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.