February 2021

 February 6th weekend – 

We were up early with an alarm on Saturday to feed the dogs and drink our coffee.  After the dogs and Susan and I were satiated I unhooked the trailer and we drove the suburban up to Fort Collins.  This trip was to meet at a Waffle House to buy two used Miata transmissions.  As is our way we were early and hung out for a few minutes before a guy met us.  The transmissions were filthy but that was ok and we put them on wood and cardboard (not our first dirty-parts rodeo).  This was to be our first long drive so didn’t dawdle and went straight back home.  

After unloading the transmissions into the tire coop saw the dogs briefly and went to Lowes where we bought four 4x8’ pieces of plywood that we had a worker cut in half long-ways.  Thankfully the suburban is large enough we could fit the boards inside without much of a hassle.  We dropped off the boards in front of the garage, hooked up the trailer, and left again – this time for Monument Hill.  

The drive down was uneventful besides the continuous construction on I25.  Susan thinks it’ll never be finished.  We were almost to our destination when I turned down the wrong road.  No biggie except that it was steeply sloped downward and packed with snow.  Susan was a hero and stopped traffic so I could reverse back onto the road.  Luckily there was a minimum amount of slipping and sliding.  

We were picking up used NC suspension for our 2008 Miata.  The first few years of this particular generation of Miata had overly soft suspension and we always knew we were going to remedy this malady.  Susan saw a guy post about having a couple of sets for sale and immediately jumped at the opportunity.  It turned out this guy was the president of PPIR and was a Miata enthusiast.  Thus we spent some time ogling his cars and talking about how we loved Miatas.  After we turned our rig around in his large parking area we headed down to Fountain.  

In Fountain we gassed up and went to look at two Miata chassis (one rolled and the other didn’t).  A fellow named Forrest was offloading two NB Miata chassis and we were interested.  It helped that he was willing to tow one of them back with us which simplified transportation greatly.  Forrest was also an avid car enthusiast though in the drift-way.  He and his wife both drifted cars and it was fun to talk about car stuff with another couple that played with cars together.  They had a really neat home with room a looping driveway and room for spare cars in the back.  

We looked at the chassis and agreed upon a price before Forrest winched the wheel-less chassis onto his trailer and we pushed the wheeled chassis into ours.  The drive back was largely uneventful until we got a message that we needed to stop.  The drug-on chassis had slipped some and almost came unattached.  Yikes!  With a new strap it was re-secured and arrived at our home safely.  

We didn’t have a definite plan in place to unload the drug chassis and ended up tying it to the back of Flo while Forrest drove his truck in the opposite direction.  It was hilariously effective and Susan took video of the drama.  After showing off our race cars to much aplomb Forrest and his missus left us to our broken toys.  

Soon Susan and I had the wheel-less chassis on dollies and had rolled it along the plywood we had bought earlier to a suitable location in front of the cat shed.  It was beginning to get cold so I only disassembled a couple of things before we donned the chassis in a car cover and went inside to finish the evening on the couch.  

Sunday had me up early with a headache.  While I waited for it to go away I watched YouTube for a couple of hours before bugging Susan awake.  The original plan was to dive into taking the good bits off of the new chassis but we decided that it would be best if I concentrated on finishing up Betty’s projects.  Normally we would open both garage doors but the crazy winds had us leaving the small door closed lest we lose things in the wind tunnel the garage would become.  

I had swapped out the front sway bar and struts for coilovers when Susan smelled smoke outside.  Not the most unusual thing for our neighborhood but we could see a smoke plume on the horizon.  Susan ventured forth to investigate while I toiled on.  

Turned out there was a grass fire in Bear Creek which was awfully close to Kari and Alvin’s old house and where our friends Ken and Randy live.  Fortunately the wind was blowing away from homes.  

I continued working after Susan got back and managed to install the rear coilovers and sway bar twice due to putting them all in backwards the first time.  Luckily the rear suspension is far simpler to install than the front and I had it back together quickly.  Well, except a sway bar end link fell apart.  We had barely used spares from Scrappy that I attempted to install only to find that I didn’t have the proper tool at hand.  It was also getting late so we elected to stop working on the car and go out to buy food stuffs.  

On the way to Walmart I went to Home Depot to buy the needed tool quick.  There were few people in the store likely due to the Super Bowl.  At Walmart we found what we needed and a few things we really didn’t.  On the way home we stopped at King Soopers for more stuff and then Noodles for some dinner.  

Once home we ate and sat down on the couch to relax.  It was another busy weekend and we were tired.  

On Monday I took left the office for a couple of hours so we could purchase a new open deck trailer.  There were a few reasons to buy a new open deck trailer: used trailers are incredibly overpriced for their condition in Colorado, we needed something to transport various bits of junk (including one or two Miata chassis depending on what we decide to do), and it would greatly simplify running two race cars at during the 2021 season.  We got a 20’ trailer and were happy with the purchase.  We’re already making plans for various upgrades.  

