Hello Dave,
I just read your article in the latest Racer X ILL. I commend you on your recent life choice of leaving your team and spending more time with your family. When I was without children and flying combat missions in the Gulf, the 6 months on an aircraft carrier was tough but doable. (I did miss racing motocross a lot, even raced professional one year, but I digress)...Now I am a dad with two girls, 5 and 3 years old, that are my life. I still serve in the Naval Reserves and am an airline pilot with ...you guessed it...United Airlines. I work hard at my jobs and do my best on each and every flight to perform at a level expected of me, even through the last 8 years of Uniteds' bankruptcy, 40% pay cut and termination of my pension.
All this and on the road away from my girls about 16 days a month. You and I are on the same page with our commitments to our families. I just wish you didn't feel like you had to dis on United about not being on time. We were the #1 on time major airline last year. I'm not sure what you really expect. Good luck in your new career and I sincerely hope you continue to fly United. We have a lot of great hard working people there.
Dan Filer
Lieutenant Commander USN(R)
Dear Dan,
First of all, thank you for your service to this country. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for the folks serving in our armed forces. If my memory serves me correctly I vented a little bit about my discontent for your current employer in a recent magazine article. This shouldn’t offend you because, honestly, you had nothing to do with any of the bad experiences I’ve had with United. It’s just that I’ve spent so much time in DIA due to delayed or cancelled flights this summer that they named a terminal after me. And the rocket scientist that transfers baggage mistook Washington (Dulles) on my bag tag for Bangladesh and sent my underwear and toothbrush on a little trip around the world.
I realize that you have no control over these things, but when they continue to happen it gets frustrating. And I know that it happens with every airline, but I flew on United a lot this summer and it wasn't a pleasant experience. On a bright note, there is a sweet little old lady that works at Hagen Daz in the new Pingree terminal that will give you an extra scoop of Cherry Garcia if you wink at her and call her sweetheart. Please stop by the next time you get delayed and give her a hug for me.
Thanks, Dan.
PING
Ping,
Were you and Curtis Painter from the Colts separated at birth? Just Wondering.
Thanks,
From Chicago
Dear Chicago,
I emailed the photo to my mom to see if I could get her to crack. You know, I asked her the usual questions like, "Hey, mom, how are you? How’s the weather at home? Did you ever have a drunken tryst with a six-foot meathead somewhere in the Indianapolis area about 35 years ago that you didn’t tell me about?" She said no and then told me that I looked terrific in that "Cute little blue uniform." You gotta love moms. always with the compliments.
PING
Hey Ping,
I know you probably get a bunch of stupid emails and questions, but I am in serious need of your help. For the past two years I have been in Argentina serving a mission for my church, but have recently returned home only to find myself completely lost in all of the political, social, and motocross affairs in our country. I thought being home for a month or two would be enough time to get myself up to speed on things, but I feel even more oblivious as to why the world is the way it is with every passing day. Who is this Barack Obama guy and where did he come from? Why is there still a war in Iraq? Why is my local riding area (Carnegie Hills) about to be shut down? What is "twitter" and why do I need to have an account there? Why are these horrendous v-neck t-shirts in style?
The world is changing and I'm kind of scared. The one thing that hasn't changed that has brought sweet peace to my soul is Taco Bell's menu. (Life would not be worth living if I were no longer able to buy a Grilled Stuffed Burrito with a Baja Blast Mountain Dew). I don't expect you to clarify all of my confusion and questions (especially with the political stuff), but I figured I could trust in the one and only Ping to bring me up to speed on these oh so important issues, and maybe on some other problems that I didn't even know existed.
Your help is much appreciated.
Trent Egbert
Dear Trent,
Welcome back. I’ll do my best to answer your many questions and get you up to speed on the pop and moto happenings here at home.
First, let me be the first to apologize for our current president. The country got all warm and fuzzy feeling over a couple of campaign slogans and before we could stop hugging we had elected a man who may or may not be an American and who certainly has no business running this or any other country. Hang in there for a couple more years and maybe we can pull our collective heads from our asses.
The Iraq war is about liberating the, um... no, it's because we are still looking for, uh...I'll have to get back to you on that one.
Twitter is another way to keep people up to date with all the mundane and insignificant events in your life. Just sign up. They won’t stop bugging you until you just sign up.
You will notice the younger generation wearing V-neck shirts and really, really tight girls pants. There is no good explanation for this. Just try to ignore it and maybe it will go away.
Thankfully, the Taco Bell menu remains largely unchanged. They might have a few new items but they are constructed using the same eight or nine ingredients they use on everything else. God bless Taco Bell.
You might also notice that James Stewart isn’t a racer anymore; he just plays one on TV. The advent of Bubba’s World and a bad wrist injury have provoked people to take shots at James all year long. See my previous sentence as an example.
Ryan Dungey is the new fastest man on the planet. Yeah, I know what you are thinking: "Wait, didn’t he crumble a couple years ago and lose a title to Jason Lawrence?"
The answer is yes. But he has been channeling his inner Ricky Carmichael and he hasn’t really lost since then.
Oh, and Jason Lawrence went to jail for biting his buddy’s ear off, got out and now only attends the nationals for the parade laps; and he is sponsored by a company that sells energy nuts. Yup, energy nuts.
Okay, hope that helped you a little bit. Now go pick up some volcano nachos, sit down with your TiVo and get caught up on the past few season of racing. You do know what TiVo is, right?
PING
Got a question for Ping? E-mail him at ping@racerxonline.com. You can also support Ping's Taco Bell habit by purchasing one (or three) of his Motocross 101 DVDs at www.motocross101.com.
