It's hard to make time to edit photos. At the MotoGP weekend in Austin, I took over 200. I finally managed to edit 26 of them to publish on my website. I grabbed the code from the website and stripped out the references to tables (since Pleonast doesn't allow tables; it used to, a long, long time ago!), and hopefully it will look okay here. This is a quick-and-dirty post.

The Circuit of the Americas race track opened in the Fall of 2012 in Austin, Texas, hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Then, in April 2013, it hosted the second MotoGP of the season. Living only a few hours away, I knew I had to go. I even bought a "new" (7 or 8 year old) Nikon D50 DSLR for the event. The funny thing about my cameras is that, the last time I bought a nice camera, it was a Nikon 2002 SLR, and it was to take photos at the Texaco Houston Grand Prix (CART race) back in the late 1990s.

Over the three day weekend (practice on Friday, practice and qualifying on Saturday, and the races on Sunday) I took a couple of hundred photos. These are images from the main event on Sunday. Perhaps some day I'll get images from the Moto 2 and Moto 3 practices, and the MotoGP practices.

This race turned out to be historic. Marc Marquez, on the number 93 Repsol Honda, became the youngest rider ever to start from the pole position, and more importantly, the youngest rider ever to win a MotoGP race. The previous holder of both records was Freddy Spencer, in 1982.

Click on the images here to see larger version. (Various sizes, as some are cropped more than others.)

The first three riders pass by us on lap 1, about to enter turn 7.
They are (right to left) Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, and Marc Marquez.
All are from Spain, and they finished this race with Marquez first,
Pedrosa second, and Lorenzo third.

The long string of riders going around turn 9.

Pedrosa and Marquez

Going around turn 8

On this long (3/4 mile) back straight, the riders reached speeds of
around 215 mph. This is Claudio Corti and Hiroshi Aoyama

2012 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on the #99 factory Yamaha bike.

Jorge Lorenzo, Stefan Bradl, and Cal Crutchlow

Valentino Rossi, Alvaro Bautista, and Andrea Dovizioso

Valentino Rossi, Alvaro Bautista, and Andrea Dovizioso

Nicky Hayden ("The Kentucky Kid") and Andrea Ianonne, on
the long straight on factory and satellite Ducati motorcycles

Stefan Bradl in turn 6

And then, Stefan Bradl leaning the other way entering turn 7.

Valentino Rossi

Andrea Dovizioso

Hector Barbera

Hiroshi Aoyama

Not the best picture, but I included it because in the
next couple of seconds, Marquez is going to pass Pedrosa. This is an
example of what happens when you're using a camera: You miss important
things! Had I taken a sequence with these two riders instead of waiting
for the next riders to come into view, I would have gotten a photo of
the most important pass of the race. Fortunately, Jesse, standing next
to me saw the whole thing.

Cal Crutchlow. These shots I took of the riders going around turn 9,
knees (and sometimes elbows) on the ground, turned out pretty well,
even through the fence.

Stefan Bradl

 

"The Doctor", 6-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi

Andrea Dovizioso

Dovizioso and Bautista

Nicky Hayden

Marc Marquez

Marc Marquez

Jorge Lorenzo

I've only seen it a couple of times: The word "thought" spelled "thot". While I don't disagree with the idea of eliminating antiquated letters that are no longer pronounced in words, it should be done correctly. The "gh" may not be pronounced, but "ough" does not sound like "o". If we were to spell "thought" phonetically, it wouldn't be "thot", it would be "thawt" or, perhaps, "thaut".

Unless you're a canary, in which case it would be "tawt".

You may have "seen" me traveling around Pleonast today, posting a comment here and there.

The news today is actually for tomorrow, Tuesday, when Rusty (Yorkshire Terrier) and Weezel (Boston Terrier) are moving back to the Houston area. I'm picking them up from their flight that is scheduled to arrive at 2:22. I already feel sorry for them having to fly in cargo.

Then, at 7:25, Jesse and Amber's flight is scheduled to arrive, and they'll be back in the States for good, too.

Guess it's too late to plan a trip to Paris and have them drive down to be our tour-guides. But that's my fault.

It'll sure be good to have our family all close together again.

---

The dogs arrived safely. I went to pick them up in the HHR. Jesse had told me to take the Traverse. Weezel's crate fit in the hatch, but I couldn't get both crates in there, so Rusty's crate rode in the front seat. Both of the dogs were in the back seat. (I didn't want them to have to stay in the crates for the ride home.) Other than not being able to see out of the rearview mirror, and having to lean forward to see the passenger-side mirror, it worked out. This would not have worked if I had still had the Saturn!

