THE RIDE

Just in time before the 500, this is a story I just ran across in my e-mail archives. I submitted this to a local newpaper back in 1999, but was not published.

Being an avid Nascar - Dale Earnhardt fan at the time, one of my dreams over the years, had been to ride around Daytona International Speedway. My brother inlaw and I took the Richard Petty Riding Experience, May 22, 1999. It was a long awaited Christmas present from our wives.

As we waited in line for our turns to come up, I noticed they only had three cars on the track. The #88 Ford Tortoise, #15 Ford Tortoise, and the #44 Hot Wheels Pontiac. I asked the assistant handing out the helmets, where the #3 car was. He explained that it was in the garage. I replied, "Oh darn!", or something to that effect. I patiently waited to ride in one of the Tortoises, as my brother-in-law got in the Hot Wheels car. Just then, as they took off, I heard my wife holler, "Here comes the #3 car!" I had died and gone to heaven. My dream had finally come true...I was about to ride around Daytona Speedway in a 600 h.p. #3 stock car at over 150 mph!

I strapped on the 50 lb. helmet, or so it felt, and was instructed to enter through the extremely narrow window opening. Hey, I figured since Dale and I were the same age at the time, no problem! I flopped my leg up onto the opening, swung my other leg up, and my helmet collided with the roof as I attemped to slide into the seat.

With my head somewhat spinning, I was strapped in. The Richard Petty Experience photographer took our picture with a Cheshire cat grin on my face. I hung on for dear life as the driver floored it. We took off down Pit Road and swung up into turn 1. I thought immediately to myself that my personal car definately does not have the gitty-up and go that this one does.

The gravity or g-forces, took a weird position onto my stomach, as we went through turn 2. On the backstretch, I managed to still force this Cheshire cat grin on my face as turn 3 approached.

The driver drove all the way to the top of the banking, as the grip I had on the hold bar between the seats, gets"white-knuckled". I look out the window, through the safety net, and see nothing but very large wall, no further than six inches away, while going around the 31 degree embankment. Very fast.

I still somehow, manage the GRIN as the car tilts again going into turn 1. Coming out of turn 2, we "bottom-out", causing my gluteus maximus to "pucker" a lot tighter into the seat. My left hand has gone numb from it's grip.

Down the back-stretch, I watch the car ahead approaching turn 3. That driver seems to be one inch away from the wall. Stupidly, I look out the window again and see the "Superstretch" wall at about the same distance, whizzing by. Did I mention that my heart is pounding louder than the engine at this point?

My eyes are as big around as 50 cent pieces...but I still manage "The GRIN". I really don't remember the third lap that much, other than the loud thumping in my chest, white knuckles, forcing myself to actually breathe, and being 31 degree tilted to look at the Daytona wall.

While all of this is taking place, my brain suddenly is asking, "Hey, what if a tire decides to go flat?", while it seemed that we were upside down from the angle. Not to mention, the G-forces that have my puckered self, nailed to the seat and headrest. Did I happen to mention that Daytona is not a very smooth track?

Still, The GRIN is solidly plastered onto my face. The driver snatches the car off of the banking, starts to slow somewhat, and heads down Pit Road. I can only now, release the death grip that I have on the holdbar. My handprint seems to be permanently embedded into the bar. Through my GRIN, I can begin to breathe normally, as the thumping in my chest continues. We come to a stop, grin still attached, and somehow manage to ask the driver for an autograph. I hold the ticket out and it shakes as it being blown on by a jet dryer.

The assistant gets me unstrapped from the harness, and instructs me to stick my head out first. My 90 lb. helmet, by this time, thuds into the roof again as I push through. Once I am able to free an arm, I let out a war-whoop and throw my arm up, as if I have just won a race or something. It must have been the adrenaline. One of the assistants says he thinks I enjoyed it.

One thing for certain. I challenge anyone who says Nascar is not a real sport, that all they do is go around in circles, to climb into one of these cars, and take the ride of a lifetime!

Thank you Bill France Sr.and Jr. for Nascar!

Thank you Richard Petty for the Riding Experience I'll never forget!

Thank you Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt!

God be with the Frances' and Dale...and of course their families.

A Christmas Poem from U.S. Service Men and Women to All of Us!

A Christmas Poem

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

Posted by James Everitt on December 10, 2008 at 8:23am in Inexpensive Clean Energy, http://www.pickensplan.com/

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

'What are you doing?' I asked without fear,
'Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!'
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said 'Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night.'
'It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,'
Then he sighed, 'That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.'
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.

'' So go back inside,' he said, 'harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right.
''But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
'Give you money,' I asked, 'or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son.'

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
'Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.'

