Trying to survive driving a sports car in a mini-van world

I work mainly from home now unless I am off making sales calls so I don't drive nearly as many miles as I used to. I am very habitual so I have a mainly 5 square mile area that I drive in and not every day. Sometimes I swear it is the most treacherous area that I have ever driven. I have decided it's is because we have moved into a family neighborhood in town and most of the vehicles out there on the road are mini-van's. I have a very relaxed attitude while driving, even when on the track I try and stay very relaxed. Most mini van drivers appear to be living and driving on their last nerve. Smoking like a train, texting, yelling at their kids or ignoring them all with a catatonic look on their face. The stressed out catatonic ones are the drivers that worry me the most. They are just blindly trying to get to their destination without having a nervous breakdown. I am absolutely positive that they have no idea what is going on around them on the road. It's like their sub-conscious is doing the driving. Changing lanes, running yellow lights, sitting in the turn lane until the light turns yellow and then deciding to go, doing u turns pulling out into traffic. All while hauling around a gaggle of children in the back of a vehicle that truly needs a plexi-glass sound proofed partition between them and their passengers. I grew up in the mid-west. Small town farming America. I honestly think most of the women there are better equipped to haul around kids and drive in traffic. They grew up driving stick shift 4 wheel drives, big tractors pulling farm implements, grain trucks, pulling stock and horse trailers. Driving around town with a load a screaming kids is a piece of cake for these gals. I only hope that I can manage to make it to retirement age without getting killed by a catatonic driver who has no idea that he has cut me off and forced me off the road into a tree.

what I think

As race drivers we all know that accidents happen. Sooner or later no matter how prepared, skillful, young, old, Going fast or slow, an accident is going to be happen and injuries and even deaths occur. Does that mean that we are going to stop racing. Nope. Accidents and injuries and deaths occur in every type of sporting event enjoyed around the world today. I wasn’t sure I would write this article, but so many of my non racing friends have asked me about the recent unfortunate death of Izod IRL driver Dan Wheldon, that I decided it may be worth a few pages to explain why humans enjoy our sports enough to put ourselves at risk.

Actually studies show that sports participants are safer even in the most dangerous of sports, than the average pedestrian walking across the street. Some of my friends actually asked me why we participate in such treacherous activity. I wanted to say if you have to ask you wouldn’t understand to begin with, but I’ll try and explain that here also. Most talented athletes, and yes race car drivers are athletes. Just like Rodeo participants, Ball players, Gymnasts etc.

I believe that some of us who participate in sports at this level have a passion for that sport. We like the activity, the adrenaline rush, the competition, the chance at winning, the community of the sport we belong to, and the challenge to be the best that we can be. Some stock brokers like the feeling of making the big commission, athletes like the rush of excellence. It may be a combination of things that drives us to compete but basically I think it’s the feeling we get when we are striving to be the best. You can’t tell me that all pro athletes compete because they like the big paycheck. Brett Farve didn’t find it hard to retire because he liked the paychecks. It was hard for him to quit because he couldn’t imagine a life without playing. One of my favorite movies is about baseball. I think baseball is one of the most boring sports to watch, right up there with golf and tennis, but this movie, “ For Love Of the Game” with Kevin Costner, makes

make’s me understand why he works so hard to play, overcome injury, and pitch the perfect game. He even retires at the end so the team owner can sell the team without the new owners worrying about the salary cap issues. When I was younger I was a Denver Bronco’s fan, not because I liked Denver, or even CO, but because I liked to watch John Elway play. I think he was a man of average ability that was driven by the desire to be the best, and in the process lead his team to five superbowl appearances.

It wasn’t because Denver has the best payroll in the league. It was his desire to be the best. It is the same for race car drivers. The rush of the speed, the completion of the pass, the response from the car when you’re taking a corner at 125 mph and you push the throttle a little more feeling for just a little more grip from the tires while the suspension takes a set and the car settles on the new path. It’s the rush at that moment knowing what you’ve just accomplished, and the fun you’re going to have feeling it all over again later when you’re sitting around the toy-hauler after dinner enjoying a beer with your fellow competitors.

We need to embrace the passion of our sports heroes. We don’t need to wallow in the sadness of losing them too soon. We need to revel in their accomplishments, remember their shining spirit, find the joy in recognizing them in the eyes of their son’s and daughter’s.

I have had the privilege, the burden, and the sorrow of taking care of someone while they suffer from a disease and pass away. Given the choice I want to die quickly, no matter the pain, I don’t really care how, but I do know that laying in a hospital bed is not for me. I want to look at the wall at that last instant and think “oh this is gonna hurt”. I think we should all be so lucky to go out doing what we enjoy the most. So go on a celebrate life, and the lives of the people you love the most. Life is not practice. You don’t get to wake up one day and decide you want a do over. Oops I want to do this better, or skydive, or learn to fly, or take your car to the track for the first time. Live it!

The Make up of America

Last night Dave and I went up to Tempe to the Oktoberfest celebration at Tempe Town Lake. The place was packed. Admission was free so you can only imagine how many people from a college town like Tempe were there. The weather was of course fantastic it being fall in Arizona.

After walking around for a while with Dave enjoying a beer, we stopped to watch the flying swing ride. You know where you sit on the swing and it spins around lifting you in the air as you swing out and up while going faster and faster. What I noticed was, right there on that swing was a perfect dichotomy of America. Parents and kids from all walks of life and ethnic background. Watching an Indian couple, Hindu, not American, climb aboard, Dressed in traditional Indian clothing relaxing and smiling made me notice all the different people on the ride. I realized that's what America is. All different peoples coming together to create the best place in the world to live.

