March 2017

-March 11 weekend – This weekend had us racing in the first rallycross event of the 2017 season.  There was also a rallycross school and test & tune at CORE we helped put on which occurred on Saturday. 

Saturday - we weren’t going to actually practice ourselves so we drove out the WRX (now named “Pitt” as it has been a money-pitt since we bought it).  Bella the adventure pug came along for the day too.  We arrived more-or-less on time and to crazy conditions.  The weather forecast for the day was a little chilly in the morning but generally pleasant so I didn’t bother bringing a jacket and sported shorts.  It was snowing hard just before we drove up and for a couple of hours after.  It may be said that I was a bit cold.  At some point Valerie Briley (a fellow competitor) forced a sweatshirt on me which was appreciated.  Unfortunately for Bella she had to stay in the car most of the morning until things eventually cleared up.  Rallycross only stops for lightning and tornados and since neither were present we started the day as per normal except that the bus was late in coming which delayed things around an hour.  No worries with this as I can babble/wax poetic for just about forever about how to drive on dirt.  Once the features were set up and I had thoroughly bored everyone we broke the students into two groups and set to it.  Susan went with the test & tuners and Bella down to the lower course to manage their practice/playing.  The turnout of students was a bit low (15 I think) but they were enthusiastic to learn.  I believe they had a great time and all made genuine progress.  The amount of seat time they get is akin to a whole season of driving and well prepares them for the real deal.  We eventually broke for lunch and the features were combined into a full course and included the timing system which Susan ran.  I got the pleasure of being the starter which is always fun (one of my favorite duties).  Anyone who wanted to was able to blast around the course as many times as they wanted.  I was offered a drive in Janis’ (a fellow competitor) evo he had recently acquired and I couldn’t turn him down.  His is essentially a slightly different and blue version of the one we currently race.  I had fun on my run and came close to matching his best time despite not driving on dirt since November and being unfamiliar with the course.  I took it as a win.  Eventually the drivers were done beating up on their cars and we packed up the cones for the next day’s race.  A few camped overnight so we left the bus on site.  As we were leaving the WRX’s power steering pump decided to seize up and melt the attached serpentine belt.  Thus I had no more power steering and the alternator wasn’t charging the battery.  Susan and I limped home with a tired Bella to find Sophie had made a big mess in her kennel.  While Susan took care of that disaster I swapped out the evo’s wheels quick before the sun went down.  Then we loaded it onto the trailer and packed in our other race essentials that don’t permanently stay in the Suburban.  It was a heck-tick day and evening and we headed to bed early so the end of Daylight Savings wouldn’t brutalize us too much. 

Sunday – it was an early 5:30 when the alarm went off on Sunday morning.  We packed up the last minute things and drove back out to CORE sans Bella.  The weather was cool but the snow didn’t rear its head all day.  I compromised and wore jeans (no jacket).  We rolled on the site around 8:00 and, after unloading the evo, promptly got to work getting the event going.  I helped set up the course which was fun as the designer (Eric Adams) lets his helpers have their own opinions on how it turns out.  Eric also helps out a ton in making sure all the small things are taken care of to make a successful event.  Our group was using a new registration website for the event which caused issues for Susan but she managed them well.  The event started on time and the morning flew by with nary a problem.  I allowed a whole hour for lunch which I often times don’t do.  It was soon after racing resumed where things turned.  The weather once again became a problem.  This time it was the high sustained winds.  The dust was flying fast and far and many drivers complained.  I was not deterred until Clyde (one of the gentlemen who manage the site) shut us down.  The wind had shifted directions and was blowing the dust onto I70.  This has never been a real issue before except that a nearby farmer was being sued.  Apparently the dust generated from plowing his fields caused an accident on I70.  Thus the lawsuit.  The landowner where CORE is located reached out to Clyde who then had us stop what we were doing.  After some time I made the call to cut the number of afternoon runs to three and swap the run groups with the hope that the weather would improve.  This didn’t really happen but I was able to convince Clyde to let us run one car at a time as one car didn’t generate a lot of dust on their own (plus most of the lighter surface dirt had already blow away).  It was via this compromise we were able to complete the event.  In the end I coned away an easy victory but barely noticed as I was so glad to finish the day with all my runs (we drove in the second group).  Susan came in a close sixth (cones did her in too).  There was some concern related to getting the timing bus driven to a secure location after the event but some volunteers emerged and helped us out.  The last of the competitors drove off the site around 5:00.  We went straight to our local liquor store to find it closed which necessitated a trip to another all while towing around the evo.  Eventually we made it home where we found Sophie had gone all day without an accident which we appreciated immensely.  I unloaded the car and parked the trailer in its spot before heading in for a remaining evening on the couch where we reminisced about the weekend and Susan worked on the event results.  While things didn’t all go how we’d hoped they would all in all it was a good start to the 2017 season and we were satisfied with how we managed the challenges we had faced. 

March 18 weekend – Friday night I was going to work on Pitt but Sophie was still having a tough go with a UTI.  The night before we had taken her to an emergency vet to get medicine and by Friday it was working a little.  We ended up staying in with Sophie and falling asleep on the couch together.  We awoke early Saturday morning and fed the pugs before Susan went to bed upstairs.  I then spent a couple of hours cutting and cooking chicken for the upcoming week.  Susan eventually got up and we dressed in outside appropriate clothes and went shopping.  We used our prior year rebate on our Costco card at Costco although we couldn’t decide on anything to splurge on which is how we normally handle the extra funds.  Before going to Wal-Mart to finish our purchasing we had over-priced Mexican food at Hacienda Colorado.  That’s probably a bit harsh as the food was good and the service excellent.  We both got fajitas and brought home most of it as leftovers.  After we unpacked and stored our goodies and paper products I changed into my car clothes (a permanently dirty shirt and shorts) and started working on the WRX.  I managed to install a new remanufactured power steering pump and headlight bulbs.  Tristan came by to help here and there and before too long we were test driving around the neighborhood.  I had further car maintenance plans but we decided to work on them on Sunday.  The rest of the evening was dedicated to cooking dinner and hanging with the pugs on the couch. 

