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| This is the awards table. It's simple, but it works. I use what we have in the closet to decorate so we can spend our money on the trophies and awards. |
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| Graphite anyone? |
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| My little kids blew up 50 something balloons. This awesome track is about 30 years old and was build by a cabinetmaker who still lives in the ward. It still works really well. Now, the computer is another story. |
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| Here is the infamous Commodore 64. The set up is really ingenious, but the parts that are broken are not replacable. So sad. |
If you would have asked me 10 years ago what I might be doing this Friday night, I doubt I would have guessed "Running the Pinewood Derby". I know, it's good for people to be pushed outside of their comfort zones, but this ones pushes me until I fall off of the precipice and splatter on the rocky ground below, never to be discovered or recovered. Okay, it's not really that bad. It's just that we have this computer and timer system that is REALLY cool and pretty old too. It times the cars to the thousandth of a second. I love the accuracy of the whole thing, but two of the 4 sensors have stopped working and they are irreplacable. The computer is, I believe, a Commodore 64. The program still works, but it's hard for a windows user like me to use. It's confusing. So, it's kind of stressful having only two of the four lane timers working, and having to be prepared the run the race by people eyeballing it at the end. I need software that can do permutations with minimal repetitions, meaning I need to be able to plug in the number of cars by name and have the program tell me which cars to run in which lane for each heat. I tried figuring it out on my own, but it's just so complicated. and unfortunately, it's not in our budget this year to buy a new timer and software, but maybe next year. Anyway, I know everything will work out somehow. My dad is coming to hold my baby. My mother in law is bringing Timothy halfway through his soccer game. I'm praying that she stays to help with my other two little girls and that my 8 year old can behave by herself since my 12 year old and husband will be at the soccer game. The weigh in/turn in is tonight. I have seen 4 of the cars so far- two came for the Saturday weigh in, one came to weigh in this morning, and one is my son's car. They are all due tonight at threat of not qualifiying for a medal. I hate being strict and mean about it, but if you give people an inch. . . .So, I have to have a deadline. It's especially important this time because I am going to be making pins for each boy that are miniature replicas of their own cars. I have to draw them on the shrink film, color them in, cook them, glue the pin back on, and hopefully coat them with one of my favorite things, EnviroTex Lite, to give them a thick glass like coating. That stuff is way cool. Anyway, when I'm done, I'll add those pictures and then after the derby I'll update this blog and then post it. I'm hoping it goes better than I think it will. Two years ago I didn't have to "run" the actual race. I got a previous Cubmaster to do that for me. That was great, except for the part where my baby (Audrey)dislocated her elbow and nobody knew until I got home from the derby. She cried the whole time and I was too busy to go and figure out what was wrong.
Entry #2. (9:07 p.m. 2 days before the derby)
The weigh in is over. It went pretty well, other than the few boys who had to come back multiple times after making adjustments. I felt bad about it, especially about dickering over 1/8 of an ounce, but the line has to be drawn somewhere and I did tell people in writing not to rely on any scale definitively except for the one being used for the derby. I was actually pretty lenient, weighing in ounces and not in grams. I think, if I'm still cubmaster next year, I will set a limit of 142 grams (5 ounces os 141.7 grams). Gee, I hope I'm not doing this next year! I know, bad attitude, but this is so stressful. I am crossing my fingers that I can get that computer to work tonight. Please, please, please. I've got all kinds of spreadsheets ready to record things by hand in case the computer malfunctions. I've got 11 cars. 3 boys did not bring me cars, so I'm wondering and worrying if they are still planning on coming or not. I don't have special prizes for them and I don't want to create and print brackets for 11, 12, 13, or 14 cars. That's a lot of extra work. So, hopefully that won't happen. And the SADDEST thing of all is that I spent HOURS AND HOURS making miniature pinewood derby cars out of shrink film, replicas of each boys' car, and then I coated them with envirotex lite, after gluing a pin on back, and the envirotex lite made the permanent black and blue ink run and marred my precise and beautiful jobs. They are still cool, but not nearly as cool as they were and I'm bummed after all of the work that we put in. Judd helped me do a few of them last night. If they look really awful tomorrow, I will probably consider starting all over and not coating them with envirotex lite. That is an option since I drew each car on paper and then traced it. So, I have the "original" drawings still and I have enough shrink film to do it again. Hmm, I'm going to have to think about that. It was stressful to bake them. Several of them curled up on themselves, even though I covered them with parchment paper. Then I had to perform shrink film surgery while they were still hot. Some had to go back in the over to get squishy again. Anyway, it was a little nuts. Tonight we go and set up. I've got help coming, thanks to Brother Huntington calling people and asking, and I really am grateful for that. The track is heavy and tricky to set up so it will be great to have some help. Okay, well, enough complaining,. Time to get back into derby mode.
