This olelongrooffan Is Seriously Bummed Out

This olelongrooffan has lived in the Birthplace of Speed for dang near three years and have enjoyed exploring my new home and discovering the historic areas located around these here parts.

For years, I have driven by a construction mesh privacy fenced in lot over on Beach Street next to those two newly completed, yet still vacant, condo towers facing the Intracoastal Waterway. Little did this olelongrooffan realize the abandoned structure behind that fence was Smokey Yunick's Best Damn Garage in town!

That was until a couple weekends ago when it mysteriously caught on fire.

This olelongrooffan can only wonder the variety of vehicles that went through this garage door during the life of this building.

Smokey died in 2001 and in 2004 this parcel was sold to a consortium of developers with the plan to build condo towers on it as they did on the parcel to the north.

For whatever reason, there were stacks NASCAR slicks stacked up out front and out back with threaded bolts securing them in place. It appears there was plywood on top of these tires to keep out the weather. Sadly, they are nearly all ruined now.

Ironically enough, I found this fire extinguisher laying out behind his shop near that overhead door.

And this olelongrooffan can only guess at what design secrets were hidden in that file cabinet back in the day.

But actually, it's okay. Smokey always stated he never wanted a shrine in his honor and now, with his garage pretty much destroyed, those hard up real estate developers won't be tempted into turning their investment in to a museum.

And that really let's this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.

I Blame thejeepjunkie For This

This olelongrooffan has previously shared with those of you Counting Along With Me about my acquiring a few Tonka Corvettes the day my Comanche decided it had driven enough.

Well, since those Vettes, on ebay, brought in more than four times what this olelongrooffan paid for them, thejeepjunkie thought I might be on a roll and gave me a set of air suspension bags for a Ford E-350 van to ebay for some cash for shop supplies.

He acquired these when one of his customers, who races car in the feeder series for ALMS, wanted to upgrade the hauling capacity of his box E350.  Alas, these were not big enough for him and he had thejeepjunkie order yet another larger set.  thejeepjunkie was the kind recepient of these and they are being listed this evening, although the images of it were taken a couple days ago.

Why the delay in listing these, probably $150 bags I can hear you Counters out there asking?

Sometimes this olelongrooffan thinks I could live on this road.  I captured this image on my Road Trip for Mom someplace between the Birthplace of Speed and the Queen City of the Ozarks a couple years ago.  I captured this image as a couple days previous this olelongrooffan had cut the sh*t out of my forehead on an overhead door on my, then, storage unit.

Well Counters, Monday evening as this olelongrooffan was carrying that box of bags back into the Taj Mahal, the screen door at the front door caught some wind and

caught me right on the forehead, just above my left eyebrow.  It hurt like h*ll on Monday and Tuesday morning I woke up to this face in the mirror!  The swollen knot where the door hit me is almost gone but it is still tender.  I wonder how long this olelongrooffan is going to look like I received the business end of Mohammad Ali's right hook?

And why does this olelongrooffan blame thejeepjunkie?  Well, if he had shown up for Happy Hour on Monday, he could have held that door open while I carried his box of bags back into the Taj Mahal.

But ya know what?  Having a fruitful day in the flea market and on ebay, having a box of bags to ebay, and still having those Japanese tin cars to ebay sure helps this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

End Road Work

So, this olelongrooffan has been working on this blogpost for about three months.  I just couldn't get into it enough to gather it all together.  Last week when I was having lunch with my Golden State based blogger buddy down in FantasyLand, he asked me if this olelongrooffan ever got "Writer's Block"?  I mentioned that I did and even had it now based on many reasons, most of which are not worthy of publication here on By The Numbers.

Know that this olelongrooffan is doing all I can to work through those issues in the only manner I know how...repress them....wait...address them head on and I have been doing so just getting through them one at a time.  In my own way this blogpost is providing me the ability to address another issue, this time it's writer's block. 

And please let me point out that I have edited this post 3 or 4 times and have upgraded to the new template my blog provider offers and I have yet to conquer the new HTML style so the formatting of this post is pretty much up for grabs.

So anyway Counters, here is another rambling, drawn out, kind of all over the place blogpost so go ahead and refresh those cold beverages, this olelongrooffan ain't going nowhere anytime soon.

If you Counters, especially you NASCAR fan Counters, remember, during the running of the Daytona 500 last February, gosh another year has flown by, a pothole developed and then developed again in between NASCAR turns 1 and 2.  This olelongrooffan had blogged about it a couple different times, both here on By The Numbers and over in the Hooniverse.

The powers that be over at International Speedway Corporation decided that rather than merely repair the area of the "patch" they would repave the entire surface of the track, runoff areas and pit road.  To the tune of nearly twenty million bucks!

