I had forgotten just how nutso my flight from here to Marquette is this weekend. I’ll fly from here to Memphis to Detroit to Marquette on the way up, which isn’t bad. It’s the way back that’s stupid:

MQT to DTW to BNA to MEM to HSV. I’ll get into BNA around 4:05, and I won’t arrive in Huntsville until 10:25.

That’s six hours for a drive that takes less than two!

I swear … this is nuts. I really ought to see if I can con someone into driving me from Nashville back to Huntsville. It seems more than a bit stupid to fly three times the distance that I’d drive, especially when I could be home via driving before my flight to Memphis even leaves!

It’s either that or just rent a car from BNA to HSV.

This is … really outrageous.

God is provident. I came within a gnat’s eyelash of probably being killed tonight by a drunk driver.

I was driving down the road to my house–for Ben, I was on Bob Wade Lane, the last road before you turn into my subdivision–when I noticed that this sports car wanted to pass me. I edged over to the white line as we crested a hill, signaling that he should pass.

He began his pass, and I don’t think he ever got his right-side tires over the center line. About the time that his rear door was abreast of my truck, he began to move back into my lane. By the time he cleared my front end, he was back in my lane.

By that time, I was headed into the ditch. This is no nice, shallow shouldered ditch. It’s about four feet deep at the base and about seven feet wide. I got my truck straightened out just in time to get it to come back to the left before I hit a concrete power pole.

If I’m driving a car right now, or if I don’t react fast enough, well, I’m not posting this. I missed the power pole by a foot or less.

Thankfully, Todd was awake when I called his cell phone, and he rolled out in the Semi. He gets use out of it about five times a year, and as I said to him, “Well, dude, call it six times this year. Right now, I’m darn glad that you had this truck.”

All Todd could say was, “That was one hell of a ride you took.” Amazingly enough, there is no apparent damage to my truck.

I’ll probably go take photos of the ruts tomorrow morning. I had already realized that I was going to be stuck at home due to work rather than going to visit my parents … right now, I’m not real certain about driving even to work. The thought just makes me shake.

I am now going to try not to throw up for the rest of the night.

I went to cut a couple spots for ESPN 1450 at 10:00, and I figured that was going to take half an hour or more. However, Mike and I did the commercials in one take each [amazing for two live radio guys who are used to flubbing up and going on with life], so I decided to take the opportunity to get some other radio business done–namely getting a new battery charger for the equipment, since my old one got trashed last weekend.

[To be fair to George, I hadn't been storing it well. I need to come up with a better system for storage before I hop on a plane next weekend.]

While there, I picked up the recently-compiled Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins greatest hits collections. I need a little bit of angry music, considering how the old Web host hosed [caedmonscall.net].

grrrrrrrrrr … “Rape Me” is about the right amount of angst for my mood …

Well, good news sometimes comes with bad intentions.

Ryan made a good thing happen–clearing death row–but more for his own conscience about possibly executing an innocent man than just executing a man.

But, well, sometimes the good comes out of the politically expedient.

I know what no one else working this proposal doesn’t know–it’s not due on Tuesday like it was. My boss told me this about 3:30 yesterday afternoon. My exact thought was then, “You mean I could be in Findlay?!?!?!?!”

Oh well … I’m sitting here listening to the live Internet feed rather than the tape-delay. Gerald Overton, one of my favorite Chargers because he’s such a great guy, broke his ankle in practice on Thursday, so he’s doing color in my place.

Gerald, on the off chance you read this–you sound MUCH better tonight than you did last night, and much better on either night than I did the first couple of times. Too bad that you’re like me and have to carry that horrible Anderson guy around on your shoulders … he gets real heavy after a while …

[Love ya, Mike!]

We’re in crunch time on a proposal at work, and nobody told me until today. [The scheduler's always the last to get the inputs.] Had I known, I would have put off some of my other scheduling stuff to get this to the top priority. As it is … I’m going to have to miss a road series for the first time all year due to work.

A good one, to boot.

Poop.

Work does come first.

But … poop.

Now, to get Mike and George the batteries, camera, and DVR before they go …

I’ve figured out why I’ve been so slow to get going in the mornings: being out of school at UAH has removed any sense of urgency on my part. My life is pretty mundane: go to work every day, come home and night and putz around, wait for the weekend to come so I can go travel to some other exotic Northern location to call a hockey game.

This week, it’s Findlay, Ohio, not far from where I grew up in Beavercreek. I’ll catch up with my best friend growing up, whom I haven’t seen since I was … 16.

Man, that’s a third of my life ago. Phew.

But anyway, yeah … mornings are sluggish times at TBE, when everyone’s laid-back and waiting for the workday to really get started. With my group, that’s usually not until after our 9:00 meeting has run an hour and put us all into a state of misery.

After then … well, it’s a crazed time until the end of the day.

What brought this post on? Oh, probably the knowledge that I climbed out of bed at 5:45 a.m. and walked in the door at five minutes ’til 8:00 …

Well, it’s official … Mike Anderson and I are local celebrities.

Starting with tonight’s broadcast of the game against Fairfield University, ESPN 1450 here in Huntsville will carry UAH Charger hockey.

Indeed, a local, live, over-the-air presence. It won’t be live 100% of the time–sometimes we conflict with UAH Basketball, and since the hoops folks have been on longer, they get precedence. When that happens, though, we’ll still be run–just on tape delay.

This is pretty doggone unfathomable.

I have a radio spot to cut.

I have friends coming in from out of town.

I have … to keep from peeing upon myself today.