December 2021

 December 1st – 

Wednesday was a bit noteworthy.  I went up to CLS Euro LLC in the I76/Sheridan area to purchase a BMW motor, manual transmission swap kit, and brake components.  I had gone up the day before but the parts weren’t quite ready for pickup.  When I arrived at the shop I found the parts still weren’t quite ready but that was alright with me as I wasn’t in a rush.  Eventually we had everything loaded into the suburban and I left.  

My next stop was a bit further north to the Boulder turnpike/Sheridan area to pick up our future racecar.  The 2004 BMW 325i had been living at Alvin’s friend’s house (Brian) for the past couple of years.  Brian had originally intended to fix it for a daily driver but found a different BMW (this one AWD) to work on instead.  Brian also had Alvin’s open trailer on hand which was perfect as I didn’t have to drag up our trailer.  

Of course we didn’t immediately load up the BMW and Brian showed off some of his new toys: a giant parts washer and an industrial generator with a motorized boom replete with massive lights (the type one might see used to illuminate night road construction).  

When we did load up Alvin and I were glad to see that Brian had a winch which would make the process much easier.  Unfortunately the little guy didn’t have the power to handle the job on its own.  We had to push quite hard to help the winch get the BMW on the trailer.  

My trip was not done though as I had to pick up a flywheel from the house of one of the owner’s of CLS Euro LLC.  It was part of the manual transmission swap kit but they had forgotten to bring it to the shop for me.  Luckily the guy lived close to the shop so it wasn’t far out of my way to stop by and grab.  

It was almost 8:00 when I finally backed the trailer into our driveway.  Susan helped me offload the car (fortunately its brakes worked just fine) and I pushed it into the garage.  The other parts got to stay in the suburban as I was spent.  

December 3rd weekend – 

We got to sleep in a few minutes to start our anniversary weekend.  The dogs let me be until 7:00 which was amazing.  We were in no particular rush to pack up as our hotel check-in time was 4:00.  Us being us, we still left early at around 12:30.  

The drive was generally uneventful.  This was the first long drive in Jack and the car did fine.  The dogs took time to settle down and Mel never really did.  She spent most of the trip resting her head on the center arm rest with her rump on the seat.  

We arrived to Hotel Colorado early and were able to check-in just fine.  For the second time we were in one of the balcony rooms which was great.  Expensive but the room is so much larger than the regular rooms.  We had some time to burn so took our setting up for the weekend.  

At around 5:30 we walked across the bridge to the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue to eat dinner and watch their show.  The menu wasn’t large but we both found yummy food to eat and imbibed on a couple of bottles of wine throughout the evening.  The performers were our servers and the show was a lot of fun.  There were quite a few children in attendance and, for the most part, they were thankfully well-behaved.  

It was a cold walk back to our hotel but nothing we couldn’t handle.  We watched HBO and hung out with the dogs to finish the day.  

Saturday seemed to begin too early for us.  After taking care of the dogs we tiredly ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was yummy.  A funny aside – the waitress told me she liked her coffee black and finally got her husband to prefer it to “candy coffee” after I asked for cream.  I took that piece of knowledge as a slight dig against my character.  Susan and I laughed about it after the waitress left our table.  

After breakfast we brought Bella to the local vet.  When we arrived at our hotel room Bella proceeded to pee something like five times in the first hour.  We were concerned she may have a UTI so Susan called and lucked into nabbing an appointment for the next morning.  

Bella was her hilarious self at the vet.  She has been conditioned to expect treats from everyone and was vocally upset by the lack of yum-yums.  Bella’s urine came back clean as did her basic exam.  We chalked up her behavior to her accelerating dementia in an unfamiliar environment.  The vet also took some of her blood to create an eye drop solution which will hopefully help her left eye to heal better.  We’re glad we took Bella to the vet.  

In the early afternoon we walked across the bridge to eat lunch at the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub.  Susan got tacos and I got fish and chips.  The food was tasty but “heavy” in the way bar-food often is and I couldn’t finish all my fish.  

Our next planned activity was a scheduled visit to Iron Mountain Hot Springs.  Last time we were in Glenwood we were disappointed to find all the time slots to be booked at Iron Mountain so I reserved several weeks in advance.  The facility was largely the same as before though we could see that they are intending to greatly increase the number of pools.  Susan and I hopped between a few pools before settling in one with a perfect temperature for us both.  The time slots are 2.5 hours long and we stayed every minute of ours.  We really enjoyed our time.

After tending to the dogs we went down to the hotel bar to eat dinner.  The lobby was jam-packed with a local Toyota dealership’s holiday party but luckily the bar had a few open tables.  Besides a few overly loud patrons we had a very nice time.

Sunday morning had us our of bed at 7:00 to feed the dogs.  Initially we were going to get breakfast before leaving but I wanted to get on the road to beat ski-traffic and convinced Susan that we should just pack up and go.  I don’t know when the Sunday traffic would have gotten bad but I know that we completely avoided it and made great time getting back to Denver.  The drive home was windy and we arrived home just before the “wind-front” had our house creaking.  We relaxed for the rest of the day which made a great ending to our 23-year anniversary weekend.  

