Hello everyone,
Here’s another
installment in what’s what with me and Susan.
Susan and I raced the
2nd to last rallycross on the last Saturday of October. It
was a Pike’s Peak International Raceway which is always fun because of its
mixed dirt/paved surface. We shod the WRX with our oldest rally
tires due to the harshness of the course. I feel like we always have
an edge on the pavement due to our experience from our autocross days and it
showed in the results. I ended up being the fastest driver out of 50
for the day by quite a large margin and Susan put in a very competitive effort
missing 3rd place in our class by less than two
seconds. We also scrubbed off the last of the usable traction from
the old rally tires. We’ve decided to give them to some friends who ice
race. Rally tires have extremely stiff sidewalls (good for racing)
and the ice racers will drill holes in them and install large bolts which give
surprising amounts of traction on the ice. The weather was perfect,
the car ran without a hitch, and we really had a good time.
The day after the race
we finally got rid of the cursed tree in the backyard. Alvin came to
the rescue with his 30 foot ladder and chainsaw. He did the sawing
and I did the rope-pulling and together we managed to cut down/defeat the dead
tree/devil spawn. He cut up the trunk and thicker limbs for firewood
and Susan and me spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the remaining
mess. Kari later found bug larva in the wood which was the cause of
the tree death. We finished up just in time to shower and take Zoey to
meet her new owners. It was my first time participating in this part
of the foster experience and everything went basically as
planned. The new owners live on a farm in eastern Kansas and their
other dog is a pug rescued from Colorado Pug Rescue. When we first
got Zoey she didn’t show any signs of missing her prior owners and she seemed
to forget about us as soon as we relinquished her leash. *sigh* Such
is life I guess! We’re glad she’ll be in an environment where she
can run around and get the attention she deserves.
I think I need to stop
making the declarative statement “we’re going to take a break from fostering
pugs.” I said this phrase on the way home from handing over Zoey to her new
owners on Sunday afternoon. The next morning Susan got an email
about another pug named Bella. Bella is a tiny little black female and is
six years old. The owners didn’t feel they were giving her enough
attention and were keeping her in the garage most of the time. As
the weather has been getting cooler the foster peoples were worried about Bella
getting too cold. Susan came to the rescue and picked her up on
Monday night. We’ve since found out that Bella seems much more like
a puppy than her age would indicate. She reminds me of Tweetie when
she was little. Bella even feels like a puppy with her soft fur and
her small stature. When held she twists and turns to lick and
scurries to follow us around the house. If we didn’t know better we
would put her age at six months instead of six years. She is pad
trained and I’ve personally experienced her licking my hand/arm for an hour straight
before getting tired and falling asleep. We were thinking there was
a chance we would adopt her ourselves. If we did we’d still foster
other pugs which would mean we’d be breaking a spoken agreement between Susan
and me that we’d not take care of more than four pugs at a time. We
decided to wait and see how her vet visit went.
The last rallycross of
the season was on the 1st Sunday of November at Colorado
Off-Road Extreme. The weather was a bit chilly for most of the day
but luckily the wind stayed calm. The morning and afternoon courses were
very technical and there were a lot of cones to be hit. We managed to hit
a few more than we normally would but ran good times. I finished 2nd by
only a few tenths of a second and Susan got 5th place. For
the season I got 1st place and Susan 5th. This
was the first season that we went to all 12 of the events and I’m glad we now
get a break from the racing. We may go to a winter autocross or two
with the Miatas but it won’t be anything serious.
We took Bella for her
vet visit the following Tuesday. Satchel also came along for a blood
test (she is still looking pretty ragged in the hair
department). Bella came out with a clean bill of
health. She’s as light as she seemed and only weighed in at 9.9
lbs. Her knees could possibly be a problem at some later date but
the vet didn’t think it was something we’ll have to worry
about. Besides her hair loss Satchel doesn’t seem to have any real
issues. She’s made uncharacteristic mistakes this past year but with
all the foster pugs we’ve had it may be just stress related. Upon
leaving the office Susan and I decided to adopt Bella. Susan
submitted the paperwork and adoption fee that night. Bella has
proved herself to be a loving little pug and we’re happy to have her.
