Masters Miata Club

Busy 2 Nights

Last night was our Fantasy Football League draft. I made a suggestion to last years Commissioner about how it would be more fun if we could play everyone in our division twice. Because we all work in the same department it would be better for smack talk pre and post Sundays, so he made me Commissioner for this year.

Anyway, allow me to introduce the 2012 Purple Whales: Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer are my QBs, with LeSean McCoy, Ahmad Bradshaw, Willis McGahee, James Starks and Robert Turbin as Running Backs. Wide Outs are going to be Andre Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Malcom Floyd, Nate Burleson and Randy Moss. I also drafted Brandon Pettigrew & Jared Cook for Tight End with Kicker Rob Bironas and the San Francisco 49ers Defense/Special Teams.


Tonight was the Annual MMC Bug Splat Rally. For the second year in a row the squashed insects were few and far between. The Biggest Bug Trophy was awarded to a small flattened bug in the middle of a pop up headlight. Closest to the Target was awarded to a small smudge of a bug 1/2″ away from the green Avery dot. Three cars were tied for Cleanest Car, but I gave it to the newest members because one couple had won the last three years in a row and the third couple got the Most Bugs award because they showed up with cat paw prints on their hood.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1170

127,000 Milligrams Of Caffeine

This morning was the monthly MMC Breakfast event. Because we weren’t meeting for the drive to breakfast until 7:30 Donna and I decided on a pre-breakfast at our more typical 6:00AM time at DD. We split a bagel and had our usual morning beverages, Donna’s hot chocolate and my coffee.

We made the meet & greet, and in not too short an order our line of 5 cars made the brief drive to Harlem and our breakfast spot, the Red Oak Manor Bed & Breakfast‘s Acorn Restaurant. The first order of business for our host was to fill the coffee cups of the majority of the eleven members present. And the coffee kept coming for the whole hour or so we ate, chatted and even had a brief meeting. I bet we consumed over a hundred and twenty seven thousand milligrams of caffeine with all that dark amber fluid guzzled.

The Emperor passed the 127,000 mark on the way over to Augusta.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1162

Couch Shopping, Desserts Bigger’n Your Head & You Sure That’s Right?

Last time we bought living room furniture we got a 3 piece matching set, couch, love seat and arm chair. Because it is just the two of us, the only piece that has seen appreciable use is the couch, so now we need a new one. The other two items are basically brand new, so we would like to keep them and just buy a couch. Because it has been quite a while, a matching piece is entirely out of the question. The object we seek will be something that will compliment what is staying. Not easy, the current furniture is a burgundy cloth with rolled arms accented with nail heads sitting on ball feet. Not too much out there in that style and to make it nearly impossible we have decided to get a couch with built in recliners. The second store we tried tonight had a possibility, but we still want to look at least a couple more places.

We had dinner out with the Masters Miata Club tonight at the Boll Weevil in downtown Augusta. The food is always good and tonight was no exception. They are known for their desserts and usually Donna and I decline, but for some reason tonight we didn’t. Boy are we sorry. Here is a photo of some of their desserts, our Perfect Chocolate cake (which we “spoiled” with two scoops of vanilla ice cream) was larger than those shown, it was actually hanging off both sides of the plate!

On the way back from Augusta we filled up the Emperor’s gas tank. Regular was under 3 bucks, and because HRH takes Premium it was going to cost us $3.17 a gallon, but with our shopper\’s discount it too was under three at $2.97. I had reset the trip odometer in Clayton when we filled up last Saturday morning, I didn’t reset it when we topped off on Sunday, and so the mileage since that first fill up read 454.3. I took the last two gas receipts, totaled up the two tankfuls and got 15.065 gallons. That means the MPG for the past five days, which consisted of 60% windy mountain roads, 25% 2-lane back roads and 15% 4-lane divided highways was a respectful 30.16.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1072

The Miata Club goes Boweling

Saturday morning we meet with the MMC for our monthly breakfast run that would then be followed with a few frames of bowling.