Starting Over

Many of my horse related friends have given me a hard time lately for quitting the horse business so I have decided to let everyone know exactly why and what I am up to know. I originally became a horse trainer because of the love that I have for horses. Not training, not showing and certainly not for the customers. I did it because I loved working with the horse itself. In case you've wondered it's not an easy way to make a living. You do it 24 hours a day. The work and the responsibility never ends. No vacations, no time off for holidays, and no such thing as taking a "snow day" when the weather is too bad. I have been very fortunate to have some really good horses to train. Most of them I hand picked, raised or bought right after they were started and they went on to have very successful show careers. Other times I had to ride some real shit just to pay the bills. Some customers are really great and worth the time, and some aren't worth the oxygen that they are breathing. They characteristically have little talent, little patience, and more often than not too little money. I have quit the horse business before and came back to it because It was all that I have ever done except for my time as a salesman. This time I won't be coming back. The last few years in the business I had become very unhappy with the direction that the AQHA was taking the industry. Yes I think they are directly responsible for the state the horse show industry is in today. I have always enjoyed showing. I've had two AQHA high point winning stallions. Both extremely talented and attractive individuals. I've thought for a long time that too many trainers were too abusive to their stock. They ride them too long, too hard, and beat them up too much. Partially because of unreasonable expectations and partially because the AQHA is unwilling to address the issue, and partly because their owners insist on winning at all costs. I believe we don't have to ride and show such difficult stock. If the pleasure horse industry can breed for traits that promote a level top line and flat kneed deep hocked movement, then they can also breed for traits that include a great mind. Anybody can beat a horse into submission. Very few can train one to perform because it wants too. There are very few true horsemen left, and even fewer training horses for the show arena. Two years ago while attending the AQHA world show my stallion was injured during the first finals event that he showed in. He made the finals in three other classes and I took him to the vet trailer for some help. One of the first questions I was asked by the vet was who are you? Will you get in trouble if we get him sound or are you one of the ones? I always believed that the AQHA would look the other way if you were a somebody. Now I was sure. I had a horse in the barn early in my training career that was an incredible individual. His only flaw was that he was really bad with his tail. I don't mean he used it a little bit, he used it like an Apache helicopter during evasive maneuvers. After winning several world championships and the superhorse award one year. He passed the tail test. I am here to tell you his tail was dead as a hammer. I knew then who you are was more important that what you did. After my experience with the vet trailer and the fact that when I tried to scratch one of my finals classes I had to saddle my horse up again and have the show veterinarian call him lame. Everyone in the warm up pen could tell he was three legged lame. But that wasn't good enough for the show superintendent. Even when the AQHA officials staging the class called up and said the horse is lame lets not saddle him again. I was told do saddle him anyway and have the Vet call him lame. Frankly I paid for the entry and if I choose not to show in the finals it should be allowed. As an industry professional I should be qualified to call a horse lame. I think I decided then and there that even when my horse was healed up I was done. The horse business should be about the horse. Not the rider, or the outfit, or the trainer.

I have taken every penny that I have left and started a new business. I studied, am still studying, purchased software, studied some more and jumped in way over my head to change my life. I've moved out of the way overpriced horse property that I was living in, cut my expenses, stopped racing my car, and moved into a little house in town with a great back yard and a pool that will cost me at least $900/month less that where I was. I am starting from scratch. I had a good friend who was one of the best customers that I ever had tell me one time that life was simple. If you're unhappy make a change. I used to reply "thats easy for you to say your rich" She replied if your really serious you'll find a way to make it happen and the money will come. Well Jane I hope you're right because I am making a change.

Congratulations Congress

Well I think that the investors in the United States and the NYSE have finally given up on the Congress. The congress has finally done it. They are well on their way to bankrupting the United States. They take a vacation but still want the unpaid FAA employees to show up everyday without pay to maintain employment integrity. Well I say bullshit. If I was an FAA employee I wouldn't show up for work again until I got paid. To hell with what the congress wants. I say shut this country down until those sorry elected officials get their heads out of their asses and either show up for work or resign. I am telling you. WE need to get together and get rid of all of them and things aren't going to get better until we do. The republicans are wanting to insure the economy stays in the shitter until after the election because they want to insure that Obama doesn't get elected again. Instead of taking the bull by the horns and doing the right thing they are just going to go on and screw everybody. I'm telling you its time to start marching and protesting. If we don't we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Recess

The senate had to hurry up and pass the debt ceiling bill on Monday because if not they would have had to work into their scheduled recess. That started me thinking about how much they were paid, and how much they actually worked. I decided to google it an find out. What I learned is interesting.

First. There doesn't seem to be an actual website that lists what they get paid. You can find the salaries, but not the benefits, then you can find the retirement pay, but not everything put together. My figures might not be accurate because they really don't admit how much they actually get paid. Basically the base salary earned is $174,000.00 per year. and every year they automatically get a cost of living increase unless they vote to stop it.

Second. The house has 10 weeks of scheduled recess and the senate has 13 weeks of schedule recess.

Third. There are no attendance rule for our elected officials.

People I am telling you they is now F*****g way we are getting our moneys worth. There are industries all across this country where people are working 80 hours a week and only getting two weeks vacation and they aren't getting paid $175,000.00 a year.

We do not have time to wait until the next election and vote in or out a new administration. We need to get active now and make our voices heard. If we don't take back our government we are going to let them destroy the way of life that we have become so comfortable with and worked so hard to preserve.

Civil Disobedience

I haven't blogged in a while, I've been busy sorting out the more important experiments in my life. I know that I complain and bitch a lot and sometimes you get tired of listening to me, but this time I have something that I think is important. We need to think about it and find a way to get together and make this happen.

I believe in American. It is a GREAT country. We have opportunities and liberties here that they don't have in other parts of the world. But I think we are in danger of losing some of the advantages that we have. I think it is the fault of the current administration, and most of the administrations that we have had in Washington for a long time. It is time that we get together as Americans, not democrats or republicans, tea party, or independents and come together as a country and make a statement.

There has been the million man march on Washington, Protest about Illegal Immigration, Millions of Americans walk for three days every year to stop breast cancer. Well we have a kind of cancer right now in Washington and it is eating away at the American way of life. Our voices are not being heard. Our elected officials are selling us out every day. All the talk of listening to the people and the bullshit of holding town hall meeting is a tragic joke they used to get elected and re elected. It's time we stood up as a people, the American people and walked down main street American and make our voices heard.

I propose the Main Street America March. Every CITIZEN takes a week day in November or December or even January, but we can't wait too long, and peacefully walks down the main streets of their towns for a day. From one end of main street to the other, from one end of America to the other. Protest have toppled governments and changed policy. It's time we took back our government and made our voices heard.

Start a conversation about this. Find out when its possible, stir up the passive and get them involved in the best form of government, and country in the world. There is no sense in bitching unless your willing to act. Pretty soon if we don't act. It will be too late.

The Vanishing America.

