Hit by a lack of desire

The urge to blog has been in hiding lately. Perhaps it's because I've been busy with short stories and haven't wanted to leave them. Or maybe not. Even after watching the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday my muse lay dormant.
It was a record breaking 500 for the ABC network. Seldom have more commercials been shown in so short a time. I'd give ABC a grade of C-. The race itself wasn't the most exciting 500 I've ever seen either in person or on TV. It could be that the slower cars aren't all that slow these days. Parity means it's harder to pass the car ahead. A part-time driver named Townsend Bell didn't have much trouble in that respect until he got up to fourth place after starting far back in the field.
ABC gave us all we wanted to hear about Danica Patrick and then went on from there with even more about the media darling who loves to make suggestive commercials. Patrick is a driver but not a race driver in the accepted sense of the word. She doesn't pass people. Before the green flag was dropped she said she'd wait for the race to come to her. That meant just drive around until the cars ahead dropped out or fell back, which most of them did. Two of the best had trouble during pit stops. Another one had something break on his car so he hit the wall. Patrick just kept chugging along until only two cars were in front of her. The idea that she might pass one or both was beyond imagining. Along with cars ahead dropping out, she relies on pit strategy, not racing.
The officials may have to do something so the cars aren't so equal. Giving them a few more options might loosen things up a little. Perhaps seeing three of the hardest chargers bogged down well back in the pack may inspire them to do it.
There were plenty of wrecks on Sunday. So many that even though the cars were going more than 220 miles an hour on the straightaways, the overall time of the race was slow. Most of the wrecks involved bouncing off the wall. One driver suffered two broken vertebrae in his lower back. In olden days with that many wrecks it's likely someone would have been killed. Fortunately the possibility of that happening today is close to nil. Real race fans don't like wrecks. Some do even though a wreck may cost the car owner hundreds of thousands of dollars. For a few that's chump change, for others it just about breaks the bank.


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