STRESS!!!!

It's been so crazy around here. Chris just passed his one year anniversary of being service manager at a logging equipment dealership. He's worked so hard and turned the department COMPLETELY around since taking the position, and I've never been prouder of him in my life.

And it's been TOUGH these past six months....huge corporate changes stemming from the economy has left them all stressed and worried about their jobs, but at the same time working harder than ever to overhaul the entire company. About the time they got it squared away and felt a safety net, they were informed the company was being sold.

His new boss has taken over this week, and we are most excited because it's a well-known local business man who is their new boss, and we feel certain the company is going to soar. But the stress is still there, mainly from the financial crunch Chris and I, and a few other of the families in management, are feeling because of shifted pay schedules, delayed checks, extremely long months....so, if you see me on my hands and knees in the front yard begging the light man not to disconnect, you'll know why...but we've had harder times than this before, so I'm confident that the sun will start shining again soon and we'll be just fine.

I'm so tired of being anxious, though. It feels as though just about the time we think we are going to see the checkered, the flag man throws in another 10 laps. Which brings me to my next topic....dirt track racing.

I have taken on a new task, and it's kept me quite busy....being the track reporter for our local dirttrack. I've been doing it about a month now, and while a few people didn't like a few things I said, everything has been correct and gone quite smoothly. Busy, but error-free. Those of you who know me know how much I trip over errors in my writing, and this dirt-track reporting leaves SO many openings for mistakes....similar cars, numbers, different views, poor view of the other side of the track no matter WHERE I sit...who did what, or was it what was did to them by who?

I've done great so far, but yesterday, I made my first mistake....and didn't catch it until it had been sent out in a mass-mailing to subscribers and media outlets!!!! I was MORTIFIED! I said that Ronnie Adcock plowed into two other cars, and it WASN'T RONNIE ADCOCK!!!! I changed it where I could, but couldn't do anything about the subscribed emails that had been sent out. I called Ronnie and began apologizing PROFUSELY, but thankfully track people are so nice (generally). He laughed about it and told me several times he wasn't bothered at all about it and that it's okay. But it's not okay to me, and I feel horrible about it.

One mistake out of about 20 races is pretty darn good, especially since I'm crash-coursing in all of this as I go and learning ALOT of information in a short period of time, but I still regret my mistake SO MUCH, almost to the point that I don't even want to try it any further.

But I got alot of emails from great people who have been racing for YEARS, and writing about racing, and they say I'm doing a great job, and that's made me feel ALOT better.

I'm still going to be over at Ronnie Adcock's car Saturday offering to clean the mud off of it or SOMETHING to make up for my mistake.

So, to my dirt trackies...thanks for being patient and forgiving with me whilst I learn this new genre. Good luck racing!