We used to take summer vacations when I was a kid. Unfortunately I didn’t realize how much that I enjoyed those trips until much later in life. When I became a horse trainer I had the opportunity to travel around America again. Small towns, farming towns, oilfield towns, Americana at it’s best. When I became a territory sales rep. I continued to travel around and see the United States. Recently I’ve taken another trip halfway across America and I’ve noticed some very disturbing trends. The America that I thought I knew and remembered is vanishing.

America is a beautiful country and it is slipping away right in front of us. Small towns are literally dying and disappearing right before our eyes. I traveled the back roads and secondary highways on my recent trips and good hardworking Americans are losing their businesses everywhere. Beautiful small town buildings are standing empty. Lonely and forlorn looking for new tenants. Some falling into disrepair and turning into empty monuments to what was once great about America. Small town churches are empty. There are no parishoners to sit in the pews on Sundays. Old car dealerships once majestic and exciting with full glass fronts filled with the latest in automotive splendor are sitting empty. Occupied only by memories and dust. I can only imagine what outstanding restaurants and local dress shops they would make. America was once a country of manufacturers, small town machinists shops and sporting goods stores, florists and grocers. It is the place we need to be again. There are brilliant people in America. Internet access gives them the power to communicate with the world. Banks need to start investing in the real American, instead of putting all their interest in a housing and real estate market that is largely hollow investments and manufactured values. We are building some of the best quality cars in the world again. America started the internet revolution and it’s time that we used it to our advantage.

There are hard working Americans in these small towns, and they are fighters.

They are fighting the economy, fighting to keep the family farm alive, the family diary, tire shops and gas stations with small town mechanics hoping for a good holiday travel season so they can afford to pay the bills the rest of the year. They work 16 hour days for $12.00/hour or less. Show up every day rain or shine and keep us Americans rolling. They work in the oilfields carrying 85# chains and hot oily pipe. Pumping salt water and smelling sulphur all day long. At the end of the day they go home to solid homes to their wives and children. There are some beautiful old motels that should be remodeled and returned back to their former glory, who says staying at a big motel chain is the way to go. Some of the most popular motel chains in the United States aren’t even owned by Americans. I mean American companies. There are plenty of American owned motels that are struggling to survive.

I think it’s time that we started to take back our country and our economy. Use our collective voices and buying power. Write our congressmen, our newspapers, our t.v. stations and demanded that we pass legislation that supports and promotes American owned businesses. We can’t tax our way out of this depression. We need to industrialize our country again, build and invent and produce our way back into the worlds leading economy. We have the power to educate ourselves out of this mess that we are in. We have the natural resources available to produce the best products in the world. We need to bring our manufacturing jobs back home. Irregardless of pricing. If we build a better product, there will be demand, and that means proper wages and incomes. We need to buy American. If we were to produce and buy products made right here we could support our own economy. We don’t have to increase our exports although that would be great too, but producing goods made right here in American would go a long way to reducing our trade deficit. We need to make our own tennis shoes, boots, under wear. We produce cotton right here in farming regions all across the southwest. We should be producing cotton garment here instead of shipping the raw materials off to some foreign country to be processed and manufactured and then shipped back here for our consumption.

The European countries have higher tax rates than ours and their economies are struggling just as ours or worse. They are fighting their governments, their banks, and each other just to stay afloat.

Lucky

Yesterday was Monday. I worked in the office until a little after 1pm and then went to lunch before working out of the office in the afternoon. I thought I was lucky because I wanted to eat at Paradise Bakery and they are usually very busy. I don't like to wait in line for food. Monday was no exception but without the line. I lucked out and found a place to sit in the crowded dining room next to a couple of young women. I was close enough to hear their conversation and being the nosy bastard that I am I ate my lunch in silence, you know that is hard for me, and listened to their conversation. They were talking about their mothers day weekend and their plans for the summer. One womans side of the conversation went like this. Her husband didn't fire up the pool heater soon enough in the week and the pool was still too cold to swim in when they had their bbq on Saturday. So it was too hot outside. 97, and the pool was too cold. Mothers day was a real hard day for her as well because her mother hates his mother and so they had brunch with his mother and then dinner with hers. The regular baby sitter couldn't make it to watch the kids at dinner and so they hired a substitute baby sitter which her daughter didn't like so they just took the kids to mothers day dinner with her mother and it was a nightmare. The thing that was most upsetting for her is the fact that the nanny that they used last year can't work for them this summer because she has to take care of her sick father instead. She doesn't know what to do, when the kids are out of school for the summer. The husband wants her to keep them at home a couple days a week, but she isn't really up to that so she is looking frantically for a new nanny. They usually take a summer trip without the kids and she is really afraid that they will have to cancel if they can't find a new nanny. I sat there and realized just how lucky I was not to have her difficult life. A trip without the kids. How nice. I usually have to take my kids on trips, My three dogs, they are part of my family and frankly I like taking them with me. I can't imagine feeling the contempt for my dogs that she feels for her kids. She has two of them I think. You will all be proud of me that I didn't say anything to her. I wanted to slap her with a carp. I think she needs to be lucky enough to wake up some morning on the north coast of Japan so she can see how lucky she really is.

Disappointment in Others.

First, I had a great weekend. Second, people continually disappoint me. I fully realize that I let them disappoint me, but it still happens. Sometimes I still think I'm right. I watched someone I respect struggle this weekend, and it wasn't their fault. I watched uncountable ego's in action this weekend and that wasn't a disappointment because most of them acted exactly like I thought they would. I watched the owner of one of the clubs that I race with run the club this weekend pretty much like I believed he has all the time, as his own personal private playground with little or no regard for the members actually paying the bills. I hate cheaters, I always have, I have to believe that someday they will actually get caught. The Corvette club was fast this weekend, and Corvettes were very well represented. C4's,C5's and C6's 14 in all, Probably the best represented aside from the Porsche's.

The Ultimate Womens Expo.

