Well, I awoke at 3:30am. How long is this going to last? Tired to the point of collapse at 7pm and ready to work in the garden at 4am.

While I was gone my in-mail boxes filled to overflowing. Some of the messages were actually from real people. Since just about everybody I know, I met through work, I have lots of fans who became friends. Forwards can be entertaining, but I most enjoy the pix that tell their stories. Anyone who listened to the morning show at KHOP will remember 'VIRGINIA'. She was 'contest adept' but also a good friend. That she moved to CA from "Ory-gone" it was always a thrill to announce she was from the BEAVER state. (Those were most innocent times...) Virginia mailed me an album of grandchildren pictures and I almost cried. Come to think of it, this was a woman who was going to make a great..GREAT...grandma, and that was evident even 20 years ago.

Then there is Cindi. One of the quintessential teeny-bopper KDWB fans from Robbinsdale High School. Somehow she got the nick-name Whoopie Woman! At some point she moved to CA and ended up permanently in the Amador Valley between the Coastal Mountain range and the Diablo range. We never seem to connect for a visit but we chat often and it is another friendship of note...now approaching 40 years!

A dozen years later my station in Tacoma/Seattle has a softball team and a relatively crazy listener (ask her kids...) comes to a game and begins a friendship that has lasted for decades. I love to ride the train and I took her daughters on a train trip to Portland to visit the zoo (in a rain storm) and hang out. Now, the daughters are grown, Claudia is also a grandma and I get to see the kids weekly, thanks to the internet.

There are also the friends with whom I've lost touch. I am never really sure why that happens but inspite of the distance and lack of contact, the memories are strong and good.

So, I just got back from a week or so, visiting my friend Tom. He sat alone in the rain at the Minnesota State Fair watching my show in 1972, I was Best Man at his wedding in 1979 and saw his youngest son married last week in England. Wow! I am sort of lucky.

I'm lucky to have so little malice in my life. If you are reading this, I don't believe in 'former friends'. We may never hook up but I probably think of you often. I have lots of time to think about stuff.

"...that's life..." Rob