The 'yankee' race day (Pocono 500)

Whatta day to hit the race track! With the area suffering under a heat advisory, it was NOT the day to plan to be outside of the cool comfy A/C .. but we had tix for the Pocono 500 on Sunday, and so we endured.

Chuck and I were joined by his niece Cindy and her hubby Mike and they were enjoying their first NASCAR experience. Mike's a long way down the road to Country-Redneckville. Not so Cindy (they're both Boston-area natives -- city folks), but they both seemed to enjoy the race. Cindy had a very nice Nikon digital camera with a huge lens and snapped photo after photo of the cars, the people and everything. Maybe with being on a hiatus from her video production job, she'll be able to create a blog and you'll see her (much better) photos. But for now, you are stuck with mine.

The other intrepid photog...

A shot of victory lane.

Staying out of the sun under the stands --

apparently the heat makes Mike act like his pup Lily.

...finally, a shot without Mike making a face (4th shot).

This woman's T-shirt was the most OUTRAGEOUS I have ever seen. She posed for people with cameras in the stands -- I was one of the last to get out my camera and shoot (being in shock and all). She knew I was taking the photo and waited to turn to sit down until I finished. The back of the shirt has the number 88 on it which is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car number.





Maybe her action as described on her shirt gave Kyle Busch (easily the most unpopular driver among the fans) some bad luck. He hit Juan Pablo Montoya and caused a fire for Montoya (his car seen here, smoking). Anyway, Kyle Busch was a DNF for Pocono.
Chuck enjoys listening to the various drivers converse on the radio with their crew chiefs...on a scanner sold especially for this purpose.

I don't know who won -- and it really did not matter. It was a fun day, but I'm paying with a sunburn that's about to turn to peeling skin! Hope that Chuck won't be afflicted by sun poisoning like he had after being outside all day for the Atlanta 500 in March 2002.

PC? Country Music?

While taking some fliers about the neighborhood, I was listening to my mp3 player. It's loaded with a mix of contemporary Christian/Worship songs, contemporary country and pop (not current pop--from 'my' era). You know you hear the lyrics SO much better when you have it sent directly to your ears--especially if you have a slight hearing impediment like I do (tinnitus).

I was listening to country artist Taylor Swift's new song, "Picture to Burn." Like many country songs, it is a "story" song about a girl who's been jilted by a guy--she found out the guy was a jerk. He wouldn't even let her drive his souped up truck, as the chorus goes ... "I hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive."

Some of the words in the first verse had escaped my apprehension while hearing it over the radio...until I heard it through my player. I was surprised to hear that the first verse says:

...so go and tell your friends I'm obsessive and crazy

that's fine I'll tell mine that you're gay...

see for yourself on the "Country Music Television" (CMT) website.

http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/taylor-swift/picture-to-burn/13498460/lyrics.jhtmlNow I wasn't surprised that this content was there -- country music is filled with traditional values and attitudes, one of the reasons I'm a big fan. Remember "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue" and "American Soldier," both written by Toby Keith. You may remember that "Courtesy" actually caused a big flap on an Independence Day concert after 9/11 when Toby was to sing it and one of the big three network anchors took him to task. Remember too that the Dixie Chicks are now no longer part of the country 'in' group because of bashing Prez. Bush.

HOWEVER...I had missed clearly hearing this lyric when I had heard it numerous times on the radio and several times on the TV (music videos and a couple of award shows I caught).

SO... the next time I caught it on the radio I listened for the line... and it wasn't there. Then I had the TV tuned to the country music channel (we get three..CMT pure, CMT and Great American Country --- GAC). I typically keep the closed captions enabled, just makes it easier to watch and keep the sound lower. I watched the caption display, and guess what...the lyric on that last line of the first verse was DIFFERENT!

Instead of "that's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay," it says

"that's fine you won't mind if I say...

"I hate that stupid old pickup truck..."

Check it out yourself on CMT's video archive: http://www.cmt.com/videos/taylor-swift/215750/picture-to-burn.jhtml

Note--BOTH these are on the VERY SAME site.

What's going ON here? You tell me? I think they're selling out our traditional values for a mass of moola.

However, the lyrics as originally written by Taylor Swift, who's also the composer and lyricist are all over the internet in the original form. (Google it and you'll see, just type in "picture to burn lyrics.")

I wonder if she had the guts to sing it the way SHE wrote it on one of the awards shows. Next time I catch a rerun of one of one of the recent awards shows I'll check it out to see what lyric she used. I definitely know she performed this song on the CMT video awards show.

