Brain Clog?

Sometimes my mind does not want to focus on what it is I should be working.  Now is one of those times.  I should be working through my task as I sit here at my desk, but I’m a little tired and my mind just doesn’t want to wrap itself around the task at hand.  Why is that?  I’m obviously coherent and focused enough to be sitting here banging out these words on the keyboard.  I don’t dislike what it is I’m supposed to be doing at this moment.  I dunno…

Anyway,  I am tired.  I was awakened multiple times last night by a puppy that apparently had had enough sleep during the day yesterday.  He was less than pleased about being kept in his bed/crate for the night.  I’m tired…

I just nixed the page on this blog site that contained the first part of Mind the Shadows.  It’s a story I’ve been working on now and then for a few years now.  I found a couple of mistakes as I was looking at it, so I decided removal was the best course of action until such time I decide it’s worth fixing and putting back out here.

Besides, I never got a lot of feedback on it.  There are likely a couple of reasons for that…

The first reason was my naive presumption that I could create a page, mention that page in a couple of blog posts (a WHILE back) and simply get some “interactive traffic” there. Live and learn 🙂

The second reason was my lack of motivation/promotion for it.  It kind of ties into my lack of blog site experience.  The truth, though, is that I didn’t realize that I actually have to work to promote my work… go figure   😉  Now that I’ve seen how folks like Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha (Kent Wayne) promote their literary works, I now know that I have to be more like that to get my stuff noticed and hopefully get some feedback.  I also welcome any advice on how to go about that and not lose followers.

Well enough of being off task for now… thanks for taking the time to stop by and give this a read 🙂

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Where Was I???

So, I got that race in the other night. 144 minutes in a 5-speed manual with two pit stops. I started in 22nd position (out of 22… don’t ask) and finished in 10th. I felt pretty good about the whole experience. It was fun getting back into my virtual race career on iRacing. I’m looking very forward to running in the iRacing 24 Hours at Daytona race next Saturday. Delta-V Racing will consist of 4 drivers that will attempt to get the Mercedes GT3 car around the track as quickly as possible, as many times as possible in a 24-hour period. If all goes well, and our pace is quick enough, we should finish quite well in the GT3 class next Saturday.

There’s other stuff that’s been going on. In particular, a lot of time is being used to work with a new puppy that we’ve had for about a week. Koji is just shy of 4 months old. He is a Sheba Inu. Interesting little gremlin. Needless to say, he is keeping us busy around here with all his needs and our desire to have him house broken and not requiring constant supervision. I will say, though, that he is damn smart and catching on to “the rules” quickly. I’m not what you would call a dog person, but he’s pretty cool. The rest of the family finds him to be quite the treasure.

I’ll keep this short – time for Koji to go outside again ;-P I’ll try and post again soon.

Mind Racing >>> Sim Racing

So I mentioned in a previous post that I was getting back into iRacing after a much needed break.  Well, the December race didn’t happen for me.  I got sick.  I caught a nasty little cold that kept me down for a few days – one of those days was race day .

The new year has brought on the addition of some plans that my one friend and I have concocted for sim racing “careers”.  He created a race team for him and I and a likely rotating list of others that will join us periodically.  Our primary purpose for this team is to run in the team endurance events iRacing puts on throughout the year.  Enter Delta-V Racing…

He came up with the name and logo (I’ll try to remember to post some car pictures soon. I don’t have access to them currently), and we started making some plans to run in the endurance sim racing events this year.  Our first is the 24 Hours of Daytona.  Yep, it’s similar to the actual Rolex 24 that IMSA runs every year.  Multiple classes of cars will compete within there class at the same time out on the track for 24 hours.

The goal of such a race?  Well aside from the obvious (winning, of course), the goal is to survive and finish the entire race.  It is preferable to survive with an undamaged car.  I’m here to tell you that is no small feat.  Winning is something even more spectacular.

