"You had a bad day."

[Mr. Pockets]

That's what a friend of mine (also our safety steward and my main rival in ES) said to me shortly before I left the autocross yesterday.

I had been trying to catch him all weekend. Yesterday was ridiculous. Rain cut the first heat short and delayed the start of the second heat by two hours. We had to sweep water off the course by hand. We didn't get the course put back the same way. Cones were blowing over in the wind. The course was changing every run because not all the cones were marked. Cars broke down. The concrete broke apart in the middle of the second heat, forcing another course change that caught everyboy off guard.

On my last run I spun. I spun big. We've been having these crazy high-speed finishes lately that I've been arguing against. They're too fast. I think we need to slow cars down more before the finish.

I hit the timing light at about 60mph. When I say I hit it, I mean I was already spinning and I murdered the thing. That and the reel of cable for it.

Not only that, but I didn't really get a chance to be pissed about the thing - while I was spinning something flew into my left eye. I couldn't get it out, even with a gallon or so of water, so I had to pack up, drive home with the race tires on and go to the ER to get it out. I have a small scratch on my cornea.

I had a bad day.

[yesmar]

i feel your pain, this weekend i had my gokart running the best it ever has and in only my 3rd race, im still a rookie, i was only 2 tenths behind in the qualifing. tehn in the 2nd heat i got 3rd, beating all the iother rookies and a few veterans. all was good and we changed a jet to go even faster, and waht happens while im out there, i have a wobbaly front tire that leads to a spin in the last few laps and the part that brake was like a 5 cent piece!

[Royal Tiger]

That sucks. What other cars are in your class? Where'd you end up? Any damage killing the timer?

[n00b on demand]

Wow nick im really sorry to hear that

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by PA_SVX

That sucks. What other cars are in your class? Where'd you end up? Any damage killing the timer?

The aforementioned safety steward was the only other driver in my class. If somebody hits the timing equipment, we throw out all their times. I would have been second (out of two, woo hoo), but it doesn't matter.

I was driving better, but as I said, the day was a mess all around. The course kept changing. I know there are some things I learned, but the day did not end well.

The only damage is to the equipment. Because my MR2 lived in the city, the front is all dinged and scratched up anyway. Sure, I hit that timing light at freeway speeds, but I can't even tell where.

The tires are okay. I gouged one (probably by running over the cable reel) and have a small flat spot on another, but it's not worth throwing any of them out over. I noticed a very slight vibration on the freeway, but as I use the tires it'll probably go away.

[thundering02]

I have a set of red hot topic goggles that I wear for my offroading adventures...theyre kinda like aviator goggles with the side vents and all
Oh and I have a permanent "floatie" that I see every once in a while from something getting in my eye

[Hocrest]

Sorry to hear about all the crap... But, a Bad day racing is still Better than a Good day Working

At least...
-You were able to get runs in <I've been to a few, where I paid and never got to run >
-The car was still running at the end of the day <I've been to a few where we had to push the car on the trailer>
-That finish will be one to be remembered by all who were there

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by Hocrest

-That finish will be one to be remembered by all who were there

I'm sure it will be. But how it's remembered remains to be seen. The event chairman warns everybody, during the drivers' meeting, that we'll pay for broken timing equipment. I imagine they'll give me some **** for that for many drivers' meetings to come.

I am tempted to go back to the site tonight, jump the fence, and survey the spot where it happened. I never got to take a look - I was too busy with the crap in my eye. A couple people swore that they heard a 'bang' and thought some of concrete surface broke up or something, causing me to lose control.

[Earthworm]

That's rough, I hope your eye is ok.

Your post reminded me of this story:

Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not So bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job.

As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the
office. It's a wetsuit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints.

What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose
and stuff it down the back of my wetsuit. This floods my whole suit with
warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch.
So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse.Within a few
seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit.

Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick
to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I
scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the
jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my
dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive.

I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt.

Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job".


Of course this is a joke. but it sure is funny!

[black beast]

Hey pual sry that, that had to happen to you sense you are as really cool guy. And if you do jump the fence, although this is obvious, DON'T GET CAUGHT!!!