Turtle Hunt

[deadmoneydenny]

About 11am today my daughter Savannah told me she needed a box turtle to go along with her 5 dogs, 1 ferret, 1 hamster, and 2 fish. We got on the little Honda Spree and went hunting. We went 4 miles down the two lane blacktop, left on a county road (gravel) and another 3 1/2 miles before seeing a turtle crossing the road. We scooped him up and headed back home. It was a nice little 15 mile road trip on the Spree. The turtles name is Tyson.

[W333]

How much does it cost to enter your petting zoo? Casey wants to feed the ferret.

[deadmoneydenny]

I told Savannah to come with me to the track some saturday and bring the ferret along. He has a halter and leash.
Took another scooter road trip today after work. I have Brian Gardners Yamaha Zuma (brought it home last weekend to work on it for him), so Savannah and I rode it, and let my nephew Bob (the bike painter) and his daughter Caitlyn ride my Honda Spree.We took the same 15 mile trip as before, and got sprinkled on just before we got back. We put the scooters in the garage, and went in the house, and within a minute is was pouring down rain really hard.

[chaplain]

FYI Tortoises don't eat bugs much. They are vegetarians. I had several when I was a boy living on the farm and I thought they ate bugs so that's what I tried to feed them. They starved to death in about 3 months. They also get most of their water from the vegetation they eat, but will drink from a dish when it's in their box or cage. I don't mean to but in Denny maybe you know all this stuff already. I just hope this helps your tortoise survive for a long time. They like lettuce and cabbage and even carrots in small pieces, and just plain ole clover if it's fresh...Stuff like that. Oh yeah...they also need an hour or so of sunshine every day or so to get the vitamins needed to keep their shell strong and for their metabolism like all cold blooded animals. No I'm not real smart, I learned this watching the Discovery Channel. Good luck.

[deadmoneydenny]

Thanks chaplain, she hasnt ever kept them very long. We've had some before and fed them a variaty of veggies and she plays with them in the back yard and after a week or so she lose'es them (or they run away ;D)

I think you ARE real smart. I enjoy reading your post's. When everyone (including myself) is gripping and complaining about something, you chime in with words of wisdom and reason, and it make me rethink what I'm feeling, and try to see it from both sides. Keep it up.

[chaplain]

Denny, I love the sport of drag racing almost as much as I love serving as chaplain at Gateway. The thing that truly breaks my heart is that I use to be able to race and for some time now I haven't been able to. I made decisions in the past that took me down a road that has taken away the financial means to race. My decisions, but they were not very good ones at times. Looking back on my life, I have come to realize that being able to drag race was a privilege and not a right. I would give ALMOST ANYTHING to just get a ride from time to time. When I hear racers complaining, I really do understand their points, and I feel for them deeply, but then I have also worked on the other side of the fence and I understand management's points as well. The basis of most of my comments comes from my deep love of the sport and the people I have met at drag strips all over the country, and the fact that I would never do anything to hurt the sport, my home track, or my fellow racer's ability to race at a facility as fine as the one we have in Madison IL. I would race for free, no matter how much I had invested in my ride. (There's no guarantee that I'd make it to the money rounds at tracks that pay more anyway. Plus the drive would cost me more money and more wear and tear on my tow equipment.) That investment would be my choice, nobody twisted my arm.

There are often nights when I'm watching the best bracket racers in the country mixing it up at Gateway, and it's so exciting that I almost get "wood" if you know what I mean. Then a tremendous feeling of remorse falls on me because I can't be out there mixing it up with you guys, and I have to take a stroll through the pits to get away from it because it hurts so bad. But the Lord has replaced my racing monkey with my position as chaplain, and after a stroll through the pits and a chat with a couple members of my flock I feel better and I go back and watch the racing some more. Some racers don't know what they have, or at least they don't appreciate it anymore.

John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame wrote a song called "Bootleg" that had lyrics that went like this "Take you a glass of water. Make it against the law. See how good the water tastes when you can't have any at all." The point I'm trying to make is this, let drag racing or anything else you truly love, be forcefully taken away from you, whether it's your fault or not, and you'll understand my feelings. I know things can be better at Gateway (and ALL other tracks you can name for that matter) and I believe that things are going to get better at Gateway. But like the song implies, when things go good for a long time we all tend to take it for granted. We get spoiled. But always remember, the ability to drag race, (anywhere) is a privilege not a right. It should be treated as such even when things are not what we have come to expect... and taken for granted.