Well, starting the day after the Brumos 250 Coke Zero 400 last year, Lane Construction, the firm who has also repaved several other ISC tracks over the past few years, began dismantling the track accessories to commence that road construction project.  This olelongrooffan blogged about my first visit to the repaving extravaganza here, back in July, 2010.

I followed up with another visit the day I sold Bert's car and got what I think is one of the most intimate images of the repaving that I captured during the entire process.  And here it is.

That is the repaving of NASCAR turn four.  That Cat is holding up the paving machine up against the wall.  I shot this from the Oldfield grandstand out at the Daytona International Speedway.  Incidentally, all of the grandstand sections are named for race car drivers including Oldfield, Earnhardt, Johnson (that would be Jr.) etc.

Now, I must admit there are a ton of images around these tubes of this repaving and Jesse over at JustaCarGuy has a whole post dedicated to the equipment used in the above image.  (In that first image, Oldfield is in the background.) But with all due respect for JustaCarGuy, this olelongrooffan was there LIVE in person and that is something I will never forget!  It was pretty cool to see this road building equipment in action here on NASCAR turn 4, especially when you see what is coming up once this olelongrooffan finally shuts the h*ll up and gets on with this post.

So, anyway, a few weeks later this olelongrooffan was out and about and decided to head out and check out the latest on the only road construction I like to be around.  Bonus!  They were reinstalling the catch fencing on NASCAR turn 4 and I was able to get this image of those dudes in d*mn near the exact location as the Cat above.  I captured this one at "ground level".  That road you Counters see was the one being constructed during my first visit out to the repaving festivities.
Meanwhile, they were still tearing up the pavement in the runoff area of the tri-oval.  Those tall signs just over the top of that pavement removal equipment are at the beginning and end of pit road.

There were only a few other Hoons out there interested in observing the repaving process, usually 4 or 5 fans there each time I visited.  I spoke to (of course) a few of them on different occasions and they were always from out of town.  A couple dudes I spoke to were on their way from Savannah to Miami for a business meeting the next day and decided to take a break from their I-95 based drive to head east for a few minutes to catch this process.  Like this olelongrooffan, they will have a memory that will last forever.  And they are truly fellow Hoons.I must point out that Lane Construction, economically, did not remove all of the catch fencing surrounding the Speedway.  They just removed it in the areas of NASCAR turns 1-2 and NASCAR turns 3-4 where the use of that Big Cat was necessary.  (sorry, in high school i had a buddy with the nickname Big Kat and just had to slip that in there.  RIP Frank.)

And just to get the scale of just what was involved in replacing the catch fencing around NASCAR turn 4, I got this image from up in Oldfield.

Note that at no time was any of that equipment allowed on the newly resurfaced track surface.  H*ll, even when this olelongrooffan attended the Turkey Rod Run swap meet out at the track, we had to walk across sheets of plywood laid upon the new track surface.

So this olelongrooffan is confident that you Counters are saying to yourselves, "Okay Longroof, what the h*ll is this post all about.?"

Well Counters, just a short three weeks ago, NASCAR held its first testing of the new pavement out at the Daytona International Speedway and this olelongrooffan was there, LIVE and in person.
Along with a whole bunch of other fans.  (here is where I can't seem to figure out the formatting so hang in there.)  Anyway, I am once again in the Oldfield grandstands along with many other folks and enjoying this Goodyear tire test session.
So, as you can see, substantially more people were interested in the test session than in the repaving process.  And it was pretty cool in and of itself.

As you can see in the first image of these crowds and in the above image, we were able to stand pritnear the catch fencing to observe this test session.  During a race, there is a Volusia County Sheriff's Deputy monitoring the catch fence area and informing we fans that we cannot stand right where we were standing that day.  H*ll, the Speedway even had free coffee and soft drinks for we Hoons who chose to attend the events of that day.

I captured the following image from high up in the grandstands, an area this olelongrooffan seldom visits. I observed something interesting during this practice session. 

Most of the cars in this session were outfitted in primer grey colors but in addition to their numbers, not surprisingly, ALL of them were sporting their primary sponsors decals.  NASCAR is a business after all.

And just for fun, I got a couple videos with my elcheapo 28 dollar ebay digital camera which is definitely not a video camera. The first one is from high up in the grandstands and the cars don't seem to be traveling all that fast.

I then moved down to the area at the catch fence to get another.  To paraphrase Robin Williams, this olelongrooffan loves the smell of expended race fuel and burnt tire rubber first thing in the morning.

Yeah, those cars, I found out later, were doing around 190+ miles per hours as they zipped past!

