10/19/06

Sunday morning I awoke to rain. I was glad I had dropped the Seven at the shop the night before. I couldn’t remember if there was going to be lunch served to the Lotus Gathering folks at the autocross but knew I had signed up for something on that day. I headed to the shop to get my nametag out of the Seven. As I was driving north to the speedway, I noticed an Elise on a trailer headed south. I decided to call Bernie and Dick to see if the autocross had been cancelled. I got Dick and he confirmed that the autocross was on and that the reception that evening was at the Solana hotel where all the other activities had been held. I kept going north. At the speedway I walked through the paddock and looked for familiar faces. I saw none. I watched a few runs and finally figured out who was with the Lotus group. I asked if there was a Lotus area and was told I was in it. We talked a bit and I decided to go check out the hotel again. I saw the Long Island dude again and he said some folks were about to go on some kind of fun run or gimmick rally sort of thing and that the reception wouldn’t be until 1800 h that evening. I decided to go home for a little while. I called mom to see if she’d eaten lunch yet and she had. I stopped at Sonic and ate it in my chair in front of the TV. I took a quick nap with the cat and at about 1600 h decided to clean up for the reception. I headed north again and hung out with the other Fauxtus owners during the reception and dinner. Before hooking up with my crowd I felt a little like an outsider since I had missed the Saturday stuff but what are you going to do? I suppose that it could have been I was being shunned a little for not owning a “real” Lotus, and we Fauxtus owners were being a bit cliquish to the people who had Lotuses with doors. I don’t know. When it was all over I bid them all farewell and headed to the house. Monday morning I awoke to rain. I knew the track day folks were meeting at the Motorsport Ranch at 0700 h so I got up at the crack of noon. Not really, it was more like 0830 h. I hopped in Matilda and slogged through the rain to the Ranch. It was nasty. The track was slicker than owl snot. I was really glad I hadn’t tried to get the Seven out, not that I had registered for the track day but still. I hung out on the grid with Bernie and watched as these guys spun their Elises, Exiges, Esprits, Europas, and one lone Seven off the track. By lunchtime the skies began to clear. I ate a hamburger with Bernie and Dick then headed to the shop to get the Seven. It had dried up enough that it was a rather pleasant afternoon drive back to the Ranch. When the day was over, Bernie and I drove north to Beenbroke for dinner and then I went home. I considered taking the Seven back to the shop but decided I'd take it to the Ranch again on Tuesday. Tuesday morning I awoke to rain. Just kidding, it was a beautiful day. I drove to the Ranch and flagrantly parked right under the awning at the grid. That’s right, just like I belonged there. I hung out with Bernie and some other folks and watched as the guys drove their Lotuses faster and faster. Finally I had had enough and bowed out. I shook hands with all the folks I knew and said I'd see them at the next event. All in all, LOG 26 was a good event. It could have been better, as I said, had I gone to the Saturday stuff and met more people but it was fun nonetheless. But wait, that’s not the end of the story of my time off! From the Ranch I headed to the shop, duh. Once I had the Seven parked I decided it was time to look into the parking brake situation on Mr. Wiggly. I considered buying tires but checked my account first. I forgot that the payment on the Pimpmobile was going to be deducted on the 15^th so I was a tad short for that. Hey, what is that 800 lb gorilla doing in the corner of the room? Oh, as an aside to Spiderman, that was the thing I was going to mention on the phone last night but forgot what it was. Anyhoo, back to the story at hand, I stole the parking brake handle and cable from the 200SX out back and began looking at installing it in Mr. Wiggly. I crawled under and cut the old front cable out. I spent about half an hour prying the clip off to remove the sheath part of the front cable. I unbolted the handle and removed the whole assembly. I figured out how I was going to rig up the operating end of the 200SX part but couldn’t really decide on a way to fit the handle in the cockpit. I thought about it for a while and finally decided to wait until John and I could look at it together. I went home. That brings us up to yesterday. I'll tell you about that tomorrow. Have a day.