6.30.2006

Practice Last Night, Racing Tonight

We got the car out for practice last night. I only drove forward as we shook it out. It feels like pretty fast but, doesn't handle real well. After some adjustments it started too handle a little better. The radiator overflowed so we had to quit for the night.

As we had improved the handling on with tire pressures we measured the tires. It currently has all seasons on the rear and Mud and Snow tires on the front. The tires measured out like this:

















Left Right
Front 81 1/4" 89"
Back 90 1/4" 90 1/4"


That's right 8" of stagger across the front and zero across the back. Of course what we're not seeing in these numbers is the spring work that was done to achieve the desireable 1 1/2" of stagger in the rear. The stagger in the front is just old school thinking of how to put the rubber to the asphalt, at least according to my Dad. I don't get it but, the car didn't feel awful. Even with awful tires...

Pictures coming soon. Forgot to offload them from the compact flash last night.

6.27.2006

Inoperable ...

Yesterday dad went in for angioplasty and/or research for why he has been having chest pains. The outcome was not good. His bypass are is fine, upstream from that however is not capable of supplying his heart with enough blood.

From what I understand there is no surgery that can help this situation. They are putting him on time-released nitro pills and he is going to have to slow down and not stress his body. For anyone who knows my father that's going to be hard for him to do.

Update:
I just talked with Dad, he mentioned that he will be going through a cardiac rehab program with excercises designed to help his condition. There is also a more extreme treatment where leg cuffs are placed on the legs and squeezed on and off. This forces blood through the system and hopefully expand those narrowed arteries.

6.25.2006

Racing Photos From Columbus


Mike Amador
Originally uploaded by jremsikjr.
Dad came up to the track on Friday but, couldn't stay the whole night. I had hoped to drive a friend's car but, that wasn't available. With not much else to do I played with the Canon 580EX flash that Chris loaned me.

It's going to take a while to get used to shooting flash at the track. I guess that means I'll have to get one.

Deanna was nice enough to let me in the infield where she has an exclusive rights contract with the track. For that reason the pics are only available at an unprintable resolution.

Dad, Al,and I got the car "done" this weekend

We worked on the back-up car Saturday and Sunday and got it to the point that it is track worthy. There are still some things left to button up (window net, tighten exhaust, tie up wires).

Dad was motivated by a stress test last thursday that has him going back in for maintenance on his heart tomorrow (monday) morning. They discovered "new" blockage and think they are going to be able to clear it up with angioplasty. He'll be out of commission until at least Tuesday. Hopefully he'll be able to make it up to the track this Friday to see my compete in the car we just finished. Time will tell...

6.19.2006

Race Results - 6/16/2006

For the first time this season I made it out on the track as a driver at the Columbus 151 Speedway. With Rick Verdon absent Friday night I "borrowed" his car to get some laps under my belt. I started in the back, and finished in the back as expected. On lap 6 with the leader close behind I pulled off the track to avoid getting in his way.

Stiff Neck Ensues


Much like I imagine one would have to reacquaint themselves with wearing a crown, wearing a helmet took a toll on my neck. At least wearing a helmet and craning my neck to look behind me at speed took it's toll. It's still fun though. I am looking forward to having ``my`` car out this Friday.

6.14.2006

Typo saved me $500+

In September we are taking a trip to Bend, Oregon for my cousin Michael's wedding. We were going to purchase plane tickets back in March but, after talking to the fine folks at AAA Auto Club they recommended that we wait until after Memorial day when prices typically drop.

We had not been able to find tickets less than $340+ for roundtrip from Madison/Milwaukee/Chicago to Portland/Bend/Redmond back in March so, we waited. Sure enough I started looking yesterday and tickets for the same airlines and locations were running about $280+. Good deal, I thought.

I used a fare aggregator called kayak (www.kayak.com) and was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of the search. After a run-in with cheaptickets.com that where the flight at the advertised price was no longer available I chose to go with Orbitz.com. In a hurry to pick-up my wife and get to our evening plans I hastily filled out all of the required information and purchased the tickets.

After arriving home I checked my email and found my confirmation. 4 Tickets, Going through each of our names check, check, check, Waitaminnit??? For some unexplained reason I entered my wife's maiden name. Orbitz customer service made it quite clear that changing the name was not an option, FAA rules and all. The only option available was to cancel the tickets and re-purchase.

No problem, tickets cancelled and flights brought up again, purchase four tickets on same flight ... "We're sorry the price is no longer available." ARGH!!!! *cue Peanuts theme*

Now, I all the same flights are listed at the same price but actually cost $340+.

Back to kayak.com and start from scratch. Flights from Milwaukee to Portland:

"The cheapest option did not exactly match your search criteria. Would you like to include this result in your search?"

$140 from O'Hare to Portland, direct flight. 4 tickets purchased and $500+ dollars saved.

Yay.

6.03.2006

Jen says I"we should make a note of these...

An admittedly shallow and lazy list of things we would change...

If we build another house:

* Have external water faucets on all four sides of the house.
* Include the landscaping in the price of the house.
* Make the dining room larger (8' x 10' is too small).
* Install Cat5/networking prior to drywall.
* Make sure a trailer can be backed into the driveway/third stall.
* "Rough in" basement right away.
* Add skylights/solatubes to south end of house.
* Front door should have a window.
* More walls painted prior to move-in.