Year: 2015

Fam Damily

Destination - Family Reunion

We have been keeping our eye out for a Family Reunion to crash for the past 11 months and figured we’d stumble on at least one, but alas, nope. So when we agreed to come up to Hendersonville, NC today, not only was it to visit my sister and her husband, but it was to have a mini family reunion, as my brother was visiting them too.

While three of us are are not much of a family, we are pretty much all of it. Donna and I never had kids, my sister and her husband have only raised some cats, while baby brother never even bothered with the marriage part at all. As for the reunion qualifier, this is just the third time we have all been in the same zip code in the past eight years. Plus, before that it was even less frequent…

Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 120

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 160
Totals So Far: 158 points & 8805 miles

What Did You Want It For Then?

November’s breakfast was yesterday and the responsibility of the new President of the MMC He picked Betsy’s in downtown Aiken. When he asked me to post the info on the web site he said to have everyone meet up at the usual gas station off Exit 1 of I-20 and could I send him a copy of my route I used the last time I did the very same run. I assumed that meant he was planning on leading the group from there to the breakfast spot. Silly me.

Donna and I arrived at the gas station about 6 minutes before the appointed 8:00AM meeting time and were surprised that there was no one else there, especially the event organizer. A couple minutes later another car showed up. By 8 o’clock there were three cars, but none were the leader of the breakfast event. We waited another ten minutes and when the President and event leader never showed up, I ended up leading the small group on a slightly different route to the breakfast place.

When our three car caravan arrived at Betsy’s there were already two Miatas outside. One of them belonged to the President of the Club and when we got inside he and another member were just finishing their meal.

When I asked what he wanted the route map for all he said was, “That was if I did do the route I needed to study it because I don’t have a navigator.” So I asked did he read the post on the web site and the reply was, “No, but I figured it out when my dining companion asked where everyone else was.”

What could I say, I just went over to the table with the rest of the group than drove in together and ordered some breakfast.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 117

No NB Love

Today’s Blipshift T-shirt is another Miata design. NAlware, which is kind of a pun in a few ways. I’m sure of the first because of the always allow pop-ups tag line and the NA Miata headlights. Malware and pop up windows on the internet. Maybe a stretch, but ware = wear, a t-shirt with an NA on it.

pop_up_detail_grande

I’m going to pass on this one though, if I still owned a blue 1st gen car I’d be all over it. Maybe buy more than one, wear a hoodie over a short sleeve version….but I’ve got enough Miata themed shirts from them and all of them are of the 1st gen car. All their shirts have been of NA’s except one and that was a 3rd generation (NC) car.

Blipshift is always asking for design ideas or artist submissions, so I felt that this last NA design needed a response, so I submitted a version of my latest internet avatar.

Pop-up Blocker Detail Grande

Where is my NB love Mr. Blipshift?

How Ya Been?

Me too.

The Emperor returned home Wednesday evening. And the squeal was not related to the oil leak at all. The leak was caused by the exhaust cam seal. If about now you are thinking, wait a minute, exhaust cam seal, that sounds familiar. Right you are. It was changed back in October which is why Steve didn’t charge me for changing it this time.

He did charge me for a used alternator though. That was the squeal. Not oil on the belts, but bad bearings in the alternator. Steve said that the very act of backing the car up and driving the 75 feet into the garage made the alternator almost too hot to touch. Glad that sucker didn’t lock up somewhere in the mountains of western North Carolina.

When Donna asked if I minded the used vs. a new one I said, “Nah.” “This one came off a car with like 60,000 miles on it and the original failed at 160K, so I figure by the time the used one goes the Emperor will have over a quarter millions miles on it.” Of course, wouldn’t you know it, yesterday coming home from work in the Miata, a couple times when we came to a stop sign the car let loose with a squeal of sorts. Didn’t sound like what I thought was belt squeal before, not as loud and a different pitch, but it wasn’t a normal sound either.

We are going to breakfast with the MMC tomorrow, if the noise appears again we may just be driving back to Panic Motorsports this Sunday morning too.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 113

Squealing Like A Stuck Pig

Last Friday when we were at the gap, as we left the dam overlook, the Emperor took off with a horrible bit of belt squeal for the first 50 yards or so. Talk about embarrassing, especially as the few cars that were there were tricked out Subaru WRXs and tarted up Nissan Z cars. On Sunday morning we got so early a start for home it was still dark out. Turns out this was a good thing because not many people were awake and those that were couldn’t see which car was emitting that howling banshee squeal for the first 1/4 mile going east on NC 143 out of Robbinsville.

Tuesday evening the Miata got a bath, so Wednesday when we went to back out of the garage, the belt squeal started right up, and if you think this is noisy when driving outside, inside our one-car garage it is ear piercingly loud. I didn’t even let out the clutch and turned the car off.

Have I mentioned that there is still oil accumulating on the garage floor? At first I could explain it away as left over oil from the previous leaks aided by gravity finding its way down, but after wiping up a paper towel’s worth for three Saturdays in a row I’m thinking this is not the case. My best non-mechanically educated guess is that these two things are related. Who knows, maybe wherever the oil is coming from now it is splashing some on one of the accessory belts.

This morning I squirted a little belt dressing on them to prevent scaring little children and setting the neighborhood dogs barking as we left to drive the Emperor back to Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 111

59,000 58,000 Really Dead Brain Cells1

While waiting in the bank’s drive up window this afternoon I looked down at the Purple Whale’s odometer and realized that it read 58,024. Back tracking as best I could with a large chunk of fifty-eight thousand brain cells that no longer work, I figure that mile mark was crossed on our grocery shopping trip on Sunday.

That same chunk, likely 1,000 less at that point, is probably responsible for my totally missing the 58,000 mile mark sometime between July and now.

1. This post has been edited to reflect that perhaps not only are the brain cells dying, but the eyesight is not nearly as acute as before too. Got in the car this morning (Thursday 11/12) and saw that the ODO read 58,xxx.