Today was our last pinewood derby car race. I have mixed feeling.
On one hand, I'm glad to be done building cars. As I've admitted before, I'm not terribly handy. So crafting a car is often a rather stressful experience. And today, we had a problem. For some reason, the car that weighed in on Tuesday at 4.95 oz, weighed in at 5.1. Maximum weight is 5.0. That meant I had 5 minutes to carve .1 oz off the car. BIG PROBLEM! Thankfully, I had a flathead screwdriver. I started digging, and finally got enough gouged out without taking a chunk out of my hand.
But, on the other hand, its another end to another chapter. My boy is growing up, and before much longer, will be developing significant relationships outside our home. Something tells me that before too much longer, I'll be waxing nostalgic.
As for the racing, our car was fast...very fast. We were beating people by feet, not inches. Then, something happened. The car started jumping out of lane. The problem was that we had most of our weight behind the back axle, creating a tendency to pop wheelies. The front wheels would lift, and the car would lose control.
We tried running the car backward, but the car was really slow running that way. We ended in 4th place, disappointing my son, who wanted to place in the top 3 to qualify for districts.
All in all, it was a good experience. We had fun, and that's the whole point.
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