Post by Mr. Slick on Mar 8, 2007 11:16:10 GMT -6
What a day!
Yesterday was just one of those days that you dread, but know will eventually happen.
It all started by being half way to work on the bus at 6AM and realizing I had left my cell phone at home. No biggie.
I had a race yesterday evening and so I had to make sure that everyone got to their church programs before I could take off with the van and trailer. I had planned on getting home around 3:30PM.
Well, I was running a little late and barely got a train to the bus terminal in time to catch the 3:02PM bus. It was 3:01 and I saw part of the display that had the destination on it, didn't read the next display and couldn't see the route number due to a pillar. . . got on the bus. The bus took the "wrong" exit heading South! It was the wrong bus - no biggie, I'll just be home around 4PM, still plenty of time. Got to the end of the route, which is the same place my normal bus ends but 5 minutes later. The next bus back comes in 25 minutes so I figure I'll go into the mall and check out the latest at the hobby store that now has lots of Pro-Tools and other "stuff" for the serious(crazy?) enthusiast. They had taken down their 3 lane BestTrack so I couldn't spend too much time. . .
Well, the bus shows up, I go to get on and the driver says "Sorry, but I won't be going back, I have to deadhead to another terminal." - - - panic sets in. Luckily I had bought a #44 drill bit so I had some coins, just had to find a pay phone, apparently with the advent of cell phones there isn't much of a need for those any more. Now, who do I call with my only 50 cents. . . has to be someone who will answer their phone even if the number is unknown. . . I decided to call my son. Ends up he was on his way back from work to get ready to go do the races. He called the house and got them to come pick me up so I could then drop them off at the church. Son is getting dropped off from work as I drive up. Got home 20 minutes after I wanted to leave. . . panic building.
We scramble to change into racing garb, nothing as nice as Warthog's shirts but better than normal work clothes.
We grab the electronic stuff that is brought in after each race to prevent freezing. Load the van with the computer, timer, printer, car tuning kit, and the fancy scales. Head out of the driveway 10 minutes after I wanted to be at the race site. . . Van is running on fumes and starting to sputter - same thing happened last year for this same race! Stop by and put some gas in the van. Going to take a shorter route this time, head south from 150th to 195th on Flagstaff instead of the next road over. This will save a couple of miles of travel. Guess what, the lines on the Mapquest didn't indicate that the road I had chose turned into a bumpy gravel road covered with ice! SLOW DOWN and don’t lose the trailer. We made it to the race site 40 minutes late. . . only two others waiting for us. I must have been off half an hour in the set-up time, lucky I guess.
Started setting up the track, check-in area, car racks, and computer. The person with the racer list shows up with a memory stick that is 1Gig. My old laptop with the PCMCIA slot USB adapter can't make sense of the memory stick. . . have volunteer start to manually enter the names and car numbers for the 2 groups, 51 total cars.
At registration they opt for using their own scales and they ask for stickers, I go to get some and there are none - worry? -- no problem, just use masking tape for the cars that don't already have their car number on them. What else is missing? ? ? ?
I then went to lay out the cables to connect finish line timer - no 64 foot serial cable or remote start sensor cable. Son drives back to house to get the new computer bag with these items. Why they were put there I don't know. While he is driving check-in proceeds and cars are being drilled out - LOTS of cars are being drilled. . . get out the 5oz weight and use it to check their scales. One is off by about a half ounce. . . don't worry, be happy, alignment is the critical part at this level of racers. . . . anyway, back to the finish line. Put it on the quick mount brackets, notice that one side is REAL loose, time for duct tape. deep breath. . . I went back to other side of track, plugged transformer into extension cord and then the transformer plug into the finish line. All lanes display 0, GREAT! then they switch quickly to 7's indicating there is no signal from the emitter to the sensors, must have aligned the finish line poorly with the duct tape, then the display goes off. . . PANIC - this is the worst thing that can happen to the track -- ever have a race on a 6 lane track with eyeball determination of the finishes?!?! Not fun. I calm down and check things out. I remember that last Saturday I had found a small crack in the cable from the transformer to the plug where it comes out of the strain relief at the transformer - I had applied electrical tape to protect it. maybe the tape was causing a problem. Removed tape, transformer smells like a shorted out one. . . . try everything I can think of to get it to work. . . picture big guy sitting on floor ready to cry and working with extension cord, transformer and finish line. All hope is lost, figure I'll have to dissect the strain relief and solder on the wire so it is a good connection hoping that no permanent damage was done to the transformer, I've always meant to get a spare, only been 10 years or so. . . I head back to the starting line/computer set up to get soldering iron. (not the first time I have had to solder something on the finish line, used to be a cable connector that the kids would hit too many times. I have since buried that in the wood and reinforced all of the internal connections.) I give my son a phone cal to see where he is and if he could grab the new finish line and transformer. . . he is pulling into the parking lot. Ok, I'll wait until he gets here and see what happens with the soldering. Still have 25 minutes until the races are supposed to start. The data entry person has questions so I help out. I look down and notice that the extension cord isn't plugged into the clip-strip!!!!!! plug it in and things light up and stay lit!! big sigh of relief.
