It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Thank you, Charles Dickens. The corollary is this: One week ago I had to fight and edit my way to a manageable blog size with an installment that was so full of fresh news and photos I had to leave a lot of it on the editing room floor. This week, not so much. All the really fun stuff starts tonight, Barbara was out in Spokane all week (I just picked her up at the airport), and about the most exciting thing that happened in my world was when Rainbow Tree Care came and trimmed a vast amount of branches and scrub growth out of the landscaping in our backyard. It now looks like I did as a kid, when my mom would let my hair grow out and then buzz it all off, other than the detail where I never really did look like a Colorado Blue Spruce but my ears sure did look funny.

Unfortunately, the trimming work is probably just a stopgap and not the end solution to a big problem. Colorado Blue Spruce trees are native to (you’re not going to believe this) Colorado. Every one of them in Minnesota was imported, and our climate is not conducive to keeping them healthy, as they are very susceptible to root-born fungal diseases. As you drive around Woodbury, you can’t miss it. They basically wither and begin to die from the ground up, with the needles first turning brown, followed by the branches completely dying, one by one. It’s a sad thing to see, especially in the really big and old ones. So we hired Rainbow to try to extend the lifespan of the ones that were planted behind our house well before our house was ever built. They now get quarterly “deep feed” nutrient injections, and this week a crew came out to trim off as many dead branches as they could.

What that means is that the natural barrier between our house and the road behind it is now much less of a barrier. This trim work needed to be done now, so we had it done, but obviously we’re going to have to wait until spring to plant some new trees, bushes, or other living things, back there, to fill in the gaps. Whatever we plant, I can guarantee it will not feature any Colorado Blue Spruce. Truth is, though, it’s not noticeably louder and I’m already used to it. There were so many wild scrub plants back in there they needed to come out as well, to give the trees the best shot at hanging in there.

Since I started this blog with the beginning of the opening sentence in “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, it bears mentioning that I wrote about that in “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” regarding the freshman-year English class in high school, in which we were assigned to read it. I was not into the book at all, and that lack of interest almost got me flunked out of St. Louis U. High before I even knew my way around the secret back staircases and hallways. I have nothing at all against Charles Dickens, though, and have thoroughly enjoyed many of his other works.

I did mention in last week’s Bloggapalooza that Barbara, Kitty, and I visited his home in London, which he owned after he became famous and was therefore a very rich man for those times. I just didn’t have room for a photo in last week’s blog, so here is that photo. It’s too rich to leave on the editing room floor. And gosh, we had such a great time over there. It was fabulous. I’m still glowing from the trip (not literally).

And that leads to the main topic of this blog. Starting tonight, we’re going to be very busy and we will be traveling again before I get back to the blog next week. Tonight, we are attending the Minnesota Timberwolves game, which is always a fun time but it will be made even more fun (because, sorry, “funner” is not a word) thanks to their opponents, the Sacramento Kings. The Kings radio play-by-play guy is…  You know this… Gary Gerould! Barbara and I plan to arrive early so we can stop by the visiting radio booth to say hello, as we have done multiple times in the past.

Plus, it will be our first visit to Target Center since it underwent a massive renovation. We’re looking forward to checking it all out.

Saturday afternoon, we’re taking Erica Moon (our live-in cat sitter) to the Minnesota Wild game, in St. Paul, as a kind of “Christmas bonus” for the splendid job she does with Boofus and Buster. We’re lucky to have her be here when we’re gone.

And speaking of that, we’re going to be busy on Sunday because first thing Monday morning we fly out of MSP. First stop SLC (Salt Lake City) for a quick connection, and our next plane will take us to HNL (Honolulu!!!). There, we’ll switch over to a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kona, on the Big Island. Four nights there, at the Lava Lava Beach Club, will be followed by another Hawaiian flight to LIH (Lihue, on Kauai) for five nights. Can’t wait to see my sister Mary and her hubby Lonnie. A wonderful time will be had, I can positively guarantee that.

We will be in Kona next Thursday Blog Day, so I’m going to wait and see what the weather is like before committing to interrupt our trip to put a brief blog in this space. If we get a rainy day, I’ll spend an hour writing one. If we’re having too much fun, I might have time to at least post a headline about seeing you all the next week. We’ll call that audible at the line of scrimmage. Omaha!!! 55 is the Mike. 2-80, 2-80 hut.

