Quick followup with an improvement:
notify 20 {
match "system" "ACPI";
match "subsystem" "Lid";
match "notify" "0x00";
action "/usr/bin/su wblock -c '/usr/local/bin/xlock -display :0.0 -mode qix &'"'
action "acpiconf -s3";
};
It was backgrounding xlock that was important, not a delay after it
started.