May 2020

Another abbreviated update for May – 

May 2nd weekend 

Saturday - Susan went up to paint with Kari, I stayed home and worked on E30 and Scrappy’s engine

Sunday – we went up to Kari and Alvin’s to hang out before John, Karen, and Jan came by for lunch and conversation, I left around 3:00 and Susan stayed to help paint more

May 9 weekend 

Saturday – we were up earlyish with Susan’s alarm to finish getting the house into a presentable state, Alvin and Kari came over for lunch and to help with projects, Alvin helped with the new swap motor (I had exchanged out the wrong one) and Kari helped Susan paint this and that, accomplished a lot, we cooked an asparagus casserole for lunch and Kari brought salad which was all wonderful, they left around 7:00

Sunday – up with Susan’s alarm again, after coffee we went to junk yard, pulled a bunch of miscellaneous bolts and some other bits, lucked into getting air vents off Jeep Commander which fit in our Miatas, stopped at car parts store for spark plugs, went to Walmart where we bought more automotive stuff and a couple of food things including chocolate candy, once home Susan painted house numbers with glass beads (same as the mailbox) and I toiled away at the engine for a bit, stopped around 5:00 as we were both tired from the productive weekend, spent the rest of the evening on the couch with the pups

May 15th weekend  

Friday – Alvin came over to help install Scrappy’s new motor, Susan made dinner, it took a while but the engine was in Scrappy by 10:00

Saturday – I was up early to work on Scrappy, spent much of the day doing this and that on car

Sunday – I was up earlyish to work on Scrappy, got a lot done, Susan ran errands for me twice, eventually stopped to mow the lawn for the first time this year, Dan Hipwood came by to bring us a tire rack which will likely come in handy, we witnessed Oliver catch and play with a baby bunny, hilarious, sad, and disappointing as he eventually let the bunny escape

On Tuesday we started Scrappy up for the first time.  We ran into an electrical issue on Monday which I was able to resolve with some diagrams and a conversation with the makers of the swap-kit we are using.  Such a relief!

May 22 weekend 

Friday – I was off, I got up with Susan, picked up tires from Tirerack, dropped them off at Walmart with other tires/wheels to be mounted, came home with Walmart deli lunch to put together rolling tire rack in garage that Dan Hipwood gave us, picked up mounted tires, returned recalled jack-stands at Harbor Freight (exchanged them for a set they had in stock and got a gift card for another set), stopped at Walmart for food stuffs

Saturday – after coffee went up to look at Scrappy at muffler shop, went to Costco to buy Zertec, drove to a different Harbor Freight to get more jack stands

Sunday – lazy day on couch, it rained most of the day

Monday – another lazy day, BBQ’d burgers for dinner

Tuesday – I finally shaved my COVID beard that I’d been growing since the stay at home orders began, face felt great but I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror

May 29 weekend 

Friday – Susan sold the original swap transmission (the one we were going to use for Scrappy) to a guy, we reassembled the E30’s driveline

Saturday – I was up early to work in the garage, I lowered car onto car dollies and pushed it to its old home in the garage, cleaned up and organized until waking up Susan around 8:30, we both finished cleaning and organizing in the garage, walked around spraying weeds we missed spraying two weeks before, hot and tired, ordered Domino’s for dinner (first time ordering food from a restaurant since the lockdown began), hung out on couch for the rest of evening

Sunday – I was up early again to play video games and feed the pups, got Susan up after 9:00 for coffee, drove up to Chris Dorsey’s to buy Miata suspension parts, drove by Alvin and Kari’s old house to see it unchanged, picked up lunch at Qdoba (the curbside service was lame), went to Michaels for fabric, went to Walmart for food stuffs, relaxed at home for the rest of the weekend

We’ve gotten updated news about our work situations.  Susan is start going into the office three days a week and working from home the other two.  Word has come down that the absolute earliest people will be going back into my office is after Labor Day.  

We’re hoping to participate in a mini-endurance race in June.  We’re reached out to a couple of Lemons teams about joining us and, if Scrappy is ready, we’ll sign up.  

The dogs are doing well.  All are cute and seem to be in good health.  

We wear our masks whenever we go out in public which makes us part of the majority and is nice to see.  

What a crazy year!