January 2019

January 2 – it was a bit after 8:00 when I performed my usual craigslist search for all things Miata and discovered a $550 wrecked Miata.  It had damage to the front but everything behind the radiator looked untouched.  The listing had been up for a few hours so I figured it was already sold but Susan suggested I reach out anyways.  While several folks had inquired about the car we were the only potential buyers willing to come over immediately.  We weren’t sure if we would be able to extract the car trailer from the then-snowy lower 40 but we managed to get it out alright and were on our way.  The car looked great besides the obvious damage and I was happy to pay the asking price.  The car’s battery was absolutely dead so driving it into the trailer was out of the question.  We tried pushing it but the little bit of snow on the road had all feet slipping.  Luckily we had a come-along and several beefy ratchet straps.  Crazily the come-along broke almost immediately which left me with ratcheting in the car using the ratcheting straps.  This was a lot more difficult than I would have preferred but after some time and a lot of sweat the car was secured.  We got back home tired but content with our purchase. 

An aside – Susan recommended trying to jump-start the car before I struggled with the ratchet straps.  The next day I used a jump box and immediately was successful in starting the car and drove it out of the trailer and into our garage.  I told Susan I would allow an “I told you so” on this one. 

January 5^th weekend – Saturday was a RallyCross at a potential new site located at Quint Valley Fairgrounds.  Susan and I were up a hair before 5:00 to work down a list of things to do.  I immediately tried starting the rallybus which hadn’t been cooperative the night before.  Fortunately the trickle charger I put on the battery had juiced it up enough and it was running after the first try.  We managed to do everything we needed to and even remembered to bring our helmets (Susan grabbed them right before we left). 

We arrived on site just a bit after the sun started rising and unloaded the Evo.  Josh had driven the bus and was already there.  While it was a new site the format was largely unchanged from normal events and we had the course set up and the bus unpacked quickly. 

The surface held up well against the furious spinning of tires and whatnot and things went smoothly enough.  The turnout was low but that was the plan as we wanted to avoid some of the issues newer drivers bring for this test event.  We provided 12 awesome runs to the drivers who attended.  Susan and I drove well during the day and ended up finishing 1-2 in our class.  We are hopeful that we can secure the site for the 2019 season. 

We left right as the sky was getting dark.  It would have been earlier but we hung out to chat with some friendly rallycrossers.  As always, we were the last to leave the site.  Susan ordered Door Dash on the way home and soon after we had unpacked the essentials the food arrived.  We were oh so hungry and oh so tired.  The pups were happy to see us and we finished the day up on the couch. 

Breaking our streak of lazy weekends we were productive on this particular Sunday.  We did sleep in until 9:30 or so but soon were up, coffeed, and outside.  First I swapped the Evo’s tires out and took three sets of wheels to the tire shed while Susan organized and cleaned up the garage.  Then it was on to working on Wreckie.  This entailed Susan and I removing sellable parts off the car.  It took a lot of effort but by the time we called it a day we had unbolted the seats, soft top, dash, all carpeting, interior bits, intake box, exhaust, exhaust header, passenger fender, passenger headlight, and both door cards.  At some point in the afternoon Susan ordered us delivery from a BBQ place which was yummy and we had three different folks come by to buy Wreckie-parts which more than reimbursed us for the purchase price of the car.  We were very happy and still had several more high-ticket parts left to sell.  It was almost 8:00 when we finally washed our extremities and sat on the couch with Bella and Pebbles.  We were exhausted but satisfied with how the weekend turned out. 

On Monday Susan worked from home and spent a little time at the DMV getting the new title for Wreckie.  We were a little worried as the seller accidently signed the front of his title which technically despoiled the thing.  Luckily the DMV person didn’t notice and Susan left with a new title in our names.  That night we packed up Scrappy in the trailer and took it up to have its cage fixed after we sold more parts to a cigarette-smelling guy from Golden.  Getting Scrappy out took a bit of doing since Wreckie was in the way and no longer had any exhaust or intake – meaning no MAF or O2 sensors.  Luckily the car ran if I kept the throttle down a bit although it was as loud as heck.  Susan said there were flames coming from the engine which made sense with the lack of headers. 