I had the unfortunate priviledge of working in our companies booth on Sunday at the annual Phoenix Ultimate Womans Expo. Many of you have been patiently waiting for an update featuring just how good the people watching was. Lets say it was Ultimate just like the women. First of all this was not a cheap event. Admission was $10.00, and nearest parking downtown was $12.00. $22.00 before you even get in the door. Upon arrival I noticed that the line for entrance started early and by 10:00 a.m. when they finally opened the doors the scene reminded me of when the neighbor down the road had to milk his cows in the evening. They started lining up by the milking parlor door about an hour before milking commenced. The major difference is that upon the opening of the door, the cows were more orderly. This was my first experience with working at the Ultimate womans expo and I didn't know what to think. I did have some pre-concieved notions about what I expected and frankly I couldn't have been more wrong. I assumed that this was some kind of rah rah womens weekend. They had Ricki Lake, Susan Lucci, and Barbara Heaton as speakers and I thought is was going to be kind of like up with people but for women. I couldn't have been more mistaken. I thought is was going to be women all dressed up, listening to motivational speakers, and learning new make up techniques, getting their hair done, watching fashion shows. All of that was going on, except for the fact that nobody actually watched the fashion show. 200 chairs, 25 women, pretty much the same percentage for the motivational speakers. It turned out to be very much like a two day flea market. Most women were there to get something free. The would actually walk by the table and pick up the bic pens we had there for people to fill out an entry for the products we were giving away. Several and I mean a large percentage actually we so prepared they had actually printed labels with their name address and phone number on them that they could just peel and stick to the entry blanks. The thing that amazed me most was just how many women didn't take a bath before they came. They appeared to wake up, tie their hair up i some kind of knot and put on REALLY ugly clothes and go to the Ultimate Womens Expo. I was appalled. And when did they stop wearing undergarments? I have never seen so many bra less women, and women in poor fitting clothes that weren't wearing any panties in my life. And let me tell you after a while it was really just too much to take. Now I know and freely admit that most men are pigs, We like sex and sometimes some of us aren't too picky, but I am pretty sure that our arms aren't attached at our waists and we would prefer if our women's breasts weren't attached their either. The funniest thing to me was the almost 100% accuracy rate of the fact that when we tried to give a free subscription for our skin care magazine to someone walking by. The ones who refused where obviously the ones that needed to read about skin care and make up application the most. I swear some of them put on eye make up and then rubbed their eyes with their fists. One of the local nail salons was offering free pedicure's if you signed up for their e mail list. The number of women waiting in line was un-believable, frankly you couldn't have paid me to touch some of their feet. I can honestly say my mother never went out in public looking that way. Most of the women that I know would never go out in public looking like that.

My Morning Commute.

I have two trains of thought this morning. It promises to be a productive day. I have figured out how to enjoy my morning commute. I have learned that if I leave my house a half an hour later the traffic is so much better that I can drive all the way to work at highway speeds. This morning was even better than usual because spring is here in AZ and I have the top off the car. Trust me when I say there is nothing like driving with the top off, sun shining in your face, breeze blowing through a nice silk shirt, listening to rock music as loud as you can stand. I have actually found a way to really enjoy my drive to work. I relax and get totally lost in how much I enjoy driving my car. Which brings me to my second train of thought.

I think we should outlaw mini-vans. Just think about this for a minute, I think the invention of the mini-van is close to the invention of all evil. They are too big, and propagating adults try and fill them up. The only mini-van type vehicle available to the general public when I grew up was the V.W. bus, and they were so undependable and ugly that nobody really bought them anyway. Except the hippies and surfers in CA and that is a subject all of it's own. Of course full size vans were available, but they were mainly bought by retirees and they didn't use them as daily drivers. I think the mini-van is responsible for most discipline problems today also. Most of us grew up riding in the back seat of a car, my mother could slap me into submission no matter where I was sitting. You can't reach the screaming brat in the back of the mini-van, they are just out of reach. So they fill the mini-van with kids, their stress level goes up because of all the bills, they aren't having any fun because even the best mini-van has terrible driving dynamics, the kids are out of control because of the lack of beatings, and they get all stressed out and depressed, which makes them less productive at work. They have fallen into this mundane trap all because Chrysler invented the mini-van. Chrysler deserves to be owned by Fiat.

You may think I'm nuts, but in some small way you think I might just be right too.

Decency and Common Sense in a Changing and Tolerant World

I was asked a question yesterday that I am going to share with the rest of you because it seems to have a good deal of relevance to the time's that we are living in. The question was. Should a gay high school student be allowed to use the same sex locker room, and why is that any different than a straight student being allowed into the locker room of the opposite sex. I don't know what the correct answer is, and most of you probably won't like the one I'm going to give but you know me, I've never been short on opinions.

I don't see this as strictly a gay rights issue. Not any more. It is the year 2011 and everybody in the world knows at least one gay person and like it or not I don't see the gay population getting any smaller. I see this more as a common sense and decency issue. Gay or straight, the behavior of todays young adults has deteriorated to a completely unacceptable level. I can remember when it was unacceptable to hold hands while walking down the hallway between classes. No kissing, making out etc. I truly think nobody cares whether your gay or not, but I'm pretty sure that they don't want to have to witness your sexual behavior on display in public. Much the same as the parents and grandparents of the 50's were appalled by the promiscuity of the younger generation of the sixties. Some things are best left to the imagination, or unimagined.

I think it's time we started to set a better example for our young adults, treat them with common decency, and demand that they treat others with the respect that they, and each other deserve. We need to start holding them to a higher standard. I'm not saying beat them with bibles or send them to military school at the first sign of deviant behavior, but paying a little more attention to them and spending a little more time on the difference between right and wrong, and how men should treat women. Regardless of the relationship I had with my mother whether we agreed on things or not. One of the clearest things that my dad taught me is that women should always be treated like ladies with respect and a man should never lay a hand on a woman in a violent way. If we were to instill these values in the youth of today. Just maybe the gay, straight behavior issue wouldn't be such an issue after all.

The Valley of the Sun

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of living here, this is the time of the year that makes Phoenix, Scottsdale, and the surrounding area so special. I'm waiting on a business dinner at the Valley Ho resort in downtown Scottsdale and the weather is incredible. 85 degrees, no wind, no humidity, sunshine and skies as clear as you can possibly imagine. This is the Scottsdale that I fell in love with while attending horse shows here 20 some years ago. I vowed then, that someday I would live here. I've also attended conventions here in the heat of August and still find it just about the best place on earth. The valley has changed dramatically over the past 20 years but the weather and most of the things that make Scottsdale special are still here, along with some new and better reasons to come for a visit. Notice I didn't say come and live here. I'd like some of the people to just visit and not come here to stay. Pure selfishness. The 90 days a year that we have that are in the extreme heat range are easily worth the price to pay to enjoy the rest of the year. Top off the car, sunglasses and one of my favorite Tommy Bahama shirts on and I'm set for a great evening.

