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.