Every once in a while, you see something online that really makes you think. Like the great Don Louv once said: "The web is a funny thing".
I mean, Virtually anyone(no pun intended) can say anything, anytime, and impact millions of people.
I know what you are thinking. "Wow, that is amazing. I never thought of it like that". Well don't thank me. Thank Don.
I certainly do. Thank you Don.
https://www.facebook.com/donlouv/posts/10150584532811835?notif_t=feed_comment...
First off, here is a picture of my new daughter Alexandra Katherine. She is 100% ok now, but her arrival was one of the most interesting, and hardest of my life.
Anyone who is a parent knows, that even though we fear things like complicated deliveries and sick children, we never actually believe it will happen to us. Even when taking your baby courses, they will throw the statistics in your face, but you are positive you will be on the good side of the curve when your little one is born.
Fate surprised us once with our first daughter, who needed an emergency C-section. We assumed lighting had struck us once and would not visit again. This was reinforced by the fact that our son, David, came into the world flawlessly, and both our kids were pictures of health.
My wifes third pregnancy was the EASIEST of the three. Relatively little discomfort and smooth sailing the whole time. We looked forward to the delivery day(which was to be a planned c-section, as my wife must always have since Lia) and were sure that we would sail right into the next months as easily as the previous 9 had gone.
Eight hours after a perfect delivery, we were happy to be holding our new baby, and couldn't be more oblivious to the situation that was brewing for her. A routine vitals check found that her breathing was somewhat fast and labored, and she was taken to the nursery for observation. Just an hour after that she was being wisked away to a neighboring hospital and a Level 3 NICU. For my wife and I, who had already been doing our endzone dance, this felt like a slap in the face as the on call pediatrician(through teary eyes) informed us that our daughter had some kind of infection in her lungs and would need help to breathe.
I sat up the first night with baby Alex not sure what to think. She was clearly sick now and getting sicker every hour. 100% Oxygen was not enough to keep her blood properly saturated, so she was intubated. There I was, sitting someplace I never thought I would be: next to my child being kept alive by a machine.
Eventually I had to leave her to go pick up my other kids, but there was "slight" improvement and the doctors were saying we just needed to wait for the infection to run it's course. 7 days. The next day I was reporting this to Amanda, when the phone rang. It was the Neonatologist callingt o say that Alex's lungs had collapsed, requiring them to pressurize her lungs, and that she was to be driven within the hour to Stanford Children's Hospital.
Well, you know your kid is sick when you are at Stanford. And we were the unofficial "sickest baby" in the NICU. 102 fever. 100% O2, 20PPM NO2, and 3 of 4 breaths being given to her by a machine. She never woke, hardly moved. Just breathed. For 10 days I drove highway 17 twice a day to be with her and bring news back to Amanda and the rest of my family.
If I thought this was as bad as it got, I would be proven wrong as news of an absurdly high fever and lung infection had my brother spending the night in an ER. The next day, my father had a series of blood tests indicating a FAILING liver. A chest x-ray indicating a DEAD LUNG or Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Oddly, I was pretty numb by now. Just asking for information, given what information I had, as 3 Locks faced extremely uncertain medical outcomes.
But looking back now, this could have been harder. Our friends and family rallied around us to make sure this was as easy as possible. We never needed to cook a dinner. Our kids were watched at all hours of the day or night. These little gifts were the things that allowed Amanda and myself to focus on the family health.
Well, it all turned out ok. Alexandra slowly recovered, and after 10 uncertain days, was release to us and declared 100% recovered from Sepsis and Pulminary Hypertension. Mike was given antibiotics for his bronchitis, and my dad was informed(by a rather embarrassed doctor) that a culture had return positive for a Mono-like virus that can effect liver function, and that he would be fine.
So my paternity leave turned out to not be as relaxing as I thought. I can't wait for vacation...
Fastest Lap of the day: 1:58.9
Not like this car needed testing. It's not a "new" car. My brother won the H2 Championship with it in 2009, then Percy Howard ran it flawlessly in 2010 and 2011. But it is a new car to me, and for me to be comfortable taking it to a race, me and the old girl needed to be introduced properly.
Thunderhill raceway was an ideal place to stretch it's legs. If you catch a dry day, the late winter can produce some beautiful driving days, and this was one of them. Also, since I have so many laps here from like, a million 25 Hour races, it is a good place for me to compare the car to others I have driven.
We had only 2 objectives going into the weekend:
1)drive the car hard and see if anything falls off, and
2)Establish some idea of the fuel consumption on thunderhill so we could begin to strategize for the 2 endurance races we would be running on them later in the year.
