Drafting is defined as the practice of two or more cars, while racing, to run nose-to-tail, almost touching. The lead car, by displacing the air in front of it, creates a vacuum between its rear end and the nose of the following car, pulling the second car along with it. While independent in nature their success is interdependent [co-dependent].
I love watching NASCAR, but only on the large ovals where the cars can take full advantage of their speed as they zoom around the track at more than 200 miles-per-hour. My favorite racers are Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and of course my dad [no he wasn’t a racer, but he often drove like one]. Prior to the use of regulators in 18 wheelers and when CB (citizen band) radios were the 70’s equivalent to Facebook, Instagram, and Tik-Tok, we routinely traveled the vast emptiness of interstate 10, between California and Texas. My dad would slip behind a truck or two and [draft] our way from one destination to another. It was supposed to save on ethel [gas], but I am not quite sure how much, and ease the stress of travel on our family vehicle. He'd get on the radio and say, “breaker 1/9, breaker 1/9, just passed a smokie [that’s highway patrol] at mile marker such and such”, as dust devils littered the road with tumble weeds [yes, they are real, but jackalopes aren’t]. His handle was the "Jolly Green Giant". On one occasion I recall, and we still chuckle about it today, we [my mom, brother, sister, and grandmother] zoomed past at lightning speed the well-hidden highway patrol, tucked away under an overpass. The flash of blue and red lights and the whir of the siren was sudden as my father came over the radio and said very disappointingly “breaker 1/9, breaker 1/9 I got a smokie on my tail, this is the [Jolly Green Giant] breaking it on down”. So, we have our father to blame for our love of fast cars and our understanding of how [drafting] works.
Today’s podcast is titled
Not on my Own
(ep. 39)
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?
12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
