A Million Things Run Through My Mind

This could be a random post, for the small bits of various things I've got going on. Or I could just focus on what all the pictures are about. Probably a touch of both. Halfway through edit of the opening paragraph: Make that the first four pictures, if you get tired of reading about my fabrication, scroll down for random.



I did the sketch at the top on Friday at work. It's for the vacuum bleed valve assembly I'm rigging up for Janice. The next picture shows it's current incarnation. You can see how I've welded the arm onto a shaft collar, and hooked it into the throttle linkage. For testing purposes, I used a little C clamp to hold it in place. Nice thing about the shaft collar set up, all you have to do to adjust the initial static position is loosen the allen bolt.



The next two pictures are of the action. I'm holding it at full throttle (full fuel??? Not really throttle on a diesel) and in the other one, it's at the idle position. Seems to work pretty good, for the most part. I'd like it to open a little bit slower, it tends to drop the vacuum signal rather suddenly, and I'd like it to open a little farther at the end, as it doesn't make it all the way to zero vacuum. Other than that, it works great. The position of the original valve is mounted on the injector pump on the side of the engine, with a teeter totter type linkage running it. Of course, the first thought was to keep the needle valve somewhere in that area, but I realized I'd have to do something to flip it around the opposite way, because the linkage would want to close rather than open it. If you look at my sketch, you may notice that I put the L pivot part backwards, where I'd be doing exactly that, too.



However, the modification that I've incorporated in the sketch is what it was about, the means to get it there is just in the details. I can vary the open-close speed ratio by going nearer or farther from the pivot. The idea I had was to put a simple spring loaded dump valve on a T into the same vacuum tube, and position it to where the linkage would activate it at the near full throttle position, dropping it to zero vacuum. It might just be crazy enough to work!!!

Indeed, I had planned to work on at least fabricating a more permanent mount for the needle valve today. We went down to Long Beach to visit with my parents and niece and nephew, as well as work on that. On the way, I dropped off Baby at a tint shop to have the windows re-done. Same place that did the tint on my dad's Studebaker not too long ago. We visited for a while, then all got in the pool (it may be the last time this year of 90°+ water for the year, even though we're in a bit of a nice Indian Summer right now) and the next thing I knew it was almost 4:30 and the tint shop closes at 5!!! My dad drove me back there and dropped me off. I could tell the guy wasn't done, and the proprietor told me it'd be another 20 minutes. Turned out to be about three times that long. I wasn't amused, but the guy knocked a lousy three dollars off the price as I was peeling off my cash. Ironically, that took it to exactly the same amount as I'd gotten for the scrapping of the Storm!!!

Needless to say, by the time I was back from there, there was no time to do any actual work on Janice. At least I got a few pictures to help me envision the mounts and assembly.

The expansion of the bins is nearing completion. They've got an expansion crew moving stuff into the third level of the red bins, and they've got numbers to the extended rows on the other floors. The old numbers were just white letters applied to the ends of the rows, but these are full circles with black numbers on a white background. I rather like them better!!! Wonder if I could get a couple like this to slap on Baby???

One of the stock keepers saw me doing the sketch, and I had to explain it to him. He looks at me and said, "You're one of those guys who looks like a big dummy, but you're really smart, huh???" One of the other fillers in earshot laughed, and I said that was a rather backhanded compliment. Next time I saw him, I told him, "I'm an electro-mechanical genius, thank you very much!!!" The whole thing was rather amusing.

Now who will take over the salad dressing empire???

A shot from the Las Vegas area at Legoland, the Treasure Island pirate ship battle. Hey, that's right!!! We're supposed to sing about pirate-y things!!!

There's a new guy in the bins who looks quite a bit like Odd Thomas. Can't remember his name, but it's neither Odd nor Thomas. I don't think the lingering dead visit him, either, but if they did I don't suppose that's the kind of thing you'd go telling people. I could picture another Odd Thomas novel set in the bins.

As I was driving into work on Friday, the neighbor at the bottom of the hill was coming out of his garage. The streets are quite narrow, so I had to wait. As I did, I saw a young lady with a backpack on walking down the street, past and beyond us. As we proceeded down the hill, coming around a bend in the road his car was drawing up even with her, and at that instant she was startled. At first I thought it was from the car passing her, but as I rounded the corner I saw what she had seen, a dead raccoon with its mouth open and feet up. Looked almost taxidermied.



