A Funny Gambit Story
In honor of all of my feline friends, I’m going to start writing short anecdotes from their time with me. Here’s the first one about Gambit on the day that I lay him to rest.
He was about six months old when he came to me, but I could already tell that he was going to be a big, athletic kitty. Well, on day two of him home with me, I came home from work and went into my bathroom, to find Gambit hanging from the top of the shower door, trying to pull himself up. I was both amazed and amused, as it was something I never had seen before.
Saying Goodbye to a Friend
In August, 1994 I took one of the first big chances I had ever taken in my life. I had been excepted into Graduate School at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Unlike most people, I had spent the previous couple of years in the work force after receiving my undergraduate degree, and hated. So thanks to some prodding from a good friend, I applied to grad school and was excepted at X, but I had never been there. Never saw the campus, or even been to Cincinnati. But I decided to go. After finishing my first semester, and starting work with the local minor league hockey team, I felt that something was missing. What was missing was a pet. I had always had pets and kind of wanted a dog. But between school, and work with the team, and the fact that I lived in an apartment, I decided against a dog and instead adopted two wonderful cats, since cats take care of each other.
About a year or so later a friend of mine came to me at work. He was out walking his dog when he discovered an alley cat that someone hit over the head with a brick. He wanted to keep him, but because of his dog, couldn’t. Being a sucker for animals, I told my friend that I would take him, but we would need to find a better home for him.
About two years later I left Cincinnati to come home to the Philadelphia area. Me, a UHaul with my Chevy Blazer towed behind, and three cats. I put the two girls in a large carrier and went back into the house for my boy, who promptly ran out of the apartment at 3 in the moring. Luckily, he didn’t go far, as I was wondering what I would do if I couldn’t find him as I was running down the steps. I scooped him up, placed him in his carrier and off we went.
I’m very grateful for having my feline friends. Several years ago I was suffering from severe depression. This is a disease that I don’t wish on my worst enemies. I constantly felt as if I was drowning, alone even among a group of people. I was suicidal. I couldn’t go on. I was literally driving to a place where I could end my agony until I thought about who would be there to take care of my “babies.” It was that thought that aloud me to get the help that I needed.
It is truly amazing to be the anamosity that some people feel for cats. If they do, they have never had the pleasure of knowing these amazing creatures. Whenever I came home, they were there to meet me at the door. When I was sick, they would sit by my bed. Their purring was always there when I needed a pick me up. The day I thought about making my last in this lifetime, I went home and hugged my cats like never before, and they just stopped and let me. Except for the youngest, he licked me.
Last year, I buried the two oldest, Rogue and Shadow. They were 17 and 15 1/2 years old and lived a wonderful life. But my boy and I went home and he continued to be there for me. Until tonight. Tonight, I had to put Gambit to sleep. His kidney’s were failing, and I couldn’t give him the care that he needed. I didn’t want him to suffer, so I made one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. Tomorrow I will lay him to rest with his sisters at the family farm.
Gambit, 1995-2009, Rest In Peace.
He was a very, very special cat. He tucked me in every night when I went to bed. Literally. I would turn out the lights and get under the covers. Then he would jump in bed with me, head butt me, and then sit by my legs for a while, while drifted to dream land.
He also had a kneading habit. Many cats do, where they start kneading a part of your body with their front paws. But Gambit, being special like he was, would stick his very, very wet nose on your arm or leg while he kneaded you.
I could go on with stories for a long, long time, of all three of my feline friends. They were my favorite photography subjects, and my favorite culinary critics. Oddly enough, unlike his sisters, Gambit was never big on human food, except of course, for tuna. And then only little bits from the can.
I really miss him, and his sisters. In fact, their loss from last year still weighs deeply on my heart. But I know that the three of them are together now in heaven, that better home I promised Gambit I would find him one day. I know I will see them there again one day, but thanks to them, not for a long time.
Goodnight Gambit, tonight I tuck you in.
NASCAR Thoughts
So, I totally spaced on writing on the Pocono and Dover races. So instead, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what has happened over the past couple of weeks.
First of all, the hot topic continues to be “Rowdy” Busch smashing the guitar in Victory Lane, Nashville. Now, I am a self described Busch fan, but I have to admit that when I saw what he was about to do, I thought to myself “He’s not gonna . . .” And I still can’t believe that he did!!! But while people have been focusing on the actual guitar smashing act, I want to comment on his motive, sharing the trophy with his team. When a driver wins a race, he or his owner or crew chief 
gets the trophy, not the members of his team. We are always hearing that NASCAR racing is a team sport, so truthfully, I applaud Kyle’s motive. I think it’s great that he is all about his team. From everything I’ve read, his team loves working for him and I think it shows the way his team reacts to him whenever he wins and they way they celebrate a win. So kudos to Kyle for the thought, I’m just not so sure about the execution.
As for Tony Stewart’s win, it was only a matter of time. A lot of hard core fans will be critical of a “fuel milage” win, but we always see a couple of those every year. And Larry McReynolds made an important observation during the race. Tony Stewart and crew chief Darrian Grubb could have played it safe, got gas and gone for the guaranteed points. But instead they rolled the dice because they really didn’t have anything to loose. Tony, leading the points, is pretty much guaranteed of making it into the chase. But going into the chase first in points with no wins means that Tony would be behind anyone with a race win. So by going for it, the now get 10 extra points when 
starting the Chase.
