I talk to myself in the car

I do it often enough that I rarely think about it. I was sitting in the parking lot of Sonitrol this morning waiting for my paycheck when I started to talk to myself. Nothing to call the men in white coats and large novelty butterfly nets over, but I do notice I carry small conversations.

Often I talk to my car. Penny is a fickle little car. She has her moments where she's purring like a well tuned machine, then there are days when she feels like she's giving back a little too much attitude.

Today my conversation to myself involved music. Like many other drivers, I sing along to good music. I was blasting Fleetwood Mac as loud as my Neon could mustre. It had been a really long time since I sat down and listened to some good Fleetwood Mac songs and today coming home that's all I kept thinking about. The last time I really did that was when I was heading out to Corpus Christi in the Mustang. I took along with me some 9 hours worth of FM and by the end of that road trip I had my fix.

So today was one of those days where I said "IM just gonna listen to this one song [Gypsy] and that'll be it".

Then The Chain played.

You can't interrupt a good song.

Then Dreams.

Then Silver Springs.

Pretty soon my playlist started to shape into just hitting play on all Fleetwood Mac songs on the iPod. I sat at a stop light and happened to notice there were a few people staring at me as I sung. I stared straight at them and sung louder. I tried to turn the radio even louder and found I was maxxing out the volume on the Neon. It wasn't loud enough. I was in the moment, in the zone with some truly awesome music. I listened to Stevie Nicks belt out Rhiannon, then started thinking about her concert performances back in the 1970s when she was performing like a mad woman possessed by the passion for her lyrics and oblivious to the world beyond the melody. I could hear that version in my head screaming out the lyrics and captivating the audience in what would have been a spectacle of sequins and lace trailing from her black satiny blouse as she hung onto that microphone and painted the concert hall in her soul.

Then the light turned green.

I talk to myself in the car. It helps keep me sane.

One Week Later

The video above is what Doniphan looked like on Wednesday Aug. 2nd as the water in the street just sat there. Now one week later, the water is mostly gone, but a new problem has come about.


*click image for larger version*

The mosquitos are breeding like mad. On my legs alone I can count about 10-15 bites that really really itch. My arms have about 5.



All of this area might not look like this anymore, but the stagnant water left in yards and low lying areas stinks to high heaven. Couple this with the trash that washed away from peoples garbage cans and street runoff, not to mention the malodorous scent of drainage canals and farmland in front of our building, it is absolutely unbearable to breathe any fresh air outside of the building, or for much of the upper valley.

Its one of those times you wish El Paso's windy season would come through and blow out all of the stench and mosquito's somewhere else.

What I hate

I hate my voice.

Yep. I work in radio and I hate my voice.

I don't hear what other people hear. Those of you who are reading this blog should watch the videos posted on my site, the person talking is me. Yeah, that's also me driving a 5 speed and shooting video at 45mph.

But that doesn't change that I hate my voice.

I always have. To me, my voice sounds nasally and crappy. Everyone says I have a radio voice and have been used for commercials and recorded phone messages.

It's also a good reason I don't like talking a lot.

I had this discussion with some co-workers here at Sonitrol the other day. I remember we had mentioned that I knew a co-worker back in the day and she utilized me as the guy who recorded the phone messages for the company. It was around that moment I told her and my co-worker that I have always hated my voice. They were a bit surprised and laughed it off, but I can't stand it at times.

IM strange that way, I know.

This is why I love radio

IM sitting in the talk set watching several TVs and radio reports and trying to gather as much information as possible. Where El Paso isn't as bad as Tuesday's hellish downpour, its still pretty bad. A lot of the roads that were affected by Tuesday storm were clearing yesterday (see videos in last update) but last night the rain hit us again.

So, here I sit gathering information about the El Paso International Airport loosing a good 20 x 20 section of roof due to the rain, parts of the "Upper Valley" of El Paso are flooded, a traffic accident with a semi and construction workers killed one, Las Cruces New Mexico are getting hammered by rain, I am trying to gather what I can and send it on air as fast as I can...

IM busy, IM active and its not the same ol' routine as normal.

This is why I love radio!

Flood 2006

Oooooh, it has such an ominous presence, doesn't it? These are videos taken by my camera.