Pinewood Derby 2

On Facebook, I jokingly said that Pinewood Derby is also known as "Look Whose Dad took Woodshop in High School". That's only mostly true. I saw some pretty fancy cars tonight, and I saw some cars that were obviously purely done by the boy who owned it, which was simultaneously awesome and a little sad (one boy hadn't made any changes or cuts to his block of wood except for some coloring and designs with marker).

The guidelines talk about using a team approach, with the boy in some sort of consultation role ("this is what I want my car to look like--see if you can make that happen with power tools"), and the dad taking on the cutting parts.

I still want the boy to be involved, but I feel a mixture of a wee bit of competitiveness and also a sincere desire for the boy to do well in the races (one of the do-it-yourselfer boys had a car that didn't quite make it over the finish line in three different races).

In my own Pinewood Derby experience, it was always a race for third place because of two boys whose father was an engineer (I think): the Morfords. Their cars always looked like Formula One racers or spaceships from the future. Even the year when I placed best, the year we decided to make our derby cars into Pioneer Wagons (did they consult the boys about this? I don't remember), their cars looked like pioneer wagon spaceships from the future. Mine looked like an actual pioneer wagon, complete with fabric cover and all (aerodynamics be damned! We're in this for the authenticity!). I came in 2nd or 3rd--I'll have to get out the slides to check--but I was ecstatic to have been somewhat victorious.

The boy wanted a Perry the Platypus design, which I was all for. Nothing like something out of the ordinary. Besides, when he's not acting like a super spy, he fortunately resembles a block of wood. We can do this. If you have never seen Perry in inaction, this is what he looks like:

We went to a pawn shop, bought a jigsaw for $20, and, since we really broke the bank last year buying all the equipment, we only put out another $10 or so for paint, weights, and sandpaper.

We drew the design together, sanded parts of him together, and I did my best to be patient as we filed the axles together, sanded the wheels together, and painted him together (although it was mostly him with me helping with touch-up).

We had intentions to include his platypus tail, but figured it would work against the already questionable aerodynamics.

We were some of the first to register and weigh in (which is a miracle in its own right), and so I thought we would race first. Not so. And, because of technical difficulties and typical "standard time" for these sorts of events, we didn't even begin to think about racing until about 30 minutes in, by which time I was ready to throttle an entire gym full of 9 year olds. They ran some test cars, but then the timekeeper's computer went down, causing an unnecessary delay of game. 10 yard penalty.
Now this is important, because we found out at the end that the timing is kept out to four decimal places, which, you will find out was probably necessary.

                                                                           Nerves.

Long story short, the boy won all three of his races. He was jubilant in the extreme. I loved it.

His sister was pretty excited, too.

He almost won 1st prize in the "Wacky" category. Apparently, we make a lot of "wacky" derby cars and raingutter regatta boats, because this would have been his 3rd win in the "wacky" division. I was up taking pictures of the cars as they were sorting out the awards and saw that they were about to dub him "wacky" once again. I told the wife, and she went and said, "I hate to be the obnoxious mom, but..." and the award was changed to 1st place in the "original" category (i.e., "wacky").

Although he won all three of his races, he did not win for speed. In fact, he was in 8th place, which was surprising because the car seemed pretty fast. We went to look at the timekeeping sheets, and they explained that they average a racer's three different runs on the three different lanes of the track to make up for how different lanes might be faster, etc. The boy's car, although 8th, was separated from the top racer by .08 seconds. Point-oh-eight. I think they had to go out to the third or fourth decimal place last year to determine a winner.

We had fun. I hope the boy feels involved in this somewhat dad-heavy project. I know he liked winning, however, and that makes me happy.

Large Format Photography

I borrowed the large format camera from school. It shoots 4x5 negatives, which are huge. It has lots of different movements, so you can create selective focus. The boy came out and volunteered to be shot (he also likes to see how the camera functions, and to look at the ground glass underneath the sheet). The negatives were difficult to develop--in a completely dark room by hand--and since they are so large, you can see any and all flaws. I had trouble getting this one clean. I printed a copy, then scanned the print and kind of cleaned it up. I don't have all night, but I wanted to post a copy of the picture. I hope to shoot some more over winter break.

