April 1st – Susan was given a two week notice
that she was being laid off. She’s been with
this employer for several years and it came as a blow to say the least. The rationale is that they have not recovered
sufficiently from the loss of a major contract at the end of 2018. What they are doing is digging themselves a
hole as their HR staff was already overworked.
Susan predicts they’ll be hiring someone to replace her in less than a
year.
April 3rd – Susan attended a fundraiser with a
high school friend at the Clock Tower downtown.
They had dinner at the D Bar beforehand and had a ton of fun talking
about this and that. I guess the show
wasn’t exactly the bee’s knees but they had a good time. It made for a late night in the middle of the
week but was totally worth it.
April 6th weekend – Saturday began at 9:30 when I
bugged Susan until she got up to help take care of the dogs. We had our morning coffee and I went out to
the garage to work on Scrappy while Susan went to her computer to work on her
resume and apply for jobs. I had a list
of things to do on the racecar and started with remaking templates to block the
trunk and gas tank from the car’s cabin. This went fine until I discovered we didn’t
have metal sheeting large enough. Thus I
moved on to fixing the headlight wiring.
Susan finished up her resume and applied for some jobs before we decided
we were hungry.
We went to Qdoba for lunch and the Home Depot to pick up a
piece of large metal sheeting, caulking, and metal tape.
Once home again Susan went inside to search for more jobs
while I cut metal and installed the trunk bulkhead stuffs. The metal tape came in handy to cover all the
edges. I managed to cut and drill holes
in a couple of extra pieces of metal to mount the front fire suppression
nozzles to. Luckily there were factory
holes under the steering column I was able to utilize to attach the
mounts. Susan came out to gaze upon my
handiwork and supervise painting the new interior panels and the installation
of a rubber mat to the driver’s foot well.
While this first coat of paint dried we ate some leftovers for
dinner. After a second coat of paint Susan
helped me load Scrappy in the trailer before we finally called the day
done.
Sunday the alarm went off at 6:30 and after a few snoozes
were crawled out of bed. We had our
coffee before jumping in the Suburban to gas up the truck and fill the fuel
jugs on our way to the track. We rolled
into HPR around 9:30 to check-in and unload Scrappy. Janis Dancis, Ryan Mclaughlin, and Brad Ames
were also there so we parked next to them.
The day went alright.
Brad rode with me for 15 minutes before he asked to be let out as he was
getting car sick. Janis rode with me for
a stint and gave me some driving advice.
Susan’s run group had a couple of terrible drivers who backed everyone
up and she found herself stuck behind them multiple times. These drivers plus her racing shoes hurting
her feet had her deciding to stop driving early.
This was the first summer open lapping day so we got a lunch
break which was nice. It was strange sitting
in our trailer and not hearing cars buzzing around the track. A couple walking by asked if our car was for
Lemons and we found out that they also raced in the series. They seemed nice and I imagine we’ll hang out
some at our first Lemons event in June.
We left the track around 3:00 and stopped at Lucky Dog for
an early dinner. We hadn’t been there
since Mom was in town and found the food yummy and the odd mix of décor
interesting.
Once home Susan took care of the dogs while I unloaded
racing stuff from the suburban. Susan
helped me back Scrappy back into its corner of the garage and we plopped ourselves
on the couch for the remainder of the evening.
It was a fun and productive weekend!
On Monday night we finally installed a mirror in the guest
bathroom. The previous owners had taken
the existing mirror when they moved out and we hadn’t installed another one
yet. It’s nothing fancy but it’s nice to
finally see oneself on something besides the large hand mirror we’d hung up a
year and a half ago.
Tuesday Alvin and Kari came over for dinner and to attend to
their camper. The wet spring had caused
the ground to become soft enough that their camper’s front was sinking into the
ground in our lower 40. Susan whipped up
chicken and asparagus for dinner which was mighty tasty. We ventured out to the garage to gaze
lovingly upon Scrappy and then hung out chatting about this and that. Twas a nice time.
Friday was Susan’s last day at E2. Screw those guys.
