February update:
Saltgrass Shenanigans –
We made a few trips to Saltgrass in February: the 13th to celebrate the Superbowl, the 18th to celebrate Susan getting a big raise and great review, and the 26th to celebrate Susan’s birthday. Each trip was pleasant and the food was excellent.
Trips to Karen and John’s home –
We took a few trips up to visit Karen and John and help out with this and that. On the 4th we met with the hospice workers to discuss Karen’s care, diagnosis, and prognosis. The conversation was informative. On the 12th we went by to drop off some things we’d ordered and check on things. We went up on the 19th to eat lunch and drop off an Amazon tablet for Karen to use to listen to audiobooks. On the 27th we went up to eat lunch and celebrate Kari and Susan’s birthdays. John had made Susan and Kari birthday presents which were fun and well-received.
E46 stuff –
On the 5th Susan and I drove down to Colorado Springs to pick up some wheels for the BMW. On the way back we stopped at a downtown bar for a tasty lunch. I25 was finally “finished” and we were allowed to use the new express lane for no charge. The drive down and back was very quick.
On the 19th Alvin and Kari came by for a taco bar lunch and to help out with the E46 (Alvin) and moving rocks around (Kari). The food was yummy and we made some progress on the racecar. Susan and Kari disassembled the fire pit up by the retaining wall and created a planter next to our three bushes along the road. We had a nice time.
Other things –
On the 16th Mom let us know that Grandma died due to complications from COVID. So very sad.
Oliver disappeared for eight days and returned on the 4th. It seems like he doesn’t come back on days when snow starts falling. We were very happy to see Oliver again.
Susan noticed Pebbles had what appeared to be a sore on her belly. It turned out to be cancerous and the vet removed a mass along with one teat. Pebbles made a fast recovery with the help of her soft collar thing. Much preferable to the usual “cone of shame” this collar was akin to a potholder with the middle cut out for a dog’s head.
We tried out Walmart’s food delivery service in February. We found the service hit or miss. For the most part our orders were complete but we had issues with delivery notifications. I don’t blame Walmart but we wished they had rang the doorbell when they dropped off our order so it wouldn’t have been covered in several inches of snow while we were inside. After a few deliveries I cancelled the service. Ultimately I prefer to do our grocery shopping in person.
March update –
March 5th weekend –
On Saturday we slept in a bit before feeding the dogs and having our morning coffee ritual. Our mission for the day was to purchase a Miata trunk lid in the springs and we were soon on our way. The trunk lid ended up fitting nicely inside of the G6’s truck which was nice. Miatas are such tiny cars! On the way home we stopped a home-style restaurant. Susan’s French dip was good but my salad was middling at best. At least it was green and edible.
Sunday was a super-duper lazy day. Snow was coming down off and on all day long so we didn’t find the couch when it beckoned after our coffee.
March 12th weekend –
Saturday had us sleeping in a bit before leaving to pick up chicken, sides, and Kari on our way up to Karen and John’s to have lunch. Part of the plan was for it to be instructional for John and I showed him the basics on how I cook chicken on the grill. Susan and Kari did various chores around the house to help out. We briefly saw Alvin when we dropped Kari off on our way home.
Sunday was daylight savings day and we slept in (me less than Susan). The plan for the day was largely focused on our cars and it started with a bit of rearranging followed by removing Scrappy’s seat to clean out the copious OPR. Susan was up at this point and we went to lunch at Qdoba and Walmart for food stuffs.
We hung out for a few hours and then towed the trailer up to Brad’s house to pick up the newly-caged E46. Brad wasn’t 100% finished and we hung out while he worked. Unfortunately for Brad’s neighbor, I had parked a bit askew as I thought it would be a relatively quick trip. Oh well. After several hours we finally loaded the E46 onto the trailer and made our way home.
When I was backing into the driveway we had a little scare. A WRX was coming down the road very fast and didn’t see that I was blocking the road as I was backing up. Tires were locked up as the driver stopped just in time. Yikes. It was dark out but not THAT dark.
Once home we unloaded the E46, rearranged cars, ate pizza, and stayed up far too late for a Sunday.
March 19th weekend –
I was up far too early on Saturday for how unproductive I was. I made us eggs for breakfast and, based on my achy stomach, discovered I may have an aversion to eggs. Such is. Susan joined me in my laziness and we accomplished approximately nothing all day.
On Sunday we got up earlyish to have our coffee and clean up the house a bit. Kari and Alvin came over and I BBQ’d chicken for lunch. The boys then worked on the E46 while the girls worked on a brick path to Oliver’s shed window. When we were alone Susan and I finished out the weekend on the couch with the dogs.
March 25th weekend –
On Friday we headed up to meet our old friend Drew to look at a couple of bicycles. Drew had brought two for Susan to choose from, one being to her liking. He had to make a couple of adjustments and we chatted for a bit before we loaded up and went home. We hadn’t seen Drew in some time and it was nice to catch up.
Saturday was a day at the track though I slept in later than I should have. I had to reattach the bumper on Scrappy before we loaded up and headed out. In my rush to leave I forgot lunch which had me sad when I got hungry later in the day. We still managed to have a blast driving around before running out of gas at 3:00. We stopped at Chili’s for dinner on our way home.
I was up early on Sunday and played games until Susan wandered out from the bedroom later in the morning. Susan made the last of five meals we had been gifted by Kari – the type where a company sends ingredients and instructions on how to prepare meals. While the food was good, I don’t think the value is worth it. The only other thing of note was that the temperature outside was high enough that Susan turned on the AC for the first time of 2022.
April 2nd weekend –
We had another track day on Saturday. This time I had us up and out of the house early enough to arrive at the track well-ahead of the fun beginning. The paddock was largely empty and there were no sessions which was awesome.
I drove first before Susan went out. At the end of my second 30-minute session I had a small off, followed by Scrappy feeling weird. When I came in Susan noticed the axle nut had snapped off on the driver’s rear. Yikes. We did not have a spare axle at the track so we were finished for the day.
While we were surveying the damage a couple approached and we found ourselves talking about Lemons. They (Franklin, Sam, and their small son) had recently moved to Colorado and were building their own (extremely rusty) Miata for Lemons. We had a nice chat before we loaded up Scrappy and left.
Since we were home early, we unloaded Scrappy to replace the axle and rear brake pads which were almost gone. We then left to pick up chicken and Kari on our way up to John and Karen’s house.
I BBQ’d chicken while everyone chatted about this and that. Karen has been doing so much better with her mobility which was so great to see. The food was yummy and we left around 7:00. We saw Alvin and chatted for a few minutes before finishing our drive home.
I got Susan up around 9:30 on Sunday. She then drove up to Kari’s to help with this and that (moving rocks, planting seeds, accompanying Kari when she purchased $2,300 worth of trees). I stayed on the couch and did precisely nothing.
Susan eventually came home, sore from her efforts at Kari’s house. She left again to get herself dinner at Qdoba but found the restaurant empty with a sign indicating they were short-staffed. Luckily Firehouse is in the same parking lot so she picked up a sandwich there. We finished the weekend on the couch with the dogs.
April 9th weekend –
I woke up early on Saturday to take care of the dogs. Susan soon joined me for coffee and eggs. Like the week before, Susan went up to Kari’s to help out with things. Unlike the week before, I attempted to be somewhat productive. My intentions were somewhat foiled by a very achy stomach which I believe is me having an intolerance for eating more than an egg or two in one meal.
I went to Home Depot to exchange a broken wrench which was more painful than it strictly needed to be. The issue was that my wrench came in a kit and I wanted to exchange just the one wrench for one loose wrench, versus opening another kit (for which they were out of stock). The person I was dealing with was being stubborn until they weren’t and let me walk away with the wrench I wanted. My stomach was hurting quite badly at this point so I went straight home after making the exchange.
I took some medicine and tried to fall asleep on the couch. I failed so got up to make ranch and chicken salad before hanging out with the dogs.
Susan got home in the late afternoon. The high wind foiled our BBQing plans and we ordered pizza instead. We ordered carryout to literally save 50% and I picked it up.
Susan planted some ground plants along the path to the dog run which looked very nice. We hung out for the remainder of the evening.
Sunday was another track day and began with my alarm clock going off. We fed the dogs, drank our coffee, and grabbed a few things before heading to the gas station. It was cold outside and more so at the track as it was windy as well.
We drove several sessions throughout the day. The temperatures came up a bit and the winds died down in the early afternoon which was nice. We got to chat with some other track folks we knew and overall had a great time.
The winds came back so we packed up a little early to drive home. We found four stacks of tires had been delivered and, after we unsettled from the track-day, I took a set of tires to Walmart TLE to have mounted. While I was gone Susan planted more plants including some specifically for Oliver’s enjoyment. Oliver seemed to know this and was already attacking and eating his new bounty before Susan was finished planting.
The wind calmed enough to make BBQ for dinner. It was super yummy and we finished the weekend hanging out with the dogs.
April 15th weekend –
Friday had us going to the track again. We drove eight stints or so and were having a blast when, around 3:00, I suddenly lost brakes and went off the track going around 90MPH. It was a scary thing but, besides the inside of the car being coated in dust, at least the car seemed ok.
