AJ Allmendinger

Yesterday AJ Allmendinger was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for failing a second drug test.  The reports I've read say he tested positive for a "stimulant" banned by NASCAR.  AJ denies the claims, saying that he took a supplement or a combination of supplements that must have created the positive test.  NASCAR refuses to name the substance found in the positive test.  Allmendinger claims his innocence. 

This sounds rather familiar to the Jeremy Mayfield case.  Mayfield was suspended for methamphetamine in 2009.  His career basically ended there as he never was reinstated by NASCAR since he did not follow the required steps for reinstatement.  Mayfield has since had run-ins with the law.

AJ has had his own run-ins with the law.  He was arrested in 2010 for DUI.  He served his community service and moved forward.  Other drivers have made similar mistakes (Kyle Busch, Dave Blaney, Kurt Busch, among others) and most has been either forgotten or forgiven.

 Several drivers and crew members have been tested and banned for substance abuse.  Many have passed through NASCAR's "Road To Recovery" and have been reinstated.

In the end, nobody wins. NASCAR will be scrutinized for their testing policy and AJ will probably have a black cloud over his head for the remainder of his driving career.  In the end however, if you want to participate in the sport, you need to comply with the rules.  Many drivers have nutritionists, good doctors, etc that should know the warning signs and the dangers of taking supplements.  I am by no means an expert in any of those fields, but if a driver, crew member, official, or anybody related to the sport wants to take a supplement, I would think they would have enough sense to check with a professional before taking such substance.

AJ's best best at this point is probably to go through the "Road To Recovery" program and get back in a race car.

Scary moment last night

While playing hockey last night we had an incident on ice.  I was on the bench at the time and about 100 feet away, so I didn't see it as clear as others.  It was about halfway through the 2nd period.  The game was tied 2-2 and was really close.  Both teams were playing hard but it was a good game so far. 

One of the opposing players (we'll call him Mr. S) collided with one of my teammates (Mr W).  It was an obvious attempt at a check as Mr S went in with a full head of steam and ran into Mr W.  Immediately Mr S went down and play stopped.  Mr S laid motionless while teammates gathered around.  First thing we heard was "He's out!  Go call an ambulance, NOW!"  At that point we knew it wasn't good.

Luckily Mr. S regained consciousness about a minute later.  He had a decent gash on his face from his lip to his cheek.  The thought is when he hit Mr W, it was a head to shoulder (later confirmed by Mr W) and that Mr S's visor and helmet was pressed against his face.

While 4-5 players attended to Mr. S, the opposing team gathered their gear and left the ice.   My team stayed on the bench, watching and waiting.  We'd been there a few months ago when one of our guys broke his leg during a game.  We knew Mr. S was done for the evening, but we anticipated that the game would continue after he was stabilized and off to the hospital.  Word began to spread that the opposing team had forfeited the game.  We waited, not really sure what to do.

Paramedics arrived and went to work on Mr. S.  He was alert and talking to the paramedics, which we were glad to see.  They immobilized him as a precaution and he was taken off the ice.  There was a small pool of blood where Mr S had fallen.  The good thing was he was talking to the EMTs and was moving.  We're grateful for that.

We left the ice, not really sure what to think.  The mood in our locker room was not as cheerful as it normally is after a game.  As much as we love hockey, you never want to see anybody get hurt. 

I haven't heard how Mr. S is doing this morning, but one would expect him to be ok.  Hopefully he'll be ready to play in a few days, but the expectation from the team was 3-4 weeks at the earliest.

Storms and aftermath

A few days late, but last Friday night (no Katy Perry references) we had a derecho go through the area.  Within 30 minutes parts of Maryland turned into scenes from a hurricane that lasts hours.  Hundreds of thousands were without power.  We were some of the lucky few that were spared a power outage.  However with temperatures in the upper 90s, those without air conditioning were quickly feeling the heat.

I drove around Saturday morning and saw tons of downed trees, branches, and power lines.  Several roads had only one lane open.  Many businesses were without power.  Gas shortages began as people stocked their generators or filled their cars to try and stay cool.

As of this writing, there are approximately 100,000 customers in the Baltimore metro area alone without power.  BGE, our local utility company, claims to have restored power to almost 600,000 of their 1.2 million customers.  So basically half their customers lost power at some point during the last 5 days.  Crews have come from as far as Texas to help restore power.

What could be done to improve the US power grid?  It's pretty obvious that our current system is not effective enough.  A lot of places have overhead power and other utility lines.  The second a tree branch falls on the wires, there goes your power.  I read the other day that in Germany, the average home loses power a total of 21 minutes a year.  That's pretty reliable!  Now, why can't the US catch up with the rest of the world?

The other option is for local utility companies to have "reserve" units.  The military has them.  There are volunteer fire fighters and EMTs.  Why can't we have volunteer power restoration crews?  Or reserve power restoration crews?  I realize that a lot of the power problems can't be fixed until trees have been removed from the lines.  But calling in crews from far far away isn't really cost effective.  By the time the crews get here, they are tired, they have to go check in somewhere to get assignments, and are probably getting paid double or triple time to be here.

If a 30 minute storm can cause this much damage, imagine what will happen if we get a hurricane or other major disaster.