I happened on this photo shopped image of Sarah this evening. Even though I know its not real, I rather like it!!!

I loaned Odd Thomas to my mom. She's almost done with it, and likes it so far. Now I'm going to have to dig out the next one!!!

And I never hoist the mainstay and I never swab the poop deck, and I never veer to starboard 'cuz I never sail at all, and I've never walked the gang plank and I've never owned a parrot, and I've never been to Boston in the fall.

Which Lolcat Are You???

Surprise Adoption Cat




50% Affectionate, 55% Excitable, 49% Hungry


Calloused. Heartless. Exuberant. You carry the heavy burden of informing children that they are adopted by jumping out of their birthday cake. A difficult task, but somebody must break the news to children on their only day of happiness.

Take this test!!!

I do love the LOLcats!!!





I took this test last night. Today at work I had a chance to put the likeness (my likeness???) of Surprise Adoption Cat on my cup. Strangely enough, it rather looks like in my drawing that the cat is coming out of a hat. Of course, after I drew that, I had to explain what that was all about to some co-workers!!! Good times!!!

Mileage III

I bought gas again today. The tank wasn't near as empty as it had been the previous two times, having only travelled 251.9 miles. In spite of this, it still took a considerable amount of gas, 9.26 gallons. I wasn't able to buy from my usual gas station, I drove there, and they had chain link fence set up all around most of the islands!!! They did have a large banner stating "OPEN FOR DIESEL". Nice if you need diesel. Ended up driving to a Circle K that I've never been to before, and I wonder if I'll ever go to a Circle K again. Seems like their pumps always suck, and judging by where the needle was and how much it took, I suspect their pumps are not properly calibrated. Weights and Measures will be hearing of this.



If you are keeping count, this tank would be 27.2 MPG, for a three tank average of 29.08 MPG. Still not bad, but the downward trend in my mileage is troubling. Next time will be better, I'm sure.



Anyway, I did manage to get her washed over the weekend, and got a couple of pictures yesterday. I had to take a half day yesterday to go to traffic court. A little matter of being pulled over with an unregistered vehicle. I had gotten an extension, then mailed the court the paper showing my release of liability, along with a letter describing what I'd done. Apparently they didn't get it (or it fell into a bureaucratic black hole, more likely) and sent me a delinquent notice wanting to get $800 out of me. I showed up to court, which was rather busy that morning. After a couple of hours, I was finally called to the stand. On my way up, the judge asks if I got the car registered. I replied that I had junked it, and almost before I'd made it to the stand, he asks if I can pay a $10 dismissal fee. Duh, sure thing, jug!!! Then I had to wait almost an hour for the clerk. Considering the alternative, not a big deal!!!

Something Is Rotten

Haven't done one of these in a while!!! I haven't gone investigating yet, but something has gone awry in the refrigerator!!!

Yarrr!!! Cupdate!!!

Yarrr!!! Iffen ye not be knowin', Friday bewas 'Talk like a Pirate' day!!! Bein as Aye is a good an' proper name for thissen pirate, thought I'da be a-sharen' some of the inkwerk of the day. Aye, Aye started out by inscribblin' the likeness of one of them there flesh-eatin' plants from "Little Shop of Horrors". One of the scurvy wenches was a-sayin' how Aye could be a-designin' tattoos fer me mates. Now iffen ye not been havin' figgered by now, me werkload was a consid'ble tad lighter than the nermal today (an' yar, the deck wern't gettin' any mer cleaner fer all 't swabbin' it were gettin'), and aye, Aye had a chance to do yet more!!!

On t'the nother side, in honour of the times, aye, Aye sceetch'd yer ol' pal Gasher!!! Iffen ye can't make it out with yer one good eye, it be sayin', "Now, woulja be havin' any lines fer yer ol' pal Gasher???" Yar, a fine day 'twas to be a pirate!!!

Round Two

Tuesday was the third trip to the gas station for the Saturn, so it's the second time I've been able to calculate the mileage. For this tank, I travelled 297.7 miles on 10.34 gallons, for a result of 28.79 miles per gallon. Not near as good as last time, but still well better than the Geo would get consistently. A two tank average of just a tad over 30 MPG. Oh yea, it was a rather warm day, so there could be a "hot gas" effect going on, too. Since I'm doing this here instead of a yet to be Twitter account, I'll make note that the current price for 87 octane was $3.639. I notice that diesel is under $4.00, at $3.959 a gallon. I've even seen some stations with the price for diesel actually less than hi-test. This is rather pleasing, being as I'm near to driving Janice again.

