Sorry, it's taken me so long...

Happy May, everybody. I'm finally back to the daily grind of earning my paycheck which is fun and exciting. The cats are happy as clams at high tide to see me. They will not leave me alone. I sat down on the couch Tuesday and thought I might write out a pattern for Beth only to have Boris in my lap in a millisecond. Now, I have to confess that if it had been Igor, I probably would have moved him to one side since he is ALWAYS in my lap. Boris, however, doesn't even attempt to sit on my lap that often, so I let him be. Of course, once Igor, who up to that moment was perfectly content sitting on the couch back behind my head, sees Boris on my lap, he decides he needs to be on my lap as well. Oy vey. I have to protect Boris then because Igor will push Boris completely off and just take over. I tell them all the time to share, but they are little brats when it comes to that. ;-) And Boris is usually the pushover, which is why I protect him.

I wrote out the pattern for Beth last night and sent it to her, so that's done! ;-)

As requested: A GRANDMA UPDATE

Grandma is doing really well. I can't remember what I last told you, but she decided to pay the $300 a day to stay at the rehab place, but then she wasn't having physical or occupational therapy, which I'm pretty sure was the reason she decided to stay there (as opposed to paying $170 for assisted living), but when I talked to her Tuesday she said that the doctor had given her another prescription for the therapy so she should have been back at it yesterday. The good news is that Tuesday she went all the way to the dining room (she's in the last room in the hallway, so it's a heckuva an accomplishment) using the walker. And I think she said she can get out of bed and use the walker all by herself, too! She has been sounding absolutely great for the last week or so. And she thinks she's going to be out of rehab in a couple of weeks. I'm assuming they're going to teach her in therapy how to negotiate stairs since her condo doesn't have a bedroom or full bathroom on the ground floor. I do know that my California/West Coast aunts (there are four of them) are planning on coming out in shifts to stay with her as they all have Family Leave once she gets out of rehab and is back home.

She's been making friends all over the place and is rarely in her room anymore as she's always off gallivanting somewhere (okay, usually the dining room, although last Monday the rehab place loaded up 10 wheelchair-bound oldsters and took them to the race track for some horse racing). From all accounts, everybody had fun. Grandma's a little bummed because her buddies Norma and Pat have gone home, and Norma was just a fun person. I quite liked her myself. She's the one who told us about Grandma refusing to bake in OT because she had seven kids and did her baking back in the day.

The vacations were mostly good. The first weekend away was hard. Even though I knew in my heart that it was my last race, it was harder saying good-bye to people than I had thought. All of us (C&C, Roadrunner, HRH and me) arrived Wednesday (C&C in the morning, the rest of around 8:30 p.m.). Thursday we headed up to LA to go to the Petersen Automotive Museum. I had been wanting to go there since it opened, but have only been to LA once since then and my brother wanted to go to Disneyland that time. Turns out that the Petersen is not nearly as extensive or fascinating as the National Automobile Museum in Reno, so we went through the whole thing in a matter of a couple of hours. I spent an entire at the car museum in Reno.

I did see some very cool cars, and if I would have downloaded my pics by now, you could see them, too. They have a Steve McQueen Jaguar in BRG – nice. They also have two Ford GTs – one of the original ones (technically a GT40) which had been owned by the classical conductor Herbert von Karajan and never driven in the rain – GORGEOUS. And one of the new ones, which is beautiful, but I'm a purist. The old one is just too sweet for words. And they also have a Bugatti Veyron. Holy cow! As HRH pointed out, it's really not a beautiful car, but hell, if you're a Top Gear fan, you know how cool and fast that sucker is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, go to youtube and type in Top Gear and Bugatti. Bloody amazing!

C of C&C really wanted to get to the Hollywood sign so that was next on the agenda. I have been to LA a fair number of times and have never made the foray to the sign – although I did go to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, so I did see it from there. This time, though, the goal was to get as close to the sign as we could. We got some cool pictures and then bailed, in an extremely unsuccessful effort to avoid LA rush hour traffic. I think it took us close to a year to get to the freaking freeway. And I have to say that the middle position of the back seat of a Magnum station wagon is not comfortable for HOURS at a time. My back was killing me!

