Going against the grain? What do you think?

I’m thinking about bringing the 65E to a small car show this weekend. It is not a big-time Concours d’Arrogance. It is not a serious round of competitive car washing. I doubt any q-tips will be harmed. It is just a little show put on by my local NAPA store, Stilly Auto Parts. (“Stilly” is short for “Stillaguamish” the name of the river valley we sit in… say it three times fast and you’ll understand why everyone shortens it to “stilly” from “stil-la-gu-wa-mish”!) The staff there are true “car people” and are very helpful. Despite the fact that several discount chains inhabit the valley, I always go to the NAPA first. Great people, so I’m happy to support them by showing my car there, despite my normal aversion to car shows.

So, by “going against the grain” I was thinking of specifically NOT washing my car before I brought it there. Mind you, it is not looking as bug-splattered as it does in the photo above, it still wears it’s Monte Shelton rally tag decal, and a nice collection of road grime. The last time I washed it was the brief hose-down at the end of the rally.

There is a good chance that it will be the ONLY non-American car at this show. But I’m thinking that showing up looking a little saddleworn might lend it some gravitas… a bit of street-cred. On the flip side though, some folks might see this as “slumming” or just being disrespectful.

Do you have an opinion? I’m all ears.

Goofy Online Petitions

I never participate in these things, but this one was just too goofy to pass up: “Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister”

Apparently the Prime Minister’s office in the UK has an website where the Queen’s subjects can request favors and allow others to vote for it. Somebody wanted Jezza as PM, and they actually ran it. Mind you just to prove how lame the system is it allowed me to vote – using nothing but my old address in Wiltshire as “proof of eligibility”… hell I was merely a resident alien and that was a decade ago!

Well, yesterday I received an email from the PM’s office stating:

From: “10 Downing Street”
To: “e-petition signatories”
Subject: Government response to petition ‘PMClarkson’
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:10:11 +0000

You signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to “Make Jeremy Clarkson
Prime Minister.”

The Prime Minister’s Office has responded to that petition and you can view
it here:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16590

Prime Minister’s Office

The page they reference points to a YouTube Video:

Unlike our government, at least the brits have one with a sense of humor, or humour, as the case may be.

Closing a few loops.

In the midst of the Monte Shelton Rally I popped online and posted a “Car Photo of the Day: Name that race car” picture. It was one of those ironic twists of entangled coincidence that lead to that post. Let me unravel it for you.

I have a bunch of photos I’ve collected over the years of various cars, and among them is a bunch of race cars. I’m not intimate with many of them, and figured I’d post them here for fun. One group of them were a collection of Indy cars presented at the Amelia Island Concours a few years back. I attended this Concours as part of the Forza Amelia Vintage Rally. I have one photo which I thought matched a model car I have, that was presented to me at the conclusion of another rally, namely the 1999 Cannonball Classic. The Cannonball Classic was a goofball idea hatched by two insane men, namely Brock Yates and Martin Swig. It combined the passions of both of them into a crazy week of old cars, driving insane distances. My Dad & I participated in the Cannonball Classic together and you can read my whole report here.

The guest speaker at the Monte Shelton Rally was Bill Warner, who is the chairman of the Amelia Island Concours, and a frequent participant in the original Cannonball Baker Sea-to-shining-sea Memorial Dash back in the 1970s.

So I posted that photo, as I thought all the events and people were somehow linked.

Then I looked closely at my model and it is similar, but not identical. This appears to be very similar, if not identical chassis to me previously posted race car. Can you name it? Hint: It won the Indy 500 in 1963 (the year I was born)… which adds yet another layer of coincidence here, so lets just all shiver with a bit of deja vu and get back to regular daily life.

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. 😛