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December 1st, 2016

Welcome back from Thanksgiving! I hope your holiday was warm, fulfilling, and a solid slice of family to go with the turkey. We ventured south to Orlando, and had a very heartwarming few days there, but more about that later. We’ll start this installment, instead, with more updates on “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.”

When I started the book, 11 months ago, I was clueless as to just about every aspect of producing such a thing. I just sat down and started writing before my fears about all the details, and the huge amount of work it would entail, could scare me away. I learned a lot about writing, and about flow and concise language, and then I began to learn even more about editing. Right now, I’m still learning.

After going back through all 36 chapters with a magnifying glass and a sharp knife, I got it down to 33 chapters by eliminating one and condensing two others into the chapters ahead of them. I also found some stories and paragraphs that were fine, but not essential to the story. It was a long slow process.

This week, I’ve gone back and done it all again, front to back. It serves a number of good purposes, in that it allows me to finally stand back from this huge mural to see all of it at once, instead of just the chapter I’m working on, or just the page I’m writing. It allows me to see it as a book. In that regard, it’s a fabulous thing.

And, when doing my editing, it takes time and patience to let it all soak in to a point where your eyes spot individual words, buried deep in paragraphs, and your brain alerts you to make even tiny changes. It’s like a “how did I not see that before?” moment each time you make an edit, and there have been plenty of them to make. Today, I polished off the final three chapters and the epilogue. Today, Greg Halling also tackled the same process one more time, editing from front to back. He’s just at Chapter 2, so there’s a way to go for him, but he’s a pro. And that leads me to one other thing I had not considered when I started: If patience is a virtue, I was going to need to be the most virtuous version of me possible. This takes time.

If I wanted the book to simply be a 600-page version of my blog, I could slog through it and fire it off. But it’s not like that. It’s a book. I want it to be a very good book. I want my readers to not just like it, but feel the need to attack each page to see what surprises are in store for them. I want it to be what we call “a page turner” from start to finish. That takes time, and it takes a great amount of care.

Plus, now we’re into the photo section, and I’m carefully going over my archives to find the best ones that relate to important stories in the book. My first collection would’ve filled 50 pages. Now, I am editing this final section of the book, as well. And that doesn’t even count the photos I’ve secured from Mark Rebilas and Richard Shute (who owns AutoImagery.com). Many of the photos from Mark and Richard will be absolutely central to the project, since they cover much of my NHRA career. Mark also shot the cover, so there’s that bonus as well.

And, there’s a lot of paperwork that goes into this. Every copyrighted photo needs a sign-off from the owner. Each one must be accompanied by a form with legal signatures.

Meanwhile, it’s December 1st and I’m itching to be done with all of these processes. But it takes time. You can’t just cut corners and hope for the best, unless you expect the worst. Day by day, we’re getting there.

Taking last week completely off was a bad thing, in this regard, but the best thing in others. 11 months is a long time to devote to something like this, and I needed a chance to recharge my mental (and physical) batteries before making the charge to the absolute finish line. Greg felt the same way. Now we’re up to max speed again.

Aside from the writing and editing, I’ve continued to receive some wonderful endorsement “blurbs” from famous and influential people. To get these endorsements has a been a fun reward for all the endless work, and I’m thankful so many high-profile folks have been willing to add their comments to the book. I think (hope) you’ll be impressed when you see them.

From a PR perspective, I’ll be working with one of the best ever and we’re communicating regularly to put a firm plan in place for interviews, promotions, and other publicity. I’ve also decided that it would be best to stay active at the track on the NHRA tour, so I’m formulating a plan to do that officially, in a small but hopefully effective associate sponsorship way. Being at the track for a few early races, when the book is finally available, will be a very good thing. I don’t want to be out of sight and out of mind.

Now, about last week. The reasons for the trip were many. It’s family. It’s Thanksgiving. There are two four-month old twin girls to see. There was turkey!

Barbara, with her favorite little girls.
Barbara, with two precious little girls. (Click to enlarge)

Arabella and Anastasia were waiting to meet me, and eager to have Barbara back in their midst for much nurturing and surrogate mothering. They. Are. Adorable.

And, even at four months they have very distinct personalities that I’m sure will become even more distinct as they grow. They’re both extraordinarily sweet and very calm, but “Baby Stazzy” is much different than “Baby Bella” in many ways. Bella is already smiling and laughing and starting to really lock in on her surroundings. Stazzy (I made up that spelling of what everyone calls her) is very quiet and observant, but she seems not yet ready to trust the world. She’s got a worried look on her face a lot, but she also sleeps like an absolute world champion. Both of them are priceless.

We got down there Wednesday, after a very early start to the day. Our flight was at 7:00, so we were up at 4:30 and our cab picked us up at 5:15. Ugh. Anyone who knows my standard travel schedule knows I’m not one for early morning flights. The good news was we had little trouble getting through TSA Pre-Check and I slept a lot on the plane. That’s a sentence I almost never write.

I’m great at sleeping when I really need to be awake. I’m terrible at sleeping when it would be a great benefit, like on airplanes. This time, I slept for a solid hour and dozed for the rest of it. Of course, I was completely groggy when we got there and never really did snap out of it, but at least I got some sleep. It could be said that I once fell asleep during an English class in high school, and I still haven’t really snapped out of it.

On Thursday, we were at Todd and Angie’s house early, and Barb’s sister Kitty was staying there, so we were all present and accounted for. While Todd, Angie, and Barb took turns doing feedings and inducing the subsequent burps, I helped Kitty as her assistant. I chopped, grated, peeled, fried, and assembled. I even made the mashed potatoes with a big giant mixer that scared me as much as it made the process go smoothly.

