Wonderful Weekend

I haven't gotten to visit the Rockies as much as I would have liked this summer. Domestic duties, along with my LGC (Little Green Car) project and some professional advancement stuff, have left me yearning to spend more time in our beloved mountains. I recently acquired a '94 Mazda Miata, which has proven to be a total hoot to drive around-- a super fun car to drive in the mountains.

I needed a break from a brutal schedule of studying for a professional certification. Saturday was blocked out as "mountain time with the girlfriend". Mimi and I picked up some tasty picnic stuff and headed out. (Garlic olives, greek yogurt, fresh strawberries, blue corn chips, and bean dip. Yum.)

Stopped in Georgetown, Minturn, Leadville, Fairplay,and Buena Vista, and got back to my place around eight.

We've had some hot, dry weather in the Denver area for the last month or so, and rain is always welcome. We got hit with some serious late summer thunderstorms in the afternoon, and got the top up just in time to keep from getting drenched in Leadville. Had a xococotl (spicy aztec cocoa) while we watched the storm move through.

It didn't rain much at all (if any) down here in the city. Bummer. Still, all in all, it was an epic day.

Miatacross!

Well, as I've said in previous posts, I've gotten hooked on autocross racing. I got a tip from the nice racer who let me race his Honda a month or so ago, and picked up a '94 Mazda Miata. That is quite the hot ticket for racing in the "E Stock" class, and the cars are relatively inexpensive to get into. I found just the car, put on the market for a very fair price, and jumped right on it. I took it down to Pikes Peak International Raceway last weekend and drove my second race-- first in my own car.

We hit some snags on the way to the race, and ended up getting there about ten minutes after registration closed. The venue is about two hours from my house, and it's just hard to get out of the house at 6 AM... The most important thing in a race is to walk the course beforehand, and memorize it. Well, I didn't get to walk it at all. I did talk them into letting me register, but I drove it blind. DNF'ed (Did Not Finish) on the first lap-- I missed several gates. There were several slaloms, and it was just a sea of random cones at first. I studied the course map, and did better on the next three runs. I still have hard tires on the Miata, and that was a big handicap. The same guy who let me race his Honda has some half-used race tires that he doesn't need, so he's going to let me use them up. Woo Hoo!

Love my little Miata, and I can't wait to get more practice! Woo Hoo!

Racing!

I raced my first car today! I've been toying with the idea of running my LSC (Little Silver Car) in autocross events, and I've gone to a couple of races over the last month. I decided to give it a try. I picked up some half-used racing tires from Craigslist, and picked up some old steel rims. (I didn't want to thrash the tires I drive to work on every day.) For more information on autocross racing, see http://www.scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=55

I got up early (for Sunday), and loaded up my racing wheels. I got to the track just in time for registration. It was all a little intimidating, but the race workers made me very welcome when I told them that I was a brand new guy. This is only the third race I’ve attended, and my first race as a driver. Shortly after registration we had an ‘all hands’ meeting, and we scattered to our various cars and duties. Everybody gets a work assignment—I was a corner attendant in corner three. The idea is when a racer displaces a cone, I put it back, and communicate any penalties to the appropriate folks. I was out in the hot sun for a long time, and really got burnt.
I hadn’t arrived in time to put my racing tires on, so I had to hurry and take care of that right after my work assignment. The heat was oppressive, and I had to really rush to get my car into the tech inspection area. I took shortcuts, and tried to switch tires using my VW jack, rather than using a floor jack. That turned out to be a bad corner to cut, as I ended up slipping the car off of the jack, breaking a bolt in my brakes. I didn’t have time to get it fixed before my turn in the third heat, so I put my stock wheels back on, and headed over to the grid with my helmet, hoping at least to get a ride or two. In trying to get my wheels sorted out, I had completely exhausted myself in the heat. It was over 90F out, and humid for the front range. It was pretty brutal.

I told my tale of woe to a couple of my fellow racers, and one of them offered to let me drive his car in the third heat! The car’s number was #1, and the guy’s class was “X” for Expert. It was an early-90s Honda Civic. It turns out that range of Civics is very competitive in autocross—it’s a good combination of handling and power for the slow, tight autocross course. I managed to change my registration so that I could drive his car. I had walked through the course twice in the morning, and by the time I had struggled with breaking my car, I had pretty much forgotten the course layout. It was very challenging to push a totally unfamiliar car to the limit on a course that I had never seen from a car. I think I did okay. Al (the car owner) rode along, and gave me tips. Like, “hey, the course is over THERE!”.
Great folks there—I’m sure I’ll be doing more racing soon. The whole scene was great—everybody was enthusiastic and helpful. I not only had a car offered for me to drive, but a woman I met in the morning was done with her car after the second heat, and offered to let me drive it, too! Wow. This stuff is fun.
I made it home okay on my damaged hubs, and will be getting that taken care of ASAP. I think I made the right decision in opting not to test my questionable brakes in competition. Lessons learned: next time, change tires early!
 

It LIVES!!

Sorry to those followers of my blog who followed my adventures flying around Antarctica in helicopters and all... These days my life is quite different from that. A couple of months into a relationship, I'm busy, and happy. I have continued to be plagued by the habit of rescuing needy mechanical objects, with the intent of bringing them back to their intended glory. Six months or so ago, I adopted a wayward little Honda car, and have spent quite a bit of time giving it CPR over the last couple of months. Today it traveled under its own steam for the first time since 2004! I'm having a local shop square up some of the work I have been doing on it. It's so tiny, it's quite challenging to work on. They have the benefit of a lift and complete shop, so they can do in a short time those things that took me forever. I wrote to my girlfriend this morning, "I drove the Little Green Car!! I drove the Little Green Car!!". No helicopters or penguins, but life is good.

Furry Scurry

Springtime is definitely here. The grass is growing, the trees are blooming, and we've had some fantastic weather. Last weekend was a big event-- the Furry Scurry at Washington Park, near downtown Denver. Thousands of people get together and walk a course to raise money for the Dumb Friends League. A loosely-organized group of friends with corgis formed the Corgi Crew, and we walked the course together. The event was quite chaotic, and many of our Crew members never found us. Nevertheless, our crew had a great time walking the course, meeting other folks and their dogs. Our pod of corgis was quite popular-- not much cuter than a bunch of stubby little dogs!

April Flowers...

Great things happening lately. Conan is well, the job is still here, and my social life has really taken off. Lots of nice hikes, and times at the dog park. Life is good.

Corgis in the Springtime!

I apologize to those of you who like to view my exotic Antarctic adventures, and are bored by my current, rather pedestrian life. I'll continue to post pictures of Conan and other friends, and continue this blog as a way to catalog my life, though it may not contain helicopter rides to exotic mountaintops at the moment.

One of the highlights of my suburban life now is the twice-monthly get-together of the Littleton Corgi Meet-Up. It's such a hoot to see dozens of corgis (32 was my highest count) frolicking around and barking at each other. Conan does seem a little reserved compared to his stubby friends-- he likes the corgi energy, but can only stand so much butt sniffing. He's a people guy, and his dad is learning to be more of a people guy himself. The dog park has started to get much more interesting...