Pinewood Derby, Part 2

We had a beautiful, HOT weekend in Eau Claire, and spent lots of time outdoors. Emma and I planted flowers and spread cedar chips around the house on Sunday morning, while Jon and Michael rototilled and expanded our garden out at the hunting shack in Cornell. Next weekend we'll plant vegetables. There are so many deer in that area that Jon had to build a 10 ft. high fence around the plot to give our plants a chance to grow. Last year he only made it out there to water and check on things a couple of times, but the garden did well on its own, thanks to natural rainfall and horse manure.

Saturday morning we went to the District Pinewood Derby. Michael's car raced against the top cars from our part of the state. Each car runs once down each of the four lanes. Times are recorded with a computer program that automatically compares each car with every other car. So the whole thing went fairly quickly, once everyone was registered.

That was the hard part! The first time Jon and Michael went through the registration line, they were ejected because the car was slightly overweight (we hadn't altered the car one bit from the last race, but the scales must have been different). Jon made the necessary adjustments, and we were good to go after that.

The other boy competing from Michael's school also had trouble getting through registration, though his was a more serious problem... his wheels were illegal. His dad had filed them on each edge, so they came to ridge in the center. This alteration was apparently unobserved during the earlier race. We couldn't help but wonder if Michael's car might have won the earlier race if his competitor's tires were legal... As it was, the other boy's Dad had to race home and get another set of wheels, put them on the car, and go through the line again. But they made the deadline and were able to compete. (This time Michael's car did better than the other boy's).

Michael's car actually beat the other cars he raced with, but he didn't win the overall race. Still, he got a nice certificate and ribbon for his effort, and all of us had fun.