Settled in - at home in Benson, AZ

Greetings all,

Well after more than four months in a motel, the family and I are initially settled into our new home in Benson, AZ. Since my recent hiring on at Arizona Electric Power Cooperative in May, I was doing the preliminary house hunting and then having Darla come down to help choose the most desirable. The first house we found was a very nice manufactured home with a huge RV garage in addition to a two-car garage. Unfortunately it took the mortgage company a month to determine that the loan program we were using (USDA Rural) doesn't fund used manufactured homes, only new ones.

So we changed our criteria to only site-built homes on acreage. Fortunately it didn't take too long to find this one. It was built in late 2007, and finished in 2008. It's not the typical southwestern style, which was fine with us, we've had our share of constantly cracking stucco.




One of the real pluses is porches front & back. Front faces east, and back faces west. Since we're in a flood plain, the house was built elevated nearly 3.5 ft above the natural grade. This makes for some great views.






Since its elevated, the floors are built on joists with a crawl space underneath. They used an Australian Cypress hardwood throughout the house, with tile in the bathrooms. Never seen this type of flooring before, but it sure looks great.

That means all the vents are in the floor instead of the ceiling - much like it would be in a mid-western home. They also went to the trouble of insulating the garage and finishing it.

The house is located on just one acre, but that will be enough to manage a couple of horses. With open BLM range land about 1/2 mile east and the San Pedro river about the same to the west, there's plenty of open areas for riding. That's Ashley's plan anyway - should be doable.










Darla and the girls have been watching these home design shows on HGtv during our stay in the motel. So I see some accent wall colors and creative wall designs in our near future. We'll be sure to post the progress here as well.

Now I'm just waiting for my car and engine to show up. Ooops -I better get rid of some of these boxes in the garage.

Engine Art - semi fini

Well the engine is in its final form, and a beautiful form it is. I can't wait to verify the function.


With the engine harness and intake manifold on, the remaining items are minor in comparison. However, with a pending move to southern Arizona in the next six weeks, its not likely that I will get much more done until after that.

Just as a reminder, here are a few things left to prepare for the bench run.

• Rebuild A/C compressor and mount it.
• Complete main harness and test it.
• Locate and install used exhaust system (only used for bench test)
• Fabricate engine/transaxle cradle.

The engine cradle will be another piece of form and function, as its going to serve a dual role. It will function as the cradle for the engine, transaxle, and exhaust during the bench test. It will also serve as a lifting aid to install the engine/transaxle assembly into the car, but more on that later.

Facing the Giant - Unemployment

My wife and I, and our three teenagers sat down together recently to watch "Facing the Giants." And even though our teens noticed the difference in the production level when compared to other movies they've seen, the message of the movie wasn't lost. In fact we found the "behind the Scenes" story of how the movie was made just as stirring.

As my wife and I prepared for bed that evening, my wife stated - "If only life could be that way." - referring to this movie and one we viewed earlier in the week named "Joshua".

Hearing that, some might conclude that my wife is out of touch with the "Christian" life. Quite the opposite. The context of that question involves the last several months where I have been out of work, collecting unemployment, and she is working a part-time job; both doing everything we can to keep things together while our three teens complete their school year.

I have applied for over one hundred jobs, mostly in the depressed area we currently live, but also in other adjoining states. The few responses I have received are primarily - "Thanks for applying, but". What's been even more frustrating is that the two interviews I did have, both of which went very well, didn't produce jobs because the positions were withdrawn due to economic reasons. So she has seen how diligently I have prepared my field - yet no rain.

So from that context her statement takes on deeper meaning, especially since the day prior we drove over six hours together to visit another area and I could interview for a another position. Again, the interview went well. So all we can do is wait patiently and see. And we did. I spent that Friday morning in the usual way - researching and applying for several jobs here and in adjoining states.

It wasn't until lunch time came, and my wife was overdue, that the call came. It was the company I interviewed with earlier in the week. They were calling to offer me the position. It was like I was standing on the stage of one of those games shows - having won the grand prize - because the offer just continued - "Wait, but there's more!"

After hanging up the phone, I was completely overwhelmed - even to tears. My wife finally arrived for lunch, seeing me in tears and fearing the worst, sat down next to me. I was so choked up, but managed to get out my response to the statement she had made the previous night - "Remember what you said last night? 'If only life could be that way.' Well, it is!"

Not only did they offer me the job, but the salary was ten thousand more than I was expecting. Not only did they offer me the job, but they were going to pay for all the moving expenses, including extra costs that might occur due to duplicate housing, selling and closing fees, etc.

