Sometimes I think I just need to learn to take the hints that fate throws out there, rather than press ahead and test it.

For the past several weeks I have been scrambling to get my car ready to race at St. Louis. One of the big items on the list was installing a 'new' suspension. Of course it was from a Rabbit, not a Golf, which required a lot of extra effort - modified strut housings, sent rear shock back to Ground Control for longer housings, fabricate spacers/sleeves as needed. Some of this taking place less than a week from when we were leaving.

Doing all of this at night got difficult when our 17 month old son came down with the stomach flu last Tuesday night. Yet somehow I got it all done. Took a half day off work on Thursday to finish/pack/load.

Then Thursday night my wife comes down with the stomach flu. We don't leave as planned on Friday morning, and focus on helping her survive the day, and take care of the little one (I did get some extra work done during nap time though :P ).

But Saturday. SATURDAY! The van is loaded, the car is on the trailer, the cooler is full, the baby is belted and we roll out of the driveway. Yippee

Halfway there I change the right rear trailer tire, since nails reduce the effectiveness of tires.

Get to the track just in time to see the IT race (I had secretly hoped I would arrive in time to start at the back of the pack). Spent some time walking the track that evening with Chuck, getting some pointers on what works where (BTW congrats to Mathis on a new GP lap record on Sunday!). Ate some Mexican food since it was 'ses de mayo'.

Went to bed at 10:30 with grand plans of being at the track at 7am to register and race on Sunday.....
Woke up at midnight feeling funny.
Spent the better part of the rest of the night in the bathroom yacking and other things
Was lucky to make it to the track at all.
Ended up with my wife driving us home. Of course she is not comfortable towing, so we leave the car behind (my father lives semi-local and took it home with him). We have to go down and get it this weekend.

So for all the effort, anticipation and planning we got very sick, very tired and spent not one but TWO weekends (since we now have to go get the car) not racing.

On the bright side I am confident that I just used up my entire allotment of bad luck for the season, and expect nothing but great success for the remainder of the year.