CluePhone

So, I ended up going to NASCAR up in Sonoma the other weekend. I had no intentions of going, as the whole “racing” thing has never meant that much to me. But my friend called, and there was a VIP ticket that someone couldn’t use. This meant getting my tired-ass to the Walnut Creek BART station parking lot at 6:30 am. On a SUNDAY. Plus, we had been having an incredible heat wave. The “Con” list was growing. In the end, I decided to go. And I’m glad I did! They were VIP tickets, after all. We had access to a hospitality tent and everything. We even had two of the drivers come to our tent to talk, which was awesome.

[Edited to add]
I guess I really didn’t talk that much about NASCAR itself, so here we go. It was more fun than I imagined it would be. As my co-worker (who’s also not into NASCAR) said, “It’s like one big, giant left-hand turn.” That may be true usually, but at Infineon it’s a Road Track, or whatever the official term is. Plus, they drive clockwise. For some reason that seemed odd to me. Anyway, we were rooting for Montoya (he’s a cute little fella) but he got messed up at about lap ~70. At least he made it back into the top 10! Our official seats were on turn 2, which I understand is a great place to be. You see a lot of passing, etc. on that turn. Another thing I learned was how hot it got inside the race car itself. Apparently, with all their gear and stuff, it can be pretty uncomfortable. For 110 laps!!! The only thing that is a slight drawback about seeing it live is, sometimes things happen where you can’t see them happening. (Like when Montoya got ROBBED on that turn!) Bottom line, it was awesome, which I’ve probably already said.

A bit about the weather I’ve experienced lately. During our Road Trip, we had intense wind at our first impulse stop, which we dubbed the giant pit. It was a historic site of an asteroid impact, (that was a link, sorry, I don’t have the patience to try to figure out how to underline it. I just went with Italics & Bold, since there were buttons and everything) and it was VERY windy. There were repeated instructions to “Hold onto the rails. If you fall in, we can’t come get you.” It was still fun, interesting, and totally the reason for doing a US road trip. Plus, they trained NASA astronauts there, because it’s so much like the moon!

Then, we went to sunny Santa Fe, where we got a bit too much sun. On from there up through Colorado, across Nebraska, and up to South Dakota. While in SD, we had a tornado “scare,” since those of us familiar with this type of weather know that the broadcast news has to exaggerate it. (Poor Lisa. Me, mom and stepdad were all “Well, let’s go meet your sister and her friends.” Lisa was like, “Oooookay, I guess you guys know what you’re doing.” They said that it was a warning intil 8:00”)
I just said, “We’ll just wait till eight. It’s only quarter-til.”

On to the Black Hills, but the next major weather change was the Grand Tetons / Jackson Hole / Yellowstone. It snowed, rained, and then snowed again HARD while we were arriving and there. Driving. (We cursed a lot at the other tourists, in 4WD SUV’s, stopped on an INCLINE because it was snowing.) We made it, but they closed the road after us for 4 ½ hours.

Now, I’m back home in the Bay Area. People, we have had a heat wave like you wouldn’t believe. When I got back home to the loft this evening, it was 91.5 degrees F. It’s now crept up to 92.6. I don’t have AC. So, although the title of the blog is misleading, I am not a Green Witch from the West, and I would totally appreciate a bucket of water being thrown on me, at this point. Screw the ruby slippers. I got awesome cowboy boots in Jackson Hole! But not the “ruby” pair (they were Black Cherry) because they didn’t have them in my size.

I guess if you start a blog, you should actually, you know, blog.

The other day at work, my coworker/office-mate started choking after taking a drink of water. Not “Heimlich maneuver” choking, more of the “went down the wrong pipe” kind of choking. I’m not totally heartless.

Anyway, as he started to clear up a bit, I said “Hey, doin’ okay over there?” and he chokes out “Yeah. Still can’t breath water yet.”

I’m only human. This prompted me to respond, while he’s still sorta choking, “It’s good to check that every now and again.” Followed by “Yep, gills still aren’t working yet.”

Maybe if I’m fast on the camera, I can get a shot of the “Welcome to Hell” sign. He really started choking more at the end, there.

I was also mean to my younger sister, when we were home at my dad’s. I was poking fun at her, which is normally okay with us, but I was ignoring and forgetting the fact that her emotions were a little raw at the time. I’ve apologized, and everything is good again.

I hate feeling like I’ve been mean, when all I initially intended was humor. I figure it’s the price you pay for having a comeback, when it might not be witty on the receiving end. Live & Learn!

Here we go, I’m trying to write a blog. But in my own time-honored tradition, I’m doing it in possibly the least effective way possible. I’m the IT guy, so I get it. But every so once in awhile, if you’re not freakin’ Einstein or Bill Gates, things can get a bit frustrating. This way (composing the blog in a document processing software) somewhat assures me that I can at least cut & paste the damn thing into the blog.

We will not speak of the hours I spent trying to get my website to publish. I think it’s Monday, now, but I’m not sure. My friend Lisa and I went on an awesome road trip recently. You should be able to find it on my site. I think. Well, here are the direct links just in case:

http://cluephone.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/road-trip-part-one/

http://cluephone.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/road-trip-part-two/

This is the second half of our Road Trip.

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