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Michael Pliska

@mrpermagrin

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The automotive world lost a legend today. Sam Memmolo was a pioneer in car-related radio and TV programs, including Crank & Chrome, Shadetree Mechanic, 2 Guys Garage, and Motorhead Garage. I appeared in an episode of Motorhead Garage, and we remained friends ever since. It was surreal to record an episode with such a legend, then continue to chat with him in the years since. Rest in peace my friend, may the projects always go smoothly in your shop up in Heaven. by @mrpermagrin

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23 days ago

A very belated "Thank you" to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday.

I definitely didn't have it on my bingo card to miss my birthday party and instead be in the neuro critical care unit, with a head injury and brain bleed! And worse yet, most of that time was spent with someone waking me every hour to draw blood and ask me how many lights or fingers I saw, along with my name and the date, making me feel like Picard being tortured with 4 lights (and wearing the same attire or lack thereof).

Before this I had been gradually dieting to get to my summer target weight, but my inability to keep down food caused me to drop 18 lbs over that 2 weeks, overshooting the target by a bit!

They had to perform brain surgery and install a drain for a few days, giving me a lovely asymmetrical hairstyle, a few more scars and a hole/dent in my head. I'm slowly getting my strength and stamina back, and went into work today for the 1st time since this all started.

Adding to the fun while hospitalized, the GFCI in my garage failed and let a very full fridge/freezer completely thaw out, so replacing the GFCI and cleaning out the mess was one of my 1st tasks.

Unfortunately the healing will mean missing the ET finals and the NW Classic big-$ bracket race following it. On the plus side I used some of the unplanned time off to begin a post-mortem on the last 2 wounded engines from the race car. Last season's engine with the glitter-filled oil pan had a spun rod bearing, hoping a crank polish and new bearings will revive it. I also have an engine from a few years ago where a cracked oil pan led to a complete seizure, I finally built a hub to bolt onto the damper and let me apply significant torque to rotate it to begin pulling the pistons & rods. Hopefully between both engines I can assemble at least one spare. by @mrpermagrin

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2 months ago

Almost winner, friend's awesome BBQ Birthday Dinner!
I headed to Madras for their Wally race Saturday, driving through a bunch of wildfire smoke and ash.

After fixing last week's carnage (steering rack mount) I arrived just in time for the last time run and managed to make it to the final, where a mediocre light on my part and a nearly perfect run by my opponent put the Wally in his hands. The wind at the track was intense as well, and at one point picked my hood off of the roof of the car (where I always set it while cooling the engine), flipped it about 15' in the air and slammed it to the ground. I grabbed all of the pieces and will glass them together again like Humpty Dumpty.

As I was finishing the car I saw a post from my old high school friend Laura Jones (who is legendary in the state for all of the volunteer work she does for veteran's organizations). It was her birthday and despite NOT wanting to have a party her kids insisted. As it was only an hour past Madras I headed there once the races ended, and it was great to see her for the 1st time since 1985!

As I headed back to the track I was texting and calling my buddy Corey Seekins, who was staying at a hotel near the track, to see if there were any evacuations or if the fires had moved closer. The fires HAD moved much closer with the severe winds, and areas adjacent to the track were having mandatory evacuations. With the winds finally subsiding they were able to keep the fire from spreading to the track. I took the photo in this post from the roof of my camper once I got back to the track, that's not a beautiful golden sunset, that's the flickering glow of flames. Just in case the winds shift, I got everything completely ready to go, then had a rather restless night worrying about the fire getting us (it didn't).

Finally, a big Happy Birthday to my mom! We will be celebrating as soon as I get back to town. by @mrpermagrin

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3 months ago

The past week I was preparing for Woodburn's epic 5 races in 3 days. I had a lot of work to do on the race car, camper & trailer. An allergic reaction and some tow rig lighting issues had other ideas.

