So before I write about what happened tonight, I want you to read my post from last year: Last years Pinewood Derby recap. Go ahead, I’ll wait, just come back when you’re done…
So basically, this year was exactly like last year. Sometime last week I told Michael that when we were finished with this car, I wanted to start on next years car almost right away, like in a few weeks, so we would have plenty of time and didn’t have to rush. I said the same thing last year.
Last year I said this:
Since we were running so close with time this year I feel like we missed out on some things that really would have helped Michael’s car do better, like doing a better job of polishing the axles, or sanding the car even smoother to cut down on friction. Our axles were bent and I didn’t even try to straighten them, and I thought about trying to align the wheels but just didn’t have the time.
Those things are the EXACT things I wasn’t happy with about Michael’s car this year.
Last year I closed by post by saying:
Finally, a special thank you to Kate, for allowing us to take over the kitchen table for the past few days, and not getting too mad when I spent money on stuff for a wooden car.
Well, same thing this year.
Kinda strange how this works out I guess huh?
Last year, in Michael’s first year, he placed 4th out of 17 kids, missing 3rd place and a trophy by not much at all.
Anyways, on to the good stuff I guess…
This is obviously a VERY rough cut. I drilled the holes in the back first before I cut the general wedge shape with a coping saw. The cutting would have been much easier if I had a vise to hold the block. Also, if we had a vise to hold the block, I would have made Michael cut it instead of me.
This is the finished car, rear left. Notice the personalized license plate!
This is the front right of the car.
This obviously is the bottom of the car.
I don’t have video yet like last year. But, when I get it, it is going to be sweet. I borrowed an HD camcorder from work and I need to transfer the video over… I will do it as soon as I can.
Well, so about the results…
Like I mentioned, last year, 4th out of 17 kids.
Tonight Michael placed 2nd out of 16 kids. Way to go Michael!
Michael and I have been working on this car for a LONG time… ok, maybe not, just since Saturday, and today is Wednesday, so just a little bit over the past 5 days. Saturday and Sunday we spent some time over at Rusty’s house since he has a garage with a nice workbench. It really helped to put the block in a vise to hold it while using power tools!
I didn’t take any pictures of the process, but I’ll have to for next year. Basically what we did was a flat car. I drilled 5 holes horizontally to put in some lead weights. I cut 3 lead bars in half with a Dremel, and used 5 of them. Then we filled the holes with putty so all of the weight was concealed. Michael spray painted the car yellow, and then with a black marker drew some tigerhawks and wrote the word “Iowa” on the sides. He loves those Hawkeyes.
I got a postal scale at Walmart for $20. It really helped a lot because we were able to figure out what we needed for weight. We came in at 5.0 oz, which was the limit. It really made the weigh-in process stress-free. We were the first ones there, put the car on the official scale, and it was perfectly at the limit. The next kid weighed in at 5.6 oz, so they had to take weight off. For him it was easy because they had a screw-on lead plate, and they could snap some of the weight off. Others though didn’t have that option so they had to frantically try to hollow out the bottom with a drill to bring it down. I wouldn’t want to have to do that.
Michael holding the car before the weigh-in
After the weigh-in
All of the cars
The Batmobile and Mystery Machine, turned in by Michael’s friends Jacob and Sam
Michael’s heat #1, in the close lane, finished 2nd.
I do not have a picture or video for Michael’s heat #2. I’m not sure what happened. He finished 2nd in the heat.
Heat #3, run #1, in the far lane, would have been first but a car derailed so they had to rerun it
Heat #3, run #2, far lane again, finished 1st in this heat
Heat #4, middle lane, finished 2nd
Heat #5, run #1. Michael was in the close lane. They had to run this heat 3 times because of problems. This first one, Michael’s car was first to finish, but it was so far ahead of the other car, it hit the pillow, bounced back, and stopped the car in the middle lane.
Heat #5, run #2. Michael was in the close lane. They had to run this heat 3 times because of problems. This second one, Michael’s car was first to finish, but the 2nd place car hit the pillow, bounced back, and stopped the car in the middle lane.
Heat #5, run #3. Michael was in the close lane. They had to run this heat 3 times because of problems. This was the third one. Michael was first again, and again a car bounced back and hit the other, but they went with this one.
Heat #6, middle lane, finished 2nd.
Michael won the “award” for Best Iowa Spirit or something, I can’t remember for sure.
Michael ended up finishing 4th, out of 17 kids. These were the official times. What they did was take the total for the six races, and add them up. Michael’s total for six heats was 13.9257 seconds. 1st thru 3rd got trophies. If you can read the picture, the kid in 3rd place had a time of 13.8999 seconds, for a difference of 0.0258 seconds overall, or an average of 0.0043 seconds per heat. Since this is our first experience with Pinewood Derby, I’m not sure how close that is exactly, but to me that seems razor thin!Overall I think we had a pretty good experience. Next year I’m going to have Michael do a little more of the work. Since this was our first time I wasn’t sure what he could and could not handle, but I think he’ll be able to do more in the future. I guess I feel like I did more of the work than I was planning on, but not enough that I feel like I cheated him out of the experience or anything.