Grandma's house--details.

Went to Grandma Ball's house last year after the reunion just to check it out. Roger and Maria graciously let us invade and take a peek around. I took a bunch of pictures, but I didn't take my wide-angle lens, so most of what you're seeing is from a 50mm viewpoint (add digital camera--make that a 75mm p.o.v.). I thought that a number of these details would help spark some memories in my siblings and cousins. Enjoy!

Halloween costumes for mom...

Here are some pictures of the kids on Halloween: the boy was a Lego skeleton figure and the girl was a cat, naturally. The wife pulled the Lego thing together quickly; we would have liked to have taken it with us California, but it would also have been unwieldy. He got a lot of positive comments (even from teenagers!), so he was very excited about how it turned out. We're already making plans for how we might adapt something like it for next year. Sorry the pictures are so large; we wanted to get them up quickly.

Scout trip, summer vacation.

I went on a scout outing this past weekend to Nelson's Landing, and then we went the next day to go kayaking with sea kayaks on the Colorado river. We had a nice, mellow evening. The boys were well-behaved and they had planned a very filling meal (spaghetti and meatballs with sausage--it was meat-tastic--as well as salad and bread. And dessert. It was truly "roughing it"). We had breakfast burritos in the morning. It seems like our program has changed--the kids are pretty decent, or at least they're not at an age where they are sassy and problematic. The ones on this trip were kind to each other, and they had a good time.

Blah.

We cleaned up camp in the morning, picked up our kayaks, and then headed down to the water. I was uneasy in the water--I have a problem with canoes and other floating non-motorized things. I don't feel balanced, and overall I'm just awkward, which is strange, because I'm generally awesome in all aspects of my life. So, we rowed across the river, and as I was waiting for a young scout who was struggling, I shifted my balance, overcompensated for being off center, and before I knew it, I was tumbling into the water. Luckily, I had put my larger camera in a waterproof bag in my pack. Not so luckily, I had three smaller cameras in my backpack and in my front shirt pocket. They did not fare so well. You can see the colors shift in one of the pictures--that was one of the cameras that took the plunge. One of them in my backpack was "weatherproof" and it fared the best of the three---in fact, I think it's still working fine. So. Enjoy the pictures.

 We came across some skunk tracks.

The boys shooting pictures up the slot canyon.

The slot canyon.

Another view of the slot canyon.

 The boys in the slot canyon.

At the end of the canyon--the guy we rented the kayaks from said that you could go UP, but you wouldn't be able to come back down.

The last shot I took with this camera before I fell off my kayak into the water. The camera is resting in a container of rice--I don't know if it will make it.

Old truck.

Old truck, closer.

Old truck from the rear.

Funky looking lower rocks in the slot canyon.

The very large scorpion one of the boys nearly stepped on. Yikes.

Following the trail.

3 a.m. star trails--I woke up and decided to click the shutter for half an hour or so.

This was not in the slot canyon. But 7up tells me what I don't already know.

One of the welcoming sights at the kayak rental place.

Two paths diverging--wood, not so yellow. California coast. This was on the same roll as the kayaking trip, and one of the more successful pictures on it.

Two old-timey cars. The rental place was at the site of an old mine, and they had all sorts of relics and antiques there on display--old signs, old cars, and old bottles. Across the street, there were old planes, old mines, and old mining equipment. They have had a number of movie shoots there, as well as countless engagement shots, etc. It's a fun spot.

Also from the California coast--the camera is a little toy camera--a Vivitar wide and slim. It's got a 22mm wide angle lens, so I was testing out its limits. Unfortunately, it has only one shutter speed and one f-stop, so it's a shoot-it-and-hope-it-works kind of camera. And it also got wet. This picture is of the girl on some stairs on a hike.