The Pinewood Derby

When Matthew turned eight, he joined the Cub Scouts. He also joined just in time for the annual Pinewood Derby. Yikes. Now, to get things into perspective, my husband and I are NOT people who feel comfortable with carpentry. Anything beyond a jig saw or a sander is beyond us. We just have no clue. So-- At Matt's very first Pack meeting, he is handed a box in which the contents are supposed to magically transform themselves into a working pinewood derby car. We were, quite frankly, scared to death.

The box was brought home, and promptly ignored by my husband and myself in the hopes it would go away. The weeks past by. Soon, however, the time came when it could no longer be left to its own devices, and we begun to contemplate our entry into the hitherto unkonwn world of the Derby.

To start us off right I bought the movie: Down and Derby. Great flic, however we had to watch it more than once to understand all the things that the dad's were doing with the cars. (Like I said, we had no clue).

It came to our attention that the derby was only four days away. Yikes, how time flies when your avoiding something...

Aaron casually mentioned the derby to a friend of ours (who happend to have helped his boys with their derby cars). Aaron asked the friend if he could borrow his band saw-- hoping that the friend would actually cut it out for him. Unfortunately, the friend-- thinking he was being so helpful-- dropped off the bandsaw at our house so that Aaron would have plently of time to use it. I gave him a call at work, and we both cried. Intimidation by machinery is a sorrowful thing.

That night the bandsaw gave Aaron some huge troubles. We, (Ok, really it was him as I was taking care of baby), couldn't get the tention to work properly. The blade thing kept slipping off. Finally about eleven at night, Aaron-- fed up (and who could blame him?)-- got out the jigsaw, entered the kitchen, and within moments there was sawdust everywhere. (I had just cleaned the kitchen that day, but this was a definate EMERGENCY, so not a word of criticism did I speak). By the time he was done, Matthew was asleep in our room, and it was past midnight. But-- WE HAD A CAR!!! Or, at least a car shape thing. Which, all things concidered, was pretty good.

The next day Matt came home from school, and painted it. We were hidiously broke for money that week, so I got out my paints from prievious projects, and he chose a nice red for the body, with a bit of black for the stripe down the center. Looked as good as any eight year old painted car could-- with personality to spare. Now, time for the wheels. We were told we couldn't shave off the wheels (think bike racing), but we didn't care as we had no clue how to do it anyways.

Everyone kept mentioning 'soak the axles in grafite', but as I had mentioned, we were broke, and I had no clue how to find grafite, or what it looked like. I checked the motor area of the local Wal-Mart, but no luck. I saw another boy's mom go over to the area, and get something small, but I couldn't get a good look at it. GRRR. So, no grafite.

The wife of our good friend of the band saw asked how much the car weighed. Huh? How was I supposed to weigh something that would not register on my bathroom scale? Turns out that she owned a small scale, and we were welcome to come over and weigh the car. When we did, she showed us her boy's cars (sleek looking and winners). They had weights on them. Yes, a gray bumpy by intervals thing attatched. Aparently after taking the wood off to shape it, people add the weight back on-- go figure. And then: WE HAVE ONE OF THOSE!!! One of my walking buddies had given Matt a Home Depot truck project to do for his birthday, and we (in our ignorance) had set aside the metal thing, as we couldn't figure out what it was, or what it was for. I ransacked our kitchen drawer, and presto: we had a weight we could attach.

Next step: assemble all componants, and hope it goes forward. It did. Aaron added a little WD-40 to the wheels as we didn't have any of that darned grafite. It made the wheels go around better than before. Yes! a completed car!

Derby day: AAron and I pray that Matt's car does not come in last, Matt says 'I hope I win', and Winter and Jacob encourage all.

At the match, Matt's car comes in a little heavy. We start to panic, and try to think how to get some of the weight off. While discussing this, a man next to us tells the Cubmaster that the scale is off balance!! He has brought a one ounce weight with him to the Derby, to CHECK THEIR SCALE!! Yikes, this is seriously the big-leagues. We see dads carrying in the cars carfully wrapped in cloth. We see them polishing with those same soft cloths, and squirting something onto the wheels-- could this be the hard to find grafite stuff?? Aaron and I just sit in the front and make jokes about our ignorance.

The track was a long affair. It was propted up onto a tall ladder, and made its curvy way to almost the other end of the cultural hall.

They start with getting their numbers. OK, we're good so far. But then they start to race. I go to the far end, because Jacob is getting fussy. Matt's car gets called, I start praying. I just was hoping he wasn't last. Second to last, fine. Just, NOT LAST. They let them go, Matt's car is just behind as they start their decent. But then something amazing happens-- HE GAINS SPEED OVER THE OTHER CARS AS THEY GET TO THE STRAIGHT FLAT PART-- AND HE WINS!!!

Us, the no knowledge about cars, carpentry, or grafite, win. WE WON!!! Our stunned faces were a sight to behold. We couldn't believe it. Matt won!! We had added the weight backwards, we had no grafite, the car was not tested beforehand, and we won! I think we were in shock for about two hours afterwards. It just goes to show: the ignorant can achieve, with a little luck and a lot of divine help. And so, thus ends our time as Derby ignoramouses, and enter us as Derby champs. (Wow, Aaron, I am soooooo impressed!!) Good job Matt for being so patient with us, thank you!

The surprised Westers.

valentine's day

This Valantine's Day, Matthew decided to get into the spirit of things by getting Pink Eye. I took him to the doctor's, and as we were leaving, the doctor opened all the doors for us-- we didn't have to touch a thing! (Of course I didn't tell her that we were sitting in the waiting room for about 20 minutes).

My husband wants to go to Home Depot after dinner tonight. He says that I can pick any restaurant, but that we should definately go to Home Depot-- or even Lowes-- to look at some wood samples. Does anyone else out there think that I am being unreasonable to want to stay away from Home Depot today? Besides, we would have to take the kids, and Matt has Pink Eye-- which is HIGHLY contagious. Of course, this could practically turn into a service project per se. Anyone crazy enough to go to the hardware store on Valentine's Day, could probably use a little reminder about Fate, and the Bad Luck that comes your way if you don't pay attention to the ones you love.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Wester Mad House.