315 mph in 3.9 seconds, WOW!

dscn0064It all began with a simple e-mail to my stepson and his daughter. Sometimes the power of suggestion is overwhelming. I received a spam message f rom Firebird International Speedway in Chandler, Arizona.  Why not, I asked myself? I sent a simple message to these two very important people with the following:  “Are either of you up to going? ” The event was the  NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Pro Time Trials. I was half kidding, but then again I was hoping for an escape from winter.

It actually happened!

My grand daughter replied,  “are you serious?”

“Why not?” I replied.

The phone rang. She asked me again. “Yes, I’m serious.”

“Okay, I’ll make arrangements.”

Last Saturday we left for Midway airport at noon for a three o’clock flight to Phoenix. Tracy had an agenda. First we were to go to an “In and Out Burger” for the best hamburger and fries we ever had. Then we checked in at Red Roof Inn. Afterward, we shopped at Wal Mart for weather appropriate clothes.

Bright and early on Sunday morning we were at Denny’s eating breakfast. The goal was to get to the track when it opened. We made it. Our car was about the twentieth in the lot. Since she had pre-paid for our tickets, we practically walked through the gate without a pause.

ShoppingThe first order of business was to buy souvenir tee shirts. Tracy spoke to many of the vendors by name. She’s been at so many of these things, they know her well. With the shopping completed, we were free to roam the pits.  We passed a line of semi-tractors, six in a row. All belonged to the John Force team. The trailers were all lined up and crews were busy assembling the cars. I couldn’t believe that they were actually putting them together at the track. She explained that they are practicing for the real thing on race day. After every run, the crew disassembles the car and checks every component for wear and damage. Suspect parts are replaced before the next run. The teams practice their tasks, while the driver practices with the car.

Force Team Semi's

Unloading Fuel Dragster

Unfinished Funny Car ChassisUnassembled DragsterAfter a car is assembled, the crew starts the engine. The car is on a jack stand with wheels above the ground. Some of the crew huddle around the engine with electronic measuring devices. Others are probing the hoses. Still others are looking at the clutch,  transmission, and tires. The fumes from the nitro fuel is obnoxious and burning my eyes, and throat. The noise is deafening even with my ear plugs in. I watched from the side at a safe distance. I wanted a closer look, so I switched to the other side. Right in the middle of my walk, a crew member gunned the engine. I nearly dropped to the ground. The noise scared the hell out of me. I felt the exhaust heat thirty feet behind the car.  At another trailer, I watched as veteran Don Prudhomme, quietly moved away from next to his dragster to stand behind a new Dodge Challenger parked next to it. he was not about to stand in front of an eight thousand horsepower engine as it was started for the first time. After witnessing him back off, I stood a little farther back at test firings.Top Fuel DragsterDid I mention the weather? The sky was blue, the sun was bright, the temperature in the morning was sixty, and it shot up to seventy-nine degrees by afternoon. I wore sun block and long sleeves to keep from getting burned. The locals walked around in tee shirts and shorts. Some walked in flip flops.

By ten thirty the cars began to arrive at the starting line for trials. There was no side by side racing, just one car try outs. Some of the cars shot off the line only to shut down the engine after a second. They coasted across the finish line at eighty five miles per hour. Later in the afternoon, the same car would run the distance and cross the finish line at 315 mph in 3.9 seconds. WOW! 

John Force

Lucas OilAlAnabiBernsteinSnake RacingGEICOHartley RacingKalitta Motor SportsMATCOThe quarter mile stretch was shortened  last year to give the drivers more stopping time.  Even though the total race distance has been shortened from 1320 feet to 1000 feet,  the speeds are the same as before.

By four o’clock, Tracy and I began the trip back to cold country. We arrived home at 12:30 a.m. I was totally exhausted.  The twenty four hour sojourn into the desert washed away my winter doldrums.

I dreamt of biting into a nice big juicy tasty In-and-Out Burger with fries.

The clock rang at seven a.m. It was time to get up to go for my stress test. What fun this weekend was.

A GITMO Proposal

Stella Dora Lilly

Stella Dora Lilly

Throughout the campaign for the presidency, liberals have advocated the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The idea of locking up terrorists bent on destroying the United States has offended the sensibilities of these open minded people. They berated “W’ for denying these poor troubled souls from Afghanistan and Iraq their civil rights. What the liberals don’t understand is that these guys aren’t citizens of the USA nor are they immigrants. They have no rights in the USA.

