Started with it down, way too warm for January, but upon arrival at work I removed the boot and put the top up. 20% chance of rain and zero chance of a wet interior.

Today was lunch date day, so I dropped the top for the ride to the restuarant de la semaine, McDonald's. I had a Big Mac while Donna had the Big & Tasty. For something scary, check the nutrional info on these sandwiches. :-O I can recite the ingredients of a Big Mac from heart. For the record, they are: 2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a seame seed bun. McDonald's used to run commercials that featured the ingredients when Big Macs first came out and that has stuck in my head ever since. Sometime in the mid 70's they ran a contest about reciting the ingredients backwards. I am proud to say that I mastered that trick as well. I am also proud to say that I can no longer do it, I only hope the memory space given up by forgeting that tidbit is in use for something a little more important.

Started down, went up, now down.

Top still down. No heater this morning, but I did turn the defroster on to heat up the windshield so I didn't get a repeat of the window fogging of yesterday.

Went to the post office in town this evening to mail the Aiken Bicycle Club newsletter. Of course we didn't take the direct route, we went about 30 miles to make the 4 mile trip. About half way through we pulled over to the side of the road and watched the moon rise. It is just past full, but was huge and orange in the sky as it came above the cotton field. After about 15 minutes it was up high enough that it looked like the plain old moon again, so we got back in the car and finished the journey.

Started Down, Still Down.

Top still down. The trip to work required the heater though, the backroads stay cooler than in town. So cool that we we popped up the last 60' hill by work and back into the warmer air that it was instant white out. The windows fogged up so quickly I had to come to a complete stop. Got the windsheild wipers on but they only worked for a bit. Got the defroster on too and in a bit I could see using the bottom 3 inches of the windsheild. Almost had to stick my head out the window like a dog to see.

Just got confirmation that my picture of me in the car fender was added to The Mirror Project. See it here.

Started Down, still Down.

Drove to work this morning with the top down. Heater was on though as it was mid 40's. Had to put it up when we got there though as there was still a slight chance of rain in the morning. It was positively spring-like on the drive home - mid 70's, so of course the top came back down.

Got tired of staring at the naked rear end of the car, so I put the one remaining white 5" diameter Barndoor Fan Club sticker I had on in about the same place I used to have one.

Started Down, Up, Down.

Made a bagel run early this morning. Well, I think 9:00 AM is early on a weekend. The sun was out and it was somewhere in the 40's, so before I backed out of the garage I put the top down. Really pleasant drive, didn't even need the heater. As I slowly turned into my neighborhood on the return trip I startled a couple of birds in the magnolia tree in the median. Well, I think 30MPH is slow for a 90 degree turn. The second one misjudged my approach so that he ended up sort of scrambling up the windshield, I heard his feet scratching the glass. The blow was glancing enough that I don't think I killed him. At least I wasn't showered in feathers or anything. I know I scared the sh*t out of him, because he left that on the window.

Started Up, now Down.

Made the run to Evans, GA to check the Miata Club's P.O. Box. I has been nearly 2 months, but we never get any mail unless it is renewal time anyway. There were 5 pieces of mail, a credit card come-on, a flyer from a grocery store, a returned newsletter, a group buy offer on windstops from Serious Auto and a Christmas card for the P.O. Box just to the left of us. Almost put the top up when we started as the temps were in the upper 40's. My wife said, "That's what heaters are for." So instead I put the boot on. When we got back from the drive it was after lunch and it was nearing 70 degrees, so I put the top up. I wanted to wash and wax the car.

Starting yesterday, I think I will list the status and the changes to that status of the top here in the last line. Might be fun to go back and count 'em up for a week, month, year...

Started down, now Up.

