Month: January 2016

Cool Vehicles From All Around the World

The title of tonight’s post is a section on this year’s Motoring Challenge. There are ten blanks with the first 6 worth a point each and while 7 & 8 are worth two points, car number 9 is worth three and #10 will be worth four points. It is sub-titled Your car alongside sweet rides from 10 other countries and wins Brian’s prize for the most open for interpretation ever.

Do you need to find cars from ten other countries? Are there even ten countries that make cars?

What country is a car from? Is our Sonata Korean because that is where Hyundai is based or is it American because it was built in Alabama.

And just what does other mean anyway? A country other than the one I’m in? A country other than the country of the car’s origin?

Lastly, who decides what’s cool? If it was up to the folks on Jalopnik I would need to find 10 German or Swedish station wagons preferably brown with manual transmissions…

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 138

Immobile Draw Bridge

A raised Drawbridge is worth a big 4 points in this year’s Motoring Challenge and that was today’s big destination. I found a list of our state’s movable bridges on the SC Highway Information pages. There are ten and only 4 are drawbridges. The one that seemed the most promising was the Wappoo Creek Bridge on SC-171 near Charleston. We have crossed over this bridge several times before, including doing the 2014 Challenge when we went to Folly Beach to get a picture of a pier. According to the page it opens on the hour and the half hour between 9:00 AM & 7:00 PM on the weekends. As a bonus there is a seafood restaurant on one side of the bridge that would make a perfect lunch spot.

There is a boat ramp on the West Ashley side of the creek that offered up a perfect spot to get a photo of the bridge in action. We parked, got out to stretch our legs a bit and then just chilled for a while. Eleven-thirty came and went and the bridge didn’t go up. What the heck? Then the landlubbers that we are, it dawned on us, those opening times are for boats and then only if there is one waiting. SC-171 is a very busy road, especially on a weekend, even on a winter day, so why would they grind traffic to a halt every 30 minutes if they didn’t need to. Doh! This is going to take a bit more planning.

Still, the day was very productive, 8 photos worth a total of 13 points:

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 137

Motoring Challenge Points 13, Approx Miles Driven 310
Totals So Far: 29 points & 440 miles

Happy Curmudgeon Day

For the past however long1 we have worked at the Valve Store ™ we have had 9 holidays off. They were New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

Depending on what day Christmas & it’s Eve fell on it was mostly always turned into a 4 day weekend with the exceptions being if Christmas fell on a Wednesday or Thursday. A large group of employees would combine this with the New Year’s Day holiday and most of their 2 or 3 weeks of vacation disappear from the middle of December and not return until January 2nd.

I say we had 9 holidays, because the company decided that starting this year they were replacing Christmas Eve with a Floating Holiday of the employee’s choosing. This floater had to be scheduled like a vacation day by filling out a vacation request, but noting that it was your Floating Holiday. But it would have to used like a holiday in that you couldn’t take it in 2 half days and it was not allowed to be carried over.

Around lunch time yesterday Donna decided that maybe it would be nice to turn this into a 4 day work week by taking today off. We decided instead of wasting a vacation day we would go ahead and burn that floater. So I hearkened back to my bicycle club newsletter days and went looking for a esoteric holiday to celebrate. Found several and opted for Curmudgeon Day. So I put on the vacation request handed in to our supervisors, January 29th, Curmudgeon Day (in honor of William Claude Dukenfield’s birthday.)

When my acting supervisor asked me who William Claude Dunkenfield was I told him it was W.C. Fields. Ever the smart-ass he said, “Oh, I know him, he makes the cookies.” Not to be out smart-assed, I replied, “No, that’s his wife.”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 136

1. cough, cough twenty-seven years, cough, cough

The Mother Road?

The Mother Road

Went for a little walk in Hitchcock Woods on Sunday and stumbled on this trail. Most of the other trails in the woods have names derived from the early days of the city’s Winter Colony and equestrian themes, but this one…?…decidedly modern and automotive. The sign is relatively new (first time we’ve noticed it, but then we usually come in a different entrance) judging by its patina.

I don’t know who gets the honor of naming the trails in the woods, but this person has a sense of humor. Both because Hitchcock Woods is a horse riders paradise where no motorized traffic is allowed and this is a short connector trail very unlike its US highway equivalent.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 135

Just When I Thought That I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In… Again

Gillian Anderson

If you looked over to the left and down where it says “A Decade Ago” yesterday the 22nd, you might have noticed a post entitled Just When I Thought That I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In where I talked about my falling off the posting photos of Gillian Anderson wagon because she was back everywhere in the media due to gig on a PBS period piece show.

Well, because of the run up to the Fox revival miniseries starting tomorrow night, she is everywhere again and the above photo came from a GQ mini-interview with her called Gillian Anderson Answers All Your Questions about the New X-Files Revival that I found a decade later, January 22, 2016.

To do my own prep for Sunday night I’ve been cherry picking some of my favorite episodes to watch. So far, in this order, is what I’ve re-watched:

  • The Post-Modern Prometheus
  • Bad Blood
  • Jose Chung From Outer Space
  • Clyde Bruckman
  • The Field Where I Died
  • Never Again
  • Christmas Carol & Emily
  • Small Potatoes
  • Triangle
  • Dreamland & Dreamland II

Warby Parker Redux

When shopping for new glasses 3-1/2 years ago I tried the Warby Parker Home Try On thing and end up buying a pair from the local eyeglass place. After my Ant Man inspired glasses failed to make the grade I went online and headed back over to WarbyParker.com to give it another go. In spite of the negative/lukewarm reactions out weighing the good, I was still jonesing some clear frames. For my five pair I picked 3 clear and a couple others that were more like my current glasses, i.e. tortoise shell flavored. So, below for your viewing pleasure is the line up I chose. The first photo is what I’m wearing now, the others are the frames I tried on, hover those images and you can see what they looked like on my face.

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We’re Back At It Again

Destination - Comic Book Store (2)

The 2016 Moss Motoring Challenge is now underway for us. We used a trip this morning to Lexington to get some bagels at Bruegger’s to gather up some Destinations there and in the Columbia area.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 133

Motoring Challenge Points 11, Approx Miles Driven 130
Totals So Far: 11 points & 130 miles