Dr. Seuss: "How did it get so late so soon?"

Hello once again to everyone tuning in for today's program. All who know me know that I am very much a creature of habit. I pretty well go about my business the same way very consistently. This is what I was thinking about as we anticipate the day before us, on this Tuesday, December 8, 2015. I've easily had contact with over 500 children over the past week. Mom and dad do not always use good judgment when bringing the little ones to see Santa. I've seen my fair share of runny noses and those that were clearly not feeling well enough to pose with Santa. Some of these little darlings had the opportunity to sneeze into Santa's face and they seized it. Bottom line, even Santa is going to end up catching a little of something now and then. I've been fighting this scratchy throat over the past several days. I've been chug-a-lugging Dayquil like I was thirsty for it. On Sunday evening I decided to up my game a little. How can the man who is known for his predictable schedule break out of his routine? Well I did miss my internal wake up call because of one little word: Nyquil! Fortunately, Mrs. Claus was able to get my attention at 4:20 a.m. and I was up and running again. I wasn't on my regular schedule but I was able to get on with it. See? I am human after all. Just so you know.

I know times are always changing. I understand how the things we enjoyed growing up are not even on the radar screens of today's youth. Tastes change. Trends today are all over the map and they change by the minute. Social media has a lot to do with what's hot and what's not. I thought about this as we watched some of the TV program dedicated to what would have been Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday. It was interesting. A huge orchestra and some beautiful voices sang the songs of this legendary singer known as the Chairman of the Board. To me, it was a stunning reminder of great talent demonstrated in wonderful songs that could be understood and appreciated. I would doubt very many youth of our day would give a flip about those kinds of songs. It would in a word be BORING. Instead, they would rather give their time and attention to people who wear out the computer tuning equipment just to stay on pitch. I'm not being critical, just sharing my thoughts. Come to think about it, I do that quite often. Right?

After all, you are talking about a fellow who still can't figure out how hip hop can be either music or entertainment. I've actually tried to listen to it. I just can't even approach how it could be something anyone would want to spend time listening to or watching someone do it. I know some think I'm way past due for an upgrade to the software in my brain that runs my set of programs each day because they are likely way past their expiration date by now. I don't deny that. On most days I'm kind of impressed they still operate at all even in a degraded mode. When we used to pack up everything for our annual Christmas gathering with our folks the boys would settle in for a long car ride. We had 8 track tapes to listen to and then we upgraded to cassettes. We had this one Christmas tape that I really loved by Roger Whittaker, the Canadian Crooner. When I plugged that tape in our Rodney would flip out. He wondered if hearing that over and over again constituted child abuse. You know what? I still occasionally call up Roger's music on YouTube and enjoy it again along with reliving the memories of us running down the road while Rodney covered up his ears with a pillow. There's a moral in that story somewhere but for the life of me I don't exactly know what it is. Y'all take care now. You hear? And, may God bless each one. Amen. ...More later.