"Snowed Out"
Tuesday, February 20, 2007, 03:55 PM
…Went to the track this weekend. We were set up to race in the “Clobberthon 34”, but our nitrous electronics had other ideas. We loaded everything up (golf cart in the bed of the truck and the ‘Stang on the trailer) and we looked like the Clampets en route to Beverly Hills. Once there at Houston Motorsports Park, we tech’ed in, added a little fuel, & set out to make a pass. Veronica & I thought we had all of the bugs worked out of the NOS, as we ensured continuity with the WOT switch, and all was a “go”. Under the advise of Mike Hurta, I increased the shot of spray from a 150 shot to a 200 HP shot, so I don’t mind telling you that I had some minor anxieties prior to the run, especially being back in the car for the 1st time since late July of '06. I was unsure how the car was going to react to the extra power. The lites came down, I released the trans-brake, and the car & I went straight down the track. The pass felt like good one, but the time slip on the other end revealed just another motor pass (less nitrous boost)…… back to the nitrous drawing board. I attempted to TS the problem, but had neglected to bring along my wiring diagrams and I was a little short handed on trouble shooting resources…..long story short, the car went back on the trailer, we became spectators in lieu of participants, & the #5 Street King (6.20 index) was safe again from the wrath of WCR. It’s probably just as well, as we found out later that after we had left, a fight broke out between some disgruntled racers. I awoke at 3AM, trying to mentally trouble shoot the car there in the dark in bed. Sunday AM I unloaded the car off the trailer, jumpered some safeties, yanked the defective RPM switch out of the loop, and had all 4 solenoids clickin’ up a storm! We’ll test again real soon, but based on the calendar, I’m unsure when. This Saturday is Carrisa’s 1st birthday and Veronica has declared this weekend a “YARD WEEKEND”….at least for me.

As I write this post, Veronica & I have just returned from the funeral of Buster Rice. Buster , the father of my close friends Donnie & Dennis Rice, went to see the Lord last Friday morning. Buster was a good man, who put himself second to the needs of others and always put a smile on your face. Buster was one of a kind….no, I’ll take that back – there were 2 of them. My dad was one of those rare people, too.

Last Thursday morning it snowed at my office building at Stratton Ridge………That’s right, two different 15 minute “flurries” about twenty minutes apart. We almost “snowed out”, just so we could say we did.


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Catching up .....again
Monday, February 5, 2007, 07:14 PM
It’s been forever & a day since we’ve posted, so we’ve got some considerable “catching up” to do…..so much that I’m not really sure where to even start! Our last post was some time in October, and lots of water has passed under the bridge since then. So much that, I may be inaccurate in posting dates and times…. But here goes nothing: The last time we had the car on the track was some time in July, partially because I didn’t want to deal with the heat, but mostly because of other irons in the fire. These “irons” ranged from flower bed projects to significant events like graduating from boot camp of the United States Air Force. Add in a few rained out race weekends, deer season, Silver Anniversaries, our grand daughter’s first Christmas, and a major career change, and you’ve got one mighty dusty Mustang just sitting there in “Pop’s Garage”. I’m gonna make a feeble attempt to chronologically catch up, so this will be a fairly lengthy post. Sooooo, go get a cold one and some kind of snack, kick your shoes off, and enjoy the ride.

……. In October, Veronica & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. The kids (ALL THREE!) came down & threw us quite the back-yard Hawaiian luau. We had a yard full of friends & family, and afterwards, they chased us off to a rented beach house to spend the nite while they cleaned up the aftermath of the party. They joined us the next day as they had rented the beach house for the whole week, and we had a great family vacation. It had been a long time since we had all three of our kids and their spouses together at the same time, and it was a hoot! We played dominoes, caught fish, drank beer, and cooked and ate like pigs.


Moving on, our actual anniversary wasn’t until October 22nd, but we had partied and “anniversaried” so much prior to then, that it was almost just another day. So much so, that Veronica enjoyed her Sunday afternoon on the couch w/a good book, while I went out to my deer stand to do a little pre-season scouting. I’d done this a couple of times already, and had some film of some pretty good deer, but I was still looking for a big buck that I’d seen the previous year. That evening, just before dark, I saw him…………...


