8/21/12

Oh crap, is it ONLY Tuesday?  I hate Tuesday.  Anyhoo, as promised, here is the rest of the tale of the weekend.  After John and I ate our usual sushi lunch, I headed home in The Seven.  It rained while we were eating but cleared up and was somewhat sunny when we left.  I decided to go for a hoon.  I took off out I-20 to… damn it!  I can never remember the name of that road!  Ok, from now on we’re going to call it… hmm, how about Otis Q. Bumhuffer road?  So, I cruise out I-20 to Otis Q. Bumhuffer and cut across to Aledo/Iona.  Then it’s the usual FM5 hoon out to Lake Weatherford.  I go around the lake and come back in on White Settlement Road.  After crossing 1187 on White Settlement, but before I get into “town,” it starts to rain a little.  I turn off of WSR onto Chapel Creek and head towards I-20 again in a lite spitting rain.  After crossing I-20 I get to Hwy 80 and gopher the left turn… in the wet.  We go all “Ass Out” in first.  I catch it.  Second gear tries to step out.  I catch it.  THIRD GEAR gives a little wiggle.  I catch it.  I'm grinning like a retard when the thing finally makes traction and takes off.  I really dig my Seven!  When I get to the access road of Loop 820 it really starts to rain on me.  I drive the last mile to the house, still grinning like an idiot, in the rain.  I park the car in the garage and move Fifi and Fiona back into the driveway for the evening.  I'm so stoked about how well The Seven drove, I decide to go online and buy a new pair of driving shoes.  The wrestling shoes I have now are getting pretty well worn out.  As I'm loading the Summit Racing website, I remember that the Motorsport Ranch has one driving suit which fits me.  Unfortunately, it is also the only suit which fits Bernie Long.  I decided that I'd go ahead and buy myself a suit.  What the hell, it’s only credit.  I pick out am RJS single layer suit for $99.95, or something, and add it to my cart.  Then I find the shoes I need and add them to the cart.  Summit suggested a pair of Nomex socks… so I added them to the cart.  Then o thought about the beard I'm currently sporting and decided I “needed” a baklava.  Summit didn’t know what I meant.  I searched “Head Sock” and found it.  Ok yes, I am joking.  I did not look for “Baklava.”  I entered “Balaclava” and found it immediately.  I added it to the cart.  I sat back and reviewed the items in the cart and decided, “Nope, there ain't nothin’ else I need.”  It wasn’t until I sent Tony and John e-mails “bragging” about my purchases that I remembered gloves.  I went back and ordered a pair of gloves.  So, in three shipments coming tomorrow, I will have a full racing setup.  Did I need to drop another $300.00 on this stuff?  No, but… uh, shut up.  The rest of Saturday was spent reminiscing about just how well The Seven ran after swapping the pan.  I need to express a huge “Thank You” to John for crawling under my car again and doing that.  Hmm, I guess I should have offered to let him drive it to lunch Saturday.  Oops, sorry.  Sunday morning mom calls from the church to say that Peter Moretti drove his Seven.  I decided I'd pull mine out and go meet her there for lunch.  I headed up to the church and parked next to Mr. Moretti’s car.  He and I chatted for a few seconds, and I spoke to a few other members about the cars, then mom came out.  I followed her to Joe’s Pizza and Pasta where we had Philly Cheese Steak sammiches.  Back at the house, I left The Seven out as well as Fifi and Fiona in the street because I knew the church’s Chinaman was supposed to be bringing his family over in the afternoon.  Yeah, that turned out to be more like 1800 h.  While the womenfolk chatted, Yizhong asked if I'd be willing to take him for a ride.  We went out and I fired up the car.  We strapped in and I took off up to the Loop 820 access road.  I zipped it up to about 80 or so and took the Team Ranch Road bridge across the loop.  I snicked it into the neighborhood there at the top of the hill and hooned, not too hoony though, back around to the access road.  Then we hopped on the freeway for one exit and headed back to the house.  He’s hooked.  He wants one now.  I can't say I blame him; I wanted one just from SITTING in one at Dick Brink’s shop back in ’97 or thereabouts.  He kept trying to talk his wife into going for a ride but she wasn’t having any of it.  Oh, I'm probably making out to be worse than it was.  He was excited and does want one, but I'm not sure he was trying as hard to convince her as I'm remembering.   So, eventually I pushed the car into the garage and re-parked Fifi and Fiona.  Fiona had a low tire pressure warning light which annoyed the hell out of me.  I stopped at the dealer “on the way” home from work yesterday and had them finger out which one was low.  It was the driver’s front down about three pounds.  With them all aired up, we’re golden.  And now I have to go babysit the installation guys again so I'm going to call it a rant.