Pinewood Derby

Nothing brings the kid out in you quite like a good pinewood derby.

In March, our Elders Quorum held a pinewood derby, because as we all know,

pinewood derbies aren't a competition between the boys 

but rather a competition between the dads.

(And the fact that we have like three young men in our ward was probably a factor as well.)

I can't speak for Sarah, but I'm pretty sure her favorite part of the pinewood derby was 

the preparation that went into it.  I don't think it was actually the preparation itself that she enjoyed so much as it was watching me and how giddy I was to make my car.  The 

preparation included a couple trips to Murray to use an old ward member's disc sander 

and drill press and well as to make another visit to our favorite dentist for the pinewood 

derby car weights I knew from my childhood.  

Highlights from the preparation included, but are not limited to:

Trying to sand my car on the wrong side of the disc sander, resulting in a block of wood flying across the garage but not before it managed to catch the corner of my fingernail and bend it back, causing a steady flow of blood from my finger and a wife that was disappointed in my blatant disregard for safety and common sense when using a disc sander.

Sitting in the office of our favorite dentist, taking the thin piece of lead out of old bite-wing x-rays for at least an hour.  I won't say which employee of the dentist told us it was safe to be handling that lead, but we were both a little concerned when we told a friend who is in dental school about our experience and she said that lead is considered hazardous material.

Having to go back and use the drill press the next week (at the same person's garage) because I wasn't satisfied with the depth of my hole for putting in the weights that I had put myself in harm's way to acquire.  (There was no weight limit for this pinewood derby.)

(One of the extremely time-consuming parts of preparation is a trade secret I learned from my dad, so I can't reveal more than saying a few hours were spent doing that in preparation.)

Telling my wife that it was her responsibility to paint the car (my least favorite part as a child).  She came up with the school bus design, and did quite a good job painting it if you ask me. 

   

  

These pictures were all taken after the pinewood derby so that is why the wheels don't look too straight and the weights can be seen hanging down below the bus.  (We let one of the three year-olds in our ward play with it while we were cleaning up and he managed to drop it quite a few times while trying to put it on the track to have it race down over and over again.) 

   

"The Magic School Bus" was quite the fan favorite among the kids (probably because they could all guess what it was from the design and paint job.  It ended up taking third overall, so I was pleased with the results after all the time, effort and injuries that went into making it.