The Return of Thunderball

So after all the building and tweaking of KZ's PWD (Pine Wood Derby) car we finally went to the race today. We got there early for the weigh in and to make sure that we would not have to tweak his car. Again his car weighed in dead on 5oz which is the limit. He had to give it a name during the weigh in and "Thunder" was the name of his car.

The race started around 10:30 and they raced first by rank. The Bears, Wolves, Weblos 2, Tigers and Weblos 1. So unfortunately KZ had to wait a long time from the time that we got to the school until he got to see his car go. Was the wait worth it. You bet.

So when the tigers got up to race this is how the race worked. There was a point eliminationn system that was used. 1st place got 0 points, 2nd place got 1 point, and 3rd place got 2 points. When you got a total of 3 points you were eliminated from competition. So every scout got to have 3 races.

So get ready for this in the Tiger division KZ got 0 points over about 7 races. Meaning that KZ never lost a race in the Tiger division, and won the first place trophy. A shark came close to beating him but never did. You can see from the photo how close it was. KZ car is the green one.

His cars fastest time was 2.317 seconds. Very good time for a first time racer. I knew however that he would not be the pack winner based on his fastest speed. There we already cars that were running speeds of 2.299 and faster. So I knew that his winning streak would come to an end.

After all the ranks run their races, they run the pack championship. Again the same point system is in effect. KZ came in 7th overall. I would guess that there were 40 or so cars overall. So coming in seventh out of 40 is not that bad for the first time.


In the championship KZ's last race, he came in third which gave him his total of 6 points and elimanated him. As can be seen from the photo it was very close. He lost by .003 seconds!

So I would say that we had a good race day and we have some improving that we can do for next year. At least we have a time that we can try to improve upon. Next year we are going to be shooting for 2.299 or better. So below are some of the phots of the winner and his car and trophy.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho It's Off to Buffalo !!!

I have had a crazy few days! So here is the itinerary.

Thursday 5:00am - leave my house to head to Exton, PA (45 min away) to catch the Amtrak train to NYC that leaves at 6:11

Thursday 5:30am - realize that I left the train tickets at home and I would have to go back and get them. Yippie!!!!!

Thursday 5:45am - Leave home again, this time in route to Philadelphia 30th Street station to intercept train that I am missing due to ticket foul up.

Thursday 6:30am - Made it to the train station with time to spare to get the train.

Thursday 8:30am - Made it to NYC and worked there for the day and stayed for the night.

Friday 9:00am - Waiting for person to show up for interview.

Friday 9:45am - Still waiting!!!!

Friday 10:00am - Still waiting !!!

Friday 10:15am - Call recruiter about possible tech and found that he can't reach him either. Guess he is not the guy. Also received call from Mrs. Clean (aka: sicko) she is not doing well, I decide that I will get early train home to help.

Friday 10:35am - Phew, just made the train to go home.

Friday 1:00pm - Made it home and have to get on conference call at 2pm that I forgot about.

Friday 2:00pm - Not much help for the kids!!

Friday 2:30pm - Call comes from tech in Buffalo and service call is not going well there. (Based on post title you can see where this is going.)

Friday 3:15pm - Decision has been made that I have to go to Buffalo, NY on Saturday to resolve customer issue.

Friday 4:30pm - All the plans are in place for me to leave and go to Buffalo.

Friday 5:30pm - Go run out and get dinner out (quick and easy, and Stanley paid, even better)

Friday 6:00pm - Get some time to spend with the kids. KZ breaks my heart when he tells me that he does not want me to leave again. Spends time crying while I play with SM and CG. Spend some time reading with KZ once he calms down some.

Friday 7:30pm - put the kids to bed.

Friday 7:45pm - get about 15min with Mrs. Clean.

Friday 8:00pm - Race out the door to meet my manager and catch flight to Buffalo.

Friday 10:40pm - Sitting on plane ready to go.

Saturday 12:15am - Find that National Car Rental (place that I reserved car) is not open. GREAT!! Walk to Hertz and get a car with GPS. YIPPEE!!! A new toy to play with.

Saturday 1:00am - Head hits the pillow. GOOD NIGHT!!!!

Saturday 6:30am - Head off the pillow. GOOD MORNING!! What day is it now? Get up get ready to go and eat breakfast and drive to customer site.

Saturday 7:45am - On site and working on problem that other techs have been working on since Wednesday.

Saturday 12:00pm - Leave customer site call US Air and race to catch the 1:10pm flight to Philadelphia. Make it with about 30min.

Saturday 12:53pm - Sitting in airport typing this up waiting for plane. Notice a problem. I should be on the plane now. Plane is just pulling up. Will add the rest later.

Saturday 1:30pm - Plane is leaving 20 minutes late however, pilot says that we should be early arriving due to tail wind, aka TURBULENCE!! We are on a small DeHaviland Dash 8 airplane that bounces around a lot. No biggie I sleep most of the way home.

Saturday 2:00pm - Landing is getting very rough and the lady behind me has the urge to regurge!! I feel sorry for her. However the aroma left in the plane I could really do with out.

Saturday 2:15 - Plane lands on one wheel. In all honesty this made me a tad nervous, but pilot was a pro and got it on all three in no time. Stewardess says that is how they have to land in windy conditions. Not sure about that. But keeps the passengers calm.

Saturday 3:00pm - Have my bags and I am in the car on my way home.

Saturday 4:00pm - Finally I am at home and can start to wind down. Looking forward to my own bed.

Saturday 6:30pm - Have a movie night with the kids. Watch the Christopher Reeve "Superman" with them. Wish I could have flown like him. All this travel would have been a lot easier.

Saturday 8:30pm - All kids tucked in and going to sleep.