April 13 weekend – Saturday began with us getting out of bed
around 8:30 for coffee and to take care of the dogs. We had thought we didn’t have plans for
Saturday but then Susan remembered we signed up for the Mushroom Rally several
months ago. Thus we hopped in Tuna Bean
to drive over to K1 Speed in the late morning.
There was some confusion with checking in but soon we were
in the costume room picking out what we wanted to wear. I choose a monkey suit and Susan was a
princess. There were several games to
earn stars to get prizes but we were there to race karts and elected to just wait
for our run group and watch others drive.
This watching part was tough and hilarious at the same time with the difference
in experience levels of the drivers being vast.
There were the standard kart-heroes trying to dodge around the several
newbs who were clearly very afraid. It
made for many wild moments and frustrated driving.
When it was our time to drive we hopped in and had at
it. We were incredibly lucky that our
group had very few issues. I managed to
barely snag third place over Susan and was awarded a rubber medallion. We then stuck around for the next couple of
hours to see if we were fast enough to be in the top ten drivers in our time
slot to race again. We were not but did
enjoy the time together watching the other groups do their thang.
On the way home we stopped at Little Holly’s Asia Café for a
yummy late lunch and then Home Depot. We
used to frequent the restaurant quite a bit when we lived in Roxborough and it
was the same as we remembered it. At
Home Depot we bought a couple of fire extinguishers and a mount for
Scrappy.
Once home we prepped Scrappy for the next day by swapping
out the wheels and fabricating a board to mount up one of my old tablets. We’d been using my phone for our lap times
which worked well except I wouldn’t have my phone in my possession all
day. I then drove Scrappy into the
trailer and then the Suburban and trailer off to get gas. We then went out again to Walmart to buy all
manner of things including ingredients to make spinach and artichoke dip which
was to be our dinner.
Sunday we were up at the crack of a thrice-snoozed alarm for
coffee around 8:00. We managed to leave
the house at 9:00 and had a nice drive out to the track. After checking in Susan and I each drove a
relaxing stint to heat cycle a new set of tires before I swapped them for our
old set of tires to thrash for the rest of the day. There weren’t a lot of people out and we
enjoyed the open track we generally found ourselves on.
We did have one suspension issue. The coilovers each have a ring that holds the
spring in place to maintain the desired height.
The right rear ring came loose at some point and spun down to get
somewhat mangled against the axle. I
heard a whooshing noise from that side after I finished one of my stints and
got under the car to find the damage.
Luckily some finagling had the ring loose of the axle and I spun it back
up against the spring. The ring looks
bad but should still serve its purpose.
I recognized one of the cars near us in paddock as a Ford
Escort that won class B back in October’s Lemons event and I walked over to
introduce myself when Susan was out driving.
It turns out the car was immediately sold after that event and was in
the hands of a (mostly) new team of drivers.
They were a cordial bunch and I had fun talking with them several times
over the course of the day. Later a
couple of other guys approached Scrappy to check it out and told us they were
going to drive their own Miata in the upcoming Lemons race in June. Thus we had a lot to talk about.
For the first time we drove every stint until the track
closed at 5:00. We had an absolute blast
driving and Scrappy did fantastic. So
much fun!
We finished the weekend with leftovers and some needed
couch-time with the pups.
Wednesday Alicia dropped by to drop off her wedding
dress. This Sunday will be her one year
anniversary of getting married to Dan and she wants to rallycross whilst
wearing her wedding dress. Different
strokes for different folks and all that.
Alicia hung out and chatted with us for a couple of hours before making
her exit.
Good Friday – I was originally planning on working but
decided to take it off to hang with Susan.
We didn’t accomplish a whole lot but loaded the evo into the
trailer.
April 20 weekend - Saturday began dark and early at
4:30. The new rallycross site is a solid
1.5 hours away which necessitates an earlier alarm setting than we’ve needed in
a while. We were on our way by 5:30 to
arrive by 7:00. Pebbles was our
rally-pup for the day and slept on Susan’s lap most of the journey along with
Susan herself. The day had its ups and
downs.