We had to stop in Long Beach on our way back to Huntington Beach (as close as we could get to Long Beach, which wasn't bad considering we didn't even plan the trip until late February/early March) to pick copies of the Long Beach Press Telegram as they had coupons for free admission to the track on Friday. The ALMS guys were on track when we got there, so I got to flip the bird to the Penske Porsches, and the Andretti & Fernandez Acuras whenever they'd go past. It was mature and satisfying.

We ate at this restaurant called Island Burgers which was supposed to be fabulous. The burgers made from beef might have been, but their version of a veggie burger sucked. Why can't restaurants just have Boca burgers in the freezer and not waste their time (and my taste buds) creating their own veggie pattie? They almost always are horrible. HRH wanted a bite and I told her no, I didn't want that nastiness coloring her opinion of veggie burgers. Even sautéed mushrooms and swiss cheese couldn't hide how awful it was.

We wandered a bit around the race track, figuring out where we were and where our seats were. After that we just headed back to HB as we knew we had an early morning scheduled and a long day at the race track. When we got back to our hotel, though, C&C brought out a present for all of us. They had had t-shirts made expressing our feelings toward the "merger" and gave one to each of us and had a few left for some other racing friends we would see at the track. Pictures will be downloaded soon.

And I'll finish telling you all about my two trips to CA soon...I promise!!

Do not call telemarketers back! Plus Good News on the Grandma Front

I'm really slacking of late – posting entries, reading blogs, etc., and I apologise.

Latest Grandma news is good news!!! Woohoo!!! At physical therapy this week, starting on Wednesday, they began bending her knee! She was a little scared at first, expecting it to hurt, but she said it didn't. Also, one of my CA aunts was in town for a few days and she got the Medicare/Blue Cross issue straightened out. From the sounds of things, both will pay for 20 days in rehab, but they both wanted to pay for the first 20 days, so Grandma was going to get kicked out after 20 days, even though she wasn't allowed to put any weight on her leg for 6 weeks. The social worker has told Grandma that she will not be kicked out until the end of April, although Grandma thinks there's a possibility she'll be able to stay longer than that, if need be. We shall see. I don’t have a lot of faith in the "healthcare system" in this country.

I still don't know what's up with her dermatologist appt. and the atypical cells, but I'm sure I'll see Mom tomorrow and she'll tell me what's up. The YS is home from Texas, and due to Grandma's fall decided to do her next rotation here in Michigan, so we're going to harass Grandma tomorrow and then go for sushi! Yay! It's been much too long since I had sushi.

I mentioned a while back that my work phone is one number off from a telemarketers, if you remember. Well, I finally got tired of being sworn at for something I didn't do, so I asked my boss if I could be a bit more blunt in my voicemail message. He said, Yes, so a few weeks ago, I changed my VM from the standard BS to "Hello. I AM NOT A TELEMARKETER and DID NOT CALL YOU. You have reached My Name at Big Faceless Corporation and can't answer your call right now. If you know me, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Or something very similar to that. One of my co-workers called me last week and was just laughing throughout his entire message to me. He asked if I had permission to do that. Yup.

It worked up until last night when I got someone saying "You lie, you did too call me." ARGH!!! Actually, I had THREE messages from people yelling at me once again about calling them. Today's message is even more blunt.

"Hello, you've reached My Name at Specific Department at Big Faceless Corporation. I am not a telemarketer and I did not call you. The last number is a zero, not an eight. If you are a supplier or a co-worker, please leave a message."

