T-Shirt Tour Resumes

When my work from home 6-week stint began, I thought I'd be sharing a different T-shirt every day. But it got hot and life was mostly about tank tops.

This morning I was wearing a coveted tank top from Twins Spring Training a few years ago in Florida. But by the time I was rounding home from the neighborhood loop I was getting rained on!

So I had to put that shirt on a "drying rack" and grab a "new" t-shirt.

Today's shirt is courtesy of a really fun concert featuring Here Come The Mummies. Look them up! 

Back in the days when hubby and I commuted to work in Iola, nearly an hour drive, we listened to the Bob and Tom Show on the radio in the mornings. Their often close to R-rated programming format is showcasing lots of comedians and bands that also could pass as comic relief. 

That's when we first heard Here Come The Mummies. We immediately liked and were entertained by this eight-piece funk-rock band of 5000-year-old Egyptian mummies with a one-track mind. 

So when I got tickets a year ago, it was great to see and hear them in person. I completely forgot about the T-shirt until I made a concerted effort to seek a new shirt each day. First time wearing it! I'm starting to wonder why we even buy shirts for events it we don't wear them. But then, I'd probably need to purge a lot!

What's your favorite concert (or Broadway musical) T-shirt??

Yes Spring Chicken

Usually the phrase includes "no spring chicken" but I'm changing that to "yes spring chicken" after the sun finally came out today and the neighboring farm roosters and hens were scampering about and enjoying it!

Could this be the real sign of spring? Maybe. Here's a few other clues.

Suddenly the summer vibes of Yacht Rock Radio reappeared in my Sirius favorites.

And... our golf course where Jim and I have a couple's membership is opening TOMORROW!! I may head to the TriCity driving range at lunch. I mean I really need to test out my new club somewhere beyond our livingroom carpet!

Other signs of spring include the Twins home opener. Not a win, but they had a game. 

And the sun was bright enough at 6 p.m. for me to take a walk after work.

Don't worry. I haven't drunk the Mother Nature Kool-Aid. I know we're probably going to get screwed over, er disappointed, at least one more time. But let's go with it while it's here. Even for a day!

Off the Rails Date Night

Hubby and I finally celebrated Valentine's Day tonight in grand style at The Grand Theater in Wausau. Well, we used the tickets I bought him, that is. And seeing comedian Lewis Black in person was pretty darn cool.

We've been fans of this sharp-witted, sharp-tongued sense of humor and sarcastic rants for a long time. He was a regular on the Bob and Tom Show we'd listen to on the radio on our hour commute to Iola for 10-plus years. We've also seen him on the Daily Show and very funny guest appearance on Big Bang.

We headed up to Wausau after Jim got home from baseball practice. Since The Grand is located on the 400 block, we parked near the theater and walked to check out nearby restaurants. And who should we run into behind the theater but the man of the hour...

After gushing all over him like a fan girl, Mr. Black happily obliged to a selfie with us. We really couldn't stop smiling after that. How cool, right?

And after a quick Italian dinner at Ciao, we resumed our smiling and laughing until after 10 p.m. My face hurts!

But boy did we need that! Other than running into a former co-worker, there was 4 blissful hours of no thoughts about work or any stressors in life. Just like running into Mr. Black in the back alley, the timing of this date night was impeccable.

Laughter might just be the best medicine!

Playing the Fool

It's a cruel trick to have the opening day of the baseball season on April Fools' Day. I mean look at last year. We got fooled into thinking we had a full season ahead. Then bam. Stupid pandemic and we were celebrating opening day in late July.

Today I was excited as the pre-pandemic photo above because it seemed "pretty sure" we'd be starting today. And doubly excited because my Twins were going to be on TV here since their first series is against the Brewers. Never mind that it was in the middle of the work day.

So I took a late lunch to watch the first inning on TV, then listened to most of the rest of the game on Sirius radio. Most is the key word here.

The Twins had a healthy lead after the 8th inning so I took a walk to go deliver some senior photos. I was listening to an audio book, oblivious in my Twins sweatshirt. Got home and hubby asked if I was OK. Then said the Brewers came back and won. 

