I think it is 72 days till spring here...

[catnhatnh]

...I'll have to check, and I may be off, and I definitely will be politically incorrect here,but in just 72 days,the entire christmas/happy holidays deal will be forgotten....here in the northern tier three or four blizzards will have passed.And then,on a weekend in February, Daytona will happen.Non-nascar types will neither note nor long remember that 43 guys are risking their lives for our entertainment and to most it will mean little....yet for me and a few so bent,it will mean that spring,and the start of another year has arrived even in New Hampshire....Oh sure, it can snow for at least another three months,and yes our snowbanks at the driveways will grow before they shrink....yet for us,the northern fans, it approaches and right quick-your football will end and be given it's fanfare but shortly thereafter spring begins for us....and I await it eagerly...

[TahitiNut]

1. Spring begins at 1:26 pm EST on March 20, 2006

That's 101 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes from now.

[catnhatnh]

3. Maybe

But really spring begins with a spring in your soul-or rather a belief that a summer will come after a winter of snow...and this far north,the sooner I can declare and believe one is coming, the better.I fully accept your days/hours/minutes/seconds but survival here requires a certain self-deception...it is hard to accept that your first REAL warmth will come in late May or early June....or that July is the ONLY month I've never seen frost...(try that one on,I've seen frost in both early June and the second week of August)....in short,both spring and summers are matters for the mind....I will not be at the track in February this year as I was last year...for an NH boy,it was indeed an interesting deal to pound down a "Bud" in February cuz'I was hot...Anywize you count your deal it's OK...I'll start my deal in February when I know the boys are both running, and heading north....

[demnan]

2. Funny you should mention the danger

My paternal grandfather actually died at the Daytona race track in 1936 I believe. He was a photographer for the Chicago Tribune and he fell in front of a race car while trying to photograph it. An interesting fact noted in history but not often mentioned.

The irony is, he was an Indianpolis boy, and would probably have preferred to depart at the Indianpolis 500.

[catnhatnh]

4. You are mistaken.....

the first actual race was in 1959....if granpa died their in 39 it was in advance of racing....by a far sum...