"Like I always say, there's no 'I' in team. There's a 'me' though, if you jumble it up."

Thanks for that bit of wisdom, Dr. House. Without you we would all be suffering from a deplorable lack of humor that would probably have a terrible sounding name and would cause us to
bleed out of our eyes, or something worse.

Why a housecall from Dr. House today?


Because I will admit I've been something of a self-absorbed crank myself lately, i.e.:

"WHAT??!! DO THE GROCERY SHOPPING??!! HELLO, I'M GETTING READY FOR BALTIMORE NEXT MONTH!!"

Something like that.

I think it's actually my nerves that cause me to behave that way, because despite being relatively intelligent and also quite experienced, I'm an incredible chicken




when it comes to things like traveling across the country with hours-and-hours-and-hours of my blood sweat and tears boxed up and bouncing around in the back of a pickup truck,



to cast my pearls before the harsh world of the
post-economic-meltdown east coast.


Actually, I spend most of my time worrying about things like:

whether my lights will work,
whether my booth walls will fall over,
whether we can find Baltimore on a map


in time to set up the booth in the first place,
whether I'll look like an idiot for any number of reasons,
whether it will show that I haven't been sleeping very well
and I've been doing my grocery shopping at McDonald's.

Stuff like that.

But I do have a wonderful show staff.
Luckily Team Hinckley consists of more than just me.

There's also the stable, non-hysterical show hand who can drive the truck, do the heavy lifting, schmooze the customers, talk tough when sorting out disputes with the promoters, and still take me to a nice restaurant and talk me down at the end of the day.

All while taking business calls and occasionally meeting with clients who drop by from his real job. And I got him a smashing purple shirt for Christmas that is going to coordinate so beautifully with my work!




He also wears cowboy boots in my booth, which is a source of never-ending delight for me.

So we're going to load up and be off on Tuesday evening. This will be the first time the truck has been called into service as a show vehicle, but it's the first time we've needed to haul both the booth and the work to a far away show.


Our truck has roughly the same amenities as this vehicle, with a slightly less-smooth ride

I believe somewhere around La Crosse, WI we're going to rue the crank windows, single cupholder and radio-only ammenities package that came with the cheap car payment, but we'll have fun together anyway because we always do.

And my kiddies are coming from Vermont and Virginia! Not to mention my mother-in-law from Salt Lake City, my brother-and-sister-in-law from Connecticut and Russ' aunt and uncle from D.C., so there will be plenty of people at the roundup who are required to say nice things about my work and with whom I will be genuinely pleased to visit.

If you happen to be in the area, drop by the Baltimore convention center, booth 1119 and say "howdy"! It'll be the booth with the guy in cowboy boots and the chicken with the nervous laugh.


(And maybe I'll wear my cowboy boots, too.
For a kick-a## show.
And we're traveling there by pick-up truck, after all).

Now -- let's all wave our cowboy hats in the air and give the
"off-we-go-gotta'-get-this-merchandise-to-market-
in-Baltimore-come-hell-or-high-water"
Team Hinckley cheer together.

Ready?
1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . .


Ed Larsen

Now that we've had the "YEEHAW!" scene, I guess there's nothing left to do but grab a couple of bags of licorice and a
whole lot of diet Coke . . .

and ride off into the sunset.

(or technically the sunrise, I suppose. Baltimore is east, isn't it?
Let's at least make sure we get started in the right direction . . .)


Small Works will return March 6 --
y'all come back now, ya' hear?