Instead of going home we took a right turn onto a dirt road and went up to Greeley. This was an “I do as Google Maps commands” sort of thing. The dirt road eventually led us to where we wanted to go but only after many seemingly random turns and various surface conditions. I half expected there to come upon a locked gate blocking the road. At our destination was a guy selling a sunroof delete and wheels for the E46.
I was awake early and lazed around until Susan got up on Saturday morning. Susan cleaned up the front yard and driveway while I had a set of tires mounted to the new E46 wheels. I picked up some chicken wings for dinner. Susan got an amazing amount of work done during the day.
Sunday started much like Saturday, with me being unproductive until Susan got up. After coffee we went to Home Depot and Walmart to buy this and that. Once home Susan went to tend her gardening while I went to tend the E46.
I painted the roll cage until the paint was gone so I went out to buy more. Susan planted plants until she ran out of plants and went out to buy more. I eventually finished painting and Susan eventually finished planting for the day. We then showered off the day’s grime before heading up to Kari and Alvin’s.
The plan was to have dinner and then watch a movie on their giant TV. We ended up talking so much about things that we opted to skip the movie for an earlier evening. Susan and I finished the weekend on the couch with the dogs.
On Tuesday I felt an odd line of pain up the left side of my rib cage. I looked in the mirror and could see a narrow faint vertical line under my arm. I could also feel it with my finger. It was a raised, kind of ropey thing and hurt worse when I touched it. Susan got home and could also see and feel it. I Googled for a bit before Susan convinced me to have a virtual doctor visit. The nurse I ended up video conferencing with hadn’t seen anything like it before in his 20 years of experience and recommended I get an ultrasound. Soon enough Susan and I were in the ER at Sky Ridge. The staff was very nice and I was seen quickly. I got an IV, a chest X-ray, and an ultrasound. My blood pressure was a little high but otherwise I was fine. The doctor believed it was some kind of muscle spasm that would go away in a week or so. Nothing to worry about which was nice. We got home a bit before 9:00. The worst part of the experience was the nurse digging around while putting in the IV with an, apparently, oversized needle. The doctor didn’t understand why I had gotten an IV in the first place. Oh well.
April 23rd weekend –
Saturday – slept in a bit before coffee, went out to buy garden weasel and a CD player, Susan ate Mod Pizza for lunch, went back to Goodwill to look for plant holder (sadly it was sold), stopped at Walmart for food stuff before going home, drove up to see Karen and John, set up CD player with audio CDs Mom sent us, hung out for a time before leaving, went to Clock Tower Grill for dinner, was very yummy, so so windy out
Sunday – slept in a bunch before feeding the dogs and coffee, drove to Home Depot to rent rotor tiller, had to go home for the truck as the one we got was too big to fit in the car, got home and rotor tilled and raked a bunch, took a hour or so to finish front yard, did a bit on the “back” yard before loading up and returning, once home I helped rake a little before heading inside while Susan continued on, she did a great job, hung out for the remainder of the weekend
April 30th weekend –
Saturday – slept in until 9:00 (crazy since dogs usually can’t stand to stay in bed so long), took care of the pups and Susan was also ready to start her day, Susan went out to check out Parker Shoppes which was having a sale since they are closing, she bought two bird baths, went to Lowe’s and shopped their discounted plants, bought some plants, came home and did gardening things, it was warm out but windy, I played games all day, BBQ’d for dinner
Sunday – slept in a little, I played games while Susan slept in, Susan went out to do gardening stuff after coffee, around noon we left to pick up lunch on our way up to Kari’s house, Karen and John were coming over later, Kari showed us her garden and we chatted about this and that, Karen and John eventually showed up, Kari gave everyone an expanded tour of her garden, had a nice time, it got chilly so we went inside, stayed until after 5:00, stopped at Clock Tower Grill for dinner on the way home, yummy food again, very quick service, hung out with the dogs for the evening
May 7th weekend –
Saturday – we were up with an early alarm to start our day. While drinking our coffee I noticed a newer Audi pull into our driveway. It was Steven, a friend of Alvin’s who had come over to help work on the E46. Once we were caffeinated and dressed Susan and I went outside to greet Steven. Alvin and Kari arrived shortly thereafter. Susan and Kari did gardening things while Alvin, Steven, and myself worked on the E46.
I concentrated on swapping out the brakes and Alvin and Steven assembled the engine and transmission. I had issues figuring out what went where and ended up redoing my work several times before I was finished. The engine and transmission was mated, unmated, and remated before it was good to go.
The hope was that the car would be running that morning but, alas, it was not to be. We did manage to get the engine and transmission into the car but found the transmission brace didn’t line up with the chassis. Super-bummer.
Susan and Kari had far more success in their endeavors. They seeded the area Susan and I had prepped a couple of weeks ago, planted some plants, and set up the new bird bath. I am so excited to see how it all turns out!
The plan was that we would go up to Karen and John’s house by noon to celebrate John’s birthday and Mother’s Day. We were running very behind. Alvin and Kari left before us and Susan and myself didn’t get up there until almost 2:00. Oh well.
I brought up ground turkey and spices and massaged out some patties to BBQ. They went on the grill along with some cow-based burgers. I also brought ingredients to make from-scratch macaroni and cheese. It was one of my guestimation recipes but turned out quite well (John told me several times that it was a “home run” so we left them the remnants after the eating was done).
We ate the yummy food in the living room and chatted about this and that. After followed the customary period of reflection when we digested food and bided our time before dessert. I mostly hung out with Karen while the others ventured outside to look at construction going on at a neighbor’s property.
We eventually sat back down around the table for cake and ice cream. It was also yummy though there was some worry about how the cake would turn out. When they asked for half chocolate and half vanilla the bakery person said they would make the cake “marble”. We all agreed this didn’t sound correct but the result was, indeed, half vanilla and half chocolate so all was well.
After more chatting we said our goodbyes and went home. The dogs were happy to see us and get fed their dinner.
Sunday had me up early and Susan sleeping in. I made myself coffee before heading to the garage to continue working on the E46’s brakes. Susan didn’t end up sleeping in a whole lot longer and soon came out to say hi. I went back inside to enjoy another cup of coffee.
Susan was soon off to drop off new wheels and tires for her Miata and buy more plants for her gardening. I puttered around working on the E46 until she came back. Once Susan was home I swapped her new wheels/tires onto Tia. They really looked great. Susan had purchased a few more plants and spend some time tending to them and watering the newly seeded areas. I was absolutely beat and went inside to relax on the couch. After some time Susan joined me and we finished the weekend watching streaming shows on TV.
May 12th weekend –
The weekend started on Thursday for us as we loaded up the RV and headed to the track. It took us a bit longer than we’d wanted to get going as we had to finally unload the pavers from the suburban first and we were simply out of practice.
Oliver showed up a few minutes before we were to leave which was super-great as he hadn’t come around for over a week. We suspect he got himself locked into a structure as he was very hungry. Susan gave Oliver extra food and water.
We stopped at Love’s truck stop on the way out to the track for propane and diesel fuel. The prices for each was far higher than it was last time we needed to fill up the RV. Such is the times we’re in.
It was close to 9:30 before we arrived at the track. The almost full moon helped greatly in backing in the trailer and parking the RV. We ended up staying up past midnight after we were settled in.
On Friday we woke up early to take care of the dogs and check in for open lapping. Then we went back to bed and slept until almost 11:00. Our plan for Scrappy was to get out on the track for just a few laps each to make sure the car felt alright. After the lunch break we finally got Scrappy out of the trailer.
I went out first for some laps and immediately noticed something was off. Specifically the steering wheel was a couple of inches off-center. I didn’t stay out on the track long before coming in to look at the suspension. I checked the alignment marks and didn’t see anything obviously wrong so Susan went out for some laps as well. I suspected something may be slightly bent. The plan forward was to do a more thorough check at home and then get an alignment before the race. After Susan got back we loaded Scrappy back into the trailer.
There were a lot of interesting cars in the paddock (it was an RMVR weekend) we biked (Susan) and walked (me) around looking at them. Jeff and Sean (the guys we sold our yellow racecar Miata to) were there for the weekend activities so we spent time chatting with them about this and that.
For dinner I cooked burgers in the RV on our griddle as it was just too windy to BBQ outside. The burgers came out surprisingly juicy. We suspect the griddle helped in this regard.
We ventured back outside to hang out with Jeff and Sean for much of the evening. It’s nice having track-pals. Eventually we were back in the RV and finished the night relaxing on the couch with the dogs.
Saturday morning had us both up early again to take care of the dogs but I ended up staying up once we were done while Susan got another hour of sleep. After Susan got up we spent the day in and out of the RV, watching racing, looking at the cars, and chatting with Jeff and Sean. For lunch I made us a mushroom chicken stew which was pretty darn good.
In the late afternoon we packed up and headed back home. The original plan was to stay at the track through the whole weekend but Alvin and Steven were going to come over for an E46 build day at our house on Sunday and I wanted to be present.
On Sunday I was up early with an alarm to start the day. Alvin and Steven arrived soon thereafter and we spent the morning working on this and that. Susan eventually got up and headed out to buy plants and plant-things. Our E46 efforts were generally successful and we worked on the car until mid-afternoon when Steven and Alvin left.
I was out of energy at this point and went inside for some quality couch-time with the dogs. Susan stayed outside to tend to her plants and patrol the yard for thistles. Eventually Susan came in to join us on the couch where we finished the out the long weekend.
