HEADING FOR SUMMER... and whatever it brings (Part 160t)

HEADING FOR SUMMER... and whatever it brings (Part 160t)

It was not physically possible for me to accomplish everything that needed to be done on Saturday… even with me getting up early. The ‘killer’ was it was the first of two Saturdays to get the sailing club opened up and ready for the season. In the past I’d looked forward to it to be able to reconnect with some of the Summer only people. But my mind was on all the things I still needed to get done at home and, all before 3pm when Cliffy would stop to pick me up for the races. At the club, as usual, we were short of people. Thank goodness Rex, the maintenance guru, anticipated it and got his brother involved. He was a ‘horse’ and, because his business was as a carpenter, he had the know how to get needed repairs done quickly and done right. I’d warned Rex I’d have to leave by 1pm but looking at the progress we’d made I didn’t feel guilty. In leaving, I saw a few more people arriving so that was good.

After a flying trip to the landfill (dump) the lawn was next. I don’t think I’d ever cut it as fast as I did after I got home. Elle had some things she wanted help with and, somehow, I managed to get most done before Cliffy and the race car pulled up in front of the house. The only thing I didn’t get done was to shower… and I apologized to the crew about it. The only one who was visibly/vocally upset was Buster. Of all the crew he was the one who liked to criticize just about anyone or anything so I ignored his jibes.

On the whole we were pretty upbeat about our chances for that night. With virtually no money earned since we won on opening night it meant we should be starting up near the front… always a good thing. The previous week we didn’t even get one lap of warm-ups, crashing into the first turn wall. We were lucky in that the tire wasn’t damaged and it was felt the tires we had would still be good. I remember having fingers crossed on both hands as Cliffy pulled out onto the track for his practice laps. It was obvious that some adjustments still had to be made as the car wanted to push out in the turns so Cliffy pulled the car in and Alan and Dick went to work on it. By the third practice the car looked better. We started third in our qualifying heat and even though the car still wasn’t right we did qualify. More adjustments were made before the main event and when we pulled onto the track for the feature we were all pretty confident. When we took the lead I was already counting the money.

The ‘old saw’, counting your chickens before they hatch, was certainly appropriate in this case. All of a sudden Cliffy pulled into the infield and within seconds we could see steam coming from the overflow tank. All I could think was “Not again!”. He had to remain in the infield until the race was over so we got to watch C J win with his new Chevy motor. By the time it was over the motor had cooled down enough for Cliffy to drive it into the pit area. There was no doubt in his mind that the problem was another blown head gasket. What had him really upset about that was we’d tried a new (expensive) set of gaskets designed to mitigate that situation. We were all pretty discouraged by then.

One thing about true racers is that they’d rather beat you on the track than to see you have a problem and drop out like we did. Any number of car owners and drivers stopped by to see what was wrong and if they could help. One was a man no one recognized. He ended up talking with Cliffy and offered to take a look at the cylinder heads we were using. His thoughts were that there were tiny cracks in the castings and if he was right he had a solution. He owned and ran a machine shop that catered to racers. His son was a racer and competed in the most high powered class of ‘Saturday night racers’, the super modifieds. In that division you had no limitations (or very few) as to what you could do to a motor. He ended up making an offer to check our cylinder heads for free. The only ‘catch’ was we had to bring them to him and he was located right outside the city.

On the trip home we discussed our options and there really weren’t any. We’d already done what other racers had suggested to correct our problem and it hadn’t worked. All we had to do was dismantle the motor (or part of it) and find a volunteer to drive the heads to the guy’s shop. As it turned out, that was the biggest problem. Cliffy went to the garage first thing on Sunday morning and got the heads off the engine, cleaned them up and put them in boxes for delivery. Joe was the only one who worked anywhere near the city so he was tasked (somewhat unwillingly) for the job.

With signs of Summer all around, Sunday for me was dedicated to getting our Sunfish sailboats out, washing off the farm dust they collected over the Winter and finding all the component parts. Sailing lessons were to begin in two weeks and the older two girls got all excited seeing the boats in the driveway. As I worked on the boats I couldn’t help but wish time away. The new branch office was like a millstone around my neck and I had about a month until I’d be somewhat free of it.

Monday was the first day the new tellers actually worked with the teller machines. Lorie had told me Rita was a “star” and would have no trouble adapting to them. She wasn’t too sure about Barb, who she called “slow”, but liked her attitude. Her description of Mae was that she was a “bulldog” and really had no doubt she’d learn the machine quickly. She called Betsy the “mom” of the group and appeared to be a good choice for head teller. Walking away I really had hope for the success of the branch in spite of Jerry.

It didn’t take long for the good feelings to dissipate though. For once it wasn’t Jerry who was at fault for that. The final inspection of the branch building for the Certificate of Occupancy had been scheduled for Tuesday but I got a call and it had been postponed until Friday. That meant we wouldn’t be able to move the training to the branch itself until after it was issued. That gave us only two days in the building before the doors would be open to the public. It was another case of one step forward but two back.

To be continued…