There has been alot of news this week in NASCAR. Petty Enterprises re-signing Bobby Labonte to an extension. Petty Enterprises selling majority ownership of its race organization to Boston Ventures a private firm equity. This sell and the resigning of Bobby Labonte are in hopes that Petty Enterprises will soon be returned to its glory days of winning races and championships.
On Friday morning before the teams ever hit the race track. NASCAR had an improtu meeting with all the drivers and team owners at Michigan. In this meeting it has been reported that NASCAR has basically told the drivers and team owners to suck it up. And quit complaining about the new COT. If NASCAR really wants to stop all the complaints and they really do care what the fans are saying. NASCAR should listen to the drivers and owners and make the changes. Let's face it. The racing on the small tracks has been pretty good with the current condition of the car. But on the mile and half and larger tracks, it really stinks.
It was announced also that NASCAR is being sued by a former official for $225 million. The lawsuit is for racial discrimination and sexual harrasment. So it looks like NASCAR is going to be back in court once again.
Makes one wonder what is going on in the front offices of NASCAR here lately. It seems like the NASCAR bosses are spending more and more time in the court room than in the board room. I bet both Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr. are turning over in their graves. Wondering what in the world is Brian France and Liza France Kennedy doing to their company.
But even with all this going on in NASCAR. There are more important things going on in this country. Gas is at an all time high of $4.01 a gallon here. And in other parts of the country it is well over $4.35 a gallon. But even that is not the most important thing going on in this country.
June 12: A View of the massive flooding in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa
This past weekend while many of us were watching the NASCAR race from Pocono. Many of our fellow Americans were fighting to save their homes from the torrential rains in the Midwest.
Flooding has hit the entire region. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas have seen the most severe flooding.
There are raging forest fires in California, North Carolina and in South Carolina.
Tornadoes are tearing up parts of Oklahoma and Kansas and other parts of the Midwest.
And extreme heat all up and down the Atlantic Coast. From Maine to Florida.
June 8 a cloud formation moves over Oconomowoc, Wis. as the state contends with heavy rains, wind damage and areas of flooding.
Ever where you turn our fellow Americans and maybe even some of us here on the blog world are suffering from the effects of the weather.
So as we all prepare to celebrate Father's Day tomorrow, let us not forget our fellow Americans who are suffering this weekend.
The hometown of NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart, Columbus, IN, was hit by the flooding in Indiana. He has pledged to give his share of the purse winnings from the race in Michigan to his hometown's Red Cross for the flood relief aid.
If you can help these folks in the Midwest with any aid, contact your local Red Cross Agency, I am sure that they can tell you how to best to help.
Let us all say an extra prayer for our country and our fellow Americans. And folks let us not forget our folks in the military and their families also.
So I hope that everyone will take the time to celebrate with their Fathers. But I also hope that we will not forget about our country. Have a great weekend everyone.
And Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there. And to my dear dad and father in law, a very big Special Happy Father's Day to you!!!!
This Christmas season many families are without their loved ones all over the world. These families are the families of the men and women of the military.
They are in harms way each and everyday. And my prayers go out to each of them, for their safe return to their families.
But there is a story about about a war that keeps coming to my mind. It is a story that I my dad had told me about many years ago. I had never heard of it until then.
Just a couple days ago, I was listening to Alabama's version of "Tonight is Christmas". And it came to the part in the song about the truce. I was telling my husband that this had actually happened. And he was amazed when I told him the story. He had never heard of this story.
So I got to thinking I wondered how many others had never heard this story?
So I did alittle research to make sure I had all the facts. So I am going to do my Christmas blog about the Great Christmas Truce of 1914.
As the story goes, it was December 24, 1914 Christmas Eve. The first World War had been raging for nearly five months. Many soldiers lie dead on the battlefield.
Those that were still alive in the trenches were tired, cold and they were very muddy from the knee-deep sticky mud. Many of the soldiers were covered from head to toe in the mud.
I am sure that their spirits were very low. But something wonderful was about to happen. Something that would lift not only the British and French soldiers spirits, but the Germans as well.
These soldiers were in their trenches. Keeping their heads low, so as not to be an easy target for the enemy snipers. The closer to Christmas that it got the gunfire became more sporadic on both sides. It was as if both sides were telling the other side that we need a break from this war.
So on Christmas Eve in 1914 the first hard freeze had settled over the ground. Making the mud solid. This freeze was welcomed by the soldiers.
