Yesterday was what I'd have to consider a fine and productive day.  Right at this precise moment on Wednesday, I'm sitting at my desk in my newly painted and redecorated office, typing away at my brand-spanking-new 15-inch MacBook Pro, which features a gazillion gigs of this and a bazillion bytes of that, not to mention a beautiful screen and really cool keyboard.  All is good, and if the guy up at the techie-geeky repair place is telling me the truth, later today I might even have the data from my old one back, files intact. Fingers crossed on that one, but since I was expecting the worst I've actually been rebuilding spreadsheets and formats anyway...

Being a prehistorically old guy, a great deal of my life was spent in the pre-computer days, or at least in the days before everyone had a personal computer at home, or even in their hands.  I was already 35 years old the first time I sat down at a computer and began to work, and this new MacBook is now my 10th or 11th computer (all but one of which were Macs, the other being a Compaq laptop that challenged even the most clear-thinking minds).  Through all of that history I do, at least, have quite a bit of experience with everything that's involved in getting started and set up when the new baby comes home.  With each passing generation of technology, that part of the deal seems to get better and better (at least in the Mac world) and this thing was an absolute marvel.

It is, simply put, the smartest computer I've ever had to the pleasure to own.  Just a few years ago, when setting up my first PowerBook, it took a long and frustrating day of trial and error to get my mail, preferences, bookmarks, printer drivers, and everything else all set up and actually working together.  Codes had to be inserted, phone calls had to be made, and much gnashing of teeth was required to make it all work, but this baby was amazing.   I got it home, opened it up, and was fully prepared to spend many hourson all that stuff, but instead the little bugger knew what I wanted and did it for me!  Within 30 minutes, I was sending out my pre-Denver feature story to my full mailing list (more on that in a bit, when I rave about the people at the Apple Store).

It found my mail preferences, set up my Earthlink account, and was ready to go with one click.  After that, I feared the worst when it came to the printer, my Nikon digital camera, and my Verizon air card, but this thing did it all.  When we had the wireless system put in here at the house, the Geek Squad guys from Best Buy did it all and it took many hours to get my Mac and Barb's IBM machine to work on the system, but the hardest part was making the printer a wireless device, so you don't have to have the printer cord plugged into your computer.  Even the Geek Squad guys were having a hard time getting our laptops to find the printer via wireless, much less print anything that way (and even though my old laptop was still doing fine, Barb's IBM ThinkPad had long since lost the ability to do that).  Yesterday, I thought "Well this will never work, but I'm just going to try to print something..."  Good golly Miss Molly, the first screen that popped up asked me if I'd like to select the HP LaserJet printer the computer had found.  I clicked on "Yes" and my document printed.  You could've knocked me over with a feather.

That made me bold, so I plugged the camera in next.  Even on my old PowerBook, I had to download a whole software program from a Nikon disc, to get the camera and the computer to talk to each other, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  Instantly, iPhoto opened up and all of my photos were there.  What's even better is that iPhoto seems a lot better than Nikon's software, in terms of seeing, selecting, and organizing pics, so that's done now too.  As you can see, I already have that cool pic of Tim coming out for driver introductions in Norwalk as my wallpaper...

Finally, I really knew deep in my heart there was no way my Verizon air card was going to work without at least a few calls to the Verizon tech center, but I plugged it in anyway.  The PowerBook had Verizon's software installed, and I even had a little Verizon icon on my desktop to click on when I wanted to connect, so I figured I'd need that on this one, but instead it found the device as soon as I plugged it in, recognized what it was, and asked me if I wanted to connect to the internet.  Badda boom, badda bing, done deal.   Crazy, I tell ya...

The new MacBook Pro...  5 Stars!

So that means I've already had a terrific consumer experience with the actual machine itself.  How about the customer service experience when I was buying it?  Other than the fact my trip to Mall of America was a waste of time because the Apple Store there is being remodeled and doesn't open up again until this Friday, it was beyond flawless and beyond anything you could hope for.  I went to Rosedale Mall instead, and no sooner walked in before I had an Apple rep talking to me, asking why I was there and what my needs were.  We talked about my dearly departed PowerBook, and about what I do for a living, including the fact my precious and irreplaceable mailing list was now only in existence on my iPhone.

