Miatatude

Dude, I’m Getting A Dell

Well my dilemma as to what to buy with the $200 is over. The fire extinguisher used to put out the fire in my pocket is a new Dell Dimension 4550 Pentium 4 Processor at 2.53GHz, 512MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz, 18.1 in 1800FP Dell Ultrasharp Digital Flat Panel Display. That $200 and I forfeit my March’s $100 mad money towards the purchase price and I get to replace my aging 500Mhz Gateway with out guilt. I say guilt, because I really do not need a new PC. This one here still accomplishes everything I ask for of it. The only time I notice that it is ancient technology is when I save an hour long MP3 of Echoes. Well the 4x CDRW is a dog, but I don’t do much burning. Ships on the 13th, should be here 3 to 5 working days later…I’m going to go wait by the mailbox.

Purchased Today: nada
Money spent since 03/03/03: $14.75
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 39

Good Thing We Called

Big turnout for the Master’s Miata Club meeting tonight, 21. In an effort to mix up the meeting locations some we held this month’s at the Atlanta Bread Company. My wife called last week to reserve a spot for 15-20 people and re-called this afternoon to re-confirm, when we got there was nothing set aside for us. fortunately the corner we asked for was empty, so we moved a bunch of tables together and marked our territory. It was OK, but probably won’t be in the regular rotation.

Purchased Today: $14.75 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $14.75
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 39

Bicycle Circus

This is the busy week. First Wednesday of the month is the Aiken Bicycle Club meeting and the first Thursday is the Master’s Miata Club meeting. At least all I have to do at the Bike Club is sit and listen, at the Miata Club one I am the Secretary so I have to write stuff down. Which means I have to sorta pay attention. The bike club meeting was neat as we had some folks come speak to us about an upcoming bike race that is coming to town. Rich Hincapie (brother of George, Lance’s main man on US Postal) of Hincapie Sports and Tim Farrar from the SC Heritage Race Series chatted about what was going to happen on May 2nd when the bicycle circus comes to town. I would love to be there and help/watch. but we have already made or reservations for the inaugural “real” hike in the Georgia mountains that day.

Purchased Today: nothing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $0.00
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 38

Burning A Hole In My Pocket

Can’t decide what to mod to buy next. I am torn between some new Gage Faces or some Real Aluminum Trim. I’ve $200 burning a hole in my pocket….

Purchased Today: nothing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $0.00
Started down, went up, went down, went back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 37

Keep Track Of All The Money Spent

As promised, a new Miata thing to keep track of. I’m going to keep track of all the money spent on the Miata. Everything, including gas, repair parts, service, and mods. I was going to do mileage, but I forget to write down what the mileage was this morning…maybe I’ll start that on next April 4th.

Purchased Today: nothing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $0.00
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 34

How The Heck Did We Get Here

Started ugly, but changed into a beautiful day around lunch. Went for another hike in Hitchcock Woods this afternoon. We’re not sure of the mileage, because when we checked it at the car at finish it read .03 miles. Once, part way into the hike it read 1.9 miles. We were in the woods about an hour and a half so if we interpolate from Friday’s data (two miles in an hour) we probably covered 3 miles. Unlike Friday were I knew exactly where we were at all times, this hike was spent in the I Think I Know Where We Are mode a bit with a couple of How The Heck Did We Get Here moments thrown in for good measure.

After the hike we decided to watch “Jackie Brown”, Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard, how could you go wrong? But somehow it did. The actors were good, the characters were good and after 40 minutes the plot looked good, but the pace seemed just a bit too slow (no wonder it was listed at 154 minutes.) I thought it might make a good 2 hour movie, while Donna was not so generous, she said 1 hour.

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 32

Walks In The Woods

The sun shone today. The temperature made it above 60. WOOT! We rode home with the top down and didn’t need the windblocker or the heat.

Since I’m not bike riding any more, at the “suggestion” of my wife, we have started to flirt with hiking. We have some friends that do and have tentatively scheduled a to The Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park for an overnight. In preparation for this we have bought some hiking boots (and the $14 hiking socks to go with them,) a Camelback mini pack and I talked her into buying a walking stick that doubles as a monopod for the camera. We are lucky that we have the 2000 acres of Hitchcock Woods within spitting distance, so we are going to plan on 2 walks in the woods a week as practice. A shorter walk on a weekday evening and a longer one on either Saturday or Sunday. Tonight we managed around a 2 mile hike (that is if the pedometer we got is accurate.)

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 30