I am always open to solving problems and find myself very creative at coming up with suggestions. Among the many reasons for not closing Guantanamo is that no one knows what to do with the remaining bad guys. None of our friends in the world want them. I doubt that the Arab world wants them. So there lies the problem, what to do with these people?

Here is my proposal. There is a very large home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago that is currently empty. It belongs to our newly elected president. I suggest that the bad guys be brought to live in the empty home of our president. We place them in the hands of our toughest neighborhood gang to watch and to control. One of the neighbors, a retired terrorist himself, can act as their  mentor on life on the southside of Chicago. Another neighbor, Louis Farakhan could arm wrestle Jeremiah Wright for the priviledge of infusing them with a more rigorous hatred for America than they already have.

If we do this quickly, like today, the bad guys can taste some real torture in the form of our normal average winter weather; currently minus six degrees F and dropping. My guess is that they would reform quickly.

If the liberals think the torture of a Chicago winter is too harsh, I suggest they move to the north pole where all the heat from our cars is concentrated and it is much warmer these days. 

On the positive side: The bad guys would stay indoors to keep warm and avoid committing bad acts.

The president will receive a tidy rental for the use of his home. He could put the money away for his daughters’ college fund.

The gang in charge of keeping them in check would have some responsibility teaching these thugs some new techniques for terrorizing communities.

The neighborhood terrorist could occupy his time testing radical teaching methods on them.

The preacher who wins the arm wrestle will re-ignite them with Islam or Black Liberation Theology. 

 Of course all of this would most likely constitute  torture, thereby upsetting  the liberals once more. The final upshot could be the liberals assume the responsibility for reclaiming these lives. They will adopt the terrorists and bring them into their homes  all across the country.

Everyone will be happy again.

Homo Gene?

514px-nikolaus_kopernikus1Today, I received a letter from an organization calling itself  H.O.M.E. Heterosexuals Organized for Moral Environment. It is clearly against anything homosexual. These people propose that homosexuality cannot be anything but a choice in the way one lives.  They make the argument that the human genome has been explored extensively, and no evidence has been found to support that homsexuality is genetic.

Personally, homosexuals turn me off. Even though I have friends who are homosexual, I find them hard to accept. The men have the typical feminine mannerisms. One man has a family and grandchildren, yet he eventually came out to declare his preference for men.

In the fifteen hundreds a scientist named Copernicus proposed a theory that the earth moves around the sun. Up to that time, the teaching was that the sun revolved around the earth. Earth was the center of the universe. The Catholic Church went so far as to excommunicate Copernicus for proposing his theory. No one had any evidence to refute the theory that the earth was not the center of the universe. We all know of course that they were very wrong, and that science eventually proved otherwise.

It is my belief that the people of H.O.M.E. are in the fifteenth century with their thinking. I agree there has not been any solid evidence found that homosexuality is genetic, but that does not mean it is not.  Just as in the days of Copernicus there was not alot of evidence to support that the earth was not the center of the universe. In fact, mankind was so certain  the earth was at the center of the universe, they  held it as a religious belief.

Last week, I read an article about a new finding in the world of cancer. A new genetic link was discovered which explains the way some cancer cells spread so rapidly throughout the body. This genetic link was not obvious and never before discovered. We have to remember that the human genome has only been unraveled for a few years. New discoveries are being made almost daily.  How then can the people of  H.O.M.E. be so adamant about making statements that homosexuality is not genetic?

Throughout their letter, they made numerous falatious arguments about the nature of homsexuality. They referred to their website for further proof of their arguments. Go there to see for yourself.

http://www.home60515.com 

I  firmly believe that one day soon, we will learn that homosexuality is a genetic anomaly. We will learn that suppressing the biological urges of men who like men, or women who love women, is the same as suppressing the biological urges of men who love women.

Lately we have seen gays causing alot of trouble. They arfe voicing their opposition to California voters who reveersed the law to allow them to marry. I see this as a normal reaction by a group of people who feel their rights are being taken Gays will eventually prevail when and if science exonnerates them. Only then wiil we be able to understand why they are so different from the heterosexual majority.

Rather than bashing them, pray for them.

Give Larry the Bird

The BirdThe latest joke in front of Congress is the request to bailout the porn industry. Larry Flynt, publisher of a dirt rag called Hustler is requesting money. He is making a claim that the people of the USA and the World need porn to soothe the woes caused by the economic downturn. Somehow with the population of the earth at 6.8 billion and growing, I just can’t beleive we need porn to make it happen.

I sincerely hope our representatives in government will be wise enough to send Larry home with the bird.

Peas In A Pod

Peas in a Pod

Peas in a Pod