That night as the soldiers settled down to try and rest, I can just imagine that their thoughts turned to their families. How that their loved ones were preparing to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Whether it be preparing the Christmas goose, or the other items for the Christmas meal. Or maybe they were sitting around a warm fire singing Christmas carols or reading the Christmas story of the nativity. I can just imagine that these thoughts filled their minds and warmed their hearts as they tried to sleep.
In the early morning hours of Christmas day, a chorus of song could be heard coming from the German trenches. The British and French soldiers were stunned by what they were hearing, but due to the thick mist that settled around them it was hard to see from one side of the "No Man's Land" to the other.
The Allied soldiers were amazed when they peeked their heads over their trenches to see that the German soldiers had erected dozens of Christmas trees in their trenches and using what they had in their trenches had decorated the trees. The Allied soldiers listened from their trenches as the Germans sang "Silent Night." Stille nacht, heilige nacht...
When the song was finished, the Allied soldiers applauded the Germans for their rendition of the beautiful song. This caused the Allied soldiers to begin to sing a song of their own. And all through the night the soldiers sang together from either side of the battlefield.
When dawn broke the Germans called out to the allies, "Come over!" The allies being very cautious responded, "You first!"
Tenatively officers from both sides meet in the "No Man's Land" to greet each other. Both sides agreed to not fire into each others camp. A temporary ceasefire had been agreed upon.
Soldiers from both sides left their trenches and came to meet with the men who just two days before they had tried to kill. Some of them spoke to each other in their own language. Others communicated by giving gifts of cigarettes, clothing and food. They shared photographs of their families and called each other friend for the rest of the day.
One Englishman set up a free barber's service in "No Man's Land". And he would cut their hair, shave them or whatever they wanted no matter from which side they were from.
They built bonfires which glowed into the night. They also buried the dead and held service over their graves.
This truce went from December 25, 1914 until January 3, 1915.
When the truce was over these men returned to their trenches and once again became mortal enemies. While the men went back to killing each other, the British commander-in-chief, Sir John French, wrote: "I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the local commanders to strict account.
The shooting began and World War I would continue for another four years.
Now this was not the only truce of that wonderful Christmas in 1914. All up and down the battle lines ceasefires were declared. But this is the one that has been talked about for decades.
So this Christmas as you sit down to enjoy your family, remember those on the battlefield in 1914 who stopped a war so they could celebrate with their enemy the true meaning of Christmas.
And please do remember the military men and women who are in the trenches this Christmas and their families as you say your prayers. And keep this wonderful God fearing nation in your prayers too.
Hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Just something interesting I came across while researching this story: German author Michael Jurgs notes that the truce was especially strong in a 50km stretch around Ypres in Belgium, and that an Austrian soldier billeted near the town complained that such behaviour should not be allowed in wartime. His name was Adolf ####.
There are some things that should not be messed with. You don't mess with someone's mother. You don't mess with someone's dog. You don't mess with someone's country. And you certainly should not mess up the National Anthem.
I must say the young woman who sang "O' Canada" (that is for another rant) sang it much better than the guy who sang our national Anthem.
Sometimes I wonder where these people get the idea that they can sing. Shoot, if I wanted to hear bad singing, I would listen to myself.
I know that it is not NASCAR who hires these singers but the track owners. My question is, why don't these track owners hold auditions for the singing of the National Anthem. Instead of just hiring some numb skull who thinks he/she can sing.
Just because you might have a multi-million dollar contract with some record label, doesn't mean that you can sing.
This Wednesday, July 4, 2007 marks the 231st year that the Declaration of Independence was formally endorsed by the first Congress. The actual signing of the document did not occur until August 2, but it is July 4th that marks the beginning of the United States of America.
Our forefathers had been at war with Great Britain since April 18, 1775, the night that General Gage (Massachusetts Governor) ordered 700 British soldiers to Concord to destory the colonists' weapons depot.
That same night, Paul Revere and William Dawes are sent from Boston to warn colonists. Revere reaches Lexington about midnight and warns Sam Adams and John Hancock who are hiding out there.
At dawn on April 19 about 70 armed Massachusetts militiamen stand face to face on Lexington Green with the British advance guard. An unordered 'shot heard about the world' begins the American Revolution.
Now here we are 231 years later and we are embrawled in another war. This time not with a particular country but an ideology: Radical Islam.
Our forefathers were fighting for their freedom from a tyranny government. Now our soldiers are fighting to keep our freedom from terrorists groups of an ideology.
I am sure that 231 years ago the militiamen who fought on the front lines of the American Revolution never ever dreamed that our country would still be fighting to keep us free. But yet here we are. There are those in the Radical Muslim community, that would love to see our country fall.
