stripethree

I’ve been busy, the blog’s been neglected.

- March 12: Summer and I fly to Austin for a long weekend. It went something like this: steak, beer, bbq, beer, live music, beer, bbq, Mario Kart Audi R8, beer, more food, rodeo, beer. It was fantastic.
- March 17: Liver still probably recovering from Austin, 15lb. exhaust for R32 arrives and is installed. Along with new rear sway bushings, car is ready for San Diego.
- March 19: After work, drive 400 miles to San Diego with said light, and quite loud, exhaust.
- March 20: Pick up Anand at airport so he can also drive the car at the Tour. Change wheels at Qualcomm and take 4 practice runs. Realize rear tires are way too low and car is way too tail happy. Take 4 more practice runs after adding air.
- March 21: Day 1 of Solo National Tour, I am too nervous ad drive poorly – hit a cone, miss a shift, and sit 6th of 8 at the end of the day. Anand’s in 3rd, after not having autocross-ed in years and never having driven my car. We drive a bit north after autox and hit the go kart track. and In-n-Out.
- March 22: Day 2 of Solo National Tour. Our heat gets the worst of the rain storm and we attempt to keep the car pointing in the right direction in the wet. At the end of the day Anand’s in 4th, one spot out of trophies, and I finish 5th, .4 seconds behind him. I drop him off at the airport and head back to Tucson and during the drive back, realize my motor mounts are toast. Car makes it home but hasn’t been driven since.
- Week of March 23: work is nuts, big project winding down with lots of things to accomplish and, unfortunately, many things rapidly changing.
- March 27: Batting cages with co-workers to prepare for upcoming softball season.
- March 31: Game 1 of softball season. Crushing defeat, 11-1, game called for the mercy rule. It wasn’t pretty. I got two hits and scored the only run. Wanted to pass out after sprinting from first all the way to home.
- April 2: Game 2 of softball season. Crushing defeat again, 13-3, mercy rule called again, but later in the game. Opponents hit three home runs. I manage to turn a double play in one inning to help stop the bleeding.
- Sometime last week: work books trip for me back to the DC area over Easter weekend. They wanted to send me out on Sunday and back on Tuesday. No, thanks. Barter ensues. Out on Friday back on Tuesday. Done. No one else wants to do it, I was warned, we’ll see how it goes.
- Also sometime last week – after much discussion, it’s decided we will likely not be moving out of Tucson all that soon. Decide to at least look at buying a house here since the market is what it is. Start researching, talk to mortgage people at Bank of America, etc… we’ll see how and where this goes.
- Friday: R32 is drive-able but I shouldn’t move it, much less autox it. Offered 4 co-drives for Phoenix on the 5th – Mini Cooper S, Honda S2000, Mazda Miata, BMW 3-Series. How can I not sign up.
- Saturday: spend hours clearing out all the dead grass and weeds in the yard.
- Sunday: catch a ride to Phoenix and co-drive a Mini Cooper S. Forget that front drive will spin tires and understeer, but still do okay. Finish mid-pack in Street Tire 1. Fun car, and cool to drive something different and help impart (hopefully helpful) knowledge on another driver.
- Monday: second to last full day of development on the project I will be flying out on Friday to deliver. Two of three motor mounts arrive, R32 still sits. Get home in time to see the end of the national championship game.

So yeah, I’m kind of tired.