Monday, November 17, 2008

Why Today is the Best Day of the Year

On each Monday for the last two weeks, I developed a new morning routine once getting in my car. I had a hunch about today, that it would all finally pay off. It did - and that is what makes today the best day of the year.

Out of habit while still living under my parents roof, there were several things my dad always asked of me when getting out (or in, in the case of #4) of a car - 1.) Turn off the AC/heat, depending on the season; 2.) Turn the radio almost all the way down, or off completely; 3.) Set the parking brake, and; 4.) Let the car warm up on cool/cold mornings. As I've aged, I finally understand the importance of two of these, as Rusty can confirm. I always turn the radio (almost) all the way down. I can't stand to get in the car and have it blaring - especially first thing in the morning. The second is letting the car warm up on cool/cold mornings.

I have to hand it to whoever thought of seat warmers. I'm very grateful for that person. Now that the weather is cooling off, I have a very set routine in the mornings when getting in my car. As soon as I crank her up, I immediately turn on my seat warmer, followed by the rear defrost (JIC - sometimes it's too dark to tell if it's fogged up), and then the floor/front defrost heat. Only then will I reach to adjust the radio to a suitable "first thing in the morning" volume. Depending on how cold the morning is, I'll wait at least long enough until my buns are toasted. Please know that if Rusty was the last person to drive my car, my routine is disrupted for having to turn down the radio from the "afternoon/evening" volume the day before.

I'm usually in no hurry to go through my routine, as it just means I'll be at work that much sooner, but the last three Monday mornings, this morning included, I couldn't get in and through my routine fast enough. This morning, I opened the car door, and didn't immediately sit down, knowing how cold the leather would be. I started the car, turned on the seat warmer, and that's when it hit me - that maybe today was the day! My eyes went immediately to the radio and noticed the volume was turned down all the way and I realized the need to hurry through my morning routine. I couldn't get the heat turned on fast enough, because all I was thinking about was the radio. I kept hitting the wrong buttons on the heater for staring at the radio, thinking, "OMG! I don't have a free hand, and I keep messing up the heater! I'm missing it!"

I finally got in, heat was on, both hands were free, and I flipped through all my radio settings only to pass the two FM channels completely. Crap! I had to flip all the way back through! I'm OCD enough that I don't have my FM channels set by favorites first - they are set in order of the radio stations, so most of the "90" radio stations are on my FM 1, and all "100" radio stations are on my FM 2. Don't ask... Now's not the time... I wasn't patient enough to make it all the way to FM 2 again (hello! that was an extra button to push!), so as soon as the FM 1 came up, I stopped and started scanning for the channel. Then I found it...

The Holidays are upon us my friends. How do I know so - by the chill in the air? No. By the never-ending Christmas decorations that are up before Thanksgiving? No. I know so, because 103.7 Lite FM has officially switched to their Holiday format. All Christmas music. All the time. Today is the best day of the year. I'm sure the people that sit around me at work are none too pleased about the music they will be hearing until the end of the year. Oh well...






TTFN!

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