Welcome to Monday. Under typical circumstances, that is usually not all that great of a thing. After all, I spend about half my Mondays traveling each year, and during the other half I spend them as Mondays, in their default setting as everyone's least favorite day of the week. This time, the latter is true but it's the Monday of Charlotte week, and that makes it the official first day of the post- season and therefore it jump-starts our own unofficial "countdown to the Countdown." That's way better than having it just be a Monday...

Say what you will about the Countdown (and there has never really been a lack of bombastic statements out there in internet-land) as racers we not only accepted it when they devised it, we also embraced it. It adds a ton of excitement and drama to the season, it makes every race and every lap all that more important, and it creates a thrilling championship chase, just like in the stick-and-ball world. The regular season is what it is, and now we're in the playoffs. I've never understood how a small minority of drag racing fans can firmly understand that concept when it comes to football, baseball, basketball, and hockey but then can't get their heads around it for racing. If you're one of those people, believe me I've heard every complaint and twist on the thinking, but I'm sorry... I think it's great and I long ago got tired of hearing the chirping.

I was working for a different team last year, obviously, so I only witnessed Tim's deal from afar (although, trust me on this one, people from all sorts of other teams were not only following Tim's season and Countdown, but rooting for him as well), and I thought he handled it perfectly and with great dignity. Could he have squawked to high heaven that he "wuz robbed" because he would've wrapped up the trophy
well before the end of the season had it not been for the Countdown? Yes, I guess he could have, but he never did because that would've been completely out of character for him. From the time they announced the creation of this playoff system, we all knew how it worked and we all knew the rules. Tim and the team knew it, and understood it, but they came up one day short of making it happen. Another team got hot at the right time, winning the last three races, and that's how it ended up.

And look at it this way: An NFL team can go 15-1 in the regular season, and just dominate all the teams they beat. If they then go on to lose in the Super Bowl, no one protests that the wrong team got the Lombardi Trophy. Those guys all knew they needed to win one more game, and they didn't. In the end, on that day, even if the other team in the Super Bowl was a 10-6 team in the regular season, that other team got the win and the trophy. That's just how it is.

So now we're in the playoffs, and we awake to find ourselves not 350 points behind Tony Pedregon, like we were at the end of the day in Indy, but instead only 70 points back. It would only be a bit hypocritical for us to say '08 wasn't fair, but this works just fine, thank you very much. LOL... And if it makes anyone feel better, at least in the racing world we are separated by a few points to begin the playoffs. In the stick-and-ball world, everybody starts the playoffs basically even, and all you have to do is win. It's not like the Yankees will take on the Wild Card team and be spotted two games in the first round. Tony Pedregon, however, does get spotted some "wins" to start with, since he finished the regular season in the top spot. Compared to us, he's been spotted four rounds, and we all understand that.

So anyway, it's the start of a very exciting stretch of racing, and it all kicks off with Charlotte followed by three more races in a row, as we swing through the lower right quadrant of the country. The "Lower Right Quadrant of the Country Swing" just doesn't seem to have the same ring or allure as the "Western Swing" but we'll work on it...

For the rest of this blog, I shall simply ramble. I can "Ramble On" like Led Zeppelin, or be a "Ramblin' Man" like the Allman Brothers, I suspect. Tough call...

Here's the latest addition to the walls in my office, just back from the framing shop up the road and already hung. The guys at Auto Imagery put this cool collage of images together, from Seattle, and Tim bought one for each of us. I'm proud to have it on the wall as my first bit of Team Wilkerson memorabilia from a big race win. It's very cool, and since it's in front of me all day, I can glance up there and get a jolt of "winner's adrenalin" whenever I need it...

We have a special guest joining us on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. My buddy Buck Hujabre, who is in the touring company for the "Jersey Boys" show, will take the weekend off (they're in Boston now) to fly down to Charlotte and hang out with us. Hopefully, he'll get a chance to enjoy some of that same adrenalin for at least a round or two on Sunday.

I been in touch with the agency that is handling pre-show publicity in Charlotte for "Jersey Boys" (they'll be there for a couple of weeks in early April) and we're discussing how we can help each other in terms of getting a boost from having one of their actors with us. We're working on some ideas...

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I can easily state that it was one of the better weekends you could have if you're a sports fan in the Twin Cities. The Univ. of Minnesota Golden Gophers opened their new stadium on Saturday night, and they beat a tenacious Air
Force team in the first outdoor Gopher home game in about 30 years. Barbara and I have never been big Gopher football fans since we moved here, for a couple of reasons. 1) They haven't ever been very good since we moved here, and 2) The Metrodome is as bad a place to watch college football as it is to watch baseball.  With the new stadium and a better team, there's a lot of buzz about them, and sure enough we were all watching the game over at Dave and Nichol's on Saturday night, while we were celebrating Dave's birthday. I won't say how old he is, but it rhymes with forty nine.

Then, on Sunday, the Vikings opened the regular season in Cleveland, with some guy wearing the number 4 at quarterback. It took them a half to get it together, but their overall strength and another guy, who wears 28 and goes by the name Adrian Peterson, finally wore down the Browns and they got a big "W" to start the season. Me thinks Mr. Favre is going to enjoy handing the ball off to Mr. Peterson...

And, to cap it off, our beleaguered Twins, who have been playing like Twinkies, finally actually won a game on Sunday, too. The Detroit Tigers have been doing all they can to allow the Twins to catch them, but our guys have matched them loss for frustrating loss. It's the division nobody wants to win, I guess...

Plus, our Wild opened preseason workouts on Sunday, at the same time the Vikings were on TV and the Twins were at the Dome, and lo and behold about 2,500 people actually drove down to the Xcel Arena to see them skate around. We do love our hockey in these parts...

Here at the ranch, I've had a much better summer in my ongoing battle with mole critters. As opposed to years past, when it was a pitched battle that took all year and often featured a plethora of little digging maniacs all tearing up various parts of my yard simultaneously, this time it's just been two quick battles. I got one out front a couple of weeks ago, to make it Bob 1 - Moles 0, and then a few days ago I spotted a destructive trail coming up into the yard from the pond in back. Badda boom, badda bing, the score goes to 2-0. You can probably even see the yellowish trail I used as the target point in my relentless pursuit. It's visible because the little jerks plow right through the grass roots with their tunnels.

As for my method, the traps gently and pleasantly embrace the little moles until I can free them, rehabilitate them, and give them the confidence to lead good productive lives without harming people's property. It's mostly a self-esteem thing. Yeah, right... It's a bit more like BANG, and it's over. It doesn't appear to me that they feel a thing...

Barbara has been in Chicago since Sunday morning, on a business trip, and tonight a bunch of them are going to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field. It will be Barb's first time at Wrigley, and I'm sure she'll enjoy the experience. Wrigley and Fenway are two stops every baseball fan should find a way to make...

I leave you today with this perfect illustration of just how nice it was on Sunday. A certain Big Fella was reveling in his ability to come and go as he pleases out on the porch... Nothin' better than just hanging out in the breeze, listening to the birds and smelling all that nature... Okay, doing all that while someone gives you freeze-dried salmon treats would be better, but a cat can't have everything.

Now, let's keep getting ready for Charlotte and the Countdown, and let's start growing our playoff beards. Actually, I suspect we won't partake in that last item, but maybe one of these years I can convince Tim to take on that Stanley Cup Playoffs tradition, just to see if it might not work in drag racing...

Wilber, out!