If you know me and my work #, give it a call and a listen…let me know what you think. I think my irritation shows through. I had said the next VM message was going to include information on how to get their phone # on the Do Not Call Registry, but I was too pissed this morning to do it. Maybe next time I need to get even more explicit. Yes, I could get a new phone #, but I've had this number since I started here almost 8 years ago. It's on every order I submit, it's the # everybody knows, etc. I don't want a new phone #!!! I want people to stop being stupid and not only calling telemarketers back, but too stupid to discern a zero from an eight!!!!

I'll keep you posted on well this works. Just hope the new big boss doesn't feel the need to call me when I'm not here. ;-)

One week from today I'll be at the street circuit in Long Beach for the last ever Champ Car race (even though technically it's an IRL [f*ckers] sanctioned race, it's my cars and engines and drivers, so we're considering it a Champ Car race). The LB is coming down from NorCal Friday night and hanging with us for two days. Figures we get him into Champ Car just in time for it go away. Last year in Vegas he came down to see us (he and HRH get along great because they're both so politically conservative). On Friday, he took the rental car to the Grand Canyon where they had just opened the tourist rip-off Lucite platform (you can't take a camera on it), and he was supposed to leave late afternoon on Saturday, but he joined us in the cool grandstand over the track and watched the cars coming at us and getting only a little airborne (since they fixed the massive bump overnight) and he looked at me and said, "Do you think I could get my ticket changed to tomorrow? Do you think Uncle Kevin will mind if I miss Easter Vigil?" "It can't hurt to try. Are you kidding? Uncle Kevin doesn't give a shit about stuff like that." (Note: Uncle Kevin married our aunt 20+ years ago – we're Catholic. He's been attending a Catholic church all these years, their kids all went to Catholic school, he just finally got around to converting officially last year – adult conversions are formally acknowledged/done during the Easter vigil which is a complete nightmare and can last up to three hours.) The LB was able to change his ticket leaving Sunday (as it was Easter) and he sat there watching cars and asked "Why is NASCAR more popular than this? This is so much more interesting." Ah, LB, you have asked the eternal question, which is even more pertinent now that my series is no more.

I need to post pics of the progress of Grandma's bed jacket, but first I need to download the images from my camera. Let's hope it doesn't take as long as my October trip. ;-)

Have a good weekend. I'm going to the Token Lounge tonight to see Ursa's hubby play with his old band. I'm pretty sure there will be some absolutely fabulous people-watching happening this evening, as it is a rock/metal concert. The funny thing is that I grew up not all that far from the Token and have never ever been in it. I've driven past it numerous times, but never stepped one foot inside. I shall now find out what I've been missing all these years!

Birthday Purse (Picture finally posted)

I promised you last August a picture of my birthday purse. I finally got the external hard drive which means I finally got my music (what was on the hard drive - lot more to go) off my computer and that I uploaded all the pictures I've taken since last August.

For the next few posts, I'll be linking to my Road America (August), Baltimore (August), Maine (October), and Vegas (February 2008) pictures. But first, here is my Interlude Scarf and birthday purse (front and back).

The stupid pictures didn't pull up, so you'll have to click the links. ;-(

Here is the Interlude scarf pre-, during and post-blocking.

I'll have to be changing my profile soon, as I won't be spending my summer travelling to Champ Car races anymore. But we have one last race to attend. They announced that there would be one last hurrah, as Motegi, Japan wouldn't let the IRL out of their contract for the same weekend as the Champ Car Long Beach race. As angry as we are (yes, we realise it's a business decision, but it doesn't change the fact that it has affected us adversely), we knew we couldn't let the last Champ Car race ever happen without us there. The last race of the Panoz DP-01 and turbocharged engines will be held in April and HRH, Roadrunner, C&C and I will be there.





And you know what that means...one last batch of Champ Car pictures with which I get to bore you. ;-)

Update:

I know that you all are probably bored with my Champ Car talk, but a friend (one of C&C) found this article which basically says what I've been saying. I guess I'm including it so you don't think I'm blinded by my love of Champ Car and hatred of TFG. I have never even heard of the writer, Russell Jaslow, before, but I'd love to shake his hand.

