This morning I finally finished a sweater/jacket I've been knitting off and on for nearly a year! *happy dance* Now I can start my Christmas knitting....*LOL*
(If any of you are interested in my knitting projects, I keep a separate blog for those. You'll find a link over on the right side of the page for it. If you're not interested in knitting, feel free to skip it. I promise I won't be offended.)
Once more it's race weekend in my little corner of the world. Our city is filled to the brim with NASCAR fans. While I am grateful to the monetary contributions they make to our fair city, I'll be more grateful when they go back home. I handling the race crowds the way I usually do: I'm staying home and out of their way! I always make sure I have all necessary supplies (aka Diet Coke and coffee), then just plan to hole up for the weekend.
I had a week at the office that can only be described as "crappy", so I felt the need for comfort food today. My solution was to cook a big pot of bean soup. I love the smell of bean soup cooked slowly on top of the stove! It's done, but I've not sampled it yet. I'll have dinner out of it today and tomorrow, then I'll freeze the leftovers to enjoy later. *yum*
I won't describe my work week, because it'll just make me mad all over again to talk about it. Take my word for it, it was crappy. The good news is that I don't have to deal with any of the things that irritated me again until Monday.
I've been reading a lot lately (I ADORE my Kindle); in the wee hours this morning I finished a Kurt Wallander mystery, "Dogs of Riga", which was very good. Next on the reading list is the 9th installment of James Patterson's "Women's Murder Club" series. After that is another Wallander mystery, then a reread of "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe". It's so great to be able to check out books electronically from my local library and download them to my Kindle. I can keep new reading material available at all times and never have to go to the library. I'm a woman of simple pleasures. *LOL*
On that happy note, I will now peruse my yarn stash and cast on some Christmas gift knitting. That always makes me happy!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
It's Been a Good Day
It's race weekend in my little corner of the world. For those of you who don't happen to live in a town with a NASCAR track, let me tell you that race weekend changes the way things go in your town.
Bristol is a very popular track on the NASCAR circuit; it's a short track, and that makes for interesting racing. There are a lot of fans who prefer short track races, and Bristol always draws a good crowd.
Having said that, I will mention that we don't get the sell-out crowds we used to get. Times are hard, and the state of finances in the nation have taken a toll on ticket sales. Still, there are lots and lots of extra people in town this week, and it's interesting trying to get around right now.
I was off work yesterday and today; I had some compensatory time that I needed to take before it expired. I lost most of yesterday to a round of some sort of crud that made me headachy and mildly nauseous. I thought at first it might have been allergies, since everything around here has burst into bloom with the unseasonably warm weather. It didn't feel like allergies, though; it felt viral. *YUCK*
But this morning I awoke feeling much better, thank goodness. I met a friend for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. It was my first visit there, and I highly recommend it. I had a calzone that was just wonderful.
After lunch I went to Best Buy in search of a laptop docking station. Why do I even try to look for something there? I've been in there three different times now and have never found a single solitary thing I was looking for! Oh, well. I'll go ahead and order one online like I thought I'd do in the first place. Then I went to Target to pick up a few things; as usual, I found a lot more things that I actually needed, but got some good buys all the same. After I left there, I went to Sugar Hollow to look over their campground. I still want to go to Grindstone, but thought it would be good to take a look at a campground nearer home in case I needed it. I then made a quick stop by the bank to pick up a little money.
As I was leaving the bank, I witnessed a car accident. There's nothing as sickening as that horrible crunch of metal hitting metal. Without going into too much detail, one vehicle hit another in the driver's door. The driver who was hit in the door appeared to be unconscious. I felt very helpless, but saw that others were coming to his aid, so I left. Such a terrible thing! I certainly hope he wasn't badly injured. There was nothing about it on the local news this evening, so I hope that's a good sign.
I was a little rattled after seeing that and decided I needed to get out of the car for a few minutes. I pulled into the parking lot at Sam's Club and went in for a little while to walk off my shakes. I wound up finding a few items I needed, so the stop served two purposes. In a short while I felt much more settled, so I drove home using the back roads and avoiding all the extra traffic.
