Driving to school - 1 hour and 2 minutes

Traffic in New Jersey is absolutely ridiculous. There was an accident somewhere in the vicinity of my house on Rt 33. Traffic backed up all over the area, it took me 27 minutes to drive the 8 miles to my daughter's school. When returning home I could not go the way that I wanted due to the accident and was re-routed all the way around the neighborhood. 1 hour and 2 minutes I finally arrived back at home. So much for a nice relaxing day off. RIDICULOUS.

Dover 400

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Well I'm now sitting here in the grandstands waiting for the Dover 400 to start. . Green flag is supposed to fly at 1:10PM. Currently 11:10AM and we have drizzling rain - which will not be good if it continues. We'll be here all day and night.

Travel here was a bit of a nightmare - the first 120 miles used up the first 110 minutes. The next five miles used up the next 90 minutes. What a royal disaster - we spent 40 minutes on the shoulder waiting to exit then they closed the exit ramps closest to the track were closed - lots full I guess. Finally went and parked at a commercial park with shuttle to track. We should have just gone directly to the outer lot. Would have saved at least 40-50 minutes maybe even more.

12:30PM - The sun is out. Hard shadows are evident. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo with the clouds all morning. Now with the race only 40 minutes away it makes a shining appearance. If it stays like this we'll go green on time. That's one thing I have to say about F1. Unless it is a monsoon they run.

Speaking of F1 - I'm going to have to change teams. No longer can I route for BMW-Sauber. It will have to be West McLaren Mercedes. Well at least Juan Pablo is gone (I never liked him even when he was at Williams BMW), of course Kimi will be gone soon too - no idea who the team will be next year. Pedro De La Rosa (sp?) looks to be a good driver in Montoya's spot not sure who will be riding #1 and who will be #2, or more accurately #5 and #6, as McLaren looks like a lock for P3 in constructors. It will be interesting to see how this season pans out if Michael can get his last championship or not. I've been anti-Michael since his 'world tour' in 2004 - but as much as I like Alonso I think seeing Michael go out with a world championship. I didn't like the way Ferrari handled the press for Michael's retirement at all.

Back to NASCAR - 1:45PM - 50 laps complete. 3 Yellows so far. The sun has stayed mostly out. Good racing so far. #99 made a good pass and really extended his lead before most recent yellow. Almost caught up with end of field to put them a lap down but not quite. Tony Stewart is out already - out in wreck.

4:45 - Great pass right at the end Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth for the win. Exciting finish. Now waiting for the bus in the pouring down rain. What a joy! Into each life a little diversity must fall. All in all a fun day.

The Dark Side

That's the word uttered by a few of my friends already in response to my new car - Mercedes C280.
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The old BMW 528i is gone! No longer am I tied to the brand. It has been 12 years and 3 models - '92 750il, '95 318i, '00 528i. The behaviour of the dealers and several other factors drove me away. The BMW had given me more than its fair share of fun and heartache, but now its gone. For those interested - I came very close to a Nissan Maxima - which was a very interesting car. This CVT thing seemed very cool - it pulled hard off the line and just kept going and going - no shifting - unsure of the reliability factor of a belt-driven transmission. However, at the second instantiation of negotiations wherein they were giving me less than 1/2 blue book for my car they came back to me and stated that the Car Fax showed that I was not the original owner of the car. This quite honestly infuriated me, as I am and the problem is I had to change the registration from PA to NJ when I moved here. I demanded my keys and stormed out.
I went to Mercedes, essentially dragged a salesman up from his desk to sell me a car - took a test drive and bought it. The C230 didn't have enough guts, and although the C280 is a Luxury Sedan instead of a Sport Sedan, it handles well enough - as I am not actually taking the thing to the track. After purchasing the car I went back to the Nissan dealer and spoke to the salesman. "I told you I was buying a car today, and I bought a car today!" It isn't totally tricked out - only a few options above base. One cool thing is the 6-CD changer in the glove box. It plays MP3s from CD-RWs. Since I don't have a huge music collection - I can essentially put everything I have in the car with me. Kind of cool. No satellite radio - I need to determine if I will mount my old unit, or get a new unit. Its definitely faster than my 5, handles a little crisper in the slower turns, but is a little more floaty on lane changes over 70 or so. And so a new adventure begins.

The Fantastic Four - Finally a decent movie on HBO - Almost

Imagine my delight when I clicked on HBO this evening, and actually saw a fairly recent movie that had the potential to be good, on at a reasonable hour. No more "Three Men and a Baby" or other 20 year old movies. I was always a Marvel comics fan, big on Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. Unfortunately in one of the first action sequences there was a flaw. When "The Thing" was trying to rescue the man who was about to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, he stepped into the highway to protect him. One of the key scenes was when he lowered his shoulder into an oncoming truck. Well unfortunately there is no commercial traffic allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge, so this truck should have never been on the bridge to need to be stopped. Just saw the nice cameo from Stan Lee delivering the mail.

Another dank dark dreary day in Detroit

Man this place can get depressing. Woke up at 6:00 went and ran 1.5 miles. Came back to my room and tried to watch TV - too overcast killed thwe satellite signal. I threw open the curtains to see another dreary day here in Detroit. Went in to work and now getting coffee. Looked outside - I think the sun is above the horizon, but you'd never know it. What a miserable day. Well at least I am in the climate controlled biosphere. Until we moved to NJ I didn't realize how nice it was to see the sun regularly.

Hollywood Stupidity

So this evening we turned on ABC's 9/11 introspective. This rant isn't about what you'd think. In the first 10 minutes, I watched several people walking into and out of various aiports. They had playing in the background (ala Airplane) "The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers, there is no parking in the white zone". I don't know what airport this was supposed to be as I wasn't paying strict attention to the screen, however those who know me know that I have done quite a lot of travel in the past 10 years, and I for one have never heard these words over a PA system at any airport through which I have transitted. Has anyone out there actually heard this announcement? I think it shows a lack of thinking, and a strong dose of "well everyone else has it in there it must be right" attitude.

SUV Backovers

So now Paula Zahn, along with our favorite NY Senator Clinton, has a cause - parents and grandparents backing over their children in SUVs. Now this is undeniably a tragedy, however they (CNN and Paula) are attempting to force auto makers into installing back up cameras as standard equipment on 'large SUV' type vehicles.

The story focused on one child that was killed when his grandmother dropped him off and then he ran behind the SUV and she backed over him. The child was in the 4-5 age bracket. What sense did this grandmother have allowing a small child out of the car to 'run' behind the car. Did she ever hear of holding a childs hand and making sure they were being watched by an adult who could supervise this child. Would she allow this child to cross the street alone - probably not.

Most of the kids involved in these kinds of accidents were reportedly of similar age range - i.e. SHOULD BE SUPERVISED'!!! Again - according to the report - most of these accidents involved parents.

When I am driving in a car anywhere near where any kids are located - mine included who are old enough to know better - I am very cautious that I know precisely where they are and can visually see them all or have some adult verify they are all standing clear before I move backward or forward in my car.

Let's not delve further into being a nanny state. Have parents and grandparents take responsibility for guarding these young children. Let's not blame the "evil auto manufacturers" for making killer vehicles simply because the owners were too anxious to do *whatever*, that overseeing their child's safety was a secondary issue.

Airport Security

Notice - The Transportation Security Administration has determined that the airport at Port au Prince, Haiti does not maintain adequate airline security screening measures.

This requires no comment.

Ditto Bandara Ngurah Rai in Bali Indonesia.