Hobo Jungle
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P&R Pete
Haggis schmaggis.
I just looked up the ingredients, and thought I was going to VOMIT.
Bought some peaches from an Amish man yesterday. I can smell them babies all the way across the room. Going to make myself a peach pie tomorrow with my home-made crust. Then I'll pull a hobo and steal it from myself off the windowsill, and eat the whole dang thing out behind the barn. Then I'll run back in the house and curse myself for my pie getting stolen. Damn it, those hobos!
Jon, looking good.
Bagpipes are definitely cool, but I prefer one set at a time. A pair that are out of tune with each other is like sucking on a lemon. More is definitely not better.
Uilleann pipes are what does it for me. If I could afford them, I'd buy a set, and then I'd learn to play them. Swear to God I would.
T&D, hope you lock that cellar door at night.
I just looked up the ingredients, and thought I was going to VOMIT.
Bought some peaches from an Amish man yesterday. I can smell them babies all the way across the room. Going to make myself a peach pie tomorrow with my home-made crust. Then I'll pull a hobo and steal it from myself off the windowsill, and eat the whole dang thing out behind the barn. Then I'll run back in the house and curse myself for my pie getting stolen. Damn it, those hobos!
Jon, looking good.
Bagpipes are definitely cool, but I prefer one set at a time. A pair that are out of tune with each other is like sucking on a lemon. More is definitely not better.
Uilleann pipes are what does it for me. If I could afford them, I'd buy a set, and then I'd learn to play them. Swear to God I would.
T&D, hope you lock that cellar door at night.
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P&R Pete
Great night at the races!
Only took one kid last night, Aaron the Motorhead. We got pit passes, as we usually do, so we could watch the wrenches flying, but mostly so we could kibitz with a friend of mine, Denny, who races in the heavyweight class of carts, and his two sons, Troy and Matt, who race in an intermediate class. Troy and Matt competed together, and in their feature, Troy took the lead, got passed twice, (Matt hanging in third), but the last time Troy took the lead, passing on the inside, Matt followed him nose to *** so the leader couldn’t get back in the groove, and they finished one-two.
Denny laughs about Troy, who is constantly looking for any edge that might get him a thousandth of a second. For instance, he has a shaped-pan that he has bolted between his rear tires that he swears makes a difference just by giving him a cleaner airflow out the back. He also uses a plastic (more pliable) bodywork, the others using fiberglass, and he bolts it on loosely, believing that this will then prevent the wind-pressure from ‘warping’ or messing with his chassis set-up. He uses a centrifugal clutch that grabs maybe 500 rpm earlier than the clutches Denny and Matt use. Can’t argue with Troy though, as he’s won the feature three weeks running.
Two weeks ago, his car was so dominant, (and that particular race being a ‘money’-race), that he was required to go through a ‘tech’ inspection afterward. People often tweak their motors, or ‘juice’ their racing fuel, etc., to gain an advantage, but you get caught, you’re D-Q’d. Troy had gotten himself a set of new tires off the internet with a different rubber compound, and no-one had noticed, but then, tires weren’t part of the tech inspection. He had predicted he would smoke the field, and did.
But the tech inspection was a fascinating process. The two boys had to pull the heads, get them measured, even the thickness of the gasket. They had to pull out the valves, get them measured, and the height and dwell of the camshaft, the size of the valve springs, piston travel. They even had to crack the crankcase, so the crankshaft could get the going-over. In the meantime, guys from all the other losing teams are crowding around the table, pointing, whispering with each other, making sure nothing got over-looked. I had to laugh, because the boys knew the engine was right, and tore it down, smiling. Finally, pieces of motor all over the table, the other teams had to depart with their collective tails between their legs.
All this for a hundred bucks, but man, these are a competitive bunch, and honor (or well-disguised guile) is on the line.
Last night, Denny won his heat, and then won his feature by a half a lap. Most of that was because of all the bumping and jostling going on between the guys from second to fourth, which kills your momentum, and when you can’t keep your car on that ‘groove’ that takes you around the corners smoothly and at highest speed. Now Denny is expecting that, because of how far in front he was, (and this one not being a ‘money’-race), he’ll have to do the engine inspection himself if he wins next week.
But, a great night for Tanner Racing!
But for these guys, tearing down a motor takes a matter of minutes. Probable goes back together in an amount of time not a whole lot longer. NASCAR miniature.
