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Category: Goolsbee News
Driving Lessons, and Being Driven.
Nicholas hit a major life milestone on Monday. Taking advantage of the holiday he started lessons on how to drive a manual transmission car.
Yep, he’s learning to use the Man Pedal!
He’s been driving for several months, and has completed driver’s education (what little there is of that in the USA!) He’s fairly competent on the road, in his mother’s slushbox-equipped machine, so the time is right for upping the difficulty level. I’ve been emphasizing “smoothness” to him while he’s driving Sue’s car, in the hope that he would appreciate its importance when he arrives here.
Lessons began in our driveway, with some discussion of the physics involved in how a clutch operates. I demonstrated the “smoothness” concept by closing the Jetta’s trunk on 6 standing beer bottles in front of our barn. Then driving the car up our steep driveway between the barn and the house, around the house and down the hill and around the corner into our garage… and opening the trunk to find the bottles all still standing. They clinked together a bit on the hill, but none actually fell over. 🙂 A few laps around the driveway with me at the wheel, explaining foot & hand actions while driving was followed by handing the car over to him and having him try. Launch from a stop is of course the hardest thing to do, and that was the entire focus of Lesson One on Monday afternoon. Having a Diesel to learn, with hundreds of foot-pounds of torque from idle on up certainly helps. Doing the start of the first lesson on the gravel driveway helped too. Nick got the hang of starting from a standstill OK… only killing the engine a few times. After he seemed to get the process down we went to the second half of the lesson: pavement.
We switched drivers and I piloted the car down into town and an industrial park near the airport with empty streets and parking lots with circuits around each building big enough for trucks with trailers. Putting Nick back behind the wheel, he started over with launch control, now with more traction under tires. It was a tad rough for a while, but started to get the hang of it. Two hours in he was very pleased with himself, even getting into 2nd gear now and then. To keep him humble I pulled one of the bottles out and stood it up on the passenger side floorboard and challenged him to start from a stop and not knock over the bottle. He was unable to do it, despite lots of effort. Mentally worn out he asked to end the lesson and head home.
I drove home, and Nick stood the bottle up. I was able to drive most of the way home, through 10+ miles of turns, lights, hills, and stop signs without knocking it over, though I wasn’t perfect. It did fall over 5 times, much to Nick’s joy. He was surprised how I could keep it standing most of the time however. As we approached some corners he’d say “Oh yeah, it’s gonna fall now!” only to be followed by a “How did you do that!?” 😉
The answer is simple: Thirty years of practice!
I can recall my Life Drawing professor in college having us do three one-hour drawings on the first day of class. He put them away for the entire semester and on the last days of class had us repeat the effort, then produced our earlier work for comparison. The differences were amazing. I’ll put the bottle away for a few months and spring it on Nick sometime before he takes his driver’s test at the end of his learning-permit year. Should be interesting for him to see his own improvement.
On Monday night I saw Christopher as well. He had spent the long weekend with his high school friend Rob Pieffle, who is attending the University of Washington. He made his way from Evergreen State in Olympia up to Seattle on public transportation, but was unable to accomplish the reverse trip the same way due to the commute-focused Tacoma-Seattle leg of the trip. I volunteered to provide the ride for him, though he had to drive to allow me some rest. I met him at the Wallingford location of Dick’s Drive-In. He took the wheel and drove us to his dorm at TESC in Olympia. As always it’s nice to see him. We chatted while he drove (very smoothly I might add!) down I-5. I’ll be heading down to collect him for the summer break sometime in the next 2 weeks.
First Shots With New Camera
Finally started shooting with the new rig. I grabbed the camera and the telephoto lens as a aerobatic plane was doing stalls and loops above our house this evening as we sat out on the deck after dinner. The plane went off behind the trees, so I never did get a photo of it. Instead I pointed the lens at the family. Nick didn’t mind too much.
It switches to B&W at the touch of a button.
I pointed it at Sue but she kept hiding when I did.
After we left the deck I ran off to the Saturday nigh Cruise-In down in Arlington to shoot some cars. Pics coming soon!
An unusual week.
My week started out normal enough. I went out for a beer with John “Mad Dog” Morrow (who is nothing at all like his moniker BTW) on Tuesday night, at the Diamond Knot Brewpub in Mukilteo, right by the ferry dock. (that begins a sort of nautical theme for the week!)
Wednesday evening I met my sister, her husband, and my nephew, along with my parents, (here in town for a few days,) at Chinooks at Fisherman’s Terminal on Salmon Bay near the Ballard Bridge.
