What's happening with the darn scoreboard? How come the race car departure countdown gets to zero and then backs up to 4. What's going on? The quick answer is in the form of a question. Have you ever gone to the airport to get on a plane and get to the check-in counter only to find the plane is overbooked? "Sorry, we oversold the number of seats available and everyone showed up, so we'll put you on the next available plane"....

The same thing happens in the container shipping business too. Not always for the same reasons, but it happens. This time it's happened to me. Because the ship was four days late (due to storms), the Seattle agent was able to squeeze more cargo aboard when it stopped there, thereby taking up some of Vancouver's allottment. The bottom line is now a Sunday night/Monday morning departure.... if that vessel is on schedule. Finger-crossing time? Heck, it's knees, arms, fingers and eyes at this point. Maybe I'll have to hack into the Ship Planners computer system tonight at work and "ensure" that we make this weekend's departure -- and in a nice, dry, cozy underdeck spot too.

Stay tuned for the latest updates as they happen, or in the latest instance, NOT happen. PS: Good news on the parts front: Gates Rubber Co. actually manufactures the blower belt we need. Big relief. Now we've got the longest blower belt in drag racing to go with that gi-normous intake manifold. Another major hurdle cleared on our inexorable path to world drag racing domination.

Quick boys, get the net over him and load up the tranquilizer dart gun. He's losing it again.....