Being as I hadn't come up with a name for this car yet, last week my wife had asked if she could drive "the baby" on one day. I think "Baby" does have a nice ring to it, and she is the youngest car I've ever owned *making mental note to do the math on the Camaro, think it was younger when I got it, but it's way older now*

Lets see, any other news about her??? I still haven't taken any more pictures, but wouldn't now, she needs a bath badly. White gets dirty fast, it seems. Weekend before last, at my parents house, I switched the dealers' ad license plate frame for this cool model that my dad couldn't get to fit on his car. Now whenever I see anyone who doesn't have such a frame, I can ask them, "Why do you hate America???" LOL

The factory radio-CD player has to go. Fits the dashboard nicely and the radio is fine, but the CD doesn't play MP3's, and it can take a LONG time to get working and select a track. I yanked the awesome Clarion unit out of the Storm before I junked it out. Got $160 for it, about 15% of my purchase price. Not too terrible for more than two years and almost no money into it.

The front cup holders are illuminated!!! They don't look that big, but they'll fit a 32 ouncer from my work, or one of those ridiculous 64 ouncers my wife gets. Of course, you can't fit anything in the one next to it if that's there. Oh, and don't shift into park with it in there!!!

I Counted Seven...

Last night was the Counting Crows and Maroon Five concert. Great show, as usual.

Straight from work, I came home, got everything and everyone together, and off we went. It was 5:15 when I got home, and we had to make it to Irvine by 7:00, with a stop at my parents house to drop off the kids along the way. Almost 60 miles of driving in Friday afternoon traffic. It was 6:30 by the time we made it to my parents house. From there to the Irvine area went pretty quickly, but of course there was concert traffic once we got to the area. Illuminated signs on the freeway directed us to use Bake Parkway instead of the Irvine Center exit I was accustomed to (of course, it's probably been 15 years since I've been to this venue). We followed the directions (and avoided a good amount of traffic that didn't) and exited at Bake Parkway, the exit past that one. Now, you'd think, after they go through the trouble of putting up not one but two electronic signs on the freeway, there would be would be some signage on the surface streets. You would be mistaken. Fortunately, I have an above average sense of direction!!! A bonus at the parking area, the had the parking rate displayed at $20. At no point was there any money takers, so we parked for free. Almost makes up for the Ticketmaster surcharge and venue charge. It was well after 7:00 by the time we got parked and in. Fortunately, the opening group was all we missed.

This is the first time I've ever purchased the general admission lawn tickets for Irvine Meadows. When I went to get tickets, they actually had some pretty decent seats available, but the price!!! I think last time I saw them, it was under or right around $100 for two seats, which turned out to be awesome seats. The actual seats tickets were $118 EACH, before the extra $20 or so for the extra charges. Turned out to be just fine where we were at, pretty much at the back of the lawn. It was a bit distant, but we could see everything quite well.

The set list was as follows:

Mr. Jones

Hanging Tree

Los Angeles

A Murder of One

Goodnight L.A.

Mercury

Have You Seen Me Lately

Round Here

Miami

Come Around

Rain King

A Long December

Three songs off the new disc. I realize it was only 12 songs, but a few of them were quite long, around 8 minutes or so. On A Murder of One, they did something very cool, they segued into Sordid Humors' "Doris Day" in the middle. I have a live recording where I've heard this done before, but this is the first time I've heard it live with my own ears. They also stretched out Round Here, with a part where he goes on with "She said“Did you think that you were dreaming?" I said “no" She said “Did you think that you were dreaming?" I said “no" She said“Did you think that you were dreaming? I said, “Sometimes I don't know...", as well as mixing in parts of Have You Seen Me Lately. The opening group, Augastina, joined Counting Crows for their Rain King finale, harmonizing nicely on the chorus.

What else??? Well, their stage setup is somewhat different now, they've got some cool video screens in the background, and they seem to have done away with the electrically lit skeletal trees and bushes that they had at three of the four last shows I've seen. I don't know, but from the look of them, I'd guess they were stage dressing for the tour for This Desert Life. Maroon Five rocked, and my wife declared them to be quite sexy.