Also, I know we’re not going to wait so long to start for next year. In fact, I think we’ll be starting in a few weeks. That will give us almost a whole year to get it done without rushing. Since we were running so close with time this year I feel like we missed out on some things that really would have helped Michael’s car do better, like doing a better job of polishing the axles, or sanding the car even smoother to cut down on friction. Our axles were bent and I didn’t even try to straighten them, and I thought about trying to align the wheels but just didn’t have the time. I know if we would have had time to do that we would have done even better.
Also, I better say thanks to Rusty for letting us use your garage. We really appreciate it. Also, thanks to my dad, for letting us borrow the Dremel. We’re done with this years Derby, but I still need the Dremel to fix a few of our chairs. But don’t worry, I’ll get it back to you!
Finally, a special thank you to Kate, for allowing us to take over the kitchen table for the past few days, and not getting too mad when I spent money on stuff for a wooden car.
So I took Michael and Audrey to last nights Hawkeye Womens Basketball exhibition game and Audrey had to use the facilities, so we went in to the mens restroom and entered the big handicap stall so we could all fit in there. Michael and I turned around while Audrey did her thing, and Michael said, “Dad, f*** Iowa State”. I immediately turned around and yelled “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!?!!?” He pointed to some writing on the stall wall that said “F*** IOWA STATE”. Then I had to explain to him that that word is not one that we use because it is a bad word, and I told him I wasn’t mad at him about it.
After we left the bathroom and had gone back to our seats, Michael said “I know why somebody wrote that. I think they drank too much alcohol.” I told him he was probably right and again that was something that we don’t say.
After the game, in the car, I told Kate the story, and while we both thought it was kinda funny, we also told him again how that isn’t a word that we use. He said “I won’t say that word anymore. If I need to say it I will just spell the letters.” Now we had to tell him how even that is inappropriate, and not to even spell it because his friends at school would know what it says.
Anyways, I just wanted to share that with you because even though I was mad that it was written on the wall, I still thought it was kinda funny at the same time. I’m not sure if that makes me a crappy father.
So today was Michael’s first Hawkeye Football game. We started off the morning by getting a ride from Kate to the train “station” on the Hawkeye Express. It took about ten minutes to get there. We got off and went to a tailgate party at the Hawkeye Village. There they had brats, “barbeque” beef, marinated chicken, pork cutlets, potato salad and pasta salad. There were also brownies and carrot cake, as well as pop and water.
We walked back to the stadium and got there about 5 minutes before the gates opened. We weren’t allowed to take in our bottles of water because they supposedly were blue, but they looked clear to me, except for the label on the bottle was blue, and I think it made the bottle look blue with the way the sun was shining on it. Apparently he said college students like to take microsyringes and inject liquor into their bottles and that’s why they only allow clear bottles. Well, this is stupid for a few reasons. First, I’m not going to inject liquor into the bottle of water that my 7 year old son is going to be drinking out of. Secondly, what kind of liquor are they injecting into their bottles? If anyone was going to try and pull that, they’d use a clear liquor anyway, so allowing clear bottles wouldn’t help.
So, we got inside Kinnick Stadium 90 minutes before kickoff. We went to our seats but it was so cold because there was nobody blocking the wind. So we went and I got Michael some hot chocolate. We sat around inside the covered area for a while to keep warm and headed to our seats with about 45 minutes to go. By that time there were a bunch of people around so the wind wasn’t blowing much and it wasn’t too cold. The sun even came out for a while and I was actually starting to get uncomfortably warm in my black jacket.
Finally it’s almost time. The Marching Band came out; that was pretty cool. Herky and the cheerleaders came out, with the big giant flags. Then the Hawkeyes took the field. It was pretty neat too.
Part way though the first quarter the Hawkeyes got on the board with a 7 yard run by Albert Young. The Hawkeyes were up 17-0 at halftime. The second half was a little closer, but in the end, Iowa prevailed 24-14.
I know I had a great time with Michael, and I hope he had a great time as well, and I hope this is something that he can remember for a long time.
So yesterday Michael was in the MLB Pitch, Hit & Run Competition in North Liberty. The name of the competition says it all. Michael was one of 8 kids in the 7/8 year old category, but he was one of the younger kids there. In fact, there was only one kid that was smaller than him, and I always thought Michael was a little big for his age.
Anyways, so Michael didn’t do so well, but he had fun. He was so nervous because he had to go first in each of the three categories. He was really disappointed that he didn’t do better, and I was really afraid for a bit that he was going to cry about it, but suprisingly he didn’t. I’m so proud of him because of how well he was able to deal with it, and for doing his best, even though he was scared.
So Michael lost a tooth last night. I went into his room after he was asleep to check and see if the tooth was still there but I couldn’t find it. If I couldn’t find the tooth, how was the tooth fairy supposed to? So I had to wake Michael up and ask him where it was. Luckily he fell right back to sleep, so I’m sure the tooth fairy left him some money.
