[Ed. notes] - answering a few questions, etc. on yesterday's entry.
First up a special DTOM congrats to Ted McMahan on getting a job. Poor Ted was a victim of the recession when the place he used to work at got raided (and shut down) by the Feds - mortgage stuff not car stuff. Yikes! You can find Ted at Hi-Tech Auto Repair here in the ATL. Ted is a good guy and great mechanic. Ted is a big fan of the blog so shout out!
This week will probably be a little lame in terms of narrative, this is meant more to shock and awe in terms of crazy sh!t that happens around me, then to be a laugh riot. If anything I sugar coated the animosity in the neighborhood over the great wall. It was a total pain in my a$$ and included about 20 pages of handwritten notes of conversations, printed emails, and certified letters. Some good questions that have been raised by the peanut gallery: a) why didn't you move instead? Well hindsight is 20/20, at the time the location of our house was pretty close to ideal in terms of commute, I would have had to spend quite a bit more to get closer and really if anything we would have wanted to move farther out which would have meant a significant drive for me. Also we were a bit polly anna-ish in terms of "this will be easy" famous last words, you'd think I would know better - well I sure do now! b) how recent was this? 2004, and I still bear the scars. c) is "Tommy" that guy's real name? I don't know, I've considered calling Homeland Security to find out. I doubt it, just like IndyJim is my Nome De Plume. I call him a$$hole most of the time. d) which is more aggravating the wall episode or Barber Motorsports Park. No contest the wall. This was pretty serious since we were talking about thousands of dollars and these tools acted like I wanted to plant a tree. Numnuts even suggested we build a '3' sided fence so that it wouldn't be close to his house, now what the f is the point of a 3 sided fence? Total morons, seriously.
If that curbing wasn't there, this would be a different story, probably involving a medical helicopter...
Now for today's show. This will also be more of a 'look what happened' episode. Christine was off on summer break and actually in the house when this happened. I get a call at work in the afternoon from her. She said, "You're not going to believe this the UPS driver is stuck in our driveway." I said, "What exactly does that mean?"
Turns out this dude was delivering a package that he claimed was heavy. I forget exactly what it was, but Christine picked it up and carried it inside so if your definition is less than 20 lbs, I guess that is accurate. Well Mario Andretti was lazy, it was late in the day and he figured he'd drive it up our hill instead of walking (turns out this is a UPS no-no for good reason). He gets up to the top and that is where his brain shut down. Instead of slowly backing down using his mirrors, or even leaning out and looking behind him, he tries a 3 point turn. Well the 3 point turn can be done, but probably not in a UPS truck. Or at least not with this guy driving.
UPS trucks are rear wheel drive and his was unloaded, so he had no weight over the rear wheels, the engine and all the weight were on the front wheels, when he tried to back up on the incline the rear wheels would just spin. I explained this once I got home several times but he seemed to think he could fix it by putting a board under the rear wheels and other acts of genius. Thankfully once he shot the board out he saw that wasn't going to work, thankfully it didn't go through my truck window or anyone's chest. About 30 min. after I get home and ask him what his plan is, his wife and father-in-law show up. They try again putting like a rubber mat under the tires. At this point I'm done giving advice because no one is listening and its clear we don't have the varsity team on the field.
Two more UPS drivers eventually show up, and each one comes to the "Yep, you're F-d" conclusion and leave. Finally the General Manager of the UPS branch drives out and is standing there scratching his head. He at least had the sense to call a big a$$ semi tow truck. I can't explain how awkward this all was. His wife is henpecking this poor dude, the old man keeps trying to find stuff to wedge under the wheels, the driver is sweating because he thinks I'm p!ssed (which I was but also somewhat amused) and he is going to get fired, then all these other clowns keep showing up shaking their heads, also it has become a neighborhood attraction and people are walking down the street to see if this thing will pitch over our front wall. Good times.
