Spooling down

When I was in college, my father owned a Saab 900 Turbo coupe. It was gun metal gray with a black spoiler and leather interior. To a 21 year old car nut who grew up in Texas, it was as exotic as a Ferrari.

This little car was really an engineering marvel. It had a small, turbocharged 4 cylinder motor that allowed it to get great gas mileage and still provide gobs of power when called upon. Without getting into the mechanics of how or why, the turbo would continue to spin for three or four minutes after it had been engaged. A problem would arise if you were to engage the turbo and suddenly shut off the engine, as the turbo spun at 10,000 rpm or faster. Shutting the engine off would cause the oil to drain from the turbo while it was still spinning. Do this a few times and Ka-Blooooey...the bearings in the turbo would seize.

The remedy was to allow the turbo to spool down a little bit...sit in the parking lot for a few minutes to allow all the moving parts to slow down before shutting off the engine. It was irritating, but well worth the money saved in turbo repair.

Tonight, for the first time in a while, I let my brain spool down. I've been running hard lately. Work, house projects, family stuff, vacation (which was a riot, and riots are never restful). My head races from 5am until midnight with things like 'how do I raise margins and increase gasoline sales in Southern CA?' and 'where can I get a real sounding lightsaber for an 8 year old?' and 'how much are plane tickets to Seattle, WA' and 'please tell me that venue is air conditioned...".

Tonight, I sat on my back patio and listened to the cicadas. I didn't read. I didn't listen to my iPod. I just let my brain spool down....and it felt really, really good.