Now to be a bummer. The last weekend I attended an event at Firebird International Raceway that I found out about merely by chance. It was the Redline time attack challenge. Nationally know race car drivers dueling it out on the fast main track at Firebird. Sports cars from BMW, Corvette, Lotus, Porsche, and Nissan, and Street tuner cars from several manufacturers. The sad part is the only people in attendance it seems were the contestants and their crews. It is such a shame.

There are many more sports car events in this country besides Nascar. Just last weekend alone besides Nascar, we had the IRL, and Rolex and Continental Tire series racing at Barber Motorsports Park. Not to mention all of the club racing events that happen on any given weekend around the U.S. This Saturday is the American LeMans series Races at Long Beach. Part of what makes this country great is our love of the automobile. WE are a mobile society. We purchase the majority of the cars in the world. Most of the foreign car companies are so in tune with the American car buying public that they have proving grounds and design studio right here in Arizona and Southern California. They use our roads, mountains, deserts, commuter rush hours, and wide open spaces to test their cars before they reach production. Weekly we are lucky enough to see camouflaged engineering mules driving around the valley of the sun. I've personally saw both the new Porsche Panamera and the Lincoln MKX here all camoed up at least a year before they went into production.

We need to take back the auto industry. WE make GREAT cars here in America. I am highly competitive in my mostly stock. I have removed weight and changed my shocks and added aero body parts, but my car is pretty much the same basic C5 Corvette that you can go and buy at any Chevrolet dealer in the country. Just today I had the privilege of spanking a Ferrari 360 convertible while making calls in Scottsdale. Don't pick on the Vette unless you have the balls to back it up. Mustangs are beating BMW's in the Grand Am series, and Chevy and Ford powered Rolex LMP cars are beating the best of Europe and Japan every weekend. Mercedes doesn't even bother to race here and except for the F1 series, they stick mainly to the German Touring Car series in Europe, where only Mercedes and Audi are allowed to play. Club racers all over the globe are buying small block GM V8's to install in their BMW's because they are light, powerful, cheap and reliable as hell. If you want to see some fantastic road racing. Stay up late and watch Australian Supercars compete on SpeedTV. They are basically Ford and Chevy sedans all dressed up to race and competing on road courses throughout Australia and provide some great racing entertainment.

Not too mention the millions of car exhibition clubs all across the country.

We need to promote our car industry, our racing industry, our automotive engineering and our automotive heritage before the government and the liberal tree huggers beat it into a position that it can't recover from.!!!

the government shutdown.

Ok hold on to your panties this is going to piss some of you off. I think we need a government shut down. A systematic planned stopping of government programs. I think everybody on welfare should grab a broom and head to one of the national parks and get to work. We have plenty of highways that need to be cleaned up as well as the inner cities. If they get a check they need to be working. No more volunteers needed to man the parks and welcome visitors. Put the welfare recipients to work. I want to know why we pay for their health care, give them a bigger check each time they get pregnant. There are some families in the inner cities who have never had anyone in their family work. They have been on welfare for generations. Their kids need to go to school get good grades and get jobs. There are plenty of jobs out there all they have to do is look in the paper and pick one. We need farm laborers, trash collectors, hourly skilled laborers, daycare workers, you name it. There are jobs out there if people want to work. If we put all the welfare recipients to work we wouldn't have an immigration problem because there wouldn't be any jobs for them. This is kind of an incomplete thought, but I'm tired of hearing about all the things we will have to do without when the government shuts down. I'm pretty sure that most of the salaried government workers shut down years ago. Have you tried to get good service at the post office lately.

Next issue. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. I think he has some very valid points. Especially when it comes to teachers. I was an Ag Ed major in college, and have spent most of my adult life teaching in some form or another. I've been taking a poll lately and asking my co workers and friends how many good teachers they had while they were in school. The average answer is 2. 2 good teachers for at least 12 years of schooling including higher education. I have teachers as friends and I can tell you which ones are any good and which ones suck. I don't think any teacher in any capacity deserves tenure. They should all be judged on their results. I get paid on producing results as well as most of the workforce.

Don't get me wrong I think that parents need to do their part too. Kids need to go to school and treat teachers with the proper respect and not be a discipline problem. In turn the government needs to stay out of raising our children. I am almost positive that the kid the police sprayed with pepper spray needed it. Obviously talking to him doesn't work. If he felt some consistent pain on his ass from getting it whipped for misbehaving, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be a problem.

Success

I will get to the topic of this days blog after a few minutes. I am feeling the need to rant about a few things so here goes.

People who have accidents during rush hour deserve too. I have been enjoying the rush hour experience for a while now and I think I am qualified to make this observation. Unfortunately they usually involve someone else who may not deserve it. I watched an idiot this morning who tailgated every car she was behind. I mean close now, probably only 1 foot behind the car she was following. Last night I witnessed a woman in a Toyota RAV 4 scream and holler every time that traffic slowed or came to a stop. She waved her hands and moved her head around like she was having some kind of seizure. It was kind of scary to watch actually, I half expected her head to spin around like that chick in the exorcist. I moved over and let her pass me just in case she forgot where the brake pedal was and so I could enjoy this picture show from behind.

I want all of the people who are now complaining about nuclear power and nuclear power plants to get together and live in some commune without power and running water and all the amenities that they are so used to. It seems that some of the people who complain the most are the ones that rely the heaviest on the amenities that cheap electricity provides for them. When all our natural resources are depleted and they don't have any way to get the mini van with their 6 kids to their place of worship with the 100k organ and all the fancy lights and music and t.v. monitors I wonder then if they might think a little differently.

Now for the Success part. Most of you know that I haven't seen my sister in quite some time. 13 years to be exact. Well after getting in touch with each other about a year ago, and talking quite frequently now, she came for a visit this last weekend for my nephew's spring break. He is 16 now and I haven't seen him since he was 3 years old. What a great kid. My sister has not had an easy life, and so I'm sure that he hasn't either. They are very close to each other, he is polite, respectful, intelligent, clean, and wears normal clothes. He was very fun to hang around with unlike so many of todays teenagers who can't carry on a conversation with anyone let alone spell it. If parents judge their lives on how well their kids turn out, then my sister has truly been a success. I will definitely enjoy watching him mature into adulthood.

