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It's not my fault

I learned as a young boy racing motocross that there are no excuses, no one to blame and the only reason you won or lost a race was because, simply put, you were faster than everyone else that day or you weren’t.

When I started an apprenticeship after high school, there were a few of us rookies and when things went sideways or mistakes were made, I learned early on the value of owning your mistakes. Everyone screws up once in a while, but looking for a way out or someone else to blame is not honourable and generally gets you some sideways looks. Just taking the hit and learning from it so you know better next time is way better, and it seems to always be a respected approach.

So as I grew, and matured, and made mistakes, I always just admitted it, took the blame and moved on. It is funny to see the look on some people’s faces when they want to blame you but you just stole their thunder. It does speed things up though and makes it easier to get the mistake resolved.

This is what I teach my kids, what I expect from the Swicked team and how I conduct my daily life.

You may have read my article last week about how amazing the weather had become, how spring has arrived early and how the riding conditions were as good as they get. You may have also noticed that while you were reading that article you were sitting inside with a hot drink beside a warm fire, because we were being buried under a massive snow fall. It probably didn’t seem spring-like at all did it?

So it might be construed as a mistake, but no matter my beliefs on taking responsibility for our own decisions, this one is NOT my fault! And here’s why.

The editor at the paper makes me meet a Tuesday deadline. Something about needing time to put an entire paper together for Friday delivery. Writing three days early makes it hard to predict the weather, so how could I have known it was going to snow on the day the paper comes out?

You may now mention the weather report predicted snow, but really how often are the weather reports correct, so can you really blame me for this one?

Let’s talk to the weather man and ask why he chose this week to be right?

Ground Hog day was two days after my deadline, so even that furry little rodent was no help at all, Six more weeks of winter, blah blah blah. Maybe the Ground Hog should have a Tuesday deadline!

And every time I hear the term “Global Warming,” I think of being warm. Maybe we should just call it Climate Change, because the last time I checked, snow is not warm.

Even though this was not my fault in any way, as I think I just proved, I’m still sorry I misguided you all with optimism for an early spring. I do hope you got out last week for a couple of dry rides. With any luck, it won’t be long until spring actually arrives for good.

No matter who’s fault this is, let’s not be too hard on them, everyone makes mistakes, right?

 

I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…