The rewards of obsolete musical media (I want my MTV)

My thoughts for today. I make five runs up and down from Columbia Falls to the head of LMD every shift. The 7pm and 9pm drives up or down the lake are the best. The former has great filtered afternoon shadows on the road, cooling temps, sun shimmer on lake. The latter is the sun setting over Howe Ridge and the Apgar Mountains, and I keep an eye on the best turnouts to catch the final rays of the day. The van is normally empty, so I commonly will roll down windows, turn off the AC, and just take in all the lake air.

Music is key to enjoying this happy time. I quickly discovered this 2019 Ford Van has a factory CD player. Yeah, hmmm. CD’s are so obsolete they are at best a option the manufacturer should put a heavy surcharge on. This is a passenger conversion van, so speakers in the driver’s area and way back in the rear doors (more on those later). Who is the target audience here? Seems like a really strange specification for a late model vehicle. And there is an AUX cord, the quality of the connection is so bad it is truly worthless. Again, hmmm. Not understanding this odd mix of technology in such a multipurpose platform people transporter. Clearly this is the result of a cage match between Ford engineers and the marketing department.

Remember the early 1990’s when you could get a ton of CDs for a penny? And then had to buy another 20 for x3 retail plus shipping and tax so at the end of the day they are about $100 each?

Well, yeah baby, we still got ours. I found this CD treasure chest when I was home to swap out cars a couple of weeks back. Of course, in adjusted dollars it about a 5k investment, so figured time to put it to good use. I’ve discovered a few things about myself.

When I’m buzzing down the road, getting into the curves just hard enough not to need to touch the brakes (my personal goal for the entire ten miles), I found that Simon and Garfunkel’s Concert in the Park makes me feel pretty groovy.

I throw in a little Black Sabbath, and I want to turn on the high beams and push every car off the road and watch them burn in the ditch. So, clearly need to keep that one for non working hours. Pop in Charlie Daniels, and I’m looking for a toothpick to chew on and start tipping my hat at random vehicles.

But I swear when I crank up the Whitesnake, I can still feel to this very day the wind wafting oh so gently threw my blonde locks, keeping that perfect part in my feathered hair, as the handle of the long comb in my back pocket digs into my right kidney.

But hands down the best, the ultimate and greatest experience, is Bob Marley. Everything just kind of melts away. There are no cars in front, there are no cars in back. Even the sunsets on LMD are brighter and better.

I feel like Winne the Pooh. Happy, content, and more than a little retarded but in a good way. I know there is a big pot of honey with my name on it wherever I am going whenever I get there. There no shame in being the Forrest Gump of the 100 Acre Wood. Every little thing’s going to be alright, Eeyore. Except for that judgmental owl. Always preaching.

If this imaginary and animated bird ever crosses my path on the Sun Road late at night (which is HAS several times around the midnight hour the last two weeks), I’m ready. I’m saving the ‘Best of Humble Pie’ CD, and they will be picking his feathers out of the grille for the morning shuttle run.

Sorry. Him/her. He/she. Up/down. Fire/water. Uni/binary/whatever. I am so gender confused these days. I think I might get an X on my passport just because I like playing Tic Tac Toe. And it would make signing my name really easy, because I’m lazy. Oh, crap. Am I a Millennial?

Before I forget, here are my current hiking stats:

Current as of:	7/15/2021		Last Day:	9/2/2021		Days Left:	49
Category	Count	Miles	Elv Gain/Loss	Hours	Avg Grade %	Avg MPH	Drive Miles
Hikes	9	113.8	23,350	45.4	7.8%	2.51	415.0
Climbs	0	0.0	0	0.0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	0.0
Down Days	4						100.0
Totals	13	113.8	23,350	45.4	7.8%	2.51	515.0