So we've been standing around now for a few hours and the tow truck finally shows up. This guy isn't at the top of his class either, but I pull him aside and show him how the rear end isn't getting grip which he at least understands. He has a tow cable but isn't sure where to put it. Together we determine that if he wraps around the front axle and drags the truck forward it should pivot enough to face down the hill. Or tip over.
Thankfully it pivots and the UPS guy drives away. Of course even after contacting them I get no $$ for the 4 hours they used my driveway as a loading ramp, the burnout marks from this dude practicing his tire warm ups that took like 3 months of rain to wash away, exceeding the driveways weight limit by several tons causing cracks, or the bush he ran into and knocked out of the ground. I guess all's well that ends well.
There is a really cool Java'script' countdown timer that isn't working as part of this post, so you'll just have to imagine it in your head.
Edit - okay that wouldn't work so this one is ghetto but does work. You get what you pay for. and wow that is super ghetto!
Anyway the punchline of this joke is there are roughly 4 days left in Craig's racing career. After that he becomes a full time manny / daddy and like our old racing buddy TJ who has fallen off the face of the earth. But ironically just bought a set of tires from Craig, why? Who knows since by the time he is racing again we'll be using solar powered hovercraft and he only has one set of wheels for his car (that doesn't start anyway).
Craig 'hard' at work.
Craig isn't the only one that is going to have some life changes to deal with.
First off thanks for the birthday wishes. The blog is gaining momentum, I attribute some of this to the linking from Facebook, since Twitter appears to be a bust. Some people have been curious, little old DTOMracing.com gets between 300-500 visits a month. I think this firmly cements DTOM as the market leader in the amateur racing and dog blog niche.
Some news from the vet today on the big dog's leg. He has small amounts of enterococcus bacteria, still waiting to see about the fungus. The amounts were so low it took extra time to culture them. So not sure that is the problem or what is going on. I love sponsoring my own private canine health research. Obama should give me a grant or something. So far my favorite antibiotic is Baytril, Indy's on that until the vet(s) can figure out something.
The blog has gotten rave reviews on the few dog postings, so here is a visual essay of sorts on the 12 good pictures I've probably taken ever.
BTW - I crudely sized these using HTML since the blogger photo tool hasn't been working for me lately. The good versions can be found here.
Enjoy.
Obi sees the light, we're putting the band back together.
What is this white crap and why is it soo cold up here?
He's not heavy mister, he's my pillow.
You say its your birthday....
Letting sleeping dogs lie.
Can you believe that big beast used to be this tiny little dog.
The big guy, when he had his allergies and we didn't know what to feed him. Down to 50lbs!!! My first $$$ vet bill...
Obi as a puppy sitting by the AC vent.
People tell you this is a good way to train dogs to go out. It is also SUPER annoying!
Indy at his favorite place doing his favorite thing. Floaty fetch!
Back in the day a bunch of dudes said, “We’re getting taxed to death by the Man and what do we have to show for it? Nada, zip, zilch. And when we complain he sics his goons on us. Nuts to that.” They got their squirrel guns off the mantle and showed them what time it was. 200 years and some ‘change’ later and we have a government that wants to tax us to death and doesn’t listen to the common…never mind.
To celebrate our forefathers the NASA SouthEast road show had a one day race blowout at Lowe’s MotorSpeedway. The Lowe’s MotorSpeedway - you may have seen it on TV. We’ve done the oval thing before at Rockingham, which was fun until we almost got kicked out and subsequently banned. Comparing the Rock to this place is like comparing a Denny’s to a four star restaurant. It is MASSIVE, it has two go kart tracks inside of it, a dirt track outside of it, along with a drag strip and a huge RV dealership. The best part of going to the ovals, in my mind, is the sweet garages we get to rent / use. The one day event meant it was going to be jam packed with action. I had some routine maintenance to do to the car and since Craig has reclaimed his garage lift I had to roll old school with jack stands.
