Week Sixteen: Decisions and Revisions

The calculus train is barrelling along past Reimann Sum station now, and I’m staying in my seat and taking all the notes I can. I’m keeping up with my homework on antiderivatives, summation notation, indefinite integrals, and definite integrals. There will be an exam in two weeks covering this material, and I’m not scared of it. The biggest problems this week have been (a) slipping on the frosty ramp outside the house and bruising my hip, shoulder, hand, and ego; (b) getting almost to school and realizing I was driving the car that didn’t have the commuter window-sticker; and (c) getting so wrapped up in my homework that I lost track of time and was a minute or two late to class. They didn’t all happen on the same day (but two of them did).

The smaller the interval you measure, the closer you get to an accurate estimate of the area under the curve.

Of course, I know me by now, and when things are going well I tend to extrapolate the success to the nth degree. If I solve one computer hardware issue I think I should work as a Genius at the Apple Store. If I write a haiku I wonder how I’ll ever have time to finish my epic metered saga. One good pot of soup, and I’m thinking up graphic treatments for a cookbook series. If I think of an improved mousetrap design, I fret over my inability to purchase enough warehouse space to store all the inventory. That sort of thing. It’s more amusing now that I can catch myself in the act of making ridiculous or disproportionate future plans, and ground myself gently back in reality.

Thoughts like these have started me wondering about my academic future. Enough people have asked me if I were going back to school this fall that I started wondering, too. I went from “no” to “probably not” to “maybe” to “I think I’ll change my major to Pure Mathematics and get a full time job too and edit at night and invent cold fusion” in the space of an afternoon. Well, except for the cold fusion. I’m sure someone else has that all worked out by now.

I caught the thought, then I held it and took a more critical look at it. The physics professors seem distressed at the thought of my being a math major. What are you going to do with a math degree? Well, the same thing I was going to do with a physics degree at age forty-coughcoughcough — learn everything I can about what I’m interested in, while I still can. I’m interested in education but not in teaching, but who knows? With four technically oriented kids, being able to teach math might come in extremely handy. I’m interested in the history of math, the history of science, and the history of language. I don’t have five lifetimes in which to read everything, so I need to choose my reading matter carefully. For that, a structured course seems like a good idea. What’s it all good for? Well, it’s going to help me become more like me. That should be the purpose of education — to help you develop your strengths and shore up your weaknesses. It’s your choice as to whether you apply that towards finding a job or not. Personally, I think that this experience and education will eventually land me in a place where I’m making a living, but I just can’t see all the details from here. Not yet.

The math-and-numbers side of me is now being balanced by my words-and-letters side. I’m not just playing Words With Friends and Scramble any more; I’ve gotten a client who would like me to edit his book manuscript and help him get published. While I’m waiting for him to sign and return his contract, I’ll go ahead and hard-copy edit his first two chapters and keep track of my time so I can figure out my rates for future jobs. I’m also editing a friend’s dissertation for chapter-by-chapter publication in an academic journal. I’m reading fiction and nonfiction. I’m writing every day and blogging every week. And I’m still playing Words With Friends and Scramble. Finding point-scoring combinations among the letter tiles isn’t interfering with my “mathing” any more, so I’m just trying to stay balanced.

Then there’s knitting, that combination of wool, coding, artistic expression, and applied topology. I’m doing finishing (weaving in loose ends) on a huge project, turning a heel on a sock, designing a mathematically and artistically geeky scarf, and knitting a lace-edged narrow shawl that’s a therapeutic exercise.  My friend Bonnie has taught me how to do a Long-Tail cast-on — in fact, this patient woman has taught it to me twice so far — so I have a new tool in that particular toolbox.

As usual, all I need is time. T.S. Eliot assures me that won’t be an issue:

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
— “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Week Twelve: Chop Wood, Carry Water

This week, I’ve been struggling with dual and somewhat opposing impulses.

On the one hand, I’ve experienced a terrific burst of energy and creativity. I’ve been storing up yarn and patterns, and quilting fabric and my own designs, for years; suddenly it’s time to CAST ON. Now. Start. Finish. Work. Sew. Knit like the wind! I’m getting vivid dreams. I’m getting the urge to sketch things, make plans, open new files, and (in a purely theoretical sense, since it’s SNOWING as I write this) open the windows and let in fresh air. Spread my wings. Redefine and reinvent myself. Run run run run run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HwTFViLR5Y

On the other hand, I’m disciplining myself with quiet time, practicing meditation, and reading about mindfulness. I am trying to listen to the quiet, follow my breath, and be still.

