My guess is that if every NER 2008 solo novice were polled, there’d be very few of you-all who wouldn’t be on someone’s list of people who helped “break the ice.” Personally, I really was a never-done-anything-like-this-before novice, and yes, I really am over 60. So, at least for me, this was exceptional risk-taking, and coming back for more was all about both the big picture and all the little details.

So here’s my list. Partly to make the point that NER / solo did a pretty damn fine job of providing an inclusive atmosphere this past season. And partly to thank certain people. I know there are some members I can’t put on my list because they answered one of my nearly endless string of questions when I didn’t know their names. Or, because my over-taxed aging brain cells have misplaced a memory or two or three. So, if the shoe fits …

My story begins with meeting the Parkers. Before that, racing wasn’t on my Bucket List, along with a few other items that seemed defunct. You know, like trekking around the Tibetan Himalayas.
So, my list has to begin with the Parkers, two people we know won’t be reading this, but …
Thank you Allan for talking me into this insanity, and
Josh, my guru, for riding with me again and again and again [“faster!” “floor it!” “yes!”]

I don’t have any clear memories of the first event at Devins, except for having to admit to Josh the reason I didn’t get there as early as he told me to was that I was busy barfing at home [if you have to ask why, you probably don’t qualify as a nervous-type].

Moving on to the novice school …
Thank you Chang for welcoming me as one Honda corp. enthusiast to another,
Jesse Q. for being so helpful with my registration anomalies,
Cliff S. for the shuffle-steering demo and for enduring my spin-out [yelling, “two feet in”],
Brian L. for giving me a high-five and taking the time to get me “right back on the horse” and
Nate W. for pointers on smoothness, even if you said my a-spec has too much body roll, and
whichever of you-all tattled on me to Josh after the spin. (-:

At various events throughout the season …
Thank you, Lou W. for helping me, twice, with that awkward hose connection,
Ellen S. for your moral support and friendship,
Barbara and Jeff S. for your encouragement and easy conversation,
Chris V. for being so good at patient, clear instructions for novices in grid,
Shawn C. for talking me into working grid, myself, a couple of times,
Wiley for being irrepressibly gregarious about having fun,
Brian L. for doing a course walk with me when I missed the novice walk,
Charlie T. for dry wit and Cheshire cat grins,
Keith C. for thinking to ask about the sweet, new magnetics I had ordered, and
Mike S. for my most memorable moment of course-working --
Stopped at one end of the taxiway by a corner 5 red flag, he shouted “Red Flag him!” out his driver’s window at me. I spun around – the next car hadn’t yet reached the other end of the taxiway, but I didn’t have to think twice before screaming the message down to corner 4 – by that point in the season, I’d been around long enough to know why -- it was Brian L.

On this email list and the forum …
A big thank you to Nate for responding to my every maintenance and course-working question in
great detail yet without ever making me feel stupid.
Also thanks to Chang, Bob. L., Mike S., Tony J. and others who responded to a particular
query [synthetic oil, brake pads, tire vibration, V-tec problem, etc.],
Matt M. for the verbal sparring over pre-registration,
Neil for letting me play on the web-site and quietly correcting what I got wrong,
Eddie S. for trusting me with pilfering from his pdf files, and
Dan C. for cc to emails, so I could “watch” his sparring with Neil over glossary wordings (-:

That’s about it, except for mentioning that I’ve left out the other novice regulars, and how we almost always found some time to hang out and chat together. Anyway, I’m wrapping this up by saying generally, to the lot of you … Thanks for not laughing, snickering, rolling your eyes, being snide, sarcastic or impatient. Thanks for teaching, guiding, helping, sharing, listening, teasing and taking me seriously.

Hope to see y’all come spring,
athena