God Bless You, Les Nessman

Yes, it's the off-season, and all of a sudden I am brimming with ideas for the blog. Go figure. Of course, they aren't really race-related, but hey, nobody's forcing you to read this.

My job requires that I work at home. Trust me, I'm not complaining about it either! With the way gas prices skyrocketed this year, I have never been more thankful for the fact. We live in a thre-bedroom house and have two children, so all the rooms are taken and there is no finished basement. Because I really, really wanted a space of my own, I embarked upon a job that took a lot of time and effort. I cleaned up about a 10 by 11 foot section of our walk-out and called it my office.

Because there are no walls dividing it from the rest of the basement, I have the washer and dryer a handy few steps away. (Bet you wish you could throw in a load of clothes on your break, huh?) In place of walls, I have several of those metal storage shelves, which don't go all the way to the ceiling, but they do the job.

For those of you who are of my generation, my office may seem a bit familiar. In fact, I often refer to it as my "Les Nessman" office, in honor of the character from the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Just for fun, I thought I would give you a tour. Here we go.


All of my work is done online, so that requires a computer. My computer of choice is a Dell Inspiron 6000 which has done a fine job so far. This is where the magic happens.


I have quite a few racing collectibles to brighten up my space. This is a GMP Sprint Car that rests among some of my favorite race-themed books, including two by Dave Argabright. The little Lego girl standing by the car usually holds a camera but my son "borrowed" it back.

Wooden blocks spell out my initials.

My space doubles as office and scrapbook/craft area. This is a basket of scrapbook supplies that are just begging to be used.

This is a sampling of my collection of diecast Cars from the movie Cars. That's a Sears NASCAR Craftsman Truck toolbox and the drawers contain the rest of my Cars collection. The picture of Tony Stewart is one of my favorite shots from last season.

This is my work area. I know it looks cluttered but in actuality, it's very organized and everything is accessable. There's a lot of fun stuff on the walls and the shelves and it all keeps me company while I work.

This is one of my favorite organizational tools for scrapbooking. Those are my kids' pictures on top.

I use every available space to display photos and collectibles. That's the heating duct and those photos are in magnetic acrylic frames. It just dawned on me one day that those ducts were metal and not aluminum so with a handful of magnets, I made an interesting collage of hats and photos.

This is my desktop. It is actually an old door that came out of my childhood bedroom. I had a piece of glass cut to cover the top of it, and the inset panels make a great place to display more racing stuff. The edges are filled with pit passes and I have lots of ticket stubs, stickers, postcards and other fun stuff. Yes, it makes my desktop busy, but I really love looking at all this stuff.

That's a quick tour of my office, which will hopefully be moving soon. I've been working in our basement for a while now, trying to go through all the stuff my kids have stored down here. Once I get a different corner cleared out, I will be moving over there. It will be nice to have a bit more space and to have my current space become a more usable family area.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!