The pinewood miracle

I am looking forward to it also! In fact , I'm going to start working on our car next weekend....can you come over and give us some tips? Congratulations Matthew!!!

Readers, the Cumminses are new friends we made at the derby today. Believe it or not, they are -- or at least Melanie is -- crunchy cons. And they live nearby (Melanie, Bob, I think we should meet at Scalini's sometime soon with the chirren). Sadly, Bob Jr., who is all of seven, has started out on a road to ruin. He's a -- wait for it -- journalist. He puts out The Weekly Bob, a neighborhood newspaper, and blogs here. (Seriously, that's really cool.)

Chris, thanks for your kind comment. To be completely honest, I think I probably got as much out of the derby victory as Matthew did. My dad is one of those old-fashioned dads who reads Popular Mechanics and knows his way around a tool shop (he doesn't just have a shop, he has an entire barn full of power tools and such). I am, er, um, not that kind of dad. This pinewood derby experience had become one of those Things, you know? And it turned out that my dad understood this perfectly. When I phoned him after the derby to let Matthew tell him about his victory, my dad said to me privately, "See, you can do it." I hadn't said a word to him about how uptight I was about this opportunity to prove what a bad dad I really am, and how I couldn't possibly measure up to his standard. But he knew. He always does. And he was very kind about it.

That's great Matthew! Congratulations on your trophies.

Vertigo is a really cool name and a lucky one too. Very happy (for both of you ) to hear you did so well. :)

[Get a picture with your dad, the race car and the trophies if you don't have one yet. You'll love it forever. Trust me.]

Hey, I checked out Bob's blog. Cute! I have to get my son to check out the Elton John picture and comment. He found a random Elton John CD in our stash a while back and has become a fan at age 5. I'm sure he could name at least a couple of those friends!

It's good to know that neither of you were done in by the dreaded power tools.

Congratulations to Matthew and to you, Rod! The little everyday miracles are even more wondrous than the really big ones, sometimes.

congratulations do we get to see a photo of Vertigo?

Congratulations to both of you. I missed your earlier discussion of the Pinewood Derby, but as a father of a Life Scout on his way to Eagle I recall the Cub Scout years and my angst. Like you, I am not a tool-inclined guy.

I would offer this suggestion for future years, based on my son's lack of success for four years: the woodworking has little to do with your success. Concentrate on how the wheels and nail axles work, get to the maximum allowable weight, and you will make more progress. Of course, it is fun to make the car look great, as well.

By the way, our Pack heavily emphasized the boys doing the bulk of the work on the cars, and if an entry looked too good, the Cub Master would cross-examine the parent and Scout to confirm who did the work. There was a separate parents' category that allowed adults to make cars and race them against other adults. I never bothered.

Well, Matthew is too young to work with the kind of tools necessary to carving out the car, so his input was limited to the design and the decoration. And you know, I think that turned out, however inadvertently, to make all the difference. I wouldn't have chosen the design Matthew did, but because I followed his instructions, it required me to put the weight heavily toward the rear of the car. The secondary location was the center of the car, and again, because of Matthew's request, I had to put the weight on the underside. In retrospect, that seems to have made the car faster.