It was fun to see them, and after dinner we went to their home in the North Beach area of Ballard. Ballard was our home from 1987 through 1999 and I have a lot of fond memories of the place. However it has changed a lot, with urban sprawl overrunning the place. It was a quiet neighborhood when we lived there, and now it seems to be getting overbuilt and gentrified. No longer home to small industry (usually relating to fishing or boats) it is being overrun with apartments, condos & coffeehouses. For example the little grocery store where we used to shop is now a HUGE condo complex.
After I left my sister’s home I drove by my old house, then stopped at my favorite little park on Sunset Hill, overlooking Shilshole Bay. It was just as I remembered it: Quiet, contemplative, and one of the best (unknown!) views in Seattle:
Hard to see in the darkness, but trust me, it is amazing.
The next morning I left work early and hopped aboard a ferry going cross-sound to Bainbridge Island. From there I drove across Agate Pass, through the Kitsap, and over the Hood Canal bridge to the south end of Discovery Bay near Port Townsend.
At Discovery Bay I went to the home of Doug & Vicki Breithaupt, which is an old schoolhouse (where Doug attended in 1st grade.) I was there to attend a celebration of Vicki’s life, as she passed away on April 21st after a long struggle with breast cancer.
The turnout was amazing, with well over one hundred people attending. Thankfully given the nature of their home, we could all fit inside:
The ceremony itself was very nice, with Doug presenting images of Vicki through her life and their marriage, followed by memorials provided by friends and family. Following this, three of their four children provided us with some music:
Afterwards we all enjoyed a potluck meal. Doug & Vicki have participated in, and organized many vintage car rallies here in the Pacific Northwest and it seemed that at least a quarter of the attendees were car people. Doug works for a non-profit that is involved in higher education scholarships and they announced that two scholarship funds were being set up; one in Vicki’s memory, to be awarded to students usually overlooked in traditional scholarship programs. The scholarship will seek out achieving students who might not qualify for traditional awards based on financial need or high-GPA. The other fund will specifically help the four Breithaupt children.
After the celebration ended I headed to Port Townsend to catch a ferry home, via Whidbey Island and Deception Pass. After a short wait, I boarded a very small ferry, the MV Steilacoom II. It seems to be far too small a vessel to be plying the waters at the mouth of Puget Sound, which is open to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north and northwest. If any waters are going to get rough on any route the WSF runs it is this one. This evening however the weather was truly spectacular.
Mid-Sound, as we crossed the main shipping channel a VERY large Ro-Ro (car carrier) appeared on our starboard bow, traveling northward at high speed. It is always impressive to see such a large vessel at speed. The Steilacoom’s skipper had to slow, and give way to the behemoth, even making a sharp turn as we crossed the wake in order to take it bow-on.
The large car carrier is the Swedish ship M/S Elektra, out of Stockholm sailing for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines. The photos do not adequately show how truly immense this ship is (228 meters/750 feet long) A bit of googling revealed that she’s recently been elongated and can cary 7194 cars. I watched her cross our bow, and sail off into the sunset.
Here’s a brief digicam movie from the Steilacoom II’s stern. A 360° view around, starting from NE, counterclockwise around:
You can see the Elektra there near the sun. Sorry about the bad sound and shakey-cam at the start.
The drive up Whidbey to Deception Pass, then south through Skagit county was wonderful. The sun setting behind me the whole time, as twilight is beginning to last longer and longer here at the higher latitudes. I’m blessed to live in such a beautiful place.
2009 Tulip Rallye: The semi-official start to the driving season.
Nicholas & I participated in the mammoth 28th Annual Tulip Rallye, put on by the MG Club today. What started as a wet yucky day, ended surprisingly well. For the rest of the tale, click “More”…
Continue reading “2009 Tulip Rallye: The semi-official start to the driving season.”
Nick redeems himself with a victory.
Several years ago Nick begged a ride in the navigator seat, usually reserved by his older brother Chris. Chris has always been an excellent navigator for me, even in tough TSD events. Nick however, didn’t do so well. Exiting a parking lot after a rest stop, he instructed me to turn right, rather than left, and we ended up about 12 miles off course and showed up late for the awards lunch! Not to mention dead last. That experience soured him off rallying for a while.
Yesterday was the Seattle Jaguar Club’s “Spring Thing” rally, which they have apparently been staging for a long long time. Chris is off at College, and Nick vacillated a bit about taking on the task. Finally Friday night he decided to go for it after I twisted his arm a bit.