My extra small, crowded, and awkwardly positioned garage space, coupled with jack stands, and the 99+ degree heat made me dread this even though all I really had to do was replace some fluids (oil, etc) and change the brakes. Stuff I’ve done approximately 1000 times, that should take around 2 hours to complete, ideally. Unfortunately that 2 hours doesn’t include the 2 hours it took me to just unpack my garage enough to let me get to the car in order to jack it up. With that accomplished I remembered why working on jack stands sucks. Everything is harder to get to, and if you forget a tool it takes 5 min. to find it and get back to the position you were in when you realized you needed it. Not to mention the constant risk of hitting your head, or the fun of lying in a puddle of whatever it is you just drained out of the car. It took me two days to finish, but I triumphed in the end and only lost about 10 pounds of water weight in the process. My advice as usual is to pay someone to do this stuff for you.
[Speaking of hitting your head. Two episodes stand out in my mind. The first is pretty common I was concentrating on something under the car and my cell phone rang on the “workbench” that is really my trash barrel. I popped up and WHACK. But the worst, if you own a Bentley or Haynes auto mechanic DIY manual, the first step in any of their instructions is ‘disconnect the battery’. I was removing my power steering hoses and pump which are perilously close to the starter. Of course I didn’t disconnect the battery, inadvertently I touched the starter with an open end wrench which kicked off a massive spark and promptly scared the sh!t out of me. I popped up and WHACK. I was pretty sure I removed scalp with that one, but I guess my head is harder than I thought. Left a nice bump and saw some stars though which was cool. I climbed out from under the car and disconnected the battery…]
The Lowe’s folks apparently don’t value our business too much since they opened the gate from 4pm to 5:30pm. Now to get a car there so that you can finish your registration and unpack everything so that you’re ready to go at 8am the next day is a bit of a trick. Craig and I took about 6 hours to get to Charlotte,which should be a 4 hour trip. I can safely state that North Carolina has the ABSOLUTE worst drivers. Now you’re probably dismissing this as mere hyperbole. Examples – more people in the left lane doing below the speed limit but refusing to clear the lane than I can count, a man in a Cadillac on a busy two lane highway on a blown out donut tire not stopping but proceeding to drive along as if nothing was wrong, another dude that came to a complete stop in the middle of an intersection (in the middle of 3 lanes) with his turn signal on only to proceed to go straight once the light turned yellow stranding everyone behind him. It was so bad that Craig and I almost kissed the ground when we got to Lowe’s. Towing is a close second in sucky aspects of racing, right behind car maintenance, at least in my mind.
Threading the needle from the banking into the infield. If you hit that wall on the right (or left) you win a trip to the hospital and maybe a helicopter ride!!
Having gotten to the track in one piece we began the cannonball run of unloading, getting paperwork signed, etc. Craig didn’t have the foresight to rent a sweet garage so he was stuck out in the sun with the rest of the ill prepared. I think that was his punishment for not allowing my car on his lift. Since I’m a generous guy and you can squeeze two cars into a spot I let him park behind so he wouldn’t have to roast in the parking lot. We then did our obligatory race dinner at the local strip mall Mexican restaurant where the Rev. Al Taylor Esq. entertained us with his usual adventures in hoboism, and Brian Jones showed us his malformed elbow and attempted to buy liquor for high school girls. We retired for the evening at the luxurious (for track accommodations) Embassy Suites. It seems that when there isn’t a race going on Concord, NC has a lot of extra hotel space they aren’t afraid to let go cheap. Dave White rolled in around 11 with a night offering of 24 oz. PBR Tallboys. Not really the nightcap I needed since we had to be up at 5:30 ish to make our driver’s meeting and free breakfast.
[These are the things that actually make racing fun for me. I could sit around a table and listen to these characters BS and tell lies for hours at a time. Honestly, Al should have a spoken word album or something. I can attempt to describe him but it doesn’t scratch the surface of what he is like in person.]