Each of them threw up a bit at the house after drinking some water. I'm sure they were stressed out. But they enjoyed their Beggin' Strips!

When we were getting ready to head back to the airport to get Jesse and Amber, they were both anxious (even whining) to get back in the car. Weezel doesn't like car rides, but he was ready to go! I think they're somewhat afraid of being left without Jesse and Amber, so they must have been hoping that getting in the car meant they'd be reunited.

We picked Jesse and Amber up and took them all to Amber's parents' house in Spring. Jesse and Amber were tired, of course, from having been up almost 24 hours, but neither of them threw up as far as I know.

I suppose life will feel more "normal" now. I'm really glad they got to have a few years in Europe — most people never get to do anything like that. And Jacque and I took a trip to Europe that we otherwise may never have taken. That almost-three years went by pretty quickly from my perspective, but my concept of time isn't very good. I think it was longer for Jacque, and it may have been longer for Jesse and Amber, too. Some adventure in life is a great thing. I think we need to go to Spain.

This Don Quixote Motorcycle Tour would be amazing! But Jacque probably would not agree, and it's €4800 for a rider and passenger (not including airfare to and from Spain!). Maybe a lesser adventure is a better idea :-)

And delicious leftovers, too!

Because 1) I'm tired of looking at the post below and 2) I have nothing to say, you get a rerun. This post is from my website, dated 1996. That's before the term "blog" existed. Reading this... wow, I can't believe I used to lug that notebook computer to work and back home every day! I used to carry a briefcase, too. No reason for either!

Coffee

Today, as every morning, I carried a cup of coffee in the car so that I could drink it on the way to work. There are usually several accidents on Houston freeways each morning, and studies have shown that 4 out of 5 of these accidents could have been avoided if the driver would have taken a moment to get a cup of coffee before leaving the house.

At least, if they had ever included the coffee theory when making a study of accidents, that's what studies would have shown.

I had an accident the other day on the way to work. It was the typical Houston freeway accident, occurring at less than 5 mph, causing minimal damage to the vehicles, and extending the backup another 10 miles toward Baytown. I was the 5th of the 5 accidents in the studies, though. This accident could only have been avoided if I had had a second cup of coffee that morning.

When I got to work today, as every morning, I set my briefcase and notebook PC down and picked up my coffee mug so that I could get my second cup of coffee for the day. And today, for the second day in a row, there was a fresh pot of coffee in the orange pot. Those of you who drink coffee understand that "orange" is the color of Sanka. Sanka = decaf.

My first inclination was to determine whether this was actually decaf, or if someone made real coffee it in the fake-coffee pot. Peering into the trashcan, I see only the package for the real coffee, so I conclude that it is safe to drink.

Now you may think my use of the word "safe" is an attempt at humor. Please refer to the first paragraph. Four of five office accidents could have been avoided if employees would have taken the time to get a cup of coffee before they began working. Among the potential accidents are nodding off and banging your head on the desk, and the worst possible office accident, getting fired for the poor quality work you produced, the result of not being alert. (Mr. Albert Long, my band director at Port Neches-Groves high school, always warned his band to be alert, because the world needs more lerts.)

The question that comes to mind is: "why was there real coffee in the decaf pot?" It may be that the person making it was a new coffee drinker, and didn't know the difference. Perhaps they were colorblind, because, not having had enough coffee yet, orange and brown seemed very similar.

More likely, they probably figured that everyone would automatically know that it was the real stuff. After all, who would make decaf in the morning?

You have probably wondered aloud (all coffee drinkers have) why dry coffee smells so good, yet brewing coffee smells merely "good," and the final product really doesn't taste so great. One reason it doesn't taste that good is that you didn't pay mega-bucks for it. Gourmet coffee tastes almost as good as it smells. You aren't getting your employer to buy any of that, though.

There is one time that any coffee seems to taste really wonderful, though. After you've had a large meal, you can have a cup of decaf, and it'll leave you feeling satisfied. I almost wonder if it helps your digestion or something, because it tastes so good, your body must be telling you that you did the right thing.

So remember, brown pot in the morning, and orange pot after supper.

And watch out for the green pot: I think that one's environmentally friendly.