December 11th weekend – 

We got to sleep in a bit on Saturday as our only concrete plans were to take Bella to the vet at 11:00.  We had our coffee around 10:00 and Bella sat on Susan’s lap for the short trip to the veterinary office.  

Bella was her super-sassy-self for the visit.  Her eye is healing alright and we were given some ointment to administer for the next few weeks.  Bella did get some treats which calmed her down for a couple of minutes.  

We were hungry after getting back home so went to Qdoba for lunch and then to Walmart to buy our weekly food stuffs.  Perhaps we should have gone out later in the evening as the store was very busy and the roads had far more traffic than normal.  We strongly suspected people were out doing their Christmas shopping.  

Susan and I did a bit of holiday shopping ourselves at Cost Plus World Market.  Susan found some fragrant soaps to buy for her coworkers.  The store was quite busy and the staff was doing their best to accommodate the rush.  

I have been wanting to learn to weld for quite some time and finally bought a welder.  Nothing fancy (it was on sale at Harbor Freight) but I’m looking forward to being able to fabricate this and that for the race cars.  

For some reason my preferred coffee-cream (heavy whipping cream) has been difficult to buy since COVID became a thing.  We had to go to three different stores to find some in stock on Saturday.  I suppose the holidays are compounding the normal market forces.  Or something.  

The dogs let me sleep in again on Sunday which was amazing.  I was still up and about by 8:00 but that is some serious sleeping in for me anymore.  I played games until Susan got out of bed later in the morning and made us coffee.  

The plan for the day became that we would grab to-go lunch from Chili’s followed by us picking up Kari on the way up to Karen and John’s.  In the early afternoon we made this plan a reality and soon found ourselves up in Conifer.  

We stayed for several hours before stopping back at Kari’s to drop her off and chat for a spell.  Their dogs are so dang cute and full of energy.  Alvin had some rum cake he had purchased in the Bahamas earlier in the week and he, Kari, and Susan all enjoyed a bit before we left for home.  

Not an action-packed weekend but I suppose they don’t all have to be.  

December 18th weekend – 

Saturday was a very lazy day for us.  We both slept in until mid-morning which was very nice.  We didn’t venture out from our property and the most productive thing we did was BBQ brats for lunch and chicken for dinner.  It was a pleasant day.  

On Sunday we had a bit of a turn of roles as Susan got up before me to take care of the dogs and start her day.  She had plans to drive up to Kari’s house and then to Karen and John’s home.  I rolled out of bed a bit before Susan left to do her thang.  

My day began on the couch with the dogs before I received a message from Susan that someone legitimately was interested in the RX8.  This got me motivated to get up and be productive.  

I left to run some errands before finally unloading the BMW parts from the suburban into the garage.  Getting the engine onto a stand was a pain (it always is) and in the process I discovered the oil was not drained.  I didn’t ask when I bought the engine so it was my fault for assuming it would be.  The mess I made wasn’t terrible but could have easily been avoided.  Such is.  

The guy who was interested in the RX8 ended up not showing up.  I was bummed but not terribly surprised.  Selling on Facebook/craigslist is a hassle for sure.  

After Susan and Kari’s visit with their folks they picked up Alvin and went to Pho98 where I joined them for dinner.  The food looked yummy (I mistakenly had already eaten) and we talked about this and that.  We ended up staying longer than strictly necessary as we didn’t realized the protocol was that the patrons paid at the front desk.  Oh well.  We had a nice time.  

Overall this weekend was mixed: relaxing, productive, disappointing, and promising.  

Christmas Weekend – 

On Christmas Eve I was up and at’em at my normal time to take care of the dogs and go to work to hit the gym.  There was no one else there which made the experience nice.  After I was finished, I shopped for some wine and miscellaneous food stuff on my way back home.  

Susan wasn’t up yet so I hung out for a bit before she emerged from the bedroom and brewed us up some coffee.  We munched on leftovers for food and prepped some Christmas dishes in the evening (jello, mac’n’cheese, spinach artichoke dip).  We spent much of day hanging out with the dogs which was nice.  

We were up relatively early on Christmas Day to start prepping the turkey.  We had just purchased a DIY injection kit and Susan whipped up a batch of injection-fluid as well as a baste for the outside of the bird.  I performed the washing of the turkey and we injected, drizzled, and rubbed the turkey with the appropriate fluids.  Then we closed the roaster and moved on to cleaning up the house for guests (always a good time). 

Kari and Alvin arrived before noon to hang out before the turkey was done cooking.  We all probably ate too much spinach artichoke dip while we waited but it was too yummy to resist.  The roaster was taking its sweet time getting the turkey up to the required temperature so we decided to venture out from the house.  

Alvin and I went to the garage to remove the valve cover and oil pan from the BMW motor I had bought for the new racecar.  The motor looked quite immaculate which was a relief as it being in good shape will save us a lot of effort in making the engine reliable.  When we turned the motor over on the engine stand we did make a colossal coolant mess on the floor but it was easy to clean up so not too big of a deal.  

Susan and Kari went outside to water the larger plants around the house and pick a spot to plant Susan’s little office Christmas tree.  A suitable location for the tree was chosen, up behind the retention wall where we park most of the cars.  The watering took longer than I would have believed and the effort had to be paused when the turkey was finally finished.  