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

SHIFTING GEARS

SHIFTING GEARS - NEW FOCUS - THE PLEDGE

Due to medical reasons, I have had to leave the auto parts store.

As a member and Ambassador of the Pickens Plan, http://push.pickensplan.com/ I am now focusing all of my attention towards The Picken's Plan and alternative and renewable energy.
http://naturesenergy4u.com/

There is an Energy Independence Pledge involved with the Picken's Plan that I feel every red-blooded American should go to the Plan website and endorse:

"We will no longer stand by and watch as America's national security and economy become more dependdent on the unstable foreign nations that we rely on for nearly 70% of the oil we use each day.

We spend nearly $700 billion every year buying foreign oil, which represents the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.

The new President and the 11th Congress need to enact an energy plan that reduces our foreign oil dependence by at least 30% within 10 years.

This plan must include proven American technology and resources; the development of new energy sources; and the expansion and modernization of the national electrical grid to transport renewable energy to homes and businesses.

Delaying any further means tacit support for continuing America's addiction to foreign oil.

I join with T.Boone Pickens and his army of supporters in calling for an Energy Independence Plan to be enacted within the first 100 days of the new administration".

The Second "Rain-Forest" - ALGAE

As a member and ambassador of The Pickens Plan (http://www.push.pickensplan.com/), I have learned of CNG, solar, ethanol and wind as alternative energy sources. The most promising and unique source that I have come across, is pond scum. You know that icky looking green, globby mass of yuck floating on top of a pond. This is algae - what could be the answer to our fuel problems.
Algae for commercial use is grown in a Algae Photo BioReactor and the link below is a video of a BioReactor system in Texas:
http://cc.pubco.net/www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

Algae is the fastest growing organism/plant on the planet. Depending upon the type of algae, 50% of it's body weight produces "lipids" or vegetable oil.
Corn will only produce about 18-20 gallons of oil per acre per year.
Palm will produce between 700-800 gallons of oil per acre per year.
Algae will produce over 20,000 gallons of oil per acre per year - when grown in an open pond system. Much, much more when done in the bioreactor. If we took 1/10 of the state of New Mexico, converted to vertical reactor algae production, we could meet all the energy demands of the United States.

Algae, like all plants, require carbon dioxide, water with nutrients and sunlight for growth. The bioreactor technology is ideal for locations adjacent to heavy producers of carbon dioxide such as coal fired power plants, refineries or manufacturing facilities, as the absorption of CO2 by the algae significantly reduces greenhouse gases.

A Photo Bio Reactor (PBR) is a system that provides an artificial environment for photosynthetic organisms (Algae) to perform a chemical conversion. Scientists and engineers have been developing several types of photo-bio reactors (PBR’s) over the past fifty years to grow microorganisms that are used in a wide variety of applications. Cultivated algae cultures can be used to produce human food, animal feed, health food, therapeutics, chemicals, fuel, hormones, and fertilizer.

The link below shows actor Alan Alda at a Photo Bio Reactor at MIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnOSnJJSP5c

I asked a fellow Pickens Plan friend of mine, Frank "Palani" Cipriani of BioFarms Hawaii, "why isn't more being done on the oil production side?"
His response; " My take is the "Laws of Economics & the Law of Perpetual Motion theory", as applied to an INDUSTRY based on an "Oil-algae" is the basic stumbling-block. In order to better understand this, let's look at a comparison of another algae and market; Spirulina platensis for Nutritionals; a blue-green "super-food" according to the literature.

I've cultured Spirulina, my wife and I have eaten it on a daily basis for years, the market is under-fed, keeping the prices up. I pay $40/lb. for whole dried product for our consumption. Is a pound of oil-alga worth $40/lb.?(the extracts of Spirulina's pigments and compounds are very valuable for a number of Markets..... So, the problem state-of-the-art Algal-oil Production Lines face is scalability in the most cost-effective manner, how to achieve perpetual "bumper-crops" of oil-alga to balance out the comparative cost of production of Bio-oil and make it worth while doing....on an Industrial-scale.Meanwhile we; (my Company) continue to look at Bio-prospecting of a wide range of Algal-species, for harvesting of targeted Compounds, Extracts, and Bio-products for a variety of Products for Mankind's benefit; "the mind boggles" at the potential!" (Pharmaceutical Companys have referred to Algaes as "The Second Rain-forest"). For more information check out - http://www.biofarmshawaii.com/

NEW REPLACEMENT FOR FOREIGN OIL

Reprinted from "The Plan" - PickensPlan.com

Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.

Cleaner

Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.
According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.

Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world.

According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States.

The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles.

Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas.

Cheaper

Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com.

Domestic

Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations.

Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow.
Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves.
While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation.

