{"id":1947,"date":"2010-01-07T21:51:18","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T04:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2010-01-08T12:50:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T19:50:14","slug":"gentlemen-start-your-engines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2010\/01\/gentlemen-start-your-engines\/","title":{"rendered":"Gentlemen, start your engines!"},"content":{"rendered":"

No sooner are the Christmas decorations are stowed away in the garage than our house takes on a whole new emphasis:<\/p>\n

Pinewood Derby Car Construction.<\/h1>\n

At our house, Pinewood Derby car engineering is more than working on a chunk of pine. It’s male bonding to the max. It’s late nights reveling in the odors of freshly sanded wood, metallic shavings, and graphite. (If graphite has a smell.) It’s an opportunity for tool acquisition; paint color tests and endless sanding of every surface, big and small. In short, its magnitude brings me to my knees,<\/p>\n

“Can we please call it a night? It’s time for bed!” I plead.<\/p>\n

Through the dust and settling graphite, I watch a father and a son, focused, driven, and so deep into the particulars that time and fatigue are no longer factors.<\/p>\n

Last night we hosted a Pinewood Derby car clinic at church. I watched the sons with their fathers (and a few moms) and I felt a new affirmation in the power of<\/p>\n

TIME spent together,<\/p>\n

SIMPLICITY (despite a few gadgets),<\/p>\n

and the BOND between fathers and sons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And Mark, age 3, asked no fewer than 17 times if we’d make a car for him. He, too felt the draw of the blade, sander and pine. We did the math. In ten years, we will have 9 Pinewood Derby cars. Just one January without a race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No sooner are the Christmas decorations are stowed away in the garage than our house takes on a whole new emphasis: Pinewood Derby Car Construction. At our house, Pinewood Derby car engineering is more than working on a chunk of pine. It’s male bonding to the max. It’s late nights reveling in the odors of … Continue reading Gentlemen, start your engines!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}