Hello everyone!
It’s been almost three months since our last update so here’s another
one. (I added Julie to the distribution in case she is interested. :))
September
We
had a trailer hitch installed on our newest rally car.
Unfortunately we had to have a shop do a custom install
since no hitches are made for our car model (in fact our model is specifically
excluded). A friend of ours was coincidentally
selling a 4x8 trailer perfect for our needs which we ended up
buying. The wood on the trailer could stand to be
replaced and we have some vague plans to take care of it next
spring.
Our newest car
purchase (the Subaru wagon we call “Jay”) was in need of some immediate
maintenance so, with the help of a mechanic
friend, Susan replaced the timing belt, water pump,
thermostat, and radiator (thanks babe!). There are other things
that could be done on the car but at least the chances of acatastrophic
breakdown have been lowered somewhat.
On September 19th we
loaded up the trailer and headed to Colorado Offroad Extreme (CORE)
to camp andrallycross the following day. A couple of other
racers joined us and we sat by a little fire as swarms of
mosquitoes dined on my blood. I had worn sandals that evening for
inadequate reasons and got several bites on the tops of my feet in
addition to the many others covering the rest of my exposed skin. Racing
the next day went alright although we were off our game and didn’t
place as highly as we’d hoped. Overall we had a great time
though.
The day after the
rallycross was the Colorado Pug Rescue’s annual Pugs in the Park
event. Susan has been active in the planning of the event all
year-long and we were assigned to volunteer in the foster tent.
The foster tent is where fosters are brought for people to interact
with and, hopefully, decide to apply for an adoption. While it was
fun to hang out with the pugs it was a bit of a pain to
deal with the younger dog-walking volunteers. We also
brought a small PA system for announcements and assisted in
setting up andtaking down the many tables and tents. The
event itself seemed to go well and I’m sure we’ll be volunteering
again next year.
The last weekend of
the month had us going to our neighbor’s house for an Italian poker
night. It was an Italian food potluck with poker. Fun times were
had by all and Susan ended up coming in 2nd place
(yay $$)!
October
For the past two years
we made the trek to the rallycross national championships. Alas, the
early October scheduling had me in the office working through the weekend
instead of racing. Hopefully we’ll be able to participate next
year.
Susan noticed
Satchel’s left eye was looking unhappy and took her to the vet.
It turns out that eye isn’t producing enough tears. There are drops that
should help which she immediately went on. Fortunately the eye doesn’t
seem to bother Satchel as the final medical solution is to have the eye removed
(this would bea huge bummer). Subsequent vet visits have shown the
eye making more tears and we’re hopeful the drops will be enough
(she’ll need them for the rest of her life).
We had
planned a camping trip in the mountains for the second weekend in
October but with low participation and poor weather forecasted we
cancelled. We ended up having some friends over for a BBQ on
Friday evening instead. The next day Susan and I woke
up and, on a whim, decided to drive up to Buena Vista. We
took Mia (our red Miata) and left with the top down.
About a half-hour into the drive the top went up and the
rain began. By the time we got to the Fairplay valley snow was
falling. I was a bit worried about the roads as Mia was still
shod in all-season tires but the snow didn’t last very long or accumulate
much. We had lunch at the best-voted pizza place in Buena
Vista and drove back home. The weather had warmed
up and the drive was pleasant. Perhaps we can make these sorts
of impromptu road trips more commonly in the future.
October 19th had
us driving to Pike’s Peak International Raceway for another rallycross
event. For the heck of it (and to save tires) we raced Jay (I think
having AAA has emboldened us). Jay survived the dayand we
had a blast pushing the old Subaru to her limits. Neither of us
placed very high but I still managed to beat several competitors driving much
quicker cars.
Two days later we
drove down to Colorado Springs to attend a regional SCCA dinner at an
auto club. From my understanding an auto club is where rich guys store
their old expensive cars and sometimes hang out. My guess is
that such an entity is an LLC or nonprofit owned by the rich
guys and is a convenient way to not pay taxes on their
hobby. Anyhoo, we had a nice time visiting with the others that
attended, eating dinner, playing on some high-end racing
simulators, and racing little cars around their expensive slot car
track.