The cage was finished the next day and we drove back up to north Denver to pick up Scrappy on Tuesday night.  It looked great and we were quite content the work quality.  As the garage was a mess with various Wreckie parts we elected to keep Scrappy in the trailer for the time being. 

Saturday started as a snowy and cold day which didn’t help us be motivated to be productive.  I was up a bit before Susan and hung out on the couch until she wandered out from the bedroom following a scurrying Bella and carrying Pebbles.  After coffee we watched TV with the pups.  I’d been up for a while at this point and was hungry so decided to whip up some chicken soup.  As is my experience with most cooking, it wasn’t terribly difficult and came out tasty.  Eventually the pull of our parts car had me out in the garage; Susan joined me shortly thereafter.  I managed to remove the differential, rear subframe, and transmission.  Susan assembled an engine stand and womened the hoist to lift out the engine when it was time.  The temperature was starting to fall when we finally secured the engine to its stand and we called it a day.  Susan ordered us delivery from Rockbottom Brewery and we spent the rest of the evening on the couch. 

Sunday had us up and about midmorning.  A guy was coming by at 11:00 to look at Wreckie’s seats so we coffeed up and were ready by the time he arrived.  He did buy the seats which was fantastic as we were approaching tripling the return on our parts-car purchase.  What followed was a few hours of Susan and myself finishing up with Wreckie and reorganizing the garage.  Removing the front subframe was the final major component we wanted to keep and Susan spent some time zipping random bolts off the car.  Eventually we had Wreckie lowered on four small dollies and the garage cleaned up. 

The original plan was for me to back the car trailer into the mouth of the garage and for Susan and I to push, pull, and generally cajole Wreckie inside.  After I’d backed out Scrappy, which was residing in the trailer, into the snow where it promptly got stuck I was slipping and sliding the suburban around when Dan Hipwood arrived.  He was there to borrow some struts for his own car project and suggested a different path to loading up the car.  Instead of maneuvering the trailer into the garage we would simply muscle the car over the various obstructions.  While this worked and we managed to secure what was left of Wreckie into our trailer, I also hurt by back something fierce.  Such is.  We were very appreciative for Dan’s help in the endeavor.  After Dan left Susan and I unstuck Scrappy and put it back in its corner of the garage before then pulling Flo into its current spot next to the big door.  Happy and relieved to have the garage in order again we retreated inside to eat leftover soup and hang out with the pups.  I was so glad we persevered in our efforts despite the snow and cold to have a productive weekend. 

On Tuesday the 15^th we drove to Denver Scrap Metal to trade Wreckie for some cash.  Susan worked from home so we could leave as soon as I got off work though traffic up to the scrap yard was still horrible despite the earlyish hour.  The lady at the giant scale mentioned that it was obviously my first time doing something like this which made me laugh.  Getting Wreckie out of the trailer was a challenge.  We were worried the casters it was residing on might collapse on the journey across town but they held up alright.  The issue we had was in getting the whole mess moving and over the gap between the floor and the ramp.  Luckily the guy sitting in the giant car-stacking machine volunteered to help and did so by lifting up the rear of the car while I pushed.  Eventually Wreckie was deposited on the ground and then taken away.  We had to sign the car’s title and give it to the yard which we did when we turned in our receipt for payment.  We got a whole $46 which, while less than we were hoping for, was better than paying someone to pick up the car and other junk we’d thrown in.  The original plan was to stop for dinner on the way home but traffic and the 20’ trailer had us changing our minds so Susan ordered BBQ delivery instead.  We were so happy to have Wrecky’s lifeless husk gone!

January 19 weekend – Saturday began late-morning with coffee on the couch.  The original plan for the day was to go to HPR for an open lapping day but not enough people signed up so it was cancelled (the snow the day before probably didn’t help).  Thus we took the opportunity to thoroughly clean Scrappy’s interior in preparation for painting.  This took some time and Susan and I went through many a blue shop towel.  At some point we broke for a light lunch before finishing up around 3:00.  Then we changed and jumped in Flo to drive to our movie date-night. 

Our movie was Aquaman and the showing at 4:30 at Alamo Drafthouse.  We grabbed our prerequisite glass of wine before heading to our theater.  Luckily for us this particular movie had been out for some time so I was able to reserve good seats.  The food was yummy, the wine extra-yummy, and we both enjoyed the movie.  It was too cold to paint after we got back home so we instead spent the evening on the couch with the pups. 

