First Day Of Spring

The calendar (and the little countdown thingie in the sidebar) say Spring officially starts in 23 days. The birds have been very vociferous for the last couple of days. The trees branches have the startings of buds and the Bradford pears actually have a touch of white blossom showing, so it is really coming.

But today was voted the first day of spring in Aiken by a panel of judges (Donna and I) because instead of going straight home, we put the top down and took the long way.

When we did make it home, I decided to honor the God of the Vernal Equinox by washing the Miata. It won’t be this weekend, but soon it will be time to put on a coat of wax. Might even try and use a clay bar first to get it really clean first (the anal retentives over in the Car Care Products of Miata.net would be so proud.)

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 56

Papa’s Got A New Pair Of Shoes

They are Timberland Pro Titan Oxford 40045 and look a lot like these, but are lighter in color, more tan than brown. Mama got some new shoes too. Donna spends quite a bit of time on the shop floor, so she wears steel toed shoes as well. She will be styling and profiling in a pair of Lehigh High Heel Slip-on #483.

We drove all the way to Columbia to the shoe store to get a good selection, boy do we lead an exciting life.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 53

Booklovers

That is the name on the store where I get my usual reading matter, they have thousands of books on the shelves from new hardcovers to used paperbacks. I buy used paperbacks at roughly 1/4 the cost of the sicker price (half off because they are used and then half off of that because I have traded in tons of old books there.)

It is getting harder and harder to find something to read there though. I normally read mystery/action/thriller type books and lately the jacket blurbs are all starting to sound alike — “Katherine Tomillia, a beautiful and brilliant lawyer with a troubled past is being stalked by a perverted serial killer and her only hope of bringing him to justice is to be re-teamed with her ex-husband, a gritty streetwise former police officer turned private eye, Drake Wingo. Follow Drake and Katherine into the high stakes world of high finance, global politics and quilt making…”

I did manage to find 4 possibles, including Mesmerized. “After a heart transplant saves brilliant Washington attorney Beth Convey, she inexplicably aquires new tastes and abilities, and finds herself having strange dreams — or are they memories?”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 53

Cubist Miata

Cubist MiataIf you have wondering why I haven’t taken any photos of the Miata recently, it is because I’m embarrassed by it’s condition. Yeah, its kinda of dirty, but mostly because of an accident involving a warp in the space-time continuum it lost all of the smooth curves that made it so sexy looking. Now everything is all sharp angles, it looks like it was painted by Georges Braque.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 52

Olympic Notebook

What’s up with the blue lines in the snow? I can almost understand the ones that are marking a corridor down the hill, but if you don’t get points off for skiing outside the lines, why bother? And just what purpose do the ones perpendicular to the course serve? The lines are all fuzzy too. This is the Olympics, man, every 4 years, big worldwide audience, couldn’t you get them a little sharper?

Super G? Is there a Regular G?

Giant Slalom, same question? (And is it just me or does the word slalom look misspelled?)

Curling. Enough said.

If Skeleton is the opposite of the Luge, why don’t we have Backwards Bobsledding?

I’m thinking that those women’s ice dancing costumes might be sexy with all that “skin” showing, if they didn’t look like they were designed by the eliminees of Bravo’s show Runway.

Who designed the medals? They look colored CDs on a ribbon. And why does it take 6 people 10 hours to make one?

So far the coolest thing about the Olympics was in the surreal opening ceremony, red-clad in-line skaters with specially designed flame-shooting helmets. I gotta get me one of those. Wait here while I go check Ebay….nope, but it is only a matter of time.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 51

Bird Flew

You will never never see a dead crow on the side of the road. — Mark Turner

Last night Donna and I were wined and dined by Jerry and his wife (also a Donna.) We went out to a place called Catch 22, a small seafood restaurant on New Orleans Road. Jerry was feeling expansive so he insisted we have all have an a glass of wine, appetizers, entree and dessert. The pinot noir was the best I have ever had, the crab cake for a starter that was terrific and the Veal Saltimbocca was so good that if they kept bringing to the table I would have eaten it until I lost consciousness. The chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert while good, but was actually the low point of the meal. Catch 22 is listed as a seafood restaurant only the women had a seafood entree, unless Jerry’s duck was an eider. Everyone of us raved about our meals as the best we had eaten in memory, so while I’m sure Hilton Head Island has many terrific places to eat, you definitely can’t go bad in your hunt to find your personal favorite by starting out at Catch 22.

This morning dawned cold and overcast for our drive back. There are only so many ways to get back to Aiken from HHI and I’m thinking unless we start taking dirt roads, we’ve been on all of them. Donna did manage to map out one we hadn’t done in a while, which had about a third of it on US321 (a nice bit of symmetry seeing as we were in condo A321.) Even though it was quite chilly the birds know spring is right around the corner as there were quite a bunch active along the roadside. Quite a few cardinals were spotted along with a couple of our state birds, the Carolina Wren. As usual on the these rural two-lane roads many a turkey vulture was spooked by our approach only to hop back to feeding once we were past. There was cauldron of them feasting on a deer that I bet numbered a couple dozen. The most unusual sighting was when we crested a small rise and there were several crows and a large brown and white bird around something on the left of the road. As we got within 50 yards the crows scurried off leaving behind a slower to take off bigger bird, which turned out to be, no shit, a bald eagle. It probably had a 4 1/2 – 5 foot wing span. It was the last thing we expected to see feeding along the road.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 51

She’s Everywhere

Four shows on the Food Network alone, 30 Minute Meals. $40 A Day, Inside Dish, Tasty Travels and now Rachel Ray the Magazine: www.rachelraymag.com

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 51