Generosity.

On the way to work this morning I heard an interview with the young man on American Idol who's girlfriends life was seriously changed just before they were to be married. It is a very compelling and heart wrenching story. The story itself isn't what made me think, but the outpouring of support shown by the American people through their donations to supplement his girlfriends care. Example's of that kind of charity remind us just how giving the American public is in general. There are small examples daily of the inherent good in us. I've bought stranded people gas before. Just the other day one of my friends gave a ride to an autistic man who was stranded. I bet that if somebody added up all the money that the people of the United States donate each year to underdeveloped or tragedy stricken nations we would have enough to wipe out the deficit. That's just in voluntary donations, that doesn't include the amount of money our government gives away to foreign countries.

I have a friend who's roommate is an American born individual. He has no car, he uses public transportation, and bums rides from his buddies. He also is a devout socialist and sings the praises of the French people and the country of France in general all the time. He is very proficient at bashing the American way of life. All the while benefiting from the very things that he says he hates. He pays very little if any in taxes yet expects the state to pay for his health care. How much money has the European union given to Haiti, or South Africa on any other under developed country. Hell they can't even agree to bail out Greece and that would have a direct affect on their own economy.

I believe the American people are a good people in General. When times are tough as they are now, they get a little off kilter, but for the main part they are good. I also believe in our constitution. It is important and has stood the various assaults on it for over 200 years now. When we bash our own country we only need to watch one episode of World News Tonight to see how hard the rest of the world is fighting to have the same rights as we do. Lybia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and even The Soviet Union and China to some extent. Those people are losing their lives daily fighting for what we have. I think that everybody this weekend should take the time to watch a sporting event. One of the most blatant examples of the American way of life. What I'd like you to get out of it. Is the fact that we sing the National Anthem at the beginning of every one of them.

Life's Lessons Never End

Sometimes we go through things in life that we really can't control. Some of us can't help who we fall in love with either. I've always been amazed by those who can. So I'm going to spend a few minutes telling you some very personal things about myself and if your not interested don't read any further. Four years ago this June I lost what I thought would be my life partner to Alcoholism. I took care of him at home the last three weeks of his life and held his hand while he passed away. A gallon of alcohol a day will eventually kill you. Especially if your dedicated. You never imagine that you will have to start life over half way through. Because basically when you lose you're other half at an early age that's just what you have to do. So I did the only thing that I knew how. I went on, or I thought so. On the outside I tried desperately to keep everything the same. I went on with my life, business, social etc. All the while secretly inside there were days that I truly hoped I just would never wake up again. Several of them. Several times a week I wished that I had the balls to end it all. Obviously I don't. My business crumbled partly because of the economy. The ensuing job search was a nightmare as it became painfully obvious that not having a college degree was going to make it increasingly impossible to support myself in the lifestyle that I had become accustom to. While pretending everything was normal I've sold most of the things that I had that were dear to me just too keep afloat.

Then this last Christmas two things that happened made a huge difference for me. Someone in my life I am very grateful for and to made a comment to me that made me realize it was time to make a choice. And I applied for a job and got an interview for a position that I though I would never get. Basically it was time to make a choice to just give up for good, or really REALLY get on with life again. Actually participate not just pretend.

Throughout all this I gave up on the horse business for good and I started racing one of my Corvettes, something I had always wanted to do. I acquired a whole new group of friends, some from the Corvette club that I have joined and some from the various other racing clubs that you have to belong to when you race. I also joined a private club racing facility in Wilcox AZ. This last weekend I decided to invite some of my friends and racing buddies to the track to be part of something that I love and truly enjoy. Honestly I am hoping that some of them join also so I have more people to have fun with at the track. This was a weekend for others. I didn't even take my car though I could have if I wanted to. I wanted others to have the opportunity to experience something that is special to me. I cannot lie I did take a few rides in other cars, and I did use the owners Corvette and make a few hot laps. Most of my time was spent taking pictures and encouraging the rest of the group. We had a wonderful time. A first class experience start to finish. We all camped at the track in our R.V.'s and spent two great days together. Not everybody I invited could make it. Some had to work, some had family issues, some had previous engagements. I hand picked the group with the thought that either the track would benefit, or the invitees would. They fed us while we were there, helped us maintain our cars, introduced us to prospective new members from out of state and treated us to a first class weekend.

The basic reason for this post was I learned a life lesson this weekend. Someone who has benefited greatly with an already established relationship with the track was not invited. When asked to address this at the last Corvette gathering I explained that this was a weekend centering around individuals who either hadn't been to the track before, or somehow mutually the track or the person would benefit from it. I had discussed my thoughts and invitees with the track before the invitations were extended. This person who obviously felt left out took it upon himself to send an e mail that really hurt my feelings. He was careful, nothing in the e mail was directed at me, except the subject line, but his intent was perfectly clear. Fortunately for me his intent was also clear to the recipient. I was astonished. This is a person who socially, professionally and as a racer has achieved things that I surely will not. I understand this. It's not an issue with me. I am an amateur racer who has only been racing 3 years. He has raced numerous cars for most of his adult life. 50 odd years more than me. I am usually a strong person, and maybe I should have let this go and not bothered to respond at all. After the last few years that I've made it through though I have learned that some things are worth fighting for and about. I don't appreciate subversiveness. If you don't like me fine. I don't give a shit. But stay out of my business especially when it doesn't concern you. I do very few things to hurt peoples feelings. I grew up with the meanest bitch on earth and I know what the consequences are. I may be a bit brash, I say what I think and don't ask me a question unless you want the answer. Unfiltered is a really good description for me.

Friendship is an important thing to me. I cherish my friends. I work on my friendships. I have invested time in them and I am fiercely loyal to them to a fault. And I am a bastard when I need to be.

Life's Lessons Never End

Beautiful women and like trees in a forest. They come in all shapes and sizes.

And so do the ugly ones. Pictures to follow.

Last night I had the privilege of working one of the local fashion events. This is one of the responsibilities of my new job. Some of you that have known me for a long time probably aren't surprised, and some of my new friends might be surprised and wonder what I would wear. Especially those of you that are used to seeing me in my unemployment wardrobe. Put your fashion fears aside. I have a dozen nice sports jackets, three suits, one tux, 6 cotton pullover sweaters, and enough Polo dress shirts that I only have to go to the cleaners once every five weeks. I clean up really nice, or I make the attempt anyway.

