9/25/12

Let me start by telling Juan, “You’re wrong!”  Ok, Juan might think since I took off Friday and Monday that I would have a lot to say today.  See first sentence.  Thursday evening Tony calls to tell me that he can't find the key to his wheel locks and therefore can't change from his street tires to his slicks for the track day on Friday.  We disgust it some and he decides he’ll stop in at Disco Tire on Bryant Irvin “on the way” to the track as soon as they open and have them remove the locks.  Friday morning I debate meeting him at DT but head straight to the Motorsport Ranch instead.  I'm glad I did.  The first group on the track was Dick Brink, Bernie Long, and me.  If I'd waited for Tony, and a later session, I would have been a chicane for many more people.  I had a good time running at about 7/10 and only had to move over for Bernie once and Dick twice.  Twenty dollars well spent.  Ok, if you ignore the $300.00 worth of driving gear I bought for the privilege it was only $20.00 spent for the session.  Anyhoo, I hung out and watched as the rest of the guys hooned around and had a big old time of it.  We all went to Subway for lunch and then I headed home to get ready for BNSF Family Day.  By “get ready” I mean I changed out of the loose fitting “under the driving suit” shorts and into “goin’ out in public” shorts.  I headed to the railroad and arrived around 1430 h.  I wasn’t the first nor was I the last car to arrive.  They parked me and I hung out with the cars and car folks until about 1945 h when I decided I'd had enough and went home.  Saturday morning was Willie’s memorial service… and by “Saturday morning” I mean 1100 to 1500 h.   I wasted the rest of the afternoon and evening… I think.  Sunday… uh, I'm pretty sure I wasted the entire day Sunday.  Monday morning I got up with the idea that I was going to take Fiona to the body shop again now that I had the insurance company’s estimate.  When I went to look for the paperwork, I found a savings bond mom had turned over to me a few weeks ago.  It was a graduation present or something and had finally matured.  I decided to go to the credit onion on the way to the body shop.  I cashed the bond in and hopped back in the car.  It was 0930 h.  I didn’t want to be on that side of town until lunchtime-ish because I was going to see where John was and ask if he wanted to meet for lunch.  I went back home.  I goofed off for a couple hours then texted John about my plan.  I headed out again around 1130 h and went to the body shop.  They looked the car over and we scheduled that I would drop it off today after work.  I then called John to see if he had eaten lunch yet.  He had not.  We met at Sushi Zen in Grapevine.  T’was quite tasty.  From there I swung through Cabela’s and then went to the shop.  I looked at the 289 and thought, “Gee, I wish I had an engine stand to put it on… like that one over there.”  Yes, there was an empty engine stand sitting right in front of me.  I found one bell-housing bolt and dropped it in my pocket with the idea that I would go to Lowe’s for four new ones.  I closed up the shop and hopped back in Fiona.  About the time I got to Bryant Irvin road, I decided I didn’t want to go back and hang the engine on the stand after all and went home.  I wasted the rest of the day and evening.  Now we’re back at work.  I suppose I could have stretched those stories into two or three days’ worth of rants… but I didn’t.  So there.  Suck on it.