Yes…for me it begins tomorrow. I know it is only testing, but this will give us all a chance to get a peek at everyone. It has been somewhat a slow off-season. Luckily the college football bowl season and NFL has kept my mind busy. But it’s time now to turn my focus onto the NASCAR season ahead. So here’s to all the good testing sessions this week. I for one will be watching and taking note.I am still a little hesitant about making predictions. It is still too early for me to make them. I want to see a little of the Daytona testing sessions first and read up on things. Perhaps by the time the first of February comes around I will have a better mind set. Of course, if you are a regular reader you know who I root for. But I am holding my predictions close to the vest this time around. You might be surprised who I think will have a good 2008…until then have a good week.Go Buckeyes!
Class of 1988
I am still surviving the NASCAR off season. It is amazing how much work around my house I have been able to accomplish. Who knew how productive I could be?
I consider myself a youngin’. There are days, like today, where I feel older than I am, but for the most part I am young. Until the one day you run smack dab into the reality that you are getting old.
I was getting my hair done last weekend. I do this to (1) start of the new year and (2) to cover up that pesky gray hair that has decided to take root. While waiting for my stylist to “mix up” everything I heard it. It was the worst sound I had heard in a long time. What was it you ask? It was my senior prom song. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It already felt like I was back in high school because they were playing the 80s channel, but damn…why THAT song. What song was it you ask? It was Starship’s (aka Jefferson Airplane, a Jefferson Starship) “Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us”. If you have seen the movie “Mannequin” then you know what song I am talking about. Let me say, this song WAS NOT chosen by our class. We were more into Pink Floyd. But at our school the Junior class plans the Junior/Senior prom down to every last detail. Of course the junior class didn’t like our class and vice versa. There were definitely some deep rooted hatred going on.
I still can’t believe it will be 20 years this May since I walked the halls of Podunk high. I had no idea 20 years would go by so fast. I went to the 10 year reunion and well, it was just like it was in high school. Nothing had changed. Sure we were all a little older, some were married and had kids, but for the most part none of us had really changed.
I went to a small school. My graduating class had 20 people (small compared to the norm of 30-40 in a class) in it and most of them had known each other since elementary school or were related to each other in some form or fashion. I was a sophomore when I started at Podunk High.
I am a totally different person than I was in high school and I would love to show those people I was worth getting to know. But why bother?
Then of course there was HIM–Heartbreak Kid. He could flash that smile and it was all over with. I hated him at times and loved him the next. I thought he hung the moon.
Just say No to Tostitos
I am trying to do a better job at posting here in the Park. It’s difficult when there really isn’t much NASCAR in the news. I usually take a break until testing starts gearing up. Hey, nine months of NASCAR car really wear a gal out.
I have some advice for Oklahoma…just say NO to Tostitos. This is the second year in a row they have accepted a bid to the BCS Tostitos Bowl and the second year in the row they have LOST. Something tells me next year, just avoid this bowl altogether. Sorry to One Lugnut Short, but I just couldn’t root for the Sooners even though it is a Big 12 team. I really thought Oklahoma would have made a game of it against West Virginia, but alas, UWV took them to the preverbial woodshed. Final score…48-28. Way to go Mountaineers!
I have to say my Red Raiders nearly gave me a heart attack on Tuesday. I thought last year’s come from behind vicotry against Minnesota was enough to cause a coronary, but come on boys enough is enough. Virginia played us tough and we at times shot ourselves in the foot. I have never seen two safties in a game. Plus our punter had the forethought to pick up the ball that was clearly hiked over his head and kick the ball with his non-kicking foot and getting some decent yardage on it. It was reported that some Tech fans had left the stadium. Apparently these fans didn’t get see last year’s bowl game. I mean we were down as many as 21 points in that game. I have learned never count the Raiders out! Final score…31-28!! GO TECH!!!
Tonight more college football…on tap the Orange Bowl featuring Kansas and Virginia Tech. Go Jayhawks!
It’s Over
Christmas has come and gone for another year! Yipee!! Did everyone get what they wanted? Postman got a PS3 and an Ipod. Me? An autograph Tony Stewart Busch car from Postman. It was a relaxing Christmas. Everything leading up to the holiday not so much.
NFL regular season is over as well and on to the playoffs. Even though I am not a fan of the Patriots, hats off to them for achieving perfection in the regular season. Now let’s see if you can win it all. Wes Welker, former Red Raider, is showing the folks up in New England how to get it done. Way to represent!
I haven’t really kept up with much NASCAR during the last month. I usually don’t in December. Not much to talk about until testing begins at Daytona. I am interested to see how the COT…well it really isn’t the Car of Tomorrow any more. Let me rephrase that. I am interested to see how the new car will do on all the tracks this season especially those mile and half tracks. I am anxious to see how JGR will do with Toyota. I don’t think they will struggle as much as the Toyotas last year. I mean Tony can drive just the wheels off anything. With Denny and his new teammate Kyle, I think JGR will be a force this year on the circuit. I wouldn’t count out RCR or Roush. But HMS is the team that will be under the microscope. With HMS acquiring Dale Jr. It will be interesting to see how he performs at HMS. But we still have some time to speculate.
I hope everyone has a great New Year’s. If you are planning to take part in the festivities and some adult beverages, do it responsibly.
I will be spending the first day of 2008 watching my Red Raiders in the Gator Bowl along with other games throughout the day.
Happy New Year!!!!
Technology
Technology is a wonderful thing…until…it crashes right before you are done with a job!!!!!
Damn you Bill Gates!!
Can I HELP you?
