Drove to Augusta tonight to run the Miata Club's February newsletter through the postage meter at Rader. They had a new 2003 Splash Green on the showroom, in that lighting it looked a perfect shade of turquoise, yuck. Oh, well I guess that balances perfectly with the new Garnet Red which is beautiful. Had hoped to put the top down, but the promised sun and upper 50's materialized as clouds and middle 40's.

No, Rumpole tonight, instead we watched a 16 year old movie that starred the person who has the most linked blog in the whole wide Internet, Will Wheaton, Stand By Me. I have never watched this movie in its entirety, only seen bits and pieces on cable over the years and guess what, I didn't really need to see it.

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Watched another episode of Rumpole this evening, finishing off Disc 2. I have 4 episodes to finish on Disc 3 and a 2-hour Movie, plus special stuff on the fourth Disc, which I plan on watching this weekend. It my be hard though, as we are supposed to be sunny and sixty-ish both days, might be time for some top-down drive and if I can't avoid it, work around the house/yard.

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Managed to get a top down ride home this evening from the gym. Rain was in the area,but we got a break. we were not so lucky on the evening grocery run, top went back up while in the garage, as it was already raining. Managed to squeak in a Episode 1 of Season 2, Rumpole and the Man of God after dinner and before the store trip.

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Barely enough time left to post tonight as I devoured the other 4 episodes from season one tonight in a Feast of Rumpole. And now "She Who Must Be Obeyed" has demanded I turn off the PC and come to bed....

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A friend from work has lent me his DVD set of the first two seasons of Rumpole of the Bailey I loved this series when it aired on PBS in the late 70's -early 80's. I have quite a few episodes on fading blurry video tape. I watched 2 episodes tonight and I vaguely remember them so it was much fun watching. The back of the DVD mentioned they are on the discs in the correct chronological order. They are at least in a different order that what it listed on the few web sites I visited. 10 episodes to go and then there is the 2 hour movie Rumpole Returns on the last disc. I do hope the release all of the series on DVD, I think there were 6 or 7 series of 6 shows apiece. Leo who do 2 seasons and call it quits, it would take a couple years of coaxing to get him back to playing Rumpole. Then the cycle would repeat. He finally hung up the robes and powdered wig for good in the early nineties.

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Busy for a Sunday. Made a bagel run at 8:00 AM and back out at 4:00 PM to make a trip to Kroger's for some iced molasses cookies (my next week's daily snack at work.) The top was up for the morning drive and down for the afternoon run. The top will go up first thing tomorrow as tonight's low will be in the 20's.

This afternoon we watched "Serendipity." Second chick flick in 2 days and this one was as innocuous as the other, a couple of cute people stuck in a lame, but cute plot. At least it wasn't a total waste of time.

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Ironed out the details on the Miata caricature. I know you are probably asking what the difference is, well if you look at the first one closely you would see that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car (the fellow who does them is in England.) Plus I didn't want to see the big CarArtz.com logo in the white space. Dave has agreed to make it a lot smaller and hide it in the shadow of the car.

Tonite was the "gala" 10th Anniversary Dinner for the Master's Miata Club. Good time. We had 25 people enjoy good food and good company. We had 2 of the founding 12 in attendance. One is a somewhat active member still and the other has pretty much been a ghost, she hasn't been to an event since I've been active with the Club (November 1995.)

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For our half day off Friday we went over to Augusta to see a movie. We have devised a plan in which every other Friday afternoon off (which means once a month) we will see a movie at a matinee. The drive to Augusta is that is where the closest stadium seating theater is, plus when the weather is warm it will be a good excuse to go for a drive. Today I let Donna pick, so we ended up seeing "Two Weeks Notice." Donna is a sucker for Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts movies, so we go, and I get major brownie points for it (and believe me, I usually need 'em.) Next movie will be my pick.

