What a nice weekend. Some good racing on both Saturday and Sunday. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 35-40 laps of single file racing at Talledega - I think it was back before restrictor plates. The “Talledega Freight Train”. Good stuff. And absolutely great weather. Disappointing finish and bad behavior by a group of really stupid fans though. While there was a lot of stuff thrown, I noticed two things:
1) As per the two previous incidents, it appears that the dumbasses that throw beer cans with beer in them have learned - it’s a waste of beer. Not many cans were thrown - they were mostly water bottles (I personally counted five hitting the top of Kevin Harvick’s car as it passed by on the last lap).
2) I suspect that, sadly, this may become one of those “traditions” that don’t need to exist at Talledega. It’s really disgusting and embarrassing. Any negative commentary by the media about those types of junk people is well deserved. I don’t like Jeff Gordon any more than Jimmie Johnson. But I wouldn’t through crap on either of them. Get over it.
I don’t know what Talledega can or will do about it. But I still have hope that it will stop.
The nicest thing I found out this weekend? - This was the last restrictor plate race. The car of tomorrow (COT) will be running in the fall race. Good news.
I camp with a few others (in a Motorhome) in the Pecan Grove area. Easy walk to the track and a nice quiet place - except for the one guy that always parks close enough to be called “Generator Man”. Generator Man has never figured out what a muffler is used for on a generator. He’s at every race, usually in a little different place. And his identity changes. There must be some place where people go to “Generator Man” school to learn how to break off mufflers.
Nice thing about this year’s “Generator Man”? They went to bed early. (Thank you, gm).
May 1st, 2007
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I don’t like being critical of someone because of where they live. I’d rather be critical of what they say - wherever they live. In Vermont, the town of Roxbury (pop. 576) held their annual town meeting. They’ve been doing this since the Civil War. They take up local issues with just as much fervor as national ones - including a call for the investigation of impeachment of Bush and Cheney and bringing the troops home. From the Boston Globe:
ROXBURY, Vt. — In a white clapboard building surrounded by snowbanks as high as 12 feet, residents at the annual Town Meeting debated yesterday how to handle beaver problems, library expansion, and a troubling rise in the price of gravel.
And then a hush descended on the room. Moderator Lucinda Sullivan asked for civility.
It was a moment of utmost seriousness for this tiny central Vermont town, 536 miles north of the White House: Now they would discuss motions calling for the return of US troops from Iraq and asking the US House of Representatives to investigate whether to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
While this really carries no political weight, it is something these people do every year and they are quite proud of this annual meeting. It was, as the Globe pointed out, basically quite civil. In a small town that’s usually not hard to do.
“A lot of people say it does not matter what the tiny town of Roxbury thinks,” Boo Smith, a resident, said from a back row. “But I think the powerful message is our little town of Roxbury does have a voice.”
The most devisive issue was the resolution to bring the troops home. It passed 37-21.
In the debate on the resolution calling for the troops to be brought home, it seemed as if emotions had been bottled up for months. Residents raised hands high, asking to speak. Fifteen did, some twice.
“I hate to be divisive,” said Chomentowski, who has long kept track of the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq on a chalkboard hung on the front of her house. The number stood at 3,175 yesterday.
“I want to send a message to our troops: ‘Thank you for your service. You’ve accomplished what you were sent over to do, and we want you to come back now,’ ” she told the gathering.
Tammy Legacy, 44, assistant town clerk, said she wept many nights over the last year because her son, James, 27, an Army helicopter mechanic, was stationed in Afghanistan. He is back in Vermont now, and Legacy said she believed the resolution was the wrong message for the troops.
“I don’t want to hurt those who have [served] and their families,” she said.
Chomentowski seems to be the local political activist since it was she who gathered enough signatures to allow the two resolutions to be on the agenda. But, of course, she hates to be devisive.
While I’m not surprised at the outcome of the two resolutions, I like the idea of the Annual Town Meeting. Perhaps we should have more of them - maybe one in my city. I suspect the same type of resolutions would be offset by resolutions of support for the troops.
March 7th, 2007
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This years Iditarod starts today. The purse is $795,000.
In a few years, it’ll be a big as Nascar. I’m almost positive.
March 4th, 2007
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Microwave ovens have become a common accessory - at times required - in kitchens. Diggs at 4 Mile Creek points out an article that has found an entirely new way to use them.
For antiseptic purposes.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two minutes in a microwave oven can sterilize most household sponges, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
A team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida found that two minutes of microwaving on full power killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge.
You can also clean dishes and other things on the counter with the sponge.
But that’s old news.
January 24th, 2007
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I don’t know where this will go, but I hope you enjoy the effort. The emails I have been sending for the last two years are probably easier to do than this blog but it should get smoother as I learn more. Bear with me.
If you see the blog changing some over time, it’s not your browser. That would be me.
I haven’t got everything where I want it yet - but I will. There won’t be any advertising, except on my part to support something I feel is important.
It’s a conservative viewpoint blog. If you’re looking for a screeching, whining, pathetic rant about how deranged President Bush is, go back underneath your rock. You came to the wrong place.
I’ll have some stuff from time to time on science - I’m a rocket and space freak - and on my view of religion and its’ success and failures. Suffice it to say that the tenets of radical Islam - that which is taught by most Islamic countries - is learned while drinking kool-aid. And I can find humor in all of those topics - and will post that too.
Have a look, leave a comment if you care to - I’d enjoy that.
I’m gonna try to get used to this. Managing emails can get tedious. This should be more fun.
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November 12th, 2006
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