Instead of heading all the way home, we had arranged beforehand to spend the night at my parents house. The boys would already be asleep by the time we got there, and it would be late (especially considering I was at work two hours fifteen minutes before I'm accustomed to). Of course, we hadn't eaten dinner, just snacked on the drive down there. Afterwards, we'd been considering going to Wendy's, but their dining room was already closed when we got there, and we didn't feel like eating in the car, nor taking it to my parents house. We headed over to Dennys instead, and had a great midnight dinner.

This morning, since we were already at my parents house, I did some work on my vacuum valve for the Benz. Welded the linkage arm to the shaft collar, and came up with a better arrangement for mounting it. Clamped it in place and set up the linkage and tried it out. A bit more fine tuning is required, but once again, my hypotheses is correct, this will work. Spent much more time than I'd planned with that. Next weekend!!!

The Return of the Sofa King Random

It has happened again. We traded the tattered remains of the couch of narcoleptic properties for a fresh one.



My parents came upon this one, and being aware of our sofa's sorry state, bagged it for us. I napped a little bit on it on Sunday. Nice. Once again, I AM THE SOFA KING!!!



I purchased my second tank of gas for the Saturn. 314.1 miles on 10.05 gallons. Works out to 31.25 MPG. That'll do. Especially since I've been wringing it a bit, and did a bit of driving with the A/C cranked up.

Has it occurred to anyone that if you were to make a wireless device to do nothing but connect to Wikipedia, and put "DON'T PANIC" on the cover, you would essentially have a terrestrial version of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy???



This was a very cool version of the Pontiac Solstice that GM had at the Pepsi 500. I like the way they did the rear view mirror.



My older boy has announced that he will be learning l33t. Good luck with that.



Speaking of the Pepsi 500, they just did the Fall ticket drawing. I'm going back to Fontana!!! *More than a year from now, for the next Pepsi 500... Perhaps I'll take Sammy this time, it'll be just a couple weeks after his birthday...

Many lunch & learns on the horizon. I'll be there!!!



I See they're going to be coming out with the next series of comic books based on Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, entitled "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home". Sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check that out.

I just picked up tickets for the Counting Crows & Maroon 5 concert for this coming Friday. Can't wait!!! I asked the supervisor who handles scheduling if it'd be possible to get an early shift for that day, and she tells me, "Funny you should ask, I was going to come looking for you to see if you could do early shift this Friday!!!"

#11 on Letterman's top 10 list of perks of being a NASCAR driver: Bring your helmet into any Taco Bell, they'll fill it up with guacamole for free!!!

I was thinking I might set up a twitter account and use it to track my mileage...



The cake is a lie, or so I've been told. Has something to do with the video game "Portal". On the Labor day barbecue at my parents' house, they asked us to bring a dessert. We went to Baskin Robbins and got an ice cream cake. I selected this one because it looked a little to me like the one that is a lie. It's the red on the top that did it.

Day after tomorrow will be two years I've been at my job. I'm still happy there. Last week my supervisor told me that I'll be seeing 6.3% more gravy on my next check. w00t!!!



Yesterday I got the checks in the mail for my court settlement. Cool. I was pretty sure I was going to have to put the screws to 'em some more before they'd make with it.

On Thursday, work is hosting a farewell party for one of the managers who is transferring to Chicago. I'll be going back to Geezers for that!!! On my two year anniversary!!!



The first lunch & learn is coming up this Friday. It's about the expansion, something I'm quite interested in. They just put the sign up sheet out this morning, and it coincides nicely with the early shift lunch hour.

2.75%. Now that I'm eligible for 100% of that cash profit sharing, that's the magic number that'll get me another magic number!!! Of course, as I've said before, it's all gravy, but you can never have too much gravy!!!

The Sixth Planet

Here it is, the unveiling of my latest acquisition!!! 1998 Saturn SC2 with 92K miles on it. I think more pictures, when the sun is out, are in order. I had been looking around for something for close to a month, and dealing with a lot of flakes. Something small, with an automatic transmission for those freeway jams, not too many miles, and able to pass emissions test. Sunroof or soft top would be a nice plus. I had Neons, Cavaliers, Escorts, Subarus, Hondas, Toyotas, and many others on my list. I only actually managed to look at four of my picks. The first was a very nice Mazda MX-3, not too many miles, decent condition, nicely optioned, good running, but no sunroof. A bit of research later revealed lackluster mileage numbers.



