A little more than a week ago I mentioned, to the young lady giving me a haircut, that I hoped I wasn’t jinxing us but I was pretty sure spring had actually sprung out here in scenic Liberty Lake, Wash. We’d broken the standard winter-long string of gray and gloomy days, the clouds had lifted, the mountains were clearly visible, and we even had some heavy spring rains instead of the incessant fog, smog, and gunk. It sure felt like spring…
Consider me the jinx. We’re not back to winter by any means, but we are back to a string of gloomy days with a lot of rain. Which brings to mind the gag from childhood that went “If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?” The answer, of course, was “Pilgrims”. That always got big laughs in the fourth-grade classroom. I’m here all night. Remember to tip your bartenders and waitresses.
Anyway, we’re stuck in an Inland Northwest rut of overcast skies, afternoon drizzle, and even a few showers from time to time, and that’s just making me want to get to Gainesville all the more. One week from today I’ll fly from Spokane to Minneapolis-St. Paul, then I’ll spend the night in Woodbury before getting on my Friday flight to Tampa. From there, an evening drive up to Ocala to spend Friday night before getting up early on Saturday to spend the entire day at the track in Gainesville. I can’t wait. And, spending the night in Woodbury means I split a very long trip into two just normally long segments. The only way to travel farther in the continental United States would be to fly to Miami, instead of Tampa, so stopping in the Twin Cities in each direction is a fine way to make me less weary. Or at least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. A week from today, I also may need to get the laptop out on the plane if I want to hit my Thursday Blog Day deadline. I can do that.
And, a week from Monday I’ll be at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers to watch the Twins play the Pirates in a spring training game, with my good friend John Fink. Win Twins! Photos will be taken, and I’m looking forward to getting back to Hammond Stadium to see all the updates and renovations they’ve made since the last time Finkster and I attended a game. Now, the entire main grandstand is made up of individual stadium seats, so no more bleachers and sore backs for us! Hot dogs and peanuts are probably a sure bet, too.
Speaking (writing) of spring, I can’t believe this weekend is the start of Daylight Saving Time. I’m also relieved it’s not next weekend, since the loss of an hour of sleep when attending a race is usually not a good thing. In the fall, when we go back to standard time, it’s usually on the Saturday night nearest Halloween, and that was unanimously appreciated by all of us in college. We were big into Halloween parties, and having an extra hour of sleep after such a soiree was always a plus. My best costume in college? My junior year I went all-out as a rock star. I blew my hair out and sprayed it into submission, put some glitter on my face, wore my best T Rex platform shoes, put on some wide bell-bottom pants, and walked in to the party carrying a plywood guitar I’d made myself. You know those electric guitars that are V-shaped? Gibson made them famous and their most popular model was actually called the Gibson Flying V, and as modern as it still looks it was actually first produced in 1957. Well, I got the electric saw out at my folks’ home in Kirkwood, Mo. and carved one of those bad boys out, then spray painted it glossy black with a white center, before adding strings that were made of actual string. As in twine. I was a huge hit, if I must say so myself, and my roommate Lance’s sister came along as my groupie. Epic.
And, since Thursday is not just blog day but also Throwback day on Facebook and other social media, I shall indulge in another trip back to Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville in the early spring of 1977. It had been a very snowy and cold winter, and in March our ballpark was still mostly covered in the white stuff, with many of the drifts remaining thigh-high. We had been working out indoors to get ready for our baseball season, which would start with a spring trip to warmer climes, including a two-game set against the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, and the school paper decided they wanted to shoot some photos of a few of us in the snow, as a send-off. My teammates Stan Osterbur and Dave Schaake accompanied me to the ballpark and we frolicked in the snow for the cameras. I had a few of these photos in my musty old scrapbook, but until Stan emailed this one to me I had never before seen it. I present to you the 21-year old version of me, along with my teammates, preparing to throw snowballs at the photographer if he didn’t let us get out of there to warm up our frozen feet.
So, how’s the book writing going? You asked that, right? Well, it goes well. Thank you.
Oh, you wanted more detail? Well, I finished Chapter 9 by working on it a lot over the weekend, and that’s the first time I’ve extended my work week to do that. Barbara had a lot going on as well, so when she’d have to dive into her laptop I’d do the same, and by Sunday night I was done with the chapter and had put another 18,000 words into print. That’s roughly 35 pages. Chapter 10 is underway this week.
Monstrous Chapter 9 is about the summer of 1978. As I mentioned last week, I’d been signed by the Detroit Tigers and sent off to Bristol in the Appalachian League, but before the season started I was optioned, along with two of my Tiger teammates, to Paintsville, Ky. in the same league. It was a very memorable summer in a very unique part of the country, and it was honest-to-goodness professional baseball. I knew it at the time because on the 1st and 15th of each month I got a paycheck. For playing a game I’d always happily played for free. Little did I know at the time that I’d be going back to the Tri-Cities annually for many years, after NHRA added Bristol Dragway to the tour. Great memories, and that chapter was huge fun to write.
