December 2020

 First week of December – 

Susan and I were off for the first week of December.  We largely did nothing but hang out which was par for the course when it comes to our holiday season vacations.  It was relaxing and we think the dogs were happy to have us around.  

On Saturday Kari came over to help us paint much of the interior of our house.  Susan had picked some neat blues and had a great plan which we toiled to implement.  I started in the kitchen, Susan worked on the entrance area, and Kari began the living room.  We chatted about this and that as we did our thing.  We spent several hours working before breaking for a BBQ lunch.  Kari left in the late afternoon when I was almost finished rolling on the final bits.  We had bought the top of the line paint in hopes of avoiding multiple coats and for the most part this worked out.  Later that night and the next day we found some bits of the old color showing through but not much which was nice.  We were very happy with the results.  

Sunday had us mostly just hanging out again to finish out our vacation.  We really needed the time off from work and enjoyed each other’s company.  

December 12th weekend – 

Saturday began with me up early playing games while Susan slept in.  It was very cold outside and the sky was grey.  The snow from the previous day was still present except for on the roads as they were still warm from the nice weather over the prior week.  Once Susan was up we had our coffee and basically just hung out all day.  I whipped up a chicken casserole which was yummy.  The day was originally going to be quite different as my car-buying itch was itching and we had set our sights on older Mazda 3s.  They checked a lot of boxes but I had second thoughts after we looked at one.  Basically I think buying one would be an “easy button” to getting past some car projects I need to finish.  Hopefully I can complete the projects I have in front of me which will eliminate the “need” for another car.  

Sunday was a lazy day.  I woke up early to take care of the dogs and then fell asleep on the couch until Susan got up and made coffee.  The snow had returned the night before and the landscape was quite serene and white.  Fortunately not much accumulated and the snow had a light consistency.  While we were not productive we had a wonderful weekend together with our dogs.  

December 19th weekend – 

On Saturday I woke up around 8:00 to take care of the pups.  I was finally feeling productive so went out to the garage to work on Lil Red’s engine and transmission extraction.  Over the next few hours I made good progress and ,by the time Susan got up and we had coffee at around 11:00, I was mostly done with what I wanted to accomplish.  It was another couple of hours before Susan helped me pull out the guts of the car and mount the engine to a stand.  It felt good to get something done on that car.  

After finishing up with Lil Red we fed the dogs and went to Walmart to take care of a long shopping list we had been accumulating throughout the previous week.  The store was very busy but we managed to buy everything we were looking for.  Once home Susan made orange jello and we hung out with the pups on the couch for the remainder of the evening.

Sunday had us up with an alarm to start the day.  After taking care of the dogs and coffee we prepared mashed potatoes and Susan gathered up supplies to bring up to Kari and Alvin’s house for our small Christmas gathering later in the day.  Once we were ready and after I had distracted myself noodling around with my guitar we finally left the house.  

We arrived to find the roaster had been started a bit late but we didn’t mind.  We played two new games Susan had acquired and had fun with that and our normal chatting.  One game was called Charty Party which played much like Cards Against Humanity but with charts instead.  Interesting concept and we enjoyed it quite a bit.  

After a few hours the food was finally ready and we happily gorged ourselves the turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, orange jello, and cranberry sauce.  It was all very yummy.  We then played Tiny Towns.  We found the instructions a bit daunting but once we were going the game was fun to play.  I think Susan found us some fun new games we’ll enjoy for some time.  

Susan and I left right at 7:00 and the dogs were happy to see us and get fed once we were home.  We settled in and relaxed on the couch to finish out the weekend.  

December 25th weekend – 

Friday was Christmas and we slept in a little bit that morning.  Well, I tried to but the dogs were restless early and I didn’t managed to fall back asleep.  Such it is.  Eventually I got Susan up and we had our coffee.  

The day was remarkably pleasant so we went to the garage to finish pulling parts off of Lil Red so we could finally push it out of the garage.  We spent a few hours removing this and that with Oliver hanging out with us the whole time.  For the most part Oliver occupied himself playing with some cat toys and batting at the occasional ankle.  

It was a relief to push Lil Red into its place next to the cat shed.  We then jump started Ralphie and drove/pushed it into the garage in preparation for Saturday.  Susan hit the car with a can of white primer before we finally headed inside as the sky got dark and the temperatures fell.  

At around 6:00 we sat down in front of my phone to join the Zoom meeting Em had scheduled with the family.  It was our first time using the software and it worked well.  It was great to see everyone and the audio file Em and company put together was fantastic.  We enjoyed the experience but hope next time we can be together in person.  

Saturday the dogs let me sleep in a little longer which was nice.  I got Susan up around 9:00 to have our coffee.  We had a busy day planned and needed to get started.  

To the garage we went to prepare Ralphie for Sunday’s customer appreciation day at the track. What we needed to do involved installing exhaust, the cooling system, and figure out the driver’s seat.  

The exhaust came from the tire shed and was previously installed on Scrappy from before the motor swap.  Susan thankfully had suggested we keep the exhaust which saved us time and many hundreds of dollars.  The exhaust went on relatively painlessly though we were missing some hardware.  We made a quick trip to Lowes later along to buy the hardware along with some metal strips to mount the radiator (these ended up proving unnecessary).  

The radiator mounts and radiator came from Lil Red.  I thought I’d have to fabricate the mounts but Susan suggested we use what we already had.  I’d already pulled out the radiator so we just needed to grab the brackets.  We also sourced the hood prop that Ralphie didn’t come with.  The cooling components installed easily as they were all OEM parts meant for the car.  

We had hoped to be able to install our new driver larger seat in Ralphie as the seat that came with the car was a bit too small for our rounded-out middles.  Unfortunately this was not to be as the floor of the car wasn’t quite wide enough to accommodate.  It’s possible we could have forced the issue but we were already planning on having the floor lowered and the existing floor already had more holes drilled in it than we were comfortable with.  Using the smaller seat made installation easier though I ended up having to drill out one of the holes in the seat to get it to line up.  

Susan started Ralphie up so we could bleed the cooling system.  This went a little worse than normal and we ended up making a mess of antifreeze on the floor.  It wasn’t for naught though as we did successfully bleed the system.  

We swapped out the crappy wheels and tires with a used set of the racing wheels and tires we’d used with Scrappy and finally put Ralphie on the ground.  Somehow the alignment had been messed up by the previous owners so I spent some time adjusting the tie rod on one side to get the front tires to be roughly parallel with each other.  

