…those insipid Verizon commercials that I see while watching the NFL games on Sunday. Which, while bad, are not nearly as annoying as the multitude of Spectrum (wireless, business and whatever Spectrum One is) ads that they stick in practically every commercial break all dang day long.
It is coming up on the end of the month so we needed to finish using up our Fred Meyer Fuel Points that are left over from November. We filled up the Mini last Wednesday, but we still had a touch over 800 points to use or lose by the end of the month. so this morning I unplugged the battery tender, put up the top and drove to Freddy’s and bought 6.858 gallons and saved $5.49.
It wasn’t really snowing, I just added it to the picture for fun. The snow on the roadside is real and left over from the last snow storm.
A few weeks ago while wasting time on the Insta I came across a sticker that someone I follow had on the their Miata. I just had to have one. So I ordered one. It arrived in the mail a few days later.
It has taken 2 weeks for me to put it on the car though. I hesitated because I thought it was kind of “girly.” Which is kind of funny because the Miata I drive is considered a hairdresser’s/chick/gay car by roughly 75% of the male population and I have zero f**ks given about what people think about it.
Was I afraid that this would confirm that they are right? Whatever, I don’t care, it’s on there because that’s what the Miata is to me. If you’d like one of your own you can get one from Push to Start Design.
…I had a few ideas for posts this last week but I never got around to actually writing them here.
Because I haven’t written anything and the Miata has been driven a few times this week I lumped them all together below. As you can see the CTBNL went significant miles for the first time since last year and over two thirds of that number happened yesterday.
Took a nice drive early, to beat the heat, and did a quick backroad loop to a couple of small Oregon towns to take pictures of their post offices, Sprague River and Beatty.
Back in June when I was dreaming of a 2016 Miata I was also dreaming of what color I make it with a vinyl wrap. I went so far as to order some samples and stick them on the trunk lid of the Emperor. Well, I’ve ordered some more samples. This time it is not going to be the whole car, just two 8″ stripes with a 4″ gap in the center. Donna and friend Jackie picked the outside blue (Satin Perfect Blue S347) while I picked the one on the inside.
This afternoon when we walked out after work Dona said it really didn’t matter which one as long as it was blue. So we peeled off the other 3 colors and left my pick the Matte Riviera Blue (M67). Tonight as we left through the garage to go out to eat, I looked at the one lonely 2″ x 4″ sample and thought, that looks familiar, the blue painter’s tape that surrounded the windshield a few days ago. I pulled out a roll I had in the garage and the painter’s tape is actually a little darker than the vinyl. But I can’t get that image out of my head now.
So I have my criteria, blue for her & matte for him. Back to the color chart and look, there is another slightly darker matte blue available – Blue Metallic (M227). Now, that number sounds familiar and sure enough, it was one of the colors that were applied to the Emperor back in June. Back then it was the inner left one. Looking at it now, that color in that photo doesn’t look any different than the Matte Riviera Blue (M67) on the CTBNL does right now. Maybe we should go with the Satin Perfect Blue the ladies picked or maybe I should buy a couple more rolls of the blue tape…
Read Part I, Part II and Part III first.
Thursday after work when we arrived at the glass shop there wasn’t a silver Miata sitting outside waiting. While one of us was saying out loud, “Uh, oh, that’s not good.” The other one was simultaneously thinking the very same thing. As I open the front door I can see through into the shop floor and the guy waving us back. Donna and I go through the second door and see the CTBNL in the middle of the shop. They are just finishing up.
Owner guy says, “I put those rubber pieces on the blocks and you can see how everything is tight.” So I reach over and peel back the gasket at the top and sure enough it feels just like the one on the Emperor did when I blacked out the windshield surround. He then points over to a small bench that has a windshield face down on it. “I went ahead and bought a new windshield to put on your car.”1 “If you know someone who needs one, I’ll make them a good deal on a used one.2” Then, “They’re just finishing up, so give us a minute and we’ll bring it around front to you.”
Donna reluctantly leaves me behind and drives home in the Sonata. After a few minutes I hear a Miata fire up and circle the building. I step outside and there are two strips of blue tape across the upper corners of the windshield. Owner guy asks if I’m going right home or do I think I’ll be driving it around. “Two miles home is all,” I tell him. He says, “If you were going to drive a bit I’d put the tape all around, but this’ll hold you for just that.” I think for a second and say, “Why don’t we just go ahead and tape around the whole thing. Just to be safe.”
Because we rode the tandem to work on Friday I didn’t even pull the blue tape off until Saturday morning and with a couple of drives on Saturday plus a short one today, so far so good.
In hindsight, maybe we should have learned to live with that little divot.
Read Part I and Part II first.
Wednesday morning I carefully peel off the blue painter’s tape. The windshield still looks a little low, but the gasket fills the gap in the corners. Donna took the afternoon off, so I took her home and drove back to work uneventfully, if you don’t count the weird look out the back through the magnifying squared off mirror.
After work about a mile from the Valve Store, on my way to the glass shop, I start to hear a slight whistle. What the heck could that be? Then I notice a thin line of black peek above the windshield header on the passenger side. As I’m cruising along at 45 MPH the line turns into a loop growing in size and starting to flap around like one of those inflatable wacky waving arm tube men, now, with whistling sounds. As I slow while approaching a stoplight, the flapping and whistling decreases until at around 20 MPH it stops. But of course as soon as I get back above 20 it starts all over again. To limit the distraction, after I’ve shifted into 3rd I drive along with my right hand up above the header holding down the gasket. I have no idea if that looks even remotely normal, but at least the whistling is stopped.
When I enter the shop, a fellow I haven’t seen before (the owner?) is there and he greets me with, “How you doing?” “Not good,” I reply, “My windshield still isn’t right.” He picks up a box and says, “I can fix that, got your new mirror right here.” I tell him, “That’s just the half of it. Come outside, I’ll show you.” He takes one look at the car and says, “The gasket has come unstuck. We’ve had a rash of that happen lately. Its the cheap glue they’re putting on them now.”
Now that the gasket is out of the channel I can see that the glass itself is still a 1/4 inch low all around the top, so I ask owner guy, “Is this the right piece of glass? When I blacked out the windshield surround on my previous similar car I had a hard time getting the vinyl under the gasket here at the top glass because it was way up here.” “Or considering your little mirror trick,” I say, “Maybe you lost the two blocks that support the bottom of the glass and put something else in there.” “Oh no,” he says, “Those two are in there. What I’ll have do is pull the window back off and cut a 1/4″ thick piece of rubber to place on top of them to lift the glass.” “Can you leave the car with us?”
So for the second time in three nights the CTBNL spends the night in the shop at B & B Glass.
to be continued…
