Racing Sports Cars

Well, it seems that I've found a completely new way to burn money I don't have.



A young friend who works in the automotive business, who drives an older BMW, and who's been lusting after my Z3, told me that there was a practise session last Sunday at the Bremerton Motorsports race track, which is one of the abandoned runways at the Bremerton airport. I've flown over it many times, looking down on the events transpiring, but had never been in the gate until Sunday.

Got there bright and early in the morning, registered in the novice class, and walked the line, looking at the broad array of vehicles. Everything and everybody was represented. It was very cool.

Had the driver's meeting, where we got the safety briefing. Had the tech inspection, where I removed all the extraneous gear, except for the Starbucks cup, and got ready to run.

Walked the course, twice, eavesdropping on the other drivers as they discussed the best line, the best braking techniques, the tire pressures and all those things that I'd been vaguely aware of but had never integrated.

Began to really regret losing the soft leather BMW glove that I had dropped out the door of the car some months ago, and which I've not yet replaced....

Walked way out onto the track sides and became a course worker, watching the first grid of cars work their way through the cones. Found out how easy it is to be distracted, and how simple it might be for a course worker to be killed. Watched some cool cone runovers, watched some spinouts, watched some fine driving.

Then it was my turn.

Sat at the start, took a deep breath, visualized the first five gates, stomped on the gas, stomped on the brakes, swerved and skidded, missed all the cones, didn't miss any of the gates and posted a pathetic 78 seconds when the big boys were running 65's. But it got better from there, to 75, then 70, then mid sixties and down. Meanwhile, the big boys were running high 50's, so I was still a consistent five to eight seconds slow. However, that's just fine with me, as I was learning all the time.

And, I sat in the sun, had some fun, burned some rubber off my new tires, felt like a true participant, and it didn't cost much at all.

I'll be back....

Full Moonrise At The Shack

It's an interesting dilemma. I can never seem to get all the resources, people, time, and luck, together at the same time. In pretty much every circumstance, I seem to have three of the four. Now, that's a pretty good batting average, so this is not in the nature of a complaint. But just once in my life I'd like to have all four ducks lined up....that's not too much to ask, is it?

Take last night, for instance.

Full moon, scheduled. Weather, which has been crap for so long that fleeting thoughts of suicide/homicide were'nt easily laughed off; not really, but you get my drift....Seattle's weather this winter has been horrid. Anyway, the weather this past weekend was HOT, and everybody had themselves outside for a tan.

Now I, having managed myself poorly during the week, found that I had to go to the office, to complete a bid that should have been done by Friday afternoon, and was due in Hanoi at dinner Sunday night....

Rode the bike over to Seattle, then home, to a lovely evening on the deck. But, moonrise was obscured by a haze, drifting in over Rich Passage. And, and this is the point, I was alone. There was no lovely woman sitting with me to enjoy the calm of the evening.

And a lovely evening it was. The kind of evening where arrowheads of geese and mergansers skim across the water, wingtips not touching but wingbeats causing little vortex ripples on the water....and you can hear the noise of the wings thrumming. Amazing.

There IS a lovely woman, and she's no where near Seattle. So instead of sitting with her on the deck, I sat with her on the phone, which is the next best thing, but so far behind first place as to be invisble....

More on the lovely woman as I get to know her better.....

But for now, here's the photos I took for her, to show her what we were sharing....

Musical Fantasies

So it finally happened that today I found somebody to play music with. It was amazing.

Through a mutual group of friends I had met Nancy a few years ago. Once she had given me a CD, of John Martyn, and I'd liked it. I'd liked it in the seventies too.

Lately, whenever I've run into Nancy she had suggested some music I might want to listen to. And today her husband and family allowed her to take the afternoon off and come over to my house and play guitar and sing songs.

Now, that's more or less normal. Aging rock-star wannabees. But, it was FUN! And, we instantly hit it off musically. She plays guitar at about the same level as I do, which is to say at a minimum we're fairly competent finger-pickers, and we both have a musical ear, so we can find tunes almost immediately. And there's that certain sort of musical chemistry that allows us to fall into harmonies instantly, no preparation, just right after the first four beats.

It was magic for me, and I hope for her. I've been waiting thirty years for this.

So, we put together some basic tunes, found that we could perform well together, and now we've got a musical future out in front of us that looks like a ton of fun.

More to come.

Here she is sitting by my fireplace..



Thanks to her husband and children for the trust, and the afternoon.