In the world of Facebook and other social media, I’ve really enjoyed reconnecting with so many friends from my days in elementary and high school, as well as in baseball, indoor soccer, sports marketing, and all the years in between. As I was browsing through Facebook yesterday, I saw that Robi Goff had shared a post someone else had made about indoor soccer in Kansas City. Robi played for the Kansas City Attack when I was the team’s General Manager, and he was one of my favorite players. He was also a very good indoor soccer player. One of our best.

When I saw the post he shared, which was full of old photos from the days of the Kansas City Comets (MISL) and the Attack (NPSL) I went to the closet in one of our spare bedrooms and pulled out a few items. In this photo, we have an adidas Attack warm-up jacket, an authentic game jersey, and one of our game programs. Robi’s response of “WOW” made me smile.

I greatly enjoyed my time in Kansas City, and I loved the team. As I wrote about in Chapter 21 (entitled “More Soccer Balls”) the offer from the Attack was one of those “plow forward” moments that happened out of the blue, at a time when I could never have imagined it, but it also could not have been any better timed. The players were all great guys, and between Facebook and LinkedIn I’ve connected with a bunch of them.

I was there long enough to feel “at home” in KC, and made my way to a number of Royals and Chiefs games, or concerts, during that span. And you know what… Putting on a suit and tie everyday is not really my favorite cup of tea, but to do so and then go to work in an executive corner office inside a major arena, running a professional sports franchise, is about as good as it gets. Stressful? Definitely. Rewarding? Often, but when the rewards came they were priceless. It was all priceless, and it was just another step on the chaotic path that led me to NHRA management and public relations work. As in, my 20-year career doing PR work for Whit Bazemore, Del Worsham, and Tim Wilkerson in the NHRA world was the very next thing I did after leading the Attack.

It also bears mentioning that “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” continues to amaze me, confuse me, and stun me on a regular basis. Seriously, I never considered that it would sell regularly for more than two or three months. We are now just days away from the seven-month mark and, out of nowhere, we’ve had major spikes in sales a few times in the last week. And right before those spikes the book had slid to its lowest ranking yet, on Amazon. When it did that, I thought, “OK, there we go. Now it will quickly come to a stop, or at least a slow dribble.” Not 24 hours later, it shot back up to around No. 140 in the category.

It certainly hasn’t hurt to get some more very nice reviews, both on Amazon and on social media. This review on Amazon was my 25th, and we’re still at 100% when it comes to 5-Star reviews. I’m sure you’ll need to click on the review to be able to read it.

Alan Reinhart also posted some kind words the other day, announcing that he just completed his second full reading of the book. Now that’s amazing! Thanks, Alan!

And speaking of my book and the plethora of memories I was able to include in it, I did take time and care to write about my years at Mary Queen of Peace elementary school, with much of the focus being on how important 6th grade was for me, my focus, and my development as a student.

The reasons for that were very much based on Mrs. Luna, our teacher, and my classmate Larry Eberle. As I recounted in the book, Mrs. Luna saw something in both Larry and me that others had not, and she directly helped me blossom as a student and a person. Larry was my best friend and a terrific inspiration. Artistically, he may still be the most talented person I’ve ever known. And I’m talking about when he and I were in 6th grade! Larry is second from the right in the third row, in this tattered and nearly ruined old photo. I’m second from the left, in the second row. And yes, both of my sisters had to wear those “adorable” uniforms for eight years. I just had to wear khaki pants, a white shirt, and a blue tie. As you can see with the guys in the front row, our parents often tried to get two years of wear out of each pair of pants, despite the fact our legs were miraculously getting longer.

Well, this one is much shorter than last week’s but I also didn’t travel to the United Kingdom, or have family from Florida up here for Thanksgiving, so it is what it is.

Remember, if you read this blog and liked what you read, please “Like” it by clicking the button at the top. You can’t have too many “Likes” in this biz. I checked on that.

See you next time I’m here, and I aim to at least get something posted from Hawaii next week. Aloha!

Bob Wilber, at your service and already salivating for a Mai Tai…