At the time using a giant, sparking machine from the 1960s

Just as the seasons slowly cycle around the calendar, so too does the school year that inevitably brings me back to summer.  The massive dichotomy of the stress and difficulty of school versus the casual, thoroughly enjoyable summer always gives me mixed emotions---I know that the wonderful freedom of break will allow me to get back in touch with myself and my true loves in life, but I also know that it will end sooner than I'd like.

It would be detrimental to sit and mope or dwell on the finite summer, since doing so guarantees that it will only pass quicker.  Instead, I choose to relax on my break by getting as exhausted as possible.  My mantra has always been to sleep when you have to, and in the meantime do everything you possibly can so that one will leave this summer tired (but in the best kind of "tired" possible).

That's why most nights at home I'm actually up later than when I'm at school, yet I continue to get up at the same time as during the academic year.  This is doable since I'm far more active than during med school, so the urge to nap always fails to creep up on me when I'm at home.

This year was awful, to put it simply.  But the purpose of this blog is not to waste your time reading about my troubles, it's to talk about cars and rust and history and racing.  What I will say is that I had several one-two punches throughout the semesters, for a while I grew quite resentful and disheartened with med school, and I have reassessed my desire to stay in this profession more than once.  I have also learned quite a bit about myself, I've grown as a person, and I've been attempting (but failing) to enjoy the single life for the first time in my adult existence.

This has also meant that my work in The Garage this summer is far more therapeutic than normal, and I'm excited for the progress that I hope to make in the ensuing weeks.  Some of that progress began just a few days ago.

Unfortunately, just as spring turns to summer, it seems that every winter The Garage's interior explodes in a mess of dust, clutter and disarray.  That usually translates to the first couple days of the summer being cleaning days, putting The Garage back together so I can use it regularly.

So after the initial sweeping, folding of scattered tarps, reorganizing of the work bench and getting stung by a wasp, I had to decide what I wanted to do first.

Magneto almost secured behind the engine.

Since the end of last summer, the Maxwell had been reassembled and tucked away quietly in the corner, buttoned up with its new body and freed transmission.  Today I brought the Splitdorf Model F magneto up and put it on the car, although through correspondence with a WWII vet out in California, I learned that it's missing a little piece that allows it to interface with the magneto gear (which runs off the engine spinning so that it can deliver spark in the correct order).  I'll either have to make one from my imagination or have him send me one of his so I can make a replica.  Either way that's probably doable, as I already have an idea of what the interface will look like.

Part of the reason I think this is doable is because of a random (and, for anyone else, probably unfulfilling) gift I received for Christmas:  A small welder.  Over the past few days I've been brushing up on my welding skills, although I admit they were never very developed in the first place.  Still, in the decade or more since my last welding experience---at the time using a giant, sparking machine from the 1960s---I imagine I've lost some of my touch for fusing metal together.

Here's my shoddy---but effective---setup.

So using very thin pieces of metal left over from when I made the lower body last year, I have been fiddling with the settings on the fun little welder.  Ideally this will prepare myself for when I join the body I made with the one that was made in the past.  I've burned through the material several times, but in the past two or three days I've gotten to where I can make pretty steady lines, and I've developed a much better feel for getting the arc going.  It doesn't help that the sticks I'm using are probably 30 years old and soggy, but once I get them hot they work just like they should.

Another project of mine has been running in the background of my garage work for the past couple of days.  After thinking about trying it with the '72 Honda's gas tank for a couple of years, I finally began to dabble in electrolytic rust removal.

And here's the "before" picture of the pick.

After seeing it the other day on Reddit, I set about to make my own setup in a five-gallon bucket.  I'll explain the full process in another post (this one's getting long), but it's been fascinating to see it work, both on a Maxwell part and on a pick head that I determined was over 100 years old.

Anywho, this summer is off to a good, productive start, and I hope to keep that up.  So stick with me as I get back into the swing of writing these blogs and working on the Maxwell (and my countless other projects).  In the meantime, take care and thanks, as always, for reading!

This was my realm. This was my sport.

It's been three months since I last wrote on this blog, but certainly not for lack of want.  If I had the time to devote to writing my thoughts and experiences, I would, but instead medical school has consumed my life even more so than last year.  And I didn't think that would be possible.

What started inauspiciously enough soon turned into the most relentless semester I have ever had in any form of schooling, and to complicate that, countless out-of-school things have been seriously affecting me as well.  Unfortunately there hasn't been a ton of good in my life lately, but I can't despair too much since I'm still alive and my family is also alive and healthy, too (the latter being rather pertinent in the last couple of months).

