It’s Thursday so by my self-imposed deadlines, that means I owe a blog to all our loyal blog followers. I’m on a five-hour and 10- minute flight from Detroit to San Francisco as I write this. Northwest has their major hub in Detroit so we always use that airline. It’s proven to be really convenient and efficient. I can get from my front door, through ticketing, through security and to the gate in 45 minutes. I’m thankful for that.

I spent the majority of this week at the Kalitta Motorsports shop. Sometimes I don’t even have to be there everyday because I can use my computer from anywhere, but I like to be there. I’m thankful to have a job I like going to day to day. Plus I can spend time on my practice Tree, which is set up upstairs in the storage area of the shop. After our preseason testing crash last winter, the only part of our dragster that was still in tact was the cockpit. I knew when I saw it back in our pits that it would be perfect to set up in our shop as a place to practice my reaction times. We all know how much I need to do that. Attac Race Cars, who builds our dragsters, took the salvaged cockpit and made some post crash adjustments. Jim O ordered LED bulbs for the Christmas Tree and our assistant crew chief, Troy, set it all up. I put on my driving shoes and practice over and over. Sometimes I suit up and practice. Sitting in that cockpit feels almost exactly the same as the car I drive on the track, except for the lack of noise and vibration but that’s a minor difference. I’m thankful they set that up for me, and I’m thankful that I can practice.

Practicing on the Tree exercises parts of my brain that are obviously very important for my career. I always go to the gym to get physical exercise. Recently I started exercising the creative part of my brain. On Saturdays and Wednesday nights I take a class at Mosaic Sphere in Ann Arbor. Along with about five other students, I’m making my own mosaic, and I’m and learning as I go. I’m not very good at drawing or painting so this is kind of a different way to be creative. I’m not sure I’m any good at this yet but I always look forward to going to class. I’m thankful for that. I’ll keep posting photos of my progress.

So I’m still on the airplane. I’m sitting in the aisle seat of a two-seat row. I was supposed to have the window, and the guy sitting next to me was assigned to the aisle seat. When I boarded I politely asked him if I could have the aisle because I didn’t want to bother him when I get up since I like to get up and walk around about every hour. He rolled his eyes and grumbled but gave me the aisle. He should have just said no because he clearly wasn’t happy about it. I was just trying to do him a favor by giving him the window seat. To pay me back he keeps getting up. As soon as I fall asleep, he will tap me on the shoulder and make me get up. He’s done that three times now. I guess it was a sign that I should be writing my blog and not sleeping. As soon as I got my computer out to start writing, he had to get up. Now he’s looking over my shoulder reading this. I wonder how he likes being written about. I just took a picture of him since he’s now in my blog. He didn’t like that. I’m not thankful for grumpy travelers.

I’m also not thankful for the short life of the battery on my computer. I have to shut it off and end this now. I’ve been trying to write fast. Once I arrive in San Fran, I have a five-hour drive north before I get home. I will stop somewhere for a good cup of coffee and send the blog. Gotta go. Bye. Oh, and I’m thankful for a lot more than what I wrote here so I’ll continue that topic in the next blog.