As is our holiday tradition the turkey took far longer than it “should” have taken to cook in the roaster.  This time it took over 4.5 hours to finish.  Such is.  

We were hungry when we finally sat down to eat and found the food mighty tasty.  The highlights included the macaroni and cheese (made from Mom’s recipe), stuffing (made from a box with added sautéed veggies), and salad (a nice blend of traditional leavy greens with sunflower seeds added).  Everything else (turkey, rolls, gravy, jello) was pretty alright too.  

One thing different this year was the potpourri we had on the stove.  Susan had been gifted a bag of potpourri items (cinnamon, spices, and a whole orange and lemon) with instructions.  Susan placed the items (the fruit cut up) in a pot with water and the pot on one of the back burners on the stove and we left it simmering all afternoon.  I am usually not a fan of potpourri but found the aroma quite charming.  We all enjoyed the holiday ambience the potpourri brought to our gathering.  I think we may make preparing a pot of potpourri a tradition.  

After the plates were cleared I got to work cutting up the rest of the turkey and cleaning the larger dishes in the sink.  Susan and Kari went out to finish watering the plants and actually planting the little Christmas tree and Alvin fell asleep on the couch.  

After all of were done with our tasks we packed up leftovers to bring up to Karen and John’s home.  The drive itself was nothing of note until we started up Conifer Mountain.  The road was downright treacherous with ice and we were thankful we had snow tires on our car.  Even then I was very cautious.  Younger Max would have been disgusted with my conservative driving but Older Max didn’t mind the pace.  

We had a nice visit and chatted about this and that.  When we felt we could manage more food we each enjoyed a slice of cherry pie Susan had baked earlier.  The instructions for preparing the pie were more complex than I would have imagined was strictly necessary (keep frozen, bake, let sit for two hours, then serve) but the result was a yummy treat.  

Alvin left a few minutes before the rest of us to go to a movie so we took Kari to their house on our way home (she wasn’t interested in falling asleep in a movie theater).  Besides the still crappy roads the journey was uneventful and eventually Susan and I got home to finish off our night on the couch with our dogs.  

On Sunday we slept in a bit before driving the suburban up to Brian’s house to pick up BMW parts.  Initially the plan was to just take what was needed but we ended up loading up an entire motor as well.  Such is.  

Alvin was there to pick up a large generator with enormous lights affixed to its top.  Brian used a forklift to aid the loading of the generator on Alvin’s trailer.  

Soon after we had the engine strapped down in the back of the suburban.  Susan and I didn’t dilly-dally to long before heading home.  Traffic was thankfully light and we made great time.  Things were going fine until I broke to slow down before turning into our neighborhood causing the engine tilted forward and dump coolant on the carpet.  Evidently the straps had repositioned themselves on the trip.  

Susan asked me if we were ever planning on selling the suburban to which I replied “no” and thus we both at peace with the mess.  

We finished the Christmas weekend out lazing away on the couch with the dogs, watching streaming shows and playing games.  It was a supremely pleasant weekend.  

Sometime during the week of Christmas Susan thought she saw a mouse go behind the refrigerator.  She wasn’t positive of what she witnessed but saw the little critter again a few days after Christmas while we were all sitting on the couch.  This was one bold mouse!  That night we ordered mouse traps on Amazon.  

It seemed the mouse came out at the same time each night, right around 8:00.  Sure enough, after traps had arrived and Susan set them up we heard one *snap* a hair before 8:00.  

While we were happy to catch the little bastard, the trap hadn’t quite finished him off and there was some flailing of limbs.  These motions ceased when I flung him outside.  Susan reset the trap in case there were other vermin in the house.  Such is owning a home I suppose.  

New Year’s eve

On New Year’s Eve I went to work like normal.  When NYE is on a Saturday the NYSE stays open and technically the holiday is not observed.  This was my first time experiencing this as I believe my former employers gave us the day off regardless.  No biggie for me.  I enjoyed some of the best morning traffic since the beginning of the pandemic.  

I did leave the office early and stopped by Safeway to pick us up some chicken.  While the roads weren’t busy, Safeway certainly was!  The self-checkout line was horrendously long.  Such is!  

That night we made artichoke and spinach dip and watched streaming TV until close to midnight when Susan flipped over to one of the revolving countdown shows on network TV.  At the appropriate moment I popped the cork on a bottle of champaign and we toasted the end of 2021.    

Some 2021 thoughts

COVID – 

Susan and I somehow managed to avoid catching COVID in 2021.  It’s hard to believe it has been so long since the pandemic began.  We still wear masks when inside public places, whether it is required or not.  At this point we’re so used to the masks that we don’t feel it is inconvenient.  I have read that people think they’ll keep on wearing them in the future after-times.  I wonder if we may as well.  

It saddens me greatly when I read about the unvaccinated making up the vast majority of those who continue to become seriously ill and die from COVID complications.  It boggles my mind.  Misinformation is real but I don’t know what to do about it.  On one hand I want those pushing this crap to be punished but I can’t help but wonder that doing so will enable future abuse.  