Well, we somehow managed to pull off a first place finish, all thanks to Nick. It was not a “real” TSD rally, just sort of a “gimmick” rally where you follow a route, and answer questions based on observing things. This one required a bit of social engineering as it asked some oddball questions which required interactions with strangers. Nick is such a self-confident kid that he’s up for those things. We drew the first car out from the Issaquah Krispy Kreme donut shop and managed to get the most answers right and match the pace time closest enough to pull off a win. A dozen cars participated; six E-types, two XK 120s, and four XJSs. The two really tough questions involved wandering into an ice cream shop and asking what flavor was their best. (‘Bunny tracks’) and the other involved figuring out how many wineries were located in a sprawling industrial estate in Woodinville, all while a huge Spring Release tasting event/open house was going on. The place was packed with tour busses and people, so I waited outside while Nick dove in, found an information booth and got the answers he needed.
The finish was in Redmond, at a place called the Coho Cafe. Nick & I split some steamed clams and shrimp & chips. Tasty! Later we found out we had won, narrowly missing the dreaded second place, which obligates you to organizing the following year’s event (something I think I’m up for anyway… though I’d make it a TSD!) The trophy is a plaque that has been in the club since 1972 (when I was 9 years old!) and when appended with all the names of winners is almost as big as Nick:
Big Day Today.
Today is Christopher Goolsbee’s 19th birthday. Happy Birthday Chris!
He’s away at college, so we celebrated last weekend when he was home from Spring Break.
Nicholas & I took his second drive on public roads today. Here’s a shot of him at the wheel, on our driveway about to depart:
He did well. In our first drive last week we went around the driveway a lot, then did two laps around our neighborhood. This time we went straight onto the road, and after some warm-up in the neighborhood, we went down the hill to SR 530 for some highway miles. Over to the Trafton General Store, then down into Arlington for a run to the hardware store, the Co-op for some fence materials, and then out SR 530 almost to I-5 to buy some Diesel for the Jeep. (It is still not warm enough for B100 driving and I like to keep the Jeep’s max mixture @ B80 anyway.) Sue drove my Jetta today just so Nick & I could take the Jeep. The Jeep has a slushbox, while the VW has a manual transmission. I’ll teach him to drive a stick soon, and in fact, like Chris he’ll likely take his driver’s test with the Jetta, but for now I’m easing him into the fundamentals without the complications of clutch/throttle interplay.
After we got home and emptied the stuff we bought, I tended to the BioDiesel batch in process, then went to the garage to work on the Jaguar. The big cat has been slumbering most of the winter in the garage since the barn hibernation last winter was interrupted by mice. I did take it out for a drive one sunny but COLD day in January. I meant to address a long list of minor issues with the car over the winter, but never did. I figured now is as good a time as any to get started! First Item: Fix my cooling fan for good.
Here is a view of the critical bits. The red/black wire is part of my “hack” that put a fused wire from the dashboard “map light” toggle switch directly to the fan. This allowed me to manually operate it. The fan SHOULD be temperature activated using a thermoswitch in the radiator header tank, wired to that relay you can see below the header tank at the top of the photo above. via that blue wire you see at the bottom of the photo. The “T” shaped connector drives the fan. I’m pretty sure none of this stuff is stock, beyond the thermoswitch (called an” Otter Switch” by Jaguar). You can’t see the Otter Switch installed in any of my photos as it is put in the most difficult spot to reach on the header tank and requires you to lie on top of the engine and use a mirror to see it! I used a turkey baster to suck out the coolant from the header tank, then climbed atop the XK and using a mirror and flat screwdriver removed the old Otter Switch. Here it is with the new CoolCat replacement thermoswitch:
Above: Old Otter switch on the left, new CoolCat Thermoswitch on the right. New relay (yet to be installed) upper right.
With a bit of struggle I was able to get the new switch installed. I re-wired up the fan and old relay, and decided to go for a test drive. It was a nice Saturday, so Nick & I went to the Burger King Cruise-In:
There I ran into some old friends…
John Gumbinger was there with his Pontiac Le Mans that he’s owned from the early 70s. Restored in the mid-90s, it still looks great. John USUALLY drives a Nash of some sort, but not today.
Rob McLane, one of my neighbors and whose son played little league baseball with Nick many many years ago, finally has his Model A pickup running. It is sort of a rat rod with lots of homebuilt fabrication and cut/paste going on. I like it, in a crazy sort of way.
Parked next to us was a Volvo p1800 I had not seen before:
I spoke briefly with the owner, but we had to get home to take the whole family out to dinner, so we had to dash. Nick drove us all down to La Hacienda for Cadillac Margaritas and a yummy dinner. He then drove us back, so now he has 4 drives under his belt.