Fourth place!*

Zippy's lil bro.

Out of a field of seven TAG karts this weekend, I beat** three of them!

It all went down at Raceway Park's Points Race #10 this weekend.  The clouds were ominous and the feeling foreboding, but since there was no way to know if the course would be closed until we got there, we hit the road at 5 am -- errr, make that a bit past 7 am, trailer in tow.  I checked the website every half hour for updates until about 9, when it was clear that the track would be open.  By the time we got there, practice was nearly half over.

I got dressed and teched in time for the last two practice heats.  Let me step back and say that there are two types of nerves.  There are the type of nerves that make you feel cold and filled with dread, and there are the nerves that make you feel a bit exhilarated and totally ready to rock.  I was feeling the first type of nerves in the worst way.  The track was moist, my tires were cold, and there was a nice wet spot right after the helmet turn where I got quite squirrelly.  And then, going into a turn that I don't normally have trouble with, I spun out and hit the barriers, back end first.  I think the only thing scarier than spinning out of control and hitting something is seeing a line of karts heading right at you as you try to get your bearings.  Luckily, I didn't stall out, so I was able to finish the session, ever more tentative.  (Never a good thing on the track!)  The second practice heat didn't go much better.  I got on the track late and only got a lap and a half in before the session ended.

Singer in her new favorite hang out spot.

The format for the TAGs was timed qualifier for position in the pre-final, followed by pre-final for position in the final.  In any event, the bad nerves just got worse, and the clouds were rolling in.  Every now and then we'd feel a few rain drops.  During the qualifier, I ended up stabbing the brakes at the end of the straight during the second lap and spinning out into a wall of cones.  Unfortunately, I stalled out, which meant even less seat time and a last place start position for the pre-final.

Happily, the skies cleared and the sun came out in time for the pre-final.  I ended up pulling a much better time of 44.89, but still about a second off of my goal for the day.  Two folks crashed out, and one guy broke something.  By this point, the good nerves were in full effect and I was finally ready to rock (relatively speaking).  There were five of us left in the final, and since I'd finished the pre-final in one piece, I was supposed to start in the 4th position.  Thanks, but no thanks!  Despite being waved up to my position, I stuck to the back, and finished with a slightly less painful 44.36 as my fastest lap.  So despite a disappointing performance, I'm glad I stuck to my guns and rallied.  I'm sure I can break into the 42s by the end of the season.  I just need to learn how to shut off the bad nerves!

Mom,  if you die can I eat your lunch?!

*Two other karts crashed out in the pre-final, and one broke down in the final, allowing me to finish ahead of them.

**Because I still can't make weight, finishing ahead of them doesn't mean I finish ahead of them on the points list.

Trail of destruction

Green thumb updates

This year, I tried to grow tomatoes, eggplant, scallions, basil, broccoli, beets, mustard greens, tat choi, sugar snap peas, snow peas, cilantro, and peppers.  After a promising start, my eggplant and basil died.  My broccoli went to flower, and my tat choi never sprouted.  Both varieties of peas germinated, then died.  I should probably make a little chart... But then I'd have to add a "suddenly came back to life" column.

Plant	Purposely planted	Germinated/ successfully transplanted	Died	Came back to life	Current status
Basil	x	x	x	x	Edible
Beets	x	x			Ready to harvest in 14 days
Broccoli	x	x			Woody: not edible
Cilantro	x	x	x		Dust in the wind
Eggplant	x	x	x	x	Flowering?
Mustard greens		x			Flourishing
Peppers	x	x	x	x	Pepper on the vine
Scallions	x	x			Prolific
Snow peas	x		x	x	One pod!
Sugar snap peas	x		x	x	Flowering
Tat choi	x				Never saw the light of day
Tomatoes	x	x			Cornucopia of green orbs

I'm not sure which plant wins the award this year, but the scallions have been quite prolific, and the tiny flowering peas are quite cute.  The eggplant is doing something weird, and is a little alien-like.  I'm keeping my eyes on that one lest it reach out and touch me while I'm sleeping.

The power of Leave It!

So the bottom dropped out of my box of food....

Over half a cubic foot of food hit the floor.

Singer didn't touch a single piece of kibble until she got her "Okay, go ahead" command.  So proud!

Singer waits patiently and hopefully...

Best dog in the whole entire world!

What would [your dog] do in a dangerous situation?

Afraid for my safety for the first time in a very long time, I wondered what Singer would do in an actual emergency.  (Not an emergency involving a lack of thumbs and a screw top container, but a real one...)

I was walking with Singer in a familiar neighborhood when a minivan stopped beside me.  I thought she was going to ask me for directions.  Instead, the woman asked through her passenger's side window, "Do you know that man?"  "What man?" I asked.  "The man in the white car.  He's been following you."  I think I stammered "What?"a few times, before I recalled that as I was turning a corner a few minutes earlier walking towards three teenagers, I'd heard someone yell something like "Narrr."  I assumed it was someone saying something to the three boys, but thinking back, maybe the man in the white car had started following me at that point.  In any event, I again asked the woman which car she was talking about, and she pointed towards a white car that had just gone through the stop sign.  

I speed walked back towards the house keeping an eye out for the car, hoping to get home before he came back.  Along the way, I ran into a man working on his car in the driveway.  He must have seen how terrified I looked, because he immediately asked me what was wrong, and I told him about the car and the man.  He told me he had girls too, and kept an eye out as I ran home.  I am thankful for that watchful woman, and the kindly man and perhaps a little more suspicious about the world in general.

But what if the worst had happened?  What if the man had come back around, or stopped his car?  Would Singer have protected me?  I'd like to think so, but I also know that if Singer had ever been in harm's way, I would (perhaps stupidly and ineffectively) have protected her in any way I could.