The Indianapolis 500

Yesterday I went to my first Indy 500 race. I think I can sum up the overall experience with one word, awesome!

My boss and I were granted suite passes by AT&T, which was really nice. We were pampered quite well! A bus ride with police escort to the track, great seats, free food and drink (prime rib!) a private restroom (for suite guests only) and of course, air conditioning if we wanted to come inside. The funny part about the suite is that someone had a Cubs game on, and several people were actually watching baseball DURING the race!

What's up with that?! I like baseball, but come on people!

Attendance they say was over 300,000 which is the biggest in a few years. Several celebrities were there, including 3 men who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation's highest honor.

The weather had everyone a little nervous as Indy had gotten rain something like 14 of the 21 days prior to the race. However, we had about 72 degrees and not a single drop of rain fell on us. Thank you God for that blessing!

The most exciting part was when the Wii Fit car smacked the wall at turn 4 and spun out of control; rocketing into the pits at around 200 MPH! It smashed into the inner pit wall, spun through the sign that tells the drivers how fast they are going (they should be going 40 MPH through the pits however this sign said the car was STILL going 96 even after hitting 2 walls and doing all that spinning ) and then slid through and past several stalls before coming to a stop, below and about one pit stall past, us.

When leaving we rode our bus with police escort, I said we were pampered, back to downtown Indy, which took all of 15 minutes. No red lights, no traffic (for us) and no stopping. Cool! The news said the lines going into the track were about 2 1/2 miles long at 6 am, and I hear they're even longer getting out. Thanks again to our hosts Brian Clark and AT&T.

An unbelievable experience, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and one I hope to be blessed enough to do again some day!

The Best Day of My Life

Ok, you are probably wondering about that title - what made May 22, 2008 the best day of my life? Well, truth be told this is not the best day, I am talking about a flash back day.

Let's look at May 21, 1994. Yeah, that's the day. The best day of my life. The day I married my best friend, Keri.

Keri and I dated for four years, we met on May 20, 1990. Her parents were starting to think that we'd never tie the knot, but good things come to those who wait. Keri was definitely worth the wait.

Each May now, for the last 17 years, I have looked back at the day we met with fondness, wondering where all the time has gone since it doesn't seem anywhere near that long.

Yesterday on our 14th wedding anniversary, we spent some time looking back on our life together and I reflected on the best day of my life. Funny how you don't really notice something like that until much later.

Thank you Keri Beri for saying 'yes' way back when, thank you for putting up with all my antics over the years, and thank you for giving me the best day of my life to look back upon.

I love you Keri, you are the best.

Ty Pennington in Peru - Part II

Okay. I finally got around to reading yesterday's newspaper and I can see why some folk are a bit upset about the Extreme Home Makeover video request that myself and about a hundred other people participated in on Monday.

The Wednesday article, which in the Tuesday edition was promised to be the complete story about the video, turned out to be something less than complete. The article went something like this:

"Circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus."

"Circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, Grants."

Yeah, that is a bit disturbing. But I stand by what I said before - at least we were DOING SOMETHING, not just sitting around whining and complaining like so many others were.

Then today's paper hit the stands.

The headline on the front page says that the circus video includes the Grant family. The article (finally) delivers the whole story, or most of it anyway. Thank you! Now all of the do-nothing whiners and complainers can see that they opened their traps a bit too soon.

Again today I've been listening to people talk. No one is talking about the video today. No one is apologizing for jumping to the wrong conclusions either. Their thought process must be "If we just sweep our words under the rug and pretend we didn't say them, I bet no one will even notice that we said anything in the first place."

Ha! Yeah right!

I wonder what our do-nothings are going to find to gripe about today, since even they can see that the video organizers and participants are in a bash-free zone?

After all the controversy and nonsense, I just hope that something positive ends up as a result of all this.

Dukes Hospital Ice Cream Social

Dukes Hospital sponsored an ice cream social this evening from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. They had many games for the kids and adults to play and some great prizes as well.

And of course, ice cream. It was great!

Thank you to the hospital and all of the staff who made this possible. My family and I enjoyed our time there.