When this olelongrooffan arrived, all 18 of the Goodyear test session attendees were on the track at the same time and were running in a pack.  It was awesome, coming around NASCAR turns 3-4, they were 3 and 4 wide at speed.  Something I had not previously seen either in person or on the boob tube.  I also observed that, and I don't know whether this was on purpose or not, but it seemed to me that individual racecars could accelerate to pass the leader, even when the leader was running in a two or three car draft formation.

It should be an exciting Speedweeks down here in the home of the World's Most Famous Beach!

Anyway, after about twenty laps or so, Goodyear called the cars in to check tire wear and for about the next hour, as long as I stayed, there were at most one or two cars running individually on the track.  I soon grew bored of this display and decided to move on to racier images, so to speak.

However on the way out, I noticed they were putting a shiny coat of paint on the rear of the home of the Daytona 500 Experience (oh sh*t, there is a whole nuther blog I forgot about).

After I cut through the gift shop and the home of the Richard Petty Driving Experience,

this olelongrooffan spotted this license plate on the rear of:  Can you Counters out there guess what it was?

If you guessed the 2010 Camaro pace car then you win the prize.  Not sure what that prize is but you win it.

Why a Pace Car would need a license plate is beyond the grasp of this olelongrooffan but this one had one.

I'm just curious. Who pays the insurance?

Anyway, even though this post has been a writer's block h*ll and a formatting nightmare, know this olelongrooffan's going to pull on through and I hope you Counters will too.  And remember to join me in 2011 as this olelongrooffan continues to

Celebrate Life.

Another Milestone

Well, Counters, this olelongrooffan has been reaching a bunch of milestones over the past few months.
It all started with By The Numbers celebrating its birthday back in May of this year.

If you have been Counting Along With Me, you will remember that this olelongrooffan let his longroof go on down the road to that Hoon on the Space Coast.

Subsequent to that sale, this olelongrooffan, after several vetoes of my vehicle choices, was able to acquire my latest daily driver, the Indian. An interesting note about my latest and greatest four wheel drive. As was mentioned in that blog, this is the second six cylinder MJ this olelongrooffan has owned. In the comment section of that blogpost, thehorsefarmer revealed that he too owned a six cylinder MJ back in the day. Well from all of the search results I can find, there were only around 30 of the six cylinder versions of the MJ produced for the initial 1986 model year. Between thehorsefarmer and this olelongrooffan, we have owned 10% of the production total for that version of the iconic MJ! I know that is a trivial fact but hey that's why By The Numbers works for me.

Just a short time later, my 89 year old neighbor, yeah he had a birthday on October 4th, bestowed upon this olelongrooffan "Bert's Car" which I was able to flip overnite for a cool six Benjamins. The milestone here? It was the shortest time I have ever owned a car and the shortest distance this olelongrooffan has ever driven a car I owned!

Ironically, the same day this olelongrooffan sold "Bert's Car" to sweet Mary, I met up with Mr. Williams who hooked me up with a new job in a new industry, gave me the sorely needed break this olelongrooffan was looking for and for that I will be ever grateful to him.

I also have moved into the modern ages and have gotten a touch screen cell phone.

Now lest you Counters think this olelongrooffan is squibbling precious fiscal resources, know there is a story behind my acquisition of this piece of modern technology.

And of course I am going to share it with you.

Last year, 2009, I knew I was not going to be able to afford a trip to Fantasy Land to spend Christmas with my daughter, Jessica, in addition to buying any type of gift for her. I had been down just before Thanksgiving and we talked about this and she was okay with it. "Heck, Dad, it is just a few weeks away and I totally understand the situation we are in." I love that girl.

Anyway, on my drive back to the Birthplace of Speed, I did some mental calculations on how much I could spend on her gifts, while still meeting my monthly expenditures, and it amounted to about fifty bucks. Sh*t! Fifty Bucks for a fifteen year old girl? What a pittance.

Well, lo and behold, as always seems to happen to this glass half full olelongrooffan, on that very same drive across the hinterlands of the great state of Florida, my cell phone vibrates with notice of an incoming call. It was from a client to whom I had submitted a proposal for Manuel Labor and this olelongrooffan to work some wonders on their kitchen. I was awarded the contract but the catch was it had to be done between Christmas and New Years as they were going to be out of town that week. I hemmed and hawed, did some mental calculations while following an orange toting semi truck, and ultimately agreed but at a cost premium to my clients. They were so elated they agreed and Jessica's gift budget was greatly increased.

When I was down there visiting with my beautiful Jessica, I got to meet several of her 15 year old girlfriends, all of whom are really sweet. This olelongrooffan did notice that all of them had touch screen phones, except for Jessica whose daily driver cell phone was a basic, camera equipped, provided by Dad, flip phone.