It was at this point that I remembered that the tail lights weren’t hooked up.  The previous owners had rewired them at some point and they wouldn’t plug into the wiring harness I had installed.  Luckily we were able to quickly source unmodified tail lights from Lil Red which worked great.  

The battery was dead so we used the jump pack to start the car and Susan drove it into the trailer and I tied it down.  It was a long day and we were both tired and cold when we finally went inside to finish the evening out with the pups.  

Sunday we were up with an alarm to begin the day.  We had our coffee and loaded up the last things from our list before heading off to King Soopers to get gas and lunch stuffs.  We arrived at the track early, parked in a good spot, and immediately checked in.  It was cold and windy so we sheltered in the trailer.  

Excitedly we unloaded Ralphie and idled it to warm up the motor.  We had noted that the motor was unhappy the day before in a bucking around sort of way.  It was at this point that I noticed that two of the coils were reversed.  Whoops.  When I put them in their proper places the car ran much better.  We were thinking things were going to go well from then on and I helped strap Susan in for the first stint.  

Susan attempted to pull away but something was still amiss.  It became apparent that the car wasn’t getting enough power to properly fire the cylinders.  When the jump pack was attached the engine ran as smooth as silk and when I unhooked the pack it misfired badly.  I helped Susan extract herself from Ralphie and we pulled the car back into the trailer.  Before we left I decided to try to see if bypassing the kill switch would help.  

It was a tight squeeze to work on Ralphie inside the trailer but I managed to do what I set out to.  Unfortunately, we had left our wiring box at home so I couldn’t verify that my efforts had accomplished anything.  Ralphie didn’t seem to run appreciably better so we finished packing up and went home, defeated.  

I backed the trailer into our driveway around 1:30.  Then I pulled Ralphie’s battery and put a charger on it before we went inside.  It was cold out and I wasn’t in the mood to spend any more time working on automotive-related things.  We ended up vegging on the couch with the dogs for the rest of the day and evening.  The weekend didn’t end up like we’d hoped but at least we got a lot of work done.  

New Year’s Eve

I didn’t get off work until pretty late so Susan made a trip to the store to buy some New Year’s Eve goodies.  She got some meats, cheeses, crackers, and chips – a nice spread.  When I finally did get home we sliced up meat and cheese and sat down at the kitchen table to play some games.  

We played a round of Tiny Towns and had a nice time.  It’s still pretty new to us but we can definitely see the potential.  Then we tried The Fox in the Forest.  This was our first time playing and we enjoyed it thoroughly once we figured out the rules.  It’s great Susan found some new games that we can play together.  

We stayed up for the midnight countdown to 2021 and went outside where I popped a bottle of Champaign at around the right moment.  It was relatively bright out from the almost-full moonlight and we popped some noise makers Susan had bought.  We ended up staying up until 1:00 with the dogs before calling it a night and yet.  

2020 was a weird year where too much of consequence seemed to happen.  We’re hopeful that 2021 has most things getting back to normal.  

November 2020

 November 7th weekend – 

Saturday had us up with an alarm for coffee and to load up Tia into the car trailer for another track day.  We had to stop for gas, lunch, and a donut on our way but otherwise went straight to the track.  We arrived early enough to check in before the drivers meeting which was nice and parked next to a fellow Lemon’s driver David (he also drove on our team for the recent 24 hour race).  David brought his team’s blue Miata which is like Scrappy but a lot rougher around the edges and not as quick.  More of a true Lemons car if you will.  

We drove the heck out of Tia all day long and had a great time.  David offered me to drive their blue car and I couldn’t say no and put in a few laps.  It was really fun but felt a bit wonky.  Decisions were made with its build that I would have done differently.  To each their own.  Tia got a bit warm at mid-day and we had to run the heat at maximum to stave off overheating while we raced around the track.  

David had brought a friend and future driver for their team out and he rode with me for a few laps.  I scared him a little which was fun but I also showed him what their car is capable of and he found he was immediately quicker when he jumped back in their blue Miata.  I love passengers so it was all good to me.  

The clock in our trailer switched time zones at some point so we didn’t realize the track had closed.  We were putting gas in Tia to go back out when David let us know.  Whoops!  We were having so much fun we really wanted to go back out.  

There was still enough light in the sky to easily back in the trailer when we got home which was nice (I really hate doing that in the dark).  We decided to be lazy and left Tia in the trailer and went inside to celebrate Biden’s victory.  I BBQ’d for dinner which was yummy.  

I woke up early on Sunday to take care of the dogs and head out to the garage.  I had given myself the small list of tasks related to the new race car including the installation of the differential, engine, transmission, and drive shaft.  Susan was up soon after I had the differential in and we had coffee together.  I needed a specific part so she went out to buy it and a big sponge to clean “Ralphie” (what we named the CU Buffs’s car) while I installed a new clutch on our old engine.

Once Susan was home she helped me mate the engine and transmission and then to install both into Ralphie.  Said installation went about as smoothly as one could hope for with minimal fuss.  After going through this process several times I suppose we might be getting good at installing engines.  

Susan spent much of the day cleaning and sanding the car while I toiled on with other things.  After I installed the driveshaft I joined her and we sanded and scrapped the paint together.  Eventually it was dark and got too cold for us to continue so we called it a night and went inside.  We really hadn’t eaten much of anything all day so cooked pasta shells and meatballs for dinner which was fantastic.  I don’t eat pasta often and enjoyed every bite.  We finished the fantastic weekend on the couch watching SNL on YouTube.  

November 14th weekend – 

Saturday I woke up with my alarm, fed the dogs, and headed to the garage where Ralphie awaited.  I began the process of installing and entire wiring harness.  This took some time and maneuvering but, by the time Susan was up and made coffee, I had made good progress.  It was very windy so I had to keep the doors closed which was a bummer as it limited my space and the natural light was nice.  

In the early afternoon Manos (the guy interested facilitating the purchase the E30) came over to give our used BMW a thorough examination.  He was a nice guy and we chatted while he did his thing.  Manos stayed for well over an hour and thought the purchase would be a go but needed to talk with the ultimate buyers to make sure (he was going to fix the car and then pass it on to another team).  We were elated by the prospect.  

