This Week's Wednesday

Wednesday is my day off from retail work, which makes it my designated day to record my parts for each week's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio and to try to get around to doing whatever else needs doing. I always run out out of Wednesday before I run out of Wednesday things to do.

Felt groggy in the morning, presumably due to a mix of allergies and general weariness. I'd had a restless night on Monday, went to bed before midnight on Tuesday (a relative rarity for me), and slept in Wednesday morning until about 8:30, which is neither unusually late nor unusually early. Couldn't quite get my head together, but I was able to address the weekly banking and bill-paying.

With coffee in hand, I once again postponed recording the radio show and did the playlist's track annotations first. This may become my method going forward; I hate having to rush to gather all of the source information--album title, single listing, etc.--and (where appropriate) purchase links for each individual track on Saturday, so it's good to have them done early. I was going to put off recording the show after that, but I started doing it and the process went surprisingly quickly. All of the tracks that Dana and I picked on Tuesday night fit into the time slot, leaving only some (disc) jockeying for position in the bonus set. 

(The weekly bonus set is our eighth and next-to-last set, for which Dana gives me four songs each week and leaves it up to me to build an eight-song set if there's time, or a six-song set if there ain't. Last week, we had to swap out some stuff in other sets to make room for even a six-song bonus set; this week, we had time for a full eight bonus-set songs.)

I finished the show just after noon, and figured I'd see if a little lunch would help clear my still-cloudy noggin. After lunch, I mowed the lawn, trimmed the weeds, used the leaf blower to tidy up the grounds, and then took a shower. The combination of all of the above did help a little. Off to my mobile errands, I stopped at the village library to begin a conversation about appearing there for a local author event alongside my friends Dave Murray and Paul Canavan. Details to follow as they firm up, but that event should take place in November or December.

After I picked up my fresh stash of new comic books at Comix Zone, I received a text informing me of a death in the family. It was not at all unexpected, but even the bad news you're prepared to hear still stings when it comes to pass. I texted back my unconditional support for the immediate next of kin. There may not be anything at all we can do. But that can never keep us from our ongoing responsibility to be there for those we love.

Brenda texted me that she was home from work. I still needed to undertake one of my most-despised tasks: Trying to buy a new pair shoes. Given my mutant physical makeup, buying shoes has always been an unpleasant process. I thought I'd succeeded in securing an acceptable pair, but upon further review after the fact they were far too uncomfortable. I took Brenda out for supper, we exchanged the shoes, and returned home. We shared a pair of coconut popsicles--our favorite!--and watched a little TV as Wednesday's light faded to black.

Other than prepping this blog, I never really planned to get any writing done on this week's Wednesday. Mission accomplished! Maybe next week. I did receive an advance digital copy of an exciting but as-yet-unannounced new album from [REDACTED], along with a request to write a li'l rockin' pop sermon on the new album's behalf. That I will get done on next week's Wednesday.

My head finally cleared after an evening shower. There were tasks I intended to address but did not. I have a seeming mountain of music I've received but have not yet had the chance to hear, and I have dozens and dozens of unread emails in need of acknowledgment, action, or disposal, some of them going back to last year. I've gotta get to those soon. I was also going to take another stab at reducing the size of my book collection. As much as I love physical media--books, comics, CDs, LPs, movies--I am aware of the need to contain and control my own vast accumulation of stuff. That will be the subject of a future blog post called "Stream Of Conscience."

I mean, it will be whenever I get around to writing it. On some Wednesday or another.

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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.