Month: June 2015

The Prodigal Travel Mug Returns

A little over two weeks ago we took the Emperor to Columbia to have some maintenance done. Panic Motorsports is closed on the weekends (they’re usually off racing Miatas somewhere), but they were nice enough to give me the gate code, so that Donna and I could drop off the car on Saturday, thereby avoiding the possibility of having to drive the 100 mile round trip on consecutive days.

When we got back home later that day and unloaded the Sonata I couldn’t find my favorite travel mug. Drove up there in the Miata drinking from it. I remember locking up the car and it wasn’t in the cupholder in the center console. Other than that I was unsure of anything else, so after the Emperor had been away at camp for a couple days I sent Steve an email:

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: How’s the prognosis?

And more importantly, did you find my Contigo Travel Mug?

From: Steve
To: Brian
Subj: It’s going home tomorrow.

Probably get the transmission out before the end of the day, then slam it back together and align in the morning.

Coffee mug is not on the premises sir.

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: Good deal

Let me know before 3:30 tomorrow if it is not. And if it is, let me know the total, because that is the first thing my CFO will ask.

I know I drove up there to drop off the car drinking from it…from that point I don’t know what I did with it. The thing didn’t come back in the support vehicle. There are a couple places I might have put it down, the roof of the Protege (you’d have seen it) and the front seat of the red Miata (probably noticeable when retrieving the keys.) The only other place might have been when I unlocked the gate…ooh, a memory just floated to the surface, my hand placing a bronze colored Contigo travel mug on a wooden fence post.

P.S. “Slam it back together” might be OK amongst us guys, but please use something like “precisely realigned” while the previously mentioned CFO is present…

We brought the Miata home and a day later thanks to Amazon Prime I was drinking from my new Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Stainless Steel Travel Mug in Trans-Matte Latte.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had almost forgot about losing the old one when an unexpected package arrived in the mail with a return address of Old Dunbar Road, West Columbia, SC.

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: Where Was It?

On the floor of the red Miata?

From: Steve
To: Brian
Subj: Nope

No, apparently you did leave it on the fence post. My neighbor in the cabinet shop came in and found/recovered it, and we haven’t seen each other in a couple weeks. He asked me if I’d lost a coffee cup and I said “No, I don’t drink coffee”. He said, “Well, it sure is a nice one” That’s when it clicked 🙂

One of my fears was that someone had found it and was enjoying drinking from the best travel mug in all the world on my dime. Well, when I opened the box and unscrewed the lid, I knew that wasn’t the case.

Maybe, just maybe, if I drank my coffee black it might have been salvageable, but the 1/2 oz of Dunkin Donuts coffee infused with Dunkin Donuts creamer/sweetener that I had left in there had turned into a petri dish full of the beginnings of some sort of alien life form. A quick rinse in some hot water removed quite a bit of the larger chunks of stringy, slimy black colored gunk. But there were still a crap ton of brownish-black large amoeba looking spots still stuck all over the sides, so I filled it up 3/4 of the way with a diluted solution of Simple Green and shook it up for a few minutes. Oooh, that’s still ugly in there. Now I started working on the insides with hot water, dish soap & a toothbrush.

I’m making slow progress when the CFO notices what I’m doing and says, “Throw it out and get a new one.” I hate to admit defeat, but acquiesce. I was confident I could get the stainless steel body clean enough to drink from, the rubber and plastic fancy mechanism top, not so much. After seeing the inside and how hard it was to try and get clean, I don’t think I would have felt comfortable drinking from it anyway.

I didn’t order a new one because I only need the one and if by some chance I leave this on a fence post somewhere too, a replacement is only $15-20 & 2 days away.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 6/25/15: 2

Fairies Are Female

A married couple in their early 60s are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant.

Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table. She said, ‘For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.’

The wife answered, ‘Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband.’ The fairy waved her magic wand and POOF! – two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment, ‘Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I’m sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.’

The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish! So the fairy waved her magic wand and POOF! – the husband became 92 years old.

Moral of the story: Men should remember that fairies are female…

Thanks Jackie.

Fire Over Aiken

The city of Aiken along with Atlantic Broadband and a couple other sponsors put on a fireworks display tonight for the 4th. They held it at the Western Carolina Fairgrounds which just so happens to be right across the street from the Valve Store(tm). The company was kind enough to open the normally closed on weekends gates and let the employees park away from the maddening crowds of the city’s hoi poloi.

