stripethree

Monkey, Llama and their Christmas gift from my parents. Also the first video I shot, edited and threw to YouTube completely from the iPhone.

Both the boys had their yearly checkups and their 3-year vaccinations this morning. It was so worth the extra $25 to give Monkey the happy gas and knock him out for the exam, shots, and a microchip. Made things much easier for everyone involved. Llama was perfectly behaved as usual and got his extra shot so he doesn’t have a stomach reaction to the vaccine like he did three years ago. So far so good. Monkey’s up to 15lbs 10oz and Llama put on another half pound to 12lbs 7oz. Fat and happy!

Iiiiiiiiit’s baaaaaack.

Finally, the R32 was back in one piece, including the third motor mount, and ready to be thrown around the SIR gravel pit again. I drove the car to work all week and took time on Saturday to make sure everything that was unbolted and replaced or reattached was still securely fastened to the car. It all was. The third motor mount finally arrived on Thursday (after two months! never ordering from that company again…), and I installed it on Saturday as well.

The car felt fantastic. Maybe it was because I’d be driving the much older, slower, and more worn GTI exclusively for two months, or maybe it was just that the whole front end of the car was very fresh and well buttoned together, but it was pretty sweet. There’s no slop in the motor and transmission anymore thanks to the new motor mounts, the steering feel is improved thanks to the new control arm bushings, and transitions were much, much better handled thanks to the new, larger front sway bar. The best part was almost the drive to the event, which was the first highway experience since the repairs. Given that highway speeds and loads were where all the ill effects were previously experience, I was slightly nervous, but no bad vibes were to be found. So it appears that the drive shaft coupling that was replaced was the big problem, and that has now been solved, thankfully. All the other things that got done as a result were just added bonuses. Hey, if I’m was going to go through the hassle and expense ($40 for one time use bolts. Bolts!) to drop the subframe, might as well fix or replace other things. Break one thing, upgrade 3, right?

The autocross results were good; 67.830 (+1), 67.858, 70.896 (+4); minus the cones I wiped out from a nasty miscue at the end of my last run. The clean run was good for 5th of of 44th overall in both raw and PAX times, and 5th out of 11 in the PAX class with a score of 982/1000. Not bad for the first event back in the car after two months. Time only runs were excellent; they can’t be compared directly to the competition runs since the course was altered, making it faster, but my times got better with each run – 66.759, 65.276, 64.676 – were all clean, and my best of those 3 was the 3rd fastest PAX times of 39 time only entrants.

The car felt great from the first launch of the first run. No excess engine movement on takeoff, the 1-2 shift, or when getting off the gas. The car felt especially planted which made me more confident in the results of my driving inputs. Turn in is sharper and the car has a good deal less body roll in transitional elements. I didn’t notice much, if any, additional understeer, which can sometimes occur with a larger from sway bar, but the course layout might not have exposed those effects, and the bar was set at the softer of two settings. The only down side of the day was finding out what the next weak link is, as the front sway bar end links are making plenty of noise to indicate they have had enough. At least the nasty clunking they are making was easy to identify and was not any part of the car trying to dislodge itself from the mother ship to completely ruin my day.

Now that the R32 is running again and all appears well (knock every piece of wood in sight), I have found out that I am not allowed to have 2 simultaneously running Volkswagens. The GTI would not crank when I went to drive it to work Monday morning and since it will start with a jump from it’s younger sibling, it is hopefully the battery and not the alternator. I’ve yet to investigate it further. I got it back on concrete and will just keep driving the R32; perhaps having the GTI sitting will add even more fuel to the motivational fire of getting parts that are awaiting install actually bolted to the car. The brakes are ready to go, I have new stainless lines, new wheel bearings are pressed into the front spindles, the rear calipers have been rebuilt with new boots, and all I need to do is put the brakes together and bolt them on the car. Soon, very soon…

The motor is still at my friends house, and I have not yet gotten injectors and a fueling setup yet. Part of that is researching what will pass emissions and get me the performance I’d like and the other part is tuners not being all that great at responding to messages. Hey, guys, ah, I’m trying to buy stuff from you, answer your messages!

The two hour drive to Bisbee-Douglas International airport was well worth it Sunday, as awaiting the 20 drivers that showed up just north of the border was an estimated 1.25 mile course with wide open sections that put me well into 3rd gear in multiple places. It was probably the fastest speeds I have hit at an autox course since third gear came early, often, and with liberal amounts of throttle added. The course also rewarded looking way ahead, the pivots at each end and a few deceptive offsets were crushing if you overshot, which was easy to do given the high speeds of the course.

