Here ya go, one big post. If everyone else really hates this, lemme know. Kthxbai.

Not really bye.

Anyways, to story #1:

My Dad and I have been lightly dabbling in working of foreclosed homes. Mowing the lawn, picking up trash, etc. And we get paid seriously good for it in most jobs. Other jobs, it's only ok pay (imagine mowing through foot-tall, extremely dense grass for an hour in 100 degree weather, knowing full well that the backyard is where the hard mowing is). One thing this company asks is that we take pictures of everything before and after. So, we take a tape measure and stick it in the grass, take a picture (13" grass is what I mowed about a week ago), then mow it and take another picture (wound up around 3" tall).

This company also asks us to bid some of the jobs. So Dad and I, on our way up to see some races at the Colorado National Speedway, stopped at this place and looked around. Think about the worst trashed place you've ever seen. Think about one that is worse. Far worse.

This place on arrival didn't look so terrible, aside from the 2-foot tall grass and the 91" weeds. But hey, we have a lawnmower that would topple trees, and a weedeater that could do about the same. It wouldn't be a problem of cutting the forest grass as much as taking their trash out. You could not believe all the stuff I documented as Dad looked around here and there. Let's see what I can recall....

Airplane parts, 7 lawnmowers, 3 wheelchairs, 3 golf carts, 2 modified pickup campers, trucks, cars, 5+ refrigerators, random appliances, 4 tires (in one building), engines, lumber, big huge piles of worthless iron scrap, books, assorted trash, and worst of all, a pile of trash that looked like the owners had been throwing all their normal trash on for years. Books, shelves, dressers, car parts, bottles of stuff that no one wants to know, mangled wood, plastic bags, and most of it already starting to rot.

Oh, what a mess. On top of all that, there was a building with concrete walls that the roof was mostly collapsed in on itself, and it was full, 3 feet of better in width with trash. Cardboard boxes, more car parts, even a mutilated car in the corner. I swear, I've never seen soo much junk in one place.

Story #2:

After the chaotic landfill house visit, we continued on to the Colorado National Speedway (CNS). We were a touch late, but not much had happed. We sat through a couple heats of cars, with nothing unusual happening aside from a spin out or something unamused like that. Until the wave of... was is Sportsman cars? I don't remember... anyways, there are only 3 cars that I'll talk about. 07, 00 and 48.

07 had the lead for almost the entire race by not much more then a carlength. No one really caught up to him, no one really drifted away from him. Pretty normal race. Until there was a spin out and there all had to restart, same positions relatively, with only 5 laps to go. It was obvious that 07 didn't get a good start as he was passed first by 00 then by 48. So here is 07 in 3rd place so far, 48 in 2nd and 00 leading. 48 was a faster car, but 00 was decent at blocking and never let him slip past.

So, final lap, the final turn, something goes very wrong for 00. His inside back tire completely comes off, dropping the frame to the track and the sparks flew. Instantly, it went from 00 getting first to not even finishing. Ironicly, his tire managed to bounced and roll through the turn and made it past the finish line, so some part of his finished.

So that meant that 48 took first and 07 took second. That is, until the announcer said that 48 would be penalized for passing under the yellow line that marked the inside edge of the track. So he lost his first place seating. That left 07, who was in 3rd place 50 yards back. What a finish

Story #3: Wildest of all. And I bet you're asking "yeah right, nothing gets worse then that trashed out house". Believe me, you're wrong.

Ok, try to imagine the worst possible racing scenario. Now, get ready for this: Take 3 cars, 2 drivers, and chain the cars together. The car in the front has a driver, with steering and an engine. The middle car is empty. The back car has another driver, with the breaks. So the person who holds the throttle and steering does not control the breaks. Now, take 4 of these, put them on a figure 8 track and tell them to do 6 laps.

As my cousin put so well, "What do you think the creators of that race were high on when they thought of that??"

So yeah, you can comment on each one. Please take time to read it all, as it took me a while to type.

[869 words]

-S