Don’t do something — just sit there.

I need both things in my life. Sitting still doesn’t take away from my busy-ness as much as it prepares me for it, conditions me for it. The writing I do after I wake up and before I go to sleep is not creative writing but a way to both organize and de-clutter my mind. It also makes a safe space for anything that wants to be written about, contemplated, memorialized, or speculated upon.

So how do these different impulses interact with each other? Do they crash into each other? Do they pull away from each other? Do they chase each other like snakes trying to make meals of each other’s tails? Do they twist in opposite directions to form a knot? Internally, they probably are taking turns doing all of those things. It’s difficult to keep that internal conflict-resolution process from showing on the outside, but that’s another benefit of the sitting practice, of the breathing practice, of the mindfulness practice, of the writing practice.

And this practice is difficult. I have often described my father, who just turned 79, as the oldest living undiagnosed and unmedicated ADHD patient. When I was growing up he always worked at least three jobs. He finally retired from his primary job only to work a series of post-retirement jobs and travel with my mother on trips ranging from Alaska to the Panama Canal, and from San Francisco to Maine. (They’re banned from New Hampshire, though, or maybe it was Vermont. Don’t ask.) He still gets up early and does a few hundred situps before he goes to the basement to lift weights, row, and walk the treadmill. He simply does not stop. (Unless golf is on TV, then it’s naptime!) And the older I get, the more I discover that I am truly my father’s daughter. When I was younger, I swung my legs, tapped my fingers, hummed (I thought) to myself. I ran, I rode, I hiked, I biked, I paddled. When I was in class I doodled beside my notes, made lists, passed messages to my friends. The knitting I took up almost a decade ago has given my hands something to keep busy with while my brain focuses. If you have never tried if, let me tell you that sitting quietly and emptying your mind is HARD. They don’t call it “monkey mind” for nothing. It is full of chatter that must be dealt with. And I’m not very good at it.

At the risk of driving my readers crazy, in Wherever You Go There You Are Jon Kabat-Zinn quotes one of his students as saying “When I was a Buddhist, it drove my parents and friends crazy, but when I am a buddha, nobody is upset at all.” So I’m trying not to go all “Buddhist” on anyone. I’m not in an evangelistic “three recruits and I get a zafu” program, and in many ways, this place is familiar territory to me. Some of my Zen and Buddhism books have been on my shelves for quite some time now. The wheel turns, and they are needed again for me to regain my balance. I’m writing about my own experience. If my words speak to you, it’s up to you to decide what that means for you.

But, as Bill Cosby might say, I told you that quote so I could tell you this one. In The Miracle of Mindfulness Thich Nhat Hanh quotes a line from a Vietnamese folk song:

Hardest of all is to practice the Way at home,
second in the crowd,
and third in the pagoda.

Right now I’m practicing at home, swinging five bats before approaching the plate to assess what life intends to throw at me next. (From the way it’s gone so far, I’m guessing knuckleball.) I need to do what I need to do. It’s not time to try to walk and chew gum at the same time; it’s time to walk for walking’s sake and chew gum in order to chew gum. When I try to do more, I tend to bump into things.

Week Nine: The Ninety-Three Percent

As of today I’ve hit an important milestone on a knitting project I’ve been working on for a few years now. For various reasons I am not ready to reveal its nature in this space (but those of you who know me from “another space” will be able to figure it out pretty quickly), but I can say that I now have just 15 units left to knit before I assemble the whole thing. That puts the project at 93 percent complete, though in truth after I have those other 15 parts knitted I will call it no more than 99 percent until every last end is woven in. And because even the pre-assembly work is going to take some time, I can’t even give you an estimate as to when this project will be completed, photographed, and fully shared. Just know that I am very happy that my daily work, which I’ve been referring to as “quota knitting,” is getting me steadily closer to a huge creative goal.

But trust me. When I do the reveal, you won’t miss it! (You may question my sanity, but you won’t miss it.)

Most of you, when you see it, will want to ask me one question. The answer to that question will be “yes.”

