As the Stomach Churns
Well! That's it! The school year is over and the school is now quiet as I settle down to my summertime task of refining curriculum, organizing my shop, painting the Honda, drywalling my basement, (and the list goes on and on and on....) etc..
I picked up one of those nifty aluminum Razor skate-bikes (scooter) that are blossoming in popularity these days. Very fun to scoot around in, certainly lots of looks, and people always take me up on my offer to let them ride it. Most of the older folk tell me how they used to have one 20+ years ago. I remember my father having one that must have been made in the 50's or so. The new ones are neat, light and collapsable, but too expensive right now.
Here are a few pages on them:
They are pretty stable, but you have to get used to it. after about 30 Km/h they're pretty frightening. I do love the portability, and they are fantastic on Linoleum or smooth concrete.
Of course, we have to include the Heinous Honda....
I recently got the results from the Solo II Regional Championship #1, where I took first place in H/stock, and made #5 in the top ten novice drivers. That made me feel pretty good about myself.
I also got the results from the Novice Championship #3, where I took first place in H/Stock, and made it up the ladder to 7th place overall, out of 103 (the top 6 win tires at the end of the season). Only 3 more Novice events to go!
Paint has become a reality this summer. In a big way. It's taken me over two weeks to paint the stupid thing, and I learned that I really don't enjoy bodywork.
I carefully cut out all the rust, and welded in hand-made metal patch panels and fender arches. I used an abnormally large amount of Bondo, and sanded until my fingerprints were gone. As of this writing, it's ready to be primered tomorrow. I will be racing it on Sunday, then masking and painting on Monday. Since so much has been removed for painting, I will probably end up racing in Super Stock, or Street Prepared for Sunday as there is no point putting it back together for a weekend only to take it apart again (it doesn't even have door handles right now).
I'm finally looking forward to the car being all one colour again. I've got close to 80 hours in the body work alone so far.
Ironically, the day I went to put insurance on my sweetie's car so that I could begin the bodywork on the Civic, I got rear-ended AGAIN! I am beginning to get quite sick of this. This time the tail lights were smashed, the bumper bracket smashed, the bumper skin attachments torn, the rear panel pushed in 6", and the hatch key lock broken. What a disappointment.
So far, the car has been...
Based on this cycle, it's scheduled for a break-in next.
Nevertheless, I also intend to start a Highschool Autocross Club for September. Should be fun, and I have a number of students interested already. There is only one other highschool doing autocross in BC - Hope Secondary. I intend to meet with the teacher there to plan my own club. Cool!