I had a knot in my stomach. I was worried, and couldn't believe that I was! It's just a block of wood, some paint and some decals--what's the big deal? It was Friday night, the evening before the Pinewood and I was working myself into a dither. Shayne and Connor (albeit at a few moments coercibly) had worked hard on Connor's Pinewood Derby car. It began with Shayne showing me a picture on the Internet of a Formula One car and telling me that he was going to cut that car out of the simple block of wood he held in his hands. 'Yeah, right!' was my gut reaction. An hour later, I stood corrected. He had done a beautiful job of cutting out a very cool car shape! I was impressed. Then came the pilgrimage to a couple of craft stores to find just the right details to add to the wood, the whole night spent trying to get a hold of the guy in charge of weighing the cars to see if our's was under the weight limit, and several sessions of our little family members rolling the car back and forth to each other on our wood floor to see if it traveled in a straight line. All of this led to Friday night, and the stomach knot...okay, what? What parent wouldn't want to see their child win after all that work? At last, Saturday arrived and we showed up at the church ready to race. Connor's car was a teeny bit under the weight limit, but nothing we could do about that then. We waited through several heats for Connor's turn to come. I anxiously watched as he handed his car up to the track. It was placed, ready, set, go...! It came in third. Oh. No. Not so good. Let's try it again. On your mark, get set, go...! Came in second. Hmm. Came in third again. At this point, I'm thinking, 'Oh, well.' I look over and know what my son's face will look like before I even focus on it. He has tears in his eyes and is trying very hard to pull himself together. Shayne and I reassure him that it doesn't matter and that he has the coolest looking car there. Ah, another one of those moments in life. We wait out the end of the races to see who the winners are, then go off for a hot dog and some chips to round out the event. By the time we get home, Connor has moved on. But I'm hanging on to this car, 'cause I think it's a winner anyway!