I decided this last
month to build a new computer for myself. For the last few years
I’ve been using various tablets and Susan’s old eight year old laptop for my
internet and computing needs. Now that the newer gaming consoles are
coming out and my current system is dying I figured I’d upgrade to a new
computer, forgoing getting Sony or Microsoft’s offerings. I’ve never
build a computer before and found good resources online to help me pick the
parts out and put it all together. It was an interesting experience
and I feel like I got extra value in doing the assembly myself. If
Susan decides to replace her newer (but still old) laptop with a desktop
computer I’ll definitely want to go through the same process again.
The next weekend was
pretty busy and filled with lots of food. We went to Mount Fuji
Hibachi with some friends and our neighbors on Friday night. It was
really tasty and we all decided it was surprisingly better than
Benihana. I had to come in to work on Saturday morning and while I
was out Susan decided to rake leaves. Historically this was
something we haven’t done much of per the terms of our “letting our lawn die”
code. Susan was a bit nervous though as the Colorado Pug Rescue was
doing a home visit later in the day. This came up when Susan applied
to adopt Bella as the organization is supposed to do the visits once a
year. An audit is about to occur and it was decided to get caught up
(our last was over two years ago). Thus Susan raked
leaves. I got back from work in time for the home visit which, of
course, went swimmingly.
Later that day we went
to the Rocky Mountain Division Road Racing Convention and Awards Banquet at
Club Auto. We had no real desire to witness the awards presentation
or talk about road racing (we don’t participate in that particular form of the
sport) but went anyways. We did so because a special guest speaker
was going to be in attendance – Tanner Foust. Tanner Foust is one of
the hosts of Top Gear America and races in multiple series around the
world. He also originates from Colorado and began racing with people in
the local scene. A few other rallycrossers came to the event with
us. Tanner was a genuinely nice guy and an entertaining
speaker. Most of his presentation consisted of him answering various
questions and telling stories about some of the crazier things he’s
done. It was a fun event.
On Sunday we headed up
the mountains for dinner at Susan’s parent’s house with Kari and
Alvin. We brought Bella to introduce to the family and she
scampered all over the house. Dinner was an excellent blend of beef,
potatoes, and carrots that Karen slow-cooked with apple fritters and ice cream
for dessert. Eventually the group split up with the ladies in the
living room and the boys in the kitchen talking about this and
that. None of the world’s problems were solved but we may have
rounded off some of the corners. It was a really nice visit and a
great way to conclude the weekend.
This last weekend was
a wonderful one for me. I planned on doing nothing and I was largely
successful. On Saturday Susan went with Kari and Sandra (our
neighbor) to Gates Rubber factory to take pictures before it is finally
demolished. It has been mostly replaced by apartments and whatnot
and has been a symbol of sorts to those who like to venture into abandoned
buildings in the Denver area. Susan tells me that the work looks to
be slow going so far and may take a long time to finish. On Sunday
Susan bought a large format camera. She has been looking for one for the
last year or so and is very excited with her purchase. The one she
got was produced between 1947 and 1955 and came complete with film and
one-time-use flash bulbs. Very cool!
We’re really looking
forward to the holidays and not doing very much. Perhaps the latter
part of that sentiment is only mine (I’ve felt like life has been moving too
quickly this last year).
Tldr: we raced, got
rid of the stupid tree, adopted out Zoey, began fostering and then adopted
Bella, raced our last rally race of the season, built a computer, ate too much,
met a TV personality/racecar driver, did nothing, watched the beginning of the
end of a hipster landmark, and bought a 60+ year old camera.
We hope this finds you
happy and healthy!
PS –
super-congratulations to Emilee and Ryan for the successful birth of
Lee! We can’t wait to meet him! J
Max and Susan
