Today is Monday and I have just spent another stressful weekend in beautiful Occoquan, Virginia – not! Though I really thought that we would have something put together to be able to race this past weekend in Atlanta, it just hasn’t been as easy as I had thought. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire but no additional funding to date. So, if I can’t be racing then I might as well enjoy my weekend at home and that is exactly what we did.

Well, I did make time to listen to Bob Frey and stay up to date on the crazy weather that reeked havoc at the track during the weekend. I will admit that I don’t miss rain delays at the racetrack. But I was happy to hear that my friend Mike Edwards finally got to complete the Pro Stock final this morning and won the race! Congratulations to Mike, Lisa, Roger, Big Al and the rest of the crew for a job well done! That team has one fast hot rod and I am glad to see that all of their hard work is finally paying off. 

I have been spending my days at the shop just trying to organize my life that has taken 20 years to clutter up. Believe it or not, that has been a full time job! I have to admit that I miss having my crew around me because with just Toni and I it seems to take twice as long to accomplish anything. Jamie tries to get to the shop when he can, but he has been busy studying for exams and right now that is where his priorities must be. So, I am just enjoying working at the shop and tackling projects around the house. 

My first project was to landscape my yard. This project has been on going as we have had so much rain that we have had to complete this in steps. One thing that the rain has done other than make my yard green is to stimulate the growth of all of the weeds that Toni and I spent a day pulling. I plan on ordering a truckload of mulch and then plant our flowers and hopefully we will be set for a few weeks.

That brings me to my most current project that I’ve decided to tackle – buffing and waxing my 56-foot Sea Ray boat. Wow, I obviously felt really energetic when I thought up this one. I took my buffer from the shop along with every kind of attachment, rubbing compound, wax, cleaner, etc., and off to the dock I went. First, we had to give it a thorough washing before we could get down to the buffing. It took me a while to figure out which compound worked and also get the hang of balancing myself on a floating dock while trying to buff the sides of the boat. The good news is I stayed dry!

When I first started buffing, I thought to myself that this project probably wouldn’t be that bad, but 9 hours later I was wondering whose bright idea this had been. My arms and shoulders were killing me! Obviously I don’t use those muscles enough when driving a Pro Stock car. Anyway, I am figuring that it will take us about 3-4 more days to finish this project. We are going to finish the areas that are easy to reach and then move the boat to another dock in order to reach below the belt line.

Before we started this job, Toni had jokingly said that if the racing thing didn’t work out we could always start our own boat detailing business – it would be great exercise, lots of fresh air and an awesome sense of accomplishment when we are done. I’m thinking…maybe not so much! I think I’ll revisit that idea at a later date. LOL

So, between organizing my race shop, landscaping my yard, detailing my boat, and keeping up with Bob Frey on NHRA.com, I have been keeping myself pretty busy. Fortunately, I haven’t been too busy to spend time with my favorite buddy Ryan. Toni and Melissa went over and babysat Ryan on Friday night and I stopped by on my way home. We haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks and he is getting so big. He even got his first two new teeth over the weekend.  I can’t believe that he will be 6 months old next week and I will be here to celebrate his ½ birthday!

I still plan on sharing with you some more of my stories and pictures of races past but I wanted to take the time to give everyone an update on our current racing program.  Don’t give up on us, we are determined to come back as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Well, I better get this blog sent and get back down to the shop. Before I close, though, I want to say Happy Birthday to Don (Toni’s Dad). His birthday is tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to get together tomorrow night for a fun birthday dinner!