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For the second January in a row the Miata got dusted with snow in the company parking lot. The weather man predicted snow this morning and we got it. Not nearly as much as last year, but it did look pretty while it fell. About 1/4 inch covered everything but the streets for about an hour after it quit. The sun came out and melted all but what remained hidden in the shade. If you are a member of Ofoto you can see last year's pictures here or you can sign up if you are really starved for entertainment.

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Put it up before leaving the garage this morning and there it stayed. Got my second proof and there are still a couple of minor things that need addressing, but I think we got it now.

Got some new glasses today. The aging process continues as now the reading glass portion of them has increased to 1.5 from the 1.0 of the past 2 years.

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Today was 67. That's about 10 degrees warmer than it should be. Of course we are really gonna pay later when it gets like 20 degrees cooler on Thursday. There is even a slight chance of a snow shower on Friday. After having some PC problems Mr CarArtz came through with a proof of my personalized Miata caricature. I've got a couple of small issues, but looks way kewl!

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Hee hee, went for a lunchtime drive. It was sunny and nearly 60 and my wife said let's go. Very windy, so it felt cooler, but we put on the new windblocker (thanks John) and it was really nice inside the cockpit. Still down for the way home, and as a matter of fact, we just went out to the mall for some new pants for Donna and we left it down for the trip. Probably leave it down tomorrow too, as tonight's low is supposed to be 43. That will all change by Thursday as the high then will only be 47.

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Actually went for a little drive this afternoon. Real little and the top was up. It has been like 3 weeks since I've modified anything on the car and I'm starting to get the heebie-jeebies. I'm not sure what's next though...I've toyed with the idea of replacing the indiglo gages with something from AWD, maybe the MS version. I just can't leave well enough alone.

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Too cold to even think about going outside. The miata hasn't moved all day, almost like it was a Sunday. Spent the day huddled in front of the PC, basking in it's electrical warmth.

Tonight I'm on my own movie-wise. Donna will be glued to the tube watching the ladies figure skating in the U.S. Championships from Dallas. I may watch Memento or maybe Ronin.

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Too cold to even think about lowering the top.

We chose another indie flick I had rented from Netflix for tonight's viewing "pleasure." I am in more of an agreement with the review here on IMDB for "Wendigo" than the one that suckered me into renting it that I read on filmcritic.com. At least it was only 90 minutes of my life.

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Top stayed up again today. If this trend maintains it may just work out that there will have been exactly one top transition for every day in the year by the time February 1st rolls around.

Tonight's feature was "Lilo & Stitch" and we only made it through about half way before turning it off. Can't really explain it, except it just didn't seem like fun. Give me "Dumbo" anyday.

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Another cold day in Aiken. I considered putting the top down for the trip home, but Donna wasn't feeling good, so the sun warmed interior felt too good to her to let me lower the lid. Tonight we watched a movie called "The Price of Milk" whose write up on the Netflix site made it sound a lot less quirky that it really was. And it made last night's "Happy Accidents" seem positively mainstream...

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What a wimp. It was mid 50s and sunny when we left work today and I kept the top up. I feel so unworthy.

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(this is actually yesterday's post, but Blogger was AFU so it wouldn't stick last night)
I moved into 9th place on the SETI@home Miata Club list by completing my 1006th WU. Haven't discovered any alien signals yet, but I'm trying. I probably won't get any higher in the rankings as all the folks in front of me are either churning out the work units at a faster pace than I or are too far ahead.

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Finally broke down and put the top up. We made a late evening store run and even with the windblocker it would have been too cold to enjoy the trip. Besides tomorrow morning will be in the 20's....

With the breakfast trip Friday and yesterday's lunch run, that makes 3 short trips in three days, probably less that 10 miles total.

We spent most this weekend indoors watching DVD movies. M*A*S*H, This is Spinal Tap, American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption, My Fellow Americans and Blue Streak. Lots of comedy there, even in the couple of dramas on that list. The first 3 are from my growing collection and the others are from friends at work, two others and I have started our own little DVD swap club. 6 down and 11 to go. I have my full quota of 4 from Netflix sitting on the coffee table, along with 1 from work and 6 left of the recent arrivals from Columbia House.