They hate what we stand for. They hate the freedom that we enjoy here. They don't understand the sacrifices that our forefathers had to endure so that we could become a country.
Why? Because they do not belong to one country. Standing up for an ideology cannot mean the same as standing up for a country. People can easily shift from one ideology to another. But it not that easy to wipe away your nationality. But that is what the Radical Muslims have done. They have pledge their allegance to an ideology and have turned their back on their home country.
This ideology has infiltrated our country. But thank God there are those who still believe in what our forefathers believed and what they wrote in the Declaration of Independence.
In Congress, July 4, 1776,
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That, to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world...
Our soldiers are fighting for these very words. They are fighting to keep our alienable rights as citizens of the United States of America. We don't all agree on everything. And we don't all believe the same way. But the one thing we all have in common is the fact that we are citizens of the Greatest Country in the world. We are all citizens of the United States of America.
We are all proud Americans celebrating the birthday of our great country.
So I hope everyone has a great and safe and Happy 4th of July.
Once again this nation faces a tragedy on the campus of one of our schools. This time it was at Virginia Tech. On Monday, April 15, 2007, a gunman killed 32 students and staff members before turning the gun on himself.
It is a sad thing that we as a nation have to face such a tragedy once again. My heart and prayers goes out to each and everyone of these victims families and friends. And to the survivors of this horrible tragedy, you too shall be in my prayers and my thoughts.
I can only imagine how heavy the hearts of these families are tonight. I am sure that they are having emotions raging from grief to outrage to why? Why did this happen to their family? How could this have happened?
These are questions that we cannot and probably will never have the answers to. Only God knows the answers to these questions. I just hope and pray that these families can go on from here. It will not be easy, but with the help of God they will go on. The hurt will never go away.
Time might ease the pain, but it will forever be apart of their lives until the day that they die. They will never forget the loved one that was taken from them. There will not be a day that goes by that they will not think of them. There will be days in which that it will seem like that they cannot go on. There will be days in which they will not be able to get out of bed.
In time they will be able to go on, but it will not be easy.
The senseless killings is just another reminder of how little respect some people have for human life. One cannot comprehend what makes someone take the life of another.
I cannot understand how someone could go into a building take the life of two people. Then two hours later go a half mile and take the lives of 30 more people. There is no rational explaination for this. And I am sorry, but I do not want to understand this type of thinking.
No matter what anyone says, this young man did not have to do this. This was premeditated.
Now there is one more set of victims that I have not heard anyone talk about. It is the family of the shooter. They too now must face the fact that their son is dead at his own hands.
But before he took his life, he took the lives of 32 innocent victims. So to the family of the shooter, I say to you, My heartaches for you. For you too have lost a loved one. It was just unfortunate that he took this road and took the lives of so many. This is something that you will never forget and unfortunate it is a terrible fact that you must live with. And I am sure that you too are asking Why?
Since I wrote my blog on my father in law, I have had many nice comments. So I just wanted to thank everyone for the nice comments and for all the prayers that have been said on the behalf of my father in law and our family.
The Lord has truly worked a miracle on my father in law. When I wrote that blog, the doctors had told us that he probably would not make it through the night. Not once, but twice. But each time, the Lord gave him the strength to fight.
We were told to call all the family in not long after he went into the hospital. So family members from all the over country came to see him, for what they thought would be the last time. But he kept fighting.
My father in law's will to live is strong. He was able to leave the hospital and he went to rehab for six weeks. While he was in rehab the doctors had his oldest call in the family again. Because they were not expecting him to live for more than a couple of days.
So once again we called the family in. And those who had not made it to see him before, came this time. But once again he pulled out of it. He gained enough strength that they put him on a rehab schedule. They began an exercise program for him, while he was confined to a wheelchair.
Soon his strength increased and within just a couple weeks, he was up and walking. There was talk of putting him into a rest home at this point. But four weeks later he and his doctors were talking about him coming home.
So here it is, he has been home for the past 10 days. He is under 24 hour care. He still has the heart valve problem, that is pumping blood back into his heart and his bladder cancer. But with the help of medications it is keeping the swelling down and he is able to exercise. He still gets tired easily. But he is home and he is happy. He has gained 7 pounds in the last 8 days. And he is walking everyday and he is gaining strength. He still has bad days, but at least he is eating well and taking his medications like he needs to.
So let me just extend my sincere thanks again for all the prayers. And I ask that you keep us in your prayers. We still have a long road ahead of us. But with the Lord's help, my father in law will continue to be on this earth with us, watching his great grandchildren grow as he watched his grandchildren and his own children grow. And inspiring us all to be better people towards our neighbors and our family.