Started today with the top down, but put it up for the drive to work. They were calling for a 40% chance of rain and we must have been in that 40, 'cause it was raining now. We went out for lunch with the gang for a co-worker's birthday and put the top down for the drive to eat. When we got to Ruby Tuesday it looked kind of threatening, so I put the top back up. After lunch it wasn't raining, so the top came back down for the return trip. At work in the parking lot I put it back up, just in case. By quitting time the skys were clearing, so back down the top went for the drive home.

Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. No wonder my tops only last 3 years.

As we left to go to work this AM, I looked at the scratch and it isn't as bad as I originally thought. The first 1/4", ground zero, is through to the primer. Then it skips another 1/4" before scratching just the clearcoat for an 1" or so. That still doesn't change my feelings for umbrellas.

Good day to own a convertible. Dodged the drops from falling trees on the drive to work. Put the top up when we got there, just in case. After work we had to drive over to the Mazda dealer to run the Master's Miata Club's newsletter throught the postage meter. Lower 70's in January. That is a little unuusual even for here. Not complaining made for a nice drive. Saw 2 other Miatas, both had their tops up - for shame. Saw 2 other convertibles, one of those new Volvos and a newer Chrysler Sebring and both of them had their tops down.

OK, I complained too much about the sun and now it is GONE. Cloudy and misty on the way to work, cloudy at lunch and cloudy and drizzly on the way home. I had to run an errand at 7:00 PM, Weather.com said it was 67 degrees out. Cool, I drop the top and back out of the garage. To quote Frank Barone, "Holy Crap!" The fog was thick as pea soup. Ran the errand slowly and when I got back, left the car inthe driveway and snapped some photos.

This morning as I got into the car my wife asked, "Where is the umbrella?" I shrug, go back inside and grab one from the corner. She pops the trunk and I hop down the 2 steps to floor level and as I go to put the bumpershoot into the boot, I mis-judge the distance and place a 3" long scrape on the back of the car. Yikes! Took the top layer of paint right off! That is the second time I have done that with an umbrella. The first one is not so bad and is really only noticeable if you know where to look. Or the light is just right. This one is pretty obvious, even to the most casual observer. Damn, I hate umbrellas.

Darn, this is getting tiresome, upper 50's and sunny for the ride home. :-) Top down of course.

Managed to hit the traffic just so, so that I could run the one ess turn in town at a pretty good clip. Found out that the sidewalls of the new Bridgestone RE-930 tires are not nearly as stiff as the old RE-71's, lots of squirm and scrub noise. I'm going to have to practice this manuever more. Plus I might add a couple more PSI to the tires.

Sunny and lower 60's for the drive home today. Turned the usual 6 mile commute into 25 miles of a top down, tunes up cruise. :-)

Sunny and lower 50's today, so when we got home from a bike ride we went for a car drive. The car was firing on all 4 cylinders, unfortunately my brain was only firing on 3. We took a drive to a friends house and I totally spazzed on the turn down their road. No problem, just go a couple of miles further and catch the next right. Only problem is we don't come in that way often, so I cruise right by their driveway. No problem, just get to the next street and do a U-turn. After the visit we headed home and I had no problem finding the way to my street, but for some reason drove right by my driveway. I think I was keying in on my neighbor's mailbox, we both have reflective house numbers on our boxes and 780 looks a lot like 778 when you ain't paying attention.

A Miata is as good as a pick-up truck as long as it is a sunny day. Spent most of the day trying to get my garage door to work smoother. I've bought a new opener, replaced the wheels, cleaned the tracks and tightened the hinges. the only left was to lower the opener. It is pretty far up because there was no stud above the header in the center of the door to bolt the track to. Off to Lowe's. The rain they predicted last night has yet to arrive and it is a good thing too, because how else would I get an 8' 2x4 and an 8' 2x8 home without the top down.

Lower 60's and partly cloudy today, a far cry from the predicted scattered showers. Top down errand at lunch (put it back up during work, in case) and a short drive before heading home.

The lunch errand was to a used car dealer down the street from where we work. Passed by the other day and noticed an early vintage Miata on the lot. Every time I catch one at a used car lot I drop off a copy of the latest club newsletter and a form letter thing telling the new owner about our Club, the national Club and Miata Net. We haven't picked up any members from this, but you never know.

