Category: Goolsbee News

Entropy.

When I was a college kid I had a t-shirt that read “Fight Gravity.” I was a climber and it made for a good joke. Now as a middle-aged homeowner I should get one that says “Fight Entropy.”

My son Christopher’s summer project was going to be painting our deck. His reward was to be a laptop for use at college. The first step in the job was sanding and scraping. That took quite a bit of time, especially as the weather here stayed rainy until early July. A couple of weeks ago, when I started inspecting his job as it neared completion of this step, to my horror he had uncovered a LOT of rotten wood. Major portions of our deck have been held together by a layer of paint!

Above: This is the worst of it. We replaced those big main beams two winters ago when they broke under the weight of a big snowfall. Long-time readers of this website will recall that bad winter. After Chris sanded, I tapped the exposed wood with a claw hammer and it basically vanished. Lots of rot in both the intermediate beams, the deck top, and the facia under the railings. I suspect I’ll be completely dismantling this part of the deck soon.

What started as a paint job has transformed into a complete rebuild. Ugh.

Above: Chris painting the trim around the windows.

Above: The same spot, viewed from below. You will note the deck railing is off, and there is a pile of lumber in the driveway. Most of what Chris is standing on has to be replaced. He has a plank-painting factory going on in the garage. I prefer to pre-paint all the beams and planks.

Above: The deck on the south side of the house has two parts, the main part near the kitchen, and the other part near the back bedrooms. A thin walkway connects them. It is still in good shape, with only one support beam that requires replacement. This is a view of that part. Chris has already painted most of it. You can see some rotten planks out in the yard that I removed from the main part near the kitchen. The tarp is up because rain is in the forecast tonight and tomorrow.

Above: This is the main part of the deck. This is where we cook out, sit in the evenings, watch the stars, etc. You can see I’ve replaced three planks here, and done a lot of patching here and there. I bought some uber high-tech deck coating for this section, which requires 4 days to put on, and 7 days of curing. Hence the tarp to make sure it stays dry and out of direct sunlight. Hopefully it will last longer than the 2-3 years we’ve been getting from the paint.

Oh yeah… it has been REAL hot this weekend too. In the 90s, which is very rare here. 😛

Nick & I visit the Reyns’ at Pacific Raceways

I received an email earlier in the week from Philippe Reyns, who along with his wife Francoise and his Jaguar XKSS, I met at the Going to the Sun Rally last year. He let me know that they were going to be in the Seattle area for the Northwest Historics at Pacific Raceways. My plan was to take the Jaguar to work on Thursday, along with Nicholas, and spend the 4th at the races. Unfortunately the weather ruined my plans. Wednesday and Thursday saw some rain and thunderstorms… the latter a VERY rare event in the Pacific Northwest. The Jaguar stayed home and Nick and I took the Jetta. After work we drove south to Pacific Raceways (in horrendous traffic.)

There we found Philippe and Francoise Reyns, and their two race cars: a Lola and a Lotus Formula Ford. I spent quite a while chatting with the two of them, catching up from the past nine months, etc. Nick behaved himself, though I could tell he wasn’t interested in what the grown-ups were talking about. Nick was enthralled with the cars, and was amazed to be offered a seat in them.

The grown-ups continued to chat while Nicholas’ imagination had him doing laps around the track.

The Reyns are really nice folks. It was very cool of them to let Nick “test sit” the cars. Weather permitting Nick & I hope to head back down later in the week to watch the races and cheer Philippe on. Stay tuned.

Above: Nicholas helps Philippe put the wrapper on the Formula Ford.

Christopher Graduates!

Christopher graduated from high school tonight, June 10th 2008.

It was held at the football stadium at Arlington High School, and thankfully the rains ceased for a few hours for the event to pass. Of course as soon as it concluded, the drizzle started again. We’re all very happy.

We started the evening with a dinner at La Hacienda. Then we dropped Chris off at the school as he had to be there an hour before.

Above: Chris puts on the gown.

Above: Sue watches as the cap goes on.

The actual ceremony took place with a stadium full of parents and relatives of all the students. The parking lot was overflowed and we ended up far away. We did a poor job of logistics and ended up pretty far from Chris’ spot in the ceremony. I brought my telephoto lens and managed to pick him out of the crowd:

Above: Chris enters the stadium.

Above: Where’s Waldo?

Above: Chris hands his name to the reader.

…and walks towards the stage.

Of course my photos of him on the stage are blurry and somebody walked right in front of me right about that time as well(!)

Oh well.

There was music and of course boring speeches… it wrapped up with some youthful exuberance:

We finally found each other down on the field after it was all over and got a group shot:

One down, one to go!

A Gentleman and a Scholar!

Well, at least a Scholar. 😉

Chris' Evergreen State Scholarship

Last night Christopher & I went to the Seattle Mariner’s incredibly expensive stadium** for a welcome reception and event for new students at Evergreen State, his chosen school. There was no game going on, so it was weird to be in this giant empty stadium with just 150 or so people. We were served finger foods in the 1st base lounge on the 200 level. They had tables and chairs, and a podium set up. Chris & I grabbed a primo spot in some big comfy chairs as we were a bit early. Staff & faculty were there to speak with us. Before that happened the Dean of Admission brought nine students up to the front (as soon as I counted nine standing I figured a baseball joke was coming… and sure enough…) he announced that these students had been picked as the starting lineup for the next home game. He passed our Mariner’s caps to them all and asked if there were any left-handers, and Chris raised his hand in confirmation and was tossed a ball, and told he’d be on the mound pitching. Then he revealed the real reason why these kids were up in front of the crowd: They were the recipients of Scholarships!

Great news for a parent about to start writing big checks for an education!

Congrats Chris!

We drove home in a blinding blizzard(!) around 9pm. Visibility was so bad that I-5 was slowed to about 35 MPH. Really weird weather this “spring”… We awoke to big fat flakes falling here at home, so I decided to bow out of the Seattle Jaguar Club’s Spring Rally. I don’t know if they went ahead with it, or if it has been rescheduled. Hopefully the warm weather (it was 80°F a week ago today!) will return next week in time for the Tulip Rallye up in the Skagit Valley. I really hope so.

**(If the “naming rights” big corporation/Insurance company wants me to name them in conjunction with the stadium please have their marketing department contact me for payment details)

Need an Alternator for a ’79 M-B 450sl!


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My father is driving his 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450sl from Colorado to Vermont roughly along that route above. He just called me from western Nebraska with a dead alternator. 🙁

Needless to say, the parts stores in Nebraska don’t carry a suitable alternator, so he’s doing the logical gearhead thing: He bought two spare batteries and a charger and he’s going to keep driving until he can find one.

Here is where you come in dear reader: Anyone know what sort of alternator he needs? I assume it is a Bosch, but googling so far is just getting me link farms. A Lester/Rebuilders number would be great! If you don’t know that, how about a hint of reasonably honest Mercedes service locations (dealers or independents) anywhere from Elkhart, Indiana to Cleveland, Ohio. That is where he’ll be Monday morning.

Thanks in Advance!

Update, 11 PM PDT: I posted this to a couple of car-related mailing lists, and received a ton of useful information, part numbers, potential sources, and a good selection of service operations along his route. I’ve passed it along to my Dad. He & my mom made it to their hotel before dark, and have their battery on the charger. He said the car ran great all day.

Thanks to all who provided information!