Hello
everyone! June was busy enough to warrant its own update so
here goes.
-June 5-7 weekend
– Rocky Mountain Rallycross Challenge
This year our regional
challenge was held in Grand Junction and we made the four hour drive on Friday
afternoon. We arrived to the site (a dirt lot next to an outdoor
GoKart track) in time to swap out our street tires for rally tires and have the
car tech’d. We also gabbed with other competitors before leaving to check
into our hotel. It was decided to have dinner with other racers
at a fancy Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel.
I think we had around fifteen people in our party by the time we ate and much
revelry was had.
The next day was the
first day of racing. In the morning all the competitors lined up their
cars by class for inspections. Basically we just looked at each other’s
cars for non-class legal modifications and talked for around an hour.
Then there was a quick drivers meeting and we went to where we needed
to be for the event to start. Susan and I worked timing (as per the norm)
first and we raced in the last run group. The timing system was an
upgraded version of what we use in our local region so was easy to figure
out. It was chilly, muddy, and windy for most of the morning. By
the time we got to go the dust was flying as the mud had mostly dried up.
The afternoon was a repeat of the morning’s racing but the course was
in reverse. When all the times were added up I was in first place and
Susan was in a close fourth. Before heading to the
event-sponsored dinner we hung out with fellow racers at the GoKart
track. I wasn’t planning on it but ended up racing in one session.
It was fantastic fun even though I performed poorly (no surprise there).
Then we went to dinner at a brewery restaurant with all the
competitors before going back to the hotel. We did meet our friends Ken
and Randy for cards but we were all very tired and didn’t play long.
The second and final
day of racing had the run groups the same but in order by the best times (the
fastest competitors go first followed by the next fastest and so on). The
idea is that the first drivers on a fresh course are generally
hampered by looser conditions thereby giving slower drivers a chance
to catch up. This is usually true but didn’t matter in our case. In
the end I extended my lead and kept first place for the event (I was also the
fastest driver out of all the competitors there). Susan was doing very
well until her third run when she got distracted for a moment and
made some tragic mistakes which added twenty two seconds to the run and dropped
her from a close fifth down to eighth place. This made for sad
times for us both. After the racing was done we packed up and went to the
awards presentation for pictures. The drive home was uneventful and we
made great time. Here's a video of one of my runs. :)
-June 12-14
weekend
Friday night had Susan
and myself at Ken and Randy’s house to continue the odyssey which is making
wine. Ken and Randy are constantly in the process of brewing this or that
so we had to empty one of their six gallon glass jugs before we could “rack”
our wine (evidentially to “rack” one’s wine is to transfer it from abucket
to a glass jug, who knew?). Thus we cleaned and sanitized empty
wine bottles and then bottled the previously finished contents
of a chosen glass jug. It contained a blend of cider
and mead which is called cyser. We tried this concoction and deemed it
worthy of drink. After bottling we cleaned and sanitized the glass jug
before transferring our wine from the bucket it’s been in for the previous ten
days or so to the now pristine glass jug. This transfer is done as the
dead yeast and sawdust from the prior step built up thickly on the bottom of
the bucket and isn’t something we would want in the bottles of wine.
After playing around with wine and cyser we looked at pictures Randy took of
the prior weekend’s rallycross.
The next day was
busy. Our rallycross car was making some odd noises so we brought
to a fellow competitor’s house for a diagnosis. It
turns out it badly needed new rear brakes (I really should have noticed
earlier) and the driver-side front strut mount needed to be replaced.
After we got home we took Bella on a walk around the
neighborhood. She did alright and we only had to carry her four times in
the thirty minutes we walked. Then Susan and I got in our car, picked up Kari,
and drove up to Matt and Jana’s house for a baby shower BBQ (I’ve
decided this is the best kind of baby shower). We all
had a good time talking with his family and eating yummy
BBQ. A friend of Matt breeds corgis and brought an eight week
old puppy he had recently gifted his wife. This tiny little fluff ball
quickly became our center of attention and we all took turns holding him while
the children rudely tried to take him away. The weather turned nasty and
there was crazy hail for a few minutes but nothing big enough to damage
vehicles. It was a great time and we’re confident little Kainin
will be a sweet baby like his older sister Elle.
Sunday was more
relaxed as Ken and Kari came over to help Susan with cleaning up the back yard
and planting more plants along the path in front of the house. This
was a long ordeal of which I mostly stayed inside playing my guitar
and researching how to install a wideband O2 sensor on the rallycross
car. I hung out with the pugs a lot and Susan and Kari got
sunburned. It was a great day.
