Little-Acorn
01-25-2009, 07:56 PM
Well, actually, he's not on American Idol. But he's doing the Pinewood Derby equivalent.
We had the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby races today for our Pack 629, and his car absolutely whooped ass on every other car there. He was the only one to not only break the 4-second barrier for an individual run, but he did it SIX TIMES in twelve runs, and was the only one to break 4 seconds for his total average time, to boot.
So now, he will go to the finals at Qualcomm Stadium in May for the Scout Fair, to represent the entire pack.
And no, I did NOT build his car. He did the entire thing, designing the body, cutting it out, sanding, painting, deburring and polishing the axles, adding weights, etc. I helped by starting one cut (count them, one), a long sweeping cut through the length of the pine block to cut out the body with a coping saw. I did the first 1/8", to make sure it started straight, and then handed him the saw. He did the rest of the 7-inch cut. And he did all else, including cutting a new groove closer to the end of the car for the front axles.
I'm so proud of him I could bust.
BTW, guess who one of the others he beat, was. Daddy built his own car, too, to run in Open Class. (There are two classes, Scout-built and Open. Scout-built is what it says, car must be built by the Cub Scout himself, parental help must be minimal or absent. Open Class can be built by anyone, parents, scouts, unameit. But most awards go to Scout-built cars, and only a scout-built car can go on to represent the pack at the Scout Fair.
But my son went on to sweep the entire series of races, coming in 1st in EVERY heat he ran in. His car and mine never ran head to head, but when the dust settled, he held the track record with a best-heat run of 3.967 sec. And guess who was tagging along a distant second, with a miserable 3.968 seconds.... dear old Dad.
Cub Scouting is a LOT of work, but it has its moments.
:) :) :)
We had the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby races today for our Pack 629, and his car absolutely whooped ass on every other car there. He was the only one to not only break the 4-second barrier for an individual run, but he did it SIX TIMES in twelve runs, and was the only one to break 4 seconds for his total average time, to boot.
So now, he will go to the finals at Qualcomm Stadium in May for the Scout Fair, to represent the entire pack.
And no, I did NOT build his car. He did the entire thing, designing the body, cutting it out, sanding, painting, deburring and polishing the axles, adding weights, etc. I helped by starting one cut (count them, one), a long sweeping cut through the length of the pine block to cut out the body with a coping saw. I did the first 1/8", to make sure it started straight, and then handed him the saw. He did the rest of the 7-inch cut. And he did all else, including cutting a new groove closer to the end of the car for the front axles.
I'm so proud of him I could bust.
BTW, guess who one of the others he beat, was. Daddy built his own car, too, to run in Open Class. (There are two classes, Scout-built and Open. Scout-built is what it says, car must be built by the Cub Scout himself, parental help must be minimal or absent. Open Class can be built by anyone, parents, scouts, unameit. But most awards go to Scout-built cars, and only a scout-built car can go on to represent the pack at the Scout Fair.
But my son went on to sweep the entire series of races, coming in 1st in EVERY heat he ran in. His car and mine never ran head to head, but when the dust settled, he held the track record with a best-heat run of 3.967 sec. And guess who was tagging along a distant second, with a miserable 3.968 seconds.... dear old Dad.
Cub Scouting is a LOT of work, but it has its moments.
:) :) :)