I took off Wednesday to work on the E46 with Alvin. He focused on fabricating the seat mount and support for the steering column and I focused on stripping the hardware from the doors. It felt like we got a lot done. We’re hopeful the car is ready for the upcoming race.
May 21st weekend –
This weekend was almost completely dedicated to working on the E46 for myself. Alvin and Steven came by to help and together we accomplished quite a lot. We still have a few things to do but the build is coming along.
Susan’s weekend was mixed. There was a super-late spring snowstorm on Friday so Susan covered most of her outside plants and moved others inside the garage. On Saturday she slept in and hung out with the dogs for most of the day. Sunday had Susan going out to buy more plants and doing this and that outside.
May 27th weekend –
I took Friday off to take Scrappy up for an alignment, went well, got home, helped Alvin with a couple of things before loading E46 onto trailer, went to HPR, showed up very late, did four laps, very happy with car, went home and unloaded
Saturday – up earlyish, worked on Scrappy with Susan and Jeff Lee (another driver), had a nice time, found pulley issue, went to dinner at Clock Tower Grill
Sunday – up earlyish, mowed lawn, weed-whacked, drove up to Brad’s to pick up cool shirt cooler, stopped at Olive Garden for late lunch, then liquor store, Costco, and Walmart
Monday – up early, Alvin came over to help work on E46, got a lot done, went on trip to junk yard, Home Depot, Michael’s, lunch at Firehouse, more work, late day
June 2nd weekend –
2022 B.F.E. GP Recap – Flat Face Racing and Coin-Op Racing
TLDR: we took the green and checkered flags with two cars (Scrappy the purple Miata and a rough silver E46), had mechanical issues and black flags all weekend, got in a lot of laps anyway while having a blast, can’t wait to come back for the true 24 in September
Thursday:
It was busy day from start to finish. The first half of the day was packing, packing, and more packing. The second half was traveling and unpacking, unpacking, and more unpacking. There was also working on the E46 which was a few items short from being able to pass tech.
The brake lights weren’t turning on and the kill switch wasn’t installed. At some point I took the E46 out for a couple of test laps and concluded that we were going to have a sloppy good time. Blown stock suspension with 200TW tires for the win! The E46 also wasn’t in the mood to maintain idle but out on the track the engine managed to run just fine.
Because it’s Lemons we stayed up far too late chatting with other folks and thus got far too little sleep on Thursday night.
Friday:
The morning started slow with me walking around the paddock with coffee taking pictures of the pretty Lemons cars.
Our drivers soon began to arrive and we spent some hours hovering around the cars until Alvin arrived with needed junk yard parts. After some Alvinizardry the E46 had working brake lights and a functional kill switch.
I had paid our entry fees late which had our tech times at 3:00 (Scrappy) and 3:30 (E46). Both cars were scrutinized in tech and both cars passed without any issues. As per normal we heavily bribed on Scrappy’s behalf with copious cans of beer and were rewarded with Class A and zero penalty laps (a victory in itself). For the E46 we had no bribes and instead just bounced the car up and down to show how floppy the suspension was. Apparently the BS judge felt sorry for us and awarded the E46 Class A with zero penalty laps (another itself-victory!).
I wasn’t necessarily going to test Scrappy but decided it best to go out for a few laps. I found the car felt wonky. I figured some of the cardboard aero around the fuel cell was falling off so got the rear off the ground to take a peek. The problem was actually the rear passenger axle nut had backed itself off, leaving the wheel dangling just a bit. This same thing happened several open lapping days ago and my solution was the same this time, to retighten and re-punch the nut.
This was not the correct solution.
The Coin-Op Racing team spent much of the time before and after tech buttoning up the E46’s interior via zip ties and putting in some test laps around the track. The E46 was deemed rough but raceable.
Saturday:
Race day started off well-enough with me in Scrappy and Alvin in the E46. I was caught flatfooted on the green flag but otherwise the start and subsequent laps went fine until they didn’t.
I inadvertently pushed the E46 (driven by Steven) off of turn six about and hour and a half into the race. Far too late I had radioed that I was taking his inside line and it resulted in Steven acquiring a black flag. Totally my bad. Coincidentally Scrappy immediately began to feel a bit floaty. I would twitch the steering wheel and the back would do an out-of-time shimmy.
I now believe I had just received punishment from the race gods.
I came back to the carport figuring the axle nut had backed off again. I was wrong; it turned out the bearing itself had failed. I had a spare knuckle to swap in but Scrappy was down for 30 minutes while Alvin wrenched. This took away any chance of an overall win so we shifted our focus to just making sure everyone got plenty of fun seat time.
I wish I could say the rest of the day’s race was uneventful (except for the fun parts) for team Flat Face Racing but it wasn’t. Jeff acquired a black flag and, towards the end of Ryan’s stint, the transmission decided it wanted to permanently remain in third gear. We tried yanking the shifter this way and that while stationary and then while being dragged around the paddock to no avail. Of course, I had spare transmissions but, of course, they were at home over an hour away. Thus ended Saturday’s racing for Flat Face Racing.
Coin-Op Racing’s day was similar as some drivers accrued black flags (corner workers were far stricter than normal) and the E46 was back in the carport several times for repairs. The team had no intentions of greatness with the E46’s first outing and ran one-hour stints to make sure all the drivers got a chance to race. They also performed most of the driver changes off of the hot pit lane so they could check fluids and whatnot. This was a good strategy as problems abounded with engine issues and a transmission that decided to blow fluid out its top.
Before the racing was finished for the day, Jeff was shuttling me back to my house in Parker to pick up two transmissions (couldn’t be too careful) and then up to O’Reilly’s to purchase incorrect BMW parts. Susan had thankfully saved us a couple of bowls of our Cheaty Chicken Chilly (our team’s potluck contribution) as we didn’t get back to the track until after 7:00.
The rest of the evening was dedicated to working on Scrappy, drinking alcoholic beverages, and chatting with roving bands of Lemons people. While installing the bellhousing bolts, Ryan discovered one of the lower ball joints had come loose. In the end the ball joint was swapped out as some important threads were thrashed. By the time I finished pumping gear oil into the transmission it was almost two in the morning and the paddock was largely quiet.
Sunday:
Compared to Saturday, Sunday was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Scrappy ran well besides a wire coming off the recently rewired kill switch, temporarily disabling the car, and no longer having power steering. The E46 ran better with new injectors and a DIY fix to keep the coil packs in place. The E46 also didn’t have power steering and later had third gear issues of its own, though they were just of the grinding-variety. There were more black flags but everyone got a lot of fun laps behind the wheel. I elected to give up my stint in Scrappy and took a turn in the E46. It was a hilariously sloppy good time. That car has potential; I can feel it.
Susan and I felt a bit victorious when Turbo-Encabulators won overall driving the yellow Miata we’d sold them last summer. Jeff and Sean are great guys and their team ran a perfect race (they also fixed a multitude of problems that came with the car).
The award ceremony was its normal good time and it’s always fun to cheer on the deserving victors. With the help of our teammates we managed to not be the last folks leaving the track (another itself-victory!) and went home for my lower back to decompress from the long weekend.
Our Thanks:
Big thanks to all of our drivers who piloted our cars safely (generally) around the track. Bigger thanks to our drivers for helping Alvin and I work on Scrappy and the E46 through much of the weekend. Special shoutout to Jeff Lee for taxying me back to Denver for parts (sorry about the gear oil in the bed of your truck) and Ryan Dussex for extricating the old transmission and performing much of the installation of the new one. Despite many mechanical issues both cars managed to put in a lot of laps.
Thanks to the multitude of Lemons people who hung out while we toiled away on Scrappy. The company truly was nice to have. Also thanks to Matthew of Budget Bugeye who jumped in to help work on Scrappy and stayed up far too late to commiserate as our efforts continued. Thanks to Drew from Petrosexual for letting us borrow your alignment tools and buy spare gas.
Notes on some of the other teams:
Turbo-Encabulators (#314 – the winning yellow Miata) – obviously a great team with a great car, so awesome to see you win overall! Great job Jeff, Sean, Will, and the other guy!
Sew So Fast (#41 – the speedy 318) – you put on quite a race and it was fun to see it end so close, your team runs a tight ship, sorry we didn’t get to talk much this weekend
Volatile RAM (#801 – the MR2) – great job on the Class B win, welcome to Class A!
Savage Orchid Racing (#613 – the only Ford Escort) – I thought you might get the Class B win this time, always hilariously difficult to pass the car on the straights
Conquest Motorsports (#510 – the Datsun 510(ish)) – seriously quick car, easily could live and win in Class A
Smokey and the Bandit (#101 – the black NA Miata) – good job guys and thanks for the gracious point-by David!
Secrets of Slow (#48 – the only Audi) – it was a smoke screen behind you when the green flag dropped, nice job making it to the end and placing in the top 10!
Orange Crushed (#321 – the orange (duh) Miata) – I thought it would be a battle between us but when differentials explode what can one do? You may have beat us in laps but we beat you in mechanical problems!
Flog Maet Racing (#42 – the Golf) – nice driving, great job on your first outing!
Rusty Thunder Racing (#900 – the wrong-engined Fiero) – congrats on the Class C win, welcome to Class B!
