Greetings blog faithful, and welcome to another Thursday in the seemingly endless parade of them. Not to be a downer, but every one of these Thursday Blog Days means we’re another week older. Not necessarily wiser, but certainly older. And for this one, I think it’s going to have to be one of those rambling “odds & ends” types of a blog, because I don’t have a major theme in mind.
As always, we can start with the book and an update about the prior week. Elon Werner had my plate pretty full with radio stuff, and all of that went very well. I’d have to say the highlight was a Sunday night interview with Kenny Sargent, Crash Gladys, and Statt Mann, who are collectively known as the SpeedFreaks from coast to coast. I’ve known them since their first year with the popular show, which was around the time of my third or fourth year with Del Worsham. Over the span of time after we first met, I got Del on the air with them countless times, and in Sunday’s interview I even admitted that a few of the post-race “live shots” we did after a big win were probably completed after beverages in red Solo cups had been consumed. If by “probably” you mean “certainly.”
The interview was fun, as I knew it would be. You can listen to it here, if you haven’t heard it yet, and please feel free (feel eager, feel compelled) to share the link on social media.
http://www.speedfreaks.tv/news/bob-wilber-on-reading-writing-and-an-authors-arithmetic/
The Freaks are awesome, and they were all incredibly generous with the praise and promotion for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.” Love you guys! Love your show!
And, as a direct result of that interview I saw another surprisingly large spike in Amazon sales. PR really works! The Kindle sales are staying consistent, as well, so that’s a good thing. I have no idea how many books are being sold on other sites, but I can’t imagine it’s too lofty of a number. When I promote it I keep it simple by sticking with the big gorilla in the room; that being Amazon. As I told an interviewer from Dallas, “The book is on sale at all the well-known retail sites, but since there’s probably not a person left in the United States who hasn’t bought something on Amazon, I just tell people to go there.”
And, since Tuesday was 4th of July, we made the best out of our social plans for what we turned into a long weekend. On Friday night, we attended our annual outdoor party hosted by Mary Beth and Joe Gillis in their lovely backyard, with stellar music provided by Ken Wanovich. The company, the food, the drinks, the tunes, and the venue were all spectacular. And yes, as you can see here, Bella was doing a great job of cleaning the paper plates.
Ken is a magnificent singer and guitarist, and his style is perfect for these gatherings of close friends and neighbors. Lots of Jimmy Buffett, Eagles, Neil Diamond, and other stuff everyone can sing along and dance to. Or at least something approaching singing and dancing. We should leave that to the trained professionals.
On Saturday, Barbara and I made a last minute decision to get lunch, but instead of staying within the “Woodbury Bubble” we ventured to the east a few miles, all the way to Stillwater, Minn. on the St. Croix River. Wisconsin is on the other side of the St. Croix and it’s a gathering place for boaters from both states. It’s a marvelous town, with Main Street running alongside the river for about a mile. Both sides of the street are crowded with old brick buildings from the town’s early days in the 1800s, and the sidewalks are jammed with shoppers, diners, and other visitors.
In the middle of town, the old historic Stillwater Lift Bridge allows direct access to Wisconsin and it can also allow larger boats to pass beneath it by raising straight up. There’s a huge new bridge just south of Stillwater, on Route 36, and it will be opening just a few days from now, after years of construction. That will ease the burden on the old bridge by a huge amount. With just one lane in each direction, and the need to allow boats to pass, the line-up of cars trying to get in or out of Stillwater could often stretch out of sight.
Stillwater is a great place to have and enjoy so nearby, although I’m glad we never went through with the idea of buying a condo there. It’s one of those “great places to visit” but it’s generally so crowded, especially on weekends, it would drive me nuts if we lived there.
We had lunch at a little pub and left there significantly more stuffed than we were when we walked in. It was our first experience with the pub delicacy known as Poutine and it did not fail to impress, in a variety of ways. It was on the appetizer list, but our server made it clear that it would feed multiple people. What she didn’t say was the the word “multiple” could mean a dozen. Basically, if you’ve never had the French Canadian dish, it’s french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. We didn’t come close to finishing it. And, its was on the appetizer menu for what reason? I’m still stuffed.