Number 1 was accomplished, in fact, we even ADDED pieces to the car after we were pegged for sound in the first session. I was black flagged and informed that the sound station sample me at 109.7dB. Huh? I asked if I could go out again, because this had to be a mistake, but of course she would not allow it. For those not familiar with dB, 110 is the threshold a human pain, and is the equivelent of a car horn at 1ft, a heavy metal concert, or a jumbo jet taking off at 200ft. I pretty much didn't believe it, and when I got to the on-track fab shop to get my turn-down welded on the tail pipe, it pretty much confirmed my suspicion that the sound station need to recalibrate their meter. There were 3 STREET cars in line in front of me waiting to get a turn down as well.
Number 2 showed the fuel consumption to be less than stellar, but it was within workable limits for any endurance race, but this car better be fast...
Once we got back out there, I slowly worked it up to 8/10, and was suprised when my dad told me I was running 2 flats! This I did not expect out of an H2 car. Now to be fair, I was running on Hankook c51 and not RA1 like a H2 car should, but this was about 4 seconds faster than I was expecting to have gone taking it so easy, and lifting at the sound station to make sure I passed sound. The session was also flagged early due to a rollover in turn 8, so I only got a few laps. (Best Time 2:00.8)
For the second timed session, I threw caution to the wind and ran full throttle passed the sound station. More 2 flats, and when we saw the official time, we were just shy of breaking 2 minutes, a real threshold of speed on Thunderhill. I comment to my dad that my brother Mike would "poop" his pants if we broke 2 minutes in his old car, so we went back to make some tweaks. (Best Time: 2:00.0)
Dad had a tire pressure adjustment to make. The last session was the first where we had managed to get tire pressure and temps, and we looked to be way over-pressured. Tires were running high pressure and cool. We dropped them 2lbs for the next session.
The adjustment was the right one. After the third session, I knew I had a flyer, and we went to the time sheet to see if we had got a 1:59, where we discovered instead a 1:58.9. Mike was informed by phone, so I cannot attest to the reaction of his bowel to this news.
In summary, this car is something special. I am now more optomistic than ever that we have an E1 class ringer here. And as far as the USTCC races that I figured I was to be an also-ran at? I think there might be some podium potential here after all.
I guess we will find out next month at the USTCC opener at Infineon, March 10.
Sent from my iPhone
Those who know me know that life after kids has not included as much racing as I would like. I have been able to supplement my passion with one-off track days in borrowed cars, or hitting some outdoor kart enduros, but this has not been cutting it lately. Well about the same time I was making "racing" my New Year's resolution, my brother called me to say Brandon Kraus sold his USTCC winning prelude to Percy Howard, and so Percy was looking for a buyer for HIS Honda Challenge 2 Spec Prelude. Such good timing. So I decided to particiapate in the "Great Car Swap of 2012". Percy's car is now in my garage.
The Prelude has a very unqiue suspension for a FWD car, making it arguably the best handling front drive ever made. It also has honda's "big block" H22A, which gives it gobs of reliable NA torque.
H2 Spec means that modifications are limited. A custom roll cage by Mike Lock is the primary saftey element, while a Racetech 9009HR keeps me snug and safe. A sparco race wheel mounts to the stock adjustable tilt steering column.
Except for the intake, the engine is as it was from the factory. Currently the car uses the factory ECU and fuel maps, something I may change in the future, but for now will leave as is for reliability. Currently the car measures 188hp/150tq as far as output.
One thing H2 spec lets you change out is brakes. This car borrows the twin piston calipers and wider rotors from an Acura Legend GS. Rear brakes are stock. A tilton adjustable brake bias valve replaced the stock proportioning.
This car has a wonderfully retro LCD "cab forward" dash reminiscient of late 90's design. It may be heavy, but cmon, how cool is that?
So then what do I do with it? Honda Challenge in Norcal was an option, but I have done that before. This will be a spectacular endurance car, so I plan to partner up with Brandon Kraus and run some of the Western Endurance Racing Championship with him, as well as the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. But both he and Percy have become devils on my shoulder to take this thing out and contest some US Touring Car events. It's a long short without a lot more power. USTCC packs some turbo Evos and mazda 3s. But this car can out handle either. I wouldn't count it out. If I scratch around for some sponsors, a better engine would make this car a championship contenders, just like Brandon's(now Percy's).
Yeah, you will see me in March at the USTCC opener.(www.ustcc.com)
