July 2016

-July 4^th weekend – busy busy.  On Saturday we picked up a new engine,

dropped off heads to be rebuilt, and then drove to Cheyenne to get OEM springs for the WRX.  Sunday we went to Alvin and Kari’s property to celebrate Karen’s 65^th birthday.  Had a nice time under our Easy Up.  Kari and Alvin were having some trouble getting their permits in order so they could start building.  On Monday Susan helped Kari paint their 5^th wheel camper and watch as a tree was pulled over by a 6 ton military-type vehicle.  I stayed home with the pugs and played guitar much of the day. 

-The next day we dropped off the evo in Millikin (way up north) to get tuned.  The guy seemed pretty competent and we’re hoping for a safe increase in power for the car. 

-July 9-10 weekend – On Saturday we picked up evo, WRX heads, and other WRX stuff.  Then we went home and I cleaned engine parts and we packed for the race the next day.  Sunday was another race at CORE.  It was hot hot hot and we had a relatively low turnout with only 42 competitors.  I got to show John and another guy how to tech cars as our normal tech people weren’t there.  The course designer outdid himself and both the morning and afternoon courses were fast and fun.  Because of the low turnout we got nine runs each which was great.  When we picked up the evo I couldn’t feel much of difference with the tune but it was very noticeable when racing.  It was all very fun and I was able to hold onto first place and Susan came in a solid fifth.  We got home filthy with dust and dehydrated.  Great day! 

-July 15 – went to a Streetlight concert; this was really fun.  We got to the show early enough to take our usual spot on the balcony in the center.  It was so loud that we could hear the individual instruments better when we plugged our ears (I’m thinking I’m going to pack ear plugs for the next show).  We parked in the garage Susan’s work uses which was nice. 

-July 16-17 – did the timing belt job on evo.  This took basically the entirety of the weekend.  It would have gone faster but, of course, things didn’t go as smoothly as they could have.  We had the car finally running when the sun was just about down on Sunday. 

-July 23 – rallycross at USTDS – had another low-count event (37) but enough to have fun.  We brought worn tires and it showed in the outcome as I came in 4^th and Susan 8^th.  There was a minor emergency when the building got locked somehow (it’s where the bathrooms reside) and several competitors (including us) had to drive to the nearest town during lunch per perform our ablutions.  It was really hot all day and we got pretty dirty.  Lots of fun. 

-July 29 – went over to Kari and Alvin’s house to press new rear wheel bearings into new hubs for Tia.  I thought we could do it without touching the car but was wrong and we ended up having to pull apart the existing hubs and then pressing them together with the new parts.  We brought a pork dish from Costco and pasta salad for dinner.  Jeff dropped by right as the meat came out of the oven and ate with us.  Tia went together nicely in the end and the noise we had been hearing from the rear driver’s side went away (*phew*). 

-July 30 – we drove up to paint a sunflower with Karen and Kari and have lunch.  John was off at a car show for the day and Alvin was working on their property so only myself, Susan, Kari, and Karen painted.  We had a nice time and the paintings came out well.  Lunch was tasty and we stayed awhile to talk about this and that (John had came home soon after we were finished painting). 

-July 31 – Jeff was going to come over around 9:30 in the morning to help do major work on the WRX engine but was a couple of hours late.  The work also didn’t go as planned as an oil line was cracked and only an OEM replacement would work.  This limited what we could accomplish since the line is buried under the intake manifold and we didn’t want to move on just to have to tear things down again to install the line (dealerships are also closed on Sunday in Colorado).  I had placed all of the engine parts on the driveway in anticipation of installing everything so this was a major bummer.  Somehow I also misplaced the pulley tensioner for the timing belt which led to me buying another one from a local parts store ($170).  We figure the tensioner that came with the timing belt kit I had already purchased will probably turn up sometime after the engine is installed.  I was going to BBQ bratwursts for lunch but an apparent gas leak toward the front of the grill caused a fire just above the temperature control knobs when I was warming it up.  The fire quickly went out when I turned the gas off at the tank but the grill was made inoperable.  I ended up cooking the brats on the stove top in a pan.  It wasn’t the most productive or stress-free day but it went alright in the end.