I know that we all get frustrated, and feel like there's no hope at times, but today is a new high for me personally. When your child calls and you can hear the hurt and frustration in his voice, it tears you up!!!
Let me start by stating unequivocally that if you are easily offended by talk about minorities, Obama's presidency, or any other touchy subject that no one is supposed to address in these Politically Correct times, close this window right now. Do NOT continue reading this blog. I have at no time said what I REALLY wanted to say, but the meaning is clear nonetheless.
Secondly; this blog reflects my opinions and feelings. Mine and mine alone! None of my family, friends, employers, co-workers or anyone else had any input into this in any way shape or form and most likely will be ashamed of even knowing me after reading it!! If, after reading it you are offended despite my clear and uncomplicated warning, TOUGH!!!! You were warned.
As a few of you already know, several weeks ago my youngest son's vehicle was hit by a male person of Mexican heritage. This caused my son's every day driver to be totaled! As I understand it, the driver could not even speak enough English to communicate with the officer that responded. And the person translating for him was slightly more fluent in our language, but only slightly.
Claiming to have insurance, he was given a ticket and let go. Of course, he had either let the insurance lapse or cancelled it shortly after obtaining his drivers license. Again, this is supposition on my part, but judging from past happenings, it is an educated guess.
The previous happenings I speak of include the first time that my youngest had a car totaled by another male of Mexican heritage who had done exactly that; got insurance, got his drivers license and then cancelled the insurance immediately. That time the car that got totaled was a 1970 Impala 2-door hardtop that we were working on restoring slowly as money came available. Right before the accident I had gotten a couple of thousand dollars work done on the steering of the vehicle to ensure it was safe for him to drive daily. Well, that went out of the window in a flash. He had only liability on the vehicle and all his insurance paid for were his medical bills.
We had thought that possibly he could go after the company whose van the male was driving. Guess again!! It's just a group of Mexican males who hire out to do carpeting. Subcontractors as it were. My son's attorney told him he would be getting nothing. Even if he got a judgement it would do no good as he would never collect a dime.
So, this time it was deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra said. Another vehicle totaled and no recourse to recoup anything, other than by scrapping his vehicle and getting a couple of hundred dollars out of it. Anyone out there know of a good, reliable vehicle that can be gotten for a couple of hundred dollars??? I feel like some damned body owes us something for all we've given out!! I have a friend who keeps preaching to me about karma. Okay Gary, where the F*^# is the karma now??
I am so sick and tired of good, hard-working Americans doing the right thing and shelling out more and more every year so that the people who sneak across the borders or do nothing but sit home and collect Welfare, WIC, Food Stamps, free health care, free housing, etc. can just do whatever they want at our expense. Yeah, yeah...I know...they just want a better life. Well damnit, so do I!!!
Hey, Obama, where the hell is my hand-out? How about something from all of the dollars that I've donated to the federal coffers over the past 48 years?? How about giving my son a new car, or paying his mortgage? What about free daycare for the daughter that they are expecting in November? Where is the break for the people who do everything right and just get crapped on by life??
When is enough enough??
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
50th season opener at Eagle is in the books
I apologize for not getting this up last Sunday when I wrote it. I SWORE that I hit publish, but evidently not.
Well, the wife and I are back working at Eagle Raceway. We worked a practice night Thursday and then the first actual racing Saturday night.
I was really pleased and surprised at the size of the crowd; it was REALLY good, considering that the temps got down to the mid-40's by the time the racing ended a little after 11. Yes, I know that's late, but when you have 164 cars in the pits, it's going to take some time to get all of the races run. I guess that's the price that Roger pays for being a good promoter.
I'll be honest here and say that it was TOUGH getting back into the swing of things, even after having a bit of a free trial Thursday. Thank God Michelle had someone come up to handle the IMCA licenses and a lot of the minor registrations!! I was really worried about being able to keep track of the racing, get it down in a manageable format to allow me to write the story for the website, but it looks like I made it through with only minor hitches along the way. The story is up on the website and e-mailed to those who requested it and the media outlets as well.
As for the evening's events, I'd say that it was a great night. The track started out a little dusty, but the moisture ended up coming up and the track went dry-slick. I personally prefer a dry-slick track, because as the sprint winner Jeff Edgerington said "you have to drive on a dry-slick track". You can't just stomp and steer. Yes, there were ruts in the track, but that comes from the wet weather we've had lately. Most of the drivers I interviewed agreed; the ones who actually knew about such things did anyway.
Of course, one of the big stories of the night was the new sprint car class having it's first races at Eagle. We only got 16 cars, which is about the same as we were getting in the 360's last year, but I thought the racing was pretty damned good! In the feature defending 360 sprint car champion Mike Boston got in a car for someone else because his motor wasn't ready yet. He won his heat and got DQéd for being too light at the scales, so he started at the back of the feature. He ran up to second before losing the nose wing from his car and being sent to the back. Well, as you would expect from Mike, he ran that thing back to second and actually took the lead for a short time right at the end. His banzai move put him out front, but he slid up and Jeff took the lead back and held on for the win.
