuming and annoying after a very short time. To be sure it was the monitor’s fault and not the video card I plugged a VGA cable into the laptop and tried to used the monitor as a second display, but got a the same problem, a brief glimpse of a desktop and then black.

Checked the internet for possible quick fixes, but found none. I did find the the monitor carried a 1 year parts and labor warranty. We bought it on June 14th last year which made it 1.13 years old. to Quote Agent 86, “Missed it by that much Chief.” After lunch we went to Staples to buy a replacement. In our price range there was a Dell and 2 different Samsungs. We picked the Dell, after all the Dell monitor that originally came with the PC lasted 6 years and the Samsung only did a little over a year. The Dell comes with a one year warranty and on the way out the salesman tried to sell us a one year extended warranty for $25. Donna was sorely tempted, but I talked her out of it. I did make a deal with with her, if this Dell only makes it just over the one year mark before crapping out, I would opt for every extended warranty ever offered me.

Finished up Season 2 Disc 6 of Law & Order this after noon. We love seeing the folks who were cutting their acting chops on the show way back in the early 90 and the ones who make one show guest starring plots. The final two episodes on the disc treated us to each of George Costanza’s parents Jerry Stiller on one show and Estelle Harris on the other. We also got Sam Rockwell in only his 10th credited role. We also got a very young Sabrina Llyod, AKA Natalie from Sports Night. The second to last show was the first ever appearance of Leslie Hendrix as the coroner, Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers, who I bet is very thankful for Dick Wolf as she has had pretty steady work since then playing that role. She has done 142 episodes of the original Law and Order, along with 104 episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent, 9 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and even one appearance on the short lived Law & Order: Trial By Jury.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 761

Ten Thousand Years

If you have been following the countdowns on the right-hand sidebar here LOB you will have noticed two changes in the last week. The first was last Sunday when Season 4 of Mad Men premiered and its counter dropped off the page. The second just happened tonight when the counter for the New Miata jumped from 123 to 484.

Miata #1, the 1990 Mariner Blue A Package, lasted 6 years before being traded in. Number two, a 1995 Laguna Blue B Package, stuck around for 8 years before being traded in. Miata #3, our current 2003 Garnet Red LS, was assumed to stay with us the average of the lengths of service of the first 2 cars, seven years, and be traded in on a 2010 model this November. That is now not going to happen, The Emperor will be with us for at least another year.

The main reason for this, we like to say publicly, is the car is not available in a suitable shade of blue. The first two Miatas were blue, and while we have grown to like the current red/maroon shade, we have our hearts set on blue car this time. The current Miatas do come in blue, something called Stormy Blue, but it is too dark, almost Navy Blue and not to our liking.

But the main reason is neither one of us like the new and “improved” third generation of the car. It is only a couple inches longer or wider, but appears relatively huge in comparison. I heard the style of the car in the first couple of years of the 3rd generation compared to an angry bar of soap and I had to agree. They tweaked the looks of front end last year and now it reminds me of a bar of soap with a Mr Potato Head mouth stuck on it. And it is not just the exterior, we both don’t care for the inside either. The doors are taller, so that leaning your arm on the window sill leaves your elbow pointing up. That, along with the taller seats placed lower in the car gives you the feeling of riding in a bathtub. As a “bonus” the new engine routed the exhaust header in such a manner that it intrudes on the passenger foot well and steals precious space for the navigator’s usual complement of tools.

The current rumors on the Miata.net forums call for the forth generation of the car, which is supposed to be smaller and lighter, to appear as 2012 model which means it might come to market in late 2011, so we wait. If worse comes to worse and a new model doesn’t appear next fall, maybe they will add a nice bright blue to the Miata’s paint palette on the last of the 3rd gen cars. Or maybe by then the oft rumored Volkswagen BlueSport will actually exist and it will be a worthy competitor to the Miata.

The post title alludes to an oriental saying that is a loosely translated English phrase used in several oriental countries as an expression used to wish long life to the Emperor.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down still again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 760