Film from Martinsville

My daughter took a short video of the race. Here it is - a tiny taste of Nascar racin'.

Twenty-six years, and counting

My beloved and I were married that long ago in a small wedding in my parents' house. I wore a tan lace dress by a Chicago designer, Becky Becoulis, and Paul wore a cream-colored suit. Family and friends had as much fun partying after the ceremony as we did. Hard to believe we've been hitched for over a quarter of a century! In this day and age, such longevity is a miracle. Our touchstone has always been, no matter how crazy or downright awful things get, that we love each other and always will. It doesn't hurt that my beloved is a very tolerant, understanding, kind man who has grown to know the right thing to do when I get all creatively insane when the books aren't going well. He takes over the house and all the minutiae of our lives, then tells me to shut the office door and ignore the world until the words are right. Smart man.

The red clay isn't coming out of the soaked sneakers from the parking fields of Martinsville. Guess a trip to Target is in order to replace them. Race stuff is cleaned and packed away, waiting for May's race in Richmond. Pray to the rain gods to sleep through it. Can't wait - Richmond has killer curves and lots of good grooves, and I'd like to see the race on its scheduled day.

Martinsville!

Ever watch a race on TV and laugh at the idiots sitting in the stands, wearing their rain ponchos, waiting for a race to start when clearly, it's not gonna happen? Been there, did that, Sunday in Martinsville. Not only was it raining, it was darned cold and totally miserable.

Rain misery was just the start, because the parking fields on Monday not only had no one to help drivers find a dry spot, but every inch was red clay mud and not just an inch. We made one turn into trouble, and the truck was stuck. My socks were only half of the wet and ick factor. Pushing the truck was the really fun part. (Sarcasm, please.)

The up side was that the race was super. Monday's sun and warmth made up for Sunday's horribleness. My faith in great racing has been restored. Fox almost killed Sunday racing for me, but no more. Despite crummy coverage and boring camera work, nothing Fox can do on TV will kill the joy of Nascar. Get to a track and watch it live! There's nothing like the rumbling start of the engines, shaking in the stands, the scream of 43 cars of incredible horsepower, the flash of overheated brakes. Get thee to a track near you! Don't depend on TV for your racin' fix!

That may be more exclamation points than I've ever used in my entire life...

Winners

So JJ won again - and at Bristol, of all tracks - a place where he's never been good. He's won three of the last six races? Something like that...which leads one to believe he's going to take his fifth championship barring tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. What's the sense in getting ticked off about it?

The point is that we're seeing history. One day we'll look back and say, "golly, I saw the champ in his heyday" and it'll be cool. Whenever someone is at the top of his or her craft/profession, from Nora Roberts to George Strait, we should be proud to be around when their game is on and the players are winning. Even if it gets a bit boring, LOL, to see the same names over and over in front of the fireworks.

Speaking of being in the game, the weather has turned and the garden sings its siren song. Can't wait for the azaleas. Forsythia and daffodils are just out.

So what's normal?

Our whey-faced weatherman tells me we're barely three-quarters of an inch over the average rainfall for this year. He lies. Ditches and runoff rage, the river runs at flood stage, and this is our new norm. I feel as if I've moved to Seattle, not a pleasant prospect. Give me sun and heat, a steady dose of humidity, and I'm happy as a clam. Clam-like, I am definitely not.

By the way, I just read an article in which the phrase 'baited breath' was prominent. Please, it's "bated," not baited. Every hook that's been baited in this house is used to try for a fish, not breath.

No racing this weekend. One the one hand, it means Brad K didn't get his chance for payback on Crazy Carl. On the other hand, it means Bad Brad has had two weeks to stoke the fires, something he's doing quite well. When he says he's not backing down, I believe the lad. The true upside of all this is the fans have another topic to discuss, other than Jimmie Johnson's dominance.

Daylight savings time drives me nuts. Why do they do this to us? The animals have no idea why they aren't being fed at their usual hour, so I just keep them on their schedules, not the government's. My mini-forms of rebellion are so tame, it's embarrassing.

The Artist's Way

I'm re-reading Julia Cameron's book, THE ARTIST'S WAY. Haven't looked at it for years, so it's coming thru as new. Really loving how spiritual it is. Some of my favorite quotes so far:

"Creative work is play. It is free speculation using the materials of one's chosen form." Stephen Nachmanovitch

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see." Theodore Roethke (one of my fav poets)

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." Seneca

Being daring, seeing in a dark time, allowing one's self the permission to play with the work, drive the process for me and are the hardest to allow myself to do. Note to self: quite blithering about and just DO IT!