Schizophrenic

"Nobody multitasks like Americans", I heard myself say Friday evening at our table in our favorite local Chinese restaurant. Our waiter was taking our orders, as we were catching up with our dining companions...and being Americans, we somehow had our just-off-the-boat waiter's head spinning.

He's going to make a fine American it turns out...he has patience...these days you need lots of patience in America.

As always, dinner was great! Yan's chefs know their way around a wok. They have a special way with vegetables...the Garlic Asparagus and Dry Cooked Beans especially stand out.

We dined at 6PM, right in the middle of the Giants' game from New York City, which is why I found myself multitasking later at 1AM Saturday morning, and why I'm writing today's CorduroyPlanet more than 12 hours later than I usually post it.

After we finished dinner and settled the check, I grabbed the car and pulled it to Yan's front door, with the game on the radio. Pulling onto the main drag, Kruk & Kuip announced that the Giants had just come back to tie it in the 10th inning. So much for after dinner conversation.

The Giants won it, thanks to their new bullpen/closer by committee. Ball Game!

So at 12:30, CSNBA replayed the game. I'd watched the first four innings before we left for dinner, and wanted to see how the G-Men got in and out of trouble during dinner...

Small problem...at 1AM, LIVE all the way from Bahrain's Sakhir Circuit, SpeedTV was streaming Formula One's Practice 3

This is how I ended up multitasking in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Protests in Bahrain have neither subsided, nor ramped up since F1 arrived in the Island Kingdom.

I'd watched both P1 and P2 Friday morning, and today's images were very different. The air looked exactly like Shanghai's polluted air last weekend...gray and dark.

I tweeted some questions to SpeedTV's Pit Reporter Will Buxton and to the Pirelli Tyre PR Team who were actively tweeting news from trackside:

@WillBuxton How's that sandy air at Sakhir, Will? It looks like Shanghai Smog. Can you feel it on your skin? Is it playin' hell w/ grip?

@Pirelli_Media  #F1 What's the forecast for winds at Sakhir? There's enough sand in the air now that it looks like Shanghai Smog #Traction?

 It was the residual dust from morning sand storms that swept across the desert island that is Bahrain. As each practice I watched went on, what looked like a groove of tire rubber was laid down on the track, only to disappear by the beginning of the next session.

It turns out that the groove was not in fact rubbering in per se, but the cars were blowing the sand dust off the track, only to have the winds blow in a new coating of dust before the next track session.

@WillBuxton replied: "Yeah its pretty heavy air today. Sandstorms this morning. Will be playing havoc out there."

@Pirelli_Media replied too, much more personally by Twitter DM (Direct Message): "Winds are hard to forecast but it looks like the sand will clear by lunch time."

All the while, the Giants replay was passing by on the TV. I tore myself away from the cars on the dusty track and watched every pitch of the Giants' turnaround and win, before watching the waning minutes of P3.

When F1 wrapped up, I was just an hour and a half from Qualifying, and wide awake...thanks adrenaline! I made a snack and set about reading up on P3 minutia and set the DVR to watch Qualifying lest I fall asleep before the pole was decided...

Well, I made it to Q1, but zonked out midway through Q2...

I watched all three rounds of Qualifying this afternoon...after the Giants came from behind to tie the Mets and lose it all in the 9th inning!

NYC Weatherfolks say Sunday's Giants-Mets game should be rained out, oddly the WeatherUnderground.com  forecast for Bahrain's Sakir Circuit says 40% chance of rain for Sunday morning's (our time) Grand Prix.

Yes, I'm setting the DVR, and no I don't think it'll rain. Wind and dust are something else all together...