I’ve also been chugging away on the Wingspan shawl and really should take another picture now that I’ve finished 5 of the 8 wedges that make it up. I don’t know if it’s the merino sock yarn, or the Addi Turbo needles, or a combination of factors, but I find it delightful to knit on it and shall be sad when I’ve finished it. But finishing it will allow me to take care of some other projects that also need my attention. Such as socks made from sock yarn. (What a concept!)

This week has been busy with healing myself body and soul, shoveling show out of the way, and driving kids to, fro, and back again as they all took turns being under the weather in various ways (dental work, low-grade fevers, sniffles & sneezes, and good old-fashioned hooky-playing). One of the best things I did was go back to campus Thursday morning and reapply myself to my calculus book. I’m having to start almost from scratch with the math, but today I got to a place where I am doing well and seem to have a deeper understanding of the type of problems I’m solving. We’ll see. Between the weather and everyone’s health it’s been tough to get down there. Now that we’re healthier I am renewing my commitment to finishing the course. My math-related plans after that point are still nebulous, but slowly forming.

My progress on my other resolutions has been somewhat hampered by the knitting done on these two garter-stitch projects, but there is a small project I had intended to cast on for on Valentine’s Day that calls for a new type of cast-on. So as soon as one of these projects is complete (most likely Wingspan), I will try it out and perhaps be able to check off one more completed resolution.

And finally… it’s finally MARCH! My already-teenage son will turn 14, my sister will be performing at SXSW in Austin (on his birthday!), we will have Spring Break, and DOCTOR WHO will be back on television!

Week Eight: Spiking

This will be a short post just to make the quota. I have been under the weather and so have some of the kidlets this week, so I’ve been trying to keep up with keeping up. I told myself that during Lent I would knit one square per day on a huge project I’ve been working on for a couple of years, and as of today I’m one square ahead of pace, having knitted the only square that needs additional stitching. If I can finish it tomorrow (which will require learning a new sewing technique) I will have 21 plain squares left to knit and can then think about how to seam up the whole thing. Thinking that far ahead right now just adds to my fatigue (and I’m already perplexed as to why lying on the couch all day napping, knitting, and watching TV has worn me out).

I’ve been enjoying knitting on Wingspan again after fixing a dropped stitch, but I have tried to do my “quota knitting” first… so poor Wingspan is waiting for me to pick it up again. I’m on the fourth wedge of probably eight. I don’t have any new photos but will probably take a progress shot when the fourth wedge is done.

I logged into WordPress last night to try to write a post, but nothing came to mind. When I looked at the little stats bar, I noticed a big spike in viewing. I investigated a little more, then realized that I’ve conditioned everyone to expect new posts on Thursdays. That’s when I aim to write them, too; however, this week I was too worn down for the inspiration to strike at the usual time. I’d like to thank those of you who showed up on your own, looking for my words. It reminded my of my late grandfather, who used to keep a vegetable garden. Next to the garden there was a post for a huge purple martin house that he built himself. Every fall after the birds migrated away, he’d take down the house, clean it out, and store it in the garage for the winter. Every spring he’d take it out, clean it up, and put it back on the post so it would be waiting for them when they returned. One year he didn’t get the house up in time, and the birds took turns waiting on the top of the post!

Woody’s martin house looked something like this.

By next week I might have a lot more to say or show. For now, though, I’d better rest.

Ascending and Descending

Whoa! it’s been a week. Not for knitting — no, not so much for that. All I have been able to work on knitwise was blanket squares, and not so many of those. But as I walk through my evolving work-and-study schedule at school, I’m finding pockets of time that I might be able to use for work that requires more concentration, like the DNA Scarf.

I’m definitely in the right spot at work. I sat down this morning to start a blanket square, and by the time two other people had entered the break room, we were having a lively conversation about knitting, crochet, and the lost art of lace tatting. Not one person has wandered in, watched me work for a split second, and commented cheerfully, “Knit one, purl two, huh?!?” Which is refreshing.

As far as school goes, I got through my first astronomy lab (fun) and my first astronomy quiz (got almost everything right), and emerged from the dizzying Chapter One of the precalculus book and its extremely dry review of linear algebra and entered the peaceful and friendly Chapter Two dealing with functions.

[f(a + h) – f(a)]/h, anyone? Come on, it’s fun! And eventually it’s going to have some cool purpose, I just know it is.

