Animoto, you gotta try it!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

You gotta go to this site if you're like me and you have about a billion pictures stored on your computer.  It's simple and it's free (if you keep it to 30 seconds)and you can choose from several backgrounds and music overlays.

Now I've heard it all

First, I'd like to apologize for taking as much time off as I have from 3AM with Gus.  Busy is an understatement when it comes to what has been on the family agenda this year but it took something like the horrible off-road crash that happened in the Mojave desert this past weekend to wake me up and get me going again.

What has and always will aggravate the hell out of me is stupid people.  For the purpose of this article I'll narrow it down to the stupid things that stupid people say, and lately it seems to be spreading like an epidemic.  People just don't think when they say things, or they feel that the garbage coming out of their skull cave truly has merit.  Like politicians who never seem to be at a loss of ignorant words: "I smoked it but I didn't inhale", or Mark Chapman's insane reasons for killing John Lennon.  Think of the moral fiber we're dealing with here and it's easy to base our comments on these individual's way of thinking but not when it comes to a good friend of one of the victims of the California 200 crash.  This guy spoke out on NBC's Today Show this morning and had the audacity to place some of the blame in the driver's hands for his buddy's death.  This is when I had to scream enough!

After all he looked like an intelligent individual, a nice person who truly cared for the well being of his deceased friend's family and I felt awful for them, him included.  I don't know how I'd react if one minute I'm standing with my friend or family member watching a race and in an instant they're lying dead right next to me.  What I do know is that I wouldn't say something as silly as "the drivers should slow down to somewhere around 20 or 30 miles per hour when they reach these stages that have fans lining the track".  Earth to slow guy, YOU are on THEIR track!  I'm just going to throw this out there but if you don't feel safe being that close to racing vehicles at speed then you should get your ass further away from them!  I watched the video and nowhere did I see anyone with a gun to all of your heads making you stand where you were.

Seriously, you show up at a race with no guard rails, catch fences, concrete abutments, or any other means of keeping the vehicles on track and you think the drivers have some sort of responsibility to the crowd?  If the crowds that attend these events had that little voice of reason talking in their head they wouldn't be standing at the road's edge while vehicles whistle past them at 80 miles per hour.  We've seen this all too often in Europe with the WRC, and their jaded past has called for some changes in how the sport now handles crowds at these races.  Until recent years, thousands of people would line the road side with most of them on the track surface until the cars would come through their stage.  Then, like the parting of the Red Sea, people would retreat to the sides of the road just inches from the vehicles as they would fly by at very high speeds.  Countless injuries and numerous deaths have occurred over the years and you would think that the organizers and promoters of the California 200 would have learned from something like this.  Oh they state that people must be 50 feet from any vehicle traveling above 15mph, but it's one thing to talk about it and another to figure out a way to enforce it.

What happened this past weekend is a tragedy and regardless of what I or anyone else may think that these people did or didn't do, it doesn't lessen the fact that many innocent people were injured or killed.  Good people who went there with just one intention- take in the sport they love and have a good time.  But the simple missing ingredient here was common sense.  It wasn't a speed limit imposed on drivers in certain areas.  It was our ability as rational thinking human beings to analyze the situation, assess the risk, and adjust accordingly.  But for some people it's much easier to be reactive and point fingers at others in times like this than to be proactive and avoid having things happen to us at all.  Just listen to one spectator from Laguna Niguel.  When asked about what she saw and her thoughts, she said "There were too many people, They all wanted to be close". "I didn't see the driver, he probably would have been killed by the crowd".

The prosecution rests.

When you visit a race track that does have all of the safety measures in place you still know things can go wrong.  We've all seen Indy cars climb the fence at the Brickyard or a Top Fuel car explode and rain debris in the stands and in many instances people have gotten injured or even killed.  We as fans (or participants) all run the risk of serious injury or even worse every time we set foot in a racing facility.  The human body is no match for a vehicle of any size at any speed, and we all have to respect this fact and take every precaution available to ensure our safety and that of others.  Sadly after this weekend it's a point all too well known now by people who may have forgotten otherwise.

