So it's NEW YEARS DAY (Hurrah!) and I'm celebrating without a hangover on account of I took a wee vacation from alcohol--which had been a big part of both my social life and my carefully curated personal lore, legend & writing mystique--exactly one year ago today. It wasn't a huge, change-of-life thing, but I'd come to a point where I was swigging a bit almost every night plus even a little bit of the old sauce was having an uncomfortably large effect on me (it comes with age for a lot of folks...except for most of the Brits and Australians I know) and the morning-after effects had advanced from mere grim doldrums to painful, debilitating mental and physical quicksand.

So I thought I'd try to do without--cold turkey and just to see how long I could manage it--and today marks one solid year. Kind of proud of it, and Carol's very pleased with it, as alcohol sometimes transported me to the realm of loud, boorish asshole, which at the time I thought was more like "Hey, I'm really on a roll now!"

I'm not evangelical about it at all. Each of us is different and, like everything else, some can and some can't. Or at least shouldn't. Life changes as we get older, and I'm pretty sure most of us have to change as well to keep up with it.

End of sermon.

And now, if you'll turn to page 335 in your hymnals, we'll sing the one about Noah sending out a sea-worthy bird of some kind--I think it was a dove, and I'm sure it wasn't a penguin or a pelican--from the Ark (which was probably smelling pretty gamy by that point) to see if the rain had stopped and if there was dry land ahead...

'Cause that's what it's like outside our thankfully third-story window right now in supposedly sunny greater Los Angeles. It's been tropical monsoon-grade pouring on-and-off for several days, a that's made the nice ones seem even more precious. Sez here on my phone that it's gonna clear up a bunch after straight-up noon, and by God I'm gonna put on my life jacket & water wings and try a bike ride!

MO' CALIFORNY NEWS

As you know from the last e-blast, I did a more-successful-than-expected book signing at Tina and Chuck's incredible Autobooks/Aerobooks in Burbank last Saturday (you absolutely MUST visit...but bring the credit card that still works, as there's so much you'll want to take home!) and met up with and did a wee interview with Mark Vaughn of AUTOWEEK. Now I sold my first-ever "you're a REAL motoring writer now" stories to AUTOWEEK back in the early-to-mid 1980s, and they were instrumental in launching my ride-mooching career. But Mark and I had never met. Nice guy and truly knows the world of wheels and motors and the people who make them work and go fast. But I was totally unprepared for the incredibly nice piece he wrote about me and the books (and audiobook) for AUTOWEEK's very excellent webzine. Wow! Here's a link below. I'll just stand over to the side and humbly dig my toe into the carpet and blush a bit while you read it:

CLICK HERE TO READ UNBELIEVABLY
KIND AUTOWEEK STORY

Other matters of moment (or should that be "moments that matter?") from California: Had a lovely lunch with Jim Hall (not the "Chaparral" Jim Hall, but the one who is kind of floor manager/project engineer/fabricator-felicitator/guy who has to show important guests and dignitaries around when Jay's otherwise occupied at Jay Leno's incredible Big Dog Garage) and Jim's wife Rachel, who plays high-level classical & chamber music French Horn and also makes a delicious cauliflower and potato soup that is only 1000 times better tasting than you'd expect.

What a pleasant & interesting few hours we spent with them!

Then yesterday we braved LA's notorious and endless freeway traffic to visit our friends John Morton (yes, THAT one) and his biographer/concubine/life partner and serial book author Sylvia Wilkinson. We enjoy their company so much! Sylvia has a habit/penchant for taking in and taking care of strays (squirrels, opossums, feral cats and, of course, John) and John looks after a different kind of neglected strays, in that he finds, buys & restores--exquisitely--goofy little motorized scooters/mopeds of the type that every 1950s newsboy dreamed of owning & riding one day. That's John & Sylvia below with one of his "WHIZZERS."

AND NOW BACK TO
WORKING ON THE NEW BOOK.
HONEST!

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