Check-in finishes and I get a roster from GPRM, Son and I go and verify which cars actually made it to the race. 18 in one group and 16 in the other group is what we end up with. Car counts match roster/cars passed. generate schedule, print out schedules. The race coordinator wants to race some of the first group and then some of the second group and post the results as we go. I explain that intermediate results may not be available. . . remind myself to get the upgrade for GPRM to test out a couple of ideas on how to do that. We agree to do 9 races for the first group, 8 races for the second group, take a break for a message and cookies, finish the last 9 races and then the last 8 races for the groups. With 2 races to go in the first group, I get informed that one of the kids hasn't seen their car at all. DISASTER - same thing happened last year with this group!!!! Son and I decide to run 6 races with other cars to collect times for the "missed car".
The first run and the missed car barely cross the finish line. . . I figure that the car was probably still being worked on or late check-in since it would have never been allowed to pass the "practice runs" where we make sure the cars all have reasonably nice performance. Son turns over the car and looks at me and says "Teflon with CLING!" Then he went to work blowing away all of the Teflon, put some Tub-O-Lube on the wheels and axles, spun it in and passed it on to be raced again. The car takes 2nd, trims about 2.5 seconds from it's time, the owner stands and says "YES!" We finish the 6 races. I ask the race official what to do about the bad first run, he advises to give him an average time for that run. I manually add things up, print out the standings report and adjust the standings report to indicate that the missed car would be in 10th place out of 18, no make that 19 cars. I hand "trophy" rankings to get written up on big chart. Finish the last 8 races. . . getting close to time to be out of building - janitorial staff are watching and looking at their watches. . . print out the standings for the second group.
They do their awards ceremonies while we print out the individual car stats to cut apart and hand back with the cars. After that we quietly start taking down the track, car racks, etc. I wrote an apology on the excel spreadsheet version of car stats that I had made up for the car that was missed and put on a PwdRacing/WIRL racing leagues pin. Son goes out to van to get a new kit to give to the missed car's owner. I apologize when handing him his car and make a special invite to come and race at the regular races. He is excited and very happy. Parents even were in good spirits too. He heads over to his friend and shows off his new kit. Friend tracks me down and asks if he can get a kit also. I tell him he needs to talk to my son and see if he will run out to the van and grab another kit. He does, my son runs out and brings in another kit. In moments it seems that the news of free kits spreads like wild fire among the people remaining. Race coordinator says "No, more kits." I silently thank the Lord.
Getting ready to shut down computer and a lady approaches and informs me that her son's and daughter's cars switched and ran in the wrong lanes in one of the heats. I look at the car stats and it very obvious - 1.5 seconds different for a single race. I bring up GPRM again and bring up the racing screen, find the heat and enter manual results to switch the times around. The lady says that she had told the race announcer about it earlier. . . I apologize that I didn't hear about it. Ends up that the son goes from 7th place to 2nd place! He breaks out into a monster smile and is very happy and runs off to tell his friend! Mom asks me if I have another trophy. . . bummer, I don't. . . told her to talk to the head honcho from their group. . . ends up it's her husband!
It's 10 minutes after we are to be out of the building and when I am supposed to pick up the rest of the family 20 miles away. Wife calls wondering where we are. I tell here we are putting the track in the trailer and I should be there in "about 20 minutes." I see the first section of track head out to the trailer. . . I'm going to be real late. . . Go to hook up the trailer, son is having problems with it, a couple of hundred pounds extra and no problem. notice that the trailer light cable from the van has been severed for a couple of wires. . . no trailer lights, late at night, trying to get a couple of towns over very quickly. . . prayer time.
We made it to pick up everyone, only 20 minutes later than my "20 minutes" I had told my wife. Get trailer home without any tickets for no lights. Start to back up the trailer beside the house. Ground is icy and van starts to slip sideway down the incline. . . 15 minutes later the trailer is "good enough" and son unhooks it and I turn the van around and park it in the drive. Go inside and when wife asks "how did it go this evening" I try to explain my day.