Ascending and Descending, M.C. Escher (1960)

I haven’t exercised this week unless you count repeatedly climbing (and descending, let’s not forget descending) several flights of stairs and crossing acres of campus to deliver Extremely Time Critical campus-mail envelopes. I volunteer for that job every chance I get. The air is crisp, the sidewalks aren’t too slippery, and the way I walk, it’s aerobic. And I’ve been drinking very little soda (until the headaches creep back into my temples, then I have just a teensy bit), mostly having flavored green tea water. It tastes better than I’m making it sound. Zero calories, lots of hydration.

So I was pleased to weigh myself on the Wii this morning and see that I had finally met my incremental goal. It took me about three weeks to lose two pounds, but I did it. The next goal is to lose two pounds by two weeks from now, and by healthier means than by catching a bit of the stomach-bug that’s apparently making the rounds of the house. Jack had an awful day of it on Thursday and stayed home from school on Friday too for good measure; Colleen stayed home from school on Friday as a sort of preventative attempt; Tommy has it now and let’s just say we’ll be washing a lot of bedding today. Poor critters.

Resolution Update

1. I am publishing this post on Saturday as I promised. Check.
2. Knitted about three blanket squares. I need a recount on that particular project.
3. I rehomed a hand-knitted sweater this week. Unfortunately, it was Tyrone, which I absent-mindedly put in the regular wash, thinking the wool was Superwash. Oops. Yep, it felted and would no longer fit my heartbroken five-year-old. (Who promptly insisted I had to knit him a new sweater, RIGHT NOW.) I passed the sweater along to the owners of the local coffee shop where my knitting group meets; their little boy just turned one year old. Anyway, in all other areas, clutter abounds. There is work to do here.
4. Doing well on my Precalculus homework and Astronomy work. The first Precalc exam will be February 10; the first Astronomy exam should be February 14.
5. I met my incremental weight-loss goal of two pounds and have set my sights on the next two pounds.

Knitting to Alcatraz

Here I am… between room overhaulings and giving the kids their 30-minute computer time slots for each thank-you note they’ve finished writing, I have about five minutes to write this post.

Resolution updates:

1. I am publishing this post on Saturday as I promised. Check.
2. There is no more progress on the DNA Scarf today than there was on Wednesday. I have done 2 or 3 more blanket squares for a very long-term WIP.
3. This week I took a day and cleared out the area in front of my closet. It’s the part of my house that really makes me look like a hoarder, because I know what happens when I put things like quilting/sewing, scrapbooking, and knitting supplies out in the free-range areas of the house. They (and the things around them) get ruined. This particular project I would have spread over three days, but I didn’t have three days. Did it in one. I still have some items that don’t yet have a proper place, but I’m working on it ad I can actually use my closet, which makes me feel better and calmer. (Today, the dining room. The Pinewood Derby is next Saturday, weigh-in is next Friday, and Jack and I still have “cars” that are blocks in the box.)
4. School starts on Tuesday, so my g.p.a. is still intact.
5. I did get in a Wii “run” and the scale said I lost 1.1 pounds since Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or whenever it was. I think this puts me right back to where I was last Wednesday, but the important thing now it that I have a downward trend upon which I should capitalize.

Since January 1
Saturday blog posts: 2 of 2 (plus a bonus post on Wednesday)
WIPs completed: 1
Needles liberated: 1
Clutter reduced: filled a garbage bag with adult-size clothes for the thrift store, plus three pairs of shoes.
Grades: school hasn’t started yet
Pounds lost: I’ll get back to you later

OH WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!! I can’t forget this. If you are in the U.S., please plan to watch the Fox premiere of the series “Alcatraz” on Monday night. Air time is 8pm Eastern, 7 Central, everyone else you can work it out. I was not originally planning to watch this show even though it has a possible time-portal concept, but now I’m definitely watching the pilot because one of my sister-in-law’s songs will be played on the show. Her name is Lydia Loveless, the album is Indestructible Machine, and the song is “How Many Women.” I’ll tell you now that most of her songs aren’t, ahem, eligible for air time such as this. Pesky FCC. Lydia has been described as a “pissed-off Patsy Cline,” if that gives you an idea. She’s on tour right now and this could be a huge break for her (and therefore also my brother, who plays bass in her band) if people watch the show and start buying the song and the album. So please, help spread the word and give it a watch and a listen.