Fascinating, too, how the cars are set up. They can adjust the camber of the front wheels, again depending on track conditions, and where on the bank the ‘groove’ is running. They have a rack with some 25 sets of final-gears, that they swap-out depending on the track conditions and such. They have a fancy scale at home that lets them adjust how the weight is distributed on each of the wheels. Denny is in the ‘400' class, which means the car must weigh at least 400 pounds, when he goes on a scale immediately off the track which all cars must drive onto after a race. Shy of 400, he’d be D-Q’d. So they have to add weights to the frame, but with their home scale, can distribute them where they think they’d be most advantageous to the performance. Adjustments everywhere.
But here’s the cool part for Aaron- when Denny won his feature, and we went into the pits to congratulate him, he pulled off his obviously-too-small (“If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit”) racing gloves, and in a gesture reminiscent of ‘Mean Joe Greene and the Steelers-jersey and the little-boy-with-the-Coke’ commercial, tossed them to Aaron and said “Hey, these are for you”. You’d have though Aaron died and went straight to Racing-Heaven. Better yet, they smelled of racing fuel! Aaron had them on first thing this morning.
The other cool thing that happened to Aaron was that after one of the micro-sprint features, he wanted to go track down the winning-car in the pits so he could look at it close-up, this after the driver had done his victory lap with the checkered flag, and then been interviewed on the track. When we found his spot at the far end of the pits, he was alone with his car. Appearing friendly, I told Aaron to go up and congratulate him and shake his hand, which he did. But the guy continued, and asked Aaron if he was going to be racing someday, and Aaron stumbled-on about how he has a dirt bike and was going to be racing motocross when he got bigger, and the driver told him about how awesome that was, encouraged him to keep practicing, and how he was looking forward to seeing Aaron racing on TV some day.
Well, NOW Aaron looked like he was sitting at the Right-Hand-of-God in Racing-Heaven. And the very second thing he did this morning, was put on his gear, fire-up his bike, and go honking up and down the fields and hills here.
How ‘bout it.
Lastly, the feature race of the evening, they had fully 24 top-dog micro-sprints racing at once, on a track where the typical features have only 8 at a time. It was completely nuts, mayhem, cacophony, bedlam, a freaking cavalry charge of noise, smoke, dirt, cars weaving and bumping. We were getting pelted with dirt 12 rows into the stands, which are 25 feet from the track. Seven cautions, including a 360 roll-over and another car on it’s side, but some crazy awesome racing, and the eventual winner did doughnuts on the infield.
No doubt, out of relief that he survived, as much as win.
Great night at Greenwood Track.
There you have it.
Only took one kid last night, Aaron the Motorhead. We got pit passes, as we usually do, so we could watch the wrenches flying, but mostly so we could kibitz with a friend of mine, Denny, who races in the heavyweight class of carts, and his two sons, Troy and Matt, who race in an intermediate class. Troy and Matt competed together, and in their feature, Troy took the lead, got passed twice, (Matt hanging in third), but the last time Troy took the lead, passing on the inside, Matt followed him nose to *** so the leader couldn’t get back in the groove, and they finished one-two.
Denny laughs about Troy, who is constantly looking for any edge that might get him a thousandth of a second. For instance, he has a shaped-pan that he has bolted between his rear tires that he swears makes a difference just by giving him a cleaner airflow out the back. He also uses a plastic (more pliable) bodywork, the others using fiberglass, and he bolts it on loosely, believing that this will then prevent the wind-pressure from ‘warping’ or messing with his chassis set-up. He uses a centrifugal clutch that grabs maybe 500 rpm earlier than the clutches Denny and Matt use. Can’t argue with Troy though, as he’s won the feature three weeks running.
Two weeks ago, his car was so dominant, (and that particular race being a ‘money’-race), that he was required to go through a ‘tech’ inspection afterward. People often tweak their motors, or ‘juice’ their racing fuel, etc., to gain an advantage, but you get caught, you’re D-Q’d. Troy had gotten himself a set of new tires off the internet with a different rubber compound, and no-one had noticed, but then, tires weren’t part of the tech inspection. He had predicted he would smoke the field, and did.
But the tech inspection was a fascinating process. The two boys had to pull the heads, get them measured, even the thickness of the gasket. They had to pull out the valves, get them measured, and the height and dwell of the camshaft, the size of the valve springs, piston travel. They even had to crack the crankcase, so the crankshaft could get the going-over. In the meantime, guys from all the other losing teams are crowding around the table, pointing, whispering with each other, making sure nothing got over-looked. I had to laugh, because the boys knew the engine was right, and tore it down, smiling. Finally, pieces of motor all over the table, the other teams had to depart with their collective tails between their legs.
All this for a hundred bucks, but man, these are a competitive bunch, and honor (or well-disguised guile) is on the line.