The hitch is that these different classes of cars are all of varying speeds and handling capabilities out on the track.  So, you have to contend with traffic while trying to be the first one in your class to get around the track each lap… for 24 hours.  Then on top of that is the fact that it’s a team event.  Multiple drivers in the same car throughout the race.  When the car comes in for fuel and tires, we swap drivers.  Some of us are faster.  Some are slower.  Some handle traffic better.  We take turns knocking out laps throughout the entire race with that same set of goals… survive and try to win.  The strategies at play become quite complex.  It’s not always the fastest car in class that wins, either.

I’m looking very forward to this first race.  We’ve got our race team.  We have a planned schedule for who drives when.  There are four of us: me, my buddy and two other mutual sim racing friends that have joined us for this race.  Yep, 24 hours of racing and 4 guys to get it done.  I am running 6 stints; that’s about 6 hours of driving in the car.  I won’t do this all at once.  We have planned to run 2 stints at a time and swap drivers to give us all breaks.  The race starts about 8’ish on Saturday (January 19th) morning.  I’m not actually scheduled to be in the car until about 3:30 or 4:00 that afternoon.  Then I’m back for 2 stints from about 7 pm to 9 pm.  And, finally, I’ll be pushing through the early morning hours from about 3 am to 5 am.  My friend that “owns” the team will be starting the race on Saturday morning and then finishing the race on Sunday morning.  The other to drives will handle the other 12 hours.  Got to stay awake.  Got to stay focused.

If all goes well, we’ll just click off the laps and run by the planned numbers.  Heh, yeah… right…

Wish us luck 🙂

Day 2… Back At It?!?!?

I’m finding it difficult to rebuild momentum for my “daily life” after having a week and a half of not living my “daily life”.  It is far easier to shift gears into a more… leisurely… schedule than shifting those gears back to M-F, 9-5.  So, I decided to start banging on the keyboard for fun as I gather my wits about me and “rediscover” the requirements of the life that I left behind a short time ago in favor of a less… tasking… life.

I figured it would be a slow start today, but I’m trying to keep my “energy level” up so I don’t start staring at nothing and drooling while trying to gather my list and begin execution.

I think it’s helping, though.  I type a sentence or two here, then work on something else and make some notes about the task details for a few minutes.  A little tip-toeing around the entrance to the salt mine is letting me get my mind used to the idea that I will soon be back at it…

How about you?

Another One in the Books…

Well, like so many others, I’ve decided to acknowledge the end of another year. I’m not going to provide any horse shit reflections and promises of great futures, though. I try to be a realist and keep an open mind. I also don’t get overly wound up about things unless… Just don’t mistake my apparent lack of emotion/excitement for apathy.

So, 2018…

I woke up breathing every day of that year.

I got through life in decent order, I think. I have a job, a good marriage, a decent place to live and a kid that’s doing pretty well for herself as she pursues a means to live life on her own.

I’m still fat. I did not exercise last year like I needed to. I have no excuses. I just did not have a drive to be “in shape”. I’m going to suppose that it has to do with… I have no fucking clue what it has to do with.

I kept a job with potential last year. I didn’t mind going to work. While I can’t deny wanting to set the place on fire (with some folks still in said place) now and then and watching it burn, that desire was not high on my list of things to accomplish on any given day.

Now 2019…

I’d be bullshitting you if I told you that I don’t look to the future with some degree of desire to accomplish… something. But once again… I’m a realist. I’m not going to sit here and type out a bunch of fluff that indicates anything resembling a “New Year’s resolution”. Like I said… no horse shit.

I intend to wake up breathing every day this coming year.

I want to get through life in decent order throughout this coming year. I will work to keep a good marriage, a decent job, a passable place to live and will support my daughter in hopes that she makes progress in her pursuit of an independent life doing what she wants to do with it.

I hope that there isn’t too much bad shit that comes along in my life this year.

I would like to lose weight… you know… be less fat. The wife and I have been discussing some options to begin working on that. I think what we have discussed is possible and will lead to being less fat and a bit more healthy. I’m not going to spout a bunch of shit about feeling motivated and being ready to “push it” in 2019. I would just like to do a little more to start getting the weight down and the longevity up.