Next races are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. . . I hope it goes better!
Yesterday was just one of those days that you dread, but know will eventually happen.
It all started by being half way to work on the bus at 6AM and realizing I had left my cell phone at home. No biggie.
I had a race yesterday evening and so I had to make sure that everyone got to their church programs before I could take off with the van and trailer. I had planned on getting home around 3:30PM.
Well, I was running a little late and barely got a train to the bus terminal in time to catch the 3:02PM bus. It was 3:01 and I saw part of the display that had the destination on it, didn't read the next display and couldn't see the route number due to a pillar. . . got on the bus. The bus took the "wrong" exit heading South! It was the wrong bus - no biggie, I'll just be home around 4PM, still plenty of time. Got to the end of the route, which is the same place my normal bus ends but 5 minutes later. The next bus back comes in 25 minutes so I figure I'll go into the mall and check out the latest at the hobby store that now has lots of Pro-Tools and other "stuff" for the serious(crazy?) enthusiast. They had taken down their 3 lane BestTrack so I couldn't spend too much time. . .
Well, the bus shows up, I go to get on and the driver says "Sorry, but I won't be going back, I have to deadhead to another terminal." - - - panic sets in. Luckily I had bought a #44 drill bit so I had some coins, just had to find a pay phone, apparently with the advent of cell phones there isn't much of a need for those any more. Now, who do I call with my only 50 cents. . . has to be someone who will answer their phone even if the number is unknown. . . I decided to call my son. Ends up he was on his way back from work to get ready to go do the races. He called the house and got them to come pick me up so I could then drop them off at the church. Son is getting dropped off from work as I drive up. Got home 20 minutes after I wanted to leave. . . panic building.
We scramble to change into racing garb, nothing as nice as Warthog's shirts but better than normal work clothes.
We grab the electronic stuff that is brought in after each race to prevent freezing. Load the van with the computer, timer, printer, car tuning kit, and the fancy scales. Head out of the driveway 10 minutes after I wanted to be at the race site. . . Van is running on fumes and starting to sputter - same thing happened last year for this same race! Stop by and put some gas in the van. Going to take a shorter route this time, head south from 150th to 195th on Flagstaff instead of the next road over. This will save a couple of miles of travel. Guess what, the lines on the Mapquest didn't indicate that the road I had chose turned into a bumpy gravel road covered with ice! SLOW DOWN and don’t lose the trailer. We made it to the race site 40 minutes late. . . only two others waiting for us. I must have been off half an hour in the set-up time, lucky I guess.
Started setting up the track, check-in area, car racks, and computer. The person with the racer list shows up with a memory stick that is 1Gig. My old laptop with the PCMCIA slot USB adapter can't make sense of the memory stick. . . have volunteer start to manually enter the names and car numbers for the 2 groups, 51 total cars.
At registration they opt for using their own scales and they ask for stickers, I go to get some and there are none - worry? -- no problem, just use masking tape for the cars that don't already have their car number on them. What else is missing? ? ? ?
I then went to lay out the cables to connect finish line timer - no 64 foot serial cable or remote start sensor cable. Son drives back to house to get the new computer bag with these items. Why they were put there I don't know. While he is driving check-in proceeds and cars are being drilled out - LOTS of cars are being drilled. . . get out the 5oz weight and use it to check their scales. One is off by about a half ounce. . . don't worry, be happy, alignment is the critical part at this level of racers. . . . anyway, back to the finish line. Put it on the quick mount brackets, notice that one side is REAL loose, time for duct tape. deep breath. . . I went back to other side of track, plugged transformer into extension cord and then the transformer plug into the finish line. All lanes display 0, GREAT! then they switch quickly to 7's indicating there is no signal from the emitter to the sensors, must have aligned the finish line poorly with the duct tape, then the display goes off. . . PANIC - this is the worst thing that can happen to the track -- ever have a race on a 6 lane track with eyeball determination of the finishes?!?! Not fun. I calm down and check things out. I remember that last Saturday I had found a small crack in the cable from the transformer to the plug where it comes out of the strain relief at the transformer - I had applied electrical tape to protect it. maybe the tape was causing a problem. Removed tape, transformer smells like a shorted out one. . . . try everything I can think of to get it to work. . . picture big guy sitting on floor ready to cry and working with extension cord, transformer and finish line. All hope is lost, figure I'll have to dissect the strain relief and solder on the wire so it is a good connection hoping that no permanent damage was done to the transformer, I've always meant to get a spare, only been 10 years or so. . . I head back to the starting line/computer set up to get soldering iron. (not the first time I have had to solder something on the finish line, used to be a cable connector that the kids would hit too many times. I have since buried that in the wood and reinforced all of the internal connections.) I give my son a phone cal to see where he is and if he could grab the new finish line and transformer. . . he is pulling into the parking lot. Ok, I'll wait until he gets here and see what happens with the soldering. Still have 25 minutes until the races are supposed to start. The data entry person has questions so I help out. I look down and notice that the extension cord isn't plugged into the clip-strip!!!!!! plug it in and things light up and stay lit!! big sigh of relief.
