Day After Yesterday

Friday is here … and I am excited, but I have such a busy weekend that its importance is dulled. I have an autox tomorrow that I don’t think I will drive in. I may, but I don’t think I will… the car isn’t feeling perfect, and I don’t want to break it. I will likely put one or 2 runs in just to get a time on the board so I can atleast get SOME points… I would still like to remain competitive for the season in the points standing.

So Rebecca and I are planning on going for a walk this evening… which will be nice, I feel like I don’t exercise at all. I did walk to work most of the day’s last week…

Then we are hanging out doing something saturday night… and on Sunday we are moving all the crap from the old garage to the new garage. It will suck, but it will be really nice to have the new garage up and running… I would rather go there than the old one in skokie. So THAT day will suck.

Then a full week of work, then (hopefully) a 4 day weekend for the 4th. that will be nice.

Friday is here … and I am excited, but I have such a busy weekend that its importance is dulled. I have an autox tomorrow that I don’t think I will drive in. I may, but I don’t think I will… the car isn’t feeling perfect, and I don’t want to break it. I will likely put one or 2 runs in just to get a time on the board so I can atleast get SOME points… I would still like to remain competitive for the season in the points standing.

So Rebecca and I are planning on going for a walk this evening… which will be nice, I feel like I don’t exercise at all. I did walk to work most of the day’s last week…

Then we are hanging out doing something saturday night… and on Sunday we are moving all the crap from the old garage to the new garage. It will suck, but it will be really nice to have the new garage up and running… I would rather go there than the old one in skokie. So THAT day will suck.

Then a full week of work, then (hopefully) a 4 day weekend for the 4th. that will be nice.

so sunday, Mason was fussy most of the day. He has been getting up at 6am (thanks skylight) and has been up and wide awake, so have I. So yesterday we had him in the swing, watching baby einstein DVDs, in the chair, on his play mat, whatever and he was fussy in them all. So I put him in his bouncy chair, sit him in front of the TV, sit next to him, and turned on the F1 season opening race. He loved it. I tried to explain things to him to bring him up to speed. He watched the TV or me nearly the entire race, and smiled most of the time. It was pretty dope. And it was a good race too.

Lewis Black will be in Waukegan on Oct. 14th at the Genesse Theatre…. Worth checking out, although I will be at an Audi Club track event. Rebecca and I saw him a few years ago, super funny. We saw him at the Brew N View, or whatever its real name is…. a great venue for him IMHO…. Go see him.

So we had an autox on saturday… while I thought the weather was going to suck, the clouds and rain kept the temps down. it was very nice. The computer timing went perfect. This was the first time this season that I have actually drove MY audi at an autox. It was kinda of nice to get back in the groove. It was also nice to get back in and kick some ass. You can see the results here. I was the fastest Audi, and only lost to the likes of a viper, miata, STI, etc. Not bad company. It was nice to prove to both myself and the rest of the group that I wasn’t that rusty. Sometimes it is really nice to win.

Even though it was hot as hell today in Chicago, we moved a bunch of stuff into the new house. Thanks mom, dad, and kevin. I still need to get my stuff packed and ready to go, but nearly all of rebecca’s stuff is over there. It is nice to know we have it in the place.

We also went to the place to get the hardwood. Mind you, the price is really really good, and so there is some ‘too good to be true’ kind of thoughts going on, but I should know more tomorrow when they call me. Hopefully I will have the flooring before the weekend. It will be really nice to get that in the house and we can finish the move.

the story below… taken from here show michelin being both smart, by attempting to smooth over their fuck up… but still, maintaining they did everything possible… aside from bring the correct tires…

still maintaining their innocence and how could the FIA screw over so many fans?
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Audrey is going to the shop tonight for her replacement transmission install… I haven’t driven her since early April. I should have her back by the end of the week… how nice will that be… and in time for the next Autox and Blackhawkfarms…

I got a little sunburnt on sunday, but I think I have used enough aloe and aftersun to counter it… I hope I have done enough to avoid peeling… I usually have sunscreen in my track box, but since I drove rebecca’s car, I didn’t have the box… oh well.

I did help a buddy’s wife learn to autox though, and that is always rewarding. People are so timid with their cars in the beginning. It always amazes me that people have never pushed their cars. I obviously mean in a controlled environment, but even then you would learn stuff. I think everyone should be required to autox or something to just get a feel for tire sliding, tire squealing, and weight transfer. It would improve the people’s accident avoidance abilities… but back to the student… she wasn’t comfortable with the sliding, the noises, etc at first… she just hadn’t ever done it, but she got over it quickly, and she was sliding and squealing around in no time. It was nice to watch her confidence level increase as the day progressed and her comfort level improved. We may even see her at another event.

It is also a nice feeling of justification for myself and likely car people everywhere when you have a non car person, who has likely asked what makes those $250 tires better than the $80 tires finally realize what it is you have been spending all your money on.

I got my father to an autox a couple years ago and I rode with him and in his non modded A4 and he learned stuff. Then I took him for a ride in my modded A4, and he was like ‘now I can see where all the money for tires and suspension goes’. It was a nice feeling.

I like to see people improve in their driving abilities. It is a nice feeling.

In this interview, Max and I are on the same page 100%…. I hope the world begins to see this for what it is…

You can read the article on crash.net or I have pasted it below…
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So I was expecting a HUGE amount of traffic driving through indy… but as we were coming northbound 100miles out of indy, I saw countless REALLY nice cars driving southbound… confused, since I knew my roommate was at the race and I knew it shouldn’t have been over already… as I got to indy, I skipped the 465 bypass and went straight up 65… I was expecting a HUGE traffic jam where 465 merged back in. Heck, the electric signboards all promised it would be horrible… turns out I didn’t even have to turn off the cruise control…

so when I got home, I asked my roommate what happened, since I knew SOMETHING did… and he explained it as this…

Michelin brought a tire compound that couldn’t handle the track. Michelin realized this friday in practice, due in part to the blowouts by the toyota cars. Michelin couldn’t get new tires to the track in time for all the teams. FIA granted tire changing options to the michelin teams w/o penalty. They wanted a chicane added to the track… on the day before race day. I don’t see how that is fair or a good idea or even possible. So the michelin teams all boycotted.

Seems to me Michelin screwed up. How could they not know this or be prepared for it? MAJOR issue there. I agree this is the first time on the oval with the single tire rule, but still. Also seems to me that the michelin teams were all EXTREMELY poor at handling this. They should have atleast run a lap. Hell, they would have gotten 1 point! They should have run the race and done tire swaps. It was declared legal and we all know they can swap tires faster than fueling. But instead they boycotted. They aren’t owning up to their own responsibility of tire choice. Sucks that their supplier screwed up. But they could have run. They decided to make a big deal out of it. Like the FIA should have changed the track to accomodate their problem? As a friend said, if Tim Duncan’s Nikes caused him to run slower upcourt, does the NBA shorten the court?

It was a poor showing by all the teams involved. It has potentially huge ramifications for F1 in the US. Michelin may be in big trouble over this one.

But still, all the teams: Babies.

edit… Even the FIA agrees… /edit