April 1, 2009

Hey it's April 1st. One year ago today I had a career ending back surgery after my fourth and fifth blown discs. The surgery went fairly well but the left over deficit and disability prevented me from going back to work as a Firefighter/Paramedic Supervisor for the Tacoma Fire Dept. This has caused some significant changes in my life, not to mention a deep dark bout of depression. But like all human problems this too will pass. The team has been working hard to get ready for the 2009 season. I have had crew guys down for the last two weekends working on the body and paint work for the car. I had done sort of a slap dash job to get us back on the track last year after the altercation with the concrete wall at Woodburn Dragstrip. The new crew guys have some training and experience in body and paint work- good thing too. Andy Buchanan and Trina Eplett are redoing my not-so-good body work and repainting. It looks wonderful so far. The easy way would have to just redo the entire right side of the car but I was hoping to not add too much weight with paint and body work. So it has become the world's largest spot repair. Speaking of weight- I am down 29 pounds as of this morning with a goal of losing another 17 pounds. I want to try to run the car as close to the minimum weight as possible. The theory is that ten pounds equals a hundredth of a second. Although a hundredth of a second sounds really quick, at the dragstrip it is an eternity.
The winter while cold and rainy wasn't without a lot of effort towards the upcoming season. During the winter I whittled off all three axles from the trailer and replaced them with new ones. As it turns out the trailer had three torsion-flex axles which caused all sorts of tire and wheel bearing issues. Whoever originally installed the axles didn't do it as was suggested by the axle manufacturers. They were welded solidly to the frame which made for a major league hassle to replace. But it is done and the trailer now has three brand new leaf sprung axles now. Well its time to take a break and spend some quiet time with Kim- See yah all soon- Dave
PS. Check out the new t-shirts- they look great- D