UGH…I hate Christmas. I don’t really hate the idea of Christmas and what Christmas is all about. I just hate everything else that comes with Christmas. I don’t mind shopping for presents, but it seems no matter how much I try to plan ahead I am shopping at the last possible moment to find that SPECIAL present for that SPECIAL someone.
I had a plan yesterday and I was optimistic about it. I found two photos of a group photo of my great-grandmother, grandmother, mom, and me. One was taken circa 1971 and the other circa 1991. I wanted to get copies of the photos, put them in a picture frame and give them to my grandmother for Christmas. I decided to head on over to one of our local Walmarts to take care of this. I needed to get a few more things as well. I get there and I kid you not, the dumbest people on the planet were trying to do the same thing. This particular Walmart had FOUR photo machines. How many were working? TWO–which just happened to be occupied by said dumb people. One couldn’t figure out how to upload them. They started over about 50 million times, well, it was more like 5, but when you are waiting for them to get done, it was 50 million. The other group managed somehow to get their little storage device implanted into the machine. I am still trying to figure that one out. Either way, they had to get one of those Walmart employees to help them out. As I stood their patiently waiting, I realized this employee wasn’t much help. She took another 10 minutes to realize she too had no clue.
So I decided to head on over to electronics to purchase a new PS 3 game for Postman (yes, he is getting a PS 3 for Christmas). And they were helpful at all. No, hi can I help you…blah, blah..and even the checkout person was preoccupied with talking to his fellow worker instead of helping me. I went back over to Photo to see if dumb and dumber were done and to my surprise…nope still standing there looking as clueless as the Atlanta Falcons offense. Finally I get out of Walmart with very little patience and a new plan.
Head on over to Walgreens. It’s not as busy and I could probably get a better quality employee out of the deal. I was wrong. Both of their machines had what I think were the relatives of dumb and dumber from Walmart standing before them. I proceeded to wait becuase they looked like they were almost done. The lady in front of me gave me this “go to HELL look” for whatever reason. I was talking on the phone to a friend of mine, but that was it. Was she copying secret photos or something? I didn’t feel like waiting so I headed hom–exhausted and irritated. I should have just scanned them at home, uploaded them to Walgreens.com, and ordered them online. Any way…I have, believe it or not finished with the majority of my Christmas shopping. I still have a few more things, but all in all it’s DONE!
So now, I am going to sit back and toss back a couple of shots of whatever adult beverage I have in the house and enjoy the rest of the Yuletide season!
Change of Events
I rarely comment on other sports other than an occasionally football item or some noteworthy event that deserves space on The Park. And this is going to be one of those times.
For all you sports junkies out there, the Mitchell Report is due out today. I for one I am interested in reading the report just because I am a sports junkie and want to see what all the hubbub is about. I do find it interesting the report will be released on MLB.com at the same time as the press conference. In my opinion this is by design. I am interested to see who was using steroids, why it was allowed to go unchecked, and how MLB created and perhaps perpetrated the atmosphere of steroid use. I know it probably won’t happen, but I would love for one of the players to be named in this report to stand and admit, YES I used steroids, why he used steroids, and I am sorry for using steroids, etc. I am so tired of players using the line, I didn’t know. Doesn’t wash with me, never will. I can understand how MLB players would be tempted to use steroids. I mean these guys play games back to back on a weekly basis, travel from town to town and rarely have a day off during the week. It can wear on a player. But I just don’t understand why. I guess I will never know.
In case you don’t know or live a the proverbial cave, Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison on Monday. Later that night the Atlanta Falcons lost to New Orleans and the next lose a coach. Watching this unfold for the Atlanta Falcons this season has been interesting. I am not going to talk about Michael Vick because I don’t think it deserves any more space that it is has received, but what I am going to talk about is the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons Bobby Petrino. I was to say shocked by his decision to abandon his team with three games left in the season. That’s right I said abandon. It’s one thing to move on after one year from a coaching job. There are several coaches out there who have faced this decision and ultimately moved on. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. But to leave with 3 games left in the season, come on now. I know there is drastic difference in the college coaching ranks and the pro ranks. Not every college coach is suited for the NFL and vice versa. Was three weeks going to make a big difference? You had three games left. That’s it. You weren’t making any kind of playoff run. I think it would been a better pill to swallow if you had decided to leave after one year, but done it after you finished the season. You let your players, coaching staff, the owner of the Falcons down, but ultimately you let the Falcons fans down. I don’t live in Atlanta so I can’t speak from their perspective, but if it happened to the Cowboys, I would be one very pissed off Cowboys fan! I don’t think I can blame Arkansas on this. I don’t know what kind of conversation Petrino had with the university. But if I were a parent who was being recruited by Petrino, I would have some doubts about the future of my son’s football career at Arkansas. How do we know he won’t bolt for a better job after a couple of years?
It is interesting to see Keyshawn Johnson and Terrell Owens going back and forth. Talk about a pissing contest. The Cowboys are having a phenomenal year. This is the first time they have started 12-1. And yes Coach Phillips was left with a team Coach Parcells built, but who is to say the Cowboys would be 12-1 if Coach Parcells had stayed in Dallas. This has happened before with the Cowboys. Barry Switzer inherited Jimmie Johnson’s team and that team ended up winning a Super Bowl. Say what you will, but you still have to the players to get the job done as well as the coaches. I haven’t seen the Cowboys play like this since the days of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. It’s exciting for me as a Cowboys fan. I have never been a big fan of TO. I still harbor some ill towards him. I mean you don’t diss THE STAR at Texas Stadium and expect all Cowboy fans to love you. But he has been one of the keys to the Cowboys resurgence this year.
Only 64 days until Daytona 500 folks…that’s right…not much longer.
Trixie's Trailer Park 