Wow. I was actually going to tag this blog with a headline like "Evens and Starts" as a play on words about "Odds and Ends" and then I was going to launch into it with an opening line about how many times in the history of this blog I have just incongruously patched together a bunch of miscellaneous nonsense to form some sort of story. Then I thought about the lifespan of this blog and it hit me... We're right at four years, now! I actually don't remember the date of the first one, but it was right before Brainerd in 2005 (the old archives were never fully back-filled when the whole NHRA site was redesigned and relaunched, so that first one - in which I introduced myself to the world - is not available). Four years, boys and girls... That's the length of time you were in high school (well, some of us I guess, because high school is three years long in a lot of places, but where I went it was grades 9 thru 12...) That's the difference between being a 12-year-old kid and getting your driver's license. It's the span of time since Team CSK "doubled-up" at Indy, and Hurricane Katrina came roaring ashore in Louisiana. It's been a LONG time...

How many books worth of material have I written in four years? Enough for a few hardback publications, I imagine, and that's actually a major reason why I haven't attempted to write a diary-style book, about a year on the road in this business. There are only so many hours in the day, and so many words I can write, and this blog comes first, so the book concept remains "out there" as a possibility somewhere down the road... But what the heck, you get this rambling blog for free, so who would want to pay for a book to read the same sort of stuff?

But four years, though... Wow. That's amazing. I was in my 40s when we started this blog!

Anyway, when I finally got behind my desk this morning I had the feeling that I was obligated to get something written today, but absolutely nothing was spinning around in my head. I was at loggerheads, stymied, flummoxed, and clueless. So, I did something I have never done before in these past four years... I grabbed a notepad and started a list of things I could write about. Before long, it had 11 entries on it, including such cryptic notes as "Abbett @ game" and "Buzz Aldrin" so I felt we probably had enough material to start with, and here we go. More miscellaneous and unconnected nothingness, taking shape in the form of a blog...

It actually took me a while to get behind my desk today, but not because I slept late or because I slept in the lower level suite instead of our room. No, I'm not banished or in trouble, and as a matter of fact Barbara is actually out in San Francisco for a couple of days of business meetings, so it was my choice to sleep down there. The reason I had to make that choice was due to the fact that yesterday was the day the big carpet-cleaning van pulled up in the drive and the guys in the crisp looking suits hauled all of their big hoses and attachments in here. I had to put Da Boyce, along with their food and litter box, out on the porch for a few hours, and I had to relocate my computer to the table downstairs, while the dudes went at it, room by room.

Note: The carpet cleaner guys are really good at moving furniture and other stuff, to clear the floor for steam cleaning. But, since you have to wait 24 hours before you use those rooms again you have to move it all back yourself. And you have to vacuum all the floors one time before you do that. So, I spent much of the morning being a domestic servant and furniture mover. The cats were of no help whatsoever... They were, however, never more than an inch from the window, out on the porch, throughout the cleaning process, just staring inside as if this was the place they REALLY wanted to be...

So anyway... It's a beautiful day in Minnesota, so let's ramble!

First topic... Believe it or not this is an actual snapshot, and yes it was taken with a phone. Earlier this morning, my former teammate and longtime friend Tom Abbett, who was a crew guy for years (including a long stint with Team CSK) but is now a marketing guru for Mike Ashley, sent me a text to let me know he was at Citi Field in Queens, NY, watching the Mets play the Cardinals. As you might be able to discern, his seats were not too bad. Seven rows up from the field, just beyond first base. And, he said, Albert Pujols (who is batting in this shot - trust me) is HUGE. Yes, he certainly is...

After about the fifth or sixth text message, Tom sent one that I have to paraphrase because it's already been deleted, but it went something like "This is the perfect All-American day. I drove my Chevy to Citi Field, the sun is out, I'm watching the Cardinals, and I just had a Nathan's hot dog. Guess I need to have apple pie for dessert tonight!"

Next... Yesterday, I got a call from Halie in the NHRA Media Department, asking me if I could hook Tim up with a reporter from the Brainerd Dispatch newspaper. About five minutes later, Tim was on the phone with the guy and I was sending off background material and a slew of photos, all of which I took at the last couple of races. The story is going to run on Monday, and when it does I'll post a link here. Should be a fun one to read...

Next... Did you see the story yesterday that Ford is now the Official Car and Truck of NHRA? Being a Ford team, with our LRS Shelby Mustang, that comes as great news to us, and it should be great news to everyone. At a time when corporate sponsorship is so hard to come by, the fine folks at the blue oval have stepped up to back our sport, and that's good for everyone, whether you like ovals, bowties, or any other shape. Great to have Ford on-board with the sport in an official way!

Next... Longtime reader and emailer Larry Peters wrote to say he finally got motivated to organize some of his racing photos, die-cast cars, and other memorabilia, and he sent me a pic of the CSK section of his racing room, and the new LRS shelf above it. He's intent upon adding to the Wilk part of the deal, which is a good thing, but as soon as I saw the photo (which is in the gallery below) I spotted the two CSK Jurassic Park cars. Those were two neat bodies, and pretty unique as well. We see special edition or one-off wrap jobs all the time now, but how often do you see a car incorporate the current primary sponsor with a second promotional angle. Those cars did, because CSK allowed the artist to switch their logo out with the words Checker, Schuck's, and Kragen all in the Jurassic Park font, looking all stone-age. Add in the giant dinosaurs on the hoods and sides, and they were really neat cars. Too neat, really, to have only run one weekend, that's all they did.