I also looked at a Prelude. Getting up on the miles, around 146K if I remember right, many new parts, sunroof... but a real bucket!!! It didn't even have a glove compartment where it should have been!!! Pass. I looked at a really nice Paseo a bit ago, nice everything, sunroof (pop up only) but with a rather shakey engine at idle, and more miles than I would have liked, around 167K. One that I'd had on my watch list was a Saturn SC2 with that funky little suicide 3rd door for the back seat. It looked real nice, and was only at 101K miles. No sunroof, and a bit far away. One other I never got a chance to see was a nice sounding Escort ZX-2 with many options and a sunroof. I think it was at 117K miles, but those flakes wouldn't make with a phone number or address very readily. E-mailed back and forth several times, this was actually before I had to go to court in San Pedro, and it was down in that area. They mailed me again before last weekend saying they'd be around if I wanted to take a look, and I was thinking I could swing by on the way to my parents house on Saturday. I called the phone number they'd finally made with (still no address) and never heard back.



Finally happened on the ad for this cream puff. I think it came with almost every option available for this model, with the exception of ABS brakes. It has a few bumps and scrapes, consistent with a 10 year old car, but the majority of the wear is to front leather seats, which are rather cracked, and the driver's door panel. Also, the back three windows are tinted, and the side ones are nice looking, but the back one is bubbled, and looks like you're driving underwater through the rear view mirror. Runs nice, though. It was at a dealer, and they reluctantly knocked $100 off, but it's still near the most expensive car I've ever bought, second only to my Camaro. Also, this is my first car I've ever purchased from a dealership.



Mileage is what this is about, though, and so far, I'm impressed!!! It will take more time to see where it really lands, but so far, I took the tank from the very bottom to full with 10.35 gallons. So far, I've driven it over 250 miles, and the gauge still shows a bit over half a tank!!! I'm thinking the last half must go faster than the first (picturing a funnel shaped gas tank), otherwise I might be getting around 50 miles to a gallon!!! Not that I'd complain, but that seems... VERY unlikely.

Fun With Haircuts

Next week the boys go back to school. In preparation, tonight I cut all of our hair.



Since it's not going to be there anymore once I was done, I did a bit of topiary on our heads before taking it all off.



Why sideways??? For headphone clearance, of course!!!

Not real easy to tell, but the older boy did a 512 on the back of my head.

By the way, I'm aware that I've teased the new used car purchase for close to a week. That will be forthcoming very soon!!!

The Phone of Unusual Power

Tonight may just be another double post evening!!! I've got the pictures to do it...



Here's a strange thing indeed. A little back story: We've got three cordless phones in our home. The ones in the front room and the kitchen have developed problems of late, namely they would often fail to power up, most likely due to failing batteries. I disconnected the front room phone and replaced it with a corded phone from long ago, a very cool unit with a blue neon tube around the periphery. The only reason it hadn't been in use was its inclusion of a cord to the handset.

Fast forward to the other night, when I did my last couple of posts. After finishing those and a few other things, the power for the whole house first flickered, then went out altogether. It came back on a few seconds later, but only for a couple moments, then it went out again. Now, the strange part: The neon on the phone remained lit, even when every other thing in the house lost power!!! I hypothesised that perhaps it was somehow drawing its power from the phone line, but disconnecting it from the AC adapter caused it to turn off. The only other thing I can think of is perhaps the AC was only out on one leg, and it was grounding through the phone lines.

Starting the Weekend Right

Saturday of last weekend we went to my parents house for a barbecue and swimming. See that??? My younger son can walk on water!!!



My dad was with his car club at the Great Labor Day Cruise at the Orange County Fairgrounds, so he wasn't there for most of the day, but he showed up in the afternoon.



The younger of my sisters was there, and her boyfriend, with all of her kids over. I don't think I've made much mention of her situation, but she's only the custodial parent of her youngest. The older two visit my parents every other weekend. This information will come in handy later in the story. Also in attendance was her friend, a former roommate of hers from a long time ago. She has a daughter around the age of my oldest, and was planning on bringing her, but she couldn't arrange visitation.



It was a great day, a lot of fun, good food. My mom was disappointed in the meager quantity of food we consumed. Later on in the late afternoon I was doing a little wrenching on the Benz, remember her??? I haven't been able to get a proper vacuum valve for it yet, no place has them, not the dealer, not even in Germany. I came up with the idea that I could buy a needle valve from my work, equip it with a couple of hose barbs for the vacuum lines, and weld one of the linkage arms to a shaft collar to simulate the action on the ungettable valve. Of course, I'll need to fabricate a mount for it, too. So far, my theory seems to be valid, although it tends to bleed off the vacuum quicker than I would like. I could make a compound linkage to slow it, perhaps. All that said, I've been looking for a replacement for the Storm, but if I'd be able to get the transmission on the Mercedes to work right, that would be considerably less of a priority.



