Monday, January 26, 2009
- 0600:
- iPhone alarm wakes me with “Sonar”. I get out of bed, put on yesterday’s clothes and check Thomas’ room. His alarm clock is rumbling but he is not in his room. I wander around the house looking for him until I find him in bed with his Grandma. I wake him. I take my iPhone into the Big TV Room where I check mail, Twitter and Facebook.
- 0615:
- I confirm that Thomas is showering and then check Graham’s car to see if the glue has completely dried overnight. It has, so I sit down and apply a layer of wood putty to cover the shot pellets that will provide most of the car’s weight, as for the windows the use of local tinting companies is the best option for this. Business owners who want to keep their startup costs as low as possible can work in the industry and then open a car tinting business, spending six months to a year working in the industry will give business owners the skills and knowledge needed to tint windows — and save them $1,700 on a training course.
- 0650:
- Thomas has eaten breakfast and has his lunch ready. I wake Graham and ask him if he needs a shower today. He replies that he doesn’t. Thomas and I depart for HB Lee middle school and I drop him off as his orchestra teacher arrives. On my way home I stop in for a large mocha but opt for only 3 shots instead of 4. Extra shots make me shaky.
- 0710:
- I check on Graham when I get home and discover that he is still sleeping. When I wake him he is alarmed and says that he thought he could go back to sleep when I asked if he needed to shower. He gets up and has breakfast.
- 0725:
- Graham and I drive to Margaret Scott Elementary. We beat the rush of dropoffs and I’m out of there in less than five minutes.
- 0730:
- Shower, brush teeth and get dressed. Review daily to-do list, calendar, email and Tivo schedule.
- 0800:
- Cued up a few episodes of Coverville and Drugmusic in iTunes. Started work.
- 1000:
- Make breakfast: toast with sugar free jelly and a small glass of milk. Installed new stick of butter in butter dish from freezer for use tomorrow.
- 1100:
- Sanded now-dry wood putty on Graham’s car.
- 1230:
- Had Tina mask off the “neck” of Graham’s car and applied first coat of black paint to the top of the “body.”
- 1300:
- Lunch. Leftover Papa Murphy’s from last night. Decided to eat it cold. Reddit and Digg reading while I ate.
- 1330:
- Back to work.
- 1430:
- Normally I would pick up Graham from the bus stop, but Tina decided that she wanted to walk there. It is several blocks away but she assures me she will be fine.
- 1500:
- After a brief search for pinewood derby car painting rack, I made a new one (board, nail and hole in the back of the car). Applied second coat on top and first coat on the bottom. Set Graham to polishing axels and deburring the wheels.
- 1600:
- Graham fell asleep in his bed. I peel the masking tape off the car and spray a coat of clear gloss finish. Thomas works on his axels and wheels before also falling asleep.
- 1700:
- I finish Graham’s wheels and look for the graphite. Not finding it after a frenzied search, I start off for the hardware store to buy a new tube. Several blocks away I realize that I don’t have my wallet, although I swear I had it in my sweatshirt pocket. I return home and fail to find it in another frenzied search. I borrow $20 from Tina and head off to the hardware store again. Upon arriving at said store, I check on the floor of the back seat behind me and find wallet.
- 1800:
- I painstakingly glue together the “pencil lead” weight that I bought at Joe’s the other day. These ideas always seem so much better before they are actually implemented. Graham is awake but feeling lousy. He won’t be attending weigh-in or school tomorrow.
- 1830:
- Graham’s car could use another coat of glossy but there is no time: Weigh-in is from 1830 to 1930. Thomas and I glue on the axels and double-check weight. Graham’s car is over slightly so I clip off some of his “string” weight.
- 1900:
- Thomas and I depart. I drop him off at his Boy Scout meeting and take both cars to the weigh-in. Thomas’ weighs in at 4.9 ounces (had been 4.95 on our scale) and Graham’s is a perfect 5.0. The glue is still wet but had dried enough so that the “strings” did not fall off when the scale guy flipped it upside down for the weighing.
- 1915:
- I text Tina “I’m done” and head back to the Scout meeting. She calls and asks if I can pick up a thermometer. I drive to Walgreen’s and buy same before dropping back in on the Scouts.
- 2030:
- Thomas and I return home from Scout meeting. I scrounge up dinner (I had missed spaghetti earlier while working on the car) and settle in for an hour of Rachel Maddow.
- 2200:
- Bedtime