Al was the only one of our crowd that had actually driven at Lowe’s before, and he was determined to make the most of it. He had a ‘new’ motor (as in used low mileage), a new paint job, and an Al first - NEW tires. No one had ever seen Al run new tires. He was clearly gunning for a strong finish. We lined up for practice and got ready to do a few yellow ‘orientation’ laps. The banking and NASCAR portions of the track are pretty straightforward, the infield road section not so much. It is like a parking lot with some stripes on it ‘suggesting’ the course. Once we did a few laps it all became clear, and actually was surprisingly tricky, much more so than what we had at Rockingham. I was right in front of Al as we pulled out but I let him go by after the yellow laps so I could follow and learn any of his tricks. As we got on the banking doing about 110+ I’m firmly attached to Al’s bumper and suddenly my windshield is filled with brown liquid. I immediately think Al’s car has blown up and I’ll soon be spinning into a wall. After that initial reaction I realize I’m not spinning but I can’t see. Reluctant to hit the windshield wipers since if it is oil it will just smear it around and make it harder to see, I’m left with no choice. Hmm, it just appears to be brownish water. Well with Al this could be anything from catastrophic failure to some type of amateurish smoke screen device or worse since he literally had to wet his suit and seat in a Lemons race after being in the car for apprx 15 mins... I go around him and continue to learn the track. As we’re pulling in I see Al and some corner worker dude pushing his car back towards the garages.
Racing is a cruel mistress and she had chosen Al and his big dreams to crush this time. He smelled rubber and thinking it was one of his new tires rubbing body work he didn’t slow down. Turns out it was a belt that came apart leading to a coolant hose exploding. Since he kept running a lap longer than he should of the engine effectively melted itself together. This would suck for anyone, but its extra suckage for Al, since he drives his car to and from the event. Thankfully he was able to get former SE30 driver Travis Wilson to come and grab him with his truck and trailer. Travis retired from racing on the Craig Geegar scholarship for nannies in training. He talked a big game about his impending return to the grid, we’ll see…. JP Coates also made a heroic appearance apparently taking a ‘long lunch’ from work to visit.
Travis coming to the rescue - cue Sanford and Son theme..
Qualifying was eventful, I started in first place but fell asleep at the switch and Johan Schwartz jumped in front. Content to follow him for a bit he had a 944 (or miata I forget some h0m0 car) hit and spin him out I was forced to mow the Lowe’s lawn to avoid hitting him in the driver’s door. With that out of the way and my toughest competition wrecked, I figured to start from pole. I came in a lap or two early and Robert Patton using Craig’s draft was able to nip me by a few tenths of a second. Getting a timing sheet when you think you’ll be on pole and finding you’re not is like opening a xmas present you “know” is exactly what you wanted and finding out its socks instead.
Starting in second was good enough, I had a rare poor start and Geegar mustering his every ounce of mojo (and probably cheating the start) pulled past 4 cars to wind up in 1st place. Another spinning 944 in the very narrow and very scary entry to turn 1 that bumped / hit me and then I bumped / hit Patton slowed us down further. Johan came screaming up from the back of the pack and got by, I settled down to closing the gap and getting back lost positions. Following Johan we caught back up to Craig who was clearly in “I’m in first place cruising mode”. He saw us coming and tried to get back on his game, but that allowed us to get in tight and using the draft I bumped Johan past and hoped to follow. I couldn’t make it happen that lap but eventually got around Craig and kept chasing Johan. We had a thunder roadster get in front of us and he balked Johan in the banking on the final lap. I kept my foot in it and we had a legit photo finish as we both split the roadster to cross the line. Johan ended up winning by like .003 seconds. But it was a great race and lots of fun. I awarded myself first place amateur division. With Skeen and now with Johan we’re facing guys that a) do some type of motorsports for a living and b) have tons of kart experience. You know the guys that race F1, they all raced go-karts since they could reach pedals. Johan FREAKING owns a karting company called EnduranceKarting.com , it actually looks pretty cool, one of these days I’ll get around to trying it out. I’m a once a month guy like the National Guard, these guys are like Navy Seals training day in and day out. Not really apples to apples.
WHAT a 944 spinning out, no way!