As I'm doing this, my sister's friend (actually, she's really a whole family friend, she's truly awesome) comes out and tells me that my mom has had a couple of instances of numbness on her left side, just small areas. We all think the same thing, not good, sounds like a stroke. She takes her to the emergency room, while my dad takes my nephew home. My sister and her youngest and her boyfriend all had to go home a little later. This leaves me and my family, as well as my niece. They had asked if we could stay with her overnight if need be if it took a long time at the ER, or they admit her for further observation or treatment. Of course, I accepted. After my dad had taken my nephew home, he went on to the emergency room. Everything turned out to be OK with the tests they ran on her, but she was to follow up with her neurologist. It was just a little after midnight when they made it home.

So, that's how my weekend started...

What Kind of PIRATE AM AYE???

Tonight may just be a two post session, first time I've done that in a while!!! If not, enjoy this instant blogpost!!!

Your result for The What Kind of PIRATE Are You Test...

LONG BEN!

Henry Every, or Jonathon Avery, or Captain Bridgman, or Long Ben, you were the most idolized pirate of your time. You were the Micheal Jackson of piracy. In more ways than one. While the plunder you picked up in the Red Sea and the ease with which you sailed off is legendary, so is your 'relationship' with fellow pirate Thomas Tew. I understand: you're on a ship for months at a time with no women in site... it drives some pirates to blood thirsty killing, and some to... boys. There. I said it. You are an amazing pirate, a legend in your own time! It's just your personal life that bothers us other pirates. We're fine with the boys, I mean when you've been on the ocean for a matter of months even the stoutest cabin boy starts to look good... it's just that, do you have to slice open every wench in every port you attack? Some even have all their teeth still in, and a good wench is hard to come by, even in the best of times!

Take The What Kind of PIRATE Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

All that said, don't know if I agree with all that. Here's the breakdown versus other test takers:

You scored 56% on Treasurer, higher than 42% of your peers.
You scored 62% on Seafairability, higher than 47% of your peers.
You scored 56% on Bloodlusting, higher than 87% of your peers.
You scored 48% on Wenchwanting, higher than 89% of your peers.

I scored higher than 89% of your peers in wenchwanting, yet they go on about the hot man on man action??? Something strange going on there... I work in a bin structure with a high percentage of guys, but haven't gone there yet!!!

Race Day

Busy BUSY weekend,
but good. Much more that I could blog about, but I'm going to limit it to just this at this point.





Sunday was the Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Raceway in Fontana. This was the view from our seats, pretty much even with the end of pit row.



Yea, it was loud, but not nearly as loud as I had anticipated. I had bought two pairs of ear plugs, but the youngest was the only one who used them, and only for the first third of the race or so.



The National Guard did a fly by at the end of the National Anthem. Here's about the coolest thing about our trip. My work only got one parking pass for every four seats, so it was every other set of tickets that got one. I wasn't one, so I checked with one of the other guys in my department. He had gotten one, and my house was on his way, so he agreed to drive. On Saturday he called me up to double check and set the time, and he asks if I know anyone else who would like to go. Awesome!!! I had been thinking I would end up flipping a coin to pick which of my boys I would take, and this solved that quandary!!! Both of the boys really enjoyed it.



The first caution, only a few laps into the race, and almost everyone pitted. Looks like the #07 Jack Daniels car is pushing the car ahead of him out. Jack'll make ya do that kind of thing!!!



Jimmy Johnson, who went on to win rather decisively, in the pits. The race was actually rather uneventful, a few yellows for debris on the track (early on, one of the caution lights had fallen onto the track, that was pretty amusing), Busch and Edwards played nice, and didn't see any real wrecks at all to speak of. I actually caught the replay of it when I got home, and found out why there was one of the late cautions, one of the guys rubbed up against the wall. Good times!!!


An amazing sunset as the race was nearing the end!!!


Tonight, after taking the family to a movie, we stopped to look at a used car. Have I made mention here that I had been looking for a used car again??? Well, I'm not looking anymore. I'll post more about that later...