The Froot Loops (#21 – the colorful old 5 series) – Dirk from Coin-Op Racing had a blast duking it out in the last stint, great fun! Now you need to slot your top hats!
CKT Racing (#707 – the repainted Gembesties E30) – good job getting so many laps and, holy smokes, that car is fast, can’t wait to see the E46 when it’s finally running, perhaps you should name yourselves the “Formerly known as the CU Boulder Racing Team” ;)
CU Boulder Racing Team (#719 – the other Ecotec Miata) – you totally had the overall win except for the broken differential, snapped PPF, complete loss of brakes, etc. Next time!
Petrosexual Racing (#11 (Caddiata) and #12 (Crossfire)) – sorry you had fuel pump issues (note to self: buy a spare fuel pump), awesome how well the Crossfire did in its first outing!
Taco Tuesday Motorsports (#43 – the Forester) – glad to see you finish a race, de-powered STI motors for the win!
One Foot In Racing (#27 – Trogdor E30) – theme brought me back to pre-YouTube internet days, great showing for their first race!
Prescription Racing (#47 – the orange RX7) – sorry I didn’t end up making it over to see your car, I think this car will truly dominate once the hydro lock issues are sorted out
Budget Bugeye (#458 – the Subaru Neon) – jeez, will those motors just stop blowing up already? Ecotec next time, maybe? At least the car looked the racecar-part with its sweet aero!
The Gunbarrel Cobras (#9 – the high-sitting red Starlet) – glad you managed to swap in another motor and finish the race, another hilariously difficult car to pass in the straights
Dirty Racers (#888 – the red truck) – never stop being you, sorry the truck had issues but happy to see it get triple-digit laps!
June 11th weekend –
Saturday – up earlyish, took care of dogs, went outside to clean up garage, unpack RV, move gas cans, etc, got Susan up around 9:30 for coffee, Susan went to Kari’s to let dogs out, then up to Karen and John’s to have lunch and check in on them, then back to Kari’s for a bit before having dinner with Kari and Alvin on her way home, I finished unpacking and cleaning up, got Scrappy up on lift, took a trip to return some parts, very hot, stopped around 3:00 as I was tired of the heat, spent remainder of the day editing and uploading Lemons videos
Sunday – up earlyish to take care of dogs and drink coffee before heading up to buy two transmissions, can’t have too many, guy’s house was up in Lakewood, only $100/each so a very good deal, stopped by Walmart on way home for food stuff, picked up Qdoba after shopping, sprayed thistles and pulled some plants, too hot for me to stay outside, I hung out for rest of afternoon with the dogs, Susan went out to buy some plants, BBQ’d chicken for dinner, ate outside, very pleasant temperature in the shade of the garage
June 18th weekend –
Saturday – up earlyish, I worked on swapping Scrappy’s brakes, Susan gardened, later we went to hospital to pick up John and bring him home after foot surgery (Susan drove John’s Subaru while I drove our G6), didn’t stay too long at their home before returning
Sunday – I mowed the lawn mid-morning while Susan did gardening things, showered and then caught lunch at Modpizza before Costco and then Walmart, Susan did more gardening in afternoon, I eventually went out to buy new RAM for my beleaguered computer
Monday – I was off for the new federal holiday and Susan worked, I moved Alvin’s welding stuff outside of the garage so he could pick it up and then I left to buy a new hard drive for my computer and a battery for the NC, got home and installed the battery in the NC (it honked at me multiple times), installed hard drive in computer, spent rest of afternoon getting computer to work, installed Windows Vista and then Windows 8.0 and then 8.1, seemed ok at end of day
June 25th weekend –
Saturday – up a bit early for coffee, left for the Springs to meet a guy to buy a very used racing seat, the weather was odd for this time of year, foggy and we felt spit-upon for most of the drive down and back, went to an old but new-to-us bar and grill for lunch in Parker, they put honey mustard on my Caesar salad and largely ignored us, we ended up leaving cash on the table as we sat so long without a check, went to Lowes to buy some plants, went home, I worked on Scrappy while Susan did her plant thing
Sunday – up at the same time for coffee, Susan went up to Kari’s to help move a pile of dirt, she drove the suburban for the first time in a long time, I worked on Scrappy, went to Walmart for groceries in the afternoon, Susan got home in the late afternoon, I BBQ’d chicken for dinner, it was a bit chilly outside which was odd
July 2nd weekend –
Saturday – up earlyish, went to Mazda dealership, then we went to Costco to do some shopping (it was a madhouse at the entrance), went home to drop off groceries, back out in suburban to buy 18 bags of soil and plants, then to Qdoba for lunch and then Walmart for more groceries, I was struck with a terrible headache and laid down when we got home while Susan worked on her gardening, I got up feeling fine a couple of hours later and helped Susan with her new planters, went out again to buy another bag of soil, went to Perry’s Pizza and ate a very interesting and yummy pizza
Sunday – up early to get ready before heading up to Kari and Alvin’s house, brought Mel and Pebbles, helped assemble and set up their gazebo, had to move cement mixer and then transport three large boxes up from storage, spent several hours doing this and that, ate a late lunch, back at it, eventually Karen, John, and Jan came over for dinner, had a nice time, ate inside as rain came, decided to pick up the work on Monday instead of staying late
Monday – up early again and back up at Kari and Alvin’s to finish up gazebo, we thought it would be finished quickly but we ended up staying up all day to complete the project, gazebo came out quite well, we brought burgers to cook for lunch, again Mel and Pebbles came along, it was a long project but we were very happy we could help out, we were tired when we got home though Susan still had to water her plants, we heard sporadic fireworks throughout the evening
July 9th weekend –
Saturday – up early, fed dogs, hung out on couch until Susan got up, coffee, left to buy bags of soil, eat lunch at Qdoba, pick up stuff at Walmart, went home to unpack, Susan put together raised garden bed in living room, then set it up outside, filled it with dirt, she planted during afternoon/evening
Sunday – up early (both of us), Susan went out to thrift stores and to look at plants, brought home some food for lunch, went out again for tomato frame things, spent most of the day outside, I was a vegetable almost all weekend, just baked chicken for dinner
July 16th weekend –
Saturday – up early to feed dogs, have coffee, head to garage, tried fixing power steering again, wound up giving up and decided to install a de-powered steering rack instead, Susan got up and brought more coffee, I toiled away until 2:30 and then showered before we left to go to Alamo Drafthouse to see new Thor movie, we enjoyed it, food was pretty yummy, very hot outside, watched TV with the dogs on the couch
Sunday – I was up early again, fed dogs, had coffee, went to garage, made good progress before Susan got up, put Scrappy back together, Susan assembled fire pit, helped bleed the brakes, Susan and I cooked chicken in kitchen for lunch, very tasty, went to Costco and then Walmart, again very hot outside, I was done in the heat but Susan had to tend to her plants, watched movies during the evening
Wednesday – went to TOP concert at Red Rocks, we had a close row but our seats were in the aisle and the sound mixing wasn’t great, had fun nonetheless
July 21st weekend –
Thursday – took Scrappy up for alignment, bled brakes, took care of this and that at home, packed up RV, drove to track in evening, set up in dark, watched movies before bed
Friday – up early to feed dogs, drink coffee, unload Scrappy, had some fun driving around, brakes felt wonky, reblead brakes at lunch, still felt wrong, stopped driving early, packed up Scrappy, took a nap, lots of hanging out, ventured out to walk around in the dark
Saturday – slept in a bit, ate, packed up, went home from our trip early
Sunday – I had plans to work on Scrappy but ended up having a lazy day, Susan went out and did something, I’m looking at this entry five months later and can’t remember
Wednesday – I got up early to prep Betty (brakes, tires) for a day at IMI, met Em and family, had fun driving around with passengers, Em and Ryan drove too, Stu took a kart out for a time, all had a nice time, rushed home, left for Red Rocks to see Goo Goo Dolls, hung out before doors opened in car, long line but went quickly once it started moving, decent seats, good show, started raining as we walked to car, insane thunderstorm on way home, barely see road, lots of cars with flashers on, got home and moved Miatas into cover just in case, went to bed around 1:00AM
July 30th weekend –
Saturday – Harrison, Alvin, Kari, Dirk came over to work on the E46 and do plant things, used my fancy new scales to weigh the car, pulled motor and transmission, reinstalled before the end of the day, ate pizza for lunch, had fun working and chatting
Sunday – super lazy day for me, Susan went out to shop and then gardened for most of the day
August 4th weekend –
Saturday – we got up and went to the CPR storage locker to look at the PA system we donated, some jerk had broken in and stolen the cables and microphone, we then stopped by Guitar Center to look at their cables before heading home (I ended up buying what I needed on Amazon)
Sunday – Steven came over at 11:00 to watch me finish making chicken salad while we waited for Alvin and Kari to show up, Alvin and Steven worked on the E46 while I mostly messed with adding string to Scrappy and I made us BBQ chicken for lunch, I did install some bumper attachment things, and, after Steven left, I mowed the part of the lawn over the septic tank and leech field that had gotten deep, Susan and Kari happened to be watching when I finished and clapped when I took a bow, after all of this Alvin and I loaded the E46 back into the trailer and he and Kari went home
August 12th weekend –
Friday – I got off work a little early and picked up food stuffs from Walmart on my way home, Susan and I then went up to Karen and John’s to make dinner (grilled chicken, au graten potatoes, garlic bread), we had a nice time and talked about this and that
