Mid LIfe Crisis?!

My brother, the middle child of us five, has written me to ask if my new Saturn Astra, which I will be driving in a track day at Lime Rock, Connecticut in August, is some sort of mid-life crisis sports car.

A mid-life crisis indeed. How kind of him to mention "mid-life" as I will turn 63 next week. So I have another 63 years to go! Assuming I survive the track day.

My brother also taunts me when he writes I'll be afraid to go over 10 miles an hour on the track. Now he may be assuming that my terror that late winter day in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, when he drove us in his SUV on snowy mountain trails with sheer drops off the side, was a sign of timid driving. But no...

I have to watch myself when I get in the car - even when I was driving a station wagon - if I had just been watching a Formula 1 race on the television, because some inner racer wants to be just like those drivers.

Newlin has put the Performance Drivers' Association slide show on my computer so I can get ready for the big day. It tells me that anxiety is normal, to stay hydrated, to get off the track if (when?) my mind goes blank ( ! ), teaches me all the language my instructor will use, and provides diagrams of the proper and safest way to drive into and out of turns. I'm also practicing not gripping the steering wheel in my usual death grip. So much to learn. But for me this is like those women who go on Outward Bound type wilderness survival experiences - I will not be the same woman after August 13th.

And you can be sure that afterwards I will be able to link that track day with my spiritual development - wait for it!

Apologies

I have been very remiss about posting, and for that I am sorry. Apologies to those who come to visit.

I have a friend who has dared to name the tyrrany that is the world wide web. One day a couple of weeks ago, he turned off his computer, and posted an automatic reply to his email, saying that he was taking a day off from his email so don't look for a reply - he just gets too much email. Last week he noted that as his email increased, personal contact decreased. His phone hardly ever rings anymore. All contact is through the internet.

I am very pleased to have my very own blog. There are also some blogs which I read regularly. In fact, I read them several times a day, and I get quite miffed when there isn't something new there everytime I check! This is part of the tyrrany about which my friend speaks. It becomes, for me, who vowed to myself that a post once a week would be enough, a source of guilt when my real life leaves me without the drive to post even weekly.

Hence, this post about not having posted! (chortle)

But seriously, if you enjoy reading here, that's wonderful. I am glad for it. I'm working on a major essay on art and spiritual development, which is taking some time, of which I have little right now. I hope you'll keep coming back to see if I've finally posted it, and when I do, I hope you'll let me hear from you.

Won't Mad Priest be jealous of this

I've just been advised there is a reservation for me, on August thirteenth, for a day on the track at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, in the novice class, with SCDA. That's Sports Car Drivers' Association LLC.

WOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Oh God, I'm scared! I want to learn to drive fast around the track, but there will be other drivers out there with me. Who will pray for them? I'll be on the track four times, for a total track time of about an hour and a half. I still can't believe it.

And all because Newlin traded the guy who runs the association one of my photos of the track for his new website for my track day.

Newlin says, we can practice between now and then. What does that mean? (Little does he know that I did just that today during the three and a half hours of drive time I had between home and Lakeside Connecticut and back!

Watch out, everyone, here I come!