I can’t help but try to understand the disconnect.  Is it really just misinformation?  I don’t think so.  I think for some it’s a stance taken that their pride won’t let them change.  I think for some it is a calculated gamble; not getting vaccinated and surviving a pandemic shows strength.  Some decided COVID was no big deal and thus the vaccine isn’t worth getting.  I think some might just hate getting shots and will come up with any excuse to not get one.  I think some feed their ego through being perpetual victims, oppressed by a vast conspiracy and, by saying “no” to masks and vaccines, they are smarter/stronger/patriotic/better/etc.  It all makes me sad.  

I wonder what things will look like when COVID moves from pandemic to endemic.  There are so many dead and so many still suffering from lasting effects.  So many working from home and so many with disappointment in their fellow man (at least I am incredibly distraught).  I do believe some good has come from this crazy time in our lives but who knows?  How much of my positive sentiment is from reasoned thought and how much is from my inner-self identifying as an optimist?  I suppose one can never know.  

2021 as a year – 

I think Susan and I had a pretty good 2021, all things considered.  The dogs are doing alright and the house is still standing.  Oliver has continued persisting and we had a lot of fun racing our Scrappy around the track.  We got to see more family this year and winnowed down our Miata flock to an entirely sensible five in number.  We’ve continued to enjoy the occasional RV-life and our health has been consistently “ok”.  

November 2021

 On November 1st Oliver made himself scarce.  He didn’t come home when Susan called him after work.  We figured he’d gotten himself stuck in a garage again.  It wasn’t until the 4th that Oliver showed up when I was taking Pebbles and Mel out for their last potty break.  We were very relieved to have Oliver back home.  

November 6th weekend – 

On Saturday I was up early to work on Scrappy.  Nothing major and I was largely finished when I went inside to get Susan moving around 10:00.  We had our coffee and left to do some shopping at Costco and Walmart.  

In the afternoon we met Kari at Chili’s for a late lunch.  It had been quite some time since Susan and I had been there and we found the menu had changed for the better.  We ended up staying longer than necessary as I didn’t realize I had to initiate closing our ticket on the table’s tablet.  Oh well.  

After a quick stop to pick up some gummies we drove up to Kari and Alvin’s home to see the various changes since last we were there.  Kari has been adding this and that to her garden and had her greenhouse up and doing its greenhousing-thing.  The interior floor was covered in new carpeting which was soft under our feet.  After seeing the new stuff we then piled in Kari’s BMW for the drive up to John and Karen’s home.

We hung out and chatted with John and Karen about this and that for a few hours.  Karen’s health has declined precipitously in the last year and it was not a good day for her.  John’s cancer has reemerged for which he is taking chemo pills to combat.  We enjoyed our visit but it was a sobering experience.  

Sunday was another open lapping day for Susan and myself.  As per usual we had a great time driving Scrappy around the track.  A guy (Jack) from our rallycross past was there in his Miata.  I rode with Jack and even drove his car for a few laps to give him some pointers.  It’s amazing how differently one must drive at the track versus on the dirt.  

We left for home after just a few hours to unload and take care of the dogs and Oliver.  Later, the leader(?) of the CU Buffs Lemons team (Tyler) dropped by to return our transmission they had borrowed and chat about racecar stuff.  It was a fun interaction.  

November 13th weekend – 

We woke up earlyish on Saturday to load Scrappy up and head to the track again.  It is so nice to have a running racecar!  

We arrived at the track around 10:00 and had plenty of time to register and unload before the sessions started.  

Our Lemon’s pal Friso was there in his Camaro which was nice as we were able to chat a bit.  Another friend, Janis, was there with someone who brought a new light blue Lamborghini.  The owner of the car was pretty terrible out on the track and Janis was there to help.  

After putting in around 80 laps between us, Susan and I packed up and left for home.  Once the animals were taken care of we put Scrappy back on the lift to look for any issues.  I had just swapped in a new water pump and was happy to see no obvious leaks.  

We didn’t have any definite plans on Sunday so I just played games while Susan slept in.  We largely lazed on the couch all day with the exception of a shopping trip for food stuffs.  It was a very nice weekend.  

November 20th weekend – 

Saturday was the last track day of the year for us.  We loaded Scrappy and left the house nice and early.  

It was pretty dang cool outside when we arrived at the mostly empty track.  Unlike the previous week few cars showed up.  In fact, after an hour the fast/slow sessions ended and drivers could go out whenever which was nice.  

Scrappy felt very wrong when I went out so I jacked up the rear and wiggled the driver-rear wheel.  Somehow the axle nut had come loose which is a big deal.  If that nut completely came off the wheel would have immediately followed which would have been a bummer for sure.  I had the right-sized giant socket in the trailer and used our beefy impact to tighten the nut back up.  I retightened the passenger-side as well for good measure.  I suspect the rear wheel bearings are failing which may have caused the axle nut to loosen.  Another thing to check in the off season I suppose.  

Susan and I really had a blast driving Scrappy after I figured out the loose wheel thing.  This was our fifth track weekend in a row and my 20th open lapping day of the year.  

Kari and Alvin came over for dinner and for Alvin to use our lift to work on one of his BMWs.  I BBQ’d chicken while Alvin did his thing.  I had bought the chicken thighs from Safeway as opposed to Walmart and we all agreed the quality was far superior.  I’d had thought chicken was chicken but I guess not.  I am a cheap person though so probably will continue to buy sub-par Walmart chicken going forward. 

