Bugs, bugs, go away, come again another day

          When our kids were little we had a rule about certain words. The rule was that even if they heard adults using a few, selected, specific words, the kids were not allowed to use them.

          There were words our kids heard while repair work was performed on one of the family cars and many of those words were not acceptable for use by the kids. Sometimes they heard words used regarding my work that were absolutely unacceptable for repetition.

          Once I was very careful to be sure I was out of the hearing range of our kids while changing the oil on a car with a stubborn oil pan plug. Every attempt to unscrew the bolt that plugged the pan rocked the car back and forth and elicited a string of those unacceptable words. Our kids didn’t hear any of the car language, but the sweet, young children next door heard a lot of it until their parents moved them inside. Days later, after hearing the story, I felt like an idiot.

 

           Eventually we adopted the term, 'car language,' for stuff the kids might hear but could never repeat. Car language or no, we were pretty good about training our kids to avoid bad language. They were both good kids to begin with, so they learned well.

          One of the four-letter words we had to train the kids not to use was rain. Because their father, your loyal blogger, was working in the racing business, the R word was never heard in our house. Even I didn’t use it. Nobody used it.

          Sometimes a heavy mist was observed. Sometimes we remarked about the low clouds or heavy humidity in the air. But mostly we discussed all the clear bugs we could see, as in, “Crank up the wipers, the clear bugs are out again.”

          All through the years they were growing up, our kids knew better than to describe weather as wet. There was no rain and, obviously, there was no snow or sleet. They had plain coats and boots, not rain coats or rain boots.

          By the time we were done, even I bought into it. Even when working at a race now, if the clouds produce something that stops the proceedings I harken back to the wonder years when our kids were growing up and all I see are clear bugs. Clear bugs, enough of them, can cut a racing weekend short.

          Once we had a heavy infestation of clear bugs at a race in Colorado. The promoter called the local airport, whose operator said the infestation was heavy there, too. The race was beyond halfway, so the race was called. Ten minutes later the bugs went away, but the race had been called.

          You just have to understand the power of these bugs. Clearly, they are amazing.

          

          Thanks for reading.