I’ve been writing these blogs for months now and I have to admit there are times when my mind just goes blank (no comments on that please). This week might be one of those times. I’ve mentioned before that summertime is sort of slow for me, but after the heat wave we’ve had here in the east this past week, I’m almost glad we weren’t out racing somewhere.

This past weekend several tracks around our area closed due to excessive heat. I somehow don’t remember that happening before. Could be wrong but…

I know there used to be some tracks; in particular down in Florida and out in Arizona and such; which either wouldn’t run in the summer or would start late on Saturday to beat the heat. But as far as the northeast here, I can’t remember that happening.

However, I can completely understand it from a track operator’s point of view, especially in today’s market where track owners just are not making the money they used to. Obviously, it’s been a pretty rainy two years here in which there is not a track owner in the world who can beat that. So already some are playing catch-up in the profits department. Now if excessive heat is going to keep a number of racers away which would be cause for another non-profitable day, why not just close? And that’s what’s happened. Sure several big events took place, but they were scheduled and if it’s not raining, the show must go on. But a normal weekend bracket race or the like? Heat wins.

Maybe though, the downside to things being somewhat slow is the constant looking around on the internet for things related to racing. Seems like anymore, we all have our heads stuck staring at either a computer or smartphone screen. There is just an unbelievable amount of information; and of course “fake news;” floating around in that box on your desk or the small one in your hand. For the most part, that’s a very good thing. To have that kind of information literally at your fingertips is almost unfathomable. It was almost funny to hear when I followed the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing this past weekend that a computer glitch almost cancelled the operation when they were only minutes from landing. Can you imagine a world-wide computer glitch in today’s world? If you agree with me about how unfathomable the amount of info we have today is, think what would happen if we didn’t have computers. Who knows though, maybe that’d be a plus? Sometimes when our new-fangled gadgets don’t work the way we think they should we’d like to give them  a sharp whack with a hammer. I know that thought has run through my mind a couple of times.

However, I really like the age we live in today. I’m into the computers and other technology, but I still believe sometimes we’d all be better off in a period where we all walked around with six-shooters on our belts. Where one horsepower was better than thousands. Nah. I’ll take today’s world. - JOHN DiBARTOLOMEO