A wideband O2
sensor is a sensor (duh) that measures the air to fuel ratio
in a car at a higher degree of accuracy than stock O2
sensors (of which every modern car has). It is a tool used to
safely tune the engine and turbo to get more power and efficiency. We
bought and installed one on the rally car as it wouldn’t hurt to have another
fifty to sixty extra horsepower (booya). It was a relatively
simple process which began witha trip to a muffler shop to have
the sensor bung (what the sensor screws into) welded into the proper place on
the muffler. I fed the wires into the cabin and Susan handled the power
source. It was a relatively painless install and seems to work
as designed. At some point we hope to have Alvin tune more powah out of
the engine.
-June 20-22
weekend (yes I know I’m including the next Monday, weekends work differently
when they must conform to the subject of the email)
Saturday had us doing
more work on the cars and running around town doing some shopping. The
HVAC vent dial in Jay (the old Subaru) was stuck on defrost so we had taken
apart much of the center console and dash to be able to see what the problem
was. Long story short the cable that connects to the dial was detached
from where it needed to be and a required clip had fallen from its
perch under the dash. In the end JB Weld (a strong epoxy) was able
to compensate for the brittleness of eighteen year old plastic and the vent
dial once again is functioning (for now at least).
While Susan was
putting Jay’s interior bits back together I removed the driver side strut from
the rally car to get to the strut mount. I’ve done this on several of the
other cars and was finished in a snap. Then
followed a quick trip to O’Reilly’s to rent a spring
compressor and a slightly longer time disassembling the strut.
Susan cleaned the parts using the garden hose and I packed grease into the new
strut mount. The strut went back together easily enough and was soon
reinstalled on the rally car. I realized after we were done that I hadn’t
broken a major bolt or component in any the recent car work. I
think I’m going to make asign that says “X number of days
since a bolt was broken” and hang it in the garage.
On Sunday we were
greeted by a beautiful day and drove Debbie (the black Miata) up to
Susan’s folk’s house with the top down for a Father’s Day meal.
Kari and Alvin also came up, also brought their black Miata, and also drove
with the top down. I suppose it could have been embarrassing if we were
still in high school. The food was pulled pork acquired
from a local BBQ joint in Aspen Park and other BBQy sides.
Everything was tasty. After the meal we discussed how small independent
BBQ places are popping up all over the front range where none or few were
before. Interesting to see new trends sweep across the state. Once
the food was cleared we played Cabo followed by Sushi Go. This was my
first time playing Cabo absolutely sober and, perhaps coincidently (perhaps
not), I absolutely clobbered everyone. To keep things fair I’ll make sure
to imbibe while playing in the future. Sushi Go was a new game
for the others and took some getting used to. By the time we were done
everyone was getting the hang of it and we’re definitely going to play it more
going forward. We ate dessert, walked around the property, and then sat
on the back porch for a couple of hours talking. It
was a really nice time.
On Monday night we
found ourselves at Ken and Randy’s house to perform the next step in the wine
making process and play games. Gregg and Sandra’s son Tristan asked if he
could tag along and did so. All we had to do for the wine was add some
packets of ingredients and degas by stirring up the wine in the glass
jug. Ken had a tool that attached to a power drill
which greatly sped up the stirring process and we were finished in
just a few minutes. We then sat on their back patio and talked
about this and that before playing a round of Sushi Go. This
was their first time playing and by the end of the round they all were proficient.
I had been sharing a bottle of cyser with Ken and merely won
by a handful of points.
-June 27-28
weekend
Susan inexplicably
seems to have caught the sinus infection I’ve been dealing with for the last
several days but luckily we have no plans for this weekend so she can rest and
get better. Looking at our schedule I’m seeing that this might be the
last free weekend we have for the next month and a half. It
stinks to be sick but at least the timing is good.
Tidbits
The pugs are all healthyish
and Sophie just went into heat again. The symptoms have all been normal
for her but I’m slightly concerned as it’s come on a little earlier
than usual. Sophie is going to have her annual vet checkup next week and
is probably fine.
We still like our jobs
which keep us busy and Susan got an unexpected raise for her first six months
of great work (yay Susan!).
We’re endeavoring to
eat healthier and it’s mostly happening. I was going to
buy a FitBit but found that, due to my ginormous wrists, the size I
need is sold out until next month. This is probably for the best since
it’s realistically a coin toss whether I’d actually wear the thing
longer than a month or two (then again… knowing myself I’ll probably
get one next month anyways).
We watched Jurassic
World the other day and found it to be an entertaining summer rompfest which,
even without the initial awe from the first Jurassic Park and some silly scenes
(cross-species dino-teamwork…really?), is now my favorite movie of the series.
We hope this finds you
happy and healthy!
Max and Susan