The second race used our finishing position so it was Johan, Me, Craig. I changed tires and managed to screw up a car that had been working well for me. Johan just drove away after the start and I struggled to keep up and keep Craig behind me. Craig was content to sit back and bump me on the NASCAR portions so that we could both make time. This was pretty cool, but once Craig caught me with the wheels a little cocked coming out of the banking at probably close to 125-130 mph. He smacked me and the back end started to wiggle back and forth while I closed my eyes and silently cried. When I opened them back up I was – due to my remarkable car control – still in a straight line but a little frazzled. Eventually Craig got by and I tried to get my heart rate back down to 200 bpm and stay close to make a move. Traffic intervened and it wasn’t to be so I had to settle for a lackluster – but safe and sound – 3rd place.
Too much bump drafting.
Dave White woke up around noon and came for lunch and our enduro race. Since it was only 1hr 30min. we didn’t plan on doing a driver change. He would go from start to finish. There was a small field but Dave did what he does and knocked out quick laps. We took the victory, keeping us solidly in 1st place overall for the SE enduro championship and the E2 class lead.
For some reason every 4th of July we run the Peachtree Road Race. This is a 10k foot race that I believe might be one of the largest in the country. I always comment on what a bad idea this is since neither Christine nor our friends, the Garretts, are what you’d call “avid runners”. In fact I avidly avoid running, since I hate it. It was an even worse idea after doing physical labor, racing all day, and getting home late at night after driving back from Charlotte. As far as I can determine we do it so we can go out for breakfast at the Waffle House afterwards, but as I’ve also mentioned a few times before I don’t really need to run 6.2 miles to eat waffles. I’ve tried training for it and I run it in around 1 hour and 10 mins. I’ve tried not training for it and I run it in like an 1 hour and 15 mins. I went with the ‘no training’ efficient route this time and knocked out my 1 hour and 15 min pace. I look at this like a mini cardiac stress test. If I can run 6 miles in the heat with no practice and not wake up in a hospital or die I must be healthy. Mission accomplished. We mixed it up this year and went to the Original House of Pancakes where I had an Apple Baby the size of a dinner plate. Mmmmm.
I then celebrated by unpacking the truck and trailer and taking a nap like an old person.
Happy Birthday America!
FYI thanks to the internet I can steal all these photos from other sites since I'm too lazy to shoot video or take pictures myself. If I use one, thanks in advance if you want I'll buy you a soda or something.
When Bad Things Happen to Bad People
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
(Editorial note: this is pretty half a$$ed in terms of narrative, it is more a stream of consciousness’ rendition of events, but hey it’s a start)
First off to put things in perspective, I have my health, a decent job, all four limbs. So this isn’t the type of story that is going to make Extreme Home Makeovers there are people much worse off than I am – go see Slumdog Millionaire or something if you like that stuff. Also this isn’t some type of desperate plead for sympathy either, if anything it is more of an excuse on my p!ss poor updates lately. At one point on our way from Virginia to Atlanta Craig stated “God hates you.” He isn't the first to chalk most of my bad luck up to karma, but really at this point I’m not sure even that can account for the ankle biting madness that surrounds me since I'm just thoughtless and insulting vs. actually a serial killer - maybe in a previous life.
Strangely though I have a soft spot for dogs, I've never met one I didn't like. And I can't watch any movie that even remotely pertains to dogs dying. Like 8 below, it was a Disney picture not really hard core drama, couldn't make even 15 min. in, pretty soft I know. One of my good friends recently had to put his dog to sleep (we miss you Norm) right before a lot of this happened and I can't say that didn't weigh on my mind as we continue(d) our struggles with our dog Indy. IF you have a pet and haven't already, please look into getting pet insurance. We're lucky enough to have the means to afford (so far) all the various surgeries and medicines however I'd hate to ever be in a position where my financial condition dictates how I care for my pets. We didn't know it was an option when we got our dogs and I can safely say we've managed to spend more on our dogs than on my racecar and that is saying something. Our one vet who has become a friend was kind enough to point out that I could have gone to vet school for what we've spent surgery. Anyway enough about that.