Saturday – Susan went up to Kari and Alvin’s where she helped cut down thistle and had lunch (John and Karen visited as well), I stayed home with the idea that I would work on Scrappy, I did not do this but spent my day rejuvenating on the couch with the dogs, it was pleasant, Susan picked up Perry’s Pizza on her way home, it was delectable
Sunday – we were up relatively early for coffee, Susan went to Lowe’s while I cleaned up the garage, Susan came home and I got Scrappy on the lift and did a couple of fixes, I finally installed the center console in Tia (I had fixed some plastic bits that broke), I finally got around to installing a folding shelf in the car trailer to hold our helmets (this was more difficult than I thought it would be), it was probably too hot but I decided to rearrange the tire shed, I took out most of the stuff inside, per Susan’s suggestion I used our floor jack to jack up one side of the shed that had sagged and spare concrete blocks to create a foundation of sorts, then Susan helped me move a shelving thing inside we had picked up for free from a neighbor some weeks ago, I loaded the stuff back inside, I was going to batten down the siding with screws but the sustained heat of the day was too much and I was exhausted, Susan spent most of her day with her plants, it was a really great weekend
August 19th weekend –
Friday – I was off work, got up with my late alarm (6:45), took care of the pups, had coffee with Susan, left to pick up gas on the way to HPR, Susan had to work so I was by myself (very weird), it was busy at track but I got a great spot to park, saw two teammates (for upcoming September race), saw a couple of other Lemons teams, had fun driving around the track, drove David’s endurance Miata (I barely fit!), Scrappy’s windshield got a bit smashed by a rock while Shad was driving (no biggie as we were going to replace anyway), stayed almost all day before going packing up and going home, had a great time, Susan and I went to Safeway to buy some food stuffs for the next day
Saturday – slept in a little before getting up to clean up the house a bit, I unloaded Scrappy from the trailer and got it on the lift in the garage, Ryan McLaughlin and Wade Eldridge came by for a Scrappy team gathering, we chatted about all things racecar, David Achammer came by for a while too before he had to go (he had just picked up a used 944 racecar he had bought), I BBQ’d chicken and we ate outside in the wind (at least the temperature was perfect), we ended up watching some videos on the TV before the guys took off, had a nice time
Sunday – slept in a little, after coffee we unloaded the E46 from the team enclosed trailer and onto our open trailer, this was a pain as the car didn’t want to stay in 3rd gear or maintain idle, drove up to Dirk’s house in Evergreen (amazing home and property), got the car into his shop and onto his 4-post lift, worked on exhaust, Dirk has every tool imaginable including pipe-bending things, over the day we cut (mostly me) and shaped new pipe (all Dirk) to remake the exhaust, a few people came by to buy Corvette parts (Dirk is a collector and sells a lot of old stuff too), each person that came over represented a lot of lost productivity but it was ok as we were just happy Dirk was willing to help out, Dirk’s large German Shepard “Hoss” was very friendly, it was an interesting time and we stayed until 4:30 before leaving for home, stopped at Marshdale Burger as Susan and I hadn’t had a meal all day, it was a hip tavern-style burger place and was yummy, after we got home Alvin asked if I could go to Castle Rock to pick up another E46 transmission, I could and did so, Susan and I finished the weekend on the couch as is our norm
August 26th weekend –
It began on Thursday evening when I got a text asking if we’d be interested in switching the brand new 2022 Miata we had been waiting on for a different Miata. A nearby dealer was needing a car from the dealership we were working with and our dealer suggested swapping the car with a Miata. This Miata was the Club version which had upgraded suspension, a limited slip differential, and some other upgrades. The Mazda website had shown the Club as being sold out, otherwise we likely would have tried to get one originally. After a bit of discussion I replied back that we were interested. Later that night I booked a Friday afternoon flight out to Portland.
Friday – I went to work as per normal as I had one morning meeting I wanted to attend. I also found that I needed to take care of some other things before leaving for home around 11:00. I had to do some car rearranging in case I didn’t get home on Saturday and I packed my small suitcase. Susan accompanied me to DIA around 2:00. Security was very busy but they kept us moving along. I arrived at my gate with plenty of time to spare.
I had purchased a window seat in row 12 which was very nice as I didn’t have to walk back too far. I don’t know that I’d had a window seat before and I really found I enjoyed looking at the ground and clouds during the flight. The flight itself went without incident and I watched a movie on my phone to pass the time.
I had no bags checked so made my way out to where the Uber and Lift services picked up passengers and ordered myself a ride. Susan had suggested I download the Uber app ahead of time so I was ready to go. I settled on a black Toyota Sienna to get me to the dealership. The driver talked during most of the trip and was entertaining enough to make the distance seem short. Nice fellow.
At the dealership I was greeted by a guy holding a “Lawson party” sign which was fun. They had our car in the showroom which was neat. I attempted to have a video call with Susan to show her the car but poor service ruined the fun. The folks at the dealership were nice. I was shown the basics of the electronic features and took the car out for a short test drive. It took longer than I would have liked but eventually I signed what I needed to and left with the Miata.
I wanted to cover some miles before the night was through so, after a stop at Safeway to eat some food I had brought from Colorado, I drove three hours to a Comfort Inn, where I stayed for the night. I called Susan before laying down and was tired enough I didn’t even bother turning on the TV before I went to sleep.
I was up before my wakeup call and went down for coffee and some breakfast. I didn’t want to dawdle too much and was on the road be 7:00 local time.
The drive itself was mostly uneventful. Except for an hour or so I turned off the cruise control. During that hour I managed to get my first speeding ticket in a very long time. The cop had no sympathy and issued me a very expensive fine. Such is. The Miata got better gas mileage than I expected. I think it averaged around 34 MPG while I averaged 80-90 MPH. Very impressive. Besides the ticket, the only really painful part of the drive was at night as there was no moon whatsoever. I arrived home at 11:00 that evening.
Sunday – I didn’t get to sleep in as long as I wanted to the next morning. I was pretty beat from the drive the day before but Susan wanted to take pictures of the cars before the main part of the day got started so we were up and drinking coffee at 8:00. We first took our four street Miatas to the car wash before lining them and Scrappy up. Susan used her DSLR camera for most of the pictures which came out very nice. Dirk came by as we were finishing up and we rearranged the cars again.
Alvin and Steven came by as well for another day of working on the E46. I helped a little this time but mostly just took care of picking up the pizza for lunch. We were hoping the new suspension would have showed up before Sunday but the shipping was delayed (it ended up arriving on Monday afternoon).
Susan and Kari attempted to pull some bush plants from in front of the retaining wall. The roots of the first plant proved too strong for the tow strap so we settled on my cutting them down to ground-level using the saws-all. Susan and Kari spent the day gardening while we worked on this and that with the E46.
Steven and Dirk left around 4:00 and Alvin stuck around to work on the exhaust. Alvin wired in a large plug on the lift so we could use my welder for the first time. It actually worked pretty well. My first attempt was objectively terrible but ,technically, it counted as welding so whatever. Evidently it takes some practice to weld well which I expected.
After Alvin and Kari left Susan and I finished the day on the couch.
Monday – I was very tired when my alarm went off. So tired that I opted to take the day off to sleep in and relax. By the end of the day I finally felt I’d recovered from the trip to pick up the new Miata.
Lemons week!
I took off the entire week to prepare. Alvin came by and took the E46 to work on, I prepped Scrappy as best I could, checking on this and that, packed up things for the Lemons race, put together the driver schedule
Here is the “official” recap I wrote:
2022 High Plains Drifter Recap – Flat Face Racing and Coin-Op Racing
TLDR: Scrappy took the green and (barely) checkered flags despite blowing up a motor and ripping off a wheel, the E46 got a late start but managed a decent race and a 15th place finish, despite major setbacks and issues we all had a great time
Thursday:
Usually this is a crazy day for Susan and myself with preparations and whatnot. Not so much this time as most of our packing and loading was already done in the preceding days. We arrived at the track around 4:30 to find the paddock largely empty which made positioning our trailer with our big ole RV a simple matter. I took Scrappy out for a few sessions to bed two sets of brakes but otherwise gave the car the night off from driving.
Friday:
We slept in a little bit as we’d been up far too late the night before. I walked around to take some pictures of the teams that had already arrived and had a few fun chats along the way. Our drivers started showing up around 10:30. Alvin arrived with the E46 a bit after noon.
Both cars were ready for tech and both flew through without incident or penalty laps. As per usual, Scrappy required a bit of bribing to get +0 laps while the E46 got its +0 with a mix of begging and judge sympathy for a newish team and car.
Much of the afternoon and evening had the drivers flogging both cars around the track. Some drivers were looking to learn the track, some drivers were looking to learn the cars, and Alvin and I were looking for issues to fix before the race began.
Alvin and his E46 team had problems with failing (new) bushings and terrible headlights. The end of the night had the E46 up on jack stands with Alvin and Dirk having plans for a Saturday morning excursion to the junk yard.
