skibigsky's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Rock. Just ask me! OH YEAH!!!! I So Totally Rock. And yeah. I am So Totally Modest, too, eh? I kicked some ASS in the autocross this weekend. I picked up a second on my coach (last weekend she was 6 seconds ahead of me, this weekend, she was only 5); given that she is a former national champion, and she is becoming more familiar with the car, this is HUGE. I was 47th (out of 84) in raw time, being slightly over 9 seconds off the fastest guy (and almost exactly 9 seconds off my ‘second husband’ Charles), and 6.5 seconds off Mr. V. (and he was driving REALLY well). I finished 37th in adjusted time (they give each car a ‘factor’ which theoretically takes the car out of the equation and makes it equal across the different cars). I have NEVER, EVER finished better than right in the middle of PAX (or raw time, for that matter). I kicked some SERIOUS ass. I went from being DFL in June to being solidly middle of the pack. Given that my driver’s license isn’t 3 months old, I’m thrilled. My coaches (Mr. V., Linda – the former national champion - , Charles, and all of the autocross people) as thrilled to death with my improvement. Me? I’m SO PSYCHED!!!! Yeah. I will totally have my ass handed to me at Nationals. But I’ve got no expectations; I just want to have some clean (no cones) runs, and I’d love to be within 10 seconds of the fastest woman in my class (might be tough, as they combine your fastest time on day 1 and fastest time on day 2). But even if I was 15 seconds out in combined time, I’d be giddy beyond words. Charles, I think, could do REALLY well. For being a really low-key, non-expressive sort of guy, he drives like a bat-out-of-hell. I wish to hell that I could capture that mindset. Mr. V. knows that he is going to be the ‘tire warmer’ (i.e. the first driver of a two-driver car) for Charles, and is cool with it. He knows that for this season, Charles is better. He’s also cool with it because he’s certain that next season, Charles will be his tire warmer. For the record, Charles could care less. He wants to see his baby (the FrankenMiata) do well, and that’s it. Anyway, I’m THRILLED about my results this weekend. And I loved being able to spend time with Charles. The more I get to know him, the more I like him. He’s such a good guy (although I think that he’s probably regretting selling his car to us; I think he was trying to get out of the car racing deal, and we’ve dragged him right back in to it….). We are really lucky to have him on ‘the team’. And the dogs like him, which says quite a bit! And as for everything else? I’ve been crazy busy with developing our new websites for our collective businesses, and getting this mortgage thing sorted out (in which ‘sorted out’ is code for ‘suing these fucking bastards for ruining my credit TWICE in the period of 13 months and merely sending an ‘oh, we’re sorry for the inconvenience’ letter’’. Fuckers.). *ahem. And no, it was not lost on me, as I was printing his boarding pass last night, that Charles was traveling on 9/11. He and spent a fair amount of time talking about how a puddle jumper like the one he was taking wouldn’t do much of anything to a big building (and about how that was a creepy thought in the first place). I just can’t help but wonder if we are safer or less safe (and I’m making no judgments here – it’s a question I really haven’t pondered) than we were 6 years ago. In truth, all I can say is that I grieve for all the people who have lost their lives in the name of ‘fighting terrorism’, and that I haven’t got a clue as to how to solve the mess (not just Iraq, but the general sense of injustice that runs through the Middle East) that we are in. And that depresses me. I’d rather focus on the fact that I’ve got a great husband, a great family, and GREAT friends. And a great Mini Cooper. Seriously. I’m a lucky woman. And even luckier because I know it, I think. 7:15 p.m. - 11 September 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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