auto known better: breaker one nine

907 Princess Anne Street, Downtown Fredericksburg

www.donatelifevirginia.org

Auto Known Better

breaker one nine!

By Rim Vining

February is NASCAR month. Daytona kicks off another year of left turn racing which by definition should make it the liberal bastion of American life. Alas it is anything but. They have four major "series" track races plus eight "minor series" races and just in time for COVID there are actually three "on-line series" races. I can only equate them to on-line universities who are trying to stay relevant and collect your money without actually providing anything you couldn't look up on your cell phone.

Now I hear there is a fifth series in the works: The Critical Race Theories! In this one everything is made up and not actually real. They'll have rumored tracks and imaginary cars and the drivers are mere innuendos that you are free to make do whatever your mind can dream up and obviously getting them to veer right is the goal.

Somehow In the bitcoin world of imaginary money and turning a buck it took NASCAR more than the millisecond it should have to reject the placement of a paid endorsement on a driver's car that was a vulgar slur towards the office of the President of the United States. It represented language and an attitude you certainly shouldn't want taught in your child's school! While the driver and his team originally denounced the slogan which NASCAR fans invented, once presented with the opportunity they were quick to take the check and that's a race theorem. Sad state of affairs.

So on a lighter note… how in the world can you get in your car after a foot of snow has fallen and the interstate has been closed for twelve hours wearing nothing but a light coat and street shoes with only a quarter tank of gas and nothing to eat? The storm last month was predicted well in advance and your cell phone should have been blasting weather warnings in a constant loop. Do you really trust your car that much? It is winter folks and stuff happens. Be prepared.

I understand "through drivers" just moving along as best they can with no place to stop. I left western Carolina once in mid-March with a forecast of rain and temps in the upper 40's only to watch the ice start to build on the car until the CB antenna finally popped off from the ice. Oops!

When I stopped at the Petersburg toll booth to fork over my dime the wipers went across as water and back across as a fully iced over windshield! The next few hours were classic cars in ditches. Amazingly, because of that antiquated bulky thing called a CB radio, the truckers already knew to get off and hunker down so traffic was light and while the bridges were pure ice if you went slow, stayed in the center lane and prayed each time you hit a bridge you could keep going.

Now for a once told story: Dr. John Painter, who practiced pediatrics in Fredericksburg from 1957 until his retirement in the early 90's, was headed north in heavy snow and pulled off for rest and coffee in Fredericksburg. Since it's 1956 I'm betting it was the 2400 Diner on Princess Anne Street. A few docs from the "new" Mary Washington Hospital nearby were taking a break as well. Asked where he was headed he said he was looking to start a pediatric practice in Alexandria…. their response? "We could use a pediatrician here!" and the rest as they say is history.

Stay Safe and stay off the roads in the snow! autoknownbetter@gmail.com

Rim Vining, humorist, friend and a devoted community volunteer