I made up my mind that this was the deer I wanted to take and would let every thing else walk. That was the last time I saw him. I mistakenly shot his little brother one evening, thinking it was him. I kept telling myself, “That’s not him. His brow times aren’t the same.” But Mr. Miller whispered in my ear, “That’s him! That’s him! Shoot! SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!” BANG!!...........whoops……Oh well, he’ll be even better next year. This is his lil’ bro:

About the time I started the hunt for “Ol Snort”, Veronica had a major milestone in her life……She has had a career in sales for the last twenty years…….in particular, instrumentation sales. Through the years, she has developed skill sets that enable her to make intelligent decisions based on operating parameters, materials of construction, most effective technology, etc. ( yes I know all the buzz words - I work for Dow) of industrial instrumentation items. In July she asked for help after working an extended period of long hour weeks, and was turned down pretty abruptly. So abrupt, that she was told to be more productive with her time. This pissed her off (and unbelievably, me too), to the point that we both discussed her seeking other employment. Sometime in November, she resigned and accepted a position with S&B engineering as an “Instrument Spec Writer”. This job has her scoping out instrument items for quotes on projects. This folks, puts her on the opposite side of the fence from where she’s been for the last 2 decades. It was a little scary at first, but she’s doing well and quite happy with her new job. It was a bold move and I’m very proud or her. She likes her job so much that she’s trying to talk me into retiring and dusting off my piping design skills, and going to work for S&B!.....that’s another story that I’ll save for another post.

Later in early December, we traveled to Dallas, where we celebrated an early Christmas/birthday with Joey & Loni before he headed off to boot camp. Joey had resigned at Penske, and we took his large tool box back to Angletown with us for storage. Joey followed us home and he had one last visit with family and friends, before heading off to boot camp on 12/19. We tried to deer hunt but got rained out, but we did get a round of golf in. Folks, I can do some things well, some things kind of mediocre well, & some things I just plain suck at doing……. I suck at golf. There, I said it.

Santa Claus came to WCR headquarters with a bag full of goodies for our grand daughter Carissa’s first Christmas. At only 10 months of age at the time, it didn’t take long to figure out what to do with all that pretty wrapping paper. We had a blast watching her open her presents…
she was precious(and folks, I don't use that word very often)!
Christmas time also opened a new door for Travis, as he too accepted a new job with an Energy Trading Company in Sugarland. On new years weekend, we all traveled to East Texas to have Christmas with Veronica’s folks, where Pops taught Carissa to boogie dance & make funny noises with her tongue. We also found out that she’s not fond of fireworks. Not only did she not want to be around them, she didn’t want Dad around them either.

In the month of January, we went to the Boat Show with Travis and Jonda, and they also went with us on our annual goose hunting weekend in El Campo with Paul & Sonja Blinka. I’ll say this: They are PROUD of those boats! We came across a booth at the boat show that sells novelty "street signs", & Veronica found one that says "POP'S GARAGE". As this is what I've been deemed to be called by my grand kid(s), I proudly display it over the shop door.

Up to date: We returned from San Antonio yesterday, after spending the weekend watching Joey graduate from boot camp. Through the whole adventure, we received letters from the time he started thru the end, with the first one stating that it seemed impossible, and each letter progressively making it sound easier as time went by. He left this morning to go to Sheppard AFB (Wichita Falls, TX.) where he will be in tech school, training to crew chief F-15 fighter jets. I believe this will be a 19 week deal, and then he goes to Florida for more training. As we were with Travis, we’re proud of our Airman!

Coming soon, is Carissa’s first birthday! She’s already walking and terrorizing the house! We were supposed to do the Super-Bowl with them, but Gramma Ronnie developed a serious cold and was scared to get around her. She sure wanted to see her too!

OK………the carpal tunnel’s kicking in …..but I’ve caught us up (I hope). In the future, I hope to put out shorter and more frequent posts. Seeya at the track!


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There's Another Stang in The Stable
Thursday, October 26, 2006, 11:20 PM
Loni and I (Joey) bought a new car this week. With me leaving for boot camp and her car on the fritz, she needed more reliability. "Triple Black" is a black on black on black "02 convertible GT. Loni feels like she fits into the Cherry family now.

Triple Black idle

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I used my wallet as a reference to show the depth of the lip.




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New addition to WCR
Thursday, September 21, 2006, 03:21 PM
A very good friend of mine gave me hunting priveleges on one of his pastures outide of Brazoria. Most of the time, the place is accessible via pick-up except after a heavy rain. A few years ago, I sold my 4-wheeler, and I had no altenate means of accessing the property under wet & muddy conditions. Additionally, I'd been wanting some kind of "pit-mobile" when we raced at the larger tracks or needed to pull the car back to the pits (for various reasons). Soooo, I visited the local Kawasaki dealer and visited various 4-wheeler websites, and found Mules and 360CC+ 4-wheelers to be a little "pricey". There wa$ a problem................Probem solved:

I bought this thing frrom a golf cart re-saler, and it had a brand new 9HP gas motor in it. Additionally, I retro-fitted it w/a 5" lift kit, head & tail lite kit, a flip-down rear seat, and custom off-road wheels & tires.

The only problem I've encountered so far is that I was told it would fit in the bed of by F-350 Ford pick-up. Not so, with the rear seat addition. Oh well, time to start lookin' at those 28' box trailers ;).


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Coming soon, to a race track near you:
Monday, September 18, 2006, 11:02 AM
Wild Cherry Racing will soon be getting an addition to it's arsenal of toys........any guesses?

[ 5 comments ] ( 44 views )

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