Pausing to remember

October 30th will be a day etched in my memory forever.This day, ten years ago was the day of my amputation, which cements it as a day that changed my life forever. As I pause to reflect on where my life has gone since that fateful day in 1998, I can say that the only things that I lost with my right foot are the ability to drive a standard transmissioned car, and to bowl, and I am certain that I could re-train myself to bowl if I ever wanted to. I can also say with full conviction that God loves me. I have been given so many blessings over the last ten years that I can't count them all, but I do want to give recognition to a few of them. Now you should be able to guess what the greatest blessing in my life has been. I think that if you were to look in the dictionary for the words "True Love'" you would undoubtedly see my darling wife's picture next to the definition. She truly is what love , and support are all about. In the last ten years I've given her more reasons to give up on me than I can count, and I'm not even counting last months car wreck after running a red light. She is still, however standing steadfast next to me showing me more love than sometimes I feel I deserve. I have also been blessed with the love and support of a great family, and good friends whom I love with all my heart and give thanks for daily. I have been given the support of wonderful in-laws. Dad and Bobbye have never been more than just a phone call away and they have always had our backs. Their support of us over the last ten years has been truly Heaven-sent. I can't however speak about being Heaven -sent without mentioning our dear friends the Prince family. My sister from another mother Maura has dad such a profound impact on us over the last year by instilling in us a desire to improve ourselves that I will be always be grateful to her and love her like the sister I never had.
I guess to sum this all up some people feel sorry for people who have lost a limb. I hope no one does for me. Heavenly Father has really taken good care of me.

Quote of the week:

"Somedays you just can't get rid of a bomb." -Batman

My Heroes have always been racers

As you may know I am a very profound "Car Guy." Race cars have been part of my life as far back as I can remember. In fact, I'm pretty sure my teething ring was a steering wheel. Some of the most cherished memories of my childhood were going to the old quarter mile oval at the Utah State Fairgrounds on Saturday nights with my dad. The local racing talent quickly became heroes to me. men such as Joel Terry, "Wild"Bill Madsen, and Danny Caputo. This went on until my teenage years when after the closure of the Fairgrounds Speedway I started going to the old Bonneville drag strip also in Salt Lake. There, with my friends of those years I got my first taste of big time auto racing being able to see some of the men who are now the biggest names in the sport of Drag Racing compete. This went on till my darling wife and I moved to Ohio and I was introduced to Nascar. And the rest, shall we say, is history.

I can now however say that I have new racing heroes. They are only loud when they are laughing together. They don't compete in beautiful, brightly colored race cars. They don't beat very many physical opponents, but they are fiercely aggressive against their personal ones. They aren't even particularly very fast. (except for Mikayla.) But I have seen more beauty, excitement, and life changing inspiration at their events than at most car races I've attended and I thank God daily for my association with them. Of course my new heroes I'm speaking of if you haven't guessed already are the girls of Pink Princess Racing

Yesterday, "my team" participated in the fifth annual Run with the Nuns at Winton Woods. There, all four members broke their previous personal best marks, with Mikayla taking an impressive fourth place for her age group. YOU GO GIRL!

But the "hero" I really want to brag up is my darling Sylvia. During her race she came across a young girl whose young companions were overwhelmed by the difficulty of the task at hand and decided to give up, leaving this sweet little girl all by herself and doubting her own resolve to finish the race, Syl spoke to her and encouraged her to continue the race. The two of them walked along as Syl heard delightful stories of the things and activities commonly important to a child until they could see the finish line and Syl pointed that the award was in sight and encouraged her to go for it and finish the race. As it turned out, Sylvia, my best friend and darling eternal companion freely sacrificed what would have been the exciting accomplishment of a benchmark goal, to see a young girl whom she didn't know prior to this race, accomplish hers. Incidentaly Sylvia still beat her previous best time by almost four minutes.

General conference was still several hours away, but I had already learned a profound lesson about living Christ-like on this beautiful Autumn morning.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love motor sports as much as I ever have, but my being the "crew chief" of Pink Princess Racing has taught me their is something much bigger to life.

So in conclusion I just want to say to the members of P2R, particularly the team captains My darling wife Sylvia. and my sweet sister from another mother Maura. Thanks for letting me tag a long. I can't wait till Thanksgiving.

Love you guys.

A retraction

Any of you visiting my blogsite recently may have seen my sidebar item titled: "Welcome back KITT," endorsing the premier of the new Knight rider series on TV. I am taking back my endorsement of this show at this time. It saddens me that the day and age we live in took what was such a fun show in the 1980's and turned it into a poorly-acted, pornographic mess.
If any of you have any curiosity about this series, please don't waste your time with it. I couldn't be sorrier that I ever did.