Spike

Silly season is starting to heat up again... David Ragan to step back from full time season in 2020 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2019/08/14/david-ragan-stepping-back-from-driving-full-time-after-the-2019-season/ Matt Dibenedetto out at LFR # 95 Camry https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2019/08/15/matt-dibenedetto-out-at-leavine-family-racing-after-one-season/ This isn't shocking news as a few weeks ago Joe Gibbs Racing said they were looking for a Cup team to put Christopher Bell in till Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch retires so it looks like Bell will be driving the #95 next year. Rumor has it Matt Dibenedetto will take over the #38 Ford at FRR. Ford has revealed the changes to the Xfinity series Mustang for 2020 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2019/08/15/ford-reveals-2020-mustang-model-for-xfinity-series/

Well things are starting to return to normal for us here. Turns out the ant infestation we had was Pharoah Ants. Tenacious little suckers, they are relentless until you get an exterminator. There is no spray you can buy at Walmart or Lowe's that will keep them out, trust me we've tried several with 0 luck. Finally complained to the manager enough that they hired an exterminator to come out on Jul 27th. Bad news is the exterminator said it's pretty likely the whole building is infested and the manager didn't want to set it up for the rest of the tenants in our building to be out so the exterminator could have sprayed and fogged the rest of the building. I told that to the manager what the exterminator said and they pretty much didn't give a . So I'm going to take it upon myself to let every new tenant that moves into our building know that they probably have these little suckers crawling around in their walls. For what good it did the exterminator laid some poisoned bait around the building to try and draw them out and kill the nests but not 5 days later the worst lawn crew to ever have blew most of it away. I even told them twice not to use the leaf blowers where they see the bait piles but I just wasted my breath. Jack neighbor we've been having issues with thought we were moving out and got so giddy he had to tell one of the other neighbors of course we took the wind out of his sails when we cam home to clean and bring the cat stuff back in . We wished we could've moved out but since we blew over a grand in car repairs this year that's not gonna happen for another year. Garden is doing good. Brought in 3 of the 4 carrots I planted and since it's still early enough in the season I planted some more carrots. The Swallowtail caterpillar that was on the carrots turned into a butterfly and flew away a few weeks ago. Bees finally pollinated the tomato's, got over 3 dozen waiting to grow and be picked. Got 4 big cucumbers off the plant so far. And got a couple of pumpkins on one vine. Was hoping we'd have more monarch butterfly's on the milkweed I planted at my dads house but it looks like carpenter ants are taking the eggs off the milkweed before they even hatch. Hope a few survive to become a butterfly. Scarecrow Festival, that is a good idea, wonder if any place in Ohio does one...

Yeah funny thing is you never hear the word racism thrown around when racist things are done to white people. The high school I went to was 40% white, 40% black, 17% Hispanic and 3& other. White students could be called anything by the other students but if any white student used the N word or other disparaging word automatic 3 day in school suspension. When I was called honky or white bread or redneck trash I just laughed about it and went on learning, wasn't worth giving them boneheads the time of day. I will say majority of the students there no matter what race they were just wanted to learn and graduate so for the most part everybody got along and had good friendships, the bad apples from all the races there eventually dropped out so by the senior year it was kind of enjoyable.

derrick

Yeah it will be a scorcher. On the local news this morning a rep from the one of the local power companies asked people to lower their electric usage between 2pm and 6pm and raise the thermostats to 78 if they have A/C till Monday so they don't have to do rolling brownouts to protect the grid. Finally got my car back from the shop yesterday. Found out the mechanic he hired a few months ago suffered a major heart attack last week, hope he pulls through and makes a good recovery. Ants sure are tenacious this year, spent Monday night and Tuesday morning spraying and cleaning again, this is like the 3rd or 4th time this year. Just wish the lazy-bleep manager would just hire an exterminator to come out and deal with them. Going to stock up on some bug spray before winter comes. Try to keep cool guys.

Same with Indycar. I remember USAC/CART/Indycar of the 1980's was somewhat still a run what you brung for the Indy 500, especially engine wise with v8's from Chevy, Cosworth, Offenhauser etc.. and Turbo v6's from Buick. Roger Rager even brought an old used Chevy Bus engine and led a few laps in the 1980 Indy 500. Nascar's Xfinity series back when it was the Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series and then Busch Grand National series ran v6's or v8's depending on the track or teams resources up until 1995 when they limited teams to V8's.

