Holy cow it’s been a
looooong time since I’ve sent out an email about our happy
household. I’ll go for some of the highlights by month.
February:
-We met some
rallycrossers for breakfast at Sunrise-Sunset early in February. We
had a nice time jawing about this and that and the food was good.
-We attended the
rallycross awards banquet at El Charrito. We both received Ironman
awards for going to every event in the season. I also got 1st place
in our class and Susan got 5th place.
-We played poker at
the across the street neighbor’s house. We had a good time and I won
the pot!
-For Susan’s
birthday we went with several friends to Mount Fuji which is a tasty hibachi
place in Parker. They had to bring over several extra chairs to
accommodate our party and we squished together to make room around the
grill.
March:
-Susan and I went
to a Colorado Pug Rescue (CPR) fundraiser called Paw Prints and Cocktails where
we painted together and drank non-alcoholic beverages. Our paintings
were a mixed bag but it was fun. We’re thinking we’d like to go to another
(perhaps with adult beverages provided).
-My band played a
Friday night show early in March. Mother Nature decided she didn’t
want very many people to attend and a mini-blizzard occurred mere hours before
we took the stage. Luckily for us I had invited several rallycross
people who braved the snow in their AWD cars and watched us play. We
went on first and four other bands performed after us. I have always
been under the impression that we were a pretty heavy-sounding band but not
anymore. The other bands that played after us were truly heavy and
we sounded almost like classic rock in comparison. It was an
interesting night of music for sure.
-The next
day Susan went on a cruise with some of our old Nissan club buddies. They
drove around the mountains a bit and had fun.
-The first event of
the rallycross season was on the middle weekend of March. There was
a school the day before which I helped instruct at. On race day we
decided to drive the red WRX (the “Angry Car”) in our old prepared all-wheel
drive class. It was a battle and I ended up getting 3rd place
for the day.
-We still had our
non-running Subaru we purchased last summer to race and we decided it was time
to start working on getting it running. Thus we asked our mechanic
neighbor Mike to come over and help us. The work began shortly after
the first event and technically is still going on as I type this email.
-The next
weekend Susan and I went to see Tower Of Power play down in Colorado
Springs. We try to make it to every non-arena show on the front
range we can and have gone to see them several times over the
years. They have a new singer who did really well and the show was
excellent. We even got to meet the band after the show and had them
all sign one of Susan’s vinyl records!
-We took Sophie to an
eye-specialist as she’d been having difficulties finding her way this past
winter. It turns out she has roughly 40% of her vision due to
multiple eye injuries and cataracts. Fortunately her eyes make enough
tears that she gets to keep them and she doesn’t seem to be in any pain.
April:
-We had another
rallycross at the beginning of April. The Imp (what we’re calling
the “new” rally car) wasn’t yet ready for racing so we drove the Angry Car
again. I made the unfortunate decision to have us drive on old and
mostly bald all-season tires. The event location is known for being
hard on tires and I didn’t want to wear out our rally tires. I
regretted this decision throughout the day as I spun out 4 times, 2 of which
were so bad that I had to put the car in reverse to turn around. It
was a lot of fun but neither of us did very well in the standings,
though Susan did end up placing above me (good job babe!).
-A couple we’ve been
friends with for several years came over for dinner and a
jam. Tristan (the male half) plays guitar and we played nonsense in
the basement while Susan hung out with Cora (the female half)
upstairs. This past summer they adopted one of our foster pugs
(“Tina” whose name they changed to “Lucy”). It was a good time for
all of us.
-Late in
April Susan and I journeyed to Kansas to visit Susan’s Grandma
Norita. Susan’s parents and Kari also made the trek from
Colorado. Some extended family I’d never met were in attendance as
well. Norita’s sister and her two sons along with one of their spouses
stopped by for a few days. They were heading home to Oregon from a
trip around the Midwest to see family. It was a good time for all of
us and some of us took an afternoon to visit one of the salt mines in
Hutchinson. Hollywood utilizes the mines’ extremely dry and stable
environment to store much of its original film and old props. They
put on a good tour and we brought home chunks of unprocessed salt.
