Ok already, I took a picture, now leave me alone.

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Still no peektures of the knob. I guess 'cause subconsciously I know it sucks.

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Liar, liar pants on fire! I still ain't got no picture of the knob. Subconciously I must think it is ugly. Starting to get used to feel, but the look....

Today was Polo with the Miata Club. Only two other cars showed up. Was it because it was Sunday? Was it because it was Polo? Was there an Autox somewhere? Was it me? Oh, well the 6 of us had fun. The only down side was that we were way early because we didn't have anyone raise their hood at the welcome center and of course it isn't too hard to keep a 3 car train in check. Sooo, we just went for a longer drive.

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Tomorrow, I promise on the pics of the MG Woodoo shift knob. The jury is still out, not sure I like the aluminum top and rubber middle (can't see the aluminum bottom normally) and the transition between the feel of the two materials is, I can't put my finger (no pum intended) on it, slightly off putting.

Decided to exercise the top today. Took the boot off because of the iffy weather and then ended up put the top up twice while running errands when I could have put the cover on.

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What happens when you put a Magnum Spun Voodoo knob on Calvin's Transmogrifier with a MGW Gripper knob - you get a MG Woodoo! Looks OK, feels OK, not sure what to think, will drive the weekend with it and see. Pictures tomorrow in the light.

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This is really Thursday's blog...finished up the Miata Club newsletter last night and in an effort to unwind I got to watching Star Wars stuff on the web. Read about it in my rant. Totally forgot to write anything.

I took the Voodoo knob off and put the OEM knob from a 99 Miata back on. I have plans. I like the rubber ring from around the MGW gripper knob and I love the feel of the shape of the Voodoo, so why not the best of both worlds. I pried the rubber ring off the MGW and took some measurements. Applied those to a drawing I made of the Voodoo knob and turned it over to a buddy who is a wiz with a lathe. I'll let you know what happens. Some folks hate it, but I actually like the way the stock knob feels. I like the Vooddo better, so if this doesn't work out, I'll get a new one, this time in pearl so I won't have to keep renewing the spun finish.

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Wife's feeling a lot better, not normal, but better. Cross my fingers....

Got one down (Bike Club newsletter) and one to go (Miata Club newsletter.) Maybe I'll have time to write something in here.

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Today was the nicest spring day we have had all year. Upper 50's for the ride to work and upper 70's for the ride home. Unfortunately Donna can't enjoy it as she has got a cold or flu and feels rotten. Maybe she will let go of some of that dedication and stay home and rest tomorrow.

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Top went up to wash the car and back down after it dried. I know the insect population in NC has probably not diminished any percentage-wise, but judging by the amout of bug carcasses caked onto the front of the Miata there are quite a few greiving insect families up there.

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Gap weekend with the RoadsterChat folks. A lot of up and downs for the top on Friday as it really looked like rain (although it only sprinkled once.) Saturday was beautiful so it stayed down all day and night with the cockpit cover. For the trip home I put it up for Donna's stint of I-26 driving, but when we got off in Newberry it came back down. It might have gone for another cycle today, but I just didn't feel like washing it today. Tomorrow.

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We got wet from the fringes of a pop-up thunderstorm this afternoon. Cockpit cover did it's job. It couldn't have been much rain as the parking lot was dry an hour later. When we left the building and started to take the cover off, it started to sprinkle so we took the boot off as well. After about 5 minutes into the drive it quit. But when we got to our neighborhood it was another story, the roads were still quite wet, there were tree pieces on the ground and clumps of oak pollen clusters piled along the curbs from the rivers of runoff, must have had a serious cell around here.

My mind slammed shut this evening at 9:00 PM EDT. I took the MGW knob off and put the Voodoo back on. Sorry George. I'll pass it around this weekend at the gap and see if I can entice someone with it.

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At least 3 folks have to split the 300 Million. Poor souls, once it is chopped into 3, then reduced for the cash option and Uncle Sam takes his cut, they'll probably only end up with about 50 million each. How is a person suposed to live on that?

