Well...that sneaky little Murphy seems to creep in with his laws just about everywhere you turn. Today, he even showed up at Cub Scouts. It goes something like this:
Like any good mother, I wanted to go to the Derby. I mean...come on...I had TIME invested in this thing. Although building the pinewood racers falls into what we lovingly call the "Daddy Category" (because Mommy has enough to do already in our house) I still ended up spending about 6 hours yesterday trying to fix the paint job on Phantom.
Daddy (known as Mr. Maxwell from this point forward on my blog) didn't know that candy apple red CLEARCOAT means just what it says-a clearcoat~~ AKA a top coat that needs to be painted on top of another color like silver or gold. Many of you may know what a nightmare red paint can be anyway. Think of the last wall you tried to paint RED inside your house. How many coats of paint did it take--like 8? So...anyhoo...I'm here to tell you that red clearcoat takes a gazillion coats if you don't paint a solid color underneath like the instructions indicate should be done. By the time Maxwell had painted several coats of clear candy apple on the unpainted car--which was drying in subzero temperatures out in the garage late last night--our little derby racer was a pathetic, no-wheeled, gooey, never-gonna-be-dry-on-time mess.
Step aside Maxwell (he was so willing at this point) Mom and the instructions are coming to the rescue. It says right here, we gotta paint the car silver, grey, or gold first and then add the candy red CLEARCOAT on top.(can the meaning of clear coat be any more clear by now--hahahahaha---sorry but I had to digress).
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
(huge light bulb moment for Mr. Maxwell here)
Thank goodness Mom already had some silver spray paint on hand. Of course, I couldn't use the paint just yet. First I had to take a putty knife, butter knife, toothpicks, and sand paper to the car just to scrape off all of the not yet cured sticky redness from the car. A little elbow grease and an hour later, the racer was sanded, washed, dried, and ready for the silver undercoat. After spraying the car silver in the garage, I brought "her" into the kitchen to dry and Brad fell immediately in love. I want a silver car instead Mom he said. That look so cool. This was the moment PHANTOM was born. Perfect color, perfect name. It took Mom adding several more coats of silver throughout the night and Dad adding Phantom's wheels around 1 AM but by morning, the racer was finished and ready for the Derby at 2 o'clock.
This brings me back to the beginning of my story. Like I said, I really wanted to go to the race. But I took one look around the house which was destroyed from building Phantom, on top of the fact that the kids missed 3 days of school during the week. One day: a holiday for good ol' George and Abraham and the other 2 days: canceled for SNOW (did that darn groundhog have to see such a huge ominous shadow this years-sheesh--I am sick of the snow).
Anyway, I was torn between going to the race and staying home in a quiet house all alone to..get this... CLEAN! You know you've had a whopper of a week when you're dying to get rid of everyone so you can have some alone time with the clorox wipes and the vacuum cleaner. I tore through the main floor of the house and had it sparkling in 45 minutes flat. Keep this up and the entire house will be clean and I'll be sewing for a whole hour before anyone gets back. Here's where technology enters. I pick up the cell to call and find out how Brad and Phantom are doing. The first race is about ready to begin--I can hear the cars racing down the track through my phone---
Phantom takes first place, Maxwell says. WOOHOO--okay, so call me back after they've run a few more heats and let me know how he does. Ten minutes later, the phone rings...Brad's won all 5 races he's been in so far. Soooooooooooo cool but shoot!!! I am missing it and I didn't even send a camera with the guys. At this point, I drop the broom and head to grab my purse; there's still time to catch and PHOTOGRAPH (this is blog worthy after all) the tail end of the races. I won't even get into all of the details about Maxwell having my car keys with him at the race and so he had to come home to get me. Murphy's Law strikes again is where I'll leave it. On the upside, I got there on time to see several rounds and in the end Bradford took Grand Champion out of 37 racers.
