Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Drag-sta

Now, any of you that are regular readers. .or those that know our family. .know that Jeremy is just short of obsessed with drag racing (likened to me being JUST short of obsessed with my gardens).  Last summer, his '69 nova drag car developed a "shake", explained to me as a phenomenon that would require major overhauling of the nova. .or getting a new one.  Hmmm. .It took a couple of weeks of fit-pitching about the cost of non-essential novelties (NOT likened to plants and trees and mulch and hardscaping. .those are ESSENTIAL for my good humor :-) from yours truly before he remarked that he would just build something from scratch. .a cheaper way to go. HAHAHA! And with that statement and one from me sounding a little like this. .
"Fine. . .just build one from scratch then."
And he was off. .little did I know. .
just what that entailed!
He started with some old pieces of a vehicle and some boxes of stuff. .
And you may recall the trip to OK that we made last fall. .the one that also included buying my pond parts. .(a bribe!) we picked up a racing motor (literally in BOXES) for 1/4 of the price from a guy who bought the stuff 10-15 years ago and never put it together.
Since then. .
every single weekend has been spent tinkering with this critter!
He has spent countless hours caressing her body. .lovingly sanding off all the blemishes and signs of age. .focused on every single detail of her appearance.
He tried out several different outfits of paint (on a piece of metal) before deciding on something very shiny and shimmery.
And of late, he has been spending every evening working on his NEW girl. .stopping  from work only long enough to eat supper and make sure that we (the family) were still alive and functional.
The children don't even remember his name! And just as soon as I was seriously considering setting up a cot for him in his shop. .he announced that he was finished!!
Unfortunately, it stopped running late Thursday evening. .the plan was to head for the first race of the season Friday!
These two motor head buddies showed up mid afternoon on Friday to work on the truck while Jeremy finished up with some shop work (his REAL job!) They drove an hour out of their way to get here!
Those crazy guys missed their own racing Friday evening to lend a hand. .and got it running again. .
It had alcohol poisoning. . .REALLY! I thought that only happened to people!!
But, by the time the work was done. .it was too late to head for Great Bend. .and the guys called Saturday and reported that the race had been cancelled due to rain. So, while he tinkered with it a little more this weekend. . .He did spend some time with yours truly and our children, helping with some landscaping and bird house hanging! 
Racing season started this weekend. .but then so did gardening season!
It's a good thing he is so cute. .and handy. .
OR ELSE. . .

8 comments:

  1. WOW! It looks AMAZING! BUT-I think you are MUCH cuter than this "new girl."
    Happy Birthday, by the way!

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  2. Loved this post! Hope you had a great birthday...and that he spent it with his "real" girl!!

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  3. "War of interests?" LOL! But it looks good, and glad they got it running. :)

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  4. Soooo, how do you know his new love is a girl? When I see a truck, I think male. Does she have a name? I think it looks great!

    Kristi

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  5. I have friends in Missouri that pull tractors. Yea! Black smoke. Fun times.

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  6. I am seriously impressed! What a great job! I cannot even imagine building a vehicle! That's great that he finished it...I'll bet so many people start cars like that and never get them done.

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  7. I love that truck. You need to put up pictures that show how he cut in half length wise and made it narrower, and how he cut out the roof supports and made it shorter (chopped). Way cool and extremely difficult! Glad you are such an awesome wife to support him too. DJ

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