It is still dark in the morning (sunrise 7:30 am, leave house at 7:00) so we got to watch the blue gages in their full glory on the morning commute. Everything looked AOK. I was worried last night after I shut the car down, I don't remember the temp gage flopping that far to the left with the key off. I did get a suprise though, when I put the car in reverse to back out of the garage a couple of screws landed at my feet. I had forgot to put the last 2 screws that hold the hood over the gages on. no worries as there were a couple of clips holding it in place, I'll screw them in tonight when I get home.

Today was cloudy, but warmer than yesterday. So we made a little extra trip out of the ride home. Didn't have to run an errand, but what the heck, it meant a trip through an old section of town that has nice narrow, windy roads. :-)

Sunny and mid 50's for today's lunch "date" with my wife. Today we went to Popeyes and I had their spicy chicken sandwich. No comparison, Popeyes was levels above last week's Hardee's spicy chicken sandwich.

Couldn't wait until Saturday to put in the gage faces, did it tonight. The only problem I had was the location of the switch/dimmer. They suggested a place that my big foot would hit, so I moved it up and out of the way. Can't get to it while driving, but once it is set who needs to adjust it.

Yahoo! (the expression, not the service) Sunny and 60 at 4:00PM. We had haircut appointments at 5 and a whole hour to get there. Put the top down and went the loooong way. Had to put some gas in first though, $10.50 at $1.069.

Cool-Glo gages were on the doorstep when we got home. Probably won't get to install them until Saturday, but I did take them out of the box, hook all the wires up and use a little 12v battery from a garage door opener to check them out. Nice green or blue glow, gonna be cool (hey, maybe that is how they got named.)

After that I'm thinking of Power Neon Cables in blue. (have you noticed I like blue?) There aren't any links on where to buy the stuff. Wonder if anybody else carries it?

Cold and yucky today. Had to keep the top up all day and even had to burn the headlights on the trip home. Shouldn't complain, it is after all winter and the folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line are suffering with snow.

Trying to figure out what shall adorn the rear bumper next. It is just too clean back there. I have another of those 5" diameter Barndoor Fan Club stickers I could put on. I like the idea of something text-like in white on the black rear skirt. In 1999 I had "Not Y2K Compliant" and in 2000 I had a Star Trek Voyager quote, "Survival is Insufficient" and last year was the BDFC sticker. Leaning towards the URL of either the Master's Miata Club or the Barndoor Fan Club. Heck, maybe I'll just put this Blog's URL there. :-)

Sunday is usually a rest day for the Miata, usually eat lunch with friends the 3 of us (Donna, Mom and Brian) pile into Donna's Mom's Civic for the trip. Today was not much different, but the Miata did get a late afternoon run to Target, Lowes and CVS for various things. Upper 50's and the top was still down from Friday's trip home from work, so it stayed that way. Gotta love the guy who invented the garage. It will be up tomorrow for the ride to work, suposed to be in the mid 30's then.

The only time I ventured out today, was this morning, for a trip to Home Depot. Cloudy and cool, but not cool enough to put the top up. :-)

The wrought iron railing on the front porch was loose. The screw on one side of the post was loose and the other was almost tight, but frozen in place. Under the semi-tight one I wedged a piece of metal under it. The loose one needed a new plastic anchor. The hole was just a little too big for the #10 screw in an anchor to keep it tight. Like most guys I have a place in garage with all kinds of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, etc. I have hundreds of screws, but the only #12 screw I had was about a 1/2 inch too long, so off to the store.....

