I get the opposite of my wish

Jimmie Johnson didn't go out early and Jeff Gordon didn't win - or finish for that matter. Maybe I should have tried some reverse psychology on those guys!



I did go 9 and 2. The closest contenders are Tru-JR-Fan and BBuck (both at 7 and 4). Of my drivers, Gordon slips one place to 7th and Jimmie Johnson extends his lead in the points standings. Mark Martin gained a spot. If Gordon doesn't win it, I sure home Martin does.

Next race could be tough since I'll be going up against Tru-JR-Fan. His drivers (Kahne, Earnhardt and Biffle) are on a roll - though it doesn't show for Biffle in the standings.

Weekend of speed

They call this the "Weekend of Speed." The historic Indy 500 is run tomorrow as well as Monaco for Formula One. Nascar heads into its longest race of the season with the Coca Cola 600. That's a lot of racin'!

Here is an update of our fantasy league standings:


I pretty much assured to be 9-2 late Sunday evening. It would take a catastrophe to get beat by GetAFreeRide. I do have a way I hope things turn out.

Having Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon on the same team causes a problem. I want to win the league, so I always want Jimmie to do well. However, I want Jeff Gordon to win the championship. That means Jimmie has to croak a couple of times to make that possible (plus, Gordon is going to have to pick up some slack).

So, my wish would be that Jimmie Johnson goes out early in the 600 and Gordon wins the race. Because I am up against the "give me" team, I wouldn't lose anything in the league. At the same time, Gordon would pick up some major points on the current points leader.

We'll see...

Vacation and NASCAR

I was out of town last week enjoying some vacation time with my family. Here are some pics of some of the cool things I was able to see.


This is a sunrise captured at Fripp Island, South Carolina. We spent the week with this view out our window. The weather was perfect - not too hot and not too cool. A great way to recharge the batteries!


Last Saturday I drove back from Fripp and then headed up to Charlotte for the NASCAR All Star race. Greenville really is a cool place - you can be on the beach in four hours, be at a race in Charlotte or Atlanta in two (or three if you go to Darlington), or head up into the mountains in less than an hour.

I would have had the pictures up sooner but I am having issues with the export feature of iPhoto and my FTP program. For some reason Transmit stalls when it tried to upload the photos that I export from iPhoto, but once I open them and save them with another photo program, it works fine. Go figure...

My day is going flat

Today is Ride Your Bike to Work Day in Greenville.

Cyclists biking to work this morning

I got up this morning after being pretty bummed out last night because of my Vespa problems. Being a cyclist, I thought I would jump on my bike and ride to my office. The thought of heading downtown to join up with the other folks biking to work crossed my mind. Approaching the bike, I noticed the front tire was a little low. So, I get out the pump and started out to fix the problem. Wouldn't you know it. The tire would not hold the air. It appears the rubber is torn right where the valve stem attaches to the innertube.

Undaunted, I plan to get a new tube and fix my flat at lunch. There is still a chance to join in. I think it would be great if Greenville could be more cycling friendly. My dream is a bike lane from Timmons Park near the campus of Bob Jones University down to Cleveland Park. You could then ride downtown to McPherson Park. Oh well, maybe someday... Right now, I would like to just be able to ride out of my driveway!

By the way... Why is Greenville having Bike to Work Day today? National Bike to Work Day is NEXT Friday. Not to mention the fact that the front page story of The Greenville News was about a teenager who killed a bicyclist this past Sunday in a hit-and-run accident.

The what?

It looks like the Bible study is back on at Heritage Court. WHNS TV reports One Management as saying, "they would allow the residents to continue their bible study while they look to the Special Council for Religious Discrimination with the United States Department of Justice for guidance."

The what? I didn't know the DOJ had a Special Council for Religious Discrimination. Well, it exists. You learn more about it here. The more I learned about it the more I realized One Management might want to hold off contacting them. Just let this thing die a quiet death.

So, according to the SCRD web site, what would be something they would frown on and consider religious discrimination in housing?

An apartment complex has a meeting room that is available for residents to reserve for card games, social activities, and similar events. A resident is told that she may not use the room to hold a Bible study with friends.

Yep, One Management, you had better stop while you are ahead - or while you are not too far behind. My guess that is what they are doing. They have invoked the "guidance" of the DOJ to save face while we will never hear about this again.

Freedom OF - not freedom FROM

A story hit the AP wire early this morning about a Spartanburg Bible study group meeting in the common area of a low income housing apartment complex. It appears that the owners of the complex think that such a study violates the supposed "separation of church and state" clause. This is nuts!

The Vice President of the company, Jenny Petri, says, "It's not our rule. It's Fair Housing law, which says you cannot discriminate against religion. It's unfortunate, but we are required to comply to Fair Housing laws. We hope that the residents can continue doing what they're doing within their own apartment."

Lady, if that is what the Fair Housing law means, then you have actually broken the law because you just discriminated against religion in favor of no religion. This is the kind of thing that the First Amendment was designed to stop - the government being able to keep people from practicing their religion.

It is freedom OF religion - not FROM religion.

I agree with William Dudley Gregorie, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's field office director for South Carolina. He says, "If you let one, you have to let all." Still, to clarify further - isn't the law for the purpose of "housing" not "assembly" at the housing? The Fair Housing law stipulates that you cannot withhold the opportunity for housing based on religion. They are stretching it big time to take it as far as they have.

Checking in...

Sorry I haven't been posting a whole bunch here. The rain cancelling the race at Talladega kind of messed up the rythmn of my NASCAR posts and I have been doing more postings over at Vespatude.com. Not to mention that soccer has started up with the kids, the school year is getting ready to wrap up at the university, and we have quite a few things going on at The Worthwhile Company.

I had planned to make StackOfStuff.net my place where I kept all of this stuff in line. Perhaps I'll get back to it soon. I'd like to get some things cleaned up and advanced at The Common Voice first. Man, so much to do! So little time!