Bogieblog

Fall NASCAR

Last Sunday Justing (the neighbor kid) and I went to the fall NASCAR race at NHMS. This was the first NASCAR race (major) that I had attended and it was certainly exciting to be amongst the crowd and to see the race live. Here are a few of the pictures I took:

I had pit passes, so we got to go on hte track to see the pit boxes. This is a view down the entire line

Jeff Gordon is my man, so I had to take a picture of his pit stall

Se also crossed the track to get to our seats, and where all the people are is the finish line, where they were doing promotional stuff

We also wondered around the back and caught the color guard practicing

 

Our seats were toward the end of turn 4, about midway up, so we had an excellent view of the track; the first is toward the finish line, the second to the backstretch, and the third gives a sense of the size of the oval:

The flyover at the end of the National Anthem (couldn't hear the announcer, so don't know what it was. Maybe Cop Car can help me out:

The pace car leading the first several warm up laps before the start of the race:
And, here is a short video of the cars as they are headed for the start/finish line for the beginning of the race:

   

 

 

Small Victories

The other night I decided to bite the bullet and get at least one of the quicken accounts loaded into my desktop. First, I had to get Quicken - and I was able to download it from the maker, for $10 less than any place else - woohoo!

Then I got my flash drive, knowing I had done a backup within the last 4-6 weeks. SCORE - I had actually done a backup on 9/5, so it wasn't as bad as I thought. Got the backup uploaded to the computer and got my personal finances updated. The next night I did the household accounts. Didnt' take too long and made sure I backed it all up on the flash drive.

WS dropped off his digital camera last night so I could see the pics he took while he was in Kansas at his family reunion. This morning I downloaded all the pics (including older stuff) from that camera and my digital camera. Although that isn't nearly all the pictures that are on the dead laptop - it is a good chunk of them. The ones I hope they can retrieve are the ones from years ago. If not, well, that's okay, I have way more than I thought I would get.

Small victories, but working for me!

Whatever Can go Wrong . . .

I had a pretty good week, so naturally the fates decided to take me down a peg. The laptop died tonight. Used it last night to reconcile all the accounts (personaly and household), but decided not to back up. Also, it holds the majority of pictures - some backed up, some not. Went to start it up tonight, and lo and behold, it doesn't get past checking the CD drive, then it shuts itself down.

I'm so used to shit going wrong this summer that I didn't even get upset. Thought a couple of swear words, but that was it. Will have to take it to the shop next weekend and see if anything can be salvaged. Can't do it tomorrrow as I am going to NASCAR race. Even that isn't going as planned (although better than it could). I was supposed to go with Jimmy and Justin (the kid across the street that takes care of the animals when I need it). Jimmy had to cancel Thursdaynight.

Justin got his phone taken away for bad grades. the only reason his parents are letting him go to NASCAR with me is because they don't want me going alone. Nice of them, but not necessary.At least we will have lots of room; I have 4 tickets and only 2 of us going. Also, have 2 pit passes so Justin and I will still have a great time. Oh, and it is supposed to rain until about noon tomorrow, which may mean I just eat the tickets with nothing to show for it if the rain decides to stay (not supposed to, but the way things turn out for me . . .)

A well, another day in paradise with my mantra being tested (and so far not on the winning side).

Fixing the Driveway

WS used Big John to fix the washed out portions of the driveway today.

It is nice and smooth now - he did a great job!

 

How Much Wood . . .

Can Bogie chuck. . .

Okay, stack. In the last two weekends, I stacked the comlete right bank, and started the middle bank of wood. The left side is left from last year. WS has to come and split wood, then bring it down to the landing before I have more to stack.

He may or may not do so today - he is coming over to fix the driveway that was washed out from the rains on Thursday (made it interesting getting up the driveway on the bike - but the challenge was overcome.

13's

On Friday the 13^th in 2013, a control number that I gave out was 13-313. Enough 13’s make good luck right? Just a giggle I got the other day. And, I think it worked, my luck definitely seems to be turning a corner.

My current mantra is, Good Luck is Rising to the Top!

Jeep is Good to Go!

I went to a local guy to replace the ball joints and front brakes in the Jeep for a lot cheaper than the dealer quoted me. Hey, bonus, he found the REAL leak in my tire, which 2 places had failed to diagnose correctly - so that is fixed too. Dropped the vehicle off Wednesday night (WS picked me up and brought me back home). I obviously had to ride the bike to work Thursday and of course that was the day of so much rain that there was flooding as well as flash flood warnings.

The ride home wasn't as bad as I feared it would be (didn't actually hit rain until New Boston - about 18 miles from home), although I had to dodge the ponding on the road; which is tough when you can hardly see thru the rain. But, once again other drivers were wicked nice to this biker, and I got home safely, so all went well. WS picked me up and took me to get it that night, so I had the Jeep for the rainy drive into work on Friday.

Yesterday morning I went to VIP for a front end alignment, so the Jeep should be good to go for a while.

Going to look at some houses tomorrow. 1 is about 20 miles closer to work. 2 are 10 miles closer. 1 is in Hillsboro, so basically down the road from where I'm at now. Tuesday I'll look at a house in Jaffrey. Only a couple are real contenders at this point, and maybe none will be after I look at them. But I have to start somewhere.

Biker 9/11 Rally 2013

Wish I could have seen this and/or participated!

 

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/23400117/911-motorcycle-rally-to-be-held-despite-not-having-permit

9-11-2013