I'm like, no, this is an April Fool's joke. I mean you know my husband! But nope. Jokes on me. Twins lost 6-5.

The bright spot is that IT'S BASEBALL SEASON! And we'll have a hundred more games than last year to win – or make fools of ourselves. 

Play ball!

#twinsterritory #wintwins

Treat Day

Today is pretty much the only non-holiday and non-celebration day of my entire vacation. So I made it all about me. Of course.

Got to sleep in. Ran some errands – including the Rudolph cheese factory. Was pleasantly surprised I timed my scanning of Sirius radio channels just in time to catch a number from Hamilton!

Ignore the dust on the screen. I had the windows and roof open! Yup, another 90-degree or close to it vacay day.

My treat this afternoon was a visit to my hair artist. She made sure to get rid of all the glitter that would clash with any sparklers this July 4th. Afterward, I high-tailed it over to King Cone to purchase my lifesaving Pandemic Protection Package.

For a mere $19, I got this King Cone mask (awesome!!!!), plus a medium scoop of ice cream (Coconut Cabana today) and $5 in King Cone Moola bucks! Who's winning now? This girl!

Yes, I had to take the mask off to eat the ice cream. Yes, I was just showing it to you to brag about my good fortune. And yes, as of 5:30 p.m., there were still Pandemic Protection Packages available!

That was about it. Hubby's golfing so I watched a little Netflix and am going to read with Mr. Deck Chair – unless the skeeters aim to spoil MY day!

Obstructed View

Those of you of a certain age will know what this little device is good for. And how badly we could use it now!

Back in the day (yes, my day), you'd see the bright orange Union 76 Styrofoam ball atop many a radio antenna. Why? To be seen. Because back in the day, there were a lot of winters like we're having right now. Snow piled so high that we've run out of places to put it. And certainly haven't had time to cut  down the banks or move them further in from intersections.

Here's an example on my way home from church today. That's my view to the left. I could only inch so far out from the stop sign. But I needed to because...

This was my view to the right! No matter how much I slowly inched forward, I was an accident waiting to happen. If I had that bright orange 76 ball on top of my antenna, oncoming traffic would see it and slow down – knowing there was a car there and knowing it might pull out because its view is obstructed. Sitting at the stop sign, I might also see an orange ball (or other brightly colored ones) coming down the street, too.

They were practical and brilliant marketing tools. Too bad we don't even have antennas anymore! We could bring those retro safety spheres back to life!

At least when we pull out of our driveway (on the right), we can count on a lot less traffic than city streets. Still, it's a bit of a risk.

I had to take pictures to send to the overseas child. He can't get over how our winter has shaped up.

It just keeps growing and growing! Be safe out there! 

Song Books

I was moving some stuff around in the basement tonight when I came across my high school "junk." I have a few small boxes I peek in occasionally when I'm feeling nostalgic. But this time I looked in a bag that had some notebooks in it.

I thought perhaps it was from some class (don't ask why I'd save something like that, but it's not unheard of). Instead the notebook I pulled out said "SONGS -- written down by Robyn Hedberg" -- as if I wanted to be clear that I didn't write the songs, just wrote them down!

So I page through it and just had to chuckle. These were lyrics to songs I must have had to listen to a dozen times on the radio to piece them all together, then write them down very neatly in this SONG book.

I had everything from Air Supply's "All Out of Love" and Survivor's "Search is Over" to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Most times I wrote down the artist. And sometimes the year. Sometimes I don't think I knew who sang the song but I liked it and heard it enough on Casey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown to figure out the lyrics. For example, for the song "Suddenly" -- sung by Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard -- I just identified their parts as "woman" and "man." (I wonder if it's too late to fill that in now?)

Today, all a person would have to do is go online and type in any part of the lyrics -- not even the chorus -- and they would be matched up to dozens of websites that can tell you in an instant who sang it along with every word to the song and, of course, an opportunity to buy it and download it immediately! What fun is that?

I feel sorry for this generation and the ones to come. They never really have to work for their information -- whether it's song lyrics or historical facts once found only in big, dusty, musty encyclopedias -- so they never will feel that same sense of satisfaction when they finally find it!