I've been a bad, bad boy

I used to think that one day I would follow Buddhism more closely.  I can honestly say that I could adhere to the five precepts but after receiving a bit of information on a past archenemy of mine, that idea looks like it's about to get shot straight to hell!

Practice the training of mindful speech, refrain from harmful speech.  This would be precept number four and one that since I consider myself more mature than I was twenty years ago, I feel I can certainly live with.  Or can I?  I once knew a man who told me to surround myself with positive thinking people and eliminate the negative from my life totally.  "Negative thinking people suck the life out of you" he would say.  And he was right.  Within minutes of standing around and listening to people like this you find yourself buying into their rubbish and making comments about everything around you.  But when I recently heard about a certain individual who has backed himself into such a corner that there's really no escape, I jumped in feet first.  Comments abound, I didn't hold back my elation for his recently acquired hardship.

This does nothing for my moral fiber.  If anything it destroys any shred of decency that I once thought I had.  But there's a certain amount of pleasure one gets when an absolutely horrible person is now found on their knees.  It feels pretty good when once in time you didn't amount to an amoeba on the ass of a fly in this person's eyes and now you are the one still standing.  When someone has historically questioned your morals and decisions and everyone around you, only to later find that they contradicted everything they've said by their own actions.  This can be quite gratifying.

Forgive me if I seem to be gloating here.  I've always felt strongly that no one deserves to be unhappy, ill-stricken, or hungry and I still subscribe to this wholeheartedly.  But in this particular case it's taking just about every ounce of energy in me to find it in my heart and mind to forgive.  I'm usually not a cruel person so I can only chalk it up to the hockey player in me since retribution was a defensive lineman's middle name.  And before I get every player in North America lined up at my doorstep to either sue me for defamation of character or punch the living tar out of me, let me make it clear that I am not speaking for all hockey players when I say this.

Still, after all the elation has subsided and the little voice of reason speaks up, it's something I nor anyone else in this type of situation should be proud of.  And I'm going to try to hear this voice over the sadistic laughter that usually drowns it out.  It's no surprise that this person was a pain in many people's rear quarters, not just mine.  And I know for a fact that there are others who upon hearing this news began to feel like I do.  In the end you can paint it any color you like and lay blame on who or whatever you choose but it's still wrong.  Regardless of what god you worship I have to think he/she would frown on it.

Fortunate

The dictionary defines fortunate as having good fortune; receiving good from uncertain or unexpected sources; lucky.  After this past year I would think that to say I'm fortunate would be an understatement.

With winter setting in and the holidays approaching it's once again time to reflect on our past, ponder the future, and celebrate everything that we have.  And for those of you who know me and know that I rarely talk this way, let it be clear that I truly mean this and it's not some she-she line that I stole from another writer.  Many things from this past year have me feeling extremely grateful for everything that I have.

My Father.

With every day that we grow older we realize that one day our time will come.  And I've always feared those telephone calls at unheard of hours of the morning, knowing it can't mean anything but trouble.  That call came a few months ago and shook me straight to my core.  "He's in the hospital" I was told, "Get there quick".

A stroke and a heart attack could have very easily taken him from us this year but despite the severity of his illness it proved not to be his time as he pulled through it much better than I anticipated.  With only small deficits left over from his experience he's got a new lease on life, and although he doesn't drive that well he's pretty much all intact.  Honestly, I don't think he could drive well to begin with but please don't tell him I said that.  In the end I couldn't be more thankful since in my line of work I see too many people go through this with much different consequences.  Frankly, on that car ride in to the hospital that morning I was prepared to write off who he once was but through his determination and a little help from the big guy upstairs it looks like he'll be sticking around a while longer.

Livelihood

Job, home, food, and clothing, we still have them all and I wake up thankful every day for it.  It seems like everyone around me is losing something in these trying times.  Their job, retirement funds, homes, their sanity!  With this economy being a mere shell of what it was eighteen months ago it's a wonder anyone has a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

Of my two jobs, I seriously thought that one would be affected more than it has.  It's a safe bet to say that working on a rescue squad has its benefits since we'll always have sick people to deal with.  But auto racing? that's just disposable income and we all know that in hard times these are the areas that are first in line for cut-backs.  On the contrary, we planned and followed through with an expansion of our building when most companies were closing their doors.  It's a good thing for us that people will still do anything for their toys.  It's because of them that I can still put food on our table.  If I could thank each and every one of you I would.