The morning was super-busy as they generally are. I didn’t recruit enough instructors (the
event weekend being rescheduled didn’t help) and thus I had to run around more
than normal to keep things moving along.
We had two mini-courses available for the students and they seemed to
have a good time.
It was late in the morning when the pull cord for the
generator broke. I had switched off the
generator so I could lead the morning meeting in relative peace and had the
pull cord rip apart later when I tried to start it back up. Unfortunately the generator is a critical
piece of equipment to run a successful event as it powers the timing equipment
and the rally bus will not start unless the engine block heater has been
plugged in for at least 30 minutes. We
improvised by me asking a student to park his running truck nose-to-nose with
the rally bus with the batteries connected.
This powered the timing equipment without draining the bus’s
batteries. Of course, when the event was
over we had a heck of a time starting the bus but at least we didn’t have to
delay the afternoon’s timed runs. I
shall note that the pull cord on the generator was replaced very recently.
Once the power situation was sorted the rest of the day went
alright. We let the students and
instructors take many shots at the combined mini-course I set up at lunch while
the backs of my arms and neck roasted in the sun. I called a halt to the proceedings a bit
after 4:30.
My plan was then to design and layout cones for the next
day. Dan Hipwood stuck around to help
which was fantastic as it would have been daunting to do alone. Even with the help we didn’t finish up until
7:00. Dan left for his hotel and Susan
and I drove to fill up the bus and evo before going home. Our tired selves didn’t pull into our
driveway until close to 9:00 to finally eat dinner and shower.
Sunday had us up again at 4:30 and on our way by 5:30. Even after staying late the night before the
course needed work and fortunately Dan arrived to take care of the changes. I was busy doing my usual stuff and the
morning flew by.
The first car off was later than usual but the feedback was
that the course was fun enough that no one minded. As the run times were generally over 70
seconds and we had a large group I only allowed three runs for the morning
before we broke for lunch. I spent
virtually every minute of the break changing the course before the afternoon
sessions began. Folks liked the
afternoon course even more than the morning design so all was well and there
was time to allow the drivers four runs on it.
The weather alternated between hot and cold all day with the
wind coming and going. Storm clouds
threatened from the south but luckily stayed far enough away that we
experienced no rain.
This was my first event where I purposefully didn’t
participate as a driver. I don’t believe
I’ll be allowed to vacate my current roles if I am still driving so am only
running the show from now on. My hope is
to transition what I do to a group of volunteers after the next event which
will free me up to fully move on. Part
of me wishes I just would have quit over the winter and let the group figure
things out on their own but that’s what the prior person in my role did and it
left a bitter taste in many a rallycrossser’s mouth, including my own.
After the event was through I read the results and we packed
up. As is per usual Susan and I were the
last ones to leave. On the way home we
picked up PF Chang which made for a tasty dinner.
I took off Monday to recover which was a wise move as I was
oh so exhausted from two days in the sun and dust. We did very little which is exactly what our
bodies needed.
April 27 weekend – Saturday started mid-morning when I
cajoled Susan out of bed. We had our
coffee and hopped in Flo to do some shopping.
Costco was first and Walmart second.
Costco was busy but we lucked into an empty gas pump line and a fast
checkout lane so managed to get out quick.
Once home and unpacked we hung out until it was time to dress up and
head out to Monster Jam.
Monster Jam is something we’ve always wanted to go to but
just never managed to plan for. This
time we happened to be free and remembered to actually buy tickets. To make the event more fun we decided to
dress “redneck” which necessitated us buying plaid shirts, cheezy t-shirts, and
trucker hats. We cut off most of the
sleeves and I even skipped shaving earlier in the week. Basically we looked like we truly belonged when
we arrived at the stadium.
I thought it would be fun to take light rail to and from
Monster jam but didn’t realize it was a free service that day. Thus the trains were packed both ways with us
having to stand much of the ride back before a seat opened up.
The event itself was enjoyable. The trucks were huge and put on a show
zipping around and catching air over the jumps.
While we had a good time I think my Monster Jam itch has now been
scratched for the next several years.