Days go by...

I can feel them flying like a hand out the window in the wind... (Keith Urban, "Days Go By" from "Be Here.")

He's right. Days do fly by -- I cannot believe how many weeks (not just days) have passed since I composed the basics of my starter post! And I actually didn't realise that my aborted attempt at creating my initial post back on May 13 wasn't deleted. I am still new at navigating around this site and thus had no idea that the post bones were saved...and that once I "published" it would keep the initial creation date.

What can I say. Since I created that post days have flown by. It's finally warmed up around here. On May 13, we were still wearing sweats (even though the lawn was growing and had been on it's 5th weekly mow by then).

Today was the second day that we turned on the whole-house fan. Those are great for this ThyneBurgPA weather. They bring in the cooler outside air and move out the hot inside air. Since it was 71 degrees Farenheit at around 8:30 pm -- fairly high for this time of year in Pennsylvania -- it was the perfect thing. A whole-house fan exchanges the hot air inside the house (it was nearly 80 inside) for cooler air from outside. The air outside was the temperature you'd get after running the A/C, and it was the temperature you'd enjoy IF you ignored the frugal living tips and set your thermostat at 70 or lower. Running the A/C, you'd be wasting $$$ to run that compressor and blower. Running our whole-house fan is about 1/20th (that's right ONE TWENTIETH) the cost of running a whole-house A/C. Our fan is a unit made in the USA from Tamarack Technologies in Buzzards Bay, MA (on Cape Cod). http://www.tamtech.com/ It has insulated doors so there's no draft or air leaks in the colder months, and has two speeds. Take a look at their site if you own your house and see the benefits for yourself!

It didn't help the heat situation in the house at all, that I used the oven to make dinner. Since we no longer have a gas grill (we reverted to charcoal last summer) if we want hot meals aren't a of meat-heavy menu, we turn on the oven if the meal warrants (not everything can be cooked on the stovetop). And cold suppers get old quick!

So, with the heat generated from the oven, husband Chuck was complaining about the heat in the house. I say suck it up and go put on your shorts. ;-) I stay in the hottest room in the house -- our south-facing family room, where my home office is -- ALL DAY without A/C. It normally only gets turned on when he arrives home. He's a hot-weather wuss!

We may investigate putting a cheap used stove in the cellar. That's a tactic learned from my in-laws. It's much cheaper (in the long run) than cranking up the A/C. The temps in the cellar in the summer are regularly 10-15 degrees cooler than upstairs. So, I'll start searching Craigslist, Freecycle and the newspaper classifieds. If you're in Central PA and have a gas range to sell or give away that is, or can be converted to propane, let me know about it! We'll need to install another gas pipe to the range but since the pipes are already in the cellar, it shouldn't cost too much, and Suburban Propane is happy to do it inexpensively since they'll be selling me more fuel if they install more lines!

However, to get it home, I'll have to require my Ford Ranger pickup be returned from Blackwood, where it seems to have grown roots. You can't stuff a range in the back of the Mini -- or in a Honda Civic!

Kevin...take note ;-)!!!!

Here goes something? Or maybe nothing.

Well my daughter Luann got me thinking. She's actually blogging and she will tell you right up front that she's not a "writer." Actually, I'm the official "writer" of the family. After all that journalism degree from the University of Central Florida -- Florida Technological University when I attended -- should mean that at least the profs thought my skills were worth something.

So maybe I should be blogging, like Luann is (her blog is linked under "My Favorite Blogs").

But are my thoughts are worthy of your time spent reading? That's for you to decide. I actually may be "thought out" (and "wrote out") some days, because I spend my work time writing for the law firm: drafting and editing letters, briefs and job descriptions for immigration cases.

And no, don't call me to task for bad grammar, it was purposeful, my phrase "wrote out." It's my writer's licence, which includes me using British spellings for many words, including "licence," so you'll realise that I'm not spelling incorrectly, I am spelling words the British way for the most part.

Back to blogging (it's easy to get off topic if you're not aiming for a certain point with your writing).

I thought HEY, if I can ghostwrite for my cat ("Mario's Merry Christmas Newsletter" which is in it's fourth year of publication) I certainly should be able to blog. FYI, Mario is shown in the photo by "My profile."

Maybe this blog will end up interesting you enough to revisit.

So, here goes something -- or nothing. We'll see what this becomes.

Heather