Family

This could very easily have fallen under livelihood since I'd be absolutely lost without them.  And without my wife in particular, everything I said about having a roof over my head would be a moot point.  If I didn't have her to constantly make me aware of the fact that I don't take home a half million dollars a year, I'd more than likely spend every dime I made.  Yes boys I'm the spender in the family, not my significant other as the stereotype often goes.

I've got plenty to be thankful for when it comes to my children.  Even though my daughter has reached her teens and my son has begun driving I've still managed to keep my sanity, teach them what I can, love them unconditionally, and get a few hours of sleep each night.  Soon when they're both totally mobile I'll probably see next to nothing of them and then in an instant, they'll be gone.  It's going to happen sooner than I ever imagined and as lost as I'll feel without them, I'll be grateful for every waking moment I had with them.

The moral of this story is more than just some cliche' phrase.  Never underestimate what you have.  This should be something that you realize every single day of your life and not just during the holidays.  You may not have a big new house, a car, or money.  You may not even have a large circle of friends.  But if you have family, you have everything you'll ever need.  I've always told my kids that friends are important, but especially in their young lives friends will come and go like the seasons.  At the end of the day, your family will always be there for you. 

But there are plenty of people out there who have no family, and for individuals as fortunate as us this is something that is heartbreaking to even imagine.  whether their family members have passed away or parted ways, there are plenty of folks out there who are alone.  I met one such person recently and it was both a somber experience and as odd as it sounds, very gratifying for me.

While working on the rescue squad this past weekend, we responded to an elderly man who had fallen in his home.  His injuries didn't appear to be life threatening, but he was a bit shaken up and agreed to go to the hospital to be looked at.  While en route with a patient we always strike up friendly conversations to help pass the time.  And being close to Christmas, the ice breaker for this shift was whether or not your shopping was done and if you were ready for the holidays.  "As ready as I'll ever be" he quietly replied.  I went on to ask if it was going to be a large gathering or something small, and if he had to travel or if he was hosting the event.  "Nope, just me" he said.  "My friends have all passed away and aside from my daughter in Florida, I have no one else".  Not seeing the forest for the trees, I kept up with the conversation until it awkwardly became clear to me that his daughter hasn't spoken to him in many years.  This revelation was sad in itself but being one week from Christmas it made his situation that much harder to grasp.  Christmas is so profoundly family oriented and here's someone who is going to spend it alone.  When he has family no less!

I was deeply affected by this guy and his situation for days and it wasn't until I began writing this article that I realized he had given me a gift.  He had opened my eyes and put everything in perspective for me.  Never again will I take for granted what I have and the relationships that I keep with others.  And though I have no clue why his relationship with his daughter got to where it is, nor am I implying that he was of any fault, I am going to try even harder at being the best husband, father, and friend that I can.  Petty instances between my own daughter and I have escalated to unhealthy levels before and maybe this old timer was a ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Not if I can help it.

Commencing Countdown, Engines On

Over thirteen years ago I clipped and saved a short article written by Cory Farley of Autoweek magazine (March 4, 1996, The Plight of the Navigator). It was a story of his trials and tribulations in training his own son to drive.  Back then, my oldest hadn't even reached his second birthday but knowing that this day would find us quicker than I could probably imagine I decided to hang on to it.  So here I am, over a decade later I pull the yellowing copy from my briefcase and smile.  Exactly one month from today we will embark on my son's journey out onto the blacktop jungle.

Actually since that day I have amassed a good sized collection of articles on the topic of teen driving.  The reason that this particular story got my attention is because like Mr. Farley, I have driven in the triple digits before with family in tow.  I took the "racetrack road" that my kids suggested when we left our house, listening to their laughter as we would glide through a corner a bit faster than the posted limit.  I pulled the parking brake on snow and spun us into the driveway like only the finest rally driver would.  I've even rolled a car once.  Relax! I was twenty years old and single.  No children or spouses were harmed in that particularly embarrassing moment in time.  And now with a long line of events in my life that my kids are all too aware of, I'm forced to play the "Do as I say not as I do" card.  God what a hypocrite!

