Icicles

For some strange reason I woke up this morning with snow and icicles on my mind. I don't know why---I just did. (Of course if anybody actually knows me they wouldn't really be surprised by this sudden interest.)

Perhaps its because of Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and is closing in fast. I have always envisioned having a white Christmas, complete with icicles hanging from the eaves of houses and snow covering trees and fences...

What ever the case, I decided to post these pictures I took in Yosemite back in April. There were plenty of icicles there, especially hanging off branches that bridged the creeks.

Artwork in Progess

Although I've been having a fantastic time playing with race cars, I have been slowly working on a couple of art projects.

The first is of a Squirrel Monkey from the Phoenix Zoo. I really wanted to draw this little guy and thought it would be another quicky, but I have been painstakingly working on this for days and days but it is still a long way from being completed.

Why did I pick a critter with hair?! Because I like to do things the hard way, that's why. I'm so meticulous it seems I am drawing every single strand the little guy has on his body. And the leaves? sheesh. So much shading! Sometimes I can be too accurate for my own good. LOL But there is a good reason for it. I'm drawing this guy on smooth Bristol board, not just sketch paper (like my Iguana), so I want to make sure it gets done right.

Now the other artwork is mainly just practice, and it involves squirrels. Cartoony squirrels. I can draw realistic looking animals but cartoons? For some reason this now boggles my mind. When I was a kid, I could draw cartoons with no problem, but now? Problems. Luckily I kept an old animation drawing book by Preston Blair to help me out. Practice makes perfect, right?

These are my rough drawing exercises:

This next picture is of a quick sketch I did of a real squirrel and then a cartoon.

But why would I want to put myself through this torture? Because I plan on creating an animated movie involving said cartoony squirrels in the next couple of years. Of course, at the rate I'm going, it may take like 5 years. But it's good to have a goal, right?

Infineon Raceway

Infineon Raceway at dawn

Back in June, Terry and I were invited to join the Golden Gate Racing Team's second car, the #31 Bay Biodiesel team, for the NASCAR Camping World West race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA. Needless to say we were in 7th heaven the whole weekend!

The #31 car is owned and driven by Pat O'Keefe who is a really nice guy. While I was again unofficial picture taker, I also got to help out by pushing the stock car up and down pit road many times. And I mean many times. It was hot, it was tiring, but boy was it fun.

Terry was really enjoying himself and helped out with getting the car ready for inspection and also pushing the cars around to tech or to get gas.

I never imagined how much work actually went into getting the cars ready for inspections, practices and then for the race. When a race car didn't qualify or they crashed, I really felt bad for the teams because I now know how much time and effort went into each car. It was heart breaking.

The Camping World West race was held on Saturday, but Sunday was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, so while we were working on the CWW cars, the Sprint cars were going through their practices. We saw quite a few well-know drivers, and even had close encounters with a couple of them....

While were pushing the #31 car through pit road, Terry was like 12" from the window of the#24 car when Jeff Gordon waved at Terry. Of course I was so busy pushing the car I didn't get an opportunity to take a picture of that but I did get a nice shot of the #24 on pit road.

I had a very close encounter with Tony Stewart; while walking back up to the hauler there was a pole on my left side. Tony was walking down from the opposite direction and squeezed between me and the pole and brushed my left arm. OMG! It was very exciting. (And Tony is quite handsome.) Shhhh. ;-)

Luckily for Junior, and Terry, I did not see him in person. But we did come close to 'bumping' into each other at one point. We were, once again, pushing a car down pit road to tech when we were suddenly stopped by an official. And 'swoosh'! Junior drives right down in front of us and out of pit road. Darn it.

Now all of this was wonderful but I think the most important and even more exciting celebrity of all was....

Guy Fieri from the Food Network!

Terry really, really loves this guy. He watches all his shows over and over and over and over....

I guess you can call him a fan. LOL

Ok, so back to racing business....

I have some pictures of the #21 and #31 teams before the start of the race.

Keith and Terry talkin' racin'

Terry, Pat and Keith

Chris and Blake

Chris, Josh, Mark, Lee and Terry



Pit Stop for the #21

Pit Stop for the #31

The pit boxes for both cars were side-by-side so this made pit stops easier for the crew.

The bosses calling the shots...Steve

and Jim

Blake is a Richard Childress Development Driver so the #21 team had the pleasure of Mr. Childress' company during the race.

After the race.... I can't recall what positions Blake and Pat started and finished at, but if you really want to know, just look at the Camping World West website for the standings. The whole experience lasted three days but the memories are for a lifetime.

I'd like to give a very special thank you to Steve and Jim for the pleasure of a 'Beyond Front Row' experience in racing. Yep, we definately got the bug now!