AHHH!! The Memories

This past Sunday I took my five year old grandson, Jaden, out to watch his Daddy play soccer with a local men’s team. Also playing on the same team, as his Daddy, was his Uncle Tommy. His cousins Rylan (3 weeks), Rylan (19 months) and his Aunt Nikki (age with held) were also there. Tommy and Joey played opposite ends of the field with Tommy on defense and Joey up front. They both played very well, as did most of their team, with Joey scoring all three of their goals. Unfortunately, they did not have their usual goalie that day and the other team outscored them by two.

This was the first time I watched my boys play soccer together in about 16 years. From the time Joey was about 6 or 7 and Tommy 4 years older, they both played soccer. They started playing while we were stationed in Panama and continued when we arrived in the states.

Some years they played 11 months out of the year. They played soccer for school, Classic soccer (the best teams from each city), summer soccer and indoor soccer. Since they were four years apart, they were often on different teams based on age group. Since my wife and I tried to attend every game and were very involved with the teams, we sometimes had to run from field to field to ensure we gave them both equal viewing time.  It was much easier when they were on the same team.

Anyway, watching them play together again on the same team brought back a lot of good memories. My wife unfortunately is in Panama, due to a family emergency, and was not able to see them. When I told her about the game on the phone, she was so happy that her boys were playing nicely together again. Ahhh! The memories.

NASCAR will survive the economic crisis

NASCAR has been the subject of criticism almost since it’s inception in 1948. I guess that’s pretty much true of any sport that some people just don’t understand. However, the current economic crisis has moved the target from the politics and safety of NASCAR, to the fuel being used.

Bootleggers were really the original stock car racers. However, they were in competition with the police rather than other drivers. The bootleggers needed a way to get their products to the customers and therefore modified smaller, lighter vehicles in order to evade the police. The modifications not only allowed the cars to go faster but they also changed the cargo areas to accommodate their unusual load.  After Prohibition, moonshine was still popular with some folks so the drivers now had to evade the tax man rather than the police.  Some of the drivers came to love the pursuit and the thrill of driving on the winding dirt roads and began organizing races with their peers.

Eventually the races became major events set up by promoters. One of the popular races at the time was held in Daytona Beach, Florida. The winner of the 1938 event was William France, Sr, who wanted to organize the events in order to protect drivers from shady promoters and standardize the rules and regulations. In 1947 he got together with some other popular drivers and promoters, of the time, and the result was the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing or NASCAR.

The first season of unified series racing  ran from January to December of 1947 and included 24 races. The top prize was $1,000 along with a trophy and an additional $3,000 went to other drivers who competed.  Today a typical series may include 36 races with prize money of up to $4 million at each event.

NASCAR has been criticized for it’s lack of concern for safety almost since it started. Only in the last few years have they really begun making lifesaving changes. For the most part the safety precautions were not mandatory and therefore were not enforced. It wasn’t until the death of one of the sports most popular drivers, Dale Earnhardt, in 2001 that they began taking safety more seriously. Some of the changes that were made included the seats, seat belts and harnesses and the wall barriers. As a testament to the effectiveness, there has not been a death in any of NASCARs’ three major series since 2002.

The number of NASCAR viewers has dropped by about 18% since it’s peak in 2005 and attendance at the races has dropped almost 20%. Some are saying its because of Chrysler and possibly GM going into bankruptcy and the general collapse of the auto industry.  Others say that even the fans are concerned about the waste of fuel and the emissions. I say it’s because even NASCAR fans have been affected by the economic crisis. I think that even NASCAR fans are feeling the money crunch due to layoffs and plant closings. I also think that they will be back. Once we weather the current situation, ticket sales will go up and fans will begin ordering pay-per-view again.

While you are waiting, go to www.nascar.tellmeaboutthat.com and check out the latest news, articles and ads. When things turn around you’ll be ready.

Skydiving requires a parachute made by a human

The other day in Wal-Mart, my wife commented that the credit machine that we run our cards through to pay for our purchases, had screwed up again. When she chose “No” for the money back option, the machine added $20.00 anyway. My wife told the cashier that this was the second time this month and last week the same thing had happened to our son. The cashier looked at my wife and said “a human made it” and went back to her business. There was nothing to say. She was right and it got me to thinking about some of the things we depend on in our everyday lives. How much faith do we put in our cars, that when we turn it on with all that gas in the tank and all those “spark” plugs, it will take us where we want and not just blow up.

Just today I was watching the news as they talked about an earthquake in Italy. One of the things they focused on were the number of homes and other buildings that had been destroyed. It seems that some of the older ones had been built using less cement than we use now and were therefore not as strong. WOW!!  Are we really sure that the guys who built our homes used enough cement? I mean, who checked on them? Maybe it was the state code enforcement inspectors, you know, the ones where there are not enough of them to go around and they don’t have time to inspect every one. Maybe they weren’t there to inspect mine. Maybe that was the day the builder was a little short on cement and decided to cut corners.

I once asked a special forces troop I knew, “Why would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?”. He answered that there is no such thing as a perfectly good airplane. He may have a point there. However, I have a fear of heights and although I have no problem flying, there is no way I am stepping outside of a plane in the air. I can’t understand why an otherwise sensible individual, would suddenly go nuts and jump out of plane for fun.  Not only that, but they are strapping a man-made bag on their back which is stuffed with a man-made parachute. I just don’t get it. Some people have suggested that I try skydiving and then I would get over my fear of heights. Now they may have a point there. In fact, I know I would get over my fear real quick because I would undoubtedly have a heart attack and die. Besides, I’ve kinda gotten used to my fear of heights and have adjusted, so just leave me alone.

Now if the rest of you still want to go up and jump out of a “perfectly good airplane”, go forth and have “fun”. However, before you do, go to www.skydiving.TellMeAboutThat.com to check out the latest information before you make that jump. If you like what you see then please go to my site at www.TellMeAboutThat.com and enjoy some of my other articles. Good luck! I mean it.