We stayed outside working on Ralphie for another few hours until the temperature started dropping which made everything more difficult.  I managed to wire in the ignition though the car still wouldn’t start.  The harness that came with the car was missing several things that were needed for it to function.  This apparent setback and the cold had me calling it quits for the night.  

Susan had brought wheels with tires to Discount to have the tires flipped on the rims earlier in the day.  Right around 5:00 she received word that the work was finished and went to pick them up.  Tia was up on jack stands at the time but we were tired from the day so decided to roll the tires in the garage and figure out the installation the next morning.  

Sunday morning we were up with my alarm for some coffee before heading outside to finish preparing for another day at the track.  I was really hoping to have Ralphie ready but Tia would have to do again.  We mounted the freshly flipped tires on Tia and loaded it into the trailer.  It wasn’t long before we were on our way to King Soopers for fuel and food and then on to the track.  

We arrived nice and early and found the place largely empty.  After parking and checking in we unloaded Tia and waiting for the drivers meeting to finish.  We took our turns racing around the track and had a great time.  Generally we rode together which added to the enjoyment.  While some of the other drivers weren’t exactly courteous, most were and we had no issues doing our thing.  We only stopped for gas and to switch drivers and put in a lot of laps.  

We loaded up and left the track around 4:30 and made great time despite high headwinds all the way home.  The pups were ecstatic to see us which was nice.  We unloaded Tia and what we needed to from the day and made a frozen bag dinner thing for dinner.  Somehow I managed to partially burn it on the stove but the result was still edible and mostly tasty.  It was around this time that I received an offer to buy the E30.  It was such a relief and we celebrated with some adult beverages.  It was a great way to end a fun and productive weekend.  

November 21st weekend – 

Saturday we were up somewhat early to have our coffee.  The plan was to finalize the sale of the E30 but an early message from the buyer delayed things until Sunday.  So we went out to the garage to finish working on Ralphie only to find that the car would not go into gear.  The clutch would not disengage far enough to allow shifting.  

This was the beginning to a frustrating day.  My first thought was that we needed to better bleed the clutch line so we did that for a time but the problem remained.  I called and had a master cylinder ordered from our closest parts store.  Around 2:00 the part arrived and we picked it up.  The install was easy and we rebled the line to no avail.  At this point I was questioning whether I installed the clutch correctly so I pulled the transmission off to check.  Yes, the clutch was installed correctly.  After some internet sleuthing I found out that non-OEM pressure plates sometimes didn’t work with Miatas.  Because I had no other ideas I swapped out the new pressure plate I had purchased for an old one we had stored as a spare.  After hefting the transmission back into place and bolting it in we tested the clutch and *bingo* the thing worked as expected.  I’ve never had this problem before and will be sure to use OEM parts for the drivetrain going forward.  It took essentially all day to figure out the problem and I was buttoning up the work around 8:00 that night.  I went inside dirty and tired from the effort.  

Sunday I woke up Susan early again to have coffee and help getting the E30 ready for pickup.  I got to drive Ralphie into the trailer which we then drove down to the lower 40 to make space by the house.  We moved things around in the garage to allow the E30 to be pushed up behind the large door and staged the other E30 stuff that was going with the car.  

Manos (the buyer) drove up around the time we expected him in a smaller BMW SUV towing a little trailer.  The rig was short enough he was able to turn around completely in our driveway which was pretty nice (no chance I could do that with our longer trailer and suburban).  We pushed the E30 out of the garage and up to the base of the trailer.  He had a winch which made the loading process simple and quick (I now want a winch for our trailer though Susan thinks it’ll be too enabling).  Manos is an amiable fellow and we chatted about racing and race cars while we got the car secured.  Before too long he went on his way and Susan and I had our sigh of relief.  

We spent more time reorganizing and cleaning up the garage before deciding what other cars to pull in.  We had a couple of car projects that we’d been putting off during the racing season and we decided to tackle the auto-to-manual swap for Betty first.  “Betty” is what we decided to call the black NB Miata we bought last summer and parked shortly thereafter.  

Betty had been parked long enough that its battery was dead so using the jump pack was in order.  Susan then drove Betty into the spot recently vacated by the E30.  Then we strained mightily to push Lil Red into the garage.  

When last parked Lil Red was self-propelling (albeit with a badly knocking motor) but after me picking some parts off for Ralphie was now inoperable.  The straining was due to the placement of the car as it was positioned on a slight downward angle which sloped down quickly.  Thus our feet had little in the way of solid purchase when we started pushing.  After some rocking back and forth and with a bit of effort we had Lil Red up and into the garage where it will reside until we’re done stripping it for parts to use for other Miata projects.  

We had a few errands to run before calling it a day so left to get to them.  We first drove to fellow-racer Chris Dorsey to buy more of his unneeded Miata parts (this time a front sway bar and ECU).  Chris’ Miata project is coming along with custom cage work and whatnot.  It was fun to talk about his plans.  

We next went to Home Depot to return a wrench set I had purchased by accident.  When we were walking up to the door we noticed a Mitsubishi Gallant VR-4 parked outside.  This is a rare old car and we stopped to look at it.  Susan noted that it had military plates and thought it could be Alvin’s.  A quick message to Kari confirmed they were in the store looking at refrigerators.  We met them inside to chat for a bit before we went on our way.  Something about a small world and the wonders of timing.  

Our final stop was Susan’s office where she had to do a few things.  I elected to sit in the car and play on my phone when she went inside.  I had caught up on a few internet things by the time Susan was finished and we went home.  

It was getting cold but we decided to BBQ for dinner.  The wind was blowing enough that we sat inside the garage between Scrappy and Betty.  Luckily there was plenty of space.  

The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch with the pups watching a live broadcast of a video game endurance race put on by some folks from the 24 Hours of Lemons.  Such is the world we now live in.  

Thanksgiving

Susan and I were up with an alarm to start preparing food.  Kari and Alvin were coming over later in the morning to eat with us which makes us a bunch of hypocrites.  I think we’re all pretty careful with the COVID-stuff but still.  Such is.  By the time they arrived most of the food was ready and we just had to wait on the turkey.  

Alvin and Kari brought sweat potatoes and green bean casserole to go with our turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and orange jello.  When we finally sat down to eat we found everything yummy and we thoroughly stuffed ourselves.  

Ours was just the first of two stops for Kari and Alvin but they were in no rush so we hung out and chatted about all kinds of things while the food settled.  We showed off our new racecar and Susan and Kari hung out with Oliver.  We had a nice time.  