So last nights event was a product launch for a company based here in Phoenix. We took a booth with magazines and samples from some of our advertisers, goody bags, free photo facial coupons and a big beauty basket to be raffled off. Of course a veteran Mary Kay salesman won the beauty basket so that was kind of like feeding candy to someone who is obese bed ridden. May taste good and be a nice gesture but pretty much a complete waste. She did let us take her picture with the basket, but didn't want us to use her name. An example of true vanity at its best. There was quite the cross section of industry professionals in attendance. Up and coming dress designers, hair stylists, nail salon owners and techs, jewelry designers, sportswear designers, and plenty of others all passing out business card and trying to stay afloat in this economy. What struck me the most was the vast difference in style, and dress, and probably social status of the attendees. Not to mention their behavior. This event was a testament to the theory if you give them alcohol and food they will spend spend spend. Which they did! Some of the women went to the cash register several times.

Back to my observation about beautiful women being as varied as the selection of trees in the forest. I have to say on the whole is was a very beautiful group. Some way better than average. Most of them right in the middle, and some too ugly to mention. Except for the gal that was in a mini skirt and had legs the size of redwood tree trunks. I wanted to give her some fashion advice by my partner from work told me to keep it too myself. Its a shame. She had a great face but there is not a leg man on earth going to touch her. There were women in furs, real ones, not the fake ones that are all the rage today. Tall slender ones with long blond hair and perfectly purchased faces. Enhanced ones, Some made up, some plain, some dressed to the 9's and some in sweats. What I would like those of you who are reading this to take away from this drivel is that beauty is a state of mind. The most beautiful women there were far from perfect! They carried themselves with a grace and confidence that drew the other women to them. They were tall and short and slender and not so slender, but they were truly beautiful.

So remember that Billy Crystal was really lying when he said it's not how you feel it's how you look. Truly beautiful people are beautiful inside first and the rest just takes care of itself.

Life with Tess and other casual observations.

By now most of you know that I have adopted a Border Collie. She is an older dog and I decided to call her Tess because she reminds me of Shirley McClain in her movie Guarding Tess. The longer that she lives with me the more she really is like the crazy old bird. I've also decided that she has some personality characteristics that definitely could be classified using human diagnosis.

First: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: She keeps her dog bowl, her dog bed and her possessions in some kind of order that only she can understand and keeps track of them all the time. She thinks I am one of her possessions. Which ties into the next trait.

Passive Aggressive: She whines and carries on if I leave her in the yard when I go to the barn, when I take her with me she follows me and gets in my way constantly trying to herd me around to where she wants to go. She hates when I lead the horses around and she doesn't like when I go in the stalls. When I start riding the two year olds later this year I am pretty sure she is going to have some type of complete breakdown.

Shoplifting: She started out with a few toys that I bought her on the trip home which she promptly tore to shreds and ate. Now she gets Hannibal all upset stealing one toy, and when I get it back for him she steals the rest of his toys and guards them on her bed.

Control Freak: The Horses are not allowed to run and play. She barks her ass off. The corgi's are not allowed to play fetch, she chases them and grabs them by the neck and makes them stop. Usually causing a fight where one of the offended individuals wont let go of the grip they get on her. Whatever seat she is riding in while in the truck is hers and Hannibal must then ride on the floor.

Thursday while I was she was unable to steal a toy from Hannibal to tear up and decided to rip into a box on the floor full of natural health products leftover from the last rotten job that I had. She settled on a bottle of deTox pills. Eat one pill and drink with 16 oz of water. She ate all the pills in the bottle, and was guarding the bottle and the cap when I got home. Nobody wanted it but her, but it was hers and she wanted everyone to know it. Well aside from drinking volumes of water, Thursday night and Friday went by pretty uneventful. That is until Friday night when I chose to sleep upstairs and she chose to shit fifty times in my bathroom. I no longer have rugs on the floor in the bathroom because they were too nasty to wash. Not only was this terribly stressful for Tess, and me, I really don't like to have to clean up dog shit first thing in the morning, but it was especially difficult for Hannibal. You see it was hard to teach Hannibal not to shit in the house and after many spankings and a few beatings I finally lost my temper and physically rubbed his face in it and he wore shit outside in the yard for a day. Nasty but effective. The result is Hannibal would blow up before he would shit in the house and he reacts very aggressively when one of the other dogs has an accident. Growling and shaking and such. I don't blame him this time. Tess really made a mess and I'm sure he didn't want me to use him as a mop.

Aside from that I have very normal dogs.

the crazy women and the wimp.

I watched the bachelor tonight. I don't usually watch the bachelor, I mean what a stupid concept. It is as backwards as pre arraigned marriages. What kind of woman agrees to compete for some guy, or vice versa as in the case of the bachelorette. They cry and get all upset when he doesn't choose them. Its just nuts, kind of like free prostitution. I cannot imagine why anyone would do this. Its like the old religious lottery where someone gets stoned. Just nuts.

A lot of New

Sometimes it is about the journey.

A few years ago Nissan did this corny ad campaign featuring an old Japanese man with aJack Russell dog travelling around to various scenic places with harmonious music in the background painting a serene picture of travel in the world. Emphasizing that its the journey to get there that is important, not the destination. Kinda corny and I'm sure that they didn't come up with this themselves, but effective non the less.

I came to that same kind of realization this last weekend while at the race track. Most of you know that I have always had this childhood fantasy about driving race cars. It was a goal that I thought I never would achieve. As fate would have it, I guess its fate, I have been able to accomplish this goal over the last three years. I started out with performance driving and moved up to time trials and now am in full fledged side by side racing in race group. I picked a few easy races this fall, at tracks that I was familiar with that had a small turnout of cars just to get my feet wet. Frankly I sucked. One thing I should mention. Now that I am in race group the car has to be completely set up to race safely. Full roll cage, Fire suppression system, window and right side safety net, and a head and neck restraint device. Not too mention the fire suit and fire proof underwear etc. I don't like small places. Never had. I don't like to be strapped down. It too me a long time to get comfortable wearing my seat belt when I drive. Sometimes at night when its dark and I'm along with no one to see I actually take it off. I swear I feel 10#'s lighter when its not around me. Its like there is a fresh breeze flowing across me. Well you can imagine how uncomfortable it is for me to be all strapped in my race car. I cant even buckle myself in all by myself because I haven't been able to relax enough to methodically do this myself. Until this weekend. When I got to grid I was hot and so I actually released my helmet and took it off to cool down and managed to get it all hooked back up before I had to go on track. I was relaxed for the first time. It was more fun than I am able to describe. From the actual start of the race until the end I actually thought about finding the fastest line. Trying new shift points, blocking, passing, making moves right at the start of the race. Both days I actually gained positions right at the start. You cant imagine the rush. I wasn't scared anymore and I started to trust my car. I should have trusted my car from the start because I have a REALLY good car.