Over the course of the next hour, I not only bought the computer (and got a free printer!!!) but at any given time I had the help of three to five Apple folks, all of whom took a real interest in helping me move the mailing list from the phone to the laptop, which is something even they were careful about because simply making the two devices sync in their normal fashion would have actually caused the contents of the computer (nothing) to be moved to the phone, and everything would've been lost.  The first guy I was talking to said "So when you get home, take your time.  Do not hurry, or you'll mess this up."  He was starting to write it all down for me, step by step, but then said "Oh heck, let's just do it right now.  Do you have a few minutes?"  He brought over a couple of colleagues, and step by step we walked through it, until there it was, my whole PR mailing list and all my contact groups, right there on the computer.  They were all high-fiving and patting me on the back, and everyone was all smiles.

The Apple Store consumer experience...  Second to none.

Oh, and they also set me up with a thing called Mobile Me, an on-line program that constantly keeps my data backed-up off-site, while it also automatically syncs my laptop and my phone without me having to do anything.  Since it backs everything up, I can go get it if anything happens to my hard drive.  It's completely wireless and seamless, and is kind of amazing to watch, actually...

So...  (deep contented breath)...  Back to blogging.

Tim is in Denver as I write this, and is actually at the NHRA press conference without me.  For the St. Louis race, I had to change my flight a couple of different times after we accepted the invite to the press deal, and that about tripled my cost.  Chicago was even worse, as I changed my ticket, or bought totally new ones, four times, turning a $180 round trip into about a $700 financial fiasco.  I'd already booked my Thursday ticket into Denver when they asked Tim to be a part of this week's press event, and he told me "Just get someone to drive me downtown and don't worry about it.  I've been to this rodeo before and know what to do, so don't spend the money to change your ticket."  Of course, even after changing the flight and spending that money, there would also be two extra hotel nights included, since I'd have had to go in on Tuesday night to make sure I was there on Wednesday morning.   I thanked the boss, and wished him well...

When I spoke to Tim a couple of hours ago, he was lined up with all the other motorhomes, outside the gates waiting to be parked.  Jeff Sipes, from Bandimere, was going to pick him up and take him to the press deal, at Morton's Steakhouse in Denver.  I am a bit sad I missed out on that of the deal!  Sheesh. 

I don't know if you've heard, but Denver's schedule was altered to make this a pseudo-nighttime deal. We run at 5:30 and 8:00 on Friday, and 4:30 and 8:00 on Saturday, and the gates don't even open until 10:00 each day.  On Sunday, round one goes off at 12:00 noon.   That will be great for the fans, getting to see two night sessions, but it's really going to wear the guys out.  They'll be out there by 10:00, I bet, the first two days and will be lucky to be back at the hotel by midnight each night...

To make matters a little worse, take a look at the Accuweather.com forecast, and you can see that we're not only going to be out there for a lot of hours, but we're going to be feeling that prime midsummer Denver weather.   97 on Friday???  Yeeowch!!!   It's going to be a sizzler, and it's really easy to get dehydrated up on the mountain, so we're all going to have to make sure we're getting enough water. 

We go to a lot of hot places each year, and any guy in the pit area can regale you with stories about the hottest of the hot (St. Louis, Sonoma, Memphis, and Denver will all certainly be in the mix of tales, no doubt) but Bandimere's heat is a far more intense experience, because of the altitude.  When it's sunny and it's in the 90s, it feels like the sun is about 15 feet above your head, instead of 92 million miles.  Heck with frying eggs on the asphalt, I think you could broil a steak...

We're also going to have a lot of guests in our hospitality area this weekend, so we'll be keeping an eye on them as well.  It's pretty standard LRS stuff on Friday and Sunday, with average-sized groups each day, but Saturday is Dick Levi's family reunion day at the drags, when he invites the full extended family of relatives, and we're expecting more than 200 of them!   Annette, Dave, and I will be focused on making sure they have a good time and have everything they need, especially that precious cold water.  Plus, it will be great to see Dick again!

Here at the house, the painters finally finished up this morning and we're all done!  When we moved in seven years ago, the walls were nicely painted but in very muted tones of beige.  It was way better than white walls, but it was time to paint and Barbara wanted to try something a little bolder.  Well, it looks awesome, and we ended up using three  different shades of very complimentary colors, all from the same sort of "organic" earth-tone palette.  We have a lot of wood in the house, in terms of cabinets, built-ins, and floors, so it all blends together very nicely. 

