Rough time lately

My mother-in-law has been living with us for the last month and a half. But that's not the source of my troubles. She's great, actually: she takes care of Timmy during the day. She enjoys taking him for walks and playing with him, and we enjoy saving $800 a month on daycare. We also enjoy being able to go out to restaurants when we want. Ah, free babysitting. Seriously, it's kinda cool.

But there is one problem.

I took my XM receiver out of my car and put it in the house. My mother-in-law loves it. She listens to old time country, bluegrass, and music from the '40's. I love that she loves it (and considering all the help she gives us around the house, I wouldn't have it any other way). I fact, I haven't even let her know that the receiver is missing from my car (she would probably insist that I put it back).And of course, I'm too cheap to buy another receiver.

But I still miss my XM! I miss the cool new strange music of XMU, the main line altenative rock of Ethyl, historic alternative rock of Fred, and even the alternative "hits" of Lucy. I miss the real-time Philly traffic and weather. I miss the near perfect recption.

I miss it all.

Philly radio is horrendous. I can no longer listen to Y100. I swear to God, I think monkeys write their playlist: a 15-year-old Nirvana song, an annoying DJ, three minutes of ads, a Creed song, two minutes of ads....and the topper: an ad for the whole concept of terrestrial radio! (This ad is amazing - telling me "Radio. You hear it hear first." The only thing I'm thinking is: look buddy, the only thing I've heard in the last half hour is a bunch of crap and you're trying to tell me I should be happy about it?).

I cruise the dial, eager to find anything to listen to. I occasionally listen to talk radio. I kind of like Michael Medved. Even though I disagree with him about a thrid of the time, he seems open to debate and he takes lots of calls from people who - like me - disagree with him.

The other day while flailing from one station to another in the morning, I came across Bill Bennett, the nation's old drug czar. He's like a crusty old grandfather; a little to doctrinnaire for my tastes, but I listened anyway (NPR had pissed me off with its relentless bias).

Anyway, he talked about the passing of John Vernon, aka: Dean Wormer, of Animal House fame.

Bennett was laughing at memories of that movie.

Bill Bennett? Laughing at movie moving with promiscous sex, alcohol abuse and drug use? Whaaaaaa? I was surprised by that, because the whole movie seemed to me to be about rebellion against people like...well...Bill Bennett. You know, crusty old school types.

I was struck by this thought: up until that point, I thought Bill Bennett was Dean Wormer!

I know it's crazy. But have you ever seen them in the same room together?

Well, I guess I was wrong. Wormer's dead, and Bill is still talking.

Just a thought.


- posted by total @ 2/10/2005 06:03:00 AM .