WARNING: I'M ON MY SOAP BOX
Rick Byrnes <Rick@rbmotorsports.com> wrote: .... finally admit that my new
Lakester ..will not make it to the salt this year. ........ have a life besides
the car (my words, not the little red haired girls).
The only good thing about growing old - - from time to time you are allowed to
speak words of wisdom (i.e., been there - done that - got the scars). Every
now and then I have to step back and take a reality check. My racecar provides
me with TWO (2) great pass-times - wrenching and racing. Sometimes I want to
get frustrated when, for one reason or another, the wrenching goes too slow and
keeps me from racing. I have to step back, take a good look, and ask myself
what it is I enjoy so much about this sport. If you're like me, you love your
trips "out to the shop" after dinner, or late in the evening when there's
nothing decent on the boob toob - tinkering for hours to make some small
bracket that you could buy for two bucks at the local parts store. That part
of the sport is like the time spent on board a cruise ship. You have to
understand that it's not just the destination that counts, it's the time spent
on the trip that accounts for so much of the enjoyment. Stop, take a breath,
and enjoy it. Think of how many hundreds of thousands of guys there are out
there who would give anything just to have what you have in your shop; to be
able to go out there and "tinker". They are lucky to get a magazine every now
and then in hopes of finding an article to read about the things that you do
and to dream about the "stuff" that you have. Sometimes I don't even "tinker"
when I get out there. I light my pipe, sit down on a tire, and just enjoy
looking at the treasures (junk?) I have. Dreams that I've had all my life that
I never thought would come true. Then, when my pipe goes out, I go back up to
the house and spend time with my little girl, because she is growing up pretty
fast and helping and watching her grow up is like that cruise. The destination
is only half the joy. Getting there is the other half.
Dick J
In east Texas
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