Monday, March 5, 2012

Mach 5

This Saturday, Handsome has his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. You know, the race with the little cars they carve from blocks of wood, sand, paint, slap some wheels on the sides, and run on a track in little tiny 6-man dead heats. Wednesday (that's two days from now, for those of you paying attention) we have the official weigh-in. There's a 5 ounce maximum to race.  I have a problem.

What the heck does five ounces of carved pine look like? I don't have a postal scale handy, despite my job.

Besides, we are a little behind on this project. We still need to seal the wood (which will affect the weight), paint it (which will affect the weight) and mount the wheels (which will, yup, you guessed it, affect the weight!)!

All this after I finish shaping the car body, which I am not quite done with.

Now, Handsome is pretty relaxed about this.

"We need to work on your car," I say, and he's right there with me, looking at it.

"Yup," he says. "I know." And he goes to watch television.

It actually is quite my fault that we're this far behind, since I do keep forgetting about it.  I did start working on it with him recently, and his den leader gave us quite a jump on the project by cutting the block into the basic shape with a band saw and power sander.

The only thing is, here are some pretty basic Pinewood Derby cars:









And here are some more fancy ones, most likely made by experienced racers and wood-workers:






















And here's the car Handsome decided he wants for his, make that our, first Pinewood Derby car:





The Mach 5? What am I, @#$%ing  Geppetto? Seriously? Does any parent out there wonder why I'm freaking out here?

I haven't got time to talk, I have to get sanding!

Talk to you later!

3 comments:

  1. Oh I was part of the derby with my son like 7 years ago. Don't panic! my son's looked like a block of wook painted green with aliens on it...(he wanted to do it HIMSELF)
    It did NOT look good--BUT it came in second in the race and my son came home with a pretty big trophy.
    Have fun!

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    1. Thanks Penelope!
      After the night before last of cutting, and then shaping last night, followed by more shaping this evening, I think we have... the Batmobile. It's CLOSE to the Mach 5, but we kind of agree that it looks more like the Batmobile. Tomorrow we may just paint that sucker black and call it a day!

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  2. Rob, Paul was in the scouts as you know and I still have his derby car at my home just to remind me that his grandfather and Paul did it together...no matter what it looks like you will enjoy the time....we all did so long ago....!!!
    Oh yeah I forgot he got first prize!

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