Life has certainly changed for me in the past couple of years: A full-time ride with Don Schumacher Racing, a lovely wife, and a beautiful baby boy. It’s really more than I could ever have imagined, and it’s all great. But, there’s lots of other change that I’ve experienced that ain’t quite my cup of tea:

My wife now buys my jeans. I used to buy Levis, Wranglers, or even the infamous Kirkland brand that the finest Costco retailers carry. You know: MAN jeans. Not any more. Jenna thought I would look cute with jeans that she picked out. I made the mistake of wearing a pair to the Hawley School one day, and caught some major grief about the possible loss of my manliness.

I no longer have all of the walls covered with drag racing pictures in cheap, non-matching frames purchased throughout the years. Now we have crazy stuff like mirrors (not “man-mirrors” like I used to have in the weight room, mind you), candle holders, and girlie stuff.

I’m losing my 1992 couches soon. Come to think of it, they do have a hint of some pink in a portion of the pattern, so maybe I should leave that one alone and embrace our upcoming sectional.

Perhaps the toughest thing to lose, because there is so much connection to my past, is my wonderful Pioneer stereo from 1988. Though I really haven’t been able to listen to much since Jason was born, I just dig music (as long as it’s 1980s “hair bands”). Hey, I did add a 5-disk CD player and finally had to replace the dual cassette deck (damn, that just SOUNDS manly!) after I wore it out. I tend to hold on to things forever, and to me they never go over of style. Jenna always makes fun of the oversize speakers, and seems to think we can replace them with postage-stamp sized units for $10 or less. (Guess I’m not the only one in the house with issues). I also am one of the most frugal people that I know, and I’ve always been good at saving money so I could buy whatever I wanted (as long as it was MANLY looking and didn’t cost too much) with cash.

Then, why, you may ask, am I losing my stereo (and perhaps my mind)? Because we need to spend money! Last year we vowed we would get a big screen TV at the end of 2008, and boy did we! We ended up with a 47-inch Samsung, 120Hz, (supposedly better for sports, worse for the pocket book), HD, 1080p, LCD beauty. We waited for the prices to come down, we did our homework on Consumer Reports, and then we made our move. And the sound sucked. (Not like my jeans suck, just not very impressive for something that size.) Soooooooo … turns out Costco is having a sale on the Panasonic home theatre surround sound system for $299. There goes more from the savings account! And now I have my old friend, the Pioneer, sitting in a pile while I do my best to prepare for an emotional goodbye (like hell, I’ll stick it in the weight room or garage)!

Which brings me to my next issue: we’re out of room. At 1,220 square feet, we don’t exactly live in a mansion. It was fine when I was a bachelor. I had a weight room, a computer/drag racing shrine/stuff-the-extra–crap in-it room, and those other rooms that come with all houses. Now, the garage is full, the shed is full, the house and the rafters above the garage are … you guessed it: full. This was kind of the last straw. I really want to get back on a regular workout schedule, it just seems that since the chemo I never am completely mission-capable for more than two weeks at a time, and it’s very frustrating. Lately that’s not even the whole problem; there’s so much stuff in there that the only workout one could get would be moving boxes out of the way. Anyway, the impetus for our ongoing “sale” was that growing stack of the toys that Jason has outgrown (and don’t offer me any particular body-sculpting benefits, yet are in the way of everything that does). Jenna started putting them online and, POOF … they’re gone. I can’t tell you how excited she gets selling something for ten cents on the dollar, God bless her!

I have been sitting on various car and racing parts for anywhere from two to 10 years, and some of it is worth a pretty penny. We had talked about eBay some time ago, but just never got the ball rolling. Now we are members of racingjunk.com and can list five ads at a time … how cool.  I can’t tell you how exciting it is to sell something for 30-50 cents on the dollar! I would cry if I recalled how much I spent on some of this stuff but it’s really not doing me any good and we can definitely use the extra space. Not to mention someone has to pay for this TV and Surround Sound! Also, I’ve actually met a new buddy from selling stuff, so it’s paying dividends (hi, John).

It actually feels good to treat yourself to something nice every once in a while, so I don’t mind splurging occasionally, especially if Jenna wants it. I have always had the ability to live as cheaply as anyone I know, even when I owned a house and raced my Sportsman car out of my pocket. I don’t drive fancy cars, I don’t dress nice (except the aforementioned pants), and I really don’t spend hardly anything on “entertainment.” I did eat out every single day, but Jenna put a stop to that. I figure that the money I save by doing a lot of my own work can offset our new toys. For instance, the $8 I save by washing the PT, the $45 saved by washing the motorhome, and the $15 and $165 I save by doing the oil and service on both of them pretty much paid for the TV (okay, it paid for the lower lefthand corner of the TV, but who’s counting). The money I saved by removing the tree in the backyard helped defer some of the expense of having the landscaping done front and back (who am I kidding; it saved 4 percent of the total cost!).

Speaking of the landscaping, the reason that I never sent “finished” photos is that the guy never finished the job. Supposed to be done in April of this year, they were still trying to figure out why parts of our new sod lawn were dead clear into August, when we left for our road trip. Even when we returned home in November there still were a few issues that were basically “blown off.”  After innumerable e-mails and requests, we had to hire another contractor to remove the sod on one side of the yard and properly grade so we didn’t have a swamp in the corner. Now it looks like we may be going to small claims to settle the whole deal … what a disappointment. I hate getting screwed.

