Thar's gold in that thar crude!!!

GOLD. OIL. Hmmm...given those two words, one would probably think they've struck it rich. ha ha...sigh. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.....boy did we find the wrong pot(s) o' gold!!!!

Yesterday at Zaca, Cooper was out riding when his bike completely seized. Not a good thing, especially on a brand new bike that had just had a top end built ($$$.) Luckily, our son, Cooper, is one of brains and stopped immediately, hauling the bike back to my truck. It was a solemn ride home from the track that day. Plus, Cannon crashed and ended up looking like The Swamp Thing...all covered in mud and his bike, I guess flew a couple 360's. Every nook and cranny in his bike was stuffed with clay; but the look on his face as he described watching his bike fly away from him...well, let's just say he lost all color in his face for a moment. Of course, the most important thing is that both my boys are fine.....just hugely hurt pride and worry about how they're going to tell their dad when they get home, as we all knew Cooper's bike was going to be pretty pricey.

So when we got home, Jim looked at his bike, drained the oil, and...what looked good for a moment, turned out to be really baaad. His oil filter and the oil draining out had gold-ish metal flakes throughout it. I guess some flake-age in the oil can be normal, but after I ran in to Google it, I knew it wasn't good, so I called our awesome mechanic, J.C. Meynet who happens to have time this week to work on it. Talk about lucky! J.C. is not only an awesome dirtbike racer, knowledgeable mechanic, and talented photographer, but he also races his Subaru for Harmon Motors all around the nation and wins. He's been on various ESPN shows. Like their dad, J.C.'s boys are extremely talented at pretty much everything.

(A couple years ago, my bike broke during a race and I rode it in 1st gear to get off the track--Big no no. The problem was the countershaft bearing--$12 part; however, my riding it back instead of pushing it off the track literally cost me $1300, as the grinding of the bearing ripped up the guts of my left crank case. Nobody listened to me when I was having trouble shifting it....it was "all in your [my] head." Yeah...rrrright.)

Anyways, this a.m. I went hiking, then dropped the pooches off to the groomers (the Shizzle smelled literally like sh#t as he rolled in something in the yard;) then hauled Coop's bike to our mechanic JC Meynet. He took it apart....yeah...it's going to be pricey, but not what I thought it would be. So be it...we have to order parts tomorrow and hope they're not backordered so we can have it ready for this weekend's "Road to Mammoth Round 1" race at Zaca. We'll be working and racing there all weekend.

THEN....Cannon started worrying a bit. I guess he's been having trouble with his kickstarter. He described it to Cooper and it sounded like something we'd better check out. Yep...upon draining his oil, he had signs of gold-ish metal flakes present. Oh no...not another one.!! As I write this blog entry, Jim and Cannon are in Santa Ynez at J.C.'s, taking apart his bike next to Cooper's bike. KA-CHING!!! Yes...it's a school night, but the homework is done; the A's are kept up pretty good; and he wasn't going to sleep anyways. We'll see what happens.

We quickly came to realize that we need to perform weekly oil changes now that the boys have stepped it up so much. We're all supposed to race this weekend; but it could happen that we'll just work it and pay off our parts. I'll still race, if I don't get too busy. I think I'll do an oil change first....

On a good note....Cooper was the only freshman to get picked up for CIF Varsity Swimming. The kid is up at 5 a.m. to lift weights and swims after school until 4 p.m. Totally proud of all he's doing between A's in Honors classes, Cabrillo High School Swim & Water Polo Teams, racing, and working for Zaca and Jr. Lifeguards. Ya think he could fit in any more? Oh yeah....he's got his permit now too. Funny thing...after this weekend he admitted to me that he was too tired to drive today. Now the real worrying begins!

Have a good week, everybody!