The folks that host the Miata Club site and the images on this blog That Hosting Company, Inc. have had some spotty, to say the least, connectivity recently. They have this blurb on their about page, "In addition, our connectivity uptime is above the industry standard goal. For the year 2001 we have a 100% uptime rating, and we use a third party company to monitor our connectivity as well. (www.internetseer.com)..." You can go to that site and get a free monitoring tool that will let you know if your site is down. So I did just that after THC last downtime episode. Tonite ThatHostingCompany went down for about 5 hours. Did I get an alert from Internet Seer? Nope. No wonder THC uses it to monitor its up-time, it thinks they are up when they ain't.

Now I am more famous. I submitted another photo to The Mirror Project today. Winter Event joins Hard Drive Clock in what used to be Friends of Jezebel's Mirror. Going to have to get one with me and the Miata to add as well.

Nearly 70 degrees for the ride home. Dropped the top of course. The only remnants of the snow of a week ago is the sandy spots on the overpasses.

I am now famous. I was mentioned in Randy Nieland's Tech Specialist's Email Newsletter yesterday. It raised my stature a notch or two with the couple of other geeks I know that I turned into Gnomies. :-) We had a little email conversation about whether or not he should start to blog and what might be the theme for it. He is not sure if he wants to go there though.

More exciting than when I got the Master's Miata Club a mention in Chris Pirillo's Windows Daily Email Newsletter.

 Master's Miata Club meeting tonight. Long one, we tried to plan our whole year's worth of events on one night, nice try. We a had a big turn out and everyone had good ideas, but no one had any dates. Just a lot of vauge recollections of a festisval in a certain month (maybe.) We did nail down a few things and if all the ideas pan out we should have an exciting year.

Almost 70 degrees at 4 o'clock, so we had top down motoring for the trip home and then half way to Augusta later that evening. Got cold real quick after the sun went down :-( so for the interstate leg of the trip we buttoned up the bonnet.

The lugnut adapter just arrived on my desk. It left South Bend, IN at 10:04 PM on the 8th, not bad. This one is not chromed like the one I originally got with the wheel package. I'm not complaining, mind you, the price was right, FREE! Thanks Tire Rack

I've been reading the blog of Mr. Lockergnome, Chris Pirillo, after a link for it appeared in the windows daily email thing. He just started doing it like a week ago, and if you want blog-envey, check it out. He has got all kinds of cool things going on, a calendar, links, drop down boxes, cool graphics... One thing his does, is when you click on a link, it opens in a whole new browser. When you are done looking at that page and close the browser window, there is Chris's blog waiting there for you. Whoa, I need that. Started to go back and edit my posts with links to do that (add 'target="_blank"' in the "a href" tag.) Then I thought that's kinda like that annoying pop-under ad that X-10 uses, nevermind. Plus now that I think of it, it seems kind of insecure, "If you love a web surfer, set her free."

Now what? I can't publish since like 4:00 o'clock this afternoon. Is it me? First ThatHostingCompany toys with my internet emotions, now blogger. And 1 day after I forked over the $12 to be ad free. Jeez.

Still warm enough to ride home with top down. When I got home, I decided to wash off the road guck from the winter event of last week. Nothing nicer than a clean car.

Woohoo! Went to lunch out today with my wife. We try and get out of the building once a week for a lunch "date." Today the sun was out and the temp was into the 50s by noon, so we rode to and from with the top down. Made the lame spicy chicken sandwich from Hardee's seem palatable.

I went ahead and ordered the Cool-Glo gage faces this afternoon. Ground UPS from California. Man, I love the web, you can follow along with me, as we track package across the USA. I also have a tracking number for the lugnut adapter from the Tire Rack .

Finally got around to calling the Tire Rack today to see what it would cost to get another lug nut adapter. When I bought 4 Kosei Racing Senekas shod with Bridgestone RE-71s back in December of 2000 from the the Tire Rack they included an adapter that allows you to loosen/tight the "tuner" lugnuts with your standard lug wrench. This last Christmas Eve I needed a new tire. I ended up getting a whole new set of tires. When the chuckle-heads at the local Firestone dealer put the wheels back on they used an impact wrench to tighten down the lug nuts. While trying to loosen them in my driveway, to properly torque them down, I busted the adapter.