Slowly out of the blocks

This week is my last week at home before school starts for me again next Tuesday. (I haven’t figured out why college has the day off but all the other schools are open, but hey! it gives me one last kid-free Monday morning knitting meeting before I never see my “morning friends” again.) I’m trying to finish up loose ends, make phone calls, start preparing for the new semester, and generally fix a lot of things this week.

In the past few days I have been wondering a few things.

1. I don’t stay wide awake while I’m reading textbooks like I used to 30 years ago. I wonder why that is?

2. I will be on campus from 7:45am to 3pm every day. (Add an hour a day of travel time.) I wonder when I will keep up with my social networking?

3. This also means I won’t be able to attend Monday and Thursday morning knitting sessions in the group I founded. I wonder how I’m make progress on my lofty knitting-related resolutions?

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm….

Anyway, I’ve been struggling forward with my DNA Scarf. It’s a pattern that takes a lot of concentration on my part and/or silence on the part of others. Or at least the “right” kind of noise. As of this post, I have finished 2.5 repeats. I know where all the errors are, and the scarf is well aware it is being created on borrowed time. If a fatal error does occur, I will NOT re-knit this yarn into this scarf, but into something completely different. A lace shawl, perhaps. Yes, a lovely Kelly Green alpaca lace shawl….. And then I will stuff it in a box and refuse to let it see the light of day. (If events escalate to this point, the yarn and the pattern will have deserved it. Trust me.)

DNA Scarf - 2.5 repeats

In the meantime, I’m approaching the project as a test of the strength of my own stubbornness. Do I really want to make this scarf? Do I really want to keep all my resolutions? Do I really want to follow my own rules? Do I really NOT want to have to announce on my blog that I screwed up so wretchedly that I decided to knit a massive lace rationalization?

In other struggles, I weighed in this morning on the Wii before I did a 30 minute free run. My weight is up a little from last time, but overall it’s still a loss from a week ago. If I keep at it on the dual fronts of Europe diet and Russia exercise, I will get all my numbers down and get healthier and stronger over time. Not-eating-doughnuts would probably help, too.

See you on Saturday for the regular blog post with all the Happy Happy Fun Time Number Crunching!

Progress on Aisle 2

The first week is going well…. I finished a WIP on January 4, then created a blog page for my finished works of 2012 so I could document it there.

I do realize that pages don’t exist for anything I completed in 2011, 2010, and actually the end of 2009…. but that’s not important right now. If I get the flu or break my leg or something and suddenly end up with lots of free time I may copy those words and pictures over from Ravelry. Then again, I might not.

The finished work in question is a hat of my own design. It was started on a circular needle, so even though it took me two sets of DPNs to finish it off, it actually only liberated a single needle. Humph.

Jamie's MIL's Freakin' Hat

Completing that project gave me psychic permission, if you will, to cast on for something else I’ve been wanting to do for a while — the DNA Scarf. As it happens, the Scientific Knitters group on Ravelry decided to have a knitalong for this pattern and all derivations of it. Other people have turned it into hats or socks, but I’m going to play it straight as much as possible.

I got off to a rocky start. I’m using some pseudo-vintage Blue Sky Alpaca yarn, three skeins from the orphan table at Knitch of Delafield. And you start out with 8 rows of seed stitch (The Bane Of My Existence) on size 2 needles. I got four rows in, realized I had committed an error I did not know how to fix, and had to take it off the needles, wind off the yarn, and start over again. The second time I finished the 8-row section of seed stitch, and am now “ready” to start knitting with larger needles and work the real pattern, which includes 5-stitch borders of seed stitch on each side, mirrored mini-cables on each side, and the 20-stitch, 38-row Double Helix pattern. No sweat.

In fact, I did my first repeat of the pattern last night at Late Night Knitting at The Sow’s Ear. The seed stitch border turns out the be the easy part. There was much raising of blood pressure during the first few rows, but eventually it got easier. One thing I did discover is that I no longer know how to do left twist mock cables. But for this project I will settle on doing the same technique consistently, because I am NOT going to start this over and redo it. If I muck this up so badly that I have to frog it, I swear that the yarn will become Something Else. (And, oh, Note To Self: put in a lifeline now.)

