SharonAndAdam.com

Wheels Turning

Something that has been on my mind a lot recently is bonding opportunities with my son. Sharon brought home a flier the other day for a local youth sports activity and asked if we wanted to get Fulton involved in something similar like T-ball. My first reaction was “sure, why not”. After all, it’s great for making new friends, exercising, being outdoors, the endless practices, etc. Then she added the remark “and you could coach, too.”

Hold on, slow down.

Coaching youth sports is not something at which I excel. I do not know enough about any one sport to be of any benefit to a youngster – much less to satisfy his parents’ expectations seeing as they invested a good amount of time and money for little Slugger to be under my tutelage. Now of course, my outlook may change if Fulton were involved in something in which I had extensive knowledge and passion.

How about racing?

Okay, now we’re talking. Fulton does in fact show signs of interest in the sport: 1) Lightning McQueen is still by far his favorite animated marvel, 2) He loves toy cars, and 3) you can find him every Sunday by my side watching NASCAR… even though his primary concern is knowing the position of “the M&Ms car” (I’ll have to work on that; no son of mine will ever favor Kyle Busch). So how could a young boy get active in racing?

RC Racing

I think remote control cars would be a good introduction. It’s a small enough investment for a hobby that a boy and his dad could enjoy any day of the week. There’s even a dirt track raceway just a few miles from our home. But if we want to take it to the next step, we’re talking gas-powered RC kit cars for on-road racing. Yeah baby!

Soap Box Derby

I’ve never actually took part in or witnessed a Soap Box Derby race, but they’re still out there. The closest one to us would be in Houston. I’m thinking however that there is probably more fun to had in building the car then the actual race itself. Not to mention that the youngest age allowed is 8, so that’s at least 6 years out. Surprisingly, Fulton would be closer to try out…

Karting

Believe it or not, kids can start out practicing on 50cc karts at age 5 here in Austin at the Ironrock Raceway. They start competing in organized races when they reach 8.

I spent a bit of time with Karts in the Purdue Grand Prix and it was a lot of fun. Karting is pretty intense but as you can imagine it does take a bit of investment upfront to get into the game. We’ll have to play this by ear as Fulton get’s closer to age, but we’ll certainly make our way out there sometime to get a feel for the atmosphere and gauge his interest.

All in all, I think this can be quite a bit of fun. There are other things to do from a spectator level such as visiting the Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle, TX and take in a NASCAR or IndyCar event at Texas Motor Speedway.

And besides, I think “Crew Chief” is more my style than “Coach”.

And a bit of fun…

“When it comes to Mike Wallace, the story ends with me putting him in the wall.”

Classic.

Siding is Here

Thank you all who responded earlier to our request for recommendations on siding contractors. We received a few estimates and decided to sign a contract with Aztec Roofing and Siding. The consultant was friendly, genuinely courteous, and worked with us to reach an agreement that meets our budget. Not to mention, we’re happy with their choice to advertise locally on Relevant Radio. It’s a family owned business. Sharon talked to the father and the son who own the company on two separate occasions. They sound like a nice Catholic family. The father is a Knight and used to be Grand Knight of his counsel some time ago. The son, Paul, is actually in his 5th year of formation as a deacon! How cool is that!? When he pulled up to the house he said, “Well, you don’t see many statues of the Blessed Mother in the front yard any more.”

In the end we are opening our home to referrals for their business. They’ll be using CertainTeed’s fiber cement siding, a product CertainTeed has been working to further expand into new markets. It has been around as long as James Hardie and CertainTeed the company has been in the building supply business for over 100 years. We’re optimistic it’ll do well to protect our home. It also turns out we’ll have a “Green” house using their siding. Some of the environmentally friendly highlights are that their siding is: 5% lighter, made of more than 30% recycled content, and comes from sustainably-managed forests.

We have quite a bit of rotten wood where the water ran up and it just continued to deteriorate. Here you see some of the reasons why our house needs new siding:

The siding arrived last Thursday.

The 4 man work crew arrived Monday morning a little before lunch. These guys were hired by Aztec. They are pretty nice and good with the kids.

Here is the back of the house with the new primed siding on the first floor. The house will be painted after all the siding is put up.

The west side as of this afternoon:

and the east side:

We’ve only had one mishap on the interior. Sharon took the kids to the atrium this morning and wasn’t home to take the stuff off our wall in our dining room. Unfortunately, our wedding cake topper took a severe hit and we haven’t found all the pieces to glue it back together. The nativity we bought in Rome on our honeymoon fared a little better–St. Joseph lost his head but Sharon was able to put it back together. The guys were very apologetic and they actually removed all the wall stuff when that happened so nothing else would get damaged. It’s only “stuff” so we aren’t too upset. All and all, it’s looking great and we’re happy.