I had major concerns regarding the brake pad wear and front bearings on Scrappy. In the end I decided to run what was on the car and perform a scheduled check at midnight during the race. My only task on Friday night was to swap out the very used tires for unblemished race-rubber. This took me far longer than it needed to as we engaged in near-constant chatting with the roving bands of inebriated Lemoners.
For dinner we ate Cheaty Chicken Chili along with sides provided by other drivers on the teams. Deandra’s corn bread was simply amazing and worth calling out.
Saturday morning:
Despite another late night, sleeping in was impossible so I was up relatively early. I emerged from the RV to find the weather downright gloomy. The skies were overcast and there was a constant mist soaking the ground. It was also oh so cold. 100 degrees on Thursday to 40 degrees on Saturday morning. Craziness.
After the regular drivers meeting and a rookie meeting several of our drivers were required to attend the racing began!
Coin-Op Racing’s Racin’:
The E46’s issues discovered on Friday night were not resolved until an hour after the green flag had flown. Once it finally got on the track the E46 performed well. The team managed two-hour stints and the drivers generally kept all four tires on the asphalt. The power steering decided to stop working for the second race in a row and the headlights were abysmal at night but otherwise the car was mostly ok. The team finished 15th overall with 482 laps. If the E46 had started on time and the drivers avoided black flags it could have easily been a top 10 finish, possibly top five.
Flat Face Racing’s Racin’:
Scrappy the plucky Miata had a good start to the race. I took the first stint and made it as high as 2nd place overall before pitting for the next driver, Wade. Wade acquired a black flag but was otherwise doing well when, towards the end of his stint, the car felt down on power and the motor started knocking. He limped back to the carport and we let the motor cool down. We tried adding some oil and the motor seized immediately when cranked.
Thus began the next 12 hours of our lives.
Ryan drove me back home in his truck to pick up our spare engine while Wade and company extricated the busted motor from Scrappy. Along with many other bits and pieces, the oil pan had to be swapped to the new motor and we spent much time cleaning out copious amounts of sparkly bits using water from our RV, several cans of brake clean, and air from the track. The spare motor was in relatively unknown shape so it was with much trepidation that we finally attempted starting it around 4:00AM. Thankfully, it cranked easily and fired up right away.
Game on!
We started the race for a second time at 4:30AM. Those working on Scrappy were delirious with the lack of sleep and immediately went to bed for a few hours while David and Shad took their stints. By the time I woke, Ryan was driving and the race was mostly over.
We were waiting in the hot pit lane for Ryan to stop for the last driver change when we received word from Dirk (driving the E46) that Scrappy was on the side of the track and sitting on three wheels.
Yikes.
It took time for the track crew to load up and bring Scrappy back to the paddock. I expected the failure to be with one of the front bearings but it turned out that the driver rear hub had ripped itself in half. The studs were still in the wheel along with half of the hub while the other half was attached to the axle. The rotor was largely gone and the caliper was hanging by the brake lines, thankfully intact. Glenn had to go searching for the wheel (which had impacted the turn five bunker) and, once delivered, we found it had been wrecked beyond usability.
Using my spare hub, a borrowed wrong-sized rotor, a newly bent bracket, new pads, and a wheel shorn in an old tire we finally got Scrappy out onto the track with five minutes to spare before the end of the race. Susan was able to take the checkered flag which was the only victory we were looking for at that point.
Scrappy finished 54th overall with 226 laps. Besides the engine blowing up and the rear hub failing the car drove spectacularly.
Our Thanks:
Giant thanks to all our teammates for driving so well! The E46 had Alvin, Ian, Steven, Dirk, Harrison, and Nick. Scrappy had Wade, Ryan, David, Shad, Susan, and myself. Crazy-thanks to Wade, Ryan, and Alvin for their help swapping out the engine and fixing the broken hub stuff. Sleep before 4:00AM is for the weak, right? Big thanks to whoever loaned us the engine hoist and Jeff, Sean, and Will for lending us tools along the way.
A huge shoutout to all of the drivers who raced clean despite the cold and wet start. Considering the conditions its amazing how few incidences occurred.
Many thanks to the organizers and Glenn for making the 24 hour race as good as it can possibly be!
September 17th weekend –
Saturday – up early to get Scrappy into garage, unpacked most of RV and trailer from race, mowed the lawn, Alvin and Kari came by with E46 in trailer, BBQ’d chicken for lunch with zucchini Kari grew, unloaded busted engine and other stuff, parked trailer in lower 40, Alvin and I went to junk yard, pulled wiring harness but had to leave as yard closed, all went to dinner at Clocktower Grill
Sunday – up early to meet Alvin at junk yard when they opened, pulled two transmissions and some other great parts, quite the lucky day, I went home where I relaxed while Susan did her gardening stuff all afternoon, I was quite tired, we ordered pizza for dinner
September 21-26 weekend –
Wednesday – we were up early to go to Susan’s appointment to have sinus surgery to correct a deviated septum, I waiting in lobby while Susan got chopped up, late morning they brought me in to see her, very out of it, high blood pressure from medicine had us staying until mid-afternoon, eventually left to pick up pain meds on the way home, Susan out of it for remainder of evening
Thursday-Sunday – mostly we just hung out at home, Susan slept a lot and ate soft foods, we watched marathons of TV shows, a very lazy weekend, Susan had to do regular nasal flushings which weren’t fun
Monday – I took Susan to have nasal things removed, wasn’t as bad as she feared, I finally went back to work, Susan resumed work from home
September 30-October 2 weekend –
We were up super-early on Friday to finish packing the RV, Alvin came by to grab the E46 trailer and left for the track before we did, Susan and I arrived at the track around 9:00, backed into our favorite spot, parked and set up the RV, took Scrappy onto the track for a couple of laps, torquing the axle nuts a few times before unleashing the car, I put down a personal best, we both had a lot of fun driving, Alvin drove Scrappy once and I drove the E46 once, E46 was having some kind of engine issue but still ran alright otherwise, Susan and I stayed all weekend at the track, NASA did their thing, weather was rainy and cold for much of the time, crazy rain on Saturday afternoon, I cooked while being dripped on via the kitchen vent, we watched movies in the evenings, had a very nice time, came home on Sunday afternoon, unpacked completely, hung out with dogs in the evening
October 7-9 weekend –
Friday – felt pretty terrible (probably from COVID and flu shots the day before), had a food allergy test on my back in the afternoon, no allergies (yay?)
Saturday – up early to finish working on Scrappy (add coolant, install from bumper), Susan got up when I started up the car (so loud), she did her gardening thing, I did my working on the car thing, Alvin eventually came over, parked his trailer in our lower 40, we loaded Scrappy into our trailer, then we loaded up three engines (two Miata, one BMW) and two transmissions into the bed of Alvin’s truck, then his Galant (he had been storing it at our house for a few months) and another transmission onto our open trailer, we all then went up to Kari and Alvin’s, unloaded engines with the help of Alvin’s backhoe which was fun, unloading the Galant was also fun as we elected to tie it to Alvin’s Jeep and drive the trailer out from under it (this worked surprisingly well), Alvin and I went to Dirk’s house to look at his 48’ car trailer, might be swapping one of Alvin’s 24’ trailers for it (very cool), also looked at Dirk’s proposed new racecar build (a C4 Corvette), lots of fun, went back to Alvin’s to pick up Susan and go home, there was talk of going out to dinner but we needed to get home to take care of Oliver and the dogs
Sunday – I was up early to continue my efforts in the garage, Susan was up by 10:00 and we went to pick up a free wooden planter box, then I went to Denver to buy some quick-fill fuel cans for the E46 team, then spent the afternoon organizing the garage, I was tired and stopped in mid-afternoon, made baked chicken for dinner, sat on the couch and watched SCCA Runoffs on YouTube, great weekend
October 15-16
Saturday – up early to feed dogs and have coffee, played on my computer until Susan got up, went out to garage to be productive, I got Scrappy in the garage, Susan put together three planting boxes, I swapped the wheels on Flo and prepped for winter by filling the washer fluid and checking the fluids, thought about changing the oil but we’ve only driven the car 2,000 miles in the last year, once I was done I tinkered with Scrappy’s brakes (I had forgotten to adjust one rear caliper) and did this and that to the racecar, when Susan was done we went out to return some stuff at Lowes, pick up soil at Home Depot, and buy food stuffs at Walmart, I was done being productive for the day (turned out I was done for the weekend) but Susan still has some fuel in her tank and went outside to do more, hung out watching SCCA runoffs during the evening
Sunday – I was up early to feed the dogs and then I sat on the couch (this was my day), Susan eventually got up and did this and that outside, I’m glad one of us was productive, it was colder outside but Susan managed to fill one of her planters, fix the corners that were splitting, and then plant garlic, it was a nice weekend for sure
October 22nd weekend –
Saturday – up early with an alarm, took care of dogs and pulled Susan out of bed, drove to track for a day of fun, weather was just about perfect for an open lapping day, we parked in just about the most perfect paddock spot as well, an accident on I70 caused a delay to the start of the day and the fast/slow stints were reversed, we were warned there were some poor drivers on the track but mostly we had no issues, Scrappy ran very well and we had a blast, I would rate the day in the top five ever had at an open lapping, a couple of other Lemons cars were there and we talked with one of the teams, we brought 25 gallons of fuel and really went through all of it, we stopped as the front brake pads were just about non-existent, we went home and got Scrappy on the lift, car still looking pretty good, will just have to swap out the brake pads before the next day at the track