I was gonna say streaming it thru amazon was going to be your only choice for a high def DoH but it seems either WB or Amazon has since removed them from streaming, but your not missing much when they convert them to HD they usually make it 16.9 so you lose the top and bottom of the original 4.3 video. Oh and in my original post the price was supposed to be $69.99 That's Millcreek that does that HossC. They don't do fans justice by doing that either, a lot of the episodes look really grainy. Although Millcreek is putting old 80's tv shows out on Bluray they are not truly remastering them just squeezing the 4.3 video to 16.9 and shoving as many episodes as possible on a single disc.

Big news week concerning the 2021 season and Gen 7 cars: https://autoweek.com/article/monster-energy-nascar-cup/nascar-track-2021-gen-7-debut-engine-timeline-less-clear https://autoweek.com/article/nascar/hyundai-could-be-track-enter-nascar Wow a v6 Nascar cup car, I think it's too soon. I definitely wouldn't watch that. Hyundai isn't surprising though I did a Nascar survey a few years back that had several questions about Hyundai/Kia entering the sport.

Enjoy every day you get on this big blue & green marble, you never know how long or short of time you will get to enjoy it. Two of our acquaintances passed away last week. One of our nice senior neighbors finally succumbed to cancer after a long battle, on a side note be sure to have your pets in your will or be sure to have a friend or relative ready to take care of them so they will at least be taken care of instead of being sent off to the pound which unfortunately his dog was sent too. We also lost someone that was more than an acquaintance but we weren't best of friends but dang does it hurt to know that such a young lady so full of life is gone before she even gets to live a half of it. She just got married last year and got a job she loved to do which was being a nurse and taking care of other people. We met her at her previous job at a local video store and when she mentioned about her wedding my wife went out that day and got her a couple of wedding gifts and they were friends since then. Hug your loved ones every chance you get. To end this post on a good note we have a few butterfly caterpillars on our plants, found a swallowtail caterpillar on our carrots and several monarch caterpillars on the milkweed I planted at my other garden at my dads.

Just seen a new Dukes of Hazzard complete series set @ my local Walmart for $59.99, looks like it would take up less than half the shelf space of the old season sets. This is an official WB release not a lower definition Mill Creek release like a lot of other 80's tv complete sets are.

I imagine it would sound a lot like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZJ-aSYtDA8 I watched one of these when it was on Fox last year or two years ago out of curiosity. I ended up turning the channel after 10 laps or so. When they pit the drivers switch cars because the batteries only last half a race.

Yeah that might be it Roger, It'll only take a matter of time till the whole USA population of deer gets the disease, I just hope it won't be as devastating as the white nose fungus affecting Bats. People think I'm nuts when I say that my birthday is cursed then I tell them a few of the weird things that have happened to me on or around my birthdays over the years. Then they usually ask me either how many mirrors I broke or who put a hex on me haha. I've noticed a pattern though I seem to only have bad luck on even birthdays, odd numbered ones are usually pretty good.

I just don't see that happening. Battery technology is nowhere near where it needs to be for all electric vehicles to get the same traveling mileage as you do in gas or diesel vehicles and until that happens combustion engined vehicles aren't going anywhere. That 2030 ban will probably be pushed back another decade or so. I'll tell ya one thing an outright ban won't work here in the USA, No way is the Government going to tell me what I can and can't drive and I know a whole bunch of people feel the same way. I can see where gas electric hybrids will probably be the next evolution in automotive transportation and most likely in a decade there will probably be more hybrids on the road than non hybrid vehicles. That'd be the better way to go in terms of traveling mileage and you get the best of both technology's.

Here's my weekend in a nutshell... Wife's car ended up getting a nail in at least one of the tires, possibly two tires as I heard 2 pops, while we were on our way to one of the local business's birthday freebies Saturday and the toilet tank cracked so came home to a wet bathroom floor. I guess silver lining is we don't have to pay for a new toilet and while I waited at home all day yesterday for the maintenance guy to show up I went through some stuff and ended up finding a Jeff Foxworthy dvd I bought at a garage sale a few months ago. Maintenance guy put in a rush order for the new toilet and bandaged ours and put a bucket underneath it, just hope it doesn't take months to get here like everything else has so far that needed replaced here. Good thing wife hasn't put out a swear jar otherwise I'd be broker than Uncle Jesse after paying the mortgage to Boss Hogg , I think i went through every known curse word this weekend, at least the english ones lol. At least the Jeff Foxworthy dvd put us in a better mood last night. I seen a big doe last week when I was out for a walk. One of my wife's coworkers hit one a few weeks ago, funny thing is she had enough time to stop but her excuse was 'i thought it'd get out of the way' her husband wasn't too happy with her. If you do hunt and eat the deer meat be careful as there is a nasty parasite that is infecting the deer that can get passed to people and other animals. I forget what it is as I only heard about it on the local news back when it was deer season, they said to make sure to only eat well done venison and don't throw raw meat to your dogs.

