On The Radio

I still have my rental car. I called my mechanic again last Monday to ask what decision had been made - was my car totalled, or was he going ahead with the work - and, flabbergasted, he responded that he had called my claims adjuster half a dozen times, only to find out that he was taking a week-long vacation.

So, that means that a verdict will come in on Gretchen, at best, by this Tuesday (the adjuster has to come down from Denver to look at her) and if she's dead I'll have a week and a half more of the rental to find a new car, and if she isn't I'll have at least a week and a half of waiting for her to get fixed. What I like to call a "groundhog situation."

The DL on XM

A couple weeks ago I was super excited about the fact that my rental came with XM radio, and strangely I found that the "'40's" station could hold my attention the longest, with "Nashville" coming in a close second. At first I was super-impressed by XM. The 90's station wasn't playing songs like "Jenny From The Block" or Inrique Iglesias' "Hero," it was bumping jams like "One Headlight," "What I Got," and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It."

By the same token "Nashville" wasn't playing "Redneck Woman" or "Save a Horse..." it was playing "When You Walk In" (early Lonestar) and "Indian Outlaw" (early Tim McGraw).

But, as fate would have it, my XM was only a trial and ceased to function on the same day that I found out I would be driving my rental for another two weeks.

I love resources like Pandora and XM because they prove that somewhere it is in someone's best economic interest to produce a quality product, and to cater to a group other than the "I Kissed A Girl"-loving multitude.

Also, I love that someone is trying to improve radio, while still holding to the principles that make radio great. While I know that at any time I begin a roadtrip I could use my iTrip to blast "Life is a Highway" and start things off right, I would much, much rather have "Life is a Highway" come up randomly on the radio 1 in 1000 times and know that the powers that be have blessed my trip.

The radio is beautiful because it is random, whenever I go back to it I'm always happy I did, and I feel a little guilty that I've had the mp3-player-strangle-hold over my musical life for so long.

So, let loose today, turn on the radio and hear the soundtrack to your life that you've been ignoring.




Also, I want ya'll to know that I came across my old CD wallet this week and, for the first time since freshman year of college, actually had a CD player. So, I've been listening to:

1. The Remix (a great CD Pat made me in high school), highlights: "Hot Stepper" and "Sundown"
2. High School Soundtrack (a CD I made for my walk to school senior year), highlights: "Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World and "Fire Escape" by Fastball
3. Senior Year (a perfect mix of songs, none of which I can actually listen to because the emotion is still too raw), highlights: "Told You So" by BNL and "Champagne High" by Sister Hazel

1000 Miles Per Hour

Today I cracked open a bottle of Ok Go, a 2003 vintage. It had all the sweet and subtle aromas of a Michigan fall: the smell of Vivian's rhubarb pie, the cool winds of the Mackinaw straits with all their manifold flavors, the scent of a neighbor's leaf-pile still smoldering after a day of raking and burning, the last attempt to remove nature's first blanket, before she adds her second. The texture was that of evening sand with its fleeting warmth, the soft tucking-in motion of Lake Michigan waves as they wash over your feet, and the comfort of line-dried jeans.

There will be fall in Colorado Springs. Today I could sense that. But it won't be like Michigan, even if the leaves do turn and children wear red zip-up hoodies to jump in the leaves. Even if the stores downtown fill their windows with spiderwebs and bats, and even if storm windows are put up and screens are taken down. Even if there is cider and pumpkins, donuts and hayrides, even if I take the time to walk somewhere just to hear my feet shuffle through the leaves. Even if all that is true here as it is in Michigan, I still will miss the places that own my memories of fall.

Fall is by far my favorite season, I'm sure I'll mention that frequently over the next couple of months, and though I'll surely be busy with school, I'd like to really take the time to slow down and appreciate it this year.

I'm a few days late on the 5 year anniversary (seriously 5 years, or greater than 1/5 of our lives thus far) of these pictures, but here they are:


Three things:
1. I miss the Olds more than you can imagine. When asked the other day what my dream car was, without a moment of hesitation, I answered: a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra - blue.
2. Where is the lobster? Kevin, do you have it? Does Jonathan have it? It would do my old heart good to know that my favorite crustacean still draws breath.
3. Ha! I was really peeved the other day because I was starting to think that my red hat (pictured above) was getting too raggedy to wear. I guess I should be thankful that it even still exists. After all, even 5 years ago, it was still a hand-me-down.