Tuesday night we drove up to see Kari and Alvin’s new puppy, Ember, and have chicken cooked by their new smoker.  Ember was hilariously floppy and exuberant in all the puppy ways and bounded about antagonizing the other two dogs.  We chatted about this and that.  Kari and Alvin had recently put their old property on the market and within a week it was under contract with a cash offer at the asking price.  This was utterly fantastic news as it gives them funds to move forward on some projects for their new home.  The smoked chicken was excellent and we stayed until Alvin was falling asleep on the couch.  It was a nice time.  

February 13th weekend – 

This weekend the polar vortex that bisected America made our plans at being productive moot.  It was simply too cold to do anything outside or in the garage so we elected to veg on the couch.  We really didn’t do much of anything but fill up on electronic entertainment and copious cuddles from the dogs.  Not our best weekend but nice to chill out together.  

February 20th weekend – 

We were up midmorning on Saturday to take care of the dogs and have our coffee.  I had a lot I wanted to accomplish starting with installing a roll bar in Betty.  I pulled Betty out of the garage and to the concrete pad outside the large door as the weather was pleasant and got started.  I had forgotten the amount of effort and time needed to install a roll bar in a Miata and it really took us all day to finish.  In fact I had to pull the car back into the garage as the temperatures turned cold and the sun went down.  We did finish up (Susan helped a bunch in the project) around 8:00 that evening.  

We were finally on the couch doing our normal thing when I stumbled across a newly listed Miata for sale that struck our fancy.  It was old but looked in decent shape and came with a hardtop.  Susan reached out and scheduled a time to look at it for the next morning at 9:00.  After a few minutes Susan got worried that such a good deal would be missed so she asked if we could come up earlier in the morning.  It turned out that a guy was already going to look at it at 8:00.  Yikes!  Susan asked if we could come up immediately and the seller was ok with that so we got dressed and left. 

Our plight started out rough as we had gotten around five inches of heavy fresh snow that evening and didn’t know that the new Miata would be able to make the drive home.  Mildly deterred (I’ve driven rear wheel drive cars in far worse) we hopped in Flo and drove up to Brighton to see the Miata.  We were lucky as soon we discovered that the snow didn’t extend much further north than our neighborhood.  

The guy selling the Miata was nice enough and the car seemed worth the money so we paid and I drove it out of his neighborhood with Susan following.  It was not all peaches and crème as there was a terrible drone coming from the front left wheel area that was concerning though we made it back without incident (well, besides that our neighborhood was very slick).  It was pretty late when I slipped and slided the Miata into our driveway and we immediately plopped on the couch again to finish out the evening.  

Sunday we were up later for our coffee and dog-feeding.  Pebbles had vacated the bed and room and was waiting for us in the morning sun when we finally got up.  Not something we like her doing as she has a habit of making mistakes when she is on her own.  Such is though.  

After coffee we went outside to take a proper look at the new Miata.  We found that it was in better shape than one might expect from a 31 year old car with over 185,000 miles.  The hard top was in great shape and the soft top was clearly very new.  Those two things alone justified the purchase but we also found little rust and the interior to be almost perfect.  The hood wasn’t fitted quite straight and it was clear that some front end damage had occurred followed by a rough fix.  Not a big deal as most all of these older Miatas have a lot of “history” when we get them.  

The snow from the previous evening was gone from the roads so Susan drove me to Lowes in the new Miata to buy a couple of things.  The car did fine and we were soon back home.  

We went inside to eat a late lunch and decided that we’d had just about enough of being productive for the weekend.  I dedicated the rest of the day to the couch while Susan spent time organizing the many keys to various vehicles we own.  This Miata was the tenth we owned at the moment.  Susan used dealer tags she had acquired online to identify all the spare keys and put them on a large ring.  It was impressive.  It was a really nice weekend.  

February 26th weekend – 

Friday we were up early to pack for our trip to Glenwood Springs to celebrate Susan’s 40th birthday.  We weren’t exactly in a rush since check-in wasn’t until 4:00 and finally hit the road around 12:30.  The drive was pretty quick with only a couple of slow downs along the way.  It was interesting as there was more snow on the ground in Denver than much of the sides of the mountains.  I guess the latest storm mostly hit the plains.  

We exited at Glenwood Springs around 4:00 and, after a detour through downtown when I took a wrong turn, we arrived at Hotel Colorado.  Check-in was quick and we first brought up Mel and Pebbles to the room.  Then we loaded up a dolly with all our weekend possessions and we snuck Bella by the hotel staff under a blanket (they have a two-dog limit per room).  Not our first dog-smuggling rodeo and we got to our room unremarked by anyone.  

