Miatatude

Only left the house to go to Zaxby’s for lunch and Kroger for grocery shopping. Spent most of the day reading Q is for Quarry, now excuse me while I go finish it….

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 294

Had our Miata Club’s Halloween Party tonight. The club has roughly 66 members and 8 people came. The total attendance was 10 because of the hosting couple’s presence. When the hosts first volunteered to hold the party they originally intended for it to be a costume party, but backed off because they were afraid it would hurt attendance. Ha, attendance, guess we should have required costumes. As it turned out 2 couples came dressed up anyway (Donna and I were not one of them.)

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 294

Changed the oil and rotated my tires this evening after work. Mazda recommends an oil change at every 7500 miles, which is probably OK for someone who is going to trade in that car after 3 years. I hope to keep the car for a lot longer than that, so in the beginning I decided to double that frequency. I change the oil (and rotate the tires while I’m at it) every 3750 miles. That number is hard to figure in my addled mind, so I now use the valve train clatter as an indication of the need to change the oil. Miatas are known for HLA noise and mine seems to show up after 3,000 miles or so. After a few mornings in a row when it takes to the end of the block for the lifters to quiet, I go buy some oil.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 288

Put the top up to wash the car and after it was dry, the top went right back down. While I was at it, I waxed the car too. And then I masked off the lower nose of the car and touched up the front lip spoiler with some semi-gloss black. For some reason twice this past week I pulled up a little too close to a curb and scratched it up.

This is the best time of the year for convertibles around here, mid 70’s in the days and upper 50’s overnight. Tonight was a beautiful evening for a drive. The skies were clear, the moon was full and it was just cool enough…. Came up behind another Miata at the start of the drive. Couldn’t tell what color it really was, but my guess is that was Crystal Blue, although it looked gray. Couldn’t have been the Titanium because the seats were tan, not brown/red. He was talking to someone in the passenger seat and only going about 5 MPH below the posted limit, so at the first opportunity I goosed it and went around. Gave a couple of polite toots on the air horns and left him way behind. We both had the same idea, an evening cruise, just had different approaches to it.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 286

Kind of feel like I’m living in the northwest, raining off and on all the time. So the top is down for the ride to work and up during, then down or up for the ride home depending on conditions. Well the 9 hours days are done, tomorrow is why we did it, off at 11:30. We are headed up to Asheville, NC for the weekend. My sister and her husband are going to meet us there and we are perhaps going leaf peeping or if it is raining there, a movie or something.

Started up, went down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 268