A Day in My Life

My daughter, Heidi, tells me that she has a hard time reading my blogs that have to do with politics or historical in nature. She says she likes to read the ones where I tell about myself. So, for her and those of similar taste, I have elected to blog about what I do most days.

Today, like most days, I drove around Utah going from jobsite to jobsite checking to see how our guys are doing with the safety procedures we have put in place. Often, I will spend as much time behind the wheel of my pickup truck as I do doing inspections and writing reports. As I do this, I entertain myself while driving by switching from music CDs or audio books to talk radio. I spend several hours each day doing this and it allows me to listen to my mixes of my recent recordings—I am a songwriter—checking to see if everything is blended properly, that I can hear everything and that the result is pleasing to the ear. I t also allows me some rehearsal time, to sing along and get my lyrics indelibly inked into my memory—we (my band and I) are supposed to play at the Utah Festival of Arts on October10th and we haven’t been able to rehears as often as I would like. I will also occasionally listen to my favorite recordings from other artists. Today I went through a CD of my stuff and then listened to the latest Eagles CD, “Long Road out of Eden”—a really good CD, though I have to look past Don Henley’s incessant liberal political drivel in the lyrics of most of his songs and focus on the lyric musical structure and performance, which are as good as ever for the band.

The books on CD that I listen to are varied in nature. I have probably gone through 50 or 60 this year. I will often listen to novels for a while and then catch up on political and historical books that I have wanted to read. Through the past year or so, I have gone through all of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series—the ones released so far (11) and completed by Jordan. I have also gone through, again, the first seven books of Burroughs’ Tarzan series and the first 5 of his Mars series. I also did a couple Vince Flynn books this year—I think I’m caught up there. And, all of Ian Fleming’s James Bond series—I had read them all in paperback when I was in junior high school. There have been a number of other novels, but you get the picture.

When I get tired of the diversions of novels, I slake my thirst for knowledge by listening to histories of political books. I just finished a book by Thomas Sowell that I thoroughly enjoyed called “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”. Others have included: Glenn Beck’s “Common Sense” and “The Christmas Sweater”; Bernie Goldberg’s “Slobbering Love Affair”; Ann Coulter’s “Guilty”—I’ve read all of hers—she’s brilliant; Amity Schlaes’ “Forgotten Man”; Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism”: and Lara Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit”—better than the movie.

Though I have listened to a lot of books on CD, I am also trying to finish several books I have started—actually reading—this year and have by the side of my bed. One is a biography of General Charles” Chinese” Gordon of Khartoum fame, a very interesting read. Another is a biography of Winston Churchill that I barely got into when my eye caught the Gordon biography. I also started into Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics”—I enjoyed his other writings on other subjects so much that when I saw it in the library, I decided I needed to put the others aside for a bit read what he had to say about his main field. There were a couple of others on my night stand by Terry Pratchett—“Nation” and “Good Omens” that I finished quickly, both really funny. Pratchett has become my favorite writer for comedy—I have read almost all of his books. I am waiting with bated breath for his next Disc world novel, “Unseen Academicals” to be released, and I understand that another Tiffany Aching is in the works.

But, I digress… I was talking about what I do when I drive around during the day to keep my mind entertained, wasn’t I? The other pastime for me during my driving hours is talk radio. I have several shows that I try to catch bits and pieces of. I like Glenn Beck, but he is only broadcast here locally for an hour—the last hour of his three-hour show--in the morning (9 to 10). His show is later broadcast in its entirety at 4 pm, but I’m usually trying to get home by then, so I miss his show a lot of the time. I will listen to Bob Bennet sometimes in the early morning—I am usually out the door and off to work by 6: am. Laura Ingraham is also on the same station as Bennet and comes on right after him and goes to 10: am. After Ingraham, Dennis Miller—I find that I really enjoy Miller’s wit and he has some good guests on sometimes like Norm McDonald, Martin Short, John Luvitz and Dana Carvey, with whom worked on Saturday Night Live—is on for three hours. On the other station that has Beck, I can listen to Rush Limbaugh—he is still probably the most astute analyst of politics around—until 1:pm. So, until 1:pm, I jump around and listen to whoever peaks my interest the most at a given moment. After 1:pm I have the choice of Michael Medved or Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I find that I usually choose Medved, because he knows a lot of history at the drop of a hat, but I’ll sometimes check out the Doctor at a commercial break to see who she’s ripping into for being a low-life.

So you see, besides my work that I do when I’m outside of my car or in the office, I have a really full day. I wish I had more time to fill with fun and educational brain candy. Now, wasn’t that interesting?