In my 6500 or so prior passes in this car it's never been over 150 mph, where we have to wear a HANs or similar restraint, but made it with the new engine. This forced me to test my flexibility by putting on the restraint without the assistance of a crewmember. By the end of the weekend I made 9 passes in the 8's and 6 over 150 mph. My 1st RT was also a 0.001, apparently earning me "#1 qualifier" status, which when combined with $1.50 would get me a Costco hot dog!

One theme of the weekend was running into friends I haven't seen for years or decades, so it was a win regardless of the racing outcome. My friends Patrick & Rizza camped all weekend for the race. My bestie Sandra came out Friday evening along with our friends Tony and Joel.

I set up my karaoke system, and we proceeded to gather a pretty good crowd of singers and spectators. I apologize to anyone who was trying to sleep, I honestly didn't realize how late we ran!

Steve Kelly is one of the best bracket racers around but somehow I had managed to compile a 7:1 record against him. It's almost like I paid a voodoo Dr to put a curse on his race car... Steve wounded his race car this past week, so he was running a borrowed race truck. I won a fair amount of rounds for the weekend (round before the money in almost every race), but 4 of my 6 losses were to Steve in that truck! It wasn't that I was driving poorly against him, he was just doing it a tiny bit better each time! I'll be taking up a collection to make sure he gets back into his own car before the next big race, or to pay for extending a curse to a borrowed truck...
Continued below in comments. by @mrpermagrin

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3 months ago

Winner Winner, Chicken Pad Thai Dinner!

To qualify for the ET finals I decided to head to Madras this weekend, and Breq asked if he could go and bring his motorcycle. I had been planning to mount some E-track in the trailer, so I figured I'd just add a motorcycle mount too. Of course it took me most of Friday night to get things cut and mounted, with time for a short nap before my planned departure time.

Once we were on the road I had a glimmering hope of making it in time for 1st round, even if I had to dial blindly. That hope evaporated with some poorly planned traffic control for a fair in Sandy. It took us over 30 min to pass through that small town.

I made 1 test & tune pass, showing that I REALLY should have jetted down for the elevation. After putting things back together unfortunately some debris had blown into the needle & seat of one of the fuel bowls (it was very windy and I should have done this work inside the trailer). A bunch of fuel got pumped into the engine but I didn't see it from inside the car as I started to crank it. I had to clean out the fuel system then pull all of the spark plugs and blow the fuel out before it seeped into the crankcase.

After getting the car back together and put away we rode into town (me on my scooter), to get Vegan groceries. We made it to Safeway and picked up vegan hot dogs, marshmallows & White Claw, then roasted the dogs & marshmallows over Breq's camp stove.

Sunday I was paired with points leader Corey Seekins 1st round. I was fortunate to turn on the win light, to the absolute shock of all of the locals. My win light somehow kept turning on all the way thru the final.

Breq insisted on riding his bike into the trailer, as he made the turn onto the ramp his tire spun out, with the bike falling onto him as the right grip fell onto the door assist cable, pulling it to full throttle and violently throwing him the rest of the way down. Fortunately the damage was limited to scratched up paint. I'm so glad he only had minor scrapes, and hopefully we can find some matching touch-up paint.

After the long drive we headed to HV Food Carts, my extra-spicy Chicken Pad Thai was the perfect way to close out by @mrpermagrin

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3 months ago

Still Not A Winner, Free Hot Dog Dinner!
I hope everyone had a Happy & Safe Semiquincentennial!!! Unfortunately it will only be our descendants and Keith Richards who get to enjoy the Quincentennial, but a few of you will make the Tricentennial.

The neighbor's brief foray into raising chickens accomplished the same thing for rodents that decriminalized hard drugs did for the local tweaker population. I spent a very long day cleaning mice nests out of the camper before getting on the road to Bremerton very early on the 4th.

This year it seemed that all of the dog owning racers were pitted down the distant pit roads. I picked the road with the best behaved and quietest dogs, hoping they would be less likely to incite Michele’s dog Anya into a barking fit (which worked).