Still have the MGW knob on the car, trying to open my mind....

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Made a trip to Augusta after work tonight for 3 reasons: 1) visit MGW. 2) go out to eat & 3) buy some Big Game tickets.
1) Stopped over at MGW to talk about Miata gizmos they are making. George let me try their new design pistol grip shift knob. Here is a link to pics of the old style. The new style doesn't have the flat on top it is fully radiused. Cool knob, but I'm not sure if it is my cup of tea.
2) Went to Damon's and had some great ribs.
3) Didn't buy any tickets. The line was too damn long. Like I was going to win anyway?

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The car is no longer filthy. That is the reason the top went up and then down, I didn't want to wash the interior.

AWD AC panel came today. Of course that is the first thing I did when I got home, ripped apart the center console. I'm getting good at it. Looks sharp, but I've got to lose the green AC in the middle of the AC button. I wonder if the bulb is green or the button....

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How come I don't mind using the cockpit cover during the week, but on weekends I don't? Went out under scattered dark gray clouds and left the top down during lunch, but put it up when we went inside to grocery shop.

The car is filthy, I need to wash it, but don't know when.

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No joy on the $220 million.....on the bright side no one else won either....approximate worth for Tuesday's drawing, $300 million. Put the top down to go to lunch, but put it back up while we were inside at Ruby Tuesdays. Good thing too as it rained a bit during the time we were in there. Put it back down this evening for our 3rd trip to Lowes in less than 24 hours. We bought still more plants for Donna to decorate the yard with. Plus we bought a small plastic square hose reel to keep the hose hidden when not in use. Also it will allow us to relocate the thing over towards the garage door so I wont drag it over the planting bed squashing the flowers.

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I was not lucky on the AC Panel, didn't get it today. That is OK, as I want to save up some luck for tonight's lottery drawing, the jackpot is at $220 million. We splurged and bought 4 tickets instead of the usual one, thereby increasing our odds from 1 in 76 billion to 1 in 19 billion. So if you come back tomorrow and this hasn't been updated it means one of 3 things, 1) I won, 2) I'm dead or 3) both. :-)

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In spite of the scattered sprinkles and ugly clouds, today we relied soley on the cockpit cover to protect us. It worked. The cockpit cover got a workout though, on at work, off to drive to the doctor's office, on while at the office, off to drive back to work, on while at work, off to drive to get haircuts, on while getting hair cuts, off for the drive to Augusta to get our Big Game lottery tickets, wheew.

Rspeed called, they got the AWD AC panel in and will ship it out. If I am lucky they got it on the truck today and I'll have it tomorrow.

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Rainy morning-top up, cloudy afternoon-top down. Went shopping tonight and the rain was still hit or missing our fair city, so while inside the store put it up. Good thing it wasn't raining when we came out as the leaf blower box wouldn't fit in the trunk, so it went on the back behind the seats.

As you can tell from the tone of this that we didn't hit the Big Game last night. When Donna checked the numbers this morning she commented, "Doesn't even look like we were playing the same game." But that is OK as nobody else won it either. I sense another road trip tomorrow as the jackpot is estimated at $200 million. If we win that - Miata SEs for everybody!

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Rode to work work with the top down. Put it up on arrival because it was going to rain (it did a little in the early afternoon.) Top back down for the trip home, but it went up minutes later when Donna drove the car to water aerobics. Around 8:00 pm, in spite of the gloomy radar picture, we dropped the top and drove to Augusta. Felt for sure we would have to pull over any second and raise it, but didn't start raining until 5 minutes after we got home.

Hope that luck keeps holding, because the last minute 40 mile run to Augusta was for a couple of tickets in the Big Game lottery. Jackpot is up to $155 Million. If we win - Miatas for everybody!

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Kinda chillier than we thought this morning for a top down ride, but once we got going we just rolled up th windows and turned on the heat.

