WOO-FREAKIN'-HOO!!!

About ten minutes ago, I put the LAST FREAKIN' PUNCTUATION MARK at the end of the LAST FREAKIN' LINE of the LAST FREAKIN' PARAGRAPH of the LAST FREAKIN' PAGE of the new book!!!!

Which would be page number 400 and several more for those of you who are keeping score at home. Yeah, there's still LOTS to do...corrections, fact-checking, run-on sentences (my particular specialty!), permissions on some of the graphics I want to use...the list is as long as a giraffe's goiter. And it will be a monumental thrash to get it all done and printed in time for the big Lime Rock Vintage Festival on Labor Day weekend. But we're in with a shot, and I will at the very least have some proofing copies to sell and show around and will be taking orders for THE REAL THING if we don't manage to have them available there. Latest odds on all the popular, "you-didn't-really-need-that-money-anyway" gambling sites are 50/50 or maybe 60/40. Not sayin' which way. We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I'm floating on a hot air balloon-sized cushion of endorphins (I remember this feeling from my hippie/druggie days) and don't you dare harsh my buzz!
I mean it!

Things you need to know:

The book is now about lots more than just my LOTUS adventures and escapades--it kinda grew, like THE BLOB in the seminal Steve McQueen movie of the same name--and is probbly as close to a memoir or autobiography as I will ever write. So there.

You should also know that I have been getting up at 3:00 or 4:00 ayem every freaking day on account of I'll rouse into bleary conciousness lying in bed and then, as my brain sharpens and comes into focus (well, CLOSE to focus, anyway) I'll start thinking of the part I'm working on and all the shit that needs to be done and then--hey, what the hell--I might as well get up and start working, as there's NO WAY I'm going back to sleep now!

The coming fulmination (is that a word and does it mean what I think it means?) on th new book means we're in the final throes of beseeching potential sponsors and buttonholing prospective advertisers in an attempt not to go broke by the time we reach the summit of this deal. Sponsorships are $250 each and you get your freakin' name in the book and a SPECIAL EDITION copy of the finished book and a funny cap that identifies you as a sponsor/sucker and did I mention that we can really use the money?

FOR DETAILS CLICK HERE

Or email me at thinkfast@mindspring.com or call 708-383-7203 and see if I pick up.

ONE MORE THING DEPARTMENT:

Mentioned above is that we use display advertising in my books in an effort to:

1) Survive Financially In A Difficult World

2) Help our advertisers find and reach out to prospective buyers and/or service customers who are just the right interest-group demographic for them. Not to mention that, unlike print or online advertising, IN MY BOOKS, IT LASTS FOR FREAKING EVER! We've got some good ones already on board, the range of companies and entities is eclectic in the extreme and some of the artwork is truly fabulous. Clever, too. Like the full-pager BRING-a-TRAILER came up with that captures everything both they and the book are all about. Same thing with my home club VSCDA.

Well done both of you! HUZZAH!

Take a look for yourself:

For those of you who may be intrigued by our "vanity shots" gallery photos, let me assure you that the artists and I have been hard at work making SURE that this is a special and unusual opportunity. These pix go in every freakin' copy. And just LOOK what we've done to make them special:

We can do the same for you and YOUR ride...

FREAKING SPAMTACULAR!

In other news:
Took a break last week to go to the Bob Anderson sadly Memorial summer car party, and, as usual, it was full of friends and hot-and-cool cars--mostly furrin'--of every description. LOTSA Citroen Deux Chevouxs and a fifties Ferrari GT and a couple Jag roadsters from before the XKE and a Morgan or two and an Austin Bantam and a Baker non-electric from back when it was still a low-percentage wager whether cars were gonna replace horses and buggies. Quite the party and here's hoping it finds some way to continue, as it was truly unique and memorable every single year.

Went to a concert at Ravinia last night thanks to our good friends Bob and Ingrid, and it was nice seeing well-to-do people enjoying a little culture and fellowship and civility and NOT acting like a bunch of boorish, entitled, Botoxed & butt-lifted, strident-and-selfish assholes. Hey, we get plenty of that from our television sets and cell phones...

Thank you all!

Music was pretty good, too (although Stravinsky's FIREBIRD is surely where all the suspense and horror themes came from behind all your favorite Hitchcock movies). Mellow or mellifluous it is not. But before that we heard Debussey's "Prelude to the Afternoon of the Swan," which was much gentler and more soothing for older ears...

Going for long bike ride through the woods when I'm done with this note. Which will be soon. I'll even bring some cut-up apples for the deer.

Don't try and stop me...I deserve it!

ONE MORE THING: If the weather is good tomorrow morning, I'm gonna take a break from this freaking desk (it's amazing I haven't taken root here!) and bring all my book crapola over to the Fuelfed CARS n' COFFEE event from 9am-11am in Hinsdale. It's held on Chicago Avenue at the park just north of the train station (right across from the Hinsdale library). Feature is Swedish cars, but all sorts of strange & wonderful stuff usually shows up. Plus it's FREE, too, so all you cheapskates looking for a budget-oriented place to take the kiddies or grampaw...see us there!

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A SPONSOR or ADVERTISER
or to put a picture of YOUR car in the gallery section of the
NEW BOOK or to ORDER NEAT STUFF FROM THE WEBSITE

Catch the latest poop & pictures, the Jay Leno interview, Last Open Road swag & highly inappropriate attire from Finzio's Store and the lurid & occasionally embarrassing "ride with Burt" in-car racing videos on the hopefully now fully operational website at:

WWW.LASTOPENROAD.COM