The Mechanics

1. Generate 20% of our electricity from wind power.
2. Use wind power to replace natural gas.
3. Use natural gas as a transportation fuel — replacing foreign oil.

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

How do we get it done?

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.
On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office.
We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration.

Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.

You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join now.

A CALL TO ARMS - THE PICKENS PLAN

This is not a call for the militia to grab their stockpile of guns, knives, swords, etc. This is a call to arms with knowledge. Armed with knowledge we can accomplish much. In this segment, I shall attempt to cover the basic rules of journalism, by covering the who, what, when, where, why and how to be armed.

WHO? Who is needed? Volunteers - You are needed. Your relatives, your friends, your neighbors, wherever they may be. Many numbers are needed. Right now (as of 5:00 p.m.) there are over 137,883 volunteers. Many more are needed. It needs to be in the millions. With numbers, we can make a difference.

WHAT? What is needed? Volunteer for what? Your time to learn, your knowledge to communicate to others by word of mouth, by phone, by computer. By writing your politicians. A very good friend and fellow scouter, now deceased, once said, "volunteering is the rent that you pay to live in a community".

WHEN and WHERE? When am I needed? Now. Now more than ever. Whenever you go to work, to the store, to the gas station (especially the gas station), anytime you are in public and have the opportunity to converse.

WHY? Why am I needed? This is a golden, grass roots opportunity to make your voice heard. To let the politicians, local, state and national know that enough is enough. You've probably seen the commercial on television. It starts out by saying:

"Every year we're sending almost $700 billion out of our nation's economy to foreign nations for their oil. That's four times the annual cost of the Iraqi war and almost one-and-a-half times the projected U.S. deficit for 2009. It ends up in the pockets of a few friends and a lot of enemies. Last year we sent more than $300 billion to countries controlled by oppressive or unstable regimes. We are killing our economy at the same time that we are propping up our enemies". I can think of 700 billion reasons why.

HOW? How can I make a difference? By joining. By becoming united. These are the "United States" after all. How do I join? How much does it cost? I have inserted a link to "The Pickens Plan" website. There is no cost. To coin a phrase from my very good friend "The Google-Man" Jim Cobb... "it doesn't cost a dime, dollar or peso to join".

Please consider it. Go to the website, click on the Plan and watch the videos. Please join. America needs you more than ever now. Arm yourself with the knowledge and get involved.

Belts, Belts and Nothing But the Belts

A sad fact now days is most drivers do not pay any attention to their automotive belts - until they break. What good is a belt anyway? They only turn the fan that draws air through the radiator, operates the water pump and power steering pump, transmits power from the crankshaft to the alternator to keep the battery charged, and takes care of running that luxury item on hot days...the air conditioner.

The automotive drive belt provides the lowest cost means of power transmission from one rotating shaft to another. No need to check these pieces of rubber periodically, right? I mean, they only have to contend with flexxing around different pulleys at thousands of rpm's, endure the harshest effects of weather, from freezing cold to broiling heat. Not to mention they are constantly exposed to water and dirt splashed up from the road, but also to the hot, oily conditions of the engine compartment.

Causes of Belt Failure

Today's belts must endure multiple stresses such as rapid acceleration (lead-foot-itis) and deceleration, extremely high temperatures and smaller diameter pulleys. (Not to mention having to contend with mice and squirrels crawling under the hood and gnawing away at the belt). And you thought you were stressed out!

The most common cause of belt failure is from heat. This results from belt slippage which is either caused by low tension, oil lubricants, or dirt on the belt and/or pulley. The heat can cause the belt to crack and break and also transfer from the rim of the pulley to the accessory drive shaft and "cook" the bearing lubricants. This result is damage far exceeding the belt replacement.

So, how often should I inspect my belt(s)?

The average life of a belt is four years. A good rule is to replace the belt(s) every four years regardless of what their condition appears to be in. Belts that operate under adverse conditions have a tendency to wear out sooner, should be checked frequently and replaced whenever there are signs of wear or deterioration. A good rule of thumb is to inspect the belt(s) monthly. This will help avoiding dangerous situations such as an overheated engine and the loss of power steering. The belt(s) should definitely be checked when performing an oil change.

What Should I Look For?

When inspecting the belt(s), make sure the engine is off and disconnect the battery if the vehicle has a thermostatically controlled electric fan. Inspect each belt in several places, gently twisting it to be able to inspect the sidewalls and the bottom. Check for these conditions: (Most apply to V-Belts)

1. Separation

2. Glazing

3. Oil / Grease Soaking

4. Tensile Break

5. Cracks

6. Uneven Ribs

5. Jagged or Streaked Sidewalls