Month: June 2015

Too Much Blue?

I’m not sure I like the way the all this blue looks, so don’t get to comfortable. OK?

On Tuesday evening I changed the oil on the Miata and rotated the tires. I pulled the right front tire off first so I could get to the oil filter and drain plug. While the dark amber color fluid drained into a plastic pan, I pulled off the right rear and mounted the previous front tire in its place. I rolled each at least a full rotation looking for anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing sticking out of either one, but the inside corners of both of them were worn a bit more than the outside. It was getting close to tire shopping time.

When I pulled the right rear I realized it was time to shop now. The inside edge of this tire was almost square from uneven wear. No belt material was showing, but what should have been a smooth circumference was somewhat wavy.

Normally I would spend several hours checking reviews, reading the tires & wheels section of the Miata Forum and searching for deals before getting a new set of tires, but we were taking a weekend trip that started in 48 hours. I needed tires in a hurry and the few times I’ve had to do that it hasn’t always ended well.

I checked the website of the best independent tire dealer in town and they listed a couple of Ultra High Performance Summer tires in my size, including the Yokohama S.Drive which the Emperor already was riding on. It was about 3 minutes until closing time, but the fellow who answered said he could hook me up the next day with a set of the Yoko’s and an alignment.

I hated to do the alignment because there are a new set of shocks and springs in the garage awaiting installation in the next couple weeks and I will have to do another one after that stuff is put on. But it would be kind of stupid to buy new tires and then take a 850 trip with an improper alignment. I’d like to get closer to 25,000 miles on this set instead of just under 21,000 for the current tires.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1493

Motoring Challenge Points 0, Approx Miles Driven 140
Totals So Far: 40 points & 1080 miles

The Goods

On season three of Orphan Black to go along with the serious business of finding out the who, what & why these women were cloned and what is making some of them sick, we have one clone off on their own to provide a few light-hearted moments to balanced with the dramatic stuff.

Soccer Mom Alison has decided to run for School Trustee (I assume the Canadian version of the US’s School Board), but at about the same time, hubby Donnie loses his job. Alison comes up with a brilliant idea to finance her campaign. They mortgage their house to buy out the local kid drug dealer who wants to go straight and go to college. She will sell homemade soap cooked up in the garage as cover.

I have gotten several co-workers addicted to watching Orphan Black. Most have the correct cable or satellite package to get BBC America and can watch it on Saturday night or more than likely off the DVR on Sunday. A few buy the show from Amazon Instant Video, but there are still a couple folks who can’t get it legally, so I feel obligated to kind of get the show for them from the back channels of the net.

One of those individuals is so excited to get her copy on Monday morning that as soon as she sees me she whispers inconspicuously, “You got the stuff?” Well, Monday before last when she asked me that way, I flashed in my head the image of Alison’s illicit goods delivery system and decided to make something up just for her.


Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1492

Too Much Red

If you tuned in last night or today you would have noticed that I changed the style of the blog. The style itself wasn’t bad, but it came out more redder than I liked.

So tonight I changed the color scheme to something lighter. My wife viewed the page on the desktop and proclaimed it looked like Easter. I didn’t see it on the laptop, where I picked the background, here the blue and greens are a touch darker and what she saw as yellow on the desktop, looks khaki here.

Come back tomorrow, probably be some more different colors. And if you are lucky, maybe a story.