Month: February 2009

Daytona 378

What was up with ending the race after a bit of rain eh? Come on NASCAR I have waited longer than 30+ minutes for the restart of a race. The Daytona 500 is like the Superbowl of races. What you did was like stopping the football game at half time. I am disappointed that you seem to have become another organization that has turned into a politically correct namby pamby group.
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The last laps could have been run today if waiting did not work out. But to call it so early? Think about the SuperBowl if the game were called early with 4 minutes to go. The ? Arizona Cardinals would be the Champs, but no, with their SUPER BOWL they get to finish. I am left wondering if Harvick would have passed Matt or maybe one of the others? We will never know. I am no meteorologist but I even could tell looking at the reports that the rain might last an hour or so and clear up – which it did.
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I have an idea – lets finish the biggest race of the year instead of calling it because of a few raindrops. And could Fox please oh please get rid of the Digger cartoons? The idea is cute but talk about over kill. I think I saw more cutesy commentaries, vignettes, and cartoons than I did racing. Like many things NASCAR has gotten greedy. It used to be about racing to finish and now it is about the bling.
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The hype of three hour pre-race shows , the inconsistently of rules (who you apply them too) and the need to say and do everything politically correct have made this sort of a joke. I will be seen more at our local dirt tracks and less sitting on my couch hoping you decide to finish the race.
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Congratulations to Matt on the win you and your team managed to get yourself in the right spot at the right time and deserve the title of Champion regardless of all the above ranting.

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Waking UP

As I opened my eyes the day began. I lay in bed and did what I call a function test. I wiggled my toes, looked across the room to make sure my eyes were still working, and slowly slid to the side of the bed and stood up.
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I made my way to the bathroom and found my toothbrush. Just putting a dab of toothpaste along it bristles I started brushing. Moving on to the pill box and then downstairs to the coffee pot I am slowly waking up.
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Cup in hand I go back upstairs and get dressed for the day. I found my blue socks and pulled them up. They have a small yellow sun along the top edge. Next after the under garments I sat on the bed and pulled on my black Levi jeans and zipped them up. A wiggled into my Dale Earnhardt tee shirt, stood up and found my Nike skate type shoes with the large laces. I so love large laces as they tie easier. On the way back downstairs I grabbed my long sleeve denim Earnhardt shirt.
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The wind is really blowing rattling the windows and occasionally I can hear the noise of items toppling outside, scrapping the ground as the are swept up and dragged away in the gusts. The door upstairs slams shut. Outside the air smells of rain the odor that comes from wet dirt and road mixed with a whiff of something familiar that brings back a recollection of a wet fishing trip.
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I turn the television on and start watching reports on the snow fall and the next stage of the bicycle race. I have to chuckle wondering what Richards Sharp did to end up with the Blue Canyon reporting detail. As they list off areas with power outages I hope that ours stays on long enough to watch the NASCAR race. While listening to the reporter I get a bowl from the cupboard, put some in some water, micro wave it, and pour in an instant pack of maple flavored oatmeal.
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Back in the living room in front of the television eating my oatmeal and tossing toys for the dogs to fetch I think life is good.

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My Hero’s Have Always Been Racers

I  started out the day thinking about going downtown and watching the bicycle time trials. The air was chilly and it looked like rain. I stayed home and played around on the computer most of the day.



Catfish spent the day on the couch watching Annie who is in major hyper mode because she hates going out in the rain. Go figure, a lab that dislikes the water. She did go out long enough to bring in her witch tennis ball – a ball covered for Halloween with a witches hat and orange cover sewn over it. It was so soggy that I finally took it away from her and gave her a new bright green minty flavored ball to replace it with.



Tomorrow is the Daytona 500. I should probably not admit this but I am so a NASCAR fan. I have watched since the 70’s when ABC’s Wide World of Sports had highlights o the races. The only sports hero (I guess that is the proper term) I ever had was Dale Earnhardt. I do consider Lance Armstrong up here but I have never collected his memorabilia like I did with Earnhardt. In my younger days I was known to have put in a few laps around a track myself legally and illegally :0 DOH.


I don’t have one driver a root for anymore but I do have my favorites (Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Dale Jr. are a few). Mostly I have least favorites – drivers I so dislike that I sometimes chant anybody but . … I don’t care if they win every Series until the end of time – THE BUSCH BROTHERS SUCK! Kurt gets caught driving drunk and Kyle is just a cry baby.


I hope the race is exciting and no one gets hurt.

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Bail Me Out

I sometimes just get PO’d when I see or hear something. Especially when I hear it over and over again. What is with bailing out the “poor” uninformed saps that got themselves over their heads with a messed up mortgage? I mean I am sorry you did not take the time to read the dang deal or think about the consequence of a balloon payment but really why when we need the dollars so badly does this government feel the need to bail you or your mortgage company’s asses out? And then that bit is followed about a piece on deals for first time home owners. I have no problem with that but – what about us poor dumbos that did it right? You know, paid off our mortgages through the years, did not fall for a refinance trap with a balloon payment or payments we knew we could not afford?

Now some of us are stuck in a bad market in neighborhoods that have gone to the gangs and varmint’s etc. but does the government say hey, you know what you did what was thought in standard circles  to be right so we will help you and toss you some bucks too! NOT!!! No special rates or deals for us to get the heck out of our hoods. Which by the way we are still in because we did not jump at the first mortgage offer or buy something we know we could not afford.

Yes the housing situation sucks and something needs to be done but rewarding the folks who through ignorance or maybe hopeful thinking decided to get in way over their heads is not right. I am so tired of getting the short stick because I don’t know or choose to use the sytem, nor do I make stupid mortgage deals.

Because the bank that issued my credit card was careless and lost big time I get to deal with their crazy attempts at getting an extra buck out of me, some are even lowerering peoples limits, raiseing fees, . … I am sure I will get to pay extra for their screw ups too.  Bail outs, bail outs, bail outs, who is gonna bail me out?

Ok enough comment on if you wish. I don’t get it. Sometimes I wonder why we don’t take out a new mortgage and then say F it and not pay – I mean then we could afford to rent somewhere in a nice neighborhood cause we could take the money and pay off the credit cards and fix the cars  – God I hate morals and having them.