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As long as we keep it to short trips we are fine. At the Master's Miata Club meeting the other night I got a late Christmas gift from fellow member and avid sewer John Haff, my very own windblocker. We had one for a while about a month ago and had to return it. Now we have one that is all ours and it is a thing of beauty.

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This was our four 9 hour days with a half day Friday week. We burned a half day of vacation so we could get all day off from work. Went out for breakfast this morning to the New Moon Cafe in downtown. We would have slept in late and had breakfast at home, but I was trying to return the left behind mug of a fellow Aiken Bicycle Club member's and she suggested Friday at 8 AM at the New Moon. Donna and I drove downtown and back with the top down and once we arrived back home we agreed it was marginal as to whether or not we enjoyed it. It was in the mid 50's this morning and that was going to be the warmest part of the day. Tonight there is a freeze warning out, winter returns after it's one day vacation. Brrrr!

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Not only is the top down, but it is way down and under the boot. Today was an unseasonably warm 72 degrees. It is nearly 10 PM and it is still 62. It is not a record (77 in 1974) but still 15 degrees above the average. Tonight was the Master's Miata Club's January meeting and we were going to plan events for the whole year and after a slow start, because the President didn't bring the jumbo calendar, we managed to get an event for the first 9 months written down. No firm dates or anything, but at least it is a quasi-plan.

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Warm enough this afternoon to put the top down for the ride home and although it has only been a couple of days since it was last down, it sure seemed longer. What a pleasure not having to listen to those annoying dash buzzes, oh they are still there, you just can't hear them over the sound of the rushing wind.

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The lifter tapping only lasted to the end of the driveway this morning. I suppose they could be replaced with new ones, but they are around $25 a piece, so if you multiply that by 16 (# of valves) you get $400. I would hate to replace one or two and then have to open up the engine again because another failed. Right now I live with the noise, it is fairly common in Miatas and as long as it goes away before too many miles traveled it is fine.

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Put it up for the ride to work and there it stayed. Will stay tomorrow too, upper 20s tonight and mid 40s during the day. I hate winter. Not only that but changing the oil in the car usually silences the lifters, but today I must have had one clatter for the first 2 miles of the trip. I haven't heard it again, yet.

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Backed the Miata out of the garage, jacked it up one side at a time so I could rotate the tires while icky black oil drained into a pan, poured light brown oil in the top and drove it right back into the garage.

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In spite of the mid 40s tempurature we put the top down for this afternoon's errands. It was sunny and when we got chilly we just put up the windows and turned on the heat.

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They predicted partly sunny and mid-50s for today. Ha! Missed the mark. The clouds stayed thick and the sun never showed up, so it was lucky to make it into the middle 40s. The top stayed up all day as it was pretty typical mid-winter day here. I can't complain too loudly as today's weather in my old hometown, New Britain, CT, was snow/winter mix with a high of 32.

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It was upper 40s and supposed to get to the lower 60s so I went so far as to put the boot on. We made it to work with the windows up and the heater on no problem. About 9:15 one of the other employees came in from a smoke break and said that it was kind of misting outside. I went out to the car, which had a nice thin layer of water over every surface, and put on the cockpit cover. At lunch I had to run an errand and when I left the building at noon the weather was still the same, so I just put the top up. After work I had to go to Augusta to run the Master's Miata Club newsletter through the postage meter at Rader and even though the mist had stopped I left the top up because it is mostly Interstate to get there. On the way home I ducked off I-20 at an early exit and dropped the top at the light at the end of the off-ramp. Felt great for a while, but by the time I got near home I had the heater on as the sun was fading fast.

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Happy Gregorian New Year Ya'll. Treated today like a Sunday, I thought for sure the Miata wouldn't move, but this evening my wife informed me that we were out of plastic snack bags, so it was off to Kroger.

Getting used ot the short shifter. It does seem to make shifting a bit notchier, but I think that is a good thing, seems better suited to the sports car character of the car. Mind you the Miata shifter was so short and smooth to begin with that a step down still keeps it at the fantastic level.

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