Sunday – We both slept in (7:00 for me, 10:30 for Susan (she always wins this battle)), had coffee and hung out for a few hours before getting dressed and heading out, we went to Mod Pizza for lunch for Susan, the line was to the door so we opted to go to an incredibly busy Costco first, besides parking extremely far away we got in and out quickly, there was virtually no line when we went back to Mod Pizza (our bet paid off), we then went to Target to look for pug towels (no luck) and then Walmart to buy what we couldn’t get at Costco, once home we hung out with the dogs for a few hours and Susan took a short nap, Alvin and Kari came by with our open trailer just after the sky got dark, we chatted for just a few minutes before going to our local Chinese restaurant where we dined on a variety of dishes, food was yummy and we chatted about this and that, the day had been brutally windy and the sky was spitting a bit of water on us as we walked back to our cars, Susan and I finished the weekend on the couch watching a Netflix show about horrible roommates, interesting/horrifying in equal parts, a great weekend overall
October 24th
I bid and won the right to purchase a 2007 Saturn Sky. It is pretty messed up but the mechanicals seemed ok, only 69K miles, lucked into joining the auction just a few minutes before the bidding began, paid only $100 more than I wanted, took off work early, picked up open trailer and drove to the springs, called to verify I could pick up car and was told I had to be an official “transporter” and that I had to use a transporter app, I stopped on an offramp to download app, didn’t receive confirmation but finished driving down to auction site anyway, ended up I was able to register on the spot and there was an available time to schedule a pick-up (an hour in the past but I was able to choose it so whatevs), car brought out by large “forked” machine, the forks got stuck under car when placed on trailer, had to tie car to trailer to drag out the forks, I then used winch to drag car forward, tied down car and drove home, arrived before dark, put Scrappy in enclosed trailer, backed open trailer up to garage door, Susan was not ok with my first idea of tying car to one of the lift posts and dragging the trailer out from under it, I ended up putting car on wheel dollies (a pain since tub was almost on the trailer deck), attached the winch to car, jacked up front of trailer, slowly pushed off car with help of winch, had issues with ad hoc wooden ramp but eventually got car off, finally put car on lift after 10:00 to give it a decent look, mechanicals mostly seem great, think we will do well in selling parts, was very tired at this point but didn’t go to bed until after midnight
On Tuesday the 25th I woke to find the house oddly cold. I checked and the furnace was not making any heat. As this week was the first cold snap of the season the local HVAC people were pretty busy with other people just like us. On Thursday we finally had someone come out who determined the circuit board was bad and recommended the whole thing be replaced. Super bummer especially since we’re also having to have the AC unit replaced at our rental house. Oh well. We are hoping Alvin can just replace the circuit board so we can avoid having two large expenditures at the same time. We’ll see. In the meantime, the house has been very cold. It was 56 degrees when I left for work this Friday morning.
October 29th weekend –
Saturday – slept in a touch, cold house, picked up some food stuff at Safeway on the way up to Kari and Alvin’s home, drove the ND Miata, started cooking chicken parmesan soon after arriving, Alvin made garlic bread, Karen and John arrived right as chicken went in oven, all food came out very yummy, ate a lot while chatting about this and that, after we were done John went to the couch where he kept falling asleep, this is normal but today Ember got very concerned and bothered him awake, we all laughed, I do understand the sudden compulsion to sleep after eating, Alvin showed off their the water truck they just bought, we went back inside for dessert (carrot cake and chocolate pie), Karen and John soon left and Susan and I left a bit later, got home before dark to take care of the dogs and cat, watched Jeffrey Dahmer show on Netflix
Sunday – slept in a smidge again, got Susan up at 8:00 for coffee and to then leave for another day at the track, first winter season open lapping day, got to track early enough to unload before the session started, lots of new folks which made Susan’s group tough enough to enjoy she took a break after going out, most drivers were done before the last session which partly made up for the chaotic earlier sessions, my group was mostly fine and I managed to set another personal best, the brakes shuddered quite a bit but worked ok, saw a brand new Hummer and found it looked relatively tame considering its pricetag and 9,000lb weight, met another Lemons team testing their Isuzu Impulse, they were mostly guys who graduated from CU and were on their Lemons team, fun to chat about Lemony things, our day the track was very fun overall, we got home well before dark, took care of dogs and cat, went out to Clocktower Grill for dinner, saw a racing friend Sterling and his new wife and chatted for a bit, the staff seemed stretched to cover everyone but managed to serve us our dinner in an ok-fashion, went home to watch more Netflix before bed
Halloween
On Monday we met Alvin and Kari for dinner at Chili’s, the food was good though some of Kari and Alvin’s favorite items were removed from the menu which was a bummer, when we got back to our home Alvin took a look at the furnace and replace the circuit board, turned out the one that was apparently bad was not really the correct one for the furnace (though it clearly worked well enough), the new board we had bought was an exact match to the original so that was good, we then looked at the broken hoses and determined that they would have to be fixed for the furnace to operate, unfortunately we apparently can’t buy a replacement so I’m going to perform a DIY fix instead, I’m relatively confident what I patch together will be at least as strong as the original plastic attachment points
On Thursday morning I took Susan to the dentist for a few hours to have work done, this was to drill out two old crowns and pack them with stuff for a few weeks, then eventually they’ll get refilled, Susan was so out of it when we got back home that she went to bed for the rest of the day while I went to work
November 5th weekend –
Saturday started a bit early, Susan was in terrible pain Friday night and slept on the couch as she couldn’t stand to rest her face on her pillow, our plan was another track day but we spent the morning going to a couple of different pharmacies to get better pain medication, Susan truly was miserable, because of strict cancellation policies at the track we did go in the early afternoon, Susan’s medication precluded her driving but I went out for a couple of stints, the car was fine but the wind hurt lap times, still had some fun, we left early for home, we took care of Oliver and the dogs before heading back out to run some errands and do some shopping, Susan was feeling much better at this point, we finished the evening on the couch with the dogs
Sunday was to be productive but instead we just hung out all day on the couch, some days are just like this I suppose, again Susan was feeling better which was such a relief as her pain the previous days was almost unbearable
November 12th weekend –
Saturday morning we woke up to a warm house. In fact, the house had been warm for a couple of days. On Wednesday the furnace part I ordered a week ago (and paid overnight shipping for) was ready to pick up. The first order was lost and the subsequent replacement order was a day late. Plus the delivery driver deemed our home as “unable to access” so I had to go to a FedEx facility to pick it up. Then the driver wasn’t back when he was expected so I had to wait around for 45 minutes. Such is. After getting home I installed the part and the furnace still didn’t work. I made a test wire and determined that it was the next sensor in the line of sensors that wasn’t working. I fiddled with the sensor reset button and the furnace started working. Such is.
We were up pretty early on Saturday so we could drive down to the Springs to buy rear coilovers from the last owners of the Saturn Sky we bought at auction. Such a crazy world. In talking with the kid of the guy who listed the car I found out that he was driving too fast and didn’t see a sign for a dip in the road. He hit the dip hard and the car actually caught some air before the destruction ensued. We also discovered the engine had a turbo charger which was a bummer. Turbos are hard on engines, especially when they don’t come from the factory with a turbo (this engine did not). Oh well.
We stopped on our way home to return two of the three space heaters we had bought from Amazon (we love that Kohl’s accepts Amazon returns) and hit Walmart up. We hung out at home for a couple of hours and then went to a new to us, tavern almost next door to my office. The menu was interesting and we very much enjoyed the food.
Once we were home we went to the garage to clean up boxes (Susan) and continue the work of stripping the Sky. Spent a few hours doing this and that before heading inside for the evening.
Sunday had me up early and Susan sleeping in. I had a pot of coffee and headed to the garage. Susan eventually got up and we had coffee together before we finished pulling the engine and transmission from the Sky. We didn’t have the necessary bolts on hand to connect the engine to a stand so left to get lunch and go to Lowe’s to buy hardware. Once back home I mounted the engine to an engine stand and continued tearing apart the car. Kept at it for another couple of hours while Susan planted bulbs and watered her plants before we went in for the night. Had a very nice weekend indeed.
November 20th weekend –
Friday – off early, went home to pick up two sensors, drove up to an HVAC supply store on Federal, bought a blower motor for furnace, went home and installed it quick, left for Amazon warehouse up north of Denver, took tour, interesting, ate at Cheddars on the way home, food was yummy, terrible traffic
Saturday – slept in a bit, played games until Susan got up, took Susan to drop off some letters at her work and then for lunch before coming home, something is wrong with Flo’s driver wheel (brakes, other?), swapped for Jack and went out again, went to Harbor Freight, went to Walmart, went to Safeway, relaxed for the rest of the day
Sunday – super unproductive, Oliver finally came home after being missing for a few days
November 24th weekend –
Thursday was Thanksgiving at our home which meant Susan and I were up very early. In the past we’ve issues with the turkey not cooking as quickly as the instruction book expectations so this year we started the roaster over an hour early. We were to have a typical meal for our family which would include: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, orange jello, rolls, and a can of cranberry sauce.