It was in Denver in 2000, and we didn't have time to get the vinyl installed on the cars before the race. We had the two bodies painted red and green (Frankie Pedregon drove the green one) and the guys got to Denver with them on the Tuesday before the race. I flew in early, too, and we aimed to get both cars completed well before Friday, but the challenge we faced was the fact the pro pits didn't open until Wednesday. So, we parked our two rigs side-by-side on the gravel parking lot below the staging lanes, and did it there. 24 hours later, the cars and the transporters were up in their rightful place in the Bandimere pits, but it sure was interesting getting those two cars done down there in the parking lot...

Next... I've recently begun following Buzz Aldrin's tweets on Twitter. How cool is that! He tweets quite often, actually, and it's pretty neat to read what the second man on the moon has to say, even if he's just telling you about what he's having for dinner.

Next... One of the beat writers who covers the Twins for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is La Velle E. Neal III. Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) but back in 1994-95 he was a sports reporter for the Kansas City Star, and his beat was to cover the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, which I was running at the time. The more you dig, the more former indoor soccer people you can find now involved with other sports...

Next... Yesterday, I took the time to log on and listen to the NHRA teleconference, which featured the "bump boys" from the Funny Car class. Cruz Pedregon (10th place), Matt Hagan (11th) and Robert Hight (12th) were all on the call, along with reporters from a wide variety of publications, websites, and shows (including Gary Graves, who covers our sport for USA Today) and it was just terrific. So good, so well organized, so "major league" as a matter of fact, I felt compelled to send Michael Padian a note about how impressed I was. Michael is the Director of Public Relations for NHRA, and he's been quarterbacking an effort to move us into the realm of other major "stick and ball" sports, in terms of how we present ourselves, our data, and our stories to the media and the public. His updates, notebooks, and other PR work are fantastic, and felt like telling him that his teleconference, yesterday, was as good as anything any MLB or NFL team would do. Great stuff...

Next... STP (otherwise known as Scott The Pilot) is still in training with Korean Air, over on the other side of the Pacific. The other day, he sent me another picture from Korea, of him standing at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between South Korea and North Korea. He's taking that Wilkerson t-shirt to all sorts of places. I just hope he didn't make any quick or suspicious moves when he was at the DMZ...

Next... My good buddy Buck Hujabre, who is in the touring company of Jersey Boys, just settled into Boston for a long two-month run there. Being there that long, he and his wife Mary (who is five months pregnant!) and fellow cast member Nathan Scherich (who came with Buck to the St. Louis race last year) are all sharing an apartment in Beantown, so they don't have to live out of hotel rooms for 60 straight days. The big news, though, was that Buck, Nathan, and some other cast members got to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park, before a Red Sox game. Buck is still trying to get me a photo of them singing, and I'll pass that along when I get it, but I wanted to share a shot of him and Mary on the field at Fenway, so that's in the gallery too. Way cool...

Next... Okay, I just had to call time-out to go out front and shoo a bunch of these truly obnoxious geese away. They practically live on the little spit of land across the road from us, on the banks of the big pond, and after they've ruined the grass over there, they like to sneak across the road to our yards over here. Whenever I see them, I try to get out there and scare 'em off, before they wreak their unholy hell on my yard and Dave's... This time, I spotted the couple and their two kids who began this year with a nest out back, up against our retaining wall. You might remember the "egg watch" vigil I was on, waiting for the goslings to be born. Well, I can recognize one of the parents by his or her crooked neck (can anyone tell the difference between a male and female goose?) and the kids are all adult-looking now. So, for a split second I had a moment of melancholy before I snapped back to the reality of how invasive and disgusting Canada Geese can be, and I ran 'em all off again. When I did so, they jumped up and flew away!

I was like "Hey, you idiots can fly now! You can fly!!! So fly away!!!" The parents and the kids have all been earthbound since the eggs hatched, which is why they're always walking around in massive groups, invading people's yards and stopping traffic. At some point, they all got their flight feathers and now they can fly... I hear Manitoba is beautiful this time of year, you stupid geese. Go up there and check it out... YOU CAN FLY!!!! No need to walk all over my yard...

Next... Speaking of wildlife, we have lots of little frogs around here, as you might imagine considering we have a big pond out front and a little pond in back. Yesterday, one little frog managed to climb all the way up the side of our house, over the lower level, higher than the living room level, all the way up to our bedroom window. Little guy must've been 30 feet off the ground, and Buster was mesmerized by the sight of him. The Big Fella just couldn't figure out how to get a paw on that little morsel sitting there, looking like he'd be so much fun to play with, just outside the window... Pretty funny, actually.

Well, I guess that's it...

Four years of this, and my fingers still work... I guess, on the other hand, I could say "four years of this, and the best I could do to commemorate the occasion was a rambling blog about almost next to nothing. Hey, it's the best I could do...

Wilber, out!