The weather folks were all week calling for a big chance of rain for this evening. And they were right. It rained pretty good at our house at around 7:30 then quit, but a look at the Weather Channel’s future estimation showed a large cell of nasty thunder boomers arriving around 9:00, or about 15 minutes ahead of the planned firework display starting time.

We decided to drive up to work anyway. It is a short trip and the weather guessers have been wrong once or twice before. There were about 10 cars in the lot when we arrived and about a half dozen arrived after us. While were waiting for the show, Donna and I visited with a few folks and right on cue at 9:00 o’clock it started to sprinkle and few lightning flashes lit the clouds. But instead of getting increasing worse the rain stopped and held off for almost all of the 20 minute show. Towards the end it started to sprinkle again and on the drive home it did rain some more, but it never did get real nasty.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 0

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 15
Totals So Far: 59 points & 2000 miles

Notice Anything Different?


Right now it still smells a little like new plastic inside. As we left the top shop the fellow came outside and said to be sure and leave it up for week to let the top stretch & settle. I’ll try and make it a couple days, but by Monday at the latest it will be coming down for the morning drive to work.

The vinyl top makes a different sound when driving than the cloth did, but overall it seems slightly quieter. The previous cloth top, number two for the car, was always noisier than the original OEM top. I may have mentioned it here before, but top #2 was quieter at highway speeds when it was down and the windows up than it was when the top and windows were up.

The Emperor also got his second royal bath in 4 days once he got home. HRH had to spend last night outside under the stars with flying feathered creatures.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 0

Crown Me

The Emperor just got back from summer camp last Thursday, but he’s off again already on an overnighter. This time it is to get fitted up with some new head wear.

The next time you see a top count at the bottom of a post it will be a very, very small number. In the past 6 years, 7 months and 30 days the top has gone through 760 cycles or about once every 3-1/4 days. The rate really dropped off, from over 300 a year to around 125, after the 2011 purchase of the Sonata. Now when the weather is iffy, the Miata just stays home.

The new top is going to be black vinyl instead of the original (and 1st replacement) top’s tan cloth. The material change is because it is a hundred bucks cheaper for vinyl and the slight decrease in durability is more than offset by the decreased top usage. The color change is just for that reason, a change.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1521

Wash Day

The Emperor got a bath this morning. But it was a stinking hot day Brian, didn’t you work up a sweat? There was no need to work up a sweat, I was already sweaty from the morning bike ride and a little yard work that I did just before starting the project.

After washing the Miata I pulled it into the garage and washed the first 1/31 of each side of the green metal awning that the Purple Whale parks under, AKA The Aquarium.

I cheated for the Sonata, after lunch we ran it through Lulu’s.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1517

The Triumphant Return of the King

Actually came back on Thursday evening, but on Friday he rested because we rode the tandem to work and later went grocery shopping in the “big” car.

Took a drive today to a friends house. After the first couple of hard turns under acceleration and getting a loud clunk as the new springs settled onto their perches, it was smooth sailing. Car handles like new again. What we thought was the main rear seal doing all the leaking turned out to be mostly valve cover gasket with the rear seal being a minor contributor. Just recently the Emperor had started leaving a small spot towards the rear of the car to go with the big one up front. Turns out it wasn’t a muffler-fluid leak like I suspected, but the rear transmission seal was the culprit, which the fine folks at Panic Motorsports replaced for me.

Got a new clutch and associated components and I swear it feels better than new. It took me only a moment to get adjusted to its new release/engagement point, after the replacement it is an inch or so closer to the floor than than it was. Steve @ Panic sez it is a simple fix to move that point up or down in the travel patch of the pedal. I looked up on the Miata.net Forum and it looks dead simple. so I might just give it go to see if I can get it back to about the middle of the travel where it has reside for the last dozen years.

While they had the car on the lift they marveled at the bumps and bruises the car has accumulated in its 150,000 mile life so far. Steve actually wondered if I had hit any bowling balls. There was a bent rear sub frame brace that they replaced and they also had to re-weld the resonator (Mazda calls it a presilencer) back onto the exhaust pipe. I also somehow managed to get a large dent in the muffler in a nearly un-accessible spot. In my defense I’m usually very good at distances and spacial relationships, but for some reason I have a terrible blind-spot in judging the height of road debris compared to chassis clearance.

Started down. went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1515