Sunday had us up at the early hour of 9:00 to have our coffee.  I was antsy to paint Scrappy so drug Susan out to the garage to help finish masking and push the car out of the garage.  It turned out to be a bit too cold for the spray cans as they spit out lots of random blobs of paint.  This distressed Susan greatly but I was ok with how it turned out as perfection was never my goal.  We were rushed as we had an appointment at the I76 Speedway way up in Fort Morgan. 

We left a few minutes late but light traffic and a heavy foot had us driving on the site only a couple of minutes past the scheduled meeting time.  We were greeted by two cute dogs: one tall and thin, the other short and very stout.  Todd and the owner came rolling up shortly thereafter and we made small talk before walking over to the track which was a quarter mile long dirt banked oval with grand stands along one side.  I was impressed and we all felt we could put on a great event there.  Eventually Josh Karczewski (pronounced: Carsandski) arrived and we chatted about potential possibilities.  Susan and I then left so Todd and Josh could talk to the owner about the financial details (I would have spoiled any negotiations with my obvious excitement). 

Susan and I were mighty hungry at this point and drove around Fort Morgan in search of a unique restaurant.  With the lack of many streets in the small town this process took longer than we expected and Susan had to enlist Google Maps to find us somewhere to eat.  We settled on The Mav Kitchen & Tap House.  It was a hip-looking building affixed to a Comfort Inn.  The restaurant was a pretty standard modern tavern with monsterous hamburgers and their own twist on the usual standard tavern-fare.  We enjoyed the food and atmosphere before hopping back into the Evo for the drive down to Denver. 

On the way home we stopped at Home Depot for paint, primer, and sanding tools so we could continue our efforts with Scrappy.  This was more difficult than we expected as the paint we initially wanted was the type the employees couldn’t tint.  Luckily they were able to find an alternative which could be tinted to our liking and will hopefully hold up well. 

Once home Susan took care of the dogs while I unloaded the car.  It was at this time that Susan got a message from a guy wanting Wreckie’s center console.  He was to arrive in only a few minutes so Susan waited while I started painting Scrappy’s interior with another coat of primer, this time with a brush.  The work went swiftly and looked much better than the blobby spray cans earlier in the day.  The guy ended up taking quite a bit longer than the promised 15 minutes but eventually ended up buying the center console and glove box.  I was pretty annoyed by his haggling but we were glad to take his money.  Susan then got herself a brush and helped finish up primering Scrappy.  By the time we finished it was getting chilly so we headed inside.  We made chicken for dinner and sat with the pups on the couch for the remainder of the evening.  Periodically we would make our way outside to witness the splendor of the Super Blood Wolf Moon lunar eclipse.  We were lucky that we had clear skies as it was a pretty cool sight to see.  Another great weekend!

January 26 weekend – Saturday began with both of us sleeping in a bit, me less so.  I decided to be productive and went out to sand Scrappy while Susan slept.  Right about the time I finished going through the second and final battery in the sander Susan texted me that she was awake.  I then went inside to make coffee and omelets for brunch.  After finishing eating Susan got dressed and we applied the first coat of paint to the roll cage.  This didn’t take terribly long and already looked pretty cool.  Later at 4:45 we had a birthday dinner to attend at Benihana. 

It was Dan Hipwood’s birthday and we were happy for the invite.  We arrived on time which felt late to us but ended up being the first there.  We waited and waited and eventually Dan showed up.  Unfortunately his party ranged from far and wide and traffic was delaying some.  After what seemed like a long time we were shown to our table.  The group was large which stretched the capabilities of the seating.  We barely made due and enjoyed dinner together.  The modern world is an interesting one as of our troop was allergic to chicken and her food had to be made before everyone else’s was started.  As hungry as we all were I don’t believe any minded in the slightest.  Susan and I had a nice time and the food was delightful.  All told we were at the restaurant for over three hours. 