Eventually Susan and I were alone with our pets again and spent time cleaning up and resetting our home.  We enjoyed the day though we missed being with more people.  

November 28th weekend – 

This was the beginning to a week off for Susan and myself.  Our original plan was to go up to Glenwood Springs for a few days but with the resent COVID escalations we decided to make it a staycation instead.  We had some grand productivity-related plans but for the Saturday and Sunday largely didn’t do anything but hang out and eat leftovers.  It was nice.  

I turned 40 on Monday which was fine.  I did virtually nothing and was happy for it.  

October 2020

 October 3^rd weekend –

 

Saturday we got up and did our coffee thing before going out shopping.  Alvin and Kari came over for BBQ and to help us figure out why Scrappy wouldn’t start.  Alvin brought his GM tuning stuff and plugged in.  Nothing looked wrong so he thought maybe the timing was off.  As fixing that would take hours we just hung out and chatted.  I BBQ’d burgers for Susan and Alvin and chicken for Kari and myself.  It was yummy.  They stayed for awhile before heading back home.

 

Sunday I had plans to redo the timing on Scrappy but I lost all motivation for some reason.  Really we just sat around and vegged on the couch.  It was nice.  Not all weekends need to be full and productive I suppose. 

 

October 9^th weekend –

 

We were off on Friday with the intent to go to the track for open lapping.  As Scrappy wasn’t ready I spent the morning redoing the timing.  I wasn’t finished until the early afternoon and the car still wouldn’t start.  Truthfully I didn’t think the timing was wrong before as setting it is very simple on these GM motors.  Practically dummy-proof.  We were bummed out but decided to go to the track anyways – just without the car. 

 

We packed up the RV and headed out.  We needed to stop for fuel and did so at our usual truck stop.  It was very busy for whatever reason and it took us quite a long time to do what we needed to do. 

 

Once at the track we set up quickly and walked around.  We recognized a Lemon’s car and went over to chat.  They had engine issues at the recent race and thought they had fixed the problem and were out testing.  Unfortunately for them another problem arose which shortened their day.  It was nice to talk to them about Lemons though.  For dinner we cooked up a pre-made bag mix on the stove which was yummy. 

 

Saturday we attempted to sleep in but didn’t really manage.  After taking care of the pups and drinking our coffee we wandered around.  The weather seemed nice enough so I fired up the charcoal grill which caused the wind to pick up.  Our food eventually finished cooking and we ate fitfully at our kitchen table in the RV.  We watched some racing and managed to find some friends to chat with.  Dinner was another bag meal and egg rolls.  We don’t have an oven so the egg rolls were a big soft but at least they tasted great. 

 

On Sunday the dogs let us sleep in which was nice.  We eventually were up to take care of them and have our coffee.  We walked around the paddock again before packing up and heading out around noon.  Our only stop was to dump the RV’s tanks which took a long time.  We’d let the black tank get close to full which meant we needed to fill it will water after dumping to clean it up more.  This was the first time someone was behind us waiting while we did our thing and we felt the pressure to be quick.  Oh well, such is the RV-life or something. 

 

We did our dance to get the RV in its spot once we were home.  Susan checked the mail and found that our mail in ballots were there so we spent a few minutes filling them out.  We took a special trip out to drop them off before picking up chicken at Safeway for dinner.  We hung out with the dogs on the couch for the rest of the weekend. 

 

October 16^th weekend –

 

Friday we were up early for coffee and to finish packing for another RV trip to the track.  This time we brought Tia to drive as well.  We had done most of the preparations the night before so just grabbed a few things and the dogs before heading out. 

 

We arrive at the track late in the morning but with enough time to set up, swap tires out on Tia, and get a few laps in before the noon lunch break.  We cooked a balsamic pre-made bag meal for lunch which was ok although we both agreed we’d probably not buy it again. 

 

After lunch we drove most of the afternoon sessions.  We had so much fun.  Even a daily driver Miata is still a Miata and still a blast to drive at the track (especially with the sticky tires we had).  I skipped my last stint and started the BBQ instead.  When Susan finished driving her final stint the grill was ready for cooking and we laid on our meats.  I swapped back the wheels on Tia and we loaded up it back into the trailer before eating dinner. 

 

After food we walked around and looked at the cars.  There weren’t a lot of people at the track so it was a short trip.  A fellow from the Colorado Miata Facebook club had come out and chatted with us earlier which was fun.  People just getting into amateur motorsports are always fun to talk to as they are full of enthusiasm. 

 

Saturday we were up early to take care of the dogs and then went back to bed for a few more winks of sleep.  Eventually we were up again to have our coffee.  As we didn’t know anyone and are insular by nature we pretty much stayed in the RV all day.  Susan spent much of her time watching racing while I whiled away my time on the couch with the dogs.  We did get out to BBQ lunch and dinner was another bag of premade food on the stove.  We watched movies and TV shows before bed. 

 

On Sunday I got up and took care of the dogs myself.  I wasn’t sure I could fall back asleep so retreated to the couch where I promptly fell asleep until Susan woke up.  We hung out some after having our coffee before we pulled up stakes and left for home. 

 

We stopped at KOA to dump our tanks for a final time as this was to be our last trip of the year.  Unfortunately we didn’t have small bills and their credit card machine evidently didn’t get turned on until later in the afternoon so we had to go to a gas station to break a fifty.  Eventually we did manage to dump our tanks and headed home. 

 

At home we spent a bit more time unpacking the RV once we got home since we were soon to winterize.  With all of our weekend trips and because we got lazy we hadn’t been keeping up on our thistles in the lower 40 for a month so we went down to do some trimming.  All things considered it wasn’t too bad and we trimmed and gathered the seed pods on a few thistles.  Then we headed to our beloved couch to hang out for the remainder of the weekend.

 

October 24^th weekend –

 

Saturday the plan was to be productive but it started lazy as I played games on the couch until Susan got up at noon for coffee.  We did then head outside to do a few things in preparation for the upcoming snow.  We swapped snow tires onto Flo, cleaned up the garage so another car could be parked in there, swapped the mower out for the snow blower, and finally disassembled the old TV antenna that had been laying on the ground since I flung it from the roof.  At the end of the day we parked Flo in the garage and retreated to the couch for some relaxation. 

