The Life of Brian

OK, friends, family and those out there in cyberspace who may be reading this, I don’t know why I decided to do the blog thing, but given how much I write anyway — I mean, it IS what I do for a living — I figured, why not?

This blog will probably be a journal of sorts, or as I feel like posting random thoughts on various topics. Feel free to respond, give me feedback, you know, no big whoop…

At any rate, I’m at the office setting this thing up after another full day of work at the SDN (that’s Starkville Daily News to those who haven’t heard of it, and I know there are a few!). I’ve just put the paper to bed (that’s what the editor does) after coming back from a community theater rehearsal for a summer musical revue that opens in three weeks (AAAARGH! too much music to learn).

It’s shortly after 11 p.m., and I am trying to get myself out of the chair to get home and get some sleep. I’m a little wired right now, can you tell? Even though I’m tired as all get out, I’m a little bit hyper. The news business does that to you at times (of course, the large root beer and foot-long chili dog from Sonic has probably contributed to my state of hyperactivity).

More than anything, I am grateful that I didn’t have to spend the day traipsing around the county covering the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis the Menace. The storm was forecast to drop significant rainfall and bring damaging winds to Starkville (that’s in Miss. for you other readers out there), but the storm’s eye ended up staying just to the east of us, so we only got about an inch and a half of rain and a few downed trees here and there. No significant damage, thank the Lord. We had been told by the folks at our state emergency management agency to be prepared for the worst. The way they were talking, we were going to get hit hard. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

But we didn’t take chances Sunday night as the storm moved in. My staff and I got the paper to the press WAY early (as in 6 p.m. when our usual deadline is 11 p.m.) so that the carriers could deliver it before the main brunt of the storm hit. Luckily, it worked well. Things did get a little rough between midnight and 3 a.m. We had some of those “howling winds” — you know, the kind that sound like wolves letting loose on a full moon. They kept me a up a bit when I was trying to sleep. At any rate, I spent the dark and stormy night curled up on my couch watching movies and not worrying about being out in the mess. Some of my police officer friends asked me if I wanted go riding with them and stay out all night in the storm, but I only had one thing to stay — in the immortal party dude voice of Wayne Campbell — “NOT!” Staying curled up on the couch was a better option, especially since it initially appeared I might have to run my tail off covering the aftermath of Dennis the Menace. But we got lucky… and my Monday was a lot less stressful than originally anticipated.

There’s something to be said about that. Many folks on the Gulf Coast weren’t as lucky. It just serves to remind you to be thankful for the little things and focus on the more important things in life. And for that, I am always grateful…

Well, I’ve blogged enough for one day. It’s now 11:30 p.m. and I have to drive home and sleep. Tomorrow is another day, and it will be a busy one…

Until next time, enjoy reading this, give me some feedback and take care of yourselves, mmmkay?

Peace, love and happiness…

Brian

This entry was posted on Monday, July 11th, 2005 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Weblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.