After starting the turkey our focus switched to cleaning up the house. This took much of the morning as it had been some time since we’d had guests over and thus performed a deep cleaning. Before anyone else had arrived we had also made mashed potatoes and prepped stuffing for the oven.
Alvin and Kari arrived shortly after 11:00. Kari prepared the green bean casserole for the oven and we chatted about this and that while we waited for Karen and John to show up. Texts had been sent before 11:00 that they were on their way and they were scheduled to be at our home at noon.
At 12:30 we started getting worried. Kari texted and then called to no avail. We were about to go out and look for them when Karen called. They had gotten lost on the way and were circling the neighborhood. Alvin guided John for the final stretch and they arrived just in time for all of the food to be finished.
Side note – starting the turkey early worked perfectly. It was finished well-before it truly needed to done but it was great not staring at the temperature gauge while everyone hungrily waited around.
We sat down and ate the food. This year I elected to bring each dish to the table, one at a time, for everyone to get their helpings. The consensus was that the food was yummy and we ate until we were very full.
Kari and Alvin had a second meal planned with his sister’s family (as is tradition) so had a timeline to keep. Karen and John also wanted to leave early to avoid driving in the dark. It all worked out as we hung out chatting for a couple of hours before having dessert around 3:00, after which our guests left Susan and I to ourselves.
All and all we had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We love hosting and very much enjoyed the food and company.
It wasn’t the intent but the rest of the weekend was mostly spent on the couch. I had started to have a scratchy throat on Thursday night and felt worse on Friday. On Saturday I had a full-blown chest/nasal thing going on and was pretty miserable. I don’t know why but I get sick during Thanksgiving week more often than not. Oh well. It was a great weekend overall.
Susan started feeling sick on Monday. On Tuesday night she took one of our home COVID tests which came back positive. I then took one and had the same result. Feels a bit unfair to catch COVID after so long avoiding it. Such is.
My director went by the office on Wednesday to grab my laptop and delivered it to me and my manager bought us a bagel package thing from Einstein’s which was very thoughtful and appreciated. Susan and I went to get real tests in a hospital parking lot before stopping to drop off a letter on our way home.
I was still miserable but was feeling markedly better than I was the prior weekend. Susan seemed to still be in the early stages of the illness and visited her doctor’s office where she was prescribed some medicine to help. I was too far along for the script to help. I’m writing this from our kitchen table using my work laptop. As I’m feeling well-enough I’m planning on going back to the office on Monday which should meet the CDC (and my Employer’s) guidelines regarding the matter.
December 3rd weekend –
Not a whole lot to say about the first weekend in December. We didn’t do a whole lot but stay quarantined in the house. We slept when we could, watched TV, played games, and did little else.
December 9th weekend –
Both of us ditched our Christmas parties which were to be Friday night to finally have our anniversary dinner. We went to The White Chocolate Grill. I had made reservations which was good as it was busy. Parking was crazy and we drove up and down many rows before finding a spot. As is our nature, we were early so it was no issue. Susan had steak and I had a pesto chicken as our main courses. We also ate dessert which we almost never do. We very much enjoyed the food and setting.
Saturday had me up early and Susan sleeping in a bit. I was very gung-ho on being productive but we lazed away the morning before heading out to the garage around noon. We did manage to remove just about everything else we wanted from the Saturn Sky before the sun went down and we retreated from the falling temperatures.
Later in the evening we hopped in the ND and drove to Bandimere Speedway to see their Christmas lights. Susan had reserved an 8:30 time-slot and, while we arrived early, we didn’t get moving until almost 9:00. The lights were arranged so we could drive around and through the displays, hence us bringing our new convertible. The cold was no match for the car’s heater and seat heaters and we enjoyed seeing the lights. I ended up stalling the car only one time which wasn’t too bad considering the slow pace and slight incline.
On the way home we stopped at Walmart and then our favorite liquor store. We ended up staying up far later than normal hanging with the dogs.
Sunday largely mirrored Saturday for how the day went. We were out in the garage after noon again and spent our time removing the last (we hope) sellable things from the Sky. We organized things I had pre-sold and Susan took pictures of most of the rest.
Susan cooked up a baguette we had picked up the night before which was quite tasty with spinach artichoke dip and butter. The guy who I had pre-sold several parts to ended up not showing up so we plopped on the couch for the remainder of the weekend. We largely accomplished my goal of being productive after being sick for the last couple of weeks.
Speaking of being sick – we were both largely done with COVID which was great. I still had a lingering cough and a periodic runny nose, but Susan was 99% healthy. I’m so glad our COVID experience wasn’t too terrible.
December thru January update –
That was a blur!
From the second week of December through almost all of January I was fully-engulfed in getting through year-end at work. 80+ hour weeks and I only took off a couple of days in that time.
Some highlights:
For Christmas the Puskas clan gathered at Kari and Alvin’s home on the 24th for a meal and conversation. The food was Italian which was a nice change of pace. Kari make stromboli and Susan make a pasta salad and cheese dipping sauce with crispy bread. Of course, we had orange jello provided by Karen (some traditions shouldn’t be messed with). We all stayed into the evening before making our exoduses. It was a nice time.
Susan and I had a little adventure one evening. The day started off fine so I took the NC Miata. Everything was ok until the snow rolled in, hard and fast, around 8:00 that night. I was still working away and had no idea until Susan messaged me urgently. I left as soon as I could pull myself away from what I was doing and proceeded home, slowly. It was quite treacherous but I made it into the neighborhood where I got stuck on the first hill. Susan soon joined me with the Subaru and a length of tow strap. I tied the cars together and Susan dragged me home. It was a pretty crazy experience as the Miata had little traction. We made it into the driveway and pushed the NC out of the way enough I could get past it for the next weeks as we waited for the snow to melt.
Susan and I had a date at Alamo Drafthouse on the evening of January 14th and saw Me3an. We enjoyed the movie for what it was and more so the time spent together out and about. I had been working that whole Saturday and couldn’t leave so Susan came by and picked me up instead. We picked up the car I had driven to work the next day.
I spent time the next day replacing the brakes on Flo and swapping Betty’s brakes and tires out. It was the first day off I had since New Year’s day and the weather was finally warm enough to be outside. Susan needed a car the following week that could handle snow so the timing was good. I did have to do all of the work on the little concrete pad in front of the garage. With the unmalting snow the E46 was still in the garage as I couldn’t move it back to its regular home in the trailer in the lower 40. Very very frustrating.
This last Saturday (January 28th) we met with John, Karen, Kari, and Alvin at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. We hadn’t seen the clan since Christmas and had a very nice time catching up. Karen brough her stand mixer to permanently loan to Susan but had forgotten the attachments. We were already almost home from the restaurant when this was discovered. No big deal as we drove up to their house to pick them up. Of course, we stayed to talk for a few hours which was great.
Other things:
The weather this winter has really been atrocious. We went from almost having a snowless season last year to seemingly a storm each week since Thanksgiving and many very cold days and nights. At least I’ve felt a little less guilty working so much as I wouldn’t have been able to be productive at home if I wasn’t.
Bella has fully attained a “senior pug” status. She needs help getting down the doggie stairs and usually can’t go up them at all. She runs into things all the time. I am confident that there is nothing wrong with her eyesight but we think a wire is loose between what goes into her eyes and what gets to her brain. Bella makes enough mistakes in the house now that we regularly take her outside to do her business. She now gets anxiety pills. We don’t mind tending to her new needs but it’s hard to see her stressed out. The pills seem to be helping.
Pebbles is largely the same chihuahua she’s been for the last couple of years. Still needy in cute ways and loves Susan oh so much. Me and Pebbles get along just fine but she absolutely adores Susan.
Mel has been a challenge since she decided she liked eating poop. It was a like a switch flipped and we have to keep an eye on her when she’s out of her kennel. It is quite annoying but we still love her despite her gross habit. Almost without fail, Mel will plop on my lap when I first sit on the couch and demand a vigorous scratching. I rarely decline to give her the attention she wants.
We are assessing whether we want to get another open lapping day season pass to HPR this year. The costs always go up but Glenn also shortened the lapping days and there will be fewer of them too. Now that we’re (hopefully) done having to test our racecars too much I’m on the fence about forking over the money. We’ll see.
Karen and John are doing alright. Karen takes quite the regiment of medications but they have made an immense difference. The contrast to how things were last year is incredible.
John is still doing his John-thing. The 50 year band reunion did happen in 2022 but didn’t go as well as everyone had hoped. Between technical issues and the “stage” being shared with another band (yes, this was weird) the experience was somewhat lacking. Susan and I watched much of the playing which was interesting.
Kari and Alvin have been experiencing some rough times at their mountain home. The water line from their well collapsed during one of the latest cold snaps and, as of this writing, they haven’t been able to fix it. The ground is simply too hard to finishing digging up. They ran a temporary line which promptly also froze and had to incorporate additional heat strips and insulation to the heat strip and insulation they had already installed. An unlooked for perk of the ordeal is that Alvin has made friends with a neighbor who has connections for cheaper concrete and equipment he can use to erect his shop this summer (hopefully).
Susan has set up a growing rack in the kitchen. It consists of adjustable shelves and grow lights. See assembled it on one of the evenings I was working late and already has started on onions and some surprise plants. It is really fun to see things growing in the house and Susan so engaged in her hobby.
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