MOVING AHEAD... changes (Part 96f)


Throughout the turmoil of the past few days I’d never wavered in my plan to race Saturday night. BUT... I hadn’t mentioned it to Elle. I kept waiting for a good time to let her know and to make my ”break“ and head to the track. It was mid afternoon when Jeannette’s husband, Danny, called me over to the fence. The previous weekend, when he and his brother in law had helped me move my boat out of the garage, I’d casually mentioned that I had a race car. He, almost as casually, mentioned that he’d like to go at some time during the Summer. When he called me over it was to ask if I was racing that night. When I said yes he called out to his brother in law that he was going to the races with me that night. There was no way Elle wasn’t going to hear that. I guess you could say I was ”busted“.

After some rather ”warm“ dialog with Elle and a disapproving look from my mother Danny and I took off. As it was I didn’t know who, if anyone, was going to show up that night to help me. My brother had been showing up but had just started (finally) a job that week and I hadn’t heard from him. So, worst case, Danny would be my pit crew.

All the way to pick up the car to tow it to the track I had to keep rationalizing why I shouldn’t be criticized for racing. Elle and the kids were being cared for and racing was the only thing (at least up to then) that I had as an interest. It was hard to get the thought out of my mind.

Jay was waiting at the track which was a big boost for me. Knowledgeable about racing, he filled the role that Eric had held the previous year. My concerns pretty much vanished at that point. Again, I won’t bore you with details but it turned out to be quite a night for me. I’ll admit that luck played a big part but finishing third in the feature event was way beyond my expectations. On the way home I figured that my good results would negate some of Elle’s anger. WRONG!

As an aside, Rick had won his feature race and with me pitting close by I ended up in their celebration. Sunday morning told the story though as my head was really hurting when I woke up. When I made my way downstairs I could see Dolly had the kids out on the beach along with Jeanette and her two boys. I was surprised to see Dolly in a dress though. Jeanette was in her tight short shorts and a bandeaux on top. I watched them interact from the front porch and the first thing that got my attention was a strip of pink just above the waistband on her shorts. It was a DP (downpants) but I was way too far away to have any idea the type of waist elastic it was. I’d gotten pretty good at identifying the brands of any number of panties. It was now a game for me and I just wished I had a reason to walk out there but I knew I had to face Elle who was in the kitchen with my mother.

I walked in trying to be bright and cheerful but Elle didn’t really acknowledge me. My mother was only a bit more hospitable. I think the first words Elle spoke were in the form of a biting question asking if I was still planning on sailing in the tune up races at the club. It caught me by surprise for two reasons... the first being that with all the things going on during the week I’d forgotten to contact Norma about picking her up. The second was that the tone of her voice was telling me that I’d better think twice about it. They say discretion is the better part of valor and this was definitely the time for discretion.

I don’t remember the exact sequence that the conversation took but I ended up suggesting that instead of racing that I could go get the boat and give rides. Elle thought that would be a good idea especially since she’d wanted to get Jean, our oldest, out on the water. The only thing was that I had to let Norma know we wouldn’t be racing.

I felt doubly bad about Norma... the fact that I’d forgotten to call her and then to have to tell her she wouldn’t be sailing/racing. She’d been excited about sailing in a small boat again. Her father in law only had big boats (25 to 30 footers) and she said her only job on board when she did sail was ”to stay out of the way“. I decided to walk down to her house to tell her in person. I felt a phone call was too impersonal and I also wanted to assure her that I’d need her for the following weekend. I could tell Elle wasn’t happy with that but I ignored it.

I’m not a good one to pass on bad news. I ended up telling Norma pretty much the whole story including about Elle’s incontinence. When I got to that part I could see a definite change in Norma’s demeanor but I had no idea why and she didn’t say anything to explain. She seemed to understand and, as I was leaving, I told her of my plan to go get the boat and to bring it back to my parents beach and to give rides to Dolly and the neighbors. Half heartedly I suggested that she might want to walk down when she saw the boat there. If she responded I didn’t pick up on it.

While everybody was eating lunch I drove over to the sailing club. I knew there would be plenty of people to help me get the boat down the beach and launched at that time. I was shocked to find that only three of the regular sailors were racing. I’d mentioned that there was a faction of club members that was lobbying to add a new kind of boat. As I walked down the beach I saw three of that class boat (Windmill) on the beach and waiting to be launched. A sailing club up to the West had agreed to bring a few boats out so people could try them and two of our "regulars" had volunteered to do it along with the owner of one of the boats. I’d also mentioned that I didn’t like the design of the boat at all and now really wished that I’d been able to sail with the club that day so I could observe if my concerns were real. But it wasn’t to be.

To be continued...