The hope was that Alvin could finish up quickly but, as with many car projects, this was not to be.  He did end up finishing installing a new intercooler, fixing two coolant leaks, and a whole new suspension but it took until 1:00 in the morning.  We were all very tired when they finally left to go home.  

A note: the back of my nose started feeling icky on Saturday afternoon while we were at the track.  I knew what it portended which bummed me out to no end; I had a sinus infection.  It has been over 18 months since I’ve been sick and I wasn’t looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving while feeling sick.  With Susan’s prompting I called a teledoctor and was prescribed a few things which were supposed to shorten the symptoms by a few days.  I am happy to report that, while I wasn’t 100% better right away, I feel that they worked very well.  I’m going to right down exactly what I was prescribed for next time I get a sinus infection.  

Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty crappy.  I ended up spending the entire day on the couch while Susan went shopping and picked up my scripts.  Susan’s trip out and about was stressful as the stores were busy and the CVS overwhelmed.  It took three trips to CVS and several hours before my script was ready.  Annoying but it’s the times we’re living in I suppose.  Didn’t do much else but hang out the rest of the weekend.  

Thanksgiving Week – 

I decided to go into work on Tuesday morning to attend a couple of meetings.  Not a great idea as I was beginning to develop a cough.  I ended up going home halfway through the day and stayed home all day Wednesday as well.  

Susan worked Wednesday and then prepared stuffing, jello, and her awesome dessert when she got home.  

On Thursday I was up early to feed the pups, wash the roaster, and prep the potatoes.  Susan joined me to help wash and prepare the turkey for cooking.  In the past the turkey has always taken longer to cook than the instructions indicate so we started it roasting an hour earlier than normal.  

Kari and Alvin were our sole guests this Thanksgiving and arrived a bit after 1:00.  We chatted about this and that as we finished preparing the last few dishes.  Our plates were mighty full when we sat down to eat: turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, and jello.  We all ate more than is advisable.  

After food-time we played a new game Susan had bought called Puns of Anarchy.  We had fun and Alvin schooled the rest of us.  He is always so good at these sorts of games.  

We packed up some of the Thanksgiving leftovers (including the uneaten dessert) and drove ourselves up to Karen and John’s house to visit.  We had a nice time chatting and eventually ate the fantastic dessert Susan had prepared (an almond and cherry dish).  Before we left we helped move beds down from Susan’s old bedroom to the dining room.  This will enable Karen to avoid having to go up and down the stairs as much.  We didn’t leave until after 8:00 and enjoyed our time.  

Friday morning had Susan going to work and me going to Dyno-Pro to finally find out how much power Scrappy was making.  

After I unloaded Scrappy the owner of the shop tied it down to one of the two dynos they had (the other was being used by a Corvette).  Alvin arrived shortly thereafter with his laptop and was soon doing his tuning thing.  

The process was interesting for me but likely would have been incredibly boring for most anyone else.  I stood around a lot while Alvin changed parameters and did multiple pulls.  Our car is deafeningly loud so everyone in the shop had to wear some kind of ear protection whenever Alvin did a pull.  The goal of the day was to make Scrappy’s tune as reliable as possible and this took several hours to achieve.  

One of Alvin’s old friends Nick and his son joined us to watch and hang out.  Nick would have brought his own car to do some tuning but some mechanical issues precluded him from doing so.  They stayed for a couple of hours before taking off.  

A couple of Lemons competitors (Rafi and Kevin) dropped by around 2:00.  The original plan was for Kevin to bring his Lemons truck to tune after we finished with Scrappy (he would also help with the cost).  Unfortunately the foothills got their first snowfall of the season a couple of days before and the roads were too treacherous for a “race-truck” to navigate.  

After Scrappy was unbound from the dyno (it achieved 155HP/162Torq) and loaded back into the trailer Alvin pulled in his BMW for a few pulls.  His car is MUCH more powerful and he got something like 500HP with some minor tweaking.  

The last car we put on the dyno was Rafi’s Pontiac Solstice.  It has the exact same motor as Scrappy so we were interested to see how it compared.  The car made similar peak power as Scrappy but the delivery before the peak was very different (likely for fuel economy).  We all hung out for a time before heading out to our respective homes.  It was a nice time.  

Saturday had me up early to feed the dogs and go to Costco to get my COVID booster.  Susan had gotten hers the day before while I was at the dyno shop.  Thankfully there was no line and I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.  

Back home I endeavored to FINALLY get rid of the last Miata shell.  It took me some time to figure out how to drag it onto our open trailer but eventually I had it strapped down and covered in a tarp.  

Susan joined me on in the suburban as we made our way up to the recycling yard up in Denver.  The plan was to take the fastest route but we found that the cheap tarp could not handle highway winds so we took a slow and circuitous path instead.  

The scrap-yard experience was pretty crazy.  There is a sign at the entrance saying “no pictures or video” which one understands quickly once one is inside.  Workers were actively piling scrap onto a not-so-stable-looking mountain of junk when I parked and unstrapped our shell.  

An enormous forklift then grabbed the shell through the trunk.  The shell started tipping forward as the forklift turned away and the operator quickly accelerated toward the junk mountain before the shell came crashing down.  It was all very exciting.  We left with $66 more in our pockets and headed home.  