Entry #3 (10:00 p.m. The day before the derby)
The track and chairs are set up. Thank goodness for the men who came and helped. It would have taken so long without them. Sadly, we couldn't get the computer to work. There is a possibility that I could still get it to work. I'm going to go and try a couple more things tomorrow morning. We'll see. If not, I'm prepared to run it without the computer. And I'm hungry. And I'm tired. And I'm anxious to make it to tomorrow night around this same time!
Entry #4 (5:30 a.m. Derby day) Well, I just had a ROTTEN night of sleep. It started out right, before 11 p.m., I think. But Emmeline has something bothering her and woke me up every single hour. Then a massively loud thunder storm finished her job at 4:10 a.m.. It also woke her up so I fed her and put her back to bed. She'll probably sleep like a baby for a few more hours, while I brave the elements and hope the rain doesn't come back. Yep, I'm going out there in about 10 minutes to walk with my friend Jenni. Yes, we're crazy, but we like it. We walk 3 miles 5 days a week and we hate to miss it on stressful days. Today is bound to be one. While I was thinking about sleeping last night I think I remembered that the computer gave the same error last year but that it actually worked. Well, two of the sensors worked. So, now I have to go and check out things a different way. I wish desperately that I had a babysitter today. It's going to be a challenge to pull this off with Clara and Audrey and Emmeline. But, since I apparently have Superwoman tatooed on my forehead, I must be up to the task.
Entry #5 10:18 a.m. Derby day
I just finished the prizes for the boys. I have trophies for the top 4 winners, but I always like to give something to each boy. They put in so much work and hope into their cars and I think they should each go home with something to recognize their efforts. I posted some about my project earlier. Well, my bright idea to coat them in envirotex lite wasn't such a bright idea. It caused the markers to bleed. That was really disappointing since they were permanent markers. I've used it over paint before and never had a problem, but this didn't work out so well. Now I know. Sadly, I don't have 5 or 6 hours to redo the entire project so I'm just going with it. Here are the photos:
AFTER THE DERBY
Yea! It's over. I AM SO RELIEVED!!!! When I went over yesterday to finish setting up, the computer worked. I was so excited. When I went over to run the derby, the computer wouldn't work anymore. I wasted a good bit of time trying to get the program to load, but it just wouldn't. I'm not sure if I forgot something or not, but after about 20 minutes we decided to run it with the brackets I had made. It would have been so terrible if I hadn't been prepared with those spreadsheets and if I hadn't been lucky enough to have 7 people helping. We had one person guarding the gate, three people judging the line, 2 people recording the scores, one person making kids scoot back when they got too close, and me telling the boys when it was their turns to race and whatever else happened to come out of my mouth. I called on non-cubscouts to pull the gate lever. I think that was fun for people. So, in the end, it all worked out. We ran two rounds of 11 heats each, so each boy got to go down 8 times. Then we had a race off for second and third place and had to run 4 heats for that before one of them became a winner. Those cars were so closely matched. The kids who won were thrilled and all of the boys seemed to really like their pins. That made it definitely worth making them! I am just so glad it's over, really. I don't get a break, but things get easier for the rest of the year. I just have to coordinate camp and run pack meeting, but nothing huge and spectacular, although I do plan on doing a big slip,n'slide at a park. That's going to be fun!
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