One thing unique to my situation that Mr. Farley didn't have is a child who has logged a substantial amount of time behind the wheel of a race vehicle.  At ten years old my son was moving along at speeds upward of sixty miles per hour before I even took the playing cards out of my spokes as a kid!  What I can't quite figure out though is if this fact should assure me of his respect of a motor vehicle or if it's going to turn out to be the kiss of death.

I've been told that I'm certifiable if I buy into the fact that he's going to be safer than those without his training.  That when I let him loose he'll tear around town like the whole world is his racetrack.  And that he'll obviously drive much faster than the other kids because he's more comfortable at high speeds.  On the contrary, I feel that ignorance and a lack of respect for your new steed is the perfect combination for disaster.  On my first night with my license I had managed to take about thirty-thousand miles off my father's tires on his Cutlass and about ten years off the transmission.  I had seen burn outs at the drag strip and heard of this thing called a neutral drop but never experienced them first hand.  By about 11pm on that night I had become a pro.  And by some miracle of God I didn't kill myself or take anyone with me in the process.

After reading that article for the first time back in '96 I had the whole orientation planned out for him.  But given his resume to date I'm thinking there may be no need for me to pull a parking brake on him to see how he reacts, or take him to a snow covered parking lot to feel the tail come around.  He's experienced this already in spades, and at a quicker and much more violent rate than a clumsy two-thousand pound car would.  What I do need to do is remind him that not everyone is moving in the same direction as he is.  And with people texting, blasting their stereo, and fixing their faces while driving, this environment is ten times more dangerous than any race track he's driven on.  Even at a substantially reduced pace the behemoth that you pilot out in the real world- with its doors, roof and sound steel structure- could very well hurt or kill you much easier than anything you've experienced before in competition.

I think the hardest thing for me to teach him is going to be to trust that gut feeling which warns you of impending doom.  You know that over anxious and sometime nauseous feeling you get which is quickly followed by a little voice telling you that you're going too fast for the turn ahead.  That same voice that asks if the guy parked on the side of the road (who happens to be turning his wheels into traffic) has checked his mirrors and sees you coming.  Or those moments when you're at an intersection and you get the green light.  You pause for a brief second, check both ways, and then proceed through the intersection after an idiot blows the red light and damn near takes you out of the picture.  You can make your new driver aware of these situations but honestly how do you truly teach them?  They're just going to have to experience it, have a few close calls, catch their breath, and with time they'll become second nature.

The old saying goes: What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  But when it comes to the responsibility of driving, even if we survive the event, we could be left with the incredible guilt of hurting another individual.  We ourselves could become so badly injured that we are restricted to a hospital bed and a ventilator.  And if we're lucky, maybe a wheelchair and feeding tube.  I just hope he realizes this because even though he's had several years behind the wheel of his kart he's also had the luxury of a reset button on his Xbox.  But in real life, and especially out on our roads and highways, there are no do-overs.

Another year, another reminder

Eight years ago this great country of ours came under attack and like most of us I still can't totally believe what happened on that beautiful fall morning.  The enormous amount of innocent lives lost, and for the survivors, the lost feeling of ever being safe here at home again.  These cowards delivered a sucker punch that left us still reeling all these years later but they didn't win.  We haven't forgotten and we never will.  But for most of us we've brushed ourselves off and got on with our lives.

At least as well as we could.

I remember how quiet it was in the skies for days after the attacks when all flights were grounded.  Our skies are now once again filled.  I can recall many instances of hearing about letters being delivered with a suspicious powdered material on them.  You don't hear of this much anymore.  And security measures which were once so strict you almost loathed going to an airport are now less critical than they once were.  We're getting on with our lives alright, but I hope we don't get too comfortable in doing so.

Don't get me wrong.  These maggots would have won if we were still shaking uncontrollably and biting our finger nails and I'm glad we're not.  But these groups who hate us so bad haven't left their drawing boards for a minute.  And they could set our world on its ear in an instant if we give them the chance.  We have to enjoy life but with a bit of vigilance.  We need to make certain that events like this don't happen again in our lifetime nor our children's.