As far as the decent job? Well, I’ll just get up and go to work each day and try to get shit done. I have a few things that I would like to see happen with this business and my place in it, and my work ethic will keep me motivated to try and make those things happen. If not, I will have at least learned something and end up on a course that allows for a job that I will continue to not mind performing. Remember… I’m a realist.

I will continue to post in this blog when my muse slaps me in the back of the head.

I will play games… I will be sim racing again. I am teaming up with a guy that I’ve been friends with since I started iRacing. I’m looking forward to running some endurance races with him. Y’all will probably read about it some 🙂

I might be starting up a tabletop RPG in the not too distant future. There are possible opportunities for such that I am going to explore. I miss tabletop gaming and would like to get back into it a bit… nothing heavy… just once or twice a month.

I will continue hanging with my best friend whether it’s online or in person. I’ve known him for over 30 years now. We don’t always agree on things. We sometimes go for stretches of time where we don’t talk and “hang out” much. But we’re like brothers, I think, and that is enough.

Sounds like I might be kinda busy this coming year… I hope so

Now that I’ve regaled you with my less-than-exciting thoughts about last year and the coming year, I hope y’all have a decent year and get through whatever crap life throws your way. That’s what I plan to do 😉

Another Blogging Milestone :-)

So, I got this notification the other day.  It said that I’ve received 100 likes on Mindracing9.  Honestly, it took a moment to process that.  Then some real appreciation of what that meant surfaced.

I’ve been banging out posts – for better or worse – on this blog site for a while now.  I’ve always claimed that I’ve done this for me… mostly.  The truth is, though, that I like the idea of an audience.  I don’t suppose I would be writing a blog on a public web site if I didn’t want an audience on some level.

So… 100 likes…

That’s pretty damn cool.  It means that some folks out there have taken the time to read what I’ve written.  It also means that some folks out there decided that it was worth letting me know that they liked what they read.  …pretty damn cool.

I know there are bloggers/writers out there that have gotten thousands of likes.  Hell, they probably get 100 likes a day at minimum.  Getting a big head is not something that should happen.

But don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to belittle this in any way.  In fact, it’s just the opposite.  I want to let you know that I really appreciate those likes.  I am truly grateful that some folks thought my words were worthy of some praise.  I’m very happy to think that that praise could mean, in some cases, what I posted was entertaining or helpful to a reader.

Thank you for taking the time to let me know that what I wrote was worth your time and that it had enough impact on you to let me know that you appreciated it.  That’s huge to me.  Like I said, I write because I want to, but it feels amazing when I learn that something I’ve written has been enjoyed by someone else.  Again… THANK YOU!!! 🙂

Hey, Friday!!! Winter’s Knocking :-)

Yay!!!  It’s Friday!!!

Oh yeah, and Winter showed up in North Texas.  There’s a pretty stiff wind blowing from the north.  We’ve got a freeze watch for early tomorrow morning.  I stepped outside this morning to get the lunch box I left in the truck last night and some “shrinkage” ensued.

And I have been all fired up this morning.

I can’t tell you why, but I have always liked the arrival of winter weather.  That has been the case all of my life, even when I lived in Missouri (they were actually getting a light dusting of snow last night).  There is something about the arrival of cold weather I like.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve cursed cold weather quite often, too.  Now that I’m older, the aches and pains that cold weather brings to me are very noticeable.  But overall, I think I’d rather have this cool/cold weather than the heat of summer.  With cold weather, you can always put enough clothing on to reach some level of warmth and comfort.

Y’all don’t want me taking off the clothes necessary to make me comfortable in the summer.

I don’t think it’s legal, either…

Anyway, enjoy Friday because it starts the weekend.  I know I’m ready for the weekend.  And any North Texans out there, don’t forget to cover or bring in any weeds you consider worth keeping around.

Y’all can take off the welding masks now.  I’m putting more clothes on.