You can bet that once I was pretty sure I had the whole song pieced together that I was ecstatic the next time I heard it on the radio, followed along and realized yes, I had another complete item to write down in that blue spiral notebook. What a sense of accomplishment!

Yep those poor kids today are missing out. And don't get me started on taping songs from the Countdown onto cassette tapes. I'm not talking about the tape deck in your stereo. I mean the good ol' fashioned "hold the microphone up to the speaker and press Record" system. You ain't got nothin' on me, iTunes!

Ahhh, time to go brush up on some REO Speedwagon... Perhaps I'll send out a long-distance dedication to you!

Parental Guidance

Our typical morning commute consists of little or no talking. Hubby listens to his radio show and I typically am reading, emailing or blogging. In the summer, Carter sits quietly in the backseat playing his Nintendo DS or, on rare occasions, reading.

We pretty much keep to ourselves, just easing into the day.

Thankfully Jim is the most awake (Good thing since he's the driver!) -- usually having a few laugh-out-loud moments over the Bob and Tom Show. Now the humor on that show is quite often adult-oriented. I pretty much tune it out when my mind is otherwise occupied. However, I forget we now have this impressionable young mind in the back seat.

For one fleeting moment I remembered today. Some comedian was about to share some story about Santa so I tell Jim to turn down the volume and motion to the backseat to indicate "we don't want him to learn the truth about Santa from the radio." So we wait it out for what we presume to be long enough for a story, then turn the volume back up. We timed it right and nothing was revealed to unsuspecting ears.

Whew. Dodged that bullet.

Then it hits me -- a thought, not a bullet. Why are we protecting the 11-year-old from a big fairy-tale reveal but not shielding him from the PG-13 comedy?

I guess Mommy needed a wake-up call!

I can't guarantee I'll be any more alert and coherent in the mornings, but at least enough to be mindful of our pipsqueak passenger!

Baseball Fever

Turns out it was an exciting first night of baseball Monday. I got to see my Twins win on TV and because of rain delays and extra innings, we got to listen to and see part of the Brewers game.

It was tied in the 9th inning when we picked Carter up at the baby-sitter's on our way home from work. Jim stayed in car to listen and I went into the house to get the boy.

Our typical 5-minute ride home goes something like this. Radio is turned off and we say: How was your day, Carter? "Good." What was good about it? "I don't know." What did you learn? "I don't know." What did you have for lunch? "I can't remember."

Yesterday was different. Since we had the intense game on the radio, there was no talking. It wasn't long before I felt a tap on my shoulder and Carter whispers, "Mom, doesn't anyone want to hear about my day?"

So I recline my seat and whisper back: "How was your day?" And he says, "Good." So I ask the usual: "What was good about it?" He says, "I don't know." And I say, "OK" and return my seat to the upright position and listen to the game...

Comic relief

My husband and I have fallen into a routine for our 50-minute commute to and from work.

There are so many "talk" morning shows on the radio to choose from. And while we could potentially enhance our intelligence listening to NPR, we choose not to engage our brains so early in the day.

When we first started the drive to Iola 4 years ago, we listened to Bob and Sheri. We got a little tired of all the whining losers on that show, so we were excited when a local station started carrying the Bob and Tom show. Granted, some of the content is a bit risque, but for the most part, it's pretty darn entertaining.

What we enjoy is hearing their comedic guests -- some people you know from TV and movies, most are just known on the comedy club circuits. Jim and I have seen quite a few of these when they've traveled through Wisconsin on the "Friends of Bob and Tom Comedy Tour." Tonight we were treated to two acts who actually stopped in Wisconsin Rapids.

Paul & Storm and Tim Cavanagh are musically talented comics who made us laugh for a solid 2 hours. My face actually hurt from smiling so hard!

Kind of strange to be out on a date in the middle of the week, but it was a great stress reliever. I'd recommend it to anyone. We'd also urge you to keep an eye out for one of their many comedy tours coming to a venue near you. Who doesn't deserve a break today?

By the way, the other half of our commuting routine includes our gripe session on the way home from work. We each get any problems or stressors off our chests and out of our minds so we don't have to think about work when we get home. (Yeah, right.) If that doesn't work, we blast a little classic rock until those thoughts dance right out of our heads.