February 1st weekend – Saturday began earlyish
with me getting up before the alarm to feed the pups. Soon Susan was up and coffee was brewed. It was to be another open lapping day at HPR
so soon we were in the suburban and on the way to the track. We arrived during the drivers meeting and had
to wait to check in and receive our season pass cards.
We had parked next to an old rallycross friend Janis and
chatted about race stuff throughout the day.
He and his pal were there testing their E36 and Janis wasn’t actually
driving.
The day went well for us as Scrappy drove well and we had no issues. It was a light crowd which is always nice. We tried out our new camera which captured some cool footage. This camera is different than our old one as it overlays GPS data on the video. Cool stuff.
We left the track around 3:30 and went straight home to our
earnest doggies. They were happy to be
fed and petted. We ate leftovers and
hung out on the couch for the remainder of the evening.
Sunday I woke up much too early with a sore throat. Unbelievably I somehow managed to acquire
another sinus infection. Ugh. I spent my awake time editing video from the
day before.
Eventually I coaxed Susan out of bed for coffee and
hangout-time before we left to go to Costco and then drove up to Arvada. Alvin had alerted me to a Facebook post
regarding used race tires and I was lucky enough to be the first one to
respond. Thus we picked up the barely
used tires for a fantastic price. The
seller had several interesting cars including an imported Japanese K-car and a
micro van. Neat stuff.
Our next stop was at Longhorn Steakhouse by Park Meadows
Mall for our annual Superbowl steak dinner (or lunch in this case). The restaurant was mostly empty which is just
how we like them. The food was good
though my steak was seriously over-salted.
Oh well.
After stuffing ourselves we stopped at Walmart to buy a
bunch of food and miscellaneous stuffs.
Once home and unpacked Susan took Oliver for another walk while I rested
by my sick-self on the couch. Susan took
many cute pictures of Oliver being a cat while I relaxed.
Eventually Susan came inside and kept the dogs company as I
napped on the couch. Dinner was
leftovers once again but we didn’t mind.
Another great weekend for sure.
February 7th weekend – after work on Friday Susan
and I drove up to Kari and Alvin’s house for dinner and some games. The weather was terrible but in Flo we made
the trip without incident. I had
actually gotten high-centered and stuck just inside our driveway when I got
home from work in my low Miata. I
struggled in vain until Susan got home and could take the wheel while I
pushed.
Kari and Alvin were slaving away preparing food when we
arrived at their home. The main course
was to be two different kinds of Stromboli – one traditional and one with
chicken. Once the contents were stacked
Kari rolled the Stromboli into football shapes and cut vent holes. They were large enough that each got their
own pan and they looked like deflated footballs. Cooking them through while not burning the
outside proved to be a challenge. We all
enjoyed them despite the touch of char on their undersides.
One of their neighbors, Grace, and her friend, Christa/Christina/Chris,
came by join us. Grace brought Password
which is a game in a similar vein as Taboo.
The instructions were for two teams but the number of participants had
us fielding three teams. We changed the
rules to compensate and had a great time.
Somehow Susan and I massacred the other teams though I think lax
scorekeeping was mostly the cause.
We woke Saturday to find the world covered in snow. I was initially going to use our snow blower
on the driveway but the forecasted warm temperatures had me waiting to see if
it would be necessary. We had enough
food and entertainment on hand so decided to stay in for the day and hang out
with the pups. The warmer weather did
indeed melt the snow enough that I didn’t need to use the snow blower.
Sunday we woke midmorning to feed the pups, drink our
coffee, and discuss the day. We decided
to catch lunch on our way to Walmart to buy food stuffs and then take Mel to a
groomer. The first part of the plan went
without a hitch and we were soon back home from the store and unloading our
groceries.
A package was due to arrive that required a signature so I
elected to stay home while Susan took Mel to her groomer. While Mel was getting her groom on Susan went
to a book store to buy her co-worker an adult coloring book for her
birthday. The package didn’t show up
while Susan was away (of course) so I cooked and did some chores.
Dinner was baked chicken which was yummy. We spent the remainder of the evening with
the pups on the couch, entertaining ourselves via our personal
preferences. It was a nice and relaxing
weekend.