 

Sunday came with a side of snow.  I woke up early and took care of the dogs before sitting on the couch to edit Susan’s race footage.  I cut down over three hours of Susan driving to show every time she passed another car.  It was fun to see and put together the video.  Susan woke up around the time I was finishing up which was perfect.  We had our coffee and got dressed to go out. 

 

We braved the snowy roads to meet my work team at Canvas and Cocktails to paint.  Most of the team was there which was neat.  Susan and I sat together where we could and we all painted stylized Day of the Dead skulls.  It was quite fun and we were happy with the results.  I had to go off the rails a bit and my painting came out mostly ok.  The rest of the group went out for drinks but Susan and I elected to go home and hang out for the rest of the weekend with the dogs. 

 

October 31^st weekend –

 

Saturday we were up early for coffee and then drove up to Alvin and Kari’s house.  The plan was to pick up a tuning device to use to figure out what is going on with Scrappy and then do some shopping on the way home.  Their house was eerily quiet when we arrived and, after ringing the doorbell to no avail, we left thinking that we had missed them.  Once we re-entered cell reception (there is virtually none at their home) we had a few missed calls and messages saying that Alvin and Kari’s doorbell must have malfunctioned and they were indeed home.  So back we drove to their house where they were waiting.  We all had a good laugh at the mix-up and hung out for a time chatting about this and that before Susan and I made our way back to Denver. 

 

We had a lot to do and stopped at Costco, Harbor Freight, and then Walmart before getting home.  After unloading our goods we went out to change the oil in the suburban to find that we didn’t have an oil filter so off we went again.  After getting a few filters and extra oil at Walmart we stopped to fill up a few jugs of gasoline on the way back home.  Then we changed the suburban and Tia’s oil.  We also swapped Tia’s wheels and loaded up the car into the trailer for the next day’s fun. 

 

On Sunday we were up with an early alarm for coffee and last minute packing.  Then we headed to King Soopers for lunch stuff and made a b-line to the track.  We checked in after unloading and spent the whole day driving.  We did see some friends who got to take rides with us which was fun.  We really had a blast.  We loaded up after the track closed and head up to Longmont. 

 

Yes, Longmont where we bought and loaded up another Miata into the trailer.  This was a used Lemon’s race car that the CU Buffs racing team had put together and driven for the last few years.  It had no drivetrain but the price was right and we were happy to take it off their hands.  Fortunately there were many other members of their team there to help push the car into our trailer and we went home (Susan drove Tia while I towed the new race car). 

 

After arriving home we took care of the dogs and pushed the car out of the trailer and into the garage.  It was pretty filthy but looked good under the lights.  It was getting late so we went inside to finish the weekend inside on the couch. 

 

October was a fun month for us.  I really wish we could have gotten Scrappy running again but we really enjoyed our time at the track and doing other activities.  The weather is really getting colder so we’re trying to make the best of it before it’s too cold to participate in our car hobbies. 

 

Oliver has been a cute kitty this month.  He is quite the sweetheart for several minutes when he first comes to greet you at the end of the day.  Even when he gets grumpy he usually calms down for more pets after a time.  Oliver doesn’t get freedom everyday as we don’t want him out when the weather is bad. 

 

The pups are still adorable and make our lives wonderful.  Their dynamic together is hilarious though Pebble’s antics do wear thin.  She still coming out of her shell which is crazy as we’ve had her for well over two years now. 

September 2020

 September 5th weekend – 

Saturday – we woke up relatively early to have our coffee and then Susan went up to Kari’s to help out with this and that and I headed out to redo the caulking on the large slide-out.  It was another hot day and fortunately the work went pretty quick.  Oliver was out and hung around, even joining me up on the ladder a few times.  It was very cute.  Once I was finished I retreated to the garage to work on organizing spare parts for the race.  This entailed disassembling some parts that really didn’t want to come apart.  I employed our five pound sledge hammer for some of the work which ultimately worked though some things were a bit misshapen.  

I ventured out to our nearest auto parts store to buy some hose clamps and installed one to finish the upgrade of our fuel jugs.  We had spent some time the day before buying bigger attachments to enable the gas to flow faster to lower our race pit times.  It was hot and I was already feeling beat so I went inside.  

I gathered up our various action cameras and spent some time clearing memory cards and trying to get them all functioning.  Unfortunately it was hit and miss.  Our old hotdog Garmin has stopped reading memory cards and won’t finish starting up and our older GoPro wouldn’t update its setting like I wanted.  At least our new Garmin was working like I wanted.  

The couch beckoned so I sat down with Pebbles and Bella (Susan had brought Mel with her).  I made a rough draft of the driver schedule for the upcoming race and messed around on the internets until just before Susan got home in the late afternoon.  She had had fun with Kari helping out on various projects around her house.  John and Karen had joined them for a lunch of spaghetti and garlic bread.  Susan had a really nice time.  

A few minutes before Susan arrived home I went out to the garage and found a gas mess.  One of the three gas cans we “upgraded” actually had gasoline in it and had somehow leaked at least a gallon out onto the garage floor.  Yikes.  I cleaned up and put a fan blowing to dry the concrete out and mitigate the smell.  

I determined that our new design didn’t take into consideration that there are two separate air pockets in these cans, one in the main section and one in the vent tube.  So when the vapors warm up they expand but not equally as the larger air pocket on the main section has more fumes.  Thus the gasoline is pushed down and up the vent tube.  The problem is that I sealed the pouring nozzle securely which didn’t allow the vapor to vent.  

After Susan got home we loosened the caps on the can to mitigate the problem for the time being.  We then went to Lowes to look for a new solution to our self-made gas can issue.  I was looking for some kind of valve to install but Susan was having none of that.  She suggested we just drill small holes in new caps and so we did.  We bought replacement PVC caps and after we got home I drilled tiny holes in them 

We had recently ordered new cell phones which came in the early afternoon.  Our old phones weren’t broken by any means but mine was starting to lose its charge quickly and Susan’s had been slow for some time.  We had them mostly ready to go by the time we went to bed.  The process is pretty simple which was nice.  

Sunday – we were up early again and drinking our coffee before heading to the garage.  We had a list of to-dos to accomplish before the upcoming race so got started.  We kept ourselves busy during the morning before taking a break to get some food and do some shopping.  

Food was deli chicken from King Soopers and we went to auto parts stores, Home Depot, and then Walmart.  After unloading we drove up to John and Karen’s to look through their old camper trailer stuff.  