I'm always glad to be home, but home looked especially good this afternoon. Except for witnessing the accident, it's been a good day.
I hope your day has been good, too!
Bristol is a very popular track on the NASCAR circuit; it's a short track, and that makes for interesting racing. There are a lot of fans who prefer short track races, and Bristol always draws a good crowd.
Having said that, I will mention that we don't get the sell-out crowds we used to get. Times are hard, and the state of finances in the nation have taken a toll on ticket sales. Still, there are lots and lots of extra people in town this week, and it's interesting trying to get around right now.
I was off work yesterday and today; I had some compensatory time that I needed to take before it expired. I lost most of yesterday to a round of some sort of crud that made me headachy and mildly nauseous. I thought at first it might have been allergies, since everything around here has burst into bloom with the unseasonably warm weather. It didn't feel like allergies, though; it felt viral. *YUCK*
But this morning I awoke feeling much better, thank goodness. I met a friend for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. It was my first visit there, and I highly recommend it. I had a calzone that was just wonderful.
After lunch I went to Best Buy in search of a laptop docking station. Why do I even try to look for something there? I've been in there three different times now and have never found a single solitary thing I was looking for! Oh, well. I'll go ahead and order one online like I thought I'd do in the first place. Then I went to Target to pick up a few things; as usual, I found a lot more things that I actually needed, but got some good buys all the same. After I left there, I went to Sugar Hollow to look over their campground. I still want to go to Grindstone, but thought it would be good to take a look at a campground nearer home in case I needed it. I then made a quick stop by the bank to pick up a little money.
As I was leaving the bank, I witnessed a car accident. There's nothing as sickening as that horrible crunch of metal hitting metal. Without going into too much detail, one vehicle hit another in the driver's door. The driver who was hit in the door appeared to be unconscious. I felt very helpless, but saw that others were coming to his aid, so I left. Such a terrible thing! I certainly hope he wasn't badly injured. There was nothing about it on the local news this evening, so I hope that's a good sign.
I was a little rattled after seeing that and decided I needed to get out of the car for a few minutes. I pulled into the parking lot at Sam's Club and went in for a little while to walk off my shakes. I wound up finding a few items I needed, so the stop served two purposes. In a short while I felt much more settled, so I drove home using the back roads and avoiding all the extra traffic.
I'm always glad to be home, but home looked especially good this afternoon. Except for witnessing the accident, it's been a good day.
I hope your day has been good, too!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Surviving Race Week
It's race week in Bristol. I'm not a NASCAR fan, so race week is always something to "get through" for me. How does a non-NASCAR fan survive race week?
Then I felt the tremor. If I hadn't been hearing people shouting over the phone about the quake, I'd have thought I was having an attack of vertigo. It was a strange feeling, more of dizziness than a sensation of shaking. Then moments later I felt kind of a deep low shudder. So WEIRD!!
We soon learned that the quake was registered 5.8 on the Richter scale, the largest earthquake ever recorded in central Virginia. Not a big quake by California standards, but it broke a record. Before Tuesday the biggest quake recorded in central Virginia was a 4.8 in 1875!!
I should have known it was going to be an unusual week when it started with a call from my daughter, Kris, early Monday morning. She'd learned that she was going to have to have her thyroid surgically removed and wanted to call to tell me instead of e-mailing me. While I'm sorry that she's going to have to have surgery, I'm glad they're going to do something about her thyroid. They've been trying to control it with medication, but it's been just out of control for some time now. I'll be glad when it's done and over with, and I'm sure she'll be glad when it's over, too!!
Everyone over on the coast watch out for Hurricane Irene.....BE SAFE!! We're not expecting anything here from the storm, but it looks like more than 60,000,000 Americans could be dealing with it. It could be a rough weekend for an awful lot of folks.
A very eventful week so far....and this is only THURSDAY!!
- Get out of town for the week. This is my favorite way to deal with the race crowds, just by leaving and not coming back until they've left. Unfortunately, this isn't often an option. Gotta work for a living, y'know.