I woke on Sunday with high-hopes of buying a non-running BMW to use as a parts-car for our new BMW racecar project.  I was happy to pay the asking price and the seller had assured me that he would meet us in the Stapleton area around 10:00.  I got Susan up and we left to head up there.  

We sat in a King Soopers parking lot up in Stapleton for 30 minutes before I gave up.  Apparently the guy changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to sell after all.  Such a colossal waste of time.  

After getting home and depositing the open trailer back in the lower forty we went out for our weekly shopping trip and to grab a bite to eat.  Sunday was not an ideal day but overall we found Thanksgiving week to be pleasant.  

November seemed to go by so quickly.  We finally saw some light snow fall but not at DIA so it was “unofficial”.  This is the mildest November I can remember with high temperatures regularly in the 60s and 70s.  It’s nice but I can’t help but worry that there will be many forest fires come spring.  

For the most part our cadre of small animals are doing alright.  I’ve been tending to Oliver most days as Susan isn’t home from work before the sun sets.  He’s generally been friendly.  Pebbles and Mel are doing fine.  Bella has a contusion on her right eye.  We don’t know what happened but she’s been getting drops and medication for much of November.  Bella is finally beginning to realize she can’t be as active as she’d like.  It’s sad to see but we’re glad she’s taking it easy in a relative sense.  

Note – I mentioned almost buying a BMW as a parts car.  Well, that’s because Alvin and I decided to build Alvin’s E46 into a racecar.  Alvin, Ian, and myself will fund the effort.  The goal is to build for Champcar (like Lemons but a bit more serious) and have it race-ready by the June Lemons race.  We’re really going to stick to the rules with this build which is great for our pocketbooks as Champcar doesn’t allow many upgrades at all.  

October 2021

 October 1st weekend – 

I took Friday off as the car lift was to be installed that morning.  Two guys showed up around 9:00 and got busy cutting away shipping material from the lift.  The installation took several hours and included a lot of connecting this and that and pushing up the two 600lb+ posts.  The guys left for the day around 1:30; the electrical work to accommodate the lift hadn’t been done yet so they would have to return another day to finish the installation.  

Our pal Jonathan Nagel dropped by at 2:00 to pick up a set of our old and worn racing tires.  We had a nice long chat about racing, housing, and life in general.  

On Saturday morning I managed to get back to sleep after taking care of the dogs.  This was kind of amazing as I rarely can fall back to sleep after I’m awake.  

After finally getting out of bed around 10:00 we had our coffee and went off to buy electrical parts.  Alvin had given me a short list of things to purchase which we found at Home Depot and Lowe’s.  

Once back home I worked on running the thick power cables around the garage.  The original plan to run the cable was to go straight up from where the existing power comes in from the outside power panel but the wheel guides for the garage door blocked access.  

I drilled holes through the studs and then pushed the power cables through the holes.  Eventually I had to utilize our tall ladder to reach the rafters which was an uncomfortable experience.  I took my time running the cable out to the middle of the garage and down to the lift.  

Because of the change in cable routing we barely had enough length to make it work.  I was going to buy a shorter length but Susan fortunately convinced me to purchase extra just in case.  We ended up needing all 60’ minus perhaps a foot that we looped by the lift’s power unit.  It was a close thing indeed.  

Alvin and Kari came by later to eat BBQ and for Alvin to finish the electrical work.  Alvin does much more complicated electrical work as part of his day job and had no problems helping us out.  It took some time and an additional trip to Lowe’s but eventually Alvin wrapped up his efforts around 10:00.  We did a test and the lift lifted!  We were ecstatic.  

Susan and I were simply out of productivity and had ourselves a nice and lazy Sunday.  I did manage to finish editing the video from the Lemons race so I guess I did do a thing in the end.  We watched streaming of the SCCA runoffs (their biggest annual event) most of the day.  It was the first time we’d watched any of their coverage and we were enthralled.  A great weekend to start October for sure.  

October 9th weekend – 

Once again I managed to get back to sleep for a time after taking care of the dogs.  This newfound ability to go back to sleep is still amazing to me.  

After coffee Susan and I went to the garage to do more organizing.  We put up more shelves and moved around this and that.  By the time we were finished the garage was looking pretty darn good and close to its ideal in our eyes.  

In the early afternoon some friends came over to eat BBQ and discuss the possibility of forming a new endurance team.  Most of those who joined us were seasoned racers and interested in my plan.  They brought their own ideas which was great as well.  I have a tendency to dictate the outcome of such gatherings so I tried to limit my input as far as I could stand to.  

We had a really nice time and are hopeful that something will come of our discussions.  Me being me I will be keeping the plans moving forward until everyone is sick of hearing from me and/or we establish a team.  

On Sunday we slept in a bit before heading to the garage to use the new car lift for its intended purpose.  By the end of the day we had changed the oil in five of our cars (Flo, Jack, Tia, Scrappy, and the NC) and diagnosed a few mechanical issues we will need to address in the near future.  It’s amazing what one notices when walking underneath a car.  We had to make a trip to Walmart to buy more oil-changing supplies and food stuffs in the early afternoon.  While performing the oil changes still amounts to “work” the process is simplified with the car lift.  