[English Majors, is the first sentence in this paragraph an example of irony?] We meet 2 other cars in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel for the drive to breakfast at Kegler’s Cafe at Gordon Lanes Bowling Center. The group consisted of the Rally Masters who are Wii bowlers extraordinaire, another couple who own their own bowling balls and us, whose parents bowled.

Gordon Lanes is located on Fort Gordon, an Army base located south and west of Augusta. Civilians are allowed on the base and can make use of the recreation facilities, you just have to stop at the gate, show a picture ID, car registration and proof of insurance. Since 9/11 everyone has to do that, including the military folks stationed on the Fort, us civilians then get directed to the visitor area where we again show those same documents to another set of guards who fill out our daily vehicle pass.

It used to be when you were entering a military base you were “greeted” by the respective service’s police force. Now a days, it is cheaper to contract that function out. And if you check out the full size version of the thumbnail above, it is apparently done on the lowest bidder method. Officer Jackson had a little trouble spelling my first name, but you have to give him credit for the missing A at the end of MAZD because that is how it is listed on the registration. Now, the listed destination, that right there made up for any disappointment caused by the closed Gordon Lanes and cold French Toast at the Huddle House.

Three For Three

We ate for the Trifecta. Breakfast at Autens where we were too early to for the annual pancake eating contest. Lunch at Chick-fil-A where the parking lot was full, the drive-up window line was long, but inside the service was surprisingly fast. Dinner was at Zorbas Pizza and Grill where the food was spectacularly mediocre for the price they charged for it.

Dinner with the MMC at Zorbas was a prelude to the Annual Bug Splat Rally and for only the second time in its 13 year history no one went home with the Biggest Bug trophy. I skipped 2002 for some reason and this year, as I alluded to in Friday’s post, no one hit a bug, let alone a big one. In an effort to make sure he didn’t take home the trophy, one member wrote the word bug on the green Avery dot on another car and another member, a past winner, said even if he did actually win the trophy, his wife would not let him back in the house with it. So, awaiting next year’s run, the trophy sits in a place of honor at our house; on top of the water heater in the laundry room at the back of the garage.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1052

Peach Parade

The Miata got a sponge bath in the garage last night in preparation for the MMC’s participation in the Ridge Peach Festival in Trenton today. I send out an email to the Club stating that Donna and I wouldn’t do the parade without at least 6 cars and that is exactly how many showed up at the meeting spot for our drive to Edgefield for breakfast.

After breakfast we lost a car that wasn’t doing the parade thing, but fortunately there was one car waiting at the intermediate meeting point to bring it back to the required minimum. Donna had originally planned to walk up to the main viewing area and be a spectator because creeping along at 3 miles an hour in the hot sun is not something she cares to do, but the weather was unseasonably cool enough (upper 80’s) that she ended up riding along and throwing candy to the crowds.

The picture above is my favorite of the dozen or so photos I snapped today on the event. I captured a float behind us setting up before the start of the parade in the outside rearview mirror of the Emperor. I could tell they were a church group because the shirts the adults were wearing said on the front “Do you know Jesus?” The back read in big letters, “R U SUR”. I couldn’t make out the fine print, but hopefully it explained the missing E at the end of SUR or maybe the Bible book or passage demonstrated by the Wizard of Oz. It was an off the hip shot and I didn’t realize that I had captured the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion checking the Miatas out until I got home and downloaded the pictures. You can see the all the photos taken over on the MMC Website.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1039

Happy Father’s Day

I certainly hope that all you fathers out there had half as nice a day as I did. While I’m not a father myself, so I didn’t get a hand drawn card or burnt toast in bed, I did have a nice leisurely day. This morning was spent reading (The Genesis Code by John Case) on the screened porch listening to Radio Paradise. With both the humidity and temperatures lower than normal for around here, the screened porch was the place to be. So much so that after lunch with friends I headed back out there to read some more and listen to the Red Sox trounce the Pirates.

Excuse me while I go finish the book and then it is back to reality. Tomorrow starts a new work week and I really need to get going on a Master’s Miata Club newsletter…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 191