Weekend Wrap

Burning TreeOn the way home from Saturday’s lunch at the Stoplight Deli and much to the chagrin of my wife I drove onto the median in the historic district to take a picture of the car near this small bright red tree. I have had my eye a one with bright yellow leaves, but someone was thoughtlessly holding some sort of party or wedding reception at the house on the corner nearest the tree and there were all kinds of cars and such in the way. A backup was spotted a block away and Donna was only mildly uneasy until I got back in the car and moved it a few feet to try a different angle, then, well…

Driving Miss Daisy Later that afternoon was the MMC‘s semi-annual Elmcroft Senior Drive where we go over to a local Assisted Living, don’t call me a nursing home, Center and take some of the residents for a little drive. We had 7 cars and seven riders, so we took a nice 35 mile drive up to and over the dam at Lake Thurmond. We had one Miata with a Porsche Boxster kit and a rep from the local dealer brought a 3rd gen Miata (unfortunately not the retractable hard top version) for us to use if we needed.

NBRIEDLater that evening was another MMC event, Game Night. A dozen of us gathered at the Butler’s to played games and eat finger foods. Four of us played a game of Scrabble while the other eight, in 2 groups of four, played dominoes. After a few games or so, a call went up to play something that all of us could partake in together. A couple people voted for charades, but two people, one of which was me, vowed to go stand outside in the rain rather than play that. We ended up playing Trivial Pursuit, the original Genus Edition which caused quite a few of us to have to relive the 80’s.

Yellow TreeToday we started our day with a leisurely breakfast of bagels at the Atlanta Bread Company followed by grocery shopping. We then drove over to Augusta because you can buy stuff earlier there than you can here on Sundays. We bought a wedding gift, some Christmas gifts for siblings that need to be tweaked and mailed around the country later and just shopped, not bought, gifts for a 3-year old who will be spending the holidays in a family shelter. He is one of several kids that people from ASCO are going to help out this year as we usually do. We then got a chicken salad sandwich to go from the Atlanta Bread Company that we ate overlooking the same dam I passed over yesterday. On the way home I passed by my yellow tree and the photos I took were kind of disappointing, not at all like I envisioned them. For the record we ate dinner at home, not the Atlanta Bread Company.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 460

Once A Week

Wet HoodWashed the Miata tonight and my next door neighbor is probably thinking I wash the Miata once a week. For the last month or so, he’d be right, this was the fourth time since October 5th.

Today’s bath was to get the red dirt off the inside (and outside) of the wheel wells because tomorrow is a MMC event and I want to look pretty. On Tuesday Donna and I delivered dinner, from her department, to a coworker who is home recuperating from surgery. This person lives down a dirt road and it had rained most of Tuesday, so the driving surface was easily transferred from ground to car as we slid precariously around a couple bends in the road.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 457

Yellow Leaves

LeavesAfter I got back from rollerblading Donna had finished cleaning off 2/3 of the driveway and 1/2 of the front lawn. She finished the lawn while I swept off the rest of the driveway. As you can see from this hickory there are still a lot of leaves to come down yet.

We couldn’t stand it, the leftover pizza was eaten for supper tonight.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 452

Over 49,000 Dead Leaves

Blue Z CarIs how many litter our front yard after the last few days of wind and rain.

It is also the amount of miles on the car. We must have hit the 49k mark late last night because after I made the 6 mile trip to work this morning the odometer read 49008. The Miata when new came with a 50,000 mile/3 year warranty and it looks like we are going to be a little shy of the mileage mark when we pass thru the time limit in 16 days.

In an attempt to wipe out the memory of the lousy “pizza” we ate last Friday on HHI we went to Ferrando’s in the Alley. It worked. Lou and company serve up an excellent pie and as Rachel Ray would say, “Yummo!” Best part is we only eat half of the 14″er in one sitting, so we have the other half for, let’s say, Saturday lunch. It’s all I can do from raiding the fridge right now.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 452

I’ve Fallen Off The Wagon

Garnet, SC 29922I’ve been driving by a lot of cute little ones lately. They have been calling out to me, “Take my picture. Take my picture. Come on, you know I’m cute. The light is right and the car is clean. What are you waiting for?” We have driven by this little Post Office numerous times on our trips to, and from, Hilton Head and every time I see it I note the name and it’s correlation to the Emperor’s “official” color name. And every time I see it I am tempted to stop. This time I did. A Garnet Red Mica Miata in front of the Garnett, SC 29922 Post Office.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 449

The Democratic Process

Tomorrow is election day and while I just love the bumper sticker, “I don’t vote, it just encourages them.” I usually do just the opposite, I vote to encourage them. In my own little protest against mainstream politicians, I typically vote for the Libertarian, the Green Party guy or some other third party candidates.

This election my voting will be guided by another bumper sticker I saw just the other day, “It’s broke, so let’s fix it. Vote Democratic.”

I mean what have I been thinking all these years, voting that way. The Democratic party is the way to go, always was, I mean the don’t call voting “The Republican Process” do they?

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 448

POS Racing Fan Club

POSAfter breakfast in the condo Donna and I drove over to Roebling Road Raceway outside of Savannah, GA to see a couple of friends race in an SCCA Solo1 event.

John is a heck of a driver that I hate following through the twisty roads on MMC events, because I know if I try and keep up with him I’ll end up getting in trouble. On the road he drives with what seems like abandon, but he always keeps in on the pavement. On the track he is a terror and usually once an event he manages to find the dirt, but he still has wrapped up first place in the southeast region in the CSP class. The car he drives, and consequently the race team, was christened by his wife the day he brought the well used red early model Miata home from the dealer, POS (and I’m betting you can figure what those three initials stand for.) After these last few years POS now has an alternate nickname, the Money Pit. Hey, it keeps John off the streets, literally.

Today when we got to the track John made me an honorary pit crew member by giving me a ball cap embroidered with the words POS Racing and a small red Miata complete with his car number in the white meatball on the door. I’m not sure if you get to pick your own number, but John’s is 54 and I wonder if it has anything to do with his propensity to leave the track and Officers Toody & Muldoon.

When we got back from watching racing this afternoon I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the Emperor. At 48,840 the car was about at the halfway point between Mazda’s recommended service points of 45,000 and 52,500.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 446