Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Whither Everything's Fine?

(I'm sorry, I have no idea where I found this image.)

Irony lovers take note!  This week's show has the theme "everything's fine."  But it turns out that today took a turn toward the awful, & although technically everything is okay now, it could've gone much, much worse.

A little backstory: I put the show together on my computer.  I edit my dumb "comedy" bits, I rip CDs into digital files, I digitize vinyl when I need to, I have some stuff on mp3 or mp4 or whatever.  It's more convenient to have them in a few places than carrying a bunch of records & CDs up to the station every week, like I used to do (like so many deejays, bless their souls, still do).  I am not saying my way is better, but since I am in front of a computer all day long anyway, it's just easier for me to work this way.  & I spend Tuesday mornings listening over everything, making notes in my head how I should organize the show, etc.

This morning, around 10am, the power went out.  The neighbors were milling around outside looking confused, so it was obviously an area-wide event.  One neighbor claimed to see a transformer blow.  Eventually, calls to the power company informed us that like "4,000 families are affected" or something.  Everything was, in fact, not fine.  At all.

Remember: most of my show is on a computer.  I panicked.  I despaired.  I decided that I would scrap the show, & just play music miserably (including miserable music), & I realized it would be the first time I had skipped a theme in favor of a freeform show because of circumstances beyond my control.  I despaired more.  I self-hated.  I was grumpy with the wife on the morning dogwalk.  I was rude to my poor dogs.

At the end of the walk, as we came back around to the house, however, the traffic lights in our neighborhood were back on, & everything was returning to fine.  My blood pressure would take a little longer to level out.

& now, as I write this, I am scrambling to get the show done.  I am ridiculously backing up everything every few minutes.  I am lugging out CDs & vinyl in case I have to take them up to the station.  So - you know - everything is not fine in my head.  I am preparing for something that already happened, assuming it will happen again & again.  I get that from my mom.

Will everything be fine?  Find out today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  & blame the weirdos in Lexington who turn their A/C on when it's a paltry 80 degrees outside.  In Texas, we call that "early spring."

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