I love doing that!

One in the morning.

Headed home from work.

The Nissan Frontier, 112,000 miles, is humming along. Needs a tune up, oil change and a bunch of other stuff. Still on the original belts and plugs. Just got its second set of tires.

A million people live around this outer belt but the road is empty just now. I drive for miles by myself.

Get near the east side and some cars are catching up to me. With a mile and a half to go to the exit, some guy gets right behind me. He has a lane on the left and two more on the right to get by but he just sits there. Must be a NASCAR fan, he's drafting.

I pick up the pace, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70.

Here comes another one. He swings out to the left to take both of us but I won't have it, we're too close to the exit. 71, 72, 73, 74, 75. He falls back into line.

The exit is one of those 270 degree round abouts going from one freeway to another. Over the bridge, down to the right, under the bridge.

I'm still at 75 half way across the bridge when I start haulin in the brakes. They're still drafting me at this point but I won't look back anymore.

Keep your eyes level with the horizon, don't lean your head into the turn.

I'm on the brakes right to my lowest speed, about a third of the way around then it's back on the gas. Decelerate, accelerate, there isn't anything else.

I don't pull too hard at first, I know I'm not very good, just better than most of the people on the street.

At two thirds through, I can really put the pedal to the metal and hit I-70 at 70.

I'm switching the cruise control back on when I check the mirror. There is one hundred yards or more between me and the guy that was on my bumper a minute ago.

I love doing that!

The races are over and I had a blast. I've got an honest to goodness farmers tan so I'm not the same old white guy in the picture.

My thoughts seemed to have moved on to a different set of tracks, I don't find myself thinking about my next post anymore.

It's 95 degrees here in Ohio and the plant is a pretty darn miserable place to be in the afternoon. We've got a couple of new guys working with us now. One is pretty sharp, good at math, ambitious and not afraid of work. The other is cautious, easily puzzled, and reluctant to ask for help and more concerned with his rate of pay than with the job he has to do.

He provides a good example for those of us who want to improve our lives.

While training for his job he never took notes. Is that a good idea? Doesn't look that way now, at least to the rest of us.

Taking good notes is a very helpful thing. I was talking to Rex about writing, he said "I get some good ideas but I can't remember what they were later in the day."

I said, "Those thoughts are like vapors. They drift away never to be seen again if you don't capture them on the spot. You have to write it down when you think of it, and you have to be detailed about that. If you try to write a good idea down in short hand you won't be able to figure it out later on."

Lots of good ideas come our way everyday, it's very helpful to write a few of them down for later use. If you don't you will be all puzzled when it is time to do something later on. Just like this new guy.

a snippet here, a snippet there

I have a few minutes to spare so I popped in here to write a little bit.

My writing has suffered through the summer, no recent pieces have pleased me at all.

I am one of those sorry souls who knows a lot about what needs to be done and how to do it, but I do not manage to get much done.

It is important to practice a little bit everyday. Ten minutes of writing, ten minutes on the guitar and ten minutes exercising would be time well spent. I have far too many wasted half hours in my past and far too few available in my future. The trick is to just start doing something so it will become a habit.

A lot of this depends on things I have written about before. Make a list and read it everyday. Practice, practice, practice. Do something constructive first thing in the morning.

Those of you who are long time readers can fill in the ones I have forgotten.

It is time for me to go, I have an errand to run. Friday I am off to the races. I'll post some pictures next week of things I find interesting.

intensity

I've managed to slip away from work on some weekends and spent my free time at the races.

On the occasions I have done this it was vintage racing. Now I am sure that if you are racing either an old MG or an old BSA you are doing it with a great deal of intensity. Nevertheless this coming weekend I will be watching professional motorcycle racing and intensity will be taken to an entirely different level.

I've been hinting at this to my friends and family that I've dragged to the races with me but I lack the words to really prepare them.

There is a shocking difference in the level of intensity.

All of this reminds me of my own lack of intensity in getting things done. I think they bottle the stuff and sell it but I know it is not legal! (Besides it burns you out.)