Check-in finishes and I get a roster from GPRM, Son and I go and verify which cars actually made it to the race. 18 in one group and 16 in the other group is what we end up with. Car counts match roster/cars passed. generate schedule, print out schedules. The race coordinator wants to race some of the first group and then some of the second group and post the results as we go. I explain that intermediate results may not be available. . . remind myself to get the upgrade for GPRM to test out a couple of ideas on how to do that. We agree to do 9 races for the first group, 8 races for the second group, take a break for a message and cookies, finish the last 9 races and then the last 8 races for the groups. With 2 races to go in the first group, I get informed that one of the kids hasn't seen their car at all. DISASTER - same thing happened last year with this group!!!! Son and I decide to run 6 races with other cars to collect times for the "missed car".
The first run and the missed car barely cross the finish line. . . I figure that the car was probably still being worked on or late check-in since it would have never been allowed to pass the "practice runs" where we make sure the cars all have reasonably nice performance. Son turns over the car and looks at me and says "Teflon with CLING!" Then he went to work blowing away all of the Teflon, put some Tub-O-Lube on the wheels and axles, spun it in and passed it on to be raced again. The car takes 2nd, trims about 2.5 seconds from it's time, the owner stands and says "YES!" We finish the 6 races. I ask the race official what to do about the bad first run, he advises to give him an average time for that run. I manually add things up, print out the standings report and adjust the standings report to indicate that the missed car would be in 10th place out of 18, no make that 19 cars. I hand "trophy" rankings to get written up on big chart. Finish the last 8 races. . . getting close to time to be out of building - janitorial staff are watching and looking at their watches. . . print out the standings for the second group.
They do their awards ceremonies while we print out the individual car stats to cut apart and hand back with the cars. After that we quietly start taking down the track, car racks, etc. I wrote an apology on the excel spreadsheet version of car stats that I had made up for the car that was missed and put on a PwdRacing/WIRL racing leagues pin. Son goes out to van to get a new kit to give to the missed car's owner. I apologize when handing him his car and make a special invite to come and race at the regular races. He is excited and very happy. Parents even were in good spirits too. He heads over to his friend and shows off his new kit. Friend tracks me down and asks if he can get a kit also. I tell him he needs to talk to my son and see if he will run out to the van and grab another kit. He does, my son runs out and brings in another kit. In moments it seems that the news of free kits spreads like wild fire among the people remaining. Race coordinator says "No, more kits." I silently thank the Lord.
Getting ready to shut down computer and a lady approaches and informs me that her son's and daughter's cars switched and ran in the wrong lanes in one of the heats. I look at the car stats and it very obvious - 1.5 seconds different for a single race. I bring up GPRM again and bring up the racing screen, find the heat and enter manual results to switch the times around. The lady says that she had told the race announcer about it earlier. . . I apologize that I didn't hear about it. Ends up that the son goes from 7th place to 2nd place! He breaks out into a monster smile and is very happy and runs off to tell his friend! Mom asks me if I have another trophy. . . bummer, I don't. . . told her to talk to the head honcho from their group. . . ends up it's her husband!
It's 10 minutes after we are to be out of the building and when I am supposed to pick up the rest of the family 20 miles away. Wife calls wondering where we are. I tell here we are putting the track in the trailer and I should be there in "about 20 minutes." I see the first section of track head out to the trailer. . . I'm going to be real late. . . Go to hook up the trailer, son is having problems with it, a couple of hundred pounds extra and no problem. notice that the trailer light cable from the van has been severed for a couple of wires. . . no trailer lights, late at night, trying to get a couple of towns over very quickly. . . prayer time.
We made it to pick up everyone, only 20 minutes later than my "20 minutes" I had told my wife. Get trailer home without any tickets for no lights. Start to back up the trailer beside the house. Ground is icy and van starts to slip sideway down the incline. . . 15 minutes later the trailer is "good enough" and son unhooks it and I turn the van around and park it in the drive. Go inside and when wife asks "how did it go this evening" I try to explain my day.
Next races are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. . . I hope it goes better!