Lots of stuff in the next few posts:

• Sent Danny Ainge some pilfered cherries. His people have been talking to my people ever since.
• Bike ride in Wenatchee
• Drank 16 lbs of water in 1 day
• Lost 23 lbs in 6 days
• Went to Phoenix
• Gained the weight back the next week
• Another bike crash

No more links to this site will be posted on Facebook. If you haven’t signed up as a RecoveringIdiot.com blog follower, you won’t get a “heads up” link via your email to this site. I’ve picked up a lot of followers and want to see how many non-followers drop off with no link to follow.

I sent Danny Ainge some pilfered cherries. His people have been talking to my people ever since.

I’m going to be publishing a large run of books. The first run was 1200 a couple of years ago and I’m about out of stock. The next run will be 5000 as a few opportunities to sell have moved into place. I’ve reached out to some high-profile individuals for book endorsements and have been somewhat successful.

If anyone out there in cyberspace has a connection with a high-profile person that they could talk into reading my book; possibly endorsing it, let me know.

One of the people I was able to get in touch with was Danny Ainge’s wife, in hopes of getting his endorsement.

Danny was the only person ever to have been named high school All-American in football, basketball and baseball. He was an NBA star, coach and is now the Celtics General Manager.

I have a connection with the Ainge family thereby making our dialogue possible. We’ve talked and messaged back and forth. I sent her a book, hoping she and her husband could read it together.

I’ve got to say that she is a very nice lady, especially after I sent her some cherries I extracted from my brother.

She said that the pressure was greatly increased after the cherry bribe.

(The cherries were free, the next-day air service was not. Since I loaned Brent my forklift for cherry harvest, I doubt he’ll call the cops on me.)

I got a couple of nice thank-you’s from her after the arrival of the cherries but heard nothing for the next week concerning the progress of my book getting read.

The problem is: I am in a hurry. (B&B Print always called me Ben Hur-ry whenever I walked through their door.) So I turned up the heat, against my wife’s advice.

I messaged Mrs. Ainge, asking her if they had flipped any pages yet.

I got the response I expected. Nothing.

I decided to push a little harder.

This trait of mine to push things till the make or break ending usually doesn’t turn out well. But I thought “What have I got to lose?” So I sent them the following letter:

Dear Danny and Michelle,

After listening to the loud silence following my last text inquiry, I realized that maybe cherry pressure might not be as great an idea as I initially supposed. As my book explains, time after time, I am a master at taking an idea and running with it after zero planning or forethought.

Without this (usually) undesirable trait, my book would be 3 or 4 pages max. But with this trait? Add another 520 pages.

However, you’ll have to admit a couple of good things came from this situation:

• You enjoyed some nice cherries from an even nicer guy in Washington State.
• Fed Ex enjoyed an unexpected windfall on their P&L a couple of weeks ago, at least in their Over-nite Cherry Transport Division. I have no regrets sending them and hope you enjoyed each one.

I know you both must be very busy and my arrival over the telephone lines with a 500+ page reading request was not in your plans for the summer. In fact, maybe it is a request that has already found it’s way into the little basket under your sink.

But before I walk away from this moment, I thought I would just touch base with you and see what your frame of mind concerning me and my proposal is. This would nail down the path I will follow as I get ready to start the presses rolling on the second edition and determine who my cover endorser will be.

Just so you don’t have to spend a lot of time replying, here’s a few ideas that you might respond with: (If you prefer, you can send me back just a number and I’ll match it to one of the following):

1. Ben, Thanks for the cherries! Sorry that you latched onto this endorsement idea. Please leave us alone. – D&M

2. Ben, You can use the following endorsement and stick it on the front cover: “Looks like a good book even though there’s not one basketball story in it. I didn’t have time to read it. Maybe you do.” – Danny Ainge, NBA…

3. Ben, I think you would be better off getting an endorsement from Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un. Better get a tattoo and a couple of piercings first. Best of luck! – Danny

4. Ben, Give me a month or two. I’ll try to get it read. Go Celtics! – Dan

5. Ben, Give me a year or two. I probably won’t read it. – D

If I didn’t nail it with one of these, you could write up your own, just so I know how to proceed in this, my careful planning phase, for the book.

I’ve been promised 3 endorsements so far…

Here’s the first endorsement I’ve gotten back:

“Ben lives life with gusto and an appetite for adrenaline.  He also marches to a unique and different tempo than most of us. This has resulted in many interesting and dangerous experiences that Ben shares with great zest and an entertaining story line. Growing up as Ben’s neighbor and friend, I always wondered what he was up to and how much the medical bill would be! 

Ben brings his stories to life and you are sure to get many smiles, chuckles and “What was he thinking?” during your journey along with Ben.  I highly recommend “Recovering Idiot”. Enjoy the adventure!”

Steve Phipps

19 Arm Wrestling World Championships – 9 Right, 10 Left (Including a rare “Double-Double” winning World Titles in Wrist wrestling and Arm wrestling with both arms the same year.)

Also, I might add that everything I’ve ever seen or heard from either of you, including our brief correspondence, has been top notch. Good luck with a healthier team next year!

Thanks,

Ben

So a few days of silence followed. I figured I’d burnt my bridges and there was no going back.

And then…

Here’s a note I got from her just this morning:

Ben,

So I was still in the hunt!

Just the fact that I’ve got a 5%-10% chance of success is great. Since my normal rate of success in life averages a little less than 1/2 of 1%. I’m figuring Danny Ainge is a shoo-in to endorse my book.

It’s interesting that Michelle is on page 167 and she expresses sympathy to my mom. Page 167 is right about the place where I meet my wife Michele. The next 367 pages detail a few of the travails my wife has had. I’m sure Michelle is going to be far more sympathetic to Michele than she was to my mom.

This coming week more posts will detail the following:

• Bike ride in Wenatchee
• Drank 16 lbs of water in 1 day
• Lost 23 lbs in 6 days
• Went to Phoenix
• Gained the weight back the next week
• Another bike crash

Remember:

No more links to this site will be posted on Facebook. A picture here and there but no links.

If you haven’t signed up as a RecoveringIdiot.com blog follower and you want to keep reading the news, you’d best sign up as a Follower on this page to get a “heads up” link via your email to this site. I’ve picked up a lot of followers and want to see how many non-followers drop off with no link to follow.

The link may or may not return on Facebook someday.