DNA Scarf - 1 repeat

If I run into problems while I’m working on this new project, my evolving Rules of Play state that I may work on the next WIP or any long-term project I have on the needles. Considering that I have two Doctor Who scarves on the needles and another one planned, I think it’s safe to say I’ll always have something to make steady progress on. BUT, I cannot cast on for a new project until the current “new” project becomes a “finished” project.

In other news, we discovered this:

Dark Fudge Chocolate Chip Kettle Corn

Oh, my goodness gracious. This does not bode well for trying to lose 30 pounds, but it’s not the kind of thing one eats every day.

Anyway. I haven’t weighed in again yet, so I don’t have progress to report there. UPDATE: I did a 20 minute free run on the Wii Fit Plus for 4.233 miles, and at weigh-in (before the run) I had lost 1.5 pounds since Wednesday.

Since January 1
Saturday blog posts: 1 of 1
WIPs completed: 1
Needles liberated: 1
Clutter reduced: took 1 bag of books, and 2 bags of clothes, to the thrift store. Filled one cubic-yard box of sheets and blankets to take to the thrift store next week.
Grades: school hasn’t started yet
Pounds lost: 1.5

And this year I mean it.

Happy New Year everyone…. I might be back.

2011 was a rough year for me, as you know if you know me via Ravelry, Facebook, or Real-Life™, and I don’t want to rehash it here. But I would like to resume my blogging ways and share my knitting (now including crochet!) adventures, my quirky sense of humor, and my funny kid stories as I used to do.

I would like to publish new posts every Saturday, but to kick things off I’d like to amuse you all (especially you, “Stephanie”) with some New Year’s resolutions.

1. I would like to publish new Chocolate Sheep posts every Saturday. (Stop laughing, Lauren.)
2. I’m going to finish all the projects on my WIP list. (Stop laughing, Brandy.) But since I also have new projects for which I would like to cast on, I want to do my projects in pairs — finish one WIP for each new project. The only way this works is if I finish the new project too. I might also include a Needle Liberation Tally as I go along.
3. I’m going to work to reduce the clutter in my home. (Stop laughing, “Stephanie.”) Actually, the best way to do this is to finish projects or to find people who could use the supplies I’ve been hoarding reserving for future use. That means I will also have to create scrapbook pages, digitize photos, and maybe even make quilts.
4. I’m back to school for a B.S. in Physics with a minor in Math and, this semester, back to work at school as well, for 15-20 hours a week. I got an A in my first course (Intermediate Algebra) so I’m coming in with a 4.0 grade point average. I would like to keep an A average now, in this my remedial year, so when I start this fall to take on Calculus and Physics I will look and feel like I can handle it. This semester I’m taking Precalculus and Astronomy.
5. Is five a nice round number? Well, this year I want to finish a goal I made progress on last year. I vowed to lose 50 pounds and actually lost at least 20 before life threw me a doctored slider in September and I stopped exercising. I need to find ways to get healthier on a busy schedule. I won’t be at home all day with access to a Nordic Track, an exercise bike, and a Wii fitness system — so I will have to reduce my calories and stay active in other ways. Goal weight is about 140 pounds, so I will try to keep you posted on that.

That should be plenty! See you on Saturday….

Now with more widgets!

Random facts:

I’ve added a Twitter feed to the sidebar, up at the top. Now that I’m on WordPress, Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook I’ve started gluing some of them together.

I’ve finished watching Torchwood: Children of Earth. Pass the coffee and the tissues, please.

I have a long trip to plan for this week involving two three knitter meetups, several Midwestern states, and retrieving my firstborn from Ohio. Then it’s right into Irish Fest Summer School, where I’m enrolled in Intermediate Aran Knitting. (My first knitting class!) The next weekend is Irish Fest itself, where I hope to meet even more knitters. So I don’t know how many posts I’ll be able to do this week.

But. The important thing today is not my knitting. If you could do just one thing today, please say a prayer for Felipe Massa, a Formula 1 driver who was badly injured in a freak accident during qualifying session for last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. He sustained a skull fracture and a concussion. He had emergency surgery and is now in an induced coma for the next few days. He is just 28 years old, and his wife is expecting their first child in November. Brain injuries are so scary and tricky — look up Cristiano da Matta and Richard Hammond if you need any evidence from the car/racing community. But please, just say a prayer.