Rain

06/20/03

What in the world is going on? I thought we were in a drought. Whoever it is that needs this rain, for whatever reason, and is doing the rain dances, please get a garden hose and leave the rest of us alone. I am officially sick of the weather, sick of trying but failing to see live racing, sick of spinning my son in the hammock until he vomits, sick of watching tapes of old "Nextel Cup" races, sick of reading on the internet message boards that "such and such speedway is postponed and will run double features next week" and especially sick of trying to write about racing.

I like to write about racing don’t doubt that for a second, but you can’t write about it if you can’t follow it and you can’t follow it if you can’t see it. I’m not sure what Mother Nature has against any of us but she sure seems to be showing her muscle this season and it’s starting to get aggravating. So aggravating, in fact, that I’m beginning to think that an indoor track somewhere in the New England area isn’t such a far-fetched idea.

I know I’ve missed a couple of good opportunities but how many chances can a guy take on the weather? Stafford Motor Speedway is just too damn far for me to travel when the weather report is rain. Seekonk is the same thing, this is a five hour drive for me from up here in the wilderness. Lake Erie is too far for me to drive even if it isn’t going to rain. Heck, I’d have to leave on Tuesday just to get there before qualifying! I was within 10 miles of Beech Ridge on their originally planned date when they called that off. The following weekend I could have tried again but the weather report wasn’t any better so I elected to do a couple things that I had never done before. I saw some Motorcycle racing at NHIS and then went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Both were great fun but, unless you want to read about sidecar racing and/or strikeouts, it won’t help much with the column.

I’m aggravated enough that I’m beginning to think that maybe I ought to try writing about something other than auto racing. The problem with that plan is that I don’t know much about anything other than auto racing. Once autumn gets here, I could bore you to death with all the specifics of High School Football as my son goes through his senior year at High School. My daughter might be in another play this fall that I could tell you about. I can document a few good Ice Fishing trips and Snowmobile rides during the winter. I know just enough about that to be dangerous and probably boring. My best friend’s kid is on the School Basketball team so I’ll follow that enough in the winter to gather up just enough information to make me feel like I know what I’m talking about. But this is summer, race season. I don’t know what to tell you about. Other than racing there isn’t anything going on that I can even begin to understand.

As I sit here writing this, there is still a chance that the Stafford race will go off without rain, if that happens I’ll be listening to the broadcast because I didn’t drive the five hours and take the chance on the weather. I also can assure you that I will be at the two NHIS races and the next Beech Ridge race even if it means living in the Big Brown Truck for a week during a rain delay. In the mean time, though, unless we get some good weather and get some races in, I’ll be forced to tell you about the only thing I know about these days since retiring. Sitting around the camp with a cooler full of Ice cold Busch beer enjoying the sun because even though the weather has raised hell with the racing season so far, it never seems to rain at camp.

As always, send Questions, Comments, Hate Mail, and Indecent Proposals to, Fish c/o Busch North Scene or e-mail them to fishy@gwi.net