My Favorite Warning Sign In Texas

Okay, maybe my second favorite. In Texas. Oddly enough, my favorite also involves railroad tracks. Anyway, I made a cursory check & discovered that (I hope) the yellow signs are called "warning signs" to distinguish them I guess from street signs or traffic signs honestly I don't know. I would often see these signs in more industrial areas of Fort Worth where I lived from 2016 to 2019. That picture was taken on this day in 2019. Probably on the ride home from the airport where I dropped off my wife going on one of her research trips. One of the roads I took from the airport to my home was highway 121 which for a time kinda runs parallel to interstate 30 so when I thought I might want to explore, maybe take some pictures, I would take an exit off 121 & head south, hoping the road might connect to 30. I'm think (?) this road is somewhere near there - tho I just spent some time with Goober Maps trying to figure out which intersection & I can't. I also want to point out that it seems like this picture was taken sometime in the early morning or early evening but since it was March I would suspect it was during the day but there was a storm coming. Storms happened a lot in the Metroplex & they were often loud & scary. Yes, I checked, the picture was taken around 5pm. But looking at the other pictures I also took at the time, I can now say it was definitely not taken between highway 121 & interstate 30. It was most probably taken in Grand Prairie or Arlington somewhere between interstate 20 & interstate 30. I surmise I was driving back from visiting my mother in Garland & I decided to exit off 30 to explore a little in that area, to go to 20 & get back that way to Fort Worth. That's the most likely scenario. Ignore the airport thing. Hey! You might be saying why do you like this sign, Gary? I know why! It's the little lightning bolts shooting out from the truck trailer. Those are the same symbols in comic strips that indicate pain. It says so here. So it looks like the truck trailer is in pain. I like that a lot. Oh wait a second. I didn't divide this into paragraphs. What a mess. It would be too time-consuming to go back now & change that. Anyway, I never reread the stuff I write. If no one's going to read it, why should I reread it? That explains any spelling/consistency errors, if you've ever wondered. No editing. This is the life.

Kids

Nothing really to write about - a week without Self Help Radio has given me the opportunity to sub a couple of shows but I'll share those later - so instead have a look at the two youngest members of our house. Pete the beagle is around one year, two months old. Bluto the grey tabby is about a year & a half old. They are both delightful. I really should be working on Self Help Radio tho.

Reset

(image from here)

It's super dumb but I am a creature of habit & I set the goals & I try to keep up with the goals & one of those goals is this blog. A few years back I thought I should write at least one post a day for five days a week on the show's blog. I then developed a rough outline of what those posts would be like. The first & second posts of the week could be about anything. The third post would be a preface to the theme. The fourth would try to explain the theme on the day of the show. The fifth would be post-show, have a link to the show, have the playlist &etc.

Since Self Help Radio is moving to very early Tuesday mornings, my schedule has to shift. Right now the first day is Monday. The last day is Friday (since the show has been on Thursdays). Now the first day will be Friday, the last day Tuesday. (Yes, the show is on Tuesday but in literally the first two hours of Tuesday.)

This is my way of saying I won't be writing here again until Friday. I'm very lucky so few people read this blog that it won't offend or disappoint anyone. It also helps that I almost always have nothing to say.

The image above is from an article that may well be self-help. I just wanted the image. I didn't read the article.

Making A Change

(image from here)

This is something I announced on my show last week but of course no one listened so I am also mentioning it on this blog which no one reads. I'll also share this on social media where I have virtually no followers & might as well not even bother. But it's become a habit.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about feeling my age & needing to downsize. After consulting with my wife, my constituents, & my spiritual advisors (okay, I talked it over with my cats), I decided it was time to let one of my radio shows go. Free it! Send it off into the blue. Where it might not be as lonely as it is with me.

It turns out I'm kinda not letting a show go. I just let a timeslot go. & it really had very little to do with the show or the station. It was a matter of when the show was.

In case you don't know, I have a show on XRAY that's on 9-10am on Sundays. I do that show live.

There's another show I do on KBOO that's on midnight to 3am Tuesday mornings that I have been recording (or prerecording as they call it in the biz).

Finally, there's Self Help Radio on Freeform Portland from noon to 2pm on Thursdays.

My calculation was this: I would like as many days as possible not to worry about making a radio show or being on the radio. The KBOO show & the XRAY show were basically right next to one another. That seemed a nice thing - like have a job only on the weekends. It doesn't mean I won't work on them during the week, just that I wouldn't be finishing one show to work on another. Therefore it seemed the wisest thing to give up the Thursday show.

But wait! That's Self Help Radio! That's my baby! I've been doing that show since 2002! How could I give that up?

Turns out I can't. But I also can't return to a three-hour Self Help Radio. That's just too much.

Here's what I'll do:
The Dickenbock Report stays on XRAY 9-10am Sundays.

Self Help Radio moves back to KBOO Tuesday mornings but only 12-2am.
The severely truncated Corporate Standardized Programming follows that Tuesdays 2-3am.

Most probably all those shows will be live. That's the plan right now.

Also I am not leaving Freeform Portland! I love that place too much. I will continue to volunteer & possibly also sub.

The Tuesday morning premiere of Self Help Radio happens next week, March 26. The last Self Help Radio on FFP already happened (you can listen to it at self help radio dot net!). I did not want to have to make two Self Help Radio episodes in a ten-day period. I am tired enough.

Those are a lot of words for something nobody but me gives a shit about. I don't know why I feel it needs to be said. But there you are! Let's hope it means I sleep a little more than I have been the past few months. At least.