This intensity thing is one of those elusive characteristics of success. Cultivate your intensity so you can get things done.

misery

I work in a place that can get very busy in the summer. The building season is the buying season for our products. We all know this.

Anyone hired in the last 20 years is told this. They are asked if they have a problem with a lot of overtime in the summer. They say no and they get a job.

Then summer comes around and they have a problem. I know one guy who has had this problem for the 9 out of 10 years that he has been with us. He was gung ho and willing in the interview but now he has changed his mind. He has decided that he is miserable and he is determined to make everyone around him miserable too.

The overtime is a preoccupation with him, he cannot even say hello without taking a stab at the overtime.

I don't know how a person can work themselves up into such a state.

I do know that being preoccupied with your misery is a sure way to suck the joy and the energy out of your life and the lives of the people around you.

I thought I was about to hear The International!

Took my bonus break last night, we get an extra one when we work 10 hours a shift. Joined some comrades outside, one of them was remarking on all the Latins and Asians who come over here and start businesses of their own.

"How is it they start businesses and we're still working for the man?" she said in a tone of complete disgust.

Someone replied that the people in question were more likely to do without while they worked to get ahead.

That's called delayed gratification. Work now for rewards later, something that is increasingly alien to most of us. We want what we want and we want it now.

Work for your goals and the rewards will be sweeter still.

empty headed

I can't explain it. I've gone from thinking all the time about what to write for Ordeal to not thinking about it at all.

Of course I am busier, what with work and everything. I'll be working straight through this weekend but will have the next two off.

All three weekends will feature motorcycles! There are BIG races at Laguna Seca this Sunday and I need to flex my schedule so that I can get to a TV in time to see them. The following two weekends I will be at Mid-Ohio for the events up there.

All of this is just an example of what happens in our lives.

We get busy with the business of life and things that we hold as important get forgotten.

A perfect little example of why it is so important to write down what is important and to review it everyday. Don't lose sight of what is important to you.

(Did I emphasize 'important' enough in that last paragraph?)

it's quiet now

It's been a long week of too much noise culminating tonight in seemingly endless small arms fire.

Well actually, it was seemingly endless small fireworks but why worry about details?

I like quiet and find too much noise to be an energy-sucking vampire.

It started last Friday with a big blow up at work, people mad about what they thought other people were saying. This sort of thing happens about anywhere.

I went to the vintage car races last weekend where the noise is pleasant to my ears. Shot a number of pictures but have not posted them to my other blog yet. Noise was not the problem. Lots of sun and temperatures in the 90's was more the issue.

Back to work on Monday and my schedule was joggled a bit as I covered for someone who was off. The noise from the blow up continued, all through the week. I took Friday off.

Ran some errands, needed some fresh black and white film and I was looking for a good flash bracket. Camera stores have fallen on hard times. I never found the bracket, my favorite store was closed and a store that once always had a crowd was now empty of customers. I bought the film (Plus X and T Max) at the fifth store.

I gathered my camera bags, kill and overkill, and left Saturday morning for my nephew’s apartment. He was getting married and I was shooting black and whites for him. The plan was for me to go to his apartment and shoot some photos of him and his friends getting dressed in their tuxedos, after that I would drive him to the event. There was just one glitch when I got there; the streets all around were closed for a parade. I couldn't get in and no one there could get out!

He had gone out for a haircut and we hooked up at a nearby shopping center to wait out the parade. The noise ended and off we went. It was a long day. I shot 4 or 5 rolls of 35mm and another 4 or 5 of 120. I could have used an assistant.

Sunday at the lake, 4th of July weekend, an endless stream of parties, an endless succession of fireworks. It is particularly annoying at my house, the spillway next door is an attractive echo chamber and every little boy with a match and a firecracker has to test it a dozen times. Then there are the spectators coming out to enjoy the show over the water, problem is you can't see it from here but that doesn't prevent them from setting up camp. We tell them but they don't always believe us.

Now everyone is gone and quiet has returned. Just the way I like it.