February 14th weekend – Saturday was rough. I woke up to the worst migraine I can
remember and I stayed in bed until after 4:00 in the afternoon. At least Susan was able to get up and hang
out with the pups properly on the couch.
Sunday was a very relaxing day where virtually nothing was
accomplished. Some weekends are like
this.
February 22nd weekend – I was up with an alarm to
take Scrappy’s new wheels and used tires to get mounted at Discount Tire. Unfortunately the wheel/tire sizes were
outside of what Discount would do so I tried Walmart’s TLE. They had no issues mounting the tires so I
left them there and went back home where I woke up Susan.
We had our coffee and then I had to leave again to buy big bolts
to attach Scrappy’s donor engine to an engine stand. Susan was going to go to a home and garden
show downtown with Kari and I saw Kari coming towards our house as I was
driving to the hardware store. I found
what I needed and came home to find they had left to do their thang downtown.
I toiled in the garage while they were gone. I removed Scrappy’s bumper, engine, and
exhaust. Susan got home around this
point. Evidently they had fun although
they saw some folks there they didn’t want to see while at the show. Such is I suppose.
I finished up what I was doing, brushed my hair into reasonable
compliance, and Susan and I left to do some shopping. We went to Harbor Freight to purchase another
engine stand and then Walmart to pick up the freshly mounted wheels and to buy
some stuffs. Once home we had leftovers
for dinner and hung out for the rest of the evening.
Sunday I was up to play video games while Susan slept
on. Eventually I got Susan up for coffee
around noon. The weather outside was
snowy which put a damper on my productivity goals for the day. Mostly we just hung out. I did open a few boxes of car parts which was
fun. It was a nice weekend for
sure.
February 28 weekend - the weekend began after work on Friday
when we met some friends at Painting With a Twist to celebrate Susan’s
birthday. I had to work late and didn’t
leave the office until 7:15 when the event started at 7:30. Luckily these sort of things often don’t
start on time and I arrived before the brushes hit the canvas. 2.5 other couples attended: Gregg and Sandra,
Liz and Drew, and Dan (his significant other, Alina, was at home sick). We had a grand old time and our paintings
came out recognizable.
Saturday started early as we had the day scheduled as a
track-day. Since Scrappy is down for its
engine swap we took Tia in the enclosed trailer. We weren’t going to go to the track at all
but we wanted to look at a built Miata racecar that we were interested in and
to deliver some wheels we were selling. Susan
was apprehensive about bringing Tia to the track but changed her mind which
turned out well.
After attending the end of the drivers meeting we spent some
time talking with the Miata racecar’s owner about the car. It was very nice and turnkey ready to
go. He was there testing a newly built
engine so we saw him between his stints.
While the car was nice there were enough idiosyncrasies about car that I
lost interest. If I didn’t already have
a Miata that I’d spent a lot of time and money preparing for the track I
probably would have snapped this one up.
After talking with the Miata-guy we met with David (a fellow
Miata Lemon’s driver) to sell him some wheels.
Tia is usually shod in decent all-season tires which really have no
place at the track. We had brought two
sets of wheels that we were looking to get rid of and after he picked his
favorites we mounted the remaining wheels on Tia.
Susan and I both drove Tia around the track and had a
blast. The biggest difference between driving
Tia and Scrappy was the seats. Scrappy
has a race seat with bolstering and a five-point harness that leaves no room
for the driver to wiggle about. Tia has
its original factory seat with virtually no bolstering and just a shoulder belt
that, while fine for daily driving, was ridiculous on the track with sticky
tires. Our hands, shoulders, and torsos
were exhausted from having to hold ourselves against the G-forces. It was a good time but a tiring
experience.
Sunday we didn’t do anything productive. It would have been a good day to be in the
garage messing with Scrappy but I just wasn’t feeling it. Luckily Susan was ok hanging out on the couch
with me. It was another nice
weekend.
February was an interesting month. Both of us had been so busy at work that our
brains felt drained by the time we got home.
We got in some time at the track which was fun and spent more time
hanging out with the dogs which was nice.
The days are getting longer and daylight savings time switches on over
the first weekend of March which will be great.