I’ll try and condense the past 3 months into a few quick pictures and captions:
March – motor breaks unexplainably thus negating 3-4 months of work and putting the car back to where we started in December.
April – car goes to BimmerWorld for what, I had planned to be, “finishing touches” like safety stuff, paint, and fancy decals. They get it ½ done and I go up for a race and test drive at VIR, we confirm “Yep motor’s still broke”. Everyone inexplicitly shakes their head and says never heard anything like that before.
A rare site - an E30 coming off a pro team stacker transport!
An awesome track and fun time, especially since I got to drive Brendan’s car (we made some progress dropping nearly 5 seconds off his previously fastest time there). I’m second in the B-mod national championship hunt!
Fancy decal place semi-goes out of business. Engine comes out of the car stalling progress on fancy data / gauge solution, also means windows are stuck in permanent ‘down’ position. My truck overheats the day before a planned trip up to BW to pick the car up requiring a shuffling of plans. Mechanic states that this water pump failure is “uncommon”.
Craig and I make a pilgrimage up to BimmerWorld HQ the next weekend to see just how a pro racing team lives (the answer is they live much like I did in college). On the way home it is raining so hard that people are stopping on the highway and visibility is about zero. Since the windows are stuck down it is now raining inside of my ‘new’ car, complete with awesome new seat, and fancy new electronic dash. I’m imagining my car looking like an aquarium. It is here that Craig made his theological observations.
My wife takes our dogs to spring break 2009 and our one dog develops an odd sore on his leg. She goes to the vet and finds after 8 months his body appears to be rejecting a plate from his previous knee surgery.
Spring Break 2009 - Who let the dogs out!
He goes to the vet, who sends us to the surgeon. They take x-rays, plate needs to come out, bone might have a tumor. Surgeon says that less than 5% of dogs have this problem. Surgery goes well, biopsies go to the lab. We wait, I carry 90 lbs dog out into the yard every time he needs to pee, we don’t sleep much. Dog hates wearing goofy collar manages to take out stitches while we’re somehow not looking, new vet lectures me.
The big dog rolls in the grass after being carried outside.
May – car resumes its (rightful?) position in Craig’s garage. We do bare minimum to the engine to get it ready to go back in. Craig loans Dave White and I his car for CMP enduro race. We win and eat Mexican food. Brendan and Ted prep my old engine to go back in the car, I get sick with some type of mini-swine flu (despite first ever flu shot).
Dave White, the very pregnant trophy girl, and I, all hoping that black is as slimming as they say it is.
Dog results come back kind of, he has some type of crazy staph infection that requires 7 days of injections with an antibiotic that can cause kidney failure and hearing loss, also might have a fungal infection in the bone, but not cancer - still might have to cut leg off though. Surgeon and regular vet tell us the rarity of these types of things, especially the fungus. Christine becomes really good at collecting urine samples with those disposable Tupperware containers.
The Barber enduro is cancelled and we all sigh with relief since that gives us more time to finish things up. Barber enduro is back on, and we spend Memorial Day weekend pulling 8 hour days while Craig tries not to get divorced from his pregnant wife who is tired of us ‘visiting’ their house. Second lab result comes back, fungus isn’t in bone, but is present and needs anti-fungal medication that is very expensive 2 months worth, oh yeah by the way this will hurt his liver so we need to monitor that. Good news is full recovery expected, we sigh relief. Few days later dogs ear swells up with a hematoma (basically a huge fluid filled bruise, like wrestler’s cauliflower ear). They can’t fix it since his liver is stressed from the medicine so he walks around with a painful water balloon thing hanging from his head. He is miserable, oddly this is a common condition in Weims and the first time he has been ‘typical’ – regretfully so.
Is that a sausage in your ear or are you just happy to see me?
We get the car running, Brendan is now sick, I leave the car at RWL for him to finish a few things at work to make sure we’re ready for Barber. Since I felt that running the full weekend at Barber would be pressing my luck on a car that is almost 80% new and untested parts, I plan to just show up for the “enduro” race on Saturday. The “enduro” is now just an hour long, meaning it is a total joke, and a transparent ploy to get more money for NASA on what is a money losing event. Since I hate Barber and short enduro’s I complain a lot about this to no avail. See my feelings and description of Barber Motorsport’s Park here.