I'd say that the 305 Racesaver class has a real future at Eagle; at least I sure hope so. Rumor has it that we lost 1 of the new drivers who decided to give the class a shot because he can't handle the sprint (he hit the wall both Thursday and Saturday). I surely hope not, because we need all of the cars we can get to be sure this class goes over. Then there's the case of the young ladies in the class. They both did VERY well!!! Given that neither of them has ever raced a sprint car before (at least not a full-sized one), I'd say that they did very well. Shayle Bade ran 5th and Lacey Tuttle grabbed 6th in their inaugural feature.
All in all, a good night. A long night, and a tiring night, but a good one.
Here is the link to my write-up of the events and the full results: http://www.eagleraceway.com/EagleRaceway/?p=4383
Well, the wife and I are back working at Eagle Raceway. We worked a practice night Thursday and then the first actual racing Saturday night.
I was really pleased and surprised at the size of the crowd; it was REALLY good, considering that the temps got down to the mid-40's by the time the racing ended a little after 11. Yes, I know that's late, but when you have 164 cars in the pits, it's going to take some time to get all of the races run. I guess that's the price that Roger pays for being a good promoter.
I'll be honest here and say that it was TOUGH getting back into the swing of things, even after having a bit of a free trial Thursday. Thank God Michelle had someone come up to handle the IMCA licenses and a lot of the minor registrations!! I was really worried about being able to keep track of the racing, get it down in a manageable format to allow me to write the story for the website, but it looks like I made it through with only minor hitches along the way. The story is up on the website and e-mailed to those who requested it and the media outlets as well.
As for the evening's events, I'd say that it was a great night. The track started out a little dusty, but the moisture ended up coming up and the track went dry-slick. I personally prefer a dry-slick track, because as the sprint winner Jeff Edgerington said "you have to drive on a dry-slick track". You can't just stomp and steer. Yes, there were ruts in the track, but that comes from the wet weather we've had lately. Most of the drivers I interviewed agreed; the ones who actually knew about such things did anyway.
Of course, one of the big stories of the night was the new sprint car class having it's first races at Eagle. We only got 16 cars, which is about the same as we were getting in the 360's last year, but I thought the racing was pretty damned good! In the feature defending 360 sprint car champion Mike Boston got in a car for someone else because his motor wasn't ready yet. He won his heat and got DQéd for being too light at the scales, so he started at the back of the feature. He ran up to second before losing the nose wing from his car and being sent to the back. Well, as you would expect from Mike, he ran that thing back to second and actually took the lead for a short time right at the end. His banzai move put him out front, but he slid up and Jeff took the lead back and held on for the win.
I'd say that the 305 Racesaver class has a real future at Eagle; at least I sure hope so. Rumor has it that we lost 1 of the new drivers who decided to give the class a shot because he can't handle the sprint (he hit the wall both Thursday and Saturday). I surely hope not, because we need all of the cars we can get to be sure this class goes over. Then there's the case of the young ladies in the class. They both did VERY well!!! Given that neither of them has ever raced a sprint car before (at least not a full-sized one), I'd say that they did very well. Shayle Bade ran 5th and Lacey Tuttle grabbed 6th in their inaugural feature.
All in all, a good night. A long night, and a tiring night, but a good one.
Here is the link to my write-up of the events and the full results: http://www.eagleraceway.com/EagleRaceway/?p=4383
Sunday, February 3, 2013
My apologies
I have to apologize to those of you who read my blog. I haven't posted in nearly 9 months.
Between Mom living with us, Linda's health problems and then Mom passing away, I haven't felt at all like writing anything. No articles for Flat Out, no blogs, NOTHING!! More on that a little later on.
Then, to top it all off, the pissing match between Eagle Raceway's owners and a few of the 360 sprint car people last season ended up getting me wet. I don't know if it was the stress of everything already going on or what, but I ended up leaving Eagle Raceway. Quite unceremoniously I might add. I posted on Dirt Drivers, and that was that.
The owner called me the next week saying "You can't do this to me!". I told him "Yes, I can and I did". Oh, I told him how sorry I was, but that I needed to be with my mother since she had a short time to live. I know that he understood, but it really hurt me to have done it. It still hurts to this day that I did it. I hope that Roger and Michelle can forgive me.
Thankfully, they were silly enough to want me to come back this season. After a long talk with Linda, we decided to both go back. We miss all of the folks at Eagle, more than I can tell you in fact. I suppose we owe going back, partly at least, to Kevin Anderson. Kevin bought us tickets to the Eagle Raceway banquet with the express intent of making me want to go back. Well, it worked Kevin; and thank you!
Going back to my last blog before this; Linda ended up not having heart problems. It ended up that one of the medications that she was taking was messing her up very badly. So, she stopped taking the medications and VOILA!! no more heart problem symptoms.
Mom passed away September 16, 2012. We went to bed the night before and when Linda got up the next morning Mom was gone. 89 1/2 years of vibrant life ended quietly in her sleep. Hard work all of her life, tempered with lots of fun left a legacy that all of those who knew her will treasure.