We're Rich! We're Rich!
Yesterday was the first day of the South Carolina Lottery. Donna's mom bought 14 scratch-off lottery tickets for the $20 she won in the Georgia Lottery on Saturday. After we had scratched off all that silver stuff off the front of the cards, we WON $17. Now I can quit my job.
:-D

Thinking of buying these gage faces to replace my current I.L. Motorsport white ones. They are also supposed to shift to blue as well. I'm hoping the blue will somewhat match the blue of the new Blaupunkt San Jose MP3 player I just put in. The San Jose doesn't hook into the dash light dimmer so it is bright all the time.

I hate the cold. It makes me keep the top up on the Miata. When the top is up I notice the annoying dash rattle I have. It is kinda like that light that (I think) VW Rabbits had to get you to up shift so you would save gas. It starts buzzing at 3000 RPM and increases in volume until I can't stand it and shift, usually right around 4000 RPM.

Drove the Miata to Augusta today too. Cold and windy, so the top was up.

Seems as one of the scratch off lottery tickets we bought for Donna's mom was worth $20, went back and cashed it in. She is going to take the twenty and buy some South Carolina Lottery tickets. Tomorrow is the first day that the lottery is available here in SC. Sratch -offs for now, lotto games in March if we are *lucky.*

Bought $8 worth of gas while we were in Augusta. It is always a nickel or so cheaper in GA, must be less state tax or something.

Drove the Miata to Augusta today to deliver bicycle club newsletters to the 3 main bike stores. When we left at 9:30 it was still quite chilly from last night's record low of 15 degrees. The top was up. There was still ice on the roads in some of the shady spots. After we had finished visiting the 3 stores it was noon and the sun was out, bright and shiny. It was probably only in the mid forties, but it felt like spring. We put the top down for the drive back into the city for lunch. :-)

Here are the unedited photos taken the last three days. I have always been a taker of snapshots, not a photographer. I rely on the darkroom, physical or digital, to turn the snapshots into pictures.

The Miata still sits.

We decided to just take a vacation day from work today. It was already scheduled so we could drive to see a friend of Donna's for the weekend. She lives in Lexington, VA, but the snow and winter weather convinced us otherwise as to making the trip. Plus there is supposed to be more of this junk coming our way on Sunday. Just didn't feel like driving 8 hours back on Sunday in it.

The Miata sits in the garage today, in it's rapidly evaporating pool of mucky water.

Donna would feel much safer if we didn't drive the Miata, so we take the MSV, her Mom's Honda Civic 4-door, in to work. The sleet quit late last night, but they still delayed the start of work today until 10:00AM. Good plan, but it is colder this morning so everything is pretty frozen. Plus it started snowing again about 8:30. Really beautiful. We left around 9:00 for the what is normally 15 minute commute, not because I figured it would take that much longer, but I took along the digital camera so we could stop and take a bunch of "Winter Wonderland" photos around town.

Turns out I didn't need the back window defroster as much as I needed heated outside mirrors. They were facing into the wind all day and got so ice encrusted that I couldn't get them clean. Other than that, an uneventful trip home. The Miata now sits in the garage, shedding all that water (frozen or otherwise) unto the floor.

The snow has turned to sleet and now back to snow. The flakes now are few and far between, but are the size of postage stamps! This is probably the only time I would ever have needed the defroster option in the glass window. Guess I'll just use a credit card. :-)

The Miata sits in the parking lot with a thin layer of white stuff covering the horizontal and nearly horizontal surfaces. It has been snowing since around 10am. No big deal to most, but around here it is a once every 5 year event.

The background and title picture are missing - the webhost is down - AGAIN.

New Year's Day. Cold, maybe mid forties. The Miata sits in the garage all day. The farthest I venture is around the block on rollerblades. Donna goes to the store, but uses the MSV.