This Week's Wednesday

Beware of bloggers who grab images from movies they've never seen just because the character's name matches whatever the hell the blogger thinks he's writing about. 

Last week I wrote a post about my Wednesday, noting that what many refer to as Hump Day is my designated day to get stuff done and/or put off getting stuff done in whatever proportion applies. I don't know whether or not I'm going to make a regular habit of chronicling my Wednesday, but I do feel like doing so again this week.

It's worth mentioning that I despise hot weather. While I also abhor cold weather--and aging is making me increasingly less tolerant of icy temps--I still hate hot weather even more. This Wednesday came factory-equipped with its own custom-made heat advisory. I say thee...well, I say thee a few choice words that the FCC would prohibit me from saying on the radio.

But the lawn needed to be mowed. I determined on Tuesday night that I would attempt that task on Wednesday morning, not so early as to disturb the neighbors but (ideally) before the mercury ascended to ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR FREAKIN' MIND...?! levels. 

I got up around 8:00, deferred my life-affirming mug of Folgers until later, updated my banking and bill-paying, and got outside by 8:40 am. The temp had already reached 80 and climbing (with a rude feels-like equivalent of 85 degrees), but I armed myself with some cold water and got to it. After all: What would the Ramones do? I...don't picture the Ramones mowing lawns, but nonetheless, my internal monologue counted off 1-2-3-4! and I dutifully executed my Hey-ho, let's mow.

Mowing, trimming weeds, and tidying up with my leaf blower took just over an hour, and I'm reasonably certain I survived the process. I rewarded myself with hot coffee and cool shower, started a load of laundry, and decided to delay turning on the air conditioners, settling on a stand-up fan to provide sufficient comfort for the time being. I set about addressing the radio show.

Dana and I determine the weekly This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlist in a phone conversation, usually on Tuesday nights. Our selections this week ran too long to fit into our three-hour time slot, so I spent some time adjusting song choices to trim the show's length. I put off recording the show itself--I wasn't quite up to it yet--so this was a rare week where I wrote out all of the individual track annotations for the posted playlist before actually recording any of the show; I usually do the track annotation on Saturday, but like someone declaring, I think, therefore I am! to an audience of people suffering from laryngitis, I put Descartes before the hoarse. Or something like that.

At 11:00, annotation done and playlist tentatively set, I paused for a breakfast of peanut butter and honey on a warm bagel, accompanied by a second mug of coffee (Cafe Bustelo instant coffee this time, for convenience). It didn't take long for me to record my parts of the radio show, although I still had to do more adjustments to get it short enough. I then sent the files to Dana so he can execute the magic alchemy of turning it all into a radio show. 

Two loads of laundry done, the bed made, the floors vacuumed, and the car vacuumed (after a recent and unfortunate exploding donut incident), I fired up the ol' Ford Escape to take care of errands and grab my weekly stash of fresh funnybooks at Comix Zone. Back home by 3:20, now sorely in need of an air conditioned environment. 

Brenda got home a little after that. We were in the mood for a supper of fast-food takeout, so I grabbed some sandwiches from Popeye’s Fried Chicken and we made that our dinner date. Tired and worn from the heat, we watched a little TV before declaring this week’s Wednesday nearly completed. I had a chance to review Margie Finer’s ace-looking package design for the forthcoming Flashcubes tribute album Make Something Happen! just before calling it a night myself, so: One final accomplishment for Wednesday! Someone else’s accomplishment, sure, but I was involved at a previous point.

My real-world retail work week resumes on Thursday. I had wanted to get to a local library on Wednesday, seeking to pitch them an in-person appearance by your humble blogger. Didn’t have the energy, so maybe next week. Didn’t really get any writing done either. I’ve been having motivation issues, especially since November. It’s hard sometimes to muster giddy enthusiasm when the foundations crumble beneath our feet.

But what the hell. We’ll try again next Wednesday.

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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.