Saturday 9:00pm - All is quite in the house and I am looking forward to 2 days off and no trip to NYC this week. My manager let me take Monday off with all of the hub bub that just went on.

THE END

Goofy Human Nature.

While I was waiting for the train to NYC this morning. I witnessed something that I have before but today it struck me as very funny.

My train was schedule to leave at 5:52am and I was at the station around 5:20, along with some other people that were going to be on the same train I was based on where they were sitting in the train station. So for about 20 min. most of the people are sitting on one of the benches, reading the paper, working on computer or just relaxing.

Then it happens! What is the "it" you say, the "it" is the first goof ball to go stand in line waiting to go down to the platform. Well after "it" goes to get in line (here comes the goofy human nature) every other "it" has to go get in line behind him. Like good little lemmings the flood gates have opened and everyone now feels like they have to jockey for position to get in line.

So I bet you are wondering if I went and got in line. NO, I will admit the first few times I did however after making this trip as many times as I have you learn you don't have to. Then the conductor comes and opens the rope to let people start to go down and the Lemming line starts to work its way forward. But hey they open up the whole stair well for everyone to walk down. What a novel concept I don't have to stand in line.

While the 50-60 people or so are in line. I am still sitting on one of the benches and wait for them to open the whole stairwell. I would say that I was one of the first 10 people down to the platform. You know that there was someone in line thinking "hey what is he doing, I got in line".

Now I bet all of us at one time or another have gotten in line with all the lemmings. But maybe this will make you think why the heck am I doing that. Now if we are talking Southwest Airlines that is another story. I will beat people up to get on the plane first so that I don't get stuck sitting between two 300 lbs. guys. We all now that if you are last on SWA you will be in a middle seat.

Anyway, watch for goofy human nature through out your day, you will probably get a good laugh out of it, even if you are part of it.

Pinewood Racing 27 Years Later

27 years ago, or so, I built the white car shown in the pictures with my Grandfather to race in my Cub Scout pack. I am not sure if it was my first Pinewood Derby car or not however of the two that I saved this is the one that I like the most. I have also given it to KZ for him to enjoy and play with it.

Now one thing that I think that you will notice is the difference in design after 27 years. You start out with a block of wood and some wheels. What it looks like after you are done is up to the Scout and what his Dad is capable of.

My recollection is that I never once won a race in my years as a Cub Scout. As a Dad and all around general guy, I am very competitive and I hate to lose. So with that in mind I had to come up with some way to design a car that might have a fighting chance, not like the aerodynamic beast that I built. I still think it looks good though.

So I went out and bought a book that talks about how to design a car that will win. Many of the tips we did not use for two reasons. 1) KZ did not want to do them, and it is his car, I did not push him if he did not want to do something. 2) Some of the tips would have violated the rules of the pack race. So we went and used one of the plans in the book. First thing you will notice is that KZ's car is much more aerodynamic. We should be better off just because of that.

The book is full of scientific ways to make your car go faster. Needless to say science was not my strong suit. Now I was never any great student in school, but there were some classes that I did really well at. The classes that I got to play with something and get my hands on ie. photography and computer science. So if I get to play with some sort of tool and I need to read a book to get the outcome that I want, the motivation is much greater to read the book and follow the instructions.

So we have a little more tweaking to get the car the exact way that we would like and be ready. But for the most part you are seeing the final version of the car "The Dragon Claw". There is another devision that I could have raced a car that I built on race day. This division has no rules and the cars can be built in any fashion with any tricks you want to try. I am looking forward to next year and I will build my own car and pick up my boyhood dreams of racing and winning.

Mrs. Clean is probably cringing at this already, for she knows my competitive nature and how much it can COST!!!!

How Is Your Cell Servi.....................

What is it about cell phones that we like so much? Is it being able to make calls where ever we go? Is it the ability to be reached where ever we are?

I would bet that it is not because they work like a nuclear submarine, non-stop. I have come to this conclusion about my own cell phone, Ok my own WORK cell phone. I am a tech junkie, if I can find that there is some neat reason to have some new technology I will find a way to get it at some point in my life. For example DVD player for the car. Reason to have, keeps kids quite on long car trips. So when I got my newest Nextel phone for work, due to the fact that I broke the other one, I was felt good, all the new features had me hooked. It has Bluetooth, a camera, and an MP3 and I was thinking WOW this is cool.

Maybe however I should have been more concerend about how the phone works, since that is what I really have it for. Now the phone service is ok. No wait let me rethink that it STINKS. I can't get good reception in my office where I get lots of calls on it due to the fact that customers know the number and call me there. On the train to and from NYC, the train might go about 3 train lenghts and it drops my call. In the car it drops out routinly at one particular spot on my way home. So I give the default "if my phone drops I will call you back" message.

At times I have been on a call in the car for 30 min. or more and then it drops. Of course this will be when you are on hold with someone or just gotten through to someone after going through the War and Peace of voice mail prompts and button pushes. When that happens I come darn close to opening the car window and chucking the phone into the woods. Maybe Rocky and Bullwinkle can get it to work better than I can.

I was once using the phone to call Nextel for support and it started to drop the call, you know how that goes the reception gets worse and worse until it is dropped. The last thing I heard the Nextel rep say was "are you there?" I am not sure if she heard me but my response was "Yes I am on your crappy Nextel phone?"

So maybe in the future the cell phones will get better and we will all be happy. However I don't think that they wil..................................

I call you back when I get in range!

The Palace is Complete

Once upon a time in a home far, far away, a mom and a dad made some special girls very happy. They went and changed the room that they lived in from a small little dungeon to a large palace. The girls were very very happy, and mom and dad were very very tired. So some pictures were taken and the room was slept in, and all was happy in the house. THE END.