cool country morning...

wide awake at 4:40... now it seems like a distant past when that was the hour i was just settling to bed... the alarm was set, but i tossed and turned all night, with my eyelids snapping open two minutes premature... dressed and groomed by 5:00 a.m. and out the door to catch my cab by 5:10... surprisingly, it wasn’t that tall an order to fill...

the roads were snowy and silent as my cabbie steered through bare roads and gleaming streetlights in the persistent moonlight... in only 30 minutes of relaxing prep, my co-host chuck and i were ready to go to air... introduced as the new addition, i gave listeners a short and modest glimpse of who they were hearing and the rest flew by like minutes instead of hours...

naturally i mispronounced a few places and butchered a couple of names... once we'd said our goodbyes to end the three hour broadcast, i hit the restroom and rinsed out my coffee mug... then i dialed up my father to hear the re-hashing of how it sounded to someone out there tuned in... although he has a hefty bias, i believe him when he says it sounded great... apparently i sound older -– those that have done radio know that when placed in front of a microphone, one’s voice automatically morphs into that professional announcer tone...

based on this morning, this new lifestyle will undoubtedly be one of the best ways to spend a morning -– regardless of the early rise... a seemingly endless cup of coffee in a dimly lit studio; throwing to music and reading over weather and news; stopping now and then on air for friendly banter... who could ask for anything more? seemingly not i, but then the next thing i knew another announcer/operator for the station waltzed into my office to ask if i'd like to help her host the buffy sainte-marie concert this friday...

if you really had to wonder, i said yes...