Hey Denny, how about some Happy Harvick Pie? Kevin Harvick pays rookie Denny Hamlin back for a pie Harvick received on the show "Regis and Kelly" on Thursday. Denny the practical joker he is christened his friend and chase competitor with a pie in the face. So Harvick not one to be out joked, pulled the ultimate pie in the face on Hamlin during qualifying Friday at Loudon, N.H. At the time Denny was on the provisional pole. The whole media in Loudon, must have been in on the gag. The gag was even caught on tape by Speed Channel during their live broadcast of qualifying.
Harvick says that they are even. Hamlin says not so fast. Hamlin made the comment that he should get in touch with Harvick's wife Delana, who wants to prank her husband, and set Harvick up with something. So the Chase should be very entertaining this year.
Hamlin needs to contact his teammate Stewart, who is well known throughout the garage for his pranks on his fellow competitors, teammates, NASCAR officials, friends, etc., etc. Smoke just might be instrumental not only in his young teammate winning his first championship, but getting a prank pulled on friend, Kevin Harvick.
On April 18, 1775 over 700 Redcoats (British soldiers) marched through the night to Lexington. They arrived there by dawn. 77 minutemen-farmers and laborers-were waiting on them. One musket went off. Wihin seconds eight colonists lay dead on Lexington Green.
The British marched on to Concord, where 400 mimutemen were waiting for them. At North Bridge the 400 minutemen exchanged gunfire with 120 Redcoats.
This was the night that Paul Revere rode through the countryside alerting farmers and laborers. Church bells spread the alarm and the numbers of colonists grew to 5000. The British would have been massacred, but reinforcements arrived as they fled back to Boston. On April 19, 1775 the war for liberty and independence had begun.
Now I know that about right now you are wondering if I had lost my mind. Well the answer to that is no. Shocked, yes, but no I have not lost my mind.
Last night at Richmond another shot was fired and it was heard around the racing world. Defending Cup Champion Tony Stewart did not make the Chase.
I know, I know, there was a slight chance that he wouldn't. But really who really thought that this team would not make the chase? The odds were that he would make the chase. But unfortunately like the British back in 1775, the 20 team was met with the unexpected. The car was not any good, their competition was better than they.
They knew that this car was a winner. And I am sure that they felt like they had at least had a car that would finish in the top 10. If no other reason because their history at this track says they will finish in the top 10.
But unfortunately the Champ and his team could never get the right balance of this car. They fought either a tight condition or loose all night.
You could tell that even Stewart was shocked by the fact that he did not make the Chase. The look on his face told the whole story. Stewart had this to say after the race last night:
"We just missed it tonight," said a cool and collected Stewart, who showed his championship form outside the race car despite the disappointing result. "We couldn't get the car to turn in the center (of the corner) and all we did was make it loose in and on the exit.
"It's been an up-and-down year, and the day we needed to be on, we just couldn't get on.
"It's not for a lack of effort. Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) and all the guys on The Home Depot team, they worked their rear ends off. I did everything I could do behind the steering wheel. It wasn't one night that got us in this situation. It took 26 weeks to get here. We did the best we could, we just came up short."
Well, as unfortunate as it is that the Champ missed the Chase, something good could come of this. There is 10 races left. Stewart and his team can take these next ten races and begin to regroup. The pressure of winning a championship is off of them. They can now go and relax and just think about having fun and winning races. This might be the medicine this team needs to get them ready for Daytona 2007.
So Champ, as much as we hate to see you fall out of the Chase, maybe in the long run it is a good thing. Go relax and enjoy yourself the rest of the year. You and the 20 team have earned this time to relax.
I awoke this morning to the sad news that Austrialian Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin had been killed. Irwin who was filming a documentary about stingrays off the Great Barrier Reef, swam too close to one of the animals, and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart.
Irwin will be greatly missed by those who enjoyed watching him pull off his feats. He was cleared in July 2004 of getting to close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales in Antarctica.
In January 2004, apologized for the TV stunt in which he held is month old son Bob in one arm while feeding a 770 lb man eating crocodile.
Irwin was known for stunts that brought him in close contact with some of the most dangerous animals on the planet. Sometimes things didn't turn out so well for Irwin, but he always seemed to be indestructible to the bites, stings, etc.
This is just awake up call for us all. That no matter who we are, what we do, in a moment life as we know can change and we or someone we love could be taken from us.
Steve Irwin leaves behind a wife, Terri and two children: a daughter Bindi Sue, 8, and a son Bob, 2, who will turn 3 in December.