Last night, Denny won his heat, and then won his feature by a half a lap. Most of that was because of all the bumping and jostling going on between the guys from second to fourth, which kills your momentum, and when you can’t keep your car on that ‘groove’ that takes you around the corners smoothly and at highest speed. Now Denny is expecting that, because of how far in front he was, (and this one not being a ‘money’-race), he’ll have to do the engine inspection himself if he wins next week.
But, a great night for Tanner Racing!
But for these guys, tearing down a motor takes a matter of minutes. Probable goes back together in an amount of time not a whole lot longer. NASCAR miniature.
Fascinating, too, how the cars are set up. They can adjust the camber of the front wheels, again depending on track conditions, and where on the bank the ‘groove’ is running. They have a rack with some 25 sets of final-gears, that they swap-out depending on the track conditions and such. They have a fancy scale at home that lets them adjust how the weight is distributed on each of the wheels. Denny is in the ‘400' class, which means the car must weigh at least 400 pounds, when he goes on a scale immediately off the track which all cars must drive onto after a race. Shy of 400, he’d be D-Q’d. So they have to add weights to the frame, but with their home scale, can distribute them where they think they’d be most advantageous to the performance. Adjustments everywhere.
But here’s the cool part for Aaron- when Denny won his feature, and we went into the pits to congratulate him, he pulled off his obviously-too-small (“If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit”) racing gloves, and in a gesture reminiscent of ‘Mean Joe Greene and the Steelers-jersey and the little-boy-with-the-Coke’ commercial, tossed them to Aaron and said “Hey, these are for you”. You’d have though Aaron died and went straight to Racing-Heaven. Better yet, they smelled of racing fuel! Aaron had them on first thing this morning.
The other cool thing that happened to Aaron was that after one of the micro-sprint features, he wanted to go track down the winning-car in the pits so he could look at it close-up, this after the driver had done his victory lap with the checkered flag, and then been interviewed on the track. When we found his spot at the far end of the pits, he was alone with his car. Appearing friendly, I told Aaron to go up and congratulate him and shake his hand, which he did. But the guy continued, and asked Aaron if he was going to be racing someday, and Aaron stumbled-on about how he has a dirt bike and was going to be racing motocross when he got bigger, and the driver told him about how awesome that was, encouraged him to keep practicing, and how he was looking forward to seeing Aaron racing on TV some day.
Well, NOW Aaron looked like he was sitting at the Right-Hand-of-God in Racing-Heaven. And the very second thing he did this morning, was put on his gear, fire-up his bike, and go honking up and down the fields and hills here.
How ‘bout it.
Lastly, the feature race of the evening, they had fully 24 top-dog micro-sprints racing at once, on a track where the typical features have only 8 at a time. It was completely nuts, mayhem, cacophony, bedlam, a freaking cavalry charge of noise, smoke, dirt, cars weaving and bumping. We were getting pelted with dirt 12 rows into the stands, which are 25 feet from the track. Seven cautions, including a 360 roll-over and another car on it’s side, but some crazy awesome racing, and the eventual winner did doughnuts on the infield.
No doubt, out of relief that he survived, as much as win.
Great night at Greenwood Track.
There you have it.
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P&R Pete
Well, beer break is over.
Now, back out to the hot sun and the cool breeze and the cicadas, to my scraping, painting, scraping, painting, scraping, painting. *sigh*
If God designs a particular Hell for everyone, then I’m going to spend Eternity as a prep-man for a picket-fence painter.
I had to evict a pair of walking-sticks yesterday who were locked, one astride the other, in a compromising position, on a picket I needed to scrape.
But at least, I now know how that Maine state cop felt when he pulled up behind Tramp and Veranda parked in a fogged-up old Chevy on the side of Rt. 1 last week.
Now, back out to the hot sun and the cool breeze and the cicadas, to my scraping, painting, scraping, painting, scraping, painting. *sigh*
If God designs a particular Hell for everyone, then I’m going to spend Eternity as a prep-man for a picket-fence painter.
I had to evict a pair of walking-sticks yesterday who were locked, one astride the other, in a compromising position, on a picket I needed to scrape.
But at least, I now know how that Maine state cop felt when he pulled up behind Tramp and Veranda parked in a fogged-up old Chevy on the side of Rt. 1 last week.
You’d have though Aaron died and went straight to Racing-Heaven. Better yet, they smelled of racing fuel! Aaron had them on first thing this morning.
The small things that dreams are made of!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to share, Pete!!! How was the (stolen) peach pie?
Running that red block Charlie.
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