Time flies! Here’s an update on what’s been going on with
us since our last email in late December.
The last weeks of December were full of holiday gatherings.
-December 20 – We went to our rallycross friend’s house
(Ryan Sealey) for a holiday party. I spent most of the time talking about
quadcopters and Susan spent her time playing Cards Against Humanity (she had
more fun).
-December 25 – John, Karen, Alvin, Kari, and Liz (a lone
orphan rallycrosser) came to our house for a Christmas lunch/dinner. The
food was great and the pugs were well-behaved. Jeff showed up after the
meal and we all played Cabo. It was very fun!
-December 27 – We attended a white elephant at our
neighbor’s house across the street. Susan and I made out well acquiring a
third-party expansion for Cards Against Humanity called Crabs Adjust Humidity
and a 2015 calendar which consisted of a rallycross friend standing
naked (facing away) in front of various scenery from around the world (perhaps
the most appropriate white elephant gift ever… it’s hanging in our
kitchen). The plan afterward was for everyone to play poker but we
settled on Cabo instead (so fun!).
-December 31 – We drove up to Alvin and Kari’s house to
celebrate New Year’s. A handful of others came over and we played Cabo
again. Though most people left before midnight we all had a
good time. As per tradition we all signed a New Year’s champagne cork (we
have quite a collection from past years). Susan and I left right
after midnight as I had to work early the next day.
January was a busy month for us with year-end fun for me and
Susan learning a lot of new things at her new job. Susan also did a lot
of crochet in her spare time (she’s making blankets for the local animal
shelter) and I worked on my quadcopter. Otherwise we didn’t do a whole
lot.
February 7-14 - Susan and I went on another Caribbean
cruise. It was our first cruise by ourselves and was a somewhat different
experience because of it. We went to a several shows and spent a decent
amount of time in the spa (we had a spa room which, unsurprisingly, includes
access to the spa). I won a gift certificate to the spa via a raffle (much
to the chagrin of the other hundred people packed into the hot room where it
was held) which we used towards a couple’s massage. We initially planned
on going to dinner in our assigned dining room every night but ended up mostly
doing our own thing. We did eat dinner at their steakhouse which was
fun. I did far too much bad karaoke (I never learn) and we did a ship
excursion which had us touring various sections of the ship passengers don’t
get to see and we met the captain. We decided against any shore excursions
and instead opted to do a little shopping at each port. We had a great
time though we missed our usual cruise companions. 10/10 will do
again.
-Feb 15 – We attended the 2014 rallycross awards at our
local tavern. There was a great turnout and the guy (his name is James
but he goes by “Tasso”) who bought our old red rally car also came out.
Tasso spent much of the winter removing weight from the car (over 200 pounds by
his estimation) getting ready for the next rallycross season. Susan and I
both got awards for our racing efforts (not bad considering we raced four
vastly different cars in 2014 and missed several events) and received a
participant-voted award for our volunteer efforts (this was really nice to
get). Big beards are definitely in fashion right now and there were a
couple of guys that went from having nicely trimmed beards last fall to having
full on hobo-beards for the winter. This is one trend I’m happy to
avoid.
-Feb 28 – Us and eleven other friends ate at The Old Mill
Brewery & Grill. Since we had a fairly large group we were able to
reserve their private room which has its own fireplace. This convenience
turned to almost a necessity when the power went out about the time our friends
were showing up. The whole street was apparently without power but due to
some sort of voodoo (and possibly some shady electrical wiring) the grill and a
few lights were still in operation so we could order food. The heat was
not working though so we all moved closer to the fireplace. There was a
lot of conversation about the upcoming rallycross season but the highlight for
me and Susan came when our friend Chris Canavan (“Can”) arrived toward the end
of the night. Can is a good friend from college who we don’t get to see
very often and we ended up staying late at the restaurant catching up. It
was a great birthday for Susan a fun time for the rest of us!
-Mar 14 – Susan and I met Alvin at a dyno shop to tune our
newest rallycross car. A dynamometer is a machine that you drive onto
that tells you how much power your car is making at different RPMs.
Things didn’t go swimmingly for our car as we discovered it was occasionally
misfiring and a fundamental component of the engine wasn’t functioning
properly. Our dreams of moar power were dashed that day but we were glad
to know about the car’s problems before the rallycross season began. I
brought the car up to Alvin’s a few days later and he managed to get the engine
running better although we are pretty sure the new coil packs I installed to combat
the misfiring are actually worse than the originals (yes, I threw out the
original coil packs before finding this out… Did I mention they aren’t cheap?
*sigh*).
-Mar 21-22 – We volunteered at the annual rallycross school,
camped, and then raced in the first event of the season.
