I ordered a differential for my car. The guy at Mazda Competition told me I needed the stub axels from the open diff to install the diff he was sending me. I knew this already.

It took me awhile to get to MazMart to buy the stub axels. When I got there, I waited for what seemed like forever for Paul to come out and help me.

I like Paul. I’m not sure where he’s from, but I’d classify him as genuine rasta-man. He’s got a carrabian accent. Dreds. And a nice sense of humor… It’s nice to talk to him.

Then they tried very hard to talk me out of the Mazda Competition differential, which was kind of silly since I’d already done it. Mazmart wanted to sell me a torsen differential and all the parts needed to install it in my car, to a tune of $1500. The mazda competition differential was $500, brand new, and seems to be every bit as good. Hey, if it’s good enough for a race car, it should be good enough for my car, right?

Anyway, they reminded me how hard it was going to be to get this differential installed, and told me that I basically need someone with the training of a jedi master, or a real guru. I mentioned that I’d hoped R-speed would be able to do it, and Paul said “They might…” just as Joe from R-speed walked in.

No, Joe said, they couldn’t do it.

Oh.

Did he know who could?

There was some guy in Roswell who did one once upon a time… The solo miata guy, Randy, should know…

So I bought my parts, thanked them, and drove home.

That took nearly 3 hours thanks to Atlanta traffic. I left 2pm and got back at 5pm. It turns out some guy ran through a security checkpoint Hartsfield, so they closed the whole airport. One guy runs through a checkpoint, and they turn all incoming planes away, ground the ones preparing to take off, and evacuate the airport of the 10,000 people who thought they were going to go somewhere.

Well, I e-mailed Randy who gave me the names (first names, but I assume this will be sufficient) of people at two different places who are the gurus I need.

Now the only question is what sort of small fortune are they going to want to do this…