And, since I gave you a snippet of Chapter 9 last week, when it was still a work in progress, I’ll have to skip including a teaser this week. Chapter 10 is still far too much in first-draft form to include anything here, but hopefully a week from now (whether I’m writing on a plane or not) I’ll have something new to share.
And, considering I’m probably now one-third of the way done with the writing, I’ve begun the process of digging into various options for self-publishing. A friend of ours from the old neighborhood in Woodbury just self-published a book about public speaking, and she used a Minneapolis-based company called Mill City Press. She said they did a fine job, but the entire publishing process from manuscript to having a printed book in her hand took a year! Well, that’s way too long for me, but her book was full of illustrations so maybe that slowed the process down. She also had them provide the cover design, the graphics, principal photography, and editing but I’ve already hired experts to do that, so hopefully my timeline would be shorter if I choose that firm.
I’m also looking at a publishing house called Outskirts Press, and I’m going to keep researching until I find the right group to work with. If any of you own your own publishing firm and you want to pay me an enormous advance to print my book, just let me know. I’ll sit right here and check my email every 10 minutes…
You’re not going to believe this but I did not go to a Bruce Springsteen concert this week.
Here as I write today’s blog installment, my bodyguard and copy editor are by my side keeping track of things. Bodyguard Buster sits in his usual location, atop my printer, to keep a sharp eye on the front yard. In all of my years writing this blog, I have never been attacked by an elephant, rhinoceros, or even a crow, so he obviously does a great job. The crows worry him quite a bit, though, and the sight of one elicits primal grunts and growls, but he stays at his post. He stays there until I get up from my chair, anyway, and at that point he will become my advance man by sprinting into the kitchen to make sure the coast is clear in case I want to give him treats. Dedication!
As for his brother, Boofie, it’s another tough day standing right next to my laptop to keep an eye on the magic letters that appear here when my fingers move. And that little arrow-shaped cursor? Hoo boy, that thing is mesmerizing but he hasn’t been able to grab it off the screen yet. He’s not short of perseverance!
(25 minutes later…)
I had to take a break for a bit to have a carpet-cleaning guy walk the house to give me an estimate on some in-home spring cleaning. We also have to make about a dozen runs to Goodwill in the coming weeks, just to purge this place of a bunch of apparel and other items we really don’t need. And, at some point this spring we’re even going to donate some of the furniture we brought here from the old house in Woodbury. There’s a halfway house in Spokane that always needs furniture for the housing they provide, and they’ll even come out with a truck to pick it up. I think that’s a great thing and we’ll feel good about sending some of this slightly used stuff to a new life making someone else feel at home during a tough time.
In the world of dining-out news, we got “outside the bubble” the other night, when Barbara had her car in for service in downtown Spokane. After we picked it up on Tuesday night we stayed downtown and she took me to a pub/bistro/restaurant called The Onion. It was fantastic! I mean truly off-the-hook great, with spectacular food and a terrific vibe. Plus, the Gonzaga basketball team was playing in the championship game of their conference tournament, and if they won they’d get an automatic berth in the NCAA tourney, so that was on every television in the place. Can’t believe we’ve been here four years and that was the first time I’ve eaten there. If you’re ever in Spokane, check it out and don’t even think about ordering anything other than the bacon-wrapped tater tots as your appetizer. Seriously. Wow.
So that’s about it today. I’ve been such a writer for the last week it seems like that’s all I’ve done, and since I didn’t travel anywhere in the last seven days I’m short of material. But I’ll make it up to you all in the next two installments, as I head across the country to attend my first NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing event of 2016.
Well, sometimes you just have to type something to jar a thought loose, and that last paragraph did just that for me. In just the last couple of days, we got two nice pieces of news from NHRA, and both were nicely positive. I’d like to brag that I called this first piece of news late last year, but until the actual numbers came out it was all still speculation. Now it’s official. The move to Fox Sports 1 has already paid off for NHRA and for the fans. Our ratings for the first two races were up 15% over last year, and that’s remarkable considering we’re on a totally new network. I could’ve understood if they stayed flat or were even down a little compared to ESPN2, because of the switch and people’s natural tendencies to need some time to find a new network, but instead they’re up considerably. I will go on record as saying I think they’ll go up even more as the season plays out, and the four races on the main FOX network will set all-time NHRA ratings records. You heard it here first.
Secondly, there had been some talk about NHRA also offering a premium “live streaming” online service, and that’s going to be up and running starting next weekend. For just $99.95 for the rest of the season, you can tune in on your digital devices and see it all as it streams out to the world. That’s fantastic news for everyone, and the price is a total bargain. There are 22 races left to go this year, so that’s basically $4.50 per race, to see every qualifying session and round of eliminations. If you want to sign up for it (I already did!) just go here:
http://nhraallaccess.com
Okay, now (finally) that’s about it for today. Remember, wet shoes in the snow are no fun, no elephants have been harmed in the production of this blog, and go to The Onion if you’re ever in downtown Spokane. Get the bacon-wrapped tater tots, too.
Bob Wilber, most truly at your service!