Masters Miata Club

Jar of Toe Jam

Friday night was the MMC’s annual Christmas Party. I really kind of dislike giving a store bought gift for the gift exchange, so when I can, I like to make something sort of crafty. After last year’s Wrench on the Bench I really felt like there was no way to top that. So this year I dropped back and bought some stuff, admittedly non-standard stuff, and added a little crafty delivery system.

I didn’t get a cut of sales of the Blipshift shirt I inspired, but I did in fact get a $100 credit at the company store to use as I see fit. So on Cyber Monday when they offered these cool Cargyle Socks, I decided to spend some of that money. Because it was two pair I figured the second one would be my gift to give away. I also bought a set of the laser-cut ornaments and then I could use one of the four as decoration on the sock delivery package.

Initially Donna was going to bring a bottle of Blackberry Gold that we bought in Hendersonville over Thanksgiving from the Flat Rock Ciderworks. I was going to some how stuff the socks into a wine bottle so that we would both show up with identical shaped gift bags. This planned crashed for two reasons, first Donna opted to take the hard cider as her gift to the Valve Store’s Lady’s Christmas party the night before and second it turns out wine bottlenecks are too small to stuff a grown man’s sock through.

What you see above is Plan B. I was impressed with my effort, the person who ended up with it on Friday night was not. I was not too surprised by that though as the car club is stuffed full of non-car guys. Even if every person in the Club was there, I bet it would take less than one hand to count the number of folks out of the nearly fifty member/member families who would know the significance of the color pattern of the socks.

MMC At The Gap

OK, this past weekend Donna and I were supposed to lead 5 cars up to western North Carolina to enjoy some twisty roads and one really, really twisty one. Well, I’ve got to stop watching the news and reading the news on the internet, because I convinced myself that the Alabama gas pipeline’s second accident, earlier in the week, would cause shortages stranding us in the mountains. So Donna and I didn’t lead a group to NC, we handed them our maps and wished them well.

Of course the shortages never materialized and we probably missed an epic weekend of Miata fun. I sent an email to all the folks who went last night, asking for a few words about the trip, but as of yet I have no replies back so I have no idea of what they did. Well, that’s not exactly true, I know they drove through the famous Deals Gap at around 9:30 AM on Saturday morning. Killboy caught them in the act:

165,000 Sunrises

165,000 Sunrises

That many sunrises would actually be somewhere just north of 450 years, so that is not how many I have witnessed, but perhaps in another life if I was Count Magnus Brahe, a Swedish noble, who was born on September 25, 1564.This particular sunrise was experienced by Donna and I on our way to work this morning.

Not too far into the trip to tonight’s MMC monthly meeting the Emperor pass thru the 165,000 mile mark.

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 60 points & 970 miles

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 195

Thank You For Your Service

Yesterday morning we drove the Miata to lovely downtown Trenton, SC. We were with 9 other Miatas from the MMC and we were on our way to drive in the 46th Annual Ridge Peach Festival parade. This was the 13th year the Club has driven in the parade. Donna and I were among the 8 cars that first year, and while we haven’t done it every year, but I bet this was the 8th or 9th time.

During the parade you are allowed to throw candy to the crowd and we always spend about $20 so that we have enough to last the entire 2/3 of a mile route. When we could drive 2 abreast we would and Donna would throw candy to the crowd-side herself, but when the crowds thickened and we had to drive single file she would throw to the right and in between, hand me candy so I could toss some to the left. It was during this time when I tossed a few Starbursts at a couple of kids that I happened to make eye contact with the mother and she said to me, “Thanks. And thanks for your service.”

That woman at the parade was thanking me based solely on the hat I was wearing. A month ago when we toured the USS Midway I bought a hat in the gift shop to commemorate our visit and my time aboard almost 40 years ago. This has happened a couple other times too, once in Barstow, CA and once again here in Aiken, both times it was just because of the hat. Not that I don’t slightly deserve it having spent 10 years in Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club, but any schmoe who’s toured the ship or spends around twenty bucks can get one from Amazon or eBay and that weirds me out because they’ll get thanked for possibly no service at all. I’d like to wear the hat, but I’m going to have to only do it when there will be little chance of interaction with people and definitely not on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

And then again maybe it is probably just me who has a problem with this, but when I joined the Navy in 1973 people were still into calling servicemen returning from Vietnam baby-killers and now after the middle-east conflicts it has become fashionable to call servicemen (and women) heroes and to thank them for their service and I am of that era, not this one.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 186

4 Years Later

McLeod Museum

We took a drive on Saturday to scout a route for a future MMC event, but we didn’t take the Miata, it was just a little too cold (and windy) for a convertible drive. The picture above is from the destination, the McLeod Farms Antique Museum.