By the way, Ryan Newman will win soon. He’s been running too well. And to have the kind of finish he did at Pocono after having to pit several times to fix a spark plug problem shows how strong both teams at Stewart Haas are.
Finally, it was really cool watching the race from Pocono after having just driven that track. When the commentators kept repeating how hard the tunnel turn is, I kept saying to myself “Yes, it really is that hard.” I always had a lot of respect for race car drivers, but that has grown. As successful as my own experience was, it’s a lot different being in a somewhat controlled environment with only three cars on the track from 43 cars doing their own thing.
NASCAR Prediction Update
We have now reached the half way point of NASCAR’s “regular” season. The bad part is that that means that we have concluded the Fox broadcast portion of the season. They are by far the best of the broadcast teams and the most enjoyable. Of course, they’ve also been at it for 9 years, but the trio of Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and old DW, Darryl Waltrip were great right out of the box.
Since we are at the midway point, I thought I would look at my preseason predictions and see how I’m doing thus far. Here we go:
1) Jimmy Johnson will have another good regular season and great chase, however, will just fall short of his fourth straight championship. This is no way a slight to JJ. Winning one championship, let alone three is amazing, but the odds of winning a fourth straight are astronomical. That said, he will come in second too . . .
This one is hard to tell since the Chase is it’s own Animal, but JJ is having another great season. JJ is having another great season with wins at Martinsville and last weekend at Dover where he was the dominate car. He also has six top 5 and 8 top 10′s and currently stands third in the points. However, if you ask me, the driver to beat when it comes Chase time will not be JJ. More on that later.
2) A Roush-Fenway driver not named Carl. I predict that Greg Biffle will win the championship by winning the race at Homestead. Why the Biff? He has the same shop behind him that Carl does, but unlike Carl, Biff has won championships (One each in Truck and Nationwide series), he knows how to win in the Chase (back to back chase wins) and most importantly, he knows how to keep his car clean and get the most out of a bad day.
Not looking good here, although The Biff is in Chase contention. Despite winning the first two races, all of Roush-Fenway has been struggling this season for no reason I can fathom. I still expect Biffle and teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth to make the chase, but they have a lot of catching up to do if they expect to be serious title contenders.
3) The Dodge teams will continue to lag behind the other manufacturers. As a result, I really believe this will be Dodge’s last year in the sports, at least for a while (and it pains me to say this).
This has been true so far, with Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne being the only two Dodges running in the top 20. Time will only tell how accurate this is now that RPM has started running the new Dodge engine.
4) Tony Stewart will become the most successful Owner/Driver since Alan Kulwicki. He will qualify for the chase, and teammate Ryan Newman will be on the Chase bubble.
This is also true, as Tony leads the points heading into Pocono, the first Owner-Driver to do so since Kulwicki. He has a non-points win in the All-Star race, six top-5′s, nine top-10′s and an average finish of 9.6. Historically, he’s never done this well this early, so look for this trend to continue throughout the season into the Chase. I really think Tony needs to be considered the front runner for the title.
I was off on Newman though. He will easily make the Chase and will also contend for the title.
5) David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, Brian Vickers and Casey Mears will all win races this season, and one of them will make the chase.
Of this group, only Vickers has shown any promise this year. McMurray has had some good runs but rotten luck. Ragan has been very disappointing, although his UPS commercials have been great while Mears and all of Richard Childress Racing have been having a disasterous season. The one driver not on this list, but who should have been included is David Reutimann. “The Franchise” has a win in the Coke 600 (a win is win folks!) and currently sits just 31 points out of the Chase. He is a serious contender to make the chase.
6) A small, one car team will surprise a lot of people and run in the top 20 all year.
Nope, not even close here!
7) Robbie Gordon will win one of the road races this season.
We’ll find out when the cicuit head to Sonoma in a couple of weeks.
8) Here’s an easy one: both Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth will win at least one race this season.
Like I said, easy. Kenseth won the first two races of the season, the Daytona 500 and the following week in Fontana. Gordon won his Gatorade Duel and at Texas, one of the few tracks he never won on previously. A note on Gordon. I’ve always been a critic of his because, well, I didn’t like the way he spun out Rusty Wallace to win some races, but whether you like him or not, he’s one hell of a race car driver and a great champion. I really hope his back can heal and that he is not forced out from behind the wheel anytime soon. Like Kyle Busch, Gordon is great for the sport and you hate to see any great Champion forced to leave because of injury.
GBU: The Autism Speaks 400 from Dover
The Good: A tremendous race from start to finish. The final 10 laps were amazing, first watching Tony Stewart catch Greg Biffle, and the Jimmie Johnson catch them both to take the win. Tremendous racing. Also, Dover’s new pit road debuted to what can only be called a tremendous success. Dover is basically my home track, and it’s great to see all of the improvements they have made to the facility of the past few years. If you get a chance to see one race a year, go to Dover and site between turns 3 and 4. You can see everything!
The Bad: The continuing struggles of Richard Childress racing. Even though they had three cars in the top 20 (Clint Bowyer finished 11th, Jeff Burton 16th and Kevin Harvick 17th), this has been one of RCR’s best tracks over the past several seasons. If a rebound was going to start, you would have thought it would have started this past weekend. After having three drivers in the Chase the past several years, RCR will probably only have one. You have to wonder if this was the result of going to four teams?
The Ugly: An early caution coming in the middle of green flag pit stops putting a bunch of good cars down a lap or more. You have to wonder if Biffle used up some of his stuff early in the race getting his lap back, which may have lead to Johnson being able to catch him in the closing laps.
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