So this olelongrooffan knew what Jessica's gift for Christmas, 2009 would be. The touch screen phone you see in the above image.

Now I am sure you Counters are wondering how this olelongrooffan came to be in possession of it?

Well, Jessica lost it once in April and again in August. The first time I forked over the insurance deductable and Fed Exed her that phone. The second time, her Mom had changed her email address and when she emailed me about the loss, that email went straight to spam and it was promptly deleted by this olelongrooffan. As I did not respond, her Mom switched up her family plan and got Jessica her own touch screen via the process. As, by this time, this olelongrooffan had over three hundred bucks invested in this piece of modern technology, I simply filed another, legitimate insurance claim for Jessica's lost phone and had Metro PCS activate it with my phone number and filed my old daily driver flip phone in the cabinet with six, or so, other cell phones. But as this was an insurance claim, no operations manual or accessories were included. Luckily this olelongrooffan has alot of patience to figure it out and a charger for one of those obsolete phones fits my new one.

As an aside, thejeepjunkie showed up at Happy Hour today with a new company provided Blackberry, replacing his daily driver flip Nextel.

Finally, this olelongrooffan fan was able to survive another year and reached a milestone 51 years of age one week ago today. It was a quiet celebration but know there was one.

So, anyway, what is the latest milestone in the life of this olelongrooffan?

Well, Counters, some time between around 9 Eastern Daylight Time last evening and around 4 this afternoon, October 6, 2010, the number of visitors to By The Numbers passed the total of

100,000.

That's right. 100,111 to be exact.

As By The Numbers was first published on May 19, 2008, that means that on the average day, By The Numbers gets 115 hits. I would suspect that many of them are from my rather large family but I am still stoked. Last time I checked, I was getting around 30 hits a day.

Thanks Counters.

And where would these potential Counters be from? The last few on this list this olelongrooffan got for free from somewhere says they are from:

Springfield, Missouri...I know that is family...
San Fernando
Waterford, Michigan
Oberschefflen, Baden, Wurtenberg
Monterrey, Nevada
Albany, California
Wasilla, Alaska...I sh*t you not. I guess she really wants me.
Amsterdam
Lexington, Kentucky
Knoxville, Tennessee
Toronto, Canada
Willington, New Jersey

Man, what a variety of locations.

But know this Counters, having all of these milestones occur, plus the fact it is one of my two Friday nights per week at my new job, sure lets this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.

My New Title

My buddy, Justin, whom I have referred to several times around this blog, contacted me via facebook, yeah and this olelongrooffan is now texting also, rebranded my current career's title.

"Longroof, you are not a dishwasher, you are a "Ceramic Sanitation Technician."

I guess I do deserve that desk.

But yeah, that dude who, a long time ago when both of us were kids, listening to "Swap Shop, You're On The Air" on those Saturday morning really helps this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

Another Random Image From The Library

So, a couple of blogposts ago, this olelongrooffan mentioned that I have gotten a new job and, almost immediately, gotten promoted to supervisor.

Well, I figured that promotion to dishroom supervisor enabled this olelongrooffan to get me a new desk. This is the one I decided on. What do You Counters think?

Yeah, right. But I did find this image in my library and I think it is the Coolest. Desk. Ever.

And it is having that opinion that lets this olelongrooffan.

Celebrate Life.

Yeah, This olelongrooffan Loves Waking Up Before Dawn

and I'm not talking about her.

No Counters, one of the advantages of my awesome new job is that this olelongrooffan has to drag his sorry *ss out of that California King in the master suite of the Taj Mahal around 4:45 every working morning.

Well, on my days off, one of which is tomorrow, I usually wake up around the same time. Last Sunday I did the same and got this image of the sun rising, over the Atlantic Ocean, from the veranda of the Taj Mahal.
And sharing this with you Counters on the 51st anniversary of the birth of this olelongrooffan, along with a Skye Martini, really lets me

Celebrate Life.

Just To Let You Know

The proper application of the tools in the following image really
SUCKS.

But it is okay, they are now packed up in their respective plastic cases awaiting the return trip to the Kid's garage.

And knowing their use is complete, for now, and the fact it's
this olelongrooffan can really

Celebrate Life.

North, South Carolina

Things have been rather quiet around the Birthplace of Speed the last week or so. Hope to get something together to share with ya'll over the weekend.

I did, however, receive an email from my buddy TomK and here it is for your enjoyment.

In an almost Abbott and Costello way, I thought this video of You Bet Your Life was hilarious.

Hope you enjoy it as much as this olelongrooffan did.



And don't worry Counters, even though I basically don't have a life, this olelongrooffan still remembers how to

Celebrate Life.

Just So You Know

thanks blondie