A Very Non-Traditional Memorial Day

When I was growing up my family would either go visit my grandmother (on my mom's side) to decorate the graves of my great-grandparents and my grandfather. Or we would go out to eastern Kansas and have a potluck dinner at my relatives house on my dad's side where we would talk to relatives catching up on family history, etc.

Today I actually watched ALL of the Indy 500! I am not a big race car fan at all! Yet, here I was glued to the set. I watched Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars dancer) sing the National Anthem and Jim Nabors (aka Gomer Pyle) sing about "Indiana home." (something my friend Lyman would know quite well since he is a native of Indiana). Then they had someone say "Gentlemen, start your engines."

I watched it as they took off and raced at speeds of over 220 mph!! 200 laps going around the track! The reason I was watching the Indy 500 was because I was watching the number 3 car. Last year the winner of "Dancing with the Stars," was a race car driver by the name of Helio Castroneves from Brazil. The charming 33 year old had won the Indy 500 in 2001 and 2002. He was driving car number 3 for Team Penske. It was "exciting" watching them pass and try not hitting the wall. Many of the cars did throughout the race. Shrapnel would fly through the air and often the other cars would be damaged by these crashes. Then the yellow flag (caution) would come up as they would drive into the pits.

The pit crew was quick too!! They rarely stayed in the pits unless a part needed to be fixed on a car like on Castroneves car. Even then it only took 10 seconds, between refueling and changing all 4 tires.

I heard famous names such as AJ Foyt (this time the 4th!) and Mario Andretti's grandson (Marco) was racing. Danica Patrick, got a bum deal when she was coming out of the pits and guy namedRyan Briscoe bumped his car into hers, thus forcing her out of the race! Afterwards, you could tell she was steamed!! She got out of her car and started walking towards the area where that guy was. Fortunately, Indy 500 security stopped her from her doing anything rash and got her back to her area.

Then my local station was having weather coverage and interrupted the race! I was upset! The weather was in the west and I wanted to see this race. It was crazy!!

Helio Castroneves was in 3rd place for a while until Andretti passed him. At the end it was Dixon in first and my DWTS guy, Helio placed 4th in the race.

I thought it was interesting that the winner drank milk after the win. After taking a large swig, he threw it around his crowd. If it were me, I would have threw it around first taking only a sip. I hate milk...blech!!

Amazingly I kind of liked the 500. I really don't think I would like NASCAR, unless someone as charming as Castroneves would be on DWTS. Any takers? :)
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At church today, we had quite a few people there. Daxton H was dedicated. His mom and dad are just great with him. I still had tears in my eyes when A.H. read the poem. I remembered the time when I didn't feel God would bless me because I had 2 miscarriages. I wondered if I ever would be blessed. I was. I still am! :)

Also we got to see L's friend (an ex-co worker) Justin W., and his family. They live pretty close to Manhattan so it was good to see them. Also A2 sat with S at church today. That was really nice. We got to see D, R, and A1 also. It was great to touch base with them. During church a song was chosen and NOBODY knew it! The chorister was leading and she didn't sing it either. Everyone just looked around and kind of laughed/smiled. We just enjoyed L playing the song. Hopefully that doesn't happen again!! Maybe the next time the chorister should choose a song that EVERYONE would know then you would hear some pretty good singing!!