So I guess it is about the journey. I wouldn't have had as much fun this weekend if I hadn't had to overcome some of the personal issues to get to this point. I had a great group of friends that come to the track to watch their spouses race that help me strap into the car and get me to grid on time. It was finally as fun as I thought it would be. Just what I need in my life, one more addiction.

Go out and pursue your passion. Trust me its worth it.

Just a little left of Center

The hour drive it takes me to get to the office allows me to have plenty of time to get my day planned and to contemplate some of the more meaningless things in life. Ive made some observations of rush hour traffic tendencies that I feel compelled to share. The assholes driving the Prius's commit the most traffic violations. They drive too fast, change lanes like they are drafting at Talladega, late break in almost every situation and generally tend to display a certain arrogance that really pisses me off. If they truly had any brains at all they would realize that the disposal waste from the hybrid system in their ugly little car will cause considerable more harm to the environment than the green house gas emissions of almost every other car manufactured. People in Buick's drive slower than everybody else. Guys driving Porsche's come in two flavors. Fast like they are on the track, and slower than the Buick's. Audi's seem to be the cleanest cars. Corvettes are driven either by old men, slowly as the Buick's, or women who appear to be very friendly. Toyota drivers seem to have no particular driving habits at all, wandering aimlessly. Mercedes Benz drivers appear to drive like they are invincible.

While listening to the news on the radio this morning one of the morning personalities described the Tucson shooter as " a little left of center". Just so you know, that offends me. I have been described like that many times and have never had the urge to try and kill a parking lot full of people. I know many people who I would describe as "a little left of center", they are funny happy well adjusted individuals who just seem a little off. None of them appear to want to shoot a parking lot full of people. I think the shooter should be described as completely nuts. He's never going to get out of prison, and he should be fried any way so lets just call it like it is.

I have had a really good week. I really like my new job, which shouldn't seem to surprising because I usually find good places to work. I have been lucky that way. I can only think of twice in my life when I had really shitty jobs and they didn't last too long. It did take me a long time to find this one this time so I had better keep it for a while.

I get to race my car this weekend. Some friends of mine and Dave's are coming to watch. Hope I don't have a big event. That would be no fun.

New year, same shit, kinda...

Well the new year has finally arrived and after a week I'm finally into the swing of things. So far its been a mixed bag of events for the new year. The best and most promising thing so far, I landed the job that I wanted really bad. I think its going to be a great job to have. Definitely will have to work hard to keep it but it will be worth it.

I think its a terrible tragedy that the shooting and subsequent killings happened in Tucson. I think things like that happen all too often in society today and some of our liberal laws are directly responsible for it. I think its wrong to blame state budget cuts, or lack of stringent gun control laws, for the deaths that have occurred. The shooter held the gun aimed it and pulled the trigger. He is responsible for the deaths. His family is responsible for the lack of attention given to his mental health and their should be laws as such. The laws that are written for our rights are the ones that kept him from getting help. With his history of deviate thinking there should have been ample examples of issues that should have locked him up. It sounds like there may be a family history of mental illness after listening to the reports of his fathers behavior. Unfortunately now there is a chance that he may be found incompetent because of mental illness and that might keep him from getting the death penalty which he so richly deserves.

On a third note I'm back to the people will be people thing again. It is truly a shame when people let their personal petty feelings affect their professional standards and practices. I may be a rotten bastard at times, but I am a fair one. Many times personally I may have felt I needed to act like a jerk in a certain situation with a customer who had treated me poorly, and some type of professionalism kept me from acting on it. I only wish that other people in my circle of acquaintances had the same internal strength.

A Brand New Day

Today is the first day that the Republicans and the rest of the elected ones take office. They have a chance to make history. Truly make history by putting their party affiliations aside and enact laws and the reform that the American public voted on in the fall. I think it would be truly historic if they took the time to continue holding town hall meetings and truly find out what the American public wants. I don't care what John McCain or Barack Obama, or Sarah Palin think is important. I want to know what the small business owner struggling to survive thinks. I want to know what he needs to stay in business. I want to know what is needed by the border patrol to keep our borders secure. Our homeland security under Janet Napolitano is a joke and it needs to be fixed. I think they need to listen to what the Doctors have to say about health care needs. I don't care what the media has to say and I don't think they should either. They were elected to do a job, and they should do it. Their personal beliefs should not be allowed to enter into the equation. And please don't let them govern with the same belief that Obama has, That he knows what is the best for the country and not the American public.

The horse business

I had a really nice trip to ID recently. It didn't start out to be a pleasure trip but it kind of ended up that way as the week progressed. I had to deliver the roan horse and break some horses to drive for a friend of mine. Barkley will have a really nice home for the next couple of years and I had to remember that horses aren't dogs, he certainly didn't seem to miss me when I was leaving. I guess I should feel good about that. The weather was cold and snowy the whole time and It certainly was challenging. I learned that I can chain up the truck in under 10 minutes. Not having the right clothing can make you pretty efficient in sub freezing weather.

One of the side benefits of making this trip was getting to enjoy horses again. I was and still am pretty pissed off at the horse business and the hypocrisy that goes with it. It was very nice to see such a nice group of horses and owners who's lives don't revolve around what is happening at the world show, or what the "big boys" are doing. I was impressed with the overall quality of the horses, some very nice hunt seat and pleasure prospects. The in crowd doesn't own them all. Sometimes looking in a little different area can yield some great results. I want looking for a prospect but found a very cool Hunter Under Saddle prospect and brought her home. You know how it goes maybe after a nice show career she can become one of my broodmares, she certainly has the bloodlines for it.

Anyway sometimes its nice to see that the best ones aren't always the ones that are winning all the time. There are good horses everywhere you just have to open your eyes and see them.