My times were 79.569 (+2), 78.123, 78.373 (+1), and 77.826. In TOs, I dropped another 8/10s, but not without cones. The 77.8 was the second fastest time of the day, out paced only by an A-Stock Saturn Sky Redline on huge Hoosiers which ran a 76.0. PAX times were a different story as I beat out the Sky by just over a tenth of a second for the top overall spot. Now, there’s nothing left for me between now and San Diego other than some work on the car.

Saturday, Summer and I made a drive about 2 hours in the other direction to the Arizona Renaissance Festival in Apache Junction.

The guy in the last picture, where he is juggling a running chain-saw, a torch, and an apple, later went on to set off firecrackers duct taped to his chest and got the crowd to pelt him with water balloons in order to cool the resulting heat. Oh, and I did I mention this was all while he was balanced on top of a ladder? Yes, I got pictures.

That was entertaining to say the least and although I’m betting there’s some trick or secret, I’m impressed he emerged uninjured and coherent, minus not being able to hear anything. There were also some people in the crowd with killer aim as he got nailed in the face with at least 3 or 4 large water balloons. I couldn’t remember if, or when, I’d been to a renaissance festival but it was fun, the shows were entertaining and the steak on a stake was delicious. I think I was also just as amused by the sheer number of people just there to attend who were dressed appropriately. The irony of it was seeing grown men or woman dressed head to toe in period correct garb but who totally ruined the ‘act’ by, say, talking on their so-not-renaissance-era cell phone. Ha!

The off-season is over. It didn’t feel short, it was short. No rest for the weary (or the wallet, for that matter).

Luck of the draw had be in the 6th heat, which is when it decided to rain. As far as me vs. my class, it didn’t matter since we were all in the same heat. As far as me vs. the course, it presented a challenge.

Competition runs: 45.817, 44.604, 44.518, 43.493
Time only runs: 44.072, 44.057, 43.383, 43.342
45th out of 127 in fast times, 32nd in PAX times.

The kicker being that I let another driver take the R for a spin in his time only runs and he threw down a mid-42 second run on his last shot. So again, I’m not pushing the car hard enough. I did get some good advice during my TO runs, with the current DSP national champ riding shotgun (and frequently speaking up to the tune of ‘more throttle!’).

As for the ‘no rest for the wallet’, well, January is turning out somewhat costly on the car front. The R32 got 4 new tires on the regular wheels and will need 2 sticky tires on the autox rims after next weekend. Then there’s the GTI and the handful of things it will be getting fixed…

Note that I’m not complaining, just making an observation. Such is life: I picked this hobby and occasionally it takes my bank account in the yard and smacks it around. Whoops.

He’s doing better, but not after yet another vet visit. Friday morning he was not comfortable and trying to pee anywhere he could. He was in some pain and not a happy camper. I dropped him off at my regular vet, Feline Limited Cat Clinic, and they kept an eye on him until they had an open appointment at 2:30. They went over the test results from the emergency visits as well as tests they did and the verdict is that Llama has a bacterial infection that probably caused the blockage in the first place. More tests are being done and we should know more on Monday, but the vet sent me home with a third medication, an antibiotic, for Llama.

It certainly is making a difference. Today he’s been his old, usual self and he seems happy and active and like he’s feeling much better than he has in recent days. I am hoping this upswing continues because it was not fun to watch him and know he was uncomfortable, even before things escalated on Friday. Once the additional test results come back, he’ll probably be on antibiotics for the next three weeks. I’m just so happy my kiddo is feeling better and hopefully he’s on the road to recovery.

So before we went to Nebraska, I had to make an emergency visit to the veterinarian with Llama, as he was having trouble going to the bathroom. The diagnosis was a partial blockage of his urethra or an infection of the area, so we got some meds and monitored his use of the litter box. About half way through our trip he finished the meds (we had friends staying at the house) and seemed to be back to normal doing just fine.