May:
-The Imp drove in its
first rallycross on the first weekend in May. The event was at a new
location up by Fort Collins on a fellow racer’s land. The Imp
survived the race but was woefully underpowered for the course and it showed in
the results. This is because there wasn’t time to have it turbo
charged beforehand. The site was really fun though and we’re hoping
the organizers have us there again later in the summer.
-The next weekend we
went up to Susan’s parent’s house for her dad’s birthday
dinner. Kari and Alvin came along as well. We had a nice
time hanging with the family. Alvin had recently bought himself a
Miata and we had to take a look at it (buying old Miatas seems to be
catching).
-After a year of not a
whole lot happening and a lot of frustration I decided to quit my
band. It went remarkably smoothly without too many feelings hurt and
no shouting or fistfights ensuing. I’m looking forward to starting a
new one and have already auditioned a couple of guitar players.
-We attended a 50th birthday
party for Sandra (one of our across the street neighbors) at her house on the
last weekend of May. There was a pretty good crowd there and we ate
BBQ and played poker. I did lousy this time
but Susan salvaged a little dignity by coming in 3rd place.
June:
-Our 350Z found a new
home early in June. I had listed it on craigslist a few weeks ago
and finally had someone show some interest. I believe our experience
was of the non-traditional type. The interested party was an
18-year-old army private from Colorado Springs. He didn’t have a car
so had to get a ride from a friend up to Roxborough to look at the
350Z. He loved the car but didn’t want to take a test drive so I
drove him around in it for a few minutes. The next day he got a loan
from a military credit union for our full asking price and we met him down in
the Springs to finalize the transaction. We never did see him drive
the car but assume he’s happy with his purchase. We owned the 350Z
for over six years and will miss it but are glad to be down to four cars once
again.
-A few days later I
was driving down the 285 canyon when an SUV in the right lane decided to change
lanes (presumably without looking) into the side of Mia (our 1990
Miata). I honked and hit the brakes but the other car managed to
smash the passenger front fender pretty good and scuff the tire and
bumper. We both pulled over and exchanged insurance
information. I couldn’t see how I would have avoided the accident
and the other driver agreed. As of now Mia is in our driveway
awaiting its fate from the insurance company.
-Many of our
weeknights in May were spent providing dinner to Mike as he worked to get the
Imp turbo charged in time for the next rallycross in June. This was
mostly successful and we did drive Imp in a turbo charged form for the 2-day
national challenge event last weekend. Technically the Imp had boost
but only up to 5,000 RPM where the fuel would cut off effectively acting as a
lowered rev limiter. Up until that point the car was very quick and
we made the best of it. I was fortunate enough to earn a podium
position and came in 3rd place for the weekend (I also won
$100!). There was some doubt that it would go on with the immense
amounts of rain the site had experienced the day before. We slogged
through a few muddy runs early on the first day but afterwards things dried up
and the event ended up being one of the better ones we can remember
attending.
Miscellaneous tidbits:
-We painted the hood
on the Imp silver with purple sparkles. It’s very pretty.
-I did end up going
guitar-crazy and bought two electric guitars - a new six-string and a used
seven-string. I also acquired an effects pedal that makes my guitar
sound like an organ. It’s very fun to play with.
-I mowed the lawn the
other day for the first time this year (a new record!). Now Sophie
won’t get lost in the tall grass of the back yard.
-The pugs are still
relatively healthy and definitely cute. Satchel had her annual
ear-infection taken care of last week. Tweetie gave us a little
scare the other day by acting strange enough that we rushed her to an emergency
clinic. They had no answers for us but she apparently recovered
quickly from whatever was ailing her. Sophie is still infatuated
with Susan. Bella is still a bit insane and hilarious to play
with.
-Hopefully the months
long saga of getting the Imp turbo charged will be ending soon. I
just picked up some used higher-flowing fuel injectors which will allow the
turbo to do its turbo thing more efficiently. After the Imp is done we
can move on the next car project which will be swapping out Mia’s engine for a
slightly larger one (assuming the accident didn’t bend the car’s frame).
I think that’s pretty
much it.
We hope this finds you
happy and healthy!