On Thursday night Kari and Alvin came over for dinner and for Alvin to cut a chunk off of our non-rolling Miata chassis.  I had told Alvin that he needed to come claim his metal soon as I am planning on junking the “car” soon.  It was nice to hang out and the chicken and zucchini I BBQ’d came out splendidly.  

October 16th weekend – 

On Saturday morning I slept in a bit before taking care of the dogs and heading to the garage.  I loaded up three of Scrappy’s wheels and went to Family Tire.  They wouldn’t touch them (one was showing its cords) so I went back home where I added some caulking to cover the damage.  While the patches dried I worked on Scrappy.  

I had a list of things I needed to do and the first was to install a new clutch disk.  This was the first time I had pulled a transmission utilizing the new lift and the process was smoother than in the past when I utilized jack stands.  I still had to undo the same bolts as before but found standing to be much more comfortable than laying down on a piece of cardboard.  

After I had the transmission out I woke up Susan to take a look.  Normally when I do this sort of work I don’t drag Susan under the car to see what I’m up to but with the lift she can easily see what I’m doing.  It’s interesting stuff for sure.  

With the caulking on the corded tire dry, Susan and I took it and the other two wheels to Walmart’s TLE.  They agreed to swap the tires around like we wanted and Susan and I left to catch lunch at Qdoba before coming back to do some shopping.  Once we were done with our eating and purchasing we picked up our wheels and headed home to continue the work on Scrappy.  

Earlier we discovered a power steering line had split and was leaking fluid down the length of the car.  The pipe’s location was directly under the oil pan and above the steering rack.  Initially we weren’t sure what we could do in such a cramped space.  I really did not want to pull the engine just to access one small pipe.  Plus we didn’t know if we had or could obtain a replacement pipe.  

Our red parts Miata came to the rescue as it had power steering and the needed section of piping came out somewhat easily.  With a viable replacement in hand I set to finagling the split pipe out of Scrappy.  It was slow and messy work but eventually I swapped out the power steering pipes.  Thankfully the pipe from Lil Red didn’t leak and, after some strategic and careful bending, it was clear of the various stationary and moving bits in cohabitating its location.  

After our success with the power steering fix I reinstalled the transmission and installed a new slave cylinder.  

Dinner was yummy BBQ’d burgers and we spent then evening hanging with the girls on the couch.  

Sunday I slept in just a bit before I made the mistake of attempting to wake Susan up right after I washed my hands.  Apparently my hands were still a bit wet and cold enough to give Susan quite the shock.  I felt bad enough that I let Susan sleep for another hour before I jostled her awake again (gently and through the blankets this time).  

While I worked on replacing Scrappy’s front brake calipers, Susan patched up windshields on three of our cars.  She had to fend off Oliver who was in “attack-mode”.  Susan then climbed in Scrappy, which was still on the lift, to help me bleed the brakes, power steering, and clutch.  I attempted two fixes on Jack while Susan spent time cleaning up Oliver’s shed.  It was a busy and productive day for sure.  

I BBQ’d chicken and zucchini for dinner as we sat and watched the sunlight fade.  The leaves were starting to turn on our neighbors tall cottonwood trees and were pretty to look at.  Another great weekend in the books!

October 23rd weekend – 

I was up early on Saturday and, as usual, went to the garage to work on Scrappy.  I wanted to replace the front wheel bearings but found that I didn’t have all the proper parts.  I had to make a run to Lowe’s and a few car parts stores to obtain what I needed.  

I attempted to wake up Susan after I got home and went to the garage to finish up.  I wasn’t quite done with my work when Susan came out to inform me coffee was ready.  Soon after our caffeine ritual was complete, I managed to finish up my work.  

We were to have guests over for BBQ again so we made a quick trip to Safeway for food stuffs before cleaning up the house and garage.  Fortunately we’ve been having folks over regularly this month so the required effort to prepare was minimal.  

Our friends were all fashionably late but we didn’t mind much.  This was another meeting to discuss forming an endurance team and the timeline wasn’t something we really cared about.  

When Case and Ryan (two of the three we were expecting) arrived we hung out and chatted about racecars, racing, and the new team.  Eventually Alvin showed up and everyone ate my BBQ while the conversation continued.  We didn’t necessarily finalize anything but we were all basically in agreement on how we thought things would go.  

After everyone had left Susan and I finished prepping Scrappy and loaded it into the car trailer.  We also drained our large oil catch can into several smaller oil containers to transport to the track.  We were pretty beat at this point and headed to the couch to relax for the remainder of the evening.  

On Sunday I was up early and hung out until it was time to wake Susan up to leave for the track.  We made our customary stop at King Soopers for gas and food before arriving at the track around 10:00.  

The weather was incredibly pleasant with temperatures in the upper 60s and virtually no wind whatsoever (this is very rare for HPR).  We unloaded Scrappy and checked in.  

The timing was such that we had a few minutes before the next run group was to start so we emptied all of our oil jugs into the HPR oil collection containers.  These are large plastic tanks HPR has which are there for this purpose.  Once we were finished with our task we set to having fun on the track.  