Came home and put the better aluminum bit in for the hazard and barndoor toggles. I also readjusted the radio mounting to center it in the opening so I could put the trimmed bezel on. Better, but I have to move the radio out a little further so the bezel will click into the HU, it is held in place with double stick tape for now. I'll work on that when I get the AWD A/C panel in and have the dash apart again. While I was at it I swapped the MGW shift knob for the Voodoo again. The spun look had faded again, so I toke it to work to chuck up in the lathe when I noticed to blast-all in the corner of the tool room, hmmmm. I bead blasted that sucker. When I got home I sprayed it with a couple of coats of semi-gloss clear laquer - I like it. Maybe I'll do it to the vent rings....

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Grocery shopping. That was the only time we went out via car. Not that we went out much any other way either. 1:00 PM bike club ride was it. I spent the rest of the day here in front of the PC and Donna was gardening. Welcome to our exciting life.

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Today was the make-up day for the last leg of Aiken's Triple Crown, the Harness Races. All our company is gone that we were going with last week, so we invited some friends and their 2 kids. Things went pretty well for the first couple of races as the kids seemed interested, but being kids that was enough. Then they discovered friends their own age to hang with and things were OK again, for a while. After getting thoroughly muddy then cleaned up again they headed off to see some rabbits in one of the barns. It was the youngest one's birthday so he wanted a rabbit. Dad prevailed and refused to get him one. This sent the birthday boy into a crying fit...we had seen 6 of the 8 races and were getting tired of the sun anyway, so we left.

As we pulled the cockit cover off the car to leave a man standing there holding his dog said, "Nice car." I thanked him and wouldn't you know it, upon starting the car up the lifters made a horrible clatter as I backed out. I wonder if he changed his mind?

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Psyched our selves right out of top down ride to work. The weather folks said cold, felt cold getting the paper, so I put it up in the garage. Stopped at the ATM to get some cash out and the bank sign said 53, and it didn't feel so bad out. Left it up for the rest of the journey anyway as we planned on a top down ride at lunch when it was supposed to be mid 60's. Did put it down for then and left it down in the afternoon using the cockpit cover. Getting pretty good at the on/off thing as long as Donna helps.

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I got $5 for doing the Slackware 8.0 CDs, it was the smallest he had. I told him he was paid up in advance for the next linux distro he wants to try. After tonight's Miata Club meeting we used the five to buy a half gallon of Breyer's Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

Top down all day - tomorrow may be different, predicting low 40's tonight....

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30% chance of rain. Didn't scare us, top stayed down with the new cockpit cover just begging for a test, didn't happen. What looked really threatening on radar passed through our area after work, but produced nothing more than sprinkles at 5:30. Sure thought there was going to be more so I put the top up when I went inside for the Aiken Bicycle Club meeting.If it did rain more it didn't do it in downtown Aiken. Put the top right back down afterwards.

Seeing as I have a high speed connection a friend at work asked if I would download Slackware 8.0 for him. Did it and I just finished burning the ISO's. All I wanted in return was for him to give me 3 blank CDRs. He doesn't have a burner so he doesn't have any CDRs, he will give me $2 for my troubles. For whatever reason, taking money seems, dirty, but I'll take it and buy a big bag of chips or something. Would have rather had the CDRs....

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Nice day. Took the 30 mile option on the 6 mile commute home.

Got a web page up for my CD Mix of the Month - here. I gotta get my own domain, I've got files strewn all over the internet supporting this blog....

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Used the cockpit cover under actual conditions for the first time this morning. Took about as long as putting the boot on. I had help from my wife so I didn't have to run from one side to the other. Taking it off at work took about as long. May actually use it. Just wish it was a little bigger, still seems small.

My friend Jim Mullan at work finally got the use of a cnc mill to do the trimming on the Blaupunkt's trim ring. He took .281" off all around on the outside, so now the gaps around the HU will be filled in and the face doesn't have to stick out so far. Probably get it installed this weekend.

Got my 2 CDs in the mail from Josh in TX. One was his March mix and the other was, I guess because I was an early sendee, February's mix from Tam.

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