Robin Miller Dropped The Ball

Rochester, N.Y., February 26 — For the past month or so, Robin Miller really ratcheted up his criticism of Champ Car, specifically the so-called leaders running it. It certainly was warranted. Champ Car had become a rudderless ship aiming straight for an iceberg with a penguin at the helm. It ceased operating as a respectable sporting organization since Road America last summer when they decided bullying tactics was preferable over proper media relations.

I've always liked Miller, his writing, his style, his sheer love of open wheel racing, and his no holds barred viewpoints. Even when I don't agree with him.

However, this time, I believe he dropped the ball.

In his zest to see unification happen almost to the point of fanaticism, he lost sight of doing what he does best -- ask the next probing question. And that question isn't will we be better off with one series, but will we be better off with solely Tony George in charge. The first question is obvious. The second question is potentially disturbing.

No, this isn't what you think. It isn't a Tony George started it, so why should we accept this rant. It is simply a question, is Tony George the proper person to move this sport forward from this point on.

Robin Miller says, "Get over it." I agree at some point we all have to. I also agree that this is probably the healthiest thing to do. However, it can also lead one to forget about history. Not simply to rehash the tired old story, but to learn from it. And what we learn, I fear, is that Tony George and the IRL are not the people to lead open wheel racing.

This is the organization that created the 25/8 rule.

This is the organization that downplayed, even lied, about injuries (remember Alessandro Zampedri's severed partial foot described as "minor injuries?").

This is the organization that designed a new racecar with a bulky, solid transmission that stuck so far out it created a tail happy unstable car which crushed backs in rear end impacts.

This is an organization that designed cars with the tendency to go airborne causing the death of Tony Renna, the mutilation of Kenny Brack, and the potential PR disaster of nearly sending Mario Andretti into the grandstands.

This is an organization that despite all those safety issues, put band aids on the problem sending open wheel racing back 30 years with their injury record.

This is an organization that feared the CART owners allegedly wanting to shorten the month of May and ended up shortening the month of May.

This is an organization that blatantly fixed one of the largest sporting events in the world (where was Senator Arlen Specter when you really needed him?).

This is an organization that secretly provided power steering to two of their smallest and weakest drivers, Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon, against the rules which made them suddenly -- and suspiciously -- faster.

This is an organization that steadfastly refuses to do what every other racing organization does and set the minimum weight of the car with the driver, thus providing smaller, lighter drivers an advantage, which just so happens to potentially provide the IRL with a PR coup.

This is an organization that went against every single one of their philosophical believes in their quest to control open wheel racing.

And therein lies the problem. They have never been interested in the sport. Only the control.

Miller did give us some hope. He mentioned that there are competent people now working for the IRL that will help guide them towards a better vision combining the best of Champ Car with the IRL. People such as Tony Cotman, who is quite capable of doing this. I even think Brain Barnhart is also capable of positive change. From what I hear, he receives a great deal of respect from the competitors and the way he treats them (let's not forget that the Paul Tracy fiasco was beyond Barnhart's control).

However, there are still signs that concern me with the IRL. For instance, they still have Fred Nation, who is the reason why PR workers get such a bad rap.

The clincher was what Tony George said on Wind Tunnel the other day. He described his vision of American open wheel racing and subsequently provided a recipe for Champ Car racing -- "20-race schedule is going to be split between the three different disciplines," "It will be an international series," "...international drivers and manufacturer participation is a good thing."

Miller was on his game at this point when he pointed out to George that he was referring to 1995 CART.

There is your leader for open wheel racing, folks. The man who had a hissy fit because he couldn't be in charge. The hissy fit that destroyed a sport only to acknowledge CART had it right in the first place.

That's why Robin Miller dropped the ball. What makes him think that a single series could possibly be the savior of American open wheel racing when the leader is a man-child who had a $300 million hissy fit?

Russell Jaslow

Copyright © 2008 by Russell Jaslow and Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.