Still, the combination of school and life has made my existence pretty exhausting and lonely.  And as one thing builds upon another, I find myself spiraling downward into getting busier and busier, getting more and more determined to dig myself out of the hole of a setback that I'm in.  With that determination, though, comes worry.  For the first time in my life I find myself unable to get the worries of school out of my head.

I went to a football game on Saturday, yet all I could think about was school.  When I hang out with others (which doesn't happen terribly often given my schedule), my mind rarely wanders away from school for very long at all.  It's been awful and not something I can see myself shaking until this semester is over.  I hate it, and I hate that med school doesn't allow me the time to deal with things, so I just have to keep going, which really sucks.  But this blog post isn't supposed to be a complain-fest of sad stories and worried parlance.

One of the few bright spots in the past few months, as foolish as it may sound, has been racing.  I've mentioned before that it's one of the only things I have allowed myself to enjoy in school, and as problems and concerns have mounted this season, and as I've whittled more and more things away from my life, F1 has remained.

Nowhere was this more evident than the epic trip we took to Austin last weekend for my birthday to go to the US Grand Prix.  The journey and our stay in the Lone Star State was incredible, and so many times it seemed that the stars aligned for us to make for an even better, more unbelievable weekend.

We got tons of free stuff; we met wonderful people from all over the world; we stood next to Niki Lauda, Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert; we were personally shown an actual helmet worn by Ayrton Senna the year we were born (1988); I met one of my Twitter followers for the first time after he had been working on a vintage racecar; we got interviewed by the track entertainment personnel and were broadcast on the big screens in front of 113,000 people; we got to invade the track and made friends with some members of the Lotus F1 team (who gave us some brilliant team hats); and so much more.  I couldn't believe it.

I also couldn't believe that for over two days, I almost never thought of med school.  Heck, when we were at the track, it never crossed my mind.  Only in passing after we left the track each day did it ever enter my mind, and it was wonderful.  I felt like a person again.  I felt like an actual human being who could have passions and had a hobby to which I could devote time.  For once people were asking ME questions, and I was the only one who could answer them.  This was my realm.  This was my sport.

Looking back, I'm amazed at the transformation in me as I got nearer to Formula 1 last weekend.  Even on the way back, in the middle of the night several hours into our 14-hour drive, I was feeling so tired.  I was around 110 miles into my first or second stint, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to go much longer before switching with my friend.  While he slept in the backseat, the only other person awake in the car started asking me about F1.  We talked about "Rush", we talked about Bernie and his legacy, we discussed the recent history of some of the sport's luminaries, and we speculated on the future of Grand Prix racing.  In no time at all, I had taken us over 220 miles and was feeling rather refreshed.  For the first time in recent memory I could speak about something with confidence and excellent recall, and there wasn't a question I couldn't answer.

Over the course of the weekend I ended up driving over 1,100 miles, and I was beyond exhausted.  But it was worth it.  For one weekend I felt alive again, so strikingly refreshed that I could breathe in the sport's nuances and feel them in my blood.  I was no longer lonely, for once being completely surrounded by people who shared a common love with me that every other day of the year draws confused looks and erroneous comparisons.  It was one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had.

Fast-forward one week later, though, and the teams are celebrating tonight in Sao Paulo, Brazil, capping off a long season whose twists and turns reach back to a warm March day in Australia.  They bid adieu to V8 engines, another year of Red Bull/Sebastian Vettel domination, Ross Brawn at Mercedes, and one of my favorite drivers.  Mark Webber's surprisingly emotional end to his Formula 1 career went by far too quickly, although he tried to prolong it as best he could.  But that's a whole other blog post.

Tonight I'm wondering what the next few months will be like for me, and it saddens me to know that something that was such a big part of what little life I had left is going to be absent for a third of a year.  I would be lying if I said that worries of the coming finals for med school aren't creeping into my head tonight as a result, but I'll live.  I always have.  The end of seasons always make me a little sad, but with everything else that has gone on this year, it's difficult not to take that loss a little harder.  Still, I can reflect on a brilliant season, and I can look forward to the changes that will hopefully shake up the sport for the better.  While I remain skeptical on some of them, others I think will only do good things for Formula 1.  Only time will tell.

So tonight I join hundreds of millions of F1 fans around the world to say goodbye to the 2013 season, hoping that my life next March will be accommodating enough to let it back into my everyday enjoyment.  But for two and a half more hours tonight it's still race day, and earlier this morning a Grand Prix was run in front of some of the most storied and passionate F1 fans in the world.  Life was good.  Let the offseason begin tomorrow.

Dragging my poor little Raleigh behind me

Well, where to begin?