Angie was on-call for her job, so we didn’t schedule dinner until 6:00, knowing that if she did get called in she could be home by then. The home was filled with wonderful aromas for most of the day. It felt every bit like Thanksgiving. And after Angie’s father, her brother, and his significant other arrived, we sat down and enjoyed an absolutely masterful feast. Kitty is THAT good when it comes to cooking. To me, I’m a cook. She’s a chef.

And that’s how Thanksgiving goes, right? People work all day, preparing a marvelous meal, and when you sit down it’s all over in about 15 minutes and you’ve gone from hungry to completely stuffed. But oh so wonderfully stuffed.

On Friday, we loaded the girls in one of our cars and headed to a place Barbara and I had never visited. I’m not sure I knew it even existed. We went to Disney Springs. As far as I know, it’s the only Disney property at the resort you can enter for free, and even park for free. It’s full of high-end retail, great restaurants, and fun activities. So it’s free to get in, just like any mall, but it’s hard not to be wowed into spending a couple of hundred dollars between the shopping and the eating. And a glass of wine. For the record, we ate at the the Irish pub and it was fantastic. Stazzy and Bella benefitted directly from a one-hour shopping spree Barb and Kitty embarked upon.

Worst selfie ever!
Worst selfie ever!

There’s one “ride” at Disney Springs, and it’s a huge balloon that takes a dozen or so people into the air at once. Do not fret, it’s attached to a cable.

As it began its descent, I tried my best to shoot a selfie with Barbara, but it ended up being me, the balloon, and her visor. Worst selfie ever.

Having gone there in two cars, Todd and I bailed out at 4:15 and headed for downtown Orlando to attend the Magic’s home game against the Washington Wizards. It was good for the two of us to get away for some “guy time” with all the mothering that’s been going on.

On Friday, more of the same until around noon, when we loaded the girls up again and took them just a few blocks to Lake Eola, right in the heart of downtown Orlando. After a leisurely walk around the beautiful lake, with me doing much of the stroller pushing, it was time for Barb and I to head for the airport. A few hours later, on Saturday evening, we were home.

Until recently, I only had an outsider’s view of Orlando. Like most people, I only saw it as the town that gave Disney and Universal a place to be. I never really thought of the city much, at all. Turns out, it’s a pretty neat place.

Downtown Orlando is far more cosmopolitan and far more residential than I ever realized. It has a vibrant street scene, and there are always people out and about. Our hotel, an Embassy Suites, overlooked the lake and it seemed like it was always buzzing with activity. If someone asked me “Would you live in downtown Orlando?” I think my response would be, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.” It’s a fun place, even without the theme parks.

Next week, I was supposed to be getting on a big jet to fly all the way to London, as in England. Barb and I were going to spend four days there, but after much soul searching it became obvious to me that I was attempting to cram too much travel and too much fun into a time when I really need to devote every hour to the book. Barbara was great with that, and she’s still working on her nephew Todd to get him to visit there with her. He’s never been to Europe, and at first he dismissed the notion outright, due to the girls. When Angie and Kitty promised him they could handle the babies for a few days, he began to consider it. At the Magic game, he said to me, “So tell me about England and Europe.”

I don’t know for sure if he’s all in, but I think Barb convinced him to meet her there. He’ll be so happy he did, once he gets there. I really hope he goes.

Here at the house, we only had one day to do some Christmas decorating but we managed to get a lot done. We also made the decision to forego a tree this year. We gave our artificial tree to Barbara’s niece Leah, when she and her boyfriend Levi came to Liberty Lake and drove home with a truck load of furniture and other household items they picked out prior to our move back to Minnesota.

This house really isn’t set up for a big tree, without moving quite a bit of furniture, and for a while we considered putting a tree on the screened porch, but then we had other ideas.

Let there be lights!
Let there be lights!

We hired the same company that used to decorate our old Woodbury house to come out and put lots of lights and natural garland here, but we reversed course when doing it. We have a couple of lights and decorations out front, but the design of this detached townhouse puts most of the focus on the backyard, so we had them heavily decorate our crabapple tree and our pergola. It looks great, and our neighbors on both sides have told us they love that we did it.

I hadn’t really stopped to think about all of this before we got ready to spend our first Christmas here. The design of these townhomes is fairly brilliant, in terms of privacy. They all built very close together, but 90 percent of the views are reserved for the private backyard. We have only small rectangular windows on each side of the house, to let in some light. The front windows are in the office. But, in the living room and master bedroom, we have large windows facing the yard and a big sliding glass door to the porch. It feels open and private at the same time.

And since that’s our view, it made sense to decorate back there. If we went all out on the front of the house, we’d only see that when we drove up the driveway. This way, we leave the shades up and get to enjoy the twinkling lights until the timer shuts them off at 10 pm.

Ho Ho Ho
Ho Ho Ho

And, for close to 18 years we’ve had a Santa and Mrs. Claus that we’d put at our dining room table, seated in two chairs in front of a big window facing the street. Well, we don’t have a set-up like that here, so we put them out on the porch. I still have a couple of additional things to do this weekend, and then we’ll be as decorated as we’re going to get. And it’s starting to turn cold, after the warmest autumn on record here. It was crazy to go through almost all of November in the 60s and 50s. Now it’s in the 30s and that feels cold, which is also crazy. We could easily have two feet of snow on the ground by now, but all we have is dead leaves.

So that’s about it. I’m back in the saddle, back in my groove, back in the driver’s seat, and back from Orlando. It was a week off, but I needed it.

See you next Thursday!

Bob Wilber, at your service and not going to England next week.

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