Anniversary

I have been married 36 years today if I don't count the divorce, the 3 year hiatus and 1 year of living together before we re-married.  Now, that is quite a story.

Lake Okeechobee Sunset  by Cole Scott

The lake is surrounded by a man made dike, Hoover Dike,  begun in 1929 completed 1971. 

It protects the surrounding communities from floods during hurricane season.   The

dike takes up the lower part of the shoot which explains the perfectly straight horizon.  

My husband is in Florida right now, exploring the Everglades and the Panhandle.  He left New Year's Day  on a road trip with our oldest son.  They drove to Naples where our second son lives.  They spent a week in the warm sun, helping #2 move into a new apt not fifty feet from the beach.  He had quality time with both boys who, when it came time to say goodbye, were very emotional.  #1 flew back to Salt Lake City for his last semester at the U and my husband left Naples the following day. 

Thirty six years of marriage is certainly no small feat.  It has taken every bit of will power we have to make it work.  Ours is not the idyllic chirping of soul mates.  It is the rocky road of ups, downs, angry moments, leave takings and time spent apart held together ultimately by two children we cherish more than life.  We made the decision long ago to make it work and we have. 

Romantic?  Sometimes very.  Our happiest moments together are on vacation, just the two of us, on the road, exploring.  Our greatest accomplishments are those two boys with whom we are "well pleased." 

Why am I not with my husband right now?  He needed to get away and I needed him to be away.  He needed to bond with his sons, spend memorable time together before the inevitable changes in all our lives become permanent. 

At leave taking, our younger son told his father "I don't think I'll be moving home again, Dad." 

That's a powerful statement and, no matter you know it's coming, it shakes you.  It is one of those moments.

As my husband wends his way towards Apalachicola, I  have to admit, it's a pretty good marriage.  When you get to the point where you can give your partner the freedom to explore, enjoy and discover things with or without you,  no strings attached, that's love with an open hand.   

Happy Anniversary honey!

One Year Later

Last year, Christmas time.  We had just moved into my MIL's home.  Our sons were home and everyone was adjusting to this new life we'd appropriated.  My husband and I were so happy to have the boys here and we miss them now.  First born is second from the right.  He'll be home Thursday.  Second born is first on the right and he will not be home as he's begun a new job in Florida.  

The room below, once a very large living room, has been transformed into a kitchen/family room with new 12" pine board floors.  It's been a labor of love and we are busy dividing the old farm house into two living spaces.  With alot of compromise on both sides, we're making this work. 

The boys on a hike with the dogs.  This is our older dog, Zoe.  She's still full of piss and vinegar...mostly piss.

The Long Slow Death of Radio As We Knew It

This post was written as a comment in response to a recent post on Inside Music Media.

Early in my career, I was a national media buyer with the Fotomat Corp. They were, at that time, the 8th largest spot radio buyer in the US. I worked with incredible radio stations, both AM & FM. The Fotomat buying strategy was simple: 40 weeks of radio annually in 80 markets. Everything Fotomat did from a marketing standpoint was primarily dependent on the reps, the stations, the station personalities and the marketing partnerships we developed. Fotomat's marketing strategy utilized the best each station had to offer. Aside from having the requisite cpms to meet, the programs were individualized and they worked. Fotomat's marketing dept was smart enough to realize the strengths and unique aspects of each station with whom they partnered. There was no 'one size fits all". There were no clusters, no ownership monopolies and very little voice tracking other than the "Beautifuls". Stations were still personality-driven and formats were pretty much divided between: Top 40, Rock, Oldies, AC, News/Talk & Beautiful. Our national reps were the cream of the crop from Group W, CBS, Eastman, Katz, Blair, McGavren-Guild, Christal, Buckley and many others. Bill Burton was, indeed, The Man. It was a golden time.

To say that these days are gone forever and radio will never recover to these levels again is probably true. And yet, when you look at the amazing way it all fit together, the dynamics of the stations, their representatives, their advertising partners, their personalities...it all fused to deliver a great product with thoughtful marketing and strong content resulting in a fiercely loyal audience. What is so hard about that?

January 17, 2009

Something my son wrote...

While cleaning the files out of my old computer, I found this poem, written by Son #2 when he was about 16 years old. I find it incredibly poignant.

No Fear

Everything's so easy, when you're a kid,
No pressures to worry about, you can just live.
Everyone's so nice, you never see mean,
You can feel safe, living as a human being.
You go to play in Little League games, while people cheer,
You can be out, and live a life of No Fear.
Every now and then, a problem comes across,
It might be that you fell, and caused your team a loss.
But its over and its done, within a couple days,
It doesn't leave you scared and confused, in an endless maze.
You can go over there, you can be over here,
You can live the life of No Fear.

Then you get older and the pressures come down,
You don't feel like the king anymore, wearing your golden crown.
Your friends and your family, say two things far apart,
Stuck in this position, it's hard to follow your heart.
Should I do drugs?
Should I drink beer?
What happened to my life?
My life of No Fear?
You see when you're a kid, everything comes to you so easy,
No decisions to make,
This might sound a bit cheesy.
But don't forget that you, had the life to live,
Everything that you did came out pretty positive.
You didn't have to do drugs, or drink beer and be a fool,
Back in the days with your friends, you could always be cool.
When you're a kid, you don't have to worry about bad things being near,
You go on living your life, your life with No Fear.

Playing Hookey

Played hookey from work Friday. Took out our water ski boat with our two sons. This was the first decent (sunny) day after five days of a non-stop deluge and we were pumped! The boys grew up water skiing & wake boarding. We picked our favorite lake, slid the boat in and jumped aboard. After we got out there, however, everyone felt lazy and relaxed and just wanted to lie in the sun, swim and not do much. Our eldest son is home on vacation for two weeks which made it a special day, a family day. We enjoyed every minute.

You know what they say, "A bad day on the water is better than a good day at work."

Dinner Party With Friends

Last night we had six very good friends over to celebrate the brief visit of a close friend now living in another state. New England is a very informal region and dinner at someone's home is often enhanced by everyone bringing a dish and/or something to drink. I like that alot. It's friendly and thoughtful and it's just the way they do things up here. I say "up here" because I lived "down there" in the South at one time. One couple, who couldn't make it due to illness had been assigned an appetizer. However, an unexpected plate of appetizers showed up in the hand of the featured guest who'd run to Harry & David's for some excellent cheese, hard salami, bruschetta spread and crackers. But, I digress. My purpose in having the dinner party was for us all to be together again, to share and update each other with stories about our children and our geographically diverging lives. If children bring you together when they are young, what keeps you together after they have gone? I like to think it is all the things you learned to enjoy in your togetherness as parents as well as respect and mutal interests. We had a joyous meal and great conversation. There was alot of reminiscing and an equal amount of new stories to tell. The wonderful thing about old friends is the easy way in which they can come together and interact, as though no time has passed. It's seamless...unlike our faces!