That brings us to today. As I mentioned above, I haven't written diddly squat since....well, it seems like forever but has really only been less than a year. It's been a LONG time since I contributed to Flat Out, but I'm changing that. Today I got around to working on an article for them. No, I won't divulge who it is. You're going to have to wait to find that out.
I'm also working on something for Eagle Raceway. This is the 50th Anniversary of Eagle's opening season, and I was commissioned to do something about the first 50 years.
That made me think about an idea that I had 2 years ago. I had the idea that a book about Eagle would be a great idea. As I told Dave Argabright "I've lost 2 home tracks already; Capitol Beach and Midwest Speedway with no evidence to preserve their memories and I don't want that happening to Eagle". Yes, Ryan Tunks has the Midwest Preservation Website, but you all know what I mean.
So, that little thought that rattled around in my head for 2 years has bounced back to the front again. I posted about it on Facebook, and the responses were all positive. The people think I should do it. But!! I'm pretty sure that they have no idea what all is involved; both monetarily and time wise. I figure about a year (or more) of research, followed by probably 6 months of writing. Then, I need to find a publisher willing to put the thing out. There it has to be proof-read, I need to make changes, then re-read. After that it has to go to an editor who will tear it apart as they see fit, send it back to me for more changes, then I send it back. Wash, rinse, repeat.
All of that costs quite a bit of moolah, and that's just the beginning. Next comes the price of the actual publishing. I did get a price from one company who said that for an 8 1/2 X 11" book with 50 pictures would be around $4000 for the first 250 copies!! Guess I need to find a third job; but, if I do that, I won't have time to write the book. Heck, between my "Real Job"and working at Eagle, plus making sure that Linda is taken care of, I'm not sure where I'll find the time now!!
Anyway, that catches you all up on what's been happening with me.
As always, please feel free to comment on this (or any other) blog.
Between Mom living with us, Linda's health problems and then Mom passing away, I haven't felt at all like writing anything. No articles for Flat Out, no blogs, NOTHING!! More on that a little later on.
Then, to top it all off, the pissing match between Eagle Raceway's owners and a few of the 360 sprint car people last season ended up getting me wet. I don't know if it was the stress of everything already going on or what, but I ended up leaving Eagle Raceway. Quite unceremoniously I might add. I posted on Dirt Drivers, and that was that.
The owner called me the next week saying "You can't do this to me!". I told him "Yes, I can and I did". Oh, I told him how sorry I was, but that I needed to be with my mother since she had a short time to live. I know that he understood, but it really hurt me to have done it. It still hurts to this day that I did it. I hope that Roger and Michelle can forgive me.
Thankfully, they were silly enough to want me to come back this season. After a long talk with Linda, we decided to both go back. We miss all of the folks at Eagle, more than I can tell you in fact. I suppose we owe going back, partly at least, to Kevin Anderson. Kevin bought us tickets to the Eagle Raceway banquet with the express intent of making me want to go back. Well, it worked Kevin; and thank you!
Going back to my last blog before this; Linda ended up not having heart problems. It ended up that one of the medications that she was taking was messing her up very badly. So, she stopped taking the medications and VOILA!! no more heart problem symptoms.
Mom passed away September 16, 2012. We went to bed the night before and when Linda got up the next morning Mom was gone. 89 1/2 years of vibrant life ended quietly in her sleep. Hard work all of her life, tempered with lots of fun left a legacy that all of those who knew her will treasure.
That brings us to today. As I mentioned above, I haven't written diddly squat since....well, it seems like forever but has really only been less than a year. It's been a LONG time since I contributed to Flat Out, but I'm changing that. Today I got around to working on an article for them. No, I won't divulge who it is. You're going to have to wait to find that out.
I'm also working on something for Eagle Raceway. This is the 50th Anniversary of Eagle's opening season, and I was commissioned to do something about the first 50 years.
That made me think about an idea that I had 2 years ago. I had the idea that a book about Eagle would be a great idea. As I told Dave Argabright "I've lost 2 home tracks already; Capitol Beach and Midwest Speedway with no evidence to preserve their memories and I don't want that happening to Eagle". Yes, Ryan Tunks has the Midwest Preservation Website, but you all know what I mean.
So, that little thought that rattled around in my head for 2 years has bounced back to the front again. I posted about it on Facebook, and the responses were all positive. The people think I should do it. But!! I'm pretty sure that they have no idea what all is involved; both monetarily and time wise. I figure about a year (or more) of research, followed by probably 6 months of writing. Then, I need to find a publisher willing to put the thing out. There it has to be proof-read, I need to make changes, then re-read. After that it has to go to an editor who will tear it apart as they see fit, send it back to me for more changes, then I send it back. Wash, rinse, repeat.
All of that costs quite a bit of moolah, and that's just the beginning. Next comes the price of the actual publishing. I did get a price from one company who said that for an 8 1/2 X 11" book with 50 pictures would be around $4000 for the first 250 copies!! Guess I need to find a third job; but, if I do that, I won't have time to write the book. Heck, between my "Real Job"and working at Eagle, plus making sure that Linda is taken care of, I'm not sure where I'll find the time now!!
Anyway, that catches you all up on what's been happening with me.
As always, please feel free to comment on this (or any other) blog.
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