We did originally try a sort of blue color on the faux chimney that runs up the living room wall, but once the first coat was on we just couldn't help but look at it and cringe a little.  At best, we got to where we could say "I don't mind it so much" but neither Barb, her mom, nor I ever said "I love it."  So, our painter Tony got after it last night, climbing the tall ladder all the way to the top (it's a faux chimney because our fireplace is an enclosed gas operation, and it just vents directly to the side of the house right behind the fake logs) and he repainted with a rich darker brown.  Now I can say I love it...

We met Tony when he did some painting work next door, at Dave and Nichol's house, and he was the first guy we called to do our interior.  He and his guys were really terrific, very professional, and completely meticulous.  The place looks like a million bucks, and we only had to pay him a small fraction of that amount.  LOL...  His work was worth every penny, seriously, and on top of how well they did the job, I can also say without reservation that you would've had a hard time getting me up on that ladder.  Okay, I'd have climbed up there, but would I have been able to cut-in the paint in a perfect line where the wall meets the ceiling, without so much as a single smudge or mistake, all why perched on one of the top rungs with nothing to hold onto?  Not a chance...

Plus, after spending a few days here, seeing all my racing stuff and asking me a bunch of questions about it, I think we have a few new NHRA fans in the world.  Tony sounded pretty excited about watching the race in Sunday night, so I hope we do well enough to get on TV a few times for him...

Anyway, it's all done now and the whole house looks great.  Next project:  Getting the carpets cleaned...

On a totally different subject, here's today's version of "It's a small world" and it features a coincidence that is simply uncanny...

Laura Y. has been a regular reader of the blog for a long time, and since she lives about 200 miles to the northwest of here, in Detroit Lakes, Minn., she often comments about the local stuff I mention.  After my report from the Twins game the other night, though, she stunned me with this story:

"Hi Bob,
 
It's Laura from Detroit Lakes.  I just had to send a quick message to you because it's the strangest thing.  I was reading your blog, as I do regularly, and was scrolling thru your pictures when picture No. 6 stopped me in my tracks.  I have a coworker named Judy, who has a daughter named Chrissy, and they are frequent visitors to the Dome.  Sadly, I have only been to one game this year but I believe they are on their fourth or fifth trip.  Anyway, as I looked at the picture I noticed a couple  of heads that looked familiar. I thought "What are the chances?" so I ran up to her desk and asked her where they were sitting yesterday and she explained it to me. I had her go to the picture on her computer and I'll be darned.....It is them!  They were sitting right in front of you and are in the picture!  We laughed and laughed...I mean what are the chances that I could pick out the back of their two heads on someone's blog."

That borders on the unbelievable, but there they are.  Amazing.

Then, Laura added this other bit about a vendor at the Twins games, of whom everyone knows.  He's a smallish guy, and he doesn't cart the big beer trays or hot dog steamers up and down the aisles, but instead strictly sells little items, like scorecards, programs, and trading cards.  While the beer and hot dog vendors are barking out their presence with loud voices ("Beer, beer, cold beer here") he barely whispers as he holds out his items in front of you, saying simply "Three dollars" while he offers them for sale.

He also sells his wares from a small stand just inside the turnstiles (and the revolving airlock doors) before the game, which is where Laura and her friend met up with him, as she relates here:

"I am also sending you a picture of Judy and me at the first game we went to this year with our "2 dollar guy."  Actually, he is now the "3 dollar guy." I guess prices go up even at the Dome.  I am sure you have seen him going up and down the aisles holding his hand up and whispering ever so quietly.. 3 dollars....3 dollars.  We just love him, so we had to get our picture taken with him and let me tell you he sure was honored. I think we made his day." 

I would imagine that Laura and Judy did, absolutely, make his day!  At the game the other night, he came up our aisle and Barb was immediately telling her mom about him, and his quiet "3 dollar" sales pitch.  Thanks Laura, and we'll see you in Brainerd!

Well, that's about it for today.  Traveling tomorrow, with a 1:00 flight from MSP to DEN, so I'll probably be back with you on Friday, before the big crowd swarms in on Saturday.  Hey, with Friday being such a long day, followed by the night sessions, maybe I'll keep a running blog going throughout the day, and send it in on Friday night...  Sounds like a plan!

Wilber, out!