On Sunday we slept in again and I, again, was up before Susan and sanding Scrappy.  After I finished the second battery off I annoyed Susan awake and made us coffee.  The weather was nice so we decided to apply another coat of paint to the cage before heading out to catch lunch and buy more painting supplies.  Qdoba was our/my choice for food and we left the restaurant satiated.  We were disappointed to find out that the Home Depot virtually next door didn’t have the paint we wanted so we elected to drive up to the Arapahoe Road location.  In retrospection we were lucky to have stopped at this Arapahoe location on the way home the previous weekend as the paint we wanted was only at this and one other location in Colorado.  I suppose dumb luck works in our favor from time to time.  It took some time for the paint department employees to figure out how to mix our, apparently, weird paint but eventually we were on our way.  As it was on our way home we stopped at Costco and I (Susan stayed in the car) forged through the crazy weekend crowd to buy a few staples – wine, protein powder, and chicken. 

Once home we inspected Scrappy and found the paint we had applied earlier to be dry to the touch.  Thus we spent more time sanding the exterior of the car.  We had started sanding the front of the car first and found the going slow and tedious.  To the surprise of neither of us we discovered quite a lot of bondo on both front fenders and part of the passenger door.  We found our pace quickened quite a bit after we moved toward the rear of the car.  Evidently when the damage was resprayed after whatever accident necessitated  the bondo a lot of clear coat was applied after the paint.  After we moved to original factory paint the going was much easier as there was less clear coat to sand away.  I was unsatisfied with my prior painting efforts and ended up touching up the cage in a couple of spots after the second battery was drained in the sander. 

Dinner was chicken and salad which was yummy as always.  Susan had laundry to do but I was so excited about our progress that I went back to sanding Scrappy after the batteries were charged.  I almost finished what I set out to do before the batteries were spent.  The couch replete with pups and Susan awaited and we finished out the weekend watching Conan being silly in foreign countries and Stadium Super Trucks on YouTube.  Such a great weekend!

The next morning Susan and I awoke to find four inches or so of snow on the ground and horrid traffic on the roads.  While my commute was a bit longer than usual Susan took an hour and forty minutes to get to her office just to find that she was the only one who came in.  This wasn’t the heaviest snow of the season but this seemed to be the worst from a driving perspective.  I believe the colder temperatures finally had the snow sticking to the roads. Susan ended up just going back home again late in the morning to beat the afternoon traffic. 

The crank bolt on Tuna Bean had been stuck in place for over a month when I finally reached out to Alvin on that next Wednesday about using his beefy tools to remove it.  As is accepted procedure we provided dinner (pizza in this case) to him and Kari who came along to hang out with Susan.  They also brought Piper who was cute and well-behaved as always.  The food arrived soon after they did so we ate and chatted before Alvin and I ventured into the garage.  I had to remove a couple of bolts so Alvin’s impact gun would fit.  Once in place the 1,400ft/lb impact struggled for a time before the bolt came loose.  I expected to see some sort of thread locker on the bolt but it was clean as a whistle and in perfect shape.  It seemed that it being on the car for 22 years had something to do with its unwillingness to come out.  We then hung out in the garage talking about car racing before Alvin, Kari, and Piper made their way home. 

Susan worked from home the last day of January so she could take Bella to get her dental.  It seemed to have gone well as she had her lower right k9 tooth pulled and a cyst removed from above her eye.  Bella was pretty drugged up when Susan picked her up and was a bit out of her mind for the rest of the evening.  The vet warned that her tongue might stick out due to the tooth pulled.  Susan assured her we have experience with pugs with tongues perpetually sticking out. 

January ended up being a pretty snowy month for us.  It seemed every week the sky dropped three or four inches which the next batch arriving before the previous snow had a chance to completely melt.  It was also pretty cold most days.  Not terrible but not helpful when we wanted to work on Scrappy. 

The pups have been great minus Pebbles sporadically getting upset with Bella.  Bella seems to be showing her age more and more which is sad to see. Mostly it’s in her physique as her muscles seem to be shrinking.  Still a sweetheart though. 

It was a busy month for me at work with year-end reporting.  My deadlines were bumped up this year which has meant more time in the office and a bit more stress all-around. 

Susan continues doing her work thing downtown.  She is allowed to work one day a week from home which has been great as it saves her from commuting and she gets to sleep in a little.  Plus she can take care of some business-hours errands like taking Bella to the vet and titling Wreckie. 

We’re hoping February’s weather is an improvement over what we endured in January.  At least it would be great if the weekends were warmer as we’re hoping to get more track-day practice with Scrappy.