The race was very well organized, calling each sub-class up by a unique color, and pulling consistently across the lanes. However the racers seemed to have their own eccentricities, as Lane #6 (1st right lane cars) would fill up but #5 would be almost empty, requiring #3 to mostly race cars from #6. I kept ending up against a racer I had never met (Mike Brenno), despite lining up nowhere near each other. We had 3 really good races against each other with him winning the tiebreaker.

On Saturday I lost 1st rd in one class and made it to the round before the money in the other. Between our remote pit spot, large dog, and my exhaustion by that point we didn't get out and socialize the way I normally would, just taking a brief walk and chatting with a few people.

Sunday I took 1 entry into the 3rd round and the other entry to the sub-class semi-finals and a nice trip to the payout desk in the tower. As a bonus the hot dog stand was giving away free hot dogs as they closed up! I tipped $10 still, but it felt good to get a "free" bonus dinner!

After all of that I went to work on the F350's AC system, finding enough mouse nest debris to fill a 5 gal bucket, and scraping my arms up as I shoved them deep into the dash like a veterinarian OBGYN. Fortunately that revived the AC system and we had an uneventful drive home, aside from trying to find an open diesel station that I could fit my rig through! by @mrpermagrin

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3 months ago

Almost Winner, Costco Pinwheel Dinner!
I finally got the car out to the track Wed night, for the 1st time in over a year, and only the 5th time in the last 3 years. This is an engine I thrashed together last season from scrounged up parts, and I also finally finished the mounts for the nose, hood and front spoiler (more on the spoiler later, is that a Spoiler Alert?).

As I was pulling into the pits Pro bracket was just pulling out of the lanes, but the pits were nearly full and I had to park at the very end of the pit area. It turned out to be their 1st time run but much later than usual, and they announced we would only be getting 2 runs.

The new spoiler hangs less than 4" off the ground, such that it trips the finish line beam rather than the front tire. This is important when trying to cut races as close as possible at the finish line. I was still pondering removing it when our class was called up for my only time run so I left it on. That proved to be a challenge all night, trying to re-adjust my brain to judge the finish line differently than the other 6500 or so passes I have made in this car.

After 1st round I returned to a car parked in my pit spot, requiring me to drive much farther and do some significant backing. I realized later that everyone else pitted out that far had set lawn chairs out to delineate their work area, but I would have thought the generator locked to the trailer with a battery charger was a clue. Or maybe the guy thought it was similar to those "free air" stations but for charging his car battery? I had to do that extra driving and backing for the rest of the night until the final round.

The additional engine heating and the reduced time on the battery charger were dropping my "starting charge level" faster than Kotek's approval ratings, and by the final round I had no choice but to drive to the staging lanes with the generator sticking out of the race car hatch.

In the final my luck ran out, I had my 2nd worst light all night (but still only gave up 0.008 sec), then hit the brakes way too hard trying to judge the stripe with that aforementioned spoiler. Congrats to Jason Harmon for the big win! by @mrpermagrin

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3 months ago

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there! And Happy MomDads™ Day (a new holiday I made up) to all of the single moms who pull double duty in both roles. And most of all Happy Father's Day in Heaven to my dad and both grandpas, we all miss you down here! by @mrpermagrin

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4 months ago

I guess I haven't had much time to post this year, so here's a rare pic of me in a cowboy hat! Our favorite karaoke host (KJ) Elizabeth asked people to dress "Western" for her birthday gathering last week, so I ordered a hat and bandana from Amazon. Of course it fits with the decor of our favorite restaurant/bar Lariat Lounge!

I've been absolutely buried between regular work, estate work (including getting a borrowed neglected dump truck road-worthy), working on my cars and those of friends. This includes a redneck rebuild of Alex's totalled SUV, keeping my daily driver Passat on the road, and of course getting my race car back together. After having done a timing belt, on my Passat last year, I had to dig almost that far in again (pulling the timing belt) to replace a cracked thermostat housing. At least I still had all of the specialized tools handy!