Alvin and Kari sold their large camper very quickly and the sale inspired John to clean theirs out to get it ready to sell as well.  Thus they had various things they didn’t need anymore.  It was nice of them to think of us.  We drove Tuna Bean up to their house and poked around looking through their pots, pans, and soft things like towels and whatnot.  As we had more shopping to do and already had furnished our RV we didn’t take much but we were grateful for what we got.  

We stopped at Costco on the way home to finish our shopping trip.  Tuna Bean has a surprising amount of space in the trunk but it was a close thing stuffing everything inside.  

After unpacking and taking care of the dogs we went back out to the garage to continue our work.  We loaded some things in the RV and more things into the trailer.  Lots of productivity and all that.  

Monday (Labor Day)– we were up with an alarm to clean up the house in preparation for Alvin and Kari who joined us for BBQ and chatter.  As is our nature we were done well ahead of their arrival and as is their nature they were a solid hour late.  We don’t get offended and schedule our time together knowing how things go.  

I BBQ’d a late lunch for us and we talked mostly about the upcoming race.  Though it was hot outside we ate in the shade of the garage which was nice enough.  Susan gave Kari the tour of the differently-organized RV and Alvin and I chatted about Scrappy and future plans.  It was a nice time.  

Oliver hung around which was nice although Kari had brought Piper who has cat issues.  Piper REALLY wanted to get Oliver in a non-friendly way.  Kari and Alvin were vigilant though and no carnage ensued (they thought that it would likely go poorly for Piper if she actually got to Oliver).  It ended up being a time for training for Piper.  

Alvin and Kari stayed until the late afternoon before heading home.  Susan and I cleaned up and did some more race-specific stuffs.  The whole weekend had been hot so we were happy to plop down on the couch when the sun went down.  

September 10th weekend – The First True 24 Hour Race (expanded from my Facebook post)

Wednesday – we spent the evening packing up and fretting over this and that.  So much to do.  

Thursday – we were both off to do our final preparation and to load the rest of the stuff.  Mel had a vet appointment in the morning for her paw which Susan took her to while I stayed home to do things.  Mel had her paw wound glued shut but unfortunately it didn’t stay that way and Susan had to make another quick trip in the afternoon to have a pair of staples added.  

We left a tad later than we’d intended and arrived at HPR on Thursday to find a line at the entrance.  COVID had the waiver process taking a bit longer than normal but we were soon inside and backing the trailer up to our carport and parking the RV in its spot for the weekend.  

Once the car was unloaded and our area established we donned our masks and wandered about checking out some of the other cars and talking with some of the other teams.  Twas fun.  We chatted with a team with members from Texas and California driving a Maxima and another from Nebraska with their Luv truck.  

I BBQ’d dinner on the stove inside the RV while the dogs looked on.  We really love having a nice place to be at the track.  It was pretty chilly out so we were running the furnace.  

Friday had us up with coffee and a quiet race track.  With the open lapping day sessions pushed back there were to be no cars flogging the track until after 1:00 in the pm.  During the late morning David, Brad, and Ian arrived.  All wanted to help but there really wasn’t much to do as we’d already set everything up and the car was mostly prepped.  

I realized that the switch board had no lighting whatsoever so took some time to install an LED strip on a bent piece of metal.  Fortunately we always bring scrap metal sheeting for this sort of thing and had our wiring supply box so I had everything I needed.  The final product wasn’t pretty but functioned as I’d intended.  

Scrappy has some experience passing tech so I wasn’t too worried when our 1:00 time slot came (time slots are a COVID-thing, normally it is first-come-first-serve for tech).  We were told to add some zip ties to stiffen up the cage foam but otherwise passed without any issues.  The BS inspection didn’t go as smoothly.  

I knew we would likely be in for some penalty laps with the ecotec swap and we were slapped with 50.  Honestly it could have been much worse and I didn’t argue with Phil’s judgement.  As I was tooling around the paddock on my way back I spoke to a driver from a team with a turbo Miata and they received 100 penalty laps.  The Orange Crushed Miata was also recently turbo’d and they got 50 laps.  

Such is the cheaty life.  

The other drivers were very annoyed with the penalty laps while I was rather sanguine.  I spent a lot of time and money on the motor swap so really was not surprised.  I think that Phil (the BS judge) is trying to stop teams from feeling that they should spend too much money on their race cars to be competitive.  I can see that this might work for other teams but my goal isn’t necessarily to win but to have a great time.  Thus the penalty laps are just part of the price of racing for me.  

With tech finished I drove Scrappy around the track for a few laps to break in the new clutch and then Ian went out to familiarize himself with the new build.  In recent weeks the clutch, alternator, and battery had been replaced so I was happy that the car seemed to be running alright.  

Alvin, the last of our six drivers, arrived with the evening and set about checking over Scrappy.

We had brought vinyl sheets we’d purchased on Amazon and brought along LED light strips to decorate Scrappy for the race.  Susan basically did all of the vinyl stuff – cutting lemons and limes to stick on the car.  Alvin took it upon himself to install much of the LED lighting and wire them up.  

After the sun had set we swapped in fresh tires and David, Susan, and myself put in some night laps to check on the placement of the headlights.  There was some tweaking and after which we agreed our setup was adequate.  It was bright enough ahead and, while weak at the corners, illuminated enough to catch the reflectors marking the apexes.  

The drivers peeled off one by one to go to bed after 10:00 or so while Susan, Alvin, and myself stayed up doing this and that until after midnight.  Probably not the best idea the night before a 24 hour race but it’s what we did.  Alvin took to the couch in the RV when Susan and I went to bed.  

The next morning we were up early to give the car more pokes and prods.  I had wanted to sleep in some but found myself up at 6:30 with my mind abuzz with things I needed to do.  Before 8:00 we were out and about and doing this and that.  

I strapped in around 11:30 and drove over to grid.  It was at this moment that I realized the stock gauges weren’t functioning at all.  No fuel, RPM, or MPH.  Whoops.  At some point something was jacked up when we were doing our final tweaks and there was absolutely no time to do anything about it.  The obvious dash fuse was quickly checked but was fine so we raced without gauges.  At least the aftermarket water temp, oil pressure, and shift light gauges were still functioning.  