I pick up the car, and Brendan, bright and early Saturday morning. It is warm already and looks to be getting hotter, but at least no rain. We fiddle faddle with a few last minute things and load the car up for the trip to scenic Leeds, AL. The trip is 2 hours door to door and since we gain an hour with the Central time zone we’re there around 9am. We go to the gate to register and are told the entry fee is $30 a piece. Incredulously I inform them I’m racing in the event. The lady tells us it is $30 each, and please sign the waiver. This is kind of like your local county fair charging a $100 to get in; I’m $60 lighter just to entertain the ‘fans’. That spoils my good mood and brings back my “I hate Barber mindset”. I go to register with the NASA folks and they’re nice enough to refund me at least $30 for my entrance fee.
We still need to put stickers on the car, I had deliberately waited on this since I knew that Scott Mc MiniMe would be on hand. He is a true graphic artist (not like Craig who simply pretends). He is also really good at putting stickers on, however the festivities from last night have dampened his enthusiasm for working on my car gratis. I cajole him into the bigger harder stickers, but am left to fend for myself on the remaining. See the picture and see if you can guess who did what.
Don't worry it isn't finished this is just the 'interim' step.
Since we’re in first place overall (which defies explanation since there are much faster cars in the series) I should be starting on pole – meaning first guy in line. NASA, in a further attempt to stop the monetary bleeding, has let another group share the track with us, and they drive “Radicals”. (Really fast go-kart type cars with some flimsy bodywork on them.) They are a) very fast and b) incredibly hard to see in your mirrors due to being so low to the ground.
What is really radical about these cars is how bad the drivers are!
The race directors determine for safety to start them first. That means I’m now starting 16th. No problem, since these guys aren’t technically racing anyway. We manage to get most everything buttoned up and I go to the ‘gird’ where cars are parked in their starting order before proceeding out on track. There are numerous volunteers that work with the officials to get people in the right spots. The first girl confirms I’m looking for spot 16, I pull forward and the next guy motions me to the left row, I can’t see the numbers at this point so I follow his directions. As I pull forward I see that I’m not in the correct row and I need to be one over. The grid isn’t designed for parking lot maneuvers and you have a lot of people and cars moving around. I yell for help and a guy comes over. I mention the dilemma and he acknowledges and goes to talk to the head starter person. They chat for awhile and he goes back to staring at the sky. I yell again, he remembers me but doesn’t seem to have the answer for getting me to my spot. He walks off again. I holler one more time and he motions me into a blank spot #35. I’m thinking he is going to use this as a ‘conduit’ to the next row so I pull up. He is looking both ways to make sure I’m clear to advance. That is when the cars start to pull off the grid to begin the race. I’ve dropped from 1 to 19 before the first lap. I express my frustration on the radio and to the gentleman as I drive past.
"The Grid" imagine full of cars with me at the back instead of the front. I learned what Craig has felt like all this time..
Thankfully the race is uneventful despite being very crowded with fast cars / slow drivers that you can’t see in your mirrors and I manage to get past all of our serious competition and avoid manslaughter charges for killing any go-kart racers. Official results have me in third place, but we’ve lodged a protest since it appears that the top 2 finishers in our class didn’t do the mandatory 5 gallon fuel pitstop. So we may actually have won, we’ll see. I don’t have my hopes set very high since ‘unorganized mess’ is the best description I can come up with on how things are being run lately.
Is this the karma they're speaking of?
We’re home by 6pm. Sunday rolls around and it seems warm upstairs in the house. I check the upstairs Air Conditioner and it clearly isn’t working. I try the AC repair tricks I know (very few) and nothing works. Monday and I call the AC guy to come out and check. He says “Well here is your problem --- Good thing the house didn’t burn down, I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Well at least the car starts now.