Sunday morning we got up early due to a Sophie accident on the bed.  So sad.  After feeding the pugs and Susan cleaning up the mess I was awake enough to stay awake.  Susan utilized our guest bedroom to catch several more winks of sleep with Bella.  Tweetie and Sophie hung out with me on the couch while I played video games waiting for Susan to emerge from her slumber.  This didn’t occur until noonish which was alright with me as generally we treat Sundays as our lazy day.  Once Susan was up I headed out to work on Jay.  I am pretty sure the driver’s front wheel bearing is going out and had purchased a new one with seals some months ago.  Winter and a general lack of enthusiasm forced me to procrastinate on actually doing the swap.  I decided to combine the wheel bearing work with an oil change as Jay was overdue.  The oil change went fine but all of Jay’s suspension bolts were horrible to get off.  The bottom bolt holding the brakes on the hub sheared off which ended the work.  To get the remnants of that bolt out would be very painful so I decided to put everything back together for the time being.  I’m not worried about the brakes falling apart but I’ll have to figure out a solution or bite the bullet and have a shop take care of the fix.  I find it difficult to spend much money on Jay as it was cheap and I know its days are numbered.  If it wasn’t for the copious rust on the body there’s a good chance we would have dropped in a new engine at some point.  Alas I know the amount of effort to fix the rust and it simply isn’t worth doing on a 20 year old car.  So that was that.  After “finishing” the work on the wagon Susan and me once again got dressed in appropriate garb to go out.  We went to Kari’s first to pick up the rally wheels we had let Alvin and John borrow for the 2016 season.  Then we headed to Home Depot for no particular reason (we ended up lucking into some free scrap wood perfect to go under the ramps we use for loading the tow rig) and then Wal-Mart to get deli chicken for dinner.  We soon found ourselves home again watching silly Pauly Shore movies of our youth with the pugs (Encino Man and Son in Law).  This was how our weekend ended and it was grand. 

March 25 weekend – Saturday was busy for Susan but not so much for me.  We got up when we got up and Susan then headed to see the musical Hello Dolly with an older couple we rallycross with, Carol and Neil Rickli.  Afterwards she went shopping and perused stores she likes to go to before she met Kari and Alvin at their house where they then embarked to see an acapella show.  It was an all-male affair and Susan told me it was really fantastic.  I didn’t see Susan again until she arrived home around 9:00 in the evening.  My job for the day was to hang out with the pugs, particularly Sophie who was having a really rough go of it. 

Sophie – the frequency of her seizures increased dramatically beginning soon after she started her prescription for her UTI.  It got bad enough that we took her to the emergency vet on Tuesday morning.  She’s now on anti-seizure medicine which makes her extremely lethargic.  We’re really hoping it works in the long-term as there really isn’t much more that can be done.  I’m officially not ok with emergency vets now (at least this recent one we’ve gone to).  Extremely expensive and they push a lot of things that are beyond what is necessary.  Hopefully we have no need to go to one again.  It was over the weekend when we decided the side effects from the anti-seizure medicine were worse than the seizures and stopped giving her the pills.  One Sunday we found that she had another bladder infection.  Poor puppy!

Sunday had Susan and myself starting the day with breakfast at BOB (first time in awhile).  We got to the restaurant and were lucky enough to get seated almost immediately.  The food was delightful and Susan enjoyed her Mimosas.  Then we headed to Costco on a quick wine-run before driving downtown to test-drive a 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS.  A fellow-rallycrosser named Jake Petersen had posted on Facebook that he was selling his current rallycross car and, with Susan’s hesitant approval, I reached out him about it.  He immediately said he’d drop the price if we were interested and we proceeded to have a fun conversation about the car.  We were 99% sure we were going to buy it that night but needed to drive it to be absolutely certain.  We met Jake in the Susan’s work parking lot and I took it out for a drive.  I was impressed and when we returned we gave Jake the good news.  It’ll be a backup daily/snow car and a true backup rallycross car we’ll probably race a few times a season.  Unlike the WRX and Jay this car already has a season of driving under its belt and is proven to be able to handle the strain.  Jay is now on craigslist, priced for a quick sale. 

Monday – Susan took Tweetie and Sophie to the vet for follow ups for both their bladder infections and Sophie’s additional problems.  Tweetie got a clean bill of health and Sophie got a solid wait-and-see.  The vet decided Sophie shouldn’t be on the anti-seize medicine the emergency vet had her taking so we kept not giving her any.  She also got a camel hump to help flush her system of the meds.  We brought a urine sample which the vet sent off for a culture.  Hopefully they’ll be able to come up with an appropriate treatment but in the meantime she is peeing A LOT.  After work we picked up the RS and Susan drove it home while I followed in the WRX.  We’re excited about our new purchase! 

March ended with Sophie on the mend.  Her culture showed e-coli so she got on a different anti-biotic which seems to be working for her.  She’s having far fewer mistakes and is mostly back to herself for which we are very glad.  Also her seizures have largely abated for which we are elated.  Funny thing happened with the RS we just bought.  The prior owner accidently wrote his name in the wrong area on the title and then scribbled it out which voided the title.  I didn’t know this until I was told so at the DMV a few days later.  Whoops!  He’ll have to get a new title for us to use to register the car.  I got a temp tag for the meantime.