Just your standard job offer? Not when you realize that my wife had her part-time job already approved for next year. We were expecting that I would just find an inexpensive room to live in at the new location and commute back home once or twice a month over the weekend. However, the ten thousand difference in pay will make up almost exactly what my wife was making. So now we can all move together, and stay together as a family.

And for that I thank God and all those involved with this movie for the refreshing and encouraging message I received - NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

More Engine Art - continued . . .

The engine continues to come together. I haven't had much time to spend on it due to another project I'll post about later. Here are a couple of pictures of the current status. Once I get the harness wrapped and the fuel injectors on finally it will get the intake manifold.

More Engine Art - continued . . .

A lot of time has gone by, but progress continues slowly. Here is the pre-assembly of the famous SHO Intake Manifold. I've been taking my time making sure everything is fitting together properly.

(Here are two pics. For some reason the yellow gets washed out in the sun)











It will be some time before this goes on the engine as I have to clean, lengthen & rewrap the engine wiring harness before the intake manifold can go on. The harness sits down inside the middle of the valve covers under the intake.

Engine Art - continued . . .

Well, as my engine assembly continues, the Art is taking form. It will still be some time before we get to see if the function follows as closely to the form as intended. But I remain optimistic.

The yellow and red colors will correspond to the split-color bumpers - front & rear. The cars overall color is Signal Orange. The split-color bumpers were used on the factory GT cars to aid in identifying them on the track. Though this will be far from a factory-like car, I still like the concept.

Nas-Car

Well my wife and I recently attended our first NASCAR race. The Checker 500 held here at PIR last Sunday was the first NASCAR event either of us has attended. I first would like to thank Mark (with a subcontractor we're using on a current project in the valley) for providing the tickets. Overall it was a wonderful, though sobering, experience. We had a delightful time together, and I was pleasantly surprised at my wife's genuine interest the whole afternoon.

We set off for the track several hours before the 2pm start time. I wasn't sure what to expect as we came within miles of the track, which is located out in the southwest valley. Surprisingly the Sherrif's Dept had a well organized and planned out set of routes to brings cars into the enormous parking area. That made the self-parking less chaotic. Since we were arriving on Sunday for an event that basically started Friday afternoon, you can imagine how far away we had to park. Quite right - it was a 30 minute walk from our car to the ticketing gate. My wife quickly noticed how all the cars, RV's, campers, etc - seemed to be a "maze of metal."

The maze of metal soon morphed into a stream of flesh as we were swept along in the crowds of people moving toward their repsective seats as race time approached. A flash of ancient Roman colosseum with venders lined all around the outside selling their wares, the smell of food, crowds of people moving in all directions - anxiously awaiting the main event - came to mind. There was, as you would expect, no lack of alchoholic beverages available, together with your typical desert thirst-quenchers. It could easily be likened to a circus, carnival, fair, or any such event intended to overwhelm the senses and lure the weak into over-consumptions of all kinds.

We were fortunate to find our seats two-thirds up the grand-stands. This allowed a gracious view of the entire infield, along with the complete track. We were also positioned just at the end of turn four and at the beginning of the long main straight (long for a one-mile track). Unfortunately (at first anyway) it also allowed us an uninterupted view of the sun. Even in the mid-80's it can still be quite sweltering with no shade. Did I mention they don't allow umbrellas! Who would need one anyway - it rarely rains in the desert - right? Not. It wasn't long before there was an abundance of shade - and even a little rain to cool things off. Many complained as it brought the race to a halt for 20-30 minutes, but we saw the blessing in it and appreciated it.

As the race gets underway, the most obvious feature during the whole event is the SOUND! We were prepared with ear plugs, but the shear consistency of it was amazing. Equally amazing to my wife was the closeness of the cars at such speeds with so few mishaps. Though there were a few in this race - expecially at the end of the race - they mostly moved around the track, one after the other - like an endless chain of pearls. I must admit it was a bit like watching a carousel - almost hipnotic.

As you might imagine, the race continued lap-after-lap, much the same. An occasional yellow flag, due to debri, to shake things up a bit. There were occasions where cars bumped each other and one or both ended up in the wall. This provoked the mass exudos of the other cars from the track into the pits. It also generated some of the biggest shifts in position. Some benfitted - others didn't. Finally in the end it was Jimmy Johnson who one the race - after leading it for most the laps.

As we left the track, we realized it was an enjoyable experience, and are glad we had the opportunity. Have we been bittin by the NASCAR bug? I think not. But that doen't mean we wouldn't welcome the opportunity to experience it again.