Did I mention we are buying a new couch? Time for me to offset the cost by doing something, and this time I have a doozy: my Kawasaki Vulcan V-Twin had a dead front cylinder, but had good compression readings and good spark. I’m no genius, but it sure was pointing to a carburetor problem. I’ve rebuilt plenty of Holleys throughout the years, but had never seen inside a motorcycle carb until now. Man, are bikes difficult to squeeze parts into and out of! I managed to get the carbs out, separated, and ordered one rebuild kit for the suspect unit. I was so excited to receive it yesterday that I went out into a freezing garage, dug out the carb (more on that later), and discovered I had the wrong kit! Still, it’s not entirely the money I save working on my stuff, I just tend to be particular about the job being done right, and I think I’m more thorough than most mechanics out there. I consider myself a specialized mechanic, though, displaying outstanding skills as a disassembly expert. Problem is, sometimes I’m not so good at the reassembly portion. Hopefully my bike won’t end up on racingjunk.com for $100, under the heading, “needs carb work”.

In between tearing the bike apart, emptying the garage and photographing everything I think I will eventually sell (no, Jenna’s not for sale), and trying to clean it and make it useable workspace once again, Rodger Comstock called. He really wanted to get the 637 out of his Top Dragster and back to MADCAP for a freshening. After I agreed to do it, it dawned on me that I don’t have a trailer (my Blackbird sits in mine out in Fontana) or anything to tow one with (I ain’t doing the “big motorhome/small street” deal again here at the house). Tom Bayer rescued me, offering his truck, trailer, and assistance to get the car to my house. It’s here, the engine is out, packed, wrapped with cellophane cling wrap (Jenna was a little peeved that I used everything we had in the house), screwed to a pallet (no one saw me “borrow” it), and picked up by my new buddy Jose at SAIA shipping (extra fun in the rain). Now my garage is full of stuff, plus a dragster, my ElCamino, a bike that doesn’t run, and lots of stuff that I hope will sell soon. And I call that progress?

Besides that, I have got to go surfing with Rich twice in the past couple of weeks. I typically am stuck in traffic for more than an hour driving the 30-plus miles to his place in Redondo, and on one trip he called to head me off, as the surf had gone dead after I last spoke to him. Surfing really is a beggar’s sport, as you are 100 percent dependent on what the ocean gives you. Our last outing was pretty cold, but really fun waves.

We took Jason to the mall to get his first photo with Santa, and he handled it pretty well (Jason, I mean, though Santa handled it well, too). Why do we torture our kids, making them sit on a portly stranger’s lap, the guy’s wearing a scary suit (even worse than my jeans), and the kids are just terrified? Sounds like fun to me. We also picked up a Christmas tree. Ironically the lot we bought it from is owned by a gentleman that my brother, dad, and I worked for (for several years) at various tree lots. It was a one month long job, LONG hours, but for my brother and I it was some serious money in those days. I’ll bet I made enough to buy a surround sound, a motorcycle carb kit, and maybe a pair or two of the jeans just in those one month stints.

We attended the annual SCEDA (bracket racing) banquet and I got to give a presentation. I ran four of their races this year in my dragster, and actually won two of them. I still love to run the Sportsman stuff when I can, and Brent and Staci Cannon do the best job ever of running that association.

I am constantly reminding myself of what’s important in life, and the other day was no exception. I was in the middle of trying to get everything organized out in the garage, and I really wanted to head back out there after we had lunch (we’re saving lots of money eating sandwiches nowadays, but I still miss Yoshinoya Beef Bowl) so I could keep going. We had this big box in the house that something had just arrived in (it may have been the surround sound, or Jenna might be sneaking stuff past me now), and Jenna started decorating it for Jason like one of his favorite shows/toys: Thomas the Tank Engine. Now, if you’re a parent I don’t have to tell you about this. Whoever the brilliant S.O.B. was that came up with this show is costing us parents hundreds of dollars on the wooden train sets! Maniacal, but admirable. Anyway, I put aside what I was doing to spend some quality time with my son, and those are the times that I will never forget. By the way, Jenna found a great deal on a train set on e-bay, so we’re saving even more money! I told her just please don’t use the savings to buy me any more jeans.

Jason is feeding himself almost all of the time these days. We were just too impatient and hated the requisite mess that accompanies a child wielding a loaded spoon all over the place, but lately we’re just sucking it up and letting him do his thing. Do his thing … that’s an ironic statement. Today while I was out surfing Jenna gave the little man a shower right before her own. As she was drying herself the little man ran naked throughout the house and was last heard grunting in the kitchen. Yes, THAT grunt. I thought only puppies did that in the house. Either we’re going to have to put newspaper down for Jason from now on, teach him to do his business in the backyard, or keep diapers on him at all times.

Wow, do I hate to end a blog on such a note, but it is kind of funny (the poop thing, not necessarily the blog). On the racing front, we will be putting last year’s car up in the top of the trailer as our backup. Starting next month we will be testing in West Palm Beach, Florida with a brand new DSR-1 chassis, then on to Phoenix for the official pre-season kickoff. I can’t wait!

By the way, this week’s special: RV combo washer and dryer unit: used 4x, like new, yours for $600. Be the first in your neighborhood to own a Splendide model 2100. May have washed Robert Hight’s clothes, never washed any of Jack’s jeans.

Stay tuned.