If you've been following my Twitter account at all you will know I've been quite busy these past few months.  First and foremost I am happy to report that I passed my first semester of medical school.  It was close on one class, but I passed them all and made it to break.  Those last couple of weeks were absolutely terrifying at times, mixed with a few sleepless nights and some overwhelming feelings of defeat.  There were some nights when I would feel rather crushed under the weight of everything, sure that I would fail my upcoming test (and thus the class), sure that I had run out of time to study adequately, sure that I was trying so hard that I couldn't do any better.

This is what I would see for hours at a time whilst studying biochem.

On some of those occasions I was right.  I ended up doing badly on some tests.  Many of those times occurred on the weeks when I dissected, meaning I lost seven hours of studying to the anatomy lab (far more if the lab practical was approaching).  One particularly bad week led up to a biochem test---arguably my weakest class of the semester, never having taken biochem before.  The test would not only be one of the most difficult of the year, but I was planning the epic journey to the U.S. Grand Prix, I dissected that week, and the Monday beforehand I got hit by a car.

I detailed my accident thoroughly on Twitter, but in a nutshell, I was riding my old Raleigh bicycle when a white 2009 BMW M3 pulled in front of me.  We met at his quarter panel, I was sent up onto the hood, and my tailbone broke the fellow's windshield.  I hit the ground and had some scrapes and a nasty bump on my head, but for the most part I was okay.  As the adrenaline set in I was even more okay, and because the attending policeman never offered me a ride back to my apartment, I had to hobble home dragging my poor little Raleigh behind me.

Ow.

The next few days were extremely difficult, as every time I moved my body would ache and take my breath away.  It's amazing how much we use some of those little muscles in our lower backs, yet we never know until they're injured.  That was certainly the case with me despite my constant doses of Ibuprofen and intervals of ice packs.  Nonetheless, I healed up enough to walk with only a slight limp by the end of the week.  I still approached the thought of riding 14 hours in a car cautiously, as my tailbone had not been tested for such a long duration.  My fears proved unfounded, though, and my tailbone rarely disagreed with the long journey.

The journey to Austin and back is a wonderful story, but that will have to occupy another blog post.  For now I'll say that it went far better than I imagined, and we all got to see and do so many great things.  It was fantastic to witness Formula 1 in the flesh (er...carbon fiber) again, and the race also exceeded my expectations.  The circuit fits F1 very well, and all indications say that the city can hold its own, too.

After the Thanksgiving break it was back to school for the last push toward finals.  Needless to say that occupied most of my time.  Once on break I quickly adapted to doing nothing.  Such a transformation did not occur overnight, though.  After going 100 miles per hour for so long, it takes more than a day to settle down and come to a stop.  Predictably there were countless moments where I would consider what needed studying before embarking on whatever endeavor I chose.  I would feel terribly guilty for relaxing and doing nothing, and it took a while before I stopped.

In true "me" fashion this break has been quite busy.  I've been working on several projects, and I'll greatly miss them once I go back to school in a week.  One of these will necessitate its own post, and that's my go kart.  Again, if you've been following my Twitter (@WoodsiesGarage) you will have heard a great deal about this, but I got an incredible deal on a mini-Indy-style go kart that had been in a flood, and I've been cleaning it and piecing it back together.  I'll try to resume this project once I get back to school (since that's the town where the kart resides at the moment), and hopefully it will be running by the time it gets warm outside.

Another fun project has been the acquiring of my water pump for construction of a suction dredge/highbanker for gold prospecting.  With any luck I should be receiving the body for my sluice box tomorrow, so I'll try to post pictures.  I'm not too rushed in construction since I can't use it until spring anyway, but we'll see how it goes.

She's somewhere under that drift.

On another car front, I swapped the regular tires for snow tires on the TT a while back.  This was just in time for the car to be engulfed in an almighty blizzard, leaving it entombed in ten inches of snow for a week.  I finally dug her out, and now she's happily enjoying the warmer weather and diminishing snow.  With temperatures forecast to be in the 40s this week we should see most of the accumulation disappear, but I'll be leaving those snow tires on for a while, I'm afraid.

For now I think that's plenty of catch-up.  I have much to share in the ensuing posts (which I hope to create before I head back to school), so hopefully you'll enjoy reading it.  I'm sorry I haven't written more, but I'm trying to use my time to the fullest, including the break.  There is plenty more to come, though!

A relentless machine of studying, class and occasionally sleep

I'll start right now by apologizing for being aloof, but you must believe me, I would love nothing more in this world than to have the time to devote to updating you adequately.

