Remembering Dale

I’ve been wanting to post something about this since last weekend. It’s been 10 years since we lost the great Dale Earnhardt at Daytona, and I still get a little emotional when I think about it.

The most amazing thing I ever saw Dale do was in the 1991 Busch Clash. He won the first segment and had to start at the back for the second segment. By Turn 3 in the second lap he had passed the whole field to be in the lead again. It was really awesome.

“To come back leading the race after two laps was amazing to me,“ Earnhardt said. “I didn`t believe we could do it. I thought it would take King Kong to come from 14th to first in 10 laps, and I sure didn`t think we could do it in two.“

This video is from the 1993 Busch Clash where he did the same thing, although it took him a little longer to get back to the front.

What great days those were. Dale driving the Chevrolet Number 3 for GM. I remember them well, and I’ll always miss the legend.

I hate digital cameras!!!

You ever have one of those days? One where everything seems to be going wrong and nothing is going right? I had one of those today and on top of it all I think I have ANOTHER broken digital camera.

The first digital camera I had was a Kodak Easy Share. An old one, like 1.5MP. That thing was indestructable. It went everywhere, on the four wheeler, in the truck, everywhere. Then one day I decided to upgrade. Bought a newer Kodak, 2.5MP or so. Worked great until I tried to stick it under the seat on my ATV. The screen cracked. I used it for a while longer, but it was a pain.

So a couple years ago for Christmas I received a Canon Coolpix. Nice camera, shutter lag wasn’t bad, nice pictures. That was great until we went snow bashing earlier this year and I neglected to put it in it’s case. It fell from the seat to the floor of the truck and cracked another LCD screen. Tried to order a replacement off ebay and fix it, but after that it didn’t work at all.

Fortunately my Brother In Law bought my sister a new camera for Christmas and she didn’t need her old one. It’s a Kodak C763, and never was a very good camera. Pictures are good, but it is horribly slow and has the worst control panel on the back. There is this dial to select the mode, and it’s always in the wrong place. Anyway, she generously gave me this camera since I had broken mine and I’ve been using it. Last night I noticed that the flash wasn’t working. I charged the battery, checked the settings and looked for information on the Internet. It appears that I’m once again screwed. I couldn’t find any fixes for a bad flash, and I’m not going to take it apart to see if I can fix it. Of course, I’m in the middle of several projects and want to take pics for my offroad blog (http://www.bobsbadbinder.com) and now have no camera.

What’s needed is a ‘rugged’ camera like a Canon D10 or Olympus W90. These are a relatively new phenomenon, probably because it’s only been in the last few years that digital cameras have become so pathetic that they won’t stand up to the rigors of the real world. It’s a conspiracy, they all made flimsy cameras so they can come out with ‘rugged’ models and charge and extra $100.

Am I a “Fairweather Fan”?

Today I”m rooting for Colt McCoy and the Texas Longhorns? Why? One simple reason… they are playing the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I”m a CU Buffs Football fan at heart. I have been since my college days back in the early 90”s when one of my good friends played in the Marching Band there. These were the heady days of Bill McCartney, Eric Bienemy and Kordell Stewart. CU was a National Championship contender and consistently competitive. Their nemisis at the time were the Cornhuskers, so along with my love for the Buffaloes, my hatred for Big Red grew.

These days CU is a shadow of it”s former glory. After Rick Neuheisel, Gary Barnett and now Dan Hawkins the program has continually spiraled downward. Nebraska also has struggled since Coach Osborne left, but they have lately seen a resurgence and are now playing for the Big 12 Conference Championship against Texas. While cheering for CU is tough, cheering against Nebraska is once again fun.

I”ve related all this to ask one simple question. Does this make me a “Fairweather Fan”? Why is it that any time we split our loyalties between one or more team we are accused of being wishy-washy? Where is the rule that says we are only allowed to follow one team based on either our physical proximity to their home field, or based on some arbitrary decision we made as a child?

These accusations seem exceedingly onerous when there is no loyalty from the team to the fans. CU regents just renewed Hawkins contract even though he is easily the worst coach the school has had in 20 years. If we move the discussion to professional sports, modern teams change players and coaches on an annual basis. Not even ownership and location is as consistent as it once was, yet our character is questioned if we adjust our loyalty from time to time.

Give me your thoughts, am I a bad person for jumping on the Longhorn bandwagon, or is cheering for a winner OK once in a while?

Lightbulb test results (CFL vs Incandescent)

For those of you paying attention, back in January of 07 I started a test to compare the longevity of Compact Flourescents with Incandescent light bulbs.

So far the results have been heavily in favor of the CFLs. In the test I have replaced two diffe.

Now there still may not be a cost advantage to the CFLs due to the large difference in price between the two, but the convenience factor is huge, and the power savings may have made up for the price by now ( I haven’t really noticed a big difference in my electric billrent bulbs at the same time, one with a CFL and one with an Incandescent. I just replaced the Incandescent for the third time in almost 3 years. I have not replaced the CFL).

The test will continue, at least until I run out of spare Incandescent bulbs in my closet.

Random things about Loveland

Interesting article in the local paper about my hometown, Loveland Colorado.