Ty Pennington in Peru

Monday night I received a phone call from one of the volunteers with the local circus. The message she left asked me to drop everything and meet at the circus building at 5:15 pm and to bring along more people. The idea was to try to convince Ty Pennington and the Extreme Home Makeover show to come to Peru.

I looked at the clock, it was almost 5:30 already. But my wife, daughter, and I dropped what we had planned an made a beeline for the circus building. On the way my wife got on the phone and rounded up three more people as well.

So we all stand around for about an hour, making a video requesting Ty and the show come to Peru to help us out.

In today's newspaper (which I have yet to read) there is a write-up about that. Let the complaining begin!

Who can say what is in another person's heart? I certainly cannot sit here and tell you what motivates any particular person. My thought process Monday was simply this: if we can get Ty Pennington to Peru, maybe the Grant family, who lost their home and business in a fire Saturday, will get some much needed help. If the circus, whose building is adjacent to the Grant's building, gets some help too, even better.

But today, people are questioning the motives of those who participated in the video request. We're all selfish, thinking of the circus and giving no thought to those who lost everything in the fire.

Hello?! You bunch of do-nothing whiners and complainers! Where were you Monday night from 5:30 to 6:30? Were you sitting at home whining that something needed to be done?

Better than a hundred of us went out and did SOMETHING. Now you sit around and complain that we did. Who do you think you are? Why don't you DO SOMETHING instead of complain about those of us who do?!

Will Ty Pennington come to Peru because of what we did? It's possible, but not likely. But we took the time to make an effort. We joined together and reached out. Where were you again?

If you are someone who is or has helped with this situation already, then this message is not for you. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, or even where Peru is, this message is not for you.

This message has been for all of the do-nothing whiners and complainers in our community. You know who you are! Get up and DO SOMETHING constructive, instead of belittling the works of others.

A new beginning

This represents my first blog entry. To start out I am going to tackle a big problem that has just hit my town; the small town known as the Circus City, Peru, Indiana. Let me set the stage for you...

Good times. We all love them, we look forward to them, cherish them. They’re part of what makes life so much of a joy to live.

Then we have the hard times. They’re rough, hard to handle, sometimes they feel overwhelming. But the hard times are what pull people together, build character, and prove what we’re made of.

Today we are facing just such a hard time. For some, it’s a tragedy.

With Grant Home Furnishings burning down Saturday, we’ve lost a good local business, ran by good people. Those people have now lost their livelihood, their home, and they’ve seen their dreams dashed to the ground.

For anyone who knows the Grants or any of their employees, don’t just tell them how badly you feel for them. At this time they need help and support more than they need sympathy. Ask what you can do to help them. Offer to give them a hand with something, pay a bill for them; just DO something.

This tragedy doesn’t stop there; it doesn’t just affect a few families. The fire caused damage, a lot of damage, to the closest neighboring building as well, the Circus Building. With the Circus Building now having ‘condemned’ signs on it as a result, we’re all affected.

It’s not just a building or a summer event. It’s not just something the kids like to do, or that people like to sit and watch. The circus is the heart and soul of our town, our community. It is this kind of hard time that will require all of us to pull together.

The community needs to unite to restore or rebuild the circus building. The community needs to unite to restore the great tradition that we all love so much, and that has been the heritage of our town for generations.

Let this evening's events serve as a template for things to come. As a few people desperately made phone calls, trying to gather as many circus kids, parents, and volunteers together in as little time as possible. The purpose? To ask Ty Pennington from Extreme Home Makeover to please come to Peru and fix our home.

Yes we want the circus building repaired, but more pressing is taking care of the Grant family, who have lost everything. Ty, if you read this, please do come and help us!

For the rest of you here in Peru, please recognize that NOW is the time for this community to prove what it is made of. NOW is the time for all of us to show our character. NOW is the time for us to pull together as one. NOW is the time for action.

When information becomes available about what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and how long it will take; we all need to volunteer our time, money, and talents towards this great cause. By pulling together, we can keep the good times coming, so that families can continue to cherish the circus for generations to come.