(SP)Wyoming- This was the first time I was not looking forward in coming back to work after one of our BTB breaks. The reason was quite simple; there were a flotilla of rumors that had been bouncing around all summer. When you are not certain what is coming down the road you get a little edgy and I am no different. It seems the BTB got a new infusion of money and backers. The word was, they wanted changes and readership increased tenfold. So there was change on the wind and it wasn\u2019t clear what. The backers didn\u2019t say how they wanted it accomplished, but maybe get rid of the beat reporters. They backers said, \u201cwho cares if Squashed Bug out in the boonies took a nickel stakes race. Most people don\u2019t want to read that.\u201d This attitude it left a mad scramble by our immediate bosses Snowchief and Roys to come up with a workable solution. A job I am glad did not fall to me.
Following the backer\u2019s statement, the most persistent rumor had everyone closing up the local affiliates and working out of the home office. That would mean flying every week to a new location to cover what someone considered \u201cimportant\u201d in the sim horse racing world. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I like travel as much as the next guy. It is just I am at that stage in life where I like my comforts and living out of a suitcase and ordering room service most of the time just does not appeal to me.
So I arrived a day early and tried to sneak into my tiny corner office to see what things I should pack up and what to toss. I thought that by coming a day early no one would notice my arrival and I wouldn\u2019t have to deal with all the questions. I should have known better. A small tradition had started here where a few of the jockeys and most of the members of WHOA (Wyoming Horse Owners Association) would stop by. They would ask how my vacation was and if I was ready to get back to some real work. It is also a time for them to drop me a few interesting tidbits, or whom I should keep an eye on in the next few weeks.
I don\u2019t know how they knew I was coming but maybe they had been waiting for my arrival because no sooner had I sat down in the sorry excuse I call my chair when the first one popped in. And it was a steady stream with just about every jockey and all the members of WHOA. Even hot walkers, maintenance crews, groundkeepers and trainers were showing up. Heck even the janitor stopped by and I usually don\u2019t see him until late when most everything is closing down for the night.
This constant flow of people didn\u2019t let up and give me any breather or a chance to sort out my effects. What became most annoying was the constantly happy people and a knowing smile many seemed to have on their faces. It was like they knew something I didn\u2019t and were enjoying a joke on me. Maybe they already knew my fate and were just going through the motions for old time\u2019s sake because I sure wasn\u2019t going to say anything about what was probably going to happen. I thought I would break that news the next day and get all the good-byes over all at once and not have them drag out over a whole day.
So it was late in the afternoon when I got the phone call from Snowchief and Roys. I thought, \u201chere it comes, the ax, and a one way ticket to the head office.\u201d The conversation (over conferencing network by the way) started out bland with the usual platitudes and my unease just increased. Was something else happening that I was surely not going to like? I guess the unease came through by my voice because both bosses just laughed and said there was nothing to worry about, I could stay right here on the high plains if I so chose. Needless to say I told them right away that was what I wanted to do. There was a sigh of relief that came from my bosses and I was surprised by that and asked about that before they could get away. At first they didn\u2019t want to say but I can be real persistent when my nose starts to twitch and I know there is a story lurking nearby.
Finally they let the beans spill. It seems that the new backers were besieged by phone calls coming from Wyoming. The Wyoming racing public didn\u2019t like the idea of losing their beat reporter and let them know. It also seems the callers made it a point to call late at night here, which made it early in the morning on the eastern coast. I guess the big wigs didn\u2019t enjoy losing their sleep and had in turn pressured Snowchief and Roys to keep me in Wyoming. Needless to say I was totally flabbergasted. I would never have thought the people here would do that for me.
A couple of minutes after that call that veteran jockey, Vince Gannon walked in my office pulled up a chair and sat down. He looked at my face and said, \u201cso, our little campaign worked. You will be staying here I take it.\u201d I just smiled and said yeah. Then he said, \u201cyou are part of the family now and we didn\u2019t want to lose you\u201d. Which I must admit made me feel very good. Then he laughed and went on to say, \u201cwe figured a poor writer was better than nothing at all, but we all have great hopes you will get better.\u201d
Boy they sure know how to deflate a person ego in a hurry. Although, to be completely honest, I would have to tacitly agree with that assessment. So here I am in a tiny little office sitting on a chair that is held together by will alone in front of a battered old desk that looks like it has been on the wrong side of a war. There is dull fluorescent lighting that is flickering to some unknown beat of its own and a radiator that clanks off key at my back. And I haven\u2019t felt more at home than now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And The Beat Goes On<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}