The twenty-odd minutes of parade laps were as boring and stressful as ever (boring as we all drive about 20MPH and stressful as the race is about to start) but soon enough the green flag dropped and the racing commenced.  The first thing I noticed was how awesome Scrappy felt to drive.  The car went from plucky autocrosser to track monster with the ecotec swap.  Finally it had enough power to pass other cars whenever the opportunity presented itself, which was a lot.  The worst part about my first stint is when I had to come back to fuel up and let someone else drive.  

Our stints were planned to be one hour and forty minutes long and the order was me (Max), Brad, Ian, Alvin, David, and then Susan.  We would extend the stints if fuel allowed which it did on occasion.  Everyone got to drive during both the day and nighttime.  

I’m happy to report that all of our drivers were fast with no contact made at any time with few one or two wheel offs.  For the first time there were no black flag penalties which can be attributed to our drivers paying attention as there were many other teams caught passing under yellow and spinning off the track.  

We found the night driving to be a lot of fun.  It was immediately noticeable which teams were unfamiliar with HPR and we found passing much more common and overtaking speeds to be much higher than in the daylight.  We actually discussed how great it would be if there was a race that just went over night and we would sleep during the day.  Something about the darkness really focuses one’s mind when on the track.  

A brief aside but I had a mini epiphany in that I think the immense focus required to race a car wheel-to-wheel is what is so appealing to me.  It’s fun and all that but it’s the focus I crave.  It’s the same feeling I got when I was engrossed writing a song for the band, studying difficult subjects in school, fixing a complicated spreadsheet at work, and trying to figure out how to make the rallycross program better.  I think everything else about road racing is mostly enjoyable but it’s those minutes when I’m focusing about my driving line and trying to predict what the other cars are going to do that got me hooked.  That focus is simply intoxicating.  

We all slept when we could during the night.  I had scheduled the drivers so there were long breaks between their stints and asked that each driver help out in the pit stops before and after their own stints.  This allowed everyone to try to get some sleep.  The issue we all had was that we were so amped up that sleep didn’t happen until we were exhausted.  I’d guess we all averaged around three hours of sleep each.  

Scrappy ran fantastic until it didn’t.  It was approximately 23 hours and 10 minutes into the race when I suddenly felt Scrappy lose power and heard some unhappy engine noises.  I immediately drove back to the carport hoping that something was wrong with the ignition.  While one of the coil packs was indeed loose it was clear that the sound emanating from the engine was of the knocking variety.  As we were so close to the end I attempted to reenter the track only for the car to die again – this time for good.  We had to push Scrappy into our car trailer when we finally packed up.  

While it was an obvious bummer that the engine didn’t quite survive the full 24 hours I consider the race to be a massive success for the team.  Even with the 50 penalty laps we clawed our way up to 9th place before the engine failure dropped us down to 12th place where we finished.  If we eliminated the penalty laps we would have been in the overall lead for much of the race and finished in second place.  

When not piloting Scrappy the other drivers were always helpful and positive.  Just a great bunch of people all around.  

Special thanks to Deandra who joined the team as crew and helped keep us on schedule filling up the quick fuel bottles and often handled the radio.  She was not only fun to have around but a real asset to the team.  

We were super-duper-happy that our friend team Sew So Fast won overall and class A.  Back when we were first testing Scrappy at HPR Friso and Tracey (the Sew So Fast car owners) had introduced themselves and we’ve been track-buds ever since.  

We’re already in the process of fixing Scrappy and planning more upgrades and can’t wait until next year’s Lemons races!

As is our way and preference Susan and I were the last ones at the track packing up.  The other drivers all wanted to help but, truly, it would have been more difficult for us if they lend a hand.  We have our way of doing things and our own places to put things.  Packing up is therapeutic in its own way.  It’s the final ritual we partake in when racing at the track.  

We finally left the now-empty paddock around 3:30 for the drive home.  We were sooooo tired.  When we got home we unpacked the bare essentials and sat down on the couch.  I needed a nap badly and found that my normal one hour nap turned into a four hour ordeal.  Even with the long nap I had no issues falling asleep later that night and sleeping in the next morning.  

On Monday I was up a bit before Susan as per normal.  I had started looking for a new motor the night previously before succumbing to sleep and finished my search before Susan got out of bed.  I had found a decent looking engine in Colorado Springs so after our coffee we jumped in the suburban and headed out.  

When we arrived at the used parts business I went in alone as Susan had forgotten her mask.  No biggie as I’m a veteran at buying engines at this point.  My chosen engine indeed looked decent so I bought it and they loaded it in the back of our truck.  We were pretty hungry by the time we got back to Denver so I stopped at Walmart for some food stuffs.  

Once home we unloaded the engine into the garage and onto an engine stand.  We then pushed Scrappy into its corner.  I was excited enough that I started the engine-swapping process.  I disassembled this and that before I was tired enough to call it a day.  While the weekend wasn’t perfect it went the way many of our weekends do – satisfying, productive, and finished cuddling on the couch with our sweet dogs.  

September 18th weekend – 

I spent all day Friday working on Scrappy – specifically pulling the old engine and preparing the new engine to go in.  Originally we’d planned to go to the track for the weekend but plans changed the moment the old engine died.  Susan also was taking the day off but elected to work from home instead as her workload is heavy right now.  

I was productive and had much of the engine work complete by the time I called it quits.  While I was preparing to pull the old motor I saw that the motor mount on the driver side was completely unattached.  This allowed the engine to twist on acceleration and is likely why we all had miss-shift issues at the race the weekend before.  These shifting issues almost certainly caused the engine to fail.  

We were to transport another foster pug to the western slope so drove down to PetsMart in Parker to get the little feller.  His name was Pork Chop and he was 15 years old.  Me was mostly deaf but had very clear eyes and was amazingly spry for his age.  He was incontinent and had to wear a diaper which was great as it prevented him from making typical boy-dog mistakes.  After traipsing around the house and examining every corner he settled on the couch by himself for a nap.  A very sweet pug.  

Saturday we were up with an alarm to have our coffee.  We wanted to get an early start on the drive which would take us a few miles past Glenwood Springs.  Traffic was fortunately light and we made fantastic time – only stopping once for some donuts.  

We met the lady who was going to foster Pork Chop in a City Market parking lot.  She was very happy to meet Mr. Chop and had experience with the old pugs.  In fact, her current oldest is an unbelievable 21 years old!  

We grabbed a bite to eat at City Market and, after a quick fuel stop, I drove us straight back to Denver.  The aspen leaves were beginning to change and really added to the scenery.  We made great time and stopped at Costco for a quick trunk-full of stuffs before getting home.  

