Stock car Saturday night

The Classics approach the starting line.

A hot summer night, just one day past the solstice still with more than 19 hours of daylight, what better is there to do than go to the neighborhood stock car races. I haven't been over there since my first time a couple of summers ago but every Saturday night when the stock cars wind up and Sunday

Uh oh, spinout

afternoon when a couple of loud top fuel dragsters blast down the quarter mile, irritating the neighbors, it is music to my ears and something of a siren's song. It had been too long.
As a young man my friends and I spent most of our summer Saturday nights at Holland International Speedway. Holland, New York, not the Netherlands. And, international because most weekends one guy brought a car down from his home in Canada. The first race I saw this night was for what are called moderns. I couldn't recognize any of the cars and as I sat in the stands I realized the "moderns" featured in those long-ago races I watched were 1965 Chevys.
I arrived late but still saw several races. In one the driver of a beautiful light blue model ran a beauty

Baby Grands approach the starting line. Note the light
blue car, the eventual winner driven by Tonya Klayum.

of a race among what are called Baby Grands, for a time during the race this driver  went wheel to wheel with a competitor for about five laps before eventually pulling ahead and then maneuvering to get a lapped car between them as the cars roared to the finish line. At that point the loudspeaker blared the name of the winner — Tonya something. No wonder most of the women in the stands cheered that particular driver.


















Lance Mackey operates his milkshake maker. Be sure to turn up the sound.
Having trouble with this video? try this link

Over the evening I let the roar of the engines, the colorful race cars, the trip through the pits and, yes, the snowcapped mountain, in the background transport me into an atmosphere that opened up in the 1960s and never really went away. Even the smoky haze from wildfires on the Kenai Peninsula 200 miles away couldn't spoil the experience. The only thing missing was the dirt. This track is paved. Nevertheless I am going to have to go over there more often.

Dirt Track Saturday night 
#alaskaracewaypark Web Site
Tonya Klayum

A comment on facebook from a friend who had been there too:
 Peter Leitzke Holland was a fun raceway to watch. One third of a mile dirt with 18 foot high banked turns. New comers would sit in the front seats closest to first turn , , , until the first lap of the first race bombarded them with clumps of wet clay. First lap of one race, a car bad wrecked on front straight at starting line blocking the track so the race couldn't resume. Before the wrecker could tow it away, his crew took their truck out there and they welded him back together and he restarted with the rest of the field. Top treat was hot fresh made French fries with vinegar and salt.

The last screwdriver

     All right, let's start this one with a rhetorical question. If you are setting up a new tool box, what's the first tool you buy? People will have different responses but I bet everyone's top five includes screwdrivers. I mean doing any kind of manual work how long can you go without a screwdriver?
     Given that, I am 77 years old. How many tools have I bought and how many tool kits have I built in my lifetime?
    It's easier to list what I have now. Just here at the house I have a sizable collection of mechanics'  tools and another large box stocked with carpenters' tools. Along with those I have a well-supplied tool bag I carry on the snowmachine and on the four-wheeler. There's also another bag filled with just tools and some supplies for electrical work and another for plumbing. Out at the East Pole I have another box of carpenter tools and another small one of mechanics' tools (small because any time I am there I always have that bag I carry on the machines), all that plus a kitchen junk drawer filled with the kinds of tools you use on a fairly regular basis inside the house.
     So yesterday I was changing the chain on a chainsaw. Now, when you buy a chainsaw it usually comes with a multi-tool — spark plug wrench with two sizes that also serves and a handle one one end and a flathead screwdriver on the other. Once I had the chain on the bar and the bar settled on the head, there's a screw you turn to adjust the tension of the chain on the bar. On this particular machine the screw is tucked tightly between the bar and the engine housing which makes using the multi-tool difficult because of that handle that makes up the spark plug wrenches. So I went looking for a screwdriver, a plain, regular-size flathead screwdriver, one of the first things you buy when you are setting up a tool box.
     You know what? I couldn't find one. Not in my mechanics' box, not in my carpenters' box, not in the bag I carry on the machines, and not lying around the house anywhere. I have huge ones; I have tiny ones for working on my glasses; I have a ton of Phillips screwdrivers; I have torx screwdrivers; I even have Roberts screwdrivers; but is there one normal flathead screwdriver in this house.? Nope.
     So, with little else to do I headed for Lowe's. determined to buy as many as a dozen of them and place them in strategic places around my life. You know the drill: You buy half a dozen of something and within two weeks you lose or break five of them and that sixth one lasts you a year or more. With great anticipation I located a wall display of screwdrivers and wound my way past the maze of shelves until I stood in front of it. At first I gave it a cursory look noting a number of empty spaces.
On second scan I looked more closely.
     Now here is something you need to know before we go any further. I am a tool snob. I buy the expensive reliable brands rather than the cheap ones. As testament to that I own several tools I bought as a teenager including a quarter-inch socket wrench set my girlfriend gave me on my 21st birthday. Maybe I should drop my prejudices when it comes to things like screwdrivers that disappear so easily.
     When my casual scan failed to locate what I was looking for, and I finally looked closely, I found exactly two, count them, two, regular flathead screwdrivers of a brand I favor. Two. Apparently I am not the only one whose screwdrivers disappear like half a pair of socks. Quite disappointed, I looked around suspiciously for any competitors for them and then grabbed the last two screwdrivers, threw them in this huge shopping basket I was carrying and headed for the checkout, quite disappointed not to have a dozen of them. Overall I had driven round trip 50 miles to buy two screwdrivers, one of which will probably disappear in the next couple of weeks.
    On the way I thought of a permanent fix. I usually make strict lists for food shopping. I never include milk because I go through it so quickly,  so any time I am in that store, I buy a gallon of milk along with whatever else is on my list. You'd think I would over-buy, but I have never had any milk spoil. So-o-o-o-o-o screwdrivers won't be on my lists for the hardware store. I will simply buy one every time I go there. Fait accompli!