The room itself was quite grand.  We reserved one of two balcony suites the hotel offers.  There were two bathrooms, a spacious sitting room, kitchen area with sink and table, and a separate bedroom.  We felt very privileged.  

After sanitizing and unpacking we ordered pizza from the hotel kitchen for a late lunch/early dinner.  Then we made our way to the Glenwood pool for a dip.  We found quite a line to get in the facility when we finally sauntered up to the entrance which was dispiriting.  We decided to try Iron Mountain instead.  Unfortunately I pulled up their website on my phone to find that they had absolutely no reservation openings for the entire weekend.  Fortunately we hadn’t walked too far at this point so turned back and got into line.

It took some time but eventually we were allowed inside and soon we were changed and in the pool.  We had a nice time bobbing around this way and that.  It was busier than we have seen it since we started going to celebrate our anniversary many years ago.  We guess that this is because we always visit Glenwood the weekend after Thanksgiving week.  We were still surprised with all the COVID stuff going on.  We stayed until a hair before close (9:00) before going back to our room for the night.  

We woke up early on Saturday to take care of the pups to find that snow had blown in that morning and the room was very cold.  After tending to the dogs we elected to go back to bed and slept late into the morning.  Breakfast room service ends at 11:00 and we just managed to order in time.  The food didn’t come quickly but was yummy when it arrived.  We dressed in our finest day clothes and drove to Glenwood Springs Adventure Park to have ourselves an adventure.  

We found the parking lot only fullish when we pulled in which we took as a good sign.  The gondola ride up was pleasant as the temperatures weren’t too low.  We were worried the day would be a bust with the early snow but the weather changed quickly and much of the snow melting before noon.  

It was windy at the Adventure Park so we zipped up our jacket and sweatshirt before walking around.  There was active construction going on and the main area was muddy from the melting snow.  After buying some tickets we got in line for their alpine slide.  We were lucky to not be behind any children and we both rode down without pulling the brake handles once or catching up with anyone.  Twas fun.  

We then got back on the gondola before jumping right back off as we’d almost forgotten that we’d stowed away much of our pocket items in a locker.  Luckily we got off our gondola before the doors closed and avoided a sad ride down and back up the mountain.  After retrieving our stuff we once again sat down in a gondola and rode it back down to our car.  

As there was still time before we wanted to hit the pool again we parked our car back at the hotel and walked across the bridge to the downtown area.  We had no plans besides walking around and did just that, up one side of the downtown street and back down the other.  It was a pleasant walk.  

Once back in our room we snacked and hung out for a time to let the sun set before heading to the pool again.  This time we weren’t so shocked at the line and queued up for the wait.  Again, it wasn’t too long before we were inside and floating around the main pool.  After a time we elected to get into the hot pool which is usually tough for me as I feel like I’m having a heat stroke after a few minutes.  I found it more tolerable for whatever reason and we stayed in the hot pool for close to an hour before dragging ourselves out (it’s amazing how the hot water relaxes the muscles).  

We got back to the hotel to take care of the dogs before walking back down the stairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  With social distancing and whatnot we had to wait a bit past our reservation time but eventually were seated.  The experience was largely normal and the food wonderful.  We were thoroughly stuffed before we were through.  We stayed up late watching streaming shows via our laptop hooked up to the room TV.  

On Sunday morning I woke Susan up at 7:00 and we took care of the dogs before packing up.  I was still raw from the horrible ski traffic on our last trip to the western slope and wanted to get an early start for the journey back home.  We were efficient and needed only one trip to get all of our stuff and three dogs down to the car.  After loading up we were on the road before 9:00.  

The drive home was fast and we somehow pulled into our driveway a hair before 11:00.  I did the math and we averaged around 80MPH over the trip.  Craziness.  

After unpacking we went to Saltgrass Steakhouse for some yummy food.  As usual the food was scrumptious and the experience pleasant.  We had some oniony leftovers that we packed up to snack on later.  

We elected to relax for the remainder of the day and I played games while Susan napped in the afternoon.  

We took Monday off as a buffer to our trip which worked out perfectly as we had an appointment for a guy to come over to install a new man-door on the garage in the afternoon.  We had slept in before coffee time which was nice.  Late in the morning we made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up a new door knob and then my office for me to check the next day’s calendar.  The installer called me while I was at my desk letting me know he was running far ahead of schedule.  Fortunately for us he didn’t mind waiting at we got home exactly at the start of the installation window (1:00).  

We talked to the door installer briefly before heading inside to let the guy do his thing.  We hung out with the dogs on the couch all afternoon until the door was finished.  We were very happy with the door install and just need to figure out what color to paint it.  

February was a fun month overall.  We wish the weather was warmer and the multiple snow storms curtailed some of our plans.  It seems like we have so much to do but when I get home from work the darkness and cold temperatures sap all motivation.