It was even colder today. We got up this morning for our usual Sunday morning breakfast bike ride. Our first stop was downtown at the ATM because we didn’t have any cash and after were going to go another dozen miles or so before eating. The temps were in the upper 30s with the wind chill near freezing. We both felt uncomfortably cold in the 15° below normal, so after the ATM we just rode home and got in the car to drive for breakfast. Post breakfast we did the weekly grocery shopping and we have not been outside since.

This afternoon we sat glued to the couch watching the only golf tournament we ever watch, the Masters.

I have been seeing Dr. PCP twice a year forever for him to run my cholesterol numbers and I can’t believe it has been 4 years since I put up the numbers…Maybe because they looked pretty much like this latest batch of results, cholesterol & LDL within limits and my triglycerides too high with my HDL not high enough.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal 80-199 40-110 30-130 30-150
03/31/16 170 37 95 180
10/10/12 196 36 128 160
04/10/12 193 39 121 166
10/10/11 162 43 88 155
04/04/11 155 38 96 107
12/06/10 176 41 114 105
05/18/10 151 38 91 109
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

The Week In Review

Destination - Deer Crossing

Stopped on the way over to visit a friend and took this picture. It is worth two points and I’m counting zero miles because we would have passed right by it anyway.

Monday when we got home from work, Donna checked the mail and she came out with a padded envelope, looked at me and asked accusingly, “What did you order from Moss Motors?!?” I thought for a moment, couldn’t come up with anything…..then it dawned on me, it was our prize package for finishing as one of the 50 runners-up in the 2015 Motoring Challenge. Sure enough, that’s what it was, a nice t-shirt, a cool little sticker and our $50 gift certificate.

This year for the Motoring Challenge instead of a T-shirt they are giving everyone who scores 50 points a nifty hat, well last week’s “Slow Children Playing” sign put us over that mark. All they wanted as proof was a photo of your entry sheet with your progress so far marked off. So Wednesday after work I took a picture of ours sitting on the trunk of the Sonata and wrote 52 pts, so far with my finger in the coating of pine pollen. I then spent the next 1-1/2 hours washing the pollen off both the Sonata and the Miata, even though I knew they would be covered again to the same thickness in a couple days.

This morning was the monthly breakfast drive with the MMC and we had a turn out of two cars, us and the folks who were leading it. Maybe some were scared off by the chance of rain, the weather have been promising all week that it would start raining last night, continue through the whole day and not quit until tonight. It was sprinkling lightly when we got ready to leave for the drive, but halfway to the meet up spot we paused on the side of the road and dropped the top. We just returned from grocery shopping and it is still down. Radar is showing a line heading our way, should be here within the hour, but I would not be surprised if it dissipates before it gets here.

In this afternoon’s mail was another padded envelope from Moss Motors. This time, she didn’t ask what I bought because we knew the hat was on its way. Now I have to figure out what I want to spend the fifty bucks on so I can get another padded envelope from them in the mail again.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 153

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 54 points & 910 miles

60,000 Corn Chips With Salsa

Tonight was the MMC’s monthly meeting and Donna and I attended. We usually have a bunch of excuses as to why we won’t go to one of these functions, but chief among them is we don’t feel like driving 25 miles one-way to eat in a restaurant when we have like sixty thousand of them within 53 miles of our house. Well this month we couldn’t use that excuse as the meeting was at a Mexican place right here in Aiken.

Amazingly enough, most of the attendees at the meeting were from right here in Aiken or close by. Just like us, there are some of the Augusta folks who don’t want to drive all the way over here just to get Mexican food. But probably a lot more would have attended if it wasn’t for a wide band of thunderstorms passing through smack dab around meeting time.

For the first time in a long while we drove the OTM to the meeting. Two reasons actually, 1) the aforementioned thunder storms and b) we needed gas in the Sonata and it is always less crowded at the pumps at 6:00 PM than at our usual quitting time of 4:00 PM. As I got ready to kill the engine to fill up, I glanced down at the ODO of the Purple Whale, it read 60000.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 148