Every year a rallycross school and “test and tune” (the oldsters
come out and play under the guise that they’re making sure their cars are up to
snuff) is held the day before the first rallycross event. I was asked to be
an instructor and Susan came along to run the timing system and help with
managing the test and tune. We also brought Sophie as she was in heat and
needed more attention. I don’t know for sure but I believe we had one of
the largest turnouts for the school and most of the drivers had never raced in
any capacity before. The day went smoothly and I got to ride along with
and impart my fuzzy driving wisdom to a bunch of new drivers in cars of all
types. At the end of the day a course was set up and everyone got to try
and improve on their times. I *ahem* put down the fastest time but this
is mitigated by the fact that my competition didn’t really know what they were
doing.
After the school we set up our tents and made dinner. For
some reason (I believe adult beverages were involved) we decided to camp on the
next day’s course which was fine except that we had to be fully packed very
early the next day (yay stress). We literally “circled the wagons” around
our camp site with our rally cars and trailers. Because of wind and,
ironically to me, the recent rains (they caused the vegetation to flourish) we
couldn’t have a camp fire. This made for a cold evening until one of the
day’s students who was camping with his family busted out a large butane heater
which we greedily gathered around.
The next day’s racing was a lot of fun and, besides a lot of
over-driving of our car, went pretty well for us. We had record
attendance (85 drivers) and still managed to get in 6 runs with minimal
issues. It was Susan’s first event as Chief of Timing and we learned that
most of the “improvements” I made to the timing sheet worked as designed (Susan
fixed the file over the next few days). Part of being the Chief of Timing
is announcing the day’s results and Susan graciously delegated the task to
me. I didn’t mind and will be doing it going forward. We didn’t
drive quite as well as we’d hoped but I managed to get 3rd and Susan 7th out of 20 drivers in our
class.
-Mar 27-29 – We flew to Georgia to drive back with a stuffed
buffalo head and other furniture from Mom. Because she was still in heat
Sophie came along. The flight out on Friday night went smoothly
enough and we arrived in Atlanta around 9:00. Mom picked us up and
we came back to her house to stay the night and get a few more items packed in
the moving truck (she had the forethought to get most of the stuff loaded ahead
of time). Susan and I ended up leaving around 6:00 the next
morning on our trek back home. Mom had prepared us food and snacks for the
drive and we happily partook on the road. I wanted to drive straight
through but Susan (probably wisely) convinced me to stop for the night in
Kansas after only 16 hours of driving. The next morning we drove
into Denver and picked up our car at airport parking before going home.
It was quite the whirlwind trip and we’re glad to have made it!
As of this last weekend we’ve started xeriscaping our front yard
for realzies. We’ve lived at our current abode for over six years and
most of that time the front yard has been in varying levels of tragedy. I
put a lot of effort for the first two years trying to keep the grass green and
well-trimmed but ultimately decided to let nature take its course
(literally). We’ve been planning on xeriscaping for the last couple of
years and finally got started this last Saturday when we laid down landscaping
fabric. The plan will be implemented in a few stages with the most
dramatic one occurring today when 8.5 tons of rock was dumped in the center of
the lawn. We’re hoping to be finished with the majority of the work by
this weekend.
Other stuffs:
The pugs are doing ok. Bella is still a nut-ball and can
often be seen skittering around the house and licking any exposed skin.
As previously mentioned Sophie went through heat again and through a
combination of carpet cleaner, diapers, and the strategic placement of towels
we managed alright. Satchel is sadly limping around but still manages to
give us lip in her pug way (something to do with when she looks at us with her
crazy eyes I think). She’s still on pain medicine and gets eye
drops. She has her good days and her bad days. Tweetie has been on
pain medicine for the last few weeks since she started becoming hesitant
jumping up on the couch (very unlike her). The vet thinks it’s just her
age and some arthritis in her back. Last week Tweetie somehow really
tweaked her back and is on two more pain medicines. We don’t know what
happened but she’s having a tough time right now. Part of what makes it
difficult is that she was always the healthy pug and has enjoyed a freedom of
movement around the house that Satchel hasn’t had for a long time. We’re
confident she’ll be feeling better soon but she’ll probably get carried up and
down the stairs from now on.
I still jam with Charles from time to time. Work schedules
and life have made it difficult but things are still moving along. I
don’t know if I mentioned this before but we have a name for our “band”.
We’re called “Sledgicide”. Don’t try to come up with any deep meaning
here. Charles wanted something that sounded dark and heavy and I wouldn’t
accept anything that sounded too serious.
Sometime in February I was offered a job in a different area of
my company which I gladly accepted. It’s a great opportunity for me and I
won’t have to work as many weekends and holidays going forward.
Yay!
Susan still crochets from time to time and is working on
clarifying the rallycross rules about timing and scoring while also managing
the registrants for the next event. Days at her day job are very busy (a
good thing) and she’s still learning a lot (an even better thing). She’s
also researching what she’d like to plant on our newly xeriscaped lawn.
TL:DR – holidays, busy but boring January, cruising and celebrating
in February, preparing for and racing, and driving across the country in March,
xeriscaping and taking care of pugs in April
We hope this finds you happy and healthy!
Max and Susan