Everyone everywhere knows what they were doing at that moment in their lives.  Just like the generation before me knows what they were doing when JFK was killed, and the generation before that when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  These things were unfathomable, and especially hard to believe that it could happen right here on U.S. soil.  But they did happen here, and it just goes to show that even the largest of super powers can have a chink in its armour that could bring it to its knees.  All of us are key components that make up the armour of this great nation.  Young and old, serviceman and civilian alike, we all have a part in keeping ourselves safe from monsters who threaten the sanctity of a free world.

Below you'll find a collection of pictures taken on my family's last trip to New York city.  The 9/11 museum came highly suggested by a family member of mine who had visited the city shortly before us.  Back in 2001 we all knew how big of a disaster that day was when we watched the events unfold on our tv screens.  But for me it wasn't until I saw ground zero and got to view all of the items collected from the site that I truly realized the magnitude of that tragedy.  It was much larger than I ever imagined and very overwhelming to say the least.  You couldn't help but have mood swings from utter sadness to bitter anger.  I was warned that the exhibit left not one dry eye but thought that I'd be different.  I was wrong.

A portion of one of the planes that hit the WTC.

An SCBA bottle from one of the New York firefighters.







What's left of an FDNY turn out coat.










Tools recovered.

Notice the pistols literally fused to one another.






A steel column from One WTC.










Ladder/Engine Co. 10 located directly across the street from ground zero.


The bronze memorial wall on the side of 10 House.

Go ahead, bite the Big Apple

We bit it a month ago when my family and I decided that the big city was going to be this year's destination for our annual getaway.  And I'm pleased to say we liked it!  Some more than others, but all in all it was definitely something to see.

Up until this year I was the only one in the family who had ever been there.  About thirty years ago to be exact, but some of that trip was still in my mind and I knew we'd find something for each of us to enjoy.  Heck, with the ethnic diversity alone it would make for some great people watching wouldn't you think?



Racing has taken up a lot of our time over the past five years and a family trip of this sort has always taken a back seat to our weekend endeavours.  We were determined to not let this year go by in the same fashion so about four months ago we began looking at our options.  Everything up to this point included a giant mouse in Florida so with our already grown family, and the fact that we wanted to keep it a bit more *affordable, New York was what we landed on.

*Regarding affordable, outside of a screamin' deal on airfare (which we upgraded anyway to better seats) there was not much that was "affordable" about this trip.  But hey, when you're in a city with non-stop entertainment and rents for apartments going two to three times more than my mortgage, You can live with it.

Like any trip into uncharted lands there was some apprehension.  Oh we've contemplated the complexity of their mass transit system, the looming threat of a crime waiting to happen around every corner, and the fact that when you've seen one large building you've probably seen them all.  We were told that New York City in August would be unbearable.  Warm temperatures forecasted for our week would make an already irritable town even more jumpy, but I have to say that this nor any of these fallacies were true.  The people were generally hospitable, the weather not bad, and we rode the subway system like pros after only a couple of trips.  And with the amount of uniformed police officers around at all hours we never once felt unsafe.











After all of the typical stops were made- Times Square, the Empire State Building, and Ellis Island, I had one of the best times just strolling through Central Park and the surrounding neighborhood.  We had to swing by the Dakota to see John Lennon's digs and I have to say that the architecture on that building and many others around it were absolutely stunning.  This day trip did rival our time at Yankee Stadium watching the Bronx Bombers humiliate Seattle.  My son and I took the train straight uptown on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and got the best seats I feel I will ever find in a stadium.  And by accident I might add!  It's a bit of a long story to go into but let me just say that if you find yourself at the ticket booth empty handed at game time, ask for the Cafe Bleacher seats.  These seats are normally a minimum of $150 a seat but at game time they shrink to just $50 and have all the amenities of much more expensive tickets.

So there you have it.  In my mind there's no need to worry about navigating this town, everything is laid out quite easily I had thought.  At least Manhattan is.  The boroughs weren't bad either but nothing beats a strip of land 7 miles long and three miles wide.  And with destinations at 42nd and Third, how can you go wrong?