Hailwood1965

When I raced, and that phrase may give readers the impression I am fast, and I do wish it were true, but other than for a few weeks in the summer of 1989 I was not ... however I did club race in the 1980s and when I did one of the things we were known for, my friends and I, was seriously over-packing. That sentence over, that we were serious over-packers when we loading the race vans started to become obvious to me when, for one event at Road America or somewhere, we actually brought two sets of acetylene torches with us. Not one set that was low on gas so throw in the other set too, no, just two FULL sets, both full of gas. Because we could. How often did we gas weld things at the track? Well, that I remember, never. In fact I never saw anyone really weld anything at the track after like 1992 until I watched Rich Oliver flame glue some TZ250 pipes at Brainerd in something like 1997. One thing that still hangs with me is the ability to over-pack, even today. Over-filli...

The above admittedly bad cam phone pic is Toby a few weeks ago standing in front of his bedroom door. There had been some sort of dispute between brothers and Toby had made a sign on his door barring all persons with the name Kipp from entering. Needless to say, incidents like this are not rare at my house. This one has a funny little back story. In this picture, if you look closely, the stick figure of Kipp is drawn with a sad face. In four year old Toby's world, this is amongst the worst things that one can say (or write) about another--that he or she is unhappy. People who are unhappy are not fun. They do not do fun things. Also, he runs around shouting "focus!" all the time now.

Toby had his first play date yesterday when a friend from pre-school, Reed, a dark-haired little boy from "Staint John's Lutheran School" came over for a while after school. Reed is also 4.5 years old, and a pretty enthusiastic kid. He laughed almost the entire time he was at the house. At one point I wondered if Reed was perhaps going to need oxygen. Reed has an older sister at home, but no brothers. After he left, Toby was so happy struck happy by Reed coming over that he had to draw three portraits of him. The first portrait is just Reed being Reed. Smiling, happy. The second one is Reed upon seeing the garage. Toby's garage, thanks to his dad's friends and two older brothers and their hand me down toys, balls and etc, is nirvana for a four year old. Reed was again stunned into a state of unstoppable giggling when he discovered that Toby has ... A scooter A pedal car A coaster bike without pedals (thanks Jenn) A coaster bike with pedals and training wheels (t...

Probably like 1992 or so? I guess there was an open spot on the pit wall next to a toolbox and I decided to watch the start.

One side of my desk. March, 2012. A Parking pass from 1998, wine, headphones, coffee, media kits, coffee cups.

Semi-unexpected mail can be a wonderful thing.

The first real roadracer I personally knew lived in a bus. I burned through small town WI the other month on the way to a basketball tournament and never even let off for Beldenville, Wisconsin. Very small town, less than 100 inhabitants. Seeing it drift away in the rear view mirror I remembered that a guy I knew once lived there in the '70s and 80s. I don't recall his name. Before we were roadrace enthusiasts my friends and I--and this was in the early 1980s--were drag racers. The lack of canyons in rural Minnesota sort of forced you to adopt a racing style that you could do on straight roads, so drag racing it was. We dragraced bikes for years, on the street of course, but also on dragstrips all over MN and WI. The closest legal place to race was Rock Falls Raceway just outside of Eau Claire, WI. We spent many night piled into cars and vans and trucks, sleeping outside the gates on Saturday night, waiting for the place to open on Sunday. Blankets, beer, girls ......

Toby went ice slating for the first time in his life the other night and did really well, had his legs under him from the first moment. I remember back to when John was in Pee Wee hockey and even after years he was unable to truly skate for more than a few feet. I grabbed an old pudding bowl helmet from the garage for Tob' to use as head protection. "I'm not cold!"

It's a whole different deal out there now. Every kid has his own selection of electronic devices to use at his leisure.

Toby walks downstairs one morning last week, still in PJs, hair tousled from being in bed. It's 7:00 AM and he is having a glass of juice and some donut. How did you sleep, I ask him. "Not too good. I did not sleep too good." Oh, really? What was the matter? "I could not sleep because I just kept thinking about the planet Jupiter and how big it is. It's the biggest planet there is. It's just so big." I looked it up on Google later and learned Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.

Two minute ride to the daycare provider in the morning provides a few moments of dad and Tob' solo time. Usually him singing, or being excited about seeing his friends. Last week, we get in the car, start driving. I am trying to defrost the windshield with half a gallon of windshield washer fluid, when he pops one. "Dad: question." Okay, Tob. Just a sec. Few more squirts while I mull perhaps pulling out the AMEx card and use it for a scraper on the windshield. "Dad! I have a question." Windshield semi-clear now. Radio goes down. Okay, what's up. "It's an important question. Serious question." (He is reciting my lines back to me, this is what I ask him before I usually ask him, with a serious face, if he'd like a kick in the pants). Shoot. "Dad ... snakes ... do you think they laugh?" Well, I don't know Tob. They might. They seem pretty serious though. "Well, if they do laugh, do you think when they laugh they make a nois...