On Monday, we continued our social scene by arriving in downtown Minneapolis at 5:15 for a 7:00 pm Twins game versus the Angels. Why so early? We met friends Terry and Lynn Blake before the game for more pub grub and socializing, and they made it even better by bringing their kids, Maddy and Dylan, who are now both in college. That’s, of course, impossible but somehow true. We stopped in at The Loon first, then all descended on Target Field to enjoy the game, although we didn’t sit together. They like to sit in the left field bleachers, and we had our box-seat tickets over in the right field corner, but we took the time to hit a few of the best spots in the ballpark early on before returning to our respective locations, including the Town Ball Tavern, which is on the second deck out in the left field corner. It’s a cool place, and it features the actual floor the old Minneapolis Lakers used to play on, before they moved to someplace called Los Angeles. It also has a fantastic outdoor seating area overlooking Target Field Station, where the light rail trains drop off thousands of fans each game. Twin Cities sports fans are really good about public transportation.
On Tuesday night, we headed over to Dave and Nichol Jacobsen’s house, right next door to our old house, for hot dogs and snacks before the Woodbury fireworks. Also Sangria. My second batch ever, and if I must say so myself it was pretty good. They moved the fireworks show to a different place a few years ago, so we can’t put our lawn chairs out in the driveway anymore. We have to, instead, walk about three blocks to a little park where we can watch the show from a mile away. I’d say about 25-30 other residents joined us there, and even though there’s a delay of about a second between seeing the explosions and hearing them, it’s still way better than fighting the crowds over at the actual site. And, in the darkness our friends Scott and Barb Meehan managed to find us. Good times, good friends, and a great fireworks show. Plus, Neighbor Dave made some magnificent dogs.
And yes, it’s still bizarre to go to their house and look right at the place where we lived for 10 years. I should’ve taken a Pond Cam photo, but it was completely covered in duckweed so it wasn’t exactly attractive. We do miss that house, and the views in both directions, but Dave and Nichol are finally to the point of doing what we eventually did. Both kids, Justin and Alexa, are out of the house now, and there’s no reason to stay in such a big place. They’re officially empty-nesters, and it’s time to downsize. They’re just starting the process though, so no timetable or destination yet, but they’ll stay in Woodbury.
Terry and Lynn actually left Woodbury a year ago, downsizing in a huge way by moving to a high-rise apartment in downtown St. Paul, overlooking the Mississippi River. They really wanted to try the urban life, and have enjoyed almost all of it, but the magnetic pull of Woodbury got to them. They’re making plans to return, just like we did.
And that brings us to tonight. Why stop socializing? We’re meeting Mary Beth and Joe (our party hosts from last Friday) at the Twins game. This time, we all get to sit together.
And, any second now, the delivery guys from the store where we bought our home theater seats should be knocking on the door. Next week, I’ll put a photo on the blog.
Tomorrow is also going to be a big day. I’ll get in my car tomorrow morning and drive six hours (hopefully just that much) to the south and east, arriving in Naperville, Illinois during the late afternoon or early evening. On Saturday morning, it will be just a short drive down to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, and once I’m there I will have officially made my 2017 return to the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing world. If you’re going to be at the track on Saturday, stop by Wilk’s trailer and hospitality center to say hello. And if you don’t have the book yet, we should have it on sale at the Stupid Fast souvenir trailer. Not sure what price we’re going to list it at, but the autographs are free.
And yeah, I know Amazon is charging quite a bit for the book, but that was out of my control. With Outskirts Press, it’s all about the page count to finally come to the price, and I selected the lowest possible figure. Outskirts takes their slice, Amazon takes theirs, and I get a few bucks of what’s left over. Literally, I make about $8 a copy if it’s sold on Amazon. At the track, we can pick any price we want, but I will again have to share the proceeds with multiple partners and I had to pay about $25 per copy myself, so there’s that to figure into the final number. It’s a good thing I never did this to get rich, and I still haven’t been paid a penny in sales royalties anyway. I should start to receive royalties later this month. Some of it by check, some by direct deposit, so we’ll see exactly what an author makes. Maybe enough to buy another gigantic plate of Poutine!
I guess that’s it for this installment. Another Thursday has come and nearly gone…
As always, if you took the time to read this rambling mess and you enjoyed it, please “Like” it by clicking on the button at the top. And if you order Poutine, have lots of friends with you. Win Twins!
Bob Wilber, at your service and still stuffed.