The last weekend of
October had Susan, myself, Sophie, and Bella driving out to Utah
to rallycross. The event was the 2nd Annual Moab
Spectacular put on by the Utah SCCA region. Most all the participants
camped and we arrived late on the Friday before race
day. A bunch of Colorado people attended and we set
up our tent near theirs. The schedule included racing all day Saturday
with night racing in the evening. There would be more racing on Sunday to
finish the event. The site is around 20 miles north of Moab on some
federal land which happens to be an old lake bed. The surface was
initially hard with soft silty soil underneath. Thus the first runs were
quicker than the later runs as the courses degraded. Night racing was
interesting and a bit terrifying as there was virtually no wind
which allowed the dust clouds generated from those racing to hang in the
air and blind subsequent drivers (here’s a video of my first run). I ended up not driving all the
allowable runs as I was worried I would run over a course worker (I
got a bit too close on one of my runs). It was a very
dusty affair and the interior of the Evo was coated in dust by the
end of the weekend. We also lost the passenger-side wheel well cover
on a big bump. A wire of unknown use was also tore
off in the process which evidently caused our parking lights to stop
working. The event was well-run and quite enjoyable (food was
even provided by the organizers). Our new rally car proved to be rather
quick and I got first place for the weekend. We are looking
forward to attending next year’s event.
November
The first of November
was the final rallycross event of the season and was held at
CORE. As is tradition for the event right after Halloween we dressed our
race car up and the Evo was a shark (the big fin lasted
approximately one turn on the first run). Light
attendance and very few delays had us getting nine fantastically fun
runs (here’s a short video of me driving around that
day). We both did
very well with me getting 2nd for the
day and Susan coming in 7th (out of 16
competitors in our class). It was a great way to end the
season.
Susan got a new
job at E2 Consulting Engineers as an HR Assistant. She has been looking
off and on for over two years for another job and we are
both delighted. So far her duties are diverse and more
interesting than at her former job. Her new role gives her the
opportunity to gain valuable experience in HR which is
great. Susan didn’t want to keep working
downtown and almost didn’t apply for the opening as it is literally
across the street from her old job. So worth it though!
We flew out to Georgia
for Thanksgiving on the Saturday before. Sophie and Bella were
travel pugs andmostly did alright. Mom picked us up at the
airport and immediately made Goulash (my favorite food evar… besides
her macaroni & cheese I suppose) when we got to her house. As always,
we felt very welcome. Since many of you on the distribution list for this
email were there I’ll use some statistics to describe the week:
-Different games
played: at least 8 (Cabo, Hannabi, and Sushi Go were our favorites)
-Movies seen in the
theater: 2
-RC vehicles
driven/flown: 4
-House alarm scares: 1
(but it was very dramatic)
-Warm bodies that
walked on the pool cover: 2 (one was a pug)
-New restaurants
tried: 3 (2 were BBQ)
-Calories ingested:
nope
-Acorns ingested by
Bella: not enough to cause renal failure
-Tears shed: not too many
It should be noted
that Susan and I were stunned by the amount of growth our
niece and nephews displayed since we last saw them. Holy
smokes! We had so much fun and visiting with all of the
relatives that were there!
December
To celebrate 16 years
of being together Susan and I drove up to Glenwood Springs on
the first weekend of December. For this trip we only brought Sophie who
(as many of you observed over Thanksgiving) is incredibly
pathetic and requires a lot of attention. We decided
to go “all out” and stayed at the Hotel Colorado. It is one of
the oldest hotels in Colorado and was frequented by a few
presidents back in the first half of the 1900s (Roosevelt even
has a room named after him). We’ve never stayed
in a place like it andfound it had a few quirks.
The hallways are incredibly wide and the rooms are mostly pretty
small (we were lucky to get a decent-sized one). Large
radiators heated the rooms but for some reason the rooms were sweltering even
with the radiators turned to the off position (we utilized the
window and ceiling fan for the entirety of our stay). The hotel
prides itself for being pet-friendly and we saw several other dogs
while we were there (including two rather large Great Danes). The
elevators have five floor buttons but the top floor is “PH” and is
just a large penthouse. The fountain in front of the hotel had
fish in it. Our neighbors across the street (Sandra and Gregg)
also came for the weekend and we hung out with them
quite a bit. We had agreat time and are pretty
sure we’ll be staying in Hotel Colorado when we visit Glenwood Springs from now
on.
Miscellaneous (spelled right on the first try!)
The pugs are all doing
well. I was jamming with a drummer briefly but let him go after
about a month (nice guy but he really was not very good). The
cars seem to be running fine. We both still like our jobs. We’re
both enjoying the free time we have now that we’re not racing. I
took a few online IQ tests and discovered that I am
not a genius (you lied to me mother! :P).
We hope this finds you
happy and healthy!
Max and Susan
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