One final note the next generation of Cup cars might go hybrid for 2021, on a recent Dale Jr podcast Mike Helton hinted at if the manufacturers go down the electrification road then the chassis should have room for it as well. They'll probably do something like F1 has. Not sure how I feel about this though, I enjoy the sounds of the V8's but it seems the days of v8 cars is coming near an end within the next decade or so if manufacturers say they want hybrids racing Nascar probably won't say no.

He was forced out at Roush a few years ago for Trevor Bayne and hasn't been in a nascar race car since the Truck race in Texas. The truck race was a one race deal but who knows he might race a few more if Kyle Busch asks him too run his truck or if another team tries to nab him. This Sunday will be the final one for Darrel Waltrip in the racing announcer booth, he will retire afterwards and he deserves too relax after the career he's had behind the wheel and the microphone.

Good to hear Roger. Watch a bunch of comedy's to keep you preoccupied, Laughter is the best medicine. Think my birthday curse is back, car decided to break down again this week. That sure put a damper on things. First 3 sunny days in a row we've had here in weeks and I was planning on doing some fishing at least one of them days but nope car had other plans and has been sitting at the shop all week. Just hope my curse doesn't knock the other car out. At least I was able to take some stress out on weeds in the garden lol.

Greg Biffle won in Texas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTSygnk1BNs Always been a fan of Biffle. Hope he does a few more truck races.

Hope you don't get bad news Roger. Finally got around to putting the pics from the camera onto the pc today so as promised here are some of the birds I photographed the past few months https://www.flickr.com/photos/50164621@N02/albums/72157709069709303 Click on the pics to see the larger sizes. There's a Baltimore Oriole, Red bellied Woodpecker, Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Red Breasted Nuthatch and two unknown birds. Wife brought some baby Praying Mantis's home today, found them on a bush at work while she was eating lunch at the picnic table outside between rain showers. After the rain I'm going to release them in the garden.

Greg Biffle will be racing this Friday night in the Truck race @ Texas in the #51 KBM truck https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2019/06/04/greg-biffle-in-final-prep-for-first-nascar-race-since-2016/

Hope you get better Roger. Also remember 99% of spiders are harmless and are beneficial to have around especially in a garden. Well Sentencing last week was a waste of a day off. The guy just got probation. We were expecting for him to serve at least a month in prison but I guess the judge was in a lenient mood. Being good neighbors also got us stabbed in the back, as the neighbor hired a lawyer for his "buddy"(and I use the term buddy loosely because if everyone had friends like this there'd be no need for enemies) for sentencing and the lawyer made it seem like we were the problem and that we were always causing trouble. Judge didn't buy that BS though when he went through the guy's arrest record that dated all the way back to the early 90's. At least we don't have to deal with the jackwagon for year and hopefully never again, but if he does come back we'll be ready next time if he tries the same crap. One thing I did learn from this whole experience is get everything on Video!!! whether you buy the Ring doorbell camera or another security camera or your own phone just get it on video and back it up on multiple hd's or flash drive's. Unlike people, especially in our case, you can always count on video to testify.

That's funny Hoss . I've always wanted a Gremlin but all the nice ones around here are too expensive and the ones that are cheap don't have enough metal to make them roadworthy. A guy in the neighborhood I grew up in had one with a v8, not sure if it was an amc v8 or another brand but it sounded like a beast when he'd drive by. He also had a Pacer with a stock inline 6. Finally got some pic of the Orioles yesterday at the park's bird feeders. Wife an I went garage saleing over the weekend at a nearby neighborhood sales. Scored a 2tb external backup drive for $15, couple of books, some clamps and a couple of tv season dvds and mint never opened till I did Richard and Kyle Petty metal embossed card sets. Was hoping to find a router and maybe a decent table saw but only found not very well cared for and worn out ones and the people selling them thought they were worth their weight in gold lol . The router had rust on it like it was sitting outside for a while, you'd think they would have at least cleaned the cobwebs out of them as well since they had them priced so high.

flower

Nascar and ISC to merge https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2019/05/22/nascar-announces-merger-agreement-with-international-speedway-corp/ Not really news worthy since the France's own or control both company's. Wonder if we'll see any fist fights after the Coca cola 600 this Sunday night. I hopeBubba Wallace can at least repeat his finish in the All Star Race in the Coke 600, that would be a boon for that struggling team.

Around the rumor mill these days.... the possibility of Richard Petty Motorsports shutting down at the end of the season, possibly sooner. That will be a sad day in Nascar if this rumor turns out to be true.