Life in Alaska
Even more Alaska life

I have a plan

A billboard in Louisville tells it all

With all the confusion and nonsense going on in American politics, it's difficult to figure out what is going on and who might be winning and wondering how rational people are going to sort it all out. Then in a moment of lucidity, I thought of the old adage to plan for the worst and hope for the best, and I think I have a plan for working through the present stalemate. First, consider the effects of an impeachment.

As much as I would like to see the #fakepresident run out of office, if we rush into an impeachment now, we can expect it to win in the House but that's only the charge, like an indictment. The actual trial takes place in the Senate where Mitch McConnell could probably stop it cold. If that happens, Trump gets to ride into the election on a wave of victory and claim a national mandate to continue to destroy the country and be free of any further charges until he leaves office and he faces some criminal charges that evidently can't be brought against a sitting president.

    So, while these debates rage, subpoenas fly and tweets clutter the net, let's let the slate of Democrat candidates sort themselves out while we concentrate on the congressional races so that if he is re-elected in that scenario, his second term begins with Democrat majorities in both houses which could stalemate him.

   For now, we should continue with the investigations under way and keep his simple mind occupied while holding off with impeachment until, say, next May to July. Given the speed at which Congress acts that could carry the impeachment process right through Election Day and keep Trump preoccupied during the campaign, shouting "witch hunt" until his head explodes, and, we can hope, sabotage his own race.

    Even if he should somehow win, if we can gain control of the Senate along with the House, let the impeachment process continue, then, with a chance of sending him packing. The fallback from that is even if impeachment should fail, he still has to deal with a total Congressional majority lined up against him.

The end game of both, is Trump neutralized and even if the country has to slow down for four more years perhaps the #fakepresident can be prevented from doing any more harm and the repairs can begin before the 2024 election.

In the meantime start enforcing those subpoenas from the ongoing investigations in the House. Put a couple of those sanctimonious jerks behind bars and watch the rest of them crumble when they realize if they continue fronting for Trump they will face serious prison time. Nixon finally gave up when Republicans began deserting him, many fearing implication. Given the moral fortitude displayed by so many GOP legislators it shouldn't take long for the rats to begin deserting the sinking ship.

Below are the Senate races next year. We only need three turnovers (more if we want an impeachment conviction or a veto-proof majority), but McConnell is the key, turn him out and we stop a lot of the obstruction going on now and again bring on enough senators to find the #fakepresident guilty in an impeachment trial. I would also like to offer Alaska's do-nothing Trump-worshiping Senator Dan Sullivan as a sacrificial lamb. Besides being an in-line Trumpster, he is in cahoots with Alaska's new governor who has shown all the marks of being a Trump Jr. He has spent most of his term under the desk in his basement office anyway. The only times he shows up around here are when he can attach his name to a noncontroversial issue linked to Alaska. (Example. He is a strong supporter of the Alaska fishing industry except in the case of a proposed mine that would threaten the largest red salmon fishery in the world.)

 If none of these works I know of three Alaskans willing to surround the White House and maintain the siege until the #fakepresident leaves.

Republicans

Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)

Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia)

Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana)

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

John Cornyn (R-Texas)

Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)

Steve Daines (R-Montana)

Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming)

Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

Cory Gardner (R-Colorado)

Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)

Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) 

Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) May not run

Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)

David Perdue (R-GA)

Jim Risch (R-Idaho)

Pat Roberts (R-Kansas)

Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota)

Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska)

Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)

Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina)

Democrats

Cory Booker (D-New Jersey)

Chris Coons (D-Delaware)

Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)

Doug Jones (D-Alabama)

Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts)

Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)

Gary Peters (D-Michigan)

Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

Tina Smith (D-Minnesota

Tom Udall (D-New Mexico)

Mark Warner (D-Virginia)