In the weeks following my last blog post, I spent them up in The Garage working on the Maxwell, going on the Small Town Adventure and trying to do as many things as I could before summer ended.  My dream of finding an F1-related summer job didn't pan out, but I got to be the trackside reporter for every race at the Iowa Speedway, so that was fantastic.  Nothing like a Spa-Francorchamps or Suzuka, but it was fun nonetheless.  Plus when Indy came to town I got to be in my element.

As the only weekend of open-wheel racing passed at the Speedway, I got to interview Helio Castroneves and the eventual race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.  I didn't know it at the time, but he would later go on to be this year's IndyCar champion---the first American in half a dozen years.

Then everything changed.  Orientation days.  Textbooks.  White coat fittings.  The works.  Med school began in a flurry for me, and while it started well, it has since become a relentless machine of studying, class and occasionally sleep.  The subjects are interesting, don't get me wrong, and the information is imperative to my success as a doctor someday, but one loses sight of such things with every passing day of six-hour study sessions.

Couple that with the fact that the work load is much greater than anything I've ever experienced in school, and it shouldn't be surprising that it's taking a while to get my sea legs.  If I were a sailor, though, I would have been kicked out of the Navy at this point for not developing those legs fast enough.  I won't lie, it's very difficult.  That's not to say that I can't do it, but often times I forget to tell myself that amidst the dissections, small groups, random assignments and weekly tests.

Along that same note, I talked to my great uncle Irvin on the phone today for about an hour.  His son is a doctor at the VA where Irvin, himself worked for many years.  His late daughter was a nurse there, and his other son is a doctor in my hometown.  I knew he might have some words of wisdom for me, and he didn't disappoint.  He told me stories of some of his doctor friends in the 1930s and of his son's difficult adjustment to med school in the '80s.  He spoke of the omnipresent geniuses that inevitably crawl out of the woodwork around the toughest test dates.  On and on we talked, and he helped remind me that there are worse things in life.

Just a year ago I was nervous about getting admitted to med school instead of completing it.  I was facing the prospect of a year of waiting to reapply, a year of boosting my resume and a year of paying for more school.  Instead of being faced with exams and projects, I may not have gotten in for another year.  I may not have gotten admitted at all.  This is what I wanted, as hard as it is to reconcile that these days.  I mention anything about that to my parents and it's always the same:  "It'll be worth it in the long-run."  That may be true, but it doesn't really help alleviate the stress or make a difficult concept any more tenable.  I appreciate their support, though, don't get me wrong.

But I digress.  As a result of school I haven't been able to work on any of my projects.  Heck, I don't think I've mentioned prior to this that I got a go-kart.  It needs a little engine work from a flood, but that's more than doable.  Plus it's a mini-Indy style kart that I'm planning to paint like Senna's old Lotus.  It will be so neat to get running, if that day ever comes.  God, I hope it does.

I haven't done a ton more to the Honda.  A leaky carb one weekend prompted the owners of my condo building to call me and ask if I knew anything about a leaky, smelly motorcycle in the garage.  I knew nothing of a leak prior to leaving, and I was just then hearing about it whilst driving down a country road literally two hundred miles away.  Awesome.  So I loaded the old girl into a truck and brought her back to my hometown where the local motorcycle mechanic took a look at the carb (those Japanese carburetors are beyond me).  He fiddled with it, replaced a seal, patted her on the rear and sent her back to me.  A fortnight later she was leaking again, so I'm leaning toward putting an external petcock halfway down the fuel line (as unauthentic as that will look).  I feel guilty, though; I haven't even started her in a month.  I haven't had the time to risk her leaking and losing another two gallons of petrol, so I just haven't tried.  Instead I've been riding the 'new' 1983 Raleigh cycle I received.

Since that was earlier in the semester, I had time to get the old Raleigh working.  She had a severely bent rear rim, so I had to replace that, put on a new tube and tire and figure out where an incessant squeaking was originating.  Some 30wt oil on the chain and into the pedals helped a ton, and now she runs silently and shifts smoothly.  I've been meaning to put my lock holder on for weeks, and the same goes for the rear light. I just put the front light on two days ago when I knew I would be riding home from a study session in the dark.  But in all, working on her has been fun.  I'm not terribly experienced in bicycles, but my motorcycle knowledge helps with that quite a bit.  I will admit, though, an occasional Google search may have helped, too.

I don't want to make this too terribly long, so I'll cut this short here.  I have plenty of other things to update, but I felt that after a long, difficult week (both in terms of studying and mentally) I needed to type something and get my mind off of school.  Writing and F1 have been the only things today that have been able to accomplish that feat, so why not?

Take care, all.  More to come, hopefully.