- Make sure you have groceries in the house at least a week before the race. You can't believe how crowded the local grocery stores are during race week!
- Plan to eat your meals at home. Restaurants are full of race fans, so eating at home is the only practical choice.
- Stay out of Wal-Mart. I've never understood why people travel to Bristol to see a race and spend so much time at Wal-Mart. There's nothing I need from Wally World that won't wait until the race fans are on their way back home.
- Grin and bear it. Sure, everything's crowded and traffic is worse than usual. But the race will be over Saturday night and by Monday Bristol will be back to normal.
Then I felt the tremor. If I hadn't been hearing people shouting over the phone about the quake, I'd have thought I was having an attack of vertigo. It was a strange feeling, more of dizziness than a sensation of shaking. Then moments later I felt kind of a deep low shudder. So WEIRD!!
We soon learned that the quake was registered 5.8 on the Richter scale, the largest earthquake ever recorded in central Virginia. Not a big quake by California standards, but it broke a record. Before Tuesday the biggest quake recorded in central Virginia was a 4.8 in 1875!!
I should have known it was going to be an unusual week when it started with a call from my daughter, Kris, early Monday morning. She'd learned that she was going to have to have her thyroid surgically removed and wanted to call to tell me instead of e-mailing me. While I'm sorry that she's going to have to have surgery, I'm glad they're going to do something about her thyroid. They've been trying to control it with medication, but it's been just out of control for some time now. I'll be glad when it's done and over with, and I'm sure she'll be glad when it's over, too!!
Everyone over on the coast watch out for Hurricane Irene.....BE SAFE!! We're not expecting anything here from the storm, but it looks like more than 60,000,000 Americans could be dealing with it. It could be a rough weekend for an awful lot of folks.
A very eventful week so far....and this is only THURSDAY!!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Race Weekend
It's race weekend in my little corner of the world....two weekends each year, our town is host to a NASCAR race. We're home of the "world's fastest half-mile", which draws many visitors to town.
Grocery stores, department stores, malls, restaurants, and most other public gathering places are difficult to get into as the parking lots fill with vehicles from near and far. Campgrounds and motels fill to capacity. Local merchants have a good week.
Residents like myself make sure we don't need anything from Wal-Mart or the grocery store and stay off local streets as much as we can, leaving them to the thousands of race fans temporarily in our midst.
My plans? I'm not a NASCAR fan, so today I've done some household chores and some knitting. Tomorrow I'll wait for the race fans to make their way to the track, then drive down to visit Mom and Dad for awhile. Thankfully, I'm still improving after my bout with that terrible cold, so I think it'll be safe to go visit them tomorrow. I have a few lingering joint aches, but that's probably from inactivity as much as anything.
Have you heard about the Live Owl Nest Box Cam? Check it out to see Molly the barn owl; she's currently caring for 5 eggs which should be hatching owlets any time now.
Well, back to knitting....I've got a project I need to finish up this afternoon and need to get a second one started. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Grocery stores, department stores, malls, restaurants, and most other public gathering places are difficult to get into as the parking lots fill with vehicles from near and far. Campgrounds and motels fill to capacity. Local merchants have a good week.
Residents like myself make sure we don't need anything from Wal-Mart or the grocery store and stay off local streets as much as we can, leaving them to the thousands of race fans temporarily in our midst.
My plans? I'm not a NASCAR fan, so today I've done some household chores and some knitting. Tomorrow I'll wait for the race fans to make their way to the track, then drive down to visit Mom and Dad for awhile. Thankfully, I'm still improving after my bout with that terrible cold, so I think it'll be safe to go visit them tomorrow. I have a few lingering joint aches, but that's probably from inactivity as much as anything.
Have you heard about the Live Owl Nest Box Cam? Check it out to see Molly the barn owl; she's currently caring for 5 eggs which should be hatching owlets any time now.
Well, back to knitting....I've got a project I need to finish up this afternoon and need to get a second one started. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
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