Scrappy is an absolute blast to drive in its current iteration.  I managed to take almost five seconds off my previous personal best which is quite a thing.  A second or two is a lot on a race track so I was very happy.  There were few other cars out on the track as well which made our experience that much better.  

We didn’t stay all day as that corded tire I had Walmart flip the previous weekend had me worried.  Even though we left early it was a great time.  

We unpacked and fed the dogs when we got home and immediately left to go to Walmart to buy food for the next week.  The store was packed for unknown reasons but we were in and out relatively quickly.  A quick stop at Goodwill and we were back home.

We BBQ’d bratwurst (turkey for me, pork for Susan) which was pretty yummy.  We then sat down with the pups to do our regular electronic thing.  I also edited video from my quickest lap which then I uploaded to YouTube.  Such a great weekend.  The beautiful weather, hanging out with friends, going to the track, and being a bit productive.  Loved it all.  

October 30th weekend – 

We were up early on Saturday to load up Scrappy and head to the track.  Well, not super-early for this day was the first of the winter open lapping season.  During the winter lapping season the track opens later.  Thus we were able to sleep in a smidge and arrive well-before the cars were allowed to drive around the track.  

We pulling into the track a little after 10:00 and lucked into parking in our preferred spot which was super-nice.  Very close to the track exit and entrance as well as a good spot to snap pictures.  

We wandered around while the drivers meeting was going on and chatted with a fellow Lemons car owner.  I had no doubt that the poorly painted police-retired Crown Victoria was a Lemons car.  It was fun to reminisce about our Lemons experiences.  The Crown Victoria was one of a handful of Lemons cars at the track that day.  There was also an orange RX7, another black Miata, and an old 280Z out there testing as well.  It was fun to see for sure.  

The day went well for Susan, myself, and Scrappy.  The car ran well and the other drivers were generally polite.  Susan’s run groups had some very novice drivers which slowed everyone down a bit.  New drivers usually join the slow run group but they usually aren’t as slow as they were on Saturday.  Such is.  

We did have some minor drama in that one of the exhaust mounts unbolted.  Fortunately I installed two very sturdy mounts and the surviving mount easily managed the full weight of the exhaust.  Also fortunate that the mount itself was still wrapped around the exhaust pipe so we will only need to buy new nuts to fix.  The mount coming off was just another reminder that racecars vibrate a lot.  

I also had a major off-track experience in turn three.  I turned in too early and bounced off the inside curbing which caused me to point off the track.  I was going around 80MPH at this point so didn’t fight my new path.  Luckily the ground is flat in that area and I was able to get back on the pavement without any issues besides partially filling the car with grass and dirt.  Amazingly Susan managed to snap a few pictures of my excursion which looked pretty neat.  

A recent Miata track-pal of ours, Matthew, was there in his grey Miata and significant other.  I rode with him for most of one of his stints to give him some tips on his driving.  Not something I generally do but I had fun and he was receptive to my feedback.  

We vacated the track at 3:00 after deciding we’d had enough racing fun for the day (I also wanted to be home before dark).  Once home we quickly unpacked and took care of the dogs before heading back out to buy the things that get us through any given week (wine, food, and whatnot).  

Dinner was BBQ’d burgers which were supremely yummy.  We hung out with the dogs on the couch to finish out the day.  

We slept in a lot on Sunday morning.  Mostly Susan but I also managed to get some extra sleep.  Our only definite plans revolved around having a late lunch at Saltgrass and we were in no hurry to get moving.  

On the way to Saltgrass we stopped at the Parker Costco to buy some TP.  We left empty-handed as their only offering wasn’t septic tank friendly.  The Park Meadows Costco was the same way.  Seems shipping woes from California are the cause.  

We enjoyed our Saltgrass experience.  The food was just about perfect and the service was great.  We left the restaurant with extremely full bellies.  

The rest of the day had us watching streaming TV and hanging out with the dogs.  The only real thing to note was an issue we had with the clothes wash machine.  I was doing a load and found that the door would not unlock once the cycle was over.  

Uh oh.  

Susan Googled the problem and found out that there is a filter that is supposed to be cleaned every two months.  We didn’t know such a filter existed and, I suppose, lucked out that we hadn’t had any problems in over four years of usage.  

There was a small emergency drain hose that we utilized to drain the water out.  We had to use short containers and made several trips to dump out the water before we were though.  

The filter wasn’t clogged but had hair binding it so it couldn’t spin and let out the water.  We ripped off the hair, cleaned the filter piece and its home in the washer, and the wash machine once again functioned properly.  It was fun to fix the wash machine together and an interesting way to end the weekend and month.  

October was a great month for our home.  The weather was generally fantastic and we BBQ’d dinner outside almost ever single night.  

Oliver hasn’t been on his best behavior lately but that’s ok with us; we accept him just the way his is.  

Pebbles, Mel, and Bella have been their normal cute selves.  I finally restarted my early morning workout routine which I thought would have the dogs bugging me less before my alarm goes off.  This was not the case.  Instead of bugging me at 6:00 before my 6:30 alarm the dogs bug me at 5:00 before my 5:30 alarm.  Pretty annoying but they are also pretty cute so what can one do.  

We’re looking forward to November and hoping that we get a few more weeks of mild temperatures before the chilly times begin.