Twenty-Eight

About bloody time!

I just cannot begin to describe how tired and just simply worn out I am. As you can probably tell, I'm anxious for the school year to be over and done with.

With the baseball season over for the year (more on this later), hopefully I can get some energy back to devote to other things, besides the stressful school year.

• Baseball: We finished yesterday, splitting the series with a conference rival. We were supposed to have some more games today, but they were cancelled due to other school-related activities that our athletic director failed to notice. Our final record: 10-5 -- something to be proud of after a disastrous football season in the fall.
• Racing: Boy, has this been eventful. I continue to race in the Nocturnal Adrealine Cup Series, with races most recently at Daytona and Chicagoland. Daytona wasn't so bad, although I did get up in a early-race crash that wasn't of my making (a car came back across the track after slamming the wall and clipped me) and Chicagoland was a disaster -- I got disconnected early on and I figured not to return. I also decided my hand at Truck racing, running the #4 Dodge, in a league called Midnight Thunder. Let me tell you this -- what a blast. I had a great run going at a fantasy track called Zen Joltis (5.5 mile quad-oval), running at speeds at nearly 200 mph. About a quarter of a way through the race, I pulled a bonehead move. I had leading the outside line of cars, sitting in 2nd-3rd place when I decided to move down to the inside line. I thought I was clear of cars, but I hit another guy and shot up the track, slamming the wall with such force that my truck literally barrel-rolled along the fence and cleared the cars overhead behind me. I'll have to get some screenshots of that.
• School: Like I said before, I'm tired. Seniors needed their grades in yesterday afternoon, so it was a mad-struggle for them to get in late assignments. I even had a few underclassmen "whine" about some of their project grades in my Web Design class, which didn't make me all too happy. I will not go into more of that!
• B-Day: I also turned 28 yesterday. It's funny -- some students think I'm like 23, others think I'm 35. But in the end, students only want one thing when it comes to a birthday: candy. And I didn't even have any!
• New Car: Kate got a new car yesterday after the Intrepid took a dump. We picked something cheap -- a '99 Chevy Cavalier. Just a little white girly car.

Other than that, I'm going to have to get more in-depth in other issues later.

Noctural Adrenaline -- Disaster at Michigan

For once in my short, on-line racing career, I never felt so confident in coming into this race. Michigan International Speedway is one of those great tracks that produces fast, 4-wide racing without any big wrecks.

After testing and putting in hundreds of laps, I had my line DOWN PAT. I was running solid 35.6 second laps around the 2-mile track -- then things seem to come crashing down once the race started.

Again, I chose the #66 Best Buy Dodge Charger to run, and again, I decided not to qualify. A part of it is a confidence issue. I'm racing with a bunch of on-line racing veterans, guys who have been racing for nearly 5-6 years. Right now, I really do not have the car control for a stock car with cold tires right off the bat (believe me, a car with cold tires just doesn't handle all too well).

Here are some pictures from the race:


This is what I saw on Lap 5, coming off Turn 2. All I saw was a lot of smoke, then the #03 car coming off the wall. Luckily for the both of us, the #03 was continuing to move down off the track while I stayed high. I scraped the wall pretty good, though, trying to avoid him. I went to the pits and got it all patched up.









This is what happens on a restart with new tires. Lap 9 (of 70), going through Turns 1 and 2. I simply overdrove it, got loose, and spun. This was just the beginning of my bad night. This spin put me about 15 seconds behind the leaders, until I hit the Turn 2 wall a few laps later. I almost caused another wreck going down to the pits, when I spun right in front of the leaders, who were about to put me a lap down.

Luckily for me, I didn't hit anybody!





Lap 38 -- the #020 car gets into the wall entering Turn 1. I had seen this all play out in the back, since I was a lapped car. All the while he was in the wall, I was just saying to myself: "please, please -- stay up there!" Unfortunately, he came down the track, totally forgetting about little ol' me. This photo shows me just before the impact with the #020. As for him, he was done for the night, but I was lucky enought to continue on.






After the Lap 38 wreck, the car basically wasn't the same -- well, it just wasn't great to begin with. My best lap was a 36.7, well off the leader's pace. Towards the end, I was running in the upper-37's, a few in the 38's due to worn tires. But in the end, I finished in 7th place, 3 laps down.

Next week: Daytona International Speedway. 'Bout damn time, if you ask me. If there was a track I could run well at, it's a restrictor plate track. I probably will not win, but as long as I stay out of trouble, I shouldn't have any problems.

Baseball Updates

Again, bad weather put off another couple of games, only to be rescheduled later on in the month -- which will make for a very busy month of May -- starting this week.

I coached the 9th Grade team against a tough rival on a cold, blustery day last Thursday. We won in comeback fashion, 11 to 10. This week, on Monday and Tuesday, I will again take over the 9th graders.

But my pride and joy is in the 7th Grade team. Despite the lack of games this season, we're playing like seasoned veterans. On Friday, we swept a team 12 to 2 and 10 to 5, extending our record to 4-1.

On Saturday, there was the 8th Grade tournament here in town. It was perfect baseball weather -- got sunburned in the process -- but we fell short BIG TIME, losing two games and only picking up one victory.

Back to School

In some "shocking" news last Friday, I got to hear what my new schedule will be like for the 2006-2007 school year.

After the cuts and the shake-up at the district, I knew some things were going to be moved around. On Friday, I had a sit down with the superintendent and the princpal to discuss what is going to be "on my lap" for the next year.

The great thing is that I'm going to keep all of my computer classes. Another positive is that more students are taking my classes -- the rumor is that my classes are "slack" -- but I'll get to that later.

But the big change is that I'm going to head up the Work Program that the school offers. Basically, students are in charge of finding their own jobs and they leave school to work. Sounds simple, but as the instructor, I have lots of responsibility. Prior to that, I have to teach the students the proper way a business is run, inside and out, being responsible with finances and how to work with other co-workers.

I still have to find out more about what this program is all about. But, the downside is that I have to go back to school to get more education and become vocationally certified. Oh, well -- the life of a teacher.

The other big news is that I don't have to teach the middle school students any longer. They're fine for about two days in class, then afterwards, complete hell. It seems like students are becoming more and more undisciplined and disrespectful -- especially ours who love to put up graffiti and piss all over the the bathroom walls. It's completely nuts. Through the shake-up, the old discipline model is out and another one is coming in. We're not sure what the details are going to be, but from what I hear, it's going to be tough.

More Rain Delays

This is starting to get frustrating.

Another delay based on the weather. Yesterday, it was understandable, since it had rained all weekend and into Monday. But today, we were scheduled for another home game in anticipation for another storm that never came. Instead, it was windy as hell outside.

Who knows what the REAL reason is? I heard from another coach that some kids were out tearing up the fields during the weekend, leaving huge footprints that when dried, it's difficult to drag the field back to its pristine condition.

Instead, it was just another scrimmage against the 8th graders. Players, besides myself, are starting to get fed up with the season. So far, we should have played around 10 games, but we've only played 3. These make-up games are going to kill us.