Then today, Summer noticed him squatting on the bed looking like he was trying to pee. His lower belly area was swollen and he was in obvious discomfort and could not go to the bathroom. So back to the emergency vet we went, and this time it was not so simple. He developed a full blockage in his urinary tract and needed to stay overnight. Last I heard he was unblocked with a catheter and was resting, but still with an IV for fluids and a catheter to monitor his urine output. He’s going to get a ultrasound done, blood work, urine-analysis… all in hopes of figuring out what the deal is. This is not uncommon in male cats, and there are options, but all of them are unfortunately somewhat invasive, the success rates are not bulletproof, and the financial commitment is substantial. It feels horrible to have that last reason in the equation, I do not have to want to choose between one of my best friends and my modest savings account, but it’s an unfortunate reality. One that brought me to tears upon hearing how much a potentially life saving surgery could cost for Llama.

It was just as upsetting to sit in the vet’s office and have to think about how things could turn out, today, next week, whenever. Even now the house isn’t the same as he’s staying over night. He could very well come home and have this happen again next week. Or it could never happen again, depending. If kidney stones caused it, he’d need surgery to remove them. It is was crystals in his urine, it depends on the type. If it’s something else… who knows. I’m hoping for the best, really, really hoping.

Last night was the first night that Peanut and I went to class at the CLC where Summer works. Summer and I are hoping this can help things between the dog and I, as he doesn’t seem to trust me and I certainly have lost some trust in him after a few biting and snapping incidents. Mostly, he gets antsy when Summer is not around and tends not to want to cooperate with basic requests. If I have to leave, getting him to his room can prove a So we are hoping that the class with just me and him will improve things. It’s basic obedience, which he has already been through with Summer a few times so he should be a star, and thus, it can hopefully serve to improve that trust area since there is not worry of him learning the commands as he already knows them.

The first class went well. Summer was a bit worried he would bark at some of the other dogs and might be restless since he is familiar with the CLC, but usually Summer present. He did well, especially since we were situated next to an 8lb yapping machine that he largely ignored. He only got restless when we had to sit for longer periods of time and when other dogs were used as the demo dogs. Apparently he knows he should be the star, I’m betting his mom told him, so he got a little mouthy when he was on the sidelines. It wasn’t much, and he did well with responding to my efforts to revert his attention back to me.

Every Thursday for the next, I think 6 or 7 weeks, we’ll be back at the CLC for our hour class to see how well this experience goes and see how things improve. I’m hoping for the best.

Tonight’s Chipotle visit:
Me: Chicken Fajita please.
Distributor of Delicious Burritos: I’m sorry we’re out of faijita veggies.
Me: :looks around: :brain hemorrhages start: I’m sorry, what?
DoDB: We are out of the veggies, would you like some beans?
Me: :still struggling to comprehend this travesty: No… thanks…

I went through the rest of the order in a haze, amazingly still able to order the rest of my toppings and a drink. I left to take my dinner home, still perplexed. How does this happen? It was still a good meal, but, it was like a chocolate chip cookie with the chocolate chips. It made me sad.

Then watching the start of the Illinois/Duke game, the announcer rolls off this gem about 45 seconds into the game:
“And Illinois up 2-0, the largest lead of the game…”
Read that again, think about it, and read it one more time. Seriously, did he really just say that? I swear I’m not still disillusioned from the lack of peppers and onions in my burrito, he really did reel off that awesome stat.

And lastly, my younger cat seems to enjoy chewing on packing tape hanging off the many boxes I have already unpacked. It’s entertaining because it’s obvious he does not like the taste and/or the sticky aspect of the tape in his mouth, yet he sits there for minutes at a time, chew chew chew, awww crap what’s this stuff on my tongue, chew chew chew, awww crap. Weirdo.

I had to take Llama back because he was doing nothing but puking after I got him home. Turns out he had an uncommon allergic reaction to the vaccine he got, the kind of reaction that doesn’t occur when kittens are young, only once they’ve grown to ‘near adult’ or adult status. Poor guy had to go get another shot after another ride to the vet. Thankfully he’s fine now and the vet was super nice about it and apologetic, even though it wasn’t their fault, there was no way to have known since this had never happened before and isn’t exactly common. They made a note that now, whenever Llama gets a vaccination he’ll get a little bit of meds first that prevent the reaction. He’s wiped out now and sleeping in the cabinets somewhere.

Of course the first time I take the boys to a vet in a year it had to be an ordeal. I haven’t decided if I will brave taking Monkey back for a chip, if I do, he’ll certainly be hopped up on some kitty Ritalin. Now back to work since this killed bunch of hours during the day that I should have been coding.