On the race car I finally finished the mounts for the nose and hood (after just making some minimal nose mounts to get the car back onto the track a couple of years ago). I still need to add some mounts for the air dam and driving lights, but those should be pretty quick.

The engine I scrambled together at the end of last season is physically back in the car but everything still needs to be hooked up, I need to do that tonight so I can run the big Woodburn Footbrake race this weekend!

Also this week was a more somber occasion, the celebration of life for a good friend from karaoke nights at Lariat. David Michael Schneberger had a wonderful voice and his own quirky cadence for singing, making any song uniquely his own. We chatted many times over the last couple of years and realized we had met several years before at The Pink Feather, but we both thought we knew each other from somewhere else as well. I saw him in December and invited him to my Christmas karaoke party, giving him my business card to contact me for directions. As soon as he saw my last name he blurted out that he has known me since I was a kid, as his 1st wife Lynn is part of the extended Pliska family! We had a good time reminiscing about family gatherings over the years. Unfortunately that was the last time I saw him. RIP old friend. by @mrpermagrin

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4 months ago

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! And Happy DadMom's™ Day (that's a new holiday I made up) to all of the single dads with custody doing double duty.

I hosted Mom for a simple brunch, Breq was planning to be here but he got a spider bite that has him feeling a bit ill. by @mrpermagrin

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5 months ago

A little true story of my recent misfortune that will hopefully give you a chuckle.

Michele usually stays over after karaoke nights on Tuesdays, along with her giant Rottie mix Anya.

Every morning I do a set of stretching and body weight exercises. Some of the stretching looks suspiciously like yoga, but "body weight exercises" sounds more manly. In between exercises I will make my breakfast and lunch, and that sometimes includes a few bites of leftovers. Tuesday's smoked chicken from Lariat Lounge was the best I have ever had in my life. It's normally awesome, but this time it was over-the-top, and I couldn't resist having a few bites while I made my breakfast.

Seconds later I was doing a sideways stretch with both arms up past my head, so my ears were effectively covered and my eyes were closed as my head dipped close to the ground. That is normally a peaceful Zen-like experience as I can feel the stress leaving my body through my stretching muscles. Instead I was dragged from a blissful state of peace into a violent sense of being violated. With no warning, a giant Rottie tongue was forcefully plunged down my throat, as she tried to lick any remnants of smoked chicken from my mouth the way she would attack a Kong filled with peanut butter. I may have pulled one of those muscles being stretched, as I jerked my head away and sprinted for the kitchen sink, using the sprayer to hose out my mouth. I swear I heard Anya chuckle as I was running away. I may need counseling to get over this sense of being violated...

Note - pic for attention, from a different tongue assault that was less invasive. by @mrpermagrin

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6 months ago

Apparently it's National Superhero Day?

This brings up some bittersweet memories from 13 years ago. I was attending the funeral of a friend who died in a tragic accident. He was a huge superhero and sci-fi fan, and had told his sister that if he died before her to make sure people dress in superhero or scifi costumes for his funeral. I wore a decent cosplay-quality Spiderman costume (which has a single zipper that goes up the back). I ended up seated next to the deceased's uncle, who I hadn't seen in years as he had moved across the country. He and I were catching up after the mass, and even though I REALLY needed to pee I didn't want to interrupt our conversation. We chatted for quite a while, then I finally had to make a break for the restroom. To my horror the zipper got stuck. I fought it for about 5 minutes before tearing my way out of the costume to pee. So now I'm stuck in this restroom with only a shredded Spiderman costume to wear. I came out into the lobby area and said "did anyone see which way the Green Goblin went? That bastard ambushed me while I was trying to pee!" I am very glad I chose to stick around for the conversation with his uncle, as he in turn passed away not long after that.

As an additional tie-in for Superhero Day, the funeral was for Kyle Comeau, who did the graphic design for Optimus Prime in the most recent Transformers movies, and was slated to paint the actual movie vehicles before his tragic passing.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=483622528655637 by @mrpermagrin

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6 months ago