It really is a small world. I’m not talking about the ride at Disneyland. I’m talking about the planet earth. I tell my friends it is hard to misbehave because you will get caught by someone you know on the spot. Last week while in the air on the way to Phoenix, I got up to relieve myself. On the return trip to my seat, I noticed a man smiling at me. He wore a Sox baseball cap. I looked him in the eye. Where do I know this guy from went through my mind? Then the light went on. It was my neighbor Tom. When I look out my front window, I look into his living room.
It turns out that Tom was on his way to Glendale, AZ. The Chicago White Sox are completing their new spring training facility there. He works for them in marketing . On the return trip, Tracy and I were killing time in the terminal. She spotted a man and told me he reminded her of a client. This week, Tracy reported that it was her client. He came into the office during the week, and said, “didn’t I see you in the Phoenix airport last week?”
Another time I was at a trade show in Duesseldorf, Germany. A friend who had left our company a year earlier, for greener pastures, came and stood next to me as I was examining a molding machine. I didn’t pay attention to him. He spoke to me. I recognized his voice, but didn’t connect because we had worked together on molding machines at Panduit. When I finally looked up and saw who it was, I jumped with surprise. I can go on and tell a few more stories of meeting people I know in places all over the world.
Small world?
Yes.
All I can recommend to you is this: behave wherever you are.
Filed under: Characters I knew, family, Funk, Manufacturing, Memories, Motivation, Sports, Travel, Uncategorized, Warm and Fuzzy, Writer | Tagged: Arizona, Behavior, Disneyland, Duesseldorf, Germany, Glendale, Marketing, Phoenix, Planet Earth, Spring Training, White Sox | Leave a comment »
It 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.
The 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.
After 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.
Did 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.
The 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.
The 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.
