Crash and Bang

Today was the first day of our "crash and bang" class.  We spent it at a racetrack learning advanced car control skills, and you would not believe what a Crown Vic can do.  We practiced braking until the tires and brake pads literally smoked.  We threw the cars around slaloms.  We drove backwards at ridiculous speeds.  We slid 'em, spun 'em, wound 'em up and slammed 'em down.  

In other words, it's not your high school Driver's Ed.

The purpose of all this is to give us some advanced car control skills in case something bad happens to us Out There. It's rare, but people have used this training in real life, so it's a good thing.  I'm all for it.  As a certified gear head, stuff like this is better than an E ticket at Disneyland.  Tomorrow we'll take the specific tricks we learned today and use 'em in different "terrorist attack" scenarios.  Should be a blast.

Last night, I revised my studio web site.  I took out the paintings that made fun of George Bush.  It's not cool to post images that make your boss look bad, particularly when the site is likely to be viewed by the foreign nationals we're working with.  So favorites like the Pachydermian Portrait of King George II are now in web site limbo, at least for the next year.  The remaining satirical paintings are now collected in the "Twisted Tales" section.  And no, I don't think "Twisted Tales" is the most clever name for the series, but it was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment, so if you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears.  

While I was at it, I took out the "Forest Nymph" section as well.  I couldn't figure out how to explain to the Iraqis that I, a married man, was posting a collection of photographs that included nude women.  This series will probably magically reappear on my web site as soon as this tour is over.

And now to bed.  Driving like a maniac is hard work, and this old boy needs his beauty sleep.