Sunday was plan-less until late on Saturday when I texted a
guy about some wheels for Scrappy. As is
often the story a guy had bought wheels to take his Miata to the track but lost
interest. The guy lived off highway 73
in Evergreen and we drove up North Turkey Creek which was fun. The transaction was quick and we were soon on
our way to catch lunch at Rocky Mountain High Restaurant & Bar.
The joint was virtually empty when we walked in the door and
we were sat right away. The host/waiter
was nice and informative but the food took a long time and some of it was
rather terrible. Seriously, who messes
up onion rings? It turned out that our
waiter was already aware of the horrible onion rings and struck them from our
bill. It was a nice gesture but I’m not
sure we’ll be going back in the future (not like we’re up in Evergreen very
often in any case).
On the way home we stopped at Walmart to buy a windshield
repair kit (I’d been nailed by a rock on the drive up into the mountains). Susan went about using the kit once we were
home while I stacked our new wheels. In
the end Susan repaired two other dings in Flo’s windshield. The rest of the day was spent with me trying
to ward off a migraine with mixed success while we hung out with the pups on
the couch.
I took off Monday to hang out with Susan and for us to watch
the new Avengers movie. Late morning
Scrappy’s cool-shirt cooler was dropped off by Brad Ames’ wife. I’d asked him to build us one almost two
months ago and was glad it was finally done.
The movie was at 1:45 and we arrived early like normal. As usual we ordered food and wine which was
great. The movie was long (three hours)
and we quite enjoyed it. I would say
that it had a lot more sad and poignant moments than I expected. We finished the rest of the long and fun weekend
on the couch with the dogs.
On April 30 Alvin and Kari came by after work to join us on
a drive down south of Colorado Springs.
We were going to take the RS as it is currently the only care with rear
seatbelts and current registration but we found its seatbelts to be inadequate
for the job so we drove their BMW instead.
Well, I got to drive their BMW.
It wasn’t a dream car but nicer than anything I’ve driven in a long
time. The purpose of our trip was to
pick up a kitten.
One of Alvin’s military peep’s neighbor’s cat had a litter
of kittens they didn’t want. Kari has
been keeping a lookout for an appropriate Slayer-replacement for us and let
Susan know. Susan and I were going to
drive down ourselves but Kari and Alvin wanted to come along so there we were.
The drive down was uneventful except that we happened to be
experiencing some late-spring snow in Denver.
Thus traffic was slow but we didn’t really mind much. We went straight to the neighbor’s home and
Susan was immediately handed a little seven-week old light orange kitten. Originally there were four to choose from but
one was already taken, one was literally missing, and one was claimed by the
family’s kids.
We didn’t stay long before walking next door so Alvin could
see his peep and we started our trek home.
Susan and Kari held the kitty in the backseat while I again piloted
their BMW. We were just passing through
Castle Rock when the car started freaking out.
There was a shudder from the car and a warning came on the center console display saying there was a
transmission problem. Soon thereafter other
lights and messages flashed in the instrument cluster. Alvin guessed the alternator wasn’t working
as the issues were all related to things that draw electrical power. We made it back to our house but it was a
close thing as the BMW could barely accelerate and the windows were all fogged
up as the HVAC stopped working too. We
were hoping a local parts store had an alternator but that didn’t work out so
we eventually lent Flo to Alvin and Kari so they could get home. Since it was getting late we ordered pizza
for dinner and hung for a bit before they left which was nice.
The new kitten is very cute and currently nameless (though I
have voiced many ideas). It was hard
leaving her in her shed for first night when it was cold out but Susan prepared
her a cozy place and we felt she would survive.
We’re hopeful that she’ll be a worthy barn cat and companion for our
family.
April was a month of ups and downs. Susan getting laid off has been tough but I
know she’ll find a better job she’ll be happier with. The pups have been great although Pebble’s
barking at Bella, Mel, and me whenever any of us move in bed is starting to get
old. Susan weighed Mel who was down five
pounds since she joined our household and is looking great. Going to the track has been fun and we put on
a successful weekend of rallycross.
We’re looking forward to May!
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