Month of May, Age of Assumption

Well, I'm on edge a lot, especially with my mother. I actually had a really good talk with her on the phone today. She's visiting family in the midwest. I still hadn't gotten to reading the letter in the post below, but I mentioned it, only because it was somehow relevant to something else we were talking about. She asked me if I had recieved a belated "yearly birthday letter", and I had said that the only major piece of mail I had recieved from her was a letter I had not gotten through yet, but that appeared to be a nagging letter of some sort. She explained that she just wanted to write a yearly letter for me to have something to remember her by. And indeed, that is noble. I know when she passes on, I will experience grief. Whether the grief for losing her will outweigh the grief for just not having the best relationship with her, I don't know. But that'll all sort itself out.

As for the "body is a shrine" thing, all it really amounted to was a statement of personal belief. Nothing too pushy, and nothing about my weight issue. Just a statement of her beliefs. I kind of felt like a jerk after that, although she understood where I was coming from. I will say that I did have an overall very good chat with her today (although I was just a teensy weensy bit put off by her enthusiasm at all the babies being born in my extended family :p . I'm definitely not a child lover. But hey, family is family, and I'm not planning on having my own, so this is a good thing). I also had a very good conversation with my grandparents, who were uncharacteristicallly upbeat. Not in a grouch vs. cheerleader sort of way. Just, I suppose, more energized. Neat to see, especially since I never expect much energy from them, as they are always pouring all sorts of grease and coffee and stuff into their systems. They adhere to the '50's version of eating healthy. More like "eating 'merican" or "eating straight and narrow". Good people, though.

What's up with Indy? They just can't get the grid set for this thing. Rain rain rain. The second period of practice was scuttled today because of a nasty downpour, so Danica Patrick didn't get to go. They could have the whole thing next weekend, if I understand correctly. Or they could have qualifying sometime midweek. I'm not sure which is better for Rahal Letterman, so I don't much care. On a fairly unrelated note, I heard of some odd rule that requires teams to salvage the engine if the car wrecks. One engine per qualifying round? One engine per day? One for all of May? Does anybody follow the IRL, and can enlighten me?

Happy Mother's Day to mine, hers, and yours.