Sunday I woke up much too early to just hang out on the couch.  Eventually Susan got up and we had our coffee around noon.  The day was almost an unproductive one but we managed to get out to the garage to finally install the new motor in the engine bay.  

As per normal it went relatively smoothly with Susan helping me with the lift as I rocked the engine back and forth and moved this and that around.  Once in and bolted up I lost most of my motivation and didn’t do a whole lot more on the car.  I did manage to pull the passenger fender off and disconnect the chassis fuse box.  The plan for the new exhaust will be for it to exit out the fender and run along the side below the passenger door.  

Dinner was BBQ which was yummy.  We sat on our beat up and used patio furniture and chatted about this and that.  We are still amazed that we somehow finagled living at our home.  We just love it so much.  

Oliver finally made an appearance which was nice.  As the days get shorter we worry more and more about Oliver.  It was almost two years ago that Slayer didn’t come home.  Oliver was being sweet which was nice as it’s usually around 50/50 odds that he’s a monster or just looking for pets.  

Susan took it upon herself to replace the toilet flusher-thingie in the RV which she’d determined was the cause of all the water damage a couple of weeks ago.  She posted a short video on an RV Facebook group of the leak and immediately was told the problem and given instructions on how to fix it.  Facebook isn’t all bad.  

We ended the night on the couch after another productive weekend.  

September 22nd “weekend” 

On Tuesday we woke to have our coffee and pack up a few things in the RV for a trip up to Leadville for a wedding between a couple of rallycross friends.  The plan was to arrive at a tiny house/RV park a bit after noon and to attend the wedding at 2:00.  We’d stay the night and then drive back the next day.  

The drive up went alright.  The RV’s water temperatures went up on occasion but there was little drama.  I went geared down the steeper descents and was content to let everyone else on the road pass us.  We arrived a tiny bit after 12:30 to park and set up the RV for the night.  

After setting up and dressing up in our formal attire we took a 15 minute walk to the church.  On our way we couldn’t help noticing how many of the homes in town were rundown and looked to be in various states of disrepair.  

We sat down in a pew a few minutes before the ceremony was to begin.  Every other pew was roped off to maintain proper social distancing and everyone was dutifully wearing a mask.  It was nice to see.  

The ceremony started a few minutes late (no shock here) and went well enough.  It was a Catholic church so we were asked to stand, then sit, then stand, then to speak together, then to pray, then to stand, then to sit, then to sing, etc.  All part of the fun I suppose.  The only real negative was the horrid singer that p sang live periodically from the mezzanine behind us.  The officiator did a fine job and the couple was very happy.  

After the nuptials were complete we piled outside for some group shots in front of the church.  Then we were told to disperse and head to the saloon in town for the reception.  There was time so Susan and I walked back to the RV first to feed the pups before walking back to the reception.  

We joined other folks waiting out front of the building for a few minutes before we were allowed inside.  There were appetizers and an open bar and we partook in both.  We sat alone chatting until an older couple joined us.  They were one of the uncles/aunts of the bride and we talked about this and that.  The guy had a lot to say about a lot of things and seemed to enjoy giving us the highlights of his life’s journey.  We didn’t mind and enjoyed the company.  

The bride and groom eventually made their appearance which meant we could finally eat a proper meal.  The food was quite yummy and we probably ate too much.  There was the standard dancing and whatnot which was also fun.  Susan drug me up for part of a dance which was awkward but ok as it seemed to get others to the empty dance floor.  It was a nice time all around.  

We left after a few hours to walk back to the RV to hang out with the pups.  We eventually plopped down to stream a movie over Netflix (we’d brought our cell-based modem).  We were tired and didn’t stay up too late before hitting the hay.  

The next morning we were up with Susan’s alarm to take care of the dogs and have our coffee.  We dressed and walked to the National Mining Museum at the other end of main street.  It was a cool morning but the sun kept us warm enough.  

I didn’t have high expectations for the museum but we found it to be quite grand with many rooms several floors of exhibits.  We walked all over checking out this and that.  There were minerals from all over the world which were neat and we read many panels with interesting information.  We stayed for well over an hour before walking back.  

Our plan was to eat at a local restaurant that Susan said had amazing French fries but we found the place closed until 11:30 which was when we wanted to start back for home.  Instead we whipped up some tuna fish for lunch that Susan had fortunately packed just in case.  

The drive back went without incident and we made it home in fantastic time.  I had some Scrappy-related plans but instead elected to hang out while Susan napped on the couch.  We relaxed for the remainder of the evening which was a nice way to complete our mid-week weekend.  

September 26th weekend – 

Saturday we got up for our regular coffee and couch chat.  The plan for the day was to get Scrappy put together and running so we went to the garage.  I toiled doing this and that.  I had to install the accessories before realizing that we didn’t have much in the way of engine oil.  We were also hungry at this point so went to Qdoba on the way to Walmart to purchase oil and other food stuffs.  

With full bellies and plenty of oil we were excited to see Scrappy run again.  

Unfortunately something was amiss and we never did get it going.  I expect that the issue is sensor-related.  We tried long enough that we drained the new car battery and had to stop for the day to recharge.  

Oliver was out and hanging with us most of the day.  He was very sweet in the morning but soon enough was back to his usual jerk-self.  Oliver is a silly cat for sure.  

I was going to BBQ but decided I wasn’t in the mood so we sat on our patio furniture and ate leftover food stuffs we’d gotten at Walmart.  It was soon after we were finished that a German Shepard came trotting around the house.  Her name was Aspen per her tag and it was clear by the tattered remains of what was attached to her collar that she had freed herself recently.  There were phone numbers and a local address on the back of her tag.  No one picked up the phone so we drove her home.  Her owner lives on the junkyard property so it was with a little trepidation that we parked and walked in.  Turns out it was no big deal.  The guy there was happy we came by and hadn’t realized that Aspen had escaped.  

After getting home we plopped on the couch for the remainder of the night.  

Sunday was a lazy day from start to end.  I was up early but just hung out on the couch until Susan got up.  We didn’t do a whole lot which was fine with me.  

September was a pretty great month for us.  Racing, trips, healthy pups, lots of fun.  The weather has